First Valentine All Over

I got home exhausted from a very long hard week of work but decided to stay up late after everyone went to bed to make a Valentine's Day tutu dress for my daughter.

She woke up around 3am, not long after I went to bed and she had a hard time going back to sleep, probably from more teeth coming in, so I was up most of the night. This morning I ran around getting things together before our professional photo shoot.

Right before I ran out the door I grabbed a teddy bear I've had for exactly six years. It was the bear my husband gave me for Valentines day six years ago. "Our First Valentine" it says on the heart it holds. A perfect prop for my daughter's first Valentine with us.

We were married two months before Valentines day, and had met just eight months prior. Things are a lot different now.

Forever Bliss Photography

I snapped a few photos myself while we were there for my 365 project, but I'm so glad I had these done. It took her a while to get into it and show us her breathtaking smile, but Mr. Teddy helped us pull out some laughs from my little girl.

Forever Bliss Photography

We put her to bed early and ordered from our favorite restaurant to go (Olive Garden). And hubs got me my favorite treats for celebrating: chocolate covered strawberries and sparkling cider.

Our first Valentine with our daughter was much different than it was for us six years ago, but one thing's for sure--There's a lot more love going around.

10.5 seconds to make it good

How fast can you move in 10.5 seconds? Can you set up a camera while holding a wiggly baby, run to your pinpointed position, and pose with your child before the timer goes off? I gave it a shot yeserday.

Since I'm getting into photography, want to get better and want to connect with other photo hobbiest I finally upgraded my Flickr account to pro, joined a couple groups, and even added a nifty widget to my sidebar.

When I was browsing around in one of my groups I noticed this gorgeous photo of a mother and daughter. She also has a biracial daughter and I just loved their faces side by side and the contrast reminded me of my daughter and I. I noticed in her description she said it was a self portrait-Waa? And that she had cropped her remote out of the shot. She was also linked up to the group "Self-Portrait with CHILD."

Despite having a pretty expensive camera, my husband can't seem to snap a decent picture with it. I frequently ask him if he'll take a picture of Lil' J and I and he'll sigh, but he'll do it. But it's almost always blurry. After about 10 times of saying "Ok now this time try it this way..." he gets really annoyed and no one is really happy at that point. He's ready to go watch sports, Lil' J is tired of us and our silly faces, and I'm just so darn picky and aggravated that he's not getting it right. So I thought trying to capture a self-portrait wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Now I don't have a tripod for my camera, which this woman had. I also don't have a remote. But I have a nifty self timer button, and can run REALLY fast.

There's a spot in our neighborhood I love to go to take pictures. It's a wide open area with lots of trees and green grass. The ground isn't level so I thought I could set my camera up high, then run down the hill, fix my hair, pose with Lil' J, and have the camera snap just in time.

When we got across the street I noticed a fallen tree was slumped at the top of the hill, so I decided to improvise used that as my tripod. I laid our quilt down, put my daughter on it, framed the shot toward her, then made a mental note of how much space I had. I set the timer for 10 seconds (it was that or two seconds) and ran.

The first photo wasn't so bad but my head was cut off. I realized this was a lot of energy for one photo at a time, so I changed the setting to snap 5 pictures in a row. Ran, and did it again.  After doing that a few times I had gotten a couple of good shots but not quite what I was hoping for. The first three photos I'd be setting up the pose and the last two were somewhat decent but not enough to choose from. So I changed the setting to snap 10 photos in a row and went at it again. Now I was getting somewhere.
The funny thing was Lil' J liked the sound the camera made when it was rapid firing she would look at it and laugh, which made for a great photo.

After running back and forth a few more times, and surely confusing my poor child I was stoked when I saw my last shot, and I knew it was time to stop. I got it!


I showed it to my husband and he was impressed, but then when I showed him the picture that inspired me he said "Oh so you copied it?" No! Ok, well sorta, I copied the pose, but that's not illegal! Besides, I was limited by height because I don't have a tripod. And who is he to judge me anyway?

My photos aren't as cute as the original one that inspired me but I'm working on it! I uploaded it to that flicker group and I'm going to try some more of these as long as the weather stays warm, Lil' J cooperates and I can come up with different pose ideas. Taking pictures is becoming my new favorite thing to do on my day off. I just ordered a wireless camera remote for my camera for $3.50 off ebay so that should save me from running back and forth (even though the exercise is warranted). Lil' J loves playing outside and I love the memories, so it's a all good all around.

Self-portraits are a neat little photo challenge, especially with a baby, and aside from our shoot before her baby blessing, these are some of the best photos of us together. Figures. You want something done right you've gotta do it yourself!

In Need of a Date Night... I Think

A husband? What's that?

I catch myself asking that question from time to time over the last few months. I know what a baby's daddy is. I have one of those--Actually, I'm quite convinced I have the best one. But between work, and my daughter, sometimes it's hard to remember I have a husband who needs attention too.

Being back at work seems to be getting a little bit harder every day. I do have my good days, where time flies and it's time to see my baby again, but overall it's really hard to be away from my daughter so many hours every week.

The positive is she has a great daddy at home who manages to go to school, work on my days off, take care of our daughter, and take better care of the house than I ever did. How he does it, I have no clue. But I'm grateful.

When I come home from work my daughter is happy to see me but her eyes never light up as much as they do when she looks at her daddy. Why that is, I have no idea, but she thinks he's really funny. Even when he's just standing there.

Both of us have put the needs of our daughter before our own but I'm torn because I feel like we need US time too.

What's a husband? I have one, but I don't always act like I do. No, I'm not talking about flirting with other men--Who has time to cheat?!--What I'm saying is we don't spend much time alone. And, we haven't been on a date just the two of us since our daughter was born--three and a half months ago! We've each been out and had alone time, and we've gone out as the three of us, but it hasn't been just the two of us (besides one trip to Costco, which I don't count).

What's worse is I don't really feel that bad about it.

I don't miss it being the two of us, or miss having quiet time alone. But I feel like I should. Like maybe it would be healthy for us to get out alone, to nourish our marriage.

Confession: I always told myself when we had kids we'd go on a date at least once a month. Heck, I didn't think it was a stretch to have dinner together once a week. Now I laugh at that thought.

When Lil' J is in bed and we have time to catch up, we interrupt ourselves constantly asking "is she crying?" (we still need to invest in a baby monitor).

And remember that letter I wrote? Yea, still a problem.

I don't think our relationship is suffering from living this way, but I can't help but wonder if it's one of those things that could build up and form something bad. A big fat tumor on our marriage. I don't want to give our marriage cancer, and if a date every once in awhile is the antibody, I'm all for it.

How long did it take for you to go on a date sans baby after birth?

Mother-Daughter Photos and Photography Session Giveaway

Holding my sweet baby girl makes all my worries go away. Gosh... I said I'd wouldn't be that mushy gushy mom but here I am... I love her so much!! *GUUUUSSSSH!!*

When we visited Utah, my college friend and creator of Grand Felicity Photography was able to capture some tender moments between my daughter and I on the day of her baby blessing.

These are some of my favorites!

Becca was so patient with us (Lil' J wasn't so happy) and was great at picking out locations! She let us do our thing but also guided us into natural poses. Needless to say I'm SO HAPPY with how these turned out! This was the shoot I got my new blog header from.

She's sweet enough to offer a free session for my blog readers. Here's what you'll get!

A Newborn/Family combined shoot
Up to 2 hours with Photographer
2-3 locations
Family of up to 6 people (each additional person is $25)
High Resolution CD of 25-30 fully edited images
$25 Print Credit
Online Proofing for six months on her website

It's a $200 value you'll get for free!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me what you'd use this for!

For an extra entry you can comment on your favorite post on her photography blog, subscribe to her blog, or you can blog or tweet about the giveaway! Just leave a comment for each entry!

It's open to people who live, or will be in Utah. Preferably in Utah or Salt Lake County.

You have until next Saturday at 11:59pm to enter! Good luck!

Aloha Little LadyBug We're 34 Weeks Pregnant!

My Dear Precious Little Ladybug,

Six weeks still seems like a long time until we meet, but when I was reading one of my update emails talking about "relaxing" as much as I can and saving up, eating up etc. for labor I realized you really are almost here.

I think my "mommy paranoia" is already starting to set in. I've heard some people experience extreme anxiety after they have babies, worried something bad is going to happen to them. I'm normally not that kind of person.. I mean, I'm not afraid if you get a little rash from a new dress. It's not cause I don't love you, it's because I don't think you'll have super sensitive skin and be allergic to new clothes. We'll see. But I AM already worried that if I'm not watching you when you're sleeping you may go to sleep an never wake up. I'm not morbid, just paranoid or something. I hope it goes away once you're born. But I have a feeling it may get a little worse before it gets better.

I had a dream two nights ago that something bad had happened to you and I woke up startled. Then I was waiting for you to move and felt a BIG JAM into my rib. Your foot. It hurt, but I smiled cause I knew you were ok.

People keep asking my if I'm ready to get you out. I am ready to meet you, I'm so excited for that. But I also feel like taking care of you now is easier than it's going to be, and I don't mind giving you all time time you need... Well, until June 30th, I REALLY want you to be a June baby. Oooh, I can call you June bug! I'll add that to your list of nicknames.

I've been thinking about our morning/night routine. I like to sing to you, as you've probably noticed, so I bought an album called "Twenty Five Beloved Primary Songs" and it has all of these songs I remember listening to when I was young. Primary is where you'll go when you're about four years old, it's at our church. You'll learn about Jesus and sing songs.

I didn't really get a chance to go to Primary but my uncle gave me a CD of some of the songs when I was young and I remembered some of them when I'd hear them at church.

I don't know all of the songs on the CD I made you but we'll learn them together. I'm going to put that CD in your player every night before bed and I'll read and sing to you. Sound like a deal?

Oh little girl, you are getting so big now! You should be about 4 3/4 pounds now, and around 18 inches long! I have a feeling you're longer though. I was a really long baby, and based on where I feel your head, and kicks, and the fact that I think you're hunched over, I think you're long too.

Your lungs and central nervous system are still developing and you're only three weeks to being term! If you were born now though you'd most likely be ok after a short stay in the NICU, but just keep cooking, we've still got lots to do before you get here!

You're developing fat layers now so you should be nice and round when you come out. That's the downside of long babies... I was so long there was nothing round about me... You daddy on the other hand, he was round for quite some time. Yes, he was very chubby. ... And had red hair, but we won't get into that. I'm hoping you have dark hair like your mommy! And lots of it!

Your daddy and I were talking about doing some practice runs to the hospital in the next couple of weeks. Just to make sure we know the routes to get where we're going, where to park and what not. We also talked more about your birth. We both have learned SO MUCH lately but we've decided not to go into it with our fists up ready to fight. We know you'll come into this world the way you're suppose to, and as long as you and I are ok, we are going to be so happy. We're not aiming for what some see as a "perfect experience" because to us, the perfect experience will be meeting you, and really, it doesn't matter the means. Besides, after comes the fun part!

We are so excited to meet you baby girl! Keep growing for us!

Love,

Mommy

****

To find out more about being 34 weeks pregnant visit Pregnancy Corner. - Words from a sponsor.

Welcome to Aloha Friday! For any of you who do not know what Aloha Friday is...In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that people take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So, we take it easy on Friday blog posts by sticking to just one quick question that surfers-by can answer with just a quick response themselves. (I'm an overachiever and do this on top of my normal post).

This week I want to know:

What nicknames do you have for your family members?

My answer: I'm still coming up with nicknanes for Spawnie (besides Spawnie) but so far I have Ladybug, Baby Girl, Little J and now June Bug (if she's actually born in June).

My husband doesn't really have nicknames. I just call him "babe" and sometimes "hubby" or "hubs" on my blog.

Your turn!

5 Years Down, an Eternity to Go

Exactly five and a half years ago I met the love of my life. I didn't know it then, but he was my future husband.

-June 2004: First date, and first time we met. I thought he was a hottie but had big eyes and was a little shy.

-2 dates later: First kiss, he's not so shy after all, I can't believe I let him kiss me.

-A week after that: We said "I love you."

-A couple days following: We talked about marriage planned it to be 2 years from then.

-Two months later: He goes away to college 3 and a half hours away. We are sad, but see eachother every weekend.

-A month later: We realized long distance SUCKS and decide to move up the wedding to that year.

-October 2004: We get engaged.

-December 2004: We're married exactly 6 months from the day we met.

Things I remember about my wedding day

I remember waking up at an absurd hour because we had to be at the temple about 5 hours early

I remember being tired from staying up late writing in my journal the night before.

I remember taking a shower and thinking I'd better get extra clean.

I remember wondering what our wedding ceremony would be like.

I remember NOT wanting to drive my car up to Salt Lake cause I had just been in an accident and the hood was bent.

I remember seeing my soon-to-be husband right before we walked in our sealing room and thinking "I love you."

I remember not saying "Yes/I do" when I was suppose to, and people thinking I was bailing out.

I remember shaking a little as we exchanged rings.

I remember being so happy walking hand and hand outside of the temple right after we were sealed, and thinking my husband was the most gorgeous man on Earth.

I remember snow on the ground and people shivering, but it was the one day I didn't complain about the cold, I wanted good pictures.

I remember driving back from the temple and thinking "wow, we're married"

I remember my dad being the first person to use the term "your husband" and being weirded out.

I remember downing about three cans of redbull before and during our reception to stay awake.

I remember wondering why we had to stand in a line.

I remember my wedding day being the best day to date, and the first day of the rest of my life.

Like we planned, 5 years later we're expecting our first baby, which is due to be born exactly six years (and two days) from the day we met. Boy we've come a long way!

Since getting married

-We went on a cruise to Mexico for our honeymoon.

-We were poor, our dining-room set was a cardboard box and two camping fold-out chairs we got as a wedding present.

-We arranged our schedules so we took four classes together.

-We got a new (to us) Kitchen set from my husband's grandparents.

-We moved 7 times

-We cleaned toilets together as early morning (4am) custodians and fought over the iPod.

-We bought our first home.

-We spent two summers apart for work.

-We adopted Snoop.

-We moved again.

-We went on a cruise to the Caribbean.

-We started, switched and started new careers.

-We created Spawnie.

-We stayed madly in love with each other.

He's been the most supportive, most forgiving, most loving husband in the world. He's my best friend, a great husband, and he's going to be a wonderful daddy.

I love you baby, and can't wait to see what the next 5(,000,000) years hold!

The Wheel: Balancing Marriage Before and After Baby

Sadly, children is one of the top five reasons couples get divorced. Not having children I'm not exactly sure why that is, but that statistic sorta frightens me.

When I was on my trip with The Blogrollers in Chicago I met a lot of women who had been married longer than I had. One thing I took the time to ask them was how they made their marriage work.

Most women were at a loss for words when it came to describing the technique. From what I hear, once you have kids it can make time together more difficult and stressful. Most of the women I talked to said it was a struggle getting their husbands to help out around the house.

Luckily for me, that's not a problem with us... Yet. To be honest, I'm the one getting begged and pleaded with to help. It's actually been that way the entire time we've been married. I've done the laundry maybe a handful of times, and the dishes... I think three times. So seeing we're an odd couple when it comes to that it has me wondering what our battles will be when a baby comes into the picture.

I think it'll be waking up at night... As we both love to sleep. When we first got Snoop I was the one who got up in the middle of the night to let him go to the bathroom. Now though, my husband is the one that remembers to walk (and feed) him every day.

Thinking about all of this and after reading my friend's Newly Identified blog post about marriage, it made me think about what makes OUR marriage work now.

One of the biggest, most obvious things is communication. We try not to go to bed angry, but sometimes that's not always possible. But when we wake up the next day usually we've cooled off enough to talk about whatever the problem is. Sometimes communication means tears (on my part) but at least it's getting it all out there. Neither of us are too proud to say "I'm sorry," and I can't think of any problem or disagreement we haven't been able to handle.

Sure, there are things that bug the HECK out of me, but I've learned to adjust to them, and not let it get to me. I think that's important--Accepting who they are, and remembering why you fell in love and got married. Sometimes that thing you loved about them changes, but that's ok. I think you've gotta be willing to grow and change together.

But most of all... The advice I think works best in any relationship, is advice I shared in a small hotel room in Chicago with five other wonderful women. The opportunity to share it came up when one of the women said sometimes it's hard to continue to get closer together as you grow older, because you change and sometimes grow apart. In answer to that I shared the advice I was given before we got married and I've promised to never forget.

My future-husband at the time, and I were described as spokes on a wheel. Sometimes we'd be far apart on this wheel and sometimes we'd be close together. But what will be sure to pull us closer together more than anything else is what's in the center of that post... The center being Christ.

He told us if we both work toward getting closer to Christ we'd also be getting closer to each other at the same time.

I'm not sure exactly how having a child will change our marriage. There are the obvious things like sleep and time, but I wonder what kind of toll it will take on us. I love spending time with my husband now, and sometimes that already can be short. How will I continue to make alone time for us?

Last night after a long day we went babysitting. We were both already tired and a little cranky, but our little friend was wide awake and ready to play. Not long after we got there, we were both getting tired. We took turns playing with him while the other rested our eyes.

During my his, my husband was playing with J, but he was being SO loud! I mean, WAY louder than the laughing baby. I shhhed him, and he told me that is what it was going to be like after we have a baby.

His words made me think... Seeing he'll be a fun and entertaining dad is encouraging, but obnoxiously loud? Hmmm. I hope our love for the Lord can keep us from driving each other crazy after kids!

I've heard children can bring you closer together but I've also heard they can drive you further apart. What do you do to keep your marriage going strong? Those with children--How do you make it so your children bring you closer together? What are the major changes in your relationship after having kids? I'd LOVE your input!

The Look Back

It's a little late because I work Sundays and I just HAD to share my excitement about cooking, but better late than never right?

Sometimes I don't think I'm ready for parenthood because I still act like a child myself. A perfect weekend for me would consist of watching at least one Disney movie and maybe a cartoon show or two. I love playing board games, and eating snacks like Mac and Cheese.

I often get nostalgic about the days when my sister and I would play with our Barbie dolls, dress them up and cut their hair. We even teased our little brother once and pulled off all of the heads on his power ranger action figured and switched them with the other super hero heads. It was mean, but it was fun.

One summer we got creative and turned our sleeping bags into sleds and drove them down the staircase. Karaoke and dress-up were commonly on our to-do-list. We loved to play! But you know what?--I still do.

It's a lot easier to entertain myself with the Internet at my hands, but I miss the good 'ol days of laughing at childish movies, and watching them over and over a million times.

I got a taste of this a couple of weeks ago. I watched Tarzan than Cinderella, then when my husband got home I made him watch Tarzan with me again cause he had never seen it before.

Have I mentioned I love Disney? I think I have... Once or twice. But really, I DO! I bought an entire DVD collection of EVERY Disney Classic (cartoon) movie from Snow White to Ratatouille (I just need Bolt and Wall-E). I can't wait to have kids and be able to share all of those movies with them. They may not like them as much as I did, but I sure hope it's a tradition I can pass on to my kiddos!

I love being around little kids cause I feel like it gives me an excuse to BE a kid again--An excuse to take me back. I don't want to feel like an old fart already. Is this why people say children keep you young? I hope that means becoming a mom will take off a few years for me. If anything it'll give me someone to watch those things with since right now getting my husband to watch them with me is like pulling teeth. And now that it's Easter season I'm sad that I don't have a little girl to dress up in a pretty dress, or a cute little boy to put in a suit.--Even worse, I don't have someone to decorate eggs with... It's not dying them alone (or with an unenthusiastic husband).

Same story at Halloween and Christmas time. I'm really looking forward to being young again through my children.--At the same time thought I'm hoping I'm not one of those crazy moms that tries to force my kids to do things I didn't get to do. We'll see how it works out.

What are other fun traditions you have with your kiddos? And do your kids keep you young, or make you feel old?

The Love Factor-- Things I'm Going to Miss Part 3

Well, it's Valentines Day. Happy Valentines Day! And I figure it's a good time to pose a question and concern I've been thinking about.

As I was babysitting two young girls last night so their parents could go out and celebrate Valentines Day, I thought how grateful I am that at a drop of a hat my husband and I can do whatever... Go out, make dinner together... And so on.

I got my dog Snoop last year for Valentines Day and I noticed how having a small puppy around kind of affected... Routines we'll say. It really bothered me. Eventually I got over it and things went back to normal but it was quite annoying at the time.

I think it's so important to continue to have couple time together, date nights and time to... Ya know, practice making babies and stuff.

It just seems that once kids come along that priority goes to the back burner for some, or it just becomes more difficult. What in the world do you do to fix that? Get ear muffs? Sedate the kids? Drive away and leave them for a night and hope they survived through the next morning?

I was reading a parenting magazine last night (funny I know, but it was just sitting there on the table ok?) And one of the articles was about women being angry at their husbands for not helping around the house, turning off the lights, understanding their children etc. To me it just seemed a little ridiculous and like a bunch of depressed and nagging women. I don't want that to happen to me!! I still want to be a happy woman and wife, as well as a happy mom. Some of the women complained that their husband's drive to have a love life went down and I kind of judgmentally thought 'Boy I wonder why!' That article is a discussion for a whole different topic but I'll use that part for example's sake.

Do you try to keep date nights together? How often? Right now every night is literally like a date night with me and my Boo and I wonder if it'll be a hard transition when we lose that one day.

This year we're keeping the holiday low key. I want a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, some chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite) and a movie to snuggle up and watch. What are your plans?

The Resolutions

2008 was a good year for me. Here are some of the things I did:

-I adopted my puppy Snoop
-Graduated college, and spoke at my graduation ceremony
-Continued reporting for a station in Salt Lake City and quit before I could get laid off.
-I got a new (better) job as an anchor/reporter in the WARM city of Austin, Texas.
-Became a suga mama
-Learned how to sew
-Started a dog collar business (still trying to make my money back)
-Made new friends
-Got an iPhone :o)
-Celebrated my 4 year anniversary
-Started "monthly mini-vacations" with my hub-a-lub
-Cried less
-Grew up more
-Became an avid blogger

This year I hope to:

-Learn how to cook
-Eat better
-Give up caffeine
-Read the good books daily
-Go on more real vacations
-Enjoy one of the last years without spawn
-Learn Yoga
-Exercise more (aka ever)
-Keep a good blogging streak
-Volunteer more
-Babysit
-Be a better wife
-Get back into the habit of writing a daily journal
-Start a gratitude journal
-Pray more
-Be brutally honest
-*Get knocked up


*= maybe

I have a feeling 2009 has a lot in store for me. Between my three blogs and two journals, I'll have a lot of stuff to look back and read. Moving to a new place for the first time in 5 years has been a new challenge for me, but I think it'll give me the opportunity to grow in ways I didn't know. Hopefully 2009 will bring me growth in my career, marriage, relationships and spirituality.

Cheers to 2009!

The Namesake

What would you do if there was someone in your family you loved dearly who wanted you to name your child after them? If the name is a nice name, or a name that's "with the times" that's probably not a problem right? But what if the name is something you absolutely are not a fan of?

My family has a mixture of "normal" and "unique" names. There's Johns, and Richards and... well, that's about all of the common ones in my extended family. I have grandparents named "Ronald" and "Siebra." My mother's and grandmother's names are "Joy." My mom I guess wanted to give all of me and all of my siblings the VERY NORMAL (almost too common) names and gave us: Jennifer, Heather, Michael, Lauren and Kimberly. But trust me, I'd take that over any of the latter.

My dad goes by DJ but his birth name--Are you ready for this?... Dyke.

I love my grandpa, and I want to name a child after him, but "Ronald" isn't my first choice in names.

What would you do if someone in your family wanted you to name your child after them but the name wasn't... Let's say it wasn't one of your top choices. Would you still do it?