Hello? Anyone there?

I've been a bad blogging mommy. I've been thinking about blogging for about a month now, but I still don't have my pictures from Christmas edited, and that's been preventing me... Plus I've just been generally exhausted and busy! That's my excuse. So for now, just know that I'm alive, and this little boy has now been cooking for 27 weeks. That means I'm in the THRID TRIMESTER! Goodness! And Baxter is starting to talk (finally!) more and more. Except I'm Dada, and so is Jason, but that's ok. At least Mr. Waffles has a name (Woofooz). It's 8:42, and I think I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll blog more later now that the gate has been broken?

Lately

Sorry I haven't blogged much lately. At the beginning of September when we found out we were pregnant, I wasn't ready to share yet. So I had to be guarded in what I posted. And then I sort of fell out of the habit.

Morning sickness hasn't been too bad on the puking front. I can count on one hand how many times I've vomited, so that's somewhat encouraging. Although the food aversions have been much worse this time. Like I can't eat anything. Or what I can eat changes on a day to day basis. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I gained 5lbs. Mostly water weight. On the cruise I gained a few more, but the massage I had released a bunch of the water, so I was up all night going to the bathroom. Oops! As of today, I've gained 2lbs total from my pre-pregnancy weight. Not too bad for 12 weeks and 1 day! With Baxter I lost a lot of weight the first trimester, and didn't start gaining for a long time. I didn't have the nausea as much with him though, I just didn't want to eat. Now I HAVE to eat. Maybe because I'm still breastfeeding Baxter? Dunno.

Bax is down to nursing 3-4 times a day, and one nap a day. That's been an adjustment. And my great sleeper has turned into a molar bear. He's getting two molars and two canines right now, and that makes a VERY grumpy baby. Ugh.

I'm defiantly looking pregnant now. Looking at me now, I look like I did at 17 weeks with Bax. We had family pictures taken with Fred Calma Photography yesterday, and I can't wait to see them. We had my mom, Richard (stepdad), me, Jason, Baxter, Brent (my brother), April (stepsister), Aaron (April's husband), Riley (April and Aarons almost 8 month old), Andrew (stepbrother) and Tony (stepbrother). It went pretty well other than Baxter being fussy, and having a lovely run in with a cat that morning...

More on that later, it's Jason's and my date night :)

Oh, just a few more...

Have I commented recently on how much I love photoshop? I"m getting so much more into it! And of course, the Creative Mama is doing TWO more giveaways! One for some Florabella Textures, and one for a fine art print! *SWOON*

So of course I have to share my recent creations :) Just remember, I'm still learning!!!

A black and white kind of day

I'm getting more and more into Photography as I read the series on The Creative Mama. Today's giveaway is amazing, I'm having so much fun with actions, presets and textures. Next time I upload to flickr you'll see more. So yeah, I want to win this time!

I suppose I could tell you more about our Chelan trip, or what's happened this week. But I'm still tired! But there was a fire on the 4th of July (scary) right down the hill from us. Tony took off to try to fight it, but they wouldn't let him. Luckily it was controlled super fast. We went to the beach, and we ate good food, and had a general good time. It was a vacation, I'm not sure what else to say! Grandma Deanna taught Bax how to bang a tin tray with a spoon... And Bax started to want to read books!


Baxter liked playing the piano, and when others played.


Jessie got creative with the blocks and glass topped table (I love this one!)


My boys loved on each other


And Grandma Deanna got lots of cuddles


Maybe next time I'll share some that aren't Black and White? There are more on the flickr page, but these are some favorites :) Oh, and YES, I've been photoshopping them all. Not like switching heads or anything, just some gentle enhancements, or converting to Black and White. Ya know, the good type of photoshopping!

Home

We were here:


Doing things like this:


And taking beautiful pictures like this:



And now I'm home, catching up on more mundane things. So I'll leave it at that tidbit for now, while I still have hundreds of photos to go through. What I would really love is a new copy of CS4, which The Creative Mama is giving away in a short giveaway today... She's doing photography related giveaways all week, so stay tuned, and I'll tell you about each one! With maybe some fun photos of our vacation each time :)

About Life

Hmmm, How should I explain what all has happened in the last week and a half? I'll just go chronologically. Because then I'll be less likely to forget something! And I'm looking at my calendar, so that helps too....

A week ago Sunday we went to Lake Padden to my friend Danielle's graduation BBQ. Baxter was a hit, and he wanted to walk everywhere, and meet all the dogs. Jason took him to the playground for a bit, but he found having to be held on all the toys a bit too constraining. And I think it might have been too close to nap time to enjoy the slide.


On monday I got a haircut, and Baxter sat sweetly in the stroller the whole time! Even though it was nap time and I got there early hoping to walk him to sleep in the stroller... he just thought that was funny. So he only took ONE nap that day, in the middle of the day, and went to bed early. He behaved really well though, so now I know he can do it if I need him to. Tuesday we spent doing a ton of laundry, because the rest of the week was going to be FULL.

On wednesday the 17th was Jason's last day of school. They were doing a block schedule, and they only had 6th period that day. Jason has 6th period planning, so he had no students. He had some cleaning and organizing to do, so Baxter and I joined him at school. A few students came in, and Baxter charmed all of them :) He's so sweet. I even managed to get him to nap in the sling for 40 minutes while Jason had a staff meeting! After that there was a staff BBQ, where Baxter continued his conquest to acquire as many admirers as possible. Then we went home, exhausted.

Thursday was spent packing, and cleaning, and doing all sorts of preparing stuffs, so we could go to Seattle for the weekend. We decided to try something new, before now Baxter's carseat has always been in our 4 door Nissan. The Nissan is a good little car, but the gas milage is only okay, and there's only a radio that doesn't tune well. The trunk space is minimal to say the least. So we decided to try putting the carseat in the 2 door Toyota, since it gets much better mileage, has a CD player, a radio, and the iPod player works in that car. As Baxter gets bigger it's somewhat easier to get him in and out of the carseat, and we found that this worked well for us. Good thing too! This was planned as a trial run for our trip to Chelan. Another bonus? The carseat only fits in the middle of the back in the Nissan, but fits on the side in the echo. I know the middle is a little safer, but on the side means the passenger in the front can lean the seat back... almost a must for long drives! We also managed to find time to do some finger painting... Well, more like finger painting the deck, but I did manage to get two paintings finished before Baxter was.



Friday morning Jason dropped us off at playgroup then went home and packed up the car. He came to pick us up, then we had to stop in Seedro Woolley to do a few things before heading down to Seattle for a long weekend. Baxter was a doll the entire time. Did I forget to mention that I taught Baxter a few new tricks on Thursday? :) If you ask "How big is Baxter?" he raises his arms above his head and grins, and you then have to respond enthusiastically with "So big!!!" and then he's pleased and will often do it several more times to see if he can get the same response. And now when you clap your hands, he claps right away, then continues to clap for a little bit... So cute!

Ok, anyway, we got into Seattle around 4:00 and tried to surprise my mom at her office, but she wasn't there. Fail #1. So we went to my brother Brent's store to surprise him, but he was with a really long customer (quoting an entire deck). Fail #2. Luckily, we had arranged with Jessica, Jason's younger sister, to babysit for us that night. So we headed over to the Dilley house and settled in for the weekend. After Baxter went to bed, Jason and I set out for our first date night since Bax was born!

We started at King Wa's, our FAVORITE chinese restaurant ever. We had thought about seeing a movie, but we didn't think it would work timing wise, because it left us just under an hour to eat. Well, King Wa's had exceptionally fast and excellent service, so when we were done we decided to try for the movie anyway. We (when I say we I mean mostly Jason) wanted to see "The Hangover", and it was playing at Southcenter. So we got there 2 minutes after the movie had started, and realized when they remodeled the mall they put in a new theater... and we were at the wrong one. So we decided what the heck, lets check out the other one and see if we make it, it's ok if we miss the first few minutes. Can I just say that the Southcenter mall is now amazing? We didn't have time to explore, but Jason and I just boggled as we rode the escalators (escalators!?!) up to the third floor (third floor!?!). The movie was not 15 minutes in, but we got tickets at what looked like a fancy touch screen atm, and went in. Guess what? We still saw a preview! LOL! Of course, we rushed home after the movie, so there were only two things our date night was missing... drinks and dessert. Ah well, another time.

Saturday we spent hanging out at my Mom's house in honor of her birthday (which is actually today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!). April and Riley were there, and Andrew was there for a bit (my step-siblings and nephew). Richard (my step-father) grilled, and we had a fantastic meal. I took about a billion pictures. A fun time was had by all :) That night after getting Baxter down for bed, Jessica babysat again (LOVE THAT GIRL!) and we went out to dinner with Mom, Richard, and Brent. Tony was flying home from California, and managed to get here an hour early, so Richard left to go pick him up right after ordering. We went to the Ram, and my fries came cold. And they forgot to bring the Chicken for Jason's fajitas. But they kept Richard's steak warm while he was gone, got me new fries, and discounted Jason's dinner, so it ended up ok. It was nice being able to spend a bit of time with Brent. While at my mom's I could feel a bit of Mastitis coming on that morning, so I tried to take it easy. No luck. By the end of the day I was miserable. I had a really bad fever Saturday night that just took me out for the count.

Sunday was Father's day, and we spent the day hanging with the Dilley clan. Jason's older sister JoAnne came to visit, and Jason's parents bought him a bike (which he really wanted). I spent most of the day on the couch or in bed. I must say, that if you have to have mastitis, having it while around a super helpful 16 year old who loves her nephew makes it soooooo much easier. Oh, and Baxter loves her too. I swear, that boy only wanted attention from me if it was for food. I could have been chopped liver all weekend for all he was concerned. Jason grilled up some nice ribeye steaks and we had it with baked potatoes for dinner. Overall, very satisfying even if I was pretty sick.

When I've had mastitis in the past, it's passed in about a day. Not this time. Our plan was to leave on Monday whenever, but it was pretty clear by monday morning when I was still having fevers and my mastitis was still getting worse that it was time for me to see a doctor. So I had a 3:15 appt on monday back in Bellingham, and we tried to get out by 11:30... which turned into 12:30. On top of that we needed to stop by and pick something up from my brother and drop something off with him too, and get gas. We finally got on the road and made good time. At this time I'd like to mention that having a passenger seat that reclined was a LIFESAVER. I was in so much pain I couldn't have done it any other way. Baxter was an angel in the car too. We ended up going straight to the doctors office, and I got some antibiotics. So much fun.

So here it is, Tuesday. My mastitis still isn't better, but the antibiotics got rid of the fevers at least. But they give me migraines... so I haven't been overly productive. My friend Danielle came over to visit, which was nice though. Oh, and the lack oh photos of all of this? Two reasons....

1) I pretty much only took photos on Saturday
2) Jason left my camera at his parents house.....

Luckily my friend Laura is coming up to visit on Thursday and she graciously offered to pick it up and bring it to me. Then I can edit cute nephew photos, cute Baxter photos, and start taking more photos! I guess tomorrow I should try to video Baxter's new tricks. He can now climb onto the glider ottoman (which I tried to constrain but it still rocks some). He then sits and rocks it back and forth clapping... too cute!

GAH! I LOVE THAT BOY! Wow, this turned into a long update!

Love this boy!

I posted these on flickr, but I needed to blog about them too.

My little man is growing up! See how handsome he is?



He's turned into SUCH a climber. He will try to climb on anything and everything. This was before the cat litter got taken upstairs. It made a great ladder.



Oh, and here's his funny new scrunched face smile. It cracks me up!

It's entirely too late to do this

It's after 10pm, and I should be heading to bed. But I sat down at my computer desk, and realized I have been super neglectful.



Baxter is still ridiculously cute. No worries. I actually have more pictures on my camera I should upload and edit, but as previously state, it's too late tonight. So just an update. Maybe short, maybe long? We'll see :)

Ok, it's been a LONG time! Baxter is walking everywhere now. He hates to crawl it seems like. Until earlier this week he was crawling a tiny bit so he could pull himself to standing so he could take off again, but he learned how to stand up on his own. It's sooo cute! But it means my baby boy is growing up :( Can you believe he's 10 months old already? It's crazy! He still isn't working on any words, but he has learned a few signs. He rarely uses them though. In fact, I taught him to sign "more" the other day using blueberries, but now he only wants more blueberries. He loves blueberries. Almost as much as he loves pudding.




Oh yeah, if you didn't see them on Flickr or Facebook already, we gave Baxter chocolate pudding. He made a royal mess, but it was so stinkin cute, and he loved it. I still have pudding spots on my walls though... Oops! He's starting to want to eat 3 meals a day, but not eating much. He's such a slow eater, and HATES bibs, so now that its finally warm I've just been stripping him down.

I started doing some Photography on the side, and I've been really liking it! Right now I've only taken pictures of a few friend's kids, and I have more to put up, but here's my gallery of photos. I'm hoping that if I get good enough it can bring in a little bit of extra cash next year. I've still been sewing diapers, and my newest creations, embellished birthday diapers, have been a hit so far! Check out my Dilley Dally blog for pictures of those though.

Jason is getting close to the end of the school year. His last day is the 17th, but then the 18-19 are the beginning of summer school. He's teaching a Geometry class this summer for students who want to skip ahead to Advanced Algebra next year. Usually it goes Algebra, Geometry, Advanced Algebra. So this class will be mostly online, and then Jason will be at the school for 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays to be there for help. It's a pretty neat system, and I'm looking forward to having him around this summer!

Speaking of summer plans, I'm totally excited to be taking our first vacation over the 4th of July! The Spears/Irvine family is going to the Chelan house, but we're staying a whole week. So some family time, and some just us. We bought a pool/lake toy for Baxter, and stocked up on sunscreen. I even faced the dreaded swimsuit shopping, because none of my old ones fit.

Now, swimsuit shopping is NEVER fun, but it's worse right now. My old suits are all too big, which is a nice feeling, but my tummy is in need of a lot more ahem control now, and by chest is in need of a lot more support. I also can't use anything that ties behind the neck, and V-necks and low necks are out. Yes, Baxter knows where his next meal is coming from, and he's not afraid to go after it if he's hungry enough. So those had to stay on the hangar. Luckily I found the perfect suit at the first place, and scored two amazing skirts that have been a lifesaver in this weather.

Ok, that's enough of an update for now, right? Steve and Krystal and little Bruce are coming over tomorrow, so I better get some rest tonight :)

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I haven't done this in a while, and it's time to be honest again.

This week I did not take advantage of being sick to stay in bed all day and let Jason take care of Baxter. And I didn't use that time to do completely useless things like watch TV instead of knit or blog, or... something useful.

Baxter did NOT turn 9 months old a few days ago, he is my little baby boy forever and ever! And I haven't been putting off taking 9 month pictures of him because my room wasn't clean. But I did not spend the first portion of his two hour morning nap today organizing my closet and making the bed so that my mom wouldn't be shocked when she comes to visit. My mother's opinion of me is not more important than taking Baxter's pictures!

I did not canvas all my friends to find someone to go with me to the Tulip festival so I had an excuse to take a ridiculous amount of pictures, and I didn't turn it into an all day fun day, starting with breakfast at my favorite pastry shop and ending with allowing Jason to go buy dinner...

I also did not give Baxter a bit of my sandwich last night so he would stop fussing while I finished eating so I could put him to bed.

And most of all I did not end Baxter's bath after 2 minutes and the washing parts were done because he peed in the water. And how did your week go?

Tulip Photos

I took a billion. Ok, like 500. We had so much fun!



Check out my flickr page for all of them. I think this is my favorite of the day though :)

I can see clearly now

Look how long his eyelashes are! I've taken so many photos today, and I'm loving it. My new camera just came in last night, so I've spent the day today taking pictures of Bax and the other babies in our cloth diapering  playgroup. 

Have I written about the playgroup before? I don't think so. My friend Miranda and I founded a cloth diapering playgroup for local moms. We share information, tips, and ideas, and our kids have a great time playing with each other. We do it every friday from 10am-noon. So much fun! 

But here are a few more cute pictures of Baxter, enjoy!

growing up

I'm writing this from my phone, so please excuse any errors. On Tuesday Bax decided he could walk. He pulled to standing and then took two steps before falling on his bum. He's really good at walking while holding hands (great with two, and fine with one!) but he's just now turning 8 months old... I'm so not ready for him to walk.

Right now I'm holding him as he sleeps and lets out huge man farts. He still hasn't broken his top teeth, I think they will remain in his gums forever. We may have a two year old with dentures like two of his grandpas....

So far my store opening has gone really well!! I sold 5 diapers yesterday, which is virtually unheard of for a new WAHM.

Oh!!! And I ordered my camera last night, I'm so excited for it to get here!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Photo Ambitions

As Baxter becomes more mobile, he becomes harder to catch on film. My camera will do an okay job on action shots, but it starts getting what is called noise. Like where there is supposed to be black it starts looking like a disco ball. As some of you may know, I loved photography in high school, and seriously thought about becoming a professional photographer. I had a nice Nikon SLR, and worked at a Photographic Supply store. After working in the industry for almost five years I realized that I didn't want to be a photographer, I just love great photography. Sometimes I can do it, but not always when prompted to perform. So instead it turned into a hobby. But I had a film camera, and the hobby eventually went dormant. A few years ago I bought a nice point and shoot to take with us on our three week road trip. Don't get me wrong, I love that camera. It's perfect for slipping into my pocket or purse, and it's great for toting around to various places. But if you have visited my flickr site, you know that I try to take good every day photos, the kind that would be amazing with a digital SLR.

I suppose reading My Charming Kids doesn't help. She has the most amazing story (it will take forever to read, and it WILL make you cry) and she takes beautiful pictures of her kids. I'm not nearly as good of a writer, but her blog is what I aspire to be someday. With graduation about a month away, I thinking about all the time I'm going to have during the day with just Baxter, and I'm pondering all the photographic opportunities. And then it will be spring, and I can take him to explore parks!

My photography bug has bitten again.

Of course, the camera I want is SUPER expensive. But I'm going to be a responsible adult type person and start saving my money towards it. We have a savings account that's linked to our checking account that we currently use for budgeting our childcare money. After I graduate that becomes the camera fund. We're going to make a monthly budget, and whatever extra I save outside of the budget gets to go to my camera fund. And my graduation present and anniversary gift are $100 toward my camera. We also have a Best Buy gift card from our credit card points that will be all the extras (memory card, extra battery, etc) so I just have to worry about the camera part.

Ready for the big number? I've done my research (I know, I'm very researchy when it comes to this much money and getting what I really want) and decided I want the Nikon D80. I've always been a Nikon girl, and this camera will last for a very long time. I could spend $200 less, but it would limit me in the future, and has a few things missing.

$800

Ok, now pick up your jaw and close your mouth. And start giving me good tips on how to save money. I want this thing bought before Baxter's first birthday! Or maybe a lot sooner... Of course, if you're wondering what to get me as a graduation present, this may also be a strong hint. I promise you would get to see benefits!