Catch Up

Its been a long week and half. We have been so busy. It has been good and bad. Some things have suffered.....cleaning for one but some things have flourished.....fun, business, and just being a mom.

Last week Anthony was out of town all week. He has been this week too. So it is just me. The one night we had a storm and the power went out right as I was going to start dinner so that meant we ate out. Eli did go and see Aunt Tracy so it left me and L. We had a quick shopping trip. It was great. She loves seeing everything. I visited Marshalls for the first time since living here. I didn't buy a thing while out but had fun looking and just getting out. This tree came down in the storm........


The next morning I caught Eli in the bathroom doing this while I was changing Lilliana for the day. I guess I was not quick enough to getting his teeth brushed.

I got those funny reflective things again. I am assuming it is from the lights.

That night we really just wanted to relax but do something fun with Eli. We decided to make it a Chinese night. There is a great mom and pop Chinese place we love. The family is hard working and the kids are always there. Eli loves it too. So away we went. We decided to have a movie night and ate chinese.

One thing about Fall I very much dislike is the terrible light. Winter just brings early evenings and dreary days. My pictures have suffered the past weeks for that. I long for later sunsets and brighter days!

Saturday was Anthony's birthday. We were supposed to go to a Marriage Conference but some circumstances prevented that. I don't even want to get into it because I am trying to move past the circumstances. Needless to say Anthony and I were both very bummed. We had been looking forward to it. Anthony's mom graciously took the kids for us though. They were gone a lot of the afternoon and it was a nice break. Usually I have at least one. We cleaned the house and even shampooed the carpets. It was nice to not be interrupted and I was able to get it done a lot faster.

Sunday was a beautiful day. I had a shoot in the afternoon. We had rescheduled it several times due to weather so I was glad we were finally able to do it. I also discovered my new favorite location to shoot. It is perfect. Anthony and the kids tagged along as it is a nature center with lots of trails. He walked with them and let Eli run while I did my shoot. Then I took pictures of Lilliana. My mom saved two dresses I wore as a baby and I have been trying to get her pictures in them just have not found the right moment so I did them that day. The light was starting to fade but she was in a great mood and we were able to accompolish it quickly. I did some vintage looks to them. These two are my favorites.
Then I made storyboards of the others. She was so good and I had too many to choose from but that is ok!

Eli wanted to get some pictures with Lilliana. He has been into a no picture taking mood so I took advantage. He was more interested in showing her sticks which I thought was nice.

This is me wearing the red dress as a baby with my Great Grandma Ruby. Ironically Lilliana's name was going to be Ruby after her until about a week before I had her. It just did not fit and I don't know why. Now I know after seeing her and watching her grow. It is amazing how you just know the perfect name for your children.


Yesterday I had a newborn photo shoot. It went wonderful as well. Here are a few of my favorite shots. He was so easy and good.

Lilliana is growing and is such a joy! She loves this toy!


She tries to figure out the reflection and peaks around the front expecting to see somebody. She is now crawling backwards but screams with rage as she backs herself into things frequently. She adores her brother and they now play together in his room a lot. The first thing Eli asks in the morning is to bring Lilliana into his room to play.

Eli is just a sponge. He is beyond smart and has such an imagination. He has said so many funny things lately. I let him sleep in my bed the other night. I told him as I was tucking him in, "Stay in your bed and go to sleep!" As I walk out I hear, "No MOM!! Stay in YOUR bed and go to sleep!" LOL He just knows. Lately he has had a fascination with cooking and baking and making things for me to eat. He will get my measuring spoons and cups out along with the whisk and get water and mix toys in with them and ask me to eat the things he has made. He also makes a mess but oh well. Today I had enough the water mess and decided to do something with it so we worked on colors. We mixed primary colors to make secondary colors. We poured it all in a bowl and made black and then Eli made a mess but it was a blast.........

We are halfway through the week! Can't wait for the weekend. Now I must go and get these two adorable kids to bed.......

Happy Birthday Daddy!

This weekend was busy. I don't have much time as I have been busy editing some pictures of Lilliana and of this adorable little girl...........

I did her 18 month pictures on Sunday afternoon. She was so fun. I learned a lot more so I was pleased and was able to pull of some pretty candid adorable pictures.

This weekend was a whirlwind and more will be told later. The biggest thing we did was celebrate Anthony's birthday. Eli was very interested in letting Anthony have cake and talked about it for days up to his birthday and everyday asked if he would like a Thomas Birthday Party. Silly kid! More to tell tomorrow or Wed. I am tired and would like to relax as I have a newborn shoot tomorrow and more editing to do.


Not sure why I got funny candle reflections all the way up on the pictures but oh well. Winter is coming so that means very poor light at night so we deal with what we have! Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband who is my best friend, support, love of my life, strength, and just plain amazing. We love him and appreciate him so much! Our lives would not be complete with out him. We are grateful God has given us another year with him and hope to have him for many more!
More tomorrow or wed! Hope you had a fabulous Monday!

8 Months Ago.......

..............I gave birth to this beautiful little girl...........................



One of the best days of my life. It ranks up there with getting married and having Eli. They all have special meaning and probably are the best days ever! She is such a joy. She is mostly happy unless she is in pain and then you need to watch out. She is such a girl already, but I love it. She now has 10 teeth. She also says, "mom, dad, dog, and hi." She loves and adores her brother. She also is a daddy's girl through and through. When daddy is gone she misses him a lot. She also loves the dogs. They make her laugh a lot. Her favorite toys are my phone and the remote although she does not get them but when she tries. Other than that she plays with everything including Eli's toys. She is up on all fours rocking so I am sure crawling will be soon. She does scoot backwards and gets mad.
Anthony was not home for dinner so we went out! I needed to get out. Eli has been a bit of a handful today. He is just crazy and not listening. As it was when I was buckling Lilliana in her seat to go he took off and ran away. We live on a busy main street. I about had a heart attack. He just wanted me to chase him. I was not a happy mom though. Lilliana got to ride in her new big girl car seat tonight too.


After installing both seats I realized I will have to get a new car before we have another child. There just is not room. Eli loves his new seat. He gets to sit on the other side now. L's seat does not fit behind the drivers seat if Anthony has to drive so Eli gets to sit there. I always laugh because the Government would like us to drive little compact cars yet they insist we keep our kids in car seats. Makes no sense because car seats just don't fit in there unless they want us to be like China and only have one kid.

We enjoyed our dinner out. Lilliana was a clown. Now that the teeth pain is gone she is a hoot. That girl will smile for anything. She also loves to watch everybody. Eli was slow poke and took forever to eat but he was so good. He was a big helper and I really appreciated that.


I would love to say we came home and it was so nice and relaxing but unfortunately we had a lot more problems. I started to get Lilliana ready for bed and was changing her diaper. Eli went potty. He went on the toilet but somehow ended up with poop everywhere! It was not in his pants. It was in the toilet but also all over the clorox wipes container, light switch, his shirt, the walls, his hands, and his face. I can only guess he was trying to wipe himself and it became a mess. As I am trying to get him in the shower to get him cleaned off I broke the shower. Yep it was that kind of day. Needless to say Anthony won't be able to fix it until later this week. Lilliana was also screaming in the living room and I had dogs barking. Anthony was still not home. I finally got them both to bed. I did get dishes done and the house picked up and vacuumed but man I am exhausted and really ready for a break! I love my kids but today they wore me out! Hopefully they sleep well so I can get some sleep. Tomorrow is a new day and we will have new adventures.

Lazy Fall Days

This weekend was one of those weekends where the sweats, pjs, and lounging dominated our house.



I can't really say we did anything outside of the house. Lilliana was still recovering from teeth. Anthony had the start of a cold and I had a lot of stuff too do.

There were wrestle times with dad.


Not sure why but Jack actually enjoyed Eli this weekend. Usually Eli terrorizes him. Honestly I think it was because Eli got him all covered up and let him be on the couch even though Jack is not supposed to be. Jack likes to hide under the covers.

Needless to say Jack got to stay since Eli was being so nice.

We all got to take a nap at one point. The kids had not been sleeping well so Anthony and I took turns catching up on sleep if that is even possible. Anthony actually fell asleep sitting with Lilliana. So he slept and she played with his shirt, face, everything she could get her hands on.




Eli and I raced. I raced the tonka truck and he raced his little car he rides on. He just loves it and thinks it is hilarious. I push it around like a dork basically trying not to win while he furiously moves his little legs to keep up. Then I decided forget the racing we will play bumper cars. Then we got the idea to put Lilliana in the truck and race around.


After I had had a good 20 minute workout of being bent over pushing 20 pounds all through the house and pushing another 30 in front of me with this truck, Eli decided he was going to push Lilliana around. Oh he LOVED it! She did too. She was just a giggling and talking. It melted my heart. Note the fact that Eli is in his pjs. Yep the kid pretty much lives in a new pair every day. Don't ask him to take them off either. That just opens a can of worms that don't need opened or you want to open.


I also was in a baking mood. So we made pumpkin spice cupcakes. I stocked up a few weeks ago on the pumpkin since this year there is a pumpkin shortage. I could not find it for a while and as soon as I did I stocked up. I say we because I started making them but came in the living room to ask Anthony a question. I went back to the kitchen to find this......


Little Man wanted to bake with me. He had moved the chair into the kitchen and was stirring to his heart content he did a pretty good job too.

We also got some projects done around the house like insulating, organizing some closets, and cleaning stuff stuff out. Still a lot to go but we did get some stuff done!

All in all it was a great weekend! This week is another busy one for us. I have a brand new baby I will have the priviledge of taking pictures of. I can't wait! He has been booked since summer and I am so priviledged to be able to do them! I also have an 18 month old. Such a fun age but I will have to be fast. I plan to take the kids on an adventure tomorrow too. Hopefully the weather holds up. I am loving fall this year and loving having two beautiful kids to share and explore it with. Life is amazing thanks to the many blessings and beatiful weather and seasons God has given me!