A Step Inside

Well, May to November… just a short jump, right? Time flies when you’re having fun! And boy oh boy, are we havin’ some fun! With all of the craziness of owning two businesses and two kids, I tend to focus on getting things done for everyone else and put my own personal items on the back burner. BUT, it’s super important to me that I document our family through the years, so I’m going to make a huge effort to keep up on our blog. Soo… here goes!

Let’s see.. we’ll start current and go from there..

Fall weather is definitely upon us.. I really do love all the fall things.. Leaves changing colors, apple cider, pumpkins, farms, etc.. but some of the cold? Um, yeah.. I could do w/out! Heck, I’d even take pretty snowfalls just minus the cold part! lol..

Two weekends ago we took the girls to St.Louis to meet up w/ a mommy friend of mine. I have “known” Amy for the past 9 years from my “mommy board”, but had never gotten the chance to get together until now. It was so great to meet her, and her family. I even got to photograph them! Had a blast hanging out w/ them, and look forward to meeting up again.. Then on Sunday got up & moving from the hotel and headed to The Magic House.. It was somewhat similar to our Children’s Museum, but MUCH larger. Both girls seemed to have a great time and Erik & I enjoyed watching their faces light up w/ so much to see and do. It really is amazing to watch awe through a child’s eye. You can just feel that sparkle and anticipation.. I love it!

The boy on the right is just a couple of weeks older than Kaylor.. And the reason that I met Amy =)
Last week Kaylor & I went to see Miley Cyrus.. It was her very first concert, and it was fun! When I went to hold her hand in the parking lot however, I did get a “Moo-om”, so I’m pretty sure that means she is getting too old to be seen holding her mom’s hand.. Hmf.. I’d like to say I’m still cool, but my eight year old may beg to differ..

And then came Halloween! This year we had a cowgirl and a red hot chili pepper.. Cute as can be, of courseOf course both girls loved playing in the pumpkin carving mess and the candy too!

Oh, poor, poor blog.. Sometimes you are quite neglected..

For good reason though.. Life keeps us busy. Very busy, most of the time, but all is well! Tuesday night we had our good pals the Davis’ over for dinner for Mexican.. Hey, Cinco de Mayo or not, it’s always a good time to have Mexican food!

The girls are both doing wonderfully.. Kaylor is such a big help w/ Ash. When I’m fixing dinner, or need to do something around the house, I ask for her help to “talk to sissy for a min.” and she is quick to oblige.. Anytime Kaylor talks, sings, or does silly things, Ashlyn just lights up. I cannot wait until Ashlyn can really respond back to her. She is already so in love w/ her big sis.. I look forward to watching their bond of sisterhood unfold. Ashlyn has really been using her hands a lot these last couple of weeks. She chews on them, is reaching to grab things, and likes looking & pulling at them too. So funny to see her starting to figure things out =)

K’s last Girl Scout meeting is today. She really enjoyed this first year of being a Girl Scout.. There are still some summer events that she will be attending. I’m glad that it’s something she’s excited about though.. The girls worked really hard to earn their badges.. It’s also hard to believe that my 2nd grader is almost a 3rd grader! I remember so many things from that age range in grade school..

Business work has been keeping me on my toes.. I love all the new people that I’m meeting and have been working steadily. I love it!

We’re also planning a trip to visit Denver again. Erik & his buddy/business partner Jake will be having a conference for 2 of the days, but both of our families (his wifey Meaghan, my good pal & their 2 girls) will be going to! We are so excited.. This will be later this summer in July.. but I cannot wait!

This is going to be a crazy next few days.. I have a in-home newborn session tonight, that I’m looking forward to… On Saturday I have several sessions all day.. Yay! Hopefully the weather is nice on Sunday so I can enjoy some outdoors time w/ the girls & hubby..

I leave you w/ a couple of newer pics..

Erik called me frantic while I was at the grocery store.. He couldn’t find Kaylor.. That is, until he opened her closet and found her:

Monday!.. Whoa things have been crazy busy around our parts! Definitely in a good way though.. Last week we celebrated Erik’s birthday.. Kaylor came up w/ the idea that she would “lead” her daddy to his sweet treats & birthday cards.. So, as you can see, she made signs. They were hysterical.. but very thoughtful of her, none the less.. I love it, “IF you are the dad of this house”.. haha..

Last week I kept busy w/ sessions, as well as my first wedding of 2009. Definitely a good work out on the body.. I was beat when I got home. Had fun though.. Wedding photography is completely in a different realm than portrait work, so I welcome the challenge.

We’re still battling the bottle situation w/ Miss A.. She just does not like them.. I’ve bought lots & lots of different types of nipples, etc. No go.. Tried giving it to her myself, others, different locations in the house, different positions holding her.. Nope.. not happening.. She only ate about 2 oz. the entire time that I was gone on Saturday, in 8 1/2 hours.. Poor girl, lots of stubbornness going on, since she used to take one every now & then just fine.. Other than that, she is growing right along and learning new things right on schedule. Still chomping on her fists and reaching out for her hanging toys.. Talking to them as well.. I’d love to know what these conversations are about

A couple of weeks ago, I took the girls to Toys R Us. Kaylor had a gift card, and she insisted that she must have a skateboard. She’s been wanting one for quite some time. Soooo I gave in, but made her agree that her Easter gift would be a new helmet & pads.. The skate board of her choice was one w/ skulls… I had to be the bad guy and say no to that one.. She settled for one that was black & dark fuschia.. A week into having the new ride.. .big wipe out. Apparently she was sitting on it and it flipped up and popped her a good one. She’s got quite the mark beneath her eye, and a slight shiner.. I’ve been calling her “bruiser”. She on the other hand isn’t thrilled about it and wore shades all weekend so that she’d be incognito.. I then called her “Miss Hollywood”.. lol Poor kid.. I have a feeling she’ll continue to be accident prone throughout her life.. yikes.. These are pre-shiner..

Hi!.. Hope your week has been going well.. tomorrow’s Friday! Some may have a 3-day weekend.. Enjoy! Kaylor says today, “Ah, I’m livin’ a dream life!”.. Um.. “What’s that, K?” She replies, “A FOUR day weekend!”.. haha.. Obviously she was excited to be out of school today & tomorrow, ya think?

We had a fun day.. We met my friend Jill (& former co-worker) for lunch and then headed w/ her back to Verizon for a visit.. It was great to see everyone and introduce them to Ashlyn. They also enjoyed the many silly stories that Kaylor had to tell.

OH! I almost forgot.. We ventured out for the first dinner out w/ Ash last Friday! K wanted to stay at mamaw’s, because, well, I guess daddy & I are boring. It went pretty well. We’re still battling bottle issues, especially from me, as she literally refuses & cries wanting the real deal. But all in all, she was a good girl, and we enjoyed ourselves..

Which leads me into my next thought.. I caught an episode of a recent Oprah. It was all about motherhood, and the crazy things that mothers often don’t admit, etc. There were some hysterical ones; “sometimes I forget to feed my son dinner”; “instead of bathing my kids, sometimes I would just let them get in the hot tub”; etc. They had a good point. There are really lots of things we do as mothers, but it’s the unspoken that we ALL do but rarely admit to. So, out of pure entertainment, I thought I would start sharing my happenings about the “what you hate to fess up to that I actually did” moments.. Have a laugh on me!

Let me preface this by saying, ya gotta do what you’ve gotta do, AND, nursing mothers out there know to expect the unexpected when it comes to breastfeeding.. Yesterday at the very last minute before getting ready to get K picked up at school, I talked w/ a fellow Tupperware pal, and needed to meet her to grab a couple of catalogs. Knowing that Ashlyn would be ready for a feeding at any moment. (did I mention we’re having bottle issues?) Hop in the car and head out… got the catalogs, drove back to Kaylor’s school and that’s when all broke loose. We were parked in the pick up line and a quick glance at the dash clock told me we shouldn’t be moving for at least a 10 min. window. Reaching into the back, I tried my best to get A to take the dreaded bottle.. Nope. Not happening. Soooo what’s a mother to do, but get her child fed. I unfastened my seat belt, crawled 1/2 way into the backseat and got her out of her carseat. Luckily the 9lbs of baby is still fairly light and not so luckily the guy parked in front of me saw a big rear-end in his.. uh.. rear-view.. (haha.. nice pun).. So there I nursed her, from the driver’s seat of the Explorer. Oh, how the meaning of “being mobile” just became more clearer to me. Ashlyn fed= full tummy= happy baby. (No picture to go along w/ this story… lol)

Whew, last week flew by! Heck, who am I kidding.. the last NINE weeks have flown by! lol.. Weird weather weekend.. We awoke this morning to hail pounding ridiculously against our house.. yikes!

Kaylor finished her Ireland poster.. I believe she was proud of the results. Especially since she added an “Ireland Rocks!” at the bottom.. Um.. written in marker.. can’t be erased.. Well, let’s hope Mrs. L thinks “Ireland Rocks!” too! haha.. Ashlyn has discovered her hands, fingers & ears! She now will bring them directly to her mouth and chomp on them. And her poor ears.. she finds one and will give it a tug.. So far it hasn’t upset her, but she sure does get a hold of them. Oh, and this was kinda crazy.. She is nine weeks old now, and last night when she woke for one of her feedings, I lean over to get her out of the pack-n-play bassinet, and she’s ON her tummy! We always put her on her back for sleeping and SOMEhow the little stinker managed to get herself rolled over.. I couldn’t believe it! I’m pretty sure it was a fluke..but so crazy to see! Here’s a shot of “me & my girls”.. (I love that I’ve let go of having to take great shots & always be so technically proper.. These snap shots are ones that I’ll cherish more than any)..
I realized today.. I guess I’ve always known that I’m like this, but it become much more apparent to me when I took a step back. There’s something about grouping thing together, and sorting things, and making lists.. My brain yurns for this! I did several loads of laundry today and the thought popped in my head.. “are these things ‘normal’”? “do others do this?”.. For starters, the clothes hanging in my walk-in are completely sorted & grouped.. Long sleeved t-shirt type shirts, short sleeved dressy tops, long sleeved dressy tops, sweaters, tank tops, jeans, dress pants, tan dress pants, etc. EVERYTHING is sorted by category.. And it’s not just clothing.. Programs on my PC.. they have to be opened in a certain order, so that way the tabs along the task bar are in order.. Cans in my cupboard have to have the labels facing outwards, and items are grouped by what they are.. soups, broths, beans, etc. And lists.. I’m constantly jotting lists down. I get tickeled at the idea of new folders, or a pretty spreadsheet opened up on my PC.. Yowza.. Okay, so there you have it.. call it what you will.. I don’t prefer to call it OCD… maybe just brain organization? I truly feel when the physical things around me are “in order”, grouped, etc. that my emotion well being is the same.. Alright.. going back to my hole now.. My nice and categorized hole.. lol.. Nite!