the last taks test ever...or at least for today

I teach middle school and tomorrow will conclude our week of taks testing. I administered the 7th grade test on Tuesday & Wednesday. I was all set to be done and be back in my classroom today but I think I jinxed myself. I was feeling entirely too gleeful about having administered my LAST taks test ever! We've decided that I'll be staying home next year with the new baby so that means no tests next year...or for the next few years!

I got pulled around 3rd period because a teacher was sick and needed to go home. Boo. I hope you're feeling better Mrs. B! But dang, my dreams of a taks-free day were stripped away. So this afternoon I'm feeling very blah and to add to it, I started running a low fever. The good news is that I'm pretty positive it's not the swine flu! And really, with all of that dreadful news taking over right now, a little fever doesn't seem so bad. I'm still blah though.

mmmmm, babies

Deran's aunt once made a comment along the lines that our new niece and nephew were so irresistible they were yummy enough to eat. I know she meant it in a purely non-carnal way, but I couldn't help but think about sitting in sophomore English talking about Swift's satirical suggestions in A Modest Proposal.


After going through my images of Sunday's newborn session, I have to say that I think those sweet boys were just delicious in every way. It was such a treat to see the family interact and to be able to capture this time.


When we put these brothers together their mom actually said she might have to step out because she wanted to cry. Her boys just looked that cute!


And really, what are you supposed to do with this?! How are you not supposed to hold this all day?


And what about this one?! It's a good thing God gave us two arms.

There is something so perfect about a newborn baby. They are so innocent and completely dependent, and just...just perfect. I'm so lucky to able to count this family as my own. Their mom, S, is my first cousin. It was a very unusual pregnancy and the births were highly anticipated! S & W, thanks for letting me visit and spend time with your precious boys. With two more cousins and a friend all due before the end of the year, I'm thinking I'll get plenty of baby time. Not to mention my very own sweet baby coming in August. I don't know, after watching S with her twins, I might be doing more cuddling than picture taking and I've decided that's just fine! :)

let the games begin

Well actually, it will have to wait until Saturday. You are looking at a very fabulous "Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake" game made by yours truly. This post is really for my sister-in-law. Her sweet babies are turning one on Friday and cupcakes will rule the day on Saturday at their party.

I have some very cute pictures to share tomorrow of a newborn session! Thanks to my very handsome assistant, D, for holding the cupcake.

one cool girl

She's pretty cool and she tells some great jokes, like, "What's a pirate's favorite letter?" Anyone, anyone? No? It's "Aaarrrgghh!"


Thanks K and E for meeting up with me on what turned out to be the windiest day EVER. :)

lazy saturday

Today was a nice day. The four of us were very lazy but we've been somewhat productive this evening, at least D and I have been. Harper is still lounging around and Oscar is looking for his monster.

The website received some much needed updates to the portfolio section under "Kids" and "Portraits."

It's been a while since I've taken any pictures of the puglets so while I was playing around with my macro lens (also very neglected lately), I decided to get some of my two favorite dogs.


This one was taken with my regular 50mm. It's my favorite (and least expensive) lens! I love that pug and her purple duck. I love that at two, she still looks like a puppy. She's still very active but good grief is she sweet when she's tired!

I also love the owner of this precious pink tongue. Oscar's tongue is often peeking out and it never fails to make me smile. Life is good.

superstretch

I happened to glance at the bathroom floor last night and my eye caught the tag of a pair of denim capris. Apparently they're super stretchy. It wasn't on the size label or even the washing tag, that good news deserves it's own label within my stretchy pants. It's all maternity, all the time these days.

Honestly, Motherhood Maternity manufactures some of the most comfortable clothing. I'm not even going to pretend that at this stage in my pregnancy I can fit into my regular clothes. I'm sure some woman can, but at 23 weeks I am not one of them.

It's funny really, because there are some days when I don't feel the extra bit of weight at all and I'm comfortable in my clothes and I think, "It's like I'm not even pregnant!" Then I walk by a reflective surface and catch a glimpse of my profile and realize how silly I am because there is most definitely a baby girl growing in there and hello, I wear stretchy pants. Of course I'm always comfortable in my clothes! And maybe a teeny part of that expanding profile could be from the massive amounts of food I want to (and do) consume lately. Maybe. Probably not, but most definitely.

I have more pictures to share soon from the session with Miss E, a possible newborn, and *gasp* my own maternity session coming in a few weeks. Fun times and photos are in the future!

three

She is wild and free. She is E.


I had a session tonight with Miss E and the bluebonnets. I did get some really cute shots but I feel like this one pretty much sums it up. I understand E, sometimes you just have to let it all out.

senioritis

I have it bad, but in a good way. I'm totally loving senior sessions in 2009! I was worried we might have to postpone T's session because of the crazy weather but Sunday turned out perfect.


This girl had great style and is waaay braver than I am. That avenue was pretty funky and she went without shoes most of the time! :)


I've been wanting to shoot at this location for some time but most of my seniors were in a completely different area so it wasn't even an option. I was so excited T and her mom picked this spot!


T and her mom had one special request and I thought it was the sweetest thing I'd heard in a while. T's older brother is currently serving in the Navy and is stationed away from his family. During his senior photos the two of them got a shot together, so of course he had to be in hers.


It was lovely meeting you ladies on Sunday. T--I hope you have a great graduation and enjoy the rest of your senior year!

bluebonnets

They happen to be our state flower and I'm loving them this year. I shot a few pictures of sweet Miss I, for her upcoming third birthday, and we were lucky enough to find some locally.


It's been a while since I've worked with toddlers and while they're so much fun...I forget it's also so much work! :) I love to see the freedom of being two, calling all the shots, and looking so darn cute! I had a hard time getting Miss I to look at me, but her mom and grandma were on hand to help. I really appreciate it K and P!!

After bluebonnets we headed back to grandma's house to get some shots with a most excellent birthday/Easter/maybe just because present, a horse!


Thanks K family for letting me spend time with you gals and for the chance to capture these last few days of being two!

let there be pink

We found out that we're having a girl! That afternoon she received many new outfits and BabyLegs in varying shades of pink. There were a few other colors thrown in, but primarily pink. :) This prompted her daddy to declare that at least 50% of her wardrobe must come from other colors.

On Thursday, when Deran got to his office it was literally covered in pink. Pink post-its, flowers, paper, etc. His lights had been covered with long sheets of pink paper and he had a sweet pink walkway to his office. It was very nice of his co-workers though D did make the comment that he felt as if he'd spent his day inside a stomach. Kind of gross.

So yesterday I went shopping with my mom, aunt, and grandmother and I didn't buy pink. I got red.


I look forward to seeing a chubby little arm sticking out of that tiny sleeve. And really, I think she will look so pretty in this adorable newborn dress by Carter's.


Thanks to our family and friends for all of Avery's new outfits! It's much appreciated and I can't wait for her to be here and actually wear them...but I'll settle for August!

header

It seems the past couple of months have slipped by and I always forget to update my header on time. I realized this week that it was stuck on March so today I've fixed that. My blog has officially moved on to April!

business is blooming

I'm currently participating in a photography workshop and I'm super excited to be learning more about photography. I know the lack of an exclamation point may not convey that excitement, but believe me, I am.

I received an email tonight from a happy client and that makes me smile. Thanks J! I can feel my business is headed in the right direction and I can't wait to see where I'm at a year from now, or heck, even a month from now!

Tomorrow is the super special ultrasound where we'll find out if it's a D or an A. The time is passing so quickly and I know it won't be long until the baby is actually here. It's kind of terrifies me but I can't wait!

I did take some Easter pictures of my lovely niece A this afternoon, but I haven't started working on them yet. First, I have to quickly get an Easter card to her mom so she can print them tomorrow. Nothing like the last minute Sister! ;)

ducks in a row

Meet Duck and Reindeer Duck. They wear their battle scars proudly and despite the violence they've been through, they are much loved. These ducks are to our dogs what the blue blanket is to Linus.

Reindeer Duck only recently lost his antler and it seems as if the second is soon to follow. He belongs to Oscar. If there's ever a lull in the day, O will go find his duck and begin chewing. O doesn't eat the rubber he pulls off so I let him. Plus, it makes him look like a puppy and I don't know that there's anything cuter than a pug puppy! There's no peace at night unless he finds that duck before we go lay down. I've rolled over rubber ducks more times than I can count in the last few months. O gets quite cantankerous if you try and separate them so we don't really try. You can see the grip he has with that right paw!


Harper has Duck. And really, she has two ducks. There's a pink duck who can fill in and she is also missing a face. H has always been a chewer, since she was a teeny puglet. It has gotten better over the last two years, in that she now only chews on her toys...mostly. We can no longer buy toys with plastic eyes/noses/etc. and my laundry room is full of stuffed friends who need stitches. The difference between H and O is that H will eat ANYTHING so we have to be careful when letting her chew on toys. Duck didn't lose her face all at once and I did manage to get most of the pieces away from Harp before she swallowed, but I'm afraid she did have some of the rubber.


I'm no disciplinarian when it comes to those two and it's evident in their behavior. But really, pugs are just the cutest!

what happened?

A better question might be, what didn't happen this week! D was out of town all week for a conference and by Thursday I was seriously beginning to wonder when the house would fall in around me. Over-dramatization, who?

On Tuesday the dogs decided to make every mess imaginable and I was left to clean it up. So I cleaned, then gathered trash and took it to the curb. And yeah, the trash can was too full because someone *ahem-cough-DERAN* hasn't been taking it out regularly. Tuesday night I made a delicious pasta salad. But before it became delicious, I set the plastic bowl on the hot burner I'd just removed the boiling pasta from and not only ruined my bowl, but left a fantastic plastic residue on my glass cooktop.

Wednesday morning had me unexpectedly going to the doctor and getting antibiotics, then when I pulled into the driveway when I got home I thought I saw glass scattered around. Soooo, I park and get out to go drag the trash can back to the garage and realize that a ginormous jar of marinated asparagus was apparently dropped from the trash can and smashed on the driveway. Nice. I cleaned yet another mess. After that, I took an ailing Oscar to the vet where something from his behind made its way to my shirt!

On Thursday, I finally decided to activate our new credit cards. We have ONE card folks and apparently it was compromised so they sent us a new one a couple of weeks ago. We rarely use it so I hadn't bothered with it, but while I was taking care of other things I thought it was a good time to activate it. I called and set everything up, the gentleman tells me to sign the back and we're good to go. All I can say is that if I ever physically use the card, I hope it works. Someone may have tried to sign the magnetic strip. When the pen didn't want to write, I just pressed harder.

There were a few bright spots! This week I began to feel the baby move and it's such a neat feeling. I'm so happy to finally feel that connection with the person currently wreaking havoc with the rest of my body, because Pregnancy, you have not been kind to me this week. I absolutely love the baby and I'm so happy to be expecting, but really Internet. I had NO IDEA about all of the changes my body would go through in preparation for August!

Did you see how I turned that happy paragraph into a negative? I am super happy to feel the baby move and I got to hear the heartbeat this week and everything is going well. I got a really cute new purse that can double as a diaper bag (at least that's what I told D when texting that I needed to buy it), and my sweet parents spent some time at my house this week which was nice.

Pictures later today or perhaps tomorrow. Just a lot of text today, sorry!