25

Today I turned 25.  Last year, I was 8 months pregnant, on bed rest with stomach flu.  This year, it was 56 degrees, I went on a walk with my sweet baby and dog, and went to dinner with my family of 3.  I think this year wins.  I don't even remember the last time that it was above 40 degrees on my birthday.  

So, today, I am thankful for the sun..because it made a long day much better.

{I think this bridge is beau-ti-ful!  However, it is HIGHLY photographed in our little town, so I refrain from take photos there..but it just looked too pretty to pass up tonight.}

I'm thankful for my sweet baby boy and all of the happiness he brings to my life.

I'm thankful for my husband, who sent me some yummy treats at school, got me some cute work out shoes, and took me to dinner.

I'm thankful that I was able to take my babies on a walk, at the end of January.  In Indiana.  Crazy!

I'm thankful for my 24th year of life.  I have to say, it was by far the most exciting year thus far.  As I think about the year to come, I think there could be a lot of changes, all for the better, and I plan to embrace everyone of them. 

Cheers to 25!

swim lessons!

Today Kason had his first swim lesson!  We signed him up for a parent-baby swim class at our local recreation center.  We are doing the class with 3 of Kason's friends/some of my favorite mama friends!  Today was SO much fun!  The heater (boiler?) was broken, so the water was slightly chilly, but once the boys got used to it they were having a great time.  I wanted to share a few pictures from our morning!

{So glad to get out and warm up!}

{Sweet chubby cheeks!}

{Nolan #1 :)}

{Nolan #2 with his purple lips!}

{Sweet Luke knew what to do when I put the camera in his face!}

{Mamas with our babies!}

{After class, Kason went to practice his basketball skills with Daddy}

I know I've said it a gazillion times, but I LOVE this age.  It's so much fun to do things like this with Kason and his friends.

the next step

I've talked a few times about my love for photography.  I blogged about my camera here, which told the story of how my passion for photography began.  It's been something I have worked at for a few years.  I have loved capturing Kason's first 10 (gasp!) months of life.  However, I've recently realized that I'd like to take my hobby a step further.  

I did a 1:1 mentoring session with an amazing photographer and learned so much.  Sarah gave me the courage to actually begin a career in photography.  Last night, I took a big step, I created a facebook fan page for my photography.  This may not seem like a big deal, but it was something that was hard for me to do.  Here are a few reasons why I finally decided to go for it.

1. Passion.  I love every aspect of photography.  I love photographing people and creating images that I know they will love.  I love putting finishing touches on the photos through editing to get them just right.  I love creating something that families can hang in their homes and cherish.

2. Confidence.  Or maybe I should I say, lack there of.  You see, I always had this idea that I would start a photography business when I was "good".  Well I've learned that the "good" I have in mind will only be accomplished with practice.  The "good" I have in mind is a pretty high standard.  I admire a lot of awesome photographers and know very well that I am not yet there.  I have a lot to learn, but I finally feel confident enough to put myself out there.  Knowing I'm not perfect will allow me to always strive to improve.  I hope to look through my pictures in a few months and notice improvement.  If not, I'll know I need to take a step back and remind myself of my goal.  To be a "good", maybe even "great" photographer.  One that capture images of families being families and kids being kids.

3. Growth.  As I said above, I know my photos aren't perfect.  My main goal for the first few months (probably even year) is to learn, learn, learn!  I know I will make mistakes, and that's ok.  My number one goal in getting started is to improve.  I want to learn more about backlighting.  I want to learn more about photoshop.  I want to work hard to make sure all of my images are sharp.  These are just a few things, but things that are so important to me.

4. Change.  I really do love being a teacher.  It is what I've always wanted to be and I can't imagine having any other job.  That being said, I despise all of the things that come along with teaching.  Like the paper work, the testing, the meetings, etc.  Teaching would be a dream profession if I just had to teach. :)  I'm not saying that I plan to stop teaching anytime soon, but I'm not sure if it's something I can do long term.  I'm not sure I agree with the way our state is headed in terms of education and it gets disheartening to always be blamed for everything my students do wrong.  So, if one day I decide I'd like to make a change, I know that photography would be something I could love just as much as teaching.

As much as these things have made me want to take the next step, I still have many fears and reservations.  I'm putting my photos out there for everyone to judge.  I know some people might not like them, but I am ok with that.  As long as I work hard to improve, that's all I can ask for.  All of the photographers that I have followed over the years have grown so much and I have loved watching it.  They inspire me to continue to learn and continue to improve.  :)

So there it is, that's why I decided now was the time to take the next step.  If you haven't already, please head over to my Facebook page and "like" it.  This will help me get my name out there! :)

Thanks for listening.

Click here to visit my page! :)

rainy random wednesday

Not sure if i've said it before, but I have quite a long commute to work everyday.  Like 45 minutes long. So I have lots of time to think.  Although I hate wasting an hour and a half in the car everyday, it does give me lots of time to unwind and think.  Here are some random thoughts that went through my mind on my afternoon drive today.

1. I'm pretty sure I have radio ADD.  In the mornings I always listen to the Smiley morning show and I love it.  However, in the afternoon I am constantly switching around from station to station.  From country, to hip hop/R&B (I never know what to call it..you know, Beyonce, Rihanna, etc.  I gotta keep up with my students!), to worship, to 90s music, I'm all over the place.  A couple of artist that I will never change the station when I hear them: Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Katy Perry (Love her addictive, always-stuck-in- my-head music!  Artist that I always change the station the second I hear their voice: Taylor Swift (Gag), Adele (girl can sing, but if I hear "Someone like you" one more time, I might punch the radio!), and Nickelback.  On a completely unrelated note, I love the name Adele, and if I ever have a girl, that's a name that's at the top of my list.

2. Before Christmas break my student that I blogged about here passed away.  The doctors still don't know what caused all of her organs to shut down.  As a teacher, this has been one of the hardest things I've faced.  Telling my students was hard.  Taking her off of my roster was hard.  Taking her desk out of our seating arrangement was hard.  However one of the hardest (most sad) parts of the whole thing hit me today on my ride home.  Yes, my students were upset about her death.  They wrote notes to her and made cards for her family after they found out.  However, it didn't hit them as hard as I thought.  Why you ask?  Because my kids deal with death a lot more than I ever had to as a kid.  It's part of their lives whether it's a family member, neighbor, or peer, they have lots of experience with it.  Could have been murder, drugs, etc..a lot of them deal with it on a pretty frequent basis.  This is heartbreaking to me.  Although teaching and being a mom is so hard, I'm always glad when God gives me a reminder that these kids are my mission field.

3. I still need to blog about Christmas and New Years.  Ugh.  I still need to edit the pictures for the blog post.  Ugh.  As much as I want/need to record these events..I'm just not motivated to do it.  Expect those posts sometime by spring.  Ha! :)  

4. Special K Chocolatey Delight is my FAVORITE cereal.  For the past 3 days I've been doing the Special K Challenge.  Lose 7 pounds in two weeks.  This diet could also be known as the starve yourself diet.  I am SO hungry all day..but am sticking with it!  I've allowed myself some snacks, but it has to be healthy!  Grapes, apples, oranges, etc.  Once I lose that weight, I want to really start working out and trying to get some muscle back.  This flab needs to go!

5. Since I did my 1:1 photography mentoring I've been dying to practice!  Unfortunately, the weather isn't the best for outdoor pictures.  I hope this motivation is still with me come spring.

6. I'm sure I'll post in in Kason's 10 month post, but the kids been saying "Kaia" (our dog's name) over and over and over again!  He tackles her (because oh yea, that little guy is now WALKING!) and yells "Aia, Aia, Aia!"  He follows her around and when we ask "where's Kaia?!" he looks all over for her.  So. Cute.

7. I overheard a lady at Applebees last week saying that she thought Kason looked about four months old.  Seriously?  He's small but clearly not 4 months.  I haven't mean many walking 4 month olds.

8. I'm no fan of snow but am ready for a few inches.  This girl needs some 2 hour delays!

9. Materialism is something I have always struggled with.  I go through phases where I want to sell everything and move to Africa and work in an orphanage.  Scary part, Duane has these same phases.  Even scarier, I think someday God might really call us to do this.

10. My poor husband passed a kidney stone last night.  It was the weirdest thing!  He came home from work and said he had a funny feeling in his back.  After dinner, he said he needed to lay down.  Two minutes later he was in unbearable pain.  Having had a kidney stone myself, I kind of figured that might be the cause of his pain.  He asked me to take him to the ER (which is SO unlike him) and so I called my sister (nurse Jill) and we took him.  He was laying on the floor in the ER (the 10 year old boy sitting next to us was staring at him..ha!) for about 20 minutes and they finally got him a bed.  About 10 minutes later, he went to the bathroom and immediately felt better.  My kidney stone took about 2 months to pass.  His, about 3 hours.  And I gave birth to our son.  I think I win.  Or loose, whichever way you look at it!

That's all I got for now.  If you made it to the end..thanks!

Side-note - I sometimes wonder if people only read my random posts because that's how I announced I was pregnant.  No pregnancy here, my friends!  But thanks for reading! :)

Saturday

I feel so blessed that I get to spend Saturdays with these two.  The make my heart happy.

Mentoring

Today I had the opportunity to be part of a 1:1 mentoring session with an amazing photographer.  One of my goals in 2012 is to learn more about photography.  I've had a DSLR for a couple of years now and I'm itching to know more about it and how to make my pictures really pop.  I found Sarah through a friend and immediately knew I wanted to do mentoring with her.  I booked it last week and have been looking forward to it ever since.

Sarah is an incredible photographer and I LOVED working with her.  She was so fun and laid back and I felt completely comfortable with her.  We got to photograph one of the cutest families ever.  After the shoot we spent some time in photoshop and I learned SO much about editing.  I'm so glad that Sarah is willing to share her passion with those of us that need a little inspiration.  Check out Sarah's work here.  I'm sure you'll fall in love with her photos!

Here are some of my favorites from our shoot today.

{I told you..cutest family EVER!}

So, I feel like I'm really working towards at least one of my goals! :)

Thanks agin to Sarah for helping me out today.  And thanks to my husband who let me do this session for my birthday..he's the best! :)

Day in the life

As much as I love to dress Kason up in his cutest Gap clothes and snap pictures of him, those aren't my favorite pictures.  My favorites are those of him on a regular day.  Hair a mess, clothes covered in food, and visible dog hair stuck to his pants.  Those are the pictures I want to savor.

Love my sweet and messy boy.  He is proving more and more everyday that he really is 100% all boy. :)

Goals

I don't really like to make new years resolutions because lets be honest, I'll break them within a week.  Self control is clearly lacking in my life.  I do, however, like to make some goals for the year.  Things that I would like to accomplish.  

I usually don't post my goals, I just keep them unpublished and look back at them a year later but in hopes of being held accountable, here they are.

1. Live in the moment.

This year has been hard.  Going back to work full time was probably one of the hardest things I've done.  I don't like being away from Kason for 5 days a week.  That being said, it's just the way things have to be for now.  I felt so busy the latter half of 2011.  When I wasn't at school I was stressing about what had to be done for my lessons, thinking about what needed to be cleaned, or belittling myself because I wasn't being the mom I thought I would be.  I'm done with all of that now.  School work will get done.  The house will get clean in due time.  I am not a bad mom.  I am a learning mom.  That is ok.  I'm relying on God to show me how to be a better mom.  I'm relying on other mom's to help me when times get hard.  I am going to live in the moment when I have time to spend with Kason.  After school, I am going to fully be involved in what he is doing. We are going to go places and do things and make memories.  We did these things this year, but with that stress hidden in the back of my mind.  I want to enjoy things when we are doing them.  Enough with all of this stress!

2. Learn more about photography.

I have a love for my hobby and I want it to grow.  I want to learn more about my camera and photoshop.  I want to continue to practice on whoever will let me.  I want to not worry about what people think of my pictures but instead just want to focus on improving.  To start this off early, I am doing a 1:1 mentoring session with a local photographer on Wednesday.  I am so anxious to spend a few hours with her, because she is awesome! Check out her work here!

3. Lose some weight.

Ok, maybe that should say get back into shape.  I've said it many times, but I'm not that tiny 104 lb. girl I was before Kason was born.  Not only did that boy change my heart..he changed my body.  Ha!  I've been feeling guilty about working out (see #1) and that has not helped my self esteem.  I started going back to kick boxing and I think Duane and I are going to join the local gym (again) and try to go.  Even if I just go on lots of walks with Kason and Kaia, it will be better than what I'm currently doing.  Operation get rid of baby bump is underway!

4. Spend daily time praying and studying.

This one is alway tough.  When I was home with Kason, I got into a good routine of reading the bible and praying daily.  Then work happened and well, I didn't make the time for it.  I don't know where I will fit it into my schedule, but it is my goal to do it every other day.  I should make it my goal to do it everyday (bible that is, I pray multiple times everyday) but I know I won't accomplish that goal.  I need this in my life.  It helps calm me and grow closer to Jesus.

5. Cook more.

I know, I know, I'm beating the dead horse here.  I've blogged about my cooking ambitions many times when I always fail.  Well people, this is my year!  Maybe. :)  I think I am more motivated to start cooking  more because Kason will soon be eating what we're eating.  I don't want him eating chicken nuggets every night, so that means this mama needs to pull out the old cookbook, or pinterest!  I would like to do better with meal planning and grocery shopping in order to make this successful.    I WILL cook more in 2012!

6. Go on more dates with my hubs.

Duane and I didn't do too much of this after Kason was born.  However, in the past few months we gone out on several dates.  Some alone and some with friends.  We have 2 couples that we've gone out with a few times and it's SO nice to get out, kid free for a night.  We made it a pact to go out at least once a month.  I'm hoping to stick to this in 2012.  Our marriage craves it, and in order to be an example of a strong marriage for Kason, we need these nights.

7. Get things for Kason's first birthday complete.

This might sound silly, but Kason turns 1 in 3 months and I want that party to be special.  I know what you're thinking..."he won't even remember it" but that's not the point.  The point is I want to celebrate the fact that my boy has been a part of our family for one whole year.  He swept in and stole our heart on March 16 and darn-it, we are going to celebrate his first year and we're going to do it right!  Along with his party, I have been working on a photo book full of his first year.  Although I doubt I'll have it done by his party, my goal is to get it done by June.  Whew, I better head on over to Pinterest asap! :)

8. Blog all memorable events.

This isn't because I think lots of people read my blog.  This one is for me.  I want to make sure I am blogging for memories sake.  Unlike other blogs this one isn't all about fashion, or DIY (although I love those things) it's more about life at our home.  I want to make sure I'm writing things down, even if I never click publish. Some of my best posts are ones I keep to myself!  That being said..I guess I should blog about Christmas day sometime soon.

Well I think that's a pretty lofty list.  I can think of a few more, but for now I'll focus on these 8 things.  Hopefully I can come back to this list in 2013 (assuming the world doesn't end..silly Mayans) and realized that I accomplished most, if not all, of these goals.

Happy 2012! :)