Sunday, January 31, 2010

Stuu...riiike!

I just finished washing a load of clothes. Every single thing Marty & I, the girls, & Ty were wearing last night, to be exact. Every item of clothing that could soak up a smell, reeked of smoke. That's right. We took all 3 of our kiddos to the smoke infested bowling alley last night. I definitely had visions of the scene in Sweet Home Alabama: "Oh, you have a baby....in a bar." Oh boy, but fun was definitely had, even if we were breathing in toxins the entire time. The first game I actually beat my hubby! That truly never happens, so I took a picture just so we would have photographic evidence. Of course, he kicked my butt in the second game. Typical.
When we first got our lane we were lucky to have two families on either side of us. You know, you just never know who your "neighbors" are going to be when you get assigned a bowling lane. It's like when you're sitting on an airplane with an empty seat next to you and every person that starts to walk toward your aisle, you secretly have a judgement about. "Oh Lord, please let that person keep walking." or "She looks nice, and like she might be willing to listen to me ramble on about the novel I'm reading. I hope she sits down." It's a little like that. They tell you the lane number. You immediately scan the place to find where it is and to see what you're going to be surrounded by while you try and enjoy your family outing. There was a sense of "Whew...we got some families." Not only for our own sake, but also for the sake of other bowlers. We have small children. Three of them. They spill things. They cry. They don't know how to stay in their own space that is assigned to them. And occasionally their ball may or may not go into the lane it's supposed to go. And excuse us, while we drag this very small & unobtrusive thing up & down the lane making sounds similar to a fork scraping a plate, so our kids can just roll their ball down the lane. Hey, it helps to avoid the whole ball-going-into-YOUR-lane thing!
The last thing we would need next to us is a lane full of the "serious bowlers." You know the kind. They come in with their OWN ball and their OWN shoes in their OWN bowling bag. They pull out the wrist guard and the towel they wipe their hands with each time they're done with their turn. Oh, you know the kind. As we were just beginning our second game, the family to our left finished their game and left. And the next "neighbors" we had were you guessed it the "serious bowlers." Uh oh. I started to sweat. I started to think about all the things they must be thinking as they were scanning the place looking to see who their "neighbors" would be and saw our clan as Reagan's popcorn went flying all over the place and I was frantically sweeping it all under the chairs with my feet. They turned out to be very polite and understanding. Whew! And we didn't seem to bother them....too much. We finished up, returned our balls & shoes and headed out to the car to change our baby boy's blowout diaper all up the back of his clothes, so it WASN'T the smell of the bowling alley after all, and went on our merry way home. Fun was had by all. Even if there was crying and whining about having to leave and having not ever had a spare when everyone else in the family did.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Fun with the White Backdrop

I don't know if you've noticed but I'm a big fan of natural light photography. I haven't always been. Before I really learned how to use my camera, natural light was my enemy. I couldn't ever get it to work for me and I had no control over it which frustrated me. But once I learned how to get my camera to do what it needed to do in order to get good exposure, I learned to love natural light. It wasn't about controlling the light. It was about making the most of the light using my camera settings. Now natural light is really what I prefer. The opposite of it, is studio lighting. You have complete control over the light and that can be great and also complicated at the same time. So, even though I like shooting in natural light better, every once in a while it is fun to get out the studio lights & backdrops.







Saturday, January 23, 2010

7 Months

Today is the day. It's the 23rd AGAIN I wish this day would stop coming around so fast and my baby boy is 7 months old. Just for giggles since he is getting SO big, I am including his 1 month picture right underneath his 7 month one so you can see the difference.


Quite a difference, don't ya think? A lot has happened since his 6 month birthday. What's been going on in this little man's world since then:

  • He wears a helmet now to fix his flat head. He gets a 1 hour break every day, so we took his break for his pictures today. He has had it for almost a month and will probably continue to wear it for 3 or so more months. We can already see a big difference in his head shape so that's awesome.
  • He is REALLY trying to crawl. He gets up on all fours and rocks back & forth. Then he lunges himself forward as hard as he can. He gets to what he wants using that method and the plain old scooting method.
  • He is still obsessed with his tongue and all of the funny things he can do with it.
  • He is loving his baby food now and has even had his first taste of a little bit of "real" food. Mashed Potatoes & Shredded Chicken
  • He has become more & more vocal as the days go on. He definitely lets out a loud squeal if he is frustrated or upset by something.
  • Just a few days ago, he started really babbling. He started with "Dadadadada" and now has moved on to "Gagaga" and"Bababa" but his favorite is still "Dada." Needless to say, Marty is eating that up.
Until next time...

Friday, January 22, 2010

Hope Out of Tragedy

We just returned home from the Give Hope to Haiti benefit concert here in The Woodlands and Aaron Ivey was one of the talented artists set to play. I was very much looking forward to hearing him. Little did I know when we arrived, he was no longer there. Not because he had already played. In fact, he never played. He was in The Woodlands, ready for his music set, when he received word that Amos (the boy they have been trying to bring home from Haiti for a very long time to join their family) was on a plane to Orlando. As in Florida. As in the United States! They immediately left the The Woodlands, headed straight to the airport, got tickets and boarded a plane. You must watch the video below. It's the song Aaron wrote to Amos and his promise to him to bring him home. To know that as I am typing this post and publishing it to my blog, this man and his wife are on a plane to get their boy, Amos, is almost too much for me to bear. To know that our God can bring something so incredible and so wonderful out of such horrific tragedy gives me hope.

If you would like to follow this journey or find out how you can help the children of Haiti, go here.

Friday, January 15, 2010

A little of this, a little of that

leftover grilled chicken


sliced


some butter & spices


leftover angel hair pasta


a little itunes visualizer with one republic playing in the background


sizzling butter


chicken tossed in


browned


pasta tossed in


tossed together


a few more spices


dinner!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Who doesn't love something free!?

Look Yummy?? Check it out!

Grab your spoons and prepare your taste buds, as Red Mango, the fastest growing retailer of all-natural nonfat frozen yogurt, celebrates its grand opening at Market Street in The Woodlands on Saturday, January 9. Guests will receive a free small Original yogurt with one topping from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The first 100 customers will also receive a Red Mango gift bag.