mommy's little helper...

Sarah deserves a medal. She's been my constant helper with this whole studio-setup thing. She'll tell me it's time to get to work in the basement and off we'll go together (with our bubble gum...below)

She's pretty thrilled that she doesn't have to give me her polished smiles and just loves goofing around.
This is one of the best smiles I've ever grabbed from her. Who knew she just needed goggles on her head all along.

I told her to pretend she was a baby for this one. Apparently babies are quite bored.
That little Sarah is quite an awesome kid. Case in point :

Out of the blue at dinner last night (Jeff''s birthday...by the way!), she says :

"I sit on the steps at night after you put me to bed. You don't even know."

Me : "Why do you do that?"

Sarah : "I don't want to be in my bed."

Jeff : "You just sit on the top step and listen to us?"

Sarah : "Not the top step. The one by the bottom where I see myself in the mirror."

Me : "So, do you just look at yourself in the mirror and listen to the TV?"

Sarah : "No, I don't look at myself. I look at the backyard window and see the TV on it and I watch and listen."

Jeff and Me : trying very very hard not to laugh out loud at the risk of embarrassing her or encouraging her

Me : "We know now, Sarah"

Sarah : "Hmfph."

Note that we checked the steps several times after tucking her in last night.

bringing the photobiz indoors...

Gulp. Yikes. Oh my...what have I got myself into... I've decided to set up shop inside the house this winter. Saturday was spent overhauling the basement and making room for all the "stuff". (did I mention that it was a beautiful day outside on Saturday?)

Indoor photos are a whole different learning curve, so my poor defenseless girls are my test subjects.

They got a little sick of it after awhile (I don't blame them).
They thought it best I continue with other guinea pigs (or a duck and whale)...
I'm open to any opinions, of course. I'm still lernin'.

all the poor naked trees...

Fall has lived up to it's name and all the leaves are down. The only comfort to now being able to see the houses behind us is seeing the kids crunch amok in covered grass and leap into the piles their dad worked hard to build.
Sarah's no slacker and got to work to rebuild the pile.We also figured it was about time for Julia to earn her keep around here too.
Lauren could not be convinced to pick up a rake. Instead, she chose the ol' "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy...
Fall is pretty great.

the new mi(ni)...

I got a Nike+ running chip for my birfday. I finally got it set up yesterday on a (short) run in the dark. If it weren't for the whole fear-of-ill-will thing, I'd run in the dark all the time! You can't see the hills coming and it's just incredibly still.

Anywho, I'm able to sync my runs to the Nike website and post results in the form of the little Mini Me over on the right side of this page. I guess the more I run, the less she'll sit around and play paddleball, so that's some incentive.

If any of you have this device and want to set up a challenge, I'm ready (gulp).

you just can't call this "work"...

I had fun hanging out with my niece, Rachel, and getting some 8th grade pictures for her last week. It was very cold that day, but she was a trooper!
I brought Julia along because how can you not smile when this kiddo's lookin' at you?
Here she is just hanging out on the railroad tracks. Don't worry folks, these are locomotive-free tracks.
How sweet it is...Oh...one more thing...I dun did it. Bellflower Design Photography now has a Facebook page. I kicked it off with these pictures of Rachel. If you want to be a fan, click here to go the page.

happy birthday(s)...

The wise words on one Ferris Bueller come to mind every now and again...

"Life moves pretty fast,
if you don't stop to take a look around
it just might pass you by."

Don't get me wrong, we've looked around in the last five years, but I find myself quite amazed that our wee baby Sarah is FIVE already!

She rolled into our room at the crack o' 6:50am. When I looked down to the foot of the bed, I saw a gigantic paper birthday crown atop her pajamad self. She was ready to roll...(please note the non-participatory Julia in the background, digging through a box of Little People).Mmmmm....cake. We spent 6 hours riffling through Lego to create a Christmas toy shop. Boy do I love my Sarah's new toy.
Please note Julia's legs running in the background. She was stuffy and sleepless, which winds her up like the Energizer bunny. From 4pm - 6pm, she ran 132 laps around the house and was mumbling incoherently. We put her in bed before cake.
Cake time!
Sarah with her birthday frogs from Grandma and Grandpa. Since she got these, she hasn't complained of being scared in her room at night. These little guys (named Sparkle and Lily) keep her company. It's sweet.
Getting your picture taken isn't what anyone would want to do on their birthday. I'm a pretty lucky lady...these three are pretty awesome kiddos...
Oh, and we're feeding the squirrels now too (see top of pumpkin....when he's really hungry, he sits inside it)...
I'm one year older today...but nobody wants to see a dorky picture of a 34 year old blowing out candles. So...here I am (yes, I'm the blonde one on the left) on my 5th birthday with my very thrilled brothers (hands on their hips...only there for cake) and three other non-related children there for cake too.