25 Days of Family Fun - Day 2

Today our activity was to visit Santa. I was a little concerned that Jules would be afraid of him or something but he wasn't at all. He thought his beard was funny and aside from the normal 1 year old's don't like being held" deal he he fun. I thought these few pictures were really funny though... so I'm just sharing these tonight...

While I hung out with Santa and all the other kids getting pictures taken, Andrew took Julien to see the town tree lighting ceremony. He enjoyed all the singing and he even got a sticker from an elf. (He LOVES stickers) So it was a pretty fun night!

25 Days of Family Fun

December! And so it begins... We're going to try really hard to do some sort of holiday activity everyday until Christmas and I'm hoping to share them all.

I'll also be making a journal. Here is the page I created for it, in case you want to make one. I'm going to stick the pages in a 3 ring binder so we can look back and add to it every year.

(Just click on the page, right click to save and print on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper.)

I'll fill each page with a little bit about what we did, any especially funny things Julien did that day and probably what book(s) we read. 

Also, holiday coloring pages and activities:
(Because some days just don't have time for a big activity...)

coloring page (Love this one)
coloring page (Elves)
coloring page (Christmas story)
connect the dots
maze
madlibs
madlib

_______________________________________________________________________________

December 1, 2011
Seems like everyone went a little crazy putting up their decorations super early this year. We waited until the day after Thanksgiving, like always, because I was afraid I would get burnt out on all of it before we even hit December... but it's up and we started our holiday season with the Christmas parade. One thing I love about our loft is that most parades go down our street and we can watch from our window.

Julien wasn't too interested in it but he did sit in the window and watch it on and off. There were a ton of people out this year. The sidewalks were crowded for at least a half hour before the parade started. I think Julien's favorites this year were the bands.

Sweet Little Thing

Yesterday one of my best friends welcomed a new little bundle of cuteness into the world. I had completely forgotten how tiny new babies are and oh my goodness, she is SO tiny! And precious- and perfect- and I just love her...

Party in J's Tummy! | Photography Update

This was such a fun shoot. This little cutie just turned 1 and he was definitely happy about exploring... dirt, bugs, leaves and CAKE!

Such a sweet little family... and growing! Congratulations! Can't wait to meet the little miss;) 

A Great Day

Yesterday was a great day. Woke up and took J to his Mamma's to play. I had a meeting at a bistro downtown to discuss hanging some photography in it. The meeting went awesome and I'm totally pumped about it. After I picked J up I decided that we were going to spend the day doing fun stuff while daddyman worked. He fell asleep as soon as we got in the car so I drove down to the river and worked on some things until he woke up. Then we walked down and watched the ducks. He LOVES ducks. Then we went and played on 2 playgrounds, went for a walk, went to the library, went on another walk, picked daddy up and went out to dinner. It was definitely the best day I've had in a long time.

I even got a latte and my favorite cookie (ever had a Toffee cookie from Panera? OMG) before we went home. (I know.. coffee before bed=dumb idea... but it was perfect and I drink so much caffeine that it doesn't phase me. haha should I admit that?)

Today... less great. Jules had his 15 month check up. He's perfect, but had to get 3 shots:( breaks my heart every time...

Mom stuff...

Julien is kind of a ridiculous kid. He's done everything super early. When he was really little and doing things really early it made me a little sad because I felt like I was missing out on having a little blob of baby that was really just a little blob of baby and perfectly content to just 'be'. Julien has never been like that.... and I've found that other people don't really understand it. Maybe it's just because they aren't around him 24/7 like I am but in his short little life I've put up with a lot of "just let him be a baby" and "he can't do that yet" type of comments. Well, yes, he can do that and I am not forcing him to do anything. I have always just gone off of his cues of when he was ready to do something. Some people act like I'm a bad mom because of the things Julien has done early, but what I can't understand is why anyone would think it would be good to keep their kids from doing things (like walking or using the potty) just because they're doing it earlier than average... I don't ever want to hold my kids back from accomplishing anything that they think they can do. And I hope that no matter what it is (as long as it's not dangerous or whatever... obviously...) I hope that I am open minded enough to help and support them.

All that ramble ranting aside, Jules (who is not bow-legged from walking at 9 months) discovered his boy parts a few weeks ago. Shortly after that he started doing the whole "hide when I poop in my diaper" thing so we got him a little potty. He's doing awesome! We don't pressure him to use it and he we are no where near potty trained... but if we think he needs to go and put him on the potty most of the time he goes in it. Then of course we sing silly potty songs and give him stickers and shower him with positive reinforcement. We're just hoping that by the time he really understands he'll want to use the potty and the actual potty training will be really easy. For the last week he's peed in the potty at least once a day (sometimes more) and I think he's awesome. :)

A couple things I don't want to forget... He's decided that it's hilarious to put his pacifier in your mouth if you're singing to him. And a few days ago he informed me "cow say's moooo" and it was the cutest thing ever...

Thrifty Upcycling

Lately I've been working on stuff for an upcoming craft show. A couple days ago I found these cute vintage change purses at a thrift store and thought I might embroider something on them but decided to sew some little flowers on them instead. Hoping they'll be super cute when they're done.

Photography Update | Holly Hamrick of Amy Gentry Photography

I got to spend some time this weekend with one of my very best friends, who happens to have one of the most adorable little girls and another one any time now! Her family has a beautiful bit of land out in the country and they gave us free rein over the fields and a little pond.. we ran out of time to go to the barns and a few other places, but I got some beautiful shots and I am so excited for more shoots when #2 arrives! 

Zooombies

I try to never wish time away but there are a few things that I am so excited for... I'm excited for Jules to want to pretend and play specific things. He likes to play trains and some other things... I'm excited for when he appreciates how silly his parents are. (but not so much for when he's embarrassed by us. Maybe that wont happen...)

I think we're prematurely excited about Halloween... He didn't really care at all that he was a zombie, but he was the cutest little zombie I've ever seen!

The Big Ouch

Lately we've been trying to clean and declutter our home and it's actually coming along well so far! We decided that we would spend a conscious 15 mins a day cleaning up. Having a 1 year old really means that you spend way more time than 15 mins cleaning up every day but after basically following a 1 year old around cleaning up after him all day -- kind of makes you not care so much about everything else.... So 15 mins of cleaning up things we don't constantly clean up is really making a difference! And it's also really encouraging because when you see the difference after your 15 mins it motivates you to keep going. It's nice for the whole family to be involved too.. feels like more is getting accomplished with everyone helping.

Today was kind of a long day. Julien woke up in a really weird mood (he was whimper in his sleep so I woke him up) which made for a long morning.. but even though he was not happy about napping, he woke up happy...

Went for a walk this evening to get ride of some of his extra energy. It didn't last long though because he had his first big wipe out... I'm pretty sure it hurt me more watching it than it hurt him though...

So we came home and the Dad made dinner... 

I'm surprised Jules was hungry after his pavement and toe-jam appetizers but he ate a grilled cheese and a half and half of my bowl of tomato soup. 

Watching some TV and doing my 15 mins then I am going to bed... This has been an exhausting day.

Bleeehgger

To be completely honest, my life is feeling pretty monotonous right now. I guess that's what happens when summer is ending, autumn is beginning but you don't have anything changing (like school starting) to keep up with... Don't get me wrong though... my life is fun. 

Julien does something new everyday which is awesome but I think the really exciting changes are slowing down for now... maybe it's bumming me out. I don't know... but he really is so awesome I think I take it for granted sometimes... He's been walking for months now and in the last month he's started talking so much. He's almost 15 months and he's already putting words together. It's so crazy! He's got the basics ("all gone", "thank you") down and he's picking up on everyone's name now. He calls my mom "Mamma" and he says "Gabby" perfectly clear and he calls Aunt Amanda "Am-duh" which is adorable. (He's also calling me Holly still... it's the cutest little "Ha-we", but I prefer "Momma"...) And his train and pig noises... spot on! haha But I can't help but feel like he's getting bored with things too. Getting mad that he can't just say what he wants to even though he tries so hard and he really needs more stimulation. I wish there was a good program around here for his age group. (Gladly taking any ideas!)

Summer has been awesome, but I really love fall and I am really excited for it's arrival. I think I just need to play outside more often... haha

MOV Contest of Awesomeness!

So we've got an awesome contest going on at Amy Gentry Photography... if you win, your picture will be on our billboard! Check it out on Facebook and visit the blog!

(There's a really delicious recipe on the blog, too. Check it out!)

Sternwheel Festival - Pt 2 (Fireworks!)

They were awesome, as usual... Getting to them was quite a fiasco and I ended up watching them by myself because I couldn't get to the boys but I got some awesome pictures and Julien fell asleep during them anyway. Haha.. only my kid could fall asleep during fireworks... actually, he refused to sleep today. He only napped for about a half an hour so it's really not surprising.. but the craziest thing is that he woke up as soon as we got home!

So, at almost 12:30, I was just starting to get really frustrated... rocking him and singing to him... when he pulled his pacifier out of his mouth and put it in mine! I didn't think my singing was THAT bad! :/ haha..

Whenever I start to get frustrated with him he always does something hilarious that makes me feel horrible for getting annoyed. He's so funny... I love him even when he gets on my nerves... haha

Sternwheel Festival - Pt 1

It's really felt like fall around here the last week or so. One thing that always says fall to me is Sternwheel Festival, which is this weekend. We went down yesterday and pretty much spent 4 hours just walking. It's kind of cool to just be able to walk out your door and be there but at the same time it's kind of not cool to feel like the entire MOV is at your house. It's been pretty loud and crazy already but not too horribly bad. I'm sure it'll be completely crazy tonight since the fireworks show fills the streets to max capacity. We're planning on joining in on the fun. Hopefully Julien will think the fireworks are awesome...

Cake for breakfast?

Yes! Only if it's YOUR birthday cake can you eat it for breakfast, or course...
I'm officially in my late 20's, but getting older has never bothered me... Plus my birthday didn't feel at all like my birthday because a darling friend married the man of her dreams on that particular day and from the time I woke up to the time I got in my bed I was doing wedding stuff. The ceremony was beautiful. We had photos taken at The Blennerhassett Hotel, which is a beautiful old hotel in town, then I headed to the park to help finishing set up. I wish I had taken more pictures but wasn't really able being in the wedding... The ceremony was so beautiful. Short and sweet and so special. It sprinkled rain until the time of the ceremony and then it stopped until after we took more photos. The reception was a little wet but still enjoyable. Overall a fantastic  day. So happy for the bride and groom.:)

So here's to another year...

And a happy couple.

Photography Update | Holly Hamrick of Amy Gentry Photography

Over the weekend I got to shoot some engagement photos for a dear friend and her sweet little family (to be) and I cannot wait to be a part of their big day this coming weekend! (Yep, they're getting hitched on my birthday. I'll never forget their anniversary! haha) Here is a little peek from the beautiful shoot.

Aren't they so cute together <3

Naps

We're still feeling pretty not great around here. We've been taking a lot of long naps and just hanging out around the house. Today we did venture out to the playground for just a few minutes before going to the grocery store but even that didn't make us feel a lot better. Jules seemed to feel a little queezy just from swinging but the fresh air was nice. I noticed this evening that it's already starting to smell like cooler weather outside. Seems like summer's just began but it's nearly over. Fall is just around the corner... then winter... which of course means more naps...

Dude

My poor babe has had a rough few days. He was having a hard enough time with the 4 molars he's got coming in, but now on top of that he's got a sad little cough, runny nose and he just flat out doesn't feel well. He's been pretty pitiful and it's been pretty much breaking my heart. I also have a nice runny nose and can't stop sneezing and Andrew is under the weather too. I swear it's the air around here as this all started not even 2 days after we got back from vacation. Stinks. I want to move so badly.

Today wasn't so bad, though... Check out the latest shoot at AGP. We also played outside and I upcycled a sweet shirt for J.

Home Sweet Home

Home from the beach and our first day home was almost more of a vacation than the vacation! Poor Julien has 4 molars coming through and he had a high fever and didn't sleep at all before we drove home. He was so pitiful all the way home. I think he only smile 3 times all day. When he laughed, he cried because it hurt. So sad... but I'm glad he didn't feel that bad all week.

But we made it. It felt so good to sleep in my own bed and today he slept in until noon (& so did Momma) and when we woke up Daddy had pancakes, bacon and eggs waiting for us.

Vacation 2011

A few weeks ago my dad asked if we wanted to accompany them to the beach. Well, OBVIOUSLY! but I didn't see it happening since it was so close, we had other things going on and three weeks didn't really seem like enough time to figure finances and everything else out... but it all worked out perfectly and we are having so much fun here at Ocean Isle, NC! Julien is loving every minute and is being his usual happy self and the week is only half over. We've done a lot already and tonight we went fishing off our dock and I caught a crab!

I think Julien likes the pool best...

Slacker!

Man, have the past two weeks flown by! Between photo shoots and my high school BFF getting married I haven't had a chance to even breathe! It's been a good time, but I cannot wait until I am digging my toes into the sand on Sunday. (more like chasing my one year old away from the ocean... I'll take it...)

Tomorrow is the big day, but we've already celebrated with the bachelorette party and rehearsal dinner so here is a picture of the Hubs and I before dinner...

We ate at Austyn's downtown and it was SUPERB. We haven't eaten there in ages and it was far better than I ever remember. The 3 glasses of wine that I got to enjoy may have helped... but it was awesome... and with such good company it was a great time. 

So, until I find time to update again... 

Congratulations and best wishes to the happy couple <3

The Sheppard's | Family

I cannot tell you how excited I was about this shoot. I mean really, is this family not a photographer's dream? Since I started seeing pictures of Miss M she's been at the top of my "cutest little girl" list and it definitely shows in every picture of her! 

The rest will be up on the photo page soon...

It's a bird, it's a plane...!

It's super Julien! Yesterday we went to River City Comic Con and enjoyed seeing several friends and browsing all the comics. We had some local artists sign our books and after it was all over we watched the Jugger match. It was a pretty great day. It makes me really happy that our little town is trying to pull together some fun local events.

Everyone agreed that Julien was the coolest kid there. I whipped his cape up the night before and I was so thrilled that he ended up loving it! He was so excited to show it off to everyone and he didn't even try to take it off despite it being SO hot. My baby's really acting like a little boy these days. 

Oh, we were in the paper too. You can find the article here. Please don't look at me in the picture, I was standing in front of a huge fan to get his cape to fly but really only my hair was flying... haha

Staycation / Peach Cobbler

We're dog sitting at my mom's this week. It's kind of like a staycation but we haven't done much of anything. Taken a lot of walks, enjoyed the luxury of a bathtub and played... Julien has 2 molars coming in and was awake at least every hour last night. He's been pretty crazy since it started... so I'm nodding off as I type this... I did want to share a recipe that Andrew and I made a couple days ago. I didn't take good pictures of it, but I did just snap one before I finished it off...

The peach cobbler up there... it was FANTASTIC and so easy! It's a Paula Deen recipe that you should try for sure...

Peach Cobbler | Paula Deen

Ingredients

• 4 cups peeled, sliced peaches
• 2 cups sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• Ground cinnamon, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the peaches, 1 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Put the butter in a 3-quart baking dish and place in oven to melt.

Mix remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping. Pour mixture over melted butter. Do not stir. Spoon fruit on top, gently pouring in syrup. Sprinkle top with ground cinnamon, if using. Batter will rise to top during baking. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

To serve, scoop onto a plate and serve with your choice of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream 

(source)

Sweet Corn

 This weekend is the Sweet Corn Festival and Mayor's Jubilee. I'm pretty sure this area has some of the most random events just for the excuse to do crazy things... like walk around town with an ear of butter-soaked corn hanging out of your mouth... But even I fell victim, because who can turn that down? Especially for a buck! It was delicious too! I was going to let Julien try corn on the cob for the first time, but his first molar is coming through and he wasn't much into eating, so we did some other stuff and Papa ate his piece.

 J got another caricature done by J.D Williamson. We seem to get one every time we see him somewhere...

An old man made him a balloon hat and he thought he was the coolest kid on the block. He kept shaking his head around to make the balloons move. It was really hilarious.

He LOVED the bunnies. We tried to walk away 3 times and he ran back every time. I literally had to drag him away from them. They liked him, too, as you can see...

My grandparents from Florida made it in town just in time to enjoy all this fun with us. They'll be here for a few days before they move on so we'll be enjoying their company until then.

Enjoy your weekend!

Yard Sale Treasure | Be Awesome Today

A few weeks ago I happened upon a little yard sale and saw two huge framed paintings propped up against a tree so I had to stop. As I was scanning them for a price a girl rushed by with a stack of boxes and said "Oh, you can have those for free!"
What!? YES, PLEASE! When she returned she told me that she had seen them in someone's trash and just couldn't let them go to the dump, so she saved them, then had no place to put them... Not that I had room for them but you better believe I wasn't going to pass that up! Immediately I thought of the friend's weddings I have coming up and how I could use them in my photography... So I headed back to the car as quickly as I could and told Andrew to load them up! After assessing all the options, Andrew said we could only fit one in the car. So I took the second one back to the tree and told the girl my sad news and then stupidly opened my fat mouth with my big plans for it and after realizing all it's potential she decided to keep the other one. Immediately after, Andrew came over and said that we actually couldn't even fit one in and that we'd have to come back and get it without the car seat. I COULD HAVE HAD BOTH! So disheartening. BUT I cannot complain because I got one awesome, FREE picture frame and I even found a place for it.

I pulled the painting out of it and cleaned it up. The string is all pinned straight to the wall so I can easily pull the frame down to use at photo shoots. I have to admit, I kind of love it. 

I know you can't really make out some of the cute little things I have hanging on it, but here's a little freebie for you...

I made this a while back and printed it to hang in the frame. I can't remember where that doily brush is from, but I'll do my best to figure it out and add credit... Anyway, this is a 5x7, printed really nicely on white card stock. I also added a couple other colors... Just click the picture to find them!

My Nook

Somehow I ended up with two snoring boys pretty early tonight so I decided I'd take advantage of it and clean/reorganize my crafting area so I could actually make something. Now, to preface a little, I've been looking for a vintage buffet style cabinet all summer but haven't found the perfect thing yet so I've really been holding off. In that time my nook has become a total disaster. 

No, really... So in the process of cleaning up my area, I naturally moved to the kitchen and cleaned that up first and in that process I decided I was going to switch out that ugly little folding table with our vintage kitchen table since we never eat at it anyway. 

However, after my first project (the curtain to hide the clutter) I've found that the table is waaay too wobbly to sew on! Bummer... The buffet search continues..

Oh, also... we had a really horrible storm while I was doing all this and it woke up the boys. Thankfully the Hubs entertained Jules while I finished but as soon I was done he was up climbing everything possible...

Christy & Kyle | Engagement

I loved this engagement shoot! I have never seen so much happiness radiating through photos! It makes me even happier for these two lovebirds. Thank you for letting me capture it, Christy & Kyle!

Head over to the photo page to see more...

Oh, Home...

It's amazing how great home can feel after you haven't been there in a while. Even when there are toys all over the place and clothes on the bedroom floor... We  ended up camping longer than expected and had a good time. We didn't make it to The Melting Pot, but we did go to the zoo and went to a few of our favorite places... and saw some fantastic fireworks!

Back to the real world already... Engagement shoot this evening and it was great! Can't wait to share some photos!

Happy Independence Day!

We just started our week off by watching the Independence Day parade from our living room window.

 Now we're getting ready to head to the woods for the night and go on to the zoo tomorrow. Uncle Bubby and Aunt Syd are coming with us. We are definitely in for huge fun in the next 48 hours! Whoohoo!

The Melting Pot is on my hidden agenda but we'll see if that happens...