Pictured out

Sorry there haven't been more pictures the last few days, I am just simply pictured out. With all the gymnastics pictures I have been doing I just haven't felt like taking any when i am not working. Luckily we only have 2 days left of gym pictures then we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming. Today was nice, I edited pictures, then volunteered at Ella's school, then I met friends for lunch, did a little shopping and finally after Ella was home from school, went to work. Jon took Ella into Karate for her belt test and said she did great, she will be getting her new belt on Monday. I am so proud of her! She has done so well over the past year and a half in Karate. Tomorrow is Mops, and then work again.

Almost there!

I only have 3 days left in my marathon of photoshoots. I have been busy busy busy with photography, running the house, volunteering at Ella's school, tutoring some homeschooled kids and dealing with a couple of sick kids. I think I need to take a moment to breathe! I am really enjoying my Gymnastics photoshoot, but it is definitely wearing me out. I am glad to be almost done. I am also super stoked to be going to a Harry Potter Girls night out on Friday, right after I finish up my photoshoot. What a nice way to relax after a hard week! I feel so lucky to have been invited! I hope to get some great idea's there for my Harry Potter themed birthday party next month. I am going to be 30 you know, an old person! I figured that I ought to have a party to celebrate, I haven't had an actual birthday party since I was little. I better sign off now, i have a whole pile of things for me to do waiting on my desk. Sigh, I really just wanna veg in front of the TV or read me book. Such is the life of a grownup!

A note for me, and the bookshelf is filled

Ella's pink eye is back with a vengeance. I would have thought that 9 days of drops would have been enough, but alas, the goop and redness reappeared yesterday morning so it was back on the medicine for her. Since she was contagious, and Wes was snotting buckets, Jon stayed home with the kids while I went to church and taught my lesson. When I got home, Ella had written me a lovely note. It says
"Happy Tears
I love you mom and also I have a secret for you, I love you more than you love me."


also, since the kids woke me up so early today I decided to fill up the book shelf. I wasn't sure if we made it big enough, if we would have enough room. Since both of our smaller book shelves were full to the brim, and one shelf was double stacked! I must have horrible spacial awareness because it took all the books, plus my scrapbooks, Wesley's clothes bins and still has plenty of room for growing. i am glad that there is so much extra space, but I may need to get my eyes checked. :)

Bookshelf

I wrote the following post yesterday, but accidently posted it on my pro photography blog instead of here, so now it is fixed!!

Today after my session we decided to do something together. Jon wanted to do a project and I have been wanting a new book case for a long time. We only have two small cheap ones and I wanted a nice custom one so after lunch we headed over to lowes and got the stuff to make it. I was such a nice afternoon. Ella and Wes played nicely outside and Jon and I built the case. I was very excited to see that all my measurements came out correct! I love the way it turned out, I can't wait to see what it looks like with books on it.

Drawings from Ella

Here are a few of the papers Ella has brought home recently. I thought they were cute and funny. I am not sure what the assignment was for each of them, but the finished product was great!

I assume this one was about her 4 day weekend. It says
"I went to my Great Grandparents house."


This next one, I guess was for presidents day, maybe what the presidents job was?
It says " The president is in charge of rules kind of like a judge"

The last one, I think was in response to what you would put under your hat if you had a big top hat like President Lincoln.
It says "I will put puss in Boots under my hat"

Be prepared!

Today when I went to Ella's school to do my volunteering I was told by a very excited student on my way to Ella's classroom that there was going to be a "severe weather drill" soon. This was evidently a big deal! Once I got to the classroom Ella's teacher told me she was running a little behind and didn't want to send me off with the small group only to get interrupted by the drill so I sat and watched her teach for a few min. Finally she decided to send us off anyway and told me what to do/where to bring the kids when the drill did happen. Two of the four kids I normally work with were absent today so she sent me two new kids to work with. We have been working on writing outlines and creating short fiction books. Ella and the other "old" kid got right to work while I explained to the new kids what we were doing. I didn't get 2 min into my explanation when the drill went off so we trouped back to the classroom to hang out in the bathroom for a few minutes. The kids all seem to know exactly what to do, so they must have practiced this before. Some of them were scared and had to be reassured that this was only pretend. After the drill it was back to work and we made some good progress on our stories. The kids are so cute and smart! I love getting to be a part of Ella's education. After i was done, I headed back to Mom's to pick up Wes. She invited us to go out to lunch with her, so we had a nice lunch together at Appelbees. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up and getting ready for my shoot tonight. The pictures went well, I am so lucky to have this job! I also was glad to find out on my way home that my nephew's surgery went well, the cancer has not spread and his outlook is looking good!

It goes round and round and round!

Wes loves these money collection things. I keep a few pennies in my purse so he can roll one down when we see them. I think it is so cute, the simple pleasure that little children get out of things!

The beginning of a very busy two weeks.

Today was the first day of my Huntsville Gymnastics photoshoot. I love going there and getting to see all the cool things that the girls (and boys) do! It is so amazing to watch them. It is an exhausting couple of weeks, but I enjoy it all the same. I do miss getting to see Jon though, as he gets home after I leave and I get home at his bedtime. Today was another nice lazy day. Jon let me sleep in (until 9am!) and then I got to stay in bed and read for another hour. We stayed at home for the whole morning and then when Ella got home around 1pm, we played for a little while until it was time for me to go set up for my shoot. It was a nice weekend with my boys, but I am so glad to have Ella back! She had a wonderful time at Mimi and Pops house and was apparently very well behaved. I love my little girl!

Just me and my Boys

Today I had a nice day with my boys. Ella is with Mom in Kentucky visiting Mimi and Pop. They are having a grand time up there! Ella is loving all the attention she is getting. We had a nice day here in AL too. I did a bit of shopping this morning, and this afternoon we took Wes out to see TinTin at the Dollar theater. He liked it well enough, I thought it was a bit too long, but good. After that we went to petco to see all the puppies they had there for adoption. Wes loves petting the puppies. Then we came home for a quiet dinner and more family time. It was a nice day. Still keeping my sister in my thoughts and prayers as the wait for more tests.

Horrible, Terrible, no-good, very bad day

Just found out today that my Nephew's "sinus infection" was in fact a malignant tumor. Not having a good day.
I want to do something for my sister, help her somehow, take away the fear and pain but I can't and that S-U-C-K-S. I am a do-er, I like to fix things and get things done. It is killing me that I can't do anything for her.

I love you KK, and let me know what I can do to help.

Beautiful sun-shiny day!

This afternoon was absolutely beautiful! The sun was out and the temps were in the 60's. Since we didn't have anywhere to go, Wes and I hung out in the front yard for an hour and a half or so until Ella came home from school.

Bathtime

Wesley sure loves his baths lately, he asks to take one several times a day. It is so cute!

Valentines day

Today Ella wasn't able to go to school until late as we had to wait for her second dose of medicine at 9am so I made the kids pink heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and let them play for a while til it was time for Ella to go to school. After dropping her off Wes and I went to the local donut shop and got some donuts to share with my tutoring kids. We havn't done German class for a couple of months so it was nice to get back into the swing of things. After tutoring was done I headed over to Mom's house to drop some stuff of and make a V-day card. Then it was home to get Ella and off to Karate. After class, I grabbed a pizza and dropped the kids off at Mom's house so Jon and I could go out to dinner. We had a nice quiet dinner together. I am so very lucky to have such a generous mom!! Jon made me rice crispie treats )my favorite!) and wrote me the cutest poem. I am a lucky lady this year! It was over all a wonderful Valentines day.

Story time, Date Knight and pass the pigs

I love that wes is loving Story time. We go at least once a week, sometimes twice! He is so cute!!


On Saturday Wes and I went to Chick-fil-a for their Mother-Son Date knight. It was so cool. They decorated the back half of the resteraunt as a castle and had a knight there to greet us and the Chick-fil-a cow as well. They gave each little boy a cow doll and blow up sword and each mom got a rose. There were placemats with questions to use for conversation starters and a shield to color. We ordered our food and ate together, Wes got to duel with the knight and when we were done, we got to take a ride in a stretch limo! I had such a nice time with my little knight.













After dropping Wes off at home with Jon and Ella, i went over to spend Kerri's last night here with her. We played pass the pigs, and chatted and had a grand old time trying to jump high enough to touch the ceiling. (neither of us succeeded!)

She is gone!

Today Kerri left for New Zealand. We stopped by on our way to church for a few minutes to say good bye. It was so much fun having her here, I am so glad that we are still such good friends! The kids love their aunt too, so we will all be missing her. It will probably be another year before we get to see her again. Sad. Church today was good, I got to teach a double class again today and I had a lot of fun with my current and old students. They are such a great bunch of kids. I am still trying to adjust to going to Relief Society, it is a big change from Shareing time! This evening Ella developed what I think is pink eye. Reddish/pink on the white of the eye and a green discharge our of the tear duct area. I guess it is off to the Dr.'s tomorrow. Sigh. I hope I can get all of my chores done anyway!

Somebody is tired

Wes got up really early (for him) this morning and has been a grump all day! He hasn't been taking naps for a long while now, so I was surprised to see him fast asleep on Daddy's computer chair when I got out of the shower. I guess he was tired-er than he thought! If I had suggested a nap, he would have cried and resisted, but I guess they really do sleep when they need to if they are tired enough. I hope that this bodes well for our afternoon plans!

There are Pirates in these here Waters!

Today is Kerri's second to last day and we decided to have some fun. I dressed Kerri up as a pirate and then did a photoshoot of her on the Pirate ship that Dad built for the kids in the backyard. After I got the pictures downloaded to the computer, I edited them in photoshop to make it seem like Kerri was off on some adventures on the high seas. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way they turned out! I think that Kerri looks amazing in her corset and the final edits look fab. To make a fun day funner (is too a word!) we went out to lunch to Sakura and then after Jon and Ella got home we all went out Bowling and for Pizza at the Arsenal. In the evening after the kids were in bed Kerri and I made a (VERY short) stop motion film for old times sake. WE didn't have time to do the sound track, but we hope to do that tomorrow. i had a wonderful day, and ARRRR me matey's!