Cue the Tissues

Ok, so here is the much anticipated post!  Two days ago, I welcomed my wonderful husband home from his 4th deployment.  For the past 6 1/2 months, my boys and I have been living life without the joy of having our husband and daddy in our day to day lives.  We are a strong family, but life is so much sweeter with him home.  Since this is a blog about pictures that I take everyday, I'm going to first share with you the pictures I took of our dear friends welcoming home their husband & dad.

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Here he comes!  I spotted him on the stairs getting off the plane and commenced the wild screaming of his name and pointing at his wife.  It was so much fun for me to be there to capture these incredibly emotional moments.

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The first kiss.

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A family reunited.

My girlfriend and I had already instructed our husbands that they could NOT get off the plane together.  We both wanted to take pictures for each other and that wouldn't work too well if they got off the plane at the same time.  So as soon as they had enough hugs and kisses, I handed my girlfriend my camera and began looking for my husband.  Here's a picture she snapped of me looking anxiously.

I wasn't crying uncontrollably yet in this picture:)  I finally spotted him but he couldn't see me yet because I was near the back of the crowd.  It seemed like forever as I watched him scan the crowd for me.  He wasn't close enough for me to yell so I finally started waving my hands in the air and he spotted me.  First was hugs for the boys because they couldn't wait to see their daddy again.

And finally, a long awaited hug and kiss for me.  

It was well worth the wait.  As hard as deployments are, the homecoming makes everything better again.  The relief and happiness that I feel each time he lands on American soil again is overwhelming.  I'm so grateful for my husband because he's the best husband in the world to me.  He's strong and brave and incredibly devoted to his family and his country.  I love him for all of these things and I'm so happy to have him home again. 

Short Term Hiatus

All my lovely readers, I'll be out of contact for the next several days.  I'll continue to take my pictures and will catch up with you all later in the week.  The next post is a big surprise and will be the best one of the whole year, I promise!

Cache

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Tonight I met up with some of my favorite Weimaraner people!  They have 3, yes an amazing 3 Weimaraners.  And a few human kids on top of all that.  You might think their house was totally crazy with all that going on, but actually, it's quite peaceful.  This is Cache, who is a bit of a naughty boy and got himself into quite a bit of trouble today.  I'm thinking that's why he posed so nicely for this picture.  He needed to show his mama his good side.  I've included the same picture with a different color scheme below just because I really couldn't decide which one I liked better.  Feel free to shout out your favorite in the comments.

All Boys

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These are all of my mom's grandchildren.  For some reason we don't make girls in my family.  And on a different note, I can't believe I'm on picture 200!!  Only 165 more to go this year!

Great food and even better art...

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My absolute favorite place to eat when I'm in Kansas City is a little place called Genghis Khan.  One of my aunt's introduced me to it many years ago and I was instantly hooked.  Not only is the food awesome, but the atmosphere is top notch.  The photographs featured on the wall capture my attention every time I'm there.  It doesn't matter that I've seen them a hundred times before, they're so good that I never get tired of looking at them.  The photographer is Dan White.  He's a local Kansas City artist and I highly recommend taking a look at his web site.  He's so incredibly talented and I hope to be half as good as he is one day.

The House That Built Me

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This picture makes me so sad.  This is the house that I grew up in.  But now it's vacant, unloved, falling apart, neglected.  The yard that was once full of life with my dad's flower and vegetable gardens, is now overgrown with weeds.  

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The house that was once filled with love and laughter and maybe a little bit of fighting between me and my brother, is now deemed "a dangerous structure" by the city.  When we moved away 15 years ago my mom and I cried.  It was the only house I'd ever known.  Something draws me back there when I'm in my home town even though I know it's just going to make me sad.  

After I took these pictures I went back to my parents' house and my dad and I analyzed every little detail trying to see what trees were still there, etc.  The fence that my dad built so many years ago still stands in the backyard.  Part of it is missing but what's there is standing strong.  I dug through tons of old family picture albums looking for pictures of the old house so I could show you how it looks in my memories.  We don't have too many pictures of the house itself but we do have tons of pictures of our family there.  Here's what I found:

This is the house when I was 4 years old.  It still looks old in this picture and that's because it was about 80 years old at the time!  It was old but it was loved.  I spent many days sitting on those front steps playing, daydreaming, and selling my tomatoes in the summer time.

And when I wasn't on the front steps, I was playing in the yard with my brother.  My brother in his ridiculously short shorts!  Oh my goodness, I'm so glad the styles have changed since then!  Men look so much better in long shorts.  

I guess when they say you can't go home again it's true.  I much prefer the house in my memories to the one that's barely standing today.  It breaks my heart to see the house that way but I am grateful for the 18 years I had there and all the memories.

Family Portraits

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I just love family portraits with dogs in them, don't you?  This is my cousin and her family and I had a great time taking their pictures for them.  They wanted something casual and fun and I think we definitely achieved that.  These are two of my favorite photos from the shoot.