Well it’s not so much a before and after it’s more like a with flash and without LOL Photography is one of my passions. I’ve never seen myself anywhere near professional status which is fine by me, although one day I would love to take classes and learn more about my camera and how to utilize it to it’s full potential. A dream of mine is to take pictures of natural settings, whether it be a farmer herding cow, a girl getting water from a stream or a tornado. My husband is going to school for meteorological science so maybe when he’s out chasing tornado’s I can be by his side taking pictures of them. My picture taking goes in spurts. Sometimes I can go a week without taking a single picture and the following week I will take 100 pictures in one day.
Okay I’m rambling now, the reason for this post was to show a scene that I thought was pretty. One with a flash and one without. I WISH I had my nikon and not my little point and shoot cause the quality on the picture sucks. But it will have to do.
This was at my parents house a couple weeks ago.

I’ve always know Shawn was an odd ball but now he has started banging his head on things and he finds it absolutely hilarious! He will run through the house and bang his head on the wall or the window. I remember Jr going through a similar faze but he didn’t do it nearly as hard as Shawn does. Here’s a short little video of him the other day

I am trying to figure out this whole making a button thing. It looks cute when it’s full sized, not so much when it’s button size. So I might be changing it a lot for a little but till I can get it to look just right. If anyone has any suggestions I’m ALL ears (eyes) LOL

This picture cracks me up. If you don’t know Shawn this is his “cheese” face but to me it looks like he’s saying ewwww to his sister giving him kisses LOL Hmmmm, maybe I should have not revealed the true meaning behind the pic haha

I was helping Jr get ready for school this morning and I walked back into the kitchen to see Shawn like this:

He is such a little stinker. Instead of saying no I couldn’t help but giggle and grab the camera

What kid doesn’t like balloons, especially huge one’s that they can watch fly through the sky. This morning there was about 13-15 hot air balloons taking off near our house. I brought the kids outside and we watched them all for about thirty minutes. It was non stop “balloon…..bawooon”.

I won a gift certificate on Just For Me and You to The Polka Dot Tot Shop. When I first saw her site I was in love with her clothes! Heather has the most adorable little girls skirts there along with many other items like pants, cloth play blocks, Easter eggs, fabric cards and more. I knew instantly what I wanted from her site. She contacted me right away about my blog win and me being new to costum made clothes I didn’t know what information to give her LOL She was very nice and explained what information she needed in order to process my order. My son ended up with pneumonia and I felt horrible but wasn’t able to respond to one of her emails because I left out one measurement. She said it was no problem and went ahead and guesstimated based on the other measurements I gave her and mailed my daughters skirt out! We received the skirt last night and I am so pleased with how well it turned out. It fits her PERFECTLY! I had to take some pictures just because seriously, this skirt is beyond cute.

Go take a look at her site, I promise you will love what she has! The Polka Dot Tot Shop

I watched my friend Genas momtv show today and one of her topics was raising her girls to be confident and happy with themselves and how the media and people in general today can make that hard. I am in complete agreiance with that. It worries me what my daughter might struggle with in her teen years. Appearance wasn’t the highest thing on my priority list growing up, heck I wore holed jeans and my boyfriends t-shirts LOL I was more into the grunge thing then the preppy gotta spend hours on my hair and makeup faze. But I know times are changing and that’s what worries me. I’m not only worried about my daughter but for my sons to. Boys get scrutinized just as much as girls, maybe not in the same way but they are pressured to be cool and do the “right” things and do things that are “cool”. They also pick up how a woman should be treated and not be treated just as girls learn how they should be treated.
I strive to be the best mother to my kids, keep my cool during stressful situations and answers all the questions my curious little one’s ask me. But I can only do so much, I have to trust that I have instilled the right values in my children and they will make the best decisions for themselves.

Jr goes back to school on Monday and he is sooooooo excited. He has been asking since day 1 of winter vacation when he gets to go back. I love that he loves school so much. He also hasn’t stopped talking about all his friends at school. I hope it stays like this for a LONG time. I know the day will eventually come when he dreads school but I hope it’s not for a very long time.

(Sorry I’ve been kind of slow on posting, I’m going through a major blogging brain fart right now)