Oh, the little things!

As a parent, you often find yourself in a whirlwind of chaos. I don't necessarily mean bad chaos, but having to re-learn the mumbo jumbo of better managing your time, if you know what I'm saying. I have officially done the unthinkable.. honestly something I never pictured myself to even attempt, rather yet be able to accomplish -- but I'm going to roll with the punches and hope like crazy that with all of my hard work, I succeed! I am going to manage to multitask. I've enrolled back in college, will (most likely, and hopefully) be released to go back to work as of Friday, am a mother to 3 children, am a wife to one somewhat needy husband, and I run a photography business.

This seems unthinkable. I am enrolled full-time in college, but haven't been since 2007 when I dropped out right after High School. Since then, I met Sean & married him and we had 3 beautiful kids.. and my life has been a rollercoaster of all three things -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm willing to do this! This is not only what I want, but this is what I need. And while doing so, I hope to set some personal goals.. weight loss, healthier me, growing out my nails and not just picking, clipping or biting them off because I get stressed out (which is what I did during college orientation for re-admits the other day), lol. And so on and so forth. I want to take more pictures, enjoy my kids more, do things as a family. I want to live life. I feel like I've been sitting on the sidelines for so long.. waiting on life to live for me! And it's time for me to do something for ME and my kids will all benefit from it in the long run. I want to know that if, come hell or high water, I needed to stand on my own two feet -- I could do it without a problem and not have to flip out over a huge life changing experience or something.

Does this make me crazy? Maybe. Am I going to feel overwhelmed as can be? Probably. But is it worth it? Is it what I want? YESSSS. And will I do it? You betcha!

My 3 year old love.

I rarely get good photos of him, so his pictures seem so few and far between the girls. I've found myself feeling guilty, almost like since he's my firstborn I've betrayed him or pushed him to the side. Now, I know this seems silly but I don't ever want him to feel left out! Not in blog posts, not at home, not at school.. not anywhere, ever. But don't we all want the best for our children? Ah, anyway. I think I'm getting a bit drowsy, finding myself blabbing on about things that probably just seem silly at the time.

I just look into his little brown eyes and I can't believe how much my life has changed. I went from one lifestyle to a whole new lifestyle. I knew nothing about being a mother. I never pictured myself having kids, and to be honest, especially not before more than half of my friends were! Now here I am, what I feel like is a good mother -- and 3 beautiful, healthy children later. I couldn't be more thankful.

But, alas, they're growing up on me.. minute by minute.




Gunner Trace


Callie Brynn

Independence Day 2012!

I hope you all had a Happy 4th of July! I spent the day with the kids, Sean, my aunt & her family and I had a surprise visit from my mom and Dave.. and another aunt of mine! It was nice. We grilled, chilled.. and then went to a fireworks show at the local City Park, which turned out better than we had all imagined (minus the 4983984 people and crazy traffic)! Anyway, here are a few pictures from my day, and I hope you all had a lovely holiday!


Wanna swim?


Little Addy buns...


Bubby ♥


More scrunchy baby buns!


"Here sissy, swim! Get in da water!"


Callie, in mid-nap


Gunner Trace & Addison Reese after their swim!


Callie Brynn

Anddd... the fireworks!

Addison is 1... Wait, where did time go?

So, two weeks ago has come and gone quicker than I ever thought possible. My newborn is now pushing a month old and Addison's first birthday came and passed just as fast! Her party was a hit and she's already doing so many things to be just a year old! It seems like before I know it, she'll be three just like Gunner and BAM! My baby will be in school herself. They grow so fast and when people say cherish it, they surely mean it because kids change. So quickly.. and so often. It's like one day she was crawling, the next she was climbing, then walking.. and I'm like ahh.. what's next? I'm waiting for her to really start talking because she's picked up on a few words & will copy some things. Bye-bye, Kara, mama, bubba, skate, what, huh & a few others are what we hear more than anything. It's also really crazy to me how different she and her brother have been. Gunner walked before he crawled.. and she did the exact opposite. He also had teeth at 2 months old and she is pushing 13 months and still doesn't have a single ONE! Insane. And as much as I hate her growing so quickly, I'm really ready to surpass this forever long teething stage we've been in for the past... oh, just close to a year!

Anyway, some pictures of this cute & cuddly crawling, walking, babblin', sweetheart of a baby girl of mine:

Touch-Up Tuesday: Callie Brynn {newborn outtake}

I rarely ever have time to do much of anything, short of juggling my time with 3 little children. I often forget to eat, brush my hair, and barely find time to shower! But today I managed to shoot not just one, but all three of my children's pictures (after I worked on Callie's newborn pictures). I even had time to edit a few and upload one.. and then after that, I managed to create a new cover photo on Facebook! Whoa doggy, supermom much? In case you haven't noticed, I'm still learning to manage my time between all three of them since I'm not quite used to it yet.. and I'm home alone with them all, all day long.

Nonetheless, I managed to get a few shots of Callie (who wasn't tired at all) and thus, they were all of her awake! She only cooperated so long before she grew tired of my camera (and irritated at me and my many hats, headbands, different positions & so on, so forth)... but anyway! I wanted to take this time to jump into a Touch-Up Tuesday photo challenge because I've been wanting to get back into them for a while and I've missed having time to edit! Not to mention, oh hey - she's cute, right? Outtake or not, I just love her to pieces!

Touch-Up Tuesday

Before | SOOC


After | Edited