Kissin' Cousins

Emily is always surprising me. So when Granny suggested that Eian and Emily took a bath together, I figured it wasn't going to end well. I was sure someone would end up drowning (most likely Eian since Emily has a better stability in the bath, and I really didn't want to be held responsible for that!)

Then, Emily surprised me...she was good! She was so cute with him and turned into mommy Emily trying to watch his face, which he wasn't thrilled about, but put up with. She even was giving out kisses:

GRRR

First off we will start with why I'm irritated:

I started my New Years resolution saying that I would be more diligent about writing in my blog, because people complained that I had stopped. Even when I stopped for the last 5 days, I heard about it. So why is it that I only have 5 followers?! I never get comments (not you, Jess) or any sort of feedback. I'm not trying to be all "nobody loves me! wa wa wa", but seriously people...is there anyone out there who reads this?!

P.S. For those of you that are curious about becoming a follower...it's free and all you need is an email address and password.

Second:

So, the night of Aaron's birthday we ate a fabulous dinner (made a la me...I know you're impressed!) and watched a movie. As we are cleaning up after dinner, I had asked Aaron to put the forks in the sink while I cleaned up the trash. I had stuck dishes in the sink earlier to let them soak and not be so grimy, and planned to do them after we ate. As Aaron went to put the forks in the sink he saw something bobbing in the water. He called me over and we watched as the pink ball bounced up and down in the bubbles, trying to figure out what in the world was going on. It was the weirdest thing! It would come up through the bubbles and bob, then go back down and come up in a different spot. Then one time, it came up a little too high and we stared into the beady black eyes of a mouse! I'm not sure who screamed louder or who jumped higher. I ran outside...not because I'm afraid of mice...I just don't like seeing them get squished. In the mean time Aaron tried to figure out how he was going to get it out and then...uh...properly dispose of it. He ended up not having to, because it drowned. Aaron suggested to chop it up in the garbage disposal, but figured that wasn't the most genius idea in the world.

The next day I thoroughly bleached the sink and every dish in it. As I was doing the dishes I had ANOTHER mouse run across the top of my hand as I reached for the soap. I about died. In a quick effort to destroy the stupid thing before it escaped I chucked my soapy sponge at it. Note: My dreams of being a professional baseball pitcher were immediately dashed. The sponge missed by at least a foot and the stupid thing escaped under my stove. Everyone can rest easy, because my wonderful husband came to the rescue with a mouse trap, later that night and smashed the little guy within 10 minutes.

Yes, everyone. I have had my fair share of run ins with a mice for a good few years. My house has been completely stocked with all of the latest high tech mouse destroying equipment. From motion sensors to laser mousy mazes. Okay, so not really, however there are a few strategic traps set. That's not to say that I won't go to the above said extremes if I go home to a bunch of set off traps with nothing in them.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT live in a mouse infested house. However, since we do live in a trailer with easily accessible vents, we tend to get the occational mouse...or two.

So where was Emily while this last mouse escapade happened? Oh she was keeping herself busy. Doing what, you ask? Cooking like daddy with a few things she found in the fridge, of course!:

I love her clever face here!

The after math

Of course Molly had NOTHING to do it at all!

Sorry girl, but the evidence speaks for it's self

So what does every good mom do after her daughter creates a HUGE mess and takes pictures of her doing it? Sticks their child in the bath! I took these next pictures because I thought she looked like an ice princess...or like she was in the snow. There was something beautiful and mystical about the way her hair twisted around her and she looked at me like she was dazed by the sound of everything from under water. So I busted out the camera...again:

Emily's Incident

I'm going to sum the story up as best I can. I don't have all of the pictures I want but hopefully this weekend I will get them up. So here it goes:

We went up to Pine Mountain 2 weekends ago because Aaron wanted to go motorcycle riding with his Uncle and they have a great track up there somewhere. So, Saturday Aaron left and went riding while I stayed back at the house with the little ones and moms. The day was great. Emily was being good and terrorizing Eian her little (but bigger) cousin.

As a side note, they are going to tear each other apart and fight like siblings. Eian is one year and only a few days younger than Emily, therefore Eian is just pushing his terrible 1 1/2's (because that's when we all know it begins) and Emily is in her terrible two's. PERFECT combination. I watched Emily as she dropped her baby, Eian ran up and picked it up, Emily saw this, ran over screaming, tried to jerk the toy out of his hands, had a mini wrestling match, Eian tried to bite Emily's arm while they were both on the ground, then Emily pushed him away with her feet to his belly. Me, being the good mom that I am, let them duke it out. Harsh? nah. Eian might be younger but he can definatly hold his own. He already weighs more than Emily, can scream and cry just as loud, and what Emily has in cordination, he has in defence skills (like biting).

Back to the story...

Emily comes over and asks me if she can go see her Granny who is in the bathroom getting ready. I say yes and walk her back to the bedroom, open the bedroom door and hear the blowdryer, Emily gets excited because I always blow dry her hair with mine. She runs to the bathroom door and knocks. Again, she squeals and says "I want to see the MaMa (Granny)?" I say "Yeah, you can" and walk back into the livingroom. Not 2 minutes later, Margie comes running out and says that Emily got into Denny's muscle relaxant. She had never heard Emily (because she was blow drying her hair and the door was locked), but when she opened the door to walk out Emily was standing there with something in her hand. She had said it was goggy and popped on in her mouth. When Margie asked where she got it from she took her over to the opened, child safety lidded, bottle. We still don't know how she got into them, but what we knew at the time is that she had gotten one for sure. Later when we asked her she actually said 2, which was pretty much confirmed by the way she was acting in the ER.

After a long, unhelpful chat with the poison control man, I was pretty much told that one pill was okay, 2 would make her sleep forever and she could possibly stop breathing, and 3 would cause brain damage and seizers. WONDERFUL I thought, as I went into full mother melt down, we were, at best, 1 1/2 hours from the nearest ER. Poison control actually told me originally to wait and see how she acts because if it was just one she would be just fine. Looking back on it, I should have had the guy sued, that could have been life or death for my daughter. Later when I called back to ask if she could eat anything or drink anything, I got a hold of the SAME GUY, who said that I should be at a hospital and not worrying if she should be eating or drinking anything. Thanks ALOT jerk.

Needless to say we booked it down to the nearest ER. Emily was nodding off the whole way there. We had met Aaron on the way though Frazier Park and picked him up and then flew down the hill to Valencia. We got there and were admitted. Emily was forced to drink charcoal. I'm a bad mom and was out making phone calls when they came in with it. I guess she didn't like it at first, but Aaron told her that i would make her tummy better and she chugged it. The nurse said that she was AMAZING for doing that...most adults don't take it that easy.

The rest of the stay was horrible. She pretty much passed out after the charcoal. They hooked her up to monitors to make sure that her vitals were all okay and then we waited...and waited.....and waited. More than 6 hours went by and the Dr. came in to tell us that they wanted to admit her overnight since she wasn't being responsive to us trying to wake her up. Unfortunately for us...the nearest pediatrics facility was 45 minutes away. In order to admit her to transport her, they had to give her an IV, but if they gave her an IV then they had transport her by ambulance. Sounds like a catch 22 to me! Not to mention I had to wake her up for the IV, which was going to make her mad, then the IV it's self was going to tick her off. Just as I predicted, she screamed bloody murder. Then they gave her the IV, where she continued to scream bloody murder. It was traumatizing but I knew it was all for her to get better. After the nurses left, she layed down and went back to sleep.

The nurses came back in to tell me that the blood they had drawn was fine but he sugar was low so I had to wake her up again to give her some crackers and juice. This was when everything turned around. She woke up, ate 4 packets of crackers and drank a bunch of juice, and stayed awake. This was a great sign. That's when the medics showed up to transport her. It was actually pretty cute. The two very nice guys strapped her into her car seat and then strapped that to the stretcher and wheeled her through the ER as she smiled and waved to everyone. Even though it was cute, it felt like the walk of shame for me. They loaded her up and we were on our way. 45 minutes later and a great chat with the ambulance driver (also my first time in an ambulance) we were at the pediatric facility in downtown LA. Emily was wheeled in and admitted. We unbuckled her and kept a close eye on her as she charmed all of the nurses and ran around the ER. When the doctor came in he took one look at her and said that she was perfectly fine and would get us right out of there.

The very nice doctor said that the people at the other hospital had sent us there to cover their butts, because they wanted a pediatric doctor to sign off on her papers. Apparently Flexaril has a 4-6 hour peak time, where if she took 1 or 100 pills, the side effects would have been apparent during that time. Since it was almost 12 hours later and she was being her normal, slightly groggy, self. I had nothing to worry about. An hour later we were on our way back to Pine Mountain Club. Emily fell asleep on the way there and slept through the night.

I woke up to the next morning to her bouncing on the air mattress, giggling and wanting "num nums". She immediately went back to terrorizing Eian and running around like a wild woman. My Emily was back!

One thing they didn't warn us about, however, was what the charcoal would be like when it came out...to spare you ALL the gory details, just imagine this: You know that black stinky muck on the bottom of a swamp? That's pretty much what came out...for 3 days.

Don't worry everyone...I learned my lesson and earned a few grey hairs in the process! Every mother, who experiences some sort of tragedy's famous last words are always "it was only a few seconds" and it truly was. That and as well behaved your child has been in the past, it is important to take the proper precautions to make sure there are no temptations for them. Child proofing is SOOOO important, that 'one time'...could be fatal. My situation could have been much much MUCH worse and I thank God, every time that Emily starts to drive me a little crazy, that she is still here to be able to.

Here's some pictures of her the day after:

Giving kisses to her horsey that the pediatric's doctor gave her.

in grandpa's boots holding "Hes-EE" aka horsey

Playing the guitar

Emily's pursed look of concentration

Birfday

So I decide that it will be SOOOOO much easier if, instead of making one big blog, I will break them up through out the day and get SOMETHING done in between. Don't get me wrong, I'm a GREAT multitasker, but if I'm on the computer...I get sucked in and can spend the whole day "doing important things on it".

So for today (actually yesterday):

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON!!!!

Yesterday was his 23rd birthday. He's getting so old :( Just kidding. I love him so much! He is the best husband, and father that I could ever ask for. He's loving, caring, kind, and a gentle giant; my protecter. Not to mention dead sexy, I mean...look at that picture...and he wasn't even posing. I love him 10x more now than I did when I married him, which was almost 4 years ago!! I know I say often, as a term of endearment of course, but don't get me wrong...it's not always peachy. Sometimes I could burry him in the backyard, but I'm sure that he would say that the . . . er, shovel? goes both ways on that one. LOVE YOU BABE!!

WOOOHOOO, someone loves my rambling!

"I love Kayla's blog, she takes amazing photos and I so wish she would blog everyday..."

Jess Cheatwood

...just to hold you over due to procrastination

1) I finally have my brain back from last weekend

2) I've spend the above said last week figuring out insurance information to get to the thousands of places that I have to send it all to.

3) it has been raining cats and dogs so 6 out of the last 10 days, I haven't had internet

4)I am:

a) going to the gym

b) trying (in a futile attempt) to keep my house clean

c) working hard on homework for my Pathways

d) starting a course that will end up in me getting my degree in photography that is kicking my butt

e) and trying to chase around a 2 year old that seems to have a new terror-ific outlook on life after a near death experince

.

.

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f) LOOSING MY MIND

So, PLEASE, forgive me if I take a little sanity time in a bubble bath instead of writing on my blog. I am, now, sane and done with my homework and sitting in a clean house with all of my laundry done. Life is good and tomorrow...my blog. But for now, my favorite picture from THEE weekend of Emily the morning after her little incident.

I rely on my sole to carry me through,
All of my other bits rely on it too.
It withstands the hardships of any weather,
Has taken its beatings more than the leather,
It remains unseen until I look,
Reassuringly there ‘neath each step that I took.

Tina Louise

Just call me 'Suzy Homemaker'

After many minor spats with my husband about my 'job' I decided that as a somewhat unspoken New Years resolution that I would try to improve everything I do, and I feel like so far, I have don't just that. It feels so good to be up at 5. Of course I hate my life at that moment but after I wake up, it's such a good feeling. I also love working out at the gym with my Jessie. She pushes me to bust my butt, quite literally, and it's nice to have some company. I come home just as the sun is rising. I also have learned 2 new things about myself:

1) There is something surreal and almost mesmerizing about the time between dark and when the sun actually peeks over the top of the hills. The ominous blue that is cast over everything like the faint wake up call before the alarm of the sun. I LOVE it!! Especially this time of year when more than likely going to be foggy. It makes the world seem soft, quiet, and vulnerable, maybe even innocent.

2) Speaking of vulnerable...I hate the dark in the morning! I don't know if it's because I'm not as alert as I feel I should be or that I feel like it's the time when all of the starving, nocturnal, carnivorous critters are starting to get desperate so they are more likely to attempt to eat me. I'm not sure what it is, but I woke poor Aaron up this morning to walk me out to the car in his boxers in the 35 degree weather, because I'm such a sissy.

When I got home I made coffee, woke Emily up and put her on the couch to watch cartoons, then woke my husband up to a steaming cup of coffee. He got in the shower and while he was getting ready I made waffles, eggs and bacon 4 times. I say 4 times, because apparently I can't cook bacon. Okay, so I can but I'm not sure what it was about this morning that I just couldn't do it. Some pig died in vain, because I couldn't get it right. After we all ate, I started dishes and gave Aaron a kiss goodbye. I now have a clean kitchen and a happy husband and a daughter with a full tummy, when I normally would be just starting to stir for the day. Life is good and I feel just like "Suzy Homemaker".

Slacker

That's right. I'm a slacker. Emily used the big girl potty for the first time almost a year ago. That means I have paid for a YEARS worth of pull ups...I'm not in the mood for doing math but I'm pretty sure that is more money than necessary. So I told myself yesterday, "I'm over it" and guess what...apparently so was she, that or she likes chewing gum. The point is that it was officially been 24 hours of straight potty in the toilet!! She had one little accident that she immediately realized and ran to the bathroom for, but other than that and the constant bathroom visits this has been easy breasy! I'm sure my fortune cookie would say "your future predicts no more diapers."

it's a miracle!!

Here is a picture of my miracle:

You might laugh, but these are the first EVER...I repeat...E.V.E.R. cookies that I have baked successfully in my 22 years. Now, I think I have put said this before, but I do not cook, not because I can't do it but because my husband LOVES to cook, I actually am a pretty decent cook, but it's a completely different story when it comes to baking. I'm a jinx, I think somewhere back in the 1500's a witch doctor put a curse on my great great great great grandma that her great great great great granddaughter would not be able to bake. If I actually believed in that mumbo jumbo it might actually make a little sense.

I guess I should admit...these are box cookies, not made from scratch. But at least it's a step in the right direction for me. I used to think maybe it was the oven that I had issues with, but today I learned that the oven works just fine. Apparently it's a issue with me following directions, then again, if you know me, you already knew that. . .

Aaron came home to fresh baked cookies and literally didn't believe that I had baked them. He was so proud...not only did they resemble cookies but they actually tasted good too.

Score one for Kayla!

Emily was dead asleep, but before she went down for a nap I told her that when she woke up she could have cookies. Oh the mind of a 2 year old...as soon as she smelled those cookies she was up from her nap and eyeballing them!

So the rest of these pictures I couldn't decide on so I just did all of them :) ENJOY!

I did it!

I woke up at 5:00AM (I repeat AM) and went to the gym with Jessie this morning. Worked out, went by the post office, came home, woke up my munchy, who is looking at me like I am crazy, made breakfast (which happened to be a muffin) for Emily and Aaron, and sat outside to watched the sun come up and drank my coffee. I feel like an old woman! Now I'm going to do my Pathways and then take a shower. I'm pretty exhausted since I went to bed at 12 last night, but I think I'm going to like my new schedule!!

I don't know what to do with myself!!.

I am loving the new me. Actually, I guess I should rephrase that...I'm hating my life right now. Every muscle in my body hurts and I'm pretty sure it isn't going to get any better in the very near future. BUT, I am loving the energy that I have. Running for 30 minutes and only burning 300 calories really puts into perspective the spicy chicken sandwich and amazing salty fries from Wendy I wanted so bad earlier. It makes me want to eat healthier ALL the time...which in turn makes me feel better also. It's pretty much a win-win-WIN situation.

So I got something in the mail today:

It's my offical packet for the printing company that I'm going to start going through...and guess what...I was approved for the 'PRO'-fessional branch of the company. It's so exciting and just while flipping through the booklet that they gave me with all of their products, the possibilities are endless!! I feel like I have one more step in the process...my business licence. SOON, in fact, as soon as I can get down to the courthouse and contact someone about the whole process I am going to start that. THEN I will be official!!!

Secondly...I started an in depth Bible study yesterday. It was AMAZING!! So amazing that for the first time in a long time, I want more. I spend 3 hours doing homework last night just go and listen to a 3 1/2 hour sermon on what I had done homework on and I came home and wanted to read more and do more homework!!!! NEVER in my life have I wanted to do homework. It's pretty insane.

So here's my dilemma (other than that I can't spell the word)...what do I do with myself? I want to play with all of my new photo stuff and I want to do homework and no matter how early I wake up...there is still not enough time in the day to do everything I want.

My mother in law's going to kill me...

Well...I know I said I would have Christmas pictures up soon, but lets be honest....I haven't had the time to do them. It's horrible, I know. Emily is a trooper like I knew she would be and hasn't slowed down much since she's been sick but she is definatly her mothers daughter when it comes to not feeling good. She is CRAB-BEE! With Emily's crankiness and me joining the gym for some "sanity time" I haven't had much computer time.
So, lets get to why my mother in law is going to kill me...because I'm about to post pictures of her on my blog for everyone to see. I weighed my options here, and figured I would chance death in order to put up so cute pictures of Emily and her Grammy playing on new year weekend:

Emily peaking out.

Now, this may look like a cute picture, but Kim is actually gasping for air. Apparently Emily has her daddy's smell. I wear I saw a green cloud poof out as Kim stuck her head out! I guess this is one of the benefits of having "an oh so beautiful and young (I repeat young) grammy"

Last night I went to go spend some time with Aaron's Aunt Katie. She found out yesterday that she beginning the process of a miscarriage. Since I know all to well how she was feeling and what she was going through, I took her some flowers, a card, a big hug and a few tears. When I was leaving I noticed that the girl across the street was taking pictures of the sky. I turned and saw, quite possibly the most beautiful sunset I've seen in a while.

I pulled over to the side of the road and snapped a few pictures. With cars honking at me like I was crazy I just sat there and thought "WOW". I wish Katie would have seen it because for me it felt like a rainbow. Like God's promise that everything will be okay and that even though it might not make sense to us now, everything is part of his plan. In the last year we have now had 3 pregnancy's go tragic. The first being Ashley, quite possibly the sweetest girl I know, lost her baby just 2 weeks before her due date last Dec. Then I had a miscarriage in March at 6 weeks and now Katie at 7 weeks. It's like he was reminding all of us of his almighty existence.

So, as I said earlier, I've been going to the gym. After I went on a walk with my besty Jessie a few days ago, I decided it was past time to get a gym membership. So I went last night with Jessie who attempted to kick my but into shape and then AGAIN this morning. I went at 7...yes, me, up, at 7AM...it's amazing I know, but I was happily rewarded for my early rise, because I got to watch the sun come up. Now granted, I haven't seen very many sunrises but this one was stunning. I think I might just keep getting up early if this is going to be my reward:

One last picture to leave you with. With a little help from her dolly, some string cheese, orange juice, my pillowtop mattress cover thoughtfully stuffed into a laundry basket to make a comfy seat, and some pretend guitar hero, Emily is feeling MUCH better today:

Painting

So I have a new hatred for painting. I'm not sure why. I used to think it was relaxing...but painting with a 2 year old is anything but that. For the last few days I've been cleaning up the loft in order to make it into a bedroom for Emily. She is in love with her bed, which I figure is a good sign. So all day today I've been painting her room to match her bedding. I will have pictures soon, but for now I'm going to go take a nap and recuperate from my exhausting adventure...plan for the next child: Paint and decorate BEFORE they are born.

Terror

I learned something new today. Since I have made it almost 2 1/2 years with Emily only getting mildly sick once, All bets are off in the 'terror' department when she is getting sick. She was in a horribly bad mood before she went down for a nap and then even WORSE, believe it or not, when she woke up, and then worst than that when the sun started to go down. Sure enough when she was getting ready to go to bed tonight, I began to see the first signs of the dreaded green snot of death and a little cough. We shall see how the next few days treat me. I might not be getting a whole lot of me time or blog time in but she is a trooper so we shall see....wish me luck because I have been fortunate enough to not have to learn how to deal with this.

Boiling Points

I can feel it rising up in the back of my neck like a temperature gauge. Sometimes I cool off, but sometimes I feel like I'm about ready to explode. I keep praying about it and the more I try to give it to God, the more it seems to irritate me. Is this Satan trying to stir trouble or God telling me to do something about it? I assume that if there is any hatred in my feelings then it MUST be Satan. So for now...I give it to God and pray that in the end, everything ends up the way it should be. Everything happens for a reason...right? RIGHT?!

Remodel and Christmas

Hello everyone. As you can see, I made some New Years changes to my blog...comments and suggestions are welcome. I entitled it "running with scissors" because it's a common childhood idiom, that I feel explains my life in a nutshell. I feel like I'm always running around, slightly on edge, dangerously on the line of sanity and, well, not; quite literally running with scissors. If I just took the time to slow down, it would change both situations entirely. But I have a sneaky feeling that, since I plan on having more children, for now, it's just going to get worse. So for now...I am a crazy, slightly strung out, eternally happy, mom to a wonderfully perfect (although often the cause of my low levels of sanity) daughter, who is madly in love with her hardworking, ridiculously understanding and handsome husband (who equally contributes to my sanity factor), who loves God, and has a great passion for photography that feels as though the majority of the day that she is just running with scissors.



Also, I plan on spending the rest of today editting the masses of Christmas pictures I have. So here's one to hold you over until tomorrow.

Candy Cane Blues

Over the weekend I was told by a few people that Emily was pointing to her teeth and saying "ow" while she was eating some sort of candy. As part of my New Years Resolution I had said that I would be better about giving Emily candy, but that doesn't always mean that I can control a Granny or Grammy or Aunty from slipping her some while I'm not looking. So with cookies, and sugar plums, fudge and candy canes still floating around from the holidays, she was bound to get much more sweets that I wanted.
This morning while she was sitting in the bathtub and I was brushing her teeth, she said "ow" and opened her mouth. I asked her to show me where the "ow" was and she stuck her finger in the back of her mouth. When I tilted her head back and looked in her mouth I thought for sure I was going to find a little black dot...or 2 (note: she does NOT get that much candy and I didn't have my first cavity until I was 17) Instead what I found was, not one, but TWO big, pearly, half emerged, molars. when I looked on the bottom, sure enough there where 2 new teeth there also. So hopefully this is the cause of her sensitivity because I REALLY was not looking forward to having to strap her down to a dental chair to be looked at.
You know the kids that you hear screaming in the back of the dentist office and you swear that the doctor must have forgotten to give them their numbing medicine? Mom comes out all sweaty and panicked looking, as the doctor swears to never enter anything pediatrics again...? Then you find out that all it was, was a few x-rays and a mouth mirror? THAT would be my Emily at the dentist. So, instead of thoroughly embarrassing myself...I'm going to lay of the sweets completely now that the holidays are over!!

Lost it!

I feel like I've lost it!...in more ways than one actually. I feel like I've lost my talent. I know it's not true, but I feel like I'm in a photographic funk. When I look at my pictures I feel like I should be better instead of just being happy with where I am now. Maybe it has something to do with looking at other photographers work. I have to tell myself "these people have been doing the same thing for much longer than you have, kayla." They have a system, they have a routine, and they have the experience that gives them the confidence I wish that I had.

Has anyone noticed that all of a sudden everyone and their mother is a "photographer"?! You know when you buy a new car that you swear NO ONE has, but then you get on the road and just on the 10 mile drive to your house you see about 300 of them? I feel this way with my job. When people ask "So, what do you do for a living?" and I say "photographer", 9 times out of 10 the response is "oh yeah?! that's cool! I like to take pictures too." I would like to say "that's great, but there is a difference between picking up a camera at the right time and clicking the button and being psychotically passionate about it". There is lighting, composition, knowledge of the camera itself, color, creativity, and even a little yoga in there. You have to be able to visually see it with your eyes, click with your brain, have your camera set right, and be in the right place at the right time all within a 100th of a second. THEN, with all of those things falling perfectly into place be able to get 'the shot'.

Imagine with me for a second:

*Emily is being cute, jumping on the bed in her pajamas that conveniently have a tutu built into the pants. Aaron is laying just to the side with a old comfy feather pillow under his head. The pillow has a little tear in the corner of it. The blinds are closed, but the sun is going down and shining perfectly through the backside of the blinds. Aaron starts to play pillow fight with Emily and one little feather poofs out the hole, and glows as it drifts in and out of the sunlight gleaming through the blinds and lands softly on the bed. "BOOF", Aaron hits Emily again and as she falls on the bed, rolling in hysterical laughter, "poof", 2 feathers come out of the tear that I see has gotten bigger. With all of this noticed and so not to disturb the moment much I walk around the side of the bed, open the blinds all the way and sneek out to grab my camera*

Of course this is all a hypothetical situation but if you can't literally SEE (in your head) where I'm going with this then I apologize, because I can see the AMAZING picture that this would create after that pillow busted open a little more. I would take a deep breath, steady my camera, close my eyes, say a little prayer to God that the next "BOOF" would result in my bedroom being throughly engulfed in glowing sunlit feathers that slowly drifted down to my bed as my husband and daughter laugh hysterically. A completely candid moment that was seen before it happened.

I believe that a "true" photographer has to have this mindset. 'See' the moment before it happens, prep the moment for lighting and color, remove anything that you don't want anyone seeing (i.e. dirty underwear or a beer can that would DESTROY the picture or result in hours of photoshop) ALL without disturbing the moment that, cross your fingers, will happen.

Of course this is not the photographer I am claiming to be, but when say that I am a "photographer" this is what I'm telling people that I am striving to become.

It's a new year!!

...but first some things from the last day of 2009. Aaron's Aunt Katie and her fiancé Jon, make it official!

While traveling up to Pine Mountain Club to spend New Years with Aaron's granny we saw the moon rise up over the mountains and it was BEAUTIFUL! After thoroughly being 'Tourist Tom' and stopping enough times to drive Aaron and Kaylee a little batty, I found out that I had actually captured something rare. Apparently it was a "blue moon". For those of you who don't know what it is, like I didn't, even though I hear it all the time, it is when 2 full moons occur in the same month. Only a few times every 19 years. I took pictures of it because it was so bright. Almost annoyingly bright as we drove across Carrizo Plains in the dark. I captured it's beauty and then quickly thought of my elementary days and how it would have been the perfect night to go toilet papering.

and finally...A picture of the three of us as Aaron and I mash Emily's head for our New Year's kiss.

So far my New Year has been great. Lots of great food and lots of fun and games with family. While I sit here on the couch, being a bum. I hear dishes being washed, and Margie getting ready to cook an amazing lunch, I'm sure. Kim is trying to help while Me, Katie, Kaylee, Willy, Andrew and Chelsea's boyfriend Adam play Phase 10. Willy is winning by a long shot and let this be recorded that it is the first time that Kaylee is not whoopin' up on everyone. Emily was running around chasing the dogs with a handful of carrot cake but has finally crashed and curled up on Chelsea's lap to watch the rest of Dennis the Menis....I hope she doesn't get any new ideas. OH, haha, and my wonderful husband went with his uncle DJ motorcycle riding in the snow, so I probably won't see him until the sun goes down. This is my new year and so far I'm liking the direction it is going!