I am Mommy, Plus Some

Lena

2011-03-22T18:55:00.008-04:00

Wow, poor little neglected blog. I should start posting again, maybe it will curb my propensity to over post on Facebook. :) Anyway, that is neither here nor there when it comes to the title of this post. A little over a week ago, after a couple of visits to the ranch where she lived with Second Chance Rescue, we adopted Lena, a one year old chocolate lab/greyhound mix. She is what is known as a "spook". Feel free to look that up on google when it comes to dogs. But essentially it means, she's very timid and afraid of EVERYTHING. She needs love, attention, discipline, exercise and socialization to bring her to some sense of normalcy. SO, looking at stuff we've read, watched on tv, and been told, we've been trying to walk her twice a day for at least 10 minutes as part of exercise and getting her used to the world directly outside of our house.

So that brings us to the walk yesterday. Around 3:00 or so, as usual, I was trying to accomplish something that was a little much for the circumstances. Lena seems to do better when Joanie is on the leash with her and since Miguel works, I had to take the kids with me on the walk. So picture it, me, 7 1/2 months pregnant, (1) 45 lb dog, (1) 70lb dog, one crazy 2 year old Sam, and Katie. It's a little much. I have no free hands with which to hold on to Lena tighter. Up the street comes the school bus, out jumps the kids, Lena spooks, yanks on the leash and breaks it and I have no way to catch her. Once she realizes she's free, she's GONE. This dog runs like a horse, both in gait and speed. So I freak out, call the rescue group, drop the kids off at a neighbor's house, and start walking the neighborhood. David, Carolyn, and Jolyn from Second Chance drive out to help me find her as well as the entire neighborhood full of kids I've got helping me out. Props to everyone who helped and called when they saw her. We never would have gotten her back. We see her several times running by the house, but everytime she sees anyone around anywhere, she bolts. And by the way, it's the happiest I've ever seen her look.
So I'll spare you all the details of that whole part search, needless to say, she will come to no one. Even though I'm walking around carrying a pork roast. Seriously. She's last seen at 6:30pm running full speed AWAY from us.
At 11:30pm, we get a call from a neighbor, who read our email to the whole neighborhood, whose friend told her she saw a dog matching Lena's description at the Kroger the other side of a busy 4 lane road about 1 mile from the house. So Miguel being the awesome person he is, gets in the car and heads over to check it out. He doesn't find her at the Kroger, but in the Target parking lot further down the road. Once again, when he approaches her, she spooks and runs for the woods. Miguel gets back in the car and spots her on the side of the road, so he stops, starts to walk in that direction when a Roswell PD officer stops him to ask what's going on. Of course, I'm sure it looked odd, but once Miguel explained, the officer was super awesome and started to help look for her. All this chasing caused her to cross back over the busy 4 lanes of traffic, almost getting hit in the process. Eeeekkkk!!!!
She heads straight back for our neighborhood. And in what would be an impossible distance for me to cover in 5 minutes, Lena arrived in our front yard, right as Miguel pulled in, in his car. Every time she saw us, she would walk away, then come back. So I sent Joanie out to see if she could convince her to come back. They did a little play fighting, chased each other round for a few. I called Joanie back and low and behold, they both stopped, Lena started making a beeline for the door of the house and in she came with Joanie behind her. Without Joanie, I don't think we would have ever gotten her back in the house. All this was done in the dark btw and ended at 12:30am when she walked in the door. Part of her returning was a miracle and the other part was the super neon bright pink reflective collar I put on her last week. :) Lesson learned, she needs complete attention on her walks and definitely not at busy times of day.
She trusts us humans the least amount possible right now. Her whole life has been lived in shelters. And what other places she might have lived did very little to socialize her, in fact we're pretty sure they just traumatized her more. So she sits quietly right now in our bedroom, still recovering I think, from her 9 hour run around east Roswell. She needs a bath though, she smells like the creek in front of the house. :)I'm sure Miguel could fill you in better on the search at midnight last night, but I think I got the gist of it.

September

2010-09-30T11:58:00.003-04:00

A month in review. We did more stuff than this, cool things, but I don't carry my camera with me everywhere anymore. Especially seeing as I normally have 2 kids and a dog everywhere I go. But I thought I'd post a few just to remember it by. :)

Hike up Little Kennesaw Mountain

I Heart Faces-Fix it Friday #67

2010-08-20T14:13:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since I did any editing, so I thought I'd freshen up my skillz. :)

Used Adobe CS3 and played with it A LOT. I can remember most of the steps if anyone is interested in how I got from the original to here.

Original

Edited. Thought I'd playup the bright sunlight in the background, kind of give it that playing in the woods kind of feel.

Tales of my crazy Sam

2010-07-27T10:59:00.003-04:00

See the face in the picture, that about says it all, ya know? He's two. I get it. And he's also Miguel's son, I get that too. Most of the time the things he does, just make us laugh. He's totally a clown. But his latest round of antics has unintended consequences. At least ones he doesn't think of as he strips off all of his clothes and diaper and proceeds to run around the house, laughing and giggling. Two days ago, as I was making dinner, the kids were watching Nick, Jr. in the bedroom. I call them for dinner, and Sam shows up butt naked. He climbs up on the table, and proclaims, "eat!!". As if eating naked was the way it is done, especially when putting your bare butt on the dinner table. Nice, Sam, nice. Yesterday, he strips naked, and proceeds to play on my bed. I've already done my laundry and I am bringing it back up to put it away and he decides peeing on the comforter I JUST WASHED, was super uber duber funny. HA HA HA...HA....HA. I love my crazy Sam, and he keeps us laughing, but he is so so mischievous. There's conflicting information out there that says that boys get easier as they get older. I might believe that if you factor in attitudes. Speaking of, can you see the attitude written all over Kate's face here?

Anyway, I took some bath time pics yesterday. Trying to get my creative energies back. They've seemingly been on break when it comes to my own kids. But I miss seeing happy pictures of them on my computer, so I'm thinking about bring back the 365 project. I've never finished one, but maybe it's time I did. It would be interesting to see how much everything changes over a year, especially while the kids are little like they still are. Life flies by so fast, and we hardly get a chance to really enjoy every day. It would be nice to have a picture from at least one day showing the joys of that particular day. So yeah, I think I will bring the project back. It'll be fun........

One more because she's actually giving me her sweet Katie smile. :)

July 4th

2010-07-15T13:44:00.003-04:00

I'm sure one day, the kids will look back at the blogger entries (or maybe they won't) and wonder where we disappeared to for so long. No excuses or reasons, really. Other than I haven't been in a very blogging mood lately. Any case, I wanted to post pictures of July 4th to share with everyone. It wasn't terribly eventful. Miguel had to work, so after work we went down to where the neighborhood was setting off their fireworks and sat on the driving range and enjoyed a pretty awesome show. Definitely a must for next year. Enjoy the pics. :)

Sigh....if I'll ever get back into it....

2010-06-03T16:13:00.003-04:00

It's just so busy around here. I get on the computer for maybe 20-30 minutes a day, and that's normally paying bills or catching up with everyone on Facebook. Anyway, business has been picking up too, so I thought I'd post a couple from a shoot last week, I think it was. Sharyn purchased the 1 year package for Logan, so this last shoot was for his 6 months pics. Enjoy!!!

This little guy loves the camera. :)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-05T10:48:00.000-04:00

Time flies....

2010-05-04T16:59:00.002-04:00

It took us almost an entire month to get the computer up, mostly because the basement still isn't painted. But in time we'll get done. I wanted to post a couple of recent pics of the kids, even though they aren't so recent anymore. So here ya go, Sam and his luscious lashes, and Katie and her rock star attitude.

Springtime and Easter

2010-04-02T11:38:00.001-04:00

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay —

A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.

~Emily Dickinson

I Heart Faces-Fix it Friday #49

2010-04-02T11:33:00.002-04:00

Another one for fun.....

Original

Fix #1

BW Fix

I heart Faces Dramatic BW Challenge

2010-03-29T10:12:00.002-04:00

My entry for this weeks I heart Faces challenge. Bringing back an oldie from our vacation to St Thomas. Sigh.....

A little bit of fun....I heart Faces Fix it Friday

2010-03-26T12:27:00.002-04:00

I heart Faces has a fix it friday every friday and I thought today I'd participate to take a break from the craziness that is my life. Here's the original photo.

Using Photoshop CS3, I did these fixes.

A home in progress....

2010-03-21T11:10:00.004-04:00

Notice in the title of my post, I did not say "house", I said "home". I am so excited for this house we bought to become our home. We're in the home stretch now. And despite a few unexpected delays (ahem, termites), I think our April 15th goal of being completely moved in is attainable. I hope this house will be our home for years to come. It suits our personalities and provides the kind of environment we want to live in and raise the kids. And I can just hear some groans, and people saying, here she goes again gushing about the house. But I just luuurrvvves it so much. So anyway, if you want to see the beginning pics, you can check out this post here, or the flickr set here.
So these are some of the in between pics. Kind of. We've put down the hardwoods in the basement, taken care of our moisture/termite problem at the front door, in the process of repainting the kitchen cabinets and the rest of the house, working on the landscaping around the house, some deck work, and lots of other little fixes. The next post will probably be pics of us all moved in. :) I hope.

Engineered hardwoods in the basement

New backdoor, because the old one Nick struck with lightning

New front door because the moisture/termites made it seem like a good idea

A kitchen in progress

Making the deck safe for the dogs and the kids

Backyard firepit/play area

path up to the patio/deck and the grassy play area

And a bonus pic of the path along the lake

Annual Flower Walk

2010-03-19T15:25:00.002-04:00

Every year when the flowers start to make their appearance in time for spring, Katie and I walk around the neighborhood and I allow her to take one flower of each kind we see. I know, I know, leave the poor flowers alone, right? But Katie LOVES to pick flowers and put them in a vase at home. So as soon as I started to see daffodils opening their blooms, I knew that Kate's request for a "flower walk" was not far away. So Monday, I think it was, we made our way around the neighborhood examining the flowers, learning what type they were and collecting one for the vase at home. I also have to take pictures for my own enjoyment, and yours of course. :)

Elephants

2010-03-19T14:48:00.005-04:00

Wednesday night, Katie has her spring recital at school. Totally cute, and totally preschool. They sang like 5 songs, but out of the 5, this one was my favorite. Oh and she's an elephant because the k-4 song was about elephants. I have video of that too, but this one is by far the cutest.

I thought I'd post a pic of Katie and Corbin, (her "boyfriend"). She told me afterward that she had, "a terrible case of stage fright". She didn't expect there to be so many people at the concert. :) There's also a pic of my almost two year old terror. Don't get me started on the fit that he threw during, "Jesus loves the little children". Yeah....it was awesome. And the best surprise, (well ok, besides Katie just doing a spectacular job), of the night was that the school supplied dinner. We love it when people cook for us.
Do excuse the quality of these pics, they were taken with my point and shoot and it just does not handle low light well. And I didn't want to be blinding the poor kids by setting my flash of every 2 1/2 seconds.

k. P.S. I added one more. This one is cute too.

He's all boy....

2010-03-02T09:26:00.003-05:00

I know my poor little blog has been ignored lately, but with the purchase of our house and the excruciating pace of life, it doesn't seem that I have as much time as I used to. But I thought I would post a few pics of Sam. Lately, he has definitely declared himself on his way to boyhood and out of babyhood. He's adorable, so check him out for yourself.

Lemon Eating

Bathtub Growls

Faster! Faster! Faster!

Oooooo Trucks......

Ooooooo.....Trains.....

Southern Snow

2010-02-14T14:32:00.002-05:00

Baby Logan, 3 months old

2010-02-11T08:59:00.000-05:00

Just awwwww........

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-03T10:52:00.001-05:00

The House

2010-02-01T17:28:00.004-05:00

So as most of you have read by now, we put an offer and are under contract on house that we just really love. My favorite rooms are the kitchen and the dining room. I love how light and bright it is and the big floor to ceiling windows in the dining room. I also like the screened in portion of the deck right off the kitchen. Perfect for eating dinner outside on those warm spring, summer and fall days. The yard is great too. All kinds of places for the kids to play and there's a lake we can walk to. Like behind the house across the street from us. Of course, they will always be supervised outside until we figure out a fence for the yard. The kids will share a jack and jill suite, that they will hopefully one day actually sleep in. :) Miguel will have his man cave in the finished part of the basement. His office will be part of a room that will have a pool table in it, one day. Anyway, I just wanted to share my excitement for those who haven't already read it on Facebook. Hopefully, we are buying at the right time. As best as we have seen the housing market is coming back. Houses that we looked at one day are all of a sudden under contract the next. Maybe this is a good sign? Right? I think we could all start to use a little good news. :)

Wordless Wednesday-Random

2010-01-26T21:52:00.001-05:00

Makeup by Cristina- Bridal Shoot

2010-01-25T11:29:00.002-05:00

A week or so ago, I did a shoot with some models for Makeup by Cristina. We both needed some bridals for our portfolio, so it worked out really well. Cristina is totally awesome! Thanks again for getting this all set up. Here's just a few pics. I have more still to work thanks to the stomach flu that disabled the whole family for almost a week.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-13T16:50:00.001-05:00

Southerners and ice don't mix ya'll.

2010-01-11T20:02:00.013-05:00

As I am sure everyone has heard, and everyone knows, we had snow, in the good ol' southern state of Georgia, last week. The problem with it was that it's been so dang cold here, that it basically stuck to anything and turned to ice. So I can not even tell you the amount of cars we saw stuck in some predicament just feet from their own homes. Here's a tip, don't attempt to REVERSE down your driveway. Seriously, you guys should know better. Anyway, I feel bad for everyone who did end up with some damage from skidding on the ice. We had to brave it ourselves on Friday because Katie decided to fall of the bed and hit her head on the rocking chair. I have no idea how she did it, only that she ended up having to have her skin over her eyebrow glued together. Sigh...this one is always getting injured. I would move heaven and earth for her not to get injured as much as she does, but I'm afraid it runs in the family, ie Me. She did get to enjoy the snow Thursday night, but I was too afraid of her opening her wound back up to let her play out in it the rest of the weekend. Which Katie's idea of playing out in the snow was to hold her tongue out and catch snowflakes. Sam's idea was running around in circles in it. LOL. You know, whatever floats their boat. In any case, it snowed, it wasn't much but it provided a break from the normal boringness that is winter in Georgia. I am so glad to see the sun coming up a little earlier and staying up just that fraction of minute longer every day. Soon, we'll be catching rays at the sprayground and running around the park in our swimsuits. :)

Just Random Picture Madness

2010-01-05T16:04:00.002-05:00

Joanie, holy moly, she grew.

2010-01-04T13:22:00.004-05:00

Joanie has grown a lot over the past 6 or 7 weeks we've had her. I mean A LOT. When we first got her Katie made her look little. See here. Now. She's ginormous, as Katie would say. And she's only half way to her full size. I love big dogs. So big dog here we come. :)

Reflections of the past.....

2010-01-04T13:09:00.003-05:00

This will be a pictureless post. Which, is very difficult for me not include some picture of something I think might relate, but I will control my photo OCD and leave this one alone.
A lot happened and changed in 2009. There has been a lot of hardship and sorrow for many of the ones I love and ourselves. In some respects it was a wonderful year, with trips the beach and some of the best experiences. Simply look through my blog posts of 2009 and you'll be able to see what I mean. In other ways, it was a rough and tumble year with the economy being the way it is and as always, the family drama. I do want to add something here, that some of you may or may not know. We had to say good bye last year to the little one who is now one of our angels watching over us. I mention it only to try and say good bye and move past the loss. It was harder on us, well me in particular, than I thought it would have been. I am blessed with two awesome children and the best hubby, and in a sense that's what makes it bitter sweet. I know what a wonderful addition we would have had to our family.
In any case, I look back further over the past decade and realize how far we've come, how much we've grown up. I started out the decade a teenager and ended it a mom of two. Crazy, how quickly it all happens and flies by. So for the next (and I suppose current) decade, I hope to continue to live life as full as possible. I hope for us as many amazing experiences in the future as there were in the past.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-30T12:45:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas....and now I'm looking forward to the New Year.

2009-12-25T19:31:00.006-05:00

Sorry if my title is a little.....jaded. I am just SO SO SO ready for the new year. So, here's to having had a wonderful Christmas. Now I am awaiting the new year with much anticipation. Just for some kind of a Christmas pic, here's one of my Sam and Kate with their cousins this morning. I don't really have any AWESOME ones of the kids opening presents and stuff, just snap shots. Maybe, I'll post those later as I look through them as I store them for our own memories.

The kids had an awesome Christmas. We spoiled them with the toys the wanted and the ones they didn't know they wanted. We had awesome food and spent time with family. All in all, our Christmases were wonderful. It is probably official that my daughter is somewhat of a geek. Her big and most enjoyed presents so far have been a telescope and a microscope. But she also has enjoyed flying her Tinkerbell and letting the Zhu Zhu Pets run around. I can feel many an eye roll at the words Zhu Zhu, but we came across them and Katie had asked us for them. And she has enjoyed them. Sam, got a gazillion things with wheels on it and stuff for him to bounce and roll around in. I'm sure that as we get through opening all the presents, I'll post pics of them. Some of the toys are really neat, and I think to myself, "Now, where was that when I was a kid?". Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone out there and I hope yours was as enjoyable as ours. Kisses....

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-23T22:33:00.002-05:00

OMG!!! It's a gum burn!!!

2009-12-21T12:00:00.008-05:00

So you might be a little curious about the title of this post. It's a follow up to last weeks post about the zoo trip. Sorry it's taken so long to get here, but life has been some what chaotic this past week. Ok. Maybe not JUST somewhat chaotic, it's been a an all out chaos-fest. In any case, sit back, relax, and be prepared to think "Really? Nah, they couldn't be that foolish, could they?". So last Saturday morning, as I was cooking eggs for Miguel's breakfast, Sam was throwing one of his usual tantrums because I wouldn't pick him up. Poor boy, don't you already feel sorry for him? So for the sake of my nerves, I picked him up. What does he do as I am heating the pan with OIL in it to cook the eggs? Yeah, you guessed it, he put his hand in the pan. He managed to only burn a finger, which began to blister. I immediately treat it and decide it's not bad enough to warrant a trip to the ER. So I give him some pain killer and off we go to the zoo. He complains and is upset about his finger all morning, and rightfully so. Burns hurt. So we'll fast forward through the day to making the gingerbread house. See the picture left. We decorate the gingerbread house, all the while I'm letting Katie do most of the work. She's happily adorning the house with candies of all description, as well as some gum balls. I let her have a couple of gum balls, and apparently behind my back Sam is helping himself to a couple too. Why is this an important part of the story, you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. These little gumballs contain FLESH colored gum. The particular one Sam got a hold of, must have had a red shell. So we finish the gingerbread house, Miguel comes home from work and we head out to get something to eat. The real drama is about to begin. Seriously. After dinner we head home, and start getting the kids ready for bed. Miguel takes Sam's shirt AND sweater vest off to discover some nasty looking scratched up "sore" on Sam's shoulder. His RIGHT shoulder, the same side as his burned finger. I look at it and feel the "skin" and start wondering what in the world is going on. Miguel says, "Is that a burn?". Looking at it, it could be. I suppose. If it is a burn, it's a really nasty nasty weird looking burn. So we decide that to prevent it getting infected or anything we'll take him to the ER and get "the burn" and his finger treated. So all the while, I'm thinking, did I really miss a burn that huge? How could I not have noticed his shoulder was bothering him? We get to ER, the intake nurse, says wow that looks like a nasty "burn", let's put you guys on the fast track. So we go back and get seen by a nurse practitioner, who says to us, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not a burn, it's gum." Oh no, really? We just wasted an ER visit and everybody's time for GUM?!?! To be fair, it was flesh colored, with bits of red shell,and he had been scratching at it, apparently. We weren't the only ones fooled. So we wait for someone to come remove said gum, because it is very very stuck to his skin, which by the way, it took almost a week to get all of it off. But we don't have to wait long because Sam starts pulling at it and takes care of most of the removal for us. Sigh.....there's me, feeling like a moron. Thinking my son is going to have this huge scar and deal with all kinds of things related to a burn. CHOA (Children's Healthcare of Atlanta) was nice enough to wrap up and treat his finger and off we went home. At 2am in the morning. Back home. Yeah, definitely one for the scrapbook.

A Santa and an Animal Encounter

2009-12-13T19:03:00.017-05:00

Where else could these two things happen at the same visit? Only at the zoo of course. Yesterday was breakfast with Santa at the zoo, which Katie enjoyed. She got to have muffins, see Santa and hang out with her cousin. Good times. My sister has a friend who works at the Zoo and was able to get us an animal encounter. Thanks again to Megan for taking the time to hang out with us and show us the animals and teach us a little about them. We saw lots of animals, scary ones, cute ones, icky ones, happy ones, and shy ones. Katie is an avid Wonder Pets watcher. Has been for a couple of years now. There is one particular episode that seems to stick with her though, "The Wonder Pets Save the Hedgehog". So Megan was kind enough to bring out the hedgehog and if you ask Kate what the highlight of the trip was yesterday, the hedgehog trumps Santa. Funny girl. So I'll just list the photos of the animals Katie got to touch and see below my ramblings. In the last pic, the carapace on the tortoise is all messed up because he was kept as a pet and fed dog food. So just an FYI, if you want a tortoise as a pet, you are so not supposed to feed them dog food. Just thought that might be a useful piece of information to someone.
Oh and if you are wondering where Sam is in all these pics, he's being an arm monkey because yesterday morning he burnt his finger. Because AS USUAL he insisted on being held while I cooked breakfast and curiosity got the best of him, I suppose. 19 months old are ridiculously like kittens, I swear. There's a really funny story about a gingerbread house, gum, and how we ended up in the ER, but I'll save that embarrassment for later. Right now, I gotta go cook me some meatballs. Paleo ones. With Almond Meal. Mmmmmm.....my tummy says, "yummy".

"1, 2, 3, smile at me!!"

2009-12-11T18:32:00.007-05:00

If you've had a recent session with me, you might have heard me say this. A few times maybe. Ok, maybe more than a few times. Anyway, it no longer works with Katie. Rhyming no longer makes her laugh or even cracks a smile with her. And all my funny noises in the world won't work with Sam anymore. Katie will pose when I bribe her with candy or eating at "Old McDonald's". Sam will occasionally take the cue from Kate and sit near or around her and say "ceheeeeessseee" (intentionally typo, that's really how he says it). But for the most part, temporarily, they are uncooperative. It may be that for right now, I have no where near the patience for my own kids that I have for clients kids. Sigh...N-E-WAY. I attempted to get some Christmas pics out of the kids over the past couple of days. They aren't exactly what I envisioned, it rarely is with your own kids. But I've been under the weather and I just wanted to get them done. They are cute and all, but I might try and do something different for New Year's or Valentine's or Easter or........

PS, there's more than just the one picture, but you'll have to click on it and view them through lightbox. Remember roll over one side of the pic or the other and you should see the next or previous buttons.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-09T13:34:00.003-05:00

Sam, Future Crackberry Addict

This is me, about to lose my mind

2009-12-09T13:14:00.004-05:00

This is my post about my 19 month old and his need to clean the floor with his head and back. I seriously feel like I'm about to lost my dang mind when he throws these new tantrums. It all starts because I just physically can't hold him any more. You try carrying around a 20lb bag of potatoes all day and see how long it is before your arms start to give out. So as soon as I put him down he immediately throws himself backwards, hitting his head on the oh so soft and squishy tile floor. Thud. Then he proceeds to SCREAM at the top of his lungs, all the while pushing himself along the floor on his back with his feet. On the way across the floor he RAMS his head into numerous objects. Thud...thud....thud...thud....you get the point. His tantrums don't.ever.stop. Period. I have tried ignoring them, picking him up and putting him in another room, etc. He climbs out of everything or THROWS himself out of everything. I'm about to lose my mind with him. It's emotionally exhausting to go through this 3-4 times a day. Seriously. The pediatrician says to just ignore him, walk away, and let him come to me when he's done. But Sam, my dear son, will throw these tantrums till he just wears himself out and falls asleep. This can be upwards of an hour. So this whole long winded explanation and description of my son throwing his tantrum and how I am slowly going crazy is to ask, what in the world do I do with him? Grit my teeth and hold on for the ride until he outgrows this stage? I'm afraid before we get there, he might seriously injure himself. Sigh......I feel better now venting about his tantrums at least a little bit. Now I just figure out how to help him.

Katie, my artist

2009-12-07T15:16:00.010-05:00

Do you know Bendaroos? Katie is intimately acquainted with them. She luuurrvves them a lot. Enough that the other day she thought they would make great window art. And, ya know, I tend to agree with her. I turned around to find these rockin' flowers along with some assorted balloons (not pictured) plastered to the window. She actually took me by surprise because her flowers were just so awesome. You wouldn't believe what she can do with bendaroos. I should probably post more pictures of her bendaroo creations. I did happen to take a picture of her current chalkboard art. It is also totally rockin'. I added some helpful arrows and description on the off chance you weren't able to tell what things were. But honestly, I think you could tell anyway. Notice in the drawing of herself she is holding a flower? It's the little touches, the little things..... I am supposing that this is a picture of a giant Katie, although she herself didn't tell me that. She does a lot of drawings of giant people with little tiny houses. Poor giants, always stuck out in the cold. Maybe I should bring up this with Katie during our next drawing session. Maybe...
Our next art project is Christmas related and it should also be awesome, so I'll be sure to post what pictures of it I can. Although, some of it is "secret" stuff, ya know, as in presents and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. That would totally upset Katie. She's really into the whole giving presents this year. Hopefully she's as into that idea as she is into receiving presents.
PS, don't forget you can click on the image to see them bigger. Let me know if it doesn't work. I'm wondering if it works for everyone.

The Christmas tree and the Present next to it

2009-12-07T14:35:00.008-05:00

Ok. So I finally got our tree up with all our ornaments on it. It took longer than I thought because Sam and Joanie conspired against me to take the ornaments OFF the tree as Katie and I were putting them ON the tree. But I digress, it's up and it's beautiful. I still have the upstairs tree to put up and the rest of the house to decorate, but this tree is up and the Samster and Joanie are used to it now. So hopefully, they'll leave the upstairs tree well enough alone. Yeah, right. So the other big thing we were working on last week was our Christmas present to ourselves (Miguel and I). A beautiful 52" 1080p 120hz Sharp LCD. It's beautiful. We had to expand our entertainment center to accommodate it. You know how you hear people say that they want to go back and watch movies because they look different and it's just amazing? You haven't? Well it's true. I totally want to go back and watch some movies like Lord of the Rings or 300 on this tv. It's just so awesome. Miguel has also hooked up a computer to the tv which is running XBMC. Which is also totally awesome. We can play our mp3s, view my pics, watch videos, youtube, and a host of other things. All on our beautiful new tv. It rocks. Thank you Miguel for being technically gifted. We have such neat gadgets in our lives. Ok, and technically speaking, in the picture you see Boxee, which is similar to XBMC, we were still trying to decide which program to go with. So there you have it, the present that sits next to our tree. :)

From mischevious little monkey to half way grown up cub scout

2009-12-06T21:45:00.009-05:00

What seems like 10 seconds ago, I used to babysit my nephew Saturday mornings. I started watching him at 9 months old all the way until we moved 3 years ago. He is now the ripe old age of 9. Half way to being grown up. In 9 years from now, or another 10 seconds, I'll be taking pictures of him in his cap and gown. For now, he's in his cub scout uniform. Time goes by just too dang fast, ya'll, just too fast. James, or as we lovingly call him, "Smeggy" (I won't explain the nickname now, or maybe ever) spent a lot of Saturday mornings hanging out at our house. I was introduced long before we had our own kids to the world of "Playhouse Disney", which included many episodes of "The Wiggles" and other shows I can't remember now. Or maybe I choose not to remember them, who knows. Their memory slots have since been replaced by songs from "Yo Gabba Gabba" and "The Wonder Pets".
In any case, I have fond memories of playing out in the yard with a little boy who was always smiling and laughing and getting up to all sort of mischievousness, helping prepare me for the kids I would have of my own someday. Here's to you Smeggy, don't aspire to finish growing up too quickly, ok?

Flashback Monday

2009-11-30T17:15:00.016-05:00

Ok. Ok. Seriously, I do know it's supposed to be Flashback Friday in the blog world, but I want to post this now before other things come up. At the beginning of November I went to stay with parents in PA while Miguel went on a business trip. The kids and I basically got to chill for week with my parents and my brothers. We did drive around and I got to see the Amish farmers at work, which is awesome. The Amish are ridiculously hard workers. I can not even imagine a world where you get up at 4:30am and do hard physical labor all day, go to bed and repeat the next day. It's very inspiring, since I myself have a very difficult time getting up before 8am. We also went back to an ice cream store that I haven't taken Katie to since she was 5 months old. I wish I could find the picture of her eating there way back when. Maybe a project for another day. Miguel did manage to drive down to come hang out with us for a day, which was cool since we hadn't seen him. Miguel, by the way, got to spend the day in New York City, sightseeing and drankin' with his buddies from work. I have yet to make it to sight see New York myself. A trip for another time I suppose. Hint, hint Miguel. Hint, Hint.
So anyway, I'm trying out my new little viewing feature, so if you click on the picture, you should be able to go through my favorites from the trip. So, just roll your mouse over the image and you should see a "next" or "previous" button. Very neat. No more flickr slideshows. Makes me happy. And yes, I am aware, that particularly for the portrait images, the 1200x800 size is a tad large. But I am so not resizing them now, so if you all don't mind just dealing for now. I'll keep it in mind for the future.

Testing Lightbox

2009-11-30T13:15:00.012-05:00

So I thought it might be fun to make a new way for you guys to view my photos larger. I've been posting them as 900x600 images, but this way I can post them even larger for your viewing pleasure and I don't have the pesky problem of them not fitting into my blogger template. Cool, huh? So from now, for the most part, you'll need to click on the image to view it larger. It's really awesome what happens when you click on it. So try it. I know you'll like it. ;) I even went back and added the code to the last couple of posts too, so you can play and click on the images to view them larger. And I posted a random really big picture here too, because it's fun for me to see it work. It rocks. Totally. Oh and PS, for all of you Facebookers reading this through the feed, it won't work for you. It'll only work if you come to my actual blog (www.iammommyplussome.blogspot.com). So there.

Mr. Wiggles, sent directly from Santa himself.....

2009-11-29T11:48:00.010-05:00

Are you all ready? THIS is Mr. Wiggles. He is our Elf on a Shelf. Santa left him last weekend and has been keeping quite a good record of Sam and Kate's misbehavior. Oh and when they're good too. He's been all over the house and he gets up to his own elfin mischief. He hasn't been destructive yet, but he has stolen an oreo and got himself stuck in the refrigerator as he was trying to get a sip of milk. Silly Mr. Wiggles. Katie is reminded often that Mr. Wiggles is watching her and that everything she says and does is reported to Santa every night. So it is her morning ritual now to look around for Mr. Wiggles. At first she thought she only had to be good where Mr. Wiggles could see her and then I promptly reminded her that Mr. Wiggles has x-ray vision. He can even see your underwear. Hopefully, Mr. Wiggles will have more things on his good list than on his naughty list by the time Christmas Eve comes around. Oh and did you know, apparently, Mr. Wiggles is watching Miguel and I too? Because we have to be good to get our presents from Santa Clause. So I guess we all have to be on our best behavior. Oh and seeing Mr. Wiggles everyday has inspired Katie to sing "Santa Clause is coming to town" all the time. She's actually pretty good with the lyrics. Her favorite line is "you better not shout, you better not pout". Figures. So anyway, we're under constant watch here, and we've had to start hiding the cookies, because Mr. Wiggles has a thing for cookies. Oh and today he stole a Dorito from Katie's stash. So, you all better watch out, you never know where your Elf is hiding, checking to see if your being naughty or nice.

Turkey, lobster, and a mullet

2009-11-27T13:01:00.002-05:00

This is how the Behers do Thanksgiving. We are incredibly thankful for the life that we have, for our family, our friends, just generally the life we have been blessed with. So when it comes to Thanksgiving, we like to feast. Me, I like to feast on Turkey, exhibit "A". Miguel likes to feast on lobster, see exhibit "B". Oh and yes, I like to feast on dessert. I must attempt to satisfy my insatiable need for sweets. I might tell you that I am NOT the only one who has a sweet tooth in the household and we made no less than 4 desserts. Sam was up early enough to enjoy the fruits of my brownie making, spending most of the time licking the icing. We spent most of yesterday hanging out with each other and cooking. Which in our house is something we really enjoy doing. Let me give you a quick rundown of what we made, so your mouths can water jealously. Turkey, lobster salad, seafood couscous, loaded baked potato salad, bacon wrapped scallops, mashed potatoes, tiramisu, pumpkin pie, peanut butter pie, and brownies. Add to this my sister-in-law's food which included, southern dressing, mac'n'cheese, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, and probably a couple of other things I am forgetting, we seriously feasted. Also let me introduce you to Miguel's cousin from the Florida Panhandle, Billy Shadow. We were happy to have him join us for our Thanksgiving, it's been quite awhile since we had the privilege of his company.
So that's how we "do" Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving '09 was a blast, can't wait for next year's feast.

One Handsome Boy, One Beautiful Girl

2009-11-27T12:55:00.002-05:00

The kids dressed up for Thanksgiving dinner. I attempted to get some decent pictures of them since they looked so awesome. They were not entirely cooperative.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-25T14:15:00.001-05:00

The Hardworking Amish

Mr. L, Sneak peak for Sharyn

2009-11-24T21:38:00.001-05:00

Congrats on your precious baby boy!

"Mom, let's celebrate because we have the best dog ever"

2009-11-20T21:27:00.011-05:00

I love all the crazy things Katie says, unprompted, mind you. The title of this post was one of her many many statements to me today about Joanie. I think Kate is just a little bit smitten. As are we all, I think. Joanie is just fun. She likes to snuggle, play, run, and has really generally been a pleasant puppy. I am hoping that the trend continues and she doesn't have some sudden personality shift. Overall, she's been a truly lovable puppy with very few potty accidents. You might ask if I have any complaints? Not yet. Well, ok, only that she likes to chew on pens. This is a problem, especially if you are like Miguel and put said pen in your pocket and it proceeds to leak all over your pants, wallet, and cell phone. Oh and it gets on your hands which you proceed to place on the steering wheel. Yeah......but in any case we are already unalterably attached. She has been a wonderful addition to our family so far and I can only hope and keep my fingers crossed that it continues as happily as it has this week. I keep it in my mind at all times that she is a puppy and can at any moment exceed our expectations for disaster. In that sense, it's like a having a baby that suddenly becomes mobile and you search the ground endlessly for anything they can chew, swallow, destroy, etc, etc. I suppose in many ways, it's like having a baby in the house. I mean really, she is a baby, cause after all a puppy is just a baby dog. ;)
On other news about Joanie, we did take her to the park for the first time today. Which surprisingly she wasn't all that thrilled to see. Something about the number of cars going and coming and the numerous little miniature humans (aka children) running around, I think had her a little rattled. Probably not to mention, 15 billion different smells and the left over scents of 10,000 different dogs.

Oh and P.S.
Did you notice how I gushed about her more than a couple of times? Yeah, it's totally the honeymoon phase.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-18T02:00:00.000-05:00

"Joanie, my sidekick"

2009-11-17T23:35:00.003-05:00

This is ya'll's introduction to the newest baby in our family, Joanie. We saw her this morning on petfinder.com and couldn't help ourselves, so we hopped in the car drove and up to the GA SPCA to see if she was a good fit for us. We even took Molly, our little 6lb chihuahua to make sure they'd be ok together. We got there to find the sweetest ~~little~~ big puppy ever. She is totally cute and cuddly. We were told she's a short hair golden/Labrador retriever mix. At the moment she is 11 weeks old and about 15lbs? probably. Exactly, a big little puppy, I think we can expect her to be in the 40-60lb range. She is a sweetheart and seems to be mostly already housebroken. The kids love her. Katie is already calling her "her sidekick". Not sure what trouble they will get into, but I'm sure that in the future it will make for interesting blog posts. For now, you'll be seeing lots of pictures of her because unlike Molly, Joanie really seems to enjoy getting her picture taken. Oh and for all you Mad Men fans out there, we named her Joanie because she reminds me of Joan. But we went with Joanie, as Roger calls her, because, come on, it's a totally cute name for puppy.

Sneak Peak for Ana

2009-11-15T22:26:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-11T01:47:00.000-05:00

Sneak peaks for Michelle and Melody

2009-11-09T22:08:00.003-05:00

So I always post the sneak peaks on my business blog, but I post them here too just in case anyone who doesn't check that blog gets to enjoy the sneaks too. I just thought I would let you all know that. You know, just an fyi.

Ok on to the sneak peaks. Enjoy!

i <3 fall

2009-11-08T22:58:00.001-05:00

Halloween 2009

2009-11-03T14:32:00.005-05:00

Sigh....I'm a little late posting these. It wasn't the most exciting Halloween ever, but Katie got to enjoy herself. Sam, on the other hand, was tired and fell asleep on Grandpa well before we went trick-or-treating. I did get the chance to dress him up, my little lion. Katie was Thumbelina, the Barbie version, which apparently has wings. I can not remember Thumbelina getting wings in the Hans Christian Anderson version, but so be it. Anyway it was drizzling, wet and cold. Hindsight is 20/20, but I guess we should have done one of the church trick-or-treats. There's always next year.....

Sneak Peak for Lauren

2009-10-28T16:07:00.001-04:00

How cute is J? I'll let the photos speak for themselves...

A beWITCHingly good looking pumpkin...

2009-10-27T19:37:00.001-04:00

We painted pumpkins the other day. The plan is to carve the big one sometime this week. That may or may not happen. We'll see. Anyway, I painted to first two with some direction from Katie and the last one is Katie's own masterpiece.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, that pumpkin of Katie's has a runny nose. Eeeeeewww....

I fear I may become a fabric addict...

2009-10-27T19:25:00.002-04:00

After going back and forth and deciding whether or not I wanted to jump on the photography band wagon....I jumped. I bought some laminate flooring, a base board, and used fabric I already had to create this current look. This was just a quick put together, I still have to fix the gaps. But it now has me wanting to run to Joannes and see what other fabric I can find on the cheap. ;) So expect to see some more of these posts with me playing with different fabrics. I.am.inspired.....it's been a long time since I was inspired to do any studio stuff.

Boo at the Zoo

2009-10-27T13:46:00.003-04:00

We made it to Boo at the Zoo this year. We started out the morning with my sister and her family and then spent some time with Sara and her family. :) Katie had a blast. Trick or treating, having a dance party, riding the carousel and train, visiting with various characters (Curious George and Cat in the Hat) and checking out all the animals. You won't see hardly any pics of the animals this zoo trip, 'cause frankly they're not as interesting as my kids or the Boo part of the zoo. ;) Oh except for the two gorilla babies fighting. Or wait, is that Katie and Sam?

This is Avery here, not Katie. Avery can breakdance with the best of 'em

Notice I am not on the train or carousel in the next pictures. That would be because Sam fell asleep. Yes, among all the ruckus at the zoo, he fell asleep.

You know they are my kids......

2009-10-27T12:37:00.004-04:00

...because they are actually looking at the camera. Thank goodness. I guess sometimes it helps to be a photographers kid. Anyway, these are their fall pics. I may attempt more next week at Grandma's house, but we'll see. It was pretty ~~crazy~~ frustrating to get these. It's ALWAYS more frustrating with your own kids. I have nothing but patience for everyone else's kids.....

hy

Because Sara does more than just play house.....

2009-10-22T13:45:00.003-04:00

My friend Sara is having a giveaway on her blog. I was going to call it a toy giveaway, but it's educational and much more than just a toy I think. So check it out and leave a comment. You never know, you just might win.

Sara Plays House Giveaway

Our Fall Tradition

2009-10-21T22:43:00.002-04:00

...is to go to pick out a pumpkin to carve and ones for pie and then to head up to Amicalola Falls for a visit. This year we stayed to see the beautiful sunset, hence the sunset picture in one of the previous posts. Anyway, not much to say other than we did it and it was fun. :)

Wordless Wednesday Part Deux

2009-10-21T19:27:00.000-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-21T11:08:00.000-04:00

The Birthday Party(ies)

2009-10-19T21:14:00.005-04:00

Ok. So we had 2 parties for Katie on the same day. She really wanted a Chuck E Cheese party, but I wanted to spare those who didn't have kids. Because really, if don't have a kid to play with, it's like being in a Casino when you don't gamble. Loud, noisy, and annoying. So we had the kid party in the afternoon at Chuck E Cheese and then in the evening we had a small family party complete with dinner from El Pollo Loco (Katie's new fave place to eat). Katie insisted it had to be princess themed. Who am I to not spoil my kid and cave to her every wish? ;)The party was topped off by roasting marshmallows over the fire pit even though it was almost too cold to be out by the fire at all, but the fire was warm. Who woulda thunk?
Anyway, she started out her birthday by opening her presents from us and from Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mark and Uncle Matthew. I won't bore you with all the details except to say that she did get her OWN laptop (one of Miguel's old ones) and loves that it's hers. I've even been yelled at for daring to get on it and surf the web. It came complete with it's Hello Kitty background and a pink theme thanks to Miguel. Very cool. Here's all the pics from the day. Enjoy!

Oh, and my baby was so excited today at the park. She met a little boy named Aden who was also 4, so it was kismet and off they went to play together. All because she's 4 too.

Before I post pics from the birthday....

2009-10-19T20:30:00.003-04:00

....I HAVE to post these pics of the kids at the park. All of a sudden the kids have become good friends when playing at the park. It used to be that Sam was in his own world and much slower than Katie. Now, he's much more interested in playing WITH her and she's much more interested in being patient with him. So sweet. It's the kind of thing you dream of when #2 comes along and you wait patiently for. Here's to many more fun days at the park. (I lift my water here and take a swig)

Ok, fun with blur here, maybe a little over board on the fun.

It was perfect, and then he moved.

And one bonus pic of the river.

To Katie, my dear 4 year old baby girl

2009-10-16T22:57:00.007-04:00

So Katie, you might wonder why I still call you my "baby" girl. It's because, when I look at you, I can still picture the little one year old with no hair and the constant baby giggles. In some small part of my mind, you will always be my baby girl. You've come a long way in a year. Made all kinds of discoveries and learned boundless new things. You've managed to find the beginnings of who you will be. And I'd swear somedays you were 3 going on 13. You are learning to be a big sister and beginning to understand what that all entails. I could go on and on about what a great kid I think you are. How you are the most fun and you've made our lives so much fuller and greater than we ever thought they would have been. Mommy and Daddy love you Katie, and here's to hoping the next year will be even happier than the previous one.
So for memories sake, here's a picture rundown of all the birthdays before.

She's got sticky fingers....

2009-10-14T21:39:00.001-04:00

...and I don't mean as in covered in candy sticky, I mean as in she's a thief. If you asked her, she'll tell it's mine. But we all know who's she thinks it really is....

So I guess you could say....

2009-10-14T18:57:00.003-04:00

...I am getting back into the swing of being a photographer after a few months break. It's hard to be creative all the time. :) This past weekend I also had a maternity shoot, which went really well.

Mark and Bethany- The Wedding

2009-10-13T22:54:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I got a chance to photograph Mark and Bethany's wedding. A beautiful wedding and a wonderful couple. I wish you guys all the happiness in the world. Congratulations!! Here's just a peek at a few pics.

Bath time, again

2009-10-08T16:59:00.002-04:00

I love bath time pics. I will miss it when they no longer bath. Occasionally, Katie asks for showers, but baths are still the preferred method of getting rid of the kid stink. Anyway, they really have a blast together in the bath. One of the few times during the day when they don't spend their time fighting. Oh wait, well, does splashing each other count as fighting?

My babies, actually both looking at the camera...

2009-10-08T16:55:00.003-04:00

...a very rare occurrence. So much so I thought this pic deserved it's own post. Don't mind the drool or the crap on Sam's face. It's still precious.

St Johns Island

2009-10-06T00:16:00.004-04:00

Back to the vacation pics.....
These pics are actually from our last day on vacation. We took the car ferry, which was a first for all of us, over to St John's so we could drive around and explore it a little more in depth. First we drove to Cinnamon Bay, very beautiful, and found donkeys on the beach. Yes, wild donkeys. As beautiful as it was there, we got back in the car to find some sugar mill ruins. When we got to where we thought the ruins were, we found a trail that went right across the shoreline. Somehow we got in our heads that this trail took us to the ruins. No, this trail took us over a mile past the ruins to Watermelon Cay. Very beautiful and we witnessed some sea turtles swimming around, but not exactly where we meant to go. So back to the car we go and decide to head over to Coral Bay to get something to eat. More wild donkeys on the road, and a soccer team made up of goats. ;) So, here's a note to anyone going to St Johns in the off season....almost every restaurant in Coral Bay is closed until the busy season. We did eventually find a place to eat, but you will note here that I am utterly exhausted. After refueling, we headed back to our most favorite beach, Trunk Bay. We stayed as late as we could, until we got concerned we might miss the last ferry back to St Thomas. We stayed long enough that we were the only people left on the beach. There's something so amazing about having one of the world's most beautiful beaches all to yourselves. Anyway, that was our last day there. There are so many great pics, that I had to do the slideshow thing. Hopefully, the colors will look ok. They've been looking a little crazy in past slideshows. I blame it on Flickr.

A break from the vacay pics......

2009-10-05T14:49:00.003-04:00

Claire bear is 17 months old and it's been forever since we did any pics of her. It was way overdue. So I'll share some of those with you and couple of my Kate. :)

Sam and Claire sitting together....everybody go awwwwwww......

Come Sail Away, Come Sail Away, Come Sail Away with meeeeeeee

2009-09-29T20:47:00.003-04:00

Over a week ago now, we sailed on the sailboat New Horizons on one of their day long snorkel tours. It started out at 9am and we got back at 4pm. They served us many many watered down drinks (as they always do on these things) and a decent lunch. We sailed to Honeymooners Beach on St Johns Island and to a private beach on Little St. James for our snorkeling pleasure. We saw tons of fish, coral, sting rays, and even a sea turtle or two. We attempted to get Katie in the water to snorkel, but at the words "sting ray", she was back on the boat. She's not a fan of them. I can't blame her, some of them were probably bigger than she is. LOL So anyway, we had a good time, got way, way too much sun (it was the only day any of us got burnt), and made a good memory. I wish I had picture of the full sailboat, but trying to carry your 16 month old son, camera and personal affects kinda makes you forget about somethings.

Coral World

2009-09-29T12:13:00.002-04:00

Across the bay from where we were staying in St Thomas was Coral World. Katie loved it, of course. All the fish, coral, sea turtles, lorikeets(birds)and other sea creatures that she could enjoy. So enjoy just a few pictures of what we saw there.

The view from Coral World

The views from above

2009-09-28T20:44:00.006-04:00

These pics are from the plane trip to St Thomas and the views from our hotel room.

Magens Bay

2009-09-28T19:32:00.002-04:00

We had a very very nice late afternoon evening at Magens Bay last week. And as I sit here with my sick little girl and feeling ill myself, I dream of the sand beneath my feet, the waves splashing, and the sun shining.

Stealing Iguanas

2009-09-26T20:19:00.002-04:00

It's crazy how many iguanas there are on the island of St Thomas. They apparently love to hang about the pool and hot tubs. Oh and they LOVE oranges. And they like to attempt to steal said oranges off of your drinks. Oh yeah, if you're ever there, don't wear red nail polish. Unless you like to be nibbled my iguanas now and then. It's up to you, I guess.

My wake up call

2009-09-15T20:09:00.000-04:00

This is what woke me up this morning.

More pics just because....

2009-09-12T20:40:00.002-04:00

....and now forward....

2009-09-08T12:38:00.004-04:00

to today. My goal, since I did not put Katie in preschool this year, is to try and do as much stuff with her at home as possible. So I have a whole bunch of books to practice writing letters, numbers, counting, learning to read, science experiments, learning about animals, and arts and crafts. This morning she chose to work on numbers and wanted to do a science experiment. I let her pick the science experiment and she chose blue goo. Of course she chose the messiest one. LOL Blue goo is simply cornstarch, water, and food coloring. We also worked on the number zero. Writing the number, understanding what zero means and writing the word zero out. She had it down pretty quickly. I was impressed. So here are the pics from this morning. Because what kind of mom with a camera (MWAC) would I be if I didn't have my camera ready at every possibly moment.

Let's go back......

2009-09-08T12:27:00.004-04:00

back to Stone Mountain. I've posted a couple of pics from our walk up the mountain. I think the most fun for the kids, was being able to play in the puddles on the top. So here are the pics from that day. I figure if I don't post them, they'll sit in a folder on our server and may never get seen by anyone other than me. So enjoy. :)

Oh, yeah, we saw a fox on top of the mountain. Random.

Cousin Rick

Cousin Carlos visiting from Chile.

Check out ma belly!

That's right, I said MA BELLY!"

"Mom, I'm done!"

Dancing and waiting for sunset

2009-09-07T21:45:00.002-04:00

I decided to take the kids to the park after dinner and play and get rid of some of their excess(and never ever ending) energy. The sprayground was still on and so of course Kate and Sam had to stop by and visit. Hopefully, today wasn't the last day, otherwise, we will miss you dear sprayground. Anyway, after that the kids were wet and still hyper, so I decided to let them run around the front yard until the sun kissed the sky goodnight. There was dancing, bubble blowing, and Katie pretending to be a flower girl. You may wonder why there are barely any pictures of my dear Sam these days. It's because he DOES. NOT. SIT. STILL. EVER (oh wait, except when he sleeps during his 1 nap or at night). Trying to get a decent picture of him, with eye contact, would take an assistant, whose age is more than almost 4. But I'll include a pic of him, in all his boy glory, which includes a scraped up face and some grass. Go figure.

A pre-Birthday celebration

2009-09-07T21:33:00.006-04:00

Keep this on the DL, but next week Miguel turns the BIG 3-0. Eeeeekkkk....I guess that means that he is really, officially a grown up? Maybe? Nah....we'll never grow up. LOL Anyway, we had a small family get together. His big present this year is our trip to St Thomas (yeah, you know I'll share pics from that trip, I am sure they will be in the 1000s. Seriously.) I took a few pics on Friday just to mark the occasion.

>

Oh Bubbles....

2009-09-07T15:42:00.002-04:00

We love bubbles here. Katie is not a happy kid without bubbles being around at some point during the day.

And a couple of bonus ones of Molly, just because.

"Don't you dare take my picture!"

"Really? You're going to torture me like this? Really? I should poop on your stupid camera. Really."

Atlanta and the sky

2009-09-05T14:39:00.001-04:00

On top of Stone Mountain

2009-09-03T13:46:00.003-04:00

And the rest of the hot pinkness....

2009-08-30T19:52:00.003-04:00

Hot pink, it's her favorite color.

2009-08-30T19:27:00.001-04:00

I still have one more session after this to do with Kate. We'll get to it at some point, I guess. :) This is one from last week. She was just being crazy for these pics. Nothing I could do, 'cause ya know, she's only 3.

Yesterday's Session with my model Kate....

2009-08-24T15:10:00.001-04:00

I was going to try and do a slideshow, but for some reason when I play the slideshow the color management is horrible and the colors look neon bright. You should fix that, Flickr. So here they are for you to look at.

Katie's Portraits

2009-08-23T19:32:00.001-04:00

Teaser Pic. First of 3 sessions. Did the first one today. Studio session tomorrow and an urbany session sometime this week. :)

Katie, The Conqueror

2009-08-23T13:29:00.006-04:00

So as some of you may know Katie has quite a fear of heights when it comes to climbing and slides. But yesterday at the park, she climbed up the little climbing thingy and jumped down the pole without much hesitation. Yay Katie!! She goes back and forth between being scared and not scared, but now that she's getting older maybe we can cast aside her fear of heights, just maybe.

We did lots of stuff at the park yesterday. Bike riding, playing soccer, a quick run at the sprayground, and Popsicles. Normal run of the mill kid stuff. Oh and Katie insisted that I post a picture I took of her and Molly and one of her in her igloo tent. LOL. Just showin' her love for her pup and her new toy.

Bowling and Gymnastics

2009-08-19T18:57:00.007-04:00

Put them together and you'd have gymnastic bowling. Now, that would be something wouldn't it? LOL. I haven't been posting much since last week we all had the stomach flu and this week is a team challenge at Crossfit. The challenge means lots of strategy planning about how we are going to make it into the gym everyday and earn our team some participation points.It's all very exciting stuff, really.
Anyway, once we were feeling better last week we took Kate to her gymnastics class. She LOVES gymnastics. Hence the gymnastics picture, and yes, I am sneaking a pictuer through the door, because mommys aren't supposed to stay and watch. But who can help it? She is so cute walking backwards on the balance beam, forward rolls down the mat, and jumping all around being crazy. Soon she will be starting a dance class too. We'll see what she likes better. We were also going to do soccer, but we will be missing quite a bit of the first fall session, so maybe in the second fall session or the spring. Meanwhile, I think dance and gymnastics and all the fun things mommy has planned should be enough to keep her busy until Christmas.
We also took the kids bowling last week. Kate, of course, participated and loved it. Sam tried to pick up bowling balls and ran around all willy nilly. Bowling is exhausting when your kids are young. Oh and in case you were wondering, Miguel kicks my butt in bowling. Once of the few areas he can.

Some conversations just need remembering.....

2009-08-05T13:58:00.002-04:00

This convo took place in the bathroom as we were getting ready yesterday.
Katie: "Mommy, what can I be when I grow up?"
Me: "Whatever you want to be when you grow up. "
Katie: "Well then, I want to be a mommy when I grow up."
Me: sniffle...slight tearing of the eyes, because that's just so sweet..."You can be a mommy when you grow up, but you can be other stuff too."
Katie: "Nah, I just wanna be a mommy."

Of course this convo was followed up later in the day, by this question:
Katie: "Mom, how do I become a mommy when I grow up?"

I will say that I followed that question by explaining she needed to be married to a daddy first and then she could be a mommy.

So that part of the conversation was followed up this question:
"Mom, when I grow up will you help me find a daddy?".
Here's where I chuckle, and say "Sure, if you really want me to when you grow up."

LOL
I don't think that she'll be asking me for that help when she grows up. Still it's a sweet thought.

The return of sunshine

2009-08-02T11:53:00.004-04:00

Since the sun decided to make a brief appearance yesterday, the kids and I headed out to the Sprayground. To dry off after the sprayground we drew with chalk, where Katie drew the planets and Sam ate some of the chalk. We sat on the sidewalk watching Sam run around in the grassy area generally being a boy, while we sat sunning on the sidewalk, generally being girls. The sprayground wasn't enough for them yesterday, so after lunch, Katie wanted to do the water slide in the backyard. I took some video yesterday because I decided that we needed more video of the kids. I hardly ever take video these days. Time to change that I think.

Katie enjoying the mushroom at the Sprayground.

This one is Sam and Katie enjoying the pool in the backyard.

And I just love this pic from Katie playing underneath the mushroom. Taken with my p&s (point and shoot for you non-photographers) S3IS. Gotta say for being like 4 years old and a p&s, it does pretty well.

Claire Bear!!!!

2009-07-31T14:45:00.011-04:00

Robin, we need to do Claire's pro pics again! :) I just love her expressions in these snapshots. ;) I just couldn't help but post them. She always gives me such good eye contact, even if it is the stink eye sometimes. A couple of bonus ones of Sam and Claire eating rice crispie treats together and Caleb being Caleb too.

A mommy rigged water slide

2009-07-31T14:34:00.009-04:00

Yes, this is what is looks like when mommy (that would be me) puts a hose on top of the kids slide and puts the slide in their blow up pool. Then decides it would be fun if they went down the slide together. I promise, they were having a blast. :)

The Paleo Diet

2009-07-30T22:25:00.005-04:00

So Miguel and I have come to a plateau/standstill with our weight loss. One of the theories of healthy eating is something called the Paleo Diet. Essentially, the idea is to eat like paleolithic man. Meaning, eating protein, veggies, fruit, and select nuts and oils (for fat). So, no eating grains, cereals, legumes, or dairy. I won't go into the whole theory behind it, but I'm sure if you google it, you'll find plenty of information. I *think* we are going to attempt it for a few weeks and see how well it helps get rid of these last 20 lbs. Thankfully, I am going to be doing a transitional period for at least the first week, because I am a dairy addict. Also it requires some planning of meals and getting certain things premade for the week. Really we kind of eat this way already, but we eat a lot of dairy products. So that's the only part of this way of eating that will be difficult at first. The great thing is that you get 3 cheat meals a week for the first couple of weeks and for when you are maintaining. So those things you love you can still eat a few times a week. Anyway, hopefully after a little while, we'll lean out and be able to post some great results. I *might* even post a before picture. Maybe. Maybe not. Depends how confident I am feeling.

Trips to the Spraygound and other random Summer pics

2009-07-29T12:09:00.003-04:00

I think the title says it all. All taken last week.

It's all about wearing them out, ya know?

2009-07-29T11:47:00.003-04:00

So last Thursday we went to a great place called Play with Christy and her sons. They have trampolines and a foam pit that Katie just adored. And she's been asking to go back ever since. So off we will go, probably today. :) It was a blast and after we left Katie declared that she "had an AWESOME time!".

After that we made our way over to Stone Mountain, where we had plans to hike the mountain and watch the laser show. Well, when we got there we discovered that the Village there has a twilight special and the tickets to get in are more than half off. Excellent! So we went in and Katie did the toddler version of the sky hikeand we played in the barn (where basically you get to shoot foam balls out of air guns on 3 different levels. Oh, and climb on these rope like stairs everywhere.). At that point it began to pour and all hopes of going up on top of the mountain by cable car or hiking were lost. So we wandered around the stores and bought candy and other cheap (read:not really THAT cheap, it's a relative term there) items. Once the rain stopped and it dried out a little, we headed over to the lawn where we sat and had a picnic and waited for the laser show. We saw MOST of the laser show, but it was cruelly cut short due "technical difficulties". I have no idea what they really meant by that, but what it means for us, is that Katie will not be happy until we go back to hike the mountain and watch the whole laser show.

Tubing in Helen

2009-07-28T13:42:00.006-04:00

Since Miguel missed the first tubing trip to Helen, I figured we'd go again last Wednesday. This time we invited Miguel's mom, sister and her boyfriend. Kim and Brad from CFNF joined us too and the tubing was a blast. No better way to spend an afternoon than in a inflatable tube, floating down the Chattahoochee, getting stuck on rocks and having friends and strangers alike give you push on down the river. ;)
Oh btw, do you really think I'd take my baby (camera) down the river with me? No. Pictures courtesy of a one time disposable water camera.