Neda & Kyle celebrated their Seattle wedding reception in Ballard. The weather cooperated and we were able to get some beautiful pictures on the streets of this historic neighborhood. After getting ready at Duque Salon and enjoying a quick bite of sushi at their favorite restaurant Shiku, they turned up the music and kicked off their shoes for a night of dancing and celebration with family and friends at Volterra. It was a beautiful night and I can honestly say that I’ve never had so much fun photographing an event – we stopped traffic (literally) and I even got out on the dance floor and got my Persian grove on! Thank you Neda and Kyle for letting me be a part of your special day.

Check out a quick video from their Seattle reception.

Krystal is so special that she even received a personal phone call from President George W Bush. Yes, that’s right. She received a personal phone call from the former president! No joke. Check out her blog for details from her conversation with the former president.  And while you’re there, feel free to say hi. I know she’d appreciate the love!

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Want to learn more about Circle of Hope Guild? Visit their website to see all that Circle of Hope is doing to raise money for Uncompensated Care at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Check out more awesome products from Janine King Designs and The Sweet Strap.

For example, I never thought that I’d HATE playdough. I used to love playing with playdough with my friends’ kids, but now that I have kids of my own it is banned from my house. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you to let it dry before trying to remove it from carpet. That doesn’t work.

I HATE beanbag chairs. I used to love them, kids love them and they’re fun. But all it takes is one curious and mischievous little Tasmanian Devil to change all that. This little stunt took me about an hour to clean up. Lesson learned. I won’t be leaving my photography props lying around anymore.

I HATE gum. Well, actually I love gum because I can pretty much get my kids to do anything for a piece of gum. I’m not exactly sure why it’s so magical, it just is. But there is a reason why it’s on my HATE list. You can probably guess where I’m going . . . Twice now, the baby has had gum stuck in his hair. How does an 11 month old who doesn’t chew gum get it stuck in his hair you ask? You guessed it. T Dev! If you’re wondering, a little (or rather A LOT) of baby oil removes the gum.

I HATE permanent markers. It doesn’t seem to matter where I put them the kids always find them. Yet, I can never find them when I need them. My oldest took a Sharpie to my parents light pine desk a few years ago. T Dev took a Sharpie to my guest bed and drew all over the sheets. I can only imagine what Gavin will do with a permanent marker.

I HATE stickers. They always end up places they’re not supposed to and never where they should be – in sticker books.

I LOVE washable crayola markers. All markers should be washable.

I LOVE Magic Eraser and Goo Gone!

I LOVE Lists. If it’s not on the list it doesn’t happen. The list speaks for itself.

I LOVE nap time. It’s very rare that I can get all three kids asleep at the same time, but when I do . . . ahhhh, sweet joy!

I LOVE coffee! I can’t say that I hated coffee PK, but now I can’t begin my morning without my sweet, sweet cup of coffee. I can tolerate a lot, but screaming kids? Not until I’ve had my cup of joe. No exception. (Notice the COSTCO size bag of beans!)

And drum roll please . . . .

I LOVE wine! I hated wine before I had kids. Now, what’s better than putting the kids in bed and snuggling on the couch with my husband sipping on a glass of vino? Notta whole lot!

I’m not entirely sure how things got so out of control today.  T Dev was a ticking time bomb staring at her masterpiece strawberries.  I told them they had to wait until after dinner to eat a strawberry.  I wanted to hurry up and get things cleaned up before they made an even bigger mess. I could feel my blood pressure rising as I began to anticipate the clean up. Crap. I hadn’t taken a picture yet.  Quickly I grabbed the camera. As I sat scrunched behind the camera watching my life through the lens, I couldn’t help but pause for a moment and enjoy watching my kids be kids. I started to giggle and before I knew it all three of us were belly laughing so hard I had tears running down my face.  I started feeling a little guilty as Baby Gav enviously watched his brother and sister.  Oh, what the heck, he’s the third. At least there’s fresh fruit somewhere in that ball of chocolate.

Today I learned that once in a while it’s ok to break the rules. It’s ok to make a mess once in a while. It’s ok to play with our food once in a while.  It’s funny to say “poop” for no reason, and it’s ok to eat candy, even if you have a cavity, once in a while. At the end of the day, we have taken a somewhat uneventful activity and created (hopefully) a lifelong memory. So in twenty years from now when my kids have grown, I hope that I will have forgotten about the challenging times and only remember the ones when we broke the rules and had a whole lot of fun doing things we weren’t supposed to. Fart. Fart. Poop. Poop.

So, this morning when I woke up and fed the kids and sat down to drink my cup of coffee I thought to myself what could I possibly do to excuse myself from doing laundry. I can’t work on the computer and edit pictures. No, not with a 5 year old, a two year old “T Dev” (Short for Tasmanian Devil), and an almost mobile 8 month old. No, working on the computer is not happening, unless I want Gavin to look like this:

I’ve been meaning to take pictures of T Dev in my wedding dress again and since the studio was set up from an earlier shoot I decided that clean socks can wait. Who needs clean socks anyway? That’s what’s so great about Uggs. You don’t have to wear socks in the winter. I told the kids they could play dress up if I could take their pictures. The only problem was I didn’t know how to tie a tie. I’ve been married for 13 and I’ve never learned how to tie a tie. With smart phone in hand I googled how to tie a tie and (yay for me!) I’ve successfully learned how to tie a tie.