Curse You Minnesota Weather

The snow! OH THE SNOW! Such a nice weekend full of yard work and outdoorness with no snow has now turned into 34 degrees and 8 inches of snow. So the question remains, To grocery shop or to go home. *sigh* I hate driving in the snow, carrying the baby in the snow, pushing the cart through the snow. Just nothing about it seems like fun. But it has stopped snowing (for the time being) so if it stays as is, it might be ok to drive in and all that with the temp being a bit warmer than anticipated.

Man I'm tired though, I went to sleep fine and then about 12:00 the Mons decided that she wanted to be awake and cry, Adam went in and worked his magic and the girl was STILL awake then I went in and he went in another time after that and all was fine after that. Silly girl, I sure hope we get something to show for all this night waking she's been doing lately. A tooth perhaps, she still only has two teeth so I would be ok with that (not that I can really control it.) And I don't check anymore because the two teeth she DOES have are sharp, very sharp, and I'm not an idiot, bite me once shame on you, bite me twice shame on me for sticking my fingers where they don't belong anyway right?

Some things I learned this weekend...

Which I NEEDED to learn in order to pursue this dream.

You can have as many ideas for posed portraits as you want and you will either completely forget what poses you had in mind, OR the children will not co-operate. I learned that sometimes you have to take what you can get. For example I had a 3 year old that just simply did NOT want her picture taken. And oh man did I have grand plans for her, but they just didn't work out. So I took what I got and still got some amazing shots of her, in fact I think I got BETTER shots of her than the girls she was with, cause I was trying so hard to capture her. So lesson 1 learned.

I also learned that 18 months is a HARD age, So cute and fun but they sure don't wanna do what you WANT them to. Which again, just makes you work twice as hard to get that one fantastic photo. Who cares if you manage to snap 109 (no lie) photos and maybe only 20 of them are keepers! That's still 20 fantastic photos!

So I have learned that I really need to go into my sessions with more of an open mind, since it really throws me when i can't get what I want. Get some ideas and work with what I got.

I feel like a better photographer after only 2 sessions, I can only imagine how I'll feel after 10, or 20 or 30...

Sunday's Session!

Sunday's session was interesting to say the least. At least they are friends of mine so the stress was reduced a little bit. In these are Danielle and Madison. Beautiful girls! Thanks for letting me photograph you guys!

This is my favorite photo from the WHOLE day. Who knew an 18 month old could be so cute and difficult at the same time!

Madison, 18 months

Pretty dress!

Peek-a-boo!

So much fun on the stairs!

She just didn't want to look at or smile for the pictures!

Easter Maddy!

Saturday's Session

Well Saturday was a great day! Had a good photo Session with this group! I'm happy with the way the photos turned out but disappointed that I didn't realize I had my camera set to the lowest quality during the session, *sigh* This is all a learning experience, and the pictures turned out great anyway!

Tori, 4 years old. I seriously wanted to keep her, she is just the CUTEST little girl EVER!

Fun times!

Molly and Jasen! Such a great pair to work with!

Madison and her dad.

Molly and her niece Tori.

Ellie, 3 years old. She wasn't so keen on me taking pictures of her, I got maybe 3 photos of her smiling, little does she know she was JUST as cute, if not cuter with the pouty face.

Madison, 6 years old. She was a dream, trying to help me get everyone to smile for me! I asked her if she would stay with me and help with all my photos and she happily agreed! My first Assistant!

Sisters, You can so tell they are sisters in this picture, it's all in the eyes. Beautiful girls!

Tori and her puppy Sarah.

What a Weekend Ahead.

Well most of my week has been spent preparing for this weekend. What's going on you ask? Saturday morning I am going to a baby consignment sale with a friend and then at 4:00, One of Adam's co-workers is coming over so I can take pictures for her, her niece, her boyfriend and his two girls. Yikes! Am I really prepared for this? I mean it's one thing to take pictures of people you know but here are these strangers coming over. I sure hope I don't disappoint them. Then Sunday another friend is coming up with her year and a half old and so we'll do some photos with them! I'm excited, nervous, overwhelmed all at the same time. I'm not really nervous about my abilities, I am more nervous because I don't exactly have state-of-the-art equipment, in fact my "studio" consists of two hooks and a sheet hanging from it, along with my little measly cannon powershot shoot and point camera. Oh Someday hopefully I'll look back on all this and laugh at my humble beginnings. I hope.

In Lily Mon News. The girl is 10 months old today. And I'm proud to say, she can get herself wherever she wants to be now. She's pretty excited about it too. And while I am a little exciting I am also terrified at the same time. Our house is like a little baby deathtrap with cords and junk everywhere that is probably NOT safe for baby to be playing with. Soon we will have to seriously have to baby proof, I know, I've been saying that forever now. Really, this weekend.

Happy 10 Months Bunkenroo. Mommy loves you!

So, what's in been now, like 4 years....

since I last posted? To say I've been busy lately is a gross understatement. But most of it's been all in fun! I got my website up and running and I am beyond excited. Adam and my Sister In Law (Thanks guys) seem to be taking care of the boring legal junk that I have no interest in. And let me just say, it is so wonderful to have such a great support system. I am beyond thankful to both of them for all their help!
Anyway, enough of the mushy barfoni stuff.

I took some 10 month/Easter photos of lily. I wish more of the ones with the ears would have turned out, they are super cute but she just wouldn't co-operate with me. She is too easily distracted by colorful things these days.

So some updates with her, she can officially pull herself up to standing. And she gets so excited every time she does it too. She gets this big crinkle nose grin and looks at you like "look what I did". She STILL doesn't crawl, but she manages to get around anyway by doing this crazy scooting technique. Whatever, it works for her and means we need to seriously get on the baby proofing. She also thinks that when you smell her feet and tell her they are stinky that that is the funniest thing EVER! But it's adorable. And of course she will hold her sock out for you to smell too, cause she is just generous like that. She waves Bye bye now. After working LONG AND HARD with her on that one. And we are currently working on clapping with her. She'll have it mastered before I know it.

Easter Bunny Lily

I absolutely LOVE this effect! I plan to do More of these in the future

Adam thinks her lips are creepy in this picture, and I promise she ISN'T wearing lipstick, the camera just really picked up the pink in her lips.

I saw this pose online somewhere and HAD to try it, and of course I LOVE it!

This one was kind of a fluke, I was testing out my back grounds and I happened to get this shot by accident. Isn't that the way it always works. Who cares, it's cute!

So I'm going for it!

I am going to jump in and really work on building my photography portfolio! I'm so excited! I feel like I really will do a great job! Now just to find people to photograph! (If you are interested in FREE photography service let me know)

So the last few days my focus has really been on getting my new blog (to be revealed soon enough) up and running. I want to get a few more sessions on there before I do my big reveal. Mainly because I have a lot of the same photos on there as I do on here so it's not like it would be news to anyone.

So, has anyone out there started a small business before? Help me out! Tips, pointers, advice? I'm all ears!

UPDATE: Website is up and running!! See it Here

Luck of the Irish?

Even if we aren't even just a smidge Irish? Either way we had a great day yesterday! Adam and I both seemed to be in a good mood, the check engine light went off in the Jeep, our MN tax refund came! The weather was GORGEOUS! So L-mons and I got out for a nice long walk, she loves to be outside and who can blame her, if I got to ride in the stroller and chill out I would Love them even more myself!

And when daddy got home we had some fun!

And these pictures were taken over the weekend. But she's wearing green and in honor of St. Patrick's Day I will post them!

Who needs email anyway?

What a fantastic weekend! Besides the fact that I got virtually nothing done. Which seems to be the case more often than not these days. Friday Lily kinda slept like crap, but we BOTH committed to some sleep training of sorts. And it worked! Sure we were up from about 1-3, BUT we got back to sleep, in our bed, without the babes. SO I call it a success. And she slept until almost 8 the next morning which was nice. During naps and at bedtime we have been putting her down still awake so she can finally learn how to put herself to sleep. And thanks to her Aquarium crib soother this seems to be easy so far! No, I shouldn't say easy, I know I'm jinxing myself.

All weekend she has been trying her hardest to get herself up to standing without our help. She was close, I told Adam that I had money that by that time next week she would have it down. Well I was so right! This morning when I was brushing my teeth she was sitting in a storage bin (hey, don't judge) and she pulled herself up and was just standing there in the bin, so excited and she did it with so little effort too. It makes me wonder how she manages to seemingly learn these things over night. My L-mons is growing up! It will be NO time til she walks now, she loves to take steps holding on to things. Still has no real interest in crawling though. Just can't seem to get the hang of that.

In car trouble news. The check engine light has been on in the Jeep for about a week now. And last night when we got in the car to head to dinner with my Aunt and Uncle the check engine light popped on in the car too. It's always something it seems.

It's funny cause it seems since I've been blogging I can't really seem to keep up with my email the way I should. I owe a few people some lengthy emails but it seems I update you guys and then I feel like I have nothing to talk about, or I don't feel like re-typing everything out. I need to get on that. Along with many other things too. So much to do, so little time.

But on the plus side, it was gorgeous all weekend, so we got out for a few walks! And today it's suppose to be up in the 60's So of course after I get out of here and get the Mons we are going to be going for a nice LONG walk tonight again! I can't wait and the fresh air does both of us some good!

MY Winning Outcome.

So I have always read all this junk about goal setting. And I must admit I am just NOT a goal oriented person. For whatever reason I can tell myself "I will lose 20 pounds" a million times and it just doesn't work for me. I can tell myself "once I hit a 5 pound loss I will reward myself with x" That doesn't work for me either. I will never understand how goals help you achieve what you want. They don't motivate me. In fact sometimes they do the opposite of that and I feel overwhelmed trying to achieve a difficult task.

So as many of you know I am doing WeightWatchers. I have done it in the past and it has worked for me. I love the program, it's easy to follow. I don't feel deprived. (most of the time anyway) Plus I love all the motivating articles and things that are available for me online so I can do this in the privacy of my own home (or office). However, it's HARD. No matter how easy it is. Weight loss is Hard. It takes work. And a lot of it. It was easy before, I could workout when I wanted, could plan and cook meals without getting interrupted. This time...It's hard. I can plan my meals until I am blue in the face and usually end up resorting to something that doesn't require me to be in the kitchen cause I am alone with the baby. I get home from work and picking her up and it's the LAST thing I want to do. I want to simply hang out with the Mons. I already most of the time feel like I don't get to see her enough. And for whatever reason I am just having the hardest time sticking to this and making it a priority. Even though I realize I do not simply want to lose weight. I want to lose weight to be healthier. I want to live longer and be more active. I want to feel good and look good. I want to be a good, no scratch that, I want to be a GREAT example for my kids (or kid at this point). But how do I do it? How do I get my mind in the place it needs to be in for all of that to work? I can't live off frozen dinners. I can't live on salads. I LOVE doughnuts and candy and chips.

So here I am I guess. Re-committing AGAIN. For like the 9,000th time. I will plan my days, AND stick to them. I WILL get some exercise. I WILL take the time I need to do this knowing that it will be hard and tough in the meantime but it will make my FUTURE brighter, and make me be able to spend the time I want with Lily.

I was reading an article on Winning Outcome And decided that even though goals aren't usually my way to go, I feel I should put SOMETHING out into the universe.

So I'll start SMALL. Cause really that is where I need to start.

I will track all my food this week and choose healthy options. I will get in some activity (walks outside with the Mons) this weekend. And I will NOT beat myself up if I slip a little. No one is perfect and I don't need to be!

Wish me luck (again)!

A Post in Pictures...

Because I'm not to thrilled with the L-mons this morning, about all I can muster up to post is some photos. Enjoy.

Lily LOVES to it up on your shoulders, it's one of those things that makes her laugh hysterically for no good reason.

We were playing peekaboo.

Just testing out our bunny ears for our Easter photos (coming soon) Notice the food ALL over her face.

Everything in our house ends up on our head. As a HAT

Lily being a ham in her stuffed animal basket.

Did I mention the seperation anxiety?

For those of you that care about my cat situation (which you probably don't), but it's been a week since I've seen ANY pee on my carpet. I hope they stay on track and keep going this way. I am hoping that this spring we can rent a carpet cleaner and get the carpets deep cleaned and we won't have to worry about this issue anymore.

In other, more exciting news. Ok so their really isn't any exciting news. Things have been tame as of late. Just trying to find my balance between my new work duties, Adam's new schedule and my overwhelming urge to lose a bit of weight and tone up a smidge. Oh and that whole being a MOM thing. It's tough, I honestly feel like I have about 3 full time jobs! Anyone wanna plan meals and workouts for me...and then Make the meals and do the workouts for me, cause I am SO not feeling it lately. *sigh* I need to get my butt in gear, I don't like it when the scale goes the wrong way. I don't like feeling discouraged and bad about failing. Blech. Give me a week or so to adjust to the new schedule. I also need to grocery shop.

So I got Daycare lined up for the girl. My first choice didn't have openings until June 1st, since Lily will be a year old then and she will have a toddler opening then. So I'm excited about it. I think she'll like it, get to play with new toys and other kids. Hopefully get on a better schedule for naps. Which would help us out tremendously plus she'll learn some social skills which will help her too I think!

One of these days I will post some new pictures of the girl. We have Easter/10 month photos coming up here soon!

I hate that it's dark out in the morning again.

The weekend was great! Friday we stayed home (lily and I). Adam had his sales conference so he was out late. So I couldn't sleep. It's funny too cause I LOVE to sprawl out in the middle of the bed. But without him there hogging the bed I just couldn't sleep. Then Saturday we went out for breakfast and got some cleaning done! It was great. My Sister in law came over and watched Lily so we could go out with some friends. A good time was had by all. After that Adam went out to the bar with some of his friends and I went to bed. About midnight I hear this awful noise but didn't think much of it. A minute or two later I realize I need to get up and find out what it is and turn it off. Turns out it was coming from Lily's room. Sarah must have bumped the alarm button on the white noise machine when she turned it on. SO I had to try and figure out how to turn that off. Which was no simple task since I had never used that feature before. And of course Lily woke up, looked at me and proceeded to scream. I debated picking her up but figured I'd leave her a while and see if she'd go back to sleep on her own. Which I left and Adam was home and came upstairs and she fell asleep relatively quickly which was nice. Sunday morning Adam got up with her and took her downstairs (thank you honey!) While I stayed in bed for a while cause I haven't been sleeping great lately. When I did get up I had to run to Sam's Club to get Diapers and formula and since I was out and about I did some shopping, nice long strolls around the stores. It was nice and when I got home Lily was napping.

Last night I slept GREAT! Thanks to some Tylenol PM. I don't think Lily made a single peep ALL night!

Adam started his new schedule today. M-F 9:30-6. Fun Fun. I'm not too thrilled with the idea of not eating dinner together so we may start eating later. Not sure yet. We'll have to see how the days play out. But they were both still sleeping when I left this morning. Lucky Ducks.

Tonight I hope I can get a workout in. If the weather is decent I think I will try and get Lily and myself out for a nice walk. We can bundle up and get some fresh air. We could BOTH use it!

It's the weekend BABY!

Well Adam has his work sales conference tonight. So Lily and I are on our own. What to do oh what to do? We could clean? But she isn't much help in that area. She is always pulling toys OUT as I try to put them away. We could watch sappy girly movies. Though they don't really hold her attention, not to mention she doesn't need to start thinking all men are evil at such a young age. I'm considering painting her toenails Bright red. I think she would be ok with this idea as she LOVES red and it would give her something to look at when I'm all done, but OH the wiggling of it all. Paint one toe, blow it to dry, paint another, blow it to dry. You see where I'm going with that? My goodness. You would think I could come up with a hundred things to do alone with my baby but for some reason I'm just drawing a blank. I have no motivation do anything fun. I suppose we could go out for a walk, the weather is nice enough I suppose. Sun is even shining today! Gah, only time will tell what we decide to do.

Tomorrow Adam's sister is coming over to watch the monster for us as we are going out with some friends. Should be fun. But this also means I need to clean a bit so that I don't have to be ashamed of how messy my house is. So maybe tonight or tomorrow I'll get my buns in gear and get some cleaning done.

Inspired by others...

So I follow a few blogs. One of them Here inspired me this morning on the topic of names. Why is it we all think so long and hard over names of our babies and then HARDLY ever call them their name. Now I also admit that I rarely call Lily by her name unless we are working on "No". So here is my list.

Lily-monster, Lily-mon, Mons, or L-mon (also call us mommy-mons and daddy-mons)

Bunk, Bunkenroo, Bunkenrooster, Lily-bunk

Punkin

Grace (her middle name), GracieLou, Gracie, Gracie-butt.

Princess, princess lily, Princess Lillian (these are not common ones as I try to avoid the princess thing but sometimes they just come out)

Sunshine

I THINK that's most of them, I'm sure there are more and there are always variations of those above too. The most common one I call her is Bunkenroo. And I completely agree with Lynn (see above link) that I find it odd that no one bats an eye at the fact that her nickname makes NO sense. And no one ever questions it or thinks twice about it.

I suppose we ALL have crazy nicknames for our kids though huh?

What is creativity anyway?

So the following are just a couple of the attempts made by me to be creative. I am happy with how they turned out and it was nice to edit something other than faces. (though photos of Lily ARE pretty fun to edit)

This is actually my staircase at work, it's kinda creepy, old an dirty but it made for a cool photo.

And my Emergency exit sign. No it's not normally green. It's red, But I added night vision as one of the edits and just loved the way it looked.

FOLLOW ME!

So it's new! BUT I know I have readers that do not have google accounts, or blogger accounts. Now you can follow me too! Just click on the follow me link over there on the right and you can sign in with your yahoo accounts or AIM or whatever you use!

I love seeing who reads my blog and I love getting feedback on what people think!

Thanks everyone!

Why No posts lately?

Hmm. I just don't have anything exciting to share I guess. Unless you wanna hear how my cats keep peeing on my carpet and we just spent $200 taking older cat to the vet and have her on meds now and all these training aids... Yeah, I didn't think so. Heck if I didn't have to know about all that I would be so much happier. Truth is, I'm at my wits end with them. I mean I LOVE my cats but I can't take the pee that much longer. This is her last chance or we are going to have to find her a new home. *gulp*

In other news. Well there really ISN'T any other news. It's pretty uneventful around our house. So I'll leave you with the image of my cats peeing on the carpet for now.

Drumroll Please!

Lillian fell asleep down in the basement while daddy played video games and mommy painted the bedroom. She rarely falls asleep on her own and slept like this for several hours!

LILY'S NINE MONTH PHOTOS

This photo is an homage to Adam's job. He'll be using it as his background on his computer!

I really like the black backdrop, unfortunately I couldn't get her to co-operate and it's kinda small, so I'm on the lookout for a larger piece of black fabric!

You can see her teethers here clear as day!

Big girl happy Smiles!