let's get real :: November 2013

I'm participating in another edition of "let's get real" this month with a great group of ladies. 

Last week we had a good time celebrating Halloween. My family came over and went trick-or-treating with us. I'm so thankful they live so close by. My parents live literally 2 minutes away, and my brother and his family live pretty nearby also. My husband's family doesn't live in the same city, but they're not too far away and easy to get to. Sometimes I forget how blessed I am to have our immediate family close by. I'm so thankful we all live near each other. My boys get to grow up with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. With much of my family living out of the country, I didn't have that. I'm so glad they do!

Please go on over to Jessica's blog and read about her "real life." 

let's get real :: September 2013

Real life? I still don't have my crap together, so I'm just using iPhone photos. I say "just" iPhone photos, but the truth is that I'm so happy I have a camera with me all the time. I have some sweet memories that I might not have if it wasn't for my iPhone. 

Thanks for looking! To see more real life, go on over to Gina's blog  for her version of this month's "Let's Get Real!"

Here's some Summer happiness.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas :: He rode the Rattler twice!

 Port Aransas 

 

35th Birthday

The pool is way more fun with Daddy!

Zoo Fun

My loves 

Now, I'm ready for Fall and cooler temperatures! Happy Monday, all!

let's get real | july 2013

I'm back this month participating in a blog circle about getting real. So, I sat down to write this blog post and went into my picture folder on my computer to see what I had to use. The most recent picture folder I have is April. How's that for real? I'm so behind with uploading photos. Ugh. I so want to be caught up. I'll get there. For now, summer is here and in full swing!

What can I say about summer? It's super fun having the boys home and being free from the daily grind of the school schedule. We've been doing the typical summer fun stuff, and that's great. It's also exhausting for many reasons, mostly a good exhausting. But some days it's an I'm-about-to-lose-my-mind kind of exhausting. The boys are not terribly behaved. It's just the repeating things to them 20 times, playing referee, solving silly problems, constant eating, mess making stuff that gets to me. They're sort of a lot of work. BUT, then I occasionally get to go to work outside our home. Not only do I love working as an occupational therapist with children, I'm also reminded of how blessed we are. To put it bluntly, I see some truly sad, terrible things at work. Things that would probably make the parents of those sweet kids say things like, 

I wish my son could say Mommy countless times a day.
I wish my son ran around yelling like a crazy man. 
I wish my son ate like that. 
I wish my son could make messes. 

I'm reminded to focus on what I have, what I should cherish. 

Like these every day moments (from April)

Making frisbees, totally their idea




Just playing outside






Man, I love my boys!




Thanks for stopping by! Please, go on over to Gina's blog to see her real life! You can enjoy all the lovely ladies' posts and end up back here if you'd like. Happy Summer!

it is what it is

Thanks to the Clickin' Moms breakout session by Erika Ray , Let's Get Real | An Honest Approach to Photography, I'm looking at things differently. In this session, much of what Erika talks about is just being real with the images you capture. Essentially, capturing your everyday and all the potentially messy, beautiful details that go along with it. It sounds easy enough. But, for me anyways, this will take some practice. I realized, even before this breakout, I've been way too concerned about comparing myself to others. Although it can be inspiring, more frequently it turns into me doubting myself. I start to wonder who will want to look at my photos and read my words on my blog. Well, you know what? It's for ME. I'll post what I want. I'll use this as a journal of our lives, as an outlet for myself. Because frankly, it's just too time-consuming and exhausting for me to be concerned about what other people think.

So...also through Clickin' Moms, I am participating in my very first ever monthly blog circle. Why am I doing this? I think this will give me the kick in the butt I need to use my blog to document my everyday life more consistently.  Along with actually keeping up with my blog, my main goal that has come from this breakout session is to capture images of our life in a real and beautiful (at least to me) way. Because life - It is what it is. I find myself thinking and saying that a lot more often these days. Because, you know what? It's true. Whether good, happy, sad, messy, bad... it is what it is. And I want to capture it. I want to have photos and albums to look through years from now and see our life, how we were actually living it.

 

As I was looking at a photo to include in this post, I came across this one. I love it because it captures so many things that I want to remember. Like how they want to be physically close together even though they fight and argue, their mannerisms, and how they worked together to make this spot to lie down and enjoy some TV watching.

Thanks for visiting! Now go on over and visit Christina Guzman to see the next post in our blog circle.

regroup

So that goal of completing a 365 project isn't going to happen this year. What was I thinking? It's too much, at least for this year. That's not to say I don't ever want to try it again. I'd love to accomplish taking a picture every day for 365 days. Maybe next year. 

I haven't even kept up with my blog like I would like to. I think my problem is I want to do too much. I need to keep it simple and just aim for posting at least once a week, not five times a week. Okay, moving on.

Today will be a story about what happened this morning with this guy. 

This morning, P's preschool had their annual Fiesta Day with a float parade to kick off the day. We made a float, and by we, I mean me. He did pick out what to put on it, but I did the hot gluing. P was pretty excited about it and was walking around the house with it before we left for school. Then we got to the actual parade site. And that he doesn't like so much. It's loud. There are lots of people, and the attention falls to him. P does not care for these situations very much at all. His teachers tried to coax him into walking his float. I tried. And when I tried, he picked his up float off the floor and shook it around in protest. Well, we sat out at that point. Here's the thing. I don't care if he doesn't want to march his float around in the parade. I really don't. It's just a preschool Fiesta parade, and if doesn't want to, then that's cool. Except I felt embarrassed and frustrated. And I hate that. 

After the commotion of the parade, P went about his day and had a super fun time with all the Fiesta activities the preschool plans and puts on for the kids. 

I thought about the morning and P not wanting to march in the parade, and had an epiphany of sorts. Why was I upset? Why did I care? 

I don't like that attention either. Just like my 4-year-old, I'd rather not have that. And that is so totally okay. I so want to know what my boys thrive on. It's also really important to understand what makes them shut down. Now, I'm not saying that they should totally be sheltered from what makes them uncomfortable. Sometimes they'll just have to deal, and that's life. But I don't want them to feel like their personality traits are some type of shortcoming. So, this morning was a sort of lesson for me. I already knew all this deep down, but it's good to organize my thoughts about all this.

Let me also just say that P has the most wonderful teacher, and she, along with a couple other teachers, smiled and said nice things this morning. I love that preschool and those awesome teachers. 

After thinking about all that today, I ran across a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. The book sounds fascinating to me. As much as I like to talk and be social, I think I may be more of an introvert than not. Same goes for my boys. I'm interested to see what insight this book provides to better understanding introverts. I also watched this video, in which the author makes some good points. I'm looking forward to reading this. Does anyone else lean towards being an introvert?

Day 8, sort of

day 8 | 1.8.2013 | favorites

I did not take a photo today that I wanted to use for this project. Since this is my 365 project, I get to devise the rules, right? I am going back to 2012 for day 8. This will be something I will be doing throughout this project, which takes some pressure off taking a picture every day. It also allows me to catch up.

These are some of my favorites from 2012.

(The stuff on his forehead is "glue" to help close a cut he had from a fall. The brown stuff is paint.)

My goodness, C looks like a total almost pre-teen to me in this picture.

Day 6 and Day 7

day 6  | 1.6.2013 | date night

What is there to say about date night? It's always great!

day 7 | 1.7.2013 | new book

I started this new book and hope to follow along with this book club.

Day 5

This morning P and I had the please eat standoff. Lord help me, this is pretty much a daily occurrence. Good thing is, he usually does eat. And if this is one of my biggest worries on a daily basis, I'll gladly take it. 

Day 4

Comfy, Zoe?

I really enjoy having her around. She's so sweet and smart. She's like a big kid and loves the boys. Of course, the boys love her. I have to say that Zoe is a bit of a mama's girl, and I don't mind at all.

 

Day 3 - January 3, 2013

Today was a lazy day at home for us. I went upstairs to hang out with the boys and witnessed a battle of epic proportions between modern day animals and dinosaurs. Of course, no battle of this magnitude would be complete without all sorts of spit-producing, fighting sound effects. The photo does not convey the sound effects but trust me, I felt them. It was an intense scene. 

I love the way they play. It's so fun and innocent. There is no lack of imagination, including made-up rules, make-believe worlds and a variety of scenarios. The best part is hearing, "Mommy, watch this!" countless times. 
 

2013 and 365

It's been a long time since I have posted to my blog, way longer than I would like. As I was looking back through old posts and catching up on organizing pictures (which I'm way behind on also), I am so thankful for the pictures and words and how they have captured memories that are absolutely precious to me. Memories that I hope my boys will also cherish.

In 2013, I will focus on taking pictures of people and things that are beautiful to me and let go of taking technically good photos. As a motivator, my goal for this year is to participate in my own 365 project. 

And here we go.

Day 1 - January 1, 2013
Sometimes they read with their lights after we say goodnight and are super about watching the clock and turning them off at an agreed upon time.

Day 2 - January 2, 2013

I cheated a bit here. These are actually photos from yesterday. I loved them too much not to use them. They show love and personality. 

Nana and Papa came to visit yesterday. C is giving Nana a thank you hug for his Christmas gift. P is playing with his connectagons gift, which he says is "awesome." Thank you Nana and Papa!

Happy 2013! May the new year be full of blessings and much joy.