thank you babe

To my wonderful hubby. He knew what I wanted, and delivered. Between him and Santa I can't complain. Santa brought me a new portrait lens I've been really wanting.... and I love it! f/1.8! No more lighting problems inside! It does a really great job, now it's up to me to figure out how to use it best. And then Matt got me a new camera. I don't know that I needed a new one... but it sure is a good one! Yay! Now I guess I REALLY need to figure out how to use all the programing on it. I'll be doing a lot of reading. Any suggestions on easy ways to figure (and remember) all this stuff out would be great. I just can't seem to retain some of this info! Anyway, here are a couple shots I took of Makenna with the new lens and camera. I had to do no photoshop! (well okay, I did change the black and white, but that's it!). What do you think?

Smile

Matt comes home tonight.
:)

What's that sound?

My poor baby has been stuck with this terrible cough for a week now. The kinds that keeps us all up all night. The kind that we couldn't seem to figure out what to do to make better. I finally take her to the doctor and.....
Pneumonia.
Yup. Hats off to some good parenting over here! It's amazing though. Two days on antibiotic and the cough is SO much better! I guess there was a reason she was being so bloody miserable to be around. I probably would have been too...

Shots

This poor girl of mine. We went in for her yearly, and of course had to get shots. Just two. Just two. Lets just say she doesn't handle the doctors so well. She had to have a CT scan once and they actually had to get three drugs in her, just to calm her down enough to get the IV in. Well, yesterday wasn't any better. All those spots on her face... that's not picture there, those are popped blood vessels. Nice. Very nice. You should have seen what her face looked like after the CT scan. This is nothing! Anyway, it took 3 of us to hold on to her, and we could have used more. Every time we have to do shots of any type, the nurses always impressively say she is the strongest 5 year old they've ever seen. I should be proud. Right? At least I don't have to worry about her with the boys. I KNOW she can take care of herself!

It cracked me up though. She really wanted me to take pictures of her, and she had to do her hair herself. There were green clips of any type she could find, all over in her hair. It cracked me up. And then she'd pull all these funny faces, trying her best to do her "Hannah Montana". How could I say no? So after her modeling, we went downstairs to watch her first viewing of High School Musical. I just couldn't do it before then. I'd seen it once, and couldn't stomach another. But for some reason, maybe just because I was watching it with two very intrigued girls of mine, it wasn't so bad. I think we're gonna have fun over the next few years!

My Family

So now that the Christmas cards have gone out (feel free to raz me if you don't get one in a few days!) I can safely show you some of the other pictures which didn't make the cut. Personally, it wasn't my fav that got picked for the card. Don't get me wrong.. it's not bad. Just not the one I'd pick. Probably because I'm the one who has a bit of a funny face. Really, I'm just laughing a little. Nothing TOO bad, or trust me. It wouldn't have made it on the card at all. But it was everyone else's favorite, and majority rules on this. It happened to be the best one of all the others. O-well. So back to what I was saying.. I just thought I'd show you a few of the other takes. Finally. Man I love this crew! And thank you Molly for the great picts!

~and yes, I don't know what is going on with the pixels on this blog right now... I can't seem to post clear pictures right now. :(

Every tree needs a train

Or should I say every boy needs a train. This year the kids got to open up an early Christmas present. Well, actually a few early ones (oh yes Aunt April, the kids do love the chocolate calendars as they call them...!) bug the infatuation has to be the train. Matt has always wanted to get a train to set up around the Christmas tree. And every year we wait until we can affored to get one. Well. This year we got one as a gift. I don't know who was more happy. Matt, or the kids. Especially Bug. The minute he gets home from school, this is where I find him. It's adorable really. And he'll stay occupied watching that train go around the same track until the others are begging him to come play with them. Thank you Grandpa!!!

Missing a friend and her baby

So I am just missing a friend of mine. It's been awhile since we've gotten to hang out. Too long I think! Last time I was there I took a couple of photos of her new baby, which by the way did NOT turn out! I just couldn't wake the sleeping baby to get better pictures. O-well. So me and my boredom while sick was determined to make one of them work. I actually like how it turned out. What do you think?





this one I'm not sure about... some times yes, other times no. So here it is anyway, but definitely not as good as the first.

Family photo time

I got to shoot my first family a bit ago. THANK YOU for having faith in me! They were awesome on this freezing cold morning. I do hope they are happy, because we did have some lense issues, causing things to not fully focus. Rats. If you ask me though, there were oodles of ones to choose from. Here are some I really liked...







and just one of the girls having fun!

girls being girls

It's been a good Thanksgiving. So much to be happy about. We had family here this year, which was a first (other than the year we flew my mom out because Nutmeg was born and it just so happened to be over Thanksgiving!) and hopefully not the last. Four families, including us were able to celebrate together. AND the biggest was probably that Matt was home for an entire 10 days!!

I've been sick the last couple of days, and I mean was only cohearent 3 hours on Friday and maybe 4 on Saturday type of sick, and now am awake but have no energy. So I was browsing through photos I still needed to catalog, and I remembered these. They make my heart happy. Nutmeg is putting her Hannah Montana make-up on Ase, so they can both rock out to music together. It was so sweet. This may happen with your kids often, but not mine. Ase was in absolute heaven for a bit. She was finally on the same level as her amazing big sis.

Mmmmm.
Makes me just want to hug someone (but maybe just a nap will do today)!

Five

Happy Birthday Sugar! Mmm, I think maybe Spice would be more fitting...
Today was a packed day, for which I am going to take off my heels (finally) and go to bed. More pictures of the Birthday Girl tomorrow!

I love you!

(wish the one eye wasn't so out of focus)

One of these years

I will actually have a birthday ready without all the last minute stuff. Tomorrow is Nutmegs birthday, and I still don't have most of it ready. Nice. I did some last minute shopping for presents today. I'm not completely happy with what I found, but I doubt I'll have time tomorrow to fix that. I still have to put together goodie bags for her class at school (I am so glad the other two have summer birthdays!) along with some Hannah Montana cupcakes. Still haven't figured those out yet, but at least I can bake them tonight... oh wait. No liners. Mmmm. I have to decorate the house. Sounds trivial. But not here. We do it every year for all the kids. Streamers, balloons, signs. The works. We don't do a lot of "huge" parties, but instead just make the smaller ones rockin. Oh, and I still have to wrap presents and somehow come up with a CAKE for the family party. Haven't even looked into that one yet. I think this might be a store bought one. We'll have to see what I can pull together. If tomorrow wasn't early release day and everyone home by 11:30, I might be able to pull it off. But before 11..... not a chance!

So this picture is completely unreleated, but I was just happy with some new stuff I figured out on Photoshop. Yay! I thought it was pretty darn cool! And I'm really happy with the family photo shoot I shot on Sat. I just finished editing the photos. I just might post some...if they don't mind!

It was warm today

and no, not outside. I guess it is slightly warmer out there today, but it's rainy. Today though, it's warm inside. I liked today. So I had to write about it before my perception possibly changed (that tends to happen once the mayhem of kids getting out of school shows up... wonder why!). But really, we didn't go anywhere today. No runs to Target or the Grocery store. No doctors appointments. Nothing. So Ase and I sat home and danced, folded laundry, danced some more, watched barney (yes this was very difficult for me, but she was entranced for her first viewing), worked on dishes together (gulp), and then dressed up. There aren't many days I feel I can slow down and just be here. I wish I did it more, although the house is glad I don't. No, I didn't get things done near as quickly as I could have, but we still got some stuff done. And it just makes me realize how much I really do love my little parrot!

Family

They are the best. Today we took family photo's. Again. It's something we've yet to succesfully accomplish...
until today.

No, we don't have the perfect photo. There is always someone not looking toward the camera. Or someone pulling a funny face. But they are real, and real is good. Real is how it should be. So then I take that back, they are perfect. Either way. We're good now for atleast another year! I'd post a picture or two, but I'm sure we'll use one of them for our Christmas card.. so you'll just have to wait. Hopefully you're one of the lucky ones that will get one. If not, well, I'll post one for the rest of you so no one feels left out!

But as I was thinking about family and how great they are (funny how it's easy to think that way when they are all actually cooperating for even 10 minutes - which by the way is all the photo shoot took) I realized how much I do miss all our other family. my family. You take these things for granted when growing up, or still living close by home. But I don't. Not anymore. It's now been nearly 8 years since I've lived around family. Time really does go so fast. I have however been so lucky to have them come visit us every now and then. Even if we do have to twist their arm! So I guess, just thank mom and dad. I am so glad you guys came out and got to spend some time with us. It means the world to us, and of course even more than that to the kids.

Love you.

You have to start somewhere

I love watching these two play. I just wish it was more often. It seems they compete in just about everything. Who knows. Maybe this will be good for them when they get older. It will push them to succeed. Either that, or they will just have to live some distance apart! I know my mom thought she'd never see the day when my sister and I would actually like eachother. We do, so maybe I just need to be a little more patient. If only I could help them to understand how much easier it is to just enjoy things. Enjoy playing together, before time is filled with raising their own kids. Enjoy sharing things while they still live close enough to share. Enjoy learning from eachother, because yes, even the younger ones do know some things! And somehow, I wish I could help them to embrace their differences, because if they can do this... it will make them just that much stronger.

For now, maybe I'll just work with talking nice to eachother. Small steps...

My fourth photo

Not ever.. just the fourth in my photo folder. I am an organized freak.. if you didn't know that already, so I thought the fourth spot was going to be a folder (with a year), finding 12 more folders (for all the months of course) to which I could grab a photo from what, the first month? It worked out much easier than that. There was actually just a photo, a single photo sitting in fourth spot in the main folder. No sub-folders or sub-folders of the sub-folders. Yea! And... it's not a horribly embarrasing one to post. Whew.

I guess I should explain. I got nabbed by someone to post the 4th picture in my photo folder. No exceptions. Glad this worked out so well, and by the way, thank you for asking! Besides, now I don't have to think too hard for a blog post! This is one I took in Seattle back in 2004. I don't do landscapes, but this one is one of my all time favorites. Now it's YOUR turn....

* just breathe *

I think those are the words I have to keep telling myself right now. She doesn't know how to stop this. But maybe... maybe she does. I don't know.

See I have this child who, despite all the wonderful things in life, will look and find the bad. She's not a glass half empty person... she is a not-a-drop-of-water-in-the-glass type person. There is usually something ailing her from being happy. It used to always be a tummy ache.

She didn't want dinner = tummy ache.
Didn't want to go to bed = tummy ache.
Didn't want to get out of bed = tummy ache.
Didn't want to go to school (yes she has already pulled this one) = tummy ache.

But now the problem has changed. The tummy ache wasn't getting her far enough. So now (drum roll please) we have toes that hurt. Yes her TOES!! And NO her shoes are not to small... so please don't suggest that they are. In fact she has new shoes just to make sure of this. It would almost be commical, if it wasn't so darn annoying to listen to her cry because of her toes hurting.

She doesn't want to sit in the car another minute = toes hurt.
Wants out of the shopping cart for which she begged to sit in = toes hurt.
Wants to watch TV = toes hurt.
And my favorite, she needs a drink (because who knows what would happen if you just asked for one) = toes hurt.

So I'm sitting here at my computer trying hard to think of the other side to her, while she cries in bed that she want's medicine for her hurting toes. The happy, playful, sweet girl that she can be. I'm trying to remember, really I am. I guess that's what I love about looking at pictures. It's so much easier to remember that side her when I have a version of her on my computer screen, in which she is smiling back.

She just decided she will say a prayer to get them to stop. Amazing once she came up with a solution how things magically changed. If I had offered this solution she would tell me it doesn't work. But tonight, she thought of it, so it will work. And if that's
the way it goes... I'm okay with that. For tonight. I just need to get some sleep. So long as I don't even dream of toes!

Genuine happiness

Of all the luck to have for our 3 days in Florida... It rained for 2 of those! It's a good thing we went to the beach the very first day, because that was the last chance we would have. And even then, we had to leave because the rain started to fall before we were wanting to be done (hence very poor quality of photos because it was so dark outside). Atleast it was warm. Very warm, and windy. Very windy. But even that small amount of time was worth it. Nutmeg would never get near the water. We've been to Florida a couple of times this summer, and she would not get near the waves. Wanted NOTHING to do with them, even if we tried to hold her. Somehow though, through the magic of granparents... Nutmeg was in the water. Her and Pa ran in and out of the waves. Something we've tried many times to do with her, but it took someone else for her to be brave enough.

I loved watching her out there. I loved that it was my dad, the one who taught me these same games, to be the one out there teaching her. It was perfect.

Thank you Pa.

Even if only in a dream

So I'm really tired tonight, but someone (whom I won't mention names, hehem Adrienne...)pointed out it's been a long time since I posted. It hasn't been that long, but it has been a bit. So here are a couple pictures to tide you over until tomorrow. We were able to go to Florida with my parents this last week.. hence the beach. But we'll save all that until I'm not mis-typing every other word.
Good night. And dream of warm, sunny beaches......

She wants to be

a Rock Star!

She dresses in the craziest outfits every day. She has really decided to take this whole thing rather serious. I don't know if she's going to start some pretty rockin trends when she gets older... or if she is going to have to hire a stylist. Either way, she turns heads where ever she goes. The other day we went to pick up Bug from school and man, I wish I would have taken a picture.

Purple tutu dance costume.
Pink terrycloth pants.
Gold silk shirt.
Arm warmers.
Streaked blue hair.
Pink Headband.
Ugg Boots.
and
A huge yellow purse that looks like a duck (really an easter basket).
And don't forget she carries a microphone with here everywhere she goes!

Yup, it was, um, cute! But I do hope her lack of caring what others think doesn't end. Because, she really doesn't care.... for now.

One of those days I suppose

I feel about like this.



No reason. Plenty have a reason to feel like this (heather *wink*), but I don't.

I think I'm just tired. Maybe a good night's sleep is all I need. I'll work on that. Tonight perhaps.

It's that time of year

When my sister was out we made a point to go to the pumpkin patch here. It was fun, I only wish Bug had been able to go with us. He was in school. Poor thing.
The girls weren't in the best mood, so getting any pictures was rough. Hopefully we'll make one more trip out so Bug can go too (and of course so I can catch some pictures of them). Hopefully whenever we move our new home will have a pumpkin patch close by. Some traditions will be hard to loose.

Caught in the act!

The kids are always in the back yard now. All the kids. The neighbor kids. Friend's kids. Everyone. And I love it! But this time, it was just Ase out there. Can you tell she's pleased?