New Haircuts and a Huge Fish!

I've been thinking about cutting my hair for a few weeks.  I tend to take a long time to make decisions so when I think I want to do something I spend weeks thinking about whether or not to do what I think I want to do.  Yeah. :)  Well, I finally said "okay" and 11 inches of my hair was cut off this past Tuesday. :)  The last time my hair was cut (for the first time, other than trims) I cried.  But this time it was more of a "Wow.  My hair is gone" feeling.  And, actually, I don't mind having my hair short (short meaning about shoulder length).   Tangles, getting my hair pulled by babies (accidentally) or sucked into things is a thing of the past! :)  And my hair looks a little curlier now that it's shorter.

I'm not the only one in my family who got their hair cut this summer.  Hannah chopped her lots of hers last month and Eden and Lydia got a cute summer "doo" in the spring.  

Since Hannah and I have the most recent haircut I got Lexi to take a picture of us! :)

The other thing that got cut in our family was a giant fish! :)  Caleb and Dad were fishing at someone's pond yesterday and managed to catch an 18 inch long, small mouth bass.  It was huge!  Inside its mouth you could still see a fish it was eating when it bit into Caleb's hook! ;)

You can see the tail, nice, right? :)

The proud fisherman and his catch!

                     

It was so big Daddy could fit his entire hand into its mouth!  (All I can say is that he's brave!)

You can't see the tape measure well but it did measure 18 inches long.  Too bad the state citation bass is 20 inches or 5 pounds.  :-(

Nevertheless, Mr. Fish was soon fileted (to put it nicely) and one day soon we'll be having him for dinner.  

Kimber :) 

"'Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'”

Genesis 1:26

K.K.'s 16th Birthday Party

Last Saturday we went up to my Aunt Stacey's house to celebrate Kaitlyn's 16th birthday!  We left around 6:30 A.M. and met up with my Aunt T.C. and cousins, Collin and Mason, in Mechanicsville.  Then we were really on our way! :)  Before we made it to my aunt's house we stopped in Stuarts Draft to pick up some feed and take a quick potty break.  :)  Then off we went again! :)

We finally arrived about 10:45 A.M. and gave everyone hugs.  It was a beautiful day outside so when we first arrived we spent some time out on the porch.  And who should be on the porch, but some of my adorable cousins?  As I'm sure you've guessed already, here come the pictures! :)

 This is Asher and he's 6 days older than Judah!  Don't you love his big, blue eyes?!

And you all know that this is Judah...my lil' brother.  Can you believe he'll be 1 year old in less than a month?

 This is Rachel, Kaitlyn's youngest sister, and she has the cutest smile! 

Around noon we ate Kaitlyn's special lunch of barbecue, chicken nuggets (for those not fond of bbq), veggies, and chips!

After lunch I was out on the front porch with my camera and Hannah came over and as she talked to us I grabbed two quick pictures of her:

The front porch of Aunt Stacey's house is so pretty and once I saw Hannah's two pictures I had to take some more! :)  So, Hannah and I brought our little cousin Cadence out and she became our first subject!

 The flowers in these pictures were totally Hannah's idea! :)

Isn't she absolutely adorable?!

After taking some photos we showed Aunt Megan (Cadence's mama) the photos and she came out for 2 pictures with her daughter.

Love, love, LOVE!!  Ah!
I love spontaneous, on-the-spur-of-the-moment pictures because they can be so much more "real" looking than posed photos.  Other than tell Aunt Mae-Mae to sit down in the chair I did nothing else!  Have I mentioned how much I love photography?  Capturing these types of pictures always make me fall more in love with photography!

Our next subject was Justus, Cadence's brother, who is so cute too!

Now you're probably wondering why, out of all 8 cousins that were there, I only have pictures of the younger ones.  Well, they were the ones available and easiest to persuade to come stand for pictures! :)

After the guys finished playing football and everyone else finished eating lunch Kaitlyn opened her presents.

Reading her cards (and don't worry about the face in the left photo...that's the "what-in-the-world" look not an unhappy one! :)

Kaitlyn's last present was from her parents.  It was a necklace with half of a heart hanging on it.  Uncle Mike read a few paragraphs about Kailtyn turning 16 and the significance of it before showing that he had another necklace with the other half of the heart.  It was a nice, beautiful 16th birthday present! :)

 The hug at the end of the reading. :)

Next came the cake and the "Happy Birthday" song!
 

 K.K.lit most of her own candles! :)

 "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear K.K., happy birthday to you!"

The birthday girl and her yummy Ukrops cake! :)

After all the festivities were over, everybody just "hung out."

Paw-paw rocked Asher (and himself!) to sleep...

Lexi gave Uncle Kevin his all-time favorite: a head rub...

...and the rest of us talked about memories from when were little, played games, and just enjoyed the family time. :)

Alas, the time came to leave and we gave lots of hugs and goodbyes.  The mountain views as we drove back to our house were exquisite!  I love the mountains!

Around 8 P.M. we stopped for dinner at a Cici's somewhere and ate a delicious meal (thanks Daddy and Mama!).  Then we were back on our way arriving home around 10-11 P.M. that night. :)

Happy birthday, K.K.!  We love you so much and hope you enjoyed your special day!
Love,
Kimber and all the Wassenbergs :)

19 Years Ago Today

 

...these two wonderful people...

...pledged to "have and to hold til death did them part."

19 years ago today they sealed their love with a kiss...

...and their fun, happy life together began.

 

19 years ago they were announced "man and wife" and the celebrating commenced!

19 years ago today, Daddy and Mama were married!

Happy anniversary!  You two are the best parents one could ever ask for!  Our family may not have a huge brick house to live in, but we live in a home where we are loved.  We don't have the nicest cars yet I wouldn't trade riding in our big, ol' van together for anything.  Yes, we may wear hand-me-downs and exciting finds from thrift stores (I love those places!) but we are surrounded daily by parents who love each other.  And having parents who love each other with all their hearts is better than a big house, expensive cars, and high $ clothing.

I would much rather live in a shack with my wonderful parents and family than live in the big house with lots of money and parents who don't love each other or just "tolerate" each other at best.

You two are the best!  We all love you SO much!  Have a great 19th Anniversary!!!
Kimber and all your loving children

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

Genesis 2:24