Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts

September 30, 2013

Becoming a Big Girl



I've had a great time the last week and half with the Princess while the boy's been on vacation with his grandparents. One of my favorite outings with the Princess was when we went to the Botanical Gardens for some pictures with her new kitty cat fascinator (we found it at Claire's) and her Marie dress.



She's a fun one but don't let the cuteness fool you, she's a handful. We've made some big steps to getting her ready to be a big sister. Some of those big steps have come with growing pains. Potty training was attempted and abandoned-we'll try again in a couple months. Her big girl bed has been set up and she's accepted it...for the most part. Every once in a while she'll still try to insist on sleeping in the crib but buying her new Minnie Mouse bedding went a long way to convincing her that the big bed is the way to go. Lastly, time outs are now a regular thing...it probably sounds odd to throw that in with potty training and a real bed but in our house, discipline is viewed as a good thing. She's old enough to be corrected, to be held accountable and to grow as a person. It's not easy or fun for any of us...today a two minute time out for putting clothes from the hamper into the toilet turned into a 20 minute time out because until she sat on the step for two minutes without getting up or playing, her time kept resarting. But in the end, she did it and more importantly, she apologized. The icing on the cake was when I asked if she would make good choices, her answer was a loud "yes, ma'am" instead of the quiet mouthing of the words she's tried to get away with in the past. She's independent and bold and I wouldn't change that for anything but she's also going to be respectful and kind even if it takes us 20 minutes to do a two minute time out. Meanwhile, I'm hoping the blue dye we have in the toilet water comes out of the clothes she dumped.

September 27, 2013

I'm Back...again.

I'm probably the worst blogger ever when it comes to unexplained blogging sabbaticals. I haven't written since JULY! How crazy is that?! Here's the thing, stuff happened. I probably won't go into great detail on all the "stuff" but I'm back and here's a quick run down of what we've been up to...

*Most importantly, I'm still pregnant. We had a couple complications  (given my history, no real surprises there) but everything is going well now and I'm already huge which is good...mostly. 

*Joshua has a new civi job...this one takes a little explanation. His old civi job fired him. Yup. Fired. He's never been fired before and despite the fact that they always gave him glowing reviews and he's never had a complaint, they fired him...basically, they were tired of having to work around his Guard schedule and responsibilities so when he came back from his two week AT, they let him go. I wasn't surprised because they've been anti-military since day one but I was angry and if I think about it too much now, I'm still angry...but I'm also grateful. He hated that place. They were HORRIBLE. Not everyone who worked there of course but yeah, horrible is the only word for it. Just to give you an idea of the atmosphere, before he deployed they were interviewing people for an open position and he overheard one of the managers say that there was "no chance in hell we're hiring that guy-he's another Guard guy and that's the last thing we need." Then, when Joshua returned from deployment, several of his co-workers thought it was funny to surprise him with loud noises just to see if they could make him jump. Classy, right?! Anyway, I say I'm grateful because his new job is better. I mean it's not hard to be better than his old job but it's WAY better. Like God did an awesome thing better. The hours are a little odd but we're good with odd and he enjoys the work.

*We've started with our new homeschool group and curriculum-Classical Conversations if you're interested. It couldn't be going better. I'm tutoring the 4/5 yr old class which has been a blast and the boy is amazing us with how much he's learning. Actually, our little 2 yr old princess is even trying to get in on the action sometimes.
(1st day of CC-our homeschool group which meets once a week and our 1st day of homeschool at home-yup, in pjs)

(our favorite project this semester...we created a multi-level eco-system...I plan to write a post with more details to come but if you want to build one yourself, you can find the step-by-step tutorial we followed here)

*I was asked to be a pattern tester for a new "ruffle top" which I loved making but unfortunately in the process my sewing machine died :( so now I'm at a bit of a standstill when it comes to sewing.
(here's the finished project...once the pattern is available for purchase, I'll post a link to it)

*The boy is, at this very moment, on vacation with his grandparents at Disney World. I'm jealous. I'm really jealous. But I'm also really pregnant and on travel restrictions...kinda going crazy with cabin fever. I have, however, enjoyed the one-on-one time with our princess. We switched some of the kids furniture around in preparation for Baby 3.0 so now the princess is in a big girl bed and loving it-still waiting to find out the gender but Joshua's trying to convince me not to wait so we'll see if that changes.

That's been us the last couple of months. I plan on spending the next week reading all the blogs I love and have been missing to get caught up on your lives!

PS>I just got a pic from Grandma of our little man and a couple of his cousins at Disney World's Pirate's League...so wish I was with him!

May 6, 2013

Parisian/Marie Custom Disney Dress


Our daughter's favorite Disney character is Marie from Aristocats so it was without question that I would have to make her a Marie dress.

If you saw the Pirate Minnie Dress I made last month, you'll see that I used the same pattern with just a few modifications.


Once again, I made a 2T dress although our daughter really fits an 18mos dress better because...
A-I want her to be able to wear it to Disney World this fall
&
B-I always prefer too big to too small.

I spun the skirt around to put the ruffle panel in the back rather than the front.

I took out the loops in the back and made it a true halter top with an open back.

I elongated the bodice and took an equal length (about 3 inches) off the skirt so that I could fit a fuller-sized Marie on the bodice and give it an almost flapper-like low waist.

Because the skirt was shortened, the number of ruffle layers in the ruffle panel in the back was essentially cut in half.


If you want to make this dress yourself, you can find wonderful step-by-step directions with the pattern from Fairytale Pattern Designs on Craftsy and the embroidery design from Etsy.

If I had it to do over again, I might skit the ruffle panel altogether in the back and and take some of the extra fullness out of the skirt but that's just me being picky.

March 18, 2013

Princess Pics

Over the weekend, I had a little fun with my camera. I got my wedding dress out and took some shots of our daughter in it.

(I'm a horrible bride-it's been 7+ years and I STILL haven't had my dress professionally cleaned/preserved...but I will...soon...) 









This is why having a daughter is fun...makes her first sentence, "I'm mad at Mommy" so much easier to deal with.

March 14, 2013

Time Flies

Hello blogging world...you may (or may not) have noticed my total desertion of this page for the last month (and a half). To be honest, nothing major really happened to drive me away. I just needed a break. I needed to focus on my family and myself. 

Here's a (hopefully) quick breakdown to catch you up...

We cracked down on homeschooling and have officially decided to go with Classical Conversations next year and are super excited about it. 

We had a snow-pocalypse that was a ton of fun...

I got a new .22 rifle for Valentine's Day and we took some good friends shooting... (the boy and one of his best friends had a blast)

I escaped. I took a long weekend and flew down to El Paso (thereby leaving the children alone with Joshua for the first time ever!) to visit this awesome lady...

(cell phone pic...eh, sorry)

Joshua and I had a weekend away...hotel, theater tickets (Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan-I highly recommend seeing it!-that woman is in better shape at 60 than I am today!), dinner out...the basics

In related news, the boy also got to see Peter Pan as his first broadway show with his Grandma. He LOVED it!...he wasn't so much a fan of the pics I insisted we take before he left but I couldn't resist. I love my bow-tie-lovin', suspender-wearing little man!

Also, I've been on a sewing kick...big time. I made a couple new dresses for the girl...
(she was less than thrilled to do pics at that particular moment)
(I got the hat from Halo Heaven)

And finally, the biggest news (for me at least) was that I finally got my much coveted Brother PE-770 Embroidery Machine!!! I'm in love! This was the first thing I made...

So that's what we've been up to...kind of a crazy busy season for us but a good one. 

December 28, 2012

Daddy's Girl


With the chaos of the holidays, Joshua's birthday and the "crud" making it's way through our home, a not-so-small milestone has passed. 

Joshua has officially been home with our princess longer than he was away after she was born.

It's a big deal to all of us because missing her birth was one of the hardest parts of the deployment. No matter how prepared I was, I can still close my eyes and feel the heartache of his absence that day a year and a half ago.

When he returned, we were lucky in that she didn't show fear or anxiety around him and they bonded quickly. Of course it helped that she had a big brother to take her cues from but she and Joshua have a relationship all their own. Now, when he comes home in the evening, she throws her hands up and yells "Da" as she runs to his arms. I'm pretty sure in that moment, if she the ability to ask him for anything in the world, she'd get it.

Reintegration hasn't been a cake walk but milestones like this make it that much easier.

PS>I didn't do a full Christmas post but I have to post a couple obnoxious obligatory Mom pics from Christmas...it was a great year.



October 26, 2012

Still Alive

You may have noticed my totally unannounced hiatus. To be honest, I didn't even know I was going to take a break from the blogging/online world. A few days before our most recent trip to Disney we got swamped and a couple weeks later when we returned, our home internet was down because we had our roof replaced while we were on vacation. 

Good news: we now have a class 4 "hail-proof" roof...yeah, we'll see how hail-proof it is when it experiences an Oklahoma spring but I digress.

Once it was fixed and I could have hopped right back into the online swing of things but after a year of having my phone essentially sewn to my hand and my laptop rarely more than four feet from me (not a small thing since I had to get the extra large laptop so I could see pictures better), having some freedom from all the inter-connectedness was really nice. That said, I'm back because I missed reading the blogs and catching up with everyone...and also, I really missed writing about Disney. I love to help people plan their trips so I'm back. Disney, kids, Army and all. 

Speaking of Disney...here's some necessary picture highlights from this last trip (which we have decided was the best trip yet). 

Our son hit that ever-important 40" mark (check out all the Disney height restrictions HERE) and the first time he got on a "real" roller coaster, he put his hands straight up and never put them down...



Our dinosaur...it's a tradition to get him a dino face paint every trip.

Our princess...tell me a one year old doesn't pose.

The Pirate's League was a BIG hit again... 


Our Peter and Tink had a blast...

Who says a one year doesn't have fun at Disney World?!...


He didn't need a stroller seat of his own but at the end of the day, he appreciated it...

The boy vs Darth Vader...

The girl. Traumatized...

The boy was made a Jr Bell Hop at Tower of Terror. It was the most magical moment for him...before he was iffy on Tower of Terror. It's now his favorite ride...


The ONLY character our Princess wasn't scared of (and she actually was all smiles to see). Meeting Marie...

GG was able to make it again this year...the Princess loves her Great-Grandma



At the Ticket and Transportation Center after leaving Magic Kingdom for the last time this trip, the boy realizes that we're really going home and not just leaving the park for the day. Sad moment.

We had a great time as usual and I enjoyed my little internet hiatus but I'm glad to be back and look forward to posting more.

September 4, 2012

Spoiled!

Who's spoiled and has two thumbs? This girl.

Joshua surprised me with a new prime lens over the holiday weekend and I've had a blast playing with it. It's a Nikon 35mm 1.8G

I went straight to work to compare the bokeh, clarity and colors to my other prime (a 50mm 1.8D) and to my kit lens (18-70mm). I have to admit, I love prime lenses. Don't get me wrong, I like my kit lens-it's a decent all around lens and allows a bit more zoom than most kits that only go to 55mm but I'm in love with the bokeh of my primes. When it comes to the 35mm vs the 50mm, it's nice to not have to back up so much when doing portraits of little ones to get it all in but the bokeh is stronger with the 50mm...which I think can be a good thing and a not so good thing, depending on what you're wanting. I'm looking forward to taking my new 35mm to Disney and seeing what develops (pun fully intended).

Meanwhile, I've kept myself busy today hanging out with a friend and her baby...aka using them to play with my new lens...



(he wasn't a fan of being on his stomach at all)