hanging out on the bricks

Just hangin' out on the bricks.



I think I'll go exploring.


Hmm...what's that tiny little thing?


Let me just grab it.




I think I'll taste it.


It's actually not very yummy at all.


And now, my hands are all dirty.


Oh well. What's going on over there?

Just a glimpse into little Z's life at 9 months. Everything is fascinating. And everything goes in the mouth.

the elusive three-kid-shot

Getting a good shot of one kid can be hard enough. Two kids, a bit harder. And, now three, even harder. Of course, the baby factor makes it more challenging--any kid under 3 years is quite challenging. But, I do think that for each kid you add, there must be a x10 factor. So, getting a good shot of three kids=30x harder than getting a good shot of just one kid. Something like that. My math-brain is not working so well at the moment.






My favorite, but not my girls' favorite. I like the "personality" shots the best.

winter centerpiece {DIY}

It's always bare and boring in January after the Christmas decorations come down. I've struggled to know what to put up after Christmas. I don't want to see red or green or gold anymore, but I'm not quite ready for Valentine's decor in January. I think I finally stumbled upon something that I like.

The idea began with a simple branch. I broke it off of some nearby shrubs--no, not my neighbor's. These were crazy-wild shrubs that grow along a nearby walking path. Trust me. No one will notice their absence. I was looking for a branch that had several off-shoots, and would look sort of tree-like.



I stuck mine in a carafe and used river rocks to support the base so that it would stand upright. At this point, David was seriously doubting my artistic abilities. What in the world are you doing bringing some dead branch into our house?! He didn't actually say those words, but we've been married 10 years, and I can tell you, that's exactly what he was thinking.



Oh, husband of little faith. Just wait. Next, I dug out some pretty little silk flowers. I really like the flowers, but didn't just love how they were arranged on the original stem. So, I pulled them off. There was a perfect little hole in the center of each flower.



They perfectly fit onto the ends of my dead branch. And now, it's not just a dead branch. It's a winter centerpiece! Totally easy, and totally free. I love that.

winter flower

It's not really a flower, but it's shape reminds me of one!  The girls found these on our walk last weekend too.  If I ever get around to it, I'm hoping to hang this one on my wall somewhere.  Happy Monday!

9 months.

While we were on our walk last weekend, I thought I'd try a quick photo shoot with litte Z for his 9 month photos.  The light was almost perfect, and the weather was beautiful.  As soon as we set him down, he was enthralled by the feeling of grass on his feet.  Maybe I'm a little slow, but the poor kid had never felt grass on his feet.  He was interested in everything...but me and my big black camera.

Our conversation as I imagined it:

Hey Z, look at me!
Umm, I'm kind of busy here, whatchyou want?


Oh, Zeee, (insert best sing-song-y voice) look at maaaamaaa!
This stuff is sooo interesting.


Yo.  Z.  Look up!
Here's my foot, it feels so nice in this stiff brown stuff.


Okay, well, I do love those piggie toes.  Good idea.  I'll shoot those.


Go ahead, just ignore me.  I'll capture you that way.


Pretty please, let's get just one looking-at-me-smiling shot, pretty, pretty please?
Hey, did I mention that my teeth were starting to hurt again?


Okay, mama, because I love you.  I'll give you just one chance.  You better be fast!


Well, that was fun, but I'm done now.  Bye!

family silhouette

We've been having some beau-ti-ful weather lately.  Balmy.  Lovely.  Think warm sunshine, flip-flops and open windows kind of weather.  I love it!  I know you're jealous, but I have to document these things to remind myself that living in Florida is not-so-bad.

Anyway, we took advantage of it, and went for a family walk over the weekend.  It was great.  I forget how much I love being outside.  I have become a hermit since living in Orlando simply because most of the time it's so stinkin' hot I can't stand it.   There are many more photos to share, but for now, here's my new favorite of our family:  a little silhouette action.



And, I'm just in time to play along with Emily's "Embrace the Camera" game.  Well, it's not really a game, but it's sure fun!

it's short: the backstory

It's interesting what  a simple haircut will reveal about your kid's personalities.

I went to the salon on Friday morning with long-ish hair.  Hair that desperately needed some style.  It's so hard to get to the salon with a baby in your life--I was long overdue!  The change was...dramatic to say the least!

It's a little shorter than I expected, but I'm getting used to it, and liking it most of the time.

With my scatterbrain, I ended up locking myself outside of my house, and since it was cold in FL on Friday, I decided to wait in my car in the garage to keep warm.

David had taken little Z to have lunch with the girls at school, but came back to let me in the house.  When they pulled up next to me, I looked over and waved and smiled at little Z, who usually smiles back...but this time, he just stared at me.  Sort of an open-mouth stare.  Confused.  Who is that woman smiling and waving at me?!
It took him a few minutes to realize that it was me.  The women who gave birth to him and who takes care of him everyday.

When Miss M got home from school, she could not hide her shock.  Upon seeing me, she screamed.  Literally screamed like she had just seen a ghost.  "You look UGLY!" she shouted, and could not contain her horror at my short hair.  Nice, M, very nice.  She's the dramatic one of the family.

Miss A sort of looked at me with wide-eyes.  "Hmmm," she pondered aloud, "that's....interesting.  I think it's okay."  Very diplomatic and polite.

And, that about sums it up. I do love my children, but sometimes I'd love to pop them on the side of the head.   Instead, I'll just blog about them and get it out that way :)

still working...

...on getting my photos from 2010 ready to print.  I've made it to June now!  It's slow, but sure progress.  I can't help but share some more of little Z.  Here he is at one month old.  He looks like a grumpy old man to me.  A cute, grumpy old man, that is.

So, what do I do with all those photos I print?  In theory, I make them into scrapbook pages.  In reality, I put them in a box, and they sit on a shelf:  some get scrapped, some do not--it's very haphazard.  My new plan for this year is to purchase some simple photo albums--the kind that you just slide 4x6 photos into, and put my photos in chronological order into those albums.  That way, I can at least admire them all while they are waiting to be made into scrapbook pages.  I hope it works!

perfectly imperfect

Today I'm working through my mass of digital files, trying to print everything from 2010 that I have not yet printed.  That would be from May-December.  Not bad, I guess, but since I take a lot of photos, and must edit them all before I print them, it's no small task.

And, it sort of reminds me that they don't have to be perfect before I print them.  So what if the color is a little off in some of the photos??  I'm sure my kids are not going to be sitting there one day when I'm and dead and gone looking at my photos thinking, "Oh my gosh, can you believe that Mom did not color correct this photo??" Or, "Uh oh, she missed focus on the eyes on this one.  The focus fell on the nose instead."  Right.  They're not going to care in the least!

But, as a photographer, these things are important to me.  But, I'm learning to let go...

Little by little.  The perfectionist is being rooted out.  Motherhood is doing that to me, and lots of other life experiences, big and small.

I should be working on my photos, but I'm blogging instead.  Because it's fun.  And, I need FUN in my life :)

So I found these, from May 2010.  Love the imperfection in them.

As you can see, Z is a very well loved baby.  Too well loved, sometimes.  It was the extra loving that pushed him over the edge here.

because I just can't get enough...

...of my baby.  Babies are highly addicting little creatures.  Take little Z for example.  Just when he's done it, and pushed me over the edge of my patience, he'll flash that winning little smile that makes my heart melt.  It's impossible to be mad at him!  I've tried.  Really tried, but I just can not be mad at little  Z.  My girls find this highly annoying and say things like, "Mommy, how come you're never that nice to us?  Were you that nice to me when I was a baby?"  I assure them that if they were still as cute and cuddly as little Z, I'd be as nice to them now too.

On this particular day, Z was being totally annoying and it was definitely worth me being mad at him.  He'd been learning to pull himself up in his crib, but would get "stuck" there, and want my help getting back down.  Naps were non-existent and there was crying.  Lots and lots of crying.  But, when I finally went in to help him out, he was so happy to see me.  How could I be mad at that sweet little face?
  

the red ball

Every boy needs a ball.  This one was $1 at my least favorite store to shop at.  I just loathe Wallyworld, but still set foot in that place every once and a while.  I suppose it was worth it that particular day, because we ended up with hours of entertainment, and some fun pictures.  And, we all know that's what really matters in life...fun pictures.

In other news, David returns home in less than an hour after being gone for 5 days.  The girls were great, and little Z was sort of great, except for the fact that he didn't sleep through the night once while David was gone.  I'm kind of gonna crash very soon or have to get out the toothpicks to keep my eyes propped open.  Nighty-night!

google reader tutorial

Do you like reading blogs?  Have friends who blog, but, don't have time to check them?  Don't want to miss out on a post?  Then you've got to start using Google Reader!  It's only the next best thing to sliced cheese!  Seriously.

First you'll need to have a gmail account.  If you don't, you really need, they're great.  Sooo great!  

Next you, go to www.google.com/reader  and sign in with your google account info.

Now, comes the fun part.

You'll see something like this.  Go ahead and click on "add subscription."  I've put a red star next to it so you can't miss it.

Then, just type in the name of the blog you want to follow.  To give you an idea, I'll show you mine.  I've signed in with my account, and I'm following my own blog.  Umm, yeah, why not?  You can add as many blogs as you like.   Be careful, though, it can get addicting.

Every time there's a new blog post, it will appear in your Google reader without you doing a thing!  Your unread posts will appear like an unread email, in bold.  When you've read them, they will un-highlight themselves and go back to normal.  And, if you really want, you can organize your subscriptions into folders.  At one point I was subscribed to an overwhelming number of blogs, so felt the need to move my personal friends into a separate folder in order to prioritize them.

What if you accidentally enter the wrong blog address, or decide you don't want to follow a particular blog anymore?  Just click on this handy drop down menu.  You can unsubscribe and manage your blogs from here.  This is also where you can organize them into folders.

Pretty nifty, eh?

But, it gets even better.  Now, you can customize your own Google homepage.  If you haven't ever done this you really need to.  It makes life so simple.  Everything you use all in one place.  So, you should still be logged in to your account.  Go back to google.com  You should see this:  Click on the little iGoogle link.  Ready for your world to change?

By using i-Google, you can add your Google reader, and lots of other useful stuff like a calendar, the news the weather.....you get the idea.  I use photobucket to host my pictures, and that is even linked up from my homepage.  The best part is that you'll never have to click into another blog to read it, because they will be right in front of you when you open your homepage.  (Of course, you can always click in to leave a little blog love--bloggers love comments :)

Happy blog reading!  I hope this was helpful.

me and my four loves

A picture says a thousand words. Enjoy!











Thanks to my friend, Emily, for taking these for us! I LOVE them! She hosts a weekly challenge on her blog called "embrace the camera" encouraging moms to get behind the camera themselves. Love it! I thought it would be a great week to join in her fun with these photos.

Happy New Year Resolutions 2011

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to blog more often. I really enjoy it. It's a fun way to document little moments and get to know others as well. Along with that, I'm planning to make a blog book this year using a site called blurb. You can "slurp" you blog into a blurb book. It's great. You can also make photo books there.

So, I should probably get to posting more photos so that my book would actually represent our year and not just snippets here and there. I also want to get back to taking at least a photo a day. It has gotten so hard to do this!

Resolution #2 is to go to bed earlier so that I can work my way out of sleep deprivation. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've gotten to sleep through the night in the past few months. Little Z-man has been up a lot for one reason or another. Mothers of babies, I know you can relate! Sleep deprivation does not do pretty things to one's disposition. Especially mine. Sleep, I need more sleep!

Resolution #3: bring order to chaos. The flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants approach to life was working pretty well for me. And, then baby #3 came along, and life sort of ceased to function very well. Heaps of laundry, piles of stuff everywhere, sporadic trips to the grocery store only to come home and still not have the ingredients for dinner....you get the picture. Life was just getting a bit out-of-control.

So, I'm taking baby steps. First step: make a meal plan and follow it! On the simplest level, it's just writing down what I'm going to make for dinner and make sure I have all the ingredients I need. So far, it's making life much less chaotic. Second step: bring the whole family into doing chores regularly. Third Step: try to clean something & organize a space on a regular/rotating basis.

That's it. We'll see how I do! What are your New Year's resolutions?