Our spontaneous trip to Disney Land

The morning spring break started Ben came into our room and said something to the effect of "Why don't we go to Disney Land for spring break?" I was still basically asleep and it took me a minute to realize he was serious. Keep in mind this is something we had not talked about at all. After a few minutes of disbelief I realized he had already had a rough plan. So I reluctantly got up from what was supposed to be the first of a few days of sleeping in. Needless to say a few hours later we were on our way to Disney Land. Yes we planned a whole trip to Disney Land in a matter of hours. Obviously 2 days of driving there and 1 day back is not the most pleasant situation with 3 kids. But over all the drive wasn't bad, yes there was some whining, a lot of are we there yets and a throw-up incident. But all things considered it was a successful car trip. We had tonz of fun at Disney Land and Disney California. The kids were great, I don't think it could have gone much better. We spent 2 days in the parks and were very exhausted when it was all over. We are not typically the type of people to do anything this big without lots of planning, but it all worked out so well maybe we will have to do more impromptu trips.

This is in front of the Disney Castle.

Lillie was so excited to see Minnie.
We waited in line while the boys rode on a roller coaster near by.

We waited, and waited and waited to see Mickey. But I predict this picture will be a family favorite.

They are so cute in their Mickey ears!

We wore poor Van out, he fell asleep during the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and slept for about an hour in his stroller afterwards...this was a minor miracle as far as we are concerned.

This is the first float in the electric parade, this was the most amazing parade I have ever seen. The kids were so into the parade that they hardly moved while they watched.

Joseph never sleeps in the middle of the afternoon. He was exhausted and begged us to go back to the hotel so he could take a nap, I didn't think it would actually happen.

Don't worry he does this all the time...I know it looks horrible.

This is the second day. Notice the clock in the picture of Joseph. We were all so tired we came back to the hotel for a rest and then planned on going back to Disney Land later in the evening. Well we didn't make it back, I have to admit I was a little disappointed but the kids seemed to be fine with it. We fit a lot into a short amount of time and I think the kids were feeling a bit overwhelmed.

We had an amazing time, it was definitely a trip that we will all remember for a long time, thanks to Ben and his sudden bout of spontaneity.

A (HUGE) Leap of Faith

For those of you who are regular readers of my blog you may remember a previous blog in which I said my biggest fear is failure and I do not do things unless I am fairly certain I will succeed. Well I have decided to take a leap of faith and a take my photography to the next level. I am hoping to start doing portraiture “professionally.” Obviously, there is no guarantee that this will be a successful venture. I am very aware that I still have a lot to learn. I am hoping that a combination of my schooling and experience will help me to build a portfolio that will lead me to professional status.

This is where you, my friends and family come into the picture (no pun intended). In order to build a portfolio I need models. I want to specialize in newborns and kids. And most of you reading this blog either have kids or know someone who has kids. My proposal is this: I will do a portrait session with your kids; I’ll even do sessions with your family and friends as long as I don’t become too swamped. The session would be totally free for you. I will come to your home or we can be on location. I will give you a CD with the pictures from our shoot that you will have the rights to and you can print as many or as few as you want. I will Photoshop and enhance the pictures and help you find a good place for printing. I will retain the right to use any of the images on my website. I will not use any names of course. In return, I hope that you will recommend me to friends and family once my website is up and I am working professionally.

For those of you who might be wondering, I had my first shoot yesterday. It went very well for a first shoot and I am feeling very confident at this point. My first models were awesome. I felt like it was a good experience for all of us. I will post some of the pictures from this session so you can get an idea of the style I will be shooting. Being true to my promise I will not give the names of these models but many of you will recognize them. I could not have asked for a better first shoot or models. I appreciate their mom so much for letting me take their pictures. I have two more shoots this week and two others set up (we just have to wait for them to be born).

I would love to do a shoot for you. If you have other needs such as family pictures, engagement photos or anything else, I would be happy to help you with those as well. I need as much practice as I can get in a real shooting environment if this venture is going to be a success.

If you are interested in seeing the style that I am striving for I have links to other photographer’s websites that I would be happy to pass on.

Everyone will think I am stylish…

Lillie’s best friend is Sophie. Sophie and Lillie are polar opposites in almost every way. Lillie is loud and outgoing (possibly obnoxious) while Sophie is quiet and shy. But for some reason they are drawn to each other. I was visiting with Sophie’s mom the other day when the fashion of our 5 year olds became the topic of discussion. It seems they do have at least one thing in common. They care about what they wear and what other people think about what they wear. I was happy to find out that my 5 year old is not the only one that worries about what others think of her.

All year I have been trying to get Lillie to wear two shirts, usually an under shirt and a regular shirt. But sometimes just because two shirts layered is cute. Typically, this is a source of contention between us because she thought that that just was not fashionable enough for her tastes and the other kids won’t think she is “stylish.” If it is a modesty issue I insist (because she is so tall and long wasted many of her shirts are not long enough to reach the top of her pants) but if it is just what I think is cute I try not to push it. Two days ago, I tried to get her to wear a short-sleeved shirt over a long sleeved shirt, well like usual she didn’t go for it. I let it go and that was the end of it. So yesterday, I set out her clothes, being sure to choose a shirt that is long enough that she will not have to wear another one with it. A few minutes later, she comes out with a long sleeved shirt under the shirt I had chosen for her. I was quite surprised and said “I thought that you didn’t like wearing two shirts.” To which she replied, “I like it now, everyone will think I am stylish.” So I chuckled to myself and added it to the many times that she has wore something based on the fact that “they” or “everyone” will think she is stylish. This morning she insisted that she wear two shirts, a short-sleeved on top of a long sleeved. And informed me that she was only going to wear shirts like this from now on. She will be disappointed when she realizes she only has a few shirts that she can do that with and no matter how much “they” like the look she can’t wear the same 3 shirt combinations every day. I think this is cute and the stuff that funny stories are made of. But I do worry about her and all of the other 5 year olds that already worry so much about what others think about how they look. It makes me wonder do we do this to them by constantly verbalizing our own worries about what others think of us. Is it ingrained in them by a society that places too much enfaces on outward appearances and not enough on who the person really is? Yes, to both. Although I do want my kids to be clean and presentable I do not want the focus to be about what others think about how they look or dress. I want them to worry about being polite, having good manners, being kind and showing people who they really are on the inside because I like to think that beauty has more to do with who you are than what you wear.

Did I say Snowball? I should have said Avalanche!

The theater room project is nearly finished. The projects that resulted from the theater room project are not however. You may remember it all started with a furniture purchase and some plans to rearrange the projector and the screen. Well moving the projector and screen were slightly more involved than I had anticipated, but not horrible and Ben did most of the work anyway. Once we got the room cleared we decided to go ahead and have the carpet replaced, those of you have been in our theater room will agree this was a much needed update. The carpet did not happen as swiftly as we had hoped which pushed everything back. The basement hallway and the stairs were to get new carpet as well. This meant we could finally get rid of the carpet in the entryway, Yeah! So we decided that we would try tile…which happens to make way more sense than carpet anyway. All of this carpet replacement meant that we needed to replace the baseboard moldings that the previous owner felt was unnecessary. Which actually did make this whole process simpler, one less step before the carpet was installed. Did I mention that we torn up the old carpet ourselves? So the new carpet is in, the baseboards are up, the new furniture is in place, the screen is moved, the projector is mounted, the walls are painted, all of the components are hooked up, and the speaker wire is in place and hidden. This brings me to the things that are not quite finished. One of the new speakers (part of the avalanche, not the original plan) seems to have a problem. Luckily, we bought the warranty so we are hoping this is just a minor setback not a major problem. Ben is taking care of that today. And later tonight we start the first step in the tile process. Then all that is left is the paint touch-ups that are required for the moldings and a few places in the entryway. I notice that I say “we” a lot. In some cases, this is true but really, Ben has done most of the work…especially the hard labor. I helped with the errand running, the painting, the supervising, the decision making, keeping the kids out of Ben’s way and I installed all the baseboards (after Ben cut them). However, because of our inadequate nail gun, the baseboards were much harder than they should have been. Ben did everything else; he has been awesome and has saved us a ton of money by doing most of the work himself.

New paint, new carpet, 4 trips to circuit city,4 trips to Lowes, 5 trips to home depot, new baseboards, projector mount, new speakers, shelving, new tile and never ending supplies $. Having the theater room project finished…PRICELESS.

So for our next project…