Just some funnies

Aria: Mom, I want ravioli for my birthday party.
Me: What? Ravioli?
Aria: You know, singing...
Me: *thinking hard* Karaoke?
Aria: Oh. Yeah!

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Gabe: Mama, I love to watch the sun go down! It's so pretty! Have you ever heard of the sun going down?

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Gabe: Mama, it's almost my fird birfday! I'm so excited!
Me: That is so exciting! I can't wait! How old are you?
Gabe: Five.

Adrianna

So do you!

And I think you are stunning!

Mari

You have pictures!

I love Madi. :) Crazy kids are the funnest to shoot. lol. Like Gabe.

12 down...8 to go.

Shoots that is. Just finished proofing the set from my little trip to ID. Mari and Adrianna...you're up next.

For family...

Here's Brenda and fam.

Here's Teresa and Daniel.

It has begun!

Somebody has joined the toothless and is thrilled about it! Her tooth was "wobbly" (her words) for weeks and I noticed yesterday that the grown up tooth was already up behind the baby tooth. So I yanked it out for her last night. lol. She was brave and very excited.



Gabe was excited too. He keeps coming over to me and saying "Mom, will you please yank my tooth out? AHHHH"

My baby wrote me a letter...

Last night was back to school night and Nathan wrote a letter to Dave and I. It's hilarious, so I'm sharing with y'all. (as is...)

Dear mommy and daddy

Thanks for comeing tonight.

I hope you had fun. I hope you had realy fun. I hope you had umm watever just have fun.

I love you

Love,
Nathan

PS have fun
PPS I love you
PPPS I hope you write back to me
PPPPS I want you to look at my honeybee, self portrait and my cubby.

Love, Nathan
again

Isn't that the best? It made me giggle.

And a couple Nathan pictures. He was in a weapons tournament in karate and was runner up. (everybody get a trophy...it was really fun though. He did great for his first tournament).



He also advanced to the next belt. Advanced Orange.

They put their old and new belts down in the shape of an L (but I forget why...it stands for some words) then they kneel and put their forehead on their new belt to symbolize placing the first drop of sweat on it. It's pretty cool.

He's tricky

Gabe is naughty. There's no question. He climbs walls, he takes things apart, he gets into toilets, he flushes toys down the toilet (this is new), he runs away, he pokes his sister in the eye, he screams...a lot, he spanks his older siblings, he thinks pills are candy, he dumps out everything..cereal, flour, pancake mix, hydrogen peroxide, eggs...so many eggs...he throws things and breaks things, etc, etc...and there's no stopping him. He just does things over and over.

However....

He gives the tightest, longest hugs in the world.

When he sees flowers anywhere he says "Look, Mama! Flowers for you!"

When he sees models in magazines or ads he says "Mama! That girl looks like you!"

He says "I love mine awesome Mom" and then will push my head to the side and kiss my cheek.

He says Thank You and I'm Sorry without prompting and for anything. We went out for ice cream one time and as we were leaving he said to the worker "Thank you for mine yummy ice cream!"

He's obedient. If he tells me what naughty thing he's about to do and I say no, he won't do it. (usually).

And that's how my almost 3 year old stays out of trouble on a regular basis.

He's just too cute for his own good. Plus he likes to sleep in baskets. Everyone say with me now.

AWWWWWW.....

Blogging for diabetes

If you don't already know, my husband has type 1, juvenile onset, diabetes. He was diagnosed at age 15. It's a life altering disease that has taken a lot of getting used to. For him and for the people who love him. My children are at a higher risk of contracting juvenile diabetes than the average person so I watch them closely for signs/symptoms.

JDRF sponsers a fund-raising walk each year and this year our whole family will be walking. We've set a goal to raise $100 to go towards research for a cure for juvenile diabetes.

This year as a little incentive, I'm offering a gift for donating. If you donate $15, I'll send you an 8x10 or 8x12 (depending on the image) of one of my nature or temple prints. Donate $20 and I'll send you an 11x14 or 12x18 image of your choice. This offer is only available for those who are in the first $100 donated.

Just email me your info ctrmama@gmail.com if you'd like to receive a print for donating. You can donate here.

These are the available prints. Just send the title in your email. Donations are open until September 27th.

Thank you!

My sweet baby is growing up!

She sat up today! All by herself! So it seemed like a good time to take some pictures of her. :)

So Gabe ran off during church today.

We were sitting in sacrament meeting (in the overflow...for some reason my kids are always naughtier when we sit in the back) and Gabe ran out the door. I was nursing Clara, so I couldn't chase him. I nudged Dave and he sauntered after Gabe.

He found him in the bishop's office...sitting on the bishop's desk...with his hand in the candy jar.

I swear that child can sniff out sugar a mile away.

It wasn't 30 seconds later and Gabe was already trying to sneak out again. Too bad for him we were onto him now. He didn't get far after that. lol.

Another reason

Who knew "the kids are climbing the walls" was a literal statement?

So I can't ignore Gabe as much as I used to. lol

One reason I havn't blogged much lately

I had 12 shoots to proof.

Some samplings...those of you that havn't seen your gallery yet, I'm still working!







I don't know why this one is blurry. When I click it, it's clear. *shrug*

Conversation between Aria and Gabe

Aria: EWWWW! Gross, Gabe! Don't pick your boogers!
Gabe: Aria, you have to pick your nose and your ears and eat it all gone.
Aria: NO! That's disgusting!
Gabe: But, if you wanna make friends, you have to try!

hmmm....what kind of friends is he going to have?

Fun new place to shoot.

I've been dying to do a shoot on a certain street and convinced my friend, Kristi t go there. Look how cute!

A couple favs.

Not just a rash

Turns out the rash from the Carters onesie is not an isolated incident. (Thanks, Em, for the heads up!)

A quick google search (tagless clothing + rash) turned up hundreds of links from blogs and message boards documenting the exact same problem on many children. Carters is reportedly not doing anything about it at this time except for offering refunds. They're continuing to sell these clothes that are causing chemical burns.

Read here for some more info.

I, for one, won't be buying the tagless clothing anymore and would recommend you all watch out too.

Baby Got Back...and a question

So Clara has sensitive skin. She's allergic to disposable diapers, so we went the cloth route. Have to say...it's pretty cute, even if it does make her booty huge and baby jeans don't fit anymore.

I even have matching baby legs for one of her diaper covers.





Cute, eh?

But this morning she woke up with a new rash. Apparently she can't wear carters onesies anymore. Check out what the tag did to her.



So my question...anybody know what I can put on that? It doesn't look terribly comfortable. Luckily, she's still as happy as can be.

Shooting in the rain.

Andrea - here's the gallery. LMK if you didn't get the email.

I had a rainy day shoot a couple weeks ago. Normally people cancel when it rains, but this family decided to take a chance and I have to say I'm so glad they did! Sure, it was a teensy bit insane, and sure we had to wait out a minor downpour, but it was totally worth it.

The location was only accessible by boat.



I shot the whole thing juggling an umbrella along with my camera.



But check this out. Isn't she gorgeous? And look at the rain drops sparkling in her hair! (click the image to see them)



The wet sand was quite nice too.



I just might have to shoot in the rain again sometime. :)

School has begun again!

Yippee!

Nathan is now in 2nd grade. I look at him and can hardly believe how big he's getting. He loves school and loves his new teacher.





Aria started kindergarten! She was so excited. She's in afternoon K and can barely get through the torture every morning while she waits for school to start. When I dropped her off her cheeks and the rims around her eyes got red, which is a sure sign that she's fighting back tears and trying to be brave. But when I asked she smiled huge and said she was fine. When she came home she said it "wasn't so good." I asked why. She said "Mom, I was so good today. I did everything the teacher said and I followed all the rules, (she's a perfectionist and a pleaser) but the other kids were bad so none of us got to go to recess." She was pretty upset. On day 2, she got recess, so she was much happier.

1st day of school!







Day 2, just cause she was so cute. She's actually wearing dress up pants from a pirate costume, but they were so cute I let her wear them. She also impressed me by tying the bow in the back of her shirt by herself with her new tying skillz. (she practices everywhere...there are ribbons tied in bows up and down my curtains.)



and at soccer practice after school.



Gabe is doing okay without the kids every day. He's been amusing himself by mopping my floor. So it's really, really clean in about a 3 foot strip between the kitchen and family room. lol.

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