Thursday, July 28, 2011

Whew!

Life has been SO hectic lately! I've hardly had the time to think, let alone blog. The good news is, I've had the camera out almost daily and have managed to snap quite a few adorable pictures of the girls!
Where do I even begin?
Hannah loves this cheap recorder...
I've so enjoyed my girls these past few days. Life is so different even now than it was a few weeks ago, evidenced by my last post. Sarah has since began sleeping in her own crib for the entire night. I feel like a new person, and honestly, so does she.
Exercising with Grammy...
I love this face! She is too cute!

smooches from Gram

Now that Sarah's walking in the walker, Hannah doesn't leave her side.


Hannah likes to run toward the camera as I try to take her picture.

Speaking of walking...
Time to get out the safety locks again. Meh, it was time to do that anyway, I suppose. We kind of slacked off when we moved into the new house...
Micah was off from work on Wednesday, so we got the girls ready and headed to Lowes for some home improvement items.
Hannah in her "mun-jaaas", aka sunglasses.
We had planned on picnicing in the park, but it got late, so we decided to have our picnic in the backyard instead! (I didn't edit these ones)
She had SO much fun!
She's still talking about it!

Daddy and Hannah took a walk around the yard before naptime.
Sarah, who had been napping peacefully in her carseat beside us, woke up during their walk, so we spent some time together!


Quick Daddy snuggles before her nap...


And lastly, my sweet, precious, baby girl turned seven months old today. I watched the clock flip to 8:59 this morning and got a little teary eyed. Where did the past seven months go? Time seems to be flying by even faster this time around...if that's even possible.

To celebrate her seventh monthday, I decided to give my seamless paper a try for the first time. I had every intention not to like it, as I really enjoy shooting my kids in their "natural environment"...haha, but honestly, I loved working with it and the look I acheived, so I'm thinking I'll need to add a few more color choices down the road for variety. This is where Micah rolls his eyes..;)

Sarah is seven months old!


Hannah didn't want to be left out of the action, so she hopped on for some fun. They love each other. :swoon:

I told Hannah to look at me and smile. Nice.

If the above shot wasn't a good indicator of the mood-to-be, I don't know what is. She quickly went from that, to this:

...and finally...
Needless to say, naptime commenced shortly after.

Lastly, storms rolled in this evening...

Luckily, the worst of it passed, but Hannah got to see "ightning" and hear "funder". It was a perfect day.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Sweet Summertime.

I have not blogged for days. Well, weeks. Life's been a little crazy with sleepless babies, two year molars making their grand entrance, prolonged episodes of tantrums, whining, screaming, crying...it's been rough, but it's looking up. Oh, thank goodness, it's looking up.
Just when you think you simply can't take one more thing, when everything is going wrong, turned upsidedown, unfixable...

...oh, sweet summertime. There is always renewal and a refreshing that comes when soaking up the sun with your babies.

Having children is one of the greatest adventures I've ever been on. It's so challenging, trying, exhausting...yet so rewarding, worth it, exciting.
The days that I feel I'm at my wit's end due to sheer exhaustion and frustration may seem to outway the good days, but looking and thinking back proves me wrong every.single.time.
I promise Hannah wasn't mad...
Life is indeed good, and while it may take me a little longer to realize it during the trying times, it's the truth.





I ordered a tripod and joystick last week. It arrived. I am in love.
So, yeah...I've yet to fully master it. I missed focus, and maybe that's a good thing in this case, as I had yet to wash my hair...
I did take it outside, baby in tow, to get some shots of the full moon the other night. It was then I realized that I need a super telephoto lens.
Bwahahahaha...

In other news, we may have a future doctor on our hands...
She put it on all by herself...I kid you not. She did throw a fit a few seconds later when she wanted it back off...perhaps she'll pursue a career in something else?

And, post-bath chubness. Is there anything cuter? I think not.

It's a hot one here, today. Oh, sweet summertime.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Celebrating the 4th

What a wonderful long weekend we had! The weather was gorgeous and we were able to spend a good amount of time, as evidenced by my previous post.
Unfortunately, I got little in the way of pictures. I decided that it was more important to put the camera down and just enjoy time with family and friends. I'm so glad I did! Sometimes you have to realize you need a little break, then take it without feeling guilt for missing out on moments. For those moments that you simply must capture, I use my iPhone's Hipstamatic app...it's awesome!

We ended up roasting marshmallows and making s'mores in our firepit. These pictures crack me up as it looks like Micah is engulfed in smoke!
Bwahahaha!
Hannah loved the chocolate, the grahams...and HATED the marshmallow. She had no clue what to do with the stickiness and promptly wanted it out of her mouth. Poor thing! She opted for two plain graham crackers instead!


After a s'more (or two, ahem) I decided to sneak around the house and shoot a few flowers. These are in no way perfect and I certainly don't claim to be a macro specialist, but I like them and think I may use them as art (even if it has to be abstract) throughout the house!




I really like this one. I left it darker because it seems mysterious that way. The only thing I would change would be the crop. I should have cropped more on the left. Unfortunately, that was done in camera and can't be corrected. Live and learn!

New buds:


I'm not sure what kind of flower/plant this one is, but it's growing in my landscaping. I decided to shoot one of the buds. Love the color!

Once again, I'm not botanist (is that the right specialist?), but I like this little fuzzy plant/flower that grows alongside our house. There are always a ton of bumble bees around them. Unfortunately, I shot this later in the day and all of our fuzzy friends had turned in for the night. I do plan to try to catch one in action before the end of the summer!

Hannah followed me around, inspecting all of the flowers and plants just like I was. If only she had had her play camera! I think she'll have an interest in photography as well! I kind of hope so! I think that would be such a cool way to bond when she gets older!

Not loving this conversion, but too lazy to fix it.

We had a little visitor on the 4th of July. He hung around just long enough to pose for a few pictures! Umm, eww!


Today was back to the grind, as I was home alone with the girls. After a rough start to the morning with screaming and temper tantrums thrown by both girls, we decided to pack it up and run to Target.
This was my first outing alone with both girls. I figured it was about time I gave it a try since Sarah is six months old.
I got them dressed (in their matching dresses from Aunt Barb!), did their hair, got myself dressed, make up on, hair done, and packed up extra outfits, diapers, wipes...you know, the neccessities.
We managed to get into the car in one piece, minus my small battle with our ginormous double stroller. We recently upgraded our Escape to a Ford Explorer for the additional room...well, that massive thing is still a chore to get into the trunk! I wrestled with it until I snapped off one of the canopies. Finally I got it to fit.
By the time I made it into the car, I was a hot, sweaty mess, but I had made up my mind that we were going to enjoy our time out...and afterall, Hannah was BEYOND excited to be heading to the store.
We made it to Target. After battling with Sarah's carseat (I can't figure out why it's so hard to unhook all of the sudden), dropping Hannah's shopping cart cover in the parking lot and having some stranger run after me asking if it was mine, we were inside, in the cart, and making our way down the aisles.
Hannah snacked on cereal and juice while Sarah lounged quietly in her carseat in the back of the cart. It was bliss! I actually got to stop and pick up a few clothing items!
Hannah picked out a new pair of sandals, an alphabet bath tub set, a new sheet set for her bed, and a new toy.
After a while, both girls got a little restless, so I headed to the cash register to check out.
I loaded all of my items onto the belt and tried to comfort Sarah and calm Hannah. The cashier was almost done scanning when I reached into my diaper bag for my wallet...MY WALLET! Oh.My.God.
I knew right away that I had left it in my camera bag, but I continued to dig frantically through the spare diapers and onesies thrown haphazardly into the bag, hoping that it would somehow appear.
I was so embarrassed. I told the cashier what was going on. She didn't hide her annoyance. "I'll have to bag them up and throw them in a cart until you can come back and pay."
Luckily, Micah was running an errand for work and was just a few exits away. I went to customer service to let them know my husband would be back to pay for the items in question.
I was beyond frustrated with myself and vowed that I'd never be venturing out alone again. Not a good way to start things off!
Hannah was not happy that she had to leave her new things in the store, but I was able to distract her enough to get both girls loaded back into the Explorer.
Our new picnic basket toy did end up making it home...


...and it's a hit! Hannah couldn't wait to finish up with her bath to go and play with her sister. They had a wonderful bedtime picnic tonight!

More power to you if you made it this far! That was quite the long-winded post! Thank goodness there were cute kids thrown into the mix! ;)