24
Aug 10

Our New Summer Home!

I still can’t believe we have a huge trailer parked behind our house right now… but we do. Friday afternoon we left for a whirlwind trip to Ohio to pick it up. We spend so much time on the West Coast in the summer… that we decided it was time for us to find a way to travel easier (and hopefully cheaper) with two kids. After camping in a tent next to my sister and brother-in-law’s awesome travel trailer this summer… we decided to start looking around. Dan found a great deal on the perfect trailer in Dayton… so we decided to go for it! We are so excited!! I really never thought we would EVER own an RV (I may have even made fun of them once or twice)… but when you haven’t had a space that’s really your own for almost 4 years… you’ll do just about anything for a little privacy! :)

Here she is! We’re thinking of having the same designs painted on the side of our Sequoia. :) Seriously though… we totally saw trucks painted to match their trailers.

We even ended up getting to spend some unexpected time getting to know each other. :) It’s a long story… but we got to the RV lot at 10:45am and didn’t pull out until 4pm. I kind of felt like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. There’s nothing like hanging out in a completely empty trailer, in the back of an RV lot, in the rain with two kids. Thankfully Claire was able to take a few naps…

and we were able to find an Internet connection in the back corner of the trailer for Carter to watch movies.

Getting it home and backed down our alley at 11pm is another long story… lets just say it escaped with only a minor dent and broken light. I’m still amazed at how Dan was able to back it up without seeing anything! A huge thank you to Brian, Iain, Andrew, Malachi, Zoe, Josiah and Keith for helping Dan actually push/pull it into our backyard after church on Sunday!! It only weighs like 3600 pounds! :)

23
Aug 10

Starting the morning with a little CBS news… in our kitchen..

Our local CBS station is doing a 12 minute piece on Joe’s Place this week. They wanted some shots of the boys getting ready for school… so their poor cameraman (Bill) had to show up at 6:30 this morning! It was fun getting to talk cameras, filming and news for a bit… since that was my first “real” job!! Bill was great… especially when Claire spit up all over him!

Some pictures from the morning…

The guys making their lunches… since they don’t like the awesome healthy food at school. Our local paper actually has a great article today about our district and the changes they’ve made to the lunch program (our own veggie garden, chicken coop, and buying from local farmers ).

Bill following the guys and Dan to school (he also got some shots of Dan teaching this morning). They are going to do some more filming later this week. I’ll be sure to post a link when the story airs!


20
Aug 10

The Joe’s Place Connection…

All 3 of our graduates are still in and out of the house a good bit. I love it! I really can’t believe they all start their 2nd year of college this month. Since we are such a new program it’s been incredible to see how our relationships with them have grown and to see how they interact with our current boys. They don’t know each other that well… but they’ve walked a similar road. It makes us all the more thankful for this home.

LOVE this picture! Jeff is dressed up for a meeting he had at a local university… and Roy is wearing the shirt and tie he wore that day to high school.

Jeff and Steven hanging out with Claire…

Don’t mind her NEON green diaper! :)

19
Aug 10

It’s not easy being a baby…


18
Aug 10

Photographers At Work

It’s amazing how our photography business (click the link to check out our new website) has evolved in the last year. There are so many details to work out… best lenses to use in certain situations, lighting, location, website, blog, photo processing, logo, etc. About halfway through last year we heard about a new digital imaging lab, MpixPro that offered an AMAZING amount of incredible products. We decided to switch from the original lab we were using and have been so happy! While we we on vacation we saw they were having a contest looking for pictures showing photographers who use their lab out in the field working. We submitted our favorite… and this week we WON!! We are so excited! Our photo is now a part of the slide show on the main page of their website. We’re also excited that this month marks the one year anniversary of 2reeves’ photography. We’re looking forward to seeing how we continue to evolve over the next year. Since I can’t do a post without pictures… I thought I would include some favorites from a shoot we did with my twin sister and her family while we were in Oregon this summer.

It was so foggy that day! You can see Lexie (on the far right) is starting to disappear! :)


17
Aug 10

Happy Birthday, Fred!

Fred is celebrating his 21st today at his new school in Kansas! Here he is with Carter and Claire before he left last weekend…


17
Aug 10

They really are a happy bunch…

Last year we started the Joe’s Place school year with just Ty’re. A second resident moved in a day after school started… and then a third a few weeks later. Every new resident brings a good bit of change to the household… but it’s totally manageable. Having new residents start at the beginning of the school year is different. It adds a good bit more stress for everyone. This year our three residents from last year all returned. It’s been so easy… like they never even left! Everyone already knows the rules, how do to the chores, how to live together, etc. It’s so good to have our guys back! Here they are yesterday getting ready to head out for the first day of school (why is smiling for a picture not considered cool at this age? :) ).

Yesterday was also Ty’s 15th birthday!! Poor guy is so sick! Didn’t even touch his cake. :( We’ll have to celebrate again when he’s feeling better!


17
Aug 10

Revision Soon Coming

:)


16
Aug 10

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!


13
Aug 10

We are so in love with this little girl!!

It’s amazing how much she has changed in 3 1/2 months!