Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful day, surrounded by friends and family.  We have had a really great family day today and I am constantly reminded of all I have to be thankful for.  So many people have touched my life, enhanced it and some have forever changed it.  I am thankful for all of you today and missing many...

Some of my most precious blessings:

I hope you are filled with a happy and peaceful heart...

Adoption Photobook

I wanted to share the photo book I made for Rylee, using pictures from our trip to China:

You can view the whole book by following this link:   http://www.poyomi.com/book/547a3e77bf30407790a833b48444fb37

Rylee really loves the book, it was so sweet to see her reaction when we looked through it for the first time.  She put her hand on my face and told me "Mama, you have just the right face and the best nose".  She gently touched my nose and then put her hand back on my cheek, looked straight into my eyes and told me "you are just the Mama that I always wanted, and I am so glad you have the right face, you are the best Mama that I exactly wanted"...

I am not quite sure what she meant about having the right face, but I am thankful that I do!  In any case, it brought tears to my eyes.  I am not sure how we got so lucky, but I am ever so thankful that she is part of our family.  She is exactly perfect for us!

If you are interested, I am giving away three photobooks.  You can enter here.  The contest ends 11/26 at midnight and has very low entries!

No I am not allergic to my blog...

Today I received a message from someone asking if I had developed an allergy to my blog.  I started laughing, until I realized that it has been 5 MONTHS since I posted anything here!  Is anyone even still out there? 

What is wrong with me you might ask?

I do not have a good excuse... just busy working, raising a family, blogging, working, watching my house pile up with dust balls, working, taking pictures that fill up my laptop and just sit there, working and blah, blah, blah.... I know these are not nearly good enough reasons to be failing my loyal reader (you are still there right mom?)...

So today I am turning over a new leaf, or maybe I should say an old one, and am determined to catch up my blog, return to practicing my photography skills (which are getting rusty, while others of you have gained amazing skills during my absence!) and find out if any of my old friends are still here!


I am doing some clean up of my blog, deleting some really old stuff, changing things up a bit and making room for more.  It may be a bit messy for a little while, but I'm pretty sure we can all use a break from the bright pink background...

So I am going to leave you with two small bits...  with the promise of more to come (for real!):

Conversations with Rylee:

Rylee:  Mom, do you want to know what I am very, very, very thankful for?


Me:  Yes I do Rylee, what are you very, very thankful for?

Rylee:  I am very, very thankful for our swelter!!!

Me:  Okay, and what is swelter?

Rylee:  You know the very, very top of our house with the points on it and the little brown square things?

Me:  You mean the roof?

Rylee:  Yes MOM!  I am very, very, very thankful for the roof that is on top of our house, that is the swelter!

SO when you are all counting your blessings this Thanksgiving day, do not forget to add your swelter!

And I also give you this, because I think you need it:

 Consider it a gift :)