Let the Good Times Roll

I've been looking forward to "shooting" the Amiel Family for a while now. I think we started making appointments a couple of months ago. After several rescheduling attempts, we were full steam ahead. As soon as we pulled up we noticed the "Stay off the Grass" signs posted. As you can see, we fully respected the request. My favorite two things were in full effect here. No, wait, sleep and ice cream are my two favorite things, let me rephrase. My two most favorite photographic things are outdoor shots and candids, and I had both here. Mom gave me free reign on her family, and knowing her love for "real" expressions, I had a blast. Thanks Amiel family!!

Taking pictures of people I know really stresses me out. They are, however, my favorite to look at. I took pictures of my neighbor's family for their holiday cards. My neighbor has been my guinea pig for 3 years now, and she has been very patient with me. She has always been so supportive of me in all of my fancy photography endeavors.

L and Z and some of Abbey's best friends, and I had so much fun with them.

My Favorite Triplets

About 7 months about I meet the Stauss family. I had the honor of of being at the hospital the day they were born, and a couple of weeks later I did their newborn session. My two favorite things are going back to photograph a family after my initial session, and having the freedom to take some casual candid shots. The more I worked on these photos, the more I noticed little Brayden stealing the show. He has two beautiful sisters and a beautiful mother, but he continued to steal the show. Here's to you Brayden. Below is a link to their complete session.

http://jenniferweems.com/slideshows/Strauss.Family.html

Party Girl

Abbey is shown here with two classmates Abby and Rylee

Here is Abbey, my child who will find a way to not look directly at the camera. She is getting very creative.

Abbey with the oh so cute Johnny

This year we had a super fun party planned for Abbey's 6th birthday. I was unusually on the ball planning wise. I had made reservations for a bounce house and snow cone machine for the park down the street. I even went ahead and pre-printed party invitations with all of the party info.

All of our planning and prep work went out the emergency room window on Halloween. She confided herself with the thought of her bounce house party. I figured I would wait until we were home and no longer on morphine to break the news to her. We later decided to just have a pizza party. It seemed the safest anyway, physically speaking.

Abbey had most of her class show up for the party, with a couple of preschool Goldie-oldies. Her friend, Lily brought the Easy Bake Oven. She asked everyone for that silly thing, and I told everyone not to bother. My dear sweet neighbor fell for her scheming ways. The party could not have been more chaotic and insane. I think there were 500 other children there celebrating their own birthday's. They looked like a swarm of ants. Really, I don't know if ants swarm, maybe bee's would be a better analogy? Maybe a heard of elephants? No, much too large. Maybe a big 'ole bunch of alley cats. I can't know for sure.

Happy Birthday To Abbey!

This morning started out like any other, a cup of coffee and healthy cinnamon roll breakfast.

This is Abbey and Johnny. Abbey thinks he is soooo cute.
Six years ago today I put down my bowl of Blue Bell long enough to give birth to my 69 lb. baby. Well, it turned out that she was only 8 1/2 lbs, but she must have had a 60 1/2 lb. placenta. Well now that I think about it, it was probably 60 lbs. of blue bell. Any who, it seems like just yesterday. I knew from the start she was going to be a handful. As I look back, I get a little sad that I rushed her through those toddler years. She was such a "challenge" to keep happy. I could not wait for her to grow up and be able to hang out with us without her frequent tantrums.

She is really a cool little girl. I realize the thing that drove me crazy about her is what I love most. She is such a confident and fun little girl. She really enjoys being herself. How many kids do you see with a yellow cast? It's not even happy sunny yellow, it's hazmat yellow. You only see this color on crime scene tape! This summer she played baseball on a team of boys. She never once made the observation that she was the only girl. I don't think she even cared. My sweet little girl does not own a baby doll, barbie or anything princess. She lives 100% in the animal kingdom. Her garage sale dollhouse is full of matchbox cars and horses, and that is very normal to her.

I know that in a couple of years she will think I'm the most embarrassing thing to walk the streets. She will insist on my dressing day wear when I drop her off, and I won't be allowed to kiss her before she leaves the car. Well, actually, she already does all of that but I know it will get worse. For now, I will enjoy this 6th year of Abbey to the fullest.

Uhhh, Santa?

Almost every night after Abbey is safely in bed, Andrew and I like to read up in my bed. This is my sneaky way to get him to talk and snuggle with me. I know he is looking for way to stay up late, and I get my mom/son time.

Last night started like any other night, we made small talk and started reading a book. Somehow we got off topic. Weird, I never get off topic. I mean sometimes I tell storys that may or may not have anything to do with the original topic. Maybe something reminds me of something else and take it from there. One time I told a story start to finish and stayed on topic, although I can't really remember now what that topic was, but I did it. Wait, where am I?

Oh, blog. Hello. He and I were talking about heaven and the sort of things Papa might be doing. That lead to questions about God and Saten and that naturally lead to Santa. Right? No! That never leads to the Santa conversation. The questions about God were hard enough without adding Santa. Andrew heard from some friends at school that Santa was not real. His friend saw his mom and dad putting out presents. Perfect! All of those years waiting for my excited kids to fall asleep to put the presents out, and some other lazy careless parent blows it for everyone.

Andrew said, "Mommy, just tell me the truth. Is Santa real?" Ummm, what about that phone call you get every year, I said. "That was Barry mom." Ummmm, what about those jingle bells we heard out in the backyard last year?, I returned. "The bells I can't explain, but I don't think Santa is real." Ummmm. Smile. Sweat. At this point I'm thinking about Abbey. She is only 5 and just starting to really enjoy Santa. I'm OK with letting the cat out of the bag for Andrew, but I don't want it running around the house if you know what I mean.

I went on to tell him true story of St. Nicholas. He was a kind generous man, who we should all try to be like. We told him the whole truth. He stared a blank stare. I asked him if he was disappointed, and he said yes with a little frown. Next, I asked him if he wanted to ask any questions. His next question made me laugh out loud nervously....."If Santa is not real then I have some questions about the Easter bunny."

A Spoon Full Of Sugar

Dipping into the cookie bouquet about 4 years ago. Wow, where does time go?
Today was a day of recovery. We decided to stop taking the Tylenol with codeine and switch to regular Motrin. This was a great success. For the first time since the break, We dusted off the wood chips, put on our pants and headed for the grocery store. We remembered everything but the Motrin. (classic)

As soon as we got home, we had a ring at the door. It was fed-ex. Later we had a second doorbell, UPS. OK, so finally, the cookie man rang the doorbell and delivered the most yummy cookies ever. I had a flashback to 4 years ago. My little, bald and beautiful baby jumped from the top of a small plastic slide and broke her arm. Same arm actually. Same place actually. Hmmm?

We were so excited to get that thing off. What a hassle those three weeks were. When we were offered "paper or plastic" at the grocery store, we answered plastic out of necessity. The day we finally got that thing cut off we found a cheerio and a spaghetti noodle. This time we are in for the long haul with the cast. My poor baby will have to spend her birthday, Thanksgiving, May's wedding, Christmas and probably the new year in a cast. Maybe we should just bedazzle the thing and call it good.

Trick or Treat?

Trick or treat? When I woke up on Halloween, I had no idea of all the tricks that were in store for us. Yesterday I was getting everything ready for Andrew's class party at the park next to the school (not on campus). About 10 minutes into the party, I saw Abbey's teacher at the park. She had that look. You know, the look. She told me that Abbey broke her arm and she had been trying to reach me. My phone was in the car, and I NEVER leave my phone. Anyway, I drove to school and blew past the grumpy office staff and into the nurses office. Abbey had a very broke arm. Her arm was more "u" shaped than "l". My stomach instantly turned and I felt light headed as I swooped her to the car.
I drove as fast as I could to the hospital. My poor baby screamed and cried the whole way there. We were both in tears when we got there. The triage nurse asked what the problem was, and before I could answer he said "oh, wow."

The Dr. came in and hinted several times about surgery, but needed to see the x-rays. He even brought in a pair of paramedics in to show them what it looks like when a bone breaks through the skin. They started an IV on Abbey and gave her several drugs to help with the pain. The x-rays showed both bones very broken just below her left wrist. Her hand and wrist were only attached to her arm by skin and muscle. Just looking at that x-ray made me very nauseous.

They finally decided to to a procedure to set her arm. They gave her a trio of sedatives and disassociatives and let me know that I would be best outside. There were about 12 Dr's and a very large machine, so there was really no room for me anyway. They set her arm back as best they could. They assured me that although it's not set perfect, her bones should find each other. He also said pins were not completely out of the picture. We have to wait two weeks to find that part out.

She as so upset about not getting to go out trick or treating in her beloved Hannah Montana costume. We could not get her shirt off, so we managed to somehow get a Hannah Montana t-shirt on over everything. She was still heavily medicated so we managed to walk to a few houses. The medicine wore off quick, and we had a long sleepless night. She has been in so much pain, and she can't get comfortable. I only find time to blog because I promised to stay in here while she fell asleep. I will join her as soon as I'm done here. Poor poor sweet baby.

Pumpkin Run

Thursday Andrew's school had a pumpkin run for every grade level. Basically, all of 3rd grade goes out and runs for 45 minutes. In true Andrew form, he sprints forward as soon as the music starts. He ran in a full on sprint for a 1 1/2 laps. He continued to run for almost 20 minutes before he stopped for a short walk. He ran almost constantly. I was shocked. He and another little boy were the only ones still running at the end of the pumpkin run. Toward the end, he wanted me to try to catch pictures of him in the air as he jumped the cones. I was so proud of him running and doing his best for so long. Quite impressed I was. Wow, that was very Yoda like.