Confessions of a Southern Mom

i've moved!

2010-06-13T16:17:00.000-04:00

hey all! miss me? i've been moving.......both my photography website/blog and this blog these past few weeks! i have worked hours upon hours getting things set up and it's still not done yet grrrrrrr. BUT i do have all sites up and functioning, sort of :) here are the links:

my new blog: http://www.confessionsofasouthernmom.com/

my new photography website: http://www.madisonlanephotography.com/

my new photography blog: http://www.madisonlanephotographyblog.com/

check them out and please give me a little grace these next few weeks as i get it all finalized!

hope your weekend has been as wonderful as mine!

pk’s new bedding….

2010-06-03T15:24:00.001-04:00

i love his new bedding…..a birthday present from grandmama :)

the MWC (mom with camera) tells all…your photography questions answered

2010-06-02T10:34:00.001-04:00

i get asked photography questions all the time, so i thought it might be helpful to do a post about it and have a place to send people to for answers! here are some of the questions i get most often, but feel free to leave a comment with any i don’t address and check back frequently here and at my photography blog as i answer questions on a regular basis. {please pardon my website as it is currently under construction}

what kind of camera/lens do you have?

i currently shoot with a canon 7d. i am a canon girl only because that’s just what i started out with. i hear great things about nikon all the time, but i also hear that canon and nikon are pretty much the same only canon can be slightly cheaper and you can get some lenses that nikon does not make. i’m sure that’s debatable on both sides, but whatever, i heart canon only because that’s how i was born and raised :)

what is your favorite lens?

this is tough as it depends on the circumstances….i LOVE my canon 85mm 1.8. this lens creates some amazing images that are super sharp and crispy with beautiful color. i also have a 24-70mm 2.8 which i love to use when i’m tight on space or if i need to “zoom” without physically moving and for my wide angle shots. LOVE both of these lenses!

i’m looking to buy a new camera, which type of camera should i buy?

if you are ready to take the plunge into the SLR {single lens reflex} world, i would recommend starting out with a canon rebel. purchase the BODY ONLY as the “kit” lenses typically are nothing spectacular and use the money you saved to buy this lens {canon 50mm 1.8}. this lens is A STEAL for about $99. you will love how this lens gives you “the magic” or bokeh in photography speak. it produces some crispy images where your subject just pops….you will love it! what you won’t like about it at first is that it has no “zoom”. YOU are the zoom and once you get used to having a fixed lens, it’s no big deal at all and a great workout ;)

how can i take better pictures of my kids?

the single best thing you can do is to get out of “the green box” aka automatic mode. learn how to shoot in manual mode and your pictures will instantly improve tremendously. i know it is both intimidating and overwhelming all at once to go full manual, but this is necessary to really get some great images. there are TONS of great books, blogs, online classes, forums etc. to help you learn how to do this. if you are in the charlotte north carolina or maryland/DC/virginia areas, i teach a Moms Photography Class {I have Dads take this too :)}. my june 6th class is full, but i plan to host another one in late july/august so please email me at erin@madisonlanephotography.com if you are interested. i limit the number of students and spots tend to fill up quickly.

if you are not in those areas, i recommend sharon’s online class…go to her blog and search “SPA”.

ok shutterbugs….that’s all for today, but check back soon as i’ll be doing posts like these several times a month!

parker’s 3rd birthday party

2010-06-01T15:28:00.001-04:00

we had a great memorial day weekend celebrating parker’s 3rd birthday. we always have his party this weekend so that family can be in town to celebrate!

parker with his grandmama

somehow i never seem to get a pic of the boys with my parents..must work on this!

this year we really just had a small party. it’s SO HARD when they start preschool and you get involved with so many groups because you just want to be able to invite everyone, but since the festivities were are my house this year, i decided to limit the invites to just family and a few close friends.

we went with a thomas the train theme for this year since parker is obsessed with trains (and also spiderman but i just wasn’t ready for a superhero party yet!). he also got to ride thomas the train when we were in maryland a few weeks ago as part of his present from grandmommy and grandpa.

he couldn’t wait to open his presents!

here is our egg free cupcake tree :)

parker had a blast playing with his new presents with his friends landon and tanner. kate and elle (his other besties) were sick so they couldn’t make it :(

blowing out the candles:

at the end we did water balloons outside where the boys LOVED throwing them on the ground and breaking them—total boys :) that was the best dollar i have ever spent at target HA!

parker had a blast and that’s all that matters!

bath time fun!

2010-05-27T20:52:00.001-04:00

emotional

2010-05-25T11:06:00.001-04:00

i boo-hoo’d my eyes out this morning after receiving this special gift from parker’s teachers:

it’s a photobook filled with photos from the school year and little pages with prayers, growth charts and a little poem from his teachers. my eyes are filling with tears AGAIN just typing this.

i am SOOOOO going to miss his teachers next year….they truly have such a special place in my heat!

parker is 3….how am i ever going to survive his very last day of preschool, then elementary school, middle school and high school graduation!!!!!!

of course i look to the future with excitement, but oh does my heart ache to see this sweet little boy grow up.

meal plan monday

2010-05-24T10:39:00.000-04:00

so i caved this week and forced myself to actually meal plan and make a grocery list. i don't know why in the world i avoid doing this so much because in reality, it only takes a few minutes and it makes my life SO MUCH EASIER!!!!!

i even almost enjoyed grocery shopping yesterday! yes my friends, you heard me right, i could not believe how quickly and efficiently i made it through the store and what a relief it is to feel armed and prepared for a week of meals.

seriously, why do i torture myself each week and waste so much time running to the store to buy 3 items for dinner that one night?

enough of my rambling.....without further ado, our meal plan for the week:

Monday:

Breakfast--eggs, spinach and goat cheese (and no we did NOT have it this morning as i planned, but that is ok we will do it tomorrow!)

Lunch--fall harvest sandwich (bread, honey mustard, ham, cheddar cheese and granny smith apple slices)

Dinner--Salmon, cous cous (the new "pearled" cous cous by Far East is SO GOOD) and veggies

Tuesday:

Breakfast--yogurt with granola

Lunch--organic mac n cheese, stoneyfield farms yogurt stick and grapes

Dinner--burgers, pasta salad, sweet potato french fries

Wednesday:

Breakfast--eggs, spinach and goat cheese

Lunch--fall harvest sandwich (bread, honey mustard, ham, cheddar cheese and granny smith apple slices)

Dinner--spaghetti, bread, dipping oil, salad

Thursday:

Breakfast--yogurt with granola

Lunch--organic mac n cheese, stoneyfield farms yogurt stick and grapes

Dinner--leftovers

Friday:

Breakfast--cereal and toast (with flaxseed oil)

Lunch--grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches

Dinner--OUT!!!!

Saturday:

Breakfast--eggs, spinach and goat cheese

Lunch--pizza

Dinner--slow cooked pork tenderloin burritos with fresh salsa

ok, i'm off to edit a bazillion pictures from shoots this weekend. and more to come, but i've changed my photography business name to Southern Sass Photography, so stay tuned for more info!

have a great week!

quick and easy lunch

2010-05-21T19:40:00.001-04:00

one of my friends, heather (who i really really think should start her own blog because she is full of humor and good ideas), shared this super easy recipe with me the other day and we tried it out this week!

easy+yummy+semi healthy = i must share!

it’s like a pizza only you use tortilla for the “crust”……so i’m not sure what to call it :)

here’s what you need though:

garlic salt

tortillas (we used whole wheat)

olive oil

tomato sauce

mozzarella cheese (we used fresh and it is SO good!)

this is where is gets REALLY tricky :)

step 1: brush the tortillas with olive oil and sprinkle garlic salt

step 2: bake coated tortillas for 5 minutes on 400 degrees until they become crispy

step 3: spread with tomato sauce and cover with mozzarella cheese.

step 4: bake for another 3-5 minutes at 350 until cheese melts

voila! parker has eaten this TWO days in a row…..you know it must be good!

i have a 3 year old….parker we love you so much!

2010-05-17T21:36:00.001-04:00

dear parker,

three years ago today i had no idea how much my life would change when i first met you. your birthday is bittersweet……it’s so exciting to be celebrating your life and the blessing that you are, but it’s hard to let go of you a little more each year.

you are becoming quite the little man. you look older, you are SO smart and thoughtful and you constantly amaze me with what you come up with next! you are silly, fun and full of life! you love school, your teachers, life group, church and your little brother! you are so thoughtful and caring toward connor.

you love spending time with friends and have started asking to go to friend’s houses. kate c. is still your bestie and we just love watching you two play together.

today you had the best birthday! daddy and i surprised you with balloons and a bike outside your door when you woke up this morning. you were so excited! you also got a real kids camera and a cash register that you really wanted. i made blue and red cupcakes for you to take to school and you got your birthday crown. miss rhonda and miss cindy said you had a GREAT day! you were so happy it was finally your turn for a birthday celebration!

all of the excitement kept you from napping and when connor woke up, we headed to the JumpE place where you just had a blast! landon and tanner and kate and elle met us there……you had SO MUCH fun! afterward we went with kate and elle to fuel pizza where you and kate just continued to play and play! you passed out on the way home and went straight to bed.

parker, thank you for the joy you bring to our lives each and every day. we love you so much and feel so blessed to be your parents!

love,

mommy and daddy (or mom and dad which you now call us!)

connor’s 9 and 10 month post!

2010-05-16T16:03:00.001-04:00

my sweet little connor, you turned 10 months this week!

you are all over the place these days. you’re a fast crawler and you’ve started cruising. sometimes you even stand all by yourself! you will take a few steps when we hold your hands and you think it’s funny!

at 9 months you weighed 17 pounds 11 ounces (10-25%) and were 27.75 inches tall (50%). this week i took you to the doctor to check on your ears (you had had an ear infection a few weeks ago and i wasn’t sure if it was back….just teething though), you weighed 18 pounds 6 ounces.

you are so much fun to be around. these past two months you traveled to hilton head and to maryland for jen’s wedding. you do NOT like riding in the car (we learned this on our way to hilton head when you screamed 80% of the time). for our maryland trip, we were more prepared with baby einstein videos :) you LOVE “baby macdonald”. when the hand puppet cow comes out, you squeal with delight. it is so fun to hear you get SO excited! you also love the bouncy tigger and try to mimic tigger. it’s really cute!

here you are at jen’s wedding, you had a blast pushing the stroller around:

jen’s wedding was at her dad’s gorgeous house on the water….we all enjoyed a gorgeous sunset!

you’ve learned how to clap your hands and you say mama and dada, although it’s mostly mama since you are definitely a momma’s boy!

you love to wrestle with your big brother and watch his every move. you two also like to play “chase”. parker loves to make sure you are taken care of.

you’ve got 6 teeth with numbers 7 and 8 breaking through. you are not a good teether……you get really fussy right before they break through. AND you are a biter! not in a mean way, it’s actually kind of funny because you get all excited when you see me and come truckin’ on over and you bite out of excitement!

connor we love you so much more than you can imagine!

**i took your “chair” pic that i do every month, but you insisted on SCREAMING during the photo shoot because i wouldn’t pic you up so i’m going to work on getting one this week when you are actually smiling :)**

happy mother’s day!

2010-05-09T10:03:00.001-04:00

happy mother’s day to all of you moms out there and future mom’s to be. i know that this can be a tough day for those “future moms”, but don’t lose hope and wait expectantly……it WILL happen.

“delight yourself in the Lord and He WILL give you the desires of your heart!”. ~psalm 37:4

here are a few desires of my heart, thank you Lord for giving them to me :)

thank you parker, connor, brandon and of course God for giving me the greatest gift of all…..motherhood. children are a true miracle and i have been so blessed beyond anything i deserve. thank you mom for always being there for me as a child and now a mom myself! i love you!!!

the wait

2010-04-29T21:28:00.001-04:00

this week is national infertility week. i have prayed for many friends who have dealt with infertility issues. who have waited and waited and waited to become pregnant and also those who have lost a child.

there is a special place tucked away in my heart for people dealing with infertility because i was one of them not too long ago.

i got pregnant right away, first try with parker my firstborn. with connor, it just didn't happen that way....at all. after 8 months of trying, i miscarried. i was devasted. i remember driving to the doctors office thinking this just can't be happening. this was an extremely difficult time in my life. the emotional rollercoaster of infertility will make any woman just about lose her sanity. the constant cycle of hope, waiting, not knowing, anticipation, devastation, depression and hope again is exhausting. and then to finally get pregnant and lose a child is downright heart wretching.

but there is hope! meet connor:

my sweet sweet connor was conceived just two months after my miscarriage! when i thought i would never have another child, here is my sweet baby boy sleeping at a healthy 9 months!

losing a child still hurts, but there is hope. i love what kelly wrote on her blog today. if you are in a similar situation, or in "the wait", you need to read her post....it is SO encouraging! i hope my story encourages you. i have numerous friends who have struggled with fertility and ALL of them now are either pregnant or have children. the wait is SO tough but SO worth it.

connor’s first haircut!

2010-04-23T19:48:00.001-04:00

this little guy was in some serious need of a haircut…….

and this mommy just wasn’t ready for his FIRST haircut. clearly we were WAY past due. in fact we should have cut it before we left the hospital! my kids have both come out with long hair, but just a few strands of it! and i’ve never know what to do with it, as you can see below :)

but since we’ve got our professional family pictures scheduled for tomorrow, it was time…….and i love it!

unfortunately this not-so supermom photographer totally FORGOT her camera and was left to the not-so great quality of iphone pics :( i can’t wait for our family pics tomorrow….my new friend is doing them for us and she is awesome!

plugged in…..

2010-04-19T22:16:00.001-04:00

are you????

there are so many reasons to get “unplugged” these days. to turn off the tv, shut down the computer, put the phone on silent….and there are reasons to run away, hide, disengage to deal with hurt, pain and suffering. sometimes it’s just easier to be unplugged.

i just LOVE our church. our message began this week with a very important announcement :: our pastor now tweets! yes my friends, my pastor of a different “vintage”so to say, was throwing out BTW’s during the message!

while i appreciate the technological advancement of our church, what i loved most this particular sunday was our message on “power in weakness” centered around Romans 8.

my heart right now is SO BURDENED for several dear friends of mine. they are going through some tough tough stuff. they are phenomenal women! and it’s times like these where you just want to ask God “why”? we often wonder why God “allows” stuff like this to happen to good people, people who have already been through SO MUCH. God did not create this stuff, this is man made and sin is to blame. we are NOT operating the way God had ever intended for us to because of sin. this is NOT what He created and thankfully our worldly home is just temporary.

Romans 8:28 says

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,whohave been called according to his purpose.”

i have prayed and prayed and PRAYED for these women. i’m at a point where i just don’t know what to pray for sometimes. thankfully, when you invite Jesus to be a part of your life, you also gain the Holy Spirit in your heart as well. the Holy Spirit grieves our grief and feels our pain with us. AND knows EXACTLY what to say when you just have no words to speak anymore….

Romans 8:26-27 says “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.”

And sometimes when we run out of words to say, we turn to anger, complaining and negative thoughts. have you been there? i have. many times.

i love the example our pastor used this morning…..he asked what came out if you squeezed a tube of toothpaste…..toothpaste of course! sometimes God allows different circumstances to squeeze my heart just to see what’s inside….am i speaking words of faith, hope and love or am i full of anger, negativity and pride? sometimes we become so overtaken by pride that maybe we need to be humbled. during these difficult times God is going to try and get us to go back to the fundamentals. to get plugged in.

friends, are you plugged in? maybe you don’t “need” to be plugged in right now because everything is going just fine in your life. or maybe things aren’t so great but you just don’t know where to begin.

i encourage you to get plugged in with a church that you can call home. not just a church where you go for an hour every sunday morning, go through the motions and check it off your list for the week. if that is you, YOU ARE MISSING OUT! that is not what this is all about, that’s what religions, fads, and trends are….something that probably won’t last or have true lifelong meaning.

i’m talking about a church where you can get CONNECTED and learn more about what God has already done for YOU, not what you need to do for Him. i also encourage you to find a “life group” within your church…..a core group of close friends who share the same values that you “do life with”. friends that you can call at 2am. we have just gotten plugged in with a new life group that is closer to home and we LOVE it!

i’ve got to run and get a few more things checked off my list for tonight, but i hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week!

have you missed me?

2010-04-15T21:45:00.001-04:00

dear friends…..stalkers :) oh how i have missed you! i have been one crazy momma from playdates, to church life group picnics, MOPS, mommy and me, in-loves visiting, photographing numerous gorgeous families, internet issues, preparing for my moms photography class……….friends, it has been hectic and it’s not slowing down for a few weeks. life is happening and i need to find time/make time to document it!

i’m not complaining, i’m just feeling guilty….and missing you. missing my journaling of my life, as i know it. it’s just all happening way too fast, which may be why i am obsessed with capturing every single moment in a photograph. to attempt to hold on to those moments forever……….

i know i have neglected my blog, and i’m sorry. i’m hoping….praying that i will find a new balance shortly. you all are important to me, and this blog is important to me. please check back soon, my plan is to post regularly once again, once i can reclaim a little bit of sanity :)

Hilton Head Trip Part I

2010-04-05T21:56:00.001-04:00

So I fell in love last week…..with Hilton Head! This was my first time there and I loved it! I love that it was family friendly, you could ride bikes everywhere, so many good restaurants to choose from and just enough commercialized so that I could go on a Target run 10 minutes away if I got desperate!

I loved where we stayed because it wasn’t very commercialized, yet we could ride bikes a few blocks and be at either the beach or our latest fave Rita’s!

Of course I took A LOT (and by a lot I mean like 1200!) of pictures, so here are some from the first batch :)

The boys loved riding in the bike cart!

SO excited to be on the beach!

Potty Trained!!!!!!

Me and my best friend!

I’m SO ready to go back!!!!

Meal Plan Monday

2010-04-05T20:42:00.001-04:00

I had a VERY productive day today. I hit up both Harris Teeter AND Target and we are set for meals for the week!

Here’s what we will be eating this week, in no particular order :)

Enchiladas

Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries and Baked Beans

Salmon, Grilled Veggies and Cous Cous

Chicken with Goat Cheese and Diced Tomatoes, Orzo Pasta Salad

Pizza and Caesar Salad

Did you plan your meals this week? Trying anything new you’d like to share????

He is Alive!

2010-04-04T17:01:00.001-04:00

Today it is GORGEOUS here in Charlotte. For some reason it always seems like it’s cold and rainy on Easter, but not this year!

I was SO tired this morning, but we made it up early, went downstairs to check out what the Easter Bunny brought the boys (can you tell what Parker’s latest obsession is???)….

Got everyone dressed up in their Easter outfits and made it to church just a few minutes late. I originally wanted to take pictures before we went to church, but it just didn’t happen and I did not want to be any later than we already were.

We had a great sermon….I just love our church and I’m SO excited that we are connected with a new life group closer to home. After church I snuck in a few pics of the boys outside…..

And Brandon took some of me and my baby on his first Easter!

We didn’t do Easter brunch just because it’s really challenging with an almost 3 year who is allergic to eggs, so instead we did what we do best……ordered mexican! And it was SO GOOD!!!

While we were waiting for the restaurant to open, we took Parker down to the water and I took these pics from the car (Connor was napping so I stayed with him)

After lunch, we went on an Easter egg hunt in our backyard….Parker LOVED it!

Happy Easter!

In Case You Were Wondering……

2010-04-01T21:17:00.001-04:00

where I was, we’ve been on vacation in Hilton Head. SO sad to leave today, but I love my house, neighbors, friends, etc and am glad to be home sweet home.

Despite having two large CRAZY protective dogs, a well rigged alarm system and a house sitter, I still didn’t want to advertise that we were going to be out of town, my apologies. And how on earth could I blog and not spill the beans???

But we just got back, I’m working on digging out all the dirty laundry and unpacking and getting settled back in.

I’ve got a busy day tomorrow playing catch up, meeting up with a friend, editing some FABULOUS pictures from a shoot before I left town and girls night with several of my besties!

Of course I have a GAZILLION pictures I took from our trip and I’m dying to upload them, edit them and post them all. Alas, they will have to wait probably until this weekend…..

Stay tuned for lots of pics and a full recap of our time in Hilton Head. I think this is my new favorite place to go!

Overwhelming Goodness

2010-03-25T16:18:00.001-04:00

As you’ve noticed, I still seem to be on MIA status and I’m really sorry. Things have been rather overwhelming lately, but totally in an incredible way.

When I turned my passion of photography into a profession, I had know idea I would get the kind of response that I have. I figured I would do a shoot with my friend’s kids here and there, but I never dreamed I would be booking my calendar like I have been. I prayed for God to bless my business and He has in so many ways.

It’s overwhelming, but in an absolutely amazing way! I am LOVING what I do in a way I never imagined. I get so excited when I capture the perfect moment with the perfect lighting that I can hardly contain myself at times!

It’s so weird (and a bit uncomfortable) to think of myself as a “professional” because I really just see myself as a mom with a camera, especially when I’m having so much fun.

So bear with me friends--you can see a lot of what I’m up to on my photography website. I will try and get back into a regular blogging routine, but please be patient with me as I adjust to this new venture.

Thank you all for your support, I really appreciate it!

My Little 8 Month Old!

2010-03-18T14:10:00.001-04:00

Dear Connor,

This post is late but you are 8 months old and growing and developing so fast. Here’s what’s been going on this last month:

~You are an expert crawler and especially like to play with anything that resembles a cord or string….you laugh when I tell you “No No”.

~You just learned how to pull yourself up into the standing position and now you do it ALL THE TIME! Sometimes you get stuck up there and you’ll just hang out standing, happy to see everything from a new perspective.

~You giggle hysterically when I brush your teeth and you also think it’s funny when I sing the “The Wheels on the Bus” verse where the mommy’s play peek-a-boo…you just LOVE that part!

~Each night I sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Start” and “Jesus Loves Me” and you just smile

~You have figured out how to imitate your brother and you will both yell back and forth to each other.

~You’ve been spoiled since you’ve had an ear infection and your FOUR top teeth are coming in……you wake up every night at 3:30ish and I of course feed you.

~You have so much hair that it makes you look older…..I don’t like this and I may just have to get it cut…..just a little :)

~You are still in size 3 diapers, where 9-12 months clothes and weigh about 18 pounds. You still spit up, but only a few times a day!

~You are always on the go, you hate to be strapped in anywhere and diaper changes are quite the process, you and I both dread them these days!

Connor you are so much fun and we just all love you to pieces, especially Parker. You and Parker are already best buds!

Love,

Mommy

Meal Plan Mondays

2010-03-15T22:00:00.000-04:00

If you read yesterday's post, then you will know that I'm back from a brief hiatus. And not only am I back, I'm back to cooking as well. We've had a few weeks of last minute meals and lots of pizza and I'm looking forward to getting back to meal planning. It really does make my life so much easier!

Here's what I'm planning on cooking for my family this week:

Tonight--we had leftover tacos

Tuesday--Parmesean Crusted Chicken with broccoli and cous cous

Wednesday--Salmon, roasted red potatos, baked squash

Thursday--leftovers

Friday--Southwestern Garden Chicken Pasta from my friend's blog. This looks SO yummy!!!!

Saturday--Blue cheese and red onion burgers, sweet potato fries, fruit salad

Sunday--Lifegroup with church

What are you having this week?

l

I’m Back……

2010-03-14T16:50:00.001-04:00

I am back! Thank you so much for your patience these past few weeks. Between all of us getting really bad colds and my unexpected oral surgery, I’m getting back to a sense of “normalcy”.

My surgery was intense and extremely painful BUT I am thankful that the recovery is happening much faster than the expected 2-3 weeks.

A bunch of incredibly sweet friends got me these gorgeous flowers and another friend brought me some magazines! I have the best friends!

I’m still in the process of getting my life back together, luckily my parents came to town to help out with (spoil) the boys and cleaning my house—thanks Mom and Dad!

Parker and Connor got a lot of attention this weekend. Daddy took Parker to the indoor pool and he had a blast—his nap lasted over 4 hours that day!

I’m so excited that the weather is getting warmer here and I LOVE daylight savings and being able to go on family walks after dinner!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my photography blog and enter to win the camera strap cover giveaway. Also, if you are in the Charlotte area and are interested in a Mom’s Photography Class (tuition is $50) or Family Photo Session, you can find details there too. Right now I have a special if you book a session date with me before March 30th.

Camera Strap Cover Giveaway!

2010-03-10T11:20:00.002-05:00

Want one of these?

I am giving away a handmade custom camera strap cover to one lucky winner. These covers typically fit both Canon and Nikon SLR camera straps and are the perfect accessory for any photographer or mom with a camera!
Click here for details on how to win one!

Brothers

2010-03-09T15:09:00.001-05:00

I didn’t think I’d be able to post today, but my pain is manageable right now and I’m going to make the most of it!

I’ve been wanting to write this post for some time now…..As a little girl, I had always wanted a sister. I was devastated when my mom brought home my brother from the hospital, he was supposed to be my sister “Melissa” (funny enough, I now have a sister in love named Melissa and she’s the best!). I used to dress up my brother in girls clothes and hair bows. Growing up, I dreamed about having 3 girls of my own one day. When I thought of my life “when I grew up”, I saw all things pink, pedicures and shopping trips……

Again, God has a sense of humor.

Today, I am the proud mother of two boys. I’m not going to lie to you and say that I wasn’t just a little bit disappointed when I found out I was having boys. Trust me, I was VERY thankful for even just the ability to have kids, but since I had been dreaming pink for years, I just couldn’t see myself as the mother of boys. I’m very girly. I like all things monogrammed and pink. I love playing dress up and shopping. I just don’t know how to do boys stuff. After all, I am a girl, I understand “us”. I thrive on emotion and drama. I like to talk….a lot.

But now having almost 3 years of “boys” under my belt…..I wouldn’t have it any other way. I LOVE it. I love how much my boys just love me and how cuddly they are. I love how concerned Parker is with taking care of me. I love seeing them interact with their daddy. I love seeing how much they love each other and can already tell they will be best buds. I love how I get a glimpse into the future and see how they are becoming the men God wants them to be already.

I’m hoping to have more children and yes it would be nice to add to Team Pink in our household, but honestly, I love my boys so much and if I end up with 3 or 4 boys, I will feel beyond blessed! I mean, how could I not want another sweet face like these???

And in case you are wondering where all the pics of Connor are these days, he is a man on a mission. That little monkey is all over the place now that he can crawl. He is NONSTOP!

Out of Commission

2010-03-08T20:43:00.001-05:00

I’m going to be a little out of commission for the next week or so and I do apologize. I’m hoping to regularly post on my blog again, but right now, I’ve got a lot on my plate, including unexpected minor surgery coming up later this week. I’m hoping to recover MUCH faster than the 2-3 weeks they told me, but we will see. Hope you all have a good week, and be sure to check out my other blog, www.erinkjacksonphotography.com!

God Has A Sense of Humor

2010-03-05T15:31:00.001-05:00

I just love the way God has been working in my life….Don’t get me wrong, I have had MANY moments of frustration, losing patience and just not understanding why things were not happening the way I wanted them to, but looking back I just have to laugh.

I am just a little bit of a control freak. I like to know when things are going to happen, how they are going to happen and they need to go exactly as I planned or else I get rather anxious and uncomfortable.

I am learning how to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I am learning that this side of Heaven is NOT my forever home and God never had any intention of me getting too comfortable here.

Today we caught my 7 1/2 year old pulled up and STANDING on both legs. HE IS NOT 8 MONTHS YET. This is the child I wanted to keep as a baby forever. This is the child that I attempted to delay his development so that he would be a late bloomer. This is the child that I carried 24/7 so that he wouldn’t get enough tummy time, and just maybe he wouldn’t be mobile for quite some time. HA!

My sweet Connor got up on all fours at 6 months, a few days later he had mastered crawling “the real way” and now just a few weeks later he is pulling up all the way to his feet.

I’m sure he’ll be walking like next month at this rate!

When I had my firstborn, Parker, one thing I was paranoid about was having a child with food allergies. I did EVERYTHING I could to attempt to prevent him from developing any kind of food allergy. I researched for hours, I breastfed exclusively, I delayed solid foods until he was 6 months, you name it, I did it.

Parker has a severe egg allergy.

None of this was in my day planner, and there have been moments that just are not fun. But oddly enough, I feel incredibly blessed and I am incredibly blessed.

I still don’t understand why Parker ended up with a life-threatening egg allergy or why Connor is not much of a late bloomer I was hoping for, and I may never understand these details, big or small until I get to Heaven.

For now, God is laughing at me, and I’m learning to laugh with Him.

Saucy Shrimp Recipe

2010-03-02T21:16:00.001-05:00

This is SOOOOO good. A close family member shared this recipe with us a few years ago and we LOVE it! I’m sorry this isn’t the best photo, but I wanted to share it with you ASAP!

Here’s how you make it…

Sprinkle the following ingredients over 1 pound of peeled raw shrimp:

~lemon pepper and black pepper to taste

~2-3 cloves of chopped garlic

~red pepper flakes

~3/4 cup Italian dressing

~2 teaspoons Worchestshire sauce

~juice from 1 fresh lemon

Place in single layer in oven proof dish. Dot with 1/2 stick of butter (tiny pieces). Bake at 350 degrees until the shrimp form the letter “C” (like in the picture above).

This is SO NEAT. Here’s how to tell if shrimp are cooked:

If they look like a “C” they are done!

If they look like a “U” means undercooked and “O” means overcooked! Love it!

Moms Photography Class

2010-03-01T22:50:00.000-05:00

Are you a Mom with a nice camera but don’t know how to use it? Do you always shoot in “Auto” (the green box) mode? Do you want to know how to get that “magical blur” you love in professional photographs? Want more information on what type of photo editing software you should purchase?

If this describes you, then check out my photography blog at www.erinkjacksonphotography.com!

Weekend Fun!

2010-02-28T19:33:00.001-05:00

Food Allergy Appointment

2010-02-26T19:32:00.001-05:00

Today Parker went for his scheduled food allergy appointment. For those of you new here, he’s allergic to eggs. And while it is pretty unlikely that he would have outgrown his allergy at just shy of age 3, I was still hopeful.

Well, like we pretty much knew, his test results showed that Parker is still allergic to egg whites and yolks. And unfortunately, his allergy is much more severe than we originally thought.

We’ve always carried an Epi-Pen, there’s not really such a thing as a “mild” food allergy. Any child with any level of food allergy could have a severe life-threatening reaction at any time and should always have an Epi-Pen on hand.

So I will still make cupcakes for every birthday party Parker goes to, still prepare meals and snacks whenever we go on playdates, still remind the nursery staff workers every Sunday not to give any unapproved food to Parker, still plan ahead and bring food when we RARELY eat out at restaurants and the hardest of all, still have to explain to Parker why he can’t eat what the other kids are eating and see that sad look on his face.

But it is OK. I have an otherwise very HEALTHY child and for that I feel incredibly blessed! Thank you Lord!

Prayer Warriors, NICU Ministry and Chubby Book

2010-02-25T14:16:00.001-05:00

I’ve never really considered myself a “prayer warrior”. I’ve known several women who I would consider as a prayer warriors, but I had never thought that was really “for me”.

I don’t know if it’s being a mom, getting older or what, but I find myself praying for people ALL THE TIME now. I spend many nights after the kids have woken me up where I just cannot fall back asleep and I end up praying my heart out for anyone and everyone, even people I don’t even know personally.

My heart has been increasingly burdened for babies and young children fighting for their life. I have NO IDEA why God has placed this on my heart, but I do know that I need to be obedient. I’m praying about opportunities for a NICU ministry, but God hasn’t given me the details just yet!

I also know that God does hear and does answer our prayers. He can also perform miracles…..I’ve seen it first hand.

Right now I’m praying for this sweet little girl:

(for the record, I did not take this picture, it’s from her website). Layla Grace is fighting for her life as she battles Neuroblastoma (a type of cancer). She is just two years old. My heart is BREAKING for this family. I have been praying for them for the last 10 months when she was first diagnosed.

Would you please pray for them? Layla Grace only has a few more hours before she will be ushered into Heaven. I also want to encourage you to read this post on praying for miracles that her mom wrote a few days ago. I love how she wrote it.

Are you a prayer warrior? If not, I encourage you to become one. There are so many people who need to be lifted up in prayer RIGHT NOW. It means SO MUCH to me to know that I have people praying for me and my family.

One way to get started is to create a prayer book. I love this idea of a “chubby book” my new friend Lindsay shared on her blog. I have never kept a prayer journal, but I plan to make my own “chubby book” and use it as a guideline. Whenever I tell someone that I’m going to pray for them, I truly mean it. This will help me pray more regularly for people, plus I can also look back on it and see how God has answered prayers!

Do you keep a prayer journal? How do you pray for people?

Sick sick sick!

2010-02-23T10:08:00.001-05:00

Have you missed me? Well, we’ve got the crud travelling around our family. First it was Parker, then it was Connor and now it’s me! I keep thinking “tomorrow I’ll be better” but then tomorrow comes and I’m not. I hope to be back in full swing in the next few days with some new posts and pics!

Stay healthy!

Organization~Kitchen Pantry

2010-02-19T19:48:00.001-05:00

My kitchen pantry is FINALLY organized. I was quite a process for me only because I made it into one. After about a month of “disarray” which drove me NUTS, I forced myself to complete the task when my parents were in town last weekend.

I neglected to take a “before” picture, but close your eyes and think CHAOS. Did you see it? That WAS my pantry……but not any more!

Here she is now!

Do you like??? Here are some things that helped me:

1) If possible, install additional shelving. I am blessed to have really high ceilings on my main level, including in my closets so I had my Dad put up more shelving above what was already there. Thank Dad!

2) Take EVERYTHING out of your pantry and group like items together.

3) Buy baskets to group the like items—I got mine from both Target and from the Dollar Tree.

4) Label each basket so your pantry stays organized and your husband and kids know where to put things :-)

5) Place items used the most at eye level. Place items used least up high. Place items you don’t want your kids getting into (ie paints, candy, special surprises) on the shelves that you yourself can’t reach.

6) Some categories I have in my pantry include (in case you can’t read the labels in the pics): Baking Goods, Pasta, Bread, Special Treats, Snacks Safe for Parker (he’s allergic to eggs), Extra Vitamins, Oils and Vinegar, Condiments.

How do you organize your pantry? I’d love to know and see some pics!

My New Blog Commenting System--DISQUS

2010-02-19T14:41:00.001-05:00

Starting with THIS post, commenting will be easier! So attention all blog stalkers, I know you are out there and I know you want to comment :-)You’ve told me and I’ve listened and researched. Now I have made things easier for you and for me….

This is my first time using DISQUS as a blog writer, but I have heard great things about it.You have multiple ways to sign in (including as a guest) to leave a comment, so please try it out and let me know what you think! Also, let me know if you have any particular topics you want me to blog about—I’d love to hear from you!

Want DISQUS for your blog??? You can download it FREE here!

Strong Willed Children~Tips

2010-02-17T19:57:00.001-05:00

I think I have one of these and I think I was one of those :-)

Unfortunately, I don’t really have any tips YET (my oldest is 2) BUT I did come across this fabulous blog post and thought it would be important to share. There you will find some great tips and wonderful resources. I plan to fully study these!

3 Solutions for Stressed Out Moms

2010-02-17T14:40:00.001-05:00

And YES I ate directly from the ice cream container!

Can you tell that I’m just a wee bit stressed :-)

A Little Bit of Sunshine…..

2010-02-15T19:59:00.001-05:00

I rained this morning AGAIN. It has been nonstop rain here and I’m sooooooo over it! BUT I was pleasantly surprised when the sun came out this afternoon and of course I had to grab my camera…..

One guess on who picked out his outfit….

He LOVES these fire engine rain boots….he talked Grandmommy into these during our Target trip.

I LOVE this little boy!!!!!

Meal Plan Monday and a Little Bit of Housekeeping

2010-02-15T19:43:00.001-05:00

We had a busy weekend……my parents came to visit AND we had snow AND we had this sweet little boy’s birthday party to go to!

I’ve also been WAY busy working on my photography website….stay tuned! I’ve got a blog lined up too :-)

A little bit of housekeeping…….I have decided that I’ve got A LOT going on right now and plenty to blog about, so I’m not sticking to my original blogging schedule except for Meal Plan Mondays just because those hold me accountable to make sure my family has something to eat each night!

I will still do photography tips occasionally, but you will just have to check in with me often and I will link up with Kelly’s “Show Us Your Life Friday’s” most of the time. I’ve also got some more exciting changes coming so stay tuned for those as well, I think you will like them :-)

Now for what we are eating this week, again, not setting a schedule because depending on my mood, energy level and last minute company, I’ve got to be flexible yet prepared!

So, for dinners this week:

Spaghetti

Shrimp Orzo dish (I’ll have to post this recipe when we make it this week!)

Ham, mashed potatoes and veggies

Sloppy Joes and Sweet Potato French Fries

Two Year Old + Moon Sand = Not Such a Great Idea

2010-02-12T14:00:00.001-05:00

Today I had the not-so-brilliant idea to let Parker play with moon sand for the first time. I’ve been working on cleaning out my pantry (for like a month now!) and had “unhidden” the moon sand (I had hidden it when I bought it 6 months ago and realized just how NOT READY Parker was for this stuff).

Anyways, Parker found it this morning and since I was on the phone with one of my best friends from college who I RARELY get to see, I thought this would be a brilliant idea to buy some undisturbed time on the phone.

BIG MISTAKE.

The clean up took about 20 minutes and I’m sure I’ll be finding orange sand in my carpet for days. Not recommending Moon Sand for another few years….lesson learned.

Connor at 7 Months!

2010-02-11T20:30:00.001-05:00

Dear Connor,

You are on the move!!!! I can’t even get you to sit still for your 7 month bear pic! This month you figured out how to sit up, get on all fours, rock back and forth and crawl on all fours! I cannot believe you are crawling already.

You’ve also started eating solids—rice cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes, squash, pears, avocados and apples. You like eating like the rest of us! You are still working on figuring out the sippy cup.

You are still in size 3 diapers and 6-12 months clothes, although some of those are getting a little short on you.

You take two naps, 1-2 hours each in the morning and afternoon and sleep at night from 6:30-6:00am.

Both of your bottom teeth are in and I think your top front teeth are on their way!

You are a wiggler and diaper changing is a challenge!

You desperately want to keep up with your big brother. You are infatuated with him and you two love to play together. I am SO HAPPY to have two boys who love each other so much and can’t wait to see you grow up together.

Recently we gave you and Parker a bath at the same time and you LOVED it! You also thought it was hilarious when both you and Parker were getting your teeth brushed at the same time—I think you loved the fact that you were doing what your big brother was finally!

You are talking more and more and have figured out how to say “Ba” and “Da”.

You’ve become shy around strangers and will bury your face in my shoulder for a few minutes, but then you warm up!

As always, I love you more than you can imagine!

Love,

Mommy

food allergies, valentines party and air guitar

2010-02-10T19:52:00.001-05:00

We’ve had a busy few days….I have been baking like a crazy woman which is completely out of my comfort zone! AND if I have to go to Target one more time, I seriously might lose it.

Since parker is allergic to egg and almost ALL baked goods have egg in them, whenever there is a party, I usually end up making the special treat.

So I made these cuties for Parker’s teacher’s birthday on Tuesday:

And then I made these super yummy strawberry cake balls for Parker’s Valentine’s Day party today:

They have A LOT of sugar in them and the teacher’s said the kids were a little wild HA!

Parker made us the sweetest card at school:

It says “I’ll hand you my heart on Valentine’s Day”. Isn’t that sweet? Definitely a keeper! Speaking of, how do you save your kids artwork? I’m trying to figure out the best way to do this and be organized!

This is Parker’s Valentine’s day goody bag he made at school. I had to confiscate half of the candy—he definitely did not need anymore sugar!

When Parker woke up from his nap, he had a 103.1 fever! Can sugar do that to a kid??? I gave him Motrin and about an hour later he was acting like his usual self, which included some air guitar with daddy at dinner…here he is jammin’!

He was REALLY rockin’ out here….

I TOTALLY had to capture a picture and when I started taking pictures, Parker did this and told me “Mommy, I can’t take it”! HA!

I think he may seriously think of me as the “Momarazzi”!

Guacamole and Meal Plan Monday

2010-02-08T14:04:00.001-05:00

I LaHUV, guacamole! And about two years ago I learned from my mother in love how to make it and over time I have tweaked it into my own recipe.

Here’s how I make my guacamole and I’ve been told it’s pretty good:

Ingredients:

~Two Ripe Avocados—dark, forest green and has just enough “give” when you squeeze. If you can feel the skin separating, they are too ripe and will be brown.

~Kosher Salt

~Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice from 1 Lime

~Garlic—I like a lot of garlic and will use 2-3 good sized cloves

~Optional—diced white onion and ripe roma tomatoes

Simply smash avocado with a fork (I prefer mine a little chunky) and mix in all ingredients. I typically add salt last and add enough until it meets my standards!

And here’s our meal plan for the week—not sure on the order yet since I haven’t made it grocery shopping!

Chicken Enchiladas

Salmon with zucchini and couscous

Shrimp Orzo Pasta

Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salads

Eat Out!

I have been having MAJOR mom guilt lately because my two year old will only eat yogurt, Mac N Cheese, PBJ and chicken nuggets. I try and make him all of these fun dishes that are really healthy but he won’t touch them! How long will this phase last??? Any suggestions?

Sunday Funday

2010-02-07T22:05:00.001-05:00

We’ve got a lot going on today…..first we hit up church and of course we were late as usual. I just don’t know how it is possible to make it to church on time with two little ones. We did make it to church early ONE time, but of course we realized in the church parking lot that we totally forgot Parker’s shoes and had to run to a nearby Target to buy him a pair last minute, therefore we actually ended up being late!

When we got back from church, I decided it would be fun to put both boys in the bathtub together for the first time now that Connor is sitting up well. They had fun playing together!

Tonight, we had our annual Super Bowl plans with our friends the Cramers, and I decided to make guacamole and of course I also needed to bring an egg free treat for Parker (he’s allergic to eggs) so I decided on these cuties:

And because I said I would last week, I will post my guacamole recipe tomorrow with Meal Plan Mondays so be sure to check in!!!

Back to our party, since my friend Allie keeps having girls and I keep having boys, Allie and I have decided to make it EASIER on everyone and just arrange marriages for our kids. So when Parker found a plastic ring in the toy basket tonight, he proposed to Kate:

There were kids everywhere and it is SO HARD to take a two year old’s picture, so you only get to see Parker’s hand, BUT isn’t Kate adorable? She can be my daughter in love any day :-)

She was so excited that she got on the phone to call and tell all her friends!

The hug goodbye…..hugs only until the wedding night in 18 years at least!

Well, I’m off to bed. I’ve got a busy morning getting supplies for some upcoming projects for Sassy Cakes!

What did YOU do for the Super Bowl?

two things i love right now….

2010-02-06T13:45:00.001-05:00

this past week we finally worked on decorating the boys walls in their rooms! i have no idea why it has taken so long and we’ve still got some more decorating to do, but we have a GREAT start with these decals i ordered from home sweet walls on etsy!

i thought they turned out great and they were an inexpensive way to dress up the room. what i really liked was how the finish makes the decals look hand painted! totally recommend home sweet walls and plan to order another monogram for our master bedroom—can you tell i’m a little obsessed with monograms!

the other thing my type A, OCD personality is thanking me for is my “motivated moms planner” from motivated moms. this planner has REALLY helped me keep my house organized and clean by giving me just a few tasks to focus on each day. i LOVE how it reminds me to do those things that you don’t do on a regular basis and seem to forget about (ie wash shower curtains, change filters, work on scrapbook, etc). for me this completely helps me reduce my stress load since motivated moms makes it so i don’t have to try and remember EVERYTHING! oh, i almost forgot…the planner is VERY inexpensive and beyond worth it!

go and check it out for yourself—they’ve got sample pages on their website.

what are some things you are loving right now???

photog tip thursday

2010-02-04T19:50:00.001-05:00

today i’m going to link up to the tidy mom’s blog where she does an AWESOME job explaining how to make great collages using a FREE program called PICNIK. i personally have never used it, but it sounds so easy and simple and FREE that i’m going to have to give it a try and can’t wait until i have some free time!

i thought this was worth sharing so go on over and check it out!

simple pleasures

2010-02-03T19:55:00.001-05:00

i decided to join in kelly’s “simple pleasures” link up for today!

here are some of my simple pleasures….

~seeing my boys play together

~when my husband comes over and gives me a back rub for no reason

~yummy smelling candles burning

~wearing jammies, curled up with a blanket, coffee with whipped cream and a good book

~fresh clean sheets, even better if they are still warm

~starting my morning with a run outside when spring is here and the weather is perfect

~a good heart to heart talk with a special friend about REAL life

~good music that inspires you

~butterfly and bunny kisses from my two year old

~contagious giggles from my 6 month old

~friday night movie night with the fam

and there are a TON more, these are just what came to mind first! what are some of yours?

that may or may not have been me......

2010-02-02T19:38:00.000-05:00

......who got everyone bundled up this morning to brave the cold and rain, packed the super large umbrella into the car, tweeted about how i hate preschool drop offs in the pouring rain with a baby car seat carrier in tow, pulled into the empty parking lot at school only to realize there was a two hour delay. not me!

i also may or may not have been desperate enough to entertain a two year old with endless amounts of energy who has been cooped up in the house for days on end and therefore exceeded the suggested allotment of tv watching hours for preschoolers.

just sayin’…….

chocolate chip scones and meal plan monday

2010-02-01T15:09:00.001-05:00

since it was like 18 degrees here this morning, the roads were icy and school was cancelled. so parker and i had a fun time hangin’ out while connor napped this morning. we cut out dinosaurs, colored them and also made chocolate chip scones:

in case you are wondering why parker has no shirt on, it’s because he’s in the phase where if his shirt gets even just a DROP of water on it, it’s “too wet” and he takes it off! wish he had that same feeling about diapers!

here’s our dinner meal plan for the week:

tonight—leftovers!

tuesday—salmon and zuchini (yes this is from last week, we ordered out several nights since brandon’s mom was in town.

wednesday—sloppy joes, with sneaky sweet potatoes! and sweet potato french fries

thursday—leftovers

friday—taco soup with tortilla strips

saturday—leftover taco soup—we love it SO MUCH!!!

fun in the snow!

2010-01-31T21:25:00.001-05:00

make up photog tip for this week~"the rule of two thirds”

2010-01-31T15:57:00.001-05:00

this week we are going to talk about "the rule of two thirds". one of the most BORING things you can do is to take a picture with your subject dead center like the one below:

it’s our natural tendency to want to place our subjects perfectly center in our photographs, but doing so is actually very unappealing to the eye.

if you think of a tic-tac-toe board, when taking your photos, you want to ideally place your subject at any point where the horizontal line meets the vertical line. you can see these points marked by a star in my beautiful diagram below:

clearly i am NOT an artist as you can see i can’t even draw a straight line—ha! you get the point though.

here is the same picture with the subject off-center:

and this was from before, so you can see them closer together.

here’s another example:

centered:

off-centered:

see how there’s something “uncomfortable” about the subject being completely centered?

i always attempt to take all of my pictures with the subject placed appropriately off center, but now with technology, you don’t even have to stress about that during your photo shoot! we are able to crop photos in the post processing stage to move our subjects to the ideal points.

speaking of, there are many basic photo editing programs out there—i currently use photoshop elements and i love it, but will be upgrading in the future to lightroom. i only recommend these programs if you are serious enough to take quite a bit of time studying how to use them or else you will become very frustrated and will waste your money.

you don’t need these programs to do basic photo editing!picasa, is a great FREE program you can download that provides many basic editing functions such as cropping.

a whole lot of randomess and “show us your life friday”

2010-01-29T20:32:00.001-05:00

well after yesterday’s debacle, i’ve got some catching up to do….

1) i plan to do a make up the photog tip this weekend since i missed it this thursday. if you want to know why, click HERE. i’m pretty confident that the explanation is clear and you will extend me a little bit of grace :-)

2) in case you are wondering, today it took 1 time, that is IT! (you need to read the above-referenced post to understand).

3) i love my kids SO MUCH! i think connor may be coming down with an ear infection and i’m sure it will be become unbearable TOMORROW when our roads are completely iced over and we’ll have to hit the ER since NOTHING will be open—gotta love the mommy drama! anywho, as i was saying, connor has been a bit fussy and he’s pretty much NEVER fussy (dream baby i know!) but tonight when i was nursing him to put him to bed, he could NOT stop laughing! he was laughing hysterically for like 10 minutes—I almost didn’t put him to bed but then i remembered that he barely napped at all today (again, quite uncommon).

AND, i think parker actually feels bad about yesterday’s episode (again, see yesterday’s post). tonight i told him that i couldn’t bend over because my back hurt me and then i proceeded to mumble that it was because i had to put him back into bed 168 times yesterday. he didn’t say anything, but a little while later he came to me and said, “mommy your back hurt?” and i said “yes”. and then he started rubbing my back!!!!! and he asked if it was “all better”! OMGOODNESSSSSSS!!!! seriously, i may have the most strong-willed child in the world, but he is also the most sweetest, caring and loving little boy. it makes yesterday totally worth it!

4) i love this windows live writer program for blogging. the download is free so be sure to check it out if you are a blogger.

5) i’m so excited i’ve got music on my blog! i love these songs and i hope you enjoy them too! who ever knew that i would ever like christian music so much!

6) does anyone know how to clean an oven safely? i have a self cleaning oven, but i’m afraid to be breathing in the toxic fumes for 5 hours. you can see it’s been a while….

7) we are supposed to get snow and /or ice tonight. i’m HOPING/PRAYING it’s snow! having no electricity with two little ones is beyond challenging. it makes me ever so thankful for what we have on a daily basis and also to pray for those who don’t even have WATER in haiti, let alone electricity! in these moments i realize just how blessed i am.

8) show us your life friday. i’ve been trying to keep up with kelly from kelly’s corner with these each friday. today is about FASHION TIPS. unfortunately, i have fallen into the mommy trap and don’t really consider myself very fashionable anymore. i think i’m WAY behind the latest trends and probably won’t ever catch up ha!

one thing i do know is that investing it a good pair of jeans can make any post-baby figure look great! i don’t know what it is, but somehow high-quality jeans are able to give that lift where you need it most!

have a great weekend!

168

2010-01-28T16:57:00.000-05:00

that's how many times i had to put this little boy back in his bed today during nap time.....

while this little guy screamed his head off..........

my back is broke, and i'm exhausted. there may or may not be a photography tip later today. it may be more like tomorrow depending how the rest of the day goes.

do you think i need to call supernanny?

works for me wednesday!

2010-01-27T20:05:00.001-05:00

as i was attempting to catch up on reading my blogs today, i came across this fun “works for me wednesday” (WFMW)post from “we are THAT family” blog. since i tend to be “THAT” mom quite a bit, i find peace and comfort reading her posts HA! and we all know i have WAY too many words for wordless wednesdays!

this week’s “WFMW” are just random tips that save you time, money, stress, etc.

my WFMW tip has to do with cooking. i’m not a really big cook, but i like to do organic, healthy, non processed meals 95% of the time. and since my one son is allergic to eggs, we don’t eat out often.

i often dread the cooking part, BUT one thing that REALLY helps me is to buy a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from costco each week. i always get nervous about cooking chicken since i tend to fear salmonella poisoning with an OCD-like compulsion. so for $5 or so, you can get a freshly cooked chicken from chickens not raised on added hormones—i love it! we use rotisserie chicken to make quesadillas, salads, plain with goat cheese, bbq sandwiches, you name it! for me, it TOTALLY takes the stress out of cooking AND it’s healthy!

i haven’t finished reading all the links yet, but go check them out here and leave me a comment about which one is your favorite!

on a completely separate note, last night i got to spend a few hours with my good friend jeanette (one reason why no blog post, the other was that nugget #2 did not nap yesterday!) and we had so much fun talking about our kids, bible studies, photography and blogs!

jeanette was one of the first people who got me into blogging and i still remember chatting with her about what to name my blog a year and a half ago! ps--i CANNOT believe we didn’t get a picture of us last night, hello we even had a camera with us!

i came away with some much needed girl time, some great photography tips and a new way to write my blog posts using windows live writer (this post is the test drive, but i hear it is SO much easier to write your posts and the download was free!). thanks jeanette for hanging out with me!

meal plan mondays

2010-01-25T15:16:00.000-05:00

here's what were are PROBABLY going to be eating this week......things always come up BUT at least we will be prepared to eat the following!

breakfast~kashi-type cheerios, organic flax seed waffles, yogurt and granola

lunch~chicken alphabet soup (with sneaky cauliflower!)--i'm not sure how copyrights work with recipes, but it's from "Deceptively Delicious" which you can purchase HERE.

highly recommend this book for your munchkins!

other lunches this week include the standard issues of PBJ and spaghetti o's (organic).

dinners:

monday--quesadillas (i use rotisserie chicken from costco--so easy and NO hormones!)
tuesday--tomato bisque soup and grilled cheese. tomato bisque recipe is from HERE.
wednesday--leftovers
thursday--salmon and zucchini with parmesean (zucchini recipe is from this cookbook):

friday: burritos made with pork tenderloin in the slow cooker and yummy quacamole! i'll have to share my quacamole recipe in another post--it is SO good! and YES we still have not had burritos--i think it's been on the menu now for like 3 weeks!

saturday--leftovers/pizza and salads

dessert--chocolate chip scones (you can get recipe HERE.)

fruit juice shapes--recipe also from Ina's cookbook above!
what are you eating this week???

one of THOSE days.....

2010-01-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

my weekend started off just fab. friday morning as we were rushing to get out the door to MOPS (and running SERIOUSLY late since everyone including the dogs woke up at some point in the middle of the night all at DIFFERENT times mind you) my dog throws up all over the bathroom floor. luckily it was easy to clean and no big deal.

then one of my best friends calls and asks me to be in her wedding.....so exciting and of course i have to stay on the phone for a little bit to get all the details!!!!

just as i get out of the shower, i hear the fed ex guy knock on the door with some important packages for my mother in law that i may need to sign for.....do i answer the door in my bathrobe???? seriosuly, what do you all do? luckily i think my crazy dogs scared him away and he left the packages and was in his truck down the street by the time i had my robe on.

as i'm attempting to put some make up on, my dog throws up AGAIN, this time on the bathroom rug. ugh!!!! it's 9:15 at this point, still no make up and wet hair to dry and MOPS starts at 9:30. AND sick dog is downstairs whining to go outside to probably puke again.

at that point, i voted and won and we stayed in pjs all day and didn't go ANYWHERE. i used to be SO good at getting to places on time but now, whether i have 30 minutes or 3 hours i still can't seem to get it together!

please tell me you all have days like this!

thankfully, bailey (said dog) seems to be doing better. i was worried because she is getting older and one of her former "roommates" who was younger than her just had to be put to sleep last week.

it will be a VERY sad day for us when that time comes. bailey is the epitomy of "man's best friend". she is VERY protective and i have no doubt that this dog would do anything for our family. she can be quite neurotic at times and she's not good with strangers, but she is a great dog and is so loved by all of us!

this weekend we have had "grandmama" in town visiting us, unfortunately she has to work on a big project the rest of her time here. we took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and thank goodness because today was just BLAH!

this little guy is sitting up like a champs these days and is still making me think he's going to start crawling in the very near future YIKES.

and to finish off with something cute parker did yesterday--parker likes to "push the button" and get brandon to lift his legs so he can walk under them. well yesterday, that was a little hard to do because brandon had connor in his lap so when parker went to "push the button", b told him that it was broken. parker goes running off to get his tool kit to "fix" it HA!

here's parker "fixing" daddy's leg :-) he is at a really fun age--i love his imagination and the things he comes up with!

ok, i'm off to plan the menu for the week....pending any major issues tonight, it should be posted tomorrow!

photog tip thursday--shooting in AV mode

2010-01-21T18:37:00.000-05:00

today we are going to be livin' on the edge and talking about shooting outside of the box HA! and by "box" i mean in a mode other than "auto" (the green box).

just a reminder, i'm keeping these posts very basic and they are really meant for a mom who wants to take better pictures of her kids. we will be taking BABY steps each thursday, so if you already know this basic photography information, i apologize for boring you and check back in on fridays!

back to our lesson today....

with a little courage and some tools, one step you can take to improving your pictures is to NOT shoot in automatic. yes i'll admit there are times where i've only got one second to grab a picture of my kids doing something really cute before they move and ruin the moment, and i'll quickly flip to auto, but most of the time i do NOT shoot in "green box" mode. the main reason for this is that in auto the flash will most of the time automatically come on and not give you the best pictures (see post from last thursday).

i have gotten REALLY comfortable shooting in "AV" mode and when i'm really living on the edge i go full throttle and shoot in manual. shooting in manual is where i really learn the most about photography because i can change settings and see what that does to a photograph. i digress......

what IS "AV" mode?

"AV" mode is the mode that puts the "aperture" as the priority. what does that mean? again keeping things simple aperture creates what i call the "magic" in a photograph. it's that crystal clear subject that pops at you with the blury background behind. it is what we all love and adore about the photographs of our children, besides the munchkins themselves!

here's a quick example i could find, but you'll see how my son "pops" from the background and the trees, etc have a blur to them. you can also see how thrilled he is to have his picture taken ha!

how do i get in AV mode?

on my cannon rebel, you simply turn the dial to "AV". you should have this on most SLR cameras i believe and also some point and shoot cameras. check your owner's manual to see how to get into "AV" mode on your particular camera.

i'm in AV mode, now what?

here i am going to speak from my experience with my personal cannon rebel xt since that is what i know best, if you don't have a rebel, your camera probably operates very similarly so this information should at least send you in the right direction.

on my camera, when i am in AV mode, my camera will give me the lowest number aperature given the current lighting conditions and set the shutter speed. for this lesson, just understand that the lower the number of the aperature (this will be determined by the numbers on your lens that have a decimal, mine is f 1.8) the MORE "magic" or blur you will get. so AV mode will get you the best blur your lens can offer in the current conditions you are in.

the one thing you WILL have to set in the mode (at least on my camera) is the ISO. without getting technical at all, when i'm inside with less lighting, i use a higher number (consult your manual to determine how to change the ISO) and when i'm outside i use lower numbers.

homework for the week, follow these steps:

1) learn how to change your mode from "auto" to "AV"

2) learn how to change the ISO on your camera and set it

3) once you can do these two things, take several pictures in AV mode inside using both the highest ISO number your camera will go and the lowest number. compare the differences in the photographs.

4) go outstide and repeat step 3.

5) have fun and don't forget to take chances and take lots of pictures! that's the beauty of digital!

i'm SOOOOOOO not ready for this

2010-01-20T16:08:00.000-05:00

yes, you are seeing this correctly...my BABY has been getting up on all fours all day today and rocking back and forth. ok, we JUST started solids, we are NOT ready for crawling. i don't think i can handle it.

yes, you may have noticed that it IS allegedly "wordless wednesdays" and yes i DID post that one of my blogging goals was to do this every wednesday, but lets face it. i am not one who you would classify as "wordless" so let's be honest, "wordless wednesdays" are just NOT for me.

so while i'm sad over the fact that my baby will no longer be as much of a baby anymore, i am pleased with the fact that my 2 year old had THREE helpings of peas last night. he kept requesting more!

AND i'm proud of myself because today after i made a batch of pureed bananas for connor, i had this brilliant idea to make parker a "surprise" with the leftover pureed bananas. i took the pureed bananas and added some other frozen organic fruit and yogurt to my food processor and voila! a healthy smoothie incorporating lots of fuits and since i called it a surprise, parker was ALL ABOUT IT! i'll be honest, this was SLIGHTLY deceiving on my part since he thought he was getting some sort of sugary treat, but hey it worked and i felt like i should receive the mom of the hour award....that was until nap time hit and i found some special STUFF all over parker's room. oh well, there's always tomorrow.........

lemonade stand award!!!!!

2010-01-19T14:23:00.002-05:00

so my friend aimee who writes a BEAUTIFUL blog called women's marriage ministry nominated me for this award.....

i am BEYOND excited!!!! can you tell? thank you so much aimee for the nomination--you totally made my day!

you definitely want to check out aimee's blog, seriously you don't want to miss it. it is AWESOME!

anyways, now it's my turn to nominate some blogs that are meaningful to me. there are really SO MANY good blogs out there, but here are the ones that i read regularly that really speak to me during this phase of my life:

http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/

http://www.threadsoffaithfulness.blogspot.com/

http://daveandbritplusone.blogspot.com/

http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

http://www.littlealexander.squarespace.com/

http://jennasjourneyblog.blogspot.com/

http://drmowry.blogspot.com/

http://jessicaturnersblog.blogspot.com/

http://brodyfrancis.blogspot.com/

http://www.myfavoriteeverything.com/

** Rules for the Award **

* Put the Lemonade Logo on your blog or in your blog post

* Nominate at least 10 blogs with a great attitude or gratitude

* Link Nominees to your post

* Let your nominees know about their award by leaving them a comment on their blog

* Share the Love & link to the person from whom you received the award

enjoy checking out some of my most FAVORITE blogs....they truly are my daily inspiration!

meal plan monday

2010-01-18T19:45:00.000-05:00

here's what we are going to ATTEMPT to eat this week HA! you'll see that a few things are from last week :-) BUT the beauty of a flexible plan is that i am at least already prepared with ingredients for those meals!

monday--we ended up ordering in since my parents are still here

tuesday--spaghetti and meatballs

wednesday--chicken stir fry

thursday--leftovers (i'm meeting up with girlfriends at pf changs!)

friday--burritos with slow cooked pork tenderloin (these are SO GOOD)

breakfasts for the week--yogurt and granola, cheerios, peanut butter toast and oatmeal

lunches--same old faves....PBJ, organic spaghetti o's, smoothies and cheese and crackers

special treat--chocolate chip scones...i'm going to try out this recipe HERE.

i'm also going to attempt to serve more veggies and fruit for snacks this week....i never do a good job of this during the winter!

and a question for all of you.....do you ever make meals and freeze them? if so, what are some good recipes that freeze well????

date night and teddy bear

2010-01-17T13:44:00.000-05:00

guess who came to town?

yay for free babysitters.....i mean grandparents!!! so hubs and i got to go on a date night to see the blind side. i loved it! and i stayed awake--one of the main reasons i have not been to a movie theater in two years HA!

this could be another reason :-)

this little guy has been sitting up longer and longer on his own. i mean we MAY be up to 10 seconds! he's also starting to look a LOT like his big brother. b and i were going through old pictures and while the are some noticeable differences, parker and connor do look a lot like brothers which i love!

and this little teddy bear:

she will take ANY attention she can get these days. this is mollie, my 45 pound lap dog. i never had a dog growing up and always wanted one that was like a big stuffed animal that could sleep with me. well that came true just about 3 years ago when mollie joined our family. until the munchkins came along, she used to snuggle right up next to me each night. now she just attempts to get in my lap any chance she can!

hope you are having a great weekend!

show us your life--diets, exercise programs and ideas

2010-01-15T13:33:00.001-05:00

today is show us your life friday (SUYL) which i will be participating in every friday with kelly.

currently i'm not really on any sort of exercising program except chasing two little boys HA! but as you may or may not have read from my 2010 goals post, i want to get back into a routine. for me, i LOVE routine. i find both comfort and confidence when i have a schedule and can stick to it. it's hard though to find that when your day is constantly dictated by everyone else's schedules, and then of course someone's sick or teething so that just REALLY throws us off!

but this week i have started back and i'm loving it. the other day i went to the gym and just ran/walked for 20 minutes on the treadmill. and just doing that little bit, i felt SO MUCH better and energized.

so my biggest tip is to just start with small goals and get comfortable with those before increasing them. for me, if i start out too big, i find myself giving up because it's A LOT harder to find 60 minutes of time than it is to find 20 minutes.

the other thing that helped me was investing in a double jogging stroller. this way i'm getting the kids outside AND even if i just walk, pushing 100 pounds burns A LOT of calories!

nikerunning.com has great free tools as well!

good luck!

photog tip thursday--lighting

2010-01-14T19:33:00.000-05:00

thought i wouldn't post on this today did you? yes this is my THIRD post for the day (be sure to check out the other two!), but i really want to keep up with these blog posts and hold myself accountable to keep up with my photography goals.

again, i am just a mom with a camera with a passion to capture each memory in a photograph--i'm still learning and i'd love to help inspire you to get out your camera and capture some great pics of your own munchkins!

today i wanted to talk about lighting. lighting differentiates a good picture from a bad picture. if the lighting is not good, it really doesn't matter what kind of camera or lens you have or photo editing software.

the biggest thing you can do to drastically change your photos TODAY is to NEVER use a flash. using a flash distorts colors, images, causes shadows, etc and basically takes away everything you LOVE about good photographs.

what does this mean? it means that you need to either a) get outside for your photo shoot (ideal) or b) if you want/have to shoot inside you need to switch your camera out of "automatic" mode. if you are in "auto" mode, 9.5 times out of 10 it will NOT be light enough for your flash not to automatically pop up.

because i want to keep these posts relatively short and sweet and VERY basic, tonight i'm just going to focus on solving the flash issue by shooting outside.

the best outdoor lighting you can use is an overcast day because the clouds diffuse the natural sunlight. you don't have to deal with direct sunlight issues and the lighting works great with skin tones. if it's not overcast out, you can still find great lighting conditions. you want to place your subject in the shade and you want to be in the sunlight.

try it out and experiment. take some pictures inside with the flash on and then go take some pictures outside and compare. it doesn't even matter what you are taking a picture of (it could be a leaf or a cup of water!) but you will see what a TREMENDOUS difference not using flash will make.

you can see from my examples--the picture above is taken outside with no flash and i didn't even edit the photo in photoshop, and below is a pic i took inside using "auto" mode with auto flash. you can see how much it changes the colors and skin tones.

next week, i'll address how to shoot inside without using a flash, ie shooting in a mode other than "auto".

wednesday recap....still catching up on blogging

2010-01-14T15:48:00.000-05:00

since i'm doing multiple posts today to catch up from earlier in the week, be sure to scroll down and see all of the new posts!

yesterday we had a fun morning at our friends house. allie is one of my best friends and she has two adorable little girls kate and ellie reese close in age to my two boys. yesterday we discussed arranged marriages for the kids so we can stop just stop worrying if any boy/girl will ever be good enough for precious children!

allie and i don't get to catch up nearly enough anymore since there always seems be something coming up, usually someone's sick. so yesterday was great to finally get together!

allie was so sweet to make parker and kate pancakes (with no egg of course!)

kate (aka "pinky" with her pink cast) eating yummy pancakes! she is parker's best friend---they play so well together!

parker usually gets some sort of "accessory" when we visit their house :-)

ellie reese.....such a cutie

allie was also kind to let me use precious elle as a model for sassycakes new birthday outift:
isn't she just presh? sorry boys she is TAKEN!!!

the tutu was so full that she had to crawl like this HA!

notice how i don't have any pics of connor yet---yeah, well he spit up ALL OVER his cute outfit for the day so i had to change him into this onesie for the morning that he had outgrown...elle didn't seem to mind though :-)

she still thinks he's pretty cute.....

connor was a little nervous about what elle's dad would think......

but then miss allie said it was OK so they were both happy......

because they got to hold hands. but that is IT. nothing more until their wedding night HA!

thanks for having us over girls.....we had a great time!

wow i'm behind......

2010-01-14T13:24:00.000-05:00

ok, so i've been just a wee bit busy lately and have totally fallen off the blogging wagon aghhhh!!!

first things first, the menu from monday, while i DID have it all planned out, i totally neglected to post it since i was wrapped up in connor's 6 month post.

monday: arugala, carmelized onion and goat cheese pizza (you can find this on www.foodnetwork.com)(it's really an appetizer but i added some peppered salami and it was really good!) and baked parmesean squash

tuesday: i ended up going out (more to come on this) so the boys got stuck with frozen amy's meals which are REALLY good and organic!

wednesday: mom of the year here hits once again and we ended up doing frozen pizza and salads because i'm just WAY BEHIND

thursday: italian baked chicken and pastina (another www.foodnetwork.com recipe), this will be a first try for me, but i'm hoping little man will actually like it!

friday: chicken tenders (homemade)

saturday: leftovers or possibly spaghettin and meatballs

now to catch you up on what we've been up to..........

tuesday:

just like most days, we began the day with several outfit changes....usually it's because SOMEONE has decided to play with the soap in the sink and the shirt becomes "too wet" to wear anymore, but on tuesday, it was "too cold". yes this super cute top has metal buttons and they felt "too cold" against parker's skin. so here he is all proud of himself for unbuttoning his shirt.....

and then he came over to me and yelled his new word he made up "gella!!!" (spoken like TA-DA!!!!) to show me his work. i was thoroughly excited because at least i got to take a picture of him! but then of course i ran around like a made woman trying to get everyone ready so we could make it to preschool on time.

after preschool we can home to this mess, nothing really new since it's been there since christmas. parker being all boy likes the demolition aspect of his new toys so we live in a house filled with little toy pieces EVERYWHERE. at least he appears to be reassembling the thomas train set....

and then toys mysteriously disappear for 3 weeks, sometimes i'm not ALL THAT upset, like when we lost "james" the other week--"james" is great when he's on the train tracks doing his thing, but when he's left on for hours on end flipped over, the constant LOUD humm he provides in the background, not so fun. so when parker told me to "watch this" as he ran over to the subwoofer sitting on the floor in our family room, in went his little hand into the hole and out came our beloved "james". GELLA!!!!!

after nap time, we budled up and headed outside to enjoy a few minutes of relatively warmer weather:

seriously????? ALL of my boys (hubs included) have eyelashes like this, me not so much. SO. NOT. FAIR.

yep, that's my two year old actually smiling for my camera!

and then possibly the HIGHLIGHT of my entire week, girls night out with my new friends from our mommy and me group. we had a BLAST and i really lived it up staying up until 10:30. pathetic i know.

wednesday's recap will be later today/tonight. don't want to make this post too long for ya!

my baby is 6 months already!

2010-01-11T19:26:00.001-05:00

dear connor,

i say this every month but i cannot believe how fast you are growing up! you continue to be a VERY happy babby and your giggles melt.my.heart. you've even started to give me kisses! you lean real close to my face with your mouth open--i love it! here are some other fun things about you this month:

~your stats at 6 months: 14 pounds 14 ounces (10-25%) and 26.5 inches long (75%)
~you are wearing size 3 diapers and you are in 6-9 month clothes
~you are becoming quite squirmy during diaper changes, always trying to grab something!
~you like to play on the floor and you roll over, but you'll stay put entertaining yourself and playing with your toys for a while.
~every time i put you down for a nap, you look up at me with the SADDEST face as i walk out the door. it's SO HARD for me to leave you, but i know once i shut the door in just a few seconds you'll stop crying, shove your thumb in your mouth and out you go!
~you can sit up for a few seconds by yourself!
~you no longer like to take naps when we are out and about, but sometimes if you are REALLY tired you will fall asleep for a brief cat nap, but you hate to miss out on things!
~you are getting your first tooth (bottom right) and it's been bothering you a bit, but now that it's just breaking through you are doing much better
~during nap time, you like to play and talk to yourself in your crib, you've even figured out how to start you mobiles
~mommy's been REALLY lazy in the mornings these days because it is so dark and so cold out that i hate getting out of bed, so i end up bringing you in bed with us to feed you--i love spending time with you all snuggled up under the covers!
~you like to "talk" by babbling and blowing bubbles--you like to do this as the most perfect times, like during prayer time at church and MOPS ha!
~today we started solids! you didn't really know what to make of it and you made some funny faces which we caught on video. you liked playing with the spoon the best!
~you tolerate mommy as she's been taking a MILLION pictures of you lately--most of the time you like to smile at the camera!

i love you my sweet little boy!

weekend in review

2010-01-10T20:00:00.000-05:00

we had a great family weekend! saturday morning, parker and i had a date at the jumpE place. we ended up getting there before it opened, so we decided to get his hair cut first.

and for being so good, he got a lollipop (organic of course!)

parker LOVED the jumpE place and was totally in his element. lots to jump and climb on.....a place he can be ALL BOY rather safely. that munchkin wore me out as his new thing to say is "c'mon mommy, c'mon!". so over and over and over and over i climbed up the big bouncy steps, akwardly climbed through the small doorways (clearly not meant for people who are 5'10") and went down the big bouncy slide. it WAS fun.....the first few times :-) but after doing this repeatedly for 45 minutes, today i am a little bit sore. BUT it was totally worth it to have some alone time with one of my most favorite boys! (sorry for the not so great pics, but all i had was my point and shoot and of course it died!)

i'm trying to think what we did the rest of the day, mostly worked on this pillow case dress for sassycakes:

did some housework (i've been TOTALLY procrastinating on this lately!) and hung out with hubbin' and the kiddos.

we did decide to live on the edge and try out saturday night church this week. with connor not being as portable during naps anymore, i think this might work best for us for the time being. it's at the main location, but i like being surounded by so many people--our church is REALLY big, like 3000 members or somehting.

then we watched football after the kiddos went down, or mostly b watched football and i read blogs on the couch next to him ha! we are in a little "competition" so i'll have to keep you posted!

today was errand day.....target and lowes food AND i hit up the gym! i ran/walked 1.5 miles, a really far cry from my marathoning days BUT i'll take it!

i also went a little crazy with the camera today and took 350 pictures of connor. cute outfit + good lighting + happy munchkin = great shots! now i just need to find time to edit all of them! i also made my very first batch of homemade baby food for connor's big day tomorrow! stay tuned for all of these pics........

how was your weekend?

sassycakesdesigns.com is launched!......i mean kind of

2010-01-08T21:04:00.001-05:00

aaaaaannndd by launched i mean i finally have figured out how to post pictures, pricing and descriptions. check it out! i've still got quite a bit of work to do, but i've made a lot of progress. if you want to place an order, please email me, the shopping cart isn't fully functional at this point, erin@sassycakesdesigns.com.

w

show us your life friday--2010 goals

2010-01-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

another one of my blogging goals is to participate in kelly's show us your life fridays. this is a fun way to see how other people "live" and a great resource of ideas! this week is about your 2010 goals, so i've linked up on her site. you can check out my goals there OR see my post from january 1st. warning, my goals are VERY detailed but that's VERY me :-)

we had a fun day today--the boys and i hit up MOPS this morning and made these cute chalk boards. i would take a pic, but mine's 90% finished, so you'll have to wait for the finished product.

and since both boys fell asleep in the car for the last 10 minutes of our commute home, nap time pretty much didn't happen in our house today. fun times for this mommy! and also because we now somehow live in iceland or something, it is WAY too cold to take the littles outside.

but i did manage to snap some pics of BOTH nuggets today, parker was actually looking at the camera maybe twice HA!

first photog tip thursday

2010-01-07T22:12:00.000-05:00

so if you read my goals post from jan. 1, you saw that one of my blog goals is to post photog tips on thursdays. first, just so i get it out there, i am just a mom with a camera who wants to hold on to EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of my kids lives. i took a "SPA" course from smitten photography two years ago and learned some tricks but everything else has been self taught through lots of trials and a LOT more errors HA!

one of my other goals is to take 5000 pictures this year. i'm using this blog to help hold me accountable on taking so many pictures and on taking the time to learn new tips and tricks each week.

on that note, todays tip is to take LOTS of pictures. i know it doesn't sound like that great of a tip, BUT the more pictures you take the more you learn what works and what doesn't work. ask any great photographer and they will tell you that it takes many many pictures to get ONE good picture and many many more to get ONE perfect shot.

i love have a little one again as it's great having a subject that 1) actually likes to get his picture taken (my two year old is hit or miss these days!) and 2) stays in one place! i have been taking FULL advantage of connor's babyness and do quite a few photo shoots a month. each shoot i usually take 100-200 pictures in about 15-30 minutes. it sounds like a lot, but there may only be a handful that i really like and thanks to digital we can do this! what on earth did photographers do before digital? i have NO idea and i totally would have wasted a TON of film!

after spending two years taking A LOT of pictures, i am really starting to see a difference in my photos. i am learning what works and what doesn't. i didn't notice this so much at first, but now it's really starting to kick in!

today i took 83 pictures of connor in about 10 minutes. here are a few i was excited about:

soooooo, all of that being said, have fun taking LOTS of pictures this week. don't be afraid to try new things, props, etc. these "experiments" are what lead to great photo opps! you have to take a lot of bad pictures to get those perfect pictures we all love!

too cold to go out--an afternoon indoors with two munchkins

2010-01-06T20:35:00.000-05:00

since it's wordless wednesday and i'm not supposed to use any "words" here are a million pics to share with you our afternoon today!

january bible verse, frigid temps and a mini success

2010-01-05T19:29:00.000-05:00

first things first......this month's bible verse, a little delayed, but here it is, one of my faves!

"delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass....rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" psalm 37:4-7.

second, this is NOT why i moved to charlotte:

ummmmm seriously???? and it's supposed to be in the 30s all week? WHAT??? this is too cold for this southern girl!

we spent the morning today at the doctor's office with brandon. he had to have a little "procedure" and praise God that everything was ok! while the "procedure" was taking place, i was in the waiting room with both munchkins trying to occupy them for two and a half hours. this is enough to make any mother nervous, but i always get anxious with parker because he's usually all over the place. seriously, since that boy found out he could roll over, i could never leave him alone for a second! if there's a baby proofing product on the market, we own it an use it HA! if you see some crazy lady running with a baby carrier in her arms calling after her toddler, i'm THAT mom!!! it's only been recently where parker will really play with toys and has really started following directions. that being said, i was an anxious mess this morning. BUT bless his little heart, parker did great! he sat and played with some "new to us" toys for a good 30-40 minutes, ate a snack and watched a movie. i was SO proud of him. on top of that, both boys went #2 and i had to nurse connor during the wait and we did it! it's the small things in life when you're a mother!

if you reference back to my post on goals, you'll see that one of my goals was "tackle it tuesdays" for blog posts, and while this was not quite the type of challenge in mind for these tuesday posts, i'll say that we tackled it!

menu plan monday

2010-01-04T10:58:00.000-05:00

ok, so i HATE menu planning and grocery shopping and i avoid it and dread it every single week which usually means multiple trips to target, walmart and the gorcery store each week. certainly not efficient and probably not the most cost effective. one of my goals is to plan the menu each week and post it on my blog for some accountability :-) as much as i hate doing this, i do feel SO MUCH BETTER when i've got the menu planned out and the food to prepare it. it makes meal times so much less stressful for me!

i found this awesome application while i was surfing blogs the other night called "plan to eat". i am HOPING this will make meal planning much more manageable for me. i LOVE the feature where it puts together your grocery list for you and you just print it out. this is a HUGE help and motivator for me. you can get a free trial for 30 days and then it's a small fee monthly. i'm going to see how i like it for this month and then decide what to do, but so far so good!

anyway, here's our family's menu for the week

breakfast: steel cut oats, waffles, smoothies, yogurt and granola

lunch: organic spaghetti o's, mac n cheese, pbj

dinners:
monday~ham, peas, roasted red potatos
tuesday~sloppy joes, salad and sweet potato french fries
wednesday~salmon, baked zuccini and squash, cous cous
thursday~leftovers
friday~burritos
saturday~leftovers
sunday~pizza or amy's frozen meals

what are you eating this week?

goals for 2010

2010-01-01T20:58:00.000-05:00

i always love this time of year as it's a great time to actually write my goals down on paper and come up with a POA. i always like to get away from the house, the kids, the hubbin', the mountain of laundry and head to starbucks, settle down with a pumpkin spice latte and spend two hours focused on what i want to accomplish this year. and today i did just that!

being the detailed, type a, schedule loving person that i am, there's something about writing down my thoughts on paper that brings me such peace and comfort. i love the "planning" aspect of goal planning.....soooo weird right??? but i do, and i always get SO excited about the upcoming year. if you've never taken a few hours to yourself to write down your goals and dream for a little bit, i HIGHLY recommend you do it! it doesn't have to be perfect and you can add to them and change them often, BUT YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE, so don't procrastinate or it will never happen!

here is a modified version of my goals. the "modified" part is that i am INSANELY detail oriented and i don't want to completely bore you with all of those details! i like to break down my goals by areas that are important to me and roles that i play in life. my goal is to review these each day with my "to do" list and highlight what i'm focusing on for the month.

Erin's 2010 Goals
Jesus stuff~continued growth in christ
~read bible in a year with chronological bible, note in margins what is going on in my life that day
~weekly participate in “mommy and me” group
~regularly attend lifegroup functions and continue as “social care person”
~dedicate parker and connor in (march?)
~pick a monthly bible verse and post on blog (1st of each month)
~MOPS
~pray about NICU ministry opportunities

mom stuff
~up before kids, wake up at 5:45, get dressed and ready for anything that can happen that day!
~order “slow and steady get me ready” and work with parker 3 days/week
~15 minutes of reading with the boys each day
~look into spring sports for parker
~strive to be 80% organic! plan ahead to prepare healthy meals
~make 100% of connor’s baby food with fresh organic foods, make 1 month supply at a time
~parenting books: ready 4, one with Brandon, research which ones on focus on the family

wife stuff
~complete love dare
~read “motivating your man” and “love and respect”
~weekly read aimee’s blog
~date night once a month, plan ahead!
~create a “help” list for brandon

sassycakes designs stuff
~new systems: income, orders, inventory sheet, bank account and create invoice
~baxter spring and fall festival, lake wylie, RHCC Christmas bazaar
~website up and running with email by 1/31/09
~send out mailer monthly
~quarterly giveaways
~open etsy store
~order business cards

blog stuff
~post daily before bed each night:
Mondays—menu
Tuesdays—tackle it
Wednesdays-- wordless
Thursdays—photog
Fridays—show us your life
~check out 1 new blog each day and leave a comment!
~new design by april
~twitter account

organization/home stuff
~improve financial spreadsheet and tracking
~motivated moms planner/chore schedule
~deep clean 1 room/area each month, create yearly schedule
~update emergency contact/info list, kid’s schedules
~update financial docs lists
~new filing folders for 2010
~weekly meal plan and cut coupons

jackson real estate group stuff
~put expenses on spreadsheet monthly
~help with listing project
~blog

mommy memories stuff
~project life
~notebook for daily memories?
~11th and 17th blog and write in personal journals

photog stuff
~1 photo session and photoshop tutorial weekly
~take sharon’s online class
~take 5000 pictures
~create better system for organizing pics and backing them up
~post great pics on blog

fitness/health stuff
~drink water and cranberry juice daily
~run half marathon in spring
~run 3x/week, wii 1x/week and p90x 1x/week
~make a conscious effort to eat fruits and veggies at every meal

financial stuff
~new 2010 spreadsheet
~tithe
~tuesday night family meeting with b
~create backyard that we can enjoy

i'd love to hear what your goals and dreams are for 2010!

quick, easy and ORGANIC!

2009-12-31T13:26:00.000-05:00

ever since i had my first son, i've attempted to "go organic" and avoid harsh toxins and chemicals as much as possible. it totally overwhelms me at times BUT i would say i'm about 60-70% green and it's a continual process. i especially became interested in going green since parker was diagnosed with an egg allergy. there are theories that food allergies are on the rise because of all the toxins, hormones, chemicals and pesticides in our world today. that's a VERY quick summary, but if you want to learn more, i encourage you to check out my good friend kristin's blog . she has a WEALTH of information on this stuff and there's just so much to learn.

anyways, being a super busy food allergy mom, i always find it challenging to make healthy quick meals for our family especially ones that don't contain egg until TODAY when i found THIS:

and this was just one of MANY at my super target where i do most of my shopping! i could be wrong, but i believe their whole line does not contain any egg which is just fabulous for me and our family!!!! so for lunch we heated two of these guys up and they were DELICIOUS. yes it's frozen food and fresh would be most ideal, but it is WAY better than my previous choices of quick food.

here's to a great healthy start for new years! tomorrow i'm hoping to have my 2010 goals posted for you all!

why do i always feel behind???

2009-12-30T14:20:00.000-05:00

ok, so i don't know if it's just me and my OCD tendencies and the super high unrealistic expectations i put on myself, but why do i always feel like i am behind??? more importantly, why can't i just accept this is how things are, i will never be totally "caught up" EVER and just enjoy the process and purpose in what i do. i try to remind myself of this especially when doing those mundane tasks that are written on my to do list in permanent marker.
WARNING: this post is going to be all over the place since that's basically how i am these days!!!

i digress and probably not the first time during this post......so anyways, while i'd love to be able to blog EVERY single day, i need to be content with the fact that i'm even blogging at all. i just hope you continue to stick with me even though i haven't been posting as much as i would like........

which brings me to my 2010 goal planning as i've got specific goals for my blog. i have SO MANY ideas, projects and exciting things floating through my head right now that it just completely overwhelms me!!! maybe that's why i feel so anxious these days and am not sleeping well. and until i write them down, i will continue to feel this way. SO tomorrow, hubs is taking a day off from work and giving me an hour to run to starbucks SANS KIDS and work on my goals. i always love to do this, especially since i have an obsession with creating lists and organization!

and another warning, i'm trying to finish this post up as connor is crying in the background, so be prepared for more disorganized thougths from yours truly :-)

some pics i owe you of my parents and the kids from christmas....

my dad and brandon and the boys

my dad and connor

my mom making egg-free cookies with parker

parker eating the raw cookie dough...totally safe when they're egg free!!!!

it's always so helpful having family in town and i always get to tackle so many big projects with their help. last week i was able to get shelves put up in my laundry room, get my 3rd floor "junk" closet fairly cleaned out and organized, move my design "studio" and reorganize everything, clean out my side of the master bathroom (i got rid of an ENTIRE trash bag full of stuff!), put ceiling fans/lights on the 3rd floor and started organzing the closet in my upstairs guest room. not to mention that my parents vacuumend my entire house (including both staircases--a HUGE bonus!) and helped with laundry. thanks mom and dad--you're the best!

i feel like we accomplished SO MUCH, so i want to know, why do i still feel so far behind?????

Christmas!!!!!

2009-12-26T20:24:00.000-05:00

merry christmas! we've had a busy few days, but i wanted to get these up!

first, here is our christmas card for this year. if you did not get a card from us this year, I AM SO SORRY! i grossly underestimated how many cards i would need by like 50!!!!! plus, i was SO late in getting these out, grrrr. so please accept my apology and i will do better next year!

i had a little fun with my baby that LOVES to get his picture taken in this adorable knit stocking hat i found at janie and jack. WARNING lots of pics!!!! plus i learned some new techniques on photoshop :-)

this probably my FAVE, i love his expression!

of course i had to try it out in b&w too

christmas eve at church outfits....unfortunately no good pics of parker :-(

attempt at family pic outside church

we had so much fun playing santa this year, leaving out cookies and carrots and a note! santa brought LOTS of gifts as you can see!

parker on christmas morning. bless his little heart, he got NO sleep and wasn't feeling so hot. (more about this later)

the boys in their christmas outfits i made them....parker's has a "p" on it--wish i could have gotten a better pic

connor loved the wrapping paper!

gifts from grandmama and gramps

not too bad for a first christmas!

parker got LOTS of thomas stuff....he LOVES thomas the train

the aftermath...........

me and my boyS....if you look closely you'll see nugget #1 :-)

look how THRILLED he looks in this pic HA!

so as you can see, we had a great christmas morning.....and then parker's fever spiked pretty high so we got to see exactly WHO works on christmas day. bless the staff at the ER for being there. parker had some sort of virus, possibly the flu so we didn't want to take any chance. he's been on tamiflu as a preventative and is doing great now so i'm glad we went. now we're hoping connor doesn't get it.

my parents came to town to spend christmas with us....i definitely have pics of them, but they must be on my other camera. i'll have to post those tomorrow as everyone is waiting for me to start a movie! hope you all had a great christmas and i'll post more tomorrow!

christmas decor and giveaway!

2009-12-20T15:43:00.000-05:00

so i've been holding off on a mini tour of my house and decorations mainly because i just managed to get everything finalized friday night. why???? because we hosted the easystreet realty charlotte division's christmas party. i knew with a deadline in place, i'd have to have everything finished by then. so alas, a mini tour of our house, don't get too excited, there's so much more i want to do, but little by little right?

christmas tree in the family room.....

the mantle~the stockings got moved to a new location this year

they're in our kitchen on the railing

ribbon in kitchen displaying our christmas cards (good idea B!)

the brown and blue tree in the formal living room

i have wreaths on the door to the garage and door to the pantry

the best decoration of all, santa parker!

my turn to be santa

me and my sweet parker

so as i typed this, i just realized that i'm NOT done with decorating. i've still got my pink tree to finish (this is in my "design" room where i create all of my stuff for sassycakes, and i neglected to take a pic of the front of my house!

now onto the good stuff......a GIVEAWAY! yes, i will be doing a giveaway in several weeks and if you're anything like me and like cute stuff, then you don't want to miss it! i'm giving you plenty of heads up time, so be sure to check in regularly. ALSO, you will need to become a FOLLOWER of my blog if you want to be eligible to win. i have been getting regular traffic daily, so i know you are out there--there's no way they all the "hits" are from me HA! so reminder BECOME A FOLLOWER. the more followers i have, the better the giveaways will be!

all about parker at 31 months :-)

2009-12-17T19:48:00.000-05:00

parker you are a BLAST to be around these days! sometimes you make us laugh so hard at the things you do and say! you of course think the world revolves around you like every two year old is supposed to and your emotions can change in a split second when you start to feel like it's not "all about you". nonetheless, we are loving every minute with you and are thankful for the parenting challenges at times simply because there are so many BIGGER challenges we could be facing!

some things about you this past month:

you still LOVE school and i love to see how excited you are to see me when i pic you up. this month you talked a lot about baby jesus and it was so sweet!

you also have REALLY gotten into singing--your current favorite it jingle bells! you love the part that shouts "hey!". you also like to do the motions to "The Wheels on the Bus" and sing E-I-E-I-O to "The Cow Song". I think I may have said that last month, but you're still loving it!

you had a blast going to cut down our christmas tree and also watching "The Polar Express" and eating ice cream.

you've gotten really good at counting (you've gone up to 17!) and you've started singing your ABCs although you get kind of shy about it.

when we were visiting grandmommy and grandpa over thanksgiving, you did several really funny things. the first, you pretended like you were on the phone and were talking VERY animated and loudly into the phone--you were very passionate about what you were saying. then we asked who you were talking to and you said santa claus HA!!!! i guess you were making sure he got your christmas list right HA! it was so funny! you also started saying (not singing) in a very funny monster-like voice "happy birthday (pause) to you!". not sure where you picked that up from, but it's funny nonetheless!

you love finding "Thomas" the elf every morning and love to play the game of finding him. every morning you say "c'mon mommy (or daddy)" and we have to follow you while you say "elf, where are dju (you)?" (even if you've already found him!) and then you go "oh dere dju are" (Oh there you are) and we have to play along!

another game you do with me every night is you get in your lion towel and growl and come and grab my leg. i then pretend i am scared of you until you throw your towel off and i "see" that you are parker and not the scary lion. you love this!

here are some cute pics of you from today:

i love you my sweet little boy and i love how you still let me hold you at times and still make me feel needed!

super cute randomness

2009-12-16T19:56:00.000-05:00

two random things:

1) this super cute little nugget! holy cow i love him!!!

AND

2) this super cute taggie i made for a friend and had SO MUCH FUN making it! if i could only get the photos uploaded to my website.....(this has been an ongoing issue that i JUST don't have time to deal with right now! maybe when the grandparents are visiting and i can actually get some real to myself to focus on this!)

traditions

2009-12-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

i've always been a fan of traditions and the christmas season always seems to be full of them! Now that we've got two little nuggets of our own, starting new traditions with my fam of four has been a priority.

last year we started our tradition of going to blowing rock and cutting down our christmas tree. we start the day with breakfast, grab starbucks with two pupms of pumpkin spice for the road, sing jingle bells in the car, pick out our tree, grab pizza from mellow mushroom for lunch and then head home! i wrote a long post about this last weekend...

another tradition we started this year is the elf on the shelf! it's so much fun and the story is really cute. parker loves to find the every morning!

this weekend, we watched "polar express" for the first time with parker. brandon and i always watch it during the christmas season and also "the holiday". parker loved "polar express" because it had a train which is his latest obsession!

snuggled all up in our jammies!

parker with his ice cream (aka "O-cream" as he calls it!) he doesn't get sweets much, so this truly was a special treat!

once the movie started, he forgot about his ice cream!

such a good movie with a great story!

snuggled up with daddy

another tradition is we ALWAYS go to church on christmas eve. i love going on christmas eve, there's something so special about it! and then at some point (usually a few days before chrismas) we go when my parents are in town and grab starbucks and head to McAdenville to see the famous christmas lights!

do you have any christmas traditions that are special for you? i'd love to know so leave me a comment!

connor is 5 months!

2009-12-11T19:51:00.000-05:00

my baby boy you are 5 months today! you have to stop growing up and stay this little forever, ok? i am so loving you at this stage and i wish i could stop time. you still are as sweet as can be and SO HAPPY. seriously, you smile all the time (except when i put you down for your nap of course which you still protest EVERY TIME). you love to watch everything going on around you so you rarely sleep when we are out and about these days. too much you could miss out on! lucky for me, you tend to go with the flow! you LOVE to watch your big brother play, and he still loves to take care of you. for some reason you think it's funny to watch him walk up the stairs and you giggle all the time when we follow behind him. the other night you totally wore yourself out in your bouncy seat (the one that hangs from the door frame). we were all eating dinner and you were as content as could be and we quickly realized why! you had passed out--bless your little heart! i wish i could have snagged of pic of this because it was just way too cute!

here's what you've been up to this month:

~you have successfully learned to put the paci in your mouth. you still suck your thumb, but you are learning more and more to like the paci.

~you practice blowing bubbles ALL THE TIME, it's really funny! you do this when you wake up in the morning!

~you've started humming/talking yourself to sleep....this is of course after you have screamed and protested your nap for a few minutes :-)

~you smile whenever i take your picture--makes it easy for me!!!

~you love to touch my face and put your fingers in my mouth.

~you've started "talking" to your toys.

~ you grab at anything and everything! you always want to talk on my phone!

~you are getting pretty good at rolling over and i imagine you will be all over the place soon.

~you are still in size 2 diapers, but i just bought a pack of size 2-3. and you're just about in 6 month clothing.

here you are my sweet 5 month old! i HEART you so much!!!

cookie exchange and neat idea

2009-12-11T15:01:00.003-05:00

so yesterday was a busy "martha" day as i call it. at mommy and me group we made these awesome coasters....

yes, i repeat i MADE these!!! i heart these coasters so much because they were so much fun to make and easy. if i can do these, ANYONE can make these. basically we got tiles from home depot and used rubber stamps for the designs. i haven't sealed mine yet, but you can get a sealant from home depot in the paint section. what do you think?

i was also up late make a bazillion shortbread cookies for the MOPS cookie exchange today. this was my first cookie exchange....well it was SUPPOSED to be anyway. have you seen this sweet little boy????

apparently someone stole him last night around 2am and replaced him with a very upset set crying, all out screaming two year old. yes my friends, my sweet little parker threw an hour long temper tantrum at 2 in the morning. can i tell you how tired i am today??? seeing that none of us got any real sleep last night, i thought it was only fair to the poor MOPS nursery workers that we stay home.....we may never be allowed back.

SO, the bazillion shortbread cookies i made with 4 sticks of butter, yep i said FOUR, are sitting on my counter taunting me. that combined with the lack of time or energy to workout these days is NOT GOOD.

aren't they super-cute....i made them with my new mini cookie cutters. so my friends, my first cookie exchange was a complete BUST. oh well, at least my sweet little boy seems to be back and right now he's taking a GREAT nap!

stay tuned for connor's 5 month post..........

tis the season to be busy!!!

2009-12-10T18:28:00.000-05:00

unfortunately i've just got time for a quick post....things are just crazy right now! i'm busy working on orders for sassy cakes, trying to get my website up and functional, taxes for the business, baking cookies for the MOPS cookie exchange AND for parker's school party, decorating the house, getting things ready for brandon's office party (we are hosting), still need to do christmas shopping, christmas parties to attend to, oh yeah and keep up with two active boys! while i enjoy doing all these things, i try and stop and remember the REAL reason WHY christmas even exists and thank God for all of the blessings he gives me daily AND for his ultimate sacrifice of Jesus. without Jesus there would be no meaning to life, plain and simple.

here are a few pics from the last few days.....actually there are A LOT of pics....just a warning!

parker and i had hot chocolate....he kept saying "parker's coppee" since it was in a coffee mug :-)

parker constantly carries around this thomas toy these days and says "poopy in potty thomas open it" exactly like that. i love the way they phrase their sentences at this age! oh and in case you are wondering, he's been carrying this around for about a month now--that's how GREAT potty training is going for us!

i like to call this P90Parker :-)

i love connor's eyes in this pic!

to help avoid any more casualties, i got parker this little tree with some little ornaments, his favorites are baby jesus and the star (which he puts on top)

thomas our elf has been visiting us since December 1st. parker loves to find thomas the elf each morning!

ornaments i made for MOPS friends.....

parker was being super cute

finally got the blue and brown tree up! just need some more blue ornaments and a star!

happy baby!

seriously this child is almost always smiling! AND he LOVES smiling for the camera.....this "momarazzi" loves it!

family time

ornaments and tree #1

2009-12-06T20:02:00.000-05:00

today both boys are still sick so we watched church from home to avoid spreading any germs. afterwards, we began decorating our tree in the family room (this is our live tree we just got yesterday). parker enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree all in the SAME place. we also had several casualties......eyore, a kitty cat and one of those glass bulbs that just doesn't break but shatters into a MILLION pieces. fun times.

but neverthe less, the tree is ALMOST done as we are still needing a star for the top, this has been ongoing for years now since i can't find the PERFECT one. maybe this year will be different or maybe we will be sans star again for another year :-) since i promised pics today, i'm going to share with you our ALMOST done tree:

this was take two with the lights........griswold family christmas tree!

santa parker:

half naked santa parker with beads......

the almost done christmas tree....not as big as last year, but still a beautiful tree!

ok, so i'm in LOVE with these ornaments i made. of course i can't take credit for the idea so if you want to make some yourself, check out kelly's blog for the details! i'm making a bunch for myself and for gifts!

we've still got A LOT of decorating to do. i would have worked on the tree in my formal living room (it's going to be blue and chocolate brown!) but i can't find any of those wire ornament hangers, hence that's my mission for tomorrow and with any luck, you'll get pics of the blue and chocolate tree soon!

christmas tree trip to the mountains

2009-12-05T20:21:00.000-05:00

wow what a day! last year we started a family tradition of getting a freshly cut christmas tree from the mountains--we got an AMAZING 10 foot tree for $40!!!! so today we continued the tradition and headed up to blowing rock. we got the boys dressed up in one of their christmas outfits.........

how stinkin' cute is he???

parker was a challenge to get photographed this morning :-)

for some reason i can't rotate this one.....but it's cute so i have to add it!

we hit up cracker barrell for a yummy breakfast.....

of course i was a nervous wreck about breakfast. with parker being allergic to eggs and being a toddler who won't sit still, going out to breakfast is hard and requires a lot of planning BUT we did it and parker did great!

next we hit up starbucks and got some drinks for the road--i didn't get a pick sorry! it rained most of the way up, but once we hit blowing rock is was SNOWING!!!!!! we went to High Country Nursery to get our tree--any tree for $45 and they are SO NICE. how beautiful is this????

it was cold and windy but i'll take that for the snow! parker got to check out the cows...

family pic sans connor (too cold for him to be out of the car), i look weird because i had my arm stretched to take the pic!

the boys and i stayed in the car while brandon braved the snow and wind to find the perfect tree. unfortunately they didn't have any 10 foot trees left, but brandon did find a great tree for us!

after we got our tree loaded up on the acadia, we headed to mellow mushroom for pizza! LOVE that they have egg-free pizza YAY!

connor is SUCH a happy baby!

again parker was a challenge to photograph but we manage to sneak this in!

with full bellies, we headed home. the snow stopped and the sun came out! we saw some AMAZING views, unfortunately this pic doesn't do it any justice, but the sky was BEAUTIFUL.

we had planned on watching polar express to end the day, but we are all exhausted so we'll save that for tomorrow. brandon made some delicious chili for dinner and i vote we make that a tradition too!

do you have any traditions you do with your family?????

we plan on decorating the tree tomorrow so stay tuned for pics!

christmas bazaar

2009-12-03T19:40:00.000-05:00

so yesterday i had my big debut! for those of you who don't know, i've started a design line of boutique baby gifts, boutique clothing for toddlers and tutus. i started just doing it for fun for a few friends and when parker's school was looking for volunteers for vendors their christmas bazaar, i thought i'd help out. for the last few weeks i have wondered what i had gotten myself into, and i was SUPER nervous about my stuff, but the bazaar was a HUGE success for me and now i'm busy working on a bunch of orders!

here are some pics of my amateur table :-) not too shabby huh???

now i have GOT TO work on my website......it would be functional if i could only figure out how to change the file size on my pics so they will upload grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

thanksgiving FINALLY

2009-12-02T20:33:00.000-05:00

aaaaaaannnnnd i'm back! sorry for being mia last week. i've been crazy busy with EVERYTHING. thanksgiving, my first design line debut at the christmas bazar, christmas, traveling, you name it!

but i'm back now just trying to recuperate and catch up on the MOUNDS of stuff i have put up and also work on getting the house decorated for christmas. so last week we went to my parents house for thanksgiving this year and had a blast. the drive up was a little painful because just after brandon mention how the drive was going great and we were only about 40 miles to our destination, we mit MAJOR traffic and i was quickly reminded of one of the reasons why i do not want to move back to the washington dc area. but after two hours of sitting in traffic and totally messing up our almost record breaking travel time, we made it safe and sound to my parents house last tuesday.

packed up and ready to go!

one of many stops at panera

parker had a blast keeping his grandmommy and grandpa busy and connor loved being totally spoiled.
brandon kicked off thanksgiving morning by making what i call "4 hour breakfast casserole" because it takes FOREVER to make. it was VERY GOOD though and i enjoyed it especially since i didn't have to make it :-)

after breakfast, we went to the turkey farm to get our turkey. parker loved it!

we had an awesome meal on thursday for thanksgiving dinner and it was also great to see my brother and sister-in-law. i really wish we lived closer to at least some family, but we're hoping that will change in the future. somehow i didn't get any pics of them! here are a few pics from the day.....

parker playing outside...my parents have a GREAT backyard for active toddlers!

me and my boys!

the boys in their thanksgiving turkey shirts i made them...

thanksgiving dinner with my husband making a goofy face....

friday i was supposed to meet up with my friend erica and her family, but she ended up getting sick and had to cancel. we missed seeing you guys! BUT i did get to see my friend kristin and her boys on saturday....we hadn't seen each other in over two years! parker had a BLAST playing with aiden and connor and peyton were very curious about each other!

look at these sweet boys!

and these guys too! how cute! i think they're holding hands!

thanks kristin and chris for having us over to your gorgeous new house!

ok, i'm going to relax with my hubby (and the dvr!) BUT i will post all about my christmas bazar tomorrow!

home sweet home

2009-11-29T19:58:00.002-05:00

sorry for the hiatus y'all! hope you had a great thanksgiving! we've been out of town visiting my family in maryland and i didn't want to announce to the whole world that we would be gone! we've had a VERY long day and i've got a VERY busy week, but stay tuned for catch up posts from our trip and our thanksgiving!

thankful for.....spit up!

2009-11-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

bless my little connor's heart. he's a spitter. and when i say spitter, i mean he and i are both constantly wet. today we had 5 outfit changes......BEFORE 11am!!!!! a typical day consists of 4-5 outfits, 6 burp cloths, and a load of laundry, just for my little sweetness.

but you know what, he's a happy spitter. in fact, laughing acutally causes him to spit up large amounts HA! and as long as he is happy and healthy, i cannot complain. i'm just thankful i have a baby with a reflux problem as i know there are many people out there who just wish they had a baby period and don't. so all in all, i'm thankful to be wearing "eau de spitup" all day long!

are you all ready for some yummy thanksgiving day treats??? i can't wait for the big day!

love you...bye

2009-11-19T21:27:00.000-05:00

so tonight was one of those nights where my heart totally melted onto the floor.....

like every other two year old (at least i think) bedtime is a challenging time. ever since we've moved parker to a big boy bed, we have good nights and we have had bad nights. lately we've had more "bad" nights so to say.

for some reason now parker insists on having the light on in his room. the normal routine is bath time, read books, pray and then parker is allowed to read a while in his room before it's lights out. we've found he does better having A LOT of down time in his room before going to bed. so around 8:15ish either b or i (usually b!) goes up and tucks him in bed for good and turns out the light and turns on the fan. well lately, he's been getting out of bed after lights out.....

tonight i happened to be upstairs when this happened, so i went back in and tucked him back in bed as i informed him that if he got out of bed again i would take away his latest love, thomas the train. 2 seconds later i found myself wishing i hadn't made that promise as he got back out of bed. as hard as it was and as cute as he is, i had to stick to my word. so out of the room goes thomas.....

complete meltdown....

multiple times more of getting out of bed and supernanny technique in full effect--no talking. no eye contact. no nothing. just putting him back in bed...

then the sweetest little voice comes out the door and down the hall "pabi", the beloved paci he hasn't had in MONTHS. total regression moment. my heart is breaking, "pabi" was like a best friend to him.

in i go, holding back tears, not saying a word and without parker saying a word, up into the air goes his little arms wanting me to pick him up and hold him....

i cave. of course. CAN YOU BLAME ME????

BUT I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING (supernanny would be proud!)....

UNTIL he takes both of his little hands, grabs my face, STARES directly into my eyes and says "love you, bye" (this is what we say every night as we leave his room::it's our tradition). sorry supernanny, NO WAY i cannot respond to this incredibly sweet little boy wanting the security of his mommy. i held onto that sweet little boy like i never have before and my heart melted.....

parker's 2 and a half!

2009-11-17T14:38:00.000-05:00

dear parker,

today you are two and a half and FULL of life! oh how you make me laugh and melt my heart these days! you are one energetic little boy who has to explore everything, but you will also sit quietly and read books and watch Curious George or Sesame Street.

some of my favorite moments lateley have been......

butterfly kisses--i taught you how to do these and you love to grab my face and daddy's face each night before bed and give us butterfly and bunny kisses. each time you say "it tic-kles!" in the CUTEST little voice EVER!!!

dancing--you LOVE LOVE LOVE to dance. your alarm clock is set to radio and the other morning daddy went in to get you and you were dancing on your bed. you gave daddy "the hand" and wanted him to leave so you could keep on grooving :-) HILARIOUS!!! you are dancing all the time and you've got quite a few good moves that i have no idea who taught you them.

singing--you don't quite "sing" yet, but you start to say words to "old macdonald" when it plays on your keyboard....i'll hear you say "cow" "pig" and then go "e-i-e-i-o". it's really funny.

paparazi--you like to take pictures now and you say "smile" and "cheese!"

connor--you love to make connor smile and go with me upstairs to get him from his nap. you talk in this sweet little quiet voice when we go intohis room during nap time.

fun words--not sure if i mentioned this before, but you call screwdrivers, "screwboppers" and you refer to batteries as "bi-do-ins" (aka vitamins).

parker we love you SO MUCH and enjoy being with you each day!!!

love,
mommy

my sweet little boy!

love that smile....melts my heart daily!!!

you've regressed a little bit at times :-) but that's ok, because you will always be my baby boy!

you got this thomas set one day for going #2 in the potty!

connor's 4 month stats

2009-11-17T14:14:00.000-05:00

here are connor's stats from his 4 month well-check appointment this morning:

13 pounds 13 ounces (25-50%)
26 1/4 inches long 95%!!!!!

he's going to be a tall skinny one!

grrrrrrrr

2009-11-16T19:53:00.000-05:00

ok so my website is not uploading pics since my files are too large and i had to wait on hold with the support line for photoshop elements for FOREVER today and by the time i got through to someone the kiddos woke up from naps which means i could barely have a conversation with someone i could barely understand therefore i still cannot get my website functional PERIOD. could i write a longer sentence???

nonetheless, here's what came about in santa's workshop last night:

the new and improved tutus--extra fluff and LOTS OF TULLE! i'm working on lining up some models as they will be WAY cuter on little munchkins :-)