The Epitome of Calvin and Z's relationship...

This boy adores his sister...unfortunately, she doesn't quite feel the same way about him.

Reasons you should never reenact pinterest photos...Rani edition

My friend Nat found this: http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/reasons-you-should-never-reenact-pinterest-photos And thought of me, so I thought I'd share my own Pinterest reenactments:

 So I loved this idea, but since I'm not a photographer, I wasn't willing to spend the money on a mini ladder or 6 crib mattresses with cute bedding. Instead I attempted the look by cheaping out with just pillows and quilts...and it shows!

I feel in love with this sweet picture on Pinterest and just knew this was going to be the sibling shot that I wanted to get, however age gap does seem to make a difference here. Instead of being a sweet little photo, I have something slightly creepy of the kiddee pornish variety.

And then we have the Christmas shots...

How do you get your little baby to hold the edge of the box so cute and peak out? I don't know! My baby didn't want to cooperate at all, and this was the best shot. She didn't want to look at me, and she kept slipping back down inside the box, and ya, this just wasn't working at all.

Then I tried the wrapped up light thing...ya again, I'm not a photographer clearly.

This one actually wasn't too unsuccessful  however...after taking the time to kiss her all over with my darkest lipstick, those dang lips didn't show up at all. I kept one real lip on her (top right corner on her forehead), that was the brightest one! So I had to photoshop the rest on. I could have spent more time, and manipulated the lips more to make them look more realistic, but meh...sometimes I just get lazy I guess. Oh, by the way, my baby hates smiling for pictures too.

Then for my favorite...yes I did try the cute baby in a pumpkin. And YES, she hated it!

Stay tuned for more Pinterest reenactments coming your way soon!

Mother's Day

I see all these cute posts from mom's and their kids are making them adorable things, their sons write them adorable notes, or do something completely adorable for them. So today I ask Calvin, "Hey, do you know what holiday is coming up?" Angrily, he says, "Yes! And I hate it!" Being optimistic, I'm thinking he must not really know what holiday is coming up, I then say, "So what holiday is coming?" He points to me and says, "Mom day." I guess I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for that sweet note or picture...

Not Responsible

Calvin: Mom, can you help me find my beyblades?
Me: Well, where did you play with them last?
Calvin: I don't know.
Me: Wouldn't it be easier if you kept track where you played with them at?
Calvin:  I'm not responsible enough.

Touché...

Newborn Pics

Here are some of the newborn pics I took. FYI, I highly, highly recommend getting a professional to take your newborn baby pics,and believe me when I say this...They earn every penny!

First, I will mention, newborn skin is really blotchy, and shows EVERYTHING, so what your photographer doesn't mention, is the hours they spend photoshopping just the skin alone. Next, when you are photographer/nurser/mom/trying to work vigorously during your little one's deepest sleep under bright lights, in the room being heated with a space heater (because all the websites mention its important to keep that little naked body warm to keep it asleep), and your thyroid is probably way out of whack because you no longer have one and you just had a baby, so who knows what dose of meds you should be on...let me just say sweating is an understatement here.

So let me start with my uber photoshopped best shots.

Baby in a Box Showing But Crack = Baby in a box showing that her bum didn't get wiped quite good enough after her last poo. This required lots of photoshopping.

I liked this setup, however I couldn't get the hand out from in front of her face, when I finally did she moved her entire body into an unflattering position, then she peed all over the blanket.

The next are pretty sweet, and just required lots of skin deblotching and diaper marks to be taken out.

Now lets go to the ones that didn't work:


This basket one was taken 1 week previous to the one above. First, its amazing how much a baby grows in a week. But the problem with week 1 basket photos, is that she woke up! And since Zander spent the first two months of her life cross-eyed, you can see why these shots weren't working out so great.

So one week later, I try again...

My how my baby grew, so fitting in the basket became much harder, I tried everything, including my foot thinking I would just try to photoshop it out, but then I realize that would look dumb because then she would look like her head was just floating there. I got 1 basket shot out of 400.

Then I tried this cute idea I found on Pinterest, only it was with a sibling pair that had a smaller age gap between them, so even though Calvin is wearing jeans, it looks a bit creepy perverted maybe kiddee pornish.

See I swear, wearing jeans.

And last we have the "Princess and the Pea." The idea is there, but as you can see, the execution was lacking.

Zander Professional Hospital Pic

Hospital pics! This amazing hat and booties was made by my uber talented cousin Chrissy!

Calvin's First Day of Kindergarten

Calvin started Kindergarten this year. He goes to Pioneer School of the Arts. I was so happy he finally got into this school. Boise/Meridian has pretty much cut art from the budget, so this is the only way I could get him in a school that did Art. His teacher is Mrs. Dahle and he loves it! He is learning how to read even better, he had his site words down before he left preschool, but now he is actually reading. It's super fun to see his progression...what's not so fun, is I think he has grown 6 inches since school started. Even looking at this picture makes me sad. I am hoping to make it to the end of the year without buying new jeans, however the jeans that were too long when school started, are about a centimeter away from being floods!

Calvin's Diarama

This is what Calvin stayed busy doing while I was in the hospital.

More random first week or two shots...

Random Zander Pics in first week