Snap Shots of Life

We don't have a spacious or grand office space but it is definitely a necessity. When drawing up plans for our house we carved out a little nook off our dining room. Here was the problem! 1) At the time we (I) thought I wanted bright walls throughout our home. The brightest was our office in this lovely orange. I did love the color but found at night when I was up late working on the computer it really hurt my eyes. I finally convinced Doug to let me paint it. No surprise that my favorite color is blue so I first chose a few lighter blue tones but they were meh.... AND then I spotted this beauty  and my mind was made - striped walls! It was a really slow process at first. I had to prime/paint those orange walls three times with the white base. Then measure and tape the walls. For many months there were three lone stripes all lonely in the room. It was a hot mess since I had cleared everything out of the room all pumped to get it done. Fast forward ...

The newest addition to our family has four legs, sharp teeth, floppy ears, and slobbery kisses! Yep, you guessed it  . . . we have a new puppy! Meet Camden Walker Jarrell - born December 6, 2013. He has each member of our family wrapped up tight including both sets of Grandparents. Here he is upon arrival at the Jarrell House. He made himself at home and sleeps snuggled up with Sissy every night. He even has Stella on his side! He is now almost 5 months old and weighs almost 20 lbs. He likes to chew things such as shoes, books, money, etc.... You know, anything he gets to quicker than we can! On a positive note he is house trained with only a few minor accidents, he sits when told, and he LOVES the water so we are all eager for boating season. Just look at that sweet face!

We had a low key Halloween season this year. By that I mean we didn't carve pumpkins or put out any decorations.  Emerson asked me several times when would we decorate but I never got the motivation.  The scrooge of Halloween right here I tell ya! I did manage to have a few friends over for pumpkin painting and now that I think about it the boys and I made caramel apples. So maybe I wasn't such a scrooge after all! My sweet little boys don't like to be cute things for Halloween anymore . . . . sad face! But I think they're still pretty darn cute as these scary things! Lockwood was a vampire (a left over Brittany costume except for the $2.99 face paint). Emerson was a skeleton (Lockwood was this last year and we had this costume since forever because Brittany was also this way back when) To make the caramel apples I recycled them from this photo shoot.  Those are two very sweet girls! After we got done with the apples they were very pretty but not ...

  So grateful these two families allowed me to capture their special day.        My cousin Nicole wowed with her simple but oh so elegant dress. Such a beautiful day!   Jacqueline, Brandon, and I attended school together so photographing their wedding was such an honor.  They were married in a charming white chapel where the ceremony was so beautiful there was not a dry eye in attendance.    May your days be filled with love for years to come! xoxo 

It's 10:54pm on a Tuesday.  Doug is still planting away at the field.  My dedicated, hard working, passionate farmer has been known to log some long days.  The past few weeks I realize just how often.  We miss him when he's not home for supper with us. My eyes grow weary waiting on him to get home safely.  The kids ask when Daddy will be home. I say, I'm not sure and Brittany comments, "That means late".   The point is this.  We realize the importance of his passion and dedication, but the outside world sometimes does not. I know during planting and harvest season that he will not be able to go to family gatherings, watch our kids' sporting events, or jump in the car for a family outing. The kids and I eat supper alone and now that Summer is here we sit up and wait for him to walk in the door!   He keeps a high stress level from now until the crop is harvested. So we savor our time with him when we ...

If you told me a year ago that I would run a half marathon I would have laughed at you! That's insane! I've never been a runner, EVER.   I started running this past September for health reasons and to help motivate my soccer team to run more.  Both were good reasons to help motivate me as well.  Sadly, only a hand full of my soccer girls accepted my challenge BUT I do have two of them running a 5K with me this weekend!   In casual conversation one day my dear friend, Melanie, asked me about training with her for a half marathon.  In typical Wendy fashion I said yes and immediately kicked myself in my mind.  What was I thinking? I've literally only ran one 5K in my lifetime and have just recently started running regularly.  None the less, I was excited for a new adventure!   With her help I managed to complete a five month training schedule overcoming: a sprained ankle, runners knee, and two lost toenails.  Keep in mind she is 10 ...

 I can FINALLY  check something off my list! Back in October a friend was giving this away.   I got started right away stripping it's hardware, cleaning it up, and sanding it.  After that it sat and sat, got moved from porch to carport, then back to the porch again.  Doug told me I couldn't start anymore projects until I finished some unfinished ones so ...... I had to clean it again and sand it some more, and clean it again. Painting it was the EASY part! It originally had a mirror on the bottom that I wasn't feeling.  The top of it had a few spots of water damage so I placed fabric and plexiglas on top.  With the same fabric I covered the hole that I made from removing the mirror. I snuck our answering machine behind the photo so it's in a prime spot of the house but out of site! My favorite part of this project is actually inside! I finally have a place to display all of our wedding china that we never ...