In case you forgot, this is the Yap Family blog, yes really.  It was starting to get foggy for me too, I was afraid I’d forget how to log in!  I know I have so much catching up to do, and I plan to, but I don’t have all the photos together yet (let’s be honest, that’s why you’re here).  So I’ll share an ounce of right now and promise, once more, to update you more often.  I certainly won’t let months get in between us again!

We’ve been very busy cultivating our photography business.  We have become crazy popular but we’re loving every minute of it!  The only downside is that it really cuts into our family time on the weekends.  Last weekend we had a request for a photo session from a friend.  His wife had a bone marrow transplant a few weeks back and because of the immune system stuff and because she’s out of town for treatment, they don’t see her very often.  Of course we were excited to help with the Valentine’s photos as a surprise for her but we were feeling guilty about leaving the kids behind for another shoot.  I think we had three that weekend and this one was a favor.  So we took them!  We let them run around the park for a half an hour before the shoot and when my friend and his sons arrived the older kids raced around like crazy people!  They had such a blast and although it certainly made shooting so much more difficult I’m glad they could join us this time.

We managed to talk them into a few photos too!

We set up a ladder/scaffolding for a few photos and the kids were under the impression we brought a jungle gym!

Kate’s hair is getting so big and long.  She’s still not a fan of having anything to keep it out of her eyes!

                                                                                                      H  O  N  K  !  !  !  !

The photos of my friend and his kids came out well; the boys were super sweet!  If you want to see those you’ll have to check out the photo blog – www.yaporiginals.com

It’s great to “see” you again!

For our blog Halloween feels never ending.  So here we go again, here’s one more step down Halloween Road, I promise there’s only a few more.  The older the kids get the more activities we seem to get roped into!  So here are our ”fall” photos.  I say “fall” because, well let’s face it… our palm trees aren’t changing color anytime soon and our big cold front, when it dipped down to 81 degrees, only lasted a day.

So here are the kids in “fall” clothes in 90 degree weather.  Apparently that’s the best time to go to a pumpkin parking lot, um, pallet, um… patch since there is no one else there!

I love how she looks at him!  Noah will probably never find someone who is as crazy about him as his sister!

The pumpkin recliner.  She sat there until we made her move.  Apparently pumpkins are comfy!  Who knew!?

Noah got to pick out our pumpkin this year.  He’ll need to work on his muscles if he wants a bigger one next year!

And for laughs I have to contrast Kate’s photo with baby pumpkins from this year…

And last…

I guess thinks are looking up… please don’t call Child Services!

This year’s pumpkin actually got carved!  Far before Halloween though because pumpkins rot in 90 degree weather – and fast!  So we carved him one Saturday morning and it was quite an experience!

Noah wanted to design the face himself.  We let him draw out what he wanted and I promise you – this was the best of the worst in the idea department!

I opened him up and it thoroughly grossed out Noah.  I didn’t realize little boys who like bugs and lizards might not like pumpkin guts.

But he loved watching me carve it…

And he was in love with the end result!  Or maybe the fire, but how can you not love this smile!?

Don’t they look so excited?  We’re really into the photographic torture!

Later in the day…

And that night…

Poor Mr. Pumpkin only lasted a few days before completely rotting out.  RIP “Doc” – as Noah deemed him!

Happy (belated) Halloween!  Wow, what a month it’s been, and it’s already over!  I can’t believe it!  We’ve been running around like wild, crazy people trying to cram fall activities into summer weather.  The good news is we’ve been spending time as a family and if the blog (and the housework) get a little neglected because of it, I’m ok with that.

This year Noah picked out his own costume.  He knew exactly what he wanted to be – a monkey.  And when we gave him all the monkey options, he immediately picked one out.  We even let time pass, offered up other ideas, wondered if it was a phase, but he wouldn’t waver.  “Mom, I said I want to be a monkey!”.  A monkey he was, a darn cute one!

Kate had no choice in the matter.  We have been storing 4 costumes for her from before she was born.  They were all sized 6-12 months so each had it’s own obstacles as Kate is definitely not a 6-12 month size kid.  But like with everything, she was a trooper and make them all work!  Before the end of the holiday we definitely got our money’s worth out of all of them, we had so many parties, activities, photos, and trick or treating.

Since Halloween comes and goes so quickly we decided to photograph Noah in his costume before the big day.  The photos came out great and everyone had a lot of fun!  It spurred a movement.  We’re now the go to people for your Halloween costume photos!  We photographed a lot of adorable kids this season and these short costume sessions almost always leave us in hysterics!  Here are a few from the past few weeks…

We have more costume photos, it was super popular!, but we also have photos of our kids from the pumpkin patch, Halloween parties, school parties… etc. and I promise to get to them, just not tonight.  Tonight I will go and relax and enjoy the peace and quiet that the time change brings.  Sweet dreams!

Hello Internet Friends.  Why do I always feel like I’m apologizing for being absent?  My computer died – hard.  And as soon as it went and was replaced my monitor followed suit.  So now I am writing to you from a gorgeous new computer setup and I’m able to upload photos FAST! 

Unfortunately I’m behind in my updates, and boy have we been busy, but hopefully I can catch up and post more often.

In August Walter turned the big 4-0.  Two days after that I turned 31 (I’m officially “in my 30′s” and feeling old).  To celebrate we took the family to Disney.  For support we brought my mom.  We had no idea how the kids would handle the heat of Disney in August.  I wasn’t sure I was up to the challenge, but we had a blast, and mom got to squeeze in some relaxing while we checked out the parks.

Thanks to our great friend, Lauren, we got to stay at the Swan Hotel.  It was so great being a short boat ride to Epcot!

At the hotel they had a dreamy restaurant.  It was outdoors (ick) but it was so beautiful and the food was amazing!

The comfy seating got two thumbs up from Noah!

And the rest of the property was equally as entertaining…

And beautiful…

During our stay we only made it to Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.  Both were incredibly hot!

Noah, who used to love giant characters, was pretty lukewarm about the whole thing this trip.  We even did a character breakfast and as far as he’s concerned, the highlight was the bacon.  He seemed to love the Under the Seas and Spaceship Earth (the big Epcot ball ride) the most at Epcot.

We were at Epcot on Walter’s actual birthday.  For his birthday I gave him smiles.  Lots and lots of smiles, and patience.  If you know me and you know how I feel about heat you know this was an amazing gift and very difficult to deliver.  It came naturally to Kate though.

And I also bought him dinner.  We left Kate with my mom at the hotel and went with Noah to Coral Reef, the restaurant at the Living Seas in Epcot.  The view was incredible, the drinks were delish, and the food was amazing!  It was a great dinner!

Afterwards we watched the Epcot fireworks then went down to the boardwalk for ice cream and people watching.  It really was a magical day!

Magic Kingdom was a little more fun for the kids since its pretty much geared toward them.  We didn’t have a lot of time but we enjoyed the time we had!

Noah got a water bottle/fan/squirty thing that he is obsessed with.  He sprayed everything, and I mean everything, but at least it kept us cool!

We rode Winnie The Pooh…

And then Noah and Walter went on the Barnstormer, Noah’s first roller coaster!

He loved it!

And of course we went to see Mickey and Minnie.  Again Noah really wasn’t interested but Kate was in love.  She was so excited, I thought she was going to take her first step into Minnie’s arms.  She was also a huge fan of her giant ears!

And of course we had to hit up the gift shop so Kate could get ears!

And since we were so close we took a little detour to go see my Aunt Love and Uncle Kenneth.  They just finished renovating their new home and it’s amazing!  It was quite a project for them but I can’t imagine it turning out any better.  They really put a lot of work into this house that they decided to buy as soon as they saw the view from the front door!

Noah says they have good taste in furniture too!

We also took the opportunity of being with family to use the facilities!  Noah had a flood accident the first night in the hotel.  His poor monkey got soaked and was in desperate need of a bath!  Luckily we were able to make that happen.  Noah insisted on supervising the whole ordeal though!

Here’s that view from the front door (looking in).  Let’s pray the hurricanes stay away!

The kids made themselves at home.  Unfortunately the home wasn’t made for them.  I’m still so sorry about that figurine that Kate wanted to play with!

“Uh oh!”.  So cute.  So adorable when young toddlers learn to say it, especially after they purposefully launch their sippy cup from the highchair tray.  Kate has everything down pat except the “uh oh” part.  For now she just rambles away in baby language, experiments with volume, and often ends in da da da da or by blowing raspberries. 

“Uh oh” elicits an entirely different reaction when you hear it from your 3 year old.  Your 3 year old who doesn’t use words like “uh oh”.  Usually it’s – “I broke Ayla’s bracelet because I pulled on it too hard.  Will you please tell her I’m sorry?”.  So when the boy is reduced to “uh oh”, we either leap to his aid or pull straws to see who the poor sucker is that has to leap to his aid, which is when we know Kate’s not involved and there is no crying.  Tonight Noah came from the bathroom with this spine tingling “uh oh” and the look on his face like something big was going down.  And then there was this -

Noah: “Uh oh!  Mommy, daddy, there’s a problem in the bathroom.  The water is coming up like this <raises his hands over his head> out of the toilet and it’s going all over the floor!”

Walter and Dawn:  <blink> <blink> <stare>

Dawn:  “Why don’t you come sit back down and finish your dinner, we’ll deal with that when we’re all done (or the water starts making its way into the dining room).”

Noah sits and starts to eat.  God only knows if he washed his hands after all the excitement in the bathroom.

Dawn:  “Did you go poopy?”

Noah:  “No.”

Dawn:  “Did you use toilet paper?”

Noah:  “Uh huh”

Dawn:  “A lot?”

Noah:  “Uh huh….. I used….. FIVE!”   <shows us five fingers to drive the point home>

Walter and Dawn:  <hysterical laughter>

These kids.  They really are here for the comic relief in life, aren’t they?  Well Noah did flood the bathroom.  He probably meant that he put five rolls of paper down the toilet but who hasn’t tried that.  All is well in Yap land now but I wanted to share this with you because it made us chuckle.  And for the record, we recommend using four or less toilet papers in the future.  If you figure out that measurement please let me know!

What’s up and where have we been?  I’m going to answer it for you all right now.  Yes, we’re still alive.  Yes, we remember your phone number (or have it somewhere).  No, we haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth.  No we’re not mad at you.  Things have been busy.  Crazy busy.  I have been neglecting everyone.  I am very, very sorry.

I have been working tirelessly at launching a new business.  With the two kids always within earshot it has become very hard to plan weddings for clients who expect my full attention (and deserve it).  So until piss and vinegar, I mean Noah and Kate, are both out of the house for a chunk of time every day I’m trying to use my talents for other things.  I just opened “Oh My Bride” (www.ohmybride.com).  It is an opportunity for me to still make money and play in the wedding business without having to be on call 24/7 or at the beck and call of a bridezilla with a cell phone.  Sure, I still have “office hours” and plan to interact when I need to but at least the majority of my dealings will now be online and through email to keep me from having to screen calls and dance around nap schedules.  I am still doing weddings, at least until this new venture gains momentum, and I’m looking forward to a packed dance card this winter with events.

As I mentioned before, my sister and her children were in town for 10 days and we took every opportunity to enjoy their company.  We also did my niece, Natalie’s, senior photos while they were here.  With so many interests though it turned into a bit of a marathon and we are still editing.  Here are a few to enjoy for now.

This is Natalie in her Junior Prom dress.  It was my sister’s (her mother’s) Senior Prom dress but has been reinvented.  Talk about vintage!  We also took some photos of her in her Senior Prom dress but you’ll have to ask her for those.  Wouldn’t want to give too much away before the big event!

Yes, that is a real train.  It was FLYING by.  I’ll spare you the photo with the look on her face that says “You want me to do what!?”.  We have so many beautiful ones to choose from, this is hard!

This isn’t even a sampling of all the shoots.  Like I said, we’ve been busy!

And in the spirit of photos we have (finally) started to embrace our love for the craft and share it with others.  We used to do photoshoots back when film was in and we were still a little (ok, a lot) unsure about the whole portrait thing.  Then it was only for us, then we included friends and family since we’ve learned not everyone can take a photo without chopping heads off.  Fast forward 10 years and hundreds of practice shoots later and we find ourselves getting inquiries left and right.  Family and friends always pushed us to do this and we have seen the light.  To mainstream things a bit and have one central location for our favorite photos we’ve created Yap Originals (www.yaporiginals.com).  Our friend Lauren actually branded us and always bragged about how many “Yap Originals” she had hanging in her home.  Thanks Lauren!

Here are some photos from our most recent newborn shot.  Isabelle is a doll and she has an amazing family.  What a love!  We have so many other recent shoots that I wish we could share.  Oh, what I could do with free time!

Isabelle’s dad is a firefighter… and she has her own boots!

We were also MIA because we were off getting older.  Walter and I (who are 2 days apart) took the kids to Disney for our birthdays.  It was soooooo hot but also a lot of fun.  We have a million photos to share and will, soon.

The one thing keeping us sane and us as with it as we are (which isn’t very “with” as it turns out) is Kate’s new BFF, Falan.  Falan is the newest addition to the scenery around here.  I hate to call her a nanny, because that sounds so snobby, but she’s so much more than a babysitter.  I don’t know what we’d do without her.  We originally hired her to help until I got Oh My Bride off and running but I’m not sure how we could ever part with her.  Hopefully things start running smoothly and prosperity finds its way to our door so we won’t have to worry about that.  In addition to being amazing with the kids she is ridiculously beautiful.  How lucky was I to talk her into modeling a few hair accessories for Oh My Bride?

So we’re here.  I appreciate all of you who have reached out to us.  We are grateful for your love and friendship.  Hopefully things will slow down here just a bit so we may have the opportunity to get back into the social scene.

Love you all!

This 4th of July holiday weekend we took off for a mini vacation.  We headed south to my very favorite hotel, the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood.  It was everything we hoped it would be and more!  The weather was perfect, the pools were fun, the beds were super comfy, the kids were even well behaved!  We were lucky enough to have a lot of friends with the same plans and because of that we enjoyed many laughs and large meals.

Here are a few photos from our relaxing weekend, there are many more to come -

First, let me show you why I love this place so much…

Yes, really.  And yes, really, these are photos from this weekend.  The pool and beach didn’t look like this for long but they were still very beautiful and very relaxing when other people showed up.  This is one of four pools at the hotel so you never noticed that the resort was bustling; there’s so much room to spread out!

And this is how excited we all felt when the plans were made and we were on our way.  A family vacation was so overdue!

The one photo we got of the kids together this weekend…

She may owe that pole dinner.

At the pool…

Our friends Bettina and Dan and their daughter Helena happened to be staying the weekend at the resort as well.  The kids loved swimming together!

Rachel, Robby, and Ayla were also at the resort as were thier friends Nicole and Chris and their children Nicholas and Carsen.  You haven’t lived until you’ve looked for a dinner reservation for 11 people 30 minutes before you’re hoping to eat!

Nicholas is such a cool kid!  A lover boy with a little Dennis the Menace mixed in for good measure.  We had a blast, he has such personality!  At one point I was holding Helena (above) and Nicholas (below) was playing with us.  Someone joked about how easily I could pass them off as my own kids.  I’ll just have to borrow all the redheaded children and wish their parents luck with the stubborness and sass that comes with the color! 

Chris and Carsen                                                                     Little Miss

For the fourth we were unknowingly misinformed and decided to take our chances watching fireworks from Rachel and Robby’s room.  Little did we know we would have been much better off on the beach, where we originally planned to go, but then we would have missed this amazing view of the city and the light show.

The city after a few cocktails…

The monkeys…

And a certain little someone learned a new trick while on vacation… she now STANDS!  Where does the time go!?  Buh-bye baby Kate, hello toddler land!

And just for fun we relived a few moments.  I told you this place was my favorite!

(Noah at 4 months)

(Kate at 9 months, who doesn’t know how not to smile)

(Noah at 7 months)

(Kate at 9 months who apparently heard she was going to be late for lunch)

Still think they look exactly alike?!

Unfortunately when we got home reality smacked us in the face!  Monday was right around the corner, grocery shopping needed to get done and the laundry fairy never showed up this weekend.  Oh, and there was a leak in our roof that was flooding our laundry room because of all the rain.  Fun times!  At least we’re tan!

This weekend we went to the new Monkey Joe’s.  It was pretty nice but a little deja vu of any other indoor play place.  Bounce houses, slides, parents who don’t supervise their kids, you know – the norm.  I was a little taken aback that they wanted $5 for Kate (or any kid under 1 for that matter) who can’t really enjoy the facilities as nothing is age appropriate but whatever.  So we went and Noah had a blast (of course) and he played hard!

Here Kate is waiting to leave.  This is what Walter and the kids do while they wait for me to get it all together.

At Monkey Joe’s Kate got an ID bracelet so they knew who she belonged to.  She was fascinated!  Please excuse the bad hair day!

I know the face says “special” but she was beyond excited!

And Noah loved climbing and sliding!

Do you remember the last time you felt joy like this!?

Afterwards we went to visit our friends, Katie, Bill and Liam, in Coral Springs.  It’s been about ten months since we’ve been able to meet up and I think Liam was Kate’s size back then.  Now he’s a walking, talking fool who is still just as heartbreakingly adorable.  When we were headed in Noah asked if Liam had turned into a boy (awwww…) and indeed he did.  It was a lot of fun catching up and both of our kids were passed out before we left the neighborhood.  I guess a good time was had by all!

This is Liam the last time we saw him -

And now -

Airplane!

Stubborn…                                                                                and sweet…

Ok, so for those of you who love physical comedy (me), this is priceless.  Katie was sending Liam down the slide and Bill was catching him.  He hasn’t gotten the whole slide thing down pat yet.  Well Bill was playing with Kate and Katie launched Liam.  Walter is too polite to photograph how it turned out but from the second photo I’m pretty sure you can figure it out.  He was still going full speed ahead at that point…

But as boys do, he brushed off, and moved on.

And Daddy was on slide duty for the balance of park time.  Thank you for everything Bill and Katie, and for giving me a laugh at your son’s expense.  I know, I’m horrible.

Then on Sunday we went to the waterpark with Rachel, Robby and Ayla and had a blast!  We didn’t get any photos unfortunately, besides, I’m not sure you would consider me swimsuit model material anyway.  But the kids loved it and Kate was crazy in love with splashing.  She couldn’t even sit still on the lazy river, she wanted in!  And to top it off Rachel and I went down one of the big slides.  We were the required 42″s tall but I was still a little apprehensive.  It was a big slide with several flights of stairs to get to and some high walls to coast back and forth on.  Once we were up we felt a little better about reliving our teens since we weren’t the only non-kids at the top… until the lifeguard turned to me and said “You can go now, M’am”.  I guess this thirty year old is fooling NO ONE! 

Happy Monday all!

We’re STILL waiting for Comcast to fix our internet.  It is so frustrating!  In the meantime we signed up for DSL which isn’t as good but it’s something.  I’m so over our connection issues!

I wanted to share some sweet pictures with you.  We went to my mom’s for Memorial Day and Kate got all dressed up for the party.  She even wore her Cole Haan shoes!  Keep in mind I don’t have anything from this designer but I couldn’t resist these hot pink patent leather penny loafers.  She seems to be pretty fond of them too.

We also took the opportunity for Noah to get an updated photo with his Grammy.  We wanted to do this at his birthday party but she wasn’t feeling well.  A few days late but well worth the wait.  The last time we did this (on his first birthday) she was bald as a baby from chemo.  Now she’s the picture of health and we’re so fortunate for this very happy ending!

Poor Grammy, Noah hates photos.  I wonder why!