My Pretty Flower Child

First time My Girl in the grass...The prettiest flower I have ever seen.

Soldier

We went to the Army surplus store and My Boy insisted that we buy him a pair of ACUs just like his Papa. My Hubster was more than delighted to buy his mini-me a pair, and I was elated because that meant I could take his picture in them.

 My Boy played around in the backyard, ever so proudly, telling his Papa that he was going to work. He even marched in place and saluted my Hubster LOL.

I still can't help but grin at the fact of how much my son is a carbon copy of my husband. They look so much alike.

Just Us, a Blanket, and Our Imagination

This afternoon was a great afternoon. It was just us, a blanket, and our imagination. We spent the afternoon playing outside in the backyard, enjoying the beautiful weather. My Hubster and I enjoyed the giggles and laughs from our son, and the cooing and babbling from our daughter.

My Hubster tossed our children up in the air, and flew them up like superman... and superwoman.

We watched all the different birds fly by. My Boy of course, naming each one..."a robin, a bluejay, a crow..." We also looked at the clouds and imagined that they were different things. My Boy somehow saw an elephant drinking water.

All in all, we had a wonderful afternoon. No television, no video games, no money spent. Just us, a blanket, and our imagination.

A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words

I love my dear husband. I also love photographing him. I know I may be a little bias, but I think he is absolutely drop dead gorgeous. In another lifetime, if he were a few inches taller, I think he could be a model :).I love his cute protruding ears, his bushy eyebrows, the cute indent on his chin, his long eyelashes, his beautiful hazel brown eyes, his sweet slender lips, his round bald head, and I could go on forever in a day. We are high school sweethearts and ten years later I still feel like that 17 year old teenager anxiously waiting to see my boyfriend during passing period.

However, my Hubster dislikes hates taking pictures. It either has to be a special occasion, anniversary, birthday, pictures with the kids, or I have to bribe him. Most of the time, I just take my camera and click away, hoping that I'll get a few solo shots of him.

This past weekend, I struck gold.

Posing for me on this park bench? No, watching his son run around.



Giving me a model pose? No, he just turned around when I called, "Papa!"

 

Thank goodness for my telephoto lens. I was about 25 feet away.



We were just sitting on a blanket watching our son feed the ducks while our girl was napping.
Camera is always ready, and captured between our conversation.



It is always a challenge taking pictures of my kids and my husband, but a challenge I love. I always tell my Hubster that he's going to thank me one day for taking the many pictures I take when we are old and gray and look back on our life because we will have the memories saved in our pictures.

Ribbons, Flowers, Bows, Pigtails, Oh My!

I love ribbons, hairbows, tutus, braids, headbands, hats, flowers, and everything girly... especially pigtails. As My Girl's hair gets thicker and longer, I get excited to try and see if her pigtails will stay in. We have now upgraded to alligator clips from velcro bows! However, my daughter's hair is still too short and thin, sigh.

So for now, our flower headbands will still do the trick.

Raising a Teenager

My Hubster was loading up the dishwasher and our son wanted to help him. I was in the living room nursing our daughter. My Hubster had the water on hot and our son had pulled up his stool to the sink wanting to help.

Hubster: No son! It's hot!
My Boy: I help you Papa.
Hubster: No, the water is hot. Do you want an owie? You're going to get burned.
My Boy: No!
Hubster: Go play. I'm almost done.
My Boy: It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair Papa!

I quickly jumped up from the couch with My Girl and couldn't help but laugh and asked him what he had said. Clear as day, he repeated, "It's not fair!" Wow, I didn't know we had a teenager already!

5 Beautiful Kiddos

I met up with an Army wife friend of mine who wanted pictures of her beautiful kids. Just seven months earlier, we were both pregnant with our baby girls and I took her maternity pictures at Central Texas College. This time around for this photo shoot, we kept the same location, but I would be photographing her five rambunctious, full of energy, giggly kiddos.

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and for the first time my Hubster and kids joined me for the shoot. As you already know, My Boy absolutely loves animals so they were occupied by feeding the ducks, scouting out for turtles and cat fish at the man-made miniature lake.

Words of Wisdom for the Day

Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner. - Anonymous

My Silly Boy

I absolutely hate it when my kids are sick. It is the worst feeling because I feel so helpless when I cannot take away their pain. I hate it. I really, really hate it.

Recently, my kids have been sick with a cold, runny noses, and low grade fever on and off.

My son sneezes and he has a runny nose.
My Boy: Haaaaccchhhhhooooooo!
Me: Baby, wipe and blow your nose now, please!
My Boy: No, I licked it up already.

The Photographer Being Photographed

It's almost that time again. No, not spring break. Or summer time. Deployment. For OPSEC reasons I cannot disclose specific dates or locations, and honestly, we do not even know the exact details. What I do know is my husband's deployment is just around the corner, he will be in the Middle East, he will be gone for a long time, and his wife, daughter, and son will be missing him terribly.

To help my kids get through the deployment, I love having many pictures around to have my husband's presence in our daily lives. As you already know, I LOVE taking pictures of my family, but I am seldom in front of the camera. This past weekend we took our family pictures in the quaint town of Salado.

Ever since I got into photography, I would follow different photography blogs. I came across Julie Rivera Photography because she was a local photographer and I enjoyed her clean, crisp, and amazing work. Our family was very privileged to work with such an amazing photographer. Check out her blog with a post on our photo session.

My Husband's Leading Lady

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express. ~Joseph Addison

My Hubster is a man's man. He loves football, paintballing, video games, fishing, working out, and all of the manly-man things. Above many things, he is also serving our country as a proud infantryman in the US Army. And just to top off his testerone train, he was shot nearly two years ago by an accidental discharge only a couple feet away from him by a 9mm while serving in Iraq. The bullet went through his left shoulder and exited out his clavicle.  Even after being shot, he refused all pain medications, and endured one month of physical therapy while still in Iraq. After the month of healing he put his ACUs and boots back on and soldiered on. True story.

For the ten years I've known my husband, I've never known him to be very sensitive or an emotional person. He is very practical and a no non-sense kind of guy. Until our daughter came along is when I saw a different side of my husband, and quite frankly, my husband saw a different side to himself as well. It is an amazing sight to see their relationship blossom as father and daughter. I could already see that our daughter has him wrapped around her little finger.

Taglish

The sun was out and there was a light breeze, and we were enjoying a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I was in the living room playing with My Girl on the floor while she was partaking on her daily dose of tummy time. My Hubster and son were outside bird watching because my husband had filled the bird feeder with seeds. I had the back door open to let the fresh breeze come through the house and enjoyed listening to the father and son conversation...

My Boy: Papa! Papa! Look, a bug!
Hubster: Okay.
My Boy: Come here Papa!
(Hubster proceeds closer to take a look as to what my son is pointing at)
Hubster: Where is it?
My Boy: Right there! (points to the bug only centimeters away) Patay it Papa! Patay it!
Hubster: No, I'm not going to kill it son.
My Boy: You need hammer Papa?
Hubster: No, I'm not going to kill it with a hammer.
My Boy: Stomp on it?
Hubster: No!
My Boy: Okay, bug is not patay.

patay(pah-tie): (Tagalog) dead, not working, turn off.

My Princess

There are no words to describe how in LOVE I am with this face. 

My Sunshine

Every morning for the past six months, I have been so very blessed to wake up to this beautiful, sweet, and adorable little girl. She is such a blessing and  I love her to pieces. My Hubster tells me more and more that our girl is looking like me.

It seems like yesterday, I was just finding out that I was pregnant with My Girl. Time is definitely flying, and I am trying to savor and soak up my baby girl every chance I get.

Poetry

My Boy and I were headed to the store because I needed to buy some materials for my art lesson for the following day. It had rained earlier in the day and the sun had just peered out through the clouds. As I took My Boy out of his car seat and proceeded to walk through the parking lot, he began looking around...

My Boy:

The sun is beautiful.

The clouds is beautiful.

The leaves are dancing.

No, the tree is dancing.

It's windy.

Me: What are you talking about baby?

My Boy: You like my poem Mama?

Me: Where did you learn that from?

My Boy: Oh, Little Einstein cartoon.

Right about then, my heart smiled. At the age of two, I don't think my Hubster or I were reciting or creating original poetry. I did not know I had a little poet in the making.