Life with Miles

out with the old!

2007-12-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

Blogger has been a little crabby lately....

So even though my new website and blog are still undergoing construction, it's time to move on!

CLICK HERE FOR NEW BLOG

Go ahead, check it out and reset your RSS feed with the new address. I've added new pics today and will continue to add photos to the new blog.

Weird Friday night

2007-12-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

In memory of my neighbor's blow up Christmas thingy:

November 25, 2007-November 31, 2007

After recording Cassie (see below post) we had something really weird happen. Here's the story...

We live in a somewhat quiet neighborhood, but we do have some super bored kids who live here because there is a fair amount of vandalism. It's super annoying and can be expensive as we had to replace our garage door because of it a couple months after we moved in. (I tell you, spending $900 to buy a garage door when you just bought a house and got pregnant is so much fun!) Anyway, Friday night while we were recording Cassie we were sitting in John's office and we heard yelling outside. It sounded like it was right outside our window and when we peeked outside it was too men fighting in our yard! It was pretty scary. They made their way to our front porch and started ringing our doorbell yelling all sorts of stuff. I cautiously looked out the porch window and saw that one of the men had a knife. I freaked out! It scared the DAYLIGHTS out of me. I called 911 and we were all pretty confused and I was so scared! Both of the guys were yelling and the pugs were going nuts so we couldn't hear what they were saying.

It ended up MUCH less dramatic that John or I had imagined. It was our neighbor down the street who had caught some drunk kid cutting his blow up Christmas decorations with a knife. Since this guy gets vandalized all the time he was fed up. He chased the kid all the way down the street and wrestled him onto our porch until the police came. The thing is, we thought it was two drunk guys in a fight and after seeing the knife and hearing all sorts of yelling we didn't know if there was a gun involved. Talk about adrenaline pumping. (If you know me, I'm a bit dramatic anyway, so you can imagine how freaked I was.)

It was the weirdest thing. Our neighbor came over today and apologized and thanked us for calling the cops. I'm not sure he fully appreciated us though because when he was listing all the things that have been done to him (like having his lawn driven through EVERY week, etc. which really stinks) he mentioned that people have been putting his Christmas reindeer in sexual positions and upon hearing that John and I busted out laughing. We are so immature! He told us it wasn't so funny if you have a 5 and 7 year old daughter. Ummmm, yea. It's a horrible thing. (giggle-giggle.)

No seriously, that does really stink for that guy. He's a hard working guy and a good dad, so I feel for him. Our neighbor proceeded to tell us that as he was holding the kid in a headlock waiting for the police to come he realized the guy had soiled his pants. Must have been pretty surprised when got caught, huh? YUCK! Can you imagine holding some guy in a headlock and smelling that? sheesh. Oh, and remember the knife I saw? Well it was what he used to pop the big Christmas blow up thingy. You'd think he's be smart enough to drop it, but he held on to it the entire time. What an idiot! When the cops came that just made him look like a guy with a weapon. Oh, and he was 18, so he actually went to jail that night. Hope he had fun popping that balloon.

So that was our night Friday night. Thankfully, all is quiet on Bluewater Trail this evening. There's a blow up snowman and penguin in the yard behind us and so far, all is looking good for that duo. I think it's safe to say Christmas decor is safe in the suburbs this evening thanks to the vigalante actions of our good neighbor three doors down.

Oh, by the way, some of you asked for the link to Cassie singing at Miles' dedication. Just go to our youtube page, Click here for videos It's the one called Miles' Dedication. Enjoy! It's a rough recording because it's just from a video camera, so I'm excited that we got to actually record her with an actual mic.

recording session

2007-12-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

After my friend Cassie sang at Miles' dedication this past summer, we offered to record her singing if she wanted a demo disk or just for fun. Finally we were able to find a time to get together and do it. John's studio is the perfect size for him, but add more people to the mix and it's pretty tiny. I tried to get some shots but had minimal space and light. I was sitting out in the kitchen shooting most of the shots through a narrow slit in John's office french doors, so keep that in mind when perusing the shots. Btw, I LOVE Cassie's hair. I wish I knew how to wear headbands in the funky way she does.
It was awesome to have our own little live concert in our home on a chilly Friday night. We LOVE her voice and she writes her own music. I just eat up creative people. Oh, if you look closely, there's John in the upper left corner.
Ok, how adorable is Cassie in these headphones? Bless her heart, it was kind of a challenge to play the guitar part separately from the singing. She had to sit on her hands to keep from making noise when she sang. Stamp came in and did some tap dancing on the plastic floor protector to help with the noise making. That Stamp, she just has to be where the action is!

I love that I was able to get the shot of her guitar like this and I was all proud of myself and then John said, "Yea, but she's just tuning, not playing." Ugh! Leave it to a musician to notice that! I was trying not to make her too uncomfortable by snapping a bunch of pics, so I tried to be quick. I'll be shooting her again soon for a cover so I'll get another chance. ; )
Notice her beautiful engagement ring in this photo? She just got engaged last week! We are so excited for her and her fiance Jason because they are the sweetest couple. Oh my goodness I can't wait to see Cassie as a bride. She's going to take my breath away!

When the CD is done, we will (with permission, of course) be posting her music. She's so beatiful in so many ways. We love you Cassie!

kurtz family get together

2007-12-01T06:01:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving week we went to Brenda Kurtz's house where her kids were home and had all of the grandchildren together. I grew up next to the Kurtz family and these people are literally like family to me. I don't get to see them often, but when we do it's like no time has passed.

When we arrived, there were two dogs, 5 kids and an assortment of adults, so Miles was was kind of freaked out at first.

You all met Evan earlier this summer. Jen and I got to go through our pregnancies (and cluelessness together) and now we get to figure out this whole parenting thing together too. Here he is deep in thought.
Susan, on the hand, is a PRO as she has four little ones. Her youngest didn't have a problem conking out on the couch despite all the craziness in the room.
And here Ariana is awake.

Wendy, Susan and Jen's world traveling sister, is awesome with the kids. I had a million shots of her playing, but thought this one summed it up. She's such a cool person. I love hearing her stories of where she has recently traveled when I see her throughout the year.
This is Daisy, Jason and Jen's dog. She is super smart and totally Jason and Jen's first born. We share the same dog craziness as we have both:

A. Taken our dog to see Santa

B. Taken our dogs to a doggy daycare

C. celebrate our dog's birthday

D. Dress our dogs for cold weather.

(Um, I think they have taken Daisy to see Santa. Jen, you'll have to comment me if I got that right.)

Evan was a tough guy to capture as he's walking now. Here he is on the move.

These two were braiding each other's hair the entire time. Again, I have a million pics, but thought I would show the end result.
Towards the end everybody started to get sleepy.
Must have been all those tickles.
Susan's kids LOVED the camera.
Issac held this pose for ever as he hung over the end of the couch. He loved having his picture taken.
Ok, time to put the camera down and get caught up with the Kurtz family. Can't wait to see you guys over Christmas!

Lots of love to you!

Hyperbets at Sunset, by John. ;-)

2007-11-29T17:23:00.000-08:00

Another sunset, another chance for John and Betsy to play! Give us a beautiful sunset and a camera and we are set. I know, I know, we've done this before, but they are so much fun, I couldn't resist posting. (And yes, I went nuts with the colors, but wouldn't you too? I love going nuts on the colors when it's just for blogging fun.)

Last time we did a sunset shoot we went for sweet mommy and baby shots. This time, it's too cold for baby so I just got to be my good 'ol hyper self. By the time John got a turn, I was too freakin cold to shoot him. (bummer because it's FUN!) We took a bunch of zany shots but I restrained by just posting these. Enjoy.

Tree pose by the tree for the yogis in the crowd.
I'm channeling my inner Michelle Kwan here.
Yes, I took my coat off here to try for more graceful arms. Can you say Brrrrrrr!? I'm wearing short sleeves! (Yes mom, I'm taking my Vit. C!)
I'm telling you, the next time there is an awesome sunset, swing by our house! We could have all sorts of fun with two people. Oh, the possibilities.

welcome wall•e!

2007-11-28T18:46:00.001-08:00

After years of using a PC, I have returned to my Apple roots and have another imac! (Bless my old egg imac, this one is light years better than that sweet little thing!) It feels good to be home! I grew up in a house where using macintosh computers was like a religion. I'm not kidding. I went to two mac world conventions in San Fran, CA as a kid and it might as well had been Disney World. Man, I really wish I could have stayed a computer geek through high school. Oh well, I'm trying to catch up now.

Meet Wall•y. (I named my mac after this adorable character) For those of you pc fans, the entire computer is located inside the screen. What you see on the box here is all you get and need. No CPU tower. Sweet, huh?
John was like a kid in a candy store. He LOVES opening up and setting up new computers. The best part of the set up was when a little camera popped up from the in-screen camera to snap my profile photo. (We let Whisper stand in since I hadn't showered yet. I tell you, we dropped EVERYTHING to set this baby up.)
The keyboard is very different and taking some getting used to. It's so freakin thin!
This screen is SOOOOO beautiful. It's huge and glossy. We can play DVD's on it and watch movies in the living room now if we want. We are mesmerized by this screen. (I have used the word mesmerized twice this week on the blog. What a great week!)

Hey, what's that on the screen? It's a Betsy and John Photography website! How'd that get there? Guess I'll have to release that sometime soon. ; ) Good thing I have a shiny new mac to finish it! (I'm seriously just about as excited as I could be if you couldn't tell. Like seriously excited. I don't feel worthy!)

So I usually don't dare work on the computer while Miles is around because my pc had a million cords and the tower to climb on. I thought I would try it when he woke up from his nap. Can you find Miles?

This photo where Miles is laying on his belly cracks me up. He was enthralled with the cord hole in the back of the armoire. (That's where the tower used to be. Now it's a little spot for Miles to play.)
Ok, he's starting to climb on the printer. Time to shut the doors to Wall•y, for now.

We are in the midst of moving all of our photo library on John's mac to a harddrive so I can get them moved over here to Wall•y. Um, the computer says it will take 6 hours. It ran for a while and then had an error. We are back to productivity ceasing! Oh well, it's all part of the process. I'm SO ready to get rolling on getting our photography business site up and running, get some business cards printed, etc. Very exciting time! Poor John is the one who has an actual full fledged business and bless his heart, I think he's struggling to focus with all this excitement (and fun) fluttering around. It's an interesting time, that's for sure. Again, stay tuned!

BTW, I hate posting right after I do a super cute post because I don't like the idea of people missing cute stuff on a previous post. So make sure you scroll down to see Preston and Miles at the Coffee shop. One of my favorite photos is in there.

Miles & Preston meet for coffee

2007-11-27T23:47:00.000-08:00

Miles and I met our new friends Erin and Preston for some hot drinks and some much needed time out of the house at my favorite coffee shop, the Mocha Lounge, a week or so ago. Miles could barely wait to get his hands on Preston, who seemed pretty jazzed to meet Miles too. He's only 3 months old but he's got the smile down! (I flipped when I realized I caught him actually smiling at Miles. Now how freakin cute is that?)

Miles LOVED Erin's necklace. Thankfully it remained intact despite Miles' track record of dismantling beaded necklaces in no time flat.

I met Erin at a mom 2 mom group (yes, I know some of you are laughing at the mom group thing) and we hit it off really well. We actually first met when she was still pregnant for Preston this past summer, but we didn't get to connect until now. I'm so glad we did because we have so much in common! It's so much fun to meet people that you just hit it off and start chatting away like crazy. (I LOVE This photo, btw. I would KILL for Erin's teeth.) We both have brainiac/creative husbands too so even more in common. Yippee!
Look at those lashes! This was just the beginning of a series of facial expressions in a yawn that I captured. (I'll post those later. This is one of those moments when John is working late, I need to get on the computer to grab some files, but don't want to wait for him to be done to blog. Did I mention I'm excited I'm getting my own Mac? It's on it's way!)
This photo is my favorite of the day. I couldn't stop staring at it when I loaded it onto our computer. He's so squishy and those eyes are looking right at me and oh so mesmerizing.

Again with the squishiness! Don't you want to squeeze this baby RIGHT NOW?
I love photographing babies sitting up like this, before they really know how to sit up. (Remember the hippo photo I took of Miles? That's where I got the idea.)

Gotta capture those sweet little hands.

Miles was so patient to sit and play with his cheerios while I played with my camera and gabbed on and on. I wonder how much longer he will be intrigued by a little canister of Cheerios.

Oh, I hope I get to photograph some more babies soon. I have been having a blast photographing Miles this week (you'll see what I mean very soon) but little babies are fun too because they can be such good little models and let me get in and photograph their little hands and feet.

Woo, I'm so tired. I was up past 1 AM last night so I need to get to bed pronto.Nighty Night, hope you enjoyed the cute baby pics!

See ya soon Erin and Preston!

light a life

2007-11-26T18:26:00.000-08:00

If you are a new blog reader, you may not know that I was married before and lost my first husband, Andy, to cancer. Even though I have come a very long way in my grief process, there will never be a holiday season my heart isn't remembering him or the amazing families I met in our journey through cancer. I would like to share a bit of my experience with you this evening.

This is a photo of me and Andy on his first day in the transplant unit in Minneapolis. (Notice his Got Chemo? shirt. That was SO Andy!) It was Halloween, 2002, hence the big spider balloon and despite our happy faces, we were scared out of our minds. We had already been living in MN for a month collecting his stem cells and going through many strange and painful tests not to mention just waiting to begin the transplant. Despite how terrifying, unbelievably painful and lonely that time was, it was also a time of hope. After all other treatments had failed, a stem cell transplant was this one beam of hope that gave us a glimpse at the possibility of living cancer free.

We ended up not only spending our Halloween in the transplant unit, but our Thanksgiving and our Christmas in MN as well. Every holiday season I think back to those hospital rooms and how some family is living in them now, trying to somehow give their child a Merry Christmas amongst the tubes and beeping machines. That is so much harder than you could ever imagine. The majority of families getting a transplant don't live near a transplant center. They have to travel very far, leave their homes and jobs behind to care for their children, spouses or sometimes even a parent. Insurance doesn't pay for the house you have to leave behind or the car payment you still need to make. When Andy and I moved to MN for his transplant we had to pay $900 a month (5 years ago) for our apartment in MN, utilities, food, prescription co-pays and still pay for our car payments and our mortgage at home in Indiana. There was still a percentage we had to pay of the $350,000 transplant fee too. Not to mention I was on an unpaid family medical leave from my job and Andy was getting a fraction of his paycheck from disability.

We couldn't do it on our own. The whole community banded together and helped us pay for it. There was one organization that was an amazing gift to us during that entire ordeal and in the months afterward. The National Transplant Assistance Fund. They helped our community raise funds, managed the funds for us and gave us checks to pay for all the things I listed above. The NTAF was such a wonderful gift to us that I stayed in contact with them after losing Andrew and I am now on the board of directors for the NTAF.

One of my projects I'm involved with is the Light a Life campaign. We are raising funds to help build the NTAF's emergency assistance fund to help people who need funds right away and can not wait for the funds to be raised before they get their life saving drugs or medical care. This Christmas, in honor of Andrew and all the people in transplant units across the country, please consider giving a gift to the NTAF. Your donation can be given as a gift to a family member or friend in memory or in honor of someone special. The NTAF will send a card to your loved one, letting them know of the gift given on their behalf. Please visit NTAF's Website to light a life today.

This is a logo I designed as my first project on the board of directors last year. It was a really fun project and I'm thrilled it's something they can use on their materials over and over.

Also, if you know of someone going through any kind of transplant or who has endured a catastrophic spinal injury, the NTAF can help them raise funds they need. If you need more information, you can go to NTAF's Website or email me and I can tell you more.

Thank you very much. I know not everyone appreciates hearing about requests for donations, but the NTAF is truly an amazing organization and one very near to my heart. Andrew always said that once he got healthy he wanted to turn around and do for other cancer patients what so many had done for him. He was never able to do that so I try my best to help spread his message of the importance of giving back.

post thanksgiving randomness

2007-11-25T20:27:00.000-08:00

As you know, rain or shine, John walks the pugs every morning and Miles and I try to join him when we can. Here's Miles' winter get-up. Poor kid can't move an inch in that thing. Not to mention he's about to bust out of the Baby Bjorn.

Here's another shot of my mom with Mugga (Andy's Grandma) enjoying one of Barb's many toys before Thanksgiving. So sweet.

I'm soooo tired but I"ll give you a preview of what's to come on the blog this week: Get together with The Kurtz family, Miles does coffee with Preston and Miles' first festival of trees at the Embassy photos. My new Mac better be ready for some major work when it arrives this week because I have LOTS for it to do! Oh, and there are LOTS of other fun and exciting things brewing yet to be announced. Stay tuned!

guess who...

2007-11-25T07:05:00.000-08:00

Grandma sat across from at Thanksgiving?

It's like there wasn't another soul at the table! To say Grandma loves Miles is the understatement of the century!

More photos to come. The thing I LOVE about the photo with my mom is you can see Bill Zabel's signature chops in the background. ;-)

OMG, I won!

2007-11-23T18:42:00.001-08:00

What a great week! If you've been following the latest in my life, you'll know that we just got me a new Mac so I can get serious about getting my photography business up and running. (Yes, I was smart enough to call Mac and request the black friday pricing today since we ordered ours the night before Thanksgiving, but I digress.) Yesterday, Jessica Claire, one of my favorite photographers that I blog stalk daily had a contest up. (You know I LOVE contests!) It was asking for a creative photo of what you are thankful for. I can choose from some of her different products for my prize, but I'm so getting a Shootsac

I can't believe it, but little 'ol me from Fort Wayne, Indiana won! I have been dying for a shootsac ever since I saw my friend and awesome photographer, Bobbi (here's a link with her shootsac) got one and definitly every time I lug our nerdy Canon bag around.

So check out Jessica's blog to see my winning photo (the photo won't be anything you would expect!) and also, look for John's entries in the runner ups. She did a wonderful job of including so many of the absolutly beautiful entries. If you only look at one blog today, this one is great because the photos will make you smile and remember all the beautiful things to be thankful for.

click here for Jessica's Blog with winners

Thank you Jessica Claire! You rock!

is that a monkey in your pants?

2007-11-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

Today I got another one of my free diapers from winning the grand prize at my web forum thingy. I'm not talking Pampers either, this thing is custom made! I got to pick the colors of the outer waterproof fabric and the liner too. How ADORABLE is this?

I guess this won't be so adorable once it's worn for a few hours, but hey, it's cute now! It will make folding (clean) diapers a bit more fun.

The only bummer is it's a fitted diaper instead of the one size ones that I have. (The diapers we have are adjustable from 8 lbs. up to 35.) So this one is a large and will fit him from 22 lbs. up to 35. Even though Miles is a chubs, it's wayyyy too big him him. So no fashion show for a while.

I know cloth diapers seem really hard to do, but if anybody ever has any questions I will be MORE than happy to help you. I'm walking some of my friends who are expecting through the ins and outs (and 1 and 2's) of cloth diapering so they can figure out if they want to do them.

Thanks for taking a peak at my cute new find. This has been the week of super fun baby stuff. Now when do I get some cute new clothes? Well, considering we just got me a new computer (See post below), I'll be rockin the 2004 duds for a while I think.

Merry Christmas to Betsy!

2007-11-21T19:16:00.001-08:00

If you are a loyal blog reader, and Betsy thanks you if you are, you may have noticed that photos of random people have been popping up on her blog. Betsy has hinted at the possibilities of growing her photography hobby into a business, but hasn't gone into details. She still isn't ready for a full reveal yet, but here is a little explanation of what's been going on and what has just happened tonight!

Once upon a time, John and Betsy were given a pretty nice digital camera through some pretty random circumstances. They had a baby on the way, so they figured this was a pretty cool thing. They started to play around with it and noticed that it took WAY better photos than their point and shoot ever could. They continued to practice on themselves and started paying attention to other photographers around them. Once their child was born, they found they wanted to learn more about how to capture this beautiful creature. They kept experimenting, researching, asking questions, buying some new equipment and software here and there and really started to have fun exploring photography.

Friends started to take notice. They asked John and Betsy to take their family photos. Shrugging it off as just people wanting free photos, they obliged. Then more people started to ask for photos, but not just friends, people John and Betsy barely knew. Something really exciting was bubbling under the surface, but they really weren't sure quite yet. Suddenly, friends who are also amazing photographers started to pop out of the woodwork to help them out. It was amazing how the universe just seemed to hand them a camera and continue to give them the tools they needed.

So John and Betsy immersed themselves in photography. Reading, practicing, buying more equipment. They continued shooting anybody that would allow them. (Even enlisting the kids in the neighborhood.) In the meantime, John started his own music studio, Metta Audio and was verrrry busy with that. Betsy would wait until John was done working around 11PM in the evening and she would hop on loading and processing photos, loving every minute of it but frustrated that she had to try to sneak time in at odd hours to work.

Betsy, who has been creative her whole life yet has struggled to find an outlet for it, has found she has come full circle returning to her creative roots. After getting the wrong degree that she didn't use and wasted away in the sales industry, she feels truly invigorated to have found something she truly loves. Betsy figured she would have to return to school someday when her children had grown to try again at finding a new career. She is finding that her creative eye is opening doors to new opportunities to learn as much as she wants.

Betsy and John started to get more and more shoots and they were thrilled, but knowing in the back of their minds that it would be a struggle to find time to load, edit and process all the work during the wee hours of the morning.

So tonight, John purchased Betsy her own Mac so she can load photos when ever she wants. She can schedule as many shoots as Grandma can come and babysit for. She can create a business name for herself, a logo, a website and finally truly have the freedom of time to cultivate her creativity and build something wonderful. (Her photographer friends are probably laughing at the "freedom of time" refrence here, but one can dream!)

Something really great and exciting is happening and it's really going to be able to take off when their Mac arrives next week!

Stay tuned!

If you would like to see the progression of the growth of Betsy and John's photography, check out some of their shoots they have posted from July 20 until November 16th.

Metta Audio Photography Site

They still need to add their latest shoot on there, but you'll get the picture. It's amazing how much they have learned in a small amount of time. That's the great thing about photography, you just keep learning and keep getting better.

an afternoon with Olivia

2007-11-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

Whew! I'm not even done processing all of the photos from our shoot with Olivia, but I HAD to take a break and show you my favorites so far. Enjoy! She's just as sweet as she can be.

You met Olivia in the previous post, now let's get to know her better. She wore this adorable dress and I was so impressed by how at ease she was all dressed up.

Livie's Grandma who lives in Hawaii got her this rocking chair so we were really hoping she would let us snap some photos of her in it so her family could see her enjoy it. She did a great job and sat in it long enough to get many cute shots! It fits her perfectly.

Olivia loves her daddy, who as it seems, does the best itsy bitsy spider ever.

Here's mom (aka Jessica.) She's the mastermind behind the adorable wardrobe changes.

Olivia LOVES Elmo. I Love how she is interacting with the little red guy in these shots.

Remember how I mentioned the wardrobe? LOVE these jeans.

...and Livie loves cookies.

Thank you for inviting us into your home Jessica, Todd, Olivia and Nana!

Olivia's sneak peak

2007-11-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

Meet Olivia, aka, Livie. Isn't she beautiful? She just turned one and John and I got to shoot some photos of her last Sunday. That's her mom, Jessica, in the background and I'm sure she is itching to see some photos of her little girl. I just blogged a few hours ago, but knowing how eager I always am to see photos, I wanted to get a sneak peak up for her and her family as soon as possible.

More to come, stay tuned!

For the grandparents looking for Miles, just keep scrolling down. ; )

rainbow on a cloudy day

2007-11-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

I have EIGHT MILLION other things I should be doing right now, but I HAD to post these funky photos. Hope they brighten your day, trust me, seeing him crawl around in these brightened mine.

baby legs, etc.

2007-11-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

This has been my week of shooting in low light. Welcome to winter! Flash needs to somehow become my new best friend as the winter darkness approaches, but I just love natural light. So until I start busting out my flash, I'm gonna have some grain in my pics. Oh well, at least Miles is still adorable as ever!

Remember the prize package I won a while back? Well the package included a pair of organic cotton Baby legs which are basically leg warmers for babies. They work great for Miles because pants are usually high waters on him (soon to be his life story if he is built like John) and the baby legs keep his exposed ankles and calves warm. Plus, we can just go pants-less and wear the baby legs around if we want or I can wear them on my arms. (If you know me, you know that is so something I will do.) I think he is adorable in them, even if daddy thinks they are a bit girly. (Wait to you see the rainbow and blue and brown striped ones that just arrived in the mail today!)

Here we are, hanging out on the changing pad after a diaper change. The strap is a never ending source of facination for him.

I popped him in the crip to go grab the camera and found him playing with his little bunny in a box toy and a very smiley mood.

Who wants to squeeze these chubby little baby legs? I do! I do!

Moving on my from infatuation with baby legwarmers....

Even though it's getting (freakin!) cold outside, we are still walking the pugs with Miles as much as we can. As we are getting our coats on in the morning, Miles is usually keeping himself busy by rounding up the pugs and playing with their leashes.

In other news, I woke up with a cold today. Of course I did, it's Thanksgiving week! It's tradition that I'm sick for winter holidays. I got out and had my hair done tonight and that made me feel human, so who knows, maybe my immune system is up for a fight for once in it's life. Last year I wasn't even able to make it to the Zabels for Christmas AT ALL because I was so ill, so I"m REALLY hoping I can make it to thanksgiving this year. Wish me luck.

Oh, if anybody is having a bad day and wants to make it better, come over to my house and watch Miles dance to Pennies from Heaven on our Elf soundtrack. ADORABLE!

brunch with stella

2007-11-18T19:30:00.000-08:00

While in Cincinatti a few weekends ago, we got to have brunch with some old (yet new, kind of a long story) friends, Liz and Nick and their baby Stella. Stella and Miles didn't quite share the same due date, but I believe they were due the same week. They ended up being born about three weeks apart though! (Miles early and Stella late.) Anyway, we have been watching our kids grow over each other's blogs and we finally got to introduce our little ones and get caught up.

It was quite the adventure having two little 9 month olds sitting in high chairs next to each other and definitly cute! (You should have seen the mess we left behind!)

Oh how we wish we got to see this family more often. They are so sweet!

Mom wanted to snap a quick photo on the way back to the car. We were down town and i was ITCHING to snap tons of photos. But it was cold and daddy was ready to hit the road. So here's one I got to capture. I love Miles' face here.

our fish

2007-11-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

I'm trying really hard not to put blurry or grainy photos on my blog. But this one just captures Miles' bathtime so I'm breaking my own rule.

You know how they say bathtime is supposed to be a calming ritual before bed to get kids ready for sleep? Yea, right. Bath time is party time for our little guy. I think in this photo he had just stuck his head under the running facet. He's nuts in there. : )

Miles is still here!

2007-11-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

Poor Miles hasn't been getting very much blog time now that I have been doing some photo shoots. Trust me, once the Christmas card rush is over, I'm sure I'll be back to my one and only favorite blog subject again. ; )

Here's a little update on our guy. He had his 9 month appointment last week and all is going well. He weighs 20.5 lbs. and is 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for lenght. I remember pre-baby that I thought this age was my least favorite. I found it to be a slobbery, wiggly time with much shrieking. However, now that I'm actually living with it, it's SUCH a fun age! Yep, there is slobbering, wiggling and the occasional shriek, but it's a blast. Our pediatrician told us she could finally tell us it's her favorite age under one becuase there is such an innocent mischieviousness about 9 month olds. They are so curious and into everything but aren't really defiant. That much. Yet. ; ) Our pediatrician had clued us in on some VERRY helpful tips getting Miles to sleep for naps and bedtime and within a week, actually within two days we have seen major results. He is napping consistantly and we had had some bedtime issues, but we are back on track, despite good old daylight savings time, and it's been great.

Miles is zooming around crawling, he can go up one stair, but thankfully isn't too interested. He cruises around furniture out of neccesity, but I think he's so impressed with crawling that walking just doesn't interest him. He's babbeling up a storm and of course, clapping. It's a fun time becuase he likes to mimic us and dance to music. The kid loves water too. If I'm holding Miles and holding a glass of water, never fails, his hand PLUNGES into the water and he's having a blast. In the tub the kid is every where and i couldn't believe it, but he actually leans down and pops his face under water and then pops it back up. He has even been blowing bubbles. I have spent entire summers trying to get a kid to stick his face in the water so I hope this sticks. We always said we would start swimming lessons as soon as we could, but we are such babies. John and I are too freaked out at how FREEZING the water is at the pools. (They keep it cold so the lap swimmers don't overheat.) We are seriously that wimpy. So for now, we are teaching water exploration, level 1, fully clothed from the comfort of our bathroom.

Well, here it begins. I'm a mom going on and on about her kid. Ok, I'm shutting up! The only people still tuned in are probably the grandparents! We love the daylights out of Miles if you can't tell.

BTW, I CAN'T BELIEVE Thanksgiving is next week. I'm kind of in denial of it. I'm SO going to be the idiot stuck at an insanly packed Mejier at ten PM trying to find cool whip and forced to buy the low fat crap because I have waited to the last minute. Ahhhhh. I love the holidays! I'm hoping having Miles will bring out the "spirit" in me because I'm just not into it this year!

Wow, that was grouchy. Perhaps I shoud try sleep. Nighty night!

break time!-take two

2007-11-15T22:32:00.000-08:00

I had to repost this because now that we have two cameras, I found these adorable shots that matched an older post. The second photo of Stamp KILLS me.

John's been working verrrry hard, so here's a little break time I captured today.

This is so our life. One of us on the floor and within seconds of lying down a pug comes and snuggles up. Miles is somewhere babbeling and exploring, but always keeping an eye to make sure we aren't too far away.

No, that's not a dress on Miles. He's wearing what I call his "nap sack." It's a sleep sack thingy that I thought he wouldn't wear much past three months, but it's an easy way to keep him bundled up without the hassel of pants and socks or feety pajamas and snaps as it just slips on and zips up. (I'm all for zippers on baby stuff. Whoever invented snaps on baby pants was deranged.) He looks adorable when he crawls around in it.

Life around here is B U S Y. It's November, which means the holidays are creeping up on us and about to slap us in the face and it's also the big deadline time for John. His marching band piece is coming along really well though. MUCH more smoothly than last year's. (Last year it was the deadline that kept getting pushed back and back and it felt like it was never going to end.) Hopefully the show he writes this year will sell as well as last year's did. Go John go! (Mommy wants a new Mac!) Love you John!!!!

meet Jonathon...

2007-11-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

This is my sister's step daughter, Samantha's family. We did a little shoot last weekend in our backyard. It was a beautiful day, but still a little nippy. Little Jonathon was such a trooper. Sam's expecting too, so keep a look out for her cute little baby bump!

We weren't sure what Jonathon was doing and then we realized, he had an imaginary camera he was aiming at us!

These two are my favorites!

the shoup family

2007-11-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

When we arrived, Braden was excited to show us his tractor. His Grandpa, who lives next door on this really cool farm, has the real thing. It's been months since I have seen Braden, but he is so outgoing that he just opened right up to us right away. I can't even tell you how sweet these kids are.

I could tell when Molly opened the door that Kenna wasn't having the greatest afternoon. I had been there a couple weeks ago myself with our own photo shoot.
Look at this precious face! I love that you can see her two little teeth.
The shoups have THE perfect set up for raising children. Grandpa's farm next door and a sweeeet swingset in the backyard. Nothing is as cool as Lightning McQueen though!
Braden was playing the quickest game of peek a boo ever here. It's a miracle I caught it! Thank goodness I did because his face is precious here!

Braden LOVES riding on the tractor with his Grandpa. Here are just a couple we captured.

Bless little Kenna's heart. We were supposed to do this shoot right after her nap time this past Sunday. But it was the yuckiest rainy day ever. So we showed up right after school at 4PM. I knew we would need to work fast because little ones get HUNGRY the closer to 5 you get and sure enough, she was struggling. So I took that opportunity to snag a shot of Dave and his little guy. By the way, I was in the same first grade class with Dave! It's so amazing to look back and remember someone that long ago and then see them all grown up with a beautiful family today. A hidden blessing of living in the same city your whole life. : )

Today started out to be a beautiful day, but as we approached their house the clouds started rolling in. It was some pretty tough shooting conditions for rookies like us. Oh, and it kept changing too! It dropped temperature pretty quickly as well. We all had teary eyes and runny noses by the end of the shoot. That farm has the most amazing photographic possibilties so we hope to return next spring when everybody has a full belly, rested and it's about 20-30 degrees warmer!

Thanks for letting us take a peak into your sweet little world Dave and Molly. We can't wait to come back! (hint-hint!)

put your hands together

2007-11-14T21:02:00.000-08:00

Miles woke up Tuesday morning clapping. He does it all the time now and I love the sound he makes. To me, it sounds like soft rain. There isn't much that is sweeter than sitting on the floor clapping with your baby.

journey to the unknown

2007-11-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

Going....

Going....

Going....

Gone!

Nothing like power cords to attract Miles! This kid keeps me on my toes. Who needs a gym membership?

my sister's shoot, take 2

2007-11-13T21:41:00.001-08:00

We got warmed up for our shoot by asking Emily which one of Kurtis' friends was the craziest.

This led to quite the discussion!
Kurt attempts to defend...
Then strikes his signature expression.

After we got warmed up I somehow successfully got two teenagers to sit this close together. (Sorry for all the b and w's, I just got a little nuts, I guess. I'll post more color ones later.)

I'm chipping away at posting the photos from my sister's shoot. I still have her step daughter Samantha's family to post too. They are coming, I promise! Every night I want to post a TON of pics blogger craps out on me. It's almost 1 AM, so i'm signing off. I'll try again later.

I won!

2007-11-12T19:46:00.001-08:00

I'm on this web forum for cloth diapering moms and for the month of October they had a big photography contest. It was less of a photography contest and more like a photography scavenger hunt. Like finding something that pertained to a certain theme and then snapping a photo of it in your house. (Yep, it's a bunch of stay at home mom's addicted to the net.) They had lots of contests where you could just pick a photo from your collection too. There was a new contest every day and over the span of the month I won three times including the grand prize! The Grand prize was worth $200 and the other prizes were worth around $60 or so, so it was exciting to win. I didn't think I had a chance at all so when I started winning I was really pumped.

The prizes ranged from gift cards to baby web stores, lotions and accessories like bags. Of course the prize I really wanted were some funky new types of diapers and I think in all I'll get about 5 new ones. I just used one of my gift cards tonight to get a custom made chocolate brown cloth diaper (how approriate considering what's going on in the diaper) with a lining of cartoon monkeys in diapers in the inside. It's going to be really cute. I got some baby legs too (baby leg warmers) and I CAN'T wait to do a photo shoot with Miles wearing those. Just had to share a pleasant surprise that happened today.

I'll post a photo shoot with our funky new goodies soon, I promise! Yippee! I love waiting for mail to come! Thanks for listening to me babble on and on about this!

I've been processing photos all week (when I can hop on the mac) so I'll be posting more from the weekend shoot soon. John has a BIG deadline coming up so the mac is all his lately. Wish him luck, this is a crazy time of year for him.

sneak peak from today's shoot

2007-11-10T23:02:00.000-08:00

These are my sister's kids, and my neice and nephew, Kurtis and Emily. I had a little family shoot today and I'm only through a small portion of editing the photos (before John had to jump on the mac to write) but so far, this one is my favorite. John caught it so I can't take credit. Enjoy, more to come soon!

John took a really cute pic today while we were testing out cameras before the shoot and he just posted it on his blog. It will make you smile, he wants to make a huge print of it for his office becuase he likes it that much. (You will probably think he is nuts, but it makes me happy.) ; )

...$?

2007-11-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

Miles has informed us after enjoying his morning paper, that with the dollar hitting an all time low against the Euro and British pound, he wants to make sure we know he expects his future tooth fairy payments to be paid in pounds.

We told him to try reading the Feature section instead of the financial section and that we would discuss it once he grew some teeth!

Kids these days....Sheesh!

pom

2007-11-09T18:15:00.001-08:00

We had about 20 minutes of sunshine today. Other than that, it was a gross grey day. November is my least favorite month. It used to be February, but once Miles was born, it's now up in rank. Anyway, I'm trying to enjoy every month and find little blessings in even the grey days.

A grey day makes this pomagranete look that much more brilliant. Not sure I would have noticed the colors had it been a bright sunny day.

Enjoy!

daycare house

2007-11-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

I know that I have slacked on decorating my house since we moved in, but since Miles was born, ha! We have taken a huge step backward in our home decor. It's official, my house looks like a daycare.
The thing that cracks me up about this photo is how Stamp is looking at Grandma like, "When do I get MY story?"

this is why 9 months olds are impossible to diaper..

2007-11-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

Once the diaper is off, he flips over as fast as he can and it's karaoke time on the changing table strap!
Never a dull moment.
Look at that precious belly!

Tonight John and I went to a cooking demonstration with Becky and a friend of hers. We were definitly the youngest people there, but it was pretty cool and we got to sample and learn about cooking healthy. Miles stayed home with Grandma and I was a bit worried it was going to be cryfest 2007. He was super fussy this afternoon and from a photo I took of him screaming, I could totally see his swollen gums. Bless his heart! : ( However, my mom said he was a dream and no tears. We came home to him blissfully asleep in my mom's arms. If I didn't have a new goal of early to bed, early to rise, I would have posted the pic of it. However, John and I have a new resolution that includes a lot more sleep than we have been getting.

I'm really wore out too. I tell you, our weekend trip really exhausted me and I've had a week to recover. I'm such a wimp! Traveling with a baby and eating out as much as we did wore me out! When you are out with a baby you have to constantly keep a ticking clock in your head counting down how much time we had to do our activity before it was time for a snack, nap or diaper change. Never mind get a chance to snack, rest or use the restroom yourself! It was like mom duty quadrupled. I can't imagine how my friends with multiple kids do it. Anyway, no extra photo processing tonight. I'm off to bed to get a good night's rest and hopefully finally recover. Oh, Miles has been waking up at night now too, so that adds to the sleepiness. Better get some sleep while I can!

Some other fun stuff has been in the works, but no time to talk about that tonight. Soon, soon!

wonderful surprise!

2007-11-08T00:10:00.000-08:00

I got a call around 4:30 this afternoon from Dr. Rushing wondering if I could meet him and his wife at Catablu this evening. If you don't know who Dr. Rushing is, he was Andy's oncologist at IU Med in Indy and grew to be a very close friend. He was amazing through Andy's care and beyond and continues to still be a big part of our life. His wife, Katie, is just as precious. If I had an hour I could tell you story after story giving you examples of why he was an amazing doctor. Seriously, the man is amazing. The crappy Fort Wayne doctors had Andy on a three week waiting list for chemo while a tumor was quickly destroying his pelvis, keeping him in wheelchair. Dr. Rushing got Andy into chemo within hours of meeting him and got him walking by the end of the weekend. The man rocks.

So Dr. Rushing was coming to Fort Wayne to give a talk tonight on pain management at a private meeting at Catablu. He wondered if he could meet with us (and Miles!) briefly before his talk. I started to say that the evening is a bad time for Miles and then I was like, "DUH Betsy, It's your chance for Katie and Dr. Rushing to Meet Miles. Make it happen!" Man, sometimes I start micromanaging and I just have to cut myself off!

So John and I spent a wonderful evening with the Rushings. I only had a moment with Dr. Rushing, but he was able to tell me all about some WONDERFUL news. He was bubbling with excitement as he described to me some MAJOR advancements in the treatment of Ewing's Sarcoma. Like HUGE, Major advancements. It was wonderful to see him so excited and of course, wonderful to finally hear some good news regarding a cancer that debilitates, maims and kills so quickly. Yipppeee!! (That's really an understatement, but for keeping things succinct, It works.)

Pretty quickly Dr. Rushing had to head up to his meeting, but we got so spend some wonderful time with his wife Katie. Considering we were in a super nice (not to mention quiet!) resteraunt, I had said a silent prayer or two that Miles would be in a great mood. He was! There were no loud squaks or squeels that turned heads. He cuddled right up to Katie and she really got to enjoy him. It was wonderful. We were there right smack dab in the middle of what I call the bewitching hour too, 6-8 PM, so it was a miracle he was so quiet.

We didn't want to use our flash in the super dark resteraunt and be more obnoxious than we already were bringing a baby to Catablu, so our pics are pretty rough. You'll notice we had to crank our aperture way up so our depth of field is pretty short too. So that's why only one of them is in focus at the same time.

Oh, by the way, Katie and Dr. Rushing have a grandson that is the same age as Miles, but he lives in another country. So it was great they got to get a baby fix in.

The whole time Katie kept whispering to Miles, "You are so lucky to have such wonderful parents." Oh, I just LOVE Katie and Dr. Rushing! They are like family to me!!!

live from afghanistan!

2007-11-07T15:35:00.000-08:00

Um, I'm an idiot.

I've been blogging for the past, oh 8 months or so and I just realized my profile says I'm from Afghanistan.

Perhaps that's why my time stamp is always off!

OMG, Bobbi's photos are AMAZING!!!

2007-11-06T17:31:00.000-08:00

Remember when i blogged about getting our photos taken? I talked about how we had to strip Miles down to his diaper before he was ready for the shoot? Oh, and of course, there was mention of a bad hair day. (You know me and my hair...) Well the photos are in and we are THRILLED!!!!

I'm soooo stealing some images from Bobbi's Blog becuase I just can't wait for the real thing to arrive:

We walk the pugs three times a day so it was important to capture this.

For the rest of the samples, go to: Bobbi+Mike's blog of our pics

If you guys aren't already stalking her blog, you should be!!!

We have many, many bare walls in our house so i'm thinking i want to do some super big prints of some of these. Maybe even a stretched canvas. Even though we have 8 million photos of Miles that we could do Christmas cards with, I'm excited to have some of our whole family to put in a card. Yippee! Last year's Christmas card totally blew. The funny thing was I was too tired from my pregnancy to do good cards. Ha! Like I knew what being tired was!

I love great photography. I will definitly be doing this next year, perhaps in early summer, though catching bobbi in the middle of wedding season may take some convincing. ; ) It's awesome to have a photographer come to your home for many reasons. One, you learn from them how to be a better photographer yourself. Secondly, they capture a side of you that you have never seen. (I really didn't know my nose was shaped the way it was. Seriously.) Third, they capture you and your spouse together being parents. Usually we are either posing for each other or talking to each other from behind the camera. I think that will be a neat thing for Miles to have someday.

Ok, I'm shushing. I have a project I need to do for the NTAF this evening, so I better stop blogging!!!

Thanks for looking!

mugga

2007-11-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

Miles and the pugs are blessed to not only have two sets of Grandparents in my parents and John's parents, but Andy's family, the Zabel family, is very much a big part of our life and very much family.

This is Mugga. She is Andy's Grandmother. When Andy was a little boy he tried to say Grandma, but it came out as Mugga. Well, that name stuck and 30 years later, she remains Mugga to all of us.

She is in Fort Wayne visiting from Wisconsin and I got to spend some time with her today when I picked the pugs up from their visit at what we call, "Camp Grandma and Grandpa's House." Miles got to meet her for the first time and they got along swimmingly.
Mugga said she couldn't remember how long it had been since she had held a baby. She was so happy to play with Miles that she even got down on the floor to play and snuggle.
At 93 years old, Mugga doesn't have much vision left, but she was still watching Barb show Miles her big basket of neat toys.
Barb is a natural with kids.
See what I mean?
We will have to come visit Mugga, Bill and Barb again soon.

Oh, and of course Lelu and Weiland! I can't believe that there are no photos with dogs! There were FOUR running around the house while I was there. The pugs LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going to their house. They were pretty bored this afternoon as our house is not as much fun as theirs.

coming soon...

2007-11-05T13:03:00.000-08:00

more photos from Bobbi and Mike. We can't wait!!!!

Stay tuned!!!

river walk in Cinci

2007-11-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

John and I headed to Cinci for a wedding this past weekend. John's parents drove alllll the way from South Carolina to meet us to take care of Miles while we went to the wedding. We had some good times and some interesting times this weekend. Miles stayed with us in our room so it was slumber party time! My eyes are currently burning out of my eye sockets from the lack of sleep.

I'll give you a hint on how the weekend went: Miles is currently going through something called Stranger Anxiety. Meaning everybody is a stranger except me. This is really only a problem in the evening, which is pretty much the only time we need to leave him to go do adult things. UGH. So you do the math on whether you think we made it to the reception on time. More on that when our friend and photographer of choice (not to mention just voted #1 photographer in Indy!) Bobbi posts her photos from the wedding.

We did get to get lots of great times in enjoying some good food and checking out the Cinci aquarium. More on that later, I HAVE to get to bed!

Oh, we also met up with our blogging friends from Cinci, Liz, Nick and baby Stella today too. Check out their blog at: N&L's Blog so when I post photos later this week you'll know who I'm talking about. Yep, I'm giving you blog homework. Read up!

Thanks so much G & G King for driving all that way to help us out!

p.s. The masses (all 16 of you) have spoken and I hear declare that Halloween is the best holiday ever!!! So take your crappy Christmas decorations that everybody has put out on freakin October 26th and...Ok, I"m getting a little violent here. I just realllllllly don't have the strength for two months of Christmas. I love it like everybody else, but honest to god, it just makes me irritated when I step foot out of the door on Nov. 1st and suddenly the holiday season is thrust upon us.

Yea, I'm tired. Sorry for the rant! I'm going to go freebase some eye solution and hit the hey.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T17:55:00.000-07:00

Miles was Drew Carey For Halloween!

No, that wasn't his costume but it would have been free! ; ) He was a snuggly bear and he wore it all day as we went to a halloween party at the mom group I sporadically attend. We had a bit of a hectic evening, so we didn't get a lot of photos of Miles in his Halloween Costume, but we did capture our very nerdy family trick or treating on John's Blog. I was a queen bee and John was a worker bee. It was a costume we could throw on in 2 minutes after I sketched some whiskers on Miles. Gotta love the low maintenance costume plan!

I hate to put this photo up becuase it's blocking the pretty sunset pics from last night. Oh well, guess I'll have to snap some more sometime! Gotta run. We are heading to Cinci for a formal wedding this weekend and I'm SUPER STRESSED becuase, as I always do before a formal event, I feel like I have nothing to wear and due to the fact that I have hobbit feet, there is always an issue with shoes. It kind of put a hamper on my very favorite holiday, but I shook it off in time to enjoy this beautiful evening.

Happy Halloween everyone! Now it's time to gorge on some candy!

sunset snuggles

2007-10-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight we were finishing up dinner and I looked outside and said to john, "Look at that sky, I wonder if we can get some cool silhouette shots." He agreed, so we threw the baby in a sweatsuit, grabbed the camera and headed out for some experimentation. (Love taking pics where I don't have to worry about my hair or lack of make up!)

I can't wait for another pretty sunset. The only problem is that Miles is so heavy that after we lift him up ten times to try to get the best shot we are dead tired! Seriously, everybody who holds him can't help but comment how "solid" he is.

Thanks for looking and Happy Halloween Eve! Don't forget to vote in my poll on the right side of this page. ; )

kitchen swimming

2007-10-30T18:32:00.000-07:00

Miles is on a nap strike. He used to take an awesome 2-3 hour nap in the morning and then another hour or two in the afternoon. Not lately. I think he's just learning to do so much that he doesn't wasn't to miss anything with a nap. This means that by 3 in the afternoon, I'm wore out and need a break. Miles loves to play with water, as we all know from the water dish video, so I went one step further.
I set him in a warm sunbeam and gave him all sorts of cups and bottles filled with water.

By the way, Miles is still wearing his Bum Geniuis diapers. As you recall, the diapers are supposed to fit a child up to 35 lbs. Miles is still only on the second snap and probably weights around 19 or 20 lbs. It's been great to be able to wear the same set of diapers so long. I wish I could say the same about baby socks. Man, he plows through those like pop corn. But I digress...

Stamp is always near by. Considering how much that dog hates baths, I would think she would be running in the opposite direction.

It's nice to get some use out of the unitasker and space hog that is the plastic baby bathtub. Hopefully Miles will rediscover his nap time. Until then, I'll just keep working on ways to keep him busy.

Becky & the kings do coffee and some shots...

2007-10-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Camera shots, that is. ;-)

John and I got a new camera yesterday because when we shoot photos one of us is always dancing around begging to take a shot. So we are now a two man shooting crew. More on that later.

So today we got to shoot for the first time without juggling cameras. It was AWESOME. We shot my sister-in-law, Rebecca. (That would be Andy's sister, not John's, as he has only brothers.) As you can see she is verrry photogenic. Miles came along too and he was a really good sport. Oh, and regarding the location, it's my favorite coffee shop, the Mocha Lounge. I have been dying to go shoot there because they have a lot of windows and some great light with all the widows. Their parking lot gave us a little bit of grunge and some woods to round it out. Oh, and it's right down the street from us, so quick travel time for Miles in case we had to escape quickly.

John captured this one. He is THE MAN!

Then into the coffee shop we headed...

Becky loves jewelry and always wears cool and funky stuff. I had to capture this sweet ring. It reminds me of Jurasic Park. (You know, the mosquito in the amber...I'm listening to that soundtrack right now, so it's on my brain too.) Look at those lips too! This is one of my favorite photos. Oh to have her skin!

John captured this one. I like how the wall art reflects in the coffee table.

Here's Becky giving her Blue Steel look ala Zoolander. Ok, I have to quote the movie: Becky, you are really, really, rediculously good looking. ; )

Go to John's Blog for a behind the scenes look at the shoot.

Go to John's photography portion of his website for a better view of the photos.

Can I just say an AMEN that this blog is complete? Blogger went KAPUT right in the middle of loading this so I have been doing this one photo at a time and about ready to stick my finger in my eye. An hour and a half later and I"m done! It's 1 AM and I'm going to bed! Thanks for looking.

sunny schick saturday

2007-10-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

After a bit of rain this morning, I noticed this leaf on our patio with these beautiful beads of water on it. It was hanging out there all morning, waiting for me to capture it.
John and I had some errands to run and we have been wanting to swing by Sunny Schick, a local camera shop, so we headed out there today. My mom watched Miles so we could have the afternoon to ourselves. After doing a bit too much damage to our credit card at the camera shop (more on that later!!) we took some time to practice snap some photographs downtown to get some experience shooting in a richer environment than our house and yard. (I have been DYING to get out of the house to shoot, but it's not so easy to keep your eye in your camera and on your baby at the same time.)

By the way, we aren't in love withourselves, it's just that all of our friends were busy this weekend with Halloween stuff, so nobody was available for a shoot. So sharing these photos is not about sharing photos of ourselves, it's more about sharing the shots we have captured. We love shooting other people as we have enough photos of ourselves to last a lifetime. Tomorrow we are going to shoot my sister in law, Becky, so stay tuned for her. We had so much fun playing with our camera, though it was freezing outside!

I LOVE the detail of the ivy in this one and of course, John is such a cutie.

I think this picture above is kind of funny. I look like a commercial for a drug company, like I should be saying, "I found a hormone therapy I can trust. So can you with Zeritol." I'm such a dork, but that's all I can think of when I see that photo.
We found this trash bin by the Salvation Army that had glass, broken christmas ornaments and all sorts of trash strewn around it and it made for some awesome texture. We weren't able to really capture that, but perhaps next time we will. Here's the best one from that area. BTW, we attracted some attention from the workers who were very curious. That was a little interesting, but they were just curious and wanted to give us some tips.

I can't tell if I like this shot. John likes it, so we'll keep it. I was standing next to this part of the trash bin that had allll of this shattered glass. I wasn't standing close enough to it to make the shot make sense, so it ended up being a head shot.
Shiny, happy John!

After cropping this one 8 million different times we finally made this shot work.

No Miles on this shoot. You'll have to see the post below for one. We had SOOO much fun shooting but we left the house with a half dead battery (duh!) and we were cut short. Glad we get to play again tomorrow! Becky is BEAUTIFUL, so I'm excited about getting some great shots.

To better view the photos, go to: John's website

or check out his point of view: John's blog

lovin lunch

2007-10-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

familly pop-in

2007-10-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

My mom had her grandkids (and Miles' cousins ) for a couple days because of fall break so she popped in for a surprise visit after taking them all shopping. Of course, I had to snap some quick pics.

Emily (in the green shirt below) likes photography, so she took this shot.

Here are all of my nieces and nephews (minus Kurtis, he didn't come along)

add in Miles...

and grandma...

Woa! There goes Miles!

The pugs were SOOOO sad to see them go! Stamp whined at the door and squeeked her toy for about a half an hour. Hopefully they will visit again soon.

football fotoshoot

2007-10-25T20:59:00.001-07:00

All I want to do is play with my camera. Never mind the layer of dog hair on my kitchen floor, I just want to take photos! It's kind of an obsession. Tonight I had to be somewhere at 7:30, but at 7:27 I was still editing photos. Can't drag me away!

Today, Miles was napping, it was an amazingly beautiful day outside and school was on fall break. That meant our backyard, which backs up to a housefull of boys, was filled with neghborhood guys playing football. They said it was ok if I practised snapping some shots of them. (I"m sure they were like, "Oh man, the old lady is coming to talk to us again. Ugh!") Man, capturing action shots is HARD! Here are a few I caught. We are kind of dying for some better glass. In due time we'll be upgrading our equipment soon. Photography isn't a cheap hobby. ; )

I think this photo is neat becuase it totally shows that the kid in red is the leader and the other guys look up to him.

There are a bunch more, but certian people in my family get annoyed when non-Miles people hog blog space. So I'm keeping it to a minimum. ; )

They aren't the best photos in the world, but I'm going to make them a CD. I think it would be cool to have photos like this of me playing as a kid. These kids are awesome. When other kids are sitting inside playing video games these kids are outside 24-7 playing whatever sport is in season. When I first moved in I wasn't too thrilled becuase their baseball kept coming pretty close to our windows and they pretty much play in our yard, but it's alllll good. It's good to see kids play like this.

lots of stuff happening!

2007-10-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

I feel a bit of a sore throat coming on and with all this sickness going around, I need to get to bed earlier than midnight tonight. So I'll just highlight a few fun things going on around here.

-Miles is trying to learn how to give kisses. He lunges towards me and with an open mouth just starts to gnaw or just kind of lick at my cheek, neck or nose. I can't describe it just right without it sounding weird. It's hilarious and precious because he is squeezing me tighly with a hug at the same time. Sometimes he even gives a little giggle at the same time.

-Remember how Miles was starting to ask for more with sign language? Well, that sign is definitly learned. For a while he kept just yelling when he wanted more food. We kept working on doing the sign for "more" and reinforcing that instead of the high pitched yell and today there was no yelling at dinner from him, just quiet little hand clapsing together for more. It's so freaking cute and really nice to actually communicate. Hopefully this will continue.

-Along the same lines as doing the "more" sign, he is starting to actually clap at appropriate times. (Not just randomly.) Today we were clapping along to a song and he clapped right along with me. It's so neat to see him starting doing this stuff in context.

-Still no teeth, but he's so working on them. Tonight he couldn't sleep becuase he was so ouchy. So we just let him gnaw on a teething bisquit while we worked away on the computer together. It's funny, all of my friend's babies have all sorts of teeth, but Miles still has yet to break one. (I really don't mind at all though!)

-Miles will eat ANYTHING. We gave him some spinach yesterday, and I'm talking just plain cooked spinach (no salt or butter) that I chopped up a bit in the processor and he ate it all up. I really hope he continues to be this good of an eater.

-I'm excited because tomorrow I'm meeting up with my group of ladies from my summer bible study group becuase Amy Conner is home from Princeton for fall break. I CAN"T WAIT.

-One thing I'm bummed about is Blue man group and Cirque de Solei is in town tomorow. I would have loved to have gone to either show. (But I wouldn't miss my group gathering. No way!) John took me to Blue Man Group in Chicago as his first Christmas gift to me and that show was amazing. The best part was I got chosen by one of the blue men to go up on stage. That was, by far, one of the top 10 things I have ever done in my life. Amazing. My sister in law, Rebecca, is going to the show tomorrow and she got 4th row tickets. I SOOOO hope she gets asked to go on stage!

i'm so doing this!

2007-10-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

Check this out, Blurb.com has a program you can download where it will make a book of your blog. I had been planning on doing this anyway, using the same photos from my blog, but it would take me ages.

This will be great. I'll let you know how it goes when I make one. Anybody make one of these? If they stink, let me know. You never know what you get with these books, but if it could at least get on paper to tell the story for 20 years down the road, I'll be happy.

Here's the site: blog book site

I love the internet. and computers. and cameras. Life is fun!

P.S. Just had to announce that I have officially lost my head. I told my friends that when I had a baby I wasn't going to lose my head and do stupid things like fill my house with a bunch of toys, talk only about my baby and what else did I say I wouldn't do....I can't really remember becuase, like I said, I have lost my head. Anyway, John and I went to Target tonight and I bought one of "those toys" that I said I would never buy. It sings, has a bunch of flashing lights and buttons to push and really doesn't do much for Miles. But his eyes lit up in the store and he looked like he had found his "soul toy" when I showed it to him. Mind you, I barely buy myself a new pair of socks, but I threw that toy in the cart so fast that John honestly didn't even realize it was there until we were at the check out lane. So I've lost my mind and my house looks like a day care and probably smells like one too. Wait, that's just me that smells like a day care. Wait, slash that, I'm sure day care facilities actually smell ten times better. Oh well. I have lost my head, my house is trashed with toys and I'm sure my pre-baby self would be appalled, but I have never been happier.

miles does some research

2007-10-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

John and I love the library. We are kind of nerds that way. On our last visit to the library we got a HUGE stack of books on business plans, web design, photography, baby food cook books and slow cooker cook books. I told you, we are HUGE nerds, anyway, I had them all in a bin and Miles was facinated. For, like, a half an hour he shuffled through the books, fingering the pages and checking them out. The lighting was great and the concentration he showed on his face was hilarious.

John and I call Miles "muffin head" and this photo totally showes his little "muffiny" head. (The way his ears droop and his cheeks are so round. Oh, It makes me want to go get him out of his crib and squeeze him right now!)

blog haters

2007-10-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

If you are a blogger, you will, from time to time, encounter the blog hater. The person who, when you mention that a certain bit of info is located on your blog, will roll their eyes a bit, wave their hand and say, "Oh. I don't "do" blogs." Then you are left standing there with a bit of awkward silence realizing that something you do everyday, this person deems unnecessary. Oh, and that the person you are talking to, finds perusing a site of your photos or daily anecdotes for 45 seconds or so is just not that much of a payoff to actually click the link. I try not to get offended, but it's actually pretty offending. It's like if someone gets out their wallet of photos and you would wave your hands and say, "I don't "do" wallet photos." Of course, looking at a wallet of photos is different than what people choose to check out in their personal time.

I have a handful of these blog haters in my life and I've gotten used to it. Hey, that's cool. It's just kind of a funny social mores that has popped up lately. The fact that I have two different people in my life: the blog readers and the non-blog readers means that life as we live it is changing because of the way we choose to process, or not process information about the people in our life. Needless to say, with the blog readers I just fast forward through the small talk and can get right to the deep conversations because the blog readers already know everything going on in my life. Actually, I just went out to dinner with some people I hadn't seen in 13 years, but since they were blog readers, the conversation flowed just as fluid as the wine did. Actually, more than once in my life I have been able to meet up with pretty much complete strangers, but because of blogs, we felt like we know each other and jumped right into being fast friends. However, if I meet up with my non-blogging friends we have to go through the whole business of getting caught up on details and the conversation doesn't end up running as deep.

So what I'm trying to say is, to all of you blog readers out there, I really appreciate you being here. You are busy, have a million other things you could be doing now, but here you are, reading my blog. Thank you so much.

To wrap this subject up, I saw this t shirt at a shop in Ann Arbor a while ago and I thought it was hilarious. John and I keep joking we are going to buy this for each other.

miles movie

2007-10-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

John created another one his videos this evening. Click here to check it out.

He has posted some photos from the event as well. The short video was taken after a week of me saying "No" to Miles alot and baracading things off so he couldn't get to stuff, so I just wanted to finally say yes, and let him play with what he wanted to, despite the mess. We captured Miles giggling like crazy during it and it's SURE to put a smile on your face.

we love fall, part 2

2007-10-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Today is ANOTHER beautiful fall day and we decided to walk to a park we have around the corner. Here is Miles on the swings for the first time. He loved it!

Mom looks a bit more excited about the slide than Miles does. ; )
Miles looks like he is doing a move from the Karate Kid. (considering I grew up a Ralph Machio look-alike, I'm not surprised. It's in his blood.)

fall foto shoot, by bets and john

2007-10-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

It was a BEAUTIFUL day, so what else do we want to do? Photo shoot! Capturing this first pic isn't so easy when your kid is a chubs! Woo wee, it was a workout! We love how blue the sky was today.

I got out an inner tube from the garage to lift myself up so we could get more shots with that great blue sky. Guess who thought it was a blast to play with? Too bad the blue one wasn't blown up becuase the blue would have been really cool, though pink is a fun jolt of color.
This is the photo we got with me on the innertube. (I'm sure our neighbors thought we were nuts!) It didn't turn out so hot. Oh well, we had fun trying.

If you can't tell, I really wanted "that" photo people get where they throw their kid in the air and capture them in mid-air. I don't throw Miles, yet, but even just swinging him up is hard to catch on camera. So we'll keep working on it trying different lenses and positions. We haven't quite got the shot we want, but we'll keep working to find it. (and get stronger biceps at the same time!)

We only had about 20 minutes or so to shoot today since Miles was hungry. We are trying again tomorrow. Taking photos is our favorite way to spend time together. Now, if only we had two cameras...

Tonight we got to meet up with Debbie and Mike, who I went to school with but haven't seen them in ages. It's been a really long time since John and I have both connected with another husband and wife and we had such a great time. Thanks for getting in touch with us Mike and Debbie. Looking forward to seeing you again soon and meeting your little guy.

fun foto friday

2007-10-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

Since this blog is a lot of writing, I thought I would satiate certain Grandmas out there with a pic, even if it is mostly Stamp. I had to include this pic because it so shows how one of the pugs is always near by.
Today we had our photoshoot with Bobbi & Mike. I have been wanting some photos of me AND John with Miles as we have lots of us seperatly. We were so excited to see them again, experience a shoot with them and glean a bit of their photography knowlege. John got to do most of the gleaning, as I was busy managing Miles. They showed up around 9 AM and I had been a bit worried that Miles would be really sleepy during the shoot. I didn't want to jinx things by changing the schedule, so I just hoped for the best. (When ever I try to micro manage, it works against me, so I went with the flow.) I'm usually against stuffy outfits for babies, denim especially, but of course, for today I put him in a rugby shirt and denim overals, pretty much the most uncomfortable thing I could find for him and it showed. The first half the shoot he seeemed sleepy, annoyed and only interested in putting toys in his mouth obscuring the view of his adorable face.

Bobbi saved the day when she mentioned stripping him down to his diaper and putting him on our bed. That busted right through his cranky mood (along with a little snack) and the shoot took on a whole different mood. We had the whole family, plus the pugs, on the bed and I think they got some good shots. I haven't really seen them yet, just a couple images on the viewfinder on the camera, but I'm sure they were the bomb.

We took some shots walking the pugs with Miles in the carrier too. That's such a big part of our life right now that I really wanted to capture it. We had so much fun with Bobbi and Mike. They are so real, which is my #1 quality I look for in people. One of the neat things about Bobbi and Mike is that they are these sweeeet photographers, very in-demand with 53 weddings this past year (!!!) but they are totally open with giving us photography tips and what we would consider ancient chinese secrets. (Ok, maybe not chinese or neccesarily ancient, but I am such a nerd I had to say it that way.)

Here's one of the examples of something we learned from her today. Here is a photo John took of me last week...
..and here is with a little help to make the colors come alive.

another example of before:

and after...

one more...

(John is SUCH a cutie!)

Mike had to practically drag Bobbi away as they had another shoot to get to and we couldn't stop trying to pick her brain. I can't wait to see them again and if I ever get to Indy again, they are just one more couple I am dying to go visit. (Along with the Aurands, Pages, Zables and Dr. Rushings. Man, I just need to move to Indy!)

After they left I had to immediatly get on John's Mac and play, play, play in photoshop. Oh man I want my own mac and a bunch of new photo processing software soooooo badly!!!

Thank you to Bobbi and Mike for being so awesome, so giving of your talent and so patient with our little guy. I better get a spring session booked up with you before you will be too famous for us little people! ; ) Bobbi and Mike have been SLAMMED with weddings lately, so it will probably be a little while until the photos are posted, but you will all be the first to know. I really hope we got good shots despite my cold sore and perpetual bad hair day.

john's turn

2007-10-18T20:00:00.001-07:00

No blog for me tonight. Check John's blog for the latest.

Kind of a freaky night with all the crazy tornado's going on. I hope everybody is ok and stays safe tonight.

enjoying dinner out on the patio

2007-10-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

People who don't even know John have told me that just by looking at his photo they can tell that he is the sweetest guy ever. Here's one of those shots that shows that he is just that.
I got lucky and a little sunbeam decided to come along and light up a few wisps of Miles' hair.
Off he goes! That child can crawl fast too!

No photos of me tonight. I have a coldsore the size of Manhatten. UGH. We are having Bobbi & Mike take our photos on Friday too. Story of my life!

Today I did two things that are quite daunting to me. Shoe shopping (Daunting because I have duck feet.) and shopping with Miles. I love taking Miles out with me, it's just half my brain is focused on Miles and the other half is trying to find something cute to wear. That is totally daunting because I really haven't shopped for clothes since the winter of 2006 when I wasn't pregnant and expanding plus I was still working and had fun money. I HAD to get shoes today though because the pair of flats I have been wearing forever literally felt like dusty old paper sacks around my feet. Yuck! So by the time I got to the 8th store today, Miles wasn't feeling the love for the stroller so I did what I call contact shoe shopping. I let Miles crawl around on the floor while we waited for the shoes to come, then as I tried each shoe on I carried Miles around the store swinging him or rocking him in my arms. Needless to say, it was a workout, but actually fun. Miles was great and such a good sport. I just had fun with it and took the million years it takes to buy shoes and in the end, I bought two pairs to take home to mull over when I could give the decision my full brain. BTW, both pairs of shoes are ugly as all get out. I'm a stay at home mom with wide feet. Ugh. So that means comfortable, practicle and goes with as many things as possible. So those of you who are still working and have tiny cute feet, wear your beautiful heels for me! Lord knows I can't!

Otherwise we are having a great week. John is loving the freedom of owning his own business! John has found that he works so much harder and at the end of the day he feels really good about it. I can totally see that. I remember growing up that I was inspired (once) to really clean my room. I was just getting ready to pick up my first toy when my mom popped her head in and disgusted said, "Clean your room!" She killed my desire to clean my room and I was so pissed the entire time I was cleaning. (Wow, I was a brat!) I think it can be that way when we are adults. Even though John is doing a lot of the same work, I'm sure it feels different when you get to tell yourself to do something, instead of hearing someone else tell you how and when. Yea for you John!

first grade fun

2007-10-17T16:58:00.001-07:00

Once again, I was trolling through our digital library and I came along this relic. I was in the first grade and apparently, full of life. This was just the beginning of a life long battle with what the hell to do with my hair. I think I'm wearing lip gloss here. I bet I stole that from my sister.
Of course, I had to find John at the same age. Being one of four boys means there are few photos where he is alone, so here he sits (in the middle) with his brothers Chris and Mark. He's was such a great role model for them to look up to. Hee hee.

We still haven't decided who Miles looks like yet, so perhaps in 6 years we'll have a better idea. ; )

memory lane...

2007-10-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

I came across this photo and had to share it once more. Such a precious little soul.

first sign!

2007-10-15T08:26:00.001-07:00

We have been working on teaching Miles some useful sign language words. It seems to me that meal time would be the most useful time to know some words, so that's been my focus. I wasn't sure it was really catching on, but this weekend we think we may have seen Miles give his first sign! (and then do it a few more times once I got my camera out-yippee!)

Here's John feeding Miles and asking him if he wants "more." ..and Miles replies, "More!"

So who knows if he was really asking for "more" or just clapping, but it was in context. So we'll see. John was the cutest, he got all teary eyed!

p.s. I have to laugh at how trashed our kitchen is here. We had just gotten back from the fall festival and the diaper bag just exploded out onto the counter and table. Our highchair was out of commision drying from a deep clean, so we fed Miles in a chair on the table. I wonder if he felt a bit less confinded in that chair than our high chair and that's why he did the signs. Which, by the way, I can't stand our Chicco highchair. I'm so tempted to sell it at a garage sale. Ugh! I love spending a lot of money on stuff that doesn't work well. Oh well, it's mine now and it's got to last for the rest of our kids that may come along.

punkins...

2007-10-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

When we got to Hilgers, Miles was still asleep, so we walked around and snapped some photos.

Anybody remember that Halloween song, "Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate...the first one said oh my it's getting late!"

Check this cute little juggling kid out.

I don't have a lot of time to type more details. I'll let the photos tell the story. Miles was pretty sleepy, so he didn't have a huge reaction to the pumpkins. He wanted to eat everything though! More to come!

p.s. I have a co-pilot blogging with me today. Miles is sitting next to me in his highchair babbeling away and gumming away on his newest treat, strips of toast. He LOVES that. He must have got his love of carbs from his mommy.

big news!

2007-10-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day in the King household. John quit his job. Instead of being an employee of Marching Show Concepts, he is now an independant contractor working via contracts for Marching Show Concepts (MSC.) His studio, Metta Audio, is now his full time business and not just a hobby. (Metta means loving kindness, by the way.) MSC will be his main client, but he also does web page design, orchestration and arrangement work and hopefully, as we learn more, perhaps photography as well someday. Not to mention writing music, which he has always done under his studio and not on an hourly basis as an employee.

So my family doesn't worry, I want to add that we have our own health insurance and we do know that this is a bit of a risk. But honestly, the only way John can grow professionaly was to streamline and take this path.

John is absolutly thrilled and has been beaming ever since he got back from meeting with his former boss and now #1 client. When I hugged him, I could just feel all this energy buzzing all around him. It's exhilarating and scary all at once.So please wish us luck. It's been a crazy week of slumber party nights of us laying in bed whispering back and forth until 3 AM the ins and outs of what to do. When it comes down to it though it really, truly is the perfect time to do this. Please pray for us as we transition that things go well and his contracts go smoothly with MSC.

On a seperate note. Here is a list of Miles' favorite toys right now: Measuring tape (supervised), tupperware bowl full of cereal to shake, door hinges, red plastic funnel, spatula, trash cans, zip-lock baggies full of cereal, pugs' flappy cheeks, diaper bag strap, dog water bowl, baby comb, plastic medicine dropper, nasal aspirator thing (never used), paper of any kind, the door to my office armoire and boxes of ebay stuff we are shiping.

Normal toys he likes: blocks he likes to hold and clap together. That's pretty much it!

That's all for now. I'm exhausted. Time for bed! Check John's blog as well as he blogged about his big day also. John's Blog

it's late and I shouldn't be blogging.

2007-10-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

(Disclaimer: Quick upload tonight, so my photo processing isn't the greatest.)

The expected caption here would be, "Miles loves books!" or "Books are yummy!" But I"m not that predictable. Well, at least I wish I wasn't so predictable. I can't think of another caption. So that's the best I've got.

I wish I would have captured Miles giving a cool expression because the light was so nice here, but he was just looking out the window. I like how the light has captured his eyes though.
Stamp LOVES Miles and here she is, standing close by as always. It's hilarious and sometimes rather annoying. They don't seem daunted that Miles has started to grab their flappy skin.

My mom came over to watch Miles tonight while we went out with some friends for dinner. She came a little early, so we had some time to kill. We stopped by this international bakery that I have always been wanting to go to and to our surprise found Fort Wayne's own Willy Wonka of baked goods. The place was amazing! They were all freshly made pastries of many ethnic origins and good old fashioned US of A doughnuts. We were starving so we promptly filled a bag for our breakfast tomorrow. They even had these cool day of the dead little candy/pastry things, which I think are used to honor the dead. I have always thought that the Day of the Dead is a really cool Mexican Tradition. I wish American culture could embrace death and grief in the same way. We, as a culture, handle it terribly. But I digress! Here's a quick photo before our dinner with friends, which, by the way, was kind of weird. We went to the Italian Connection and the owner, bless his soul, sang Frank Sinatra tunes on Karaoke most of the evening. It would have been great had he not been right next to us so we had to shout.

That's it for now. I need to go to bed. I have been keyed up all week and staying up late. How do I break that cycle? Ugh!

squishy squash

2007-10-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

This photo is for a little photo contest (just a fun one, nothing major) on a parenting forum I belong to. (The theme is messy faces.) You couldn't really see the yellow squash on his face, so I did a blue filter on this photo to really make the gunk stand out. I haven't won any prizes yet, so I'm not expecting this one to win. Just playing along. I figured I would share this funky photo just for fun.

My mom thought Miles looks like Spanky from the Little Rascals. I think that is hilarious!! (To my friends under 30, you might have to google the little rascals to get this...) hee hee!

For the under 30 crowd, as I mentioned, here's Spanky.

Anybody ever see the Little Rascals episode with the quote: "Dont drink the milk...why?....It's spoiled!" My favorite!

Miles Jumpin and Jiving...

2007-10-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

No dinner with Miles tonight, he was too ansty to sit in the chair while we ate, so he was our dinner entertainment. Enjoy. Oh, and crank up your speakers. We love to swing dance, so we had some swing music on and Miles seemed to get into it.

(Sorry guys, no fancy editing work tonight. This was done on the PC.)

broccoli bash and low muscle mass

2007-10-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

John and I were having broccoli tonight for dinner, so I broke it up in little pieces to see what Miles would think of it. He had already eaten, but just like his mom, this kid will never turn down a snack.
He picked up a piece immediately and started chowing down!

I caught John saying "Mmmmmmm" with his mouth full to Miles.
It was a really nice and rare evening where we could all sit and enjoy dinner together. We usually end up feeding him first and eating either after he is asleep or while he is bouncing away in a bouncer or something. We much prefer nights like these.

In other news, Miles is crawling like crazy and FAST all over the house. I have found that I can put make up on or brush my teeth if I let him crawl around our walk in closet. He loves to play under the clothes and pull on sleeves. I waited forever for him to crawl and now that he has, he is catapulting quickly through milestones. He is pulling himself up, standing and climbing. We are already getting the red marks on the face from when he is holding on to something with one hand and then lets go and WHAM! straight down he goes.

We are still on the hunt for a jogging stroller. I had found one on Craig's list, but I ended up getting sick on Friday and couldn't go get it. It's already snatched up so ANOTHER good deal goes un-gotten. Ugh. (As an aside, if you are ever bored, check out the personals on craigs list They are pretty crazy, racy and funny! I found that out last night when I was tinkering around that site.) So we'll see. I"m hoping we can get a jogger before fall is over. I'm thinking jogging strollers are like treadmils. It's best to buy them used because people get all excited about them, intending to exercise, but they end up with clothes piled on top of them after a few months. Well, John and I can barely run to the phone. Our cardio and muscle mass is at an all time low and we are tired of it. John and I were at Coldstone Creamery last night and we made an interesting observation. We realized that pretty much everybody in there, minus a handful of people, were overweight. That's including children, which is really sad. So as we ate our cake batter ice cream with kit kats crushed in, we made yet another vow to get in shape. That's where the jogging stroller comes in. I suppose cutting out coldstone is another option, but come on! Let's get real... ; )

learning can be tough...

2007-10-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

So I get comments all the time from blog readers that Miles is such a happy baby. Well, duh! I only post his happy photos! ; ) Not today...(Once again, technical difficulty on my camera settings, so excuse the photo grain please.)

This has been a HUGE week for all sorts of growing and learning for Miles. Obviously, he has learned to crawl but at the same time he started pulling himself up and standing too. Here is one of the first times he pulled himself up, but then didn't know how to get back down. Isn't it hilarious how "round" Miles is? He is the most snuggly baby. It's amazing that child knows how to crawl becuase I just love holding him so much.

Bless Miles' heart, his mean mommy had to snap a couple pics of him before I finally rescued him. I couldn't resist posting these though!

Tonight was the polar opposite of these photos. Miles was in his jumper and we turned on some swing music, Jump, Jive and Wail and Miles jumped as high as he ever has. It was hilarious. We all had a blast. No photos though, we just stayed in the moment.

In other news, it's garage sale season and this morning John walked past one of our neighbor's garage sales and they had a super nice jogging stroller for $15. I didn't realize it was that nice or that cheap when John alerted me to the sale. So I took my own sweeeeet time getting dressed and for some dumb reason, put make up on and by the time I got down the street, I walked up jussst as a woman was buying it. Doh!!!! I was SO hating myself for being so vain and dumb to not just run down there ASAP. I guess I just assumed it would be junky. I didn't leave empty handed though, I did get a baby bike carrier to pull Miles behind on a bike. (Bikes for us is our next big thing we want, but that might be Mother's and Father's day gifts to ourselves next spring. We'll see.) Anyway, so guess who wants a jogging stroller now! (Put a woman on a shopping mission to be thwarted like that and it makes you want something even more!) So I found one on Craig's list for $45 from a lady who lives out on the North side of Fort Wayne. So we'll see if that works out.

John and I really aren't that batty about buying babystuff, but we are outside with Miles a lot and finding things to help in our daily walks would be nice. Miles will be getting too big for his Baby Bjorn soon. We alreaady have very nice strollers, but we really can't run with them. We are both soooooo out of shape, that it would be good to get some running in. Plus, this winter when it's yucky out, it would be great to have nice big wheels to walk the pugs with baby all snuggled up. I'll keep you posted. Wish us luck that we can get a good deal.

Well, I better get to bed. Have a great weekend everybody!

Random Wed...

2007-10-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

Miles has been teething, but still no teeth. We thought we saw some. Nope!

Here Miles is pulling on Stamp's tail who just sat and patiently allowed it.

more Miles on the move...

2007-10-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

Here's Miles giving me a bit of a break by playing in his little exersaucer thing. Have you ever seen a happier face?

I just love this kid so much I squeeze him ALL DAY LONG. How can I not? He is just so precious and happy.

Happy 8 month birthday Miles!

2007-10-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

Eight months ago I was blaming a rather large fondue dinner on the so-called indigestion I was experiencing. I remember joking with my neighbor about how we hadn't fully packed our bags for the hospital yet and how relieved I was to have another week until Miles' planned c-section. Then, feeling absolutely rotten from what I assumed was over-indulgence, I went to bed leaving the house a mess, myself un-showered and the bags still unpacked.

Well, as the legend goes, Miles scared the complete daylights out of me by breaking my water unexpectedly in the middle of the night and leaving me, quite literally, with my pants caught around my ankles.

In the 8 months since, I think we have recovered from being the completely freaked out parents-to be and have, thankfully, grown into completely new beings that actually know a bit about caring for, enjoying and best of all, loving our precious little guy.

It has been a bit over a week that Miles has taken his first few crawling movements and that kid is OFF! He moves so fast and is interested in everything except toys. He LOVES cords, which, keeps me busy. I can baby proof all I want, but am I supposed to get rid of all the lamps in my house? Daddy's office is a utopia of cords, cables and wires as well. His favorite is daddy's spiral headphone cord. Try prying a cable out of Miles' hands too. When he wants something, boy can that kid put a lock down on his tiny little fingers!

Today I decided to just let him crawl as far as he wanted and he started in our living room and crawled, giggling the whole way, through our entry way, through the laundry room and would have crawled right out the door if I would let him. Because of this, I have found a new found love for our Johnny Jump up. When I absolutely need to cook something I can pop him in it in the doorway right next to me and he goes NUTS jumping in that thing. I have also found that plopping him down in grass stops him in his tracks as he is fascinated by the new sensation and will spend time checking it out.

So I"m figuring out little ways to keep him isolated to one area, but I'm sure I'll be joining the ranks of my friends soon who have barricaded their house with a menagerie of baby gates. I have always been the clueless kid-less one standing helpless in my friend's foyer wandering how the hell to work the baby-proof latch on the gate to get into their kitchen. So hopefully now that I have had a baby perhaps I will posses the knowledge to work the mysterious latches. I'll keep you posted. No baby gates as of yet and I'm loving it.

Here is curious Miles, discovering the world now that he can move around in it:

The pugs are amazingly patient with Miles. I wonder if that is from 6 years of me dressing them in sweaters...Anyway, please excuse the poor quality of photograph. I had some blonde moments this week choosing my camera settings. Which is really too bad because this is a hilarious photo, I think. By the way, Whisper's foot went straight into Miles' mouth after I snapped this photo. I'm sure there is some joke about putting your foot in your mouth I could make here, but I really don't have the energy to figure it out.

This poor plant has been moved outside for obvious reasons but will probably soon end up a foreign exchange student at Grandma's house.

I'm sure John's bonsai tree is getting pretty nervous...

Well, I better go to bed. My new life with a traveling baby is exhausting. I fell asleep on the couch tonight at 7:30 and woke up at 9 PM with sticky contacts and completely disoriented. Ugh! That is the worst feeling! Nighty night.

Cami: Class of 2008

2007-09-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

John and I snapped some photos of my friend Cristi's (View their photo shoot here) neice, Cami, today. She had her senior photos taken at a studio, but they didn't get any good headshots of her so they wanted us to give it a try. I was a bit daunted as "hello!" Senior photos are super important! But hey, we figured we could give it a shot and hopefully learn something in doing so. So we took a couple hundred shots and came out with some really beautiful photos. She is such a cutie and has the most beautiful eyes!

Cami, it was so great to meet you today! You are beautiful on the inside and out. We had a great time shooting you and we got some shots I think we can both be proud of. Best of luck on your senior year!

last vacay shot...

2007-09-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

John's dad captured a very rare shot of the three of us all together on the beach. Thanks to Tom and Donna for hosting us at their timeshare last week in SC. We had such a great time!

Pachelbel Bedtime...

2007-09-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a cute twist on one of my favorite songs. Enjoy and listen all the way to the end. : )

first big wave

2007-09-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

Here's our first time checking out the beach. (Don't you love how being a mom suddenly makes you headless?) Miles sure was the cutest dressed kid on the beach. Isn't he adorable in his little romper and sun hat? I think so. ; )

We were all watching baby so much...

That we didn't see the big wave come! Miles got a big splash in the face from a wave, so we headed to a less scary place, the lazy river.

Grandma Smith got Miles that snazzy car. He got all sorts of smiles and waves as he cruised along in that thing.

The timeshare we stayed at had the coolest lazy river and the water was nice and warm, even if the weather was kind of funky. We missed so many awesome photos of Miles "swimming" like crazy with Grandpa, mommy and daddy, but we just stayed in the moment and enjoyed him. Later, after Miles went to bed that night, John and I had a blast ditching the tubes and went swimming against the current. We LOVE to swim, so that was one of the highlights of the trip. We are counting down the years that we can start taking Miles to water parks. We can't wait!

south carolina days...

2007-09-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some random moments captured during our trip to see Grammy and Grandpa King.

Grandpa King made a good stand-in for a highchair during the trip.

While in South Carolina, we did some shopping and found the most adorable Haloween costume for Miles. I can't wait to draw a little nose and whiskers on him!

first crawl

2007-09-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

I actually captured Miles' first crawl on video yesterday. He is wearing pants that are a bit big for him, so he was getting a bit tripped up, but it was still a crawl! John, of course, had to make a music video out of it complete with sound effects. Enjoy. (It's only 30 seconds long.)

first time playing in sand: North Myrtle Beach

2007-09-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

It started out as a walk...
Then we decided to get him out of the carrier to play.

We let Miles get as messy as he wanted and he most certianly did! He had a blast and, of course, had to taste the sand as well, even though I tried my best to keep it out of his mouth.

Sand was EVERYWHERE, so in the tub he went! Actually, both John and I jumped in too. The timeshare we stayed at had a big wonderful bathtub that Miles always got to take another swim in after our day of play. We have vowed that our next house will have a garden tub. It was so easy and so much fun to hop in the tub to give Miles a bath.

new patio complete!

2007-09-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

I wish we could take credit for our beautiful new patio, but we can't. Hoot Landscaping did the stamped concrete and Jerry Straessle did the landscaping around it. We are thrilled with how it all turned out.

We're home!

2007-09-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick preview of what is to come from our vacay photos.

We had a great week with John's parent's in Myrtle Beach and Miles traveled like a DREAM. I had no idea traveling with Miles would go so well and be as easy as it was.

I gotta run as we need to go pick our pugs up from the Zabel's house (aka Camp Grandma and Grandpa's house) and lots of unpacking and grocery shopping.

More to come....

beach baby...

2007-09-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hello from Myrtle Beach! We have been having a great time at John's parent's timeshare this week. We can't wait to share all the great photos of Miles playing in the sand, (and eating sand, swimming in the lazy river, crusing in his blow-up car and getting closer to crawling. We did some outlet shopping today and got Miles' Halloween costume. CAN"T WAIT for that photo shoot! (I"m gonna keep you hanging on what it is!)

I have to say, I was nervous about traveling with him and how he would be away from home. He has been SUCH A GOOD BABY.(Thank you God!) He's sleeping and napping, smiling and laughing. He has been a total joy and G and G King have been eating him up. He LOVES the water too. I'm excited about doing some more swimming tomorrow.

I gotta run and hit the hot tub with John. Lots of love to you!

: )

Bets

suddenly skinny

2007-09-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

In order to simplify, we have been doing sposies (disposable diapers) this weekend as we plan for our vacation away. Well, now that Miles doesn't have the bulk of his cloth diaper, I found all sorts of cute clothes he never was able to fit into. Here is the trimmer, slimmer version of Miles. Who knew he had such a tiny booty!

Miles' first Johnny Appleseed Festival

2007-09-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

We LOVE the Johnny Appleseed Festival. We actually chose our wedding date based on the date of this festival becuase it's always such beautiful weather and we always have a built in way to celebrate our special day. I reeeeeeeally need to be packing for our trip to South Carolina, but had to post these photos. One of them, I did in both b and w and color because I couldn't decide. Oh, btw, Miles was great today. He loves straw, dirt and he even had his very first sip of juice, freshly squeezed apple juice. He LOVED that. Just as we were leaving, he feel fast asleep in the baby carrier. Such a sweetheart. Next year we will be running after him, I'm sure!

This is how much junk you have to haul around to take a baby to a festival!

my new favorite guilty pleasures I really don't have time for

2007-09-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

I have a MILLION other things to do, but I find myself gravitating to the wonderful world of blog surfing. I find a cool blog, and then see a cool link to another blog. Oh, it's good fun, but a guilty one as it's a major time suck. You all know my friend's blogs that I refer to quite often. But here are some other ones I have been enjoying. Listing this makes me look like I have no depth going on other than kid stuff. I swear I do. I check out cnn.com, but that's not really unique and anybody can find that site. Here are some treasures I have dug up. (and I'm finishing up with a not so unique one or one I am not so proud of...)

www.etsy.com check out the regular section and the children's section for some really cool, orginal artsy stuff to buy. This site gets my creative juices flowing and makes me wish I really knew how to knit. I can't wait until life slows down and I can make some homemade onesie iron on designs with John. (I love that I have a husband that will do creative projects with me. Now, if only he had the time...)

www.metrodad.com A really funny blog by a work at home dad. AKA Poppycock from a cocky pop.

www.rookiemoms.com

www.coolmompicks.com

and of course....

If you know me pre-Miles, you know I was THE go to person in town for celebrity gossip. I used to be a www.pinkisthenewblog.com fan, but I really got overly saturated with celebrity stuff. I do check out www.perezhilton.com when I need to see the latest train wreck that Britany has committed or who Jennifer Aniston is dating. It's quick and simple and doesn't go into details.

Well, that's it for tonight. I gotta go to bed. Miles stayed up suuuuper late tonight so it was a weird night. Happy Friday to you! Oh, speaking of the weekend, I just got John's anniversary gift via UPS today. I can't wait to show everybody what I got him. It's sooooo cool!

Wenesday Randomness

2007-09-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

I was still pretty sick today, so my mom came and watched Miles for a while while I rested. Here's me and Miles after a very long afternoon nap. Miles was on a nap strike for a while, but his 3 hour nap is back. YESSSSS!

Miles' shirt says "Smart as a fox." Isn't that cute? No pressure though.... ; ) Daddy snapped this photo when he was done with work. Yea! We love that John has a 2 second commute home!

Here Miles eyes a piece of food. He's waiting for jussssst the right time to go get it.

I spoke with Lutheran Hospital's nutritionalist last week in my ever constant need to obsess over raising Miles and she told me I should get some baby "puffs" for Miles to practice his pincher grasp and hand eye coordination. Puffs are like cherrios, but they disolve in the mouth better. Though the organic ones are bigger and harder compared to the Gerber ones. Though Gerber puts a bunch of junk in theirs. Oh well... I'm not a big fan of processed foods for baby, but a puff here and there can't kill him. (Now it sounds like I'm talking about smoking, and every puff DOES matter, but that's another story.) Plus, it's not like too many are actually getting into his mouth at this point. Regardless, it's been a nice time killer when he's ready for dinner and I'm still working on getting his food around.

The best thing that we have been using when Miles is done eating, but we want to sit and eat dinner is to give Miles some fruit in his teething feeder. That thing is AWESOME, albiet a bit messy and difficult to clean. The only problem is the instructions with the feeder says to use frozen fruit, but our nurse said frozen food can cause frostbite on their lips. I have used frozen pear and banana and he LOVES it. So what's your consensus?
Today Miles discovered a loose knob on our armoire upstairs. In our very shoddy attempt at baby proofing, that knob went unnoticed. Miles found it and turned it clean off the armoire! Here he is peaking around the corner, waiting for me to turn my back.

Hmmmm...that looks like something fun.

Yep, just as I thought...there are some loose screws around here.

Shoot! Mom caught me with the knob. I bet I can find some more trouble to get into....

I need to get to bed. I have a verrry busy couple of days coming up. I want to get the house nice and clean (ha! ok, not filthy would be a good start) so I can focus on packing for our upcoming trip. Plus, we have our anniversary this weekend and John gets to be Mr. Mom while I attend a wedding shower on Saturday. Wish me luck that I pack well. This is my first trip with all three of us and I'm a bit overwhelmed by the shear mass of stuff we have to take. I'm thankful I'm feeling better though and Miles' cold seems to be just about done too. I need to get to bed, sleep is a big part of getting better!

a few more...

2007-09-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

Well, the cold bug has traveled around our house and now it's my turn. UGH. I'm full on sick and it's not fun. I"m resting to work on getting better and John has been a HUGE help around here. He has been on total diaper duty and even took Miles to the grocery store today on top of planning meals for the week. He gets the awesome husband award! He rocks. (Can't you just see how cute John must have looked shopping with Miles in the Baby Bjorn carrier? Too cute...)

No new pics since I have been sick, but here are a couple left over from the last time we blogged.

Here's proof that Miles has no teeth yet. He looks like a little toothless old man!

Going back to bed to rest. Wish me luck that my crappy immune system will decide to kick in soon and kick this cold bug. Next weekend is our very favorite Johnny Appleseed festival and our anniversary, not to mention a family trip for us, so I N E E D to be well!

Finally.....photos up!

2007-09-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

This is Miles' favorite toy right now. It's a little "God Loves Baby" book with a small stuffed baby. Doesn't it look like Miles is showing us his baby in this photo? "
He LOVES that little baby, or as we call it, "the little man." I feel sorry for anybody who touches that book or the little man because it's G R O S S. Miles munches on that thing non-stop.

Speaking of munching, my mom bought Miles a special baby feeder today while we were out shopping. You put fruit or a teething cracker in the little mesh baggie and Miles can gum and suck on the food without a worry of him choking. She gave it to him while out on a shopping trip and this photo shoot is of him STILL chewing on a barley biscuit a couple hours later. Again...G R O S S, but he loved it.

Does this look like a kid who is going to give up that feeder anytime soon? I practically had to pry that thing out of his sticky little hands!

In the last couple of days Miles has all of a sudden taken an interest in crawling. Here's Miles rocking back and forth. I'm hoping this stage lasts awhile.

Doesn't look like it will be long though!

Over the weekend Miles appeared to be getting a cold, but he seems to have John's super sonic immune system and he's doing great. I, on the other hand, have been battling a bit of a sore throat and congestion. Grrrrrreat.

Miles keeps me in good spirits though. We have been having a BLAST together. Look at this face, how could you have a bad day with this guy around? ; )

it's so late!

2007-09-07T01:07:00.000-07:00

It's late, so I can't write much. I just got home from my final bible study for the summer at Amy Conner's house. (Hence the wedding photo of us at my wedding.) Tonight, she read a bible verse that Amy felt really spoke to her about each of us and then we all went around the room saying awesome things about each other. Cassie, who sang at Miles' dedication, had her guitar and sang a couple songs and played softly on her guitar as we all chatted. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of this group this summer and I am so excited to have some really great new friends. I MUST get to bed though!

More photos to come soon. I have been EXTREMELY busy this week but I started taking more photos today, so I'll get some on there soon. I dont' know when though becuase my weekend is not looking like it's going to be slowing down anytime soon.

Check out John's blog (See link in the right hand column) if you have ever wondered what kind of camera we use and for a cool article on the lens that changed our life. (Yep, that sounds dramatic, but it's true.)

Hope you are all doing well. I've had a hard week and I'm thankfully tomorrow is Friday.

Just for fun, I'm throwing up a wedding photo of me and John. Our anniversary is coming up and it's been such an awesome whirlind of two years for us. I love my husband and I love the little family we have created. Even though it's been a little crazy around here, life is very good.

Much love,

Bets

darn tootin

2007-09-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

We captured this video a couple of months ago when we first started Miles on solid foods. We were still trying to figure it all out and read Miles' body language. I think we read him loud and clear! Turn up your speakers on this one!

gigglefest 2007

2007-09-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

We F I N A L L Y rescued some video footage that has been held hostage on the video camera all summer. Here's a quick little montage we call "Giggle Fest." The last part of the clip, where I think Miles is laughing like a cowboy, was taken just a week or so ago.

sunday slump and sniffles

2007-09-02T20:01:00.000-07:00

Still no camera, so no new pics. We have been missing our camera like a fat kid misses cake.

We have been complete dead beats this weekend. Inspiring, huh? Every now and then John and I get a sense of overwhelmed apathy going on. Where you have so much to do that all you can do is loaf around. We are currently trying to drag ourselves out of that funk.

Miles has decided that getting a runny nose might be a good way to bolster our spirits. So, as always, the clueless first time parents are watching him like a hawk. There has been much speculation on where Miles could have gotten a cold bug, if he is allergic to some type of weed, or it was even speculated that perhaps he was bitten by a mosquito and this is the first warning of the west nile virus. Yes, we are a family of raging hypochondrics.

Despite MIles' attempts, the runny nose did not help our mood. So we went to Jefferson Pointe for a bit of fresh air and some window shopping. We ended up getting a nifty little food processor for my new experiement in baby food making. Strangly enough, after two weddings, I have managed somehow to avoid getting a food processor. The price range of food processors is rather rediculous so in an effort to make sure my KitchenAid mixer didn't get all low self esteem on me, we went for the $50 one. It's actually pretty cool. It is an immersion blender that has a couple of extra attachements too. It's nice and quiet too, which is great becuase the blender scares the daylights out of Miles. Man, does this make me old that I get excited about appliances? Well, I guess I would only feel old if John tried to make this count as our anniversary gift. (Sorry John!)

John was thrilled to test out my new toy and even made a milkshake for us.

Well, I'm sure this was the world's more boring blog. We will get our camera back soon and I'll stop just putting images of random crap on here. ;)

Oh, I will give one more bit of an update. Miles is starting to do that rocking back and forth thing on all fours, so this crawling business is starting to snowball and we are afraid. Very afraid!!! Oh my goodness, I totally forgot to mention that today is Miles' SEVENTH month birthday!! I have a feeling that now that we are over the 6 month hump things are really going to start happening quickly.

Happy Labor day tomorrow. Enjoy!

woo hoo!

2007-09-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

My 2008 IKEA catolog came today! Yippee!! I LOVE getting that catolog and dreaming of all the fun ways I can organize. Yea, I'm that much of a nerd.

Here is a nightlight from Ikea that was given to us by Steve and Melissa Zabel. It's soft and re-chargeable so you just leave it unplugged and squish it to turn the light on. (Very convienent when you are searching for it in the dark.) I use it EVERY night when I go to check in on Miles before I go to bed. I used to when I was pregnant and would get up in the middle of the night when I was ill (which was a lot during the last few months) without waking John or tripping on stuff.

Just had to share my excitement. It doesn't take much to thrill me.

Other than that, we have had a good couple days. John wanted a change of scenery yesterday and we went to the library downtown and I played in the baby room while John did some work on his laptop and some research for work. Miles and I met a little baby, George, that was born on the same day in the same hospital as Miles. How cool is that? He was TINY though, so they looked about 3 months apart instead of more like 6 hours apart. George was crawling like crazy, had a tooth but couldn't sit up yet. Miles can sit up but doesn't have teeth yet. So it's interesting to see how different two babies are at the same age. oh, and their due dates were a day apart. It was really interesting and fun to talk and play with them. Babies are so cute, they always want to touch each other's faces when they meet. Funny, if we would try to touch anybody's faces as adults, people would think we were weird! THen along came an 11th month old that was 2 pounds heavier than Miles. I swear, I don't feed this kid cake all day long! It was nice to see some other mom's and babies. That library is such a cool place.

Today we ran some errands and have just played with Miles. We are starting to see the verrrry beggining of a crawl and honestly, we were getting used to him not crawling yet and enjoying how containable he has been. Life will change for us big time very soon.

Gotta run, I get to go out and have girls night tonight with my sister in law. So Daddy is home alone with Miles.

TGIF randomness....

2007-08-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo I took a while ago that our famous friend Bobbi did some of her sweet color processing for us. She's so awesome, every once in a while she'll snag a photo from my blog and give it some "Bobbi Love." In the original I took you couldn't see the blue in his eyes at all, so Bobbi really made them pop. It's a really fun little surprise. Thanks Bobbi!

No new photos this week as we don't have our camera, but we have been taking some video. Video is just such a HUGE pain to edit becuase it's a million years long of mundane with a few great clips scattered throughout. We do have some fun clips of Miles in his jumper and I captured him laughing hysterically a couple nights ago. I'm not sure you'll see these anytime soon on the blog as John is swamped with a ton of projects and no time to get on his computer. (That's a good thing, but just hard to fit in our own fun stuff.)

Things are going well here for us. Miles has been going to sleep at a new time, 7 PM and I couldn't be happier. I thought it was just a fluke from when he got vaccinated, but it has stuck. So that's been good, though I still stay up SUPER late playing when I should be in bed.

New subject:

A week or so ago, I read in the news about a young man named Miles Levin. He got cancer at the age of 16 and kept a blog. He wrote so well that his blog became very famous and people all over the world started to read it. He passed away last week at the age of 18 and the world has lost a very beautiful person. I have started to read his journal and his writing is so expressive and descriptive that it brings me back to the "cancer world" I once lived in instantly.

Cancer ages you. It definitly adds years to your skin, robs you of your hair and of course puts years of wear and tear on your body. However, it also puts years on your soul. The people I have known that have had cancer became so wise beyond their years. It's like they have just been granted an endless amount of grace and perspective. There is nothing more humbleing to see someone sit in a hospital bed, a mere shadow of themselves, and look at you with complete peace and wisdom and know with 100% certianity what is really important in this world. It's really an amazing thing. When I think about it, it's not just cancer that does this. I'm sure my friend Lindsay, who is in the hospital working hard to keep her baby alive and growing, knows a new understanding of what is truly important in this world. Once you get back into regular life though, us "mere mortals" lose that sense of perspective pretty quickly. I always appreciate being reminded of how fragile and precious our time here really is.

So I have been reading that through the writings of Miles Levin. Of course, it sure does a number on my brain to have gone through cancer with Andy and to remember that through his writings and then on top of that, to hear my son's name referred to in this instance is quite jarring. It's worth it though, because this young man was amazing. It's such a cliche to say that cancer seems to take the best, but if you ask Dr. Rushing, Andy's oncologist, he'll agree and tell you that his patients are some of the most amazing people he has known.

I could go on forever talking about the courage of people with cancer, but I want to share with you an excerpt from Miles' blog and what will probably soon be a book or a movie as I have heard his family has had many offers.

This excerpt is from one of the early entries from Miles' journal, sorry, I don't have the date it was written. Remember though that he was only 16 or 17 when he wrote it, which amazes me.

"I went to the driving range the other day and I was thinking...

I was thinking how you start out with a big bucket full of golf balls, and you just start hitting away carelessly. You have dozens of them, each individual ball means nothing so you just hit, hit, hit. One ball gone is practically inconsequential when subtracted from your bottomless bucket. There are no practice swings or technique re-evaluations after a bad shot, because so many more tries remain. Yet eventually you start to have to reach down towards the bottom of the bucket to scavenge for another shot and you realize that tries are running out. Now with just a handful left, each swing becomes more meaningful. The right technique becomes more crucial, so between each shot you take a couple practice swings and a few deep breaths. There is a very strong need to end on a good note, even if every preceeding shot was horrible, getting it right at the end means a lot. You know as you tee up your last ball, "This is my final shot, I want to crush this with perfection; I must make this count." Limited quantities or limited time brings a new, precious value and signficance to anything you do. Live every day shooting as if its your last shot, I know I have to.

I found out today 5 year survival rates are just 20%."

If you would like to read more of Miles' journal, go to www.carepages.com and enter "levinstory." Hopefully this little clip will give you fresh insight on life as we enter a long weekend to spend with our family.

Prayers for baby Hackett

2007-08-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

Hi blog readers. We need your prayers for our friend Lindsay and Zac. Lindsay's water broke at 18 weeks into her pregnancy and she has been hospitalized on bedrest ever since. Lindsay and her baby have beat some pretty grave odds and Lindsay has been hospitalized for SIX WEEKS and will continue to be until the baby can be born.

Can you imagine? The evening her water broke she went into the hospital and she hasn't gotten to leave the property, and really her bed ever since. She wasn't even online for the first month and a half or so (I would have surely lost my mind) but the hospital has now given her a computer and she is back online! Yippee, she has a little window into the outside world again.

So check out her blog and please send some encouragement and prayers as well. Lindsay's blog

(BTW, the photos above were done by our friend Bobbi, who I met at Zac and Lindsay's wedding.)

Lindsay is a blog reader, so I'm going to send a shout out to little miss Lindsay, baby Hackett and of course her hubby Zac who is probably nested into the oh so comfy hospital couch. Hugs to you!

photo shoot...

2007-08-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

I had a coupon to try out a portrait studio and considering I had never taken Miles before, I figured I would try it out. I had tried this particular studio in the past with my family and based on that experience I was kind of annoyed with their usage of film and not so great lighting, however, I liked how simple their style was. I figured for a free 8 by 10, I would see what I was missing out on by not being in the photo club that people usually sign up for when they have a baby. Plus, they enter one of the photos in a contest to be the next "Yo Baby" baby yogurt model. (Yea right....) What the heck, we had a free morning!

Here are some proofs from our morning.

I almost canceled the appt. because Miles woke up with a couple of scratches on his face from a snaggle nail, but I figured boys will be boys and let the camera capture him the way he is.

I think there are some really cute shots and I set myself up ahead of time for the heartbreak that would happen when they bring out all sorts of 8 by 10's and collages to just be thrown away when I didn't purchase them all. I'm sure they were pretty disgusted when I didn't buy their $500 package, but hey, I just can't justify spending the money when we take so many photos on our own. I did get a few photos though. How could I resist? We are saving our money for this fall when our friend Bobbi will be taking some family shots of us though. In the mean time, here are some (illegally posted, hence the water mark) proofs for your viewing pleasure.

It was fun doing the shoot as Miles was in a playful mood. I had this crazy instinct though to be behind the camera snapping away. We don't have our camera this week so it's killing me not to take any!

bumgenius bandit

2007-08-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

No new pics to share today, but I do have a funny story to share. Miles was pretty hot this afternoon, so I laid him down for a nap with nothing but one of his Bumgenius diapers on. He didn't sound like he was napping, so I went in to check on him and I was very surprised to see Miles was NAKED as a jay bird! He had taken his diaper completely off and was happily rolling around in his crib free as can be. Thankfully he hadn't wet or soiled the bed and we thought it was hilarious (for now.) Of course, this could mean trouble for us now that he's figured out the velcro, though we just won't be spending too much time without a onesie on anymore to squelch his nudist desires.

Since I don't have any photos, I'll give a quick update on what Miles is doing now: Miles is sitting up really well now, which is great and so cute to watch him sit and play. He still has zero interest in crawling. If I put a toy in front of him to encourage him to crawl to, he'll just roll and roll until he is finally there. I'm not too upset about that becuase that means he is still pretty containable. He LOVES to eat and we haven't found a thing yet he doesn't like. Still no teeth either, but we still get cycles of teething. He LOVES to play peek a boo and is becoming more and more interested when I read to him, which is great. Today he rolled over to his toy box and tipped it over and started rummaging around to find a toy with which to play. Just a matter of weeks ago, he was just laying on a blanket and would play with whatever I gave him. Now he is seeking things out on his own. This is pretty normal stuff but amazing to me. Now, I guess it won't be so "amazing" when it's the remote control he's after and I won't be able to track it down. ; )

Well, I better get to bed. I'm resolving to get to bed earlier, so that means less blogging!

sending a shout out....

2007-08-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

Today mom and I went up to angola to do a bit of outlet shopping and then to meet my aunt Joan for lunch. We didn't have a ton of time to shop but we found plenty. You just have to cut yourself off at some point becuase you could shop all day. Miles was such a good shopper and good guy at the resteraunt, but it sure takes a lot of energy to make it all happen. Whew!

I wanted to send a very warm HELLO to Aunt Joan's co-workers that I met today when we stopped in at her office. I found out that they are all blog readers which is so cool! Thanks so much for tuning in ladies! It was so nice to get to see you. : )

welcome home!

2007-08-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

If you have ever been to our house you know that Whisper likes to bring people a toy as a welcome gift. She does the same when miles comes home and it's so cute! They are not only excited to see us, but baby Miles as well.

wanna play?

2007-08-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Peek a boo!

are you lookin at me?

2007-08-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

Miles is sitting on his own and it's so much fun to sit and play with him. Every once in a while he'll tip over so I can't go very far, but when I do need to step away (or take a photo) the boppy comes in handy to "catch" him.

always happy

2007-08-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

John's out for a guy's night with a buddy and Miles went to bed early again, so I have the "good" computer allllll to myself. Photo time! I'm going to post a couple blogs because I have some busy days ahead where I won't be online much. i wanted to make sure I send some photos for the fam down South!

John and I were shopping a while back and saw this shirt at H&M and even John, who could go years without buying cloths-and has, even agreed we must buy it.

Even in a post vaccinated stupor, Miles was happy to pose for me.

Mom, you've got me laughing so hard....

I'm crying!

Ok, so maybe not ALWAYS happy, but pretty much!

chillin after our walk

2007-08-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

After one of our walks last week, we took some extra time to check out the trees.
Yes, I actually leave the house wearing a pink jacket and green shirt with my hair in cubby ears. I have no shame. If I could get away with shaving my head I would. However, cubby ears is the closest I can get to not feeling my hair on my head.

Then chilled out on the front porch for a bit.

Miles was zoning as he was sleepy and ready for bed. He's been really good lately about going to bed a nice early hour. Last night it was 7 PM (that's early for us) but that was probably just becuase he had his vaccinations. He's such a good sleeper I really, really hope that continues.

Speaking of vaccinations, we had our latest doctor visit yesterday. Miles is in the 75th percentile for weight at 18.8 lbs. and the same for height, which I'm not quite sure what his height was, but I want to say 27 inches. (I could barge into John's office to bug him and get the sheet, but I'm trying not to interupt him so much during the day.) His head is 50th percentile, so he's not what the Zabel family would refer to as a "baby big brain." (Sorry for the inside joke!)

Everything is looking good. We always enjoy our doctor appts. and Miles seems to as well. Yesterday I was (trying to) have a serious conversation with our doc and Miles and daddy were on the paper covered exam table going nuts with the paper. Miles was shredding it and whipping it around like crazy. He was making all of this noise and I wanted to just laugh, but I was also trying to focus on what the doc was saying to me. Needless to say, once she got around to checking miles out, he was sitting in a nest of shredded paper.

Moving on, I got my Pottery Barn catolog today and there was much drooling. I usually just throw it in the recyling bin immediatly so I don't get depressed, but with all the cool home office stuff (my weakness) I had to take a peak.
The first thing that caught my eye is a cork board with bult in places to plug your ipod in with speakers. Then there is a little hidden cubby to stash your cell phones and other little items. So cool!

And my dream office. What I love about this are the three calendars. (My legacy to my old office where I started this orgizational style for the shipping schedule.) I love posting up multiple months at a time because then you don't get caught off guard by a birthday on the first of the month or something. Ahhhh, it all just looks so nice and clean....very much unlike the dark little cubby of clutter I have going on right now. Oh well, at least I can shut the doors to my computer armoire to hide all of my stuff. Ok, I"m inspired to organize now. Hopefully Miles will nap a bit longer so I can get some done. : )

Ohh, and fall is coming soon, my favorite time of year. These chocolate brown bowls and dishes are yummy!
Love these lanterns....

Ok, I could window shop for ages online, but time to stop day dreaming and get to work! I tell you what, I felt like shopping, so I just did some poking around and now it's out of my system....for now.