Hope, Coffee and Melody

Back when I was a musician I was recording an album and I had a guy produce it named Robbie Seay. He became a friend and in the past few years I've gotten to watch as his career has taken off. He recently had one of his songs featured on the American Idol commercials which was pretty cool. Anyway, most of his songs, in some way or another, have the theme of hope woven throughout them. He's even got the word "hope" tattooed on his arm.

A few weeks ago I blogged about finding out that Cyndie and I were expecting another child. We were thrilled to say the least, and the amazing friends and family around us made that even sweeter by celebrating along with us. A few days ago we realized things weren't going well with the pregnancy and shortly after Cyndie miscarried. Needless to say, we were and are devastated and again the people around us shared in our disappointment and have showered us with love.

After we learned of the miscarriage I was in the car driving to a shoot and put on Robbie's new album to listen to. One song in particular stood out to me, New Day. There's a part in it that says:

" I know it might seem that the world is crumbling, but it's me and you dancing in the kitchen at 2am, and we're still alive. And it might not be the prettiest thing that you've ever seen but its a new day. And it might not look like a beautiful sunrise, but its a new day."

It might be cheesy to gain solace from a song but I did. We're surrounded by amazing friends and family and there's always hope for tomorrow.
The first and last line of that song is:

"I'm gonna sing this song, to let you know that you're not alone. And if you're like me you need hope, coffee and melody."

That pretty much sums it up.
Hit the backwards play button to start the song. (2nd from the left)

mnp|2.0

Makenzie's new habit.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a fairly healthy addiction to Starbucks. They say the first step to getting help is admitting that you have a problem. Well for the last year or so every time I've gotten Starbucks, Makenzie has always asked to have some. She's just wanted to drink some of mine but she's always liked it. Whether it was a sweet toffee nut latte or the super strong quad-grande latte I frequently consume, she's always liked it. A few months ago she asked for her own and so I took her inside and got her her very own short decaf cinnamon dolce latte. The barista's face was priceless. I'm sure they get lots of 3 year olds coming in there for hot chocolate but the latte surprised him. Anyway now she's hooked. We don't let her get them a lot but fairly regularly she's my "drinking buddy".

This morning I walked back to our room to tell Cyndie I was going out to get a coffee and Makenzie asked for a "cinnamon coffee." How could I say no. When I got home and gave it to her she just looked so cute I had to take a couple pictures.

Girl's night out

I was out of town over the weekend so Makenzie and Cyndie were hanging out. Saturday night they went out to one of our favorite restaurants, Wingstop (or as Makenzie calls it... the chicken store) , and Makenzie was being a ham so Cyndie pulled out her camera and caught her being funny.

I guess I lick my fingers when I eat wings, haha.

I'm so rich... or... A perfect day

I coudn't decide what to call this post so you guys can pick the one you like the best.

Ok, its time I introduce you guys to some of the significant people in my life.

My family (mom, dad, sister, brother, me) has a family (mom dad, 4 sisters) that we're best friends with. The 5 of us and the 6 of them, we're all the best of friends. We go on vacations together, spend Thanksgivings and Christmases together. One summer in high school while we we're waiting to move into a new house we even lived together at their home. Well as time has gone on 3 of us kids have gotten married, 2 have boyfriends. (Jeff, my brother and Summer, the oldest sister are still single. Both are attractive and successful in case you know anyone looking) So "the fam", as we affectionately call it, has gotten significantly larger. Sometimes when things grow, what was once great get's diluted and everyone wishes it could go back to the way it used to be. This couldn't be further from the case with this group. All the spouses, boyfriends, and brothers that have been integrated into the group have only added to the amazing times that we have.

We (Cyndie, Makenzie and I) usually go to Rockharbor, which is an amazing church in Orange County, but since it was Easter we wanted to be with our family so this morning we went to church at Saddleback Church in San Clemente. Its not the same Saddleback Church you hear about all the time. This one, while still connected to the "mothership", is a lot smaller and WAY cooler. Travis, one of the guys that married into "the family", is the worship pastor there and he's incredible. He's seriously one of the most gifted musicians I've ever known. If your looking for a church in south Orange County, or just want to hear an INCREDIBLE band, check it out.

After church we went back to Hayley and Travis' house and hung out all day. We ate some great food, watched Makenzie hunt for Easter eggs, and talked for hours. Living in Orange County its so easy to get caught up in being successful, living in a nice house, driving new cars... thinking that what we have isn't enough. Thinking, "if I can just get this or that, then I'll be content". Its days like these that always remind me that what determines your wealth are the people around you.

I'm so incredibly rich.

This was as close to a perfect day as I can remember.

I always think blog entries without pictures are pointless though so I'm going to put up a couple more pictures from Makenzie's photo shoot on Friday. I have a few pictures from today but I'm feeling a little too lazy to get them off my camera. Maybe I'll put some up tomorrow.

Ugh, she's so freaking cute.

Makenzie's 3!

Last Friday was Makenzie's birthday but it took me until this week to get over the aftermath of 5 sleepless days in Las Vegas. So today after going to a Good Friday service with my good friend Blake Schwendimann I met Cyndie and Makenzie and drove down to the Los Rios district of San Juan Capistrano. You'd think being a photographer that i'd be taking pictures of my daughter constantly. I wish that was the case but its something I'm going to try to do a lot more. We had a ton of fun and with a girl like Makenzie, you can't really get a bad picture.

Here's my baby...