it was a chilly morn.... the summer world was covered in glitter.....

Superhero-superobsession!

Lately, Luke is REALLY into superheroes..... He mostly never argues with my outfit choice of the day if it involves Batman, Superman, The Hulk, and sometimes even Super-Grover.... This past weekend, he spent Saturday dressed in his new Junk-food Batman shirt (which has a really neat cape that can be attached with Velcro) and Sunday he decided to be Superman. He wore a little blue silk cape that came from Wal-mart.  He has also learned somewhere along the way that Batman "pights" (fights) and he will crouch down in this squirrel-like stance and then pop up and say "pight".  I love that he is getting to the point of imaginary play. 

Potty-schmotty

So.... Luke is over 2.... he loves to READ on the potty, but rarely does anything else happen on there.  We have a seat adapter thing (as shown) and a small potty, but so far we haven't been successful in the potty training.  He is interested in the idea of potty, so we encourage him to sit, but he just hasn't
"GOTTEN" it yet.  I know they say that it takes a bit longer for boys to become trained, but we are going to shoot for full-out potty training the week after Christmas! Wish us luck!!

A new favorite thing to do...

My sweet boy.... actually putting the ornaments on the tree.... His FAVORITE thing to do is to take them off and put them back on.  I totally meant to decorate the rest of the tree this weekend, but I just didn't get around to it.  We had our North Pole breakfast (a week later than I intended), we had lunch and a nap, and I made a casserole for dinner (Paula Deen's mexican chicken casserole), I did SEVERAL loads of laundry and dishes, made a trip to Wal-Mart and worked on my new garlands (I will post those soon).
I hope that you all had a lovely weekend! Monday arrives soon!

where oh where

Where have I been? Each day I think to myself, "I really need to blog"..... well..... I do! I really do! I love looking through the old posts and so.... I PROMISE, really really PROMISE that this is something that I am going to start doing again. I want to be able to go over most of my days with my sweet Luke and remember and re-live....

So.... we went to Alabama for Thanksgiving. Luke got to ride the golf-cart at my dad's for 2 solid days and now each morning (and every other opportunity to tell us what he wants to do) he says "I go ride in go-cart?!"

I GRADUATED!

yep.... I did it... I finally graduated!!! It sure took long enough! HA! Actually, this time just flew by. I started when Luke was 3 months old and next month, the little man will be 2 years old! I hope to get back into the swing of blogging again... baby steps.....

I am here.... and there....

Hi all... it has been a while! I have been busy with home projects and photography and my other blog.... I have a new site for my business and I have been better about posting there. You can visit me at www.wthestudio.com if you wish. In the meantime....

Photography posting

I get a lot of questions via my email and facebook about photography. I think that I am will start sharing some of them here. I know that good photos and techniques are important in blogland, but they are super-important in the everyday world of preserving life's memories. It is highly unlikely that anyone who picks up a camera (either your point and shoot or your fancy DSLR) is going to immediately know how to get the best shot, so I figured that you could benefit from my thousands of dollars of tuition :). hehe

Today we are going to talk about composition. This sounds easy-peasy... right? Well you will be surprised how easy it actually is to take a precious moment from "okay, cool" to "WOW" just by changing YOUR POINT OF VIEW. We are so used to just pointing the camera and clicking. Try getting down at a different level. That cute baby is adorable when you are standing over him, but how about trying a shot at his level? See what a difference your positioning makes!? It turns into a much more dynamic shot!

Luke's first SLIDE!

We took Luke to the park down by the riverfront on Saturday afternoon. It was the first pretty day that we have had in such a long time. I think everyone has had cabin fever because there were like 500 kids running around (not really but close). When we got there, I saw the massive amounts of people and I decided we should just turn around and leave and find another park. Luke surprised me and had a great time playing on ALL of the slides. He even did the "BIG SLIDE" and LOVED it.

toy cameras

I thought I would take this post in a bit of a different direction. I am so excited that I have been able to take the lens from a toy plastic Diana camera and mount it into my DSLR. I snapped a quick picture this afternoon when the sun was barely peeking out and I am just giddy with the results.

Valentine's Day

well... Happy Valentine's day! We ended up at the emergency after-hours clinic with another ear infection tonight. Not the most romantic way to spend the holiday... but I am so thankful for my sweet boy. It has been nothing short of nuts lately. We have been without a dryer since Saturday and it is finally fixed (thanks to my sweet Father in law and husband). Tomorrow I will tackle the laundry.... tonight.... I sleep... I hope.... you never know with a sick baby!

MLK jr day!

Hello.... Is this thing on?
For the last month or so, Luke has been using EVERYTHING for a telephone (refer to above picture, he even uses my UGGS). It is so funny. Once he finds a "telephone" he goes off and has little conversations with the person on the other end. He even tries to run into his playroom for some privacy! It is so very funny to see what he comes up with each day.

Today we had a rare treat to spend time together as a family on a weekday! Unfortunately, Luke was sick with a fever all night. At 5am, we woke up and took some more generic tylenol and grabbed some milk in a sippy cup and I turned on the TV and watched "Pingu" (a British clay-mation show that Luke has loved for a very long time... we can only find it on NetFlix in case anyone wants to check it out). Finally around 7ish the boys got up and went into the living room and THEY FELL ASLEEP! I knew it was quiet, but I would have never guessed that those two were snuggled up on the couch!
Luke's fever did finally give us the first part of the day to go and eat lunch. We had planned on Chick-Fil-A, and instead of going in and letting Luke play in the playground for the first time, we went through the drive thru and we grabbed some cupcakes for dessert. Of course, we brought a few extras home! After we came home, we played for a little bit and then Luke and I went and took a very long nap. Josh had time to play PS3. After we got up, I tried a new recipe for dinner and we are watching The Bachelor while Luke plays here in the living room. We have had an awesome day and I am so very thankful for my boys!

uh oh... nooooooo

Getting ready this morning was an adventure. I normally plug in and turn on my hair straightener and give it time to warm up while I go and gather up my clothes for the day, brush my teeth and sometimes I have time to refill the doggy water bowls.... But today... (cue the scary music) MY HAIR STRAIGHTENER WOULD NOT WORK! It never got hot! This is almost as bad as those few times in my life where my hair dryer quit working..... The last time I had a problem with my hair straightener was when Josh and I went to Gatlinburg before we found out that I was pregnant and I was vomiting so violently that somehow my hair straightener hit the floor and split into pieces!
Back to getting ready...
I tried to use my tiny hair straightener that I bought because I thought that I "wanted bangs". It doesn't get very hot so I had to go searching for my old giant barrel curling iron (because that thing gets REALLY hot). I ended up straightening my hair with a curling iron. I think this is very ironic.

Anyhoo, we made a trip to Wal-Mart and I purchased a new straightener. I will let you know how it works out tomorrow. Also on our way home, we smelled a skunk. Luke must have smelled it too because he started shaking his head and saying "soo wee" (shoo wee) and we just cracked up! He is at that age where he just randomly says things or repeats things. I hope everyone had a great weekend. We are going to try to do something fun tomorrow because Josh and I actually have the day off together!

Decades of waiting.....

Sooooo guess what!?

I get to see.... that guy up there today! The Cosby Show was one of the very few shows that I was allowed to watch growing up and I still watch the reruns today and I can pretty much quote them all! I loved his parenting style and his relationship with his "kids" and I can only hope that I will have the grace and the wisdom to emulate that with my own family. I am super excited to finally see him in person today! Thank you, Josh, for an awesome present!!

For a while I have been ignoring my blog while reading all the wonderful posts of others and today I decided (again) to get serious with my blogging. I am determined to just share my day and, of course, the things I love and just let this blog be whatever it is meant to be. I think that I suffered from a combination of bloggy-burnout, stress from school, and time-management issues. I have realized that I love looking back at my old posts and it is a shame that I haven't been keeping up with it like I originally intended.

So here is to a fresh start...

Tonight, I ate reheated pizza from a place I really don't like. My son loves pizza and he wasn't too keen on it either. After not really eating our pizza, we managed to eat some fudge stripe cookies. Don't judge, he wants to eat EVERYTHING that I eat, so we both had to have cookies. I am no sitting on a very lumpy couch. Why is it lumpy? Because I think 50% of all the toys that Luke owns are STUFFED behind the back cushions. I have given up trying to retrieve them for the 45th time today and I will continue my battle after he has gone to bed. I am afraid that my cellphone has now gone to join all the toys behind the couch cushions so I am going to have to sign off! Enjoy a little picture of Luke and Josh and their new nightly ritual of eating ice cream in the middle of the kitchen floor!