My favorite cowboy...

Meet my big brother Mark. In the last decade, he's successfully transformed himself into a fullfledged cowboy! Who would've thought this California surfer would trade in his Van's for Roper's, his board shorts for Wranglers, his trucker hat for a cowboy hat!? I, for one, would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes! Can I just say - well done big brother! I am impressed! You wear our dad's rugged good looks very well! Can I also just say that I love my big brother more than all the grains of sand at the beach! He's always been my hero, my friend, my roll model.

This weekend I got to watch him baptize my nephew. It was a moving experience in more ways then one. First, I felt very sure that our Father in Heaven was very pleased, I felt a beautiful spirit there. But more than that, I was moved to tears because watching my big brother baptize his son, was like watching my Dad baptize me all those years ago. The resemblence he bears to our Dad is almost uncanny, and I could not help but shed some tears for the daddy I lost almost 30 years ago. Mark is just a year older than my dad was when he baptized me and I looked at little Marcus, so young and innocent, and relived some of the pain I felt at his too young age. I know this is why I hold so much love in my heart for my brother, and I hope he knows that. How cute is his daughter Abby? A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!! Hailey got her very first ride on a horse! She was smitten! I'm pretty sure I know what's going to be on the top of her Christmas wish list this year!

Green is for Spring!

This past Saturday I was asked to shoot some photos at the wedding of a dear friend's sister. How fun was this backyard bash?! First of all, my dear friends have an AMAZING backyard - they are always so gracious to "loan" it out on special occassions such as this! Everything was so beautiful...the day could not have been more perfect! And I was so loving the green dress that the bride wore - fit her personality to a T! On top of that - my dear friends best friend happens to be an amazing chef and catered the whole affair with some of the most delicious food I've ever put in my mouth! I came, I saw, I took pictures! Lots and lots of pictures! 476 to be exact! I promise I'm not going to try to post them all! But here are some of my very most favorites!

The green dress I spoke of...

The bride and her daddy

The very happy couple :)

Some of the amazing food I spoke of!

The dear friends who hosted this shindig :) Aren't they a beautiful couple??

Here's to life!!!

This weekend was busy, busy, busy and I downloaded 230 pictures that I need to filter and edit! S0, just so noone thinks I'm a lazy bones, here are a few pictures to hold you over until I finalize editing and post them in separate entries :)

Totally unplanned & totally amazing!

I have to admit that this Easter weekend was one of the most amazing family weekends I've experienced in awhile. In years past I've gone to great lengths to do everything "perfectly", from turning the house into an Easter wonderland, to coloring eggs & decorating cookies, setting up the "perfect" Easter baskets (complete with the jelly bean trail that Mr. Cottontail left behind in his hurry to get to the next house), and preparing a gorgeous Easter dinner after church on Easter Sunday. Well this year, I let all the "perfect" go and had one of the best Easter's ever!
Elissa & her boyfriend Zach, complete with Subie the pup (who I'm sure went home with a belly ache after eating Mr. Cottontail's jelly bean trail!), came down from St. George for the weekend. It was a big step for Zach, as he's never spent a holiday away from his family! So we felt honored that he would step outside his comfort zone to spend the holiday with our family!
Sunday brought lots of wind and just enough sunshine to send the little kids out for an egg hunt after church. You have to love the looks on their faces while they're hunting for those colorful little things :) After the hunting of eggs was completed, we were surprised by a visit from Rich's oldest son Jared and his girlfriend Megan. 2010 is the first time since we joined these 2 crazy families together almost 8 years ago, that ALL of the kids have been here together on Easter! Totally unplanned, totally unexpected and totally amazing! My heart was so full of love and satisfaction as I sat down at my table to eat an Easter dinner with a family of 12! Ok, so that's a stretch of the truth, we could never fit all 12 people around our table, so there was a little lap and floor eating going on as well :) Nonetheless, it was a beautiful day spent in faith and overwhelming gratitude for a Savior who gave his life for this humble family, that we may be a family always and live with him again one day.
Now....enjoy some pictures!!!

Dramatic B&W

This weeks challenge over at i heart faces is a dramatic b&w, so this is my entry! Not that I really think I have a snowballs chance of winning, but hey, thought I'd give it a shot! This picture is of beautiful little Stella with her beaming daddy! Had so much fun doing this newborn session! Can't wait to watch this little cutie grow through pictures!

Can you say OUCH!!

To start our Spring Break off right, I thought "Why not get oral surgery??" Silly me!
Actually, as it turns out, Brendan needed his wisdom teeth out and I had some crazy cyst thingy growing in my cheek that needed to be taken out and sent to a lab to make sure it wasn't cancerous - my dentists' words were "It's PROBABLY benign, but we better make sure". Are you kidding me? PROBABLY? Well, I feel so much better thank you!
So, with no school to be missed, Spring Break was the only obvious choice. Everything went swimmingly, no complications, no bad reactions. But let me just bring you along for the ride home with a 17 year old coming out of anesthesia...
Brendan - "I chan taaa"
Me - "What???"
Brendan - "I chan taaa"
Me - "WHAT???"
Brendan - "I CHAN TAAA"
Me - "I can't understand you, you can't talk! Oh, that's what you were trying to tell me..."

Driving down the freeway, I look over to see him putting his cell phone to his ear and mumbling into his phone!
Me - "Brendan, who are you calling???"
Brendan - "I don't know"
Me - "Hang up you dork!"
Brendan - "I'm trying to conversating"
Bahahahahahaha! So I took the phone from him to keep him from embarrasing himself too badly.
Have you ever seen an episode of "Intervention" on A&E? I have, and I sort of felt like I was watching one as we drove home. Experiencing your 17 year old on anesthesia seemed a whole lot like watching the addicts on that show, it was a surreal moment for me as a parent - I pray that I never have to live through seeing my child act that way due to drugs or alcohol!
More conversation on the drive...
Brendan - "I feel like I have Downs Syndrome"
Me - "How would you know what if feels like to have Downs Syndrome?"
Brendan - "I don't know, I just can't think straight, see straight or talk right"
Me - "I still don't know what that has to do with Downs Syndrome"
Brendan - "What are you talking about Downs Syndrome for?"
Me - "Brendan, please stop talking now!"
Brendan - "OK Mommy, I love you! Can I go dirt bike riding later?"

Oh my goodness, I think it's going to be a long day!

A long hiatus finally comes to an end......

I guess I should start by apologizing for my absence. I'm sorry I let life get so busy and overwhelming that I forget to sit down and take a few minutes to reflect on all the little moments that make my life so busy and overwhelming. I have a feeling that it could end up being sort of therapeutic for me, and as busy and overwhelming as my life can get, some free therapy could be just the thing to help me through!

I honestly had every intention of restarting this blog on New Year's Day - sort of my new years resolution. You can see how well I stick to those resolutions! That one didn't even get off the ground! So, here it is, almost April and I'm finally putting paper to pen, or fingers to keys I guess, haha. I won't attempt to go back and rehash everything that's happened in the last 7 months (7 really!?! Wow time flies!), instead I'll begin afresh with updates as often as feasibly possible. And you know what? I'm not even going to get caught up in the whole "Noone's reading this, so why I am wasting my time" issue, because I've come to the conclusion that I need to do this for me, and for my family, and any friends that have even the remotest interest in what goes on at Casa de Tusko.

This is my journey in words and pictures, to peruse through if you like, or to ignore if that's your choice. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, recipes, funny anecdotes, knock-knock jokes, or nothing, just don't hurt my feelings by leaving me hate mail please :)

Also, I'm definitely thinking I need to update my look, title, etc. Just thoughts in my head.

Alright....here we go!