homeofthebudds

Moth

Several months ago (at a local church's Easter Egg hunt of all places) Ellen acquired a butterfly net. All the kids have been trying to catch something ever since. Last week, they finally managed to net their first butterfly. Or Moth as I informed them when their excitement quieted down enough to hear.

They were very calm and careful with it.

It rewarded them by being very calm and quiet back.

Baby room fun

The kids think the recently cleaned out and organized baby room is the BEST place ever to play. Today it's library. Other days it's cars or school or house. Doesn't matter what so long as they get to be in there.

wrestle-o-rama

pecan snack

succombing to the belly zerbert.

Dr.'s, freaking out & scales

I took the kids to the Dr. today.

Brennan, as you might remember, is shyer than shy. He freaks around other people - especially people I might leave him with (like babysitters or his class at church) or who might want to interact with him in some way (like talking or, heaven forbid, touching him).

I've been prepping him for this, and really it's been a double whammy cause we also went to the dentist earlier in this week. But I've been prepping him for the Dr. cause I was pretty sure he was going to need a shot.

He was of course, terrified out of his mind. He wouldn't stand up to get measured (we had to lay him on the table while he clung to my neck and measure him on the paper.) He wouldn't stand on the scale, so of course I got to hold him while stepping onto the scale and then weigh just myself.

Dude. The scale at the Dr. and the scale at my house do not agree. At all. My house scale is much friendlier to me. 10 pounds friendlier. Sheesh.

Anyway, Ellen and Isaiah were champs and we did the whole deal and both of the boys got one shot each. And then we drove to Coldstone, cause really you can't get a shot without getting ice cream afterwords. That's a rule in our house.

Today

Today there was playing,

and reading,

and crafty planning,

and some friend making too.

We had a little photoshoot today...

Apparently, my glasses are one of the most fun props we have around here.

Each kid had a chance to try the headache-inducing-wearing-someone-else's-glasses fun.

Thank goodness for auto-focus cause there's no way I was going to be able to make it sharp while those babies were on someone's else's face.

random black & whites

One of the wedding photography guru's I follow said once that if he's ever in an adverse light situation he just switches his camera's settings to B & W. I never thought of that. I decided to try it out down in the basement.

Actually now that I look at these, they didn't all start as B & W's. But now I'm digging the monochrome so much I'm converting tons of them.

Dave took this one.

Hair design by Ellen.

Ellen had a hair salon for a bit this morning.

Isaiah wanted to document his new look.

Brennan was just thrilled to be so stylish.

The haps.

*I've become rather sporadic over here. Sorry about that. But I am showing up everyday over at the photography blog. Today plastic snowflakes, pumpkin flowers and Emily Dickinson were all present. The kids don't show up though. But it's still a fun blog! At least I think so. Let me know if you want a link - I really do blog daily there.

*Photography stuff is going well. I'm learning all kinds of things, I have shoots lined up, I have a website up and going...I've always had in my head I was going to take this into a career (not just a hobby) but this week it was all vocalized and the plans are coming together. It's interesting to find a balance with where my time gets invested. We're still very much homeschooling and I have no plans to quit that. That, plus photography, plus house stuff gets to be a little much some days. So usually house stuff goes out the window and the floor stays a little dirty, we wear the same jeans over again and eat some Papa Murphy's. That's one of my biggest frustrations - I haven't done much raw at all since it got cold and I got distracted by shiny cameras. Soon it will all balance out. I hope.

*The kids and I and our friend Lynette made terrariums today. Pictures are coming.

*This has been a big coupla weeks around here with DIY, and Help-Portrait and some shoots and a few other projects I can't quite talk about yet (seriously. isn't that weird?). Usually by now I have Christmas present plans in full effect and they might even be ready to ship. It hasn't happened that way this year. Sorry, family. We really do love you, promise. Even if our gift to you this year isn't the most creative. We really do.

*Last week Dave had the entire week off and we roadtripped it to San Jose. (Did I mention that already? Or was that facebook?) It was great fun. Everyone had a good time - walking the dog (Ellen), playing wii (Isaiah), avoiding the dog (Brennan), among tons of other goodness. Ohh I totally mentioned that cause I know I put up a Big Trees post. Right. Apparently I'm tired.

*Ellen's been doing fun school stuff lately - learning about nouns and proper nouns and she even had her first spelling test. Is that weird I think that's fun? She made up her very own board game which will probably have its own post coming soon. Isaiah's been booking through his workbooks. He sits down and just goes for it and will spend a couple hours coloring and counting and writing and drawing. He loves them. He's a pretty great reader too. They're pretty impressive students.

*Brennan has really taken to caring for his babies. He gets all the dolls out, puts them to bed (in Isaiah's bed - always), reads them stories, helps them brush their teeth, puts them in trouble chair when they make bad choices, changes their diapers and clothes...He's a really caring little guy. And he's loooving to sing. It's funny to hear him sing the lyrics for random songs he's heard that I had no idea he knew. I can't think of which songs they are right now (I'm tired, remember?) but when I do, I'll let you know. Really what I should do is get a video. That'd be smart. Alright, I'm on it.

*Alright. It's off to Lightroom for some photo editing and to sleep I go. Talk to you later.

Pre-game warm ups.

Oh yeah, baby.