us!

my dear friend and AMAZING photographer ashlee raubach took these pictures for us this fall and i could not love them more! of course i am so behind on blogging it is out of control, so i haven't had a chance to post them yet, but she just posted a few today, so check them out here!! thank you so much ashlee!

"tsenzie."

we look amazing in crazy mirrors. love that there is apparently a smudge on the mirror that is giving kenz the appearance of the perfect goatee!

dude. aunt kenzie (or tsenzie as max calls her) is coming to town on thursday and we are sooooo excited! max saw a picture of himself with kenzie on the computer today and he gasped and yelled, "dat me! dat my tsenzie!" we basically can't wait.

lovely things about today...

{image courtesy of caroline drake}

1. consultation this morning which lead to booking a wedding. yay!

2. max's friends AND my friend came over to play.

3. we made (and ATE) reeeeally good chocolate chip cookies.

4. max watched no T.V. all day! i told him yesterday that is was broken. we have been watching waaay too much lately. plus, i got inspired by my t.v. abandoning cousin.

5. i have an awesome cleaning lady, and she came today. yeeeah clean bathrooms! her name is tammy jo, only max calls her BAMMY jo. it's awesome.

6. i had a plethora of homemade pico de gallo from my weekend with mom, and i had to hurry and use it. Caroline recommended i make her yummy TOMATILLO SOUP for dinner to use it up. OH. MY. GOODNESS. i died it was so good! i doubled it so i could freeze some and i am super glad. it's amazing. for real.

7. even though he struggled for a minute (and got out once) max went to sleep for the third night in a row, by himself, in his big boy bed.

8. I GOT MY HAIR DONE!!! au revoir FRUMPY. ahhhhhh. i love you laci.

9. max asked me to check out his booty.

he walks up to me, shows me his backside and said

him: "hey mom, see my butt?" (this is new as of monday, and i about hit the floor!)

me: (being very stern) "max, we do NOT say that word. when we say that word, we get yuckies in our mouth." (last time he said this, meaning yesterday, it was worchestershire.)

him: "otay. mom, (now SMACKING HIS BEHIND) see my BUNNERS?" (bum, buns, and bunners are allowed).

what do you even SAY TO THAT???!

appauling, yes. hillarious? also yes.

mission accomplished!

nothing more needs to be said.

i mean really people.

ok. so i am a bad blogger. like, really bad! the thing is, i needed a break. big time! the christmas photo rush was nuts, plus getting ready for a two week trip over christmas, plus finishing our basement (yes, it's DONE! the carpet went in over new years!), i have been needing to just plain check out for a while. i mean for crying out loud, i haven't even mailed my CHRISTMAS CARDS! and they are killer i might add. =) don't worry, i will probably still send them out. yes, really. tacky huh? but i worked hard on them and printed them all, so i WILL do it! even if they show up around valentines day.

as you already saw (thanks to my baby sister- that stinker!), our christmas was just perfect. we were so spoiled to spend so much time with our families! no gift was better than that, to be sure. though max thought the gifts were pretty cool too! as usual between everyone, he got too much stuff, so we didn't even open half of them, we're saving them for his birthday. i hate when kids get so much that they don't get to enjoy each thing. you know? less is more, i say.

anyway, we are back home and getting into the swing of things again and it's so nice! we worked really hard on getting some of the basement organized this week, and wouldn't you know my mom came out and helped us do EVERYTHING! you would not even believe how much work she did, we can not thank her enough! we really are so lucky. pictures coming of the basement soon, i promise! i am just waiting for my wide angle to return from the nikon hospital. =)

however, here are some darling little shots of my sweet max. he is getting soooo big and saying the darnedest things. and to top it off, he is officially out of his crib this week! he has been doing great and hasn't gotten out once. yay! i won't lie, i maybe cried when we were setting up the big boy bed. just a little. =)

aww. i just died over this one. basically, we adore him.

he thinks he's so funny. and really, he is.

wrapping up in his choo choo towel, and of course coloring while sipping some chocolate milk in my room.

Round one

here are a few pictues of what we did over christmas break with jessica danny and max!

Max, nana, and bapa!
ICE SKATING

Out on the frozen lake!
Tyler on Christmas Morning!!
Me, jess, and becca chillin on the couch

on christmas eve!
Max and Danny enjoying the evening :)
New years eve morning! max LOVES WILSON!

officially hijacked!

because it is obvious to me and my father that jessica lynn kettle is no longer blogging. we decided to take over her blog until she gives us a post. so let the games begin.

P.s. a word of advice, dont share your password with anybody, even your sister :)

Bugalicious: what jessica kettle is.

well hello there. this is not jessica. this is her sister mackenzie. and her sisters friend kailey. we really dont have anything to say except that... we felt like hacking her blog. but we are in idaho right now with some good friends of my family. here i am watching my adorable nephew max, shovel up books and little green army men. well life is good and i hope you all have a happy new year!

love, big mac and kakes

thanksgiving...

oh my. do you remember me? i'm still here. i would list the eight thousand things i have been up to lately, but to be honest, i don't feel like it. it's bad enough thinking about them, let alone listing them. whew. here are the pictures from thanksgiving in island park, it was SO much fun and it was SOOOOO beautiful. i can't wait to go back soon. =)

the grandkids sledding, they were SO cute out there in their mittens and hats pulling each other!

our little marshmallow.

i can't even handle the cuteness...

ashley getting her turn...

danny helping out! i died over cody "helping" pull. check out the slack in the rope. haha!

mittens. they are hard to keep on. darnit.

around "town" it is so teeny it's hillarious!

you know you're in a small town when the gas stations restaurants and convenience stores ALL have animal heads of some kind on the wall. =)

i also did portraits of all the grandkids while we were up there. of course my little booger is the LEAST cooperative out of ALL TEN KIDS. go figure!

out driving...

me and my little dude. we love each other.

the best part: finding our tree! we got a tree permit and ventured out to find our tree. let me be clear. we did NOT cut down our tree at a christmas tree farm. we went out in like, the wilderness. we felt so tough and had the absolute best time. luckily we had grandpa k and les, tyson and cody to help us!

max and "to-dee"

les and ty ty

us and our tree. it was pretty dang good after we cut off the bottom!

and of course we pulled a clark w. griswald and took our tree home on top of the car. we were just relieved that after 4 hours on top of the car the thing still had needles. haha!

on love and photographs.

danny arrived today and we had the most beautiful evening with joe and brittany at the beach. the guys went running, the boys ran around in the sand, splashing and throwing rocks, the moms, we watched. and of course i photographed. it really was the most perfect, beautiful night. i have a ton of pictures to share, but right now i am getting ready for bed and just savoring the evening.

i have been thinking about the balance of living in the moment and capturing the moment. sometimes i hear people say that sometimes they have to put down the camera and just BE in the moment. i get that. i TOTALLY get it. but i also feel almost exactly opposite 99% of the time! to me, i feel most ALIVE on nights like this, beautiful setting, my family, best friends, and camera in hand. everything just feels right. i believe i actually enjoy the moment more completely when i capture it in a photograph. i am also the kind of person who prefers to do two things at once- movie and a craft, internet and music, bath and a magazine, clean my house and talk on the phone, i enjoy each aspect more by doing them at the same time.

i have felt for some time now, that because of my relationship with photographs, i see the world differently, i see my life differently. i am more aware of the beauty all around me, i see the art in everyday life as a mother, the little details stand out in a different way. my son's eyelashes or a sandy toes, the colors in our halloween pumpkins, the way the light peeks inside my kitchen in the morning. it's all clearer, it's all better, i appreciate it more.

there are of course moments that can't be photographed, only felt. tonight, just after the sun went down behind catalina, the sky was bright peachy-orange and the water so blue. the colors danced across max's skin and glistened in his eyes in a way i have never seen, it was absolutely breathtaking. i already had a couple hundred images on my memory card that i just knew i would love, but all i wanted was to catch this moment in the most perfect way so i could keep it forever. but wouldn't you know, max was wet. a little cold. and just wanted a snuggle. i squatted down in the sand for some hugs and just let my camera hang from the strap while i just snuggled max and watched the fleeting light on his face, just inches away myself. it was beautiful, emotionally and artistically. no buttons to push or focus to adjust, but it was art just the same. i thought to myself that even though i couldn't actually take a picture of this moment, that i would take a little mental snapshot and always remember his sandy fingers at the nape of his neck and his soft cheeks pressed to mine, while that orange light touched us both. part of me was sad for a second that i missed the shot but i am finding my mental snapshot to be just as rewarding to come home with as the many physical images from the night at the beach. nights like this i am truly so thankful for my happy, simple life and the little family we have created together and that god has given us. the opportunity to step back and look at it through my lens has shown me just how remarkable it is.

california. it's fun here.

oh. my. goodness. we are having SUCH fun! max is having the best time with owen, brittany and i are of course loving every minute together too. and we think our boys could totally pass as brothers. don't you? their hair and eye colors are so similar it's uncanny.

i don't even want to write about this, seriously we are all traumatized... but it's something i know we are going to look back and crack up over for years. so on this otherwise perfect beach day, britt, the boys and i were fully attacked by seagulls. long story short, we had food, they wanted it. they seriously SWARMED US, we were running around newport with our boys and a hundred seagulls screaming just feet above our heads. brittany and max cried. owen laughed his head off - totally oblivious to everyone else's distress, i didn't even know what to do. i sortof laugh in a weird way when i am freaking out like that. finally we ran back to the car and max was BESIDE himself. it makes me sooo sad to think of how upset he was! pretty sure he will be scared of birds for life.

THANKS A BUNCH TO ALL YOU JERKS WHO STOOD AROUND STARING AT TWO MOMS WITH YOUNG CHILDREN BEING ATTACKED BY 100 BIRDS AND DID NOTHING TO HELP. especially seeing max was BEYOND terrified. all i have to say is KARMA IS A BEEEYATCH.

the best is when we all calmed down, owen started walking back toward the beach and max starts screaming (and crying) again

" NOOOOOO OW-ONE!!!! IN CAAAAR!!!! NOOOO, BIIIIRDS!!!!"

i think he was afraid for his friends life. it was so sad. but so funny. every time we came near any seagulls for the rest of the day he ran to me crying.

umm, right before this, owen was SWIMMING in the sand. so freaking funny.

our boys throw sand. a lot.

right before he remembers his bird fear and books it toward me for safety.

above, totally framing this one. below, oh i could have cried i laughed so hard at this next one. little show offs.