It's a Sparkly Day!

When Emily woke up this morning, she actually woke up in a good mood for once. As she was getting dressed, she looked at me and said, "Mommy, it's a sparkly day today!"

I just wanted to share and encourage you not to have a drab Monday--Have a **Sparkly** Monday!!!

WOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As of today, only 5 more days of pumping at work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would have been done pumping today, but a few weeks ago, I wound up with mastitis. That's not the best time to reduce pumping sessions, so my "omitting pumping sessions schedule" was delayed a week.

I am not done morning/bedtime nursing, but since in 15 days, Ty will be able to have whole milk, I do not need to pump anymore at work. My whole wardrobe will be changing, and I will have a full lunch period again!

Hope this post wasn't TMI, but thanks for letting me celebrate :-)

Sneak Peak

Until I have a chance to post about our spring break, here are a few highlights of our Easter Sunday for your enjoyment!

Uh-Oh, First Steps, and Growth Spurts

Since I look at this as a "virtual baby book," I definitely need to record what happened yesterday. I was at the doctor's office with both kids since Dee had a baseball game. I was smart enough to bring markers and a coloring book to keep Emily occupied, but Ty was trying to go all over the exam room. He was holding onto the exam table, and I was handing him Cheerios. I guess I wasn't close enough to him, so he let go of the table, stepped one foot forward, and grabbed a Cheerio! He looked surprised at himself and fell down a second later. But it definitely qualified as his "first step." I tried to get him to do it for Dee later that evening, but he wouldn't. When we try to have him take a step, he gets so tickled at himself that he begins to laugh and then loses his balance. However, today after we got home from church, Dee got him to take another step while I was in the other room.

I am not ready to have a walker, but I may have a while yet. Emily wasn't fully walking until 3-4 weeks after her first step. Of course, each child is different, so he may take off sooner than we think.

Here's his other game--throwing things on the floor when he's sitting in his booster seat and saying "Uh-Oh." It's really cute the first 9 or 10 times, and then I've had enough, but Ty wants to keep playing :-)

He has been going through a growth spurt this week. This is what he ate for dinner last Tuesday: 1 cup of peas, 1/2 cup of carrots, 5 meatballs, 1 banana; then before bed 45 minutes of nursing and 8 oz of formula. It has been like this all week. That boy is seriously about to eat us out of house and home. In fact, he has eaten more than Emily every night this week. I guess it's coming to an end because at our Bible class potluck this afternoon, he ate 2 bites and fell asleep in his high chair. Maybe he's finally had enough!!!

Well, here are some pictures of the little porker. These are actually more of his 10 month pictures (I posted one a few weeks ago), and he turned 11 months on Thursday. I need to take his 11 month pictures this week or sometime soon before he turns 12 months!

I promise I tried to narrow this down to 2 or 3, but it was just not possible. I can't help it that I think he's so adorable!

Look--those thunder thighs aren't getting any smaller


He already knows he's supposed to keep his eye on the ball


I think he looks like a little catcher here


Not even one year old and already trying to bust our windows


Such a flirt


Checking out Daddy's glove


He knows where the ball is supposed to go


Thanks for looking!

Spring Break, Here I Come

Well, I am taking a little break from my exciting staff development day to do a little blogging. I thought I would actually brag on myself for once! As I mentioned earlier, I am taking a photography class. I recently completed my first assignment and have received a critique from my instructor. I really enjoyed the assignment because I had several of my questions answered. I learned how to make the camera focus on an object that I choose, and I learned how to make the background more or less in focus. You do the latter by changing the aperture, btw.

My assignment was to shoot two shots of the same scene using different apertures. I shot what I call my first bloom of spring, but it's actually the second because a certain 3 y/o who we all know and love picked the first bloom.

The below photo has more of a blurred background, so you focus on the flower.


This one is really a picture of the entire scene as the background details are sharper.


I am really excited for two reasons. First of all, I have thought of so many cute shots I wanted to take of the kids, but in auto mode on my camera, I couldn't get the camera to focus where I wanted it to. Secondly, I am really excited because the top photo was chosen as a photo of the week for my class, and the instructor gave me great feedback. It's not THAT big of a deal to be photo of the week because any number can be chosen, but it does mean that my photo illustrates the objective of the lesson. I was really nervous that I would have terrible pictures and not be able to do any of the assignments, so this has really boosted my confidence. I'm excited to take a lot of pictures this week!

Grades are Killing Me!

Just wanted to say I haven't dropped off the face of the earth--grades are due by Friday a.m., so I am working like crazy trying to get everything done. I really want to post pictures of Emily's party, but my sister has posted some already. Check out her blog Wedgey (for about the past 15 years, I have called her Wedgey or Wedge--don't ask) to see some.

I am also taking a photography course. I am really excited and have learned so much just in one week. I finally learned how to make my digital SLR focus where I want it to focus. I also learned about changing the white balance. I also learned how to make the background more in focus or less in focus--on purpose! I have done these things many times in automatic mode, but there were times that I wanted the camera to focus something or blur something, and I couldn't make it happen.

I received my camera as an early anniversary gift, so I would have time to learn how to use it "before the baby came." You would think that receiving a camera on 10-April would have been perfect for a 6-May due date. Ty had other ideas--about 28 hours after receiving this camera, we headed to the hospital to have a baby!

Spring break is next week! Yay!

SURPRISE!!!

As I previously posted, Emily's birthday party was last Friday night (leap day). My mom left early to wait for the moon bounce rental people. After I finished the cakes, I headed to church gym to drop off Emily's cake on my way to pick her up from daycare. I walked in the door, focusing so much on not dropping the cake, that I saw a baby in the floor but didn't notice that it was baby Carter my NEPHEW!!! As I turned the corner and headed into the kitchen, Amy, Ben, Brandon, Joy, and Christy all came to greet me. They cooked up this surprise trip to Temple for Emily's party. I was soooo shocked--they got me good.

There are many details and cute photos for the weekend, but I just wanted to post briefly to thank them for coming. Thanks so much--it was a wonderful surprise. I know that it made Emily feel so special to have her aunts and uncles come all the way from Arkansas for her princess party.

I don't know if we really got a picture of the 3 of them together. So here's one of the boys and one of the girl (showing off her bracelet, of course).