playin' in the rain and tellin' stories

ok grandma and grandpa, here's another video for you. this one's about 5 minutes long. the really awesome story starts at 4:21.



and in case you didn't get enough, here's a little more of jonah talking in the rain...

maybe we shoulda named him noah...

a family with personality

i had the honor of photographing my dear friend meredith and her family last weekend. they were so much fun to work with. every member of her family has their own distinct personality. and they all love each other so much.

i love the look on silly little p's face in this one!

mom and dad with the hooligans in the background...

look at these girls' beautiful eyes!

da boyz!


meredith and kirby, i had so much fun working with you and your crazy little monkeys! your family is just beautiful! thank you!

the song in his heart

kaleb everett has arrived!

dave's sister leah had her baby today! yay! i did her maternity pics in june... my first maternity shoot ever. and we've been anxiously awaiting the little mister's arrival ever since. he even made us wait an extra week and half past when we were expecting him. to everyone's relief (especially him mom) he has finally arrived all safe and sound. praise God! =)

kaleb's stats
date of birth: august 1, 2008
time: 6:33am via cesarean
weight: 8 lbs. 3 oz.
height: 20 inches long
cuteness level: dang cute!

and here he is all fresh from the oven...


me and my newest nephew

with papa jim

sweet widdle hand

uncle d... my ovaries are sighing...

and of course, we can't forget the beautiful new mommy leah! (dave's sister) congratulations sis! kaleb is precious!

nana & papa, uncle d, cousin jonah, kaleb and mommy leah

see the rest of the pics here. and i'm sure there will be lots and lots more soon!

camera hospital

my poor little ol' 20d is sick. he had to go to the camera hospital. luckily i have camera health insurance so in case the nice camera doctors can't fix him they'll just send me a new one. i love camera health insurance.

i guess it's like when you're a kid and your goldfish dies and your parents just get you a new one instead of telling you kermit went to heaven. not that that ever happened to me... but i've seen it on tv.

in the meantime since i just can't be without a camera (both professionally and personally) for over 2 weeks, i'm taking this opportunity to pick up my much needed backup camera. or in the this case a new camera that will make trusty ol' 20d my backup camera. i just purchased a 40d and it should be here in the next day or two. just in time for a real estate agent head shot session i just booked for later on this week. phew!

i think this just might be the first post i've ever done without a photo. i guess that's what happens when your camera gets sick.

no, i just can't do it. here's a picture from back in june that i don't think i've posted on here. i thought it's perfect for this topic... it's jonah with his camera. say "cheese!"

stuff to do with toddlers: pudding painting

alright! round 2! this activity gets 2 messy thumbs way up!

this week jonah had his friend jackson over for some good ol' yummy messy fun! we busted out a couple cups of chocolate/vanilla pudding and a couple of pages from a big desk calendar (which i picked up for like $2 at the office supply store a couple months ago) and let the boys go to town. i don't know how much actual painting happened once the boys figured out they were allowed to eat the pudding, but nevertheless it was quite fun.

sadly my camera broke last week (i'm sending it in for repairs or replacement... looove the 4 year warranty!) so these pics were taken with my kodak point and shoot. it's good. events like this keep me grateful for having my slr.

we set up the project on the deck (which we figured we could hose off later) and filled the kiddie pool for some easy clean up.

yum!

i am the canvas!

i call this one "pudding is yummy in my tummy"

now for a quick dip. ahhh... all clean!

little fishies


nope, not done "painting" just quite yet

i call this one "5 o'clock chocolate"

jonah would not look at the camera and smile the whole morning until this... what a little cheeseball! (there's little lily chillin' in the background).

hmmm... what shall i paint next?

i took some video too. i'll try to get that uploaded and added here some time soon.

peace, love & chocolate!

stuff to do with toddlers: homemade orange scented edible play dough

tuesday we went over to jonah's friend jackson's house to play. lara and i were talking the week before about how we should try to do some educational stuff with the boys when we get together. so i started looking for some craft projects. i found tons of crafts for kids, but i really had to search for stuff to do with toddlers. so i decided i'm going to keep track of some of the fun stuff we find to do with the boys in hopes that it will give other mama's some good ideas for (inexpensive and easy) stuff to do with their crazy toddlers.

so here's the first official installment of my new themed posts: stuff to do with toddlers.

when i read the intro to this project i knew it was for us...

"If your children are at the age of preferring to eat their art supplies while you are trying to teach them to expand their creative skills, you'll enjoy these perfect projects!"

Kool-Aid Play Dough (recipe from familycorner.com)

* 1 cup flour
* 1 cup water
* 1/2 cup salt
* 3 teaspoons Cream of Tartar (i forgot the cream of tartar so we used baking powder and it seemed to work fine)
* 1 package Kool-Aid Mix (any flavor of unsweetened)
* 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Mix dry ingredients together in a large saucepan. Slowly add water mixed with oil and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens to dough. Turn out onto a heatproof bread board or counter top and knead until cool enough for children to handle. Dough will be the color of the Kool-Aid mix and will smell like the Kool-Aid mix. (Can be stored in a tightly covered container for up to six months).

cost: less than $1 if you have most of these ingredients in your pantry
prep time: 5 minutes to gather ingredients
cook time: less than 5 minutes to prepare; 5 minutes to cool
play time: 30 to 60 minutes (depending on attention span)


and now for the photos...

i think jonah had more fun with lara's wheely cutter than with the actual play dough.

jackson started out with the potato masher... sweet!

jonah did decide to give it a taste (of course!) it's probably my own fault giving him orange play dough shaped like a carrot.

we pulled the play dough apart, rolled it into balls, cut out circles with baby bottle lids, rolled it into snake shapes... it was a good 45 minutes of fun at least! look at that concentration...

we wondered before we started if the kool-aid would rub off and stain clothes or hands. it didn't, so that was great!

so that's about it. the cost was minimal. lara had everything in her kitchen except for the unsweetened kool-aid packets. it didn't take long to get ready and it kept the boys occupied until lunch time. i definitely give this project 5 stars!


i'm playing along with works for me wednesdays over at rocks in my dryer. check it out!

valentine's day cards

i was working on a photo project today and came across these pictures which i realized i never put online with my other valentine's day pics because i didn't want to ruin the surprise for anyone who might be receiving them. so now i can share!

in case you're looking for a crafty (and inexpensive) idea for valentine's day next year (hey, i saw they've got christmas decorations out at hobby lobby now... it's never too early to start planning these things) here's an idea for valentine's day cards for your loved ones.

i had photos with lovey heart borders printed through shutterfly.

then i just filled them out like postcards, added some stickers for pizazz and dropped them in the mail.

when i walked into the post office to find out if i could do this (if i couldn't mail them as postcards i was just going to put them in envelopes, but they'd still look like postcards) the person behind the counter said (with a lot of attitude) "well you can... but i don't know if you'd want to."

as far as i know they all made it.

so there you go. cards with a personal touch printed and shipped for less than $.45 each!

stickers, pipe cleaner curlies & an ipod shuffle

aka. how to kill time with a 2 year old.

first a picture of one of jonah's very first household craft projects. i picked up some cars stickers (jonah's all time favorite movie) and he helped me decorate his booster chair.

look how proud he is. "see daddy!"

i took this pic with my camera phone and sent it to daddy since he was traveling last week.

let's see? what do they have in the $1 section at target today? ah ha! pipe cleaners! that sounds like fun!

no! i couldn't possibly hold still long enough for you to get a picture mama!!! ahhh! it's torture!

boy, these things are almost as much fun as black olives.

now. how to get them off?

i decided to give myself a pedicure and then lay down and take a picture. guess who wanted his pipe cleaners back? btw, do you like my flip flop tan line?

so guess who needed to get the other camera and lay down and take a picture of his own feet. how did he even get that camera that was up on the desk? tall little monkey!

later it was time for some tuneage. check out how my shuffle is just his size... and clipped to his little pocket.

jonah was lovin' it!