My Sister's Visit (in pictures)

I've been a bit lacking on the blog-front recently. I have so many pictures and updates since Christmas! Many people took the time to come and visit including my mother, my sister, and my in-laws. Work has been super busy; most months through October are already pretty booked.

Several trips are in the works including a first time visit to Betsy's house in Washington State next month (oh yeah, and meeting her fiance for the first time EVER... it's only been like 7 or 8 years...), an international trip to Vancouver (better get that passport renewed ASAP!) so I can see Joey speak at a conference, a leisurely visit to Michigan in September and another fabulous trip to Hawaii in October to shoot a wedding.

Just as a sample of some of the fun I've been having, I thought I'd do a little blog post in pictures about Melanie's visit.  I can't put them on my photography blog since many include pictures taken at the mission and they do not allow that sort of thing unless I fork out some cash and a permit. Enjoy!

Christmas 2010

Although it doesn't snow here in Southern California, at least we have family to make it feel like the holidays. Here's a snapshot of our Christmas at the Reeds.
Joey had some fun:

 and relaxation....

 For the first time, I picked fresh flowers from the garden for our centerpiece:

 Joey (and Ronia) played with the new Disney Fairies dolls:

 We drank delicious hot chocolate out of snowmen:

 Ate Filet Mignon that was so tender you could cut it with a fork:

 Spend time with the parents:

 Cuddled in cozy sweaters and jammies:

 Noticed my in-laws had a very similar nativity set to the one I had growing up...

 Even Murray had some fun with the tree:

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thoughts from a 4 year old during breakfast

Ronia: You need to watch the dolphins again. (referring to the show at sea world).
Me: Oh yeah? What will the dolphins help me with?
Ronia: She listens to her heart. I listen to my heart.
Me: What does your heart tell you to do now?
Ronia: My heart tells me to eat blueberries. (pause for several minutes and then randomly starts up again) I listen to my heart, and when it says drink your chocolate milk I do. When it says brush my teeth, I do. And when it says I want to listen to Raffi, I say Mom, may I please listen to Raffi?
May I please listen to Raffi? 

Odds and Ends

I never write full blog posts, but I could update my facebook status every 20 minutes. However, instead of doing that, I've decided to just leave this open and add to it when I have an interesting thought.

* Coco's, you have nothing on Julian Pie Company.
* I admit it; I like Justin Bieber. That's right, I do. At least I'm sure no one is surprised and I'm not alone in this world.
* Funny I can call myself a photographer when I don't have one spectacular shot out of 700.
* It's really nice when your neighbor asks your kid to come over and play.
* I can't believe how long a child can, and will, scream continuously. Over nothing of course.
* There's a guy leaf blowing outside my apartment. And it's raining.
* Amy and I are 93% sure we saw Lady Gaga hanging outside Starbucks and Boston Market yesterday. She didn't look so good.
* Am I done yet?
* Trix is back to it's original form! Whoo hoo! How I despised those fruit shapes...
* I hate it when I have unexpected visitors and I (and my house) look like crap.
* Funny how I get sick of my cds when I have several hundred, but I can listen to the Golden Girls DVD song (a whole 20 seconds) play over and over for an hour and it doesn't bother me at all.

Time for an update

I'm so excited to have a fresh new look on my blog! (I'd say "our" blog, but we all know the chances of Joey ever returning are pretty slim and nil.)  I've been meaning to upload some pictures of the maintenance done around here and just haven't made time. However, I think it's a good tie-in... the construction on my blog is done, and most of the summer fix-ups have been completed as well. Here's what you've been missing around my house:

Damage to some of my prized possessions due to flooding:

Here's Luis and Tony. Tony and I are buds now; he reminds me of Erik Estrada (he's on the right).  Here they are providing us kitchen light while ours was torn out.

And here's what our kitchen looked like for a few days:

This is my neighbors house after mine was finished:

This is on my building complex. Not quite sure what they're doing. I just wish I had caught the water spouting out:

I really should take a picture of the huge construction zone outside my bedroom window, but that's ongoing since I moved in and it looks absolutely NO different from the day we arrived. At least we're assured there will be some soft of continual obnoxious noise for the year to come.

That pretty much wraps up summer.

The New Addition

We got a new kitty! His name is Murray and he is such a wonderful cat; super tolerant and loving. Since I'm sure you're all dying to see, here he is! (Sorry Linda, we picked him out before you told us to get a female!)

Family Fun

Today Joey, Ronia and I had some fun with clay. Thought I'd share the fun:

Joey is really proud of his wizard (without looking at anything!)
Ronia and I made the food for her Noah's Ark animals.