Family Easter Dinner

Easter is truly a feast and Easter 2011 was no different.  We decided to host dinner at our house and all of my side of the family came.  We also broke from traditional and had a mediterranean style menu.  Everyone brought a little something unique and it was DELICOUS.  My favorite though was Tim's leg of lamb on the bbq - YUM.  It was so fun to have everyone over for an egg hunt, good food, and laughter!

Cousins getting ready for the egg hunt with baskets in hand!  Elise, Celeste, Margot, Sophia, Natty, Sacia and Anna.

Great hiding place, Grandad!

Sharing the big egg!

Treasures for Anna!

Big smile!

Nani and Dana

Laurens delicious lemon dessert!

Many cooks in the kitchen make good food!

Trish, Sandrine and Lauren

Margot and my brother, Carl.

Easter weekend with Grandad and Grammy

Ok...falling WAY behind.  I think this is the first time I've posted more than a year behind.  Maybe I just need to take less pictures.  Possible?  I guess not for me.  I suppose I could just skip some moments and events to catch up...but for me those moments document our family and I don't want to miss those times.  So, I'm just going to be gentle with myself and keep going...no matter how behind I get. 

Easter 2011.  A great time with family.  Grammy and Grandad were up visiting and we colored our eggs. 

This weekend I power washed our back deck.  If anyone has been to our home....the back deck is big, really big.  It was a 2 full day project.  I have a new appreciation for Becky and her willingness to do this job before she left for college.  She did a much better job than I did too! 

Grandad and Dad lending some support (and a little humor!)

Happy Easter!

Mothers Day Video 2011 - Becky and Audrey

Ok, Becky and Audrey are going to kill me for posting this...but I couldn't resist.  I love these girls!  At church, I was asked to video the young women of our ward.  They answered some questions about mothers and then the videos were combined to make a big video full of clips from the youth of our ward.  They showed it on Mother's Day.  Although it was awkward (for both of us) being behind the camera as they answered questions about their mothers...I was so grateful to have such beautiful daughters who said such beautiful things.  My favorite part was the wonderful tributes they gave their grandmothers! 

gone fishin'

Every year in our ward, our High Priest's quorum puts on a salmon feed.   A good friend of ours, Don goes salmon fising every year in Alaska and shares his catch with us.  YUMMY!  Last year they asked me to take some pictures.  Tim and got creative and set up some fun props and we had a little fun with the green screen.  Here is our picture...gone fishin'!

Natalia turns 5

Sad to say, I am almost a year behind in the blog.  SAD!  Shame on me!  Little Natty will be 6 in a few weeks...and here I am posting her 5th birthday pictures.  It was at this point I decided to take all of kids yearly pictures on their birthday.  Most of those from last year have been posted on my portrait photograpy blog.  I've wondered if I should just combine the two blogs.  But, I'm not sold on that one yet.  Anyway...Natalia on her 5th birthday...

 Due to late Spring snow storms, our poor little cherry blossom tree just couldn't hold up.  The wet snow was too much for it's branches...thus having some sweet pink flowers just at Natty's height. 

 LOVE THOSE BROWN EYES...MY BROWN-EYED GIRL!

This picture sits on my office desk...not sure if she's thinking, "oh mom...another picture again!" or "how's this pose?"  Either way...to me it captured her 5 year old personality.  I loved the sunlight just peeking through on her hair. 

 I  love my sisters!

 I love my sisters!

Birthday breakfast with friends at McDonalds! 

Friends include Luca, Brando, Maddie, Aiva, Analise, and cousins, Sacia and Anna.

Natty's first ferry ride

We thought it was about time that Natty experience a ferry ride.  How can you live in Seattle and not do that at least once!?  We traveled over to Port Orchard last April to look at a boat for sale.  It was a quick hop off and hop on kind of ride, but nonetheless we had a great time! 

Fun with my new lens!

Last March Mom got a new 50mm lens for her camera!   Yea!  Since then I have been using it for most of my photography work and have been very happy with it.  Here are Natty and I testing it out in my office/studio! 

Testing it out at the store...Natty makes any lens look good!

Reflection, shooting into a mirror.

 Showing off her latest preschool creation!

I have to thank Tim, for making my dreams come true and helping me chase after my passion.  I love you!

Together we sing!

Both and Audrey and Celeste love to sing and have been in choirs for the last 4 years.  In March 2011, their choirs came together to sing.  Here are the two songbirds (Audrey - Chief Kanim Middle School 8th grade choir and Celeste - Fall City Elementary 5th grade choir)

Celeste Rodriguez - Girl Scout

2011 was a fun year in Girl Scouts for Celeste.  She is with a great group of girls and leaders and they have a lot of fun.  Sadly the troop hasn't been as active this school year, but tweens do get older and find other things to occupy their time.  Here are some memorable moments from 2011.