Here's to Six Years!

Yesterday, Kyle & I celebrated our six year wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe that it has been six years since we started our journey together.  In some respects it seems like much longer:  How could we have lived in Virginia, Washington state, Scotland and Texas all in six short years?  But in other respects it seems like just yesterday that we were just walking down the aisle...

On our anniversary, we always watch our wedding video together and relive our special day.  Thanks to my brother working at an amazingly fancy hotel and my parents loving me excessively, our wedding truly was a fairy tale wedding.  For one day it was every person's dream- a day all about them! And I for one enjoy reliving it every year, dreaming about doing it all over again.

It's hard to imagine in another six years all the things that will have happened and changed. Hopefully, the next six will be as great as the first! 

-Stacie 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Last year, when we were living in Scotland, Kyle & I thought we would be on top of things and where our St. Patty's day green on March 17th.  Silly Americans!  We quickly learned that in the UK, no one wears green on St. Patrick's Day (I of course had assumed this was a universal tradition).  Also, there is no pinching (thank goodness! What a horrible tradition anyway!).  It didn't seem like St. Patrick's Day was really celebrated at all!  I also learned that if you are truly Irish- you certainly wouldn't wear green. My co-worker was born and raised in Northern Ireland and informed me that growing up she wasn't even allowed to wear green out of her house.  To this day she says that when she wears green she feels like she's doing something wrong! It is because the animosity between the Catholics and Protestants is still alive and well in Northern Ireland and Green denotes Catholicism.  It could be potential dangerous for you to sport a green shirt while walking the streets at night in her hometown.  What a different world we live in here in America!
-Stacie 

Photography class

This winter I decided that I need to spend more time doing things that I love.  Some of you may remember this post. One thing that I have always loved is photography. I took a few classes in high school, which means I knew some of the basics of aperture, f stops and ISO.  But it was all very fuzzy.  So, I signed up for a photography class at Austin Community College. We meet every Saturday from 12-4pm for 16 weeks! January through May and so far it has been really fun! I've re-learned all about shooting in manual mode and am learning how to alter my photos in Photoshop as well.  I have a LONG way to go before I am really happy with my pictures, but it is fun to learn and practice.  My hope, is to take a few classes over the next few years and hone my skills in portrait photography.  Pictures of people are my favorite and I would love to be able to do some photography on the side.  We'll see what happens. But at the very least, I will learn how to take a good picture for our family! Here are some of my photos so far:

I'm sure you noticed the trend in my subject matter.  Hopefully when I get a little more practice, I can branch out and take pictures of friends...I think Kyle is enjoying his modeling career though.  And Deacon is so photogenic. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for Mercedes. I LOVE the look she has on her face in the picture...that sums up her personality to the tee. 

And finally this is a side note but worth mentioning....Aside from your own children (because I know you're biased) is this not the cutest child ever?

I just had to share.  This is my nephew Marek.  He's coming to visit in April so he'll defintely be subjected to a photoshoot!

-Stacie