Kate in my "Studio"

For Christmas, my awesome brother bought me some studio lights. Yes, it's taken me this long to finally use them. It just took me a really long time to figure out how to use them with my camera. While it's a very good camera, it's not professional grade, so I had to buy adapters to make it work. The first one I bought didn't work, and I just bought one that I can work with. These aren't perfect by any means, I feel like the light is a little too harsh, but it's not bad for a first attempt! It was so hard to get Kate to sit still for even five seconds, so that made it even more difficult to position the lights correctly. Even still, these were too cute not to share.  I'm very excited to practice and get better at this, it's a lot of fun!

Anybody want to come play?

Phoenix Zoo (again)

Yes, we went to the zoo again. These memberships are awesome! But this time just Bethany and I took our kids, along with two extras that she was babysitting. So we went to the zoo with 5 kids yesterday. It was exhausting, but fun.

It was very crowded yesterday.  I really didn't think we'd run into that problem because we went on a Wednesday, but I forgot about spring break.  We almost couldn't even park in the parking lot!  We did survive though, and all 5 kids made it safely out of the park with no one getting lost.

Kate is at such a fun age to take to the zoo. She gets super excited when she sees each animal, and makes each animal's sound.  Out of all the animals at the zoo, the ducks probably take the prize every time.  They are everywhere!  She loves to chase them and say "Quack quack!".  While we were eating our lunches, we even had one come under our table.  The kids all thought that was pretty awesome.

We had a great time!  Hopefully we can squeeze in another trip before the weather gets too hot!

22 weeks

Well, I'm 22 weeks now, which means I'm already more than half-way done! I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is flying by.  I guess it's because I have a crazy toddler to take care of, and she keeps my mind off of the pregnancy.  Other than being tired all the time, I feel great!  He is kicking constantly now, and I love that.

We are still WAY undecided on names.  It's so hard this time around!  A few that I keep coming back to are Joey, Jack, Max, and Troy.  I guess I just like short names!

Although we haven't bought anything for this little one yet, I have been dreaming about the nursery.  We were thinking like a vintage Mario/Nintendo theme.   How cute is that?  We'll paint the room light blue, and maybe I can get someone to paint a scene on one of the walls. Dustin is going to do some illustrations to hang on the wall, and I might be making some bedding.  I can't find any Mario themed bedding on the internet.  I found one set, but it was freaking $275!  No thank you.  So...if any of you see anything cute, will you let me know?

Kate seems to understand what's going on.  She insists on sleeping with a baby every night.  We have a couple story books about new babies, and she's always asking me to read them to her.  She points out all the babies in church, and everywhere we go.  I think she is really excited to be a big sister.

Well, I think that's enough rambling for one night.  I can't wait to meet my little guy!

Love me some bedhead!

Yes, she posed like this all by herself.  Love it.

Thomas the Train

On Saturday we went to Globe, and rode Thomas the Train!  Grandma and Grandpa Watson were there, as well as Aunt Reese, Emmalyn, Aunt Bethany, Uncle Jaron, Maddock and Jaylee.  We arrived a little late (almost missed the train!) so we didn't get to sit by Maddock, which was kind of a bummer, because I really wanted to see him so excited to be on a train.  Oh well.  Kate thought it was awesome.  She kept saying "All aboard!" and "Choo choo". 

The train ride was about 15 minutes (rip off) and then we got off and explored the booths around us.  You had to pay for pictures with Thomas (another rip off), so I snapped one outside of the gate when we were waiting for our bus. 

Kate loves Grandpa!

Overall, the kids had a lot of fun, and I'm glad we went!

When Mommy gets sick...

 We stay in our pajamas all day, and remove all the toys from the toy chest.

 We take out every game, dvd, and book from the entertainment center.

We dump an entire box of cereal onto the counter.

Minus the bowl I poured her, that ended up on the floor.

 

Then, after mommy just cleaned up the cereal, we dump an entire bag of chex mix on the counter (and get into mom's craft supplies).

I guess I could have titled this post, What Happens on a Typical Day but What I Didn't Have the Energy to Keep up With.

Does anybody want to come clean my house?

Motherhood

I'm going to make it a goal of mine to get in front of the camera more often this year. MOST of the pictures I take are of Dustin and Kate, and I'm nowhere to be found!  I think it's a really important thing to have pictures with your kids instead of just your kids.

I recently bought a remote trigger for my camera.  It's supposed to work with the studio lights my brother bought me, but it doesn't :(.  It does work great as a wireless shutter though.  I had my camera on a tripod, Kate and I sat down on the couch, and I set out to take pictures of whatever happened in those next five minutes.

She was really sweet at first, but quickly decided she didn't want to take pictures and wanted a drink of water instead. Lately Kate loves drinking out of regular cups, but I didn't want her to get soaked (which is usually the result) so I gave her a sippy cup. Well, she FREAKED out about that! She did not want a lid on her cup. She kept yelling "Open! Open!" I wish I included more of her tantrum pictures in this collage. They're pretty funny. But there is one of her crying, and I'm holding her, it's probably my favorite of them all! 

I LOVE this girl!