Word on the Streets

52:4 tired

each morning i drag my sleepy body out of bed to get jack and morgan off to school and sam changed, bathed and fed. then after jack and morgan are gone i ready myself for a long morning walk. i've been good so far at doing this each morning for the past few weeks and i've felt great after the walk. it is just getting my aching body up and moving in the morning that i find difficult. i am beyond tired in the mornings just before everyone wakes up. can you see it in my face? oh yes. this is raw! but it is real and real life for me in the mornings is tired right now!

[also see: jenn, michelle, heather, tracey, stacey, andrea, kristin, amanda, amanda, sara, rhonda, heather a, jessica, carla, rose, naomi, tracy, heidi, veronica]

12 of 2012. . .[photography]

i have two local photography friends, heather abbott and kristin conk, who are alumni with me from the same photography instructor. we live really far apart across all ends of the valley and even now one of them is outside the valley in logandale! so we've decided to join up and do a photography project together once a month. each month we've chosen a theme and we are each to take a photo relating to that theme and what's going on in our lives that month. then kristin collages our images and we all get to post them on our blogs. this month was our first one. i love how both kristin and heather found their theme interrpretted similarly. and my photo--well, sam is a huge portion of how i spend my days and nights and i love when he sleeps because i ooogle over his perfect skin and long eyelashes.

this month's theme was CALM. [heather's blog / kristin's blog]

random photos from the month of january. . .

i have some random photos that make me happy sitting on my computer and thought i'd share them.

1) mr. who and mr. who-ha: i found these two little robotish men on my sliding glass window the day the cleaning ladies came to clean my home. i was so wanting to keep them up but at the same time i wanted my window to be cleaned. so i took a photo of them for their originators to remember them by. jack and morgan, i love your artwork so much but i really am glad the cleaning ladies came so i could think to take a photo of these little men you drew on our glass doors. i love such little men! love, mom.

2) i had to cook dinner and sam needed to eat--all at the very same time. sam got his dinner and i cooked dinner--at the same time. and it gave me the giggles to see his little feet from under the blanket while drinking his bottle. i love everything about him especially those baby toes!

3) i am always in awe of how peacefully sam sleeps. when i put him in the carseat he snuggles in and knows we are going in the car or on a soothing stroller ride so he most of the time closes his eyes and falls into dreamland. a sleeping baby is one of the most peaceful looking sights ever! and check out those eyelashes!

4) vegas skyline: the other evening on our walk the sky was stretched out across the city like a painted canvas. it was amazing to behold. is it montana they call "big sky country"? well, the vegas sky can paint itself a stunning scene if you ask me. 

5) mr. moneybags: jack is my sugardaddy when i need cash. he loves that i borrow money from him! i love that i can as well. he has a little job he does for our neighbor and he gets paid monthly. somehow i anticipate the need to convince him not to spend it all on legos! but it is his spending money after paying his tithing and putting some into savings. but my question is always, "how many legos do we really need?"

6) forty-two: it was my birthday and we celebrated with some especially nice gifts and a lovely dinner at my parents with just out little family of five and my parents. a calm and quiet evening. so nice at the end of a long day.

7) my hydrangea plant is still alive! my mom got it for me around christmas and i've been able to keep it in bloom and going strong. it likes my kitchen window and with it right by my kitchen sink i remember to water it. besides, it makes me so very happy when i do my dishes three times a day!

8) i've been walking in the mornings and wearing these awesome little target treasure find. these touch screen compatable gloves make it so i can use my phone while keeping my digits warm. thank you very much target for yet another things i "need."

52:3 breakfast

each early morning at 6:00 am Sam enjoys a tall bottle of similac and rice cereal---shaken not stirred!

he downs it while i rock him. then he is a happy, smiling boy till about 8:00 am when he ventures out in his stroller on mom's morning walk. these types of mornings are only for a window of time and i want to cherish them while he is young! his happy coos and goos after a helping of morning bottle-fest are heaven.

[also see: jenn, michelle, heather, tracey, stacey, andrea, kristin, amanda, amanda, sara] 

52:2 cold

this week's theme for my 52 week photography project was "cold". i ended up with a few. go ahead and pick your favorite. i'm partial to the boy and me because i want to remember these personal snapshots but for submitting to a photography group, i'd go with the blue sky, empty tree one. you?

[also see: jenn, michelle, heather, tracey, stacey, andrea, kristin, amanda, amanda, sara]

 

 

sam out takes for fun. . .

when taking photos of sam for his 2 month old photos i caught a few out takes that just make me smile! i love all his many faces. 

samuel hudson @ 2 months. . .

this is our little, big 2 month old boy! sam is a changed boy post surgery. he is happy most of the time and eats like a champion. he is growing each day. things to remember at this stage:

at two months old he sleeps for a good 7 hour stretch at night.

he doesn't use a binki/pacifier [never really has actually because he just can't figure it out and acts like he is choking on it].

he smiles and laughs at our silly faces we give him.

he loves to stand straight up on my lap.

he listens to and watches for his brothers to come play with him on the floor.

he sleeps each morning in his carseat while i walk for a few miles.

he weighs in a 13 pounds.

he is almost too big for 3 month old onsies.

he wears a size 2 diaper.

he makes cooing noises and laughs. 

he often gets the hiccups and they are loud hiccups at that!

he is unafraid of the towering giant of a dog who situates herself by him on his blanket on the floor.

he goes to sleep fastest without too much of a long cry if his arms are pinned down by his side or across his chest in a swaddled blanket.

he sucks on his fists most of the time. he downs 6 ounces at night and between 4-6 during the daytime.

he is happy riding in the car in his carseat which is a blessing because he is there often running errands with mom.

we love this happy boy of ours!

a pretty little something. . .

rod took all three boys for most of the day on saturday. he took little man sam along with jack and morgan and their new mountain bikes out to boulder city to do errands downtown for fun and then spend time riding on the bike track that is out there in the desert.

while they were having boy fun i of course was left with precious me time. i spent the day wandering the shops aimlessly. i found some great new workout clothes and shoes to get me motivated to get my body back moving daily around the hills of my neighborhood. [have i ever mentioned how much i love the trails in my neighborhood? they go on for miles and miles without having to cross a big road and they are tree lined and link from park to park. it is sooo great and would make it very hard for me to ever move into another area in vegas.] 

one of my last stops was in ulta. i needed some basics and i stumbled upon a pretty little something. i noticed these adorable bottles of nail polish. they completely sucked me in! i had no need of a nail polish but i could not leave the store without these! isn't the bottle just too cute? and i love the color i found. there were so many beautiful colors from which to choose but in the end this glittery mauve got me. i came right home and wildly splashed it all over my fingernails. even with my sloppy paint job, i was in love! 

sometimes the smallest things can bring great happiness. such was the case here! love me a cute little bottle of beauty. 

52 weeks of 2012 begins here. . .

for the past three years i've tried a photography challenge with some of my photog friends. this year i am gonna try and participate in a linked-up version of a 52 week challenge with some other photog ladies. 

each week we shoot images that go with a theme. then we each post on our blog our own image and provide links to everyone else's blog. i'm way excited about how fun this could be clickin around to see each person's version of the same theme. 

here is week # 1:

52:1 NEWNESS

a new pair of ultra-light weight running shoes to get me moving again now with a single jogger stroller up and down the hills of my neighborhood! hooray for these shiney, white, newly bright shoes! they make me wanna get in them and high-tail it out my door.

[also see: jenn, michelle, heather, tracey, stacey, andrea, kristin, amanda, amanda, sara]

tah da! sam's newborn photo sessions. . .

i love newborn photography! i love to do it for others and one of my scares when sam was born was that i would not be able physically to do his newborn photos. i had all of these photos in my head and high expectations. with having had a c-section and him being a bit of a fussy baby due to what i know now was a very serious problem of an abnormal pyloric valve, i just didn't think i'd be able to capture his first 12 days of newborn-ness.

the first week after he was born i recouped. i got home and got my feet under me a little. then the second week home i was determined to try each day and photograph him while i could. the older boys were at school and i had enough pain killers left to pop and get by. so each day i tried to do a little photo session. it was physically taxing for both sam and me. but the end result is a treasure trove of files on my computer to edit over time. i've held on to these files and not really been able to touch them with all that was going on with sam's health the first six weeks. now that he has turned a corner and is doing better, i've been able to sort through some of those newborn files. i've been playing with them and i'm sure i'll be playing with them for months to come. there are so many varied images. i'm glad i spent that full week up until he was 12 days old trying to photograph him. he is already so much different. sam came out of me the size of most three month olds! that first 12 days were the only hint of a newborn time i had with this little big man! i would take a photo and look at it in my camera and think--"he is anything but a newborn!" all i can say looking back on it is----blessed be that i was born in an age with some seriously good pain medication because they made it possible for me to work on my own newborn's newborn photo sessions. [and thank you mandi, for coming the one day to be an extra set of gentle hands to help!] i'll be editing these this entire first year for him!

to sam,

you were only newborn for two weeks. here you are during those short few days at home with mom.

love, momma