All work and no play...

has been my life lately. I try not to complain about it cause there are many people out there who would love a job. I am thankful for making a living and actually don't dislike my job. Working the abundance of overtime hours in addition to the normal forty is wearing on me though. When I get off work I feel like doing nothing. I want my brain to just shut off. I miss my free time, I miss my camera, and more importantly I miss my family. Pity party here ;)

But with not much of a possible end in site I've decided to take it upon myself to make time for the other things no matter what. Time is just ticking away and passing me by...and when it's gone it's gone.

So with that in mind I grabbed some of James Star Trek Mini Mates the other day and took some time out to "play" I'm thinking of making a whole toys/legos type series.


"Chicks...Highly Illogical"



"Unfortunately, the Gorn was not prepared for Kirks version of "Rock,Paper,Scissors"

Dear Keats

Ok so I missed your birthday post too(at least not as late as your brothers if you look below...gotta count for something, right?)

I cannot believe you are four (closer to five now). Soon you will be off to school and I don't even want to think about that. For now I will keep referring to you as my baby.

Because of your older brother I know some of the precious things I love so much about you have a limited time left. Like saying things wrong such as "My hams" which is clearly "My hands". Smiling at us while saying, "I make a smile face at you." The waking up every morning and whispering "You are my best mommy alive ever." Or the way you blow kisses and make me "Catch them and put them in your pocket for later!" Lately you have been throwing hugs too which I really think could catch on. I will miss when those stop being every day sayings and doings.

You are such a funny, sweet boy and every day you grow better.












Love,
Your best mommy alive ever

Happy Birthday Blaze!

Ok so I realize your birthday was July 14th...and that it's really almost time for your next birthday. I'm sorry! Mother of the year award I will not win. But I did get your presents on your birthday, and a cake, and showered you with love. I also actually took these pictures around your birthday, just never got to blogging them. I can just see in the future this being something kids complain about, "My mom didn't even blog about me on my birthday!" The shame.

I love you more than anything. You are the funniest (and I mean real funny, not kid funny) boy I have ever met. You also love God which makes me so happy. You were so excited when you said a prayer with Keaton and talked about how happy you were you saved him. Things like that warm my heart. You also told me that God told you it was your calling to be a preacher. I love this page from your journal at school (the "I think" is part of a new sentence).




You are also still a completely ornery boy sometimes who loves to test his boundaries. I get that, I just hope you grow out of it soon.

I love you and hope you keep on being yourself because you are awesome.



That shirt describes you pretty well ;)



Thanks for being such a cool kid. And I promise to try and have a more timely birthday post this year!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I'm not even gonna apolagize for my serious lack of blogging. Why? Cause I have this amazing Cinco de Mayo picture (ok well amazing to me in context not picture quality that is)

Sometimes you just have your lights set up for product and you see a fake beard (doesn't every home have one of these?), your son, an old bummy hat, and someone suggests "Hey why not get a jar of mayonnaise in that picture!" That person is my genius husband. That results in this:



That's just how we roll in this house.

Don't call it a comeback!

I am going to get this blog caught up and going even if it kills me. Ok that last part was just added for drama and all that...to make me feel better about my neglect. This week I will be catching up some old pictures (personal pictures never seem to get touched for me).

First up in other shocking news (besides me blogging)- a picture from the summer of my boys getting along!! I knew all things were possible.


Also over the summer they got these cool He-Man shirts. My kids/husband love a lot of things from the 80's and He-Man is top of the list. His friend designed these shirts for the kids and Blaze had the genius idea of doing a "Before Awesome Shirts/After Awesome Shirts" shot to show his appreciation.

Love Stinks

...or maybe its just my blogging skills cause I am pretty sure love rocks.

Remember that time I was all, "I'm going to blog more!" and then I did! About two times. Well here is a cute face to make up for it.












Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

P.S. A quick pictures of Blazes vday box James made. Its a shuttlecraft from Star Trek (I had to google to make sure that was right, I'm not full dork yet! There is still hope for me)

And the award for most photogenic goes to...

Keaton?? I demand a recount.

At work I have this picture below as my screen saver.



Adorable right? My friend commented on how cute Keats was( no argument there) and how he was the perfect age for pictures, probably so cooperative. Now I could have said "Yes, he is such an angel" and anyone would believe it looking at the above picture. Instead I just laughed and laughed.

The truth is, Keaton is so hard to get a good picture of. Reason is-he is a comedic little ham.

I present to you exhibit A. (A disclaimer to the jury- these are all onboard flash snapshots, yet they best represent what I am about to show you)



This is a typical 15 minutes of Keaton. Notice how he is all over the place. Spinning in circles, making mean face, uninterested face, getting in your face face. I could go on.

But perhaps the best example of what I mean is "The Klingon Face"



Yes this is the same little boy as the first picture. How he twists his face like that, I have no idea.

The resemblance is uncanny.





So while I think my little boy is the cutest in the world, (I really, really do! He is super handsome)I would like it know that I work hard for adorable pictures. I rest my case.

Oh and for the record, I absolutely love every shot above. They crack me up just as much as he does.

Dear Thirty..

Nice try, but I rock. I turned thirty last Friday and I remember when that just sounded so old. All the way up to last Thursday...then I decided it wasn't so old after all. Just in the nick of time.

Truth be told I actually think I like being thirty. Perhaps this novelty will wear off (I am quite sure at some point it will.) I really love my life though so that helps. Do I have everything I ever wanted by this age? Nope. Thank goodness because what fun would that be, I need things to work towards. I have an amazing husband and two beautiful boys who are my world. So while I don't have everything I would ever want, (still waiting to win the lottery)I do have everything I would ever need -Love.



Just to prove I don't feel or act my age here is something I still find hilarious.

Have you seen the ads for the baby snuggies? They are creepy. You know what isn't creepy? The Bobbisnuggie! Just ask my friend and satisfied customer Heather.

*no Heathers were harmed in the making of the Bobbisnuggie*

I also find this video hilarious (as in can't stop watching) These guys take news stories and make songs out of them. Auto-Tune the news is amazing..as is this lady in the video.


With maturity like this I will be forever young!

Oh Blog...and a couple of "favorite things" oversights

2010 was not the best blogging year for me (or shooting year if I am being honest). I was just so unmotivated and in reflection it is sad to me. I'm not about setting unrealistic goals so there is no way I am going to say I will blog everyday or every week this year. I am however resolved to "blog more" Keeping it vague and obtainable.

Not only just blog more but shoot more, and more snapshots at that. I think I got stuck in a rut of picture perfect last year and I am going to be all about lifestyle this year and doing more things for me (like macros!), so hopefully a lot more personal stuff this year.

That being said I do have things from last year too that I just didn't even get a chance to blog so there will be some catch-up posts from time to time too (including my 8 year olds bday pics from July, horrible right??)

To start off I have to do a couple of oversights from my favorite things post a couple of posts down.

Cringer! I cannot believe I have never blogged about our cat before. We got her about nine months ago and she is perfect. I had wanted a kitten but Blaze insisted we get an older cat because "Everyone adopts kittens and its not fair to older cats to not get a home" He's kind of amazing, that kid. I'm pretty sure she was made for us because James was dead set on getting an orange tabby and naming it Cringer from He-Man. When we walked in there was a sign on her cage that said, "I know my name, Ginger" She has made the transition to Cringer just fine.



Vests. Ok, I am a little bit obsessed with vests. Possibly to the degree of unhealthy. I just love how cute they are! There are a couple missing here. I had just bought a new one a few weeks ago and a wise person said to me, "Nine vests! That's just crazy. You have a problem and admitting it is the first step." So I returned that one and am fully sane still. No Vests Anonymous for me!



Starbucks, oh Starbucks. You were fully one of my favorite things in 2010 but I plan on changing this. Last week I added up my Starbucks charges to my bank for the past 2 months and it was $130. $130!!! That is $780 a year. That's just dumb. So I will probably never be able to cut SB (we are on an initial basis) out completely, but I am set on a max of one a month.