Rachel was like...

A long awaited visit...

2010-04-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to go and spend some time with Nina and the girls for a few days this week. We had such a good time wondering through antique shops, sipping our coffee, watching movies, relaxing at home , playing at the beach, and most importantly.. our must anticipated photoshoot!! Nina found this field she really wanted to shoot at and it turned out amazing. The girls werent the easiest to work with at times, but we still got some amazing shots out of it. I am a new owner of a pair of 'previously loved' cow boy boots! I found them for super cheap and they were a 'must have'. I decided this would be the perfect time to show them off. Enjoy!

Avery Marie

2010-04-09T13:44:00.001-07:00

After not updating the online world in two months, i am now going crazy with new posts! I went and visited my best childhood freind, Melissa, in Oceanside this past week after having her first baby girl! It's still so unreal to me that she has her own little baby. Each time i think about her, i still remember the times we would run around Tiwinkle park together, our long talks about our boyfreinds when we first started dating, that time she tried to make me fall out of a tree.. you know, the good ol' days. Melissa and Stephen are already such great parents and i had such a great time spending the day with them. Not to mention little Avery is adorable.

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Giovan Palanco

2010-04-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago Chloe and Giovan got married!!! It was such a spectacular wedding and totally represented their style. They got married in the Alexandria Hotel in downtown LA. Its an old hotel with lots of history, filled with spectacular and colorful ballrooms. Chloe designed and sewed her own dress, which made it even that much more brilliant. Chloe and I picked out the fabric for the bridesmaid dresses, and her mom made them for us! What a talented family! I am in love with my dress, and i am in fact wearing it to my cousins wedding tonight! I cant wait to see how the professional pictures turn out. Congrats to the newly weds!

San Diego birthday trip

2010-04-08T16:37:00.001-07:00

We took a "road trip" down to San Diego for Josh's birthday in November, so he wanted to take me back down for my birthday as well. We explored Coronado Island and had tons of fun just spending time together. We brought my new tripod and wireless remote and messed around for a while taking pictures together.

I'm 20! .. 2 months ago

2010-04-08T16:24:00.001-07:00

So i have just not been very motivated lately to keep up my blog. Most of the people who follow my blog are friends with me on facebook so I guess i've just figured its easiest just to post pictures there. But at the same time i enjoy telling a story, so lets see how fast i can update everyone on the past two months of my life.

Josh and i planned on celebrating my birthday with a few friends at the park, but it ended up being a rainy day so we had it at his parents house instead which turned out to be a lot of fun. the boys made an authentic mexican meal with homemade guacamole, carne asada, etc. We ended up playing an intense game of Mad Gab (always a great choice) and of course.. the girls dominated.

Look at the delicious cookies batstone made for me! shes so creative :)

the boys very intently trying to beat us at Mad Gab.. too bad they didnt.

I love my girls
The boys had WAY too much fun with the wii

The New Addition

2010-02-11T10:23:00.000-08:00

Last week I was able to spend some time with a good friend and see baby Kendra for the second time. She is such a tiny little thing, about 3 months old now. I used to watch her older sister Natasha every day throughout the week, starting when she was 7 months old! Its amazing to be able to witness a child's growth. Natasha is now 3 1/2 and loving preschool. She is such a joy, and its amazing to be able to carry on a full conversation with her now. Here are a few pictures from my visit. You can see how much Natasha adores baby Kendra

Spring Flowers

2010-02-02T08:51:00.000-08:00

This weekend I decided that our porch was lacking some color and our struggling Ivy just wasn't cutting it anymore. So I went to target and bought a few flowers to brighten things up a bit! I also hunted around the 99 cent store for some cute pots and was quite satisfied with my findings. :)

Balboa Island with Family

2009-12-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

Disney in December

2009-12-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

Josh and i went to Disneyland last night for about an hour, to enjoy the 'snow' and fireworks. Fireworks were amazing as always, and the snow (a mixture of soapy water) was quite enjoyable. i finally figured out which setting works best for fireworks!! its quite tricky, but i somehow managed... and i must say.. i think they look legit. 8)

Favorite shot of the night!!

Carpinteria

2009-12-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

This weekend Josh and I went up to Carpinteria for a much needed visit with Al, Nina, and the girls. Fun was had by all, especially when we made our Christmas cookies. Suprisingly they enjoyed cleaning it up too ;)

Cleaning up ;)

Paul's big debut

2009-12-11T14:17:00.000-08:00

..sort of. Paul sung at Biola's open mic night last night! He played one of his original Christmas songs. It was actually a really cool night. There were lots ..ok a few.. really talented people that night.

Stuart, thank you for being the only BOY to semi-cooperate with me while trying to take a picture.
A few cute decorations.

Starting to feel a lot like Christmas..

2009-12-10T08:46:00.001-08:00

We were both sickly this weekend, so this was the best that we could do for a Christmas photo..well definitely have to take a better one soon. haha

Stuart was sweet and brought us by some very yummy chicken noodle soup.. and he liked our decorations.. a lot :)

Carpinteria

2009-11-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I drove up to Carpinteria for a much needed visit with my favorite family. We had so much fun together, just relaxing and touring the town. Nina and I found this great flea market with all these neat vintage items and trendy accessories. The girls were so excited and couldnt wait to put their costumes on that evening. Nevaeh was a beautiful Tinker Bell and Char was an adorable Minnie Mouse. I love you guys! Thanks for letting me spend the day with you! Can't wait until next time :)

Bike rides and sea food!

2009-10-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

He fights me for a serious/candid picture every time.
Yes I can ride my bike and take a picture at the same time.

We went to Joe's Crab Shack [my first time there..quite the experience] and practically found ourselves in heaven. The food was delicious.

"Hello, there delicious crab!"

The next morning Josh made us mickey mouse pancakes! what a great husband :)

Caramel Apples

2009-10-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

My "thursday night family" and i have been on a creative streak when it comes to deserts! this past week we decided to make caramel apples. they turned out really well! We had a variety of toppings and everyone's turned out unique. who knew oreos could taste SO yummy on a caramel apple!

Also!! there is a GINORMOUS bee hive outside of our door! we live on the second story so if you look up just as your about to go down the stairs there are hundreds of bees making hunny. Doesn't it look like the perfect "Pooh Bear honey comb"?

Colorful Cupcakes

2009-09-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

Remember a few blogs ago i said i wanted to try one of ColorMeKatie's creative ideas? Well last night before Josh's study, the girls and i made our colorful cupcakes! they turned out really well, i must say. As always i can never pick just one picture to show you, so i will do a series of pictures documenting the entire event. :)

We dyed the cake mix different colors and poured a little bit in each cupcake. im pretty proud of our work actually. 8)
Before..
After.. they turned out perfect!!
they really like each other. honest.
mustachio

what? no kiss?

Our world cupcake!! can you see africa? and europe?!

Jamaica!

2009-09-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

The view from our room

We read our books on the beach for hours every day
see the storm coming??

What an awsome room!
Hello crab.

Ready for a nice dinner

Bocce ball.. Yes. i won. most of the time.

Tennis in Paradise

"Asian Fusion" restaurant as Josh calls it

swim up bar. see the underwater bar stools?

Let the creative juices flow!

2009-09-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Corynne, I have found a new happy place. colormekatie.blogspot.com!! this girl is from new york, shes a part of the infamous "improv everywhere" videos, and one of the most creative people i have [n]ever met. Her goal is to make people smile and she does just that. Katie always seems to be coming up with new creations and has definitely inspired me to the max.

I pulled off a few pictures from her website to give you an idea of what she is all about. These ideas specifically are ones that i would like to try out myself..once life slows down a little bit and i actually have some free time to myself. :D

Apparently she put a single heart over the camera lens and the lights became heart shapes. Really interested to try this one and see how it comes out.
Who ever knew silhouettes could be so fun! A few of the 'picture people' are helping those in different frames.

Cupcake sandwiches!
and my favorite. paper cut out bubbles. .. awsome..

[non]Labor Day

2009-09-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry i havent posted in a while. things have been kind of crazy. 8) lets start off with the fact that Josh and I just got married!! eek! so far married life is..awsome. :D we are still trying to settle into our place and get everything organized so that we can function appropriately, but we are enjoying every minute of it. Pictures of the wedding will definitely be coming, along with some others from our honeymoon in Jamaica! (which was also amazing)

Yesterday we spent the day with freinds and family. We went over to my aunt and uncles house for lunch and enjoyed our time with my little cousin Landon. His favorite thing to do is swim in the pool! Specifically with 'Grandpa'. :)

Making faces
Poor Josh got worn out

Mike having too much fun at the park.
Brittany and Kat! :D
they had the most interesting equipment at the park we went to! this was like a skateboard that swung back and forth. after all my cuts and two bloody knees, i decided the equipment was a little dangerous even for me!

the man who grilled the yummy try tip, steak, chicken, and rabbit (that chad killed the night before...ew.)

Swim Time!

2009-08-07T16:37:00.000-07:00

Let me just start this post out by saying..I am in love with these little beauties. They are so precious and full of life.. and energy. I will miss them dearly.

Home sweet home?

2009-07-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we find out if we have been approved to move into the Pinewood Apartments! It is a small(er) complex right off of the 5 South, exit Red Hill, and is absolutely beautiful. We applied today and the lady who worked with us seemed very hopeful that we would be approved. She is a sweet older woman, who ends up being a Christian! How awsome is that? She was telling us all about how she gets to take her grandson to FishFest this weekend and different churches that she has attended, etc. She made us feel very welcome and was extremely helpful every 5,000 times that I called today. ok not that many, but I call at least 3 times. :) We are both really excited and hope that this works out! Please keep us in prayer as it can be a stressful and nerve racking time waiting for the outcome.

What is wrong with this picture?

2009-07-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

It's summer time at Balboa

2009-07-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

My Inspiration

2009-07-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

Blast from the Past

2009-06-26T13:56:00.001-07:00

I have been collecting old pictures for our slideshow we want to present at the wedding, and i thought I would give a guys a little sneak peak of what is to come. :D

Haven't changed too much.

Picnic in the front yard. Those were the days. Nina! those are the red juice BOXES i was telling you about! haha
I did NOT (and still dont) like disney costume characters. Briana on the other hand could not have been happier!
probably content watching sesame street

My mom made a lot of our clothes

me and chloe!!

awww... little Joshy and Stuart. Still best friends

62 more days!

2009-06-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

I figured it was finally appropriate to start counting down the days. :D I actually have lots of pictures to show of our accomplishments throughout the whole process, but i think i want to keep everything a surprise until the big day. After that i will unleash all of my secrets and clutter my blog with pictures of everything.

"Dadol!"

2009-06-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

{"Dadol!" is the only way that Char can pronounce my name (and yes..there is ALWAYS an explanation point after my name.haha) I love it. }

Nevaeh was very proud of making her own PB&J.
haha. im sorry nina. i had to take a picture of her before telling her to get down. ;)

"Can I show you how well i ride my bike?"

Lunch with the duckies and Cherry on Top

2009-06-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I met up with Nina and the girlies for lunch at Tiwinkle park. Let me just tell you..those "waterfowl" are bold! These 'half-breed ducks' (as we called them) came right up to our blanket and at one point surrounded us, waiting for our food to be surrendered. They were not even slightly scared of "shew! go away!" followed by a swipe of the hand, so i casually mentioned that (in the future) we could use a magazine i had in my bag to shew them away with if they got to close. The next thing we knew, Nevaeh got up from the blanket and boldly began chasing these birds away, demanding that they leave our food alone. (it was really cute)

Last night, after Josh's bible study (which was AMAZING by the way!) the whole group went out for frozen yogurt afterwards! We had a great time of fellowship, and its something that we should definitely do more often. Kat made a friend at winter camp who lived in Colorado. Apparently, she just moved back to California two days ago (didnt know anyone) and happened to go to the Monday night study at Calvary to check it out. On her way in, Kat recognized her and asked if she wanted to join us for our little study. Her name is Cambria (how cool?!) and she is really sweet. Our study got moved around quite a few times yesterday, and we ended up in the Refuge office.. It was totally the Lord leading us in there (even tho at the time the circumstance seemed a little frustrating and completely out of our hands) If we hadn't met in there last night, Kat definitely wouldnt have run into Cambria last night, and she wouldnt have had the opportunity to make so many freinds! we told her about the high school group on wednesday nights and she sounded really excited to start coming. God works in mysterious ways.

(blurry picture of Cambria)

Croquet!

2009-06-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

Let me start out by saying..none of these pictures were posed!! (except for the first one..kind of.) Josh's dogs are precious. Always under foot, but so in love with and loyal to their master. Since they got their newest addition, Abby, she has been attached to Janice (Josh's mom), always following her around and making sure she is safe. :) Last Sunday, Josh and I played a game of croquet with his mom! We had a really good time, enjoying the sun and each others company.

There she is. Always watching out for someone. She kept sitting right at Janice's feet (and occasionally in front of Josh, as shown here) each time it was her turn to hit the croquet ball! No amount of nudging could make her move! She is such a crack up.

BBQ and Baptism

2009-06-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

Girls night

2009-06-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

I love that the sun doesn't go down until like 8pm now! So much extra time to spend out doors after work. With a few extra hours of sun i feel like my day wasn't completely waisted sitting behind a desk..even tho it was. haha.

Watching some kids play football in the street (Nevaeh wishing she could join them)

She kept having to adjust her hat so she could see! But insisted that she must wear it non the less.

The Woods are back!

2009-05-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

im on a roll! three blogs in one night!! wahoo! Yesterday Nina and I met up with Amber Wood, who recently returned to us from Santa Rosa! We had a little picnic in the park and met Josiah (the "littlest" of the Wood family). He is simply adorable and very..Rolly. the kind of baby you just want to pinch! haha.

A different perspective

2009-05-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little late posting this one, but last week Nevaeh decided she wanted to take some pictures of her and her horsey. The camera always just too close, becuase i make her wear the camera strap around her neck (haha but it makes for really cute pictures)

(and of course i need to add one of char too)

oops...

2009-05-21T20:22:00.001-07:00

..typically screens are supposed to stay ON the door. But i guess there is always the exception to the rule.

My gorgeous, antique, 5 diamond bliss

2009-05-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

I have had this cute idea to take some 'abstract' pictures of my ring and I this morning it finally came together. I was cleaning my room (hopefully it will stay clean this time) and came across a package of those heart candies i had been saving just for this specific purpose. I grabbed some other fun candies and had a lot of fun letting my creative juices flow. :)

New Puppy!

2009-04-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, Josh's yellow lab died and since then his parents have been contemplating getting a second dog again. We went to the pound and looked at dogs, but his mom wasnt ready to commit to a new dog so soon. Last week his parents went back to the shelter and found a dog they really liked! Interestingly enough, she looks exactly like a short haired version of the Sarah (their American Eskimo mix)! Friday, Abby came home and met the rest of the family for the first time. Suprisingly Abby and Sarah get along really well! Abby is very freindly and so sweet with people. She even gives Hi fives!!

Carlsbad

2009-04-22T14:10:00.001-07:00

This weekend Josh and I drove up to Carlsbad to join a couple of friends camping. It was a short trip, but plenty of fun and very relaxing. it was good to get away, even if it was only for one night.

2009-04-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

L.O.V.E.

2009-04-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

Let me just start out by saying : "I don't think I could be any happier with the way our pictures came out." Nina did such an amazing job and had some really fun ideas. She definitely kept us laughing. We first stopped off at Crystal Cove to find some amazing flower field shots. We found exactly what i had in mind... minus the burrs attached to my shoes. After Crystal Cove we headed down to Laguna Beach where we shot the pictures from my previous post.

Look at him! Smokin hot!

"...and the greatest of these is Love."

2009-04-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

Nevaeh's 4th Birthday!

2009-04-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Nevaeh is already 4! Last Saturday all of her cousins came down from Fresno to help celebrate her "horse themed" birthday. Such a fun filled day full of face painting, yummy horsey treats, a scavenger hung, a horsey pinata, a horsey cake, and lots of cool presents.
Brandi was so excited to sneak some extra sugar in Charlotte.
Nevaeh LOVED her Horsey pinata

Char was eating up all of the attention and posing for the cameras. What a doll.

Nevaeh's cousin Trenton are SO very adorable together and seem to get along really well.

I'm Engaged!

2009-04-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

5 diamonds total;square setting in the middle. The ring was his grandmothers! so its antique and EXACTLY what i wanted.

You would not believe how busy my week has been. With such important news you would think i would be blogging the night of..but no. I'm pretty sure everyone has heard the wonderful news that Josh and I are engaged, but i'm sure not everyone has heard the story yet.

Last Friday, Josh wanted to take me out to Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach for our 3rd annual Friday night date night (since we both work full time our dates have become something we both look forward to and definitly more meaningful). We both ordered ribs (i also had delicous shrimp) and decided they were the best we had ever had. After dinner, Josh suggested we leave our car and walk about a block to 'main beach' for a while. First we walked down to the stairs to a small section of the beach and watched the tide slowly creep towards us. everytime i tried to give him a hug he would squeeze me tight then gently take my hands and pull them away (apparently the ring box was in his jacket pocket and he was afraid that i would accidentally feel it.hehe) After realizing there wasn't going to be anywhere to stand once the tide consumed the beach, we headed back up the stairs and Josh suggested we "walk" (more like SPEEDwalk [cuz he was so nervous]) over to the Gazeebo. There was already a couple there, so we stayed for about a minute and decided to go over to the lookout point on the complete opposite end of main beach. We weren't there longer than 2 minutes before he got down on one knee and asked me to his wife. :D so much emotion piled into one moment all i could do was scream (after like 10 minutes once i realized it had really happened). We called both of our cousins and some freinds from out of town, then Josh said we had to be somehwere. Being the sweet person that he is he planned a suprise engagement party with our parents and almost 20 of our closest freinds. It was THE perfect night.

Just Engaged!

My Maid(s) of Honor!

We are hoping to set a date for the end of August. Today we are going to look at reception sites (PLEASE pray that we can find one that is reasonably priced) God has been so faithful in every step of our relationship; i know he is not going to stop now. :)

Church.

2009-03-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

Church was phenomenal tonight. The worship was off the hook! All of the kids were worshipping before the Lord. It was a moment to be remembered.

Quite the eventful day

2009-03-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I took my biology test, went rollerblading, signed up for a credit card/debit card (FINALLY!), cleaned my room (o wait..i never did get around to that..), spent time with my Jesus, and did some vaccuming and cleaning around the house. already sounds like an eventful day, huh?? yes. i was very proud of myself to get so much accomplished actually. :D

I met up with Josh later in the afternoon and we took a quick trip over to Downtown Disney..one of our favorite spots to hang out. Although it seems to always be so busy and loud its ironically very relaxing for us. My favorite spot is to go down to the coi poind and water falls. It makes for some great pictures too. Last night we met up with my family (including my mom's brother and ten of their cousins) to watch my dad preform in 'Oklahoma'! He did such a great job! Hope International University (his place of employment for the past 10 years) asked him to be in this years spring musical and he happily said yes. it was something very outside of his comfort zone, but you could tell that he was having a lot of fun up there as well. He was in a lot of the dancing scenes which was fun, and he even got in a fight with one of the guys! I was proud of my pops. :)

(His beard is now GONE and has his baby face back) My crazy mom in the background. ha!

(Not even half of my crazy family!) we were so excited to have such a great support group come to see him preform. I could tell that it meant a lot to him.

"Since You've Been Gone..."

2009-03-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

Sounds like a line from a Kelly Clarkson song doesnt it? Actually, this is a post for NINA about everything that has happened since she has left me to go to Fresno for 3 weeks.

Josh's cousins came back down after the 100 mile Solvang bike ride (Alive) ...

To celebrate Griffin's (8th?)birthday!
and we watched the Disney fireworks from their Hotel room after a night swim in the Pirate ship pool! (sorry, no pictures of that one)

And now Jessica likes to drink anything and everything from coffee to soda in her GINORMOUS coffee cup. its pretty awsome actually.

I had to eat my Cap'n Crunch out of a cup the other day because we didn't have any bowls! Yes, I usually eat a healthy breakfast (at home) but i was really late for work so i had to make a sacrifice. ;)

OOOO!! and I got a new phone on Sunday! (photobooth does not do it justice) its a touch screen and i love it. much nicer than my old phone. and guess what?? it has a sick camera! good quality pictures, mulitple resolution choices, you can EDIT the pictures on the camera, choose B+W, sepia, etc. ..its the bomb diggity.

Love you and miss you, girly! Come home to me soon! :)

Discovering elements of Photobooth at work...

2009-03-12T09:33:00.001-07:00

Family Weekend!

2009-03-09T15:37:00.002-07:00

My Uncle Larry got re-married this past Saturday to a very sweet woman. It was a casual wedding at the Waters Restaurant in Irvine overlooking a beautiful lake. Congrats Larry!

My cousin Chris was the 'designated photographer' for the afternoon.

On Sunday we met up with Josh's cousin Marlo and her family from Oregon. They are down at Disneyland all week and then driving down with Josh's parents to Solvang where Keith (cousin) and Ken (Josh's dad) are going to bike ride the 100 mile Solvang race! Yes..I already checked and they are officially insane.

This is Aiden; he is 10 months now.

He always had SOMETHING in his little mouth!

"Belle" by Sera

2009-03-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

http://seradenise.blogspot.com/

It Happens...

2009-03-06T10:44:00.001-08:00

My mom's car got broken into last week. last week? ok. maybe 2 weeks ago. It was parked in our driveway and someone must have come in the middle of the night and done their dirty work. They broke the passenger side window, and made a huge mess of everything. They stole her GPS (bummer! but covered under insurance. thank you jesus!), her garage door opener, and her work key... random, i know. My mom and i were the only ones home when she noticed her window smashed in at 8am that morning. she ran back in the house (flustered and angry) yelling "Someone just broke into my car?! what do i do??" I got her to calm down and call the Santa Ana Police to report the incidence. Suprisingly, they said she would have to drive the car down to the police station if she wanted to get it finger printed. Later that day the window got repaired, we found out our insurance covered everything, we reprogrammed our garage door (that was a scary thought! they could have had easy access to our entire house!), and all was well.

About a month ago my neighbor came around saying that her house got broken into and a few weeks ago there was a shooting a street down from Nina's house. That same morning my mom's car got broken into Josh told me someone high on drugs was driving recklessly down his street and hit a parked car, running it into his driveway! Such a crazy world we live in!

Textures...

2009-03-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

...from the Huntington Library and Gardens. all these posts at once after not posting in almost a month! crazy i know! :)

Huntington Library and Gardens

2009-03-03T10:50:00.001-08:00

Let me just say (once again) that I have the sweetest freinds...ever. Bri and Batstone wanted to take me out for my birthday and had planned this weekend for about a month, since it was the first Saterday we were all available after my birthday! They suprised me with a trip to the Huntington Library and Gardens in Pasedena. I had been there once before when i was about 13. Definitely did not appreciate its beauty as much as I did this time around. We all had so much fun taking pictures and trying to find the different gardens! More pictures to come. :)

This poor fly is about to meet his Maker. This type of plant has fine, sticky hairs on its stem and leaves to that bugs stick to it! ...somehow the plant later eats them i think.

look at the cool colors on this tree!!!

this plant closes up when you touch its leaves!

Bri couldn't figure out how to get the microscope to focus. i think she was getting frustrated
the COOLEST bridge in the garden

We share the same birthday!

2009-03-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Josh and I went over to my aunt's house to help celebrate my little cousin, Landon's 1st birthday! His party was postponed for about a month 'cuz the poor little guy was in the hospital for about a week. But now he is completely healed and could not be any cuter! He thorougly enjoyed his first cupcake smothered in chocolate icing. Suprisingly he did not have any trouble consuming the whole cupcake. :)

My dad fell asleep (which is a regular occurance whenever he has a spare moment or two) and Josh decided to cuddle with him. To bad my dad woke up at just the right moment. ha!

I'm 19!

2009-02-11T20:21:00.001-08:00

So let me just start out by saying that I have the sweetest boyfreind and the type of freinds that everyone wishes they had. uh huh. Their awsome. :)

My birthday (was yesterday) but started on Saterday when Josh took me out to celebrate all day. He planned a whole day for us and we had such a fun time.We started out at this delicous honey baked ham shop, got some sandwhiches and sat down at the hill overlooking corona del mar. Honestly, that was probably one of the best sandwhiches i have had in a long long time. After driving up and down Laguna Beach for a while, we went to Olive Garden for dinner then went and saw Mall Cop. Hilarious movie. If you are not a fan of Kevin James (originally from King of Queens) then you won't appreciate the humor.

The birds at the park were fearless! Full wing span going straight for the sandwhich!

Yesterday (actually birthday) Batstone, Nina (and the babes), Danielle, Lauren, Lindsey, and Jessica met me at Chipotle for lunch! I had such a great time just spending time with my lovelies. When Nina opened the car door I saw Char sitting in her chair holding a "Happy Birthday" balloon for me. It was the cutest thing.

The girls brought be a balloon and flowers!
Look at the card she made me! Its me and Nevaeh at the park..next to a flower. I LOVE it. :)

Both of the girls attached themselves to Jessica right away. It was really sweet.

Thank you everyone for taking time out of your day to come to lunch! i greatly appreciate it and had such a great time with each of you.

P.S. Danielle makes THE COOLEST cards! (as does Nevaeh)

Girl time.

2009-02-11T20:07:00.000-08:00

Nina, Nevaeh, Bri, and I had some serious girl time last week...we got our nails done! that was my second experience going to a nail salon (and it is a unique experience each time). I got acrilycs (spelling anyone?) for the first time and i really like them! even more important josh really likes them. ;) however, i keep fearing they will fall off if i bang them at work one more time, and ill admit that it is much harder to type. but they are so worth it. i had a great time with my girls that night. pure fun. nevaeh was excited to get her nails painted (bright red with sparkles) and hopped right up in the chair and put her hands up on the towel ready to go.

After we got our nails done, we checked out the new Cherry on top by Calvary. FYI their plain tart yogurt with fruit is delicous!

As you can see Nevaeh LOVED her ice cream.

Picnic in the Park

2009-02-06T14:40:00.001-08:00

Nina suprised me last Monday with the great idea to go on a picnic! Nevaeh came with an old, oversized trucker hat, ready to battle the sun. We had a healthy and delicious lunch (as always) prepared by Nina, then spent a few short minutes on the playground before I had to go back to work.

...She let go to soon and was so very trusting that i would catch her. Thankfully I did, but obviously I wasn't so sure of myself.

Hello Stranger!

2009-01-11T08:23:00.001-08:00

So ever since I started working I've been really lazy about posting on my blog. Sorry. So with that in mind, let me just combine a few stories. :)

Last weekend I had the pleasure of going to Disneyland with a few of my girls. Batstone and I headed over to Rachel Pocketts house after church so enjoy an afternoon/evening at Disney. After waiting (literally) 40 minutes to get INTO the parking structure we were able to have quite the enjoyable time waiting in other lines the rest of the day! haha. actually it wasnt that bad. we headed over to California Adventure and we enjoyed taking Batstone on her first time riding the new Toy Story Ride (for those of you who haven't been..your missing out) anyways, it ended up gettings really cold around 6 and i was sick anyways, so we decided to head out without seeing the snow/fireworks that night.

Friday night was Date night! We have had some 'dinner giftcards' for the longest time and we finally decided to use some of them and went to Red Lobster (my first experience there). The food was delicious, but the restaurant itself seemed like a higher end average restaurant..does that make sense? haha. In the front of the restaurant there is a lobster tank with maybe 15-20 live lobsters in it, to look at while you are waiting to be seated. as we were leaving, we passed one of the cooks carrying on of those lobsters back to the kitchen on one of those plastic trays. It was quite a commical site...but im sure a rather tragic end for the little guy.

After dinner we went to the movies and saw Valkyrie. very well done movie on the asassination attempts against Hitler. Very clean and well done. Comes highly recommended, especially for all you history buffs. but anyways! we walk into the theatre and literally NO ONE was there! Granted, we were like 30 minutes early, but we seriously thought we would be watching the movie by ourselves and the movie real man. Almost right after I took this picture a few families mosied in, but it was fun while it lasted.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

Josh and I have been enjoying Disney a lot lately, so why not go on New Years too? We got there with the mindset that it would be extremely crowded and probably would not be able to ride too many rides. Yes, it was crowded, but not as bad as Disney made it out to be. they completely closed off some of the paths inside the park, making one side of the 'street' an entrance and the other an exit (basically making an inconvenient circle around the park). I'm not explaining it well enough for you to sympathize with our frustration, but basically it made it very difficult for us to get where we wanted to be. Needless to say, we went on a few rides here and there (walked right onto the Monsters Inc ride) and watched the fireworks at 9:30. After that we left the park to get away from the annoying people and find some good coffee. Instead of going back into Disney for the midnight fireworks we decided to head over to California Adventure and experience the New Year from a much less crowded, yet just as exciting stand point. Both parks had a stage and DJ, but the Disney side was more family oriented with mickey mouse dancing around on stage and California Adventure was more of a dance party. Both parks were enjoyable, but i think we both enjoyed the atmosphere at California Adventure much more: and there was probably only a few hundred people vs a few thousand. :) (I'm not a fan of big crowds so this worked out perfect)

New Years Day we celebrated with a group of people from the Bible College and had a blast hanging out and exchanging white elephant gifts. My boss (and former teacher) Erik and his wife Lynette have four kids, their youngest being Chloe, who is simply a doll. She is the most chill baby (maybe even more so than Josh's little cousin Aiden..previous post) and pretty content to entertain herself. Definitly does not give smiles away to just anyone (josh snuck a small smile out of her and of course 'daddy' got plenty of smiles), but is still one of the sweetest babies.

A week of Christmas

2008-12-29T22:25:00.000-08:00

The entire week of Christmas (besides Christmas Day) Josh and I spent with his family. His cousin Marlo and her family flew down from Oregon, Lynnea and her little boy, Makenna, flew out from Hawaii, and Dreason flew here from Rome (he is on the US nat'l water polo team and tranes in Italy). The whole week we spent lounging around, going to see Christmas lights at Balboa, visiting Atlantis park, going out to dinner, etc. Over all it was a good time. Here are a few pictures from our week.

Paige, Griffen, and Makenna

i know. everyone wants my sun glasses. ;)

There were bunnies running around at the park! we got so close to one of them!

Josh was in love with little Aiden....

...but not as much as Janice..she was head over heals for the little guy. can't blame her though. he was adorable and always smiling.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-29T21:52:00.000-08:00

Christmas day went really well. Josh was able to spend the day with me, get the house ready, relax together, lots of family came over, and of course we all looked forward to seeing baby Landon. My cousin Eric and his wife Amber (whom i love dearly) gave birth to Landon 10 months ago ON MY BIRTHDAY! ha! so special. anyways, he is darling, and in love with animals: specifically dogs.

If any of you know my dog Missy, she is ever so hiper whenever anyone come to our house. she will jump on you and sit ON your foot until she gets your undivided attention. But when she sees babies, she definitly realizes how fragile they are and makes a point to keep her distance. She will push herself against you and be running around, but the second she sees a baby she will bow her head down, slowly walk over to the baby, sniff, and just sit there carefully, making sure no harm comes to him. This time she totally ignored the baby(which she has never done) and just let him coo and giggle at her as he was estatically trying to reach for her. It was the cutest thing.

Missy lay just out of Landon's reach as he would try to reach for her. Landon was shaking his arms uncontrolably at one point becuase he was so excited to see her. :)

Sadly, Missy was diagnosed with bone cancer on Christmast Eve and the vet does not expect her to last much longer. maybe another month. :( Tragic thought to think of losing such a key part of our family. Its hard to see her in pain, but i know that God will help us through this like he has carried us through everything else.

Work or Play?

2008-12-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

So for the few of you who haven't heard...i don't babysit anymore!! well i do on occasion, but i have a real job now! I was casually praying about possibly needing a job and God obviously heard my prayers, and put it on the hearts of those at Calvary to ask me to work at the Bible College! so now i am the admissions, registar, and secretary to Erik Tribble at the extension campus at Costa Mesa. This is my third week and i am loving it so far! Jessica and i share the duties of running the Bible College, so it is really chill and we get along great. Now that i work 40 hours a week, it is hard for me to regularly see my peeps and thus i am missing you guys! come have lunch with me sometime and we'll catch up!
Yes, we had to work half day on Christmas Eve, but we spent the day having tons of fun playing Jenga, Mad Gab, and going to Brueggers Bagels for Breakfast.

In the EYE of the beholder

2008-12-19T23:02:00.000-08:00

In this case, we are talking about a FISHeye. heck yes. I got a fisheye converter for Christmas. Let me just say that I am stoked. So I was browsing the internet one day..actually that sounds like most of my days..this time looking for fisheye lenses. I was getting discouraged when all i could find were $500-$1,000 lenses. Sheeeesh! I went on Yahoo!Answers and found out that you could get a lense converter that just sits on the end of your current lense, gets the same job done and only costs $30-$40! What a deal! So I told my mom this would be something that i would want for Christmas (cuz they are always asking and i never know what i want..until now!) so suprisngly my mom was like, "Ok, go ahead and get it!" So it came in the mail on Wednesday and I was able to take it to church and mess around with it a little bit before I had to surrender it to my mother to wrap for me..to REopen on Christmas morning. :)

aawwww...AbraHAM has a sensitive side. ;)

i love the angle of way the computer bends!

so its kind of weird using a fisheye because you have to get barely an inch away from whatever you are photographing for it to bubble like that. (Ex: Grant was so close to our faces when he took this last picture, that i honestly thought he was only taking a picture of Josh's eye. ha!) I'm so excited and can't wait to mess around with it some more.

School is out for the Winter!

2008-12-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

First Time at Disneyland!

2008-12-08T21:56:00.000-08:00

Well, it wasn't the first time for me to go to Disneyland, but it was for Adeh! Josh was given a free Disneyland ticket while working at Salvation Army and he saved it to take someone with us who didn't have a pass. I think Adeh really enjoyed it for the most part. He's not really a roller coaster type of person, but we convinced him to go on Space Mountain, and he didn't freak out too much..as you can tell in the first picture. haha. We took him on almost every ride worth riding for the perfect Disney experience. Josh and I haven't done a day trip to Disney on a Saterday in a while, so it was a shock for us to see it so packed! The lines that were normally 10-15 minutes long were up to a 45-60 minute wait! Crazy!

Can you see us sleeping behind Adeh? Apparently, we've been on the ride one too many times...or maybe we just know where the camera is. ;)
The Peter Pan Ride

waiting in the 45 minute line for Star Tours (this ride suprisingly made Adeah more sick then the roller coaster!)

Josh finding out the Disney character he relates most to is Scar. (He took the news fairly well)

[Another] Day in the Life of...

2008-12-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

Instead of watching Natasha for 6 hours in the afternoon/evening, today I came over in the morning/afternoon! Even though it was the same amount of time it suprisingly went a lot quicker. I made her a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and buttered toast to start off our morning. After taking a few bites of her eggs (which were delicious by the way) she gets down and shuffles over to the pantry to grab a box of "pashta" instead. ( I normally make her lunch and we have pasta almost every time, so i think she was thrown off by making breakfast)

anywho, when it got time for lunch i told her that we could make our pasta now, and after stepping away for no more than a minute i hear the pasta going all over the floor. I ran back into the room to find Natasha at her play kitchen pouring the uncooked pasta into her toy pan! it was so cute! i couldnt get mad at her and instinctively ran to get my camera and took a picture of the mess before we cleaned it up.

Natasha loves taking pictures, and had even more fun being silly when she found out it could make a video as well. I'll have to video tape some of the conversations we have. I've put up so many pictures of this girl so i thought it would be fun to "watch her" too

(sorry the video is sideways..thought you would still appreciate the humor)

This Weeks Update

2008-11-26T17:43:00.000-08:00

As some of you know, Josh was in the hospital on his birthday undergoing tests on his stomach/colon, so our plans to go out to dinner got cancelled. Sunday night Josh and I went out to the Jazz Kitchen at Downtown Disney to celebrate his belated 22nd birthday. It was both our first times there and it was amazing! We sat on the balcony (which was a cool view), and snuck down stairs afterwards to listen to the live jazz music, which was ridiculously awsome. After our dinner of a New York strip steak and beer battered catfish, we made our way down to the movies and saw 007 Quantom of Solace! i dont know if it was as good as the first, but it definitly kept me awake. :)

(this was my dinner..DELICIOUS!)

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my favorite little girls and the lovely Nina as they prepared for their trip to Fresno. I think my favorite moment from the afternoon was watching Charlotte climb into one of the suitcases, soon followed by Nevaeh. They had so much fun playing with/in those suitcases! Have fun on your trip Nina! I'll miss you all for sure!

First Day of Christmas!

2008-11-23T15:10:00.000-08:00

Day 1 of Christmas at Disneyland. Josh and I met up with Bri and Billy at Disneyland Friday night and experienced their first day of Christmas this year! There were five story tall Christmas trees and even authentic, soapy snow. :) it was delightful.

See the snow??

This has nothing to do with anything..just a fun sidenote. So last Sunday morning after church most of the kids had already left and we looked over to see one of the boys had fallen asleep! tisk tisk. haha. how do you fall asleep during worship? espeically the way we do it, its rather loud..and purty upbeat. anyways.. i grabbed my camera and took a picture of him really quick, just as josh started pelting him with pencils! o man. and he STILL didn't wake up. so our buddy Christian walks over to him and puts his arm around him, just talking with him. haha. FINALLY he woke up. it was so funny. and then he got up and just walked out. SOO funny.

Double Date Night!

2008-11-15T23:51:00.000-08:00

Josh and i met up with Bri and Billy at the Irvine spectrum for a delicous dinner of pizza and salad at CPK. However, this was no ordinary double date. Bri and Billy are high school counselors at Ocean Hills and it was their "counselor scanvenger hunt" night. for those of you who have never had the pleasure of participating in such an event, the object of the hunt is for the high schoolers to wander around the shopping center looking for their counselors, whichever team finds the most counselors wins. It gets kinda tricky because the leaders are typically dressed up and hopefully unrecognizable. So we joined Bri and Billy for dinner, hoping to keep them hidden from the high schoolers. and it worked! only one group found them in the very beginning. I didnt even recognize them at first. Billy looked like a modern hick (in my opinion) with a gottee (made of 'real man hair'..eww) and glued it on his face, and bri bought a wig and a huge ugly freckle. haha. they looked awsome. billy couldnt laugh (or hardly eat his pizza) with the fear of his gottee coming off, so it was quite the experience. With that said, we just had a great night of fellowship and thoroughly enjoyed spending some time with another couple.

Summer already?

2008-11-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

My neighbor works for SugarShoes and asked me if I would take pictures of their upcoming summer line of shoes for their website (sugarshoes.com)! A lot of it is geared for younger girls, so Natasha and I spent some time taking 'sample pictures' to give the company an idea of what we could do. I'm sending the pictures in today so we'll see if they like 'em or not. But here is some ideas that I had: any suggestions or ideas??Please excuse the dirt clod :)

Yummy cookies!

2008-11-11T22:47:00.000-08:00

Break out the jackets!

2008-11-10T22:28:00.000-08:00

What a Wonderful World

2008-11-09T22:13:00.000-08:00

..at least that was the title to one of the songs that the pond water danced to last night! its ok. ill start over. :)
Adeh, a fellow bible college attendee, invited us up once again to Glendale for a great night of fellowship and of course..food. Adeh grew up in Iran and introduced us to authentic Persian food last night. It was actually delicious. I sadly didn't get any pictures of our meal, but it took multiple waters to bring out our dinner, and they even had to clear off our table mulitple times so that all our food would fit.
After our filling dinner, we walked around the Americana for a few hours, had my first Pinkberry(..still like Yogurtland the best), grabbed ourselves some coffee, and sat near the water fountain/pond and watched the show. About every 15 minutes, the water "dances to the music". its amazing. and very entertaining. Its starting to feel like Christmas!

This is Adeh see the water dancing?

Why is it called Halloween?

2008-11-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

Last night Josh and I had a wonderful time with everyone over at Al and Nina's place. (i feel there will be many parties at that HOUSE now.wahoo!) Nevaeh enjoyed being Marty the Zebra, while Charlotte reluctantly was Melman the Giraffe. I am excited to say that Nevaeh is finally taking a liking to Josh and starting to warm up with him. She has always been very shy around him, but last night she was holding his hand and dragging him all over the place. :)

Picture time!

2008-10-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a blast with the Abdullas..as always. We went down to Laguna Beach and actually took some family photos! All bias aside, I think they turned out pretty well. Here are a few of my favorites.

Pomagranite Ice Cream and Caramel Apples

2008-10-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

yes, it was actually pomagranite frozen yogurt, but 'ice cream' has a sweeter ring to it. I spent a lovely afternoon with Nina and her girlies, finding matching outfits for the girls, and enjoying some yummy yogurt after a very filling meal from Hawaiin Express.

Josh got his braces off yesterday too!! As a special treat, we went to down town Disney and bought Caramel Apples...they were simply delightful. I got an "apple pie caramel apple" (with WHITE chocolate) and josh got a "chocolate caramel apple" (title is self explanatory). what a lovely day. Look at those pearly whites! Trying to get some caramel out of his freshly-braceless teeth.haha

O yeah..and you can now refer to me as a brunette :)

Double Dating It Up!!

2008-10-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

Josh and I went on our first double date with Will and Bree Sunday night! We had a lot of fun with them walking around Balboa Island.

I found this coin operated horse that I wanted to ride! (My mom NEVER let us ride those things outside of the grocery stores. so i guess im making up for what i missed as a child. ha!) anyways..Josh put a coin in when i wasnt expecting it, and i had a blast riding this thing. hahaha. i got off and sat on the bench next to everyone else, just in time for this woman to walk by with her boyfreind (drunk) and she started telling me that she likes to get on that coin operated horse when we is alone, drunk walking her dog. this lady was hilaroius. she went off on her story of how her dog always barks at the horse and she thinks its the funniest thing, and kept repeating how she only does it when shes drunk. haha o man..

Sera Bella Photography

2008-10-09T23:38:00.000-07:00

too bad i had to have the worst tan line on the day that we decided to take pictures. Sera took some sweet pictures of my inkage the other day. as always we had plenty of fun. and no. no nakedness..definitly wearing a tube top. :)

The New Place

2008-10-04T21:28:00.001-07:00

Don't be fooled by their solemn expressions..the girls LOVE their new HOUSE! Char is constantly staggering from one end of the house to the other and I think that Nevaeh is really loving her new backyard. Nina's parents came to visit this weekend and we enjoyed an extremely delicous steak dinner that her dad BBQ'd. O. and straight from Nevaeh's mouth, and i quote, "Rachel (which comes out more like RaSHHel), your butt is too big". endquote. HA! for some reason she decides that after realizing i was sitting in a different chair than everyone else. Nina so nicely interpretted it to mean that my butt was so big I had to sit in a special chair. haha, o man. at least it made for great dinner conversation.

That's Nina's mom. holding a bubble cazoo...not a cigar. one of my favorite pictures of the evening

Knotts Berry Farm

2008-09-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

Saterday was an amazingly fun day with Josh and his parents at Knotts. His mom is an RN and her hospital paid for workers and their families to get free for the day. Josh and I felt adventurous and tried to go on as many roller coasters as we could, while his parents watched.haha. but the four of us did go on the river rapids and log ride mulitple times throughout the day. maybe its a combination of constantly walking, the sun beating down heavily, and standing in line all day, but i always come back from theme parks exhausted. o yeah. and speaking of 'standing in line all day'..we really didn't. the park was pretty empty most of the day. we practically walked onto all the rides until around 3 then the lines started picking up. i think people were waiting to come for Knotts Scary Farm, which would explain why there wasn't many people. but hey! im not complaining.

Josh with his parents in the background.

"My Special"

2008-09-19T23:25:00.000-07:00

(Nevaeh) "Hey Rachel?..I really like you!"..

(Me)"well, thanks! what makes you say that?"

(Nevaeh) "'cuz your 'My Special'!"

Those precious words may have been a product of her excitement after I let her drink apple juice in a "coffee mug" pretending to drink coffee like me..but never the less, she made my night. As always.

Good Travels ... Good Eats

2008-09-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

ok, so we didn't travel anywhere but Josh and I did decide to go up the coast a few hours to Santa Monica today! there was no parking near the beach so we parked one of the neighborhoods basically and just walked around looking at the houses. we walked along this trail that was basically a mix of Back Bay and how it would be if you walked around the houses at balboa island. does that make sence? anyways, it was really cool, and we had way too much fun looking at ridiculous houses that neither of us will EVER be able to afford. one house even had a "carousel horse" propped in front of the window! crazy, i know! let me just say, that i would definitly not mind living in Santa Monica..or any of those centralish beach cities. 8) Thanks for such an enjoyable and adventure filled day Josh!

Tonight, Nina and I hung out (which usually entails some necessary shopping for food and such..today was no exception. always fun) but first we went to this whole in the wall Philly Cheese Steak place which is super yummy.

Funny faces from both of us. haha. i was in the middle of chewing and Nevaeh was pretending not to be in the mood for pictures.

I almost forgot the most exciting part of our evening! as we were walking up to the stairs of their apartment Nina found this HUGE (not even kidding) spider making this crazy web at least 3 feet wide...maybe 2 feet. idk. but it was big. and gross.

Proverbs 31:30

2008-09-06T22:09:00.000-07:00

"Charm is decietful and BEAUTY IS PASSING, but the woman who FEARS the LORD shall be PRAISED" - Proverbs 31:30.

Yet again..

2008-08-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

Sera called me up today to work on some profile shots that will help her in a few of her photo classes this upcoming semester. so we set up shop in my room (my..messy..room), used a desk lamp for 'consentrated light' and a thick black poster board for the background. It was short, sweet, and to the point, and we had a blast. as usual.

Happy three years, baby!

2008-08-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

So last night Josh and I celebrated our third year together. We went to Maggianos for dinner then headed over to Disneyland to watch the firework show. (which was really cool!!). It was actually our first time watching the fireworks from inside the park. There is music, lighting, sound clips, etc that go along with the fireworks which makes for an amazing show.

Time flys by so fast. It seriously does not seem like three years already, but at the same time its hard to remember life without him being there. He seriously knows me better than anyone and can honestly tell what i am thinking/feeling even if i deny it . O and he has an amazing walk with the Lord. Sorry girls, he is taken for a very long time. ;)

3 years ago..a few weeks after we started dating

3 years and still growing strong

Refuge bonfire

2008-08-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

I love the way that 'Eah's mouth goes sideways when she laughs

two of my very favorites

so this guy is ridiculously good with kids. Every time he sees Charlotte he comes over and will hold her and play with her for as long as he can. I've never known another guy like that. o! and he is available! (i told him id give him a shoutout) so single ladies! any takers? ;) hehe

Urban Inspired

2008-08-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

Natasha's 2nd Birthday

2008-08-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I had my first paid photography gig! It was a lot of fun on my part and for the kids as well. Natasha turned 2 this weekend (I have been watching her at least 2 days a week since she was 9 months) which is a crazy thought in its self. In the 4 hours I was there, i was able to come away with 900 pictures..ridiculous amount..i think. After editing and deleting i think i kept close to 600.Here are some of my favorite pictures from the exciting afternoon.

General Update

2008-08-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

So Yogurtland. My new found love and obsession..expensive obsession. I've decided that frozen yogurt is more refreshing than ice cream. And I can even trick myself into thinking that it is semi healthy. Before picking up Josh from his missions trip to England (yay! my babes is back!), Chloe and I had a wonderful night together, ending at Yogurtland. I tried a new combination: heath bar and NY cheescake. glorious. i will admit that i like cafe leche mocha with cheesecake better.

The next day we met up with our good freinds Pete and Kendra, visiting from Florida. We started out our day with Pete and Josh re-living their glory days of being "Atilla's Champions" at Table Tennis, and of course ended our adventurous day with Yogurtland once again. This time i noticed on the door that it has symbols representing no dogs and no cameras. how random!! lol good thing chloe and i got all of our pictures in the night before. what a weird rule! o well. what are they going to say?

As we were driving away, across the street from Yogurtland i spotted this hard core metal child (i call everyone "child"..it doesnt matter your age..,.clarifation) appear over the little hill playing his guitar by the bus stop!! i guess that doesnt sound super random. but you should have seen him. we thought it was hilarious.

Susies Cakes and The Busiest Place on Earth

2008-08-04T21:48:00.000-07:00

Corynne! Nina and I finally made it out to Susies Cakes today. it was delicous.. and very rich. Nevaeh found these crazy party hats at the cupcake store and wore a few of them the whole time we endulged in our 'before lunch' snack.

After a lovely afternoon with the girlies, Bri and I headed out to the hottest..happiest place on earth. Disneyland. we had a lot of fun of fun going on rides together that we normally dont get to enjoy porque our boyfreinds arent huge fans.

Fun in the very hot sun

2008-08-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

This past week i was asked to go up to Green Valley lake with some churches as their photographer. The only people from costa mesa that went were Gary, Darlene, Andrew, Mark, and myself. I knew two other people starting out but i learned to make freinds fast. it was a lot more fun than i was expecting and ended up having a blast. i came away with a little over 1,500 "good" pictures, and probably deleted close to the same number that i kept. Each night they showed a slide show of my pictures (which was pretty cool) but definitly stressful finding time to edit and delete close to 500 pictures each day. I had quite a few people come up to me each day sharing with me that i should seriosly consider going into this field..and after hearing that close to twenty or more times.. i might consider it. at least make it a serious hobby. ha. i dont know. anywho. Here are a few..ok a lot.. of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Quite the adventure

2008-07-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

Today we had a blast. Batstone, or better known to Nevaeh as "lOra", and i met up with Nina and the girls today to go to Prehistoric Pets! Nevaeh is not intimidated by death or gross things (she was very into the dead fish at the pet store....) so we figured the reptiles wouldnt scare her. we were right! she had a blast. the coolest part for me was when the lady carried out this huge comodo dragon and fed it a "dead" rat! it was crazy. i was so intrigued to watch that i forgot i was holding nevaeh and quickly covered her eyes as i realized what was for lunch, hoping not to forever scar the young child. we found a tropical fish shop a few shops down and decided to peak in. they had THE COOLEST fish! the ugliest and most bizarre fish..yet reasonably priced and very cool. all i know is i am definitly getting a few in the near future. hehe.

I came back over to watch the girls tonight and we enjoyed a plethora of veggie tales. Char was cute and danced around to the into of the song and later was feeling left out and crawled over and sat in my lap for a good while.

Bubbles!

2008-07-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

Little House on the Prarie Style

2008-07-24T00:15:00.000-07:00

So Sera wanted to do a photoshoot the other day and she had this dress that she has been wanting to use apparently. of course it is this old fashion "prarie dress". she found this brick church that she wanted to shoot at but luckily we didnt have enough time to go out in public. THANK GOD! i am not secure enough to walk around huntington beach looking like i belong in the 1800s. ok its really not that bad. she did want me to wear this bonnet she found, but thats wear i drew the line. haha. no bonnet! both of our "sweet cameras" died and the battery on her 'average' camera was about to die. so here are some of the shots we got in our limited time.

For those of you who dont know (probabably a few of you) my freind Sera is going to school for photography and is getting really good. she likes using me for her projects and such but for the most part the photo shoots we do are just for fun. Here are a few from previous shoots. just to give you an idea into our lives..occasionally.

Our first shoot

Shots on the Roof!

"Twiggy" shoot. Yes, i know the this one looks awkward. its supposed to. we were coppying one of Twiggy's old pictures.

Georgous Chloe May

For Corynne..

2008-07-24T00:12:00.001-07:00

I'm a whole new person...

2008-07-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

from the head up at least...specifically my hair cut. thanks to Sarah Balos. color and cut..and better bangs! ha!

San Onofre

2008-07-21T22:27:00.001-07:00

Early this morning Batstone invited me to join her family down at San Onofre state beach for the evening. One of their family freinds (Louis from Mustard Seed Faith for you avid Calvary peeps) and his wife have been camping down there for 5 weeks! talk about checking out and relaxing all day! every day they get up at 5 to take their RV from the campgrounds across the street to get in line to enter the park, hoping to make it to the beach before the first good surf session...surf for a few hours, rest in the RV, go back out for a few more hours, have dinner, go back to the campsite and start all over at 5am the next morning. that is what i call 'dedicated beach bummin'. anyways, they invited us out for dinner! it was a lot of fun, and the beach was as gorgeous as ever. especially this particular beach you feel like you are in paradise, completely distanced from life. its a completely different world with the tiki huts, long perfectly carved waves, warm water...just heavenly. too bad its like an hour away.

Our last Sunday together...

2008-07-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Before the England Missions trip that is. ;)

We started our lovely afternoon out by going to our favorite restaurant, The StoryTellers Cafe in the California Hotel at Disneyland. We always order their Nebraska Corn Chowder which is seriously amazing. After stuffing ourselves (yes, we had more than just the soup) we made our way over to Disneyland where we spent the next few hours. Suprisingly, it wasnt too crowded today. Our next stop was the Orance Circle. Before hitting up like four antique shops (i love looking for old rings) we ordered a banana split at Watsons! It was ginormous! wow. perfect size to share though.

Before: (look how huge this thing is!!)

After:

This evening we made it to the very first service at OC Cross Point in Irvine (Chris Warner's new church if the name helps for anyone). We didn't know quite what to expect but it turned out really good! To finish off a perfect day Josh's dad made us dinner tonight! it was really special, he set up the table really nice with candles, red table cloth, the best dishes... basically it looked like he stole a table from a nice restaurant to feed us his amazing meatloaf. :) All in all, it was a really good day. Thanks Josh!

Visit from Santa Rosa

2008-07-16T23:30:00.000-07:00

What a suprise! I had the pleasure of hanging out with Corynne and her two precious babes with Nina and the girls this afternoon. Before they got to Nina's place, Nevaeh kept saying how she was going to show Elliot her horses, her freind Elliot was coming over, Elliot this, Elliot that...the second he got there they both her really quite and didnt even want to play with each other cuz "Elliot was shy". But as soon as lunch rolled around they quickly got over the awkwardness of it all and we all had quite an enjoyable afternoon. They played very well together until the end of the afternoon and Nevaeh was getting so overwhelmed and exhausted, that she put herself down for her own nap. it was cute. o i forgot. that was right after Elliot took the closest picture of her eye that i have ever seen..with the flash. haha. poor 'Aeh. it was quite funny tho, after the fact. It was so much fun seeing you again, Corynne! Ive missed your smiling face. :)

Caiden on the left, Char on the right

Spontinaity wins again

2008-07-15T23:33:00.000-07:00

(For not that long) I have thought it would be really cool to own some fish! I wasn't doing anything today, and decided today would be the perfect day to start my little family..of fish. Rachel Pockett joined me on my adventure (wow..so many adventures lately!) to the mexican pet shop (porque i figured a whole in the wall place would be cheaper). sadly enough, they were neither helpful nor cheaper. good thing there was a Petco across the street to save the day...and thanks to their PetcoPals card savings, i came home with an array of 12 fish! I find them so intruiging to watch. I am now a proud owner of a micky mouse fish (Mickey mouse's head is sideways on all their tales. it is so cool!)4 goldfish, (but only 2 are gold) a black ugly goldfish with his eyes bulging out the sides..yeah those ones! he is my absolute favorite, an algea eating fish...and like 6 other pretty fish. there was this little fish at the store that looked and acted like a mini shark. all it did was sit up against the glass and do backflips the whole time we were there. it was so bizarre. anywho, wish me luck! the last time i was in charge of ONE fish, they each would only live a week...but that was when i was 5. so hopefully my skills have improved since then.

Adventures with Batty...AND Bri!

2008-07-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

Today we decided it was a girls day, since we wanted to spend time with Bri before she left for Costa Rica Wednesday. After having a very delicous slice of "Z-pizza", which was only $2.75 (definitly made it even more delicous) we continued on our way to Laguna Beach where we spent the next few hours walking around the quaint shops, looking at crystals, wandering around 'nick nack' shops (laguna can make ANYTHING pricey), watching gay men do their perverted things on the beach (Nina i must tell you...im sorry), and ended our adventure meandering down PCH with Golden Spoon.

so there used to be this man (who if i remember right, was homeless) in the 60s/70s who would stand on the corner of PCH and wave to everyone as they went by. my mom remembers him always standing on the same corner when she was a child and saying hello to everyone. He became known as "the Greeter". Since then he has passed away, but this statue was made in his honor. quite an impact he must have made.

Adventures with Batty!

2008-07-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

So today, Batstone and I went on a well deserved adventure. Our intent for going on our adventure was to go to the credit union and seeing about getting me a debit/credit card (which never actually happened because they were closed). Our adventure went as follows: Heading towards Brookhurst I got distracted and suggested we stop by the bookstore at the Fountain Valley Library and see what books we could find. It was a succesful detour resulting in my purchases of Norman Geisler's False Gods of our Time, Revelation Unveiled (a book by Tim LeHaye completely explaining the book of revelation..wahoo!), and C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters. Batstone got this book called ..meh..I forget what its called. But basically it is a survival book for obscure situations ..that will probably never happen (what to do when being chased by a bull, how to avoid getting stuck during an avalanche, what to do if your parachute doesnt open properly..that is actually very helpful info) ok. onwards.....

Next we stopped at Fashion 21 (supposedly cheaper..branch of Forever 21), where I purchased this exciting outfit of an oversized shirt and leggings for a mere $9.25.

After our short shopping spree we were determined to find a frozen yogurt place, but once again I got distracted and was very enthusiastic about stopping in at Prehistoric Pets! It was sooo cool in their. Kids were feeding live larvae to the HUGE fish (that were butt ugly! and had square chompers for teeth) and lovely turtles. [NINA! this would be the sweetest place to take the girls!!haha. they can even feed larvae to ugly fish!..ok.minus the larvae part.]

Finally, we were back on track and moments later found the beloved Yogurt land: a self serve frozen yogurt place where you pay by the ounce. It can be cheap or expensive depending on how much of a fatty you are...I lean more towards the fatty category on this one. I endulged myself in a delicous and well deserved cheesecake and cappacino blend topped with fresh strawberries..delightful.