A new blog

My sisters and I have begun a new blog dedicated to our favorite things.

Come check us out!

It's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself!

Grandma Jean

This is my Grandma Jean with my sisters, my mom and I.



She passed away only 2 months after that picture was taken. I was pregnant with Gabe, so in 2005.

I don't remember crying at her funeral. I don't remember crying about it anytime since then. I don't cry a lot.

But tonight I was rearranging Aria's room so Clara can move into it and I cleared out the storage space under her bed. It was full of blankets. One of them was this one.



Aria was so excited to see it. She says it's her favorite blanket and that she was wondering where it had gone. Grandma gave me that before she died. (mom, did she make it? I can't remember). Anyway...it's mostly been in storage since I got it so when I took it out tonight and held it up to my face I could still smell Grandma's house.

And finally...I cried. Then I looked at the pictures from the funeral and cried some more.

I love you, Grandma.

Clara

I think I mentioned that Clara makes a funny face when she hears Gabe or when Dave gets all up in her bubble.

I finally got a picture of it.



and she's trying to roll over. Someone tell her she's not allowed to grow up.



and just for fun. I took this the other night with my point and shoot. The aforementioned Gabe and Dave. :)

Sneak peak for April.

I'm having way too much fun editing these. Seriously, she just lends herself to the old skool look. :)





one more. She's so pretty!

Post baby motivation

I have a very short nesting period when I'm pregnant and it's not so much nesting as forcing myself to get things done before the baby comes. But after the baby? That's a different story. For some reason, I get a ton of energy and I do a ton of random stuff for several months after I have a baby. When Gabe was born it was close to Christmas and I did a bunch of homemade gifts that year.

I'm just weird like that, I guess. My sister even said she wanted to get her baby skirt order in before I go back to normal. lol.

Anyway...this is what I did the last couple days.

Freezer jam! I grew up on freezer jam and it's my favorite jam. So, I gave it a shot. Strawberry and Strawberry/Blueberry. What do you think, should I call the latter Braberry or Strewberry or Strawbleberry? (The last one is Dave's contribution...we've been discussing this.)

Isn't it pretty?



And I made a skirt for Aria out of the left over material. There was no tulle left. I used it all up cause I kept messing up. It's a little different, but they can be cute together. And to think I roll my eyes at the pictures of me and my sisters dressed alike. I get it now and I'm totally going to put my daughter's through it, too! In my defense, Aria asked for the matching skirt!

LOOK at what I did!!!

I am not domestic. Not only do I not enjoy all those domestic things (cooking, cleaning, sewing, crafting, etc) but I'm usually quite bad at them.

I think my dad said it best. He was visiting this last weekend and walked in and saw a sewing machine (that I borrowed from a friend) on my kitchen table. He looked at one of my kids and said "What's that? A sewing machine? In your mom's kitchen? What's going on here????"

Seriously, me busting out a sewing machine is like the twilight zone.

But...sometimes you want something that isn't found at the average store and you don't want to pay the extra money plus shipping to get it online somewhere. (Etsy comes to mind, which I adore, but didn't want to go there for this item).

So instead...I contact an online friend who made one for her daughter. I really wanted one and she was amazingly kind enough to take pictures as she made one for a gift and send me the pictures (I'm very visual) and the instructions.

And VOILA! I made a skirt for Clara. With a sewing machine. From fabric. Bought at a fabric store (a place where I'm normally quite lost...in fact a lady asked me a question about quilting while I was there and when I gave her a blank stare and said I knew nothing about anything quilting, she moved on, lol.)

Aren't you amazed? You really, really should be. It was even kinda fun. I might make more. (Ignore all the stuff that makes it obvious that I've never sewn a skirt before. Tulle is hard to sew. Just be amazed.)

mmmmm.....

Sometimes, for a shoot, the fates come together and line everything up so perfectly that I wonder what I did to deserve it. That happened the other evening.

My client was totally relaxed and fun. She looked fantastic, she picked the perfect location (which I will be dragging people to in the future) and the light was absolutely delicious.

Wanna see?





I was so excited to see this sign as we were walking along.



I actually gasped out loud when we turned the corner into this clearing. Look at the yummy light!









You can see the whole thing here.

More pictures from the 4th

Clara chilling in my sling that kept her safe when I fell.



Cotton Candy! Fun! When did they stop doing cotton candy on sticks anyway? It's way more fun than the bagged stuff.







Croquet lessons from Daddy.





He's got it! (note the tongue...)

Happy Independence Day!

Hotsling to the rescue!

I just have to sing praises to my hotsling for a moment. You know that black sling that I'm wearing Clara in all the time? (look at the pictures below with me in them and you'll see what I'm talking about). That's my hotsling. I *heart* it.

Today, I inadvertently put it to the ultimate test.

I fell. Down the stairs. On cement. While wearing Clara in my hotsling.

Holy crap, right?

I'm actually a very deliberate person. I do not like to draw unwanted attention to myself so I'm careful. I rarely even stumble, let alone fall. I don't allow myself to be a klutz. But sometimes, even with my best efforts, I fail.

Today we were at a friends house and I was walking down the front steps with my arms full of towels and things and Clara was slung across my chest in the hotsling. I somehow missed the bottom step, twisted my ankle and hit the ground, skinning my knee and hand and throwing myself to the side so I wouldn't land on Clara.

Kudos to the hotsling people. She stayed snugly inside, barely even jostled and didn't seem to know anything had happened. (no crying or anything!)

So, my advise to all moms that may fall while holding a baby at some point in your mothering career. Get a hotsling.

She's a natural!

That's what they say anyway.

Aria is taking riding lessons this summer. It's super cute, and she's taking right to it. The teacher has been praising her natual ability. Maybe we've found something for her!

It's really neat how they get the kids comfortable on the horses. The teacher hands them things while they're riding so they have to let go and balance, they throw balls in a bucket while they're riding. They even ride backwards on the horse.

I wanna win!

My cousin pointed me to her friends' blog where there was a link to this contest. If I post it here I get an extra entry. And come on, who wouldn't want all those awesome baby carriers???

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Lovin' it

Every now and then I come across a gem that I forgot I even took. This one deserved it's own post.

I love it. Love the snuggles, love that Mae is holding her dad's cell phone like a doll, love the vintage look.

Just love it.

Blah, blah, blog...

I've been posting a lot lately. Here's all the stuff I never got around to posting in June for one reason or another...lots of pictures coming!

Grandma Linda (Dave's mom) came to visit. It was nice to see her!



To get myself in the pictures I have to do the arm stretch thing. People seem to think they can't take pictures of me because I'm a photographer and I might judge the picture. Not true! I want to be in the pictures too!



We went to Cat Tails with Aria's pre-school. I have to say...not impressed. It was just a bunch of big, sleeping, boring cats in cages. This Lion that slept like a dog was the most entertaining thing there.



Clara had her blessing day! It was so nice to see all the family that was able to make it and have a nice lunch with family/friends after the blessing. And thanks again to Onica for the gorgeous dress!











The babies...



apparently Mae needed an armrest...



The last picture I took before my camera broke. Clara is being held up by the men in her life. Her dad, grandpa, uncles and a cousin.



Aria graduated pre-school. She's so smart. Her teachers talked to me about testing her into first grade (they used to have her read books to the class, lol). But I don't think she's emotionally ready to advance to 1st right now. At graduation they sang a bunch of songs about rainbows. It was so cute! Aria loved "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" the best. I was impressed that she memorized like 8 songs.



All of us at graduation (again with the arm stretch photo).



We went to a baseball game. It was fun. But I like baseball. It's very laid back as far as sports go. The kids enjoyed it too. Especially the home runs.



Can't watch a baseball game without a hot dog!







Clara slept through it.



And finally...we went to the new water park by our house. Tons of fun! Check out Clara rocking my shades.