Swimming, Sunsets... Sundays are a great day for catching up on posts

So there are a ton of pictures I want to post.  They're awesome pictures though so I promise you won't be disappointed! We went swimming at Brent's sister's condo's pool. It was a lot of fun to swim and play with our nieces and nephews. Brent didn't get in the water though, he was too busy playing with our off camera flashes and taking these awesome pictures!
So here they are, SOOC (straight out of camera) No "juicing" involved, Roddy:
 

Chico missed all the fun because he was too busy being grumpy. :)

A week or so ago Brent and I went up to where his sister's family lives to take pictures in front of the sunset (like the ones of me in the previous post) but unfortunately we were having technical difficulties. So while Brent was trying to figure out the flashes, I just had fun taking some pictures of one of our cute nieces in front of the sunset. And then by the time Brent got the flashes working again the sunset wasn't beautiful anymore. :( But they're still cool pictures

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Sarah, like you've never seen her before

So, Sarah didn't want to post pictures of herself, but I have such a HOTTIE wife, I couldn't help it.

No, these pictures are not juiced. ("Juicing" was the term coined by the  guys at my office to mean Photo-editing. "Juicing" refers to the sports industry where athletes sometimes use performance enhancing substances to give themselves an unfair advantage over their competitors. Really, my buddies at work are just jealous because they think it's unfair to use Photoshop in the company photo contest.) Sometimes my pictures are called "cartoons" at work. That makes me bust up so hard. I love it.

Sorry, guys. These pictures are not cartoons. The first three or four are right out of the camera.

These pictures are taken in the road in front of our house. We're experimenting with a new lighting technique. This type of lighting makes the details POP out with vivid color and rich contrast. I love how the light wraps around the subject more naturally. For me, it really reduces some of the frustrating "That doesn't look like it did when I took the picture!" feelings.

WOW...don't you agree?

Even though Sarah was just goofing around I think Sarah has some hidden modeling abilities. She looks professional. She's really natural in front of the lens. She makes it sooo fun to take pictures...and she's uber photogenic!

This next one is from the first day when we tried it out.  Chico wasn't very enthusiastic about participating.

These last three are just some test shots before a bridal shoot, but Sarah still looks amazing. Sorry everyone, she's TAKEN.

 

It was so fun to finally be taking pictures of my wife. Sarah at 27 weeks...

Let me know what you think, please

sparklers!

Brent's sister invited us up to play with our cameras watch the kids play with sparklers.  We all had a blast watching the fireworks she bought and then trying to do designs with sparklers.  Brent's sister totally thought of the coolest idea of taking pictures of the sparklers and she was so nice to invite us to come up and use their sparklers and her idea and share in the fun!
There were other fun abstract designs.  But these are the distinguishable ones:

Brent made that heart and then one of the kids came running into the frame. Still a cool picture though. Brent's sister was spelling out "family" but we only had room in the frame for the "fam" But it's still way awesome!

I had a really fun time sitting back relaxing and eating all of "N"'s popcorn. We brought up brownies and Chico couldn't stop asking for "me" which means "more" in Chico language. "K" was so excited about the fireworks, if there had been walls around, she would have been bouncing off them! It was fun to hang out with them as always!

is he not the cutest?!

 

I'm sitting here photo editing, missing my chico. So I took a break to post a picture of him. I sure love him.

whenever the camera comes out...

Chico tilts his head back, squints his eyes, and gives us a big cheesy grin.

 

He found this balloon during the dinner after the funeral. He looks so cute with his brand new pink tie that DADDY picked out, not me. Although I mocked Brent's choice at first, I have grown very fond of this pink tie on our blond hair blue eyed boy.

and a cute one from the tub :)

Moving on...

Brent's grandpa died last week.  It was hard to have him gone so fast.  We thought we had more time with him.  He was ready to go and be back with his sweet wife though.  He was ready to move on.  A few special scriptures I want to remember that he had written down:  "Perfect love casteth out all fear"  "The Lord is my shepard, he leadeth me to lie down in green pastures... though in the threat of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me"

Even though he wasn't my grandpa I always called him Grandpa because he felt like mine.  He was also so interested in our lives.  He asked such good questions.  He was genuinely interested in knowing, it wasn't just for conversation. I miss him already.  I only got to know him for the last 3 years.  Brent spent so much time with his grandpa and grandma as he grew up.  You could say they were like his second parents.  A lot of the good decisions he has made in his life were a result of his grandpa's influence on him. 
Grandpa and Grandma always lived in a way that would make them worthy to be with their children who died at birth. We want to follow the example they set and always strive to live worthy to be with our loved ones again someday. Grandpa we will miss you...until we meet again.

Grandpa was a military veteran and as such had a special military ceremony at his graveside.  It poured rain right during the ceremony.  It was really quite dramatic.

Shortly after the ceremony was over the sun came out and it was beautiful.  Such a random time for a thunderstorm on a beautiful June day.  Good memories though.

Meet the baby in my tummy

I get routine ultrasounds at every visit. This last ultrasound was a picture perfect day for our little one's profile. The first picture on the left is from when she very first started looking, we caught him sucking his thumb. Makes me love going to my doctors appointments that's for sure!