July & August Monthly Family Picture

I am still here!  Just been very busy with my photography business and not much time for our personal little blog here.

We did take our month family picture for August and I wanted to share.   I also realized I hadn't shared July since we were in Maui and well.. I just haven't been good about updating the blog since we've been back.

So, here are our family pics.  These were taken in the backyard with the 10 second timer.   In the second picture we are giving Andrew a wet wheelie. :-)

Momma's Soapbox giveaway!!

Head on over to Momma's Soapbox!

She is giving away a $40 CSN gift certificate.  It can be used at Le Crueset or just go to http://www.csnstores.com/and you can view over 200 different websites you can choose from!  Fun!

First day of Kindergarten!

We made it through the first day! 

Much like we thought, Andrew was more than ready to start Kindergarten.  All the kids lined up outside and got their name tags and then walked into their new school.  Andrew never looked back.... thank goodness or he would have seen a bunch of upset parents.  :-) 

My two wishes on the way home were "I hope he has fun and please oh please don't get in trouble!"  LOL

When we picked him up he was all smiles and said he had a great first day.  On the walk home he said "Now I can go home and watch a show!"  Unfortunately for him we had swim lessons in an hour and he didn't have much time to rest. 

After swim, we told him to choose his favorite restaurant for dinner to celebrate his first day of school.  He chose Noodles n Co and Coldstone.   I love that he threw ice cream in there.

Here are some pics from his first day...

My comic relief!

TURN OFF THE MUSIC BELOW before hitting play!  Just a friendly reminder. :-)

This is my comic relief after a emotional morning of dropping Andrew off at Kindergarten (pics of that to follow.) 

First, I am going to apologize now for saying "Oh my god"  I don't usually say that and don't like it but this wave was HUGE and it just came out.  Sorry if I offend anyone! 

Secondly,  the video does not even begin to show how BIG the wave was.  It was HUGE and very strong as you'll see it was knocking people over and throwing some to shore.. a few times.  Amazingly enough, Andrew happened to be just far enough in the ocean that he wasn't a victim to this.  His Auntie on the other hand, she wasn't so lucky.  But, it makes for a fun video!!  As you'll hear I was laughing so hard I couldn't even finish my sentences.  I think I was crying I was laughing so hard after I hit stop on the camera.  Love you sista

Back to School pictures

Andrew and I went to his school last night and took some back to school pictures.  I've posted them on my photography blog... go check them out here!

sneak peek...

Happy 90th Birthday Popo!!

One of the sweetest men I've ever known.. my Popo.  He turns 90 years old today!  Unfortunately, I won't be there to celebrate but he is definitely on my mind today.  Andrew and I will have to try calling him later and hopefully we'll catch him at home.  (ETA:  My mom called me from the party and Andrew and I got to talk to Popo and wish him well. Thank you Mom!!)  Andrew just loves him. They are hilarious to listen to when they are talking to each other because they both talk over each other.. yep, we call Andrew little Walt (that is Popo's name) sometimes.  Andrew is friendly just like him, never met a stranger and loves. to. talk.  alot!  It's awesome.

I remember visiting Popo during the summers as a little girl.  I loved going up to his mountain property and exploring.   We also loved to redecorate his house... there was one room in the back he let us do whatever we wanted to in.  We'd make forts and tents and play so many games in that room. 

To me he has always been a warm and loving grandfather. He's seen so much in his 90 years.. some wonderful and some not so wonderful.  He lost his first wife at a young age and then his second wife many years later.  He is a war hero and sadly losted many friends during the war.  With all the loss he has had he's also been blessed with 3 daughters, 6 grand children, and 11 great grand children!

Popo -  I love you very much and wish I could be there to give you a big hug!       

Here I am with Popo at his 57th birthday..

Here we are quite a few years later... ;-)
.

Andrew and Popo last summer. 

Meet Mrs. Camps

We had a meet and greet last night at Andrew's new school and got to meet his Kindergarten teacher!  We were impressed with her already as she called us earlier in the week to sign up for a certain time to visit the class room for a quick presentation.  She was very nice, direct and to the point and organized!  My kind of gal. :)

Another thing we noticed was a lot of her students from last year came running in the classroom to give her a hug. So sweet.

Yes, we are very excited for Andrew to start and I'm hoping I make it through the first day without embarrassing myself in front of all the other parents with an "ugly cry" look on my face.  I'm tearing up as I write this post.... I'm hosed.  Thankfully Blake will be there with me to support  make fun of me.

Have a great weekend!

Teacher's Back to School Gift

ur baby is starting Kindergarten on Monday! Time to get working on a gift for his teacher. 

I just love these clear little pails from Michaels.  There are so many things you can use them for and very easy to alter.  Last year I decorated these pails for Halloween and put a carmel apple in them for Andrew's preschool teachers.  As of right now there is a healthy red apple in it but I may swap it out for a yummy carmel one over the weekend.

I used my papers and the apple stamp from Stampin Up.  I got these a couple years ago and it's now  retired and I have used this paper so much.... so glad I ordered two packages!  I'm sure you could probably still find it on ebay or something though. 

So, what are you doing or what did you do for a teacher's gift???

Flash back!

I had a newborn session on Tuesday with a little girl who was 9 lbs 6 ounces and she had a ton of hair.  It completely brought me back to when Andrew was that small.  He was 9 lbs 14 oz and also had  a ton of dark brown hair.  I remember it just like yesterday.  Only it was nearly 6 years ago.  6 YEARS??? really? 

Here is the sweet little baby I was lucky to photograph... check out my Tami Wilson Photography blog for all the pics.

America's Next Top Model

I have hundreds of photos to go through for Hawaii and I can not wait to edit them all but I'm going to have to do a little at a time and as of next week I will be swamped with client editing.  I have a newborn session and a senior session with two girls!  Yeah me!  At least, I now know what I'll be doing while Andrew is in Kindergarten all day. ;-) 

Anywho.... the reason for my post.  Before we left Maui I took each of the kids a mini photo session and I can't wait to get through all of those images.  I just had to edit these pics of my sweet little niece.  Isn't she gorgeous?  I'll be posting pictures of her equally stunning sister soon.  I just couldn't wait to get these out there!

Sis. Two words.  "Your hosed!"  LOL  And, I mean that in the nicest way possible.  ;-)

Please vote for Tami Wilson Photography (again) !

A local TV station holds an annual contest called the "A-list" which profiles local businesses and allows consumers to vote for and recommend their favorites.  Please vote for Tami Wilson Photography for Best Portrait Photography!!!

Please vote for me by clicking on this.....

Thank you so much!! I really appreciate your support!

Home (Unbelievably) Sweet Home

We are home (finally)!! I say finally because it took us about 36 hours to get from Maui to Colorado.  To make a super super long story short.  We got to the airport around 7 pm in Maui and quickly found out our incoming airplane had a busted windshield and it would be a minumum of a 3 hour delay.  Making our new departure time 1:30 a.m.  WHAT???  We were warned of a cancellation so we quickly rebooked to leave out the next day at 1 p.m.  Sounds simple, right? WRONG!  By the time we rebooked and got all that taken care of it was midnight and no hotels near the airport were available.  Then we had to rent a car because the taxi was ridiculous.  So, we go to our hotel (beach front motel - NASTY) at 1:00 a.m.   Got about 4-5 hours of sleep and headed back to the airport.  I was originally going to drop off Steph and the kids and Andrew and I were to fly out that evening.  Oh, did I mention we were doing a red eye from Maui to Los Angeles,  Los Angeles to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Denver ?  Crazy, right?  Well I was able to get on an earlier flight but I still had to make the ridiculous trek to Minneapolis.  Wrong way!!

So, I'll skip the 3 1/2 hour lay over in LA and late departure out of there that made us RUN through the Minneapolis airport to catch our Denver flight  -  yes our name was being called through the airport making us aware we would not make the flight if we did not check -in in the next 10 minutes.  Oh, right. I said I'd skip that part.

So, after a total of 6 hours of sleep in 48 hours we finally arrived back home.  Only to find out Andrew's booster seat had been lost because they made me gate check it in Maui.  Once the lost luggage counter in Baggage Claim finally opened (yes we had to wait)  we got a loaner and we were on our way.   Oh and did I mention my flip flop broke when we got to Denver?  Apparently it was done traveling too! ;-)  I seriously couldn't make this stuff up.  Yes, it really happened.  I was thankful the flip flop waited until Denver to give out.  I could just see myself running barefoot through the Minneapolis airport. Ya, that 's not tacky. 

 I apologize, I was supposed to give a short story but it appears I've given the long... well there are lots of little stories in between but I guess this is the short long version.

Bottom line. We are home.  I slept 12 hours last night and Andrew slept 16.  I finally woke him up at 11 so he would sleep tonight.  :)

Lots and lots of photos to come.  Off to finish the LAST load of Laundry.  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Because I can't post without a picture... here is one of the kids at the aquarium in Maui before all the chaos happened.