August - A relaxing Family Month

One thing that I often hear from mothers of girls is..beware of dramas.  Girls have dramas and it doesn't end when they are adults.  For some it happens even more so.  They don't grow out of it. It is my lifetime project to help myself and my girls to be cool, be tough, and be able to not get offended easily or be too emotional.  There are billions of people in the world, lots of fish in the pond.
I say that to bring me to the next point.  Yes!  Family pictures.  Every Fall mothers around us stress about pictures.  You can see it in their tired eyes.  Our society has been chasing social media and we try daily to make impressions! With social media people can see how your family is doing throughout the year with a few clicks of the mouse.  So why the heck should I stress about one occasion right??
Well this year, I did just that and aimed for Christmas pictures while it was still warm out and I told the hubby and children they could wear jeans and sandals, no need for boots or be super dressy.  Chillax...Wow best photography session ever!  Why didn't I think about this before?? It's not always chillax of course.  Like for example...this picture from the Stevens reunion session a month before, which got raving reviews on FB btw.

For the record and those not on FB:  This is what I wrote: Family photo time...can you feel the stress in the parents???
Edelmar Obenza This is awesome

Farhana Mohammed Your so gorgeous mama!

Christie Lloyd Evans That is just how I remember your last visit to Idaho :)

Sandy Fultz Cute picture. Most of the littles stayed. Dan is smiling through it.

Sharon Osguthorpe Koncurat One parent looks perfectly happy.

Thuan T Stevens Yah we got half of the group

Jenn Sauer - Sande Best picture ever!

Duong Tho Oh Ronin, he grow up so fast
Beautifull picture

Mara Schichwarg Hahaha Parents of boys!! Look at the girls! They are princess! Beautiful pic

Linda Hammond Carruthers Hysterical...those look like our family photos, we have some with clenched teeth too!

John Coldesina Thuan only you look stressed

Natalia Ormeno Santi Love the image and u look amazing like a super woman u r!

Natalia Ormeno Santi Btw, I want to look like u when I stressed ;)

Kym Kirk So true and so beautiful!!

Thuan T Stevens Now for selecting which pictures for Christmas cards...oy the digital world lets
you take too many pictures 🤣

Sharon Osguthorpe Koncurat My favorite kind of picture.

Kristi Bangerter Karren The little guy is just keeping it real. I love it!

Noemi Livigni Awesome picture!

Thuan T Stevens With the holidays coming near...everyone is thinking family photo time. I wanted my stress out of the way and got our Christmas pics in July! Now for a Christmas cards and then one holiday stress is out of the way

TTroses Trang Thats pretty good that more than half is cooperating!

David Stevens Dad seems to be pretty calm...

Thuan T Stevens You just didn't see him grind his teeth a second before! :)

David Christensen Jones Best picture yet!

But thanks to the talented Leilani, we got some good pictures that we absolutely love.  Here they are.  Enjoy!!!

 August was our anniversary.  13 years together and we have changed, for the better.  Dan looks way better now than he did then and I thought he looked good then and I believe I've changed for the better as well. But looks aren't even a big deal.  It's the love we have for each other that have truly grown. I feel so lucky to be married to a man with so much goodness.  He has become a wonderful husband and father and my best friend.  He is adventurous and I love that side of him.  We have a lot of fun together and I love our half Amer half Asian babies.  We call ourselves the Amerasian house.

The photo credit to this session is to my friend Leilani Dong who also took pictures for us for the family reunion.  My kids were in dresses here so you can see why they were so happy to have been privileged to wear sandals and jeans for our family pics

We celebrated our big 13 with some of my favorite foods...dim sum.  Then Dan bought me some amazing French treats in downtown at Pike Place.  Le Panier.

But the best part was having the whole family sitting down inside the Family History Center recording our favorite memories and just having a good time together the day before our Anniversary

 

I love my family!!!

And thanks to my friend Rochelle, who is my brother in law's sister for watching the kiddos for us some of the time so we could go out.  She was transitioning from her apartment to her new place and needed a place to stay so we let her stayed with us for a couple of days.

I got a car full of flowers for the garden...ahhhhhhhhhhhhh