A Good Photo Day

Look at those gorgeous eyes!

Enjoying some iced water!
To appreciate this photo, you MUST click to make it full sized. Those eyelashes are to die for!

Lexi in the pink. She's pondering something!

Oh what a pouter!!

Nope - she's a FAKER!

Another pouter? Or another faker?

A pouter for sure!

But not a pouter all the time!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today would have been my dad's 57th birthday. Instead, it's been 6 years since his passing. For the first year or more after my dad died, I had dreams about him at least 4-5 nights a week. 6 years later, the dreams aren't nearly as frequent but I still have them. And coincidentally (or not), I had one this week. I guess my mind knew this date was approaching.

Anyway, the photo that I chose to share is my favorite photo of my dad. It was taken at our wedding in 1999. He's sharing a cigar with his buddy from high school and the happiness is unmistakable. And that hat...who could forget his Mel McDaniel hat? It was a custom made hat that our neighbor bought for him when he took his family on vacation out west. (Thanks Pastor Tucker!) I want to say I was about 12 or 13 at the time. He loved that hat but rarely wore it. He dug it out for the reception and I think he received more attention than me and Joe. He was a huge hit! And I look back at our wedding pictures and have to smile at the photos of him in that hat. He looked like Boss Hog from the Dukes of Hazzard...too bad we didn't make him wear an all white tux.

Happy Birthday Dad.

I've read this passage several times over the last several months and I really love it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsley
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley.

All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Photo Phun!

I pulled the 50mm out today and had some fun with the girls! For the first time in a while, they cooperated quite well! Enjoy the silliness!

Miss Maddie giving me a funny face!

Lexi smiling pretty with her Pablo doll.
Blankie babies all the way!

Yes, Joey, it's over-exposed. But I still love it! (If you click on it to view full size, you can really get a good idea of her eye color.)

Silly girls! Maddie's talking to Grandpa - I asked her!

Secrets?

Maddie

Lexi's serious face!

A decent shot, even though Maddie's not looking at me!

Maddie giving Lexi a stern talking to!

ROAD TRIP!

A couple of weeks ago, we took a short road trip around the area looking for some good photo opportunities! We didn't have to look any further than our backseat!!

Curls, Curls, Curls!

With the humidity we had over the weekend, Lexi's hair really curled up! It's been a while since I've taken some hair shots, so I took a few of her! Maddie's curled up a bit too but she wouldn't cooperate in the photo taking department!!

A good friend and I were chatting and wondering who the kids looked like? Here's a shot of me and Joe around the age of 2. What do you think? From the picture of me, I'd say Lexi looks the most like me...and Maddie looks like Joe. And Nate? Not sure!! :)

Don't forget you can click on the photos to make them a little larger! :)

I realized today that it had been a while since I took some video of the kids so while we were outside playing this afternoon, I took a few. These two were my favorites. They may take a while to download/open since I didn't upload them to YouTube.

This one is of Nathaniel writing his name with sidewalk chalk and doing some talking. For those that can't understand him, I repeated what he said.

http://www.theledvinas.com/MVI_3281.AVI

And this one is of the girls...Lexi's in pink, Maddie white.

http://www.theledvinas.com/MVI_3271.AVI

As a thank you for making goodies for the people that Joe works with, they gave me this beautiful rhododendron bush. We planted it several weeks ago and gave it some plant food and lots of water. I was pleasantly surprised when the flowers on it began to open! Here are a couple of photos from today!!

The girls sharing some sisterly love! Maddie's in white!
Maddie smelling my flowers!

Lexi smelling the flowers!

Maddie smelling some more!

We haven't had the chance (or good weather) to take the kids out for some photos lately, so on Sunday the weather was gorgeous and the kids were well behaved. Here are a few of my favorites. Lexi is in the pink, Maddie the blue. The girls were collecting sticks, btw...their new favorite pasttime.

Nate telling us he's going to be 4!
Don't know the joke, but apparently it was funny.
This totally reminds me of the beginning of Little House on the Prairie!

The birthday season is among us. We have several birthdays this month and it began with my nephew Aidan's birthday on the 4th. Nathaniel's 4th birthday was yesterday and I think he had a good day. We're going to celebrate with Grandma & Grandpa on Sunday. Here are a few photos from yesterday.

In lieu of birthday cupcakes, I decided to change it up and make a birthday cookie cake instead. It was my first attempt and it came out pretty good. Joey helped with the decorating, of course!

The cupcake for our mini celebration after he got home from school!

Waiting to blow out his candles.

Eating his cake! He LOVED the balloons!

Opening his presents!

A bubble machine! The boy LOVES bubbles almost as much as balloons!

Lexi enjoying the bubble machine too.

We told Nate to catch the bubbles - so he went and got a bucket to try!!

Maddie catching bubbles.