Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Best Friends

Recently, Liam had a surprise visitor from California. Spencer knew for several weeks that Liam's best friend was going to be flying in but kept it a secret from him until they met him at the airport. Spencer told me that if he's known it was to be a reunion such as theirs then he would have brought his video camera. You would have thought they had been seperated for years rather than a few months.

Long before Liam ever met JJ he knew of him from his grandparents and considered him his best friend. He would constantly speak of imaginary trips to California to visit his best friend.

Once he actually met JJ, they couldn't help but be fast friends. While JJ was here for a short visit, they got to spend several evenings of play together and to top it all off, we got to babysit him one night so Liam and he had a blast. Although JJ clearly displayed that he was the big brother in his family and Liam clearly showed that he was the only child. And we all know what that means. :)

Turns out JJ had never seen Star Wars (the originals) before, so Liam delighted in showing him his favorite episode (Return of the Jedi) and telling him ALL about it. Here they are on the couch, thick as thieves before they had to be seperated to go to sleep. They look almost as if they could be brothers.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Show IT

Early in the morning and I should have been in bed ages ago but I feel the need to post about my dear beloved newborn.

!!!!!

No, you haven't missed anything quite that big. I am not capable of hiding something of that magnitude.

I am referring to my dear little website that I have been creating, not quite for 9 months. But, just as a child is, it is a constant work in progress. However, I am feeling the need to finally let the world see the fruits of my labors.

I hope that you love it as it greatly reflects me and my personality. Enjoy.

My Showit Site.

One last note. THANK YOU DJ!!! Your program ROCKS!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Miss Lilah Claire

This little one is the most enchanting little darling. Her personality just shines. Her mother will tell you that she has quite the temper to go along with her red hair. Speaking of red hair, I am terribly jealous of it. It is the most beautiful brilliant shade.
And look at those little bitty teeth. Who can resist the first baby teeth in such a charming smile?This one is my favorite. Such a little beauty. Pop up flashes don't always do people justice but I think this time it did a remarkable job in capturing the color and sparkle of Lilah's eyes.
After such a long day, little ones can't help but get a bit tired.
But tired or not, one must keep on the move in order to keep oneself awake by all means.
One more crooked grin before I say goodnight.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Catching Up Is Hard To Do

So things have been kind of yucky for me. Work has been sucking the brains out of my head and my body has been all out of whack switching between medicines and trying to get used to it. I have also been slaving away at getting my website up and running. I am so sorry that I have been neglecting thes blog for so long. I used to be so faithful with it.

SOOO this is going to be a long one.

Several weeks ago, actually about a month, my aunt got together a little gathering of friends that used to be in the same congregation that have since moved on to get married, start families and so forth. It was very nice because people came from as far away as Florida and the place was full of friendly faces that had not been together in many moons.

A good friend of mine does face painting and so the kids got the special treat of having their imaginations aided by being turned into whatever animal or character they desired. Below you will see my little man as a doggie.

This is our little cousin Reed as a tiger trying to show off his strength in pulling this wagon full of kiddies.Liam and Riley are as thick as thieves whenever they get together. I love the aged look of this shot and how serious they look. I know it's not the clearest but it's still a favorite for me. Don't know if you noticed that they are both dogs. I wonder who got painted first? Something tells me that Liam was the follower in this case.This is my gorgeous cousin, Ms. Lilah Claire. I am so envious of her red hair. And this is my amazing, talented Aunt Hannah who is not only gorgeous but can belt out songs like no one's business. Every Thanksgiving, since us kiddos don't have to work, all of us gather at the in-law's house to be ALL together for a rare and precious moment in time. This was the first time we had all been together in Steve & Nettie's new home. I think it helped the place feel a little bit more like home than it has been. I still miss the old house.

Here is Liam waiting for the rest of us to join in on the scrumptious breakfast prepared.

This was the first day that I broke out my brand spankin' new 70-200mm Image Stabilization Lens since I wanted to make sure it was covered under our homeowner's insurance first. Spencer got his hands on it right away. I kind of like this shot.My brother-in-law, Wes, is pretty much always goofy in front of the camera.
One of Spencer's brother's got a hold of the camera and took the next shot of Spencer. I'm rather partial to it myself. ;)We brought Milo over since we were spending the night and didn't want to leave her alone in the backyard for that long.
This is Wesley's wife, Emily. Is she not gorgeous and striking? She would not be happy with me for posting this but, oh well. I was happy to get this little intimate moment with Aunt Barbara loving on Lilah. She is such a doting Granny.
In case you couldn't tell by the genetic gorgeous genes that were obviously passed down to her daughter, this is Lilah's mother, Jessica.I absolutely LOVE this shot. So much action going on. It's like cutting out a slice of our life that day and posting it on here for the world to see.I don't know if I have ever mentioned it before, but I LOVE feet. Especially baby feet. If you were ever in any doubt of that fact, you will not be after the next three shots.This is my other beautiful sister-in-law, Janelle, who is also opposed to having her picture taken. Love her to death. She and her husband are going to be staying in Covington for the next few months before they move to Charleston, SC and I am beyond thrilled about it. I'm going to eat up the time I get to spend with her until they go.OH! Did I forget to mention that Batman dropped by for a visit? He's a lot smaller in person. Much more loveable though. :)


More to come soon of my sweet little red headed cousin but I must say goodnight for now.

Monday, November 17, 2008

A Very Important Day

I don't have much time to blog because my eyelids are growing heavy, but I couldn't let the day pass without sharing something awesomely important in my life that happened today.

Today, Liam officially and legally became my dear wonderful husband's son! YAY! At long last I can breathe a deep sigh of relief that legally, our loose ends are tied. This is something I have not mentioned on here just because it was too important of a thing that I just had to keep it close to my heart until it was over.

We met in the judge's chambers today and it was all incredibly quick and easy. The judge said that by the testimony given and the big smile on Liam's face he was signing the papers. At that Liam turned around and gave Specer this huge hug. It was great...absolutely great.

It was all done before 10:00 a.m. and I didn't have to be at work until 1:00 p.m. so we decided to go have a nice big celebratory breakfast at Cracker Barrell. Below is a picture of my two men enjoying playing the famous peg game on all of the tables.

Liam's main thought of the day: "Daddy, I'm glad the judge made you my real daddy now."

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Beauty

Some time back, my sister and I had a little photo excursion in downtown Covington. I have been delayed in editing them as other things have come up in the interim. So I have taken the time I have now to work on them. We didn't have the best of days for pictures as it started raining not long after we got to town but we did the best we could with what we had.

Is she not just absolutely gorgeous?This one is most definitely a favorite. . . . . .and another.
We got a few funny looks for the next few.

I tried a little photoshop trick with this one. Not sure I like how it turned out. I love the image of Sara though. Sara has the most beautiful smile.


After we left town and were headed home, Sara spotted an abandoned house that was too cool to pass up. I love this shot the most from that series.
Now I shall leave you to enjoy these images. It is extraordinarily early and I cannot sleep but must endeavor to.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Neglect

So I know I neglect my dear blog a lot more now than I used to and it makes me sad because I loved writing to all of you on here, but not much can be done about that. Life is a busy thing and we can only do our best to be able to slow it down at times just to enjoy it. Or if not slow it down, try to enjoy the busyness.

I am slowly but surely getting my website in gear. I have a shipment of beautiful business cards coming my way from Moo that will be proudly distributed to local and Atlanta boutiques. Let's hope that I will get a few bites. Let me explain that. I went to a friend's house for a girl's night and she gave me some great advice. She and her husband are entrepreneurs and they have a successful wine business. She said that it has taken them 10 years to get as far as they have and they would enter their wine into all kinds of contests and they would get their name out there. She told me that her husband, who loves to fish, always says that you can't catch a fish unless you dip your fishing rod into the water. Invaluable advice that I intend to put into practice.

There are some inspiring words for your mid-week and since I do not like to put up a post without a picture, I will give you some hydrangea pictures to remind you of Spring.




Monday, November 3, 2008

Sticks and Smiley Faces

So my son's school has this system of monitoring behavior that involves sticks, smiley faces, squiggly faces and frowny faces. Trying to keep it short, let's just say, the less you move stick the better and you get a smiley face. Alternatively, the more you move you end up with a frowny. Needless to say, you don't want your child to get a frowny face.

Liam has the tendency to stay in the squiggly face zone. This would be mainly from the seemingly hereditary talking gene. It is not unusual to hear Spencer or I telling Liam in the morning, "Okay, this let's get a smiley face today and move ZERO sticks!" (for the record, you can move one stick and still maintain your smiley for the day)

Spencer and I have resorted to a reward system to keep Liam's behavior in the smiley zone and it has been through some trial and error. Spencer promised that the first time Liam got a whole week of smileys that he would take him to Stone Mountain. Well it took about a month and a half to be able to fulfill that promise.

Since that time we have started rewarding him on a more reasonable basis. He went 3 days with no squigglys and got to go to Stevie B's pizza buffet. Two more days with no squigglys and something else small but equally exciting for him.

Point of this post being, we finally got to Stone Mountain a week ago and had a great time. Liam was convinced that he was going to run up the whole mountain. Ah the joy of youth. Once we got there, it didn't take long for him to realize that even with all of his "stolen" energy, this was an impossible feat.

It also didn't take long for Grandpa and I to relaize that even walking up the mountain was not going to be feasible if we wanted to enjoy the rest of the day (note to self: must go to gym more). In the light of that fact, most of these pictures were, yet again, taken by Spencer. I'm beginning to get jealous for my own camera.
I swear it looks like he is about to fall flat on his face here.SUPERMAN!! Or at least his little brother.Taking a little breather with GrandNettie.{{sigh}} Ain't he cute?The boy was not happy with me at all for making him put on a short sleeve short underneath his long sleeved "alien" shirt but he was glad I did after he realized how quick you get hot when climbing a mountain.Not exactly sure what is going on here...not even sure I want to know. Hmmmm.I love the shadowplay in this one. Not sure what he was doing though.So Grandpa and I were heading to the tram to ride up the mountain and Spencer called me to let me know that halfway up the mountain Liam informed him, "OH! I gotta go poo!!" And when Liam says this he means it right now. There were no restrooms on the way up so the resulting pictures look a bit like this...It really is a beautiful view from up there.Obviously he had already gone to the bathroom by the time I took this crazy picture.For the way back down, Grandpa, Liam and I took the last tram down the mountain and Liam loved it. Grandpa held him so that he could see. I love this picture of the two of them. I can't tell you how many times Steve has been to this mountain but experiencing it with Liam he was grinning just as broadly as if it was his first time.One last dear shot to round this long, photo filled post up. :) Love my two men.