a bff, 2 adorable sons and one beautiful location!

Becca and her boys!

halloween party - yet a bit too hot for costumes

the heat just won't go away - but that doesn't change halloween for the little ones! cupcakes still taste as yummy even when the icing is melting down the side of the wrapper!

oh, my how they've grown

i've always felt like my nieces were my own children, especially before having my own, but the feeling continued even after the birth of my girls. It's nice to share such a close relationship with my sister, which has allowed us to love one another's daughters so much! i can't imagine my girls not having their "Aunt Tata," (tata being the name that i called her when i was little!) with each visit we make back to illinois, there are changes in all three of them - their heighth, their personalities, the length of their haircuts, the topics of conversations, the level of "coolness" that they still apply to their once, mind you, VERY cool aunt, (why does that have to fade away?) - all of it, they just keep growing up and there's nothing we can do to stop it!

cheetos little one?

i have to commend my daughter for her willingness to share her beloved cheetos even with the littlest of friends!

a favorite site

one of the things i miss the most living where we do in california, is the ability to hang clothes out on the line to dry - it's something i can still visualize my grandma doing in her backyard and my mother still doing it to this day....and if you pass a house that has laundry on the line, curiousity always gets the best of you as you study the items and colors of the clothing items that they have lined up on their clothesline. i have this one framed in my laundry room at home, my shorts and the twins' dresses which all just happened to be color coordinated that day - really, i didn't do that on purpose... but seeing that picture in the laundry room at home, allows me, for a minute, to smell that freshly dried sun -baked piece of clothing once its completed it's job on the line for the day.

summer day

i love watching my friends' children grow and knowing that each time i see them, there will be more features, both in appearance and personality, that i love about the friend, that are increasingly apparent in the children themselves - it's like you'd pick these little people to be your child's friend, just knowing that they are going to be just as special and likeable as their parent. that is the case with these three who belong to my best friend since junior high. i think i'd have a little photo assistant in her middle child, if we lived closer to one another - he is intrigued with the camera and really takes some priceless pictures.

A proud papa...

A proud Grandpa that is - this is his one and only little grandchild and wow is he smitten with her -- who wouldn't be!?