Bridals and Wedding Photography

jamesharward@gmail.com

Soggy . . .

Ella woke up early this morning and had her bath before Addison. When someone is in the bathroom though, she just can't stay away! She began by throwing a shoe of hers into the water, shortly followed by the toilet bowl scrubber. After quickly removing Addie from the tub, emptying the water, scrubbing the tub, and refilling it again, Addison resumed her bath. I was careful to make sure there wasn't anything else in reach for Ella to dunk as I crossed the room. Ella, however, decided that throwing things in just wasn't enough anymore and climbed in herself. I watched it happen, kind of in slow motion. She recently learned how to climb in and out of the tub, but hadn't tried to climb in when there was water in there. Her first look is one of shock. The second is pure distress, especially when she realized I wasn't going to get her out right away (I was getting the camera). I think she'll think twice before climbing into the tub next time. ;)

Unfortunately, she was wearing her only other pair of shoes when she climbed in. Let's hope they dry in the sun before we need to leave!

Loads of Fun

I can't say Ella really enjoyed her ride in the wheelbarrow. Her expression was one of "I'm not that impressed" the whole time.

She sure is cute though!

"Princess Sleeping Beauty" (When she's in her bathing suit she's "Swimming Beauty") riding her car.

While James was picking up the compost, the girls and I had a picnic in the backyard.

Saturday was spent hauling loads of compost to the backyard to prep the soil for the garden. James had the brunt of the work - loading and unloading more than once! It is so nice to have it all ready though. I couldn't do it by myself and now it's all ready for the seeds I want to plant. I'm excited. The peas are already done, soon to be followed by carrots, beets, lettuce, and maybe some cabbages. Addie and I are starting seedlings for tomatoes and peppers, which are just beginning to sprout. She has loved to water them and watch them grow.

Does anyone else get this excited about a garden? I guess it's another thing that I can measure/see the result of. Some days it feels like I don't accomplish anything and I HAVE to do something that shows that something was accomplished. Like on Friday, I made a few burp cloths because I needed a physical thing to prove I'd actually done something besides change bums. Maybe it's just me, but I suspect other mothers of young children feel the same way.

We ended the weekend today with turning on the grill for the first time this year! Teriyaki chicken burgers with homemade buns and pineapple. Heaven. These have been on my meal plan for a few weeks without coming to fruition because of lousy weather, etc. My tastebuds were happy.

And now to get some rest before beginning the new week . . .

Gift/Discovery

I made these fabric balls/hemp ball for a gift for my sister-in-law. I had another set that was blue/cream/black, but it went out the door before I got a picture of them. I had no time to do it before hand because I literally finished it at the last moment. They were fun to make and they look better in person, I think. Good thing to do while watching a movie. Speaking of which, Ali, Lynette, and Lyndsey were over Saturday night to have an Anne of Green Gables marathon and the power went out! It was one of those exciting nights that you hoped would happen when you were little so you could light the candles. The snow, apparently, broke some tree limbs which fell onto a power line a few houses down and there were some pretty loud noises and fireworks (so I am told - everyone seemed to hear them but us b/c our movie was loud). We spent the rest of the evening playing games by candlelight, pinning fabric balls, and myself laughing over nothing (I suppose I was a bit giddy at having adult interaction). Thanks for the fun night and the help ladies! We'll have to reschedule our movie marathon . . .

This is how I just found Addie. She got into my makeup. Again. I don't think she was going for the black eye look, because she was quite surprised when I told her to go look in the mirror.

Birthday Girl!

It's hard to believe little Ella's age is no longer reckoned by months! Time flew by. The day was celebrated with multiple choruses of "Happy Birthday" by Addison and myself (most instigated by Addie - she loved it!), along with a lot of food prep, followed by a family party later in the evening. Here are a few highlights:

Reward Chart

We've been struggling with obedience around our house lately and I decided to do something about it! Here's what Addie and I came up with:
Every time she obeys the FIRST time I ask her the frog gets to hop onto another lily pad until eventually is "catches" the reward with its tongue.

I made it short on purpose so she doesn't lose interest and the reward with constantly be changing. Some rewards are simple, others are bigger - like going to jumping jacks. It'll help me stop what I'm doing and focus on doing more with her. That in and of itself will probably be the biggest factor in better behavior.

Addie helped me make it every step of the way, painting and all. She really enjoyed it and is excited to use it.

Lady in Red

I don't think I've ever owned a red dress before. My sister-in-law was getting rid of some clothes and I stumbled across this pretty much brand new dress that I thought was pretty cute. The only problem was the size and I decided to try my hand at taking it in.

Not too many problems arose. In the pic, the gathers don't look too great, but they do look better in person, I promise. :)

From the leftover scraps that I cut off, I decided to make a flower to add character to the dress. I like the way it turned out. A safety pin holds it on so I can remove it before washing the dress.

Next time I put the dress on, hopefully my hair will look decent. :)