Visitors

     The last couple of nights Reggie will bark at something at night, and since he hardly ever barks I know something is out there. Since we've been sleeping with the windows open I can usually hear something rustling through the weeds on the other side of the fence. I know it's a deer from the way they pounce through the weeds. Yesterday I saw these guys right down the road laying in someones front yard. They are most likely the culprits. Of course I stopped for some pictures. I was half tempted to throw Emily out there for a photoshoot but from the way "mom" was eyeballing me for taking pictures, I don't think she would be so nice to let Emily squeeze them and kiss their noses.

Forever

    It seems like it's been forever since I've had the time to sit down and write something on here. It gets harder and harder every day. My last few weekends have been crazy. This last weekend we went out to the lake with Aaron's mom's family while Emily stayed with her Great Grandma Grace (who she did AMAZING with). We drove out to the late on Friday night, Saturday I woke up, drove to a friends house, took a shower, and then went to a wedding. The last 4 weekends I have gone to take pictures of a wedding and I'm really beginning to think it's something I could do! I do, however, miss my Saturdays a little. After the wedding, which was about 10 miles away the way the crow flies, but because there is no back road it ended up being more than an hours drive all the way around, I went back out to the lake and camped until Sunday. After alot of relaxing and quite a bit too much sun, we picked up Emily and went home so that Aaron could be with her for a little while. Monday, I did laundry and packed and then Tuesday I got up early in the morning and drove down to the Valley to visit my parents. 

     Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Valley. In fact every time I drive into town I roll down the windows and take a deep breath of valley air. There is something about the mix of Mexically smog, fresh crops and dirt...mixed with a slight hint of feed lot that reminds me of home. With all that said, I do remember evertime I come down here why I love Paso. There's something about my temperature gage reading 115 when I first turn it on that screams...NOT OKAY. Given, it is not in fact 115...yet, but it was easily 104 today.

     After my little photo excursion of Emily on the tractors earlier, my dad thought it would be a good idea to throw her in the middle of a beet field and take some pictures of her. Here they are: and if I dare to go outside for longer than 2 minutes maybe I can get some more.  I also have a sneaky feeling that my daughter is going to be a little FISH...I have to spend most of tomorrow trying to teach her how to swim. I'm sure it wont take long...and I will get plenty of pictures :)

SO sad! and something for my dad :)

    I dressed Emily today in a cute little outfit that finally fits her for summer.  She stayed in the bedroom after I put her clothes on while I walked out to the living room. About 2 minutes later she came walking out with her pretty pink cowboy boots on that ironically matched her outfit PERFECTLY. So I thought I would take the opportunity to take some cute pictures of her...and since she hasn't been THEE subject of my pictures for while I thought now was the perfect time.

     Before I show the pictures of her from today I have something else to show. This pictures were taken almost exactly 1 year apart. She has grown up so much in such a short amount of time...it makes me wonder how much bigger she will be by this time NEXT year. Actually I don't even want to think about it. Here they are:

4th of July 2008

Today

     Here's the rest of the pictures from today. I kind of went for a country tractor theme. and since my dad is a farmer I figured they were appropriate... Here's a early Happy Father's Day dad.

Emily and her daddy

Feeling funky

     ...and not in a good way.  For whatever reason I have been off of my photog game. Why? I have no idea, but I can tell you it's annoying! and I don't like it! I started to feel it before I went to the wedding on Saturday, I thought I could shake it, but I went through most of the wedding totally off. I felt like I was trying to find inspiration with a rock. I couldn't pull out of it. I felt a little better towards the end of the day, and then my camera died, and since we were barrowing the camera and didn't have a back up battery I had to shadow Jill and watch. After charging the battery enough to take SOME pictures of the night, it was over. I went home and wanted to cry...after being so excited last weekend and thinking that this was something I could do for the rest of my life, I had to come off of that high to the low of knowing 1) I didn't take a good picture and 2) I hadn't been able to give it my 110%. Both of which are not in my vocabulary when it comes to photography. Since then I have been so disappointed in myself that I didn't want to even look at my camera. I talked to a very wise woman today, who told me that it happens, and it's totally normal to get in a funk and if we didn't have them, it wouldn't be as exciting to have those amazing times! ...and I agree...to a point. Actually I agree completely, but it doesn't make it any better when I feel down. 

     SO! to get out of it... I'm going to have a fun photoshoot with SOMEONE...I don't know who yet but it will be AMAZING, because I know I'm better than this. Here's my first pictures...to hopefully get me out of this:

Sunset tonight from my front window...

My daughter...

     I can't say it enough but I LOVE this child. Aaron and I lay in bed and wonder...how in the world could we be so blessed?! She has the personality of a spunky 25 year old that's PMSing...If she could talk and carry on a conversation, we could seriously be best friends. I see alot of me in her and I that SCARES me!! but it also gives me hope that we will be close when she grows up. 

    Emily has a newly developed love for being naked. Yep she is going to be one of THOSE naked babies. As soon as we get home she is stripping off her close and pull ups so that she can run naked.  So dad, here's a picture for you. Emily running down the hallway. She's all legs! (Love you dad!)

     

Talk about mi la vida loca...

     This weekend was an Emily-Daddy weekend. Aaron went golfing on Saturday morning only to come home to me giving him a kiss and rushing out the door for a wedding. The wedding was AMAZING and quite a bit less stressful then the norm. My bestie and cousin in law in law (yes double...she's Aaron's cousins wife) was the maid of honor in the wedding and most of the girls were girls from the church, along with the bride and groom. I got to shoot the wedding with Jill. I learned several very important things...even though Jill and I can be polar opposites at some things...when it comes to photography we have a telepathic ability to understand eachother. So much so that we actually looked at eachother and said "whoa". I also realized that wedding photography is a gift. You either have it or you don't. I thought it was something that people had to work at and that I just worked really hard and that made it easier for me. I was wrong. I do work my butt off and I usually come home after a wedding with sore feet, emotionally drained with all of the creativity sucked dry from me, and a throbbing headache....all with a smile on my face because it was the best time I've had of my life. I know...crazy right? I love it because it's ever changing, ever challenging, and never ever the exact same. I've gone from job to job to job because I get tired of the monotomy of it, my brain is never worked hard enough, I used to lay in bed doing math problems just to stimulate my brain a little...okay not really but that's what it seemed like I needed to do. Not anymore!! And that I am severely limited by my camera. Don't get me wrong (dad), I LOVE my camera and it's perfect for taking pictures in daylight and for carrying around when I want to be creative. But after watching Jill first hand use her camera, and me use mine right next to her...I mean RIGHT next to here. I saw that there was ALOT more that she could do that I couldn't. And since I now OFFICALLY plan on going pro (I'm working on my business licence as I type) I'm going to need to get saving for that camera. Until then I can still take great pictures with mine every day for you to see (dad). Here's a few I did get of Emily watching for Aaron on Friday:

Shmooshed face

Beautiful

      I didn't get home from the wedding until about 10:30. The next day we woke up late, had 20 minutes to get ready and get to church, went to lunch after church and then I left again to go to a bridal shower. After that I stayed and chit chatted with Jessie and my other cousin in law in law for a while. We were outside talking and Jessie's hair blew in the wind with her dress so I grabbed her and said..."...you don't have a choice". She didn't argue (because she knew she really didn't have a choice) and we went out and snapped some pictures. 

Yeah...she just had a baby 3 months ago too!

My favorite :)

     Yesterday, Jessie called me and asked if I wanted to go to SLO to go shopping...OF COURSE I DID. What kind of question is that? So we drove down and met Mere who lives right next to Old Navy and had a little shopping spree. I mean they did, not me. I didn't spend a dime!! I was so proud of myself (and so was Aaron). I got home after he did last night and was exhausted. I stayed up until 1:00AM reading my book and then finally dosed off. Only to wake up this morning to take Emily to the park. She was SO CUTE I love her...even though I can tell she's inching closer and closer to those terrible twos!! So that was my last 4 days in a nut shell...the next two days will be calm and then it will start all over again. My brother in law, Matt, graduates this Friday, along with his best friend and 1st cousin (Aaron's best friend Chris's little brother, funny I know, all 3 of Aaron's siblings are matched by gender and age by less than a month each from Willy's sister Bonni!) Then Saturday is another wedding with my Jill and then church Sunday. This will be my ritual for the next few weeks with wedding season being in full swing. Hoepfully I will find time for a life!...and my blog :) Here's some pictures of Emily at the park today:

piggies painted by Great Aunt Kate

Cheatwoods

     Today I went out to grandma Grace's with Jess Cheatwood just to run around and take pictures for fun. Here's some of Emily and there's more on my professional blog of the rest of the day...and no, no poopy pull ups today...yet

Poop again?...really?

     So today in my efforts to clean up what little of a front yard I have, I successfully pulled something in my back. The real sad part of this story is that it only feels better if I'm moving around. If I stop even for a second it's like my muscles turn to ice and I'm in pain again. Thankfully my mother-in-law works in a medical office so she was able to get me some samples that will hopefully make a big difference over the next couple of days. So besides cleaning outside most of the afternoon, my day was pretty uneventful...until tonight....

     This afternoon while my Aaron was outside BBQing Emily comes running into the living room...without a diaper on. I should have learned from yesterdays experience that this usually equals no good. She had been in the bathroom for a while and since the toilet is easily accessible for her I thought maybe...JUST MAYBE she was running out all excited because she had gone to the bathroom all on her own. I tapped on the window to get Aaron's attention. Emily was giggling histarically so I started playing around with her and thought it would be cute to stick her bare little butt cheeks up on the window for dad. As soon as I did Aaron screamed "POOP!" and when I pulled her down, sure enough...there on my sliding glass door was a perfect little poopy butt print from my little Emily. Alright, so I thought it was cute! Aaron and I laughed to the point of tears and then I set off to figure out what happened...sure enough she had gone in her pull ups and had taken them off and put them in the toilet. I put her in the shower, hosed her off and then set out to bleach my sliding glass door. 

     I absolutely love this little girl. Even though she hasn't quite got the WHOLE idea of the potty process, she's definitely on her way there! and don't worry...you can keep scrolling down safely, none of these pictures contain Emily excrement's! 

FINALLY! a picture with HER chones on her head!

Emily looking into my new fisheye lens! 

No dad! she did not inherit the space between my eyes!

"no mom, the lens belongs on me" GREAT! what have I created?

My day...

    Lately, my days have left me thinking, "wow! what a day!" but when I look back on it, there wasn't a whole lot to it. I've officially decided that I was NUTS to think that I could have my children 2 years apart. That means, if I would have gone with my original plan, I would be about 7 months pregnant right now. Although I do feel about as drained as I would assume any 7 month pregnant woman, with an almost 2 year old would be. Poor Aaron comes home and looks at me like "what happened?" By then all I can do is just point to Emily. I just couldn't imagine...my daughter is decently well behaved and pretty even tempered (she has yet to throw one of those horrible, laying on the floor, tantrums that you see the little kids in the store doing over a toy). I really am blessed. The saying goes, "God will only give you what you are able to handle" - and I'm about to the end of my handling point. Another child or a husband who didn't cook, not only would I be insane but we would be malnourished  (is that a word? you get the point) I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm blessed to have the amazing family that I have, because if I didn't have them, I would definately loose my mind!

     So I guess I will tell this story and put a disclaimer up. ***IF you have a weak stomach, or have never had kids, skip down farther, this may gross you out***

     So this morning I woke up, and wished I would have gone back to sleep. Our normal morning ritual (that we are working on fixing) is that Aaron gets up early to get ready for work. As soon as Emily feels the bed move she is wide awake for Aaron. He takes her and puts her on the couch, turns on some cartoons, and gives her a poptart or cherrios or whatever she wants for breakfast that morning. When he's done getting ready he sits with her and watches cartoons until it is time for him to go to work. Before he leaves, he comes in, gives me a kiss goodbye and then I get up so I can watch Emily...well because I'm reading a book and I stayed up until 1:00AM reading it, I don't remember Aaron coming in and kissing me goodbye. I guess I fell back asleep. I woke up, jerked out of bed, and ran to go check on her...this is the point where I wanted to turn around and re-barry my head under the pillow. Emily was sitting on the couch like a good girl, still watching her cartoons...the only problem was that she was diaperless. As most of you know I am in the process of potty training my daughter. It's actually going great (unless aaron is home for whatever reason). At night we put her in diapers,with her big girl underwear over them, since she pees more than a full grown horse at night. USUALLY in the mornings Aaron changes her over to pull ups and after successfully doing well with that (acutally it's usually after she does her stinky business) I put her in regular underwear for the rest of the day. For a second I was confused. I tried to figure out why she was diaperless, and then I tried to figure out what was all over my couch. What in the world had Aaron given her to eat that she could make such a big mess out of. Or what in the world had she gotten into while I was asleep?! Well it didn't take long for the fan to waft that horrible horrible sent my way. Yep, you guessed it...it was crap, not sweet baby poop as most of you would believe but CRAP. I checked her hands, NOTHING, thank God. and her mouth, nothing there either. When I picked her up it was all over her back, which is how it got smooshed all over the couch. I yanked her up and ran to the bathroom, tossed her in the bathtub and turned on the shower. She was pretty mad at me for that but I got everything off of her and then started to run a regular bath for her. As I went to put the toilet lid down so that I could sit and watch her play in the bath, I saw something that melted my heart. How?! do you ask, can something in this whole situation met my heart? Well, there in the toilet was her dirty diaper! I believe that my child knew what she had done and was trying to make it right by putting the poop in the toilet where it belonged, mind you, she made a bigger mess for me than if she just kept the diaper on in the first place, she knew what she had done and tried to make it right. 

     Now if you ever come to my house to visit and I look haggard and fed up and you ask what is wrong, when I point to Emily, you will have a little idea of what 10 minutes is like in the day of Emily.

     Here's a couple of pictures that I took 2 weekends ago in pine mountain. This is Emily and her.....3rd cousin-once removed? I think. It's Aaron's mom's 1st cousin's son. He's almost 4 and they were the cutest thing EVER. They both shared and jumped on the bed and giggled together. They were pretty cute:

Sharing the bubbles

Giving him a pat on the back (or trying to push him off :P)

Putting things through the crack...this included: one of his toys, 2 screws, a key and countless leaves from Granny's flowers