The week in review...

Lets start with last weekend. Saturday, Steve's Mom came and babysat for us so I could take pictures for my friend's band. I was quickly reminded how I hate bars and do not miss that scene at all. Earlier in the day Steve and I actually got around to carving pumpkins with the kids. Better late than never I guess. Morgan was so funny about it. He was really grossed out about sticking his hands in the guts and kept putting the pumpkin top back on and saying, "All done!" We forced Lily's hand into the pumpkin and she did not like that at all. I got some really good pictures of the whole fiasco I will post.

Sunday we had a hard day with the kids. They have been really grumpy lately. Not sure if they are fighting off a sickness or what, but it was a nightmare. I seriously have not felt so at my wits end before. We drove to Seattle and the entire time Morgan was screaming crying. On the way back Morgan screamed and cried. I was ready to scream and cry.  Fred and Matt's reception was very nice. They had Kafe Neo cater and it was delicious! We hung out a lot with Fred's little Sister Cheyenne who is so funny. She is like the girl version of Steve when he was a teen, minus the drugs. I think it's funny Fred would get paired with the girl version of her little brother as a teen. hahaha

After we got home Sunday we ate dinner and then our friends Toria and Aaron came over with Starbucks and Apple pie! Mmmm! We had a good conversation and loved having them over.

Monday I was wasted from the weekend and layed around all day doing nothing. NOTHING. By nightfall I felt so guilty. I just have no energy at all. I didn't even go to water aerobics which is bad, but in my defense my swimsuit was soaking wet and freezing. I am telling you all this in the lead up to Tuesday morning where all my laziness came to a stop and I dressed the kids up and packed them up over to the library for story time. This was a huge thing for me. I have a really easy time making excuses for what I can and can't do due to my back and chronic pain. I think just doing it regardless of the pain was good. The main thing I learned from it was that if I do take the kids out I really only have enough stamina to do one thing before my back lets me know it will not be agreeable anymore. So, I am in need of a schedule. I decided Tuesdays will be our Library day. We even checked books out so we will take ours back next week and get more while we are there. The kids were so good too, I put Morgan on the monkey leash and Lily in the umbrella stroller and we went around looking at books and Morgan even got to play on a kid computer. He jumped right into the chair and grabbed the mouse like he knew what he was doing. It was so weird. Can't wait to go back.

I am looking into other actvities to get involved with too. I found one called Kindermusic through the parks department and it looks really cool. It costs a bit of money though, but I know the kids would love it. I am thinking of joining a playgroup again as well.

Phew! That was a crazy stream of consciousness for you. Sorry.

Fred and Matt and...

I put up about 25 photos from Fred and Matt's wedding on Flickr. You can view them there here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/waxphoto/sets/72157625315366000/  They are only up there temporarily though. There will be a gallery put up shortly on my actual website that I will post here with a password login so you can go and order prints if you would like. 

Another cool update is I have also created a password protected family gallery on my website that I will put all our family photos good or bad in. You will be able to view them and purchase actual prints of varying sizes very easily too. I am really excited about it.

In other news, I am tired. Steve is tired. Our house is a disaster and we have no motivation. Did I mention I am tired? Oh and two toddlers on the loose is harder than you could imagine or at least I could have ever imagined. By the time I get all their basic needs met I have no energy left to take on the preschool projects and even just going to a park adventure. I hope this passes and I find some energy soon. Very soon. My kids are starting to revolt.

Our weekend plans consist of Fred and Matt's wedding reception in Seattle on Sunday. Saturday night I am going to take photos of Black Liquid Funeral's first show at midnight. And tonight, I think our plans are to sleep as much as possible. Have a good weekend!



I will leave you with a couple photos...

(Click on this photo to see it larger)

This is one of my favorites of Fred. She is so beautiful. I can't wait to do an actual photo shoot with her. These were all just snaps I could sneak in between the actual photographer taking pics.

This is from right before Halloween. They are looking at the Halloween card and stickers Aunt Fred and Uncle Matt sent them in the mail. They were very curious about the whole thing and then had a lot of fun with the cool stickers.

Sticker fun...


....of course Lily couldn't resist a tiny taste...






Since they were being so good I tried to get a good shot of them together, so Steve took the binky.




Lily didn't like that idea. Morgan sat there complacently putting up with the crying for a long time. And then suddenly he moved his foot over to her and started pushing her away very gently. It was so funny.

Wednesday Shoot...

My working goal is to get a shoot every Wednesday and Saturday scheduled for myself. Right now I am settling on just building my portfolio and getting practice on my friends and their kids until I get paying customers.

Yesterday I went out with Shawn and Cole and had a fantastic time. Cole is one of the sweetest little boys I have ever met and was really fun to shoot.

The pictures I got blew me away actually. I am a little in shock I took them. I feel like I finally achieved the fine quality I have been after in my portraits. Hopefully I can keep it up.

 

 

I am especially in love with the one above on the train tracks. The lighting in this photo is top notch and I am in love with it. I am honestly a little surprised this is MY photo. ;) I am so proud of it.

Happy Tuesday!

This morning (very early) I was lucky enough to have my very own live rock show performed for me in my living room. If there was a volume level it would have been at 11. Morgan was singing and playing the guitar like a true rock star. He took off his PJ's and put the hat on and grabbed the guitar all on his own.

The funniest thing is we have never shown him how to do this. It's just pure Morgan creativity.

 I love him so much. He has such a HUGE personality. It's amazing.

Rocky Horror Picture Show=BEST NIGHT EVAR

HELLoween!

Yesterday was not only Halloween, but also our 10 year wedding anniversary. It was not exactly the day I had envisioned for us, but that's life.  


Saturday we stayed up until past 4 am at RHPS so Sunday was a lazy day. We dressed the kids up in the evening in their Gnome costumes and headed over to our friends Beth and Jim's home in Sammamish. We had a lovely time there and took the kids trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. We never got a chance to practice with Morgan on how to say Trick-or-treat, but on about the 2nd or 3rd house he started saying it! It was so adorable! He got into the whole swing of things rather quickly actually. After he got his candy he would say, "BYE!, Thank YOU!, See Ya Soon!" People were oohing and ahhing on how cute he was. Steve carried Lily the whole way and she just watched the entire fiasco from the comfort of Steve's tired arm. When we got back to Beth and Jim's house Morgan went up to trick-or-treat from Jim and when Jim kneeled down to let Morgan pick out some candy Morgan took all his candy he worked so hard on getting and dumped it into Jim's candy bowl! It was sooooo funny! I have no idea what he was thinking. It was a good thing though since we were going to take it away anyway.


Of course in my graceful fashion around the 2nd house I was busy taking a picture and didn't notice there was this giant low black rock in front of me so I went to step forward and flew over it crashing on the ground with my camera. The lens on the edge is scraped up, but more importantly I fell on my side really hard. I was pretty shaken up, but walked it off. I scraped up my finger and it bled a little and I skinned and bruised my knee pretty bad. Also, my left wrist feels sprained and is swollen. When I got home that was apparently enough time for my back to freeze up and start throbbing with shooting pains. I was up until 2am in dire nauseating hell. I was a bit hysterical actually. I even slept on the couch which is worse for me, but I couldn't lay down for longer than a few minutes without having to get up and walk around and I didn't want to disturb Steve and Lily. My left side is not happy. I am hoping this will just work it self out and I can pretend like it didn't happen by tomorrow. I have been pretty emotional going in and out of tears randomly ever since. Needless to say it's going to be a long long day/week probably.


I am feeling like I am at the end of my rope at this point for sure.


Anyway, back to Halloween Fun! Since the fall messed me up emotionally and physically I only got a few photos. Here they are....

Lily with her hat on sideways. 

Morgan found a baby doll stroller and was in heaven as Jim rolled him around. =)

Steve, Lily, and Morgan at Beth's getting ready to go trick-or-treating.

Beth and Morgan greeting some Trick-or-treaters

Jim with the candy carriers for our kids. We were lame and forgot to get candy baskets so Beth and Jim hooked us up.

 On our way!

The first victim...

Success!

More candy...

And more...

Full sized candy bars! Score!

This skeleton was singing and dancing. He was very fascinated by it. =)

By this point he was totally digging it and in charge! He even got upset when we skipped a few houses. This house gave him a bag of chips which was not on the approved Morgan list. He actually took them out of his bucket and didn't want them.

My little Gnome. He wouldn't wear the beard, oh well.

This is when we got back to Beth and Jim's place right before Morgan gave all his candy over to Jim.

Morgan and Lily were obsessed with the staircase.

 

Thank Goodness for Beth who kept bringing them back down. My back was not happy at that point. b

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to my Mom! She has been a huge part of my success the past 2.5 years and I couldn't have done it without her. To celebrate we are having a yummy home cooked dinner here tonight with family and friends and then we are going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight. Can't wait!

 

 

Setting changes...

I have now made our blog open for comments from anyone and everyone. You do not have to have an account to leave us a message. They will be moderated by me, but please try it out let us know your thoughts!

b <----- that 'b' brought to you by Morgan's foot.

Friday Night...

Last Friday night Steve and I were lucky enough to get his Mom to babysit for us so that we could take our good friend Aaron out to Belt Sushi for his first time. Aaron is an amazing artist and I love spending time with him. You can just feel the creativity rolling off of him. Belt Sushi was much fun and afterward we decided to grab our cameras and head out on a midnight urban photo adventure. Aaron shoots with film on a very old Pentax camera and a very very old Nikon camera. It's pretty incredible to watch him shoot. I am fully in the land of digital so it's a novelty to see someone work with a film camera and even crazier is to see that he doesn't get instant gratification like you do with digital. He has to wait and hope his exposures were right. Anyway it was a great night filled with lots of great insightful conversation and belly aching laughs. I loved just going out and being creative. Being able to just shoot for myself is something I need more of desperately. I can't wait to go on another photo adventure.

Here are a few shots from that night...
(remember you can view these larger by clicking on them)

 

Aaron shooting.

This one above is my favorite. Steve forgot my tripod and so I had to be creative to make sure I got decent shots. Here I actually set my camera on the ground.

...interesting lines along the waterfront in Everett...
(again, a tripod would have made all the difference in this shot)

My favorite alley in Everett

On a totally different note, Steve is such a dork. He told Aaron and I this joke at sushi and had us dying laughing so I have to share it with you now. Y'know Uwagimaya, the Asian grocery store in Seattle and Redmond? Well, I always have a hard time remembering the name of it so Steve says, "it's Fred's Brother."  I was confused for a moment because Steve's sister's name is Fred. Anyway, he says, "Uwagimaya is Fred's brother," and then suddenly it hit me. So, what I want you to do right now is say out loud "Uwagimaya" pronounced "Waj-ah-maya" it sounds like "Roger Meyer"(almost except the R sounds like a W). Fred Meyer's brother. Now hopefully you know how to say Uwagimaya and you should be laughing very hard hearing yourself say Uwagimaya from this point on.