The TWO'S!! dun dun DUN!

     Well. It's official! Emily Grace is two years old! My dad called me yesterday and asked me if it felt like two short years ago that I was "walking through the valley of the shadow of death" A.K.A. labor. And my answer was "no" It really doesn't seem like two long years ago that I layed eyes on my little Emily for the first time. She was so beautiful and innocent, she just looked up at me like she loved me as much as her little heart could handle (could have been because I was her food source, but I would like to not think that). Now she's running around, pushing every one of my buttons she can and trying to find a way around what mommy says. Oh the joys of a child! They say "terrible-two's" but I think it's difficult from the moment they get mobile and I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any easier until they are out of the house. Even then...I wonder if it's not easier until your children have babies of their own and truly appreciate what you had to deal with for the last 18 years (love you mom and dad). Anyway...now that I've I went on a little bit of a bird walk, here is a picture of Emily yesterday:

She blew both of them out all on her own and was SO 

proud of herself. It was pretty cute.

     I have many more pictures to post just to catch up with the last week...and a few funny stories, but for now I have to go pack for day in Bakersfield. Keep watching for more :)

Cheatwood picture day

    So it's been planned for a week to go take pictures of Jess Cheatwood and her little ones. I've been waiting for Thursday to roll around and after looking at TONS of pictures of Montana De Oro on the internet I was SUPER excited to go and take pictures there. I have been to the beaches of MDO many a times but I've never been in the beautiful trees surrounding them so I was even more excited to take pictures somewhere kind of new. 

    In anticipation for today I kept checking the weather forecast to see what kind of weather I would have to deal with and to my advantage the news said it would be perfect! Most people think that sunny days are the perfect time to take pictures. I do agree...to a point. For me it is better to take pictures when it is overcast. The fog layer gives me the opportunity to not have to fuss with the right lighting but it's still bright enough outside to not have to worry about a flash (which I hate!). I don't have to worry about squinty faces or ugly shadows. The worst place to have to fuss with the shadows is under trees where it tends to get splotchy. So needless to say when the weather man came on last night and said that the marine layer was back and that all coastal cities would be covered in fog all day today I was very pleased.

Right in the middle of a bunch of trees...and splotchy!

     We planned to meet in MDO at 9:00AM so that if the marine layer did decide to burn off, it wouldn't do so until after that I got some pictures. I learned real fast that God has a funny sense of humor. I pray on a daily basis that He will lead me in the right direction with my career and that I will continue to advance. So far he has done just that! He has provided me with amazing opportunities that the average joe does not just stumble across like I have been blessed to do. So, as I drove over the hill that led into Los Osos, I should have known that I would come face to face with...I bet you guessed it...bright sun and a beautiful SUNNY day at the beach. I guess I should add that I fall asleep the night before a photoshoot painting mental pictures of what I'm going to do and how my pictures are going to look. So when I drove over that hill and saw nothing but the ocean for days, I was all of a sudden faced with a blank slate. Every picture I had painted in my head the night before vanished and I had no idea what I was going to do. 

Quite literally the clearest day I had ever seen at Morro Bay

     I went on with my day, a little frazzled and not sure what to do but I think in the end they turned out just fine:

     So back to my point about God's sense of humor...How can I ask God to help me get better and expect Him to just hand everything to me? It reminds me of an old old song I used to listen to by Everybodyduck. It talked about a man who was in a boat in the middle of the ocean and a storm was coming in and instead of rowing to shore he dropped his oars and started praying. The song goes on to say "Oh you've got to draw the line between having faith and being blind, use your mind if you've got time don't drop the oars! God will save you like he said, but you've still got to use your head..." Anyway, why would I expect God to give me the easiest setting possible when I asking daily for Him to help me grow? That's right He wouldn't, nor should He. He gave me a sunny day,that I should have been thankful for, because it was BEAUTIFUL, I complained about it not being the way I wanted it to be. So, you say, "well Kayla, you should have known that would happen, now where's the humor?" Here it is:

The "view" of Morro Rock about 30 minutes after I was done taking pictures...

It's so overcast that you can't even SEE the rock!!!

    I will leave you with one last picture. A picture that Jess took of me today that I couldn't help but put up! Good job Jess!

Trouble!

     So...my dad called me and told me that I'm pretty much in trouble for not blogging for a while. So, I guess I will do my best to catch everyone up on the last week and a half. I've slacked off and on with the whole, potty training business. First off, I've never done this before; I have no idea how to potty train a human. A puppy, on the other hand, I can handle. Tell them it's bad to pittle on the floor, rub their nose in it, and shove them through the doggy door until they get the idea. It works every time, but Emily is not a puppy and there is such a greater complexity to how her mind works that it's rediculous!! For example (rumor has it that this picture has been sent out to everyone already but I have to put it up!):

 How do I handle this?! She knows that PLAYING in the toilet is wrong, but in this case she actually went to the bathroom in the toilet and THEN crawled in. Do I punish her for playing or do I reward her for going? How can you not smile at this though? 2-year olds . . .

    At the beginning of this week my mom came up to visit for a couple of days. It was great for Emily to get to spend time with her "mom-ma". My mom had a explained to Emily that she was her mom's mom, therefore she started calling her mom-ma. Too cute how her little wheels turn. I'm waiting for her to start calling Aaron's mom "dad-ma" While my mom was here I had my photog buddy Jill come over and snap a couple of pictures of Emily, my mom, and I:

These were my two favorites

     Emily is talking up a storm! Of course it's all her own language. And for whatever reason she is partial to the letter "G", so why doesn't she say grandma? Again, Emily's mind is one of the many mysteries of the world. I feel REAL sorry for her future boyfriends! So, "guy" = swing. She is obsessed with the swing. It is her daily ritual to go after her nap. And when I say ritual, I mean it. She must be strapped in just right. Her butt must be sitting in it just right or she fusses and wiggles and says "I want dat" and hits the seat. She must be holding on to her stuffed pony or she won't swing. Occasionally, she will request that it be sitting in the swing next to her. She will point to the bungie cord if you forget to strap it in and then pat her butt and point to the horse telling you that you must also push the horse and her. If she wants to go higher (which she always does, my little dare devil!) she will say "I want dat" and pat her own butt, telling you to push her more. She always finds a way to communicate exactly what she wants to you, but she is just a little like her mom. She tends to get very frustrated, very easily. Especially when you don't understand what she's trying to tell you.

     Another of her favorite words is "goggy", which you would think means doggy. Nope, "goggy" = candy. My little Emily takes after her Aunt Kaylee and Uncle Andrew. She has a HUGE sweet tooth. Therefore it is working to my advantage to give her a piece of "goggy" everytime she goes to the bathroom in the toilet. She even walked over to the bathroom door just the other day and told me "A gotta o PEE" that's Emily talk for "I have to go pee". I couldn't believe it. I almost fell over. She looked at me like I was an idiot (yep she's got that look down already) and pulled on the door handle again and tried to pull down her pull-ups. I took her in and she went pee!! Then held out her little hands and said "goggy". She so has it figured out. Oh, and to add to the potty paragraph, "goo-goo" = #2.

     The last thing to add to the g-list is "a go" sometimes also said "gow" is probably her best buddy right now. The cat, who has always been named "the cat"...and a couple other random names, we have finally named Abby. I don't know how we have been soooo blessed with such a good cat. Emily will pick her up and carry her around the house, or try to wrap her in a blanket and call her a baby (not that she doesn't have enough of them!), but my favorite is when they play wheel-barrel. This is one of those things that you can't help but laugh hysterically at but she should probably get in trouble for...if the cat didn't seem to actually enjoy it and not run away I probably wouldn't be so lenient. Wheel-barrel, as I like to call it, is just like the game they play in relay races where one person holds up another persons feet as they "run" on the ground with their hands. Instead Emily holds the cat's tail and runs around as the cat paddles with its front paws. Now, no one call animal control on me because I SWEAR the cat enjoys it! But for now, her is a picture of them after a long hard game of wheel-barrel:

    Well, that's it for now! I have a messy house, dishes in the sink, a ton of laundry, and bills to pay while Emily is off playing with her Great-Aunt Kate.

OH! and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Rhiannon!