My cousin, the actor!

My cousin, Sara Lawler, was very busy with rehearsals in June. That's right, rehearsals. She had a part in the musical, Rent at the Smith Opera House in Geneva on July 15 - 18.

Rent is a Tony and Pulitzer prize-winning musical based upon Puccini’s opera La Boheme. It depicts the story of one year in the life of a group of young bohemian friends struggling to survive in the East Village of New York City. This group of beleaguered young artists and musicians contemplate the meaning of life, love and hope while dealing with issues of poverty, loss, drug addiction, and AIDS.

This powerful musical is headed up by a talented cast hailing from across the Finger Lakes and Rochester area and includes Mike Witter (Mark), Nick Faruch (Roger), Kyle Knapton (Collins), Sarah Mull (Mimi), Derrick Frenney (Angel), Chelsea Miller (Maureen), Sara Lawler (Joanne), Darius Greene (Benny). Ensemble cast members include: Kaleigh-Marie Fremouw, Abigail Adams, Sylvia Queener, Vinnie Loucks, Ben Raha, Justin Doyle and Jonathan Garcia. Rent is directed by Steve Duprey with Music Directors Bob Cowles and Deb Hodgeman and choreography by Caitlyn Schrader.

Below is an article from the Finger Lakes Times about her performance. Congratulations, Cuz! I wish I could have been there to see it. Maybe when you are on your national tour and stop off in Texas. I will definitely make it then. :)

Click on the image to see a larger view.

Visiting the Cousin's House

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, we visited family over the Thanksgiving holiday. During the trip, I attempted to take some Christmas photos of the kids (Maddie, Maria, and Parker). The original idea was to take some of the girls by themselves, then take some with Parker. Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes of trying to get a good shot of the girls, they weren't interested in taking any with Parker. The following is a pictorial chronology of my attempt:


This was my test shot using Parker as a model to verify the lighting. You can see he is really interested in doing this for me. :)


This is the best image of Maddie and Maria. As you can probably imagine, I was having a tough time getting both of them to smile and look at the camera.


This was a cute candid I took of Maddie laughing while we were trying to corral the other kids for the group photo.


Before we gave up on getting all the kids together, I snapped this cute image of Maddie and Maria decorating the tree.

And finally, we realized it just wasn't going to be a good day for pictures of Parker. I snapped a few frames, and this was the best one. Luckily, I tried again the very next day and got some great ones that I will feature in my next blog post. One of them will be the one we use for our Christmas cards this year.

In the Jumperoo!

Here is a quick video post of Parker in his cousins' Jumperoo. The kids' voices you hear in the background are his cousins and the other random noises are his aunt and uncle cleaning up the kitchen after tearing into some Thanksgiving Day leftovers.

Parker's 1st Thanksgiving

Well, Parker's first Thanksgiving was full of new experiences. Some of his firsts included:

1. His first time to North Carolina
2. His first time to fly in a plane
3. His first time to see his cousins on his mother's side of the family

The plane ride was a little over 2 hours long and luckily he slept the entire time. Parker was fussy a little while were sitting at the gate waiting to board the plane, but other than that, it was an uneventful trip. Hopefully the ride home goes as smoothly.

I brought my camera along on this trip, so I should have some good pictures to post in the next few days, but for now these pictures I snapped with my iPhone will have to do.

Parker is buckled into his aunt's car seat as we made our way to Target to pick up some essentials like diapers, formula, and wipes.

Parker is sitting in his cousin's Dora the Explorer chair. He is wearing his "Baby's 1st Thanksgiving outfit".