Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas From The Easleys!

Mike, Alli, Tiff, Mackenzie, Jonah, Casey and Harper all wish you the merriest of merries by leaving you this precious moment in time when Skeletor finds his Christmas Spirit! Moving...



love you all!
Friday started off good, I got to relax a bit with Miss Tiffany and we watched movies with Harper and made a few deliveries. Then Miss Ashley and my mom and dad got here and that's when the action started. After everyone caught up on the chit chattin', we got GH3 out and the rockin began. Ashley and Kenzie played for a while, and dad started to doze off, when suddenly, he woke up saying nonsensical phrases peppered with the words "60's songs!" We assumed this meant he wanted to play, so he and mom took over the guitars and they rocked out all by themselves while Ashley and the kids and I went upstairs to lay on my new bed of wonder. (new bed, new mattresses, omg, so comfortable) When Mike got home we all went to dinner at Dad's favorite place (Coco's!!!) in Redlands and everyone ate til they were stuffaged. Ok so you guys, my parents brought down presents like you have never seen before. Can I tell you that Santa came this year in many forms already, but my parents were no exception. How thoughtful they were, and my kids were thrilled! They always manage to pull this off every year, and they have 11 grandkids to buy for! Not to mention, they have always been good at getting us kids and our spouses something nice, but this year, I think was our very best. Here are a few reasons:

  1. My mom made all the tags herself! She's become quite crafty and she and her crazy friend Leslie (who we loooooooove) make cards and tags and bags and gifts all the time, and I love each and everything they create.
  2. Wrapping paper bought from my nephew Riley. It was so cute! See?
  3. Gifts to open on Saturday AND Sunday before Christmas?!? Needless to say, on both Saturday and Sunday, Mike and I were awakened by the kids with the gift in hand, ready to roll at 6 am. Nice.
  4. The sentiment they wrote in the gift they gave Mike and I made me cry. There are words you long to hear from your parents your whole life, and I've never heard these come from their mouths. I read it this morning because Harper ripped open the card, but when I read what they said to Mike and I, I cried and cried and cried. I have waited to hear those words from them for 34 years...and it meant so much. I love you guys.
Anyway, Saturday Mike and I went and finished our shopping for the kids and tried out a new restaurant on our date. We love sushi joints, and we love asian fusion food, and we love the whole "Bistro" atmosphere, so when we saw the Cantonese Bistro in Redlands, we had to go in. The atmosphere is so awesome, kind of like a P.F. Changs, but with more funky lighting, awesome bass heavy background music and real Japanese sushi chefs at the most beautiful sushi bar you've ever seen. We also tried their lettuce wraps, since they're my favorite...and I never thought I'd say this but...it totally wasted Chang's wraps. So stinkin good, you guys. Who ever comes next to visit, we're totally taking you.

On Sunday, we had our typical primary program, and it was really cute. The speakers were excellent as usual, and after church we came home and had some friends over for the afternoon. Mac and Aimee Wayment are good friends of ours in our ward, and they're the family we went to Disneyland with last week. He's a pediatric ICU doctor, and he works every Sunday, so she and her kids came over and we had dinner and chatted and laughed and played and made sugar cookies til it was night time. Her Mackenzee LOVES my Kenzie, and they're inseperable. Here are a few pics of the festivities:



cookies all over the table! We made christmas trees, leaves and skulls and crossbones...because pirates love Christmas too, right?



This is sweet lil' tiny Eliza, and she has the best pouty lips ever:



This is Mackenzee who is hilarious and we love her. I don't have any of Parker that turned out, that boy moves too much ;). He's so wiggly!



Mackenzie warmed herself by the fire at night and as you can see, we've got our Guitar Hero guitars right there set up all the time incase we need to rock out real quick like:




Anyway, today is a busy day as I'm sure it is for all of you, but I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. This year was better than last year, and that year was better than the one before! Life has been throwing me a few curves in the past 4 or 5 years, and although they've been the hardest of my life, they've been the most joyful, the most emotionally enriched, the most loving and the absolute best so far. I have really come to understand how our Heavenly Father really does watch out for us, and how his blessings can be so abundant we can't even make room to take them all in. I've learned that those who really love us and our kids are the ones who do not only say they do, but the ones who show they do. My kids have learned forgiveness, and I've watched them all turn into little "people". They're not kids anymore, and they are so smart. I've seen them cry this year, and I've had to hold myself back as they learned through experience that there are some people you can't count on, but that you still need to love them. I've seen them accept a man who truly loves them as his own, and watched as their respect and adoration grew for him as he worked 12 hour days, 5 days a week, and still came in the door every night with hugs, kisses and smiles for everyone. My children are calm, they're happy, they're secure, and they're loved...and best of all, they know it. You can see it in their eyes...you can see it when it's 9 oclock at night, and they're all snuggled up next to us on the couch watching movies, or reading by the fire. They are at "home".


I hope your Christmas is great! We love you all and can't wait to hear what yours were like!!!

~The Easleys

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Just Spreadin' A Little Christmas Cheer

Our family favorite, Dr./Mr. Steve Brule, teaches you how to defend yourselves. (in case you're not hip to the T&EASGJ!, the quality of the video is supposed to be crap, ala 80's instructional video)



and then, we have Dr. Steve Brule, reporting on his favorite topic ever...VIDEO GAMES!



...you're so very, very welcome.

Oh and I made the best cookies ever today. Sugar cookies that are basically Grannie B's, but recreated by me in my kitchen. And they have sour cream in them, you guys. Wonderful.

the end.

Christmas Is Coming...The Goose Is Getting Fat!

Things to do before the end of today:

  • finish teacher gifts
  • finish editing the Tobar's shoot
  • clean bathroom downstairs
  • vacuum stairs
  • drink a 5th of whiskey
  • wash towels and sheets
  • make sugar cookies that were supposed to be made yesterday but our freakin oven pilot ignition quit working
  • send gifts to Joe & Heidi, Paul & Sharla joe josephson dead beat dad
  • finish helping "Santa" with stocking stuffers
  • thaw turkey
  • buy more Crisco for pie crusts for quiche
  • finish tying quilts for Mike and all the kids
  • eat 10 lbs of caramels
  • drink a 12 pack of diet Coke with another 5th of whiskey
  • repent
not too shabby right?

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Remember...There Is Holiday Magic

So for Christmas this year, the kids' big present is annual passes. The problem is, we bought the passes in October. So to remind the kids that they got them for Christmas, I'm taking them today for the last time in '07.

Harper is at the age where he is starting to remember things. Every day we talk about Disneyland with him, the rides, his memories, the cousins and most of all...Jack. He'd watch YouTube videos all day long if we let him, and it is so cute to see him scream with the crowds on the screen when Jack appears at the top of the elevator. Also, when he sees the caroussel and Dumbo, his right arm shoots up as high as it can go and he says "uuuuuuuuuup!"... Funny boy.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a few of his favorite YouTubes since you all won't be with us. It's supposed to rain today there, but we're troopers...and we don't care.

(Daddy, if you're reading this, we miss you! We wish you could have come, but we know you had to work!!! See you tonight!)

Small World Holiday:




and everyone's favorite:



So if you have my "702" cell number, call me and hear the magic today.

BUHBYE!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Sweet Casey

We fell asleep for our typical after-church nap, and this is what I woke up to. He was watching me sleep...stinker.

Friday, December 14, 2007

New Site

So Mike is still in the process of building easleyphotography.com, so in the mean time, my old site is back up and running. You can visit it here (http://easleyphotography.blogspot.com) for contact information, pricing etc.

I'll blog more later! Buhbye!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Guess What You Big Donkeys?

At church today I found out that this lady in my ward used to be a photographer professionally and she asked me in the hallway if I wanted her 3 backdrops. BIG ones, as in huge. Like...25'x50'. HUGE. I could photograph the entire Desert Chorale spinning around in tutus on those things. SWEET! That saves my butt about $2000. TIGHT!

Anyway, look at this family I shot this weekend, they're super gorgeous and so fun. The dark haired boy is going on a mission in 2 weeks to Brazil (and Tiffany is supposed to go out with him the second he gets home!) and the girl with the blonde hair is Chelsea. She was just Homecoming Queen this year at Yucaipa HS. She's so cute and I love that girl. She and Tiff have fun together, and Tiff's sad because when Chels graduates next summer, she'll be out of laurels. :( The boy with the longer hair is Cody and Mackenzie think's he a hottie, but he's like 17, and then the youngest girl is Linda, and she has a big fat crush on Jonah. I love this family. Anyway. Here, see some more pics. (if they look a bit fuzzy on the blog, it's because they're HUGE in real life, so click on any picture you want to see in it's true state.)






Thursday, December 6, 2007

Here's Some Fun Stuff For You and You and YOU!

From the lack of posting on ALL of my friends and families blogs, I'm assuming you're all like us...busy as crap, am I right?!

Anyway, update for ya. I started to pass a kidney stone last weekend and the week before, and all I could do was pound the ibuprofen and take hot baths. Still working on it, but that's all I wanna say on that matter. Secondly, I was walking around in my bedroom the other night and when I was getting my jammies on, I jammed my right big toe sideways into something sharp and looked down to see what it was and saw what I thought was a thumb tack sticking out of my foot. As I pulled on the end of it, I could feel this horrible tearing sensation on the total opposite side of my toe and as I pulled on it, it kept coming...and coming...and coming until the very end came out and what did I see? (click the picture to see the real deal) Well Mike was right there and he immediately stood up and went to grab me a towel to put on it since it started bleeding right away. The dang thing had a hook on the end of it and it tore out a little hamburger looking piece of my toe pad! Sick! It was like 1 1/2 inches long and omg. Seriously. It hurt so stinkin bad I forgot all about my kidney stones for like 30 minutes. It still hurts like a BIATCH! But I digress...(as usual)

So the next day (yesterday), I went to shoot the rest of the 8-9 families for the Young Women's fund raiser, and one of our friends who is a doctor came and checked it out. He looked and prodded and poked and eventually he just said "yeah, this is not good. You need antibiotics and a doctor...go". Fun times and by the way, if your legs are hurting just reading this story (you know who you are) say Aye!

K, so the rest of the people here are good. We've had the usual bugs going around, stuffy noses and stomachy flu stuff, but nothing major at all to report. Kenzie is on the honor roll, so is Casey, and Jonah is on the jr. honor roll meaning he got A's and B's...so that's good!

I've been shooting like crazy, and Mike's just been doing the same ol' thing as usual.

Anyway, off topic...I was looking for more of those Remixed Trailers, and came across some really awesome ones:

Sleepless In Seattle: The Thriller

School of Rock: Hide Your Children

Garden State: A Murder Mystery

American Pie: A Murderous Tale (they say the "s" word in the trailer)

When Harry Met Sally: A Story of Obsession (billy crystal says the "f" word, but still this is absolutely brilliant)


The 10 Commandments: A High School Comedy 3000 Years In The Making

Good Will Hunting: A Terrifying Thriller

Cocktail: An Epic Bollywood Classic (this is the winning entry for the 2006 NY AICE Trailer Park competition...and rightly so. This one is genius.)

Citizen Kane: The Pimp Remix

Taxi Driver: A Sweet Romantic Comedy

Brokeback To The Future: A Romance That Could Never Be (totally not dirty, but absolutly hilarious and awesome...watch this one)


Top Gun: Another Romance That Could Never Be (also a brokebackish theme, still...don't tell me you didn't know this one was coming)

Freddy Got Redone: A Tale Of Survival (I cannot believe this was
possible, this movie is so foul and not touching...and they turned it into something I'd see)

Must Love Jaws: A Touching Comedy About Friendship

Dumb and Dumber: The Horror!!!


The Big Lebowski: A Crime Thriller (so good, I love Jeff Bridges in this)


K so are you sick of trailers? Well...just watch a few and when you're bored and it's midnight and you wanna see something truly smart and brilliant, just watch more of these. I love this kind of stuff because it:

  1. exposes the deception in advertizing
  2. teaches the world that art isn't always paintings and sculptures and that art is being created every day in the most diverse and unique ways.
  3. Shows me that people still use their imaginations in this world...and that's such an important part of living and playing.
Alright...here are a few pics of my lastest endeavors.



Peace out!






Tuesday, December 4, 2007

For Miss Emily

And here you have...


SHINING! A romantic comedy...


Sunday, December 2, 2007

I've Got Whozits And Whatzits Galore

BroadwayWorld.com is having a contest called "Give Us Your Voice", and this guy from Sarasota Florida is one of the entries. Although he can't quite compete with Daniel Rogers, I must say...as much as I want to hate this guy, I can't! It's not that he sucks, nor is it that he's basically got me beat in the falsetto department, but he's scary and intriguing and weird all at the same time. Weird...............weird awesome weird and awesome again and yet, I voted for him because I think he put me under a spell that made me lose my mind for a second. Help me. Seriously. Somebody? Help? A little help?



Oh and if you're looking for ABSOLUTE pure brilliance in video editing, this other guy I found on YouTube makes remixes of movie trailers, and this one for Mary Poppins is so sweet. I laughed at the end because of the "Hide Your Children" but seriously, if you watch this clip, you'll see that anything can be twisted into something else when the right (or wrong) person gets their hands on it.

Enjoy.