Friday, August 27, 2010

Photo Friday ~ 34 ~

Well, we survived the first week of school.  And I've discovered that this little boy right here is quite the chatterbox when his big sister isn't around.   Even though he misses her I think he's started to like having his mama all to himself for a little while.  And I'm liking having my little boy all to myself too.  He's such a sweet thing, but wow, he has quite the little mean streak lately.  I just love this picture of him.  That. face.  I adore that. face.  I cannot stay mad at him for the life of me.  Even when he's being a complete stinker.  

This week while we were finally pulling the weeds out of our front flower beds (a task I had been avoiding most of the summer due to the heat) we found this creature hanging out.  We got him on a stick and put him on the driveway and just watched him for awhile.  He's beautiful but kinda creepy.  Did you know that they can turn their heads?  He was just sitting there and then all of a sudden he'd turn his head and stare right at you with those eyes.  Creepy.  We never did see him do his praying pose, but he was still fascinating to watch.  What an amazing creation.  So intricate and interesting.  

This picture was taken right after church on Sunday.  I LOVE this dress and I wanted to get a picture of her in it before she outgrows it.  This was one of the things that we got for free from our church's clothing swap.  And it's Ralph Lauren.  Thanks to the extremely generous families at our church...what a blessing.  And this dress is perfect on her.  I love how she was swinging it around in this picture.  She looks so classic here and timeless.  I wish I could just freeze time and keep her my sweet little girl forever.  

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

1st Day of 1st Grade

It's official...I'm the parent of a 1st grader.  Whoa, that makes me feel old!  Today we got up, ate breakfast, got dressed, packed a lunch, and waited for the bus.  I'm gonna have to get into some kind of groove really soon because I didn't have my extra kids that I babysit today and it was still kinda hectic.  I don't do hectic in the morning.  I like calm, laze around, drink my coffee and check my email kind of mornings.  My baby girl was very excited though.  She was ready about 30 minutes early so I had plenty of time to take some pictures outside.  Her little brother was even riding his scooter and playing with rocks outside.  I don't think he realizes that she is going to be gone every day, all day...I can't even fathom it yet, and I'm not 3.  He's been asking for her today and can't wait for her to get home.  I hope she's having fun.  We met her teacher yesterday and she has already decided that she is going to be her favorite teacher ever.  Her poor kindergarten teacher is out the window (the previous "Best Teacher Ever") and she's only seen this new teacher for 5 minutes.  I hope this love at first sight lasts!   Here are some pictures of our morning...

Posing in the same spot as last year.  Click here to see her first day of kindergarten.

Showing off her lunch box.  It looks enormous next to her!


Number 1 for 1st grade.

Getting some love from her baby brother.

Her backpack looks so big!

Being silly while she waits.  The bus was late.

Mad at me because I caught her silly face.  


I love this picture.  She was sitting in my lap waiting and she was started to get a little worried I think.

The bus!  Sometimes when I look at her she seems so grown up, but then look at her here, next to the bus, she's still so little!

Today is such a happy day for her but such a sad day for me.  I miss her already and it's only the first day.  Sigh...

Friday, August 20, 2010

Photo Friday ~ 33 ~

My beautiful girl is about to go off to 1st grade next week and be away from me all day.  The conflicting emotions surrounding this milestone are about to do me in.  I am excited to have a break and have more time for myself (not much because I will start up babysitting again next week, but only for half days, and I'm still working on this photography thing) but I'm so torn up about not seeing her for such a huge chunk of the day.  She is growing up too fast!  People, your parents were not kidding when they said that it goes by quick!  I just have this fear that with her gone from me all day I won't know her as well.  And I want to know every little thing there is to know about her.  But I do realize that I have to start letting go at some point, but she is only 6, so I think I have a right to still be attached.  I love this photo of her with her hair falling around her face.  All those days at the pool this summer have totally bleached out the front of her hair and I love it.  We have been enjoying our last days of summer spending time with friends and just hanging out in our yard climbing trees.  Sigh.  I am going to miss this...

Well, you know I love her profile, and this is so perfect the way her hair looks like I'm seeing her through a veil.  Have I mentioned how much I adore her and how much I'm going to miss her while she's at school?

I will still get to look at this sweet face for most of the day though, so I'm sure I'll endure.  I. Love. This.  His expression is priceless while he points to his boo boo.  And I don't even care a bit that the focus is totally off. See, I'm living up to my blog title today.  : )

This is the progression of her eye roll.  That's right, she may not look like me, but she is definitely my daughter.  I was infamous for rolling my eyes during my teen years...and she's already started at 6!  I'm fearing the teen  years already.  And speaking of my blog title, the other day I told her that I needed to do her hair because we were going somewhere (that's our general rule, she can do her own hair if we don't go anywhere) and she said to me, "Mommy, it doesn't have to be perfect.  Just like your blog says, perfection is your enemy."  Geez, what do I say to that?

I just included this picture because there is something I love about it.  I can't quite put my finger on it.  I guess it's a combination of her smile, her hand hanging by her side and looking so long, the soft blurring of the foreground, the silly bands on her arm, and the fact that she posed herself like this for a long time asking me so sweetly to take a picture of her while I was busy doing something else.  

Summer is almost gone and it's making me sentimental.  But I am already anticipating the cool, crisp fall air, the changing leaves and the sound of football in the background of my life.  I'm looking forward to pulling out the jeans and the sweaters and snuggling up for my favorite tv shows.  Just remind me that I said this when I'm complaining about how much I miss summer.  

Monday, August 16, 2010

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Last week we took the kids to their first baseball game.  I don't know why we waited so long, but I'm glad we did because they were old enough to really enjoy it.  My husband and I used to go to the ballgame all the time because the companies we both worked for had season tickets and it seemed we were always getting free tickets.  So now the ballpark just brings back good memories for me.  It wasn't quite the same vibe with the kids there and I really didn't get to watch the actual game hardly at all, but it was still fun.  It so fun to watch them experience the "firsts" in life and relive them.

We went to the game on possibly the hottest day of the summer.  And we were in the nosebleed seats which were apparently blocking all breezes that we might get so we were all super sweaty.  And did I ever mention that my son has a peanut allergy?  Well, it did cross my mind when I was getting stuff ready for the game that there would be peanuts there so I packed his epi-pen in my purse.  I try not to be overly cautious about the whole peanut thing...he's only eaten peanuts once and his reaction wasn't life threatening, just extremely unpleasant, but his doctor has cautioned us that each time he is exposed his reaction will get worse.  Normally, I don't think too much about it, he's at an age where I still have control over what he eats, but wow, being at a baseball game surrounded by peanuts was eye opening.  You know that scene in The Little Mermaid where Sebastian (the crab) winds up in the kitchen and he sees seafood all around him and he shrieks a little each time and then passes out?  Well, it was kinda like that.  We were surrounded on all sides by peanut eaters who were tossing their peanuts shells all casually onto the ground.  Some even landed on my son's shirt...cue my hyperventalating here.  I've never noticed before either that a ballpark just has a peanutty smell to it.  It was everywhere.  Just a little stressful for me and my husband...understatement.  He did okay though.  It was hot and he was itchy, which I couldn't figure out if it was from the peanuts or the sweat dripping down him.  I took him for a walk to get away from the peanuts and cool down and then there was a bench clearing brawl.  We saw a little bit of it, but missed most.  Oh well.  He did end up getting hives, but hey, I can live with that.  I just hope that we can continue to go to the ballpark in the future.  I'm thinking some box seats sound great.  Here's some pictures of our night!

On the way into the park.  Oh and we totally had to lie to get our son in because my brother bought the tickets for us and he thought it was 3 and under free, but I guess it was 2 and under free and the game was pretty much sold out so we didn't want to go buy some random ticket and pay who knows how much for it.  Yeah, that was a little tricky explaining that one to the kids...guess my mom of the year award is out of the question now.

Just outside the gate.


Right after we found our seats.  They were very serious because we were so high up I think they were afraid we were going to plummet to our deaths.  Note the red cheeks and sweaty hair already.


He hates loud noises and always covers his ears.  He got used to the noise though.  He asked to take off his shirt he was so hot!

She hates loud noises too.

The boys were having a good time despite the heat and the peanuts!

And once she got her cotton candy she was happy.  She had her eye on every cotton candy vendor in the park.  She couldn't wait for them to get to us.

I just included this picture because I love the expression on his face.  He and my husband moved to an open spot below us to get away from some of the peanuts.

I just figured out how to make this fun new collage!

The kids had such a great time despite all the stress and anxiety I was experiencing.  We went down to the club level after a few innings and they played on the playground.  They also did some running drill thing where my daughter did awesome and my son pooped out right before the end of the track and I had to go get him.  Overall, it was great game.  We didn't even make it to the seventh inning stretch.  And our team lost.  But we had a good time and it isn't really about winning and losing anyway...just don't tell my husband I said that!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Photo Friday ~ 32 ~


I love this photo!  We took the kids to their first professional baseball game this week and this picture immediately jumped out as me as my favorite.  I'm going to do a separate post all about it, so I don't want to tell you too much, but this was definitely her favorite part.  Next week is our last full week off before school starts and I can't believe it.  I probably won't be posting much until then because I'm trying to enjoy my last few days of summer to the fullest.  Oh, and I realized the other day that my one year anniversary of blogging came and went and I totally forgot to blog about it!  Oh well.  If you want to reminisce with me feel free to go back and start at the the beginning.  Then scroll down to the bottom and click "newer post" to read them in the order they were written.  At least it's something to do if you are bored at work!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

First Comes Love ~ A Photo Shoot ~

I had my first engagement photo shoot over the weekend and it was so much fun.  This girl is my cousin...2nd, 3rd maybe?  I never really understand the whole cousin thing once you get past 1st cousins...so let's just say that we're related.  And she's engaged to the nicest guy.  It was so fun to watch them interact together.  You can totally tell that they are in love.  They are so sweet and funny and playful.  I'm so happy that they've found each other.


She has such a great smile!

They met playing sand volleyball so we did some shots by the sand volleyball court.  Love this!


I love this...she's so affectionate with him.

They are just so perfect together!

Showing off her rock.  And I love her long, slender fingers next to his manly hands.


One of my favorites.  Love the shadow.

They are so comfortable with each other and it shows.

Another favorite.



What a cute couple!

Thanks so much for putting up with me and being so patient on such a hot day!  I had so much fun capturing your love!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Photo Friday ~ 31 ~

I love my baby's sad face.  It's so dramatic.  You'd think he was having the worst day ever, but really we were just checking out this old log cabin at the park near our house.  And my daughter was going on and on telling us all about how she went inside it with her preschool class and they "used to cook with a big fire and then they had like hay or something inside their beds and then they had ropes on their beds for some reason" and on and on in the background.  I'm glad she has such a good memory but sometimes she wears me out with all the constant chatter.  But I'm pretty sure she gets it from me, so I shouldn't complain!  But this is what his face looked like while she was rattling on.

Here he is again looking forlorn.  I'm growing out his hair and I can't quite figure out what to do with it. 

 My daughter has this really funny fake smile that she does and it drives me crazy.  But I figured some day I'll be looking through my photos trying to remember what it was like, so I better just post one.  For some reason her top lip disappears.  I love her little pose here though and her outfit.  For once they are in outfits I like!

Okay, I wasn't going to post this but I decided that someday I will look back on it and it will make me laugh, so here it is.  This is her crazy fake smile again along with his super dramatic frown.  I've never seen anyone frown like he does.  And it usually happens right before he smiles, almost like he's trying to keep from smiling.    I like the way they are just standing there gently holding hands and you can see the difference in their height.

After we checked out the log cabin we headed over to the playground where I snapped this cute one of him climbing through one of those tubes.  See, he has the cutest smile to make up for all his frowns!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Model Senior ~ A Photo Shoot ~

This gorgeous girl...and when I say that, I mean it literally...goes to my church.  I sing in the choir and I would see her sitting in the pew and think, I gotta take some pictures of that girl.  So when I ran into her at the mall the other day and I asked if she'd be my senior picture model and she said yes I was so excited.  I'm not gonna lie, she's not an actual senior, but she's just barely not.  So I figure it doesn't really matter and I needed some pictures for my portfolio.  I met up with her at her house and we had the best time.  I really can't wait to do some more senior photo shoots!   These are some of my favorite photos that I've ever taken.  I'm posting a ton, because it was hard enough to narrow it down this far.  I had so many great ones to choose from!  

This was taken in her backyard.  Her parent's have a beautiful old farmhouse.

Still in her backyard!  She braved the itchy grass and it was worth it.
Love this.

Love this too.  The wind in the hair is perfect!


We found some random farm equipment and we city girls had no idea what it was, but this photo rocks.  One of my favorites.


After another outfit change we headed into town for some urban shots.  It's not really truly urban, but we made it work!



Check out her awesome shoes.  That girl can work it.
Love her pout.
She has a killer smile too!



She needs to be on America's Next Top Model.

I just snapped this as we were walking across the street.  Sometimes the least posed pictures are my favorites.


Another favorite.  This was a cool doorway.


She was up for anything...like posing in the middle of the street!

This one really might be my absolute favorite.  Love her dimple and the light hitting the side of her face.
Or this one.  See why I had to post so many!

I had such a fun time with this photo shoot.  I can't wait to start booking some seniors!  Call me!!

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