Today I'm Five; That Means I'm Almost Six

Have you ever had the feeling that someone was watching you while you're sleeping? If you are a mom, then your answer is likely to be yes. The other morning I opened my eyes to a bright-eyed, handsome, little birthday boy staring me down. He was patiently waiting for me to wake up so he could make his grand announcement, "MOM, TODAY I AM FIVE; THAT MEANS I AM ALMOST SIX." He tells me this with eyes so wide that you can see white all the way around his pupil. He is very animated and this is his go-to face whenever he has something interesting to tell you...for him that's almost everything. It is known among friends as, "the Jon face."

"Today I am five; that means I am almost six." I am guessing that Jon likes to live for the future. Not a bad thing, just completely opposite of his mother. I am more of a live-for-the-moment type of girl. He better be careful because statements like that are likely to put me in a very unstable emotional state. Not only do I like to live in the moment, thinking about time passing actually puts me in a bit of a depression. I don't want to think about him turning six, I am just trying to wrap my brain around the fact that he's five. Where has the time gone?

Jon is the sweetest boy you will ever meet. When I think of Jon, I think "cool." He's the kid that will give you a pointed finger and a nod when agreeing with you. I will ask him to do something and he will reply with, "Of course, my sweetie Mom." He is such a joy to be around, he always has a story to tell or a quirky one-liner to share.

We love you Jon; you're our sweetie boy!

If you don't know all the words to a song, just make them up... and then own it!

Nacho Libre At His Finest : Best Homemade Halloween Costume of All Time

If you have never seen the movie "Nacho Libre" you will not understand this post. If you have never seen the movie "Nacho Libre", go watch it now. After partaking of all the goodness, you will then have understanding of the crazy cuteness that lies below.

If you were to ask me what my boys are into, it's an easy answer... superheroes. You never know who you are going to run into around our house. 

A few months ago, I came across Matthew standing on the edge of our couch. He had the complete-focus face on.  He then began to lift his hands above his head like a diver ready to take the plunge; he bent his knees and then flew across the couch. This went on a few more times and I then realized this acrobatic move had purpose behind it. He wasn't just stretching his legs; he was in character.  I asked him, "Who are you today Matt?" In a very low voice with his chin pressed against his chest, making his answer that much more serious and genuine he replied, "I Nacho," he then proceeded to fly across the couch. If you've seen the movie you know the scene well. He had just indulged himself in a powerful eagle egg and was ready to jump into the waters below.

I would of never put Nacho in the superhero category, but Matty could not have chosen a more appropriate character to be obsessed with. He fits the mold perfectly! He is the perfect miniature embodiment of the famous wannabe Mexican wrestler.

And now, he REALLY is Nacho thanks to his amazing Nana! Matthew says (in his best Nacho voice), "you are the best!".

Nacho below has two faces, one with a stache and one without. The first photo shoot he didn't want to wear it. After staring at the DVD case for a ridiculous long time and watching the movie until it broke he decided it was time to go all in. 

Without further ado, the best Halloween costume of all time....

 "Chancho. When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. Ezz for fun." 

"You gotta be kidding me. Everything you just said, is MY favourite thing to do, every day!" 

"Precious Father, why have you given me this desire to wrestle and then made me such a stinky warrior?" 

"I was wondering if you would like to join me in my quarters this night... for some toast." 

"Do you remember when everyone was shouting my name, and I used my strength to rip my blouse." 

"These are my recreation clothes." 

"Hey. Leggo my blouse."

"Ok... Maybe I am not meant for these duties. Cooking duty. Dead guy duty. Maybe it's time for me to get a better duty!"

 "I don't want to get paid to lose. I wanna win!"

"I'm not listening to you. You're crazy."

"When the fantasy has ended/and all the children are gone/Something good inside me/helps me to carry on/I ate some bugs/I ate some grass/I used my hand to wipe my tears/To kiss your mouth/I break my vows/no no no no no no way Jose/Unless you want to/Then we break our vows together." 

 "Eagle powers... come to me! Please!"

"There is no place for me in this world. I don't belong out there, and I don't belong in here. So I'm going out into the Wilderness. Probably, to die." 

"Thank you. I mean... they might have the appearance of riches, but beneath the clothes, we find a man... and beneath the man we find... his... nucleus." 

 "My life is good. Real good." 

Wine Tasting on the French Riviera with Brad Pitt

I think of myself as a pretty low-maintenance girl. My idea of a perfect night is a back rub, a glass of red wine and a good movie...preferably starring Brad Pitt. Now, if I was requesting a back rub from Eduardo, would only drink imported wine from France and a wanted a foreign play to be performed in my living room, that would be high maintenance. I think being perfectly content with getting my wine from a box allows me to be included in the low-maintenance category!

I have a very short bucket-list. I like to think of myself as adventurous, but if I were being honest, my list looks sort of puny. Vacation to a tropical destination with my love, win a million dollars, and go wine tasting.

I was so close to crossing wine-tasting off my list, but it still remains...I am cheap. A wonderful night out with some great ladies landed us at a wine bar for a birthday celebration. A few of us have October birthdays and it was a great excuse for a girls' night out! With that said, I was too cheap to order the wine sampler; instead, when the waiter asked what I would like I said, "a glass of merlot that's around $8.00." Classy!

Now that wine tasting is being put back on my list, it will now read: Wine tasting on the French Riviera, hosted by Brad Pitt.

Do I have bucket-lists and dreams mixed up?

It was a very fun night with some awesome girlies! A lovely dinner, a very tasty $8.00 glass of wine followed by my absolute favorite; frozen yogurt!

What really made the night? Amazing friends that you can laugh and be silly with! Friends that will gladly take you up on your offer for a piece of gum that you found at the bottom of your purse. Friends that let you sing with them in the car despite your lack of vocal ability and, most important, friends that don't judge you for the massive amount of frozen yogurt that one might choose to consume!

Love you girls, it's so amazing doing life with you!

I missed the photo-op! I was busy trying to find great karaoke songs to accommodate my vocal ineptness. Karaoke girls-night is next week....hmmm, not sure if I'll post those highlights.

Okay girls, you and your tiny cups of frozen yogurt...we're going to need to work on that!

I didn't want to totally intimidate them, so I went light!

Beauty All Around Us

Sometimes I don't realize I have a massive need until I am in the midst of fulfilling it. Drinking water is a perfect example; I'm terrible at it. I don't realize I am dehydrated until I start to drink...two glasses later I tell myself that I am going to be better about drinking more water throughout the day.

This Sunday had been set aside as a family day. It wasn't until we were packing snacks, planning our route and all piling into the Burb that I realized how much I was in need of that day. I desperetaly needed a mental break from work and some quality time with the people I love the most.

The plan was simple, "get out." We are surrounded by incredible beauty and yet we don't take advantage of it often enough. Sunday the plan was to do nothing more than enjoy each others company and enjoy the beauty of Colorado in the fall with a kid friendly hike.

The Aspens right now are ridiculously beautiful. It is so nice taking pictures just for fun; just for me. I need to remember to do this a lot more often.

A few highlights of the day:

1. I got back to the car and realized my cell phone was gone; my new awesome smart phone. Erik and I started talking over our steps and realized it must have fallen out when I was using the restroom. For those that are not following me, I had it in my back pocket and now it was laying somewhere on the forest floor. Thankfully I had remembered the exact Aspen that had earlier served it's purpose and found my phone. Yay!

2. Matthew who is now potty trained (for the most part) does not get that pooping in his pants a mile away from our car is not okay. It was a long way back for him. So gross.

3. The mama bear in me came out...big time. We were walking a little ways on this dirt road the beginning of our hike. The kids are all spread out and the dog is off herding them. All of a sudden this Jeep comes screaming down the road. They see us but decide it's not important to slow down for four small kids and an unleashed dog. The kids, thankfully, know the drill and ran to the side of the road when they saw the car, but I was mad. I take a step out into the road as if I am going to somehow stop the car with my glare and make a point, I start yelling, "slow down, come on, are you kidding me." The Jeep speeds off and Erik says, "you know honey I don't think they could hear you."

4. We had a wonderful day laughing, consuming road trip snacks from the Loaf and Jug, and enjoying the beauty that surrounds us that we to often take for granted.

Busy, Random and Gorgeous

It has been a crazy week; well, a crazy month. So this blog post is going to be a bit short, and a lot random; topped off with some gorgeousness.

I was told this week that I was the perfect size for taking pictures, then was referred to as a human tripod.

I am having my picture taken for the second time this month. I am so awkward in front of a camera. You would think not...but honestly, it's not pretty. I'm fine with the timer and run method, but for some reason knowing someone can see me and I can't see them sort of freaks me out. My goal is to loosen up, chill out and for heaven sake relax my face. I tend to look like I just got injected with botox. I am much more comfortable behind the camera, but my goal is to make it happen this week. I'll let you know how it goes...hopefully with some presentable pictures!

I love shooting weddings! I love everything about it! The only downfall is the night after the wedding I dream in wedding all...night...long. I dream camera settings, location, posing, reception, ceremony. It's exhausting!

I am a big baby when it comes to weddings, I cry every single time. At this last wedding I cried three times. Ah...the love!

I can't have a conversation with someone if their mouth is covered. If we are sitting on the couch and Erik has a blanket pulled up so it's covering his mouth I get really irritated. He says I stare at his lips when we talk. So weird. I don't think I have a hearing problem, but apparently I read lips.

They say the average child goes through 7000-9000 diapers from newborn to potty trained. So let's just go with the lower end. We have changed at least 28,000 diapers in the last seven years! Now wonder we are ridiculously excited about NO MORE DIAPERS!! I don't even want to think about how much we spent. Don't figure it out for me please.

A few peeks of why I have been so busy lately! Okay, now back to editing before tonight's shoot!

Ways to Stay Creative

You have probably already seen this list circulating the internet; I came across it for the first time the other day. For those that have not seen it yet and maybe as a reminder to those that have...I thought it was worth sharing.

Some thoughts:

#4- Get away from the computer.  This is a big one for me. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the computer, the time passes by and we never get to exercise the creativity that we sat down to research about in the first place. Not good. 

#5- Quit beating yourself up.  I saw a post on one of the photography forums I belong to; it made me so sad. The question posted was, "Do you like your work?" Pages and pages of responses with everyone saying that they didn't like their work. I know it's very easy to be hard on yourself; I am definitely guilty but there should always be a sense of joy within our passion. I can always look through a session and find something I love; something I can be proud of. Sometimes I will catch myself smiling as I flip through pictures. It might not be the most technically perfect picture but it shines in one way or another. We all need to stop beating ourselves up and see our creativity for what it is...beautiful!!!

#6- Take breaks.  I have to remind myself of this one constantly. One of my strengths in life is "Achiever" (this will be a topic in another post) but with that strength comes burn out. I have to remember to get up, walk around, engage is something different. Read. Fold some laundry. Play with my kids. So important!!!!!

#7- Sing.  Pandora is always in the background when I'm editing. If it's not, I get irritated. 

#8- Drink coffee.  Totally have this one down!!!!

#9- Listen to new music.  Of course!

#16- Allow yourself to make mistakes.  Goes along with #5. Without mistakes you won't learn. 

#18- Count your blessings.  Perspective is huge.

#20- Take risks.   I feel like I am doing this a lot lately. Although it can be scary, my goodness, it's fun. And that brings us back to #16. It's okay to make mistakes while you are taking risks. They go hand in hand. Allowing yourself to make mistakes is a risk all on it's own.

#21- Break the rules.  I love this one. Being creative means you don't have to live in a box; something I have never been comfortable with. 

#22- Don't force it.  If it's not flowing, go back to #6 and walk away. Take a break and come back; don't force it because then it stops being enjoyable.

#25- Stop trying to be someone else's perfect.  Probably my favorite!! Comparing yourself with others is probably the one thing we as "creative people" do and the #1 thing that is most detrimental to our creativity. Let it go. Be your own beautiful!!!! Be okay with loving what YOU do and the way YOU do it!!!

#27- Clean your workspace.   I am so guilty of working in clutter and also guilty of being stressed within that clutter. I don't even realize why I am so stressed until I clean up all the junk around me. I have learned to clean my space before I begin work. My mind is clear and I am free to only focus on what is in front of me rather than the pile of unopened bills I continue to notice out of the corner of my eye. 

#28- Have fun.  Isn't this the reason we fell in love with whatever it is we do? It's our passion, it's what we can't live without doing, it's FUN! Don't let the fun fade away. If it begins to fade then look over this list. Ask yourself what needs to change and then make those changes so that you don't lose the love. 

That's a Cute Snake

I was away on a girls weekend and Erik had the kids. I never worry when he has them, even when he tells me all he wants to accomplish while I'm gone. He shows me his list of errands he plans to run with four kids in tow and I know he's got it. The truth is they listen to him. Sometimes is makes me upset thinking of how well they behave for him verses me, but it also makes me happy that my husband is a rockstar! He takes the kids to Costco and it results in strangers making comments to him like, "Gosh, you have very well behaved kids." All I get in those situations is sweaty armpits and the need to pop a few Advil...whatever!

So after a day of errands in Denver, the gang comes home to chill. I am sure wrestling matches, junk food and movies were on the agenda. Matthew these days has really taken to stiking close to Daddy. He wants to go everywhere and do everything Daddy does. We are potty training in our house...THE LAST KID!!!! Did I just say that? No more diapers? WHAT THE FRICK... IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!

Erik got up to go to the bathroom and his "mini-me" followed as predicted. He usually just messes around in the bathroom dumping out a bottle of something, turning on the faucet, or flushing before it's needed; this time he was intrigued. He was curious. He wanted to figure out how this whole bathroom thing worked for guys. He started chatting with Erik about the day. In the midst of chatting he looked up for a quick glance, without missing a beat he said with a snicker in his voice, "Oh, that's a cute snake-butt," then went on his way.

When I got home on Sunday afternoon Matthew ran up to me for a big hug and says, "mommy, mommy I have a cute snake-butt like Daddy!"

Like I said I never worry when Erik has the kids. Not only are they safe and happy but they also learn valuable life lessons!