Happy Birthday Lola!

Here are the promised cake pictures! Hope you like them!

Party!

Lola's 1st birthday aprty was today. It was a small gathering and it went very well. I made the two cakes and some candies for the event. Both candy making and cake decorating are new to me, but I had a friend who had some experience and she came over to help and walk me through it. I think they turned out GREAT! Lola's cake was an applesauce spice cake and had soy frosting...so it was 100% dairy free. We had a much less healthy and much more tasty option for our guests! I can't wait till my skills at decorating are challenged again!
Lola got lots of great presents and had a very happy day. She got to go out for lunch and have her party and then after her nap she had friends over to play till late and watched movies! What a big girl she is!

Someone's turning one soon!

We went to get our 1 year pictures of Lola done on Tuesday. As always I'm posting my favorites that I didn't order! Can you believe that my baby is almost one? It makes me so very sad.
I of course got the traditional pics of her eating her cake, but I'll post those later!

Black olives....

Sophy has always loved Black Olives. Since they are rather good for her I have no problem letting her have several whenever I am cooking with them. The other night as I made a salad for me and Jeff She saw the can sitting on the counter and asked for one. Usually I cut it up for her, but this time I felt she was old enough to chew it up and not chock on it so I handed her one. She looked it over and before I knew it she was sticking it on her finger and asking for more. Since I was one to stick black olives on my fingers as a child I oh course handed her ten and yelled for Jeff to bring the camera. She needed a little help with her thumbs, but we got them all on. She even ate them after the picture too! I thought my 3 readers might like to see!

Toddler rules:

(I stole this from a friend's blog because it is so very true...)
Toddler Rules Author Unknown

If it is on, I must turn it off.

If it is off, I must turn it on.

If it is folded, I must unfold it.

If it is a liquid, it must be shaken, then spilled.

If it a solid, it must be crumbled, chewed or smeared.

If it is high, it must be reached.

If it is shelved, it must be unshelved.

If it is pointed, it must be run with at top speed.

If it has leaves, they must be picked.

If it is plugged, it must be unplugged.

If it is not trash, it must be thrown away.

If it is in the trash, it must be removed, inspected, and thrown on the floor.

If it is closed, it must be opened.

If it does not open, it must be screamed at.

If it has drawers, they must be rifled.

If it is a pencil, it must write on the refrigerator, monitor, or table.

If it is full, it will be more interesting emptied.

If it is empty, it will be more interesting full.

If it is a pile of dirt, it must be laid upon.

If it is stroller, it must under no circumstances be ridden in without protest. It must be pushed by me instead.

If it has a flat surface, it must be banged upon.

If Mommy's hands are full, I must be carried.

If Mommy is in a hurry and wants to carry me, I must walk alone.

If it is paper, it must be torn.

If it has buttons, they must be pressed.

If the volume is low, it must go high.

If it is toilet paper, it must be unrolled on the floor.

If it is a drawer, it must be pulled upon.

If it is a toothbrush, it must be inserted into my mouth.

If it has a faucet, it must be turned on at full force.

If it is a phone, I must talk to it.

If it is a bug, it must be swallowed.

If it doesn't stay on my spoon, it must be dropped on the floor.

If it is not food, it must be tasted.

If it IS food, it must not be tasted.

If it is dry, it must be made wet with drool, milk, or toilet water.

If it is a car seat, it must be protested with arched back.

If it is Mommy, she must be hugged.

More Portraits...

I loved these! They are a little more artistic, but I just found something so sweet in them. Maybe it's just because I love the kiddos so much! You decide...

Easter Portraits

While the girls were all dressed up for Easter I thought I'd grab my camera and get some pretty portraits. We went to a great local park called The Old Mill. These are some of my favorites. If you would like to see them all let me know and I'll send you a link to the gallery and the password. I got some really great ones of Heather's kids too!

Me and my coupons.

I have had lots of people ask me about my couponing and how I'm doing. I've also had a lot of questions about how others can do it too. So although there is WAY too much info for me to share over the web I can give a small taste and try to answer most questions I have received. If you would still like more information just call or email me!
Ok about 2 months ago I took a coupon class that was offered free here in town. I don't think they offer the class anymore. I learned a few things and was intrigued. So I went out and signed up for the newspaper and began what turned out to be my new obsession. I get on average 2-4 papers a week. I cut out all the coupons. And I do mean ALL the coupons. I have a three ring binder that has baseball card holders in it and veriest other sizes of page protectors. I place my coupons in these sheets divided by sections (baby, canned goods, frozen, etc.). I then get my weekly ads (also usually found in the paper though some of our grocery stores mail them out on Tuesday). I sit down and go over the add with a piece of paper and a pen.
Example:
CVS
Dove Body wash $3.99- $3 off coupon = $0.99
Buy $15 get $5 Extra bucks
Homeland
Bluebell Ice cream pint $1-$1 coupon = FREE
Cheerios 2/$4 = 1/$2- $0.75 off 1 (doubles) & $0.55 off 1 (doubles) = 1/$0.50 & 1/$0.90

Ok so I go through all the ads like that looking at the sale and what coupons I have. I used to never shop at homeland and always at crest or walmart! Now I Shop at homeland or willaims 90% of the time because they double coupons. It makes a huge difference! If I go into Homeland and my receipt says that I saved 50% I consider it a bad week. I typically save between 50%-90%. I have had a few 98% trips, but that's NOT typical and usually only happens when I run in for a few things I know are free that week.
Look for special sales and watch out for what days things are on sale. Some store will try to fool you by only having the REALLY good deal on Monday or something. It helps to join a coupon group. I started one with my friends and family here. We get together and clip coupons and trade and talk about different sales. That way things that I missed in the flier they point out to me. We also tend to call each other when we find a really good deal or coupon somewhere so they others can join in. It also helps that they all know I have dogs and they don't so I get the dog coupons, and my sister in law has a cat so she gets the cat coupons etc. We look out for coupons we know the others need or want. I don't think I'll ever be able to ignore a laughing cow coupon again because I know my sister wants it.
If you can't make or join a coupon group there are lots of coupon forums out there. Feel free to join one. A few tips though: look for a group that fopcuses on your area. It makes it easier if you aren't forever running out to a store only to find the deal you heard about only exisit in wisconsin (true story). Also be aware of any group that talks a lot about "cheating the system" like coping coupons or making their own. This is really bad for business. I always try to make sure that the manufacturer and the store get their money in the end! I don't want to cheat anyone along the way.
You can get great coupons online, but a lot of stores won't take them. I recommend getting to know your favorite stores coupon policies and the manager. I have started getting money off each time I use my reusable bags (even though I'd use them anyway) at my two favorite grocery stores because I asked the managers if they had considered it and they said they already had it in the computer. I just had to know about the discount and ask for it.
Learn how to use register reward programs. These are programs where they print off a coupon at the end of your trip that says "take $___ off your next purchase" I know that CVS, Walgreens, and Homeland all have programs of this nature. Today alone I walked into CVS and bought about $50 worth of stuff and paid about $5 for it all because of extrabucks. I even walked out of the store with $19 in extrabucks left over for next week. Basically I bought item a that cost $4 and used a $3 off coupon. So I paid $1. I bought 4 of item a in my first transaction. Since I bought $15 worth of item a (calculated before coupons) I received $5 extracare bucks. I spent only $4 for $5 in extra care bucks. I then spent those $5 on a $6 transaction that gave me back $8 extra care bucks. This just went on till I was done.
If you plan it out you can save more, but just cutting the coupons and taking them to the store will save you bundles. The key is to cut them all out even if you don't think you'll use them and save them till they expire because what is on sale this week is different form next week. Always try to couple store sales with coupons and you'll be saving bundles in no time!

Things I don't get

Ok Emily, here goes....
Things I don't "get":
1) Why they tear up a road and wait months to get around to fixing it! What they only had the street scraper rented for the day so they choose to tear up any road they might be thinking about fixing in the next two years and then take their sweet time repaving....grrrr. Fix the stupid roads already. (for those of you confused by this drive around the village sometime).

2) Spending lots of money on sunglasses. I lose sunglasses right and left. People drop them in lakes and leave them in stores and other peoples cars. So why spend $100+ on a pair of sunglasses? I personally believe in the dollar tree variety of sunglasses. I have about 15 pairs and never have to worry about losing one!

3) People who pay for coupons. Well besides the obvious buying the newspaper. But seriously why would someone spend $10 for a $12 off coupon of baby formula? Sign up for their stupid program and they will mail you coupons! Besides you're only saving a tiny bit by the time all is said and done anyway. I don't buy coupons (besides the paper) and I save 75%-90% off my groceries. Seriously people.

4)People who say major just because posh does.
Which brings me to:
5) Old bands that people now joke about trying to make comebacks....vanilla ice and the spice girls should learn other ways to make money....

6) What is exactly so appealing to a two year old to make them repeat everything they say about 50 times?

Ok so that's all I have for right now...

We have been very very sick around here. I think we might finally be over it all! First we got the flu, then once that had gone all around the family we got some sort of tummy bug! Now that has gone all around the family and I hope we are well for a while! In happy news my baby turned 10 months old! She is so big! We took her and Sophy to the park today to play for a while. Can you believe I forgot my camera? I was so sad! I do have some cute pictures of lola that I snapped around the house this week.

This picture was taken at Annabelle's birthday party. Lola loved playing with the bubbles and trying to catch them! I of course played with the picture a little, but it's still my sweet baby! Can you believe that in less than 3 months this little one will be one year old!

Hello all. I kept meaning to sit down and write a catch up with pictures from christmas, but being the busy person I am I haven't done it yet. I have been wanting to write about the current stuff and not doing it because the past still hadn't been covered, so here goes. Christmas was fun. We stayed at home this year as per our every other year decision and had a wonderful time. Since technically Christmas is still my parents holiday they came and spent it at our house. Aaron and Trish came over with baby AB and we all opened presents. It was a lot of fun watching the girls play with toys and paper and bows! They had a blast. Afterwards the pogues went home to put AB down and we quickly cleaned up and made lunch. We were blessed to have Daniel and Rosemary and daniel's grandmother come for lunch as well as the pogues. We had 12 people for lunch! For New Years this year we went to our friend's house to play games and hang out. It was a lot of fun esp. when Rock Band became girl band, though I learned I'm not so good on the drums! After New years we got our new living room set! We love it. It's not the color we ordered, but we decided that it's a good thing because the color we got goes better than the other one would anyway. It's nice big comfy furniture, what more could we really want?
As many of you know we have been going through allergy testing since before Thanksgiving. Sophy is done with hers for several years and she's not so bad off. Lola unfortunately got all of mine and Jeff's allergies. We just did our second round of testing on lola and she's allergic to several things. The list includes: Dust, Dairy, dogs, cats, and a few others that aren't too bad.
Last week my mother called me to see if I'd be willing to help out in February when my dad was supposed to have surgery. I of course agreed and marked it on my calendar. Only then he went to the doctor and they moved the surgery up to as soon as they could get him in. So my dad was cut open on Tuesday while they put a pace maker in. I was unable to go on Tuesday because of the aforementioned allergy testing, but I hurried off on Wednesday. So here I am trying my best to take care of my dad and help out my mom while my two children are underfoot. I often wonder how much I'm helping and how much they are hurting and if maybe I should have stayed home to help him out. Actually Sophy is doing much better than I thought she would and besides Lola trying to eat the fireplace and the fridge magnets and anything else she's not supposed to play with we are doing alright.
On a totally different note my friend courtney had her baby! Yea! He's a super cute chubby baby. It was the good part of not being able to leave on tuesday. I got to go by the hospital and see him before I left for bug filled Arkansas. Also my friend Elizabeth got engaged and wants me to do the portraits! So I will hopefully be able to squeeze in a photo session while I'm here. That's assuming that the weather holds out....
Alright that is all for now. I'll post pictures when I get home.

Finally an update!

Alright. It's finally time to post. I have been so crazy busy that I have been awful about sitting at the computer for long. That is of course, unless I'm working. I must say that work has been going great with lots of business and a great Christmas season! I am glad to have a little break though. Don't worry, I'll be back to the grind stone before long.
I thought I would post a few of my favorites from Lola's 6 month portraits! I know they are a little old since she is already 8 months old! I can't believe how fast she is growing. She already has her first tooth a full 2 months before her sister got one and she just said "mama" this week! We moved her into her own room last week and she has seemed to do very well with the move. I'm int he process of redecorating both hers and Sophy's rooms. Hopefully when I finish I can get a picture of them up here!

sorry...

Ok, so much for posting everyday in November...
I promise a whole bunch of posts and pictures are coming, just have to get past the holiday season! So busy! Once the 14th has past things should slow down a lot!

Merry Christmas!

Sneak Peak

Here are the promised pictures of the Curtis Maternity shoot. She was so pretty and truly glowing! While I was at their house I was able to get a sneak peak at the nursery. How cute! I can't wait to see it when it is finished.

Costume Portraits

Here are the official Portraits of the girls in their Halloween costumes. Sophy LOVES hers. She is super cute whenever she wears it. She LOVES Mickey Mouse! If you would like a copy of one or all of these pictures please email me or comment with which one(s) and I'll do my best to get it to you.
Lola is 6 months old now! Can you believe it? At her 6 month check up she was 25th% in weight, 50th% in Height, and 75th% in Head! She can now sit up on her own, for short periods of time at least. She can flip over from front to back and vice versa. To top off the list she has started scooting, the pre-runner of crawling. She will be up and crawling before I know it! What happened to my tiny lump of a baby?
Sophy is now 27 months old or 2 and 1/4 years old. She can now count to 16 (20 with help) and say her ABCs all by herself. She can sing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Einsteins theme, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. We are now working on spelling her name. She speaks very clearly...at least if you are her mother and hear her talk all the time you would think so.
Coming tomorrow: Sneak Peak at the Curtis Maternity Photo shoot!

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak from a Photo shoot I did on Thursday Night. She was So awake and alert! Mommy and Daddy were so very proud! I can see why they would be. It was my first chance to get to use my new lights on location and they sure did turn out really well.
This was just one of many photo shoots I had this week. I had a total of 5 since last Saturday! It's nice to work, but I wish it would spread itself out a little more. I have a big Christmas Shoot at the house next weekend which is starting to fill up. I have baby Santa hats and all kinds of fun setups for it. I can't wait! Maybe if I'm lucky this cute baby will show up!

NaBloPoMo

So I've known for a while that it was national write a novel month in November because I have SEVERAL friends who are busy writing a book and NOT blogging this month. So imagine my surprise when I read over my friends blogs yesterday and found out it's also national write a page a day on your blog month! Ok I'm not a writer as anyone who reads this knows, so I'm not writing a book this month. I wish I was though. I wish I Could write well and get what I want to say onto paper. I actually opened up Word and thought about writing a book for like 3 seconds yesterday. I'm very sad to miss out on such a neat concept! So when I hear I could write a page a day in November on my blog...now hat's something I CAN do! I have SO much going on this month and i can space out telling you about things. So lets see if I can do a page a day.....
Here is a few pictures from Halloween. We trick or treated at the mall during the day with Trish and Annabelle and that night at home with Daddy. Yes that's Lola sacked out at teh mall. Her costume was warm and being held by mommy made her sleepy! Sophy LOVED Halloween this year. She would knock on the door, and hopefully say 'trick or treat' it usually came out "I want candy". They would show her a bowl of candy and she'd dig around and pick out two pieces that were the same. one she'd put into her bag and the other she'd put in Lola's bag. It was so cute to see her share and want to help out her sister. She always said 'thank you' and got rather insistent about it if someone didn't respond with 'your welcome'. We treated early since she's little and I didn't want to be run over by teens or have a tired toddler. Once we got home we passed out candy. Sophy LOVED to pass out the candy and always made sure to say 'your welcome' after they said 'thank you'.

Coming soon!

I am getting low on appointment slots so I thought I'd remind everyone that the Christmas Limited is Next weekend. As in a week from tomorrow! I know it's early to be thinking about Christmas, but if you want your pictures back by Christmas it's best to order sooner rather than later! The current special is: For a friend who makes an appointment you'll get 10%off...for EACH friend. If you get 10 friends to come your package is free! Give me a call to make an appointment. Just make sure your friends mention your name when calling! Hope to see you there!
(sidenote: I hope to post an Halloween update on the girls soon. Please be patient!)

What a BIG girl!

Nana and Papa got Sophy this fun Tricycle. It took a while to find the classic one without the plastic seat, but find it she did! It came today and Jeff spent some time putting it together. It is a little big still so She has some trouble reaching the pedals, but she is SO close. By the time she figures out what they are for she'll be the right size. At least I know it'll last for a long time! She loves it. It even came with a bell that she rings constantly!

Sneak peak

Here is a little sneak peak at my friend's BEAUTIFUL new baby!

Fall Portraits

Well, as many of you know I have been very busy this weekend with our Fall Photo Shoot! It was fun, but I'm glad it's over. I thought I'd share a few Portraits of the girls from it.




































And now for what happens when yo try to get a two year old to sit for a camera!......































Or this.....

Big Girl!

My baby started Preschool yesterday! I can't believe it! She was so happy and marched right into her class. At least until she tripped, then she didn't want me to go. Her teachers said she did really well and was very good. She sure had a lot to show me and tell me when I picked her up. It was very nice to be able to run my photo shoot errands with only the baby. They sure went a lot faster! I think I have almost everything I need now! Pumpkin crop has messed up some plans, but I think I worked it out. I'm getting very excited about this weekend now!
(The first picture is her with her backpack ready to go into school. She was very excited about the playground and didn't really want ot stand still for her picture! The second was right before I left. She was still upset. How could you leave a face like that?)

Busy Week!

Well It's less than a week until the Fall Mini-Session now! I am currently looking for Pumpkins and getting everything ready. If anyone knows of a good Church pumpkin patch please let me know. Also anyone who wants to participate and hasn't scheduled their slot yet needs to call me ASAP 405-639-9950. The weather forecast for next weekend looks great! I'm starting to get excited.
My friends are all going to have babies and there is one coming tomorrow! I can't wait because I get to do his New Baby Photo Shoot! The parents are so nice and I look forward to meeting the little guy and documenting these special memories. I got to do a Bridal shoot last week and it went GREAT! I feel so blessed to have an opportunity to do what I love!