Can you believe our baby is 10!

Today Prince Charlie Brown Trout turns 10.  Charlie has been with us through almost all of it...all the moves, all the bad times, all the great times, the birth of Matthew, the addition of Portis, all of Mike's changing work positions. He has seen everything that has ever happened in our family.  

Before you make up your mind that I am crazy for having a scrapbook for my dog, you should know a few things.  When we first got Charlie we had no children.  Secondly, these are the only pages.  Between my ADD and the reality that he was a dog I never added any more:-) I will say these few pages always make me smile when I see them.

(insert Jenny McCutcheon laughing her face off)

Through it all he has been a more than a good dog.  He has been a great dog. The kind of dog that lets your baby crawl all over him and pull his ears. The kind of dog that sits inside the open gate.  The kind of dog that is alway happy to see you even if you were only gone 10 minutes.  

Charlie is an amazing dog. We have actually only had three arguments in his whole life.  One was over him wanting to sit in the front seat of the car when he was told to get in the back.  Laugh all you want this really was an argument.  The last big argument was actually over Jenny McCutcheon's banana bread.  Charlie has kind of a issue with bread and the smell of it makes him whine...a lot.

Off to bake a cake...(well not really, I am buying one from that fancy bakery up in the city..haha)

One more thing I love about my guy

If you read my blog at all you probably know that my husband is a Braves fan.  A true fan.  He actually sat out in his truck tonight so he could listen to the game on his XM radio.

They won

Funny story...

I am not brave enough to post a picture...yet.  I just want to share my incredibly stupid decision.  My friend had talked me into working out on Wednesday morning.  We were going to start my P90X program again. We were very excited(okay, that is a lie) about it.  The program requires working with  workout bands(basically a very giant rubber band) if you don't have a chin up bar.  In looking around the room the only thing I could hook it to was a black metal hook in the wall...anyone see where this is going? I knew the split second I started to pull that it was a bad idea.  The hook flew out of the wall and propelled into my face.  Square into my mouth to be exact.  Want to guess the damage???? I ended up getting over 30 stitches inside and outside my lip and I knocked out....2.5 teeth!!! Yep! I bet you are thinking wow, that must have hurt right? I have to say that it really did not hurt at all.  It happened so fast and the minute I knew my teeth were knocked out all I cared about was getting to the dentist. I actually considered super gluing my lip...so I could go right to the dentist..hehe! Luckily for me I had good friends around that made think more clearly.  Yes, I spent the entire morning at the doctors office and the entire afternoon at the dentist office.  I will say that I had both places cracking up as I see the humor in the situation.  I told them that most people have to wait 6 weeks to see dramatic results with workout plans...it took me 5 seconds.  I also told them that my friend Jenny wanted to know how she can stab herself in the boob so she can get new boobs:-) Then I asked my adoring husband if he was glad that he was not married to a "freak show" however...the missing teeth and totally swollen upper lip kind of worked against me at that moment and he simply said "ask me again in a few days" You see one of my biggest fears has always been getting my teeth knocked out...and it really is not that bad.
Life is not about vanity(although I knew right away I was getting new teeth no matter what the cost!) it really is about the stories we have that made us laugh and the friends that show up out of nowhere to see if you are okay or if they can help.
When life knocks your teeth out....focus on the pretty new ones that you will be getting:-)
Oh, and don't put workout bands on hooks that are not secured into studs.

I will have my new temp teeth in a few hours.  Still debating on posting my picture:-)

Monday night ball

Matthew has been begging to be catcher from the start of baseball. Tonight he finally got his shot. He did a fantastic job too.

He really hustled to get the ball

he was actually pretty exhausted after that.  I loved catching this shot of him resting.

running into home

he is getting ready to dodge the kid with the ball

I love this shot!

Mike took this one of Matthew in the outfield

I missed this shot in my earlier post from today. I really love it and I wanted to share it. 

Have I mentioned that I love summer:-) 

Chester Woods{Just a day at the beach}

Jenny called me this morning and asked if I wanted to go to the beach with her and the girls today. Hannah and Carter were in camp and she needed to get out.  I promised myself I would make it there a few times this summer and have failed so I said "YES, lets go"

Gracie and Nora played in the water like fish the whole time.

Love the Minnesota green water!

Matthew spent the whole time trying to catch things.  He finally figured out that cheese crackers make awesome bait.

Sandy cheeks!

This is what Jenny calls a sugar dounut

I have no idea who this is but I love this shot

This little boy wandered up{his mom was out boating and dropped him off to play?????} and had a big water fight with the kids.

a little more...

thats it!

This shot is to prove to Jenny that even chain link fences can look good in photos...hard to believe right?

Really Pond of you...{cheese is my middle name}

Every time the guys go fishing I think...do I really need any more pictures of this. Truth be told the pond has really helped me grow. If you are forced to take pictures of the same subjects in the same place over and over again you kind of almost have to try new things...right. So even though I half way think..."why?" I pick up my camera and walk on down to the pond.  

They set up and start to fish and I wonder why I bothered following them...

But wait...

Here is why! An amazing op to study light, try an new angle and grow.  

Matthew caught a 13" bass on a lure that Kaden gave him and he was convinced that this lure is the best one in the world.

Yeah, we both were in awe tonight at the pond.

There is my dimple faced boy, holding up his great catch.  These are the moments that he is glad mom has her camera:-) No fisherman story is ever rendered true without a fish in hand...or film.

On a different note:

Have I ever mentioned how cute those McCutcheon kids are???

This picture is so not technically perfect and yet it is perfect to me!

Being a photographer's son has its advantages...

Jenny called me last week...

she said "we have been asked to photograph an event for the church(the one that Mark works at and they attend)...she said "I did not commit you but I think I said yes..." Two things entered my mind right away..#1) Fresh meat:-) #2) Time with my friend.  I honestly did not have to think about it.  Then to make things even better Mike and I finally decided on a color for painting the main area of our upstairs so I got out of painting to boot.  I spent my Saturday night taking pictures of fire trucks, ponies, cotton candy eating kids, and laughter! Matthew loved that his mom was a photographer...for once!

He also loved the fire truck...

The fire truck spayed the kids and anyone else who wanted to get wet. 

Can you count all four McCutcheon kids? 

It was the definition of a perfect summer night.  

Random summer shots...from spiders to antlers{my second post tonight}

I have all these random pictures I want to share so here it goes.

Matthew was getting annoyed by my camera{imagine that}

At least I had Grandma and Grandpa to shoot.

I LOVE this picture of my MIL. I think she looks so cute. I tried to buy these for her but she refused.  I think she looks awesome.

Matthew checking his trap at Quarry Hill Camp

My night shots have been what I have been working on.  I got a few tips from my teach and I wanted to practice.  I love this shot of Matthew when he had a long hard day of true summer.  Nothing but dirt...water from a hose... and boys playing outside all day.  He came home and disappeared. He put himself to bed. FYI: Sleeping children don't fight being photographed.

We put some goldfish in Charlie's pool to get rid of any chance of mosquitoes. Matthew wanted to me get pictures of his new friends.

Happy lay on the grass and count the clouds summer, Hannah!

I love our backyard in the summer.

What happened to me...Can you believe I grabbed my camera when I saw this on our ladder and not the bug spray. I did move the ladder outside the garage.  I am not sure if it was for better light or so they could move along though....

I just had to share this portrait{haha]of Matthew I took at Quarry hill one day after camp. He was a hot sweaty mess but I wanted to practice using that wall.  I thought it was pretty funny.  

Happy Summer!