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]

 

 

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

ending the year with a bug. . .

after sam's surgery on friday and then christmas eve and day on saturday and sunday, rod became sick on monday and tuesday with the stomach flu. morgan was recovering from his ear infection over christmas. then on thursday i was hit hard with the stomach flu. it came on in a matter of hours. sam also something bothering him because he threw up two times. i didn't know if it was stomach flu but it sent a panic through our home since it was so soon after his surgery. i was laid out flat and completely rendered helpless. i called my mom and dad to come home from the cabin and help as soon as they could. then i called a dear friend from church to come early in the morning and just take care of sam for us during the day. i was flat in bed and slept most of the entire day and rod was trying to stay clear of getting sam sick with his illness. jack was largely out of energy and lathargic. morgan seemed to be the only one of us who was getting well. 

so many blessing happened to us this holiday break. it would seem that with sam's surgery and our sickness it would have been one of the worst holidays to remember. but all i will remember from this holiday break was all of the service rendered by our family and friends on our behalf. new years weekend we were all sick. jack in fact did come down with an ear infection just like morgan (even the same ear! how does that happen?). my parents came back from the cabin and my mom stayed all day and night helping with sam and my boys. i slept for a day and 1/2! rod had year end close at work so he had to work friday and saturday. people from church brought us dinner and movies for my kids to watch. we were so blessed with kindness that it brought even more of the meaning of christmas into our home these past two weeks. i have been overwhelemed by the goodness of people!

it has been a tough and beautiful two weeks. i have a real desire to start 2012 healthy and happy. 2011 was just so much like our last two weeks. it was physically difficult with IVF at the beginning of the year and some changes at work made rod travel more than he has in 7 years! but then the beauty came with the arrival of our big little samuel and some great developments at work for rod and it finished off with my parents getting their 3rd mission call! they are going to kenya, africa for the second time to do humanitarian work! we are all excited and happy for them. they will leave in july of 2012. 

2011 was a year where we worked very hard for things that really matter the most in life to us. i'm so unbelievably happy that our IVF treatments made it possible for us to have Sam in our family. there will be so much i remember going through to get him but the year will always mark a huge success and evoke feelings of gratitude for his safe arrival. time on this earth is meant for us to stretch oursevles and be the best we can be and i know everyone in our little family will be better people for having sam come to us! 

my parents after they opened their call to africa on thursday night before sam's surgery on friday:

christmas 2011. . .

this christmas eve was a special one. there was no pageantry and little to do. my parents opened the gifts rod and i had both prepared for them. i made a book of photos for my dad from his 75th birthday. i also made my mom a small soft sided photo book of just her children and their families so that she could take it with her on her mission. she loved the book!

i opened the one gift that rod had been teasing me with all month. he created a book of 400 days of writing each day of things he was thankful that i did that day. it is a treasure to me. it is an amazing gift! he wrote something each day for 400 days that i either did or am that made him grateful! i had no idea he was watching me that closely. i love him for noticing all the good things because i know there were plenty of days he probably struggled to find something positive! i could not believe the amount of work that went into that book. it was a very humbling gift to get! he blew me away with it. his gift was so meaningful and not very monetary--ful. it meant more than it cost which are the very best gifts to get ever! i got him good last year with my gift of new couches that i paid for with my photography money. this year he spent time and a ton of it putting down on paper all the things he noticed about me each day that he was appreciative of. that was a huge feat! the book is hard bound and full of photos he pulled off my computer of me and our family. what a treasure!

jack and morgan got matching pajamas as well as sam. i didn't bother this year with taking many photos. i had my phone with me and took a few photos that night. it had been a stressful few days and i just resigned myself to let go of my big camera and take what i could muster energy to take with my phone. so i don't have the usual spread of photos from this year. but this year i felt so much of the "real" christmas spirit. there were so many gifts that were done for us of service and blessings that came to our family. those are things you can't really capture on film anyway--only in your heart.

christmas morning was relaxed at our home. jack and morgan opened gifts and then discovered that santa had left a note with a puzzle to solve that would led them to the garage where they found their santa gifts. they each got a big mountain bike and sam got them bike helmets. each boy was thrilled with his bike! now they can keep up with their dad on the hills. they have 21 gears to learn.

we took the morning easy and cared for sam. rod wasn't feeling well (stomach flu) and so he stayed home from church and i went with the boys. we only had the sacrament meeting 1 hour of church since it was christmas day. i just felt like having been so blessed i should attend in a way to say thanks for the blessings. the rest of the day we relaxed at my parents home and let rod sleep at home. i was hoping to keep sam as healthy as possible. 

that next week we went on bike rides and walks and even went ice-skating for the first time for jack and morgan. the boys did great ice-skating! we need to go do that again! by the end of the week on thursday i was sick with the stomach flu. it was heading into the end of 2011 and i was flat out with a super duper bout of stomach flu. our year ended with even more service being done on our behalf by very kind friends at church and my parents. this was a humbling two weeks for our family!