Gift Faces

I love watching little kids open up gifts at Christmas. Some of their facial expressions say more than a thousand words. Here is Malakai and his cousin, Clayton with their gifts at the Brubaker family Christmas get together.

How many decorators...

...does it take to decorate a birthday cake? 4 is the correct answer. My parents came in on Friday night and wanted to drive around looking at Christmas lights. The show was so disappointing this year. Usually, the spot we go to has some of the best displays but I guess everyone is trying to "Go Green" this year and Christmas lights was one luxury that they could do without. Malakai thought it was fun for about 15 minutes and then decided he was done to, so he was making it known that he wanted to go home. Once we got him to bed we all got busy piling on icing and little decorations for "Sammy" the snowman. He turned out great and actually we had to make two...since he had two parties. We are now booking orders for 1-year old birthday cakes for 2009 :) Call 1-800-UMM-CAKE!

Get Your Party Hat On...

Sunday we got together with our families and celebrated Malakai's first birthday (3 days early). What a fun afternoon we had watching him open his gifts, (all he really wanted to do was tear into the tissue paper), play with his cousin, Tirza, and eat his first cake. He had quite a sugar high as later on we watched him spinning and spinning on the floor...kinda looked like a break dancer :) Eric & I and Grandpa & Grandma Landis made a snowman cake together and we were really pleased with how it turned out. Here's a little window into our fiesta.

BrentMore Christmas Party

Last night I had the opportunity to go along to Eric's company Christmas shindig downtown Lancaster at the Press Room. We had some incredible eats and lots of laughs. I always look forward to this every year as the company continues to grow and multiply. Most of the faces are the same, but there are always a few newbies. This year, BrentMore (which happens to be a remodeling, roofing, & HVAC company if you need some work done:) said goodbye to Bob Kreider, their president and founder. It was a special time of sharing memories, words of appreciation, praying for him and his wife, Danielle and releasing them into the next steps of their journey. He has poured so much into the men (and woman...we love you, Anna!) that are employed by BrentMore which numbers almost 20 now! He was quick to say that this is just the beginning for this young company...there is much more in store and that is so exciting. Here's a little window into our evening together.

"Open Mic" time...





...the unmistakable roar of laughter









The Serious...

The Silly...

Details

Here are a few details from one of my 5D sessions...

Trial Run

I have been wanting to get another camera for quite some time now and have been looking at the Canon 5D but wanted to play around with one before I went and invested a lot of money into it. Last weekend, a friend of mine told me I could borrow his to see if I liked it. (Knowing full well, I'd totally dig it and want to get one of my own!) So this week, I've taken some portraits of my two favorite subjects (Malakai & Gideon) quite often. My absolute favorite is Eric, but he's not home when the sun is out these days which is when I need to be shooting. I've been having fun and don't want to give it back (Dean, don't worry...I won't steal your baby!) So hopefully by the time my next busy wedding season comes around there will be a new member of my Canon family.

Fat Camp

That's right, the month of December is usually when I enroll in the annual Fat Camp. It's impossible to resist all the holiday yummies that seem to be present at every get together. Yesterday, my mom and I made a whole bakery's worth of Christmas cookies. I don't know how many dozen we made, but we fired the oven up at 10am and didn't turn it off until 5pm. A long day for sure, but lots of good cookies to show for our hard work.