sleep deprived man seeks nap during shoot. photo-abuse prevails.

meet dave. or dbaggs. he'll even answer to "hey larry. larry! hey, buddy!" if you yell that at him while he's out. whatever you want to call him, it doesn't matter. just don't try and take this man's picture on a lazy saturday afternoon when the man wants a nap. he'll certainly oblige to having his picture taken because he's nice like that. (and doesn't like to tell his wifey no.) but don't count on him to cooperate.

well, i guess he cooperated pretty well for this one, but watch out below! no really. i'm warning you now. scroll through quickly to the next picture if your eyes can't handle the one below.

view at your own risk:

ttthhhhhhhhhhllllllick! awesome. a tired husband who's half asleep looking like a wildebeest trying to lick you through your car window at one of those drive through safaris. notice the tears in the corners of this daddy's eyes. it only adds to the loveliness of this fine portrait. at least ethen was cooperating.

dalen, being the hardest child in the world to get even a snapshot of his face while his eyes are open, cooperated. what you can't see in this picture is that dbaggs eyes are closed. like, the asleep kind of closed.

it's a good thing larry woke up for this shot because he looks downright dreamy in it. "looook into my eyes......i want to make......biscuits". isn't he enchanting? i guess he shouldn't be to you, but he sure is to me. even the pasty white boy he's holding makes my heart skip a beat. for entirely different reasons though. (doesn't he look like me though? i always like to hear it, so just tell me one more time to make my day.......ok, since you won't make my day, you can't deny that our skin matches at the very least.)

damn! shoot. i mean, dang! when this man is awake, he can sure take a fiiiiiiiine picture. hot daddy, being a daddy. it doesn't get any manlier than that. the chest hair and "circle beard" (as gaven calls it) only add to the "i ooooze testosterone, come and join my man club" look. if only i could look that good in pictures. my self portraits always have a look of angry woman meets death, mixed with a little bit of an eye that can shoot laser beams from it. i might look alright in person, but watch out if you ever see me in print.

i might shoot your eye out.

i'll keep pictures of me to a minimum. its for your safety and that of the general bloblic. better safe than sorry.

the fourth

happy fourth of july!

stay safe and watch out for those bottle rockets!

f-words, revisited

last night we had the opportunity to attend a wonderful little pre-fourth of july gathering.

the first item of fun on the agenda for the night included fishing and "frowing" rocks. unfortunately, the pictures i took of those activities turned out really bad. fortunately for you, you won't be seeing them here. the second item on the list-o-fun for the night included a fire. a fire that took 6 daddies to light. i know what you must be thinking. 6 men lighting a fire. must be a biiiiiiig, manly fire lit with testosterone fumes and chest hair. right? lets just say it was impressive. and it did the job. it made some great s'mores,too. i had some pictures of the manly fire, but it wreaked of testosterone making it unpostable.

even the mommies enjoyed the s'mores. and a foto shoot. well, they endured a foto shoot. it was done by a man. a man that doesn't know his wifey's camera very well. but i won't name names here. it might make him feel bad about his mad camera "skillz". however, this man does have some serious fire-startin' skills. he even tossed a few of his own testosterone laden chest hairs into that fire to really get it going. and by the way, these ladies look quite fantastic, don't they? except for that one girl wearing the hat. my, what big man hands she has!

aren't these the cutest firefly catching jars you've ever seen? they're the cutest ones i've ever laid eyes on. they were hand decorated by a certain crafty sister f who threw the lovely soiree. its a really good thing these jars are pretty indestructible because my kids dropped them on any hard surface that came their way. including our cement garage floor. immediately upon exiting our vehicle. fireflies still inside.

the fun came to an end as all the jars were done being filled up with the nights main attraction. and by filled up, i mean each kiddo finally caught at least one of those slow flying little guys. fireflies are hard to catch when its really dark out (and when you're a mommy thats a little night blind). whats harder still, is catching those darn things on camera. but i finally got one. 68 shots later. and that my friends, can be classified as a waste of precious time. and 67 shots. but let me assure you, that little yellowish-green blob in that picture is, infact, a real firefly. i worked hard for that shot. actually i just got frustrated and gave up for the night. because really, who sits there trying to get shots of fireflies while all their friends are gathered around the fireside chatting the night away? not me. well, ok it was me. but isn't that picture worth it? ok, I guess it wasn't, but at least i got the shot that i set out to get. even if there was just one measly firefly in it.

all in all, we had a fantastic night full of my favorite f-words. and none of my unfavorite f-words. that i heard at least.

an evening filled with friends, family time, and even those elusive fireflies, is a great night in my book. and the fourth-of-july theme was icing on the cake.