6 A.M.

Although I am not a fan of getting up early, there is just something about the beginning of the school year that gets me all excited. I'm all gung ho about it for a month or so, then I slow down. Then comes Halloween and I'm all wound up again!! Then comes nooooooovemmmmberrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......and I slow down again. Not my favorite month, if you couldn't tell. The beginning of the school year is filled with excitement! The kids are excited to meet new friends, learn new things and I'm excited to get back into a routine. Our Summer has been wonderful. Filled with lots of activities, day trips, relaxing/lazy days and just plain having fun. I'm going to be sad to see it gone. I'm not ready for the Fall yet. I'm usually very excited at this point, but not this year. Maybe that will change once the kids are in school. We'll see. For now I'm going to enjoy all the new things happening in my life and my children's lives. I'm a Mom of a highschooler now!! And my son is going to be starting preschool! Completely unbelievable. :) I feel like I'm experiencing two very important phases of my children's lives at the same time. My son is beginning his journey, and my daughter is beginning the end of hers.

I think everyone knows how much I love taking pictures, so lets take a look back at my two babies when they were babies......

Raven.....

Lex.....

Making Progress......

Very slowly, but surely, we are making progress.....

She is no longer fighting me when I try to put them on her.............

She actually has no problem wearing them, playing, running or climbing when she wears her AFO's.......

And that makes me, and her, very, very happy.......

I Don't Let My Babies Cry It Out.........I DON'T!

When I first got pregnant 15 years ago I swore I would never let my baby cry it out at night. I wouldn't. And I didn't. Then came Lex, and again I swore to never let him cry it out either. Same thing with him, I never did even though he wasn't the best sleeper. I would get up when he needed me. Then came Lola. I didn't even have to say the words....she was the perfect sleeper from day one! Perfect! She fell asleep on her own, in her own bed and never once made a sound. :) It was wonderful. She got older and we still never had any problems. Then something happened about 2 months ago. I started noticing that she was waking up crying at 3 a.m. every night. I would have to go down, change her and sometimes I'd even have to give her a bottle to soothe her when I wasn't enough. Then last month it got worse. Bedtime became a nightmare. Not just for me, but for her as well. She would scream, fight, try to get out of her crib, scream some more......it was horrible. And it hasn't gotten any better.

I figured that she was starting to go through something, the fear phase. All children go through it, but what the heck do I with her? I've been going in to get her and letting her fall asleep on the couch next to me. I know, I know....BAD idea!! You don't have to tell me just how bad of an idea that is. But I can't help it. She never complains, she hardly cries unless she needs something or is hurt, she's so sweet and so cute and I don't let my babies cry it out! I don't! But, I did. And guess what? She's alive, and she's fine. It kills me to do it, it really does, but that is my only choice. She cries for maybe 5 minutes, but in those 5 minutes I have to bite my lip to keep from running to her. I'm hoping this won't last long. I hate listening to her cry. If for some reason this doesn't stop, and she throws these fits at bedtime, I plan on buying a rocker/glider so I can rock her to sleep. Kevin thinks that's a bad idea. Hmph! This coming from a guy who still lays with our son till he falls asleep. Hypocrite. I honestly don't care what anyone thinks, if this continues or gets worse, I will do what I need to do to make her happy again.

Wordless Wednesday.....

Why Do I Agree To Do These Things?!

My friend hired me to photograph her In-Laws 50th anniversary. Now I'm wishing I hadn't said yes. I have this thing where I lose all confidence in myself when asked to do things like this. Yes, I can take some pretty damn good pictures. Yes, I have an awesome camera. But am I good enough to be photographing such an event? I don't think so. She wants me to do it because A.) She loves my pictures and B.) I'm MUCH cheaper than anyone else. LOL!! Sad, but true. She wants me to have some cards made up to pass out at the party. It's gonna be a huge event. They have a huge family. Old Italian, lots of kids, that sorta thing. So here I am, I haven't even learned all there is to learn about my camera and I'm already hiring myself out. Ugh. I did read an article where one photographer said...."You can't "learn" to be a good photographer. Sometimes just shooting, shooting and shooting is the best way to teach yourself". I'm taking this as a challenge.......try and make this good so people will want more. I've started learning about lenses, my camera, the various settings and what will work best with this party. Tricky part? It's both inside and outside. Lots of flash. I'm not a fan of flash. I'll be heading down to the camera store to rent a few lenses for the night and see what they think would be best as far as flash goes. Ugh....this is work! LOL!!

Preparing Myself For Preparing School Lunches.....

This may sound silly, but I am in a bit of a panic about packing Lex's school lunches. First off, he hates just about anything. Secondly, he hates just about anything. So what do I do? Well, for starters I drive myself  nutty about the whole thing, then I sit down and search the internet for ideas. Thank GAWD for the internet!! And Twitter. Thank you, Twitter. I follow a lot of wonderful Mommies and websites that help me with the things I need. Today Parents Connect posted on a link on their Twitter page to AlphaMom's site where she wrote about Bento Box Basics for Back-to-School. I let out a huge sigh of relief! HUGE!! It gave me some wonderful ideas. My brain is on overload with wonderful, healthy school lunch ideas. Then I went in search of a Bento Box. I found this one....
















And this one at Pottery Barn.....

Both are really cute, right? We bought him a SpongeBob lunch box already, so I'll have to find one that fits in that. I'm so excited!!! I haven't made a school lunch in years! This is gonna be fun. :)

My Sweetest Lola.....

Waiting on her Daddy......

Preparing For School

Summer is coming to an end and we are about to go into full "GET READY FOR SCHOOL" mode. We've been doing this for 10 years now. ((sigh)) I always dread it, the getting back into a routine. Raven is much easier than she used to be. She actually said "Mom, please don't get up. I'm not a baby anymore" -_- Whatever, Teenager. Whaaaaatever!! I do anyways. ;) But now I will have two children in school! TWO! Lex will be going to pre-school on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays 9-1. :D He has got to get into a routine. We have been always been very laid back about our routine. Not anymore. So prepare him for his school days I've come up with this schedule.....

• Bedtime: 8:00 p.m. Sharp!
• 
  
• Wake up: 7:00 a.m.
• 
  
• Get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, if time allows I'll let him watch one cartoon of choice
• 
  
• Wake Lola: 8:00 a.m.
• 
  
• Get her dressed, feed her, brush her teeth 
• 
  
• Out the door: 8:45 a.m.

It take 7 minutes to get to his school. Yes, I timed it. So that leaves plenty of time to get in the car, drive to the school, get out of the car and in the door. WHEW!!!! Once Winter is here  -_- and it's snows -_- I'll push the schedule back by 20 minutes to make sure we have enough time.

Now, you make think that scheduling is the only thing we have to prepare for. It's not. I have to go out and buy a bin. A bin for all that art work my son will be bringing home. I still have Raven's, somewhere. It's insane the amount of stuff they bring home! I could never bring myself to throw any away. Not until the 1st grade at least. LOL!!

This is all so very exciting! All he talks about is school. All the time! He can't wait. I just hope that he's just as thrilled about it when he gets there and Mommy and Daddy can't stay. I'm sure he'll be fine. :) I'm actually more worried about my husband. 100 bucks says he breaks down and cries.

What We've Been Doing All Summer......

Playing........

Having fun.....

Smiling.......

Meeting Henry The Octopus.......

And refusing to leave Henry!!!......

As you can see, there are no pictures of our teenager. She's too cool to hang with her family at Six Flags.