Family Photos, One Moment In Time

Growing up my family didn't get professional (or even non-professional) photos very often, partly (I think) from monetary reasons and partly because of my mom's battle with her weight and feelings of self-worth. As we are once again approaching the anniversary of her death, I am saddened by how few photos we have of the family. Looking back, I don't remember my mom being overweight, what I do remember is a great laugh, a lap that was soft and warm, always willing to read a book or give a hug, and a mom willing to go outside with us to help us with whatever sport we were currently playing (and goodness knows she had her hands full trying to turn this girly-girl into an aggressive sports player).

Luckily I am blessed with a great friend who does a fabulous job taking photos (the great Erika Snow has done all of James's photos and several of Colby and I), who values the importance of photos, and isn't afraid to push me a bit when it comes to family photos. Do I want pictures of James to capture that moment in time?! Yes, I am great about making sure they happen. Photos of myself?? Not so much.

My baby is now over one and those 30 pounds that I was supposed to lose right after he was born have stubbornly stuck around. (Can you still call it baby weight when your child is no longer considered a baby?!) But as a thought about (and stressed about) getting these latest family photos taken I realized a couple of things, first, no matter my weight I would always find something about myself that was less than perfect and, in my mind, ruining the photos (which the mean voice in my head is a whole 'nother discussion).

Second, that I have an amazing husband who hates getting his photo taken even more than I do but he is willing to do it, without complaining I might add, because I wanted it done. Not only did he show up in the appropriate outfit, he listened to me stress and obsess over the color palate of the outfits and have a freak out the day of regarding the clothing I had already chosen.

Third, and most important, that regardless of what I think about it this photo captures a picture of what our little family looks like at this exact moment. Our family will never look like this again, other children may come, James will get older, and never again will we look like we do right now. So I am going to ignore how round my face looks and my dress size and appreciate the great setting, the way my family looks at this exact moment, and, let's be completely honest, nobody is really looking at me when they can see that cute little boy in the front.  

James is One!

I can't believe how fast time flies (and that it has been a year since I last posted on this blog). One of the best pieces of advice I received while pregnant--and I received it from several people--was to take time to enjoy each stage of James' growth because it passes so quickly. Boy were they correct! We love having him as a part of our family, with all the joy, noise, frustrations, mess, and giggles he brings with him.

This little monkey has been anxious to get out and see things from the very beginning (3 weeks early) and that hasn't changed. He loves people, he LOVES going to the grocery store and being fawned over by the older people there so I try to time our visits to coincide with as many of the older generation as possible. James is constantly on the go! He doesn't like to sit still but crawls laps around our kitchen island.

He loves food and will eat just about anything offered to him (and anything off the ground). About two weeks ago he decided that he is a big boy and now won't eat anything that he thinks is baby food. It is really annoying and I have to get creative with how I present some food to him. For instance, I tried to do homemade burritos the other day but the tortillas were too tough for his six little teeth to handle so I put the burrito stuffing in a bowl, not thinking that I chose the blue bowl that his baby food is put into, and when he saw I was still eating the tortilla-clad burrito he refused to eat what was in the bowl. I ended up pretending I was scooping out the inside of my burrito to get him to eat it. He is much too smart for his own good (or his Mama's efforts).

He loves Smokey Joe (yes, my 19 year-old cat is still alive) but Smokey Joe does not love him. James loves to chase Jojo around the house (Jojo is never fond of this) and likes to pat Jojo with either his hands or whatever toy happens to be in his hands. Poor Jojo! To give Jojo some peace we have modified (i.e. cut a hole) in a baby gate so he has one room he can go into that James cannot. We had to do this partly because James kept eating the cat food and partly because Jojo doesn't move as well as he used to and can't always jump up on furniture to get out of James's reach. :(

James loves swimming and anything to do with water. He will put his face under water or splash himself over and over again. Needless to say bath time is frequently a wet experience for everyone involved.

James LOVES his daddy, he will choose Colby over me every time. I try not to be too jealous and I have to admit that sometimes it is nice that he prefers his dad and I get a bit of a break. :)

Not only does James never stop moving, he never stops making noise. He loves to talk, sing (I hope it is singing), making little boy noises, pounding things, clapping his hands (you get the picture), if it makes a noise he wants to do it and he wants to do it loudly. You will notice in this photo he has a rock in his hand, the first thing he did when we stood him up next to the crate was to grab a rock and start pounding on the crate. When I took the rock away he calmly reached down, picked up another rock, and continued to pound. Erika Snow Photography took these fabulous photos. James did a pretty good job, much better than his six month photos but he did finally reach the "I'm done" point.

Time Flies!

    I can't believe how fast our little boy is growing up! Everyone always warns you that they grow up so fast but I didn't think it went this quickly. The above photo was taken at six days old (isn't he cute?! Of course, I am a little biased). When James was born he was three weeks early, weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 20 inches long. (Thank goodness he was early because full term he would have been huge!)

   James spent six days in the NICU because he couldn't regulate his blood sugar levels and the last day because he was jaundiced, so he spent the last day working on his tan under the lights. The blood sugar problem the doctors figure was because he was born so early but they don't anticipate any long term issues and he is just fine now.

       At his one month check up James has gained a full pound, weighing 8 lbs 8 oz (putting him in the 22 percentile range) and his height is 21 3/4 inches (59 percentile). At one month he knows Mom and Dad, and tracks both of them. He is raising his head some, loves playing on his toy mat, falls asleep when placed in his carrier but really sleeps on every car ride.

   Hanging on the wall in my house growing up was a hanging that my mother toll painted, I'm sure most have heard it before but it always struck me and I have reminded myself of it several times as I started to feel guilty while holding my baby, looking at the dishes that needed washing or the laundry that needed to be folded and taken care of.  So I have refused to allow myself to feel guilty and just recite this poem when my mind starts down that path:

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow for babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So batten down cobwebs and dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep. 

 Colby and I are both so grateful to have this little soul in our life!

The New Addition to the Family

 

RJ decided to surprise by coming three weeks early. My water broke early on Friday and we were excited thinking we were going to get a Friday the 13th baby. But he surprised us again and wasn't born until 5:01 Saturday morning (I have to admit this surprise was not as fun for me...). For the most part every thing went well with the delivery. But about four hours after delivery, they nurses checked his blood sugar and it was dangerously low so he was rushed to the NICU. He has been in the NICU since then but he is doing well, he is eating well, he is responsive, super adorable (of course I might be biased) and we cautiously hoping he will be coming home on Thursday. 

Pinterest and Too Much Time On My Hands or the Quest to Finish the @#$% Quiet Book

   

     For those of you not aware, I have been taking a break from working until after the little munchkin gets here (partly because it took so long for the Bar results to come in and by the time they did I was already 5 months prego but for a few other reasons). This means that for the first time since I was 12 I have not had at least a part time job, this has been interesting experience for me since I am essentially a stay-at-home mom with no kids. So what do you do with your time, you ask? Well, thanks to the wonder that is Pinterest I get delusions of grandeur and forget the reality that is my skill set. I found this great quiet book idea at Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows and thought, I can totally do that!

    I totally forgot that 1) I really don't like sitting at a sewing machine for hours at a time and 2) I really have no sewing skills, no really, it is one of the few crafts I have been unable to master. But me being me, once I start a project I am dang well going to finish it!

    So, three weeks later...I am not even kidding this thing took that long between all the small pieces to cut out, double sew and hand sew on it took me that long to finish it. All I have to say is that RJ better LOVE this book and hopefully (fingers crossed) he doesn't destroy it within three months of actually using it.

Jillian and Joe are Married!

I can't believe my baby sister is married! Luckily I like Joe a lot or else I wouldn't have been okay with it! I don't have the photos from the actual wedding yet, just the bridal photos we took earlier so we could display them at the wedding reception. We had an AMAZING photographer and I HIGHLY recommend him, he was easy to work with, got us the photos back super fast and he did an incredible job! His website is PhotoSynthetix , he is new to the wedding photog business but don't let that stop you from hiring him.

Jill decided (and I was totally jealous because I wanted to wear it when I got married but it didn't fit me) to get married in the same 1940s dress that our grandmother, Fae and our mother, Julie, were married in. Because she decided to wear the original dress we decided to go completely vintage on the theme for the wedding and thanks to the amazing efforts of Kay (and everyone else who helped) it was fabulous!

Instead of going with the traditional flowers, Kay made this amazing bouquet using some old costume jewelry (some was Grandma McArthur's, some was mom's and some was mine from my beauty pageant days), fake pearls, and some new jewelry that looks old.

Those of you who know Jill well know that she loves wearing her Converses so when we started talking shoes she had her heart set on ordering a custom pair from Converse. I argued against it but obviously I lost and Jill got her custom shoes with her wedding date on them.

She looked amazing and so much like Mom! I can't believe she is old enough to get married, I swear just yesterday she was 8. Like I said, once I get the photos from the actual day I will post them.

Colby and I are Expecting!

If you aren't friends with me on facebook (or haven't seen me in a little while) you might not be aware that Colby and I are expecting our first child in October. RJ will be joining our family in the next couple of months and we can't wait for him to get here! (Yes, we have a thumb sucker!)

Jillian's Bridal Shower

It has been an eventful last couple of months! We held Jillian's family bridal shower April 25th when I happened to be in town to help with the wedding preparation. I am always so glad when we have an occasion that brings the family together.

It was great to see everyone's little ones, to catch up in person (and not just a the quick statuses read on facebook) and to help Jill celebrate the beginning of this next big step in her journey. Jill received some needed household items and some items that made her blush but I am sure made Joe happy after the wedding. :-)

New House finished

We are finally in our new house, it has been a long road of choosing granite four times, deciding on flooring and hoping and praying that the vision in my head would match how the house really turned out. I think it turned out fabulously! (but I am a bit biased) I thought I would share with you the before and after photos (so you can see how big of a transformation it has been)

The house originally had two front doors, we aren't quite sure why but needless to say I had them remove one (I refused to bounce back and forth between the two doors whenever anyone knocked). As you can see in the picture below, they added a window and bricks and you can't tell that a door was there once. (They yard still need some TLC but most of that will have to wait until summer is over and it isn't 101 degrees at 9:00 am). We also had the exterior repainted, the roof re-shingled and the roof fixed (it leaked in the masterbath when we bought the house. We also had them remove the swamp cooler that wasn't hooked up to anything but was on the roof (we have central a/c that was also mounted on the roof).

One of the biggest things we did to the house was to remove two walls that separated the living room and the kitchen and the kitchen from the dining room. From what we can tell about the house given the records and decorating style, the house was originally built in 1947 and then added on to and redecorated sometime in the 70s.

Because the wall we had removed was load bearing they installed a beam in the ceiling so we could open up the front room, making the three rooms one great room. This is what sold me on the house. The kitchen is really the heart of the house, it is where family and friends gather to eat, chat, and spend time together.

So had the wall removed, redid the kitchen cabinets, replaced the appliances, added the island and had them build a pantry with an unnecessary part of the hallway. I don't know if you can tell from the photos but the outside of the island is also cupboards. 

When we bought the house the master bathroom roof had a leak in it that had been allowed to just be so the roof was falling in and the bathroom was all nappy. We had them gut the entire room and start over (after fixing the roof).

When were deciding on the Master Bathroom layout we decided to enclose part of it and make a walk-in closet.

They also tiled in the standing shower (which I think looks way better than it did before) but I will admit there isn't a ton of room to move around in it.

We had them install a pocket door between the bathroom and the closet so we wouldn't have to worry about a door swinging open and shut. This has turned out to be a fabulous idea since Smokey Joe likes to hide in Colby's clothes that hang low, getting cat hair everywhere, and we have to keep the door shut to keep him out of there.

The original closet in the master bedroom was an interesting built in unit with doors and sliding glass doors. Because we added the walk-in closet we had them tear out the closet to give the bedroom more square footage.

The master bedroom isn't the largest bedroom in the house and the bathroom is an obvious add on so I suspect it was not originally the master bedroom.

That is most of what we had done, the other rooms are so filled with boxes right now that I am not going to post photos of them. The main room I need to add photos is of the sunroom (which is one of my favorite), the sunroom is going to be my library (hooray!) but since we have only been living in the house for less than two weeks it is not put together yet.

Graduation from Law School (or finally done)!

Life has been very hectic lately, besides everything going on the house, I graduated from law school. It has been a long road and the last three years have been really tough but I finally did it (or more appropriately, Colby and I did it because I couldn't have done it without his help and support and ability to keep Mountain Dew in the house at all times)!

We were very blessed to have family members travel down to celebrate this exciting time with us. After the incredibly long and boring ceremony (and of course it was done alphabetically so I was 5th from last, yep, gotta love having a last name starting with W) we had a grill at Colby and I's house. Initially I was disappointed because I had hoped we were going to be in our new house for the party but then I realized it was fitting that finish off our last hurrah at the small little house we had spent the three years of law school in.

New House

As law school is finally starting to come to a close, Colby and I are excited to finally be moving on to other happier milestones, the first of which is acquiring our first house! (Insert excited high pitch squealing from me and hmph from Colby!) But I have learned to follow my mother's personal motto, "Why do things the easy way when there's a harder way to do it?!" and the house purchasing has taken an unexpected turn. Instead of purchasing an already remodeled house we are purchasing a house, have lined up a contractor and are going to be remodeling it. By remodeling I really me we are gutting the entire thing to create an almost entire new house. I am posting the before pictures here and when the remodel is finished I will post how it turned out. I didn't get a picture of the outside, mostly because we have gotten about an inch of rain today and I didn't want to be out in it any longer than absolutely necessary.

The house was originally built in 1947, has two additions, a den with sunroom and a one car garage but judging by the kitchen it was last updated in the 1970s. This is a shot of the front door we are keeping, as opposed to the other front door we are getting rid of. The wall you see on the left (which is a half wall separating the kitchen from the living room) is going to be torn down and a center island built in its place.

The is another angle of the wall. I am sure you are all admiring the pretty sunflowers but they will be going away. The entire kitchen is going to be redone, with a gas range top and a double electric oven replacing the current unit (that doesn't work).

The doorway you can kind of see just past the sunflower wall will be turned into a small pantry (hooray for a place to store my canned food besides under the beds). The flooring in the living room, kitchen/dining room, hallway and den are getting a nice laminate flooring, the bathrooms will remain tile (the master bath the tile has to be replaced but it will be tile) carpet in the bedrooms and the sunroom will keep its current tile.

These are a shot of the den with the second front door which will be removed and replaced with a window and wall. I refuse to run between the two doors when someone knocks trying to figure out which door they are at. The den is next to the living room (you can see the fire place through the doorway) and the other door leads to the sunroom.

This is a shot of the sunroom (I didn't get a very good shot of it and only got the one, my bad) but it leads from the den (the open doorway) to the garage (the glass door) and the other door you see is to the kitchen. It has a tacky wood door (not seen in these photos) that we are having removed and a sliding glass door replacing it which leads to the backyard.

The house has three bedrooms, two of which we are only repainting and replacing the carpet. Because it is an old house it has some interesting quirks, one of which the drawers built into the closet.

The master bedroom (shown below in lavender), we are tearing out the existing closet to add more space into the bedroom and will be building a small walk-in closet with some of the space in the bathroom.

The masterbath is the room that needs the most work, we will be enclosing in part of the bathroom in to make the walk-in closet and redoing the rest of the bathroom. As you can see the roof currently has a leak (a major leak) that will be fixed (a whole new roof is going on). The house also currently has both a swamp cooler and an AC unit on the roof, the swamp cooler will be coming down when they fix the roof.

The front yard is landscaped with two mature trees and a plum tree with rosebushes but the back yard needs some work. It has a pool with a slide (hooray!) but (and you can barely see it in the photo) but the only trees in the yard are three orange trees, one of which hangs over the pool and drops fruit into it (Gross, I know!). The yard is flood irrigated so I am excited to get a garden and some other fruit trees planted. But it is a good sized lot (you can't tell that from the photos) and it has nice covered back patio, perfect for grilling!

I realize this is a long post after months of silence but various family members wanted to see the house so here it is. Like I said, when it is finished I will post more photos.