Happy Thanksgiving

I am grateful for my health as last year I just barely got out of the hospital and found out we were pregnant. I am grateful to not be pregnant and have a healthy baby who is the best baby. I am grateful for my husband who works for us, for my beautiful healthy kids and for my growing talent with my camera! I am grateful for family far away and wish we could have been together today. I am grateful to Food for Less for actually offering Turkey's for 4 dollars (with a 25 dollar purchase) and especially grateful Lance got there right as they were loading the new Turkeys out so we got a 14.95 lb bird. (under 15 lbs was the 4 dollar special) I left a lot of the traditional sugary dishes out this year, and left the crust off the pie! I am not grateful for my weight! It was nice all the way around. Rori sang some cute Thanksgiving day songs! Now we are watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Yes I am grateful!

Busy week in Photos

I will soon be starting a seperate blog for my photography so I can send people there without my personal life being intertwined. For now I will keep it here. I did three sessions this weekend. I learned I need some new lenses badly, the images in my my mind do not work with the basic 28-80 lens. I learned I like it when people wear darker solid color items, I learned that light is still my best friend and my worst enemy and I have learned that newborn photography is not as easy as it would seem to be. I forgot my space heater to make him warm, but I did get a handful of cute shots! I also learned when shooting at a Park that has ducks or geese do not let your family feed them until after the shoot is done so you are not attacked and your shooting area is ruined! I think I do not like giving direction so much and I loved the third shoot for this they went with the flow I could suggest adn they would just fall into it. Here are a few favorites from each session.
Session 6






Session 5






Session 4

My third shoot!

Things I learned from this shoot.... during the fall I will not schedule 1:30pm photo sessions! The light and shadows are so harsh that really we wasted a lot of the 2 hours and got the bulk of the good shots at the end. While walking and shooting make sure to look into the path in front of you. I was walking on cement and walked into a cutout of tree/rocks. I fell and messed up my knee pretty good and one hand. Thankfully the camera just tapped and my jeans (the only pair that fit right now)did not get a hole! I wish I had a bigger lens. Andrew is a cute kid but did not want to be candid! Every time he heard the click he was smiling and cheesing! If I could have distanced myself from him, I think I would have had some better boy moments. Here are a few of my favorites from this shoot!!!






This one wins my Favorite of all this session, I did a vintage treatment on it and just love it!

I am in love again!!

I have had a shoe fetish my whole life, now I need to figure out a way to get some new shoes into my closet!! Here is my new love! I absolutely adore converse!! This new girly version just calls to me. If anyone finds these under 85 bucks let me know (more like 30 :))
Dear Santa, I have been a really good mommy this year, would love these under my tree :) -- love Renee

Happy Birthday to my Liam

I am finally getting a chance to sit down and blog about my little Liam! He turned 3 on November 5. Money was so tight this month that I almost didn't have frosting for the cake. Thank goodness for loose change and 50 cent powder sugar at the 99 cent store.



Also I am glad that during the summer while Lance was subbing and we had a few extra dollars I was at Target at the right time after they had a huge toy change out and I picked up 70 bucks worth of toys for 20. SO Liam's birthday was less than 10 bucks!




So we had a little party. Poor guy had some bug so he only had rice for dinner and we let him have a tiny slice of cake. Liam is such a sweet boy. He loves playing with his cars/trucks and taking things in and out of containers and figuring out how things work. (I am afraid for down the road having things torn apart) He is a picky eater but loves bananas! Is driven by rewards. He is finally starting to like to read. This has been a frustration of mine for sometime that he won't sit still long enough to read one page. At his three year check up the Dr is concerned because he does not know his colors or counting or the alphabet. He is also not potty trained yet. I have been a little concerned with the color thing but Pierce is catching up and passing Liam in a lot of areas and that is the only other thing I have been a little concerned with. The Dr wants him to be evaluated. He is very bright and talks a lot and in full sentences he has come out of a lot of his shyness around others and is interacting with kids outside Pierce and Rori. It makes me feel like a bad mom to not be able to say your kids are making milestones. So I will be making an appointment and hopefully it will be nothing, that he just has a different way he needs to learn or that now that his attention span is much better he will learn quicker. I love him so much. Tonight he was talking in his room after bedtime and I popped the door open fast to say NIGHT NIGHT in a firm voice and my heart melted to see him with his little light sitting in bed reading a book! I was able to get my camera and capture it forever. I'll update after his evaluation.

My 2nd official photo shoot

Sunday I went and shot my friend Kristy's family. I learned a few things and I especially learned I have a lot to learn about shooting in low light still. I did get some shots I am pleased with and I am especially in love with the silhouette shots we did right at the end. We had an amazing sunset that painted the most perfect backdrop with the Las Vegas city lights. The photo of the boys fencing with the grass reeds reminds me of the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland!

Why teachers teach

I want to start a book of these "love notes" Lance gets from the kids. It is so cute when they write all misspelled and everything. This one has hanging on his board when we were there the other day! When people ask why teachers teach when there is so much politics and low pay this is why. You hope you touch one kid!

rori drawing

I think she is going to be an artist. I had her draw a picture for my grandpa for his birthday. I gave her this picture and said draw a picture of you with Pa. I think she drew him very detailed!! 4 1/2 years old. I can't wait to see how she blooms.

My favorite captures this week

I think my favs this week were having fun with my hubby's guitars and a pair of strip leg warmers!

Needing a Change, Want my old body back!

The old body









(I can't believe how young we look only 7 years ago!!)
Now that I am 4 months postpartum and am finally not hurting so much (aside from the ankle I need to get checked) I am looking at Lance and I and need to make a change. I am so good at keeping the sugar and crap out of the house but 2 days after trick or treating, I have overdosed on a candy here and there and just want to dump it all in the garbage! I was going through pictures of when I thought I was fat and then look in the mirror. I am starting to look like I could be on the biggest loser. I do not know where to start to exercise. How do I use the small space I have and how do I keep the boys occupied for a 40 min video. If I use their nap time then the house will be a pit! I know when I was exercising regularly I felt great and that has to be key. I also think although I eat good for the most part, I don't eat enough. I am one who doesn't over eat, I under eat which most likely causes my body to be in starvation mode. I can't bring myself to buy the next size of clothes. I am embarrassed to even say the size. I am reflecting on the year to come and the changes I want to make. I know Lance wants to take this journey with me as he packed on the sympathy pounds with me during pregnancy. We both complain and do not take the first step forward. My 20 year reunion is next year, I do not want to go back looking like this. Lance took a picture of me in the cloak he made for Halloween and I looked 400 lbs. I know it was a cloak but still it made me want to cry. I need to learn how to organize my time again between the kids and photography and taking time for me. Goals to come. I am going to scan some then/now pictures to this post. 4 months ago I was in love with my belly and now I loath it!

my awful body now:

camera dreaming

http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=1947

I have my 2nd and 3rd photo sessions booked. I am really hoping to be able to upgrade my camera with this years tax return, if not again I will for sure upgrade my lens but I am so dreaming of the Canon 50d. Yes I would love to take a step up from here even but this will get me to the next level of shooting without spending more than 2,000. I love hte fact that it has a High definition viewer that you can zoom in on detail to make sure your shot isn't blurry. It frusterates me when I get shots that look great in the viewer and then have a slight blur to them when I get them on the computer.
Like this:

On Ebay you can buy it at wholesale for the price of a body only in the store you can get a kit with multiple lenses and extras. So I just need 1325 dollars and I am golden! :)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-EOS-50D-SLR-Camera-5-Lens-16GB-27PCKIT NEW_W0QQitemZ220504136927QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDigital_Cameras?hash=item3357121cdf

I think I am going to blog my dream building list that way it is really out there to the universe. You know you are getting old when you want a bunch of appliances, kitchen gadgets and a camera! Some clothes that fit would be nice to. I want to get a Wii with Wii fit so I can work out in the small area I have to work out in. I really need to get back on track and it is so hard to get out and do anything with the boys schedules. I would love to find a friend that has one kid that could take my other double stroller and one child and walk with me.

Halloween happenings......

What an interesting Halloween. We have yet to carve our pumpkins because Liam woke up hardly able to breath(or so it sounded) and had a croupy cough. I took him to emergency and was released with just croup. But the Dr told us to take him out trick or treating and said the night cooler air was good for the lungs. Good thing he said it or I would have stayed home. Lance made all the kids costumes again, but worked up to the last minute. I was proud of how they turned out although for Rori's Dee Dee Doodle dress we found a better fabric after the face. (He won't be choosing that fabric to sew with anytime soon again!) We decided to go trick or treat on treat street sponsored by Mix 94.1. We got there at 6p had missed the costume contest for the 1-3 year olds but got there in time for Rori to participate in the 4-6 year old contest. There were only 2 homemade costumes in the whole 12 kids that got up there, I knew it would be between her and the sonic the hedgehog costume for sure, (Maybe we would actually be going to the shark reef!) The 2 DJ's and one of the other staffers went to deliberate and then came back. They called up the Incredible Hulk kid who was wearing a green sweatsuit with a burgundy pair of sweats cut up over the top and a mask and the big foam fists (tags waving in the breeze) Then they called up the Sonic kid, so Rori would be next right? What the????? Plastic Freddy Kruger outfit from Walmart??? WHAT THE???? Are you kidding me? What is this world coming to? What is a costume contest? Is it about going to the store and buying something and putting it on? When I worked for Southwest Airlines it was about making the best most extreme costume!! Did those people just not know who DEE DEE DOODLE is? How disappointing that was. On top of that they gave the grand prize to not even Sonic but The Hulk. I was disappointed. Lance and I walked around that street in disbelief. At least Rori didn't know what was going on! The best thing about treat street is you get as much candy in 15 houses as you would in 2 hours of trick or treating, they were giving out small hand fulls per house (not that we need it or anything) When we got home Lance took the kids around the block, I stayed in with Brendan, and that was that. The most interesting thing they got? A mushy Apple from a guy down the street LOL! We threw them away!