Something UnExpected

Almost every afternoon about 3:30 you'll find my children at the kitchen table eating a snack. I typically give the children two or three options to choose from. Their options were cheese and crackers or oranges. They wanted both. :) Anyway, yesterday, we had a bit of a suprise as the inside of their chosen fruit was revealed.

Just take a look for yourself!

And for those who wonder... yes... we ate the entire thing (I did taste it first before serving it to the kiddos), and it tasted just like an orange should.

The Apprentice

For Christmas, Lianna received (from her Aunt Carrie) a Fisher Price Camera. She has been busy taking pictures and is constantly asking us to "fix it" because she's constantly filling up the memory capacity on this thing. It only holds 48 images alone. Darrell is on the hunt for an SD card we can use to allow her more images. I thought you might like to see some of her recent work.

Playing with creative angles already




Look at the curves, and lines... very pleasing to the eye


She's showing some interest in different architectures as well.


Portrait work seems to be a favorite though. Here's our neighbor and a favorite playmate of hers.


A portrait of Canaan, though I hope she learned from this one. Sometimes the flash can blow out a subject if used too close.

Mental Note...

Don't tell Lianna anything good is going to happen until just before it does. She'll ask questions incessantly until it's time.

Last week on Friday a good friend and client of mine came over to pick up her maternity pictures. She stayed and visited a while before taking off and I mentioned to her that Darrell's mom would be coming on Thursday to get the kids for the long MLK weekend. Lianna happened to be in the room when I mentioned this and turned to me with huge eyes and asked... "what did you say mommy?"

I thought to myself, oh no, now I've done it. I told her that her Nana was coming to get her in 6 days. That means little to a three year old, who for the next 6 days asked, "Is Nana coming today?" Finally, Thursday arrived and the questions changed. All day today I heard, "When is Nana coming?"

She arrived tonight at 6:00 and life continued as normal. Until I mentioned to my Mother In Law that I bought some cute footie pajamas for Lianna off www.oldnavy.com. Lianna once again was in earshot. So I explain to her that the UPS man (you know the one who brings us boxes) will bring your pink teddy bear pajamas in a couple of days. Just before bed she asks, "where are my pink teddy bear pajamas mommy?" Ugh. Here we go again!

Interesting isnt it

I got curious the other day, and decided to dig up some pictures of all my babies from when they were around 6 months old. I decided after this that I really needed to organize my personal photos in a different way. I had a terrible time finding one of Lianna.

Here's what I found... it's amazing how God can use the genes from the same two people and make 3 completely different children.

My Big Boy's Birthday

On Saturday, January 12, 2008 my oldest son turned two. We decided exactly one week earlier, to celebrate by have a choo choo party. I thought for sure that'd be enough time to throw a little party for a two-year-old together. There's not a whole lot of entertaining that needs to happen, and I just needed to come up with some party favors and a cake. Easy right? Right.

Well, things didnt quite go as planned this week. (they never do, and I should have known better) I wasnt able to do our grocery shopping on Thursday night as is our usual routine, so Darrell and I decided to put it off until Friday night.

*Mistake #1* Never shop for the party the night before.

It would be alright though, D would be home by 5:30 we'd have dinner, go to the store and be back by 7:30 to put the kids to bed. That would have been fine, except, I forgot to take the meat out for dinner and it wasnt defrosted. To make meat patties for hamburgers, that's an important step I missed. Ugh.

Darrell doesnt get home until 6:00. We leave by 6:30, run by a party store before it closes and they have nothing I need. Ugh again! So we decide fast food is the answer. We decide where to eat, but our order is skipped and we dont get our food for 20 minutes or so. We are comped some dessert, but dont get out of there until 7:30. Double Ugh.

We now have two choices. I can go to the store myself after first dropping D and the kids off at home so he can put them to bed at a decent hour, or we can all go and just get to bed late. We decide on the latter.

Mistake #2 Dont put the kids to bed late the night before a party.

The kids dont get to bed until 9:30 and I am not able to start working on the cake until 10:00p.m. The good news is, it's a frozen pound cake, no baking required. Darrell and I finally make it to bed by midnight.

Mistake #3 Dont decide not to set the alarm the morning of the party.

The kids sleep in and wake up about 8:00 a.m. The party is in two hours. Darrell goes to run a quick errand, and pick up some supplies we forgot the night before. While he's gone, I feed the children and get them all dressed. He returns by 9:30 a.m. Everyone is ready to go... except me. I'm still in my PJs. I rush through a shower and throw on some clothes. Darrell loads up the kids and we carefully load the cake and party favors etc. in the car. I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Darrell is cool as a cucumber. Wow! He's normally frustrated when we run this late, I'm impressed!

Cake... check

Icecream .... check

Favors.... check

Diaper bag.... check

"you got the keys to the church?" I ask... "yes" he replies

Camera bag.... crud!

I literally run into the house, grab the camera bag and run back to the car.

Darrell says, "Allison, relax we dont have that much setting up to do." I look at the clock, look at him and say, honey, it's 10:10, the party was supposed to start 10 minutes ago."

"What!?! I thought it was at 10:30! You mean we're late to our own birthday party!?!" He exclaims.

Mistake #3 Dont assume your husband knows what time the party starts. Be sure and tell him.

We arrive at the church and thankfully no one is waiting on us. As we get out of the van D realizes he in fact does not have the keys. Ugh.

Mistake #4 Always double check to make sure you have the keys.

Thankfully, a friend arrives shortly after and unlocks the door for us. The party starts and all is well. The children enjoy themselves, the adults visit and the rest of the day glides along smoothly.

Here are some pictures:

Maybe it's just me...

or maybe it's because I'm a photographer, but wherever I go, I always see thing that would be great to photograph. My dad and I were actually just talking about this when he last came to visit. He and my brother were discussing a smallish tree they say along some railroad tracks and how cool the "leading lines" would look when photographed. I do this kind of thing ALL the time. Whenever I'm driving I see awesome barns, fields, fences and roads where I'd love to photograph someone. Not only that but when I'm shopping I see all the cute clothes, boots, scarves, hats and I do the same thing. If I bought everything I wanted to dress my children in (or anyone elses kids for that matter) I'd be broke.

I was at Hobby Lobby today looking for party supplies for Brooks. He's turning 2 tomorrow and we're having a Choo Choo party. I found a big fat nothing for the party, but I did find these beautiful Asian paper parasols that I really really wanted to buy. Why? Did I think Lianna needed a paper parasol for protecting her fair skin from the harsh winter sunlight? Um... no... but it would be so so fun to photograph her with it. Ugh. Maybe it's just me.

The Secret Keeper

Okay, so first things first. I apologize to all my readers out there (all 5 of you) ;) for not posting as often. I promise to do better in the future. *pinkie swear*

I just love being in trusted with a secret. I love knowing that someone has enough faith in me not to blab my mouth to anyone until they're ready. Usually these secrets aren't bad, I would go into depression if someone expected me to carry the weight of their affair on my shoulders for example. But if you have good news, that you aren't ready to share... I'm your gal! Ha!

For example... I've known about several pregnancies before they were announced. I've known about a new job opportunity and acceptance before it was public, and other fun things like that.

However, if you try to play a game of Mafia with me, I will inevitably ruin it. I'm awful at lying about myself. I've outed the name of one of my children (we usually wait till they're born) unintentionally and practically outed myself when I was early early pregnant with baby #3. It was actually a friend teasing me about being pregnant (having no clue that I really was) and my face said it all! Oops.

So by all means, continue to share your secrets with me. Just don't expect me to be able to keep a secret from you. Ha!