Hissyfits Photography Blog

Ahhh…the party is over. After months and months and months of planning, in just three and a half short hours, the fun has come and gone! Everything was great! Our house is absolutely trashed though!! We are calling it a night and worrying about it tomorrow!

Anyway, I haven’t put my pics from today on the computer yet, but here is a sneaky peak of the favors to tide you over until I can get my entire party post ready!! It might be Tuesday or Wednesday at this rate! There is a LOT of clean up and I am going to a baby shower tomorrow, so I probably won’t be on the computer much!!

It is more than worth the wait though!

Just saying that maybe there are in fact some perks to ignoring the two inch thick layer of dust on your dining room table! I mean, if the table were clean, I wouldn’t have had this sweet note waiting on me, now would I?! {I added my hand print before I snapped the picture so that they would both be on there!}

Still up to my eyeballs in party fun! It is all coming together great! Just so much to do with all the decor and taking care of the kids all day. Oh, and cleaning obviously! I would hate for our guests to be leaving me notes on the dusty dining room table!

Night peeps! This chickadee is going to turn on the DVR and crash…and yes, it is only 8:3o!!

Gosh, I don’t even know where to begin. As amazing as this world of technology is and as much as we can take in each and every day through the internet, I have never in my life been more aware of exactly how much sadness there is out there. In the safety of my own home, I live in a bubble. A bubble where all is well and things are perfect. But the reality is that just beyond that front door of mine, sadness and unjust abound. And quite frankly, it sucks.

This week I was made aware of the story of sweet, BEAUTIFUL Kate..through Twitter nonetheless. Kate is five. Kate lives in Phoenix. Kate could be any one of our kids. Two weeks ago Kate was running around, starting to read, learning and thriving just as we all hope and want for our children. Kate has been diagnosed with cancer.

Here is a video her mom and dad made…

This story has been tugging at my heart strings since I learned of it earlier this week. I have cried. I have prayed. I have held my kids a little tighter and a little closer. I have counted my blessings. Life is fragile…so, so fragile and none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow. Cherish each moment you have. And take a moment to say a prayer for this adorable family. They could most definitely use it.

Hey friends!! Just to warn you, my posts will probably be pretty sporadic until the party is over! I have obviously done a TON of work already and could have it tomorrow and everything would seriously be fine and dandy! But in true Bethany style, there are lots of details I am still working on to give it that extra little “pop” so the next few days will continue to be busy!! LOVE it. This is the best theme ever and I am having more fun than I can even begin to share!

But I need some help! First of all, punch recipes. I have been wanting a punch bowl for years now and we finally got one a few months ago. I know I could turn to the trusty old world wide web and find a TON of recipes, but I thought maybe some of you had good ones you would love to share? I prefer something light in color. Also in true Bethany style, I want to avoid stains…on clothes and the carpet!! Ideas for fun ice cubes or anything? Tell me your secrets!!

Second of all…there will be a bean bag toss. The bean bags are going to be shaped like little wrapped candies. Uber cute!! But I have yet to figure out what they will be tossed into? I was thinking creating a little wooden box with a plexiglass window and awning {like a store front} would be about the cutest thing ever, but I would need Chris’ help for that and I already have him working on other projects for me and don’t want to overwhelm him! I have tons of my trusty galvanized buckets which I could jazz up and would be a heck of a lot easier, but does anyone have any fun ideas?

Oh, and did I mention that I need these ideas yesterday? The party is just 9 days away now!! EEK! I have had more emails than I can count on this bash and am seriously hoping to have the entire post on it created and done on the 19th or 20th of July. I KNOW that some of you are having your Sweet Shoppe parties in August and that is cutting it super close, but I just have so many irons in the fire right now that I am not sure I can get it ready any sooner!

And what is a post without a picture? This is a snapshot of the girly cousins at our 4th of July bash!! Are they not the cutest? I would SO be in trouble if we had more than one girl…could you imagine having to buy two of everything? Yikes! Anyway, I did something I haven’t done since I learned to shoot in manual…I flipped the camera back to automatic and just snapped away and enjoyed myself the entire evening! Tons of fun!

And thanks in advance for any and all of the ideas you share!! I really appreciate it!!

Hello Hello Hello!! Did ya miss me? Goodness I feel like I am so out of the blogging loop! We left a week ago this past Friday for Kansas and just got home late last night! Well, Sunday night that is. Time is running together as it is 2:15 AM on Tuesday as I sit here typing! Yikes! I’ll pay tomorrow, believe me. I have no idea what is “wrong” with me tonight but I can NOT sleep! One would think I would be exhausted after being gone for days and days and then coming home and having to unpack and get everything put away. It only makes since that I should be sound asleep at this crazy hour, but for some reason my mind simply will not shut off!

Anyway, I have a bazillion things to get done all of a sudden it seems! That is probably a large part of my no sleeping issue tonight! Gentry’s big bash is in less than two weeks and although I have done a great deal of the prep work already, there are still several projects I want to complete! Oh, and then there are the 1274 pictures I took while we were gone that I need to sift through again. And yes that is the actual, real life number. Ay, ay, ay!! I deleted the obviously bad ones on the camera during our countless hours in the car, but I need to nix some more now that I can see them on the screen and then edit a whole lotta of ‘em! And then just life in general. My internet hiatus {other than Tweeting from my phone and checking a couple of blogs a couple of times while we were gone} did us all good and my goal is to keep off the computer pretty much all day while the kids are up and moving! If they nap I’ll peek in and of course I’ll check my email from time to time throughout the day, but it was nice to step away and have the chance to really re-evaluate!

A bit of randomness:

I replied to a ton of emails tonight but if you sent one and I didn’t respond, write me back. I have two different email accounts and was checking them both while we were out of town and if for some reason yours got lost in the shuffle, I’m sorry! And I am also sorry that most of my responses to you sweet blog readers were so short! That is really not typical of me at all {just ask my husband!!}, but I guess I am feeling a bit frazzled right now and thought that a short response was better than none!

Yes, I am still doing my “sweet giveaway.” I was trying super hard to get it ready to go before we left but it obviously just did not happen. It will though so don’t fret!

I also have an entire post typed up on Huntler’s Barnyard Bash but need to fill in some details before I publish it. That too will happen.

I took Gentry’s three year portraits while we were back home and OH.MY.GOSH. did I ever get some keepers! This is just the TINIEST little sneak peek of our trip! I have SOOOOO much to share but considering it is now 2:40 AM, I am going to wrap this up and try to get some sleep before my favorite little people wake up!

And the four cousins!! We had SO much fun the night we took these! Once I started looking at them on the camera I was kicking myself for not putting shorts on Gentry, but then I thought about it a little more and realized that this is her. Fashion diva. LOVE these little ones to pieces!