The C Family ~ Part 1

It's been W.A.Y. too long since I updated my blog! The last 2 months have been sooooo busy with the kids going back to school, BIRTHDAYS and just getting our lives back on a schedule. I get a lot more accomplished when I follow a schedule but the "extra" things (like this blog) get pushed aside... I don't like it! So I decided today I'm going to make more time to do these "extra" things because they are what I enjoy doing, encourage my hobby/ business and I'm proud of my talents and gifts and want to show them off :))

Here's a few pictures from the "C" Family session I did last month... they were sooooooo easy to photograph... they are just beautiful people and that reflects in their photos! We started with their family photos in an almond orchard about 5 miles out of town and then moved to an open field just a couple minutes down the road to get the couple shots... those I will post seperately...

I L.O.V.E. her smile in this one...

Check back tomorrow for "Part 2"!



Our new puppy... MAX!

This sweet little guy came running up to our house about 3 weeks ago. He was obviously lost because he had no tag or collar on. So me and the kids walked up and down our street asking neighbors if they had seen him or knew where he belonged, no one did. We decided to put him in our backyard and just hold on to him to see if anyone came looking for him. By later that evening I started to get worried because no one came. We decided to allow him to stay the night and continue to look for his family the next day.

We put up signs all over our subdivision and on prominent street corners, we took him to the local vet to see if he had been chipped (which he wasn't), I looked on Craigs list and our local newspaper under lost & found and called the pound to see if anyone had reported a lost dog... all to no avail.

Since we've been unable to locate his owners we decided to keep him. Our dog Piggy, a 14 year old black pug, is showing real signs that she will not be with us much longer... knowing this will be hard on the kids, my husband and I think that having another dog will help with their grief. Even though we weren't looking at the time for a new dog, this little guy is just perfect for our family and we couldn't be happier that he found us!

He is just so sweet, great with the kids, very playful (which our dog Piggy hasn't been in years) and learns quickly! He loves to sleep under my daughters bed and follows her around all day... I wonder if this is because she was the 1st person he ran up to and she scooped him up and started loving on him right away?

These pictures were taken on the day he came into our lives and before his much needed haircut!

Such a cute faces...

He soon curled up into my sons lap...

and fell asleep!

He's such a blessing to us... hopefully we'll have many, many years with him!

I'm not a woman of the 50's...

But there are times I wish was... I was raised watching the re-runs of old shows like "I Love Lucy" and "Leave it to Beaver"... many times I've fantasized what it would have been like to live during that time and I compare myself to the woman who played the mom. I don't really know what it was like to live in that era but if it was anything like the old sitcoms I think I would love to have been a mom and wife of the 1950's.

The woman (mom and wife) had 2 jobs... take care of the home and the family. That sounds so simple and sweet doesn't it? But I know what it really means... it means you're the maid, butler, cook, seamstress, nanny, teacher, police officer, chauffeur, nurse... I could keep going... and you do all this daily while looking as attractive as your wedding day for your husband... the women wore dresses and pearls while scrubbing the toilets for goodness sakes!

Fast-forward to now... you can't go to any store without seeing someone dressed in what looks like pj's and house shoes (slippers). I have never gone as far as to dress like that in public but many days at home I will look as if I just jumped out of bed. This is a down-side of being a stay-at-home-mom in our world today... it would actually be considered weird in our day to dress like the women of the 50's. It's not that I want to wear a dress and pearls everyday but over time you get comfortable with not "dressing-up". By this I mean, putting on make-up and wearing clothes that are attractive (not lazy clothes). Many days I just put on any old thing not worrying too much about coordination or even how good it looks and I use the bare minimum of make-up... most of the time I just wear foundation and mascara.

On this particular day though I just decided out-of-the-blue that I would "doll" myself up... I don't really know why, I didn't have anywhere to go or anyone to see, I just didn't want to be "frumpy". What I discovered was I really liked looking a little pulled together, if for no one else than for myself! And although as you will see in the pictures below I didn't wear a dress or pearls... in fact I wore jeans but what I did do was add a little more make-up, a nice necklace (one I love because of it's beautiful blue color) and coordinated the outfit with little splashes of color. Had I remembered to put on a little lipstick/ gloss the pictures would have looked a little better but in my defense I did have 4 kids running around that I had to keep an eye on also.

I figured since I went to all this work I shouldn't let it go to waste on just my kids (cuz frankly they don't care how I look) and decided to try doing a self-portrait. This was no easy task! Getting the focus in the right spot was by far the most challenging part... mostly because there was nothing for the camera to focus on while I was setting up the shot. What I ended up doing was holding a toy with a long handle out in front of the camera, focusing, then set the auto-timer and jumped into position... it was quite the workout!

As you can see it was a bit of trial and error... these first few have the focus in the wrong place...

I think they look ok even with the focus off... it kind of does something dreamy to the ones where I'm looking down.

Here the focus is getting better and my eyes are sharp...

These last 2 are my favorite...

If you know me, you'd know that I'm a pretty modest person and really would rather be behind the camera instead of in front of it. It's a little hard for me to post so many pictures of just myself... but I'm going to have to get over and so here they are.

P.S. If you don't like these pictures then please don't ever tell me... I don't think I could handle it (said with a giggle).



Our kids rooms (part 2)... Daina's Room

This is our daughter, Daina's room. With a little direction from us she chose the Zebra print theme and paint colors. It was a little difficult at first, she had so many ideas and wanted to incorporate them all! So we had to go through a long process (really it took several days) to get her to pin point what she wanted. She finally choose the Zebra print and the paint colors at the store. She originally wanted 3 colors, pink, blue and purple but we just couldn't accommodate that... we knew the room would be very bright and colorful with even 2 colors. I had to keep reminding myself that it's her room and we told her she could decorate it however she wanted and to only guide her decisions. This is the end result several months later...

The picket fence bed my dad made for her when she was 3 years old...

We found the bedding at the local Bed and bath store. The curtains are actually a fabric shower curtain from Target that I cut in half and tied back with a little pink ribbon.

Fortunately the furniture and shelves were already white... and I printed out Zebra photos free from the Internet for the old window frame hanging above her bed.

She has always loved horses and has tons and tons of toys/ accessories for them (she even has a huge red barn that's kept in her closet)... so we were completely shocked that she didn't choose a horse or cowboy theme for her room!!

I used a stencil (printed from the computer) to paint the zebra print on the fan blades.

I think her room turned out very cute... it's bright and bold and fun... just what a young girl's room should be!

Our kids rooms (part 1)... The Boys Room

Several months ago we swapped our kids rooms and so this post is LONG overdue! As you might know, we have 1 girl (our oldest) and 3 boys. When we had our daughter we made the closest room to ours (which happens to be the smallest of the 2) into the nursery.

When we had our 2nd child we needed to move her out of the nursery and into the other room. It was such an adorable room for a little 3 year old... I made a quilt and her window coverings with a cute flower pattern, the room was painted a pastel purple and yellow and my dad made her picket fence bed (you'll get a chance to see that bed in my next blog post).

Then our 3rd child was born (another boy) and it just made sense to keep the 2 boys in the same room. Even though it was the smaller of the 2 rooms we still had room for our sons race car bed that my dad made, the crib, a dresser, changing table and a 2nd dresser in the closet.

But then the Lord surprised us with another little boy and that's when we now had a dilemma... who rooms with who and in what ROOM??

We decided that our daughter should have her own room (because she was 8 years old and the only girl) but she would need to have the smaller of the 2 rooms so the 3 boys could share a room. This is the very long explanation into why we swapped their rooms.

In this post I'll share the pictures of my dad putting together our son Brayden's truck bed (a car hauler) and what the room looks like now after the swap and decorating...

All 3 boys around the bed "helping" Grandpa...

This is my dad... the awesome grandpa who makes beautiful, creative, fun beds for the grandchildren... the top bed is our son Ryley's race car bed that he made 3 years ago and the bottom bed is our son Brayden's truck bed (a car hauler).

And this is the room today...

I made the curtains with the same fabric that my mom made Ryley's quilt out of. And the bottom quilt was made for Brayden by his Great-grandma when he was born... a tradition she did for all the great-grandchildren.

Eventually Grandpa will need to make a 3rd bed for our son Rigan... there has already been discussions on what that will be... a train might be coming to this room in the future!

We painted the room with some real fun boy colors, I made the truck paintings on the wall and my husband (owner of Selkow's Perfection Flooring) installed the carpet. We chose an office type of carpet with no nap and I couldn't be happier with it... I also like it because it looks like asphalt... perfect for a car themed room!

Thanks dad for be the awesome man you are and for loving me and our children the way you do... your creativity and talents are, as always, an inspiration to me!!! And mom, the bed wouldn't be complete without your handmade quilt!!

Tomorrow I will write the 2nd half to this post with pictures of our daughter, Daina's room.

Help me decide...

In my dining room (which is divided only by a set of cabinets from the kitchen) I have a wall with long shelves hung where I display my milk glass collection. I love this area of our home and I like to change it up for the different seasons. The wall is tan, with cream shelves and white glass... perfect for adding different colors to for the seasons. I also have a white frame hung below that I change out the photos and mats to match.

For Fall I had browns and orange accents with a pomegranate photograph. For Christmas I had red and silver accents. For Valentines I had pink and red accents and a photograph of a pink rose. For Easter I had purple accents. And now for summer I have blue accents and I needed a photograph for the white frame. So I decided I would use a blue mat and take a picture of our bushes with pretty little cream flowers on them.

That was my plan until I went outside and realized that the bushes were full of bees!! There was a crazy buzz coming from those bushes that any other day would make me run! But yesterday I put aside my fears because of my crazy compulsiveness with photography to get a "good shot"... these are what I got... I like them all and can't decide which one I want to print and frame. This is where you help... comment below with the # you like the best and think I should use in my home.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

Let me know what you think... THANKS!

Easter 2011

Two days before Easter we spent outside sprucing up our backyard. The day started out warm with full sun but by the end of the afternoon it became overcast and started sprinkling. We completed the yard work and I decided that it'd be the perfect time to take our children's Easter photos (because the clouds help diffuse the sun and create a soft light on the subject) but by the time I finished getting the kids dressed it started to rain. These were taken around 4 pm, in the center of our yard (no shade), in approx. 15 min, with a little sprinkle of rain...

I just love the hair piece I made that mathches my daughters outfit and how the browns work so well with her coloring!

I had actually forgotten about these photos until today... thankfully I got them on the blog before next Easter :)