Hissyfits Photography Blog

I have this sneaking suspicion that once the baby gets here, this sassy little diva may have some adjusting to do. And NO she does not still have the binky…this one belongs to her dolls…she just happens to put it in her mouth from time to time!

Hello! Hello! Hello! It has been sooooo long since I have done a Ten on Tuesday post! I love to read them and I actually like to write them, so I decided it is time to get back on the bandwagon! So Happy Tuesday and here are some bits of randomness for you!

1. Somehow I have managed to create a little “catch” in my hip. I did it yesterday and while I am feeling much better today {although it is only 7:30 AM as I begin this and I have only walked from my bed to the bathroom to the computer!}, it still catches when I walk and isn’t exactly comfortable. So I have been hobbling! I am planning to take it easy today {something I don’t do well!} and try to relax and not go, go, go and hopefully that will have me back to new in no time!

2. The Bachelor. Is anyone else out there watching? You know me…I don’t miss a season. I will probably be 45 and still tuning in!! I will say that this season has been a bit more challenging for me – I am getting CRITICAL in my old age!! But WHAT in the world is going on? Although I could barely keep my tired little eyes open last night and did in fact doze off during the cocktail party, I managed to wake up {thanks to Chris!} just in time for the rose ceremony. My thoughts? Really Jake? REALLY? How in the tarnation are you not seeing what everyone else is seeing? I am liking Tenley. Cute name. Cute girl. Seems sincere. So, we’ll see!

3. I am a HUGE fan of Tide Stain Release. {Yep…super random and all over the place today, hunh?!} Have you tried it? I just pour a capful in the kids’ loads of laundry, let ‘em soak for a bit and then start the washing machine back up. I am super picky so I still spray all the spots on their clothes, but I am loving this stuff! Try it…I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

4. Speaking of kids and laundry, am I the ONLY one who washes each kid’s clothes separately? As in I wash Huntler’s stuff together and then once his is done I’ll wash all of Gentry’s together. Well, not “together” as in ALL of it, I do create loads based on color! It used to totally overwhelm me…to the point of tears. And then Chris kept telling me it was basically my fault because I was creating work for myself! Anyway, I have been doing it the same way for five years now and I am finally at the point where it doesn’t totally stress me out anymore! In fact, I did all of their laundry {including sheets and blankets} yesterday and had it all folded and put away shortly after lunch…no stress at all!

5. I have seen on several blogs I follow links to this app for the iPhone. At a whopping .99, I finally figured out how to buy an app ON MY OWN and bought it yesterday! All it is is an application that lets you take photos and then they  ”develop” right before your eyes like a polaroid!! And if you shake your phone, they’ll pop up even faster!!

Here are the first two I took…straight out of my nifty {hand me down!} iPhone to the blog!

I am loving the vintage retro feel! Something fun and different!!

6. Gentry. The child has a closet busting at the seams with cute clothes yet she’ll go through multiple pairs of pajamas in one day. Do other kids do this? Only want to wear jammies and then want to change the said jammies several times a day? I can’t keep up with her and all her clothes already and she is only three! Hope she outgrows this phase before she’s a teenager!

7. Despite the fact that I regularly throw out random “junk” and am not one for clutter AT ALL, I worry that this same said child may be a hoarder. She carries around multiple stuffed animals and baby blankets every day. Carts them all over the house to wherever she is. I am also hoping this is a super short phase!! {Especially because I really can’t stand stuffed animals and the girl loves them!}

8. Remember my yammering on last week about all the rain we had? Well, Friday evening the kids and I ran to the grocery store and I snapped this {with my handy dandy phone!} on our way home. Just LOOK at all that water! Totally covered the sidewalk and everything. It amazes me how only four inches of rain can cause SO many problems!! It rains four inches at a time often in other parts of the United States and there are never any issues, but here, where the ground is ROCK HARD, it puddles up and causes flooding.

9. I have a super sweet photo shoot in mind and can’t wait to make it come to life! I am keeping all the details secret, but I CAN tell you that it was totally inspired by these adorable shirts I found on Jenn’s blog! {Thanks for letting me borrow your photo Jenn!} Would you believe she bought these at Wal Mart for only $5 each?!! Like Jenn, I am a fan of cute. I much prefer cheap cute opposed to expensive cute…especially since my daughter prefers jammies anyway. Sooo…thanks for sharing your fun find Jenn!!

Sidenote…if you live in KC, Jenn is an amazing photographer! Be sure to check out her site and book an appointment if you are wanting some photos taken! She is also super crafty and creative and her blog is SO much fun to read!

10.  My little sick girl is on the mend. She still has her nasty cough, but she seems better. We are skipping dance today and staying home to rest up some more, but I can tell she is starting to feel more like herself again.

And that’s it friends…Ten on Tuesday! I am off to get some things DONE today! {By the way, that little catch in my hip really is better…I have been up and moving for a couple of hours now and think I am back to myself again as well!}

Poor Gentry has one NASTY cough. It all started last week…ironically enough with the big change in weather we had. Both kids had runny noses, but as Huntler’s got better, Gentry’s did not. And then the cough started. I chalked it all up to allergies…Chris and I both have them and with rain and a weather change, it only seemed natural. I still think that is what was going on. But now? Now I am not so sure. Huntler’s sniffles have passed and he is feeling fine. Gentry, although she plays and “seems” fine, has a deep, lingering cough that sounds horrid. She also happened to be running a fever before bed last night and again this morning. I have kept her loaded up on Ibuprofen and Tylenol all day so as to keep it at bay, but I am hoping it is gone. As for the cough, no such luck.

Despite the fact that she wasn’t feeling her normal spunky self this morning, she still insisted on having her bath first thing, getting clean jammies and having me dry and curl her hair. Apparently even sick girls still like to feel pretty! So she bathed, donned her clean jams and had her hair fixed. And then she snuggled in amongst her blankets on my bed and watched Dora. She managed to sit still for two episodes and was then up and at ‘em again!

So cute and cuddly!! And then she realized I was taking her picture and started hiding under the covers from me! Lil’ stinker!! So I faked her out and started taking pictures of her sweet little polka dotted feet! She didn’t like that either! BUT…I got one!!

It just so happens that this morning I was freezing. Along with my navy velour jogging suit {because those are pretty much the only things that fit me these days!}, I pulled on some of those super soft, snuggly socks. Know which ones I am talking about? Anyway, they just happen to be blue, so my little shadow here also wanted blue socks. And then she went on and on about us both wearing boy socks today! Apparently girls should never wear anything blue. Ever. What in the world was I thinking?! Filing that one away in my mind so as not to ever buy her anything blue because she probably won’t wear it!!

So that was our day. It could have been worse so I have no complaints!! Gentry is a good sick girl…helps with the laundry and everything. I thought a lot about that today, about how much more challenging Huntler is to take care of when he is sick…how whiny he is. And Chris too. I think that even the littlest of girls must know that when you feel bad you have to just suck it up and keep going because no one else is going to do your work for you! And even the littlest of boys learn to whine, moan and lay around ALL day expecting to be waited on hand and foot!! Just some food for thought!!

WOW! What weather we are having down here in the desert! El Nino is picking up moisture from the Pacific Ocean and hammering us!! For a city that rarely gets rain {and when we do it is usually in the form of a hundredth or two}, we are getting slammed! No…it is nothing like the rain storms in the midwest or on the east coast, but two inches in the last twelve hours in addition to the inch or more we already had and it is a mess out there! Our back yard is looking more and more like a pond and the swimming pool is so full it looks like the water just wants to start pouring over the edges! Now, I LOVE it. I mean LOVE…but it is causing some issues! Lots of flooding, lots of drama.

But we are warm and cozy and safe inside listening to it pelt the windows and roof! And enjoying every second. It won’t be long until the rain moves out and the sun returns in full force. So for now we will soak it up while we can! I would love to get out and snap a pic of the back yard or the pool, but it literally has not let up all day and I am not about to venture out into sheets of rain with my camera! There is 100% chance of rain again tomorrow as well.

So…that is what we have been up to. I haven’t even gotten my camera out because it is so dark and dreary!! Maybe next week I’ll get my littles out for some fun in the sun with my camera in tow!

Here is a photo for now though. This was August of 2006. I was looking back through some photos and I love this one! It’s Huntler with my nephew. OH.MY.GOSH. Was he seriously so cute and chubby? I want him to look like that again! Seems like you blink and they are five and a half and more adult like than you ever would have imagined!!

As a mom, life is full of more daily tasks than I can even begin to list. {Although if I ever did take the time to list them all out, I would probably feel a lot more accomplished at the end of each day than I currently do!} Anyway, each day brings a lot of fun! Playdates. School parties. Dance class. Spontaneous trips to Sonic. Sidewalk chalk. Bubbles inside. The list goes on. And then there are also those certain “tasks” that aren’t so appealing. Unloading the dishwasher ALL the time. Scrubbing the mega soap scum ring on the bath tub because one of your children will happily spend two hours in the tub {great entertainment} so long as you give her a bar of soap and let her lather to her heart’s content. Dentist appointments. The list goes on.

{I was playing around with this one and did a super old school vintage number on it!! Definitely not for everything but kinda fun for this one anyway!}

And that is precisely where we found ourselves this morning – at the dentist. Huntler here…he was a rock star. I would be shocked if he ever acted differently. His very first trip {at three} he refused to open his mouth and cooperate, but ever since then, he has been fine. He has even had cavities filled and remains unphased. Today was no different. That’s the good news. The not so good news…he has FOUR cavities and has to go back in next week for fillings. Blah. It is obviously our fault – he is only five after all. He can’t be expected to brush and floss his teeth all on his own! And he isn’t…this is just one area where we are super lax. However, once she told me that it is going to cost us $262.00 when I haul him back in next week, I vowed then and there to become a better teeth brusher and flosser!

I don’t dread taking Huntler in. I don’t mind it at all in fact. But Gentry on the other hand? There are no words to describe her other than that screaming and hysterical child that you are always so thankful isn’t yours. But it just so happens – she IS mine.

Her first appointment was six months ago. She had just turned three. Cried, screamed, carried on, refused to cooperate. Okay. That’s fine. Huntler didn’t fair so well at three either. I was hoping this trip would be better. However, two weeks ago when I had my six month cleaning and she about had a complete breakdown and Chris had to stay home with her, I knew things weren’t looking up. We can’t even drive by the dentist office without her having an anxiety attack.

For the past week I have been talking it up. YAY! “If you are good and let the dentist look at your teeth you get to pick out a prize.” And, “If you cooperate you can have candy when you’re done.” I tried it all. Not one bit of enthusiasm. She would rather do without the prize and the candy…which is saying a lot for her! As we would talk about the appointment she would say, “But I don’t have to go. I have dance, right?” She was bound and determined she was getting out of it! Even last night Chris was talking to her and told her that he was going in a couple of weeks and she said, “Okay. I’ll go in a couple of weeks when I’m bigger. Right?” The girl is no slouch!

So we pull up this morning after dance. Instant panic attack on her part. Tears are flowing and she is freaking out on me. I have to carry her in where she then sits on my lap the entire time we are waiting refusing to make eye contact or respond to anyone. Once we get back and Huntler is in the chair having his teeth cleaned, she finally loosens up a bit. She is actually even friendly to the hygienist. And then Huntler is done and she is up. Sheer terror. Feeling slightly defeated because I really wanted pics of her too, I opt to let her sit on my lap. Still a no go. Screaming. Crying. Shaking. Shoving my shirt in her mouth so there is no room for anything else. Yep…that is what happened. We only tried forcing her for a minute and when she was obviously not going to relax, we gave up and I was sent on my happy little way with a referral to a pediatric dentist. Called the pediatric dentist – they don’t accept our insurance. So here I am back at square one.

I have NO clue where her fear comes from. She has only been the one other time with Huntler and he was fine. No fits. No drama. He wasn’t scared or panicked. I have NO clue why she is so terrified. Bless her heart though…when I was holding her and she was in hysterics, her heart was beating so hard and so fast!

Just another day in the life! I am thinking next time Daddy needs to take care of this task!!

You know those random moments that trigger flashbacks to your own childhood? A smell. A song. A tattered photo you happen upon stashed in a pile of papers. Those bits and pieces of the past that rarely surface during the day to day grind of life, yet when they do you find yourself wonderfully surprised? Like many, the everyday chaos rules my world and those trips down memory lane to my own youth only find a glimpse into the present on occasion. But today, today I went there.

I went back to a time when I myself was probably only seven or eight and all those nights spent on my grandma and grandpa’s farm. The memories are there – crystal clear in fact – but rare is the day when I actually find the time to reflect on those years gone by. As I was sifting through images from New Year’s Eve, my mind wandered…wandered all the way back to that drafty, tiny little farm house where so many hours were spent and many more memories created. To a house with trees as old as time and a well that seemed deeper than infinity. A house with windows that rattled in the blustery Kansas winds and where wheat fields surrounded you on every side. Back to a time where worries were non existent and happiness ruled.

One of the things I remember most about that old farm house with its dark walls and low ceilings are the moments in the kitchen. My grandparents had this old fashioned popcorn popper with a yellow dome. The kind that you poured butter into along with your seeds and a rotating lever went around and around and popped your popcorn. Super dangerous and definitely not healthy I am sure!! My grandpa would always make us popcorn when we spent the night! Always.

I hadn’t really thought about that until today when I was sifting through these images of my dad and the kids. Awhile back he stumbled upon this smore maker and knew the kids would love it. He was right…they had a ball! As I edited each and every one of these and saw the joy on everyone’s face and thought of the memories being made, my heart smiled. But it also broke a little too. These moments are the ones I so desperately want for my kids…fun times with grandma and grandpa. Often. Not just twice a year.

Here is papa…blowing out a firey marshmallow! I love the girls’ expressions here!

And our little brown eyed boy so full of wonder and amazement himself…

These two…thank goodness they are cousins and not sisters because there is no doubt in my mind that they would be up to NO good ALL the time. Only ten months apart (Taverli is older), they chatted and played and did all things girl. They also both happen to be quite sassy and quite opinionated. And ornery. I bet you would never guess that from this picture, now would you?!

Lucky for me, Tavi LOVES the camera. As in she can’t get enough of it…cheesy little grin and all. Her mama {my sis} had to warn her that for her school pictures they would only be taking one shot. They weren’t like Aunt Bethany who takes hundreds!

Savoring the moment…

This could be dangerous!! There was only one instance the entire night where I was worried about a pigtail catching on fire! It happened when they were blowing out a firey marshmallow and it got a little too close!

I rarely bust my camera out at night. I am not a big fan of the flash – and I really don’t have a clue how to use it!! {One of my goals is to read that manual soon and get a better understanding of the beast!!} That being said, I am SO GLAD I decided to get it out! These images are priceless…not only to me but I am sure my parents as well! Thanks for all the fun Papa!

Where has the weekend gone? Chris had to go out of town for a few days this past week and didn’t get home until last night. Because of that I feel like we have had NO weekend! I am fortunate in that he doesn’t have to travel too much, but when he does it is usually during the week. I don’t ever remember a time where he has gotten in on a Saturday night!! And I certainly don’t like it – our weekend just vanished!

Since I was home alone with two energetic littles {and a not so energetic mama}, Chris has stepped in and entertained today! He busted out the bounce house and they have spent hours out back playing!! We should have two tired little kidlets this evening!

Anyway, apparently “Reindeer” has been feeling a bit left out of the photos lately because he wanted his picture taken today. I happily obliged. Of course I was far more interested in the brown eyed little boy than the reindeer, but it made Huntler happy!

On a completely random note, I need some ideas! Huntler has decided he wants to go with the fire truck theme for his Valentine’s this year. I am trying to come up with some creative wording…any ideas? I posted on Facebook but NO ONE replied!! Don’t be shy people!! Hit me with your best shot!

And speaking of Facebook, I continue to get lots of friend requests. It is NOTHING personal since I obviously don’t know you, but I am trying to keep my personal page just for friends and family. I do have a Hissyfits page though and you are more than welcome to follow along with that!

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but this is my life right now, so here it all comes again! The last two weeks have been rough to say the least. I have continued to be all out of whack after our trip to Kansas. Not that I want to complain about my life because I am blessed in so many ways, but getting in that car and driving back to a city and state that are far from home is far more challenging than mere words can convey. I try to take it all in stride…I mean, what are my options? Stay in Kansas with the kids and live with my parents? Yeah, I’d be “home” but Chris wouldn’t be there, so I still wouldn’t be happy. Thank goodness my sweet husband loves me unconditionally because he can certainly attest to the fact that the last two weeks here have been rough and downright miserable at times! He tries to be loving and supportive and to help me through it, but when I really can’t even explain what my problem is to myself, it isn’t realistic for him to understand it either. There have been many, and I mean many, tears shed on my part. I am not sure if it is because I am tired and pregnant or what, but I have most definitely had a hard time falling back into our life here.

I hate that. I hate being sad and down. I hate crying so often and so hard that the kids start to worry and console me. I am the mom. I should be able to hold it together. But I am also human. For many of you I am some random blogger who posts more pictures of my kids than you care to see and writes equally as much, but I am really so much more! I am a wife, a mom, a daughter, a sister and a friend. My feelings are every bit as real as yours and the emotions I experience are as intense as anyone else’s.

Adding to the frustration is the weather. It is about to drive me crazy! I LOVE winter. I love the way the chill puts an invigorating spunk into your step. I love the breath of fresh air you find when you step outside and it is 20-some degrees. I love the snow. And I miss it…all of it. I will be the first to admit that after now spending four winters out here we have most definitely acclimated and our bodies can’t handle it like we once could! When we visit Kansas now we freeze. It is SO cold we can hardly stand it! We will quite obviously have a lot of adjusting to do once we do move back!! But all that being said, I do still love and miss the winters!

Seventy five degrees is not winter. At all. But that is what is has been down here this week. I know, I know, the grass is always greener on the other side. Those living in the midwest would give anything for a break from their bone chilling cold fronts for some of this. And I would give anything for some good old fashioned winter weather. Recognizing that isn’t going to happen anytime soon and I need to “embrace” the fact that we can play outside right now and in just a couple of months it will be scorching hot and miserable out, we have been trying to spend some time in the backyard.

Tuesday afternoon we headed out with our blanket, books and cameras. We spread the blanket in the shade {which I quickly had to move to the sun because my acclimated body was freezing in the 75 degree shade!}, pulled out our books and read. All of us. And we of course took pictures of each other too! Can I tell you how much I love it when the kids pull out their cameras and want to snap pictures of each other and me? So sweet!

Since we were all on one blanket, these are super close {far closer than I would ever shoot normally but I couldn’t get off the blanket because the grass was still wet from the sprinklers!}, but I love them. I mean, LOVE them.

During a time in my life where happiness isn’t coming quite as easily as I wish it would, these bring so much happiness to my heart.

In this next series I was talking to him about his Valentine’s and if they were going to say “I Love You.” He thought it was absolutely hilarious and laughed and laughed and laughed some more!

{One reason photographers avoid shooting super close is because of what happened in this next one…his right eye isn’t in focus! Darn!! With the settings I was using and as close as I was I am lucky this only happened on this one!!}

Have I ever mentioned how much I adore his red hair? His coloring is just like mine…and I love that. The bummer of the deal is that I have this “issue” with boys having “long” hair and we keep his buzzed off and super short. It was crazy long for him in this picture…he got it all cut off just two days later!

Don’t worry…sassafrass lass was there too. Here are a couple of her! She has since gotten her hair bobbed back off as well…I need to get her in front of the camera this weekend so you can see how dang cute it is!!

I can’t believe how grown up she looks here. It is hard to believe that our “baby” is soon going to be a big sister.

I think about that a lot…how the dynamics of our family are about to change dramatically. How she will go from being the baby to the middle child. How she and Huntler are the very best of friends and where the baby is going to fit into all of that. They love each other so much…they truly take care of each other. Holding hands in parking lots, consoling each other when one gets hurt or in trouble, finding the missing blanket or stuffed puppy. I wish I could bottle that up…all of those moments that flash in my mind of the bond these two share. It is something special, really special.

Gosh I am a basket case! The tears are once again flowing freely as I think about all of this! I guess when you love your family SO much it is hard not to get emotional!

So…the photo a day challenge has been quite the challenge. I am hoping to be a better blogger next week! I plan to have a blurb book created for our family at the end of the year and I am desperately trying to record all of these moments that right now I think I will never forget but in a year will seem like a distant memory. Time seems to have that effect on us!

Happy Saturday!

And I promise I’ll be back!! I just got WAY overwhelmed and caught up in my organizing/cleaning binge! I am FINALLY done for the most part but giving my kids lots of extra love and attention after spending days immersed in dust and junk!!

I’ll try to get back on tonight after they are in bed if I have enough energy!!

Until next time…

I am not really sure when it happened, but it did. Huntler went from sounding out words to flat out reading. As in entire books and stories. Reading. Really, really well I might add. He only turned five at the end of September. Is he even old enough to be reading?

Before you all start thinking it is something we did, it isn’t. I wish I could say that I worked with him every day on sounding out words and sentences, but I didn’t. I didn’t do anything in fact. It is 100% him.

Recognizing how well he was reading, we told our family that books would be a great gift for him this year. They delivered. The little man got oodles of books! He reads to us daily. But he’ll also sit in his room or sprawl out on the floor of the playroom and read for what seems like forever to himself. Before he was born I used to read all the time. I could devour a book in just a couple of days! And although I miss getting lost in the world of fiction, I know that there will be plenty of time for reading when my sweet babes are grown and gone. For now, I’ll continue to read board books and let Huntler read to me.

Out of all the books we hauled home, his favorite is hands down The Big Blue Book of Beginner Books by Dr. Seuss. My parents bought it for him and he absolutely loves it. The stories are long, I mean really long, but the words are big and there are only a few on each page! Tonight he chose two stories from it to read to us. He was reading along so perfectly and happily that I just had to get up and grab my camera. {I was snuggled in right beside Chris with Gentry on my lap!}

I love this photo of my three favorite peeps! Huntler was reading about a bunny named P.J. and it was cracking him up! When he first started reading to himself we weren’t sure if he was actually comprehending what he was reading, but after he came into our room more times than I can count in hysterics the other night telling us about all the different animals P.J. wanted to live with, we knew he was retaining what he was reading! He even seems to understand exclamation points! And in one of the stories there was a short little song and he somehow knew to sing it?

This is a milestone I guess I just wasn’t quite ready for. We are obviously beyond proud of him and accomplishing something like reading is amazing. But it is also bittersweet. It is just one more step he is taking on the road to independence.

Huntler,

Mommy and Daddy are so, so proud of the little man you are becoming. Even though it makes me sad to watch you grow up before my very eyes, I wouldn’t have it any other way. You are getting so big and so smart and we couldn’t ask for a better little guy to call ours. I love that you love to learn. I see so much of myself in you…and there is also probably a whole lot of Daddy in there too since he is pretty darn smart himself! I hope your love for learning only continues to grow with you. You have such an amazing future ahead of you and I know you are going to do great things with your life one of these days!

Love you to the moon and back sweet boy,

Mommy