Chippy Table

My sister Andie and I live across the country from each other, so we started a blog called Bloggers and Sisters that we use to show each other the decorating projects that we have going on in our homes. I've been trying to get a couple of posts of my recent projects posted, but it just isn't working so I finally decided to just post them here. This one is from a few weeks ago:

Dear Andie,

I called you last week from my car. I was on my way to pick up a little table that I had found on Craigslist and I couldn't wait to tell you about it, but Russ said that you weren't home. For no reason at all, I said "She isn't on her way to pick up something off of Craigslist, is she??!" Because that would be just too weird.

"Well, yes she is," Russ said.

We are the same person, on two different sides of the country! It's like you are my twin, but born three years later.

So I did get the table, and it is already painted and sitting in my front living room. I love it. I was thinking I might resell it on Craigslist but now I can't bear to part with it.

Prom Night-Portraits at The Arizona Grande Resort

Have I mentioned how much I love to take pictures of teen girls? Well, can you imaging how much fun it is for me to take pictures of my own teen daughter??!! On PROM NIGHT?!!!!!!! I know that she had a great time, but I had a BLAST. It was so fun to see the kids all dressed up.

Devon and her date, Daniel:


Dev-just beautiful:


Daniel-so handsome!


Dev and Nicole-


And this is one of my favorites. Reminds me of those 80's teen movies that I used to love:
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Most of the parents and kids were crowded around the sun-drenched fountain trying to get good shots, but I took Dev and Daniel across the street to a little spot that had some amazing light:



Unfortunately I couldn't get their friends to follow us, so Dev and Daniel would only pose for a few before they headed back over to the fountain. Once the sun went way down I did get some in front of the fountain. My sister says this one is her favorite:


Like I said, it was a great night for me. :) And I'm pretty sure the kids had fun, too.

Until next time!
~Leah

Break is Over

I don't know how it happened that I haven't blogged in OVER 3 MONTHS, but somehow it did. The weird thing is that I do blog posts in my head several times a day-just about everything I see and do goes through my "blog filter."

The truth is, I've been overwhelmed with life. So much has been going on that living through it has been enough for me-the thought of trying to write it down sends me over the edge.

I think the best thing is to start from here. We've had several fresh starts in the last few weeks: new house, new school and friends for Devon, new neighbors to meet, new kids for the littles to play with. I think a fresh blog start is in order as well.

So stay tuned! I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming very soon with a lot of new Senior work as well as my Lifestyle Baby sessions.

Oh, and look!! Soon Morgan will be getting a new tooth!

Feeling Inspired: PF Chang's Rock-n-Roll Marathon

Sunday morning found me up at 5:37, out the door at 5:50, and by 6:30 I was somewhere in Scottsdale prepared to cheer on the Rock-n-Roll Marathon runners with my daughter and her cheer team. I was totally dreading this day. I didn't want to go. Turns out, it was a BLAST!

The girls made posters, hung streamers, and they chalked up the street with inspiration and love for the runners:


They also decorated themselves with as much red, fru-fru and silliness they could pile on:




The mom's got into the act as well. That's me, on the right:

They cheered and cheered, for about 4 hours straight!

You could tell that the runners really appreciated it:


These two are the team coaches. Cute, huh?

These were the last runners to go by and our girls were still at it, cheering and excited:



What really amazed me was that the runners were in so many shapes, sizes and levels of fitness. I had always thought that those who ran marathons were the "fittest of the fit." But what I saw was people who looked like everyone else. Some had awesome physiques, but most were just average looking people, out there pushing themselves to be better than they were before. I started thinking that I could do it too.

So now I'm really looking forward to next years marathon, but what I'm thinking somewhere way back in my head is: Wouldn't it be cool to participate this time? Could I do it? Do I even want to try, considering I've never been a runner in my life and I will probably fail?

I think I do.

Christmas 2010

Christmas this year was a lot different for our family than ever before. We didn't get to celebrate with our extended families back in San Antonio. In a way it was nice; we didn't have to rush around going from one home to the next. But it was also a bit lonely, and I know that our parents missed us very much.

One of the cool things about being away is I had the opportunity to establish some of the holiday traditions that I've always wanted to do, and we had more time to do the ones we always do. Here is a quick rundown of our traditions:

Cookies!
In the past, the kids did all of the cookie decorating at my mother-in-law's house, and I was always thrilled that they did it there. I have never cared to make cookie decorating a tradition. It's messy, you have to plan ahead, the cookies don't really taste that great and who needs the extra calories?

But then I did a photo session for my friend Shari and her family, and part of the session involved cookie decorating. I was so impressed with the whole thing! It looked fun, and the cookies were so beautiful, and tasted great. I was convinced, so the next day I pulled out some cookie cutters that my mom gave me years ago, bought a few new ones and also bought all of the ingredients that we would need. Here is the beginning of a new Godfredson tradition:









The Gade family also inspired our Gingerbread neighborhood:




One tradition that I've always wanted to do is new pajamas for everyone on Christmas Eve. The kids looked adorable on Christmas morning in their new comfy PJs:



On Christmas morning, the kids woke up ridiculously early, just like I did when I was their age:









One thing that I love about the street that we live on is the Christmas Eve Brunch that we do every year. I didn't get any pictures of it this year because I was too busy having fun, but here are a few from last year:

Our neighbor Ken organizes everything and sets up tables and chairs in the driveway of one of the homes:


We always have amazing, pot-luck style food:



The adults talk:


The kids play football:


Afterward, everyone pitches in putting luminaries together to line the entire street:





Then, at 6:00 PM, we all come back out to light them and enjoy the evening together:





All in all, it was an awesome Christmas made even better by our new and old traditions.

What traditions does your family do each year? I'd love to hear about them!