08/5/11

30 Days of Little Man and Little Princess ~ Day 4

First today, I want to say thank you to everyone! I am really enjoying documenting this part of their lives right now since about a year ago I fell off the blogging bandwagon and well the last year has not been as well documented as the first few! Don’t forget I am doing this with Toni over at A Daily Dose of Toni and her 30 Days of Me blog along.

Today has to be the absolute HARDEST day for this challenge for them. Little Princess “reads” or is read no less than 50 books a day. For her birthday she has already requested a trip to the book store (we will be taking her to the library instead but still tons of books and she can choose some to take home with her for a bit!). She has always loved books and even as a small child would “read” the Reader’s Digest for hours on end. She loves to look at words, pictures and know what everything is! For a good year after she came home the best way to calm her down was to read her I Love You Through and Through, after a month we could recite it from memory and just hearing it would work! (That came in handy for all of her doctor’s appointments!) I can still recite that book from memory and we are on our third copy of the book, eventually I will get an unscathed copy of the book to put away for her children!

Recently though her favorite books in no specific order are (if you click the book it will take you to that book on Amazon!):

On The Night You Were Born (We have read this book to them at bed time since we set foot on US soil!)

I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (She calls this book Crazy Cakes, and it is a story about a little girl adopted from China, when we read the story though we substitute their story and tell little things that we did with them instead, one day she will realize that the story says almost none of what we say but we do keep the I Love You Like Crazy Cakes line…)

and

The Red Thread: An Adoption Fairy Tale (She loves the king and queen in this book…it is cute but I am not sure how much I love the adoption story here! It works for a 3 almost 4 year old and she chooses the books not me so I am good!)

After these 3 books, then it is any book with any of her Disney Princess’ in it, any of the If You Give A books ~ you know if you give a mouse a cookie etc…, any Dr. Seuss book, or pretty much any book that does not read her back…and hey if it talks to her even better!

Little Man used to be indifferent about books, he was not even into them at bed time. Then he received his first car book and life changed! Now if it has a car, a truck, a tractor or a train he is all over it! And while he will not come close to admitting it his sister’s 3 favorite books are also his!! But really if he has a choice in the books he will choose:

Cars Toons: Mater’s Treasury of Tall Tales (He loves this book…I have to stop him from sleeping with it as it is so big he gets upset when he or the book fall out of bed!!! And I think it has every Tall Tale in it!)

Mater’s Tall Tales (This is 3 of the tales, and a much easier to handle book! He loves it as much as the others!)

Heavy Metal Mater and Other Tall Tales (He received this book for Christmas from his Aunt, by Easter we had to buy him a new copy as he had read that one so much it had lost pages and come away from its binding! While that happens all the time with Little Princess this was a first for Little Man! And yes I am a book binder in my spare time!!)

He has tons of other Cars books, some train books, a beloved tractor book and some animal books he will hunt down when he wants to read!

What were your kids favorite books?

08/1/11

August again?

Where does the year go? It is that time of year again. By the end of this week BlogHer will be in full swing, though I opted out of going this year for more reasons than I care to mention and as of today I have 9 days until I have preschoolers! Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday that they were tiny!

I realized last week while we were at their cousins’ house that they have come sooooo far! I was watching Little Princess imitate her cousin, who for the sake of this post will be Sweet Pea! I have to tell one very cute story…Sweet Pea, who is 5 and very tall, used to take dance and when she heard Little Princess will be in dance in the fall wanted to share her leotards and skirts that do not fit her any more with Little Princess! While Little Princess put on the pink one, because pink is her favorite color, Sweet Pea put on her recital outfit she never got to wear, to say they were both excited is an understatement. Sweet Pea had been “posing” for my camera all day and she was happy to oblige a few photos for me! I thought it would be fun to get a few pictures of them together and after Sweet Pea was done “posing” I asked Little Princess to stand with her for a few pictures. Little Princess immediately went to where Sweet Pea had been posing and struck the same pose or so she thought for her picture, needless to say the picture did not turn out as I was laughing so hard at what she had done! Talk about funny! (While I cannot share the pictures with Sweet Pea in them I can say that photographing them together with both of them looking at me is a challenge I have yet to master, but that is ok, I used this tutorial from Paint the Moon Photography to get a picture where it appears I captured that exact picture by combining two of the ones where each has a great look on their face! While that was some work for a snap shot, it was a great test run for what is to come this week!) I may not be able to share pictures of Sweet Pea but here is one of Little Princess in what she calls her “Pink Dress.”

Little Man was not to be left out! While he had NO interest in being in such a girly photo (thank God, I was trying to capture the girls having fun together), he and Sweet Pea’s brother (who is 2), who I will call Blue Eyes, were causing what can only be best described as havoc! Even with my camera most of my pictures of them together were very blurry mostly because due to the heat we were inside 90% of the day and in and area that had NO windows so my flash was absolutely required but also because they were off fast as lightening! When Little Man and Blue Eyes are together you can count on having to do some chasing as well as asking what is going on while you search for the two of them! Little Man is rarely all boy, but with Blue Eyes he is just that and I love to see him be like that! For his picture, he was getting ready for his turn at karaoke, Little Princess was handing him the mike!

Off to plan for all of our August traditions (1) the photographs in their birthday clothes I make at the park with their bestie ~ I have yet to print a single photograph from years past but maybe someday…more on that later! (2) their birthday party, this year some odd combination of Cars and Princess’ with an unusual amount of pink food (3) Their actual birthday ~ Aaron always takes that day off work and we do things 100% centered around them and what they want to do (4) write their birthday letters (I am too lazy to link them up but they are always published on August 10 if you want to see past ones!) and (5) a tradition that we are starting this year “back to school shopping”

Please someone tell me where all the time goes…

07/16/11

52 Weeks of Me ~ Week 2

I have to laugh as I try to incorporate this 52 weeks of me into my life along with my journey to find me and well what I want to do with my life, or not do.

3 years ago almost now when I started staying home with Little Man and Little Princess, it took me 6 months to not tell people “I’m an attorney” when they asked what I did for a living. As I progressed to “I stay home with my kids.” (Which gets the same interesting looks I am an attorney used to get me), I started out explaining that I have a law degree just that I choose to stay home with my children. Yes, it was a very long answer to the question, but I answered it! Now, I laugh as many of my new friends get quite the shock when after weeks of knowing me or sometimes even months, I say “I used to be a lawyer.” (sometimes as big as the shock some of my friends had when I went from attorney to SAHM)

About 3 months ago I started a list of 40 things I want to do before I turn 40 (just over 3 years away now), I am finding things on that list like try owning my own photography business for at least 6 months, open a boutique where I can sell the things I make that will not fit my children and get one piece of my writing published (the real stuff not the word dumps I put on here); I wonder if I will ever say “I am a lawyer” again, the reality is that I am still a lawyer and will always be a lawyer but it may be years before I put it to good use again or maybe never. I went to law school to prove I could do it, I practiced law in areas I hated to pay the bills, and now I am doing what I should have done in high school and college, trying to find something I love that I can also make money at, or hope to make money at! Don’t get me wrong, there were parts of being a lawyer I loved, like that rush of arguing my case before a judge and or jury or both or even better yet winning my case. And I loved mediation when I tried my hand at that briefly, I need to see if that is an option once the kids start school (provided I am not homeschooling).

I have learned though that what I make money doing does not define me, I define me. That said I do want to love what I do and have fun at it, even if it only pays for the kids activities!

Do you love what you do? What defines you?

07/8/11

52 Weeks of Me Challenge: Week 1

Recently, I decided that I wanted to start reading blogs again and went back to my google reader. I found so much of a back log that I was not sure where to start. It took a week but I managed to read each post I wanted to as well as favorite a few to come back to later for crafty ideas or adoption fundraising or just because I flat out loved the post! I found one post that I LOVED on one of my parenting multiples blogs! The author of that post wrote:

It was the beginning of November 2010 and I was sweeping my kitchen floor, trying to figure out what to do with the next year of my life. My twins were 6 months old and my son was 3. Going back to work was not an option, but I needed something else to do, besides just being a mom. I needed a project, a social outlet, something.

And I was I get that, so what did you do about it? She started a challenge called 52 weeks of Me Challenge, where she pledged to do something each week that made her feel more like her and less like a mom for that amount of time! Immediately, I was like how do I join in this challenge this sounds like something I need to do and decided I would start today and post every Friday about what I had done for me that week. I figure this way I am guaranteed some time for me AND some time to post on this blog! I do like writing here and want to come back, including telling more about the kids and some great adoption things I have heard!

This week for me I bought something I had been wanting for a VERY long time, a ruffler foot for my sewing machine. What is that you ask? Well it is a special foot for the sewing machine that makes the gathers in a skirt, shirt etc soooooooooo much easier. I had no idea how much easier until I tried it out. Little Princess has a skirt pattern that she LOVES and I am happy to make it but it takes me a day to make it with all of the gathering involved. I had a Princess Tiana skirt cut out of this pattern and sitting next to my sewing machine for a few months dreading the gathering involved and the two days of sewing and pin pricks to my fingers. This was the PERFECT opportunity to try the ruffler foot, seriously even with a few stops and starts 2.5 hours later I had this skirt:

No pin pricks and no hours of gathering. I still have a few things to figure out with the ruffler foot but it is my new favorite thing to sew for Little Princess with! YEAH!!!! Up next a bustle skirt I am designing and my very first petticoat!!! I am excited I have had the petticoat material for over a year and now I can make it with just a few cuts and some sewing with the gathering foot! I promise to post pictures soon!

I am sooooooo excited about next weeks post! (This post was to go up July 8th and I forgot…sorry guys!)

03/18/11

Joy of Luck: Day 2

This month I decided that I was going to take the challenge offered by Willette and use it as an opportunity to improve my photography and see if I cannot become more adept at using my camera and amazing lens. I am going to try to do this class/project without using my children once as the subject for the homework even if they fit the type of homework assignment

Today’s prompt is:

St. Patrick’s Day is all about the wearin’ o’ the green these days! Green is all over the place today as we celebrate Saint Patrick and being Irish. You can also see green when you look out your window at the new buds forcing their way up.

There were photography tips as well as ways to try to photograph what may be the answer to the prompt! So I will add the pictures here and then the information for the photo and why I choose this as my answer to the prompt. Oh yeah and for the first time ever I am going to intentionally edit the photos before I put them here…I know no more straight out of the camera, I am running a risk!

My green photos:

Photo settings: indoor, on camera flash, f/5.6, 1/125th ss, ISO 200

Photo settings: indoor, on camera flash, f/5.6, 1/125th ss, ISO 200 (vivid color edit)

I have been dying to take this picture, except I wanted to do it as a rainbow. I am a sewer (more on that another day) and I love the way my thread looks when it is all together like a rainbow. I probably have 40 different shades of green and I thought you know what while I am taking green pictures this would work and be a lot of fun to set up. Set up was great! I got to use the creative aspects of me but the pictures are still not the pictures I hoped to take. I think I took almost 100 pictures trying to get the picture in my head, instead I gave up with one that I loved but was not what was in my head.

Today’s photography lesson, have an idea in your head but ALWAYS be willing to change it! That is kind of like parenting! I have to change that up all the time as well to keep the twins on their toes hehe I never thought I would learn the same lesson in photography as I did in parenting

03/17/11

Joy of Luck: Day 1

Today’s prompt is:

What inanimate object/thing/concept is something that you take for granted on a daily basis? What would someone who is not as fortunate as you are say about your “luck” to have such a thing in your life? Think about your blessings today – (don’t focus on people for this one…that will come later)…focus on opportunity/experience/something you have/do everyday that is an unforeseen blessing in your life.

The item or concept that I take for granted is:

My amazing husband/marriage

Photo settings: indoor, natural light, f/2.8, 1/20th ss, ISO 200

This picture is of two of our wedding pictures! I thought I would be able to take this picture easily but I was so wrong as the light in the room was on the glass and the wall was well unusual colors and the picture was not as easy as I thought it would be! Haha

That said, I do take the fact that I have a pretty good marriage and an amazing husband for granted all the time. When I was growing up I would have told you that would never happen for me but now 5 almost 6 years of marriage in I find that I take my husband for granted every day. Maybe I will work on that this year and start letting him know what it means that we work together as a team and really don’t argue all that much! We agree on many things and he is all about helping me and supporting me in everything I do even if that changes well almost daily! He is a great man and I am happy to be married to him and raise my children with him!

02/11/10

{42/365} Can I sit at your table, again?

I am pretty sure I am down to like ONE real reader anymore. Between the move and the original issues with the feed I have lost a ton of followers. I built my blog readership before by visiting other blogs, reading and commenting. I became involved and wanted to read people’s stories. I pretty much only read adoption blogs. Then when we brought the babies home I was able to keep up for awhile but there came a point when all I could do was read but if someone’s child was older than mine or the same age I stopped reading it was way too hard…I felt as if the delays my children were suffering were my fault even though in reality they were due to two things (1) being born at 25 weeks gestation and (2) being adopted into a foreign culture at 14 months old.

I then had to go looking for new blogs to read…ones that made me feel as if I was a good mom or helped me learn how to be a better stay at home mom. I kept all the other blogs in my reader but added new ones as I would visit them only once to see what they had to say. Sometimes I would read all the posts in my reader and cry…it was hard because I felt not only as if I had lost my community but I had lost the amazing friendships I had built up in the 20 months we went through the crazy adoption. As blogs went private or had passwords added I would miss out and feel too late to join in so I would be at a loss, feeling once again left out.

I would resolve to catch up again and start commenting again now that I have a little bit more time and fail so badly. Then I would feel bad again…I want to be a part of the community again but now I am afraid to ask to be a part again. Have I been gone for too long? Has too much happened? What if I still have issues returning phone calls or e-mails? What if I am still always behind but I am still reading?

Will you take me back with all my faults? Can I sit with you at lunch again?

And the pictures you came for:

02/8/10

{39/365} “Ninnie”

Better known as Minnie – Little Princess’ FAVORITE Disney character. She will point “Ninnie” out anywhere he sees her. I hope we are able to take her to Califorina at the end of the year or beginning of next year to see Aunt Amy (another new favorite word “Amy”) and Minnie. Anyway, I found a crochet pattern for a Minnie Mouse purse. I made some changes to the purse and spent a few hours over a few days making it.

So here is the purse:

And here is my “ninnie” lover with her purse:

I am working on Mickey now!

01/22/10

{22/365} Girl’s Night and cleaning..

Tonight I am having a girl’s night at my house complete with a Tastefully Simple party as well! I am excited but I have become the master procrastinator at cleaning the house for the party. I managed to get about zero sleep last night (see previous posts and another yet to come) so today the last thing I want to do is clean. To be downright honest all I want to do is lay on the couch and sleep but even if I was not having people over tonight I could not do that as I doubt allowing the two year olds to control the house would be the way to go, though it is tempting.

So it is now a little later and I was able to clean the house but I learned a bit about me…I use our dining room as a dumping ground. Yep if it is one of the projects I mentioned yesterday I just throw it in the dining room…BAD idea. It took me 2.5 hours to clean the dining room to a point where it was not looking like a dumping ground. But the party went of with only a few hitches and everyone had a great time, even Aaron who helped out with all of the kids (and one was a 6 month old baby)! The day is over and I am exhausted so I leave you with the pictures of the day as I go to sleep:

01/21/10

{21/365} Two too much to do….

With two toddlers at home, life never seems to slow down. I never know which direction I will be running. When they are sleeping I try to get as much done as possible. Some days are better than others. Lately it feels as if I have lots of projects piling up for me to do everything from laundry to sewing projects. Also I am hypersensitive to the projects that I started prior to Little man and little princess coming home. So I decided starting February First I would do a project a day and let you all know how it is going my craft the blog My Patchwork Dreams. So starting February 1 check back with that blog to see the progress and I will be giving away some of the projects because they will no longer fit my children. I’m anxious to see the corner in the dining room. Also in June when get my sewing room back I hope to only start new projects.

But I know that you are not here to hear about my projects you came to see the pictures of the cute kids. So here you go:

01/11/10

{11/365} Two Year Old Take Over

These are pictures of our entertainment center in our living room – it used to be filled with books and my Disney snowglobe collection…as you can see it is now full of children’s books, toys, puzzles you name it….when did it go from an adult area to one the two year olds in this house know well?

Sorry these are the only pictures today — I was taking down Christmas all day and dealing with melting down children as we let them go without a nap yesterday…it was a long day BUT it feels good to have a clean house! Now if only I could figure out when the two year olds took over….hmmm

12/19/09

Merry Christmas to Me

So it came…it finally came and I am over the moon! There were ordering issues and I almost was not able to get the lens but my AMAZING husband told me “order the lens” because he knew I would use it! I ended up with free overnight shipping for the whole shebang and I almost didn’t sleep last night because I was so excited that my d90 was almost here! I wanted this camera FOREVER (or at least it felt like it). Then it came…the poor ups guy met me at the door in my pjs with no bra on (me not the UPS guy) and a HUGE smile! I opened the box and actually squealed like a little girl! It took every ounce of self-control I had to not put the battery in and take as many pictures as the measly charge would allow. I was good and locked it into the charger and had Aaron plug it in (he stayed home just to see my face when it came I am SURE and I am pretty sure it was worth it!)! I then read the quick start guide and waited begging the charger to charge faster (it didn’t work). As soon as Aaron left for work I had the kids to JUST me so I didn’t get to take pictures or anything even if the battery had been charged. By the time I was able to check the battery it was charged and let me tell you it was love at first click…I took so many pictures today Little Man was still saying “cheeeeese” when he went to bed!

So before I show you pictures from today I want to say that my husband is AMAZING and I love him more than anything! He rocks and he let me open the gift today and even went out to find me a book I wanted about the camera (he said the store was more upset than him as they had to search the back for the book)! Six and a half years together – four and a half years married and I still love him as much as the day we were married! Thanks Aaron!

So now the pictures:

(not as sharp as I would like but LOVE the cheese smile!)

(she would stay next to the TV the WHOLE time this show is on if we didn’t make her move — Cars and Tinkerbell…what does this say about my daughter? hmm…..)

My Everyday Miracles

Where the miracles never cease and always come in pairs!!!

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