Lately, in pictures.

Since Spring, we've been enjoying the fact that we now have a front porch!  Lots of herbs, raspberry bush, lemon tree, tomatoes!  And lots of meals & book reading time spent out there!

We've also been enjoying flowers.  And I learned that marigolds & anything with a lemony or citrusy scent is a mosquito repellent!  So I'm buying more of those types of flowers & herbs!

A cancelled concert (Notwist) turned into an exploratory evening on the river together.  These types of unexpected things end up being the most memorable.  I'm so thankful for time spent with Christopher!

And so thankful that my skin is taking a sudden turn for the better!  Everything that we've been doing to try to heal my skin is finally working.  Thank you, Lord!

I'm looking forward to so much this summer!

our little family.

I'm so thankful for our little family.  We're not perfect and we're not always sure of ourselves, but we love each other the best we can.

And, Sneak.... well.... she's the princess of our little house.

summer LOVE.

A few weeks ago, Christopher & I marked our third wedding anniversary.  In celebration, we took our first vacation together since our honeymoon and, I must say, the timing of this little "holiday" was a Godsend.

It was much-needed.

This summer has been a time of growth for Christopher & I, both individually and together.  After three years, we've become all-too-aware of our own shortcomings and downfalls, and we've been seeing it within each other as well (marriage's "mirror effect", shall we say).  Instead of running from difficulties, we've been facing them and working through the discomforts.  Individually, together, with family, friends and the church.

We've been learning that marriage isn't easy and it isn't always fun, but it's rewards can be great.  (Though you hear it all the time and--by intuition--you know it's true, it takes a while for it's truth to settle in and become real).

Instead of focusing on and allowing ourselves to become bewildered by the most recent failed marriages that we've witnessed, we're looking towards those strong and God-centered examples of marriage that have surrounded us for our entire lives--our parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles, the Chappell's, the Figleys....

We're banishing our pride (which was telling us "we can figure this marriage thing out all by ourselves") and instead we're reading books and renewing our faith.

I am so thankful to have Christopher by my side as my husband and my closest friend.   Neither of us are perfect--far from it, in fact--but together, we can learn.  Together, we can help each other become the people that we should be.  The people that God wants us to be.

Visiting Longwood Gardens: the visitors!

new lens!

[or, A Family Vignette]

See this look?  This is called excitement.

(See, I don't even care that my hair's all disheveled.)

See this guy?  This is the guy who has made his wife insanely happy--buying her the lens she really wanted. 

And here?  This is our playful, chubby cat who can now be photographed in our dark, indoor lighting with a wider aperture.

This?  This is Momma, who's rather upset by the news.  "Even more pictures of me and my babies?"

Yup, coming soon.

experimenting.

this was a photography experiment in panning.

setting a slow shutter speed, narrow aperture.

taking a moving object and following it with the camera. [trying to keep it in the same place in the viewfinder.]

the result is a blurry/streaky background and a [somewhat] focused subject.

interesting, no?

[thank you, dear husband, for being such a selfless, cooperative, and good-looking test subject. :D]