Hot Shots Soccer

Chris has been playing on a soccer team this spring. They have soccer classes for kids that are too young to play in the regular soccer leagues. Chris will not be 3 until the end of July, so we went ahead and put him in with the younger 2-year old class since that is more the age of kids he will be in school with. Plus, to be totally honest, since he is not in daycare or anything I was a little afraid he would not respond well to the structure of a class so I didn't want him to be behind with the big-2 and 3's class. Today was the last day of the spring season. We have had so much fun! Chris has really come a long way in the past couple of months also.

He learned how to wait patiently for his turn:

made a few friends (and flirted with girls):

lots of things on the obstacle course:

how to pass...

and SCORE!

What would a 2-year-old class be without a little bit of DRAMA?

This is his favorite part. They put their hands together and yell, 1-2-3...HOT SHOTS!

At the end he got his trophy. He was so proud!

butterfly

We were outside and this sweet butterfly kept following Chris. It was really nice and let him hold it. He thought it was pretty cool. I had to take a picture even though I was afraid he'd squish it. I am happy to say that the butterfly left us safely, off to "find his mommy butterfly."

happy birthday to me!

Today I am 25 years old. Or "too much old" according to Chris. I love my birthday, though I really am not crazy about the idea of getting older anymore. We will probably go shopping today, and then this evening we will eat with my family and a couple of friends. I think Buddy and I are going to go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall tonight. I've heard it is really funny.

Baby Emma.

Emma's parents wanted me to take a few pictures of them to give to their parents. I have a long way to go before I can really feel good about taking pictures for other people, but since I know them and need the practice I figured it would be okay. Emma is such a precious baby. She's 4 months old, and she has the most adorable smile. But she HATES cameras. No, she doesn't get upset like some kids do. But she likes to show the camera her "stank eye" or at the very least a little frown. So I took some of her with her mommy:

and her Daddy:

And when we were done, we headed back inside. When we got to the porch and my camera was down, wouldn't you know it, she was all smiles. I tried to capture them and this was the best I could get before the mean looks came back. Too bad her other arm was cut off.

Afterwards she played with her big brother a little bit and I managed to sneak up behind them.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to me, my mom, and all my mommy friends. Being a mom is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. My son brings me joy and laughter every day. I am lucky to have a mom who is like a best friend to me. To all the moms out there, you know what you do, and you deserve to be celebrated!

summer fun

It's starting to get hot. It's only the beginning of May so I know this is nothing compared to what it will be like in a couple months. Still it's in the mid-90's and it is pretty much too hot to play outside for most of the day. Today we decided to break out the kiddie pool in the backyard and let Chris swim. I think we need a bigger one though, because Buddy and I were not enjoying ourselves as much as he did.

prom 2008

Tonight Jodie and Jake went to prom. They are only sophomores but they were able to go with a group of friends. Becca and Kody came over too and waited for the limo to pick them up. Jodie was absolutely beautiful. She looked like a princess. Jake was fun and crazy as usual.

Jodie and JakeKody and Becca

Finally the limo showed up. It was huge! Everyone got out to take a few pictures then they headed off for their exciting evening. Have fun everybody!

crazy.

I love my crazy boy! He cracks me up. Last night we were discussing birthdays, and I told him it was almost my birthday. I asked him "do you know how old Mommy is going to be?" and he said "TOO MUCH OLD!" I'm already not thrilled about turning 25 (I know...) so that was not very nice. He makes me laugh about 100 times a day at least. I love the silly things kids say at this age.

33 months.

My baby will be three in just three months. Three months ago was when we started Buddy's training, time has certainly flown by since then! It's thoroughly depressing how fast time goes by. I need to start thinking about a birthday party soon. I know how bad I am, and I know next thing I know it will be the middle of July and I'll be scrambling to get things done. Happy 33 months to my sweet little guy!

funk.

I am officially in a funk. Notice all the empty spaces for April? Yeah, I've been taking pictures. But I am so freaking frustrated because I want to make them better. I can not figure out how to do things on Photoshop. There are lots of great tutorials out there. I just don't understand them. It will say, click on this, or do this...and I don't know what "this" is. Not a clue. I feel so totally stupid about this stuff and I hate it. I see lots of books on Amazon too, but I don't know which one, if any, will tell me things from the very beginning. I think I need to try and sneak into a high school class or something. Gaaahhh!

Mommy and Chris

A couple days ago, Tracey told us a very sad story about losing her mom when she was young. And she urged us all to take pictures of ourselves with our kids, because you never know what may happen. A kid is not going to see a picture and think "ugh, she was fat" or "her hair looks like crap"...all they will see is their Mommy. I know that is true- we don't have many pictures at all of my grandpa who died three years before I was born, but I love the ones we do have. This evening we went shopping with my mom, Jodie, and Jared. Since I was halfway presentable I decided to go ahead and have Jared take a picture of Chris and me together. Unfortunately Chris was not digging the idea, so he was whiny. I still like it though. I am going to make an effort to take more pictures of our family together. I managed to sneak a few snapshots of my mom too.

Happy Anniversary!

On this day three years ago, Buddy and I got married. We had such a wonderful wedding. You would never guess that we planned the whole thing as fast as we did. Of course, it helped that I was working at the studio at the time, so I had the hook-up on pictures, plus called in some favors for the location, dress, flowers, tux...okay pretty much everything. I really do wish I could relive that day because it went by in such a blur.
Today we didn't get to celebrate. That is the downside of starting a new position at work- Buddy wasn't able to request days off in time. So he is at work all evening. I know we already went out the other night but it's still kinda sad. Next year we will have to do something fun.

date night.

This Thursday will be our anniversary, but Buddy has to work so we had our date night tonight instead. We were hungry for Mexican food so we went and stuffed our faces. We were so full that we didn't even have much room for candy at the movies. We went to see 21, about the college students who count cards and win all the money at Blackjack. It was a cool movie. It made me want to go to Vegas one day! Anyway we had fun, but at the end of the night I still missed Chris so we went and picked him up from my mom.

crashed out.

Chris was so tired tonight, but kept insisting that he was NOT. I got him to read some books before bed, and he didn't even make it through The Very Hungry Caterpillar before he was crashed out.

awesome.

Jodie is awesome. Seriously if I had a little (or a lot...) more talent and creativity we could have a blast! She is really down for taking any silly picture, and can totally keep a straight face long enough for it. So we did some sarcastic glamour shots and laughed our asses off. It really was just for the hell of it but I thought she looked pretty awesome anyway. What can I say, she takes after me!