Baptism 2009

Our church had it's annual baptism, and I heard that something like 550 people got baptized! And my little Elijah was one of them. He is young, but it was really important to him...plus he has been begging us for the past year (since the last baptism). He was beyond excited and I was so happy for him. Here are a couple of pictures from that gorgeous day!

My Little Man

My Little Man just celebrated his 6th birthday! He had so much fun! And now that he is 6 he says he can run faster, jump higher, he is stronger, he can do a perfect cartwheel, and he loves me even more because his heart is bigger! My boys birthdays are so hard for me. Don't get me wrong I LOVE watching them grow and experience new things, but it just means they are getting closer and closer to being an adult and they are needing me less and less. In my head every time they have a birthday I have them married off and living in some other country! I know it is a far way off, but they are just getting soooooo big. Okay I'm done crying :( Now on to the festivities! Eric and I decorated the living room to surprise him when he woke up...he loved it! Then we had a family BBQ which was super fun, and later in the week I took him and a couple of his friends to the movies (by myself ...that's right I'm crazy), then swimming. Super Fun! Here are a couple of pics from the birthday week, and a portrait of

My Little Guy

who I know someday is going to turn the world upside down

(and has already turned this house upside down)!

Ekim & Stephanie

Here are a couple of pictures from Ekim and Stephanie's engagement session. They are such a great couple, and we had a great time walking the streets of Laguna Beach together :) The wedding is in September and I couldn't be more excited so check back,

but for now enjoy these pics ;)

Brandon & Trisha

This wedding was like forever ago, but for some reason I never got around to posting it. This was a really fun weddding and Eric and I made some great friends. Trisha and Brandon are so fun and easy to hang out with...to bad they moved away right after there wedding. I also have a NewlyWed Session with them that I never got around to posting. Anyway their wedding was great and I have the pictures to prove it :)

Eric captured these shots with the sparklers, and I am oh so glad he did

(and a little jealous too, but just a little)!

And they lived happily ever after :)

Janey, Janey, Janey

Janey is ending her first year in high school, (and really I can't believe it) so we celebrated with pictures!!! I remember when me and Eric took her to sea world for her 5th birthday...she was so cute, and now she is beautiful. Sometimes it makes me sad that we all grow up and everyone changes, but I guess we just have to squeeze all we can out of life and cherish every stage we go through because as cliche as it sounds it goes so fast. I mean really you blink and 5 years goes by. I wish I could just freeze some moments long enough to soak it all in, but I guess that's what pictures are for :)

What the heck is Notebooking?!

By request I am going to start doing homeschooling posts. Usually it will be a SHORT Fun Friday activity...fun recipes for kids, making a EASY solar system, color mixing, etc. For now we will talk about my latest obsession... NOTEBOOKING! (and the crowd goes wild...okay maybe not). My kids have done so much bookwork this year that I decided to set out on a search for new, FUN homeschooling options. That is how I discovered notebooking. It is kind of like scrapbooking for kids, and by the end of the year they have an awesome colorful binder that they will (hopefully) treasure forever...and it will help them (again hopefully) remember all of the stuff they learned. You can use notebooking for any subject. I am starting with science and Bible. You can create your own notebook pages or you can be lazy like me and use already made ones. http://www.notebookingpages.com/ has tons of free pages that you can try, go to the site and click on free resources. All the Bible ones are free and it goes all the way through the Bible with 100's of free downloadable pages from the Old to the New Testament. By the end of our journey through the Bible I hope my kids have a deeper understanding and something they will always reference and remember. Also Apologia has awesome notebooks already spiral bound that go with science textbooks (exploring creation through astrology, exploring creation through botany) check them out at http://apologia.com/. There are tons of resources on line or if you have any questions email me at heather.negrete@yahoo.com. Don't add this to your already full workload, let it take the place of something, and for young kids keep it simple (a picture, collage, or a sentence or two).

Happy Notebooking :)

Here is a pic that has nothing to do with notebooking...just a fun fieldtrip