Baptism
16 Oct 2014 7:33 AM (11 years ago)

My son was baptized last weekend. It was an intensely joyful moment for our family. Seeing him enter the water with his Dad and his smile after was a priceless memory that I will forever cherish.
Here's a couple quick shots we took the day of. Unfortunately, we were running late and I didn't get to do the shoot I'd have liked to do. Plus there were monsoon rains outside. Oh well. We weren't there for pictures, we were there for Ordinances.
The rain finally cleared and we took one more family picture...

Whipped up this baby in no time:
Here's a little secret: It's not paint. It's Sharpie.
I don't trust my painting skills so on a whim I tried marker. Low and behold, it looks like it was printed right on there.
Also, I got a killer deal on some solid wood shelves but they needed some help. Hopefully, I will put together a better shoot to show off these ladies. For now, here are their before and after:
Are you in the Austin, TX area? I'd love to photograph your family/newborn/kids, etc.
Contact me for details.

There's a buzz in our house that could spell major change for our family. No announcements yet but in preparation my living room looks like this:
Getting ready for a garage sale! It's my first ever and I'm trying to be ultra-organized. We are trying to get rid of as much clutter as possible. You have to make clutter to rid yourself of it, it seems. It's hard saying goodbye to some of our things but we need to keep moving forward.
And here was the best shot I could get of all 3 Easter morning. Still need a new family picture.
I finished our wall measuring stick a couple months ago. I'm pretty happy with the results. I distressed the wood myself and had stained it with two stains. The pictures just don't do it justice.
Total cost was roughly $11!
I am excited to have this with us for the rest of our lives.
Here it is in our hallway:

I can't believe I let a whole year slip away! Truth is, I had a very difficult pregnancy and had to eliminate the 'excess.' Baby is here now and I am starting to get back into the groove of motherhood and life in general.
Here's a little peek at last year's Christmas card:
front:
back:
I got so many compliments on our card this year and I have to thank Candra for designing this card. If you are interested in any type of custom card, I highly recommend Candra. Email her at shedesignscmb@gmail.com.
Also today is the Anniversary of marrying my best friend and the person who has always accepted me for me. Happy 7th Anniversary to us.
Here's to 70 more together!
If there is anyone still reading this silly blog, thanks for sticking with me. Let's see if I can get back on track.
Happy New Year!
So New Years was so nineteen days ago, right? Well, this isn't about my resolutions cuz I didn't really make any, though I do so want to be tanner. I dream big, I know. This is about my word of the year. I did this last year - you can read about it here. I've taken this long because I've been trying to come up with a more profound word. Nothing is coming to mind, so I guess that must mean something. This year, I just want to be better. I want to be a better wife. A better mother. Better to my body. A better sister, friend, photographer, cook, gardener, etc. That sounds like a tall order but I'm only looking for incremental growth in all those areas. OK, maybe not incremental. Measurable. Steady. I'm not trying to become a world-class anything. Just better. Maybe that's not a big enough thing, but that's what's in my heart right now. I want to make each day better because I'm trying just that little bit extra. I want to do my part and maybe a little bit more. I want to be more conscientious of how I handle each moment.
Did you make a resolution? Do you keep your resolutions? Have you (eek!) broken your resolution already?
Meet Tyler!
14 Nov 2011 9:59 AM (14 years ago)

Oh, I'm so grateful that I get to do this! Even better, this little guy belongs to my friend which means, I totally get to snuggle him and watch him grow!
Isn't he handsome?
Happy Halloween!
31 Oct 2011 12:57 PM (14 years ago)
Generally speaking, I don't dig the zombie trend. But this is adorable.
Happy Halloween.
Baby Shower
9 Oct 2011 3:15 PM (14 years ago)

My very good friend is having her third boy and I had the honor of helping with her shower.

Here are some highlights.
She's soooo pretty and only looks like she's 6 months along even though she is full term!
We had a great time. I hope my friend and her baby boy felt our love for them!
My Kiddies...
26 Sep 2011 12:15 PM (14 years ago)

Picture day in our family is a dreaded event. It's really the one day that I openly admit to bribing my children. Given that we only do this a couple times a year, I'm convinced that it isn't doing too much damage. If I can get these results every year, then I will continue using this strategy.
I'd like to publicly thank my husband for being my assistant on this shoot.
I couldn't have done it without him.
(gonna crop shoes out later, I think)
My favorite:
Love it when you get the feeling that you totally nailed a shot. That's how I felt after this one but it's probably cuz these are my babes and I'm totally biased.
Linked:

If you live near LA, you have to check out the
California Science Center! We had a great time, minus the incident of my son walking off and his mommy freaking out a bit. Otherwise, great day!
Here are some of the adventures awaiting you:
IMAX movies
Touch pool and Aquarium
Lots of hands on play!

Superheroes was the requested theme for my son's fifth birthday. I mentioned that in
this post.
Here's how it turned out:
The invitations:
Instead of goodie bags, each guest took home a cape and mask. I made the masks from elastic and felt. My uber-helpful
friend made all TWELVE capes.
I made the banner from comic books and double wide binding. (and by 'I,' I mean I had help again).
We had cake and Kryptonite Cupcakes for dessert and lots of healthy options for lunch including Wonder Dogs!
We put on the invitations to come as your favorite Superhero. Isn't she adorable?
I made a skyline from a table cloth, wrapping paper, construction paper and spray adhesive. The day of the party, I taped bad guys (Magneto, Doc Oc, Catwoman, etc.) to the city and we played "Put the Bad Guy In Jail." Just a spoof on Pin the Tail On the Donkey.
We opened presents.
And modeled presents.
Then we had dessert.
The kids loved the Kryptonite Cupcakes.
Here's my little girl in her brother's costume. It was too big on him and gigantic on her.
This Is My Boy...
21 Aug 2011 11:23 PM (14 years ago)




and he turns 5 today.
The other night, while I was snuggling him at bed time he said this:
[boy] "Mom, I love you to the moon and back 10 times"
[me] "Thank you! I love you to the moon and back 100 times"
[boy] "Well, I love you to the moon and back 36 times"
[me] "Wow, that is far. That is very, very far."
I can't quite put into words who this boy is and what he means to me.
I can say that I love being his mom, that I am proud of him and that I am really blessed to have him.
Motherhood is so bittersweet.