Gummi Worms in the Grass

Fun shots of the day....

I came home from a shoot last weekend and caught Maia with my camera laying in the grass eating gummi worms. Priceless photos which I love. 100% my girl :)




And then I joined her :)

Welcome Marin...and welcome SPRING!

Last week our friends, Jason and Johanna were in town visiting family and friends, so we had he honor of finally meeting baby Marin and I had the GREAT honor of photographing her. She is completely lovely in every way...so beautiful and perfect. While Marin was no completely comfortable with Neil, Neil seemed to be quite comfortable with her. I think he's ready to become a daddy again :)

I also think Maia is ready to become a big sister. With the help of Debbie, she did pretty well holding little Marin :)

This is one of my favorites of Marin. She's sporting the 1970's look with Johanna's baby bonnet. You can see more at my VWC blog: http://www.vwcphotography.typepad.com

Jas and Jo, it was so great seeing you guys...together as a "family". What amazing parents you are! And Jo, you look so fabulous. Love ya lots!!

The biggest news in our house is Noah's latest achievement. He learned to ride his bike without training wheels!! It was such an exciting day for him. I have never seen so many smiles on his face in one day.

And to welcome in spring....a favorite shot in March:

I think it's finally spring, guys!! Yay!! I'm soooo ready to get into my garden!

Stream of Glory

Boy-hood begins.

So I was working down in my office this afternoon. The kids and Neil were outside. I have a window that my desk sits in front of which is to the front of the house and I can see out of. Suddenly Noah come running around the front of the house, directly in front of my window and my view. He doesn't see me, but I see him. He stands facing me and then suddenly looks over both shoulders, pulls down both his underwear and jeans and pees a huge stream directly at me!! While doing it, he continues to look over both shoulders. Ohmygosh, it was the FUNNIEST thing I think I have seen in a long long time. He pulls up both pants and then runs back into the back yard. People may not have seen him actually pee'ing but they definitely saw his bottom and knew what he was doing. And then of course mommy got the best show of all from the front. ;c)

Yes, we had a talk with him but at the age of 4, I don't think it's going to do much good yet until someone catches him and he gets really embarrassed.

Again I say, boyhood begins. Oh the joy :c)

Trail Mix - and tons and tons of Trix

Neil was gone this week traveling to Atlanta, and anytime he is gone, I really don't get much accomplished, hence why I haven't posted. I've also been spending a ton of time in the car driving back and forth to town where my chiropractor is. I'm not sure how much longer I can do that because I'm spending an extra $100 a month just on gas, not to mention the actual cost of my visits. I love my doc and I love seeing Beth 2-3 times a week, but but but . . . I don't know. It's just a ton of driving.

But I'm not posting to complain but to post some happy trail mix bits about my past week. It's definitely been a good week. Let's start with last weekend . . .

It was warm. Very warm. The nicest day we had seen so far this year. (Today it snowed!) We bought a new outdoor table to go with the outdoor chairs we had purchased last year, so we set all that out while Noah "raked" the yard, as you can see here,

and the little miss was on the lookout for bugs. She's so into bugs right now!

Frankie really enjoyed the weekend, too. And aren't her pearly whites beautiful?! We had her teeth cleaned professionally a few weeks ago for the first time ever and they look so good and I know she feels sooooo much better. See how perty?

I think I have mentioned before that my parents are looking to sell their house and buy a new one. Well, they've been getting their house ready for about a year now. Suddenly a (perfect) house just came along and mom went alone to check it out. She loved it. So the kids and I went with her to see it again the first of the week. I loved it, too. The kids adored it. It seemed too perfect for them but there was a lot of "buts" and "ifs" involved. However, dad agreed to see it near the end of the week and THAT NIGHT he just threw out an offer and the people TOOK IT! Today they signed some papers and in less than 2 weeks, they can move in! I'm sooooo happy and excited for them!! I just can't explain how happy I am for them. The deserve it so so much. Congrats mom and dad!

On the way to see the new house that day I drove into this. While it didn't amount to anything bad, it sure was a pretty picture I couldn't keep from taking.
If you didn't know what Illinois looked like, well, there you have it!

Thursday the kids and I made brownies for daddy's return home. Brownies are his favorite and the kids (and myself) love licking the bowls!

Friday night we drove up to Peoria, IL to visit two pairs of great friends of ours, Kristin & Chris and Andrea & Rusty. To make a long long story short, Andrea, Rusty and their family are moving sometime soon to El Paso, TX. We don't want them to go, but well, what can we do but be super happy for them because it's a really good move for their family. So we went up to visit them just in case their move is soon and we don't see them again for a long while (*sob*). We had homemade yummy pizza, salad, dessert and wine :c) Kristin, Rusty, Neil and I went to grade school through high school together and then Rusty, Neil and I went on to college together. Rusty and Andrea started dating and she and I became super great friends. Then Rus and Andrea moved to P-town and she and Kristin got to be good friends. Anyway, it's all so very cool. It's been an incredible blessing having Andrea in my life. I can't imagine her not in it. And then Kristin, well, I think it says a lot that after what seems like a gizillion years, we're still the best of friends. So here we are, Kristin, Andrea and I.
Kristin has a boy, Jackson, who just turned a year and has another baby on the way. Andrea has a girl, Audrie, who is 3 and Anderson who is 6 months. And you all know who belongs to me! We had such a great time Friday night.

Then Saturday evening I set up my backdrop and lights for my shoot with Corie on Sunday. Well, the kids wanted to help with that. Maia put on her ballerina tutu and the kids actually wanted me to take some pictures. They didn't have to twist my arm or anything either!

So the shoot with Corie and Keith went so fabulously perfect. I've had the pleasure of taking pictures of both of them many a times, so this was just another very fun time for me with a couple of my favorite two people, plus this time, one more (!) because of the bun in her oven! :c) We had such a fun maternity session because of Keith making us constantly laugh. I've only had a couple minutes to peek at the pictures and then allow you have a peek, too. Isn't Corie beautiful!?

The ice cream pose is one of my favorite ideas ever! I wish I could patent it . . . hehe. I love how it turned out but if I were to do it again, I'd put her in a color because the white on white really fades into each other but I still really love the concept and how it turned out.

Thanks, Cor, for such a great day and for coming back up from St. Louis for ME!!

Once my lights and backdrops were put up, I helped hubby unload the groceries which he and the kids got while I did the shoot with C & K. Noah wanted the "Trix" opened, so I opened them for him. A few minutes later I hear "oh-oh" and a huge spill. I turn around and see this. It absolutely could be worse. It was a great week, spilled trix and all :c)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Running Into Springtime

My baby girl (who is no longer a baby) is running into her 3rd spring as quickly as she can looking for new discoveries and adventures all around her. It's exciting for mommy, but at the same time, so bittersweet. They grow up so fast . . .

Happy Spring, Happy Linky-love, Happy Winnings!

I can't believe it's almost Easter Sunday! They say we will never again see Easter this early in our lifetimes. I can't remember why . . . something with the moon . . . but how interesting that is! It's really really early this year but maybe it's a sign that we are going to have bulbs poking their beautiful heads up earlier than usual? I hope so. When I peeked outside this morning, I saw some new green grass poking out above the dead wintry grass. What a nice feeling to see beautiful colors of nature.

It is our first spring here at the new house and it's really bittersweet for me. While I'm excited to have the first spring here in the new house because it means my children have a new year of being a kid with brand new adventures, it's hard for me because I really really really miss where we use to live. Like tons. I don't know. It's just hard. There are many a days where I want to be back there. I hold back tears thinking about it. You know me, attachment to everything.

But on the positive side of this, with spring brings lots of new things. New flowers, of course, which I absolutely can't wait for. Neil and I can't wait to get our hands dirty and begin getting a new garden started and design a new perennial garden for our new and very empty back yard. With spring also brings new adventures for the kids. I'm hoping Maia will be able to actually pedal on her bike this year. Last year we had to push her everywhere and that got awfully tiring! I also am excited to find a walking trail for us to go on. Back in D-town we had a "route" we walked every single night. It equaled out to 1-2 miles. It should be interesting here in this new very small town because it's not all that big and 1 mile would take us to the other side of town!

In the blogging world, spring for me means finding new blogging friends. And with the Ultimate Blog Party, I managed to find a handful of friends through their fantastic blogs. Here's s a sampling of my faves in no particular order:

Minimalist Mommy
Adventures of Wondermommy
Robin Bielman
Valley Girl - I like her name, don't you? :c)
Candi @ All Day Night
Write From Karen
Sheena @ Mommy Daddy Blog
Jimaie.marie
Jessica in Rome
my melange
Conversations with my HairdryerA Sample of Jennifer's Thoughts (we have tons in common!)
Thoughts From Dimple Queen
Noel from Pretty By Nature
Becoming Me
Little Bird Creations
Daily Randomness
Figments
The Impoverished Preppy

Now I have to figure out how I'm going to keep up reading these when I constantly already have troubles doing so with the ones I already have in my bloglines . . . { sigh . . . }

So one of the people I mentioned above won my contest!!! Only FIVE people answered correctly! I give huge kudos to these five { Aimee, Candi, Erin, Jennifer, and Katie } because there were a lot of questions to answer and a lot of reading to answer those questions! I truly thank everyone who entered because it means a) you wanted to learn more about me and/or b) you really really wanted a canvas print! Either way, thank you. I had a lot of fun doing the contest and I hope this means you learned enough about me to want to come back.

Now for the winner . . . drum roll . . . Noah drew the name for me this morning . . . and he drew . . . Candi!! Yay, Candi!! I will be emailing you to find out how you want to go about the canvas. Be looking for your favorite digital photos on your computer! Congratulations, Candi! I'm so excited to have met you and I look forward to our future blogging frenzies. :c) Sorry dear Aimee, Erin, Jennifer and Katie . . . I hope to have more contests again with the same awesome prize! Thanks so so much for playing and being so loyal!

Anyone interested in the answers? Let me know and I'll post them. I feel like this post has probably already gotten a tad bit long, eh?

We're off to see the Easter bunny tonight. We've never done it before (Santa, either) so I think we may give it a try finally. Happy spring, happy Linky-love (amanda, I hope you don't mind I stole that slogan from you -- please forgive your bbbf) and happy winnings to Candi!

Foto Friday

We had the great chance this past week to take quite a few walks on our block and admire the beauty of spring emerging all around us. The house on the top left is ours. (It's for sale if anyone is interested?!)

Last night I got up around 1:00 to get my daughter a drink of juice and this is what I found in the hallway. Usually he doesn't fall asleep (he does this quite often) but he was out cold, so I left him there so I could get some sleep. Otherwise I risked the chance of waking him and then him being up for an hour . . . or two . . . or three.
A couple days ago I got our the chalk and the kids did their magic on the sidewalks. I think Noah just loves having someone to do things like this with.
Then last night after I gave them their baths, Maia refused to get dried off, then grabbed Noah's potty seat, took it into the living room and sat down! I hope this is a start of a beautiful potty thing!
And today my friend, Heather, is moving, so I'm watching her doggie, Syd. The kids loooooove him and I think Syd is pretty fond (sometimes) of them also. In this picture Maia thought she'd share her puzzle with him. He likes sitting at the door hoping his mommy will be home soon to rescue him.

Happy weekend everyone!

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

This is Maia's face of discovery.

We finally had a beautiful day Tuesday with a high of 81. My friends in North Carolina, Oklahoma & Mississippi are always bragging (in a gentle way of course) about their warm weather in the south but now I can brag about it in Illinois! It's been absolutely perfect and so Tuesday the kids and I took advantage of it and we wandered into the back yard for the afternoon. It was Maia's real first time outside since she started walking, so it was one adventure, one discovery, after another. And it was quite fun for Noah, too, as he played along in Maia's big new advenrures.

I really like this picture even though I did take it on my small point-and-shoot.

Boys will be boys, especially my boy!

Catch me if you can!

My princess just eating up this outside stuff. She had a blast! I hope this wasn't our last time in this back yard, well, I kind of do because that means we've sold it. It's just, all the memories . . . I have such a tough time leaving behind memories . . .

Wordless Wednesday ~ first sight of spring