Would you believe.....

...that Sam is already 10 months old, as of yesterday to be exact. Crazy how quickly time goes by when they are little like this. Nothing much new of interest to report I suppose. There are cute little excerpts like the other day I found Sam brushing Molly (our doggy) with my hair brush. LOL I impressed on two fronts, one that he was so gently with her and two, that he knew what to do with it. He's still not really talking. A lot of babbling and singing, but nothing more than "Hi Dad" or the occasional "doggie" and "Eeeeee" when trying to get Katie's attention. He's definitely an observer. Very quite, but constantly absorbing everything around him. He's very stable on his feet when standing, and can stand in the middle of the floor for forever, but he's still a little cautious about actually walking per say. He'll take a step once in awhile, but that's about it. He's definitely a climber. I still haven't figured out yet how he's done it, but he has escaped out of the play area and made it all the way up the stairs to the kitchen before. And he does it quickly too. I suppose it's time to start planning his first birthday party. It won't be anything too big, probably a bbq with a cake. Another month and you can be expecting to see some smash the cake session pics with my little man. Oh and you might be wondering about the pic....I'm not sure either. I just liked it and then I played with it to do some different editing.

The faces of Kate

Q. What does a photographer do on a rainy afternoon with her kids?
A.

Something a little different....at least for me.

I took Kate and Sam out yesterday during the brief break from the rain. We stopped in old Norcross for some picture taking time on our way to see Grandma, Natalie and Freddy. :)

Family shoot

I also had a shoot last weekend. So I thought I would share a few from that one. :) Thanks to Dave and Sarah and their sweet kids.

You know the weather's been nice....

....because I have been somewhat MIA. :) I just can't stand to have the kids inside all day long when it is as nice as it was this week. Of course this weekend is supposed to be yucky, but we had a good week anyway. There was lots of playing at the park, playing outside with the hose, drawing with chalk, Katie riding her bike, and Katie's favorite activity this week, planting the flowers. Katie loves flowers. So I went on Monday and bought her a whole cart full of flowers for her to plant in the yard.

She picked out 3 different types of marigolds, orange and pink celosias, and white petunias.I am glad she enjoyed it. I like to work in the garden, but up until recently it was always too hard with Katie being so little. I look forward to planting our vegetable garden with her.
And actually we did so much and played so hard this week, that one day at the swings, Sam just fell asleep. :) LOL It was so sweet. That boy will fall asleep anywhere.

I also had the chance this week to shoot Miss Claire again for her 10 month pics. She is such a baby doll. I'll include a couple of my favorites.


See isn't she just adorable? I could just eat her up. LOL

Here is a bonus pic for you of some orchids I bought myself. I never used to like them until recently. I think I always used to confuse them with iris. Anywho.....

One Pic, because it's cool, but it could have been cooler.

This is Katie coming down the slide at the park. I love to use the sun in pictures. It can be just so cool. It would have been cooler if I was carrying around an off camera flash, then Katie would have been lit up too with that cool sun in the background. But I think all of the park goers would have looked at me like I was just a little off my rocker. Maybe another day. :)

So on to the Piggy Man who calls Katie on her Blueberry

Aunt Natalie came to play Friday and yesterday while I worked for a little bit. I started hearing rumors of this so called Piggy Man in the afternoon when we headed to eat and the park. Apparently, and this is all according to Katie, there are these bad piggies that somehow make their way into Kroger. The Piggy Man is the person who goes and gets all of this bad piggies out of the store. He takes them to the barn and he goes shopping at the Barn Store for their food and stuff. He calls Katie occasionally on her "Blueberry". (Which, if you are wondering, is blue toy cell phone. Aunt Natalie has a Blackberry, so of course Katie's had to be a Blueberry). The Piggy Man has talked to everyone in the household and he is apparently a very nice gentleman. Katie even drew us pictures of these bad piggies that the Piggy Man has to catch.


Notice the piggies have nice smiles? Katie assured me when I asked her that they were "eeevviiilll smiles". Too funny. I have no idea where she gets this stuff from. Just like right now she is on a kick of naming her stuffed animals and baby dolls after the seasons. She has a baby doll named Winter, a blue stuffed teddy bear named Summer, and a baby chick named Fall. It sure is some active imagination she has there.....

The Piggy Man and the "Blueberry"

So this is more of a reminder to actually post the whole story later. But all day today, Katie kept walking around calling "The Piggy Man" on her "Blueberry" (aka her toy cell phone). Totally amusing. The story will follow later. Now is that a tease or what?

Randomness of the Martine mind

So here goes. Just some random thoughts and pics from the past couple of days.
It's been a reoccurring thought lately about my weight loss. My mind still has a hard time accepting the fact that I am no longer 80 lbs heavier. Although, obviously, I am well aware that those lbs are gone. I look at size 6 clothing and can not BELIEVE that my butt is that small. I wear a medium top (small in t shirts) and again don't really believe that they will fit until I try them on. I'm wondering how long it will take for me to accept the new body I have? I still get really excited when I look in the mirror and see a slender version of myself. I look now how I only dreamed I could look 6 months ago. I've talked to others who have lost a lot of weight and they all say they've been through the same thing. So hopefully, it won't be so shocking to me anymore soon, and I can get over it. LOL It also shocks me that I let myself get as big as I did. I really didn't think I looked that big, but hindsight is always 20/20 right? I can only hope for the future, that I've learned my lesson and will never again head down that path.


So anyway, on to other things. I am getting my new and much awaited portrait lens today. Which means you can be sure to see a lot picture posts coming in the future as I get to play with it. What is this new lens you might say, well I'll tell you even if it may not mean much to you. It's an 85mm 1.8 lens. Supposed to take beautiful portraits in the right hands. So I'll be testing it out. Next weekend I am headed off to Berry College for a North Georgia photographers get together. We'll be practicing on models and learning from each other. It should be AWESOME and I am really looking forward to it.


We took Katie to the park yesterday, since it's getting beautiful here, and let her ride her bike around the park. She did amazing! Riding over a bumpy bridge and learning how to stop with the pedals and even using the pedals to slow down. Once she fell off the bike, but did she cry? Nope. She got right back on and kept going. Next step (in a year or two I think), no training wheels!




And then just because they are too cute and sweet. A couple of pictures of Kim and Brad's dogs who are often there in the gym to cheer us on through the workouts. :) Did I ever tell you guys how much I like to take pics?




Ok. Ta ta for now...I'm off to clean...

I suppose you'd like to see some snow pics...

Since us southerners don't never get to see us some snow and you northerners are dang near sick of it. :)
Katie had a blast with the snow. Although she only went out twice, she enjoyed her time with snow nonetheless. Sam was out for all of 10 minutes before he decided it was just too dang cold. I don't blame him. It was cold. Anyway, here's the pics! Enjoy!













And one bonus one of Sam sleeping in a new afghan I found at the thrift store. :)

'Cause you know it's confusing.....

So because of the impending snow "storm", (if you were here, you would hear the thick layer of sarcasm in my voice), my parents flight going out tomorrow was canceled. So of course my Dad calls the airline and the CSR tells him that the airport is going to be a zoo tomorrow. My Dad relays this information to my Mom, who is currently drawing with Kate.
Kate's reply to the statement is this:
"The airport is going to be a zoo tomorrow?!?! That makes NO SENSE!!"

LOL. We forget sometimes how confusing these saying can be when you've never heard them before. :)

Today's winner is.....

There were quite a few runner-ups, but out of them all, the one of Katie after her bath was the one that stuck with me. But here are the runner-ups if you're interested.

Thanks to Kelly!

I had my first maternity session last week. I thought I would share my favorite image from the bunch. :)