Party On

I was going to wait to post this until after Eli's birthday party (we postponed it due to Anias' being ill and the weather being crap), but they're already changing so much! Eli: FOUR Years Old I tell mom "I brush my teeth all day long, so my teeth won't fall out and I won't have to go to the dentist!" I break out in sporadic prayer and some of them are so sweet. I prayed that our Heavenly Father would protect me from bad guy dreams and naughty guys (in life). I told mom "I love you will all my heart, all my soul, and all my paper." I love knowing what things say and am always interested in the 'no' signs. I asked for a Curious George, Fireman, Policeman, Car Wreck party. Mom did her best- and only realized later on I probably wanted a Rescue Bots/Curious George party. I call my ribs ribbons and asked for a hobo stick (pogo stick) for my birthday. Mom told me she loved me and I said, "yeah, well that's how life works....

I've been putting myself out there lately and it's been hard!  I've been wanting to do more couples shoots since I've been getting inquiries with no bites, but I am mostly comfortable being a kid photographer. So I decided to push myself and  wrangled my sister and her husband into modeling for me. I asked a few forums for advice in making an ad for Valentine's Day and they all said raise those prices!  This is so incredibly hard for me.  I try to be confident, but I am a perfectionist who is hypercritical of myself and my work. I don't want to lose my old clients and I don't want people to think I am proud either. I guess I still feel like an impostor sometimes regardless of how many classes I've taken and how much work I've put into learning my art. To be fair, I sort of felt like an imposter as a therapist too regardless of the change I've seen happen and the people who have told me flat out I helped change their life. Maybe that feeling just ...

It’s been a full year and one week since our lives changed forever. Our little guy is so sweet and smart- it’s been a joy. A lot of work and sleepless nights and stress and worry- but always joy. I wouldn’t change it for anything. On the sleep front- Well, I don’t know what my assessment is. On the one hand, he’s gotten down to only waking once a night now that we’re home and back on a schedule. He’s going to sleep now without me holding him, but with me just singing to him in a chair next to his crib. This also means that he’s got to be feeling better. On the other hand, when he does wake he’s up for 2 hours. More often than not one of us takes him to the guest room to sleep with him while the other gets some (much needed) rest. With me, he’ll wake repeatedly even doing this- and it would be nice to spend a whole night a) asleep and b) asleep next to my husband. On the feeding front- we made it! We made it all the way to a year. Now we’re on the task of weaning. I started introduc...

All right, I have two very adorable twin nephews who are turning 9 this year! In 28 days to be exact. The problem is, on really wants a cowboy themed party while the other wants an iPod party. How to mix these two? I’m thinking you could either a) have a ‘Time Warp’ party in which half the party is ‘Cowboy’ themed (circa 1950’s perhaps) and the other half would be ‘Technology’ themed (circa, now? the future?) or b) you could have a mash up of the two using sort-of a Cowboys vs. Aliens sort-of stance. I would do a split of the two because it just seems easier to be honest with you. Actually, I would put some painters tape down on the floor of a large room and have half be Cowboy and half be Technology, with a ‘Time traveling’ door in the middle. Something like this… I’m not a genius with cardboard, but my dad is! For the Cowboy side, I’d make…. I created the banner in Microsoft Publisher and the Wanted Poster from mixing this with a sepia picture of the boys. I’d also make Trai...

Y’all- I’m about to skip over a few days in this week’s photo challenge. Yep- you heard it. I’m going to skip long exposure and “technology” for a bit and bring it back in a week or two. That’s okay though right because 1) there’s more than 28 days in a 30 day challenge so we’ll need extras for that last week and 2) I totally feel horrible. Day 15: Silhouette                                       Day 18: Shoes                                       Day 19: Orange                          ...