NINE.

Got a scooter, couldn't be cuter

B-day wishes to our first baby

Happy Birthday and many hugs and kisses today to our beloved Granny Shirley.

XOXO

Turning 3 is a wonderful thing.

Happy Birthday Mr. T!

We partied at home for most of the day and then hit the road for some real chaos HERE.

Simon the sixteen month old funny buddy. So easy-going, so loving, so chill. Until he suspects a boundary of any sort. Then prepare for "the pinch". As if out of nowhere, it comes to your back fat. Teeny razor nails and the grip of a hundred men. Through "the pinch", Simon has taught us who will have the last laugh.

6:05 pm tonite
(Pulling up Tommy's socks)
Me: Tommy, if you say "mommy, i love you soo much" then mommy will swooooooooooooooooooon!
Tommy: (thinks it over for a second) Mommy, I love you soo much!!!
Me: (swooning, kissing his face)
(Now fastening his shoes)
Tommy: I no say I love you so much mommy
Me: uh, well, that's not making me swoon
Tommy: (sparkly dimply smile suddenly looking up at me) I say, mommy, your breath is smell GROSS!
Me and Tommy: HAHAHAhahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday James

Unarguably, James is one beautiful babe. He really is one of a kind, well, we've heard anyhow. Not like we actually see him, ever. So, with an ache to devour you little Birthday Sweet, wishing you a happy day! Love your funny family hiding in the mountains, way to your right, if you face the big window.

Emily Elizabeth

Only a glimpse of what has been swirling around Emily's right brain these days. The blank paper before her became the funny little beaver drawing above. This girl is knocking us out with her art, her happy attitude at school and her genuine friendships. Mostly by the way that her sweet Emmy spirit remains constant through the turbulence inherent with being eight-and-a-half and the older sister of two "loud", "boogery", "gross" brothers.

oh Jaime, it is perfect, thank you

Happy Birthday Irish twins. We celebrated our niece's and nephew's birthday in Victoria last weekend and they are as easy to love as they are to photograph.

Elizabeth B

Elizabeth B

naturally curly

Elizabeth B

uncommon wit

angelina pitt

coveted brain

tiffany chain

Elizabeth B

The Elizabeth B

impossibly beautiful

Elizabeth B

Old friends with new kids. A closer look at this moment would reveal: A new baby boy who spends much of his day in tow with his master photographer dad. Two middle kids hanging with their moms. The two eldest daughters about to get acquainted. And in the opposite corner, a mini-scene involving a first time mom and pop that could make you glow nearly as much as they do. What the photo does not reveal is that miraculously, the children allotted us early 30-somethings all just enough time to catch up. My long chatty walk with Tannis and our later evening extra visit with Jer were total luxury, to say the least. Tanks-a-lot, guys.

Me and my funny, cute, hip, generous, humble and occasionally all-knowing mom marvelling at the sunset, but mostly just smurf'n around and cracking ourselves up as usual.

Good morning baby

What a merry, uplifting and relaxing weekend it was for me with these city dolls.

Thank-you for being here.

While we're on the theme of pictures high on meaning, low on focus...

What would happen if for the next bit, i post at least one photo everyday, with or without any text. And, i keep changing the little write-up under COASTING until something sticks. It's better than whatever I've been doing for the last half-year and it might save me from dumping this thing into outer-space forever!

Hey guys. I don't usually view or even create blogs (no offense), but I had to drop a little ad in for something big that's coming, bigger than Halo 3.

"Shake Hands with the Devil" is a major motion picture that will hit the theaters on Sept 28. It's based on my all time fave book by the same name.

It's a story of a Canadian general who was placed in charge of a U.N. peacekeeping mission to oversee a peace agreement in a tiny country in the middle of Africa. Rwanda. Rwanda WAS the most highly populated country of Africa, but that was about to change. In less than 100 days, Hutu Power extremists managed to slaughter over 800,000 Tutsi's and moderate Hutus, in what was the most effective genocide known to man. Most of the slaughter was commited with machetes. There was no elaborate system of trains and ovens, just lot's of men with tired arms and machetes.

Strictly awful.
I have read quite a few good books on the heart of Africa lately:

"We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families"

and "the shallow graves of rwanda" are both fantastic.
There are a few more, but no book has struck me more deeply than Gen. Romeo Dallaire's account of his involvement in Rwanda.

His writing left me staring out the window, wordless, just stuck. Traumatized actually. It took me 3 months to read that book. It was just so stinkin awful, you had to take breaks. The U.N. had given him a mandate of inaction, he could do nothing more than watch the horror.

Please go and see the film.

I won't be so gullible as to say "never again", because it is happening right now, in Sudan, mostly in the Darfur region.

I have thought recently, that the only reason why anyone gets upset about Rwanda, is because it is over. Now, we can be upset, and we will lose nothing. We must remember the 800,000+ who perished. But let's go further and adopt some World Vision kids.

Far out.

Steve.

I hope that made some kind of sense.

Bring back good old Canadian peacekeeping/peacemaking. Chapters 6,6.5, and 7!

My photoshop wizard sister-in-law has done it again.

Thanks Heathcliffe