Her first doll

Madison has been showing signs of being ready for a doll. Though I really think Blake may be more interested then she is. We're more then happy for him to group play with her and her stuff, but we will not be getting him a doll. Nope. Not even a boy doll. We looked at dolls last time we were in Wal-Mart. That was a very frustrating experience. Our store has been under renovations of late. When they moved the toys into one area they did not mark any of them well. There was no way I could figure out what doll cost what. Needless to say we didn't buy her a doll.

Today I was driven to the store because we had NO milk and very little food in the cupboards. As we pulled up to the store the sky on one side of us was cloudy with some sun. On the other side of us it was very dark and encroaching quickly. I pulled into a spot close to the cart return where people were getting in their car. I apologized for pulling in while their door was still open and asked for their cart. I ran around the car, pulled out Blake quickly, followed by Madison across the car, and we ran for the store. We did get wet, but not soaked. The whole time we were in there we could here it coming down hard, then a little softer, then hard again.

I ended up going through the toy aisle where they had some dolls. They were all the same brand with 4 doll personality options. I held up two at a time to see what Madison would pick. Each time she looked back and forth then went for the one on her right. There was one she never put her eyes on much so I took the remaining three and put them on the floor about 4 feet away. I put here down. She walked over to them and went right for the one I wasn't too fond of. Go figure! It was one she picked out 3 of the 6 times I gave her options so it was the one.

Once we got home I went about getting all the ties & other crap surrounding it or holding it in place. She wanted nothing to do with it. It does smell quite disgusting with the new plastic smell. A while later I tried using some Fabreeze on it. It definitely doesn't smell as bad now so she will pick it up and carry it. She definitely did not want it in her arms like she does her bear and bunny for naps and night night. I left it in the crib so we'll see if it's still in there in the morning. Not likely since they throw all their stuff back and forth then out onto the floor during their morning antics. They usually play for about 20-45 minutes in their cribs in the morning. I think they would play longer, but one of them normally poops then requests a change by yelling for me.

30 days of summer - Day 17

If you haven't entered the contest for a fabulous cloth diaper go here. It's open until 7/31/09.

Madison has been taking some funny face ques from her brother. The photos below don't even begin to show off her range of expressions. She is also slimming down a bit helping her to fit into some of the clothes that were too tight on her. Whew! It looks like we'll be able to make the summer clothes we have work until it gets cooler.


Blake had the never go away tear the other day. It hung out under his right eye for at least 5 minutes. It's so funny how much smaller he often looks when right next to Madison. They are pretty much the same height and only a pound or two different in weight.

Check out that calf muscle on him! The sad thing is both Guy and I have super calf muscles so he could have gotten it from either of us.

Tonight I'll be putting some new photos on the photography blog from those sittings with the sneak peaks last week.

Random thoughts & well prepared blog posts

If you haven't entered the contest for a fabulous cloth diaper go here. It's open until 7/31/09.



So I don't know about you guys who blog, but I often go through my days composing these fabulous blog posts in my head. Where are they you ask? Who knows. They leave my mind well before I get time to sit down at the computer. I can't even remember the topics I want to talk about! lol In an effort to become a good writer I'm going to start participating in a writing workshop blog I follow. She gives several writing prompts every time she posts inviting us to pick one or all to write a post on our own blogs. I picked 'Would you rather age well physically or mentally?'

Good question. The vain part of me would love to look decent until I pass, but if my quality of life sucks then it doesn't matter. Definitely mentally. One of my favorite quotes is 'If you don't use it you lose it.' I'm a firm believer in continued learning, reading and brain exercises. I probably spend at least 7-8 hours a week learning more about photography plus additional time finding out about other topics that interest me. I'm not sure why people say having kids turns their brains to mush. Being hurried and distracted isn't helpful, of course, but trying to outsmart these kids is hard work! I'm constantly trying to figure out how to entertain them, teach them, work a schedule & show them love. One thing I figured out with Madison is to say 'Yummy' whenever she puts something new in her mouth. If I don't say it she will spit it out for sure. If I do say it she will most likely keep it in her mouth for a longer taste. It also seems like the more I learn about things the easier life gets. My plan is definitely to keep using the old noggin in an effort to stay (ehm, get) mentally sharp until the very end of this life.

Laser eye surgery went very well. When the numbing drops wore off it was just about impossible to keep my eyes open so I just opted out and went to bed at 7:45. At 1 am it was a different story. My eyes only felt dry and sand papery, but I was wide awake! I went back to bed at 5am for a few hours. Since then the scratchy irritation gets less and less each hour. My vision is pretty good. I'll be okay if it doesn't improve beyond the 20/25 it was yesterday, but I hope it gets better!

My hair is finally back to normal. September 2007 we had just found out we were pregnant and arrived in Australia for vacation. I had horrible pain on the plane ride followed by bleeding and nausea. My mind was definitely not on the hair I was trying to flat iron. It completely slipped my mind to turn down the power on the flat iron because of the increased electrical current. By the time I got to the top layer the iron was so hot it fried almost the entire top layer despite the quick passes of the iron. It got so hot the iron never worked again. Since it is impossible to cut off the entire top layer of my hair at the root I had to wait patiently for it to grow out. My hair finally started to dry nicely with no styling products again. NICE!



Madison is walking better and better each day. Her clothes that were too tight are starting to fit again. We still have a length issue and 3T definitely fits my little 15 month old better then 24 mo and 2T does. She is an observer most of the time. She will hardly ever nap in the car with the views passing by her window. She likes to take things apart. When eating she plays with her food for a while then slowly eats one item at a time until that item is completely gone.

Blake has gotten quite a bit of length on him lately. I think he's around 32-33 inches tall. We've decided not to do the potty training thing with him even though he's showing signs of being ready. It's way too much work. I'm definitely not looking forward to spending so much time in the bathroom. He is a hyper kid who barrels into any situation and tries new things. He always has to be in Madison's business especially if she is trying to have cuddle time with Guy or I. He gets me to turn on his piano at least once a day so he can play the preloaded music, rhythms and bang on the keys.

Both kids have pretty much forgotten they love vegetables. They both know a lot of words, but they are different from each other. It's like they don't want to be the same. They both go right into bed most of the time with Blakey trying to climb into his crib. They also love to pull all of the clothes out of their drawers at least once a day. Any activity outside is their preferred method of living and play.

On another note. We have decided we'll be getting back on the fertility bandwagon. I've been faithfully tracking my cycles since the babies were born. All but one of them still has a short luteal phase. This indicates to me we'll still need fertility treatments to conceive again. Oh, and we have not used any birth control since the babies were born with some cycles we definitely got together during the right time. I'll be making an appointment with the reproductive endocrinologist in September with the goal of trying again in November. This will give us enough time to change my insurance to include maternity coverage & maybe the Aflac hospital plan again.

Moms of multiples should definitely fill out this survey. Because of all the publicity John & Kate plus 8 have caused and the statistics people throw around regarding divorce among parents of multiples MOST has initiated this survey. The primary figures for divorce among multiples parents is pretty low. The national rate of divorce is between 40-50%. Though I do think most of the online community is married so the results may be a bit on that side. But really, how can any survey be across the board?

Let's get down to business! - contest, new pics & a cool link

It's CONTEST time! Here is your chance to win a great new and totally cute diaper from Cutiepoops!



First let me tell you a little about Adrian who is the Everything behind Cutiepoops.

"Ever since I became a mom, I've done various jobs working from home so that I could stay at home with my kids. After I had my 3rd baby I had a hard time finding someone to babysit for again. So I decided if I couldn't find a job to do at home I'd at least try to save money where ever I could. I decided to switch to cloth diapers because it was a great way to save money. A little scary to think about trying, but it will save me around $2000 between the two boys I still have in diapers. I ordered 12 Bum Genius diapers for $217. Love them, they work great, but they are expensive. I needed more since 12 was not enough for two boys. I decided there had to be other diapers out there that worked that were not as expensive. I found a gal on Ebay who sold some AIO diapers for a great price so I bought 3 to try out. Big mistake, they leaked right from the start, they didn't keep the skin dry, and they took forever to dry. I've been a crafty person most of my life so I decided that I could make my own (how hard could it be, right?) I grew up with a mother who sewed all the time and she was very good at it. I was sure that some of that talent rubbed off on me. The first few I made were redo's of the ones I bought off of Ebay. I used vinyl shower curtain liners for the waterproof layer, I found this stuff called wicking jersey for the layer against the skin and I decided to stick with microfiber for the inserts (same as Bum Genius). I turned these AIO diapers to pocket diapers and they worked! I was so excited! I went out and bought some more fabric to make a few more. I had a friend who was wanting to make the switch to cloth too and she suggested I sell my diapers. I decided to use her daughter as a guinea pig before going public. The diapers were working great, but I really liked the suede cloth that was on the Bum Genius diapers. So I found a great supplier and started making them with suede cloth instead of the wicking jersey. It took me a little while to perfect my pattern to get it just right. I looked at several different brands and took features I liked about them and a few of my own to get my diaper to where it is today. I look back and laugh at some of those first diapers I made trying to create a pattern."



"After I went public and had a few orders under my belt I hit my fist snag.... there was a defective batch of the vinyl that went out. I couldn't take the chance of the vinyl going bad again so I needed to find another waterproof fabric to use. My friend who was testing out my diapers for me had suggested that I use nylon instead. She had some diapers that used nylon. I decided it was the way to go, and since it's an actual fabric, it won't get rips in it. So I sent out a few free diapers to those who got the defective batch and have used a urethane coated nylon ever since. I only want to use the best fabrics out there for cloth diapers. I also want to keep my prices down so that quality cloth diapers can be affordable to anyone on a budget. I've managed to find great suppliers for all of the fabrics and notions I use. I share my savings with all my customers."



"I have been very blessed over these past 8 months that I've been in business to see my little diaper company grow and grow. I have a very supportive husband who encourages me every step of the way. If you'd have asked me 5 years ago if I'd be using cloth diapers I would have laughed. But I love cloth diapers, they are so easy to use and not at all as gross as I would have imagined. I am very lucky that I have found something to do to help out my family that I enjoy."


Shannon here again. I took some photos of Blake & Madison in the diaper Adrian sent us to review. The rest of the diaper pictures are my cute twins! Madison was pretty grumpy so most of her shots don't show her face. :-)


My awesome friend, Molly, introduced me to the world of cloth diapers. My reaction was pretty much the same as Adrian's was. Cloth diapers? Laugh. Laugh. No way. When Molly educated me about the modern wonders of using cloth I was hooked. We have been using the same batch of diapers we purchased before the babies were born. A friend of ours posted a few pictures of the cloth diapers she would be using when her baby was born. They were so cute! I checked out Cutie Poops and contacted Adrian to see if I could review them & have a contest. She was so sweet and loved the idea. I've been using the diaper she sent for a couple of weeks now. We love it! It is very fashionable, not too bulky, easy to clean & it fits both babies very different bodies well. I definitely recommend these diapers to anyone.



If you haven't ever tried cloth diapers and wondered where to start look no further then Cutiepoops!

Here is how to enter the contest to win your very own super cute cloth diaper from Cutiepoops. The winner will be chosen with a random generator and the comment checked to make sure :

First and mandatory entry - Go to Cutiepoops and come back here to leave a comment letting me know what your favorite fabric is.

Any or all of the additional entry options are open to you after the first one is met. Leave a seperate comment for each entry
2. Check out my fine art photography - comment here telling me what your favorite photo is by the type (such as City Details), number & why you like it. Just cuz is a perfectly acceptable reason! If you would like to buy some great prints even better! Here is a discount code to get 15% off!!! Use the code: LoveIT. Purchasing my artwork will get you 5 extra entries which I will enter for you. Some fabulous new stuff will be added this week including some old cars from the 20's to 50's.
3. Become a follower and/or subscriber to this blog.
4. Become a follower and/or subscriber to my photography blog.
5. Let me know what your favorite photos are on either this blog or my photography blog (not a photo from this post).
6. Become a fan of S & G Photography on Facebook. Comment here letting me know you became a fan.
7. Book an appointment for your own photography session. We are in Raleigh, NC and often travel. We are most often in SLC or Phoenix. If you do not live or travel to the Raleigh, SLC or the Phoenix areas you can email a friend who does to refer them to S & G Photography for an entry. Just copy me in the email. sandgphotography@cox.net. Comment here or I will enter a comment for you.
8. Comment letting me know something you would like to learn about any aspect of photography! I would like to have more sharing and instruction on my photography blog for all levels of learning.
9. Become a fan of my friends, Rick and Liz, hoping to adopt group on Facebook 'Help Rick & Elizabeth grow their family'. Getting the word out to help these great people become parents is a fabulous thing to do. You never know when or how you or someone else will run into a potential birth mom!



The contest is open until 7/31/09. I will use a random generator to determin the winner. Make sure to leave your email in the comment if it does not show up in my notification. If you are unsure put your email into your commnet. I will announce here and email the person who wins with instructions on picking your fabric for your custom diaper! The person who wins will have 48 hours to contact me back.

I'm realizing this would be a monster post if I add anymore photos. Well, who cares. I'll add them anyway.

We had an excellent time swimming with friends. The kids were all twitterpated when they realized Blake loved having his sopping wet hat lobbed at his face AND that I let them do it! All of us had a blast. Madison was enjoying her Little Lumpa Love way of sitting in one spot observing all the happenings around her.




Here are more of the bubble blowing pictures I promised. I really do need to get in some photos! Yet again, I've not been in a photo for weeks. Guy sweetly ordered a remote for my camera so hopefully we'll get this corrected very soon.


Check out the link below if you are a photography lover. I am soooo hoping to win the Lightroom mentoring! I've been putting off learning how to use my Lightroom for way tooo long.
The JAG Game

Wish me luck! Tomorrow is my laser eye surgery. I'm way excited about it but not looking forward to the 'maybe' things that can happen. The biggest common one being vision fluctuations for a few days. With no corrective lenses it will be weird if it happens to me. Hope not!

30 days of summer - Day 16 - Marbles Museum last week

Ah, I think it will be quite a while before they get good at feeding themselves. Until then I'm still giving them mostly finger food or shoveling it in for them.


My friend Lisa & I took our kids to Marbles Museum. The kids all had a lot of fun. Kendell definitely had a great time making sure the babies were entertained & cared for.


So far we have been 2-3 times and haven't done the same thing twice yet! It isn't a very big place, but the kids tend to focus on one thing for a while. We also haven't stayed longer then 1 1/2 hours. That is more then enough time with two one year olds just about anywhere. Especially when they haven't quite figured out how to nap consistently.


Only 5 more days until my laser eye surgery!

Only a few hours until we go see the new Harry Potter movie!

30 days of summer - Day 15 - outside, details & balls

Blakey's belly. His belly is so solid and sticks out far! I love it. He has such a male figure while Madison has such a girlie figure.


Madison is so girlie with all of her movements. Look at her hand here with the soft finger movements to pull down her shirt in the back. And why is she fixing her shirt at 14 moths old? Weirdo. Her dirty hands are a testament to how many times she still falls down when walking.


The top four shots are so funny. There is Madison minding her own business. Here comes Blake to get right up in her business. Blake notices me so he leans all the way back on the steps with Madison eagerly checking on what he is doing while holding his hand. Blake makes a silly face to see if he can get a reaction!
The rest of the shots are of them playing with the balls while we waited for daddy to return home for his forgotten lunch. They both eagerly watched him approach though they took a while to go over to the car. Blake tried to lift the door handle to get into the car.

Storyboard design

30 days of summer - Day 14 - shopping, cleaning & fun

I've been having a ton of fun playing with my new camera lens. Really... A lot of fun. Today the kids were being thoroughly entertained by Guy blowing bubbles while I happily snapped away. This is just one of the gems I'll be sharing with you when I get caught up posting photos.

We have been slowly figuring out our Blake likes things neat, orderly and in their place. He doesn't put things in order or pick up his toys yet. He usually just grunts and fusses until we follow him to whatever he wants fixed.

Ah, shopping. Guy and I almost always go shopping together. We always have, and I think we always will. He hurries me along, and I slow him down a little. This way we spend just the right amount of time in the store. We also will often question a purchase the other wants to make so we can determine if the purchase is something we want, need, can afford & will use.

The kids still love to play on opposite sides of the door. Either both of them on the opposite side of me or opposite from each other. I think we all get pretty giggly just about any time they do it.

30 days of summer - Day 13 - 4th of July breakfast

Guy is rushing me off to bed so I don't have much time to type. These shots are from our church 4th of July breakfast. It was a nice way to begin a morning at the most beautiful home. This first shot is from the ponds dock looking at the back of the house.



The next group of shots is about all of the photos I took there. I guess that means I am doing better about not taking soooo many photos all the time. The first on is Ivy. She is so cute. The next one is of Blake checking out the water from the dock. He wasn't so sure about the whole dock experience unless he was in daddy's lap. The next one is of the guys working together to fish out the badminton birdie. Great job, there! Then there is Madison looking at the hammock. The last two are of the kids hanging out on the dock. They were all so funny. I love the indecisiveness of youth.

More of baby Grace

(Oooops, this post was supposed to go on the Photography blog. Well, if you don't currently read the photography blog this is an example of what you are missing! Here is a link to the Photography Blog.)

I think I've finally settled on a blog design I love! YAY. It will take me a few more days to get everything up and running again with the new addition of a navigation bar below the header and some other links and choices down below the posts!

We are also close to finishing up the new website!!! YAY. Guy is the super star heading up the creation on the website while I get the pictures, investment details & other stuff ready for him to put it all together. I'm so glad he felt up to the challenge.

Here are some more photos from baby Grace's first photo shoot.

Most of the time, newborn babies have a somewhat vacant look in photos with their eyes open. Not this little sweetie! She looks alert and full of fun. Big sister is thrilled to begin her new roll too.


The sun shining right on her in the woodsy grass was really cool.


She did want to eat and stay awake quite a bit, but she closed her eyes just for my favorite shot.



If you are wondering a bit about what goes on during a newborn shoot to get the shots we do here are a few out takes. In the first shot below, all of our stuff is piled in a somewhat central location for us to take what we need for specific shots. In the second shot you can see how it often takes several people and a lot of patience to get many of the non bundled up shots. The shots we get are always worth the patience and teamwork!

Check out my photo blog & The Pioneer Woman

Check out the S & G Photography blog for some great new photos & designs as well as information on the new rate structure.

The Pioneer Woman is also giving away 3 (yes 3!) copies of Photoshop CS4 (the best!) today. Head on over there to enter. You can also make a purchase of a raffle ticket where the proceeds go to the LiveStrong Foundation for a chance to win a new Nikon camera!

Cute Madison

So I only had time to do this one thing today. I've been working on designing my new senior cards and some save the date announcements around taking care of the kids. Oh, I also answered emails, took appointments, had someone over to pick up pictures, went to the bank, got Chinese food, talked to at least 6 family members on the phone & had a great tickle session with the kids.



Also, check out the S & G Photography blog for some great new photos & designs as well as information on the new rate structure.

My eyes

I have a lot of pictures to share with you including all my 30 days of summer shots over the last week. The next two days I should have a lot more time to blog & share some photos with you!

Back in the day, and I mean way back in the day, I thought wearing glasses would be really cool. Were we all so dumb at the age of 12-13? During the summer it was always time to spend a few weeks with my dad in Georgia. My dad LOVES to go see movies as much as I do so I came up with a really cool plan to convince him I needed glasses. So here it is...

We would go to the movies. Once there he would head up to the top row where we always sat. About half way up I would interject my need to sit closer to the screen because it would be to hard for me to see from WAY up there.

Ironically, here is what really happened. We arrived at the movie theater where we promptly got in line for the good stuff (popcorn is yum yum yum). He saw a movie poster across the lobby which was black with a large symbol on it and a short word beneath it. He asked me what movie it was for. I told him Batman. He asked how I knew to which I replied it said so under the symbol. He asked me if it said that under the symbol. I told him it sure did. He immediately steered me in the direction of the sign asking me to say when I could really read the word to him as we walked closer to it. A little more then halfway across the lobby it became clear. It was the date the movie came out! Guess where we went to the next day?

I clearly remember my first car ride with glasses on. The world was amazingly colorful and detailed. I could actually see individual leaves on trees from the car. How cool is that? Well, really if you saw the glasses I (yes me) picked out you would be rolling on the floor laughing. They were a semi clear plastic with rainbow colored lenses (blue on top transitioning to red on bottom). They also were big enough to go over my eyebrows and halfway down my cheeks! lol

From the age of about 19 I started to wear contacts. That was another life changing event for me. LOVE contacts until I grew to hate having to depend on them over the years. About 3 weeks ago my eyes started rejecting my contacts. They would no longer stay on my pupil. It was crazy uncomfortable, blurry and so not fun. Guy and I talked about LASIK eye surgery. We decided if I was a good candidate then it would be a great investment in our future.

Surgery is scheduled for the 20th at 2:00 PM. I think this is going to be an amazing thing! Next will be laser hair removal for Guy. He can't grow a beard or stash or goat. Nope. Just call him patchy. Why spend loads of money on razors and shaving cream when it could all be magically made to go away. Lasers are like magic to me.

Please pray for Guys mom and two sisters! His mum is having knee replacement tomorrow (she found out today!). His sister is having heart surgery tomorrow to repair a genetic hole in her heart they just found! His other sister is 29 weeks pregnant with high blood pressure so we are hoping she doesn't become preeclamptic.

Another lapse, whoops!

It's been really busy around here. Sorry for not posting much on our blog. I'll get right back into the groove again tomorrow. On the up note I am 100% up to date on our personal pictures. Our business ones are pretty close to being all done too. I love having Sunday's set aside to only be able to do things with our personal life. YAY!

This first share is a mat/storyboard I created last week for the photography business. Let me know what you think of it though it really doesn't go with this photo! The photo is one Guy took of the kids in their favorite play spot. They have a lot of fun and work out a lot of kinks in their relationship in the laundry baskets!


The next series of shots were taken on Friday. I have more to share with you, but I am headed to bed! :-)

30 days of summer - Day 13 Crazy funky day yesterday

I found a cool new application to use the end of this week when I get to have my first product review and contest! It's called MckLinky which is a cool way to let people link to your blog for contests and other stuff. The blog I saw it on is a great photographer, interesting and has fun contests (that I'll never win with my luck).

My friend, Rachael, is having a week of contests in honor of her triplets 2nd birthday!

I've been working furiously on photos the last couple days, but I don't have any ready to share with you tonight. Until tomorrow!