Eleven years!?!

Today Joey and I celebrated our anniversary. Eleven years! We have talked over the past week about our eleven years together. We are amazed at everywhere we have been and all that God has seen us through. We can look back with joy at the wonderful happy moments of our life together, and also look back with joy at the hard, seemingly impossible moments. We are so blessed...more in love today than ever, three beautiful and HEALTHY boys, huge dreams for our future. We praise God for the amazing life together that He has given us.

Last week Joey's mom came and stayed with the boys so we could get away for a couple of days. We went to Catalina Island. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Beautiful Wedding

Last week our great friends Jason and Crystal came and stayed a few days with us. We went to the beach twice, and Crystal and I went shoe shopping (I got my first pair of Birkenstocks) and got our nails done. Jason was performing a wedding on Saturday night, and Crystal was supposed to video and take pictures. I offered to do the picture taking, since it is something I love to do. It was so fun. It was the first wedding I have gotten to shoot since Joey's small town preacher days when I was shooting the weddings he performed with my all manual film camera. The next day Jason gave me a quick Photoshop lesson. Here are a few of my favorites.

Congratulations Ryan and Rebecca! Thank you for allowing me the honor of photographing your beautiful day.

Birthday Boy - Caden is Nine

Today Caden turned nine. We partied all day long. Muffins and presents for breakfast, a limo ride to the Corvette Diner for lunch, a trip to his favorite bird store, and pizza and cake tonight. Here are some pictures of our day. The picture of Carson shows him dancing in the limo. Caden is holding his "bird cake". He was determined that he wanted a bird birthday. Caden is growing into a wonderfully handsome and intelligent young man. We are so proud of him!

Rooting for the Home Team

Thursday afternoon Make-A-Wish called and said, "We have two tickets to the Chargers game on Saturday. Do you want them?" Do we want them? The Chargers playing the Cowboys ten minutes from our house?? Of course we want them. Carson decided that game tickets would be a great birthday gift for his football-crazy big brother, so tonight Joey and Caden went to their first ever professional game. As you can see, they had amazing seats and had a ton of fun.

Camp for the Karen

Last week, Sunday through Wednesday, our church and a StoneWater family hosted a Sports Camp/VBS for the Karen refugees. We had a wonderful week and have many stories to tell. The kids played basketball, made crafts, and had music and Bible lessons while the adults worked on conversational English and learned to fill out job applications. We had everything outside at a local park which is in their neighborhood. Here are some pictures for you.




The lady in the picture with me is named MuuMuu. She gave me a beautiful bag called a "tuh". Notice the picture of the boys lined up...Carson is right in the middle of them. He had a great week playing with all of the kids. The little girl on the top left is named Muu Eh. She and her family have only been in America for a few months.