because I just know everyone is so excited to see someone else posting snow pictures!!! hahaha! Facebook is loaded with everyone posting their “Blizzard of 2010″ images and I’m sure I’m heading there next to post mine. The internet is a great tool for all of us to share our snow pictures with our friends and relatives that live in warm places. We’re hoping for some sympathy, or at least I am. I always enjoy the first snowfall of the season. A couple of inches that look so pretty and clean. I like it when it comes in December. Ahhhhhh, love that feeling as if I were still in school when you wake up and everything is covered and you watch the tv and there it is…your school district closed! Ahhhhhhh, too excited to even go back to bed. Ahem, we got that first snowfall in December, I believe it was the first weekend. It was great. It was pretty. It was just enough. Then we got the “blizzard of 2009″ on the 19th. That was a little frustrating the week before Christmas and just before Jake’s birthday. But we survived and had a white Christmas to boot.
Now, we’ve had three storms in a week with the latest one being a record breaker and one that has caused havoc in many ways. Many people are without power (thankfully we have ours) and the school system in my county has decided to close for the whole week. Too much snow to get moved from the secondary roads and the schools. Too big of a job. AND as if that wasn’t enough, predictions are for another 10-20 inches tomorrow into Wednesday. Are you kidding me? Definitely the most snow I’ve seen in my lifetime. And I’ve even been skiing in COLORADO! This is more than I encountered there. It is not even fun snow. Poor Brett sinks up to his chest when he goes in it. The boys tried sledding in our backyard but it didn’t work very well. Just too deep and too much trouble to make paths. Brett likes to shovel so that’s a good thing I guess! I’ve had to cancel several photo sessions and that does not make me happy! We probably won’t get to do them until mid March! I’m seriously hoping that Mother Nature will reward us with a very nice spring. We could all use it right about now.
And seriously, THIS is what is stressing me out! And this is tame compared to what it has/can/will look like at some moments…
I can think of a few other ways I’d prefer to use these beach towels!!
I’m going to try and catch up on blogging. This past week has been a blur. We’ve had three snowstorms since the 30th of January and the kids have had two days of school in the past 6. Just got word that our school system is closed this entire week from our Blizzard of 2010 which we got Fri/Sat. as our third storm. AND if that isn’t bad enough, we’re expected to get up to 1o more inches tomorrow into Wednesday. You would THINK that I would have had plenty of time to blog, after all, what can you possibly do when you are stuck in your house with no way to escape??? Well, when you are stuck in your house (after you have shoveled the 30 inches of snow off of your driveway and walkways) with 5 people there is a lot of do. Most of it is to cook for/clean up after/entertain/take care of/clean up after/clean up after/clean up after everyone. Snow makes messes INSIDE the house, too! All the gear, the wet floors, the excess everything! So, I’m going to try and catch up on blogging!
Last Friday morning before the dreaded Blizzard of 2010 began, I took the boys to Target to get a few supplies. They had birthday gift cards so I figured they could get something to keep them busy during the snow-in. Jake and Nick both picked out Lego sets-big ones. I asked them in the car if they would be able to wait until the snow fell to start on them and they both answered “NO!”.
As soon as we got home, before even the first flake fell, they were hard at work building their sets. It totally amazes me how this:
can be turned into this in a few hours time.
I am especially proud of Nick who I don’t believe has undertaken such a big project before. Jake is an old pro at the big sets. He has more patience and stamina than I ever would have. He will sit and work on a set until it is finished, even if that is hours and hours. And apparently Nick is the same way because he stayed at the dining room table until he finished his project.
So, the object was to keep them occupied during the storm which they completed before there was even a new inch on the ground, but the result was the same. Two happy boys with very cool Lego sets. The rest of the afternoon they played with those sets and built new, creative projects from scratch was leftover pieces! I’ve asked Jake about leftover pieces before and he says that he figures out better ways to build them sometimes using different pieces. I think he could be looking at a career designing Lego sets!
This was my first Blessing Ceremony. And it was so beautiful. The location was the Thomas Birkby House which is located in downtown Leesburg. Lizzie and Stephen were married here a few years ago so the venue was more than happy to accomodate their family for Taylor’s Blessing Ceremony. They called her their first “Birkby Baby”. The room was perfect, in fact, everything was perfect EXCEPT the weather! It was raining cats and dogs outside which was very upsetting to me! I soooooooo wanted to take photos outside. The grounds are gorgeous. I’m hoping we can go back there maybe for Taylor’s one year photo shoot because I totally want to take advantage of all of the detail around the property.
Ugh, I digress…anyway, it was wonderful to see some of Taylor’s family again. Some that I hadn’t seen since her birthday 6 months ago. And it was nice to meet the ones I didn’t know who traveled to be at Taylor’s ceremony. Again, I was honored and humbled to be invited to document another momentous ocassion in this family’s life. Ahhhhh, I love my job!
So, on to the sneak peek that I know Lizzie is waiting for…
Having fun with these…I’m sure there will be more to come!
Wow, can it really be 6 months since this little angel was born (well, technically, tomorrow will be 6 months)? I remember the day like yesterday and I’m sure her mom and dad do, too. That day started a wonderful friendship for me with this family. Experiencing a momentous occasion like someone’s birth, is well, bonding! I would have never guessed that I’d get to know this little one so well and have the honor of hanging out with her a few days a week. She fills our days with joy, not to mention the “pink” we were so desperately missing around here.
So, on to her 6 month quickie photo shoot. Just a couple that I was anxious to post for her mommy today! Stay tuned for more to come.
Who can resist baby toes? Certainly not me!
So after Christmas, I “Merry Christmased” myself with this little gem–No not a real “gem” like diamonds or rubies or anything, but this grand, gorgeous, 20×24 portrait of my boys on a STANDOUT MOUNT. Really, it means as much to me as diamonds or expensive jewels to have beautiful photos of my kiddos and the price I pay is only in patience when trying to take the perfect image and then of course in the production costs of obtaining a gorgeous piece of art like this one (which by the way is really affordable or I wouldn’t have it!).
This is a STANDOUT MOUNT which basically overlays the photo onto a very lightweight thickness board and it is edged with black “plastic” (does not look like plastic but actually painted wood). It is amazingly lightweight! Featherweight really! I have always been a huge fan of the gallery-wrapped canvas, and still am, but this new style I’ve discovered might have surpassed that as my FAVORITE. I’m truly in love with it. Something about the thickness and the absence of a frame sort of give it a life of it’s own. Can you tell how much I love it??
It comes ready to hang with holes already on the backing, but I like the “leaned” look and just sat it on my mantle. I’m sure I’ll be ordering more to hang on my walls (and I LOVE the idea that you don’t need to drill your walls in order to hang it due to the very lightweight nature).
Again, very affordable, production time is minimal at a couple of days, brings so much joy, and is a real conversation piece. Gives a very dramatic look to your photos. I’ll be updating my Options List with this new product for future clients and if any previous clients are interested in a Standout Mounted image, I’ll be offering 10% off through January 31st. Email me for prices.
We have a new member of our family of sorts. He actually arrived back on December 1st I believe it was. He is Nick’s Betta fish that he picked out from a selection of over 100 and immediately named him “Billybobjoebob Harris”. He’s very pretty as you can see below, or handsome I guess I should say as he IS a “he”. Nick needed a little pick me up back at the beginning of December…actually we all did. I haven’t blogged about why we don’t have our beloved dog, Rocky anymore. Frankly, it is just too emotional for me to discuss. The bad news is that he did something bad and he can’t live in our house anymore. The good news is that he’s not far from us (at least for the time being) and we have been able to visit him often.
Ok, before I get all emotional, let me get back to Billybobjoebob. I’ll admit that I’ve actually gotten quite attached to him. When he first came, he was in Nick’s room. After a water change and bowl clean, he never made it back upstairs from the kitchen. And I really like him hanging in the kitchen with me. They do say that fish can help lower blood pressure and I agree that watching him swim around in his little house is sometimes the medicine I need for a little stress overload around here. So, he has remained on the kitchen counter for all of us to enjoy.
With all happy stories, there is always some drama right? Well, one afternoon a week or so ago, Nick decided to watch the movie “Nemo” which we haven’t seen in awhile and Brett had never seen. Nick lost interest and was off playing with a friend and the movie was winding down and I was picking up the house from the tornado that usually comes in after school. I noticed Brett was pretty quiet so I looked around and saw he had pushed a chair over to Billybobjoebob’s bowl and had the roof off and was TRYING TO CATCH HIM WITH HIS HANDS. I freaked out and Brett freaked out and I’m sure Billybobjoebob was freaking out. Brett thought that Nemo and his buddies seemed like fun “playmates” so he wanted to take our fishy out of his underwater home and “play” with him. NO NO NO, Billybobjoebob can not come out of his underwater home and play! Try explaining how we breathe air and fishes can’t breathe air to a 2 year old!! No harm done as far as we could tell after the Nemo disaster.
So, today, I was on the phone with my sister in law and lost track of Brett who had been peacefully watching Elmo’s World but now since disappeared and found him, again, on a chair in the kitchen, TRYING TO CATCH BILLYBOBJOEBOB AGAIN!! This time Elmo’s goldfish, Dorothy, was the culprit of Brett’s exploits to befriend a fish. I actually thought that Brett may have had him in his grips by the time I ran over. He was up to his elbows in water and the poor fish was as low to the bottom as he could go. Brett started crying that he “needed to play to the fish” and I was yelling and Billybobjoebob was somewhat motionless on the bottom all the while my sister in law probably thought our house was a complete disaster and I, the worst mom ever!! But, luckily, I think he made it through this 2nd attempt at capture and seems to be swimming peacefully again in his underwater home.
I think I might ban Nemo and Elmo’s World from the house and possibly any fishing shows that the guys like to watch. Brett’s reward for successfully mastering the potty will be a fishing rod and that really could be dangerous with a fish in the house!
*These photos were taken BEFORE the 2nd capture attempt. I don’t think I’ll be encouraging any interaction between fish and 2 year old again anytime soon.
Santa brought Brett a genuine Radio Flyer scooter. Brett’s been watching his big brothers zoom around on scooters since birth and now since he is a whole 2 years old, felt it was time he joined in on the race. I was incredibly impressed with his skill upon first trying out the new vehicle! We had literally one nice day since Christmas and this was the day for taking it outside and breaking it in. He jumped right up there and headed down the sidewalk with one foot powering the scooter along the way. Watching those big brothers paid off because there was no learning curve involved here! It made me a little sad but a lot proud. He IS only 2 years old-shouldn’t he still be a baby?? Nope, not the youngest of three boys. He grew up before my eyes in 2 years! Note, he’s also wearing his new boots. The kid loves boots of any kind-rain boots, cowboy boots, boots that are too big or even sometimes too small! Loves to have his boots on at all times and even naps in them. I have to wrestle them off at bedtime. Here are a few pics of my scooter riding, boot wearing, not so little baby boy…
by Kimberly
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