Arielle Getting Her Ears Pierced

So here's a few pictures from my Camera phone since my camera was dead that day... and I wasn't prepared because we decided to do this on a whim...









Poor Baby! But she looks more beautiful now!

Arielle is now 4 1/2 months...

Time sure does fly... so Arielle hit her 4 month mark on August 4th... and now she's 4 1/2 months old.

Here are some highlights for the last two weeks:

4 Months:
- Weighs 15lbs
- Wears size 3-6 months
- Her hair started falling out... boo...
- Got her ears pierced
- She talks up a storm... okay babbles... but hey it's talking to me
- She's drooling like crazy leading me to believe a tooth maybe be somewhere in the near future
- She learned to roll from tummy to back
- And now knows how to turn from back to tummy but it still takes her a while
- She loves to laugh A LOT!
- She started eating Gerber... she likes Banana and Apple the best
- She loves sitting in her Bebe Pod
- She hates her Carseat with a passion
- Went to the Park for the first time

And here's an overload of Baby Arielle: I can't help it, she's just so adorable!


First time in a swing


My Little Sweet Pea!

She's so cute!


She's starting to hold her own bottle

Flashback

Ok so our computer is working again and peace in restored to our household. Yay.

So let's backtrack... two weeks ago today... Diego started Kindergarten! Yay! It was a very emotional day for him and I. I can best tell you with pictures...

He must have been anxious because he was awake at 7:00am when I walked in to wake him up! Not normal. He jumped in the shower to get ready for his first day.

Meanwhile, I prepared his lunch. He's always seen in cartoons that the characters take their lunch to school so he bugged for a lunch box so I can make him lunch everyday.

So I packed it in his brand new lunchbox and he was so excited.

After he showered and dressed he brushed his teeth. Even though I told him that he should eat breakfast first and THEN brush his teeth. But what do I know. He's 5 and knows better than me I guess.

Then he had to put on his cologne because he can't go anywhere without smelling good. Trust me he has a panic attack if he forgets... lol.

His cologne of choice - Cars of course!

Then he posed for me so I could get a good look at my not so little boy. Wow.

Here he is showing me his brand new shoes. He loves them cuz they have skulls. Somehow that makes them cooler.

Then breakfast to make sure he started his day off right. A poptart and milk and he was a happy camper.

Heading out the door he requested a picture with his little sister because he won't see her anymore. I quickly reminded him he was going to Kindergarten and not Military School, and that she lived in the same house. He kinda liked torturing her with his version better.

We arrived at School and he was excited to make new friends and play on the awesome playground.

But not before posing with Jamma and Sister while I snapped pictures and Daddy videotaped. Yes, we're those parents.

And there he goes... all independently and such. Made my eyes water but I was holding up good.

The bell rang and he lined up with his class. I went camera crazy again. And we followed quickly behind.

And we waited for is teacher to let us all into the classroom.

He quickly found his table with his name tag and sat down. Then his nervousness set in as he knew we were going to have to leave him.

He made silly faces at us... and waved to the camera a few times. But adjusted very quickly.

He started coloring and we decided to leave. He didn't cry or was sad... he was excited and ready to learn. I on the other hand was full of emotion. And his teacher handed us a poem before we left the room that totally made me lose it. Thanks lady! I was actually holding it together!

And so we were gone. I had to leave him there. I cried all the way home. And for about an hour afterward. Seriously, I was excited for him... but scared for me. I've had him to myself for 5 years and now I had to share him.

Daddy picked him up after school and I even got them driving back. See them there behind the tree? I was excited to hear all about his day...

He did end up crying his first day. He had PE and the teacher scared him. Haha. He forgot his lunch at lunchtime. And had to go back to his class to look for it. Took almost all lunch hour so he only got to eat half of it. And he made his first friend. SHE was a GIRL.

**Note** Since then he's switched teachers. There was an overload of first graders and not too many Kindergarteners this year... so his teacher along with another got bumped up to teach first grade. But I love his new teacher and so does he.

So sad...

All our computers finally died... but we're working on a solution. Hopefully it happens soon. Til then I am on hiatus and will blog when I get to a computer.

So all is well in my world... besides my computer problems... which is making me antsy only because it's putting my website on pause. I have 4 invitation orders to finish so the time is being filled for now and I have a photoshoot next week.

So yeah... hopefully soon...

Hiking @ Estrella Mountain

My friend Tiffany and I decided that it would be fun to go hiking yesterday. So we got up super early and went to Estrella Mountain Regional Park. We got there a little before 7am and since neither of us had ever been there before... we drove around like crazy trying to find a trail. After finally finding one we stop and get ready for our hike.


With cameras in hand we began...



It was an almost 2.5 mile hike and walk back to the car and I can't believe we did it!!! Seriously! I never work out. I never walk. I never get out of the house for goodness sakes. And here I am attempting a hike up a mountain. It took us a little over an hour to complete and we only stopped once! I can say that even though I got tired... I was surprised that I didn't almost collapse or finish extremely exhausted. We were hot and sweaty afterward... and a little out of breath... but all in all we both made it!



Here's some pictures to prove it:

This is the trail we decided to take. It's the first one we found. I am not sure if it's the hardest or longest or anything like that.

Our shadows as we begin or walk

This is where the rocky trail actually began. Sure it looks level and easy from here... but as we started walking and winding uphill... we thought to ourselves... Should we turn around? We decided to just keep going...

We saw a lot of cactus along the way... and only stopped briefly to take a pictures for fear that if we stopped too long our bodies would start to give out.

Here's Tiff stopping to take a picture of the beautiful view we had. Seriously it was pretty awesome!

Nearing the end of our hike I took this picture... you can't tell but we were pretty high up!

When we were all done, we stopped to rest on a table under a million trees. It was really pretty. We sat there and cooled off for a while before going home.

Here's one of the trees... there were sooooo many of them. I would love to go back and do a photoshoot there it was so pretty.

Tiffany all tuckered out...
And this is me sad that we had such an idea because I was so hot!

But we decided we're gonna hike at least twice a month. Anyone else know of any nice parks with some trails? Would be fun to try different places.

Reading

When I was a little girl, my Daddy used to take me to the Library during the beginning of the summer. He'd have my sister and I join the summer reading program. I loved it more than my sister. I always had my nose in a book. I would read them in a day or two. And the reading program was fun because for every 30 minutes of reading you got to color in one square in the cool chart they gave you. And each time you reached a different checkpoint... you could take it in and you got a little prize. Until you reached the end and got a bigger prize. It kept me motivated and since I already LOVED to read. I would whiz through it way before the summer was over.

I don't read a lot.

No scracth that... I haven picked up a book in over a year. In the past 4 years I have probably only read like 4 books. And that's not an exaggeration.

I can actually name them in order...

Little Earthquakes - About 4 years ago my sister (who reads a lot more than I do)raved about this book. She loved and wanted me to read it. She bugged me for a long time until she finally dragged me down to the public library, checked it out with her library card... since I didn't own one, forced me to get a library card, and made me read that dang book. Needless to say, I didn't like the book. I should have known because, well, my sister and I hardly ever have the same tastes in anything. I am a little bit country, and she's a little rock n roll... so to say.

A Bend in the Road - Last year I fianally had the erge to pick up another book. But I wasn't sure what. I am not easily entertained by books and usually read a chapter and never pick them up again. So one night my husband and I decided to walk to our local Walgreens which is about 10 minutes walking distance from our house. We walked the aisles picking up sodas, ice cream, chips, and more stuff. At the end of the candy aisle they have a little section of magazines and novels. Jr remembered me saying I wanted to read and knowing that I am not easily amused when it came to book... he started reading the backs of all the books, searching and trying to find something I could possibly be interested in. After giving me a million possible books and me being uninterested in any of them... he finally gave up and started to put the last book back. As he was putting it back I noticed the book behind it... and I said, "Oh a Nicholas Sparks novel... I bet that's good..." As I started to walk away he noted the name of the book, A Bend in the Road, and we went home. About a week later I got the book in the mail... along with The Guardian. He had ordered them for me through Amazon and I instantly sat down to read the first one. I had never read any of his books but "The Notebook" and "A Walk to Remember" are two of my ultimate favorite movies. So I had a feeling it was somehting I could get into. And I was right. It took me to days to read it. And I only put it down when I had to. Good book!

Twilight - After reading the previous book I was on a little kick and asked my cousin Alexis, who is the the most avid reader I know, to recommend a book. She let me borrow a book called Twilight. This one took me about a week to read and again another book I just couldn't put down. A different book then the previous one but it was Awesome! It's only the 1st of a 3 or 4 part series. I started to read the second but I was pregnant wil Arielle when I started it and never got through the first couple of chapters. I do want to finish reading it though.



And Monday I started reading The Guardian. I finished earlier today. Such a good book. Again by Nicholas Sparks but completely different from the other one I read by him. Seriously it was a story of love, of tragedy, hope, friendship, and sadness.

Julie Barenson’s young husband left her two unexpected gifts before he died – a puppy named Singer and the promise that he would always be watching over her. Now, four years later, twenty-nine year-old Julie is far too young to have given up on love. She may be ready to risk caring for someone again. But who?
Should it be Richard Franklin, the sophisticated, handsome engineer who treats her like a queen? Or Mike Harris, the down-to-earth nice guy who was her husband’s best friend? Choosing one of them should bring her more happiness than she’s had in years. Instead, Julie is soon fighting for her life in a nightmare spawned by a chilling deception and jealousy so poisonous that it has become a murderous desire. . .

So have you read any good book lately? Any particular favorites you have. I feel like reading another and will take any suggestions! Throw one at me...

Photographing Kids

Photographing kids is definitely the hardest thing ever but I think I have mastered it. How you ask? Well let them be them! I hardly ever pose my kids anymore. Let's face it their attention span is not too great and you get the cheesiest smiles ever. That in my book is not how I want my pictures. So most of my pictures are of my kids being themselves. They are so used to me and my camera that they don't even realize it's there half the time. They continue doing what they are doing... and in turn I get the best candid pictures. Sure it may take a while to get the perfect shot but it's less stressful than me trying to get them to sit still or look at the camera. And the end result, is a photograph of a smiling child or a sad child... full of emotion and personality.

The other day I was walking down the street to our mailbox... literally 10 houses down and the kids came with me. I had my camera and took pictures. They were so happy to be able to walk with me to pick up the mail. Some of my favorite pictures resulted because of this and all are un-posed except the first one.

Excited to be able to join me on my little walk

On the way Diego decided that he wanted to try and carry Alayna on his back. It didn't last long but I caught this one as soon as he turned around.

Here he is trying to help her touch the top of the mailbox... I think they're both too short for that still but it was cute to see them try!

Walking back home... He seriously holds her hand everywhere we go. He freaks out if he doesn't have her in his reach.

I like this picture... they ran ahead of me... and knowing that they can't be too far from me they stopped to wait for me to catch up. I was actually further away but with the great zoom... I looked like I was right in on the action.

Silly Boy!

This was funny. I am all about different levels in my pictures. So I was trying to get a picture of the tree from the ground view and both kids came and squatted down looking into my camera. They seriously couldn't figure out what I was doing. Hence the look on Diego's face... he was so confused. Priceless!

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Later on that Night Jr took us to Westgate to have dinner and walk around. It was a beautiful night. It was really alive since it was a Friday and all.

The fountains at Westgate

Arielle and I

The water dances to music like the Bellagio fountains in Vegas.

My husband enjoying the nice evening