Hissyfits Photography Blog

Hello!! Hello!!! Hello!!!!!!!!!!! Remember me? It has “only” been four months after all. FOUR MONTHS. Wow wow wow. They have flown! We are so, so happy to be back. The kids are thriving and we are loving this new chapter in our lives. My lack of posting probably speaks to that!! We have been busy catching up with family, spending time with old friends and making new. Then there is the hour and a half to hour and forty five minutes I spend in the car every day driving kids to and from school {which I am fine with because I don’t want them on the bus yet – but it takes a good chunk of time!!}. And chasing after Brighton. That one is ORNERY. And then there is the painting. LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of painting!! I did squeeze in a few shoots this fall, but my focus has been elsewhere since the move!

That being said, I MISS it!! And I REALLY REALLY miss my “Everyday Moments” challenge that I started this year. So I am bringing it back to life in 2012!!! My goal will be much like it was this past year, to take a photo a day. Some will be posed. Some will be moments. Some will be carefully crafted on the 5D. Some will be shot on my iPhone. And to be honest, I am certain I’ll miss days. That’s life. There are no rules. Just capturing the everyday. {I think I am going to change the name and just call it The Everyday.”}

With that, I am just here posting a little warning so if anyone wants to join in with me, they can be prepared! Maybe we can somehow link up? How would that work? Since I prefer to shoot everyday {opposed to a Project 52 or something like that}, it might not be realistic to link up daily? Especially because I am certain I won’t blog daily but post a few at a time??? Hmmm….if there is any interest I’ll see what I can dream up!

And since I haven’t posted photos in FOUR months…I’ll share just a peek at my little loves and how they have changed and grown!

And from our family to yours…

{Card template via Birdesign}

I am going to be playing catch up forever…I accept that. These photos were edited long before we ever left but in the chaos of packing and goodbyes and everything that comes with moving, they didn’t get shared. So as I attempt to clean up my computer folders, here are a few of my Everyday Moments from a few weeks ago!!

This was taken on her birthday – June 27.

Oh how I love me a sleeping photo…

This little guy is so cute I just want to squeeze him!! He lost his two front teeth only a week apart! We had a mini session on my bed to document the huge milestone!

And my personal fave… This is real life. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

You probably gathered from my extreme lack of posting that things have been busy! That would be the understatement of the year!! We have made it to the other side and are settling in to our new home in Kansas. We have been for over two weeks now. It has just taken me that long to get my act together enough to post! The unpacking was unbelievable. It is crazy how much stuff five people can have. And did I mention we downsized? Which is fine because we had way too much house in Arizona, but it has been interesting trying to fit the same amount of people and nearly the same amount of stuff into a smaller house!

So let’s talk about the house and how it contributes to my lack of computer time of late! First of all, did you realize that we moved here without me even seeing the house first? Chris came out to Kansas and looked for us and I trusted him to find the best fit for us. I saw lots of pictures, but had no real concept until we arrived! It is 20 years old – it is dated. But it has SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I love a good project or twenty, which is good, because we have plenty! It was left less than acceptable for us to live in so HOURS upon HOURS have been spent cleaning. More than one bottle of Murphy’s Oil Soap was used, as well as more than one bottle of bleach. The sweeper filter had to be emptied and washed out numerous times. Lots and lots of elbow grease went in to getting this place cleaned up and comfortable for us. But it is coming along. It is coming along….

Today we will buy paint and begin to make it home…so excited for that. SO.EXCITED. I love to paint {which is a good thing considering that everything in this house needs painted – and I mean EVERYTHING – even the closets} and love how quickly it can change the feel of a room. It’s amazing.

I will post photos I promise!! Before’s and after’s! Although I really should have done all the before’s before we moved our stuff in….

The kids are adjusting great!! Out of all three of them, Brighton had the most trouble which really took me by surprise. I just assumed she wouldn’t really know the difference, but she did. The first few days were rough and she is still extremely jumpy and scares easily, but she is settling right in. The girls are sharing a room {which they seem to love!} and that helps. And it is going surprisingly well too I might add!!

School starts next week. The kids are enrolled and we LOVE their school!! And their teachers! I called this week and when I gave the secretary my name, she immediately knew that Huntler and Gentry were mine. She even got their names right!! I know that living in a small town can come with its own downsides, but we love it here and are SO happy to be raising our kids in such a small, safe community.

What else? Oh, we found a frog in the toilet. Yep, a frog in the toilet. Tree frog. One day Gentry was taking a shower late in the afternoon and went to the bathroom before she hopped in. She was in there {the shower} a good minute before she  said to me, “Hey  Mom. There’s a fwog in the toilet.” {I purposefully typed “fwog” – that is how she says it!!} I of course questioned her – not believing this at all! So, I carefully lifted up the lid just a crack and there he was! Chris got him out and set him free! We THINK that he climbed a tree outside {or even the house} and ended up on the roof. It was really hot that day and I think {based on what I found online!} that he was trying to find somewhere cooler to go and ended up falling down a plumbing shaft. We can cover them with screens and the problem will be solved. The other thought is that he came in through the septic tank. Not cool. Because we can’t do anything about that and other creatures could also find there way in… But, we really think he just fell down the shaft from the roof!

Don’t think I am complaining – I’ll take a frog any day over a scorpion. Now that I am aware they can get in, I am good. It just really caught me off guard that first time!! We are also now aware that this winter we may have a mouse problem. We have been cleaning the unfinished basement and yesterday found lots of evidence that an entire mouse family set up shop down there. I hate hate hate mice, but I also know that it is part of life in the country. We will however be buying mouse poison and traps in mass quantities! I plan to attack before we ever even see one in hopes of never seeing one!!

I have so, so much to share!! I have been snapping photos off and on since before we moved but am now ready to get back on track with my Everyday Moments! The images popped up on a screen saver last night and made me realize just how much I ADORE those moments and yearn to get back to capturing them!

On that note, here is a photo I planned to post days and days and days ago…

Shoot! I forgot to adjust the sizing!! I haven’t been in Photoshop in so long I am kinda at a loss!!

This was taken in AZ – the loading! Oh, and I should add that we used ABF U-Pack and LOVED working with them! Everyone was so, so nice and helpful and our stuff actually arrived in Kansas before we even left Arizona! I have nothing but wonderful things to say about this company!

And on that note, I better sign off! The propane company will be here soon. Yes, propane company. I am learning SO much! I am a true Kansas girl but I have never been a country girl!! Every day is an adventure!

Good intentions. I have them for sure. What I don’t have is extra time. I am taking a little bit of time off of packing, but we are talking a couple of hours and that is it!! Not enough to get everything I need to do done!!

Here is how a cake smash is done correctly in case you weren’t sure!!

I am over two weeks behind. AHHHHHHH!!! I am ready for the party post next though!!

Until then…
And…

YAY!! We’re moving!! Really she was just saying she is “SOOOOO big,” but it looks like a “YAY” kinda of pose considering she is in a box!!

Saying goodbye to Daddy – he had to fly to Kansas a couple of weeks ago for work and to do some house hunting for us!

I have been up to my eyeballs {literally} in packing and am having a tough time keeping up with everything!! Here is a peek at the party and HOPEFULLY the blog post will come soon!!

Click on the photo to watch a video!! I must give credit where credit is due and the video was all my husband!! I do the photography, he does the videography!!!

Wow. So time is FLYING.  I know, I know :: I say that ALL the time. I sound like a broken record. But it is. Like at warp speed. My days are spent chasing after littles and packing when I can. I have barely been on the computer lately and it shows. I am so.far.behind. I mean SOOOOOO far behind. Here are a few images for now…

This was taken in August of 2010. Baby was seven weeks old. One of her first trips to the splash park. We laid her on a blanket inside the gate right beside us. We were the only ones there and she relaxed while the big kids ran wild.

Fast forward nine months and she IS one of the big kids. Sigh. Big, big sigh.

Notice the big bruise and scrape? I debated on Photoshopping them out but decided not to. This is what happens when you are too big for your britches and constantly on the go! You wipe out when you are learning to walk, a lot.

I have soooo many sweet splash park shots. Far more than I have time to touch up. Here is the straight out of the camera shot of the above though. Isn’t it amazing what Photoshop can do? Pretty dramatic, huh? AMAZING program I tell ya, AH-MAAAA-ZING!

The bigs were there too. But we were with friends and they were busy. Busy, busy, busy. He has a whole post coming up. I would say soon, but we shall see!! The photos have been taken but they have yet to make it from my camera on to the computer.

And this one?

Well, she is something else. She may quite possibly hate this photo someday, but I love it. This is the Gentry we see ALL day long. She isn’t the same at school or around others, but this is her. SO her.

And a couple more of little bit because she is so flippin’ cute if I do say so myself! She was stuck on the step so she was a captive  subject!!

I wish she had a little bit of personality! HA!! She is a pistol. I am quite certain she has far more of her sister’s personality than her brother’s…

I am loving the timelessness of the black and whites right now…

I couldn’t agree more.

And with that, we are moving :: HOME. In July.

I have written and rewritten this post in my mind a hundred times it seems – each time with a different perspective. As the days have turned into weeks and the weeks into months and those months now into years {four years and nine months to be exact}, I have changed. Life has changed. What I would have written even a year ago would be completely different than what will spill out of me tonight. And when I say, “spill out of me,” I mean just that. I am writing from my heart and instead of carefully filtering my words, I am simply sharing a little piece of me…

We trekked out here with a chubby cheeked, red headed little boy just 8 days shy of turning two and a pudgy baby girl only eight weeks new. The years have turned that baby faced toddler into a tall, lean first grader, armed with a thirst for knowledge. Those same years have turned that eight week old baby girl into a kindergartner who is cautiously finding her way in this big wide world. And still those same years have blessed us with another child to love.

And then there is “us.” There is nothing like packing up all of your worldly belongings and moving hundreds of miles from everything that defines you with only your spouse to depend upon. There is something so real and so extremely binding when you have only each other to turn to in a place so far from home. Chris has been my rock through the many ups and downs I have experienced out here and I could not ask for a better partner in life. I am so, so lucky to call him mine…

When we arrived on our doorstep that dark fall night in 2006, I was emotionally exhausted. As my fingers tap across the keys of the keyboard, I find myself once again in that same place. Yet different. Tears fall freely. They have been for weeks now. Tears fell freely for weeks leading up to our move out here. And weeks after. Our stay here has never been permanent. It has always been simply “a chapter” in the story of us. I was good with that. If we don’t stay too long then we won’t have the chance to get attached – that has always been my thought process.  I thought everything would be perfect if we could move back before the kids got involved in school and started to settle.  Easier said than done. Easier said than done. And while I can confidently say that I will never grow attached to the extreme heat, the lack of true seasons, the dust, the critters and many other things, my heart will once again break as we close the door on this chapter.

Five years ago I would have never predicted that. Today it consumes me. Let me first say that I am beyond thrilled to be moving home. Please please please don’t think I am not. I have dreamt of this day for years. But I think I must first work through wrapping up our life here, literally and figuratively. I cannot wait to get back and get settled. We have so much time to make up for and so many memories to create! My heart bursts at the thought of all of the fun that awaits us! Yet I would be lying if I said that it isn’t going to be hard. How can it not? Five years is a lot of life lived out here. The  majority of our life as a family. Birthdays. Holidays. Bedtimes. Firsts. Births. Many, many milestones. The lucky thing is those are all memories and nothing tangible. They can, and will, be taken with me. It’s the friends that I can’t load up and haul across the country. It is the friendships that carried me through many sad days that I will miss. The friends. Both mine and the kids’. Friends that I never expected to make, let alone love. Friends that have shared in so many of our memories here. Friends that have witnessed me at my worst and appreciated me at my best. Real friends. Lifelong friends.

But I will get through it. It will be a change, but it is one I have been ready for for a really long time. While we have been able to do a lot of neat things out here, we have missed out on so much more back home. There are many, many things I desperately want for my kids. Things that both Chris and I had growing up. Grandparents close. Cousins. Sleepovers with those grandparents and cousins. Family get togethers. Barbeques. K-State football games. Jumping in leaf piles. Making snow angels. Chasing fireflies. Making wishes on dandelions. Small town county fairs. “Real” pumpkin patches. Bonfires. Tree houses. Tire swings. The list goes on. And on. And we have a whole lot of family and just as many of those real, lifelong friends anxiously awaiting our return – and that makes me smile from the inside out.

As much heartache as I have endured over the last five years and the many, many days I was beyond homesick and cried countless tears, I don’t regret our decision to move out here. I truly don’t. If hind sight were 20/20, we probably wouldn’t have, yet at the same time I am not filled with even an ounce of regret. Does that make sense at all? I have learned so much about myself and have come to appreciate life all the more across the miles. Sometimes it takes having your world totally rocked to realize what is truly important. There are a lot of things I no longer take for granted and I will return to the sunflower state ready to embrace them all!

And so with that, I close. I have a sneaking suspicion that these next few weeks will be a blur. There is a party to get ready for. There are photos to edit. There is packing to be done. And there are playdates to be had. As each day draws to a close and brings us one day closer to home, I pray that my sadness about saying goodbye somehow lessens, even if just a bit…

I took these photos two years ago but I find them fitting for this post!

Just a couple that I edited last night! I am working my way through a ton of images from the splash park but thought I would go ahead and post these!!

We checked out library books last week. Huntler got seven, Gentry got five. He had his all read within about 18 hours. ALL.SEVEN. Luckily he likes to reread! I snapped this from his doorway last Thursday night – he was reading to himself and didn’t even know I was there…

And WHY would one ever sleep in their bed when they have a trundle? The kids had lots of sleepovers last week {meaning Gentry sleeps in Huntler’s room!} and the trundle was left out!

And Friday night was family movie night complete with nachos on the family room floor! Nanny McPhee Returns was the flick. REALLY wishing I would have set the timer on this one and ran and sat in my spot! We would have all been lined up on the floor! Darned hind sight is always 20/20!!

More as I get through them!!

Here they are :: more of the everyday moments that make up my days.

Huntler on the iPhone. Probably studying the Titanic or something. Okay, so maybe not, but maybe! He loves to learn and never tires of soaking up bits of knowledge and sharing them. For instance, did you know that the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912  at approximately 2:20 AM? And that Arizona became a state on February 14, 1912. And that my friends is almost two months exactly before the Titanic sank. Just sayin’. This was information I did not know until he told me. I consider myself smart – I graduated from college with the highest of honors. But this one? He has surpassed me and he isn’t even in first grade yet. Sigh.

Bike riding. He’s not ready to part with the training wheels just yet. But they are getting higher and higher and he is learning to balance and not rely on them quite so heavily. I think he could totally do it, but he simply isn’t ready. It will come…and then I’ll wish them back on.

Love him. LOVE HIM.

Looking down…

Jammies for hours. Or all day. Oreos and Otter Pops for breakfast. Yes, it’s true.

My obsession with photographing her in the bathtub hasn’t faded…

I almost didn’t share this one because I felt like it wasn’t sharp enough…

Yet this one was tack sharp and I purposefully softened it in Photoshop? I have issues. Clearly.

Adore.

Rare is the moment where this happens. So rare that I had to document it. I want to remember her heavy little body as it melts into mine. We had been at the splash park all morning and she fell asleep on the way home. I managed to get her out of her seat, into the house, up the stairs and back down for her nap. And we even made a quick stop for a photo in there!!

Breakfast.

The hooligans. I am sure someone out there is cringing at the sight of this but my kids jump on the beds ALL the time. They always have.

And yes, they fall. That is what happened just seconds before I snapped this one. Gentry was way back in the space between the bed and wall. It was, well, hilarious as you can see!

One of the kids actually took this one! I love it!

And more bed jumping. Trundle jumping actually. Even baby gets in on that action!

Chores. I love all the action in this shot.

And I love it when they don’t know I am taking their picture…

And disregard our missing bed skirt. The kids were a wee bit too hard on it. It got cut twice. We could live with that. But they like to climb up on our bed right next to the nightstand shown here and after three years, the bed skirt could take no more. It ripped. Badly. And isn’t fixable. I couldn’t take any more of the sagging, ripped look so I yanked it out and tossed it one day!

The girls watching a giggling baby on YouTube.