I think there are mice in my attic

The title has nothing at all to do with this post.  I’m just sitting here in bed (when I should really be asleep) and I keep thinking I hear mice in the attic.  Oh, and today I stepped on a gecko inside my house and felt it wiggle under my bare foot.  Of course, when I stepped on it, I had no idea what it was.  I just knew I felt a tickle under my foot and prayed it wasn’t a roach.  Upon closer inspection, the writhing, wiggling object was only part of the gecko.  Did you know that a gecko’s tail continue to squirm for quite some time after becoming removed from the body?  Yeah.  They do.  I really could have done without first hand experience of that little fun fact.

Have I mentioned yet that I drank coke with dinner tonight?  Let me give you a little equation.  Megan+caffeine after 5:00 p.m=no sleeping.  There are other factors in that equation like the ever growing to-do list that’s racing through my mind and the fact that I think I hear little creatures in the attic and that I stepped on a gecko tonight and I have no idea where the rest of the little guy is or if he is plotting his revenge by climbing into my bed or maybe into my nose or ear.  Oh, and there is a wasp that has been trying desperately to get out of my dining room by flying repeatedly into the window.  But I don’t know where it is now.  I just know it’s inside my house.

God loves all creatures, big and small.  And it is spring time which I guess means they are out in full force.

I just wish they would leave my house.

So, since my last blog post (10 days ago!  So sorry, grandparents!), we’ve been up to lots of fun things.

Camryn is officially in a big girl bed.  No reason to move her out of the crib (i.e. no more little Thurman’s expected any time in the near future!), but no reason to keep her in the crib, either.  A friend of ours gave us the bed and so I thought I would let her try it out.  She has done amazing with it.  Stays in it all night, at nap time, but loves to climb in and out the rest of the day and smiles so big when you talk about her big girl bed.   She is really growing up!

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She loves my phone.  Loves to listen to “mumic” and loves to talk to daddy.  And as you can see from her knee, she is busy trying to keep up with her boys.  She is pretty rough and tumble, which I guess it to be expected with 2 big brothers!

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She is still my most willing subject as I practice, practice,and practice some more.

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With the gorgeous weather we’ve had lately, we’ve been busy playing in the backyard…making mud…playing in the sprinkler…eating ice cream…I can’t believe how much the boys still play with this tiny swing set.  The swings are long gone, but the bar is perfect for acrobatics!

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Want some hairstyling tips?  Need a little extra oomph?  Just add a little ice cream to your locks, and you’re guaranteed to get that bed head look.   It also helps if you wear a super high pony tail for part of the day.  Oh, and also get your bangs to that awkward growing out stage.   Girlfriend is a mess!

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I planted a small container garden this year.  Our tomatoes and cucumbers are growing brilliantly and I can’t wait to see if it actually produces some vegetables!

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Life is just sweet right now.  Busy….but so sweet.  I love these days, this season of life.  Even when I feel like I might lose it if I have to break up one more argument, pour one more glass of milk, get one more snack, wipe one more bottom or nose, or listen to one more story about Star Wars.  Even when all I can think about is getting to those precious hours after bedtime.  Even in the middle of Derek’s busy travel season and single mom-hood more weeks that I care to count, this life is so sweet and I wouldn’t trade these crazy years for anything in the world.

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Now to try to sleep.  Wish me luck.  And pray the critters stay away from my bed!

Beautiful {Pearland, TX Senior Photographer}

I had my first senior session last night, and let me just say, I had a total blast!  I loved every bit of it!  Toddlers are fun, but there is something so beautiful about this age…so much ahead of them, but already grown up in so many ways.  It felt more like hanging out with a friend than work.  It helps that Chelsea was gorgeous (inside and out, I must add) and fun and a natural in front of the camera.  And we could totally talk about things like Twilight and America’s Next Top Model.  I sometimes think I am still 18 on the inside!

Chelsea and Elizabeth, thanks so much for letting me take Chelsea’s pictures!  I had such a good time.  Enjoy your sneak peek!

Bluebonnets

Last weekend, I offered bluebonnet mini sessions, and I had 6 families come out and let me take pictures of them.  It was great!  I love the bluebonnets.

That being said, I have never even taken pictures of my own kids in the bluebonnets!  I decided to take them out on Wednesday night with the promise of Sprinkles frozen yogurt afterward.  (random sidenote…did you know that afterwards is not a word according to spell check?  I guess afterward is the correct way to say it.  Weird.  I always add an “s”!)

I didn’t get any pictures of the three of them together.  Typical.  I can get other kids to laugh and look at me and smile, but my own kids are so much harder.  I did get some good individual ones at least.

This one is so Connor.  He is big time in that awkward, closed-lip smile phase.   I could not crack him. He always buttons the top button on his shirt.  Always.

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Logan, on the other hand, is all smiles.  Even with the attitude he’s had lately (we are in one of those testing the boundaries phases with him…), it’s still so easy to get him to break into that famous Logan smile.

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And Miss Cami J.  Full of personality.  I couldn’t pick just one of her, so she gets a collage.

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We had a really fun night.  I love these three munchkins!

Galveston Day

Okay, it’s been less than 2 weeks so I guess I’m back to regular blogging.  Ha!  I really do have several posts written in my head, so we’ll see how long they take to get on here.

Derek had a conference in Galveston this week at the San Luis Resort and I decided that the kids and I needed to take advantage of that.  I originally thought we might all go spend the night at the hotel, but then I remembered how poorly we all sleep in the same room.  Staying in a hotel together is one of those things that is way more fun in my head than it actually turns out to be.  Besides that, we ended up having a girl’s night out on Monday night to celebrate a birthday.  So I hired a baby-sitter and went out to dinner instead.  Definitely the right choice!

Tuesday morning, we were all on the road to Galveston by 9:20, which is nothing short of a miracle considering how excited the kids were about this day since I let Connor stay home from school to go with us.  I declared it his mental health day.  Once we arrived in Galveston, we made a quick stop at the grocery store for rations: popcorn, pringles, beef jerky for Connor, and a sippy cup for Camryn.  (I could have sworn that she had her cup in her hand when we walked out the door, but I found it when we got home on the bookshelf.  Oops!)

The kids loved sitting on the balcony of Derek’s room.  It overlooked the pool and the ocean.  So pretty!  (Even if Galveston isn’t the prettiest beach in the world, it still looks nice from far away.)  After some snacks, we headed to the pool for some swimming.  One of the things we were all looking forward to was the slide.  But the water in the slide pool was freezing!  It didn’t stop Connor, but I had no interest in going on it, and Logan freaked out 3 times before I finally told him he was not allowed to go on the slide again.  He would plunge into the water, start screaming and flailing, completely forget how to swim, swallow a bunch of water, and come out crying.  I’m amazed it took him 3 times to figure out it was not fun!

Camryn was (thankfully) very cautious.  In fact, she only got all the way in on the steps once.  She ended up losing her balance and falling under. I was right there to grab her, but unlike Logan, it only took her once to figure out she didn’t like that.  After that, she only wanted to sit with me on the side, lounged from chair to chair, and was perfectly content watching her brothers swim from a distance.  That made being at the pool with 3 kids borderline relaxing!

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After awhile, the kids wanted to walk down to the beach.  We grabbed our toys and headed over, but we didn’t stay long.  It was crazy windy and pretty cold.  The pool was much more pleasant, so after about 45 minutes, we headed back to the San Luis.

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Finally, at 3:00, the kids were done.  We headed up to the room to clean up, watch tv, and relax until Derek was done with meetings and could join us for dinner.  We walked over to the Rainforest Cafe where I thought we would kill some time by riding the river ride.  Logan voted big fat no on that one.  He freaked out walking through the dark tunnel!  I guess Rainforest Cafe can be a little overwhelming.  I thought I would take him into the restaurant and show him what the ride would be like.  Of course, we walked in right as one of the “thunderstorms” was starting, and that was it.  He ran out, crying.  I wasn’t even sure we would be able to eat there after that!  But a little stuffed animal purchase, a pep talk from dad, and we were good to go.  He still didn’t like the thunderstorms, but he managed.  Surprisingly, Cam never freaked out, and Connor loved it.

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After dinner, he was much happier waiting outside while Derek and Connor rode the river ride.

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We finally headed home about 6:00.  We made an ice cream stop and once we got home, everyone went straight to bed.  I even fell asleep on the couch at 8:45, which is very rare for me, especially when Derek is not here!   We were all so worn out.  I couldn’t help but think about the summer after our day…it was a fun day, but exhausting.  That pretty much sums up summer days.  Only 38 more school days to go…

(all pictures taken with my iPhone.  So handy!  And even handier since I finally figured out how to get the pictures on my computer, which really isn’t complicated at all.  I just never thought to do it.  318 pictures later, I’m all downloaded!)

More Bluebonnets {League City Family Photographer}

I loved doing the mini sessions this weekend!  When I got to the field on Saturday morning, it was very cloudy and looked like it might rain.  Luckily it held off until I was done with the last Saturday morning session.  Then it proceeded to rain for the next couple of hours.  I was a little worried that all the rain would make the field too wet for the Saturday evening sessions, but the sun came out and it was beautiful!

Thanks so much to all the families for coming out and letting me take pictures of you guys!  It was great to meet some new people, and from a photography stand point, I feel like I learned a lot.  I sometimes look at other photographer’s work and feel like I have so much to learn and so far to go, but I also think that photography is one of those things where I will never know everything!  Every situation, every family, every child is so different.  I am truly loving every photo session, and I feel so thankful that I have the opportunity to pursue this (and friends who come out and let me practice on them!)

It was a whole new challenge to photograph a 9 year old boy and his 7 month old puppy!  Especially since there were several other people out there taking pictures, and KJ is quite the friendly puppy.  He wants to say hi to everyone!

Next up was my niece and nephew.  They were quite “googly” aka giddy, excited, and fun!

But they are so sweet, too.

First up in the afternoon was a new face.  It took little M a little while to warm up to me, but we still got some cute shots.

We did a few with her new puppy, too.  He was so cute!

You’ve seen these next family on my blog before.  My friend Angela let me take pictures of her kids just before Christmas when I was thinking about starting up my photography business.   They are such a beautiful family and so easy to photograph!

And finally, my last session of the day was one of Angela’s neighbors.  I met Monica and her little boy at the park a few weeks ago, but this was my first time to meet her husband and daughter.  They were so fun!  My vast knowledge of Star Wars-The Clone Wars really helped me get some smiles out of the sweet kids.

I know I said it before, but I’ll say it again…I wish the bluebonnets lasted longer!  In a few more weeks, this beautiful field will be gone until next year.  Such a bummer.

I wish bluebonnets lasted all year {League City Family Photographer}

They are gorgeous!  And I don’t even live in part of Texas where they bloom everywhere.  But I am so glad that a friend tipped me off to this field in my area (It’s in League City).

I had my first bluebonnet session last night with some good friends of mine.  Their boys are busy, but so fun!  They had no interest in taking pictures.  They were all about running around and having fun.  But, we made it work, and we came away with several cute ones.

I do have a few spots left for mini sessions on Saturday.  Here is an example of what you’ll get on a cd from those sessions, plus you get a 5×7 of your choice.

I seriously want to make my whole yard a field a bluebonnets.  For some reason, I think our homeowner’s association would frown on that. 🙂  So I guess I’ll just stick with this field.  It really is beautiful!

Happy Easter

Has it really been almost 2 weeks since I blogged?  What is up with my blogging lately??  I used to love blogging, but lately I just haven’t felt like I’ve had any blog worthy stories.  My kids still say and do funny and cute things, but I either don’t remember them or I don’t write them down.  I need to get back to my blogging roots and get some better posts on here!

Since my last post, we survived another week of Derek traveling to Germany.  The single mom thing is hard!  We get in a pretty good rhythm of things, but man am I exhausted by the time he gets home!

We’ve had a few days of school vacation, birthday parties, Easter egg hunts, soccer practices, and so on and so forth.

We had a good Easter.  Derek worked sound at church this morning, which means he was gone before the rest of us were even out of bed.  The kids got up and were thrilled to find their baskets with a few treats inside.  The each got a book, a chocolate bunny, and a few Easter eggs.  Camryn got some stickers in her basket…stickers are her current obsession.  I will be peeling stickers off every part of her body and every surface of my house for the next several weeks.

I tried to take a picture of the kids all dressed up before church, but none of them turned out very well.  For one thing, it was still really dark and cloudy and the kids were a little grumpy and I was frazzled from getting everyone out the door on my own. Pretty typical Sunday morning, especially on the mornings when Derek is gone.

We had a relaxing afternoon.  Derek took the kids to the park, and I made a big Easter dinner.  I made ham, homemade au gratin potatoes, rosemary buttered rolls (both The Pioneer Woman’s recipe…they were delish!), and salad.  It was a yummy dinner, and maybe only the second or third big Easter meal I’ve ever made.  I cook for my family, but I don’t love to cook if that makes sense.  So it always just seems like way too much work to do the whole Easter meal when I could just do spaghetti or tacos or leftovers.  I guess I was feeling extra domestic this week because not only did I plan and cook this big dinner, but I planted flowers, mulched in the front yard, and planted tomatoes and cucumbers.  And I cleaned almost the entire house one day, and started decluttering the kitchen cabinets.  Yup, I was definitely having an extra domestic week!

While we were waiting for the dinner to finish cooking, we did an Easter egg hunt with the kids.  The kids loved it. Every time Camryn found an egg, she would have to immediately open it and see what kind of treasure was inside.  (By the way, do you like her shoes?  They were the ones she insisted on wearing all day.  My girl loves shoes!  And I love her big, round baby belly!)

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Logan found an extra tricky camouflage one hidden in the tall grass.

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This next picture cracks me up.  Connor is busy counting, very concerned about everyone finding their designated number of eggs, while Camryn stands there with her finger up her nose.

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Camryn became very concerned that someone was going to take her eggs, or even worse, the “nanny” inside the eggs!

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My three babies with their finds.  While it’s not the greatest picture ever, they were much more cooperative with the picture taking than they had been that morning.  The fact that I declared it a “free candy day” probably didn’t hurt.  That’s right…my kids loved me extra today because I told them that for one day they could eat as much candy as they wanted without even asking.  And then tomorrow we would be back to our normal one piece a day rule.

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I have to repost this picture from last Easter.  Look how much they have all grown!

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I hope y’all (all 5 readers that might still check this thing) had a fabulous Easter weekend!  I’m so thankful for my Jesus, for his sacrifice, his love, the miracle of the cross, and the promise of eternity with him!  Happy Easter!

Bluebonnets

I found a local bluebonnet field the other day, and I thought it might be fun to do a few bluebonnet mini sessions.  Contact me if you are interested, as space will be very limited!  (And I’m crossing my fingers that the bluebonnets will still be there and be in good shape next weekend.  I suppose that is always a risk with this kind of thing!)

The time slots I have available on Tuesday are 6:00 and 7:00 p.m.  On Saturday, I have 8:00, 8:30, 9:00, and 9:30 a.m, and 5:30, 6:00, and 7:00 p.m.

Here is one quick picture I took of Camryn the other day while I scoped out the field.  As you can see, it’s a gorgeous location!

4 of the sweetest kids ever

I love this family.  Such good-hearted, Godly people.  It was so much fun taking pictures of these sweet kids, ranging from age 7 to almost 2.  They are seriously just such sweet and beautiful kids.  They are just delightful.  Here’s your sneak peek, and thanks again for letting me photograph your family!  I had a blast.

such sweet, sweet sisters.  There is nothing quite like a sister.

And the brothers.

I have to include this one of the baby, little Mr. O.  Can you see the mischief in his eyes?  I love it!

He’s 5

My Logan turned 5 years old last week.  I wanted to get some 5 year old pictures of him, so I took him out to my “studio” (aka my garage…gorgeous light out there!) and took some pictures.  I was happy with the handful of good ones I came away with, but man, he did not make it easy!  First there was the fight over me making him wear a “church shirt”.  Then, when I suggested ways that he sit or stand, he balked.  He informed me he would only make grumpy or silly faces.  I tell you what, my own kids sure give me a run for my money!  It was fake bodily functions and knock knock jokes that finally got him to smile a little bit.  They are probably sick of having the camera in their face all the time, even though most of the time I try to be a little covert about it.  I also am realizing more and more that I much prefer the outdoor photo shoot as opposed to the “studio” type shoot.  But, there is always a time a place for this type of photo, too!