Chris and Brenda, Sitting in a Tree

This past weekend a very old friend married a very new friend. It was such a fun day and and definitely the most fun wedding we've been to in years! No offense to anyone's wedding over the past few years, but this one had all of our oldest, closest friends in attendance so there's just no competing with that. Here were the highlights from my seat:

• Seeing Wes and Macey walk down the aisle. Their (terrified) smiles were PRICELESS. 
• Laura telling us how Mike got her a Nutter Butter ice cream thing (too long to retell, but it was funny).
• Wes saying to Tiffany, "So. I see that you're wearing glasses." And later, "So who's the bo-" but he was unable to finish his question because his mother smacked him on the arm so fast.
• Going to get drinks in between the ceremony and reception with Andy, Peggy, Jason and Bryan.
• Going to Home Depot with the aforementioned crew so Bryan could get rubber cement in an attempt to glue his heel back onto his shoe. It fell over several times throughout the night. Our dinner table smelled like the rubber cement and several people indicated they'd like to huff it.
• Charlie's bib/tie.
• Seeing all of our good friends looking so handsome and dressed up! We all clean up nicely I think.
• At one point every single person in our group was on the dance floor, including the guys and gals who usually "chair dance" as Deanna calls it. It was only one song that brought everyone to their feet and I THINK it may have been a Miley Cyrus song, but I can't be sure. 
• I got really drunk for literally 5 minutes. Someone bought everyone shots and I wound up having 2 of them. I think they were my second and third shots in my whole life. Well about 10 minutes later it HIT me and 15 minutes later I was good to go again. Very odd experience.
• Andy being there!
• Andy laughing about the fact that he heard literally 5 different women comment at the ceremony about how there were two people named Macey in the wedding party.
• We had a 30 minute after party at the Taylors and I don't think I've ever seen Mike Taylor laugh that hard in the 10+ years I've known him. He sent a drunk text to Andy, which Andy retold to Mike once we arrived and Mike LOST it. I thought he might puke. Lots of laughs all around in that 30 minutes. (The text had something to do with a badger.)
• Seeing Chris and Brenda together was awesome. They are so perfect together. He's a little more serious and she's a little more wild, and I think they compliment each other perfectly. I am so happy to have her a part of our little group and I think I even like Chris a little more because he picked her. Haha :) 

I'm sure there's a million things that I missed, but I guess these are the things that stick out 2 days later. Congrats and love to you both :)

Boots and Teeth

I cannot get enough of these boots. I want her to wear them every. single. day. forever.

And this guy has his first loose tooth. I can't believe he is old enough for this...his lower left front baby tooth will be outta here soon. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Overwhelmed

I don't know what it is about TODAY, but TODAY I am overwhelmed. There is so much on my mind that I feel like I don't know where to place my efforts. So I'm resorting to a quick blog post to help clear my head.

What I really need to do is edit. I have 2/3 of a session to go of an adorable little 6 month old. Then all of a senior session, and tonight I am meeting with a 7 month old. Then Saturday and Sunday and Tuesday and Saturday I have more sessions. Then it all thins out, so I am then stressed about that too.

Plus I really want an actual logo so I need to figure that out. And Black Friday is coming up so maybe I should do some kind of promotion for that? And my website still doesn't have an "About Me" section so that should probably be checked off the old to do list. And I need to create a contact list of all of my clients' emails so I don't have to rely soley on facebook for them to know what's going on around here. Oh and did I mention I'm officially backlogged on the actual work? I think I did.

Ha. Just one of those days!

I am loving every second of this new line of work, so don't misunderstand this to be complaining. I'm still just trying to figure it all out - how to manage now and how to keep the business coming in! There is so much to learn about the actual photography part AND the business part. Time to take some deep breaths and get moving :)

Then and Now

September 2012 vs September 2013

That's all :)

Hair!

So it's been a hot minute since I've posted much about Cecilia's hair, a subject that more or less took over this space for awhile. The thing is that for the past several months I have not been able to try anything new. We've basically had 2 options: 2-3 puff ponytails or twist the front section back into 2-3 puff ponytails (shown below). These have been our options because I absolutely will not risk spending time on trying anything new because time is of the essence right now. Cecilia is a healthy 19 month old, after all. And what healthy 19 month old wants to sit and have their hair messed with for hours? None that I can think of.

Today she was awesome, though. She no longer fights hair washing (THANK GOD!) and she is obsessed with iPhones so we handed her Bryan's and she was good to go. I took these pictures almost exactly 45 minutes apart. I'm rather amazed that in 45 minutes we transitioned from one look to the next, including washing and detangling. It was quite the treat.

So thank you, beautiful girl, for having an unhealthy obsession with gadgets at such a young age....it's really making hair time so much more manageable for us both :)

And I think now would be a good time to share the running commentary in my head when I look at the above pictures: "Holy SHIT this kid is {stronger than "shit" expletive} beautiful." Please tell me you curse in your head to describe how much you love and think your kids are beautiful?! Haha. I'm sure I'm not the only one :) Also, "God that's a lot of hair," is mixed in there. Seriously. Look at it. There's a lot. Can you tell?

This final product photo doesn't really do it justice, but there you have it! From fro to styled in 45 minutes. Boom.

The Cave

We were lucky enough to get (fairly decent) tickets to see Mumford & Sons this week. A few people asked me what song I wanted to hear most and with zero hesitation I replied, "The Cave." The show was going on and they were nothing short of amazing (seriously....AMAZING), but no Cave. As it turns out, this song must be a favorite for a lot of folks because they chose to finish with it and the crowd went totally and completely bonkers, myself included of course.

Since hearing it live I've of course listened to it about a hundred more times trying to relive the fun of that moment two nights ago. And for whatever reason it popped into my head that of the very few songs I've posted on this blog, another was a Mumford delight a couple years ago. I guess they're share worthy!

I'm so glad we decided to go see them (not that it was ever in question as far as Bryan was concerned). Nice to do something that makes you feel youthful and lively and non parental every so often. That's all :)

Simon is in Kindergarten.

Simon kind of cracks me up. Going to his first day of all day school was honestly no. big. deal. to him in the morning. He was completely whatever about it and didn't have a care in the world. His mother, on the other hand, was fighting back tears all morning and making that first lunch felt like entirely too much. I was on the brink all morning and then the damn bus tipped me over the edge (not unlike his first day of 4K). It was really no big deal, he just wound up being on a different bus from the neighbor boy but in that moment it was the straw. 

The poor neighbor boy's dad had to see me cry about it. Not my finest moment.

{No clue what he is doing in half these pictures...just being a goof!}

The rest of the morning I felt like crying and I couldn't even tell you exactly why. Sentimentality? Anxiety? Sadness? Happiness (haha)? Maybe a mixture, I don't know. It was unexpected, this I know. My friend Julie whose daughter had her first day of 5K as well yesterday met me out at Target and that helped for sure. 

By nap time, my only concern was that my dear daughter was boycotting a nap for the third day in a row. I'm hoping today doesn't make four because the chick is CRAZY come dinner time when she doesn't nap. Like total bat shit. Not crying, just all over the place and literally walking into walls over and over.

Anyway, back to Simon's first day. After he got home he wanted to play with the aforementioned neighbor boy and I said I wanted him to come home first to decompress and have a snack. This didn't go over well. He wouldn't tell me anything about school and was just scowling and talking sassy to me. You may have seen this on FB, but I'm repeating it here...I sent him a note in his lunch that read "I hope you're having a fun day" and I asked him if he got it and what it said...Simon replied angrily, "yes I got it! It said I hope you're having a LAME DAY!" and he stormed off.

Okay then, I guess you're still mad at me for not letting you play? Ha. Eventually he was able to talk calmly to me and told me about a penny system they have for good behavior and that one kid lost his penny that first day (not him). He didn't have a lot more to add, but I'm sure more information will trickle in each day. 

{Finding a cicada shell....and getting ready to throw it at me. Look at that naughty face!}

So that's it. My boy is a full time student. We will see how much he's grown by this window at the end of the year! (Thank you Macey's teacher for the idea!)

---

Love you, kid. 

Top 10 for a boy and a girl

I was just sitting here thinking about all the things I love about my children. I mean, they're kids, so they are going to drive me batty plenty but, they're kids, so they're going to be uber lovable all the same. Now seems like as good a time as any to mention the top 10 things I love about each of those little people I have the privilege of calling my own.

The boy:

1. The way he plays pretend allllll the time. He is constantly in his own little world doing who knows what and I love every second of it. 
2. The way it kind of looks like he has a widow's peak because he has two white blonde patches where his receding hairline will presumably be some day. 
3. That he needs about 90 seconds to be put to bed at night.
4. That he is so confident he can say with zero jealousy that his sister is "the funniest."
5. That he runs outside to greet the people he loves because waiting for them to get to the door is just too hard.
6. That he is always thinking two steps ahead in order to get what he wants.
7. That he will play with his sister when I need her to be distracted, that he watches out for choking hazards for her, that he tells me when she has something she shouldn't, that he is her protector (and antagonizer, but that is for a different post). 
8. That he regularly says "guess what?" and "um, um, um, um" and "did you know that?" and "I'm really good at (fill in the blank)" and "I'm having a rough day" and "okay mumma." I'm sure there are many more things he says that are just so Simon, but I'm drawing a blank now.
9. That he will give me the biggest, full on body hug any and every time I ask.
10. His laugh, his voice, his greenish eyes, his perfect teeth, his sense of humor, his confidence, his everything.

The girl:

1. The way she runs around and laughs and everything and nothing all day.
2. That she still runs as though she has no control and looks like she will fall any second, but usually stays upright.
3. That her smile is so big and bright and shows off all her pearly whites (even the molars, it's kind of crazy huge).
4. That she has more hair than any other kid I've ever seen at her age...and even lots of adults.
5. That she says "thank you" when she hands you something. 
6. The way she says the words Berta, shoes, whoa, swing, Cecilia, cheese and hello. I don't know why they stand out to me but I love the way they come out.
7. That she likes to be in her stroller 90% of the time it's required of her.
8. That she will pull Bryan into the living room and start dancing so that he puts music on for her, so that she can really start dancing.
9. That since she could smile she's been particular about who gets to see it. If she doesn't see you regularly, chances are you're not going to see that beautiful grin of hers....you're likely going to see a cold stare straight in the eyes (which is why I understand when people call her "serious" even though I would never, ever in a million years describe her that way). 
10. That she too goes to bed in 90 seconds, her deep brown skin and even darker eyes, they way you know she loves her brother and will say "bradah" if you tell her to say Simon, that she gets wild and loopy rather than crabby when she's tired, her laugh that I could never explain in words but could surely pick out of a line up, her everything too.