Quick trip to the beach

Sunday morning Eric said, "You want to go to the beach after mass?"

And, I said, "OK!" without hesitating. (My spontaneous, decision-making husband is beginning to rub off on me!)

So, we threw a few things in the van, slathered on sunscreen, grabbed my camera and drove the hour and a half to Galveston Island. It was really windy but otherwise perfect weather. The sun was warm but the breeze kept us from sweating and everyone had a great day.

Clara got to put her toes in the ocean for the first time.


And, I got to take my new 85mm lens out for a spin. Love it!


We briefly tried to get a picture of all four kids together. We rarely get them all together at once so I'm trying to make an effort get some group pics. Much easier said than done!



Out of the 20 frames that I took, the best we could ever do was to have 2 out of 4 looking at the camera at once. They never stop moving! I also should know better than to have them facing into the sun. "It's too bright, Mama!"

Live and learn.

But, a little creative cropping can help salvage a few good pics.



It was a great day, but that evening Clara started to run a low fever and now she, Elizabeth and I are all nursing colds. Elizabeth hated to have to stay home today since it's the last week of school, but she's definitely enjoying the extra attention. Clara is sleeping a lot (which is why I actually got this blog post done!) and we're all taking is easy around here. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll all be back to our normal, crazy, messy, noisy, bouncy, energetic selves!

Have a great Tuesday!

So I've got a little story for you...

Yes, it's a story about photography (again!). Please bear with me! I will eventually write a post about something else. :)

About a year ago I was contacted by Getty Images, which is a stock photography company that is affiliated with flickr. They saw my photos on flickr and picked about a dozen or so that they wanted to make available for license. I was very excited to have my photography acknowledged in this way, but, honestly, I never thought anything would come of it. If anyone did want to license one of my images, I figured I'd make mere pennies out of the deal at most. Also, there are literally millions of images available on Getty and what was the likelihood of someone finding one of mine and then actually paying money to use it? In fact, I only finished the paperwork (model releases, etc) on two of the twelve images and the remainder languished in my inbox waiting to be completed.

Now fast forward to about a month ago. Eric fowarded me an email with a subject of "Royalties". I had no clue what the email was about (but I'm sure you know where this is headed). It was an email from PayPal showing that a nice little bit of money was deposited in our account from Getty Images. My jaw absolutely dropped!

It turns out that someone in Canada was making some kind of pamphlet and paid a chunk of money to license this picture to use in it. It's not even a picture that I like very much! And, I took it shortly after first getting my camera when I really didn't even know what I was doing!

So, how much were my royalties? While not an amazing amount of money, it was the first money I've earned since becoming a stay-at-home mom 8 years ago and it was (almost) enough for me to buy my newest toy...


It's an 85mm f/1.8 lens. It's fantastic for portraits and is great for low light photography and creates beautiful bokeh (the pretty blur in the background). I've only been able to play with it a little bit so far, but I think I'm really going to love it!

I may never get another one of my pictures licensed again, but at least now I can say that I'm a professional photographer (ha ha!). And, you can better believe that I'm finally getting the rest of the paperwork done on the remainder of the images that Getty requested just in case lightning does strike in the same place twice!

The Kids' Room Projects

Hobbies are funny things. They are such a gift because they give me a way to relax and as well as a creative outlet. But, sometimes I feel like my hobbies are just all about me and take away from family time. Of course, as with anything in life, I must strive for balance.

So, when my photography hobby both brings me joy as well as my family, then I feel like I've hit the jackpot. For instance, I did portraits of my in-laws for their 35th wedding anniversary. They hadn't had portraits made of just the two of them since their wedding, so they were way overdue and I was happy to offer my mediocre talents to help them. I also used some of my pictures to decorate our master bedroom and a bathroom.

Now I have my decorating focus shifting to the kids' rooms. They really need something on their walls. I wanted whatever it was to be very personal to each child, so we decided to photograph some of their favorite things and hang those pictures on the walls.

Elizabeth loves the Fancy Nancy books by Jane O'Conner and all things fancy. Combine spring wild flowers and her Fancy Nancy doll and we have the perfect subjects for the pictures for Elizabeth's room.







For the boys' room, we focused on Legos and Star Wars. I only have one of those pictures done so far and, believe me, it really tested my photoshopping skills!



I'm no graphic artist, but I think the results are good enough for the bedroom of an 8 year old and a 3 year old boy.

Hopefully I'll get these pictures completed and printed sometime soon. Then the goal will be to get them framed and hung on the wall. It's amazing how difficult it is for me to actually complete a project these days!

But, I wouldn't trade any of my four distractions for the world!

Birthday Boy!

Yesterday my littlest boy turned three! And, despite the fact that as of 8 am yesterday morning his mother had absolutely nothing prepared for his birthday (as in no presents, no cake, no decorations, nothing!!), she was able to overcome her tremendous case of "Bad Mommy" guilt and Gustin had a wonderful day.


The cake got baked and decorated.


And, Red Robin did the cooking for supper. (Mommy had to admit defeat and throw the homemade supper plans out the window.)


It really is ridiculous how much it costs for three kids meals of macaroni and cheese at a restaurant. I could have bought a couple of cases of the boxed stuff! But, pasta with cheese sauce sure does make a brand new three year old happy!

The presents (that Daddy sneaked out of work to buy) were a big hit. A miniature Rubik's cube and a Lightning McQueen bicycle.


I love you, Gustin. I really don't know how in the world you got so big so fast. You make me smile every single day and I can't imagine life with out you!


Happy Birthday Little Mister!

Jonathan's First Eucharist

Jonathan's first communion was yesterday afternoon and it was... beautiful. I was really surprised at how intensely moved I was as my oldest received the Body of Christ. It was like, for once, my mind, emotions, senses and soul were all aligned for a few brief moments and I could feel the eternalness (not a real word, I know) of the sacrament and it was palpable. Christ truly was present. Eric and I both had tears falling down our cheeks and I'm sure it is a day that none of us will ever forget. It seems like Jonathan aged about 10 years in the span of 5 minutes and that he will never be a little kid again. But, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

By the way, after Jonathan received the Eucharist Eric asked me for a tissue to wipe his eyes, but I was all out, so I handed him the next best thing I had - a spit up cloth.

"Is it clean?" he asked.

"Probably not," I replied.

The intensely spiritual moment was over and we were back to the reality of this amusing but imperfect world.

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This morning Jonathan was so excited to receive his "Second Eucharist". It was too cute!

Parenthood truly is a blessing that I in no way deserve. God is good!

More Clara

Clara rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time this morning...


... and got stuck ...


... and was not happy about it.


But that has absolutely nothing to do with these pictures, which are just plain cute.

Oh, the smiles (sigh) ...

It's impossible to get too many of them.

Bits and pieces of our days

I'm way behind on blogging so this is a catch up post. Here's what we've been up to lately!

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I recently stumbled across goodreads. Is anyone else on it? I absolutely love it so far. It's a social networking site as well as a place to organize lists of books, ones you have read or plan to read. You can review and rate books and follow what other people are reading. I used to keep lists of books in a word document (I wanted to remember all my favorites so I can share them with my kids when the reach appropriate ages), but this site is much more user friendly and I love the graphic representations of the books. I also like that it helps me keep up with all the books I plan on reading. When someone gives a recommendation of a book that sounds interesting, I go and add it to my "to-read" section on goodreads.

If you're on goodreads I'd love to add you as a friend! You can link to my profile on my sidebar.

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Our new house is completely wonderful, but it is also treeless. Back in February we planted two trees, a red maple and a Shummard red oak. We had so much fun choosing the trees and planting them ourselves. Everyone helped, though Clara's role was mostly supervisory. :)



I so look forward to watching these trees grow as my kids grow alongside them. And, this fall we'll even have some fall color in our yard, even if it is only about 7 leaves worth!

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Infant photographers earn every dime they make! Seriously. We tried to do a little photo shoot with Clara in her Easter dress. She's three months old now and we need a nice portrait of her to share with family.


We tried propping her up on a bean bag and a Bumbo seat covered with a blanket. We waited until she was well rested with a full belly so she'd be happy and smiley. We shot outside on an overcast day which should create the perfect light.


But, the pictures on the bean bag and Bumbo looked awkward, she hardly gave us any smiles and, though it was overcast, it was too bright and she was squinting all the time. I have so much to learn about infant portraiture.

The one good thing from the shoot is that at least you get to see how adorable her Easter dress is!

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Gustin came in from the backyard with this black eye the other day. I have no idea how he got it!


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I had a good Lent this year. "Good" meaning that through prayer and introspection I've discovered I'm a shallow, dysfunctional, rule-follower and I'm questioning whether I've ever truly loved God or if I've always just been a good girl because I don't like breaking rules. Yeah. I'll still be chewing on the things I've learned about myself this Lent when next year's Lent comes around.

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One more mirror picture for Clara's collection.

3 months old

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My hair has been slowly going gray for many years now (I started seeing my first gray hairs when I was 18!). Every time I look in the mirror, though, even after all these years, I'm shocked at all my gray. I still picture myself in my head as a pure brunette.


I started out plucking my grays and for a short time I colored it. But, to be honest, I really hated coloring my hair. I'm a natural girl and I hated fighting my hair color so I've just let it go. That doesn't mean that I'm used to it, though!

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I guess that's enough for now. I'm hitting "publish" then heading to bed. G'night all!

Memorable quotes

Elizabeth: I know the name of a state with a bad word in it
Me: (surprised) You do? (apprehensively) What is it?
Elizabeth: Haiti. Get it? (whispering but with great emphasis) Huh-ATE-ee. It's the word hate with a "y" on the end (nodding sagely).
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We were at my in-laws for a few days last week. My father-in-law owns a construction company so he left around 7:00 am one morning to go check on the house his crew was building. He came back about an hour and a half later just as the rest of us were beginning to dive into some pancakes. Gustin looked up from his stack with syrup dripping from his chin and his eyes wide in surprise and said, "Paw, are you finished building the house already?" My mother-in-law laughed so hard she about spewed her mouthful of pancakes all over the kitchen!

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"It sure is nice to have a baby around the house again." - my wonderful, darling husband

10 years

Today is our 10th anniversary. That really is crazy to me. It can't possibly have been that long since Eric and I said, "I do." But it has been and they were wonderful years indeed.


Too bad I'm still sick as a dog today and trying to recover from a case of strep that just doesn't want to go away. It's hard to form words into sentences when your head is pounding.


So, for now I'll just say: I love you, Eric. You are the most amazing husband and I thank God everyday for you. You have taken me on a grand adventure and I can't imagine where the next ten years will take us, but I am so thankful that I will be able to experience them with you!


I pray that God will continue to bless you, the most wonderful husband and father that I have ever met.

Photography page

A couple of weeks ago, my good bloggie friend Jill emailed me and asked me about my camera and any resources that I could recommend on photography. I emailed her back with probably way more information than she could ever want or need. I had so much fun writing up that email and I thought others might be interested in the same information. So, I created a new page called Photography just below my banner where I basically cut and pasted the entire email that I wrote to Jill. Check it out if you would like and if anyone else has any other questions about photography, feel free to ask. I love talking photography!

The Mirror

I have a large mirror on the wall in our living room. Eric made it for me a few years ago. We bought the plain mirror at Home Depot and then he designed, built and painted black a wooden frame for it.

3 days old

I pass this mirror every time I go to or from our bedroom. Since the changing table and baby bed are in there, I am going in and out of our room and passing by this mirror many times every day.

4 days old

Not surprisingly, there is often a little baby in my arms as I traipse back and forth putting away clean clothes and changing diapers.

5 days old

I love the view I see in the mirror as I pass by of my little girl slung over my shoulder; sometimes asleep, sometimes not.

20 nights old

And I can't help but grab my camera and snap a few.

5 weeks old

Over the course of the last 8 weeks I've amassed a little collection of these mirror pictures. They make me smile every time I see them.

8 weeks old

I love how little she looks and how I can see how much she grown by comparing the pictures.


I love that I'm in the pictures too, even if I'm usually in ratty clothes (apparently I throw on that gray sweatshirt a lot!) with my hair pulled back in a ponytail and no makeup and with a large, black camera in front of my face. This is about the only way that I get to be in the pictures with my baby since I'm always behind the camera.


But, every once in a while I manage to get my face in the frame, too.


I think I've started a little tradition that I hope continues as Clara grows. It's something special that I've only shared with her; only Clara has a collection of these quirky snapshots.

Capturing the little moments. Making memories. That's what photography is about.