The Cutest Boy We've Had In Our Spare Bath

We got to babysit cutie pie Alex a few nights ago...he met Brinkley because he really wanted to see the dogs...and Brinkley is pretty much the most predictable one when it comes to kids---as in the one who we KNOW will NOT eat a child. :) In fact, the worst Brinkley did was slightly frighten Alex by covering him in more friendly slobber kisses than he's ever dealt with before.

The most fun was bath time! I love finding things in the kitchen to play with in the tub. We gave him those little IKEA bag snappers and called them "noodles" and a pair of tongs naturally was dubbed the "noodle grabber." I definitely explained a lot when his Mom got home...so that the next time she gave him a bath, there wouldn't be any confusion or misunderstanding about a noodle grabber grabbing a noodle. :) He had a fun time cooking the noodles is his bowl and using the plastic strainer to make the water look like a shower. It was a blast.

You know how great little kid neck smells after a bath right? Has to be one of the best smells ever.
And the fact that this sweet, cute boy will be coming over to our house one day with a sweet, cute sister...OH THAT'S JUST ICING!

In January '08 we took the first photo of Alex in a tub! Why does that seem so long ago now?! Time is flying.

EDIT: Alex's REAL noodle was not supposed to be showing...it slipped past me in one photo...so I had to do a redo!

Julie had him laughing pretty hard with some of the sounds she was making.




I was just thinking, poor kid doesn't stand a chance when he's older---trying to keep people from seeing all the embarrassing photos of him...between his mom, KK and her tub fun pics, and now mine too. He's just outta luck.

Oh HAIL! Oh HAIL! Oh HAIL!

This post could have many titles:
"The day we outran a tornado in each city we passed through."
"The day we took refuge in a Hobby Lobby."
"Why we love Reese even more than we already did."

So, where to start? I'll try to condense this as much as possible! We took Mom and Aunt Peg over to Berry College in Rome, Georgia to check out the campus for the wedding we're shooting there in November.

There's a Cartersville RaceTrack gas station that has the best frozen drinks ever...Julie had the Mountain Dew, I had the Sunkist orange---sooooo tasty!

Toured the campus, most scenic, beautiful campus I've ever visited. Seriously looks like something you'd see in a fairytale type movie.


Saw at least 30 wild deer grazing/playing in the grassy fields on our way out--apparently they KNOW they are safe there in the wildlife refuge.


While finishing up some tasty fresh-baked cookies in the car, in downtown Rome--Reese calls to check on us. Everything is fine there--just a little rain, so she apparently knows something we don't. Yikes. As she's telling me that there's a tornado in Summerville and not so great things are headed towards Rome--GET OUT OF THERE--gumball size hail starts pounding my car. Everyone starts freaking about whether or not to run out of the car into the nearest shop or to stay in the car. There was no way I was leaving the safety of the car to get pelted in the head with hail...we opted to take our chances staying.

Do our best to hurry out of Rome after hailing stops, get stopped by train. Woohoo. On our way back through Cartersville on the way home Reese calls again---storm is behind us, then another phone call, storm is in front of us...then tornado sirens are going off in Cartersville---the very place we are headed AGAIN! Leave one tornado, headed towards another.

Before we can seek refuge in the Hobby Lobby---hail comes again--even bigger this time, we were fortunate enough to find a shelter to pull underneath---no glass broken, thank goodness.

Make it inside Hobby Lobby and stay an hour or so until we had to leave because of them closing--it was pretty bad while we were in there---lights stayed on, but outside was crazy. Left there and things were looking up.

Reese calls with another update---where are the storms and tornadoes now? Atlanta--the next city we had to go through to get home. Fun. Kerry calls us after making it through Atlanta alive, where's the next tornadoes? Henry County, Spalding County, and HOME. So we literally dodged tornadoes or the makings of--in every single town/county we had to drive through to get home. Craziness. There were times when we were the most scared we've ever been. It was so great to make it home, the electricity was out--but the house was still here! :)

I can't tell you how much it meant to us that Reese read that we were going to be in Rome and then called to check up on us and called back a bunch to give us updates on what was happening. Doesn't get any nicer than that! Thank you Reese Cup, we love you lots of bunches! And thanks for your call too Lennye--you are too crazy!

ps...I got some hella cool stuff at Hobby Lobby for photo shoots!! :) :)

Bunnies

So Sunday it rained just enough to force us to cancel four Easter mini sessions and one regular session at Indian Springs with two little boys we haven't met yet...excited though---there will be a red wagon!! :)

BUT that gave us time to take some fun pictures JUST BECAUSE..wow, I remember those days...the JUST BECAUSE pictures. hee! Once school is out, there will be more time for those pics and I'm excited!!

NO NO NO we did not buy these rabbits to keep. We think rabbits are cute, fun to photograph, but not for pets. They annoy the hell out of us...they are like those people whom no matter how many conversations you've had with them, it always feels like the first. Like you are always starting over at square one again. Rabbits are just too darn nervous and their personalities seem to me like they need anti-anxiety meds. We made sure to have at least one home lined up for them before the purchase.

What an interesting purchasing experience that was too. Ever been to a live animal auction? Whew. Smelly. There were chickens, peacocks, turkeys, goats, cows, rabbits, any kind of farm bird you can think of...no pigs though. Baby pigs would have been fun to see. We got there around 7pm and they didn't even start auctioning off the first rabbits until about 1:00am. FREAKIN' CRAZY!!! We got home at 2:00am in the morning from a frickin' auction?! It's kinda hard hanging out there knowing that people are just buying the animals to breed more and resale instead of buying them to bring inside and love. Reason 1,001 I would never make it on a farm. :)

I think we got some pretty darn nice looking buns dontcha think? That tiny one, oh he is a heart melter. Fits perfectly in your converse sneaker.






Even if you are feeling like a grump box, this has to make you smile:


Check out his heart shaped eye patch!

Two of our favorite boys came to visit the bunnies---the pic I got of Roo didn't turn out--but here's some Bean got of Rhino. He calls this little guy "Fred." Well he calls the big one "Fred" too! :)

It's Alive!

HOLY SMOKES...10 days since I last blogged! Well we're alive...tired, busy, but alive! :) Actually after burning the finished copy of the yearbook onto CD to overnight to the company tomorrow, I instantly felt energized and PERKY! :) Basically since I last "saw" you guys this has been my daily schedule:

6:15am--wake up
7:15am--get to work (that is the job where I teach Art) ;)
3:15pm--leave said job and drive across the street to the next job, painting for the friend I mentioned.
10:30pm--drive home and begin third job, finishing the yearbook.
1:00am--In bed after "preparing" canned-soup lunches, bathing and getting ready for the next day.

So, that's where we've been pretty much. The painting part has been pretty fun, because it's rewarding...finishing a room here and there and seeing how excited they are to have us help pick out things for decorating, has been really great. It was the yearbook part of all of it, having that hang over my head while needing to do these other things, that wasn't as fun.

We've now finished the kitchen, dining room, living room and one of the girl's rooms. For that one, she knew she wanted light blue and lime green, but didn't know how she wanted it done---so she got polka-dotted sheets and we did blue walls with lime green dots. Really fun! My fav. part though is the little nook that she now has that's painted with chalkboard paint and will house all of her Art supplies in nifty white planters from IKEA. I'm all over that!

Here's just a few photos of cutie-pie Alex on the practice bunny shoot. The bunny (Mr. Reese's Pieces) behaved very well and didn't scratch or bite once. Alex did very well too and didn't bite or scratch once...LOL! He gave us some excellent laughs when he was trying to run away and his shorts fell down. :0 Freakin' redonk how cute he is!











n other news, we went to an informative photography workshop in the ATL with Nat one evening (can you believe it started at 5pm and didn't end until 11pm?!) We learned some great stuff and had a nice time hanging out.

A Strange Week

Discovered Casey had a smallish cave on the side of his mouth, full of funk...$101.00 later found out he had gingivitis and a "hot spot" that required meds.

That same day something cool happened---while waiting on my next class at my door a visitor to the school who was there to give a special test to fourth graders asked me how to get back to the office. She was kind of far away from me, but there was something VERY familiar about her. She looked like my former 2nd/4th grade teacher, Ms. Sheets. I couldn't let the moment pass me up without finding out if it really was her or not or if my mind was going loco. So, even though I was nervous about tracking a person down all the way up to the office and then feeling really stupid once it wasn't her, I had to do it. Walked in and saw her up close and immediately knew it WAS HER. Craziness. Haven't seen her since I was maybe in middle or high school. She is one of my top four favorite teachers ever! She taught me in 2nd grade and then moved up to 4th so I had her for a subject or two then as well. She and my mom became buds and when mom had to work late, I would sometimes spend the night at her house...now this was back in the 80's when things were so much simpler.

I say that because I remember that her daughter was about one or two years younger than me and one night we didn't want to stay in her room because we were scared for some reason...so we slept in the bed with my teacher (just her, no husband at the time!) Now these days, that would NEVER happen----you are trained to be scared out of your mind to even drive a student somewhere for fear of a lawsuit...so thinking back on how that all took place back then and was completely acceptable, seems so strange now to think of how very, very different times are.

It was so great seeing her and getting some nice hugs. The next craziest thing was how she said Mrs. Bassett was there at my school too. That's another great teacher of mine that taught me Spanish I and II in high school...went down to visit her and that was equally as surreal and awesome. It's certainly not every day that--that sort of thing happens. I was stoked.

Came home to see Casey and Bean home safely from work/vet visit. Things were going well. Pups had dinner, time for a potty break outside while Bean started turkey burgers and I was in this very spot doing some work.

Heard a loud *yelp* outside that sounded like Lucy, called them all back in and didn't think anything of it. A few minutes later Lucy came to get my attention and I was pushing her off of me when I looked down and HOLY LORD...that dog's head was the size of a balloon almost. Whoa. Scary.

Her eyes were swollen, her normally floppy, droopy mouth and lips were now busting out the side of her face, crazy puffy and huge.

Quickly gave her a little liquid Benadryl and called Bomar to get emergency vet's number in Covington. Didn't want to take any chances at all, so took the turkey burgers off the stove, grabbed some crackers and Sierra Mist, the GPS navigator and jumped in the car. Got there 30 minutes later and the swelling had already gone down a lot, but not completely. After an examination, more medicine and time to make sure she wouldn't get worse, we were out of there. An allergic reaction to what must have been a bite or sting. There at 7:30pm and home at 10:30pm and $90.00 more gone. One exhausted, still semi-swollen, sore pup and two very weary, exhausted humans finished up the dinner that wouldn't be eaten until lunch the next day and joined three other tired pups for much needed rest.

It's been a strange week for sure. The vet tech guy said I should have gotten pics...I will be honest and say that I totally thought about it, but just couldn't justify taking the time for pics of her craziness while being that worried at the same time. He also asked if she was Lucy from "I love Lucy" or some other one that I can't remember now...we said neither.

So just Lucy, without the drama...

More Fun Pictures

Finished editing sessions for my buddies Meg and Cindy who brought their crews over for a holiday mini session! We tried out some new background paper that had just arrived the day before! Loved it! Their sneak peeks are up at monkeybeanphotos but here are a few of my very favs!

Julie named this one the "70's Old School Polaroid Look"

Love Becca's looks in these two! Cracks me up!

Most Excellent!

I received this

in the mail yesterday and was so stoked when I saw who it was from! My friend lowercase monkey (Krista) sent me this for my birthday! How freakin' excellent is someone when you haven't even "met" them in "real-life" and they send you a birthday gift?!! You ROCK my friend! Thank you so much for thinking of me! My life is even more SPARKLY now that you're a part of it! *Julie liked her note too!* :)

Pretty Much Will Make You Melt

Oh the cuteness and sweetness of these two boys...has to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm so glad the other babysitters couldn't do it! :)
Curious George, a lot of red and blue, toast because Monkey's a sucker, and A Charlie Brown Christmas:



Too Sweet and Cute:



We got to babysit Rhino and Roo last night while Kinsley and Nick went to Kinsley's faculty Christmas dinner. The boys didn't have a huge visit before bedtime but there was some quality hang out time in there before they crashed. This was pretty much the first time we have hung out with Andrew for any kind of extended time, so we didn't really "know" him---but it only took a very short time to fall in love with him just like Ryan. When I FINALLY got to hold him (aka--got him away from Julie) and started singing and talking to him, he made the cutest sounds I've ever heard. He has a sweet little voice and he sings along with you while you're singing and will just let you hold him and talk to him for the longest time.

Rhino went to sleep right away once he was tucked in with his Curious George---as long as I left the brighter nightlight on--he wasn't feeling the love for the dim one. Then when we put Roo down in his travel bed, walked out and came back to the sofa--all we could hear was cheerful singing, talking, all kinds of sounds coming from the room. Once we heard a weird rattling sound and he had stood up and was trying to dig around in a rubbermaid container that had plastic clothes hangers in it. After about 15 minutes of singing and talking to himself, he crashed too.

Oh, and I totally gave Rhino a piece of toast even though he wasn't supposed to be hungry...that kid SO knows I'm a sucker for whatever he asks for. And as you can see by the pics, Roo has Julie wrapped around his finger after a very short amount of time. Complete cuteness.

The Weekend

Oh how the weekends fly by! And the entire year has flown by, because it seems like just the other day that Roo was born! We went to Roo's birthday party at Pump it Up where they have super huge blow up slides and castles for kids to play on/in. Should have seen Meg and Kinsley racing through one of the blow up obstacle courses! Too great! Meg practically broke her neck to win--we so pick on that woman about her competitiveness---I always say if she ever becomes a soccer mom, she'll kill someone.

It was good to see everyone at the party and then afterwards we did a photo shoot at Indian Springs of Sarah's family. That session can be seen here.

Julie's buddy at work, Lewis, found out that as of January 4th he's laid off from work. They are making huge cutbacks at her work---they don't work full days on Fridays, sometimes the plant workers who do all of the production work don't find out until the last minute that they'll only be working two or three days a week. I guess the silver lining is that Julie IS the sales and marketing department...so maybe that means job security---as long they keep that department around!!

Julie said to write that she finished up her last projects and exams for the semester! WOOHOO!! Some maxin' and relaxin' is in order! :)

Kinsley giving Roo a tasty treat--Nat took these:

Alex REALLY enjoying the cupcakes Kinsley made:


Got my camera back from Nat for a few shots! hee!
Alex and Andrew were too cute! I don't have any shots of Rhino---Roo's brother---he's was off being a social butterfly!


Mmm...that looks SO tasty Alex


Sarah and Lindsey:

Us trying to hide behind Alex: and me hating everything on me from the neck up! geez.

And my favorite...this shot is Alex taking a pic of his mom! Go NAT!