What Not To Wear

Kids can have the strangest preferences when it comes to clothes. Gavin has two (faded) shirts he LOVES, his "skateboard shirt" and "digger shirt". Every morning when we get dressed and I pull out a shirt that is not one of these shirts he gets his whiny voice and "Nooooooo I want my skateboard/digger shirt". One week he wore only these 2 shirts...that is the same 2 shirts for 7 days. I now sometimes intentionally leave them out of the wash so he doesn't get to wear them more than 2 times a week (yes I do that much laundry) and sometimes I even tell him "its not clean" when it might be. Is that bad?? I know, it is, okay I wont do it anymore. When my sister was little she wore a pink tutu over everything. Did you know you can wear a tutu over jeans, a sweatsuit, pajamas, even a bathing suit??? Well, Madison has now reached this stage. Every morning we get dressed, she always prefers to wear a skirt or dress, she wants a bow in her hair or pigtails, and then she wants.....

yes these are rattle socks

yes they are made for infants

yes that is a strange looking red and orange monkey

no they do not fit at all, the heel ends in the middle of the bottom of her foot

yes sometimes she wears them outside to play

and yes she has worn them to the grocery store

This look is not much better than the rattle socks

haha

he can throw the ball

and he can catch the ball

Such a big boy!!

Now go check out Meredith on my photoblog

Getting Ready for Spring - Sisters Gardens

I am so excited that my bulbs are coming up and my small rosebushes have leaves budding on them!! This year I really want to do a lot with the yard and get it looking really nice. I like gardening, but it is not the easiest thing when you have 2 babies. This spring they are older, both can walk, and LOVE playing outside (the entire time we are out back Madi just cilmbs up her slide, slides down and then repeats this for an hour until we go inside, I don't know how she does it!!), so I am ready to get to work. And may I just say I have a LOT of work to do.

Debbie and her sisters have this really great site called Sisters Gardens where they sell everything for your garden from gardening tools, to stepping stones, to patio furniture, and even information on organics. One thing I really really love the barnwood furniture, I really want the buffet. I love yards that have outdoor kitchens and great furniture so that it truly looks like an outdoor living space.

I also love this planter. Isn't it fabulous??

Another cool thing they carry is unique plants that you can't just go pick up at your local home depot. Are these not AMAZING?? This is a firewheel tree.


Right now they are offering 15% off your purchase!!


Last year you might remember we planted seed in our backyard. That was an adventure. We still have some bare spots in the back so we are going to reseed *sigh* and hopefully it will be looking great by Gavin's birthday, which I am hoping to have in the backyard. We also have this strange side area where we cannot get ANYTHING to grow. Right now a path of flagstone separates the part of the yard where grass grows and the barren dirt part. We are considering just filling in the whole area with flagstone and creating a patio area where Jordan can grill and we can set up our patio furniture. 2 of our back flowers beds have nothing in them, so if you have a great looking flower bed you should post a photo and tell me what is in it!! I am looking for ideas!!!

Eliza

I cannot resist sharing a few pics from a session I am working on right now of sweet Eliza. More to come later!

What I get to do today....

EDIT!! Jordan is off and so I am hoping to get caught up on a lot of shoots....maybe I will post some of the photography blog....wait, don't count on that. Why is blogging so hard??? I can't ever decide what photos to put on the blog and then it is too late to post them. Oh well, it will just have to be something that I try to work on.

Here are a couple of sessions I am finishing up/ starting. I thought I would share these b/c everyone who read this knows them, this is Crew's 4 months and Kendi's 7 months

Let's figure this out....

Two year olds really are not logical and mine is no exception. Generally when he doesn't get his way he falls to the ground and proceeds to whine and cry. Usually he is also yelling " I want Mommy do it!!!!". He is in this phase right now where only I can do things for him. I am the chosen one. If he wants his sippy cup and someone besides me hands it to him, he will NOT accept it. He won't even do things for himself anymore. If he drops a toy and it is at his feet he will still ask me to pick it up for him. Although I am flattered he likes me that much, I still refuse to be his slave. Aren't I suppose to be the boss????
Well the other day he really really wanted some candy, but he had not eaten his lunch so I told him no, you need to eat your lunch. He then walked over to me, climbed in my lap and said, "Okay Mommy, let's figure this out. I really want some candy, but I don't want to eat my lunch." This really made me laugh that he wanted to discuss it.

Well in my continuing attempt to get a good photo of them together, here are some I took the other day. At least they both have their eyes open!!


Love this one of Gavin! He was having a fun time, we got to go see all the buses before we tried to quickly take some photos.

Bringing back the onesies

So Madison has discovered a new talent, she can undress herself! Now every time I go to get her in the morning or after a nap, she has stripped down completely. I have a feeling just telling her not to do that any more won't do the trick, so she now has to put on a onesie before she sleeps (which is also difficult because she insists on trying to dress herself as well and they are not the easiest to put on). For now she has not learned how to take them off. I think with the undressing and her determination to climb out of her crib we will be moving her to a toddler bed and potty training relatively soon....it's never good to have a naked baby climbing out of their crib and running around the house, that could become a messy situation really fast.

Rain Rain Go Away

I have officially decided I would not make it one month living in Seattle. Rainy days with 2 young kids is just not ideal. Does anyone else get bored of inside activities?? We have read and read and read books, we have built hundreds of lego towers, we have play doh stuck to every surface in our house, we have made cookies and cupcakes, Gavin has the Blues Clues songs and dances memorized, and we have done every craft that kids under the age of 3 can attempt. Why is it that I can spend 30 minutes getting everything ready for us to do a really fun craft project and then Gavin is finished in 53 seconds (unless there are LOTS of stickers and then it might take him a full minute and a half to finish).

Well, we are looking forward to sunny days playing in our backyard and at the park.

An exciting sidenote, Madison has enough hair for a ponytail! Now we just need enough hair so I can put those pink sponge rollers in her hair.... anyone else do they that when they were little???

Oh the snow

Gavin is not a big snow fan, it's too cold Mommy!! It was a bummer because when he saw the snow (the first time it snowed) he looked at it out the window and said, "I've waited all my life to play in the snow". He has become very dramatic lately...I wonder where he gets that???

Today the rain before the snow was not good for our trees or our ability to leave the house....

YIKES

Well the kids are napping so I am forced to get to working on posting sessions that I need to on the photography blog...first on the list is Randi and Cody's wedding, go check it out!

so lovely

I LOVE anthropologie- their clothes, the housewares, the catalog photography, everything about it. And now they have brought back kids clothes!! Every now and then they will have a few pieces and they are the cutest.

adorable

I would like this dress for myself also

love the buttons on this skirt

I want to get Madison this cute apron (or sew her a similar one) to go with her retro style kitchen we got her for Christmas, every girl needs an apron to cook in

104 Degrees

This has become a common reading on the thermometer for Madison the past few days. Believe it or not when it reads 102 I get excited and consider this to be "low" now.

Since Wednesday Madison has been running very high fever (usually around 103.4, and has not been below 101). So far we have seen her pediatrician, called the on call nurse a billion times, been to the ER (Thurs. night we could not get her fever down from 104 so we spent a couple hours in the ER. Poor Jordan had to fly out the next morning at 6 and we got home at 330am), and called the on call nurse a billion more times.

All that has been done is a strep test which she tested negative for. Besides the fever there really isn't much wrong, her throat is a little red and her nose a little runny. Apparently she has a virus that I just have to "let run its course". This is much easier said than done.

Today she was reading 104 again. Today is the first day she has acted really sick, she is very weak (has trouble walking) and just wants me to hold her and let her sleep. She is still eating some and drinking plenty of fluids so that is good.

So...I am just sitting here trying to be patient and letting this virus "run its course".........

Have I mentioned lately....

I love this girl!

and I love this boy!

And of course I have to share some funny things Gavin has said over the past few weeks:

Gavin and I were playing and he leaned back and his arm hit my mouth and he said:

"No Mommy! No eating Gavin! *pointing at me* I said DO NOT eat me."

*Gavin singing* "Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear....uh....*looking around*....uh.... dear carpet, happy birthday to you"

me: Gavin what do you want for Christmas?

Gavin: birthday cake

and another time:

me: Gavin what do you want for Christmas?

Gavin: Pawpaws shoes

and another time:

me: Gavin what do you want for Christmas?

Gavin: To partyyyy!!!!

Gavin: *picking up a wrapped gift under the tree and examining it* "This is a car." -and he is right

Thanksgiving

We had a great thanksgiving, but it was definitely interesting. At 5 in the morning Thanksgiving day Gavin starts vomiting. This was not fun and being in a hotel room made it that much worse. So he gets sick a couple of more times and then Madison woke up sick. It was very strange because they both got sick a few times within a couple of hours and then were completely fine.
So since they were doing fine we went ahead and went over to my grandparents house and had an amazing meal and had so much fun seeing everyone.



On another note we are having Christmas with my parents next Saturday and Sunday, I cannot believe it is that close! We have been frantically shopping and actually are almost done. I have a couple more guys to buy for. Is it just me or are guys in general harder to shop for than girls??? I have the hardest time. If anyone has ideas please share!!

Jordan getting into the holiday spirit

Crew - Newborn Session

Here are some more of precious baby Crew!

Halloween Session

I am trying to catch up on blogging! Here are some photos from the halloween session I shot of cousins Collin, Tessa, and Tagen. They were soooo cute and fun! Aren't their costumes fabulous? Their talented grandmother made them all!

Corby and Natalie Wedding Highlights

This is another wedding I did of some friends of mine, it was a pure joy to be a part of it. It was a very unique, colorful, and fun wedding!