This year, Emma is a beautiful purple fairy and Noah is a floppy puppy dog.

Taking pictures isn't really Noah's cup of tea at this stage in his life, so that's why he's giving me the stink eye.

These are precious though. He loves his new Owl Trick or Treat bag and he really likes his costume. I'm pretty sure Emma was over there making him giggle, hence the cute face. ;)

Emma's always up for a photo op and she looked as beautiful as ever. Still getting used to the short hair, though! :)

This Halloween, Tony was in Iraq working and Mimi was out of town, so Amber and I took the kids to the PH Church down the road to the Halloween carnival they have each year. The kids absolutely loved it! They jumped and slid on bouncy things and we had hots dogs, followed by trunk or treating. It's a really great thing they do for the kids over there and it's super fun without having to walk miles through a neighborhood.

Today we took a trip to see Aunt Heather in Dunn at Chateau Salon & Day Spa to get the babies some hair cuts! I could not bear to cut much off Noah's beautiful locks, I mean, look at those curls!!!

So we just trimmed him up. He's a good sport about it. He sat still like a good boy for Aunt Heather. He started saying, "I Done" after the first snip, though, so we had to hurry up through his. :)

Then Emma sat down. When we went in to get her hair cut today, her hair was almost down to her butt.

Unfortunately, I did not take a before picture. :(

But here is the after...

She looks so beautiful and so much older than she did with her super long hair.

And we donated 10 inches to Locks of Love. Hopefully a child in need will get a really beautiful wig out made out of her hair.

Wow, it's been a really long time since I've posted on this blog. So sorry. I'll try to do better.

Yesterday, we went to this awesome yogurt shop in Hope Mills called, Tuttimelon.

Then we went to this awesome new theater...

It's in the same shopping center as TuttiMelon. I also had to shoot here on Tuesday. That's how I discovered this theater.

It is AMAZING! Not only do they serve nachos, hot dogs, and pizza IN THE LOBBY, but the seats in the theater are leather rocking chairs!

It was so much fun and 'Despicable Me' is what we went to see.

It's definitely in my top 5 favorite animated movies of ALL TIME.

It was THAT GOOD.

We took Noah to the Toys R Us in Wilmington the day before his birthday and he got to pick out his very own present. :)

Precious boy, we love you so much and we are so very happy that you are a part of our family. Your spunky personality adds so much to our lives and you are such a valuable part of our lives.

Ok, this post is probably premature, but I can't contain my excitement!

I was contacted today by the Art Editor of City View Magazine. She's in love with my work. (Her words)

And she wants me to FREELANCE for her MAGAZINE!!!!

Are. You. Kidding. ME???????

I am so beyond excited!

I should have waited until this time tomorrow to post this, because I'm meeting with her tomorrow to discuss this possibility and who knows... she could hate me in person, but I'm just so excited!

I knew good things were coming, but sometimes it's hard to see through the fog of waiting. You know?

And this is a local magazine, but, seriously, I'm just so excited that my work is going to possibly be in a magazine seen by all in my area.

The thought gives me goosebumps. :)

Yesterday my dad's side of my family gathered at my Mama Peggy's house to celebrate mine and my little brother, Jarrett's birthdays.

She does this for all our birthdays... cooks a big, delicious home-cooked meal and we have cake and presents and celebrate together.

It's so nice to see everybody and eat yummy food and laugh and love.

Mama Peggy has a great old swing on her front porch that's been there my whole life and it's pretty much everybody's favorite place to gather, especially the little ones.

Yesterday, I got lucky and captured that picture up there that I LOVE with my crappy camera phone.

WHY didn't I have a decent camera in my hands????

Oh well, it's still precious and I'll treasure it and it's horrible pixelation (is that a word??) forever. ;)

This is the first time I've entered an I Heart Faces Challenge, but when I saw what the challenge was this week, I couldn't NOT enter.

This is my April bride and this is my absolute favorite of the bridal shots I did for her.

I love how her veil is blowing in the wind and I love the mood that's created by her facial expression, as well as the starkness of the field, backed up by the trees.

And the reason I'm posting this to my personal rather than my photography blog is because her bridals can't be posted there until after the wedding! :)

Go HERE to view others entries!

I hate spanking.

Spankings put me in a bad mood and when I give spankings, I immediately feel like I need to give another spanking because I'm so upset that Emma got me to the point of her needing a spanking.

Does that make sense?

And just so you know, spankings are very infrequent here, as I HATE giving them.

And Emma has gotten so lazy about listening without arguing and following directions and all that not so fun for her stuff.

So, I'm now at the point where I am SOOOO tired of fighting with her and arguing with her, so I've made some decisions.

I enforced them for the first time last night.

She spent the night with my mom the night before last and when she came home yesterday, my mom told me that, as always, Emma did not want to listen to her AT ALL, she was a little on the wild side and THEN to top it all off, she CUT HER HAIR!!!!

A big chunk, right outta the front.

I was so angry.

I was too angry to spank her, because I'm always scared that I may spank too hard or too much or something when I'm THAT angry.

So, I came to the conclusion that spankings really don't work anyway.

They scare Emma half to death and they make me feel like I just wanna jump off a bridge.... not really, but seriously, I get in a funk when I spank Emma.

So, I told her that for TWO DAYS she was not going to watch any of her "shows" (aka any of the 7 cartoon networks we have on our tv) or her dvds.

Friends, you would really have thought I was holding her down on the kitchen table and sawing her arm off.

It was SO MUCH worse than if I had just spanked her.

Seriously.

She lives and breathes her "shows" and dvds.

She cried off and on for two hours and told me at least a hundred times how sorry she was.

So, this morning, she and I both COMPLETELY forgot about this punishment.

We got up and did what we do every morning...

-She and I got Noah up and I changed him.
-We went to the kitchen, I made both of them a cup of chocolate milk.
-Noah and I came upstairs to watch Sesame Street, eat muffins, and for me to check all my internet stuff.
-And Emma went and got back into my bed and promptly turned my tv to her cartoon of choice.

About thirty minutes into this routine, the light bulb came on and I jumped out of my chair, flew down the stairs, ran wide eyed into my room and glared at Emma... at the tv... at Emma... at the tv...

And without me even saying anything, Emma said, "Oh, Mommy!!!! I FORGOT, I FORGOT!!!"

What could I say, I forgot too.

So, off the tv went and all has been well and good.

I can't wait to see if this actually works and she behaves better the next time she's away from home... and when she's AT home.

I did tell her, though, that from this point on, when she misbehaves, breaks a rule, or deliberately doesn't listen, I'm either going to take away her tv or take away a favorite toy.

I hope it works....

Suggestions?

Wednesday was a special day. I got to meet 4 day old BrinkleyAnne. She's Amy's (one of my best friends since middle school) newborn baby girl. Amy and I have wanted little girls since we were little girls and I got pregnant with mine 6 years ago, but Amy had to wait a little longer for hers to enter her life. So, needless to say, this is one spoiled little princess! Her room is perfection and she has almost as large of a wardrobe as my 5 year old Emma has! It was a really special day.

I also did her newborn pictures while I was there. A bunch of them are on my photography blog.

These are my favorites...

I know a lot of kids grow up fighting with their siblings and resenting them for one reason or another...

But mine just love each other SO very much, I can't imagine they would ever be that way.

I hope they always love each other like this.

There's nothing that feels any better as a mother than to see this kind of love flowing between the babies. It's amazing.

So, I was looking at awesome camera bags.

I found this site...

Epiphanie

THEN

I saw that they're doing a give-away for a Canon 5D!

I'm a Nikon girl, but... yeah, I'd definitely take this Canon.

It's awesome!

Click here to check out this contest!

We are supposed to get SOMETHING tomorrow and it MAY be more SNOW!

I love snow, but I'm really over it already.

It's March. I'm ready for warm weather and spring flowers.

And what is the deal with all our snow coming from Texas? I thought Texas was hot and never got such things as snow.

I have such hope.

Hope for my future.

Hope for my heart.

Hope for my children.

I feel the need to express this, kind of to follow up on the blog I wrote last night.

I know I am loved. I appreciate every ounce of love that is wrapped around me. I know those who sometimes stress me out the most, nevertheless love me very much. It's just that they aren't always able to express it in a way that is easily accepted by me.

In difficult times, the heart craves kindness and understanding and that's exactly what I need at the moment.

I have wonderful friends, both here and far away. I am so thankful for each of you. Your words soothe my soul and fill me with this hope that I have.

Today was a difficult day. I only ate about a handful of food today, because I felt too sick to my stomach to eat. I hate that feeling.

I don't like feeling scared about my future. I don't enjoy worrying about what is going to become of certain things my children love and enjoy so much.

My wonderful friend, Alison, had the kids and I over today for a playdate and a mommy date. We enjoyed great conversation, tears, laughter and wine.
It was therapy.
It's always nice to have your thoughts and feelings validated, while simultaneously receiving kind words of advice. Especially when it's advice that totally makes sense to you.

Then tonight, Amber provided a much needed listening ear for me to vent. It was fabulous. She is fabulous.

Life would be empty without my girlfriends.

I love you, friends.

You've made my weekend more bearable. Whether you know it or not. :)

So much is going on...

In my head

In my heart

In my world

I need a break.

Seriously.

I'm about to turn 31 and I still feel like I am treated like a child by some.

I remember when I WAS a child.
The adults in my world were actually treated as such.
I never saw one being reprimanded by a parent or elderly family member as if they were still expected to abide by their rules.

There are some days when I would gladly return to my childhood years, but only for great benefits such as....

no bills to pay
no house to be responsible for
no people to be responsible for
nothing to really worry about except what I was going to gossip with my girlfriends about the next day...

But for the most part, I am extremely happy that I am grown.

And while I do love living by my family, there is so much pressure to be "perfect".

Unfortunately, I am not perfect and really... I have no desire to be perfect.
I know I make mistakes.
I know I make decisions that not everyone agrees with.

But they're my mistakes to make, my decisions to make, and my life to live.

I'm positive that as a child, I witnessed many, many, many things that if I were to do those very same things today, I would be judged and get a tongue lashing like no other.
But oddly enough, those adults never got tongue lashings, they were allowed to do what they wanted with their lives because... they were ADULTS.

Anyway, I just feel so spent.

And this was a venting blog...

Sorry if it bored you outta your mind, sometimes... a girl just has to vent.

I thought I had used every fabric softener in creation, but heaven's no... I bought this Snuggle last week and I am so in love. I find myself laying in bed at night with my nose buried in my shirt. That's how yummy it is.

You all should know by now that I live on a farm. Therefore, we are have a well. We aren't on city water. Well, we've only been in this house a little over two years and I noticed some yucky yellow staining on my dishwasher. This has scared my paranoid self into thinking that our water is completely contaminated. Therefore, I bought this beautiful new Orange Brita pitcher at Target last weekend. It makes deliciously filtered water and I no longer feel as if the kids or I are going to develop some horrible disease.

And this is my lovely companion to the Brita. It's my Gaiam aluminum water bottle. I got this last summer, but it's kinda just been hanging out on top of the fridge. I have to let new things grow on me for a while. I like to stare at them and get used to them before I start REALLY using them. Now I carry this pretty water bottle with me everywhere and it's just one more step in my conservation effort. :)

Wow... this stuff... I discovered this stuff in little tubes (I love anything that's tiny sized) on the baby lotion aisle in Target last weekend and I thought... hmmm... I need that and upon reading the back of the box at a stoplight on the way home, I discovered that not only is it good for chapped bottoms, it's good for chapped lips. I immediately slathered it on. I LOVE chapstick! Anyone who knows me knows that. Love. It! And this stuff is excellent! Also, Emma has a chapped lip problem in winter time because she licks her lips and mouth area A LOT, and this stuff is great because it has no flavor, yet really protects her whole mouth area. LOVE IT!

And this, friends, is my beautiful new purple Blackberry Curve. It's lovely. I'm so in love with it that I bought it an expensive, hard cover so that hopefully I won't destroy it as I have all my others. It's perfectly perfect. :)

Emma is a drama queen. For those of you that are friends from afar and haven't experienced her drama... she thrives on it.

But not in a mean drama way... in just an emotionally dramatic way.

She doesn't like change. She got this from her Mommy. I've never been a big fan of it either.

So, last night when she was brushing her teeth and discovered something amiss, she was quite.. bothered.

Emma: "Mommy!! Somefing's wrong wif my toof!!"

Me: "Huh?"

Emma: "It's hurting when I'm brushing it and it's moving all around."

Me: "Huh?"

I was NOT prepared for her to start losing teeth yet. Not at all. I love those little baby teeth.
Well, little did I know...
So. Does. Emma.

When I felt the wiggly little tooth, I assured her, "Awww, baby, all little girls and boys lose their baby teeth, it's part of growing up! You're getting to be a big girl!!"

Emma: {admist letting out an awful, horrible wail with tears literally springing sideways from her eyes} "I don't wanna lose my teef, I love my teef!!! They're my teef and I love them!!!"

Me: "Come on, let's go upstairs so you can see pictures of other little girls and boys who've lost their teeth"

So, after an hour of googling, "Kids losing baby teeth" and showing her all the pictures I could, she was finally a little okay with it. However, she was doing the scary cry/laugh the whole time we were looking at empty gums and freshly fallen out teeth.

It was all she talked about all night last night. She had to keep looking at it and having me look at it, but she did not want to wiggle it.

This was so bizarre to me, because what I remember of losing teeth is this... sitting in my desk at school wiggling them with my tongue all day long while blood poured out of my gums. I think I actually enjoyed the small amount of pain that it caused.

So, today, she showed everyone we came across the wiggly tooth and when I left her at my mom's house for a few hours, I had no idea it was going to fall out while I was gone, or I would never have left her! It did though, and here is my precious little snaggletooth...

Because of all the drama, I think this is going to have to be a higher than normal dollar tooth.

Maybe a 20? Enough for her to get a good toy or a new dvd?

... No, not really. This comes from here...

I read this and thought you might like to know.

How to Get Rid of Rust

"Take rusty hand shovels and other items, dip them in a bowl filled with vinegar, and leave overnight. You can do this to shine pennies, too."

Okay, that was your helpful hint of the day from me! :)

Okay, before I tell you this really gross story, let me just tell you a little bit so that those of you who have never met me in person and been to my house may understand a little better.

I live in the middle of a field... on a farm... with lots of woods surrounding me.

Okay, with that said...

There are lots of field mice around. Lots. And I leave my garage door cracked at night so Marley (the dog) can sleep in the warmth of the garage, but also have the option to go in the yard to do his business.

Therefore, those field mice that are all around are also always seeking refuge in my nice (otherwise clean) garage.

Because of these little critters, I'm always finding "droppings" in my garage. It thoroughly grosses me out, but what grosses me out even more than the mice droppings are when Marley is locked in the garage and gets an upset stomach. He's a big dog and his piles are... BIG.

So, the garage door remains cracked for him so I don't have to fuss with his "piles".

Now, about a month ago, I got into my car one day ( I have a Honda Pilot, in case anyone wants to know for visualization purposes) and noticed the random McDonald's drink straw on my floor and it had holes in it. I thought... hmmm... I guess it got worn by my shoes from being on the floor.

I let it go and moved on with my life.

THEN I noticed some ketchup packets (McDonald's, again) in my car that had holes in them and all the ketchup was gone from them.

This was a little alarming.

I started wondering if possibly one of these little field mice had made it's way into my car, because that's what it looked like on the packet... mice chew marks.

Well, skip ahead to about two weeks ago.

I was on the way to the post office to mail off like.... 500 books to PBS peeps when I turned a corner and all of a sudden, this horrible, loud rattling sound started right behind the glove box of my car.

I seriously thought my car was about to blow up. I was so scared!

So, after leaving the post office, I went directly to Crumpler's, our local garage. I know the guy who owns it, so I asked him if I could borrow him for a minute. He said sure.. came to my car, listened to the noise.. told me it was the blower motor (the thing that powers the air conditioner/heater). He said something had blown up into it and I could bring my car back the next day for him to take care of it.

Well, I HATE doing car maintenance related activities and I discovered that as long as I kept the air/heat on low, the noise wasn't that loud, so I figured I'd just grin and bear it until I felt like going to get it fixed... which would probably in reality be when my dad finally took it to get fixed for me. ;)

So.... days turned into weeks... and then came last Friday.

Mama had wanted to keep the kids because she hadn't in a while, so I left them and just started wandering around town. Didn't have much to do, so I was trying to think of things to do. I remembered that the battery on my keyless entry remote had recently gone dead and boy is that annoying! So, I headed over to the Honda place to get the battery replaced.

While I was talking to the guy about replacing my battery, I remembered the blower motor.

"OH yeah", I said to the guy, "can you come listen to this noice, something's in the blower motor and I really need to get it taken care of".

So he did. And they had time to fix it for me, so I went to the lobby to read my book while they were taking care of my annoying car issues.

Well, about 30 minutes went by when I got a page to come back to the service desk.

This is what they showed me...

THAT is the blower motor from my car and in that blower motor are the remains of A MOUSE!!!

A MOUSE!!!

Thank God it is the dead of winter and not August. Can you imagine the smell??? I've been driving around with a dead mouse in the thing that blows air into the car! Oh my gosh, it makes me want to vomit.

The people in the service department were looking at me like I was some nasty person!

I was like... no... seriously, I live in the middle of a field. I can't keep the mice away, it's not even possible.

They all had their faces scrunched up looking at me like I smelled.

What the crap!

So, the guy I had been dealing with thought it was hilarious. He told me that there is a shelf that goes around the top of the blower motor, so probably when I turned that corner, the mouse had been sitting on that shelf and promptly fell into the motor.

DIS. GUS. TING.

So, now my car is mouse free.

All I can think of though is what if that mouse had started running around my car while I was driving down the road. I probably would have killed us all and smashed up everything in my wake trying to stop and get out of the car.

Object of the story: I have to get a cat.

Okay, remember how I told you I measured 7 inches of snow in our backyard on Saturday morning and then it was practically all gone the next day?

Well, here's the proof...


Saturday Morning:

Yeah, we were robbed!

Anyway, here are the cute pictures of Noah getting to enjoy the snow a little, since all the other snow pictures are of Emma the night before when it actually all came down.

At first, he just preferred to hide out in the playhouse.

Noah's like his Mommy, he has to warm up to new things first before he totally embraces them. But he was observing the outside from the door. Bless his sweet little heart.

Emma joined him on the porch to get him to come out and play. He trusts his Sissy, so he went ahead and ventured out in it.

I just love this picture because Livi was trying to eat the snow off Noah's mitten. LOL.. that dog will drive you crazy. Noah has learned, though. Everyday when he and Emma play in the yard, Livi follows him around, jumping up and down on him, and Noah very clearly says to her, "Nu NU!" His version of "No, NO" It's the cutest thing ever because he gives her the Mean Mommy face and turns his back on her. It cracks me UP!


And Emma was trying to blast the camera with a snowball here... it must've either went over the top or to the side, because I do not see it.

This girl loves snow so much. It's such a shame we weren't born further north. ;)

It seems as if I have something against putting the laundry away.

I don't mind washing it... at all...

Folding it... I don't like it, but I do it...

Putting it away... I wait until most of the clothes in the house are folded up and piled on every flat surface in the laundry room before I take the time to put it away.

Why? Why do I do this?

Since it's my goal to read a lot this year... and I really do mean A LOT...

I took my books off of my sidebar.

I know a lot of you could not care less, but in case you're one of the ones who might want to know what I am or have been reading, I've added a page to this blog and it's the top section on my sidebar.

It's titled "Books of 2010"

My goal is to read at least 100 books this year.

I'm on number 18 right now, so we'll see how this all works out for me by December. ;)

This was our Valentine that I sent out...

Noah got a teddy bear for Valentine's Day

And his shirt says, "My Mommy is my Valentine" :)

Emma got this little pocketbook for Valentine's Day...

She really loves it. I got it at a boutique that was going out of business before Christmas.

I love when boutiques go out of business and have clearing out sales. That sounds horrible, I hate that their "business dream" has to die, but I sure love the bargains that ensue! :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

If you guys went and read about baby Bronson when I posted about him a few weeks ago, you must go to their blog and watch the video they posted today.

They have witnessed a true miracle of God in their family!

Well, our snow started around 7:30 pm tonight.

They were really small flakes and you had to squint your eyes and look into the light to see them at all.

Well, this was thrilling! ha! Finally, our turn for the SNOOOOOOOOOOOWW!! So, I yelled out to Emma, she ran outside and tried so hard to see the snow, but she had to stare and get right in the light to see anything at all, but she too, was THRILLED! :)

So, of course I let her go out and play in it and she did... for probably 20 minutes.. just running around swirling and twirling in the yard.

Then it was bathtime. At this point, there was still no accumulation whatsoever on the ground, but you could see that the flakes were starting to get a bit bigger.

So into the bathtub she and Noah went.

30 minutes later, when bathtime was over and jammies were on, we looked out the backdoor and this is what we saw...

Holy Sh-nikes!!

I was dumbfounded. Seriously could. not. believe that this much snow had fallen in the 30 minute time frame that I had the kids in the tub.

So, I put Noah to bed (he was soooooo fussy) and I stripped Emma of her jammies and bundled her up and the rest was winter wonderland history!!! :) :) :) :)

This cracked me up when we went in for a brief warm-up in front of the fire... Livi's tag was completely coated in snow! ha!

We made a baby snowman and since he was a baby snowman, we put a paci in his mouth... and in case you're wondering, his nose is a pickle, his eyes are Hershey's kisses, and his hat is... a measuring cup. ;)

We've already got at least 3 inches and it's still coming down hard. That means you'll be getting another snow blog tomorrow!!!! WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!