Psychosis

Do you ever feel like life is pulling in so many directions that having a split personality might actually come to your benefit? I'm beginning to feel that way. I was contemplating the idea of cloning myself to be able to get more done...but then it would still be me...exhausted...trying to get it all done...of course there would be more of me...so maybe not all that bad. I'm thinking the split personality might be a better option. That way someone else can help out around here. I can take care of the fun stuff and "Cybil" can clean my toilets and do the floors. Not a bad arrangement in my mind.

I guess between school, preschool, violin lessons, orchestra practice, photography sessions, editing, a BIG paint job (promise to share the end results), looking for a studio (hoping and praying that I'll have some great news here soon!), ebay listings, sick kiddos, and those darn toilets....life is feeling a bit chaotic. Good thing I have this blog where I can come and gripe and complain ;)

If you could use a little pick-me-up as well...stop by my latest ebay listings and soak in some fun spring time fashion. It is a proven fact that shopping releases endorphins as well...so snatching up some deals might just cure you of your winter blues (warning...I tried this at Old Navy yesterday and although it is hard on the pocket book it does seem to provide a brief bit of relief!)



Click HERE to see both auctions!

My kids have been getting pretty creative in their play these days. "Sick game" is one of their favorites. If you have been to my house and had to play patient in this horrible game I am deeply apologetic. This week their babies were feeling under the weather.

Here are the babies on their hospital beds...A has a mighty nice hospital band so she won't be arrested trying to visit the babies....wouldn't want to set off any alarms at the nursery!

I'm not 100% sure if that wet Kleenex is her mask...I'm thinking I'd rather not know.

This way to the hospital entrance.

This poor baby needed an IV...although her blood pressure is darn good at 110/60. Hmmm...I'm thinking my kids have come to visit me too many times in the hospital? Maybe we should see a counselor about that?

And speaking of hospitals. I went in for what I thought was a fairly routine exam today only to find out I'll be having outpatient surgery in a few weeks. It doesn't sound too bad...I'm mostly irritated that I will have to spend a day or two "recovering"...which is nice way to say I'll probably be desperately bored. Maybe I can send my other persona in that day for the procedure? Think the Dr. would buy that excuse?

And lastly...promised to share J's new curtain upon completion.

Pretty easy little one-hour project (especially if I don't mention that it took me about 2 hours because I am apparently needing more work reading a tape measure).

That's it for now in the sharing department. We'll see (like how I said we?) how the rest of the day unfolds. Maybe me, myself, and I will get a bit more done than I think we can!

New Year...new faces {Kanas City Newborn Photographer}

I was so fortunate to start off the New Year with this sweet baby girl. Have I mentioned how much I love babies? Oh, I have? OK...carry on then.

She's really quite sweet isn't she? Peachy fuzz hair, porcelain skin, and just tired enough to get one sweet sleepy shot. At 9 weeks she was a bit big for the traditional newborn session...but after much bouncing, swaying, and shushing...she finally drifted off.

Pretty enamored by her Daddy I think. She kept her eyes trained on him the entire time!

Thanks again for the chance to meet your sweet little girl! Safe travels home!!

practicing {Kansas City Childrens Photographer}

Since the weather has turned cold and plans to stay that way for the next few months I've been working on trying some new things inside. I've got a sweet little baby girl heading this way tomorrow and wanted to try out some new backgrounds as a trial run :)

Still working on the textures too. Wishing that my girls' faces didn't look so stripped of color once I erase back the texture...any "texture gurus" out there who have a few suggestions?

We've got some sickies in the house (perianal strep...if you haven't heard of that you ought to google it...WOW...didn't even know it existed until a few weeks ago...and now it has made its way through our house again despite my best efforts to clean obnoxiously). A actually was swabbed for strep throat too which was positive but you'd never know it as she is as happy as a clam.

So we are staying inside and trying not to infect the rest of the neighborhood with our germs. Hoping these antibiotics will kick in and get us all on the road to recovery asap! This little guy has been tugging at his ears and fighting off a cold. Hoping he'll fight it off on his own without another trip in to see the Dr. We've been in so many times this month they greet us by name at the front door!

Especially love this in sepia :)

Hope everyone is staying warm and cozy. No big New Year's resolutions here...I figure the less I resolve to do the less chance I have of being disappointed in myself ;) HAPPY NEW YEAR!

bored {Kansas City Childrens Photographer}

ok. So I'll admit to a wee bit of boredom at our household today. And in order to spice things up a bit, the girls and I decided to dress up, head out, and check out a few new photography locations. The sun was shining nicely and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Just one small problem...that beautiful sunshine that looked so glorious from my kitchen window also had a pretty fierce (and cold) wind to accompany it. So we mostly drove around (and stopped for ice cream). I did convince the girls to hop out of the car at one stop...but we only got a handful of shots in before they started to grimace and dance about.

Still totally worth it for this shot.

I love that they had so much fun getting on their funky outfits...A thought her striped footless tights and leopard print skirt were the perfect winning combination.

And J sported her plaid blazer and her skinny jeans...everyone should have the opportunity to see their toddler in skinny jeans. Love that school girl look on her.


Thanks for the fun afternoon girls. Sorry about the cold...hope the ice cream made up for our failed photo shoot...we'll play "fashion girls" another day...I promise!

ice ice baby

(dum dum dum ditty-dum-dum)

To finish off our winter holiday adventures...we took a family trip down to Crown Center to the ice terrace. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lessie, and Grandma and Grandpa came along....we all had a grand time. Only three of us adults ventured onto the ice. And the little girls had a blast slipping and sliding around the rink!




S enjoyed the afternoon from the sidelines...staying warm in his snowsuit and Grandma's arms!

A cheesy pic of our little family (minus the baby....too scared to bring him out on the ice!)

After skating for a bit we headed over to see the huge (and mostly dead) Christmas tree. The girls wore off the rest of their energy running around and climbing on the exhibit. I could barely keep up with them due to my rubber skating legs!


So the holidays have been officially wrapped up at our house. Our company left this morning...and the tree has already been stripped bare. I don't know about you...but I'm ready to get back into the swing of our normal, chaotic life!

Hope you are all still pleasantly stuffed and enjoying your new Christmas gadgets. I do have a couple presents to share next. My hubby and I didn't exchange gifts (I know, I know...a tad on the "bah humbug" side)...but the girls did receive a few fun things!

the longest Christmas post in blog history

I will admit to being a tad remiss in the blogging department this past week. But for good cause...we've been enjoying the holidays with family and friends! Instead of a plethora of small posts geared towards specifics events I've decided it would be best to completely bore you and send you into a post-holiday stupor by sharing all (or at least most) of our holiday excitement in one grand post. Excited yet?

We started out the week with school parties, preschool programs, visits from a few out of town friends, cookie baking, and some playing in the snow. I've tried to limit the picture showing so as not to put you into a catatonic state! I've also tried to resist the urge to edit all these snap shots as well. A snap shot is just that right?

Here's J singing her little heart out at her preschool program...the little guy next to her was really loud (in a cute, endearing way) and she kept eyeing him...they were pretty cute!

Next we headed over to one of our best friend's house for a visit with Santa. They seem to have an "in" with the "big guy" and he visits their house early every year so the neighborhood kids can sit on his lap and present their wishes.


Sam enjoyed Santa too (from a distance)...Santa even mentioned how much he liked our little guy's hat :)

By the end of the evening the babies had had enough. They look like we stuffed them full of cookies and egg nog don't they...honest we didn't!

A rare snap shot of me with my little man taken in my friend's kitchen

I didn't escape the holidays without a bit of sewing. J had several hand-me-down Christmas dresses that she liked but A made sure I knew that her "holiday wardrobe" was lacking. I whipped up this little jumper (Farbenmix Marieke - hands down my favorite pattern) in an afternoon out of a vintage Santa print she picked from my stash. I also made her a little peasant top (see Santa photo above) using my basic pattern...instead of gathering the neck in with elastic I pulled the gathering stitches tight and then trimmed the neckline in bias tape with a big bow...turned out pretty cute!

We had a visit from my parents (Mimi and Baboo) last weekend...did a bit of shopping and saw the train exhibit at Crown Center. This weekend grandma and grandpa will be coming to celebrate. In between the company, however, we had a glorious Christmas with just our own cozy little family. Other than all being sick...it was a lovely couple of days to relax and enjoy each other.

The kids dressed in their matchy matchy outfits just as we were heading out to the Christmas Eve service at our church.

Sisterly love. They really are the best of friends. It is so fun to watch them growing up together.

We sat out cookies for Santa before church and he filled our stockings while we were gone! After dinner we sat and took turns opening all of our little treasures. We've never taught our children that Santa is real....just allowed them to believe should they choose. Funny how little ones want to believe in Santa. The girls ask me every year "Is Santa real?" To which I respond, "what do you think?"....and every year they exclaim "OF COURSE!"


I caught this tender moment between my oldest and the baby. He got a new jingle ball in his stocking and she was ever-so-gently rolling it to him in a game of catch. As you can see...he pretty much thinks she hung the stars in the sky...and she feels the same way about him!

After the stockings we put on our Christmas jammies, tore into the new movie that Santa had left, popped the popcorn and heated the hot cocoa, and piled on a collection of mis-matched quilts on the family room floor. We watched the movie together (Barbie's A Christmas Carol) and fell asleep together like one-big-giant-family sleepover.



In the morning we woke up and made Begian waffles ("belchin' waffles" as my girls say) with blueberries and cream. Yeah...scratch that...they didn't like them so the first round got eaten by mommy and daddy and they got the more traditional butter and syrup ;)

After we were all pleasantly stuffed we tore into the gifts. They each got three presents this year: jammies, something they needed (A got a set of Junie B. Jones books as she has become a voracious reader and J got a new ballet bag and "ballerina-tard"), and a fun gift (doll clothes for their American girls in a cute little suitcase). Sam got an activity table and an assortment of manly toys ;)


The festivities will continue this weekend...but for now I will wrap up this post.

I truly hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family...that you shared it with people you love...and that your New Year will be full of Christ's blessings. Thank you for sharing in our lives through this blog. I've met so many wonderful people through this simple adventure and I am so thankful!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Have you been over to the Ivylane Boutique Blog yet? Well...what are you waiting for?? It is chalk full of full articles, information about where to find great items, and FUN giveaways!!! I just posted an article there with a few photography tips! Stop by often to make sure you don't miss out on any of the fun!