Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I love you to Macey!

Iheart Faces - Oh So Silly...

1 Birthday Girl
5 Crazy Friends
6 Mom's with a camera
after games, soda, and birthday cake = One Silly Photo!



Sunday, January 29, 2012

Why I love my camera...

Just like a familiar song, or smell can trigger a memory so do the millions of photos I have taken. I've been on a mission looking for some specific photos to have enlarged and hung on our walls. So far I haven't had much luck finding them, but I've been distracted by all these great memories. Places we have been, weddings, anniversaries, and I marvel at just how quickly my kids have grown up.

Check out these eyelashes, I am envious.


Paul dipping his own Maker's Mark bottle...wonder if we still have it?


Playing in the summer rain, catching rain drops on her tongue.


Marriages....




A day trip to the horse track...gotta love Gavin's jocky glasses. And can you believe he was ever that small?
























A boat ride on the Ohio River during our annual trip to Derby.























The special cookers!













It is true that one should revisit the past once in awhile, and I am sure enjoying mine.

Friday, January 27, 2012

My Biggest Fear

Last time I posted about elevators...but this is my real fear, flying. This is from the movie French Kiss. The first time I watched it I laughed and cried all at the same time. Especially this part because it is so how I feel when I am flying.



The rest of the movied Meg Ryan pretty much follows my own life in so many ways! So while I share with you my biggest fear, this is also my favorite movie of all times!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Stuck in an Elevator...could you do it?

My co-worker and I joke frequently about being stuck on our elevators at work to get a bit of peace and quiet. I ride the elevator every single day, several times. I never stop and think of getting stuck on it...until recently when the doors didn't open right up when I reached my destination. It made me panic, and I didn't suspect I would do such a thing...it is just an elevator, right?

Last night I even had nightmare about being stuck on one. If being stuck on an elevator scares you, don't watch this...

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Happy Birthday Jack

Look who's 4 today (or 28 in dog years).

To see what Jack ate as a puppy click here.

To read about the First time he got sprayed by a skunk click here.

Remember all the times he has taken out the trash? If not cick here.

My favorite Jack photo is here.

However it is this little girl's love for her everyday companion that allows him do-overs, mulligans and a zillion 2nd chances. Click here.

Happy Birthday Jack!!!

Friday, January 20, 2012

100

Today was the 100th day of school for Macey. She had to dress like she was 100 years old. Grammy supplied the getup...



The kids looked so funny, and Macey was up before I was to dress. Then we had a project. A project consisting of 100 things. Macey listed her top 100 things...



I don't even want to know how many "100th day projects" I have assisted with between the kids, but I have to say this is the only one that I will save. Macey's top 100 things! Do you have 100 things that you love?

Happy 100 days of school only XXX more to go. If I were more ambitious I would look it up, but nah, it's Friday and I am tired. We've had something every night this week. Gavin had a little band concert last night, and the nights before that we were trying out different tumbling classes for Macey and finally settled on one today and she is officially signed up. As for me...it is finally Friday night and after the day I had I am going to go watch tv and chill out.

Nite all!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Hidden Mommy

Ok, this is just weird...click here!

Not only is this just creepy looking, as a mom, and a photographer, I enjoy being in the photos with my kids. After all they didn't get here without me. I am trying to get better at this. My camera is equipped with a self timer. I don't want my kids...and someday grand kids to not know what I looked like, or who I was. I am always the one behind the lens at all their important functions.

Not long ago a stranger came up to me when I was taking a picture of Macey and said...I'll take your picture. After he took our picture he said, "My dad was a photographer, and he was always taking pictures and never in the pictures." He knew...he got it! This is the picture he took!

Photography has come a long way! No blanket, or table coverings on this head. I love my kids in pictures with me. Even when they were infants and didn't want me to leave their sides...that is just where they were in life at that time. Sometimes Mom's will go to great lengths to be out of the photo, and have their child happy about it at the same time. It doesn't always happen. Maybe why I am such a fan of modern photos showing crying babies, or babies holding on for dear life at the pant leg of a parent. Take their pictures and embrace where they are in their life at that moment. For sooner than you think they won't want a photograph, and if you are lucky they will stand for you to be in it. Trust me on this!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Grandparents

This is Macey with her Papa. It is hard to tell what these two will be up to when they are together. Here there are playing the piano together, and neither of them can play the piano.



Thing is Grandparents are special. Not only have I loved my own grandparents, I find the things our parents do for our children very endearing.

I would love to know...what is your favorite memory of you and one of your grandparents? I think my favorite memory is of my grandpa (aka Grumps)when I visited in the summer he would come home for lunch everyday and share his special snack cakes with me (Little Debbie).

I've got so many wonderful memories of all my grandparents! I know my kids are in the works of building great memories with their own grandparents.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Being a girl

There are times when I like being a girl. Now that I have a little girl of my own, I enjoy these times even more. It is fun to have a little girl to make over, and dress up with. Here we are getting ready to go out...also admiring our new hair cuts from earlier today.




Don't you love Macey's new locks? However, I have to confess that this new style makes her look a bit older and that makes my heart feel a little heavy.
She has come a long way from baby curls, and having to sit on our laps for the simplest of hair trims. She did it all by herself today without so much a whimper. Baby girl is growing up. All my kids are, and there is nothing I can do to stop it all from happening.

That would be my one "if only" in life I wish I could have. Stop the time, just to have things stay this way forever. I just want to tell them all to stop growing up!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Happiness is...

All green lights

Crab legs with extra butter



Holding a sleeping baby

The smell of lemons



The view behind the lens

A book so good that it stays with you long after the last page was turned

A forgotten ten spot in last seasons jacket



A glass of wine

The glow of a candle



A night the kids have no homework

Freshly cleaned blankets right out of the dryer



A clean room

A selection of soaps and shampoos to choose from in the shower



Your favorite song on the radio

Sleeping with the windows open



And these guys!!!!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

iheartfaces - best face of 2011

My Summer Girl


Monday, January 9, 2012

Projects

There are lots of projects going down tonight. Daddy is working on reading homework.

Then there is the matter of paint color. What color of brown do we paint the living room to match the new furniture we are expecting? Derby Brown, Puppy Paw, Welcome, and the running favorite Applesauce Cake.
If only we just picked 100 brown paint swatches for Macey's "100th Day of School" project. Instead we are working on "100 of Macey's Favorite Things."
Things like the color Pink, Daddy, American Girl Dolls and her dog Jack. Who is also at the start of training on how to be a good dog.

One of my friends shared with me her notes on puppy training 101. We are starting with a puppy clicker, which I have attached to me at this moment. I keep clicking and throwing treats. Small steps...fingers crossed, I hope at the end of seven weeks it makes even a small difference.

Then there is Gavin trying to weed through his stuff. He is getting a new bed in a couple weeks. I think back to when we bought this bunk bed for him. He was four, and so proud of himself for being able to sleep on the top bunk. Now his feet hang off the end.

So there you have it ... the busy house growing, evolving, improving. Stay tuned to see the final results.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Best Gifts

I spent a lot of time over the past Christmas season racking my mind for the perfect gifts. I had to ask myself, "What was the best gift I had ever received?" Amazingly, most of my gifts were just random gifts given to me for no reason at all. Here they are...

When I was a little girl my mom use to read to me. It was something we did together. Our first big chapter book was Charlotte's Web, then we read E.B. White's Stewart Little. Even as I got older, and my sister's came along, my mom always took time out to read to me. I loved this time...even if I did fidget and dance around the room as she read to me. Then she found this book called "Pennies for the Piper." This book had nothing on Charlotte's Web. We both cried. It was a very profound book to me at the time. As I got older we would talk about this book. We couldn't find it anywhere. My mom found it on ebay and gave it to me one Christmas. I have yet to read it again, but I plan to share it with Macey, and when I do I will have a full box of tissues on hand.


In my early twenties I collected bird houses...of all things. Not the kind that real birds could actually use, but ones to decorate the inside of my house. I had all kinds of crazy bird house knick-knacks. For no reason at all my Grumps (aka, grandpa) made me this bird house himself. I personally always found the lawn mower painted on the front of the house charming. My Grumps lives 1,800 plus miles away, and he made this just for me, for no reason at all. Probably why even though I have gotten rid of most of my bird house decorations...I've always kept this one close by. I love that he thought of me, for no reason at all!


Macey's first Christmas, daycare gave us a home made magnet showcasing Macey as an angel. Paul and I laughed and laughed because at the time Macey seemed far from an angel. She cried all the time. She was very high maintenance, as both of my babies were. My mom also surprised me with a portrait of Gavin when we was just a little over a year old. I love these, and they will forever have a spot on our fridge no matter how old they are.

Another gift that I truly loved is here. However I was so afraid we would break it that I didn't pack it away with our Christmas stuff and put it on top of the microwave. Paul knocked it one day late fall and it broke into a zillion bits.


When I was six or seven years old my dad took me to the mall to pick up my mom from work. While we were walking though Sears I must have admired this. My dad bought this bracelet for me, and I have saved it all this time. He has bought me many things but for some reason I have hung on to this forever. Back then it was such a rarity to buy things for no reason at all, we just didn't have the money.


I could go on and on about some of the other awesome gifts others have given me. Signed N.A. Noel paintings, Thursday flowers, tickets to see Train back stage, my mom coming and planting flowers at our new house when I was VERY pregnant with Macey, leather jackets, cans of hair spray (long story), even rocks, weeds, and pencils from my kids.

The best gifts are the ones that show you listen. When you admire something at a friends house and months later you recieve it from them as a gift, it is not so much the item, but that they listened, and remembered. Better gifts are the ones that come just because, for no reason at all. All of my favorite things would amount to nothing of monetary value, but to me they are priceless.