Changes...

I’ve been a bit MIA from my blog this past week and it’s because I’ve been working on a big transition. A big project and a big change in my life. And well…I’m a bit scared of this new thing. But I’ve decided to just jump in head-first and let the chips fall where they may! A quote that I once read and has stuck with me for years is...

“You’ll never leave where you are until you decide where you’d rather be.”

And I think that I finally know where I would rather be.

I'm not quite ready to share it with the world yet...I am still working out all the details, but I am excited. So very, very excited. And scared...and deliriously happy...and nervous. All at the same time!

But of this I am sure, I would hate it to not try for my dreams because I was afraid. I would rather try and possibly fail, than to have never tried and always wonder, "What if." So here I go...

Color, Light and a Beautiful Subject

This past weekend, I got to do a very impromptu photo shoot with a good friend...and in a new location! I had such a great time catching up with her and getting to take photos of a very beautiful woman.

I really had an amazing time and the lighting, colors and location were just perfect! Caleb even tagged along and had a blast playing in the water fountain and he was a help, because his natural personality helps to bring a smile to anyone's face!

Thank you Shauna for being such an easy subject to shoot! You are amazing and beautiful and I had a phenomenal afternoon with you. Your smile and the twinkle in your eyes speak louder than words about the passion that you have for life. Thank you for being you and for being a part of my life!

I have a confession to make

So, remember my last post? The one about my big list of things to do over the weekend?

Well, I didn't get any of those things done. Not. A. Single. One.

And it was great!! Instead I went on a date with my husband and finally saw Harry Potter. (It was AMAZING and I cried. Twice.) We had friends over and had a game night. I slept in. I swam in the pool. I laid out in the sun. And I caught up on my DVR'd shows.

It was lazy.

And it was perfect.

And it was definitely what the doctor ordered.

I finished the weekend feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. And when my husband and I picked up Caleb from Grandma's house I was so ready to see him again...I missed my little guy, but I was glad to have gotten the break to recharge my batteries!

Happy Monday!

I've got a big list...

...of things to do this weekend!

I get to have 2 days minus a certain 4 year old and I have a list a mile long to get done while he's gone. It's amazing how much you can get done without a preschooler trailing after you!

• Mop the Floors
• Clean out the Pantry
• Work in the Backyard
• Organize the Garage (So we can finally park both cars in it!)
• Clean-up Caleb's room and get rid of some stuff!

The hubs and I are also squeezing in a date night tonight.

And get ready for this....

WE ARE SLEEPING IN TOMORROW MORNING!!!

Seriously...this is the best part of the entire time...I daydream about sleeping in on a daily basis. But since the kiddo is an early riser this only happens when he stays the night at Auntie's or Grandma's house!

Have a great weekend...I know I'm going to!!

Newborn Baby Photos - Beautiful Alexa

Ok...so I've been having some major baby fever lately. Majorly.

I think it's because lately everywhere I turn I've been hearing about babies! I have many friends that are pregnant or have just given birth. And so many of my blogland friends are preggers right now too! (Must have been a cold winter!)

So with all this talk of babies...I've been wanting to snuggle one. Smell their new baby smell. Squish their little feet and hands. And this weekend I finally got to do that! A good friend of mine just had a baby last Wednesday and she invited me to come over and get experience with my very first newborn photo shoot!

And what an amazing "client" for my first newborn shoot. She was sweet, snuggly and wonderfully cooperative the entire time!

And beautiful. Oh so beautiful!

 Welcome to the world little Alexa!

Just keep swimming

This summer has been full of lots of sunshine and LOTS of swimming! Caleb has been in swimming lessons for the last few months and he is getting really good. He can swim the backstroke, the breaststroke and freestyle. (He’s still got some work on the butterfly!)

Caleb & swim lesson friend Joey doing the backstroke

Having a pool means that we HAVE to make sure that Caleb can swim, so he’s been in swim lessons since he was 18 months old! Now for me I learned how to swim the old fashioned way…with my dad throwing me in the river and expecting me to find my way to the surface and back to the bank. My husband on the other hand, also grew up with a pool and took swim lessons as a kid, and after watching me swim (I look like I’m having a seizure when I freestyle) he knew that REAL swim lessons would be needed for Caleb. Since school starts next week for the kids in our neighborhood, swim lessons are over for the summer but here are some photos from the last session!

Preparing to dive

Joey showing Caleb how it's done!

My little diver boy!

Taking off for the backstroke!

And as Dory in Finding Nemo says…”Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!”

Mother Daughter Love & a Secret Photo Shoot

I've been hard at work editing photos and planning for some new photo shoots and I just realized that I hadn't shown photos from this one from about 6 weeks ago.

I had the delight of working with Becky and her daughter Shannon for a secret photo shoot as a father's day gift to her husband Marshall. I had sooo much fun with them...our afternoon was full of laughter, smiles and amazing light! What a wonderful pair to work with!

 

 

The love between these two was just amazing...I have known both mom and daughter for years and I can't believe what a beautiful young woman Shannon has grown up to be! I can't wait to photograph both of them again!

Wordless Wednesday: Daddy's Boy

A love letter to my husband

Dear Chris,

I love you.

I treasure our life together and I love what we have created together…our beautiful little boy, our home and our love. You make me feel special when I feel unattractive. You lift me up when I am feeling blue. You make me laugh when I don’t feel like laughter is possible.

We have been through tough times in our 11 years of marriage. Really tough times…things that would destroy other marriages, but somehow we pushed through it. We made it work. There were times that I wanted to give up and throw in the towel, but you wouldn’t give in. You pushed on…and for that I am grateful. While we can’t take back our past actions we have managed to move past them and build a stronger marriage, stronger than I ever thought was possible.

Thank you for loving me. All of me. And for accepting me as I am...loving all of my little quirks and wacky-nesses. Thank you for allowing me to grow and become the woman that I am. Your support of me and my everyday choices are one of the things that keep me sane in this crazy world that we live in.

Thank you.

I love you.

I am finally ready...

...to get HEALTHY!

I’m done thinking about it.

I’m done saying that I will start working on it tomorrow. Or next week. Or after the next holiday or birthday party.

I am finally ready.

I’ve tried lots of things over the years. Fad diets. Supplements. Adkins. South Beach. You name it, I’ve tried it. But I never follow through. I give up. I revert back to old habits and I put any weight back on that I lost...and usually plus some more.

I’m so tired of “trying” to change. I'm tired of "thinking" about changing.

I want to change. I want to be healthy. I want to be thinner. I want to be proud of my body.

I don’t need to be skinny…I just want to be at a healthy weight. I don’t want to feel like I can’t catch my breath when I walk up stairs. I don’t want to feel like I can’t keep up with my son and play outside with him. I don’t want to look in the mirror and not recognize the woman looking back at me anymore.

So today I am ready. Today I will begin making smarter, healthier choices. I will follow through. I won't give up. I may fall, but I will pick myself up and keep going. I need to. For myself and for my son.

I am obese. There I said it...I've known it for quite some time but I haven't been able to say it. It isn't something that I have easily admitted to myself...but,  I have at least 80 pounds to lose and I'm ready.

I am finally ready.

Bailey

Meet my kitty Bailey...

He is 11 years old.

He is VERY outgoing. I mean, seriously outgoing. If he notices that you are possibly human and have a hand that can be used to pet him, he will be your friend. Your best friend. Until you stop petting him, then he is done with you.

He loves to smell purses and then try to lay on (or in) them.

He can TP my house in t-minus 5 minutes, so we have to leave the bathroom doors locked when we are not home. (Yes, he really can do this. He sits on the toilet and gets all of the paper off of the rolls and then he runs through the house with it. Leaving a huge mess. Ugh.)

He loves to sleep on as high a surface as he can find. (Usually on the cabinets above the fridge.)

He is fat and jolly. Just like Santa. And just like Santa he loves Christmas. Or at least the Christmas tree which he likes to eat & climb. And knock ornaments off of. And then he throws up the aforementioned parts of the tree that he has eaten. He does this each and every year and never seems to learn from his past mistakes.

He sometimes imagines himself a dog because he greets people at the door. And he drools a lot.

He drools. I know that I said that before, but it's kinds weird. If he get's super happy when you pet him, not only does he purr, but he drools.

He can open doors. So if you don't want him in a certain room, lock the door. (Not joking about this...we have lever handles on our doors and he jumps up, hits the handle with his paw and can open them. Hence the need to lock them....see note about TP'ing my house above.)

I love my Bailey!






I'm linking this post up to Let's Bee Friends today!

Oh my...it's hot and stormy!

I know that I choose to live in the desert but lately it's been crazy, ridiculously, absurdly, extremely (enough descriptive words for ya?!?) HOT down here. Seriously.

I know each and every year that we will get weather like this, but yet I still pray for a mild summer. Sadly one has yet to come in my 8 years in Arizona...but there's always next year, right?

Last week I don't think that we had a day below 110 degrees (other than at night...then it gets all the way down to like 87 or 88 degrees out). And yes, I have proof of this absurd heat.

Yep, that's right folks. 119 degrees. It was this hot two days in a row last week. I thought that I was going to end up in a puddle on the sidewalk anytime that I went outside. But alas, I didn't. I was alright. Just really, really sweaty. And cranky.

Then on Tuesday night of this week a storm came. A big, humongous storm...that brought with it dust (lots of it!), wind and lightning.

This is a wall of dust...not clouds! Dust!

My husband was driving home from work and sent me a text that said it looked like a dust storm was coming. When he waked in the front door, he rounded me and the kiddo up and we headed outside to prepare the backyard. We scrambled to take down our umbrellas, pick up the pool toys, etc. and we got inside just as this wall of dust hit our house. The sky went from light to dark in about 5 seconds. It was a little scary since the dust also brought with it 70 mph winds. We stood at the windows and watched as the dust made our pool a mud puddle and things from our neighbors yards flew by.

These types of storms happen every summer down here in the desert. The months of July and August are our season of monsoons. This type of monsoon storm is called a haboob and to give you a better feel for what it was like check out this video from a local news station helicopter. My husband, who grew up here in the Phoenix area, said that he had never experienced anything like it. Yes, he has been through big monsoon storms before. but nothing of this magnitude.

Have a great Thursday and think of me as I am wiping away the thin layer of dust on EVERYTHING in my home and as I try to get my backyard picked up a little, so that it looks good until the next storm!

(BTW the two photos on here today are from my iPhone and have I told you how much I love my iPhone lately? Seriously I love it. I cuddle with it at night. I pat her, stroke her and tell her what a good girl she is every day. I think I need to write a love letter to her on here soon...)

Edit Me Challenge - Guest Judge!

I am so excited to be the guest judge this week for the Edit Me Challenge over at my wonderful bloggy friend Branson's blog My Reflection of Something. I submitted one of my photos from my recent trip to Tombstone, Arizona and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for the challenge!

My original photo

If you are new to my blog coming over from Branson's blog, take a look around and thank you so much for visiting! Good luck everyone...seriously I can't wait to see all of your edits! (And wowza...talk about great prize this week! Who doesn't love a new logo or blog design!)

An Average Summer Weekday

Summer days seem to be so much more hectic for us than any other time of the year! With us living in Arizona you would think that it would be the exact opposite...and for most people I think that it is. Most people I know, just hibernate inside in their homes underneath the fan, enjoying the air conditioning, but of course I'm not one to go with the flow!

5:00am – Wake up

5:10 – Out to door to run/walk (I’m training for the Portland to Coast relay up in Oregon at the end of August)

6:20 – Back home to take the dog out

6:35 – Shower & Get ready for work

7:00 – Wake up Caleb (if he’s not already up)

7:05 – Breakfast for Caleb & I

7:15 – Get Caleb Ready for School

7:20 – Take the dog out again

7:25 – Take Caleb to Preschool/Daycare

8:00 – Start Work (Hectic days usually filled with client appointments, work meetings, ad design, etc)

4:30pm – Off Work & go get Caleb from Preschool

5:30 – Swim Lessons

6:00 – Take dog out for a quick run/walk

6:15 – Start Dinner (usually with my super awesome little helper Caleb)

6:45 – Hubby home & Dinner Time

7:15 – Quick Family Swim, board games or just general fun times!

8:00 – Story Time & Bedtime ritual for Caleb

8:30 – A little catch-up time with the DVR, blogging time, new recipe experimenting & snuggle time with hubby

10:00 – Bedtime (So that I can get ready to start it all over again tomorrow!)

And since my husband works in retail, this can change on any given day since his days off each week change...which just helps to add to the chaos! My household seems to usually be in a bit of a rush, but it's always full of fun times, laughter and snuggles!!  (I am also usually squeezing in photo shoots in the evenings about once a week.)

So how does your average day go? Anything like mine? Are things busier in the summer or quieter?