Treating, no Tricking

This is what Ella Reese wanted to dress up as for Halloween.

Just kidding. I wanted her to be her lady bug again this year, but she saw an Elephant costume in the closet and wanted to put it on immediately. So she was Ella the Elephant and our neighbors loaned us the pumpkin for Dean. We thought of trying to make Dean into a mouse. It is appropriate since he is always following ER around the house and annoying her with his constant rough affection.

Every house we went to she would tell the people who they were dressed as.

"Ella elefant cosdume (pointing at her trunk). Dean-o pumpkin cosdume (touching dean on the head. Then one time after she said all that..) Mama..(pausing and looking at me)... jacket.."

I had a jacket on.

We just went to our surrounding neighbors that we know. When leaving a house, Ryan and I would say our goodbyes and see you later. Ella would copy us and say as loud as she could, waving from her stroller " Bye Guys! See you later!" over and over and over. We would be down in the street and she would still be saying it at the top of her lungs.

Silliness from September

Yes, I am lame. I haven't posted any updates with our family in a while. So here are some pics from back in September. Current updates will be coming. Man are these guys changing!

Ella Reese will put "her toys" up on the couch out of reach of Dean. So we put him on the couch in this pic to aggravate her.

Every time we go to Walmart the lady who greets us always will give ER like 6 stickers to play with. This was one day I was changing Dean's diaper and found this....it was hours and a nap after our walmart run. Don't now how it got on Dean's belly...

Okay, so one day I decided I would shop at Super Target and compare it to Walmart. Everything was fine and dandy except the most important thing.....Target did not have any of those shopping carts with the huge kiddy attachment. A MUST for us! So here I was with both kids, and leaving to go somewhere else or home was out of the question. So I was going to suck it up and stick it out. I put Dean in the front in his car seat and resorted to sticking ER in the basket. Problem lies in that when I go to the grocery store it is my one stop for the week. So I was piling a weeks worth of food literally on TOP of and around my daughter. She got claustrophobic until she discovered that she could use all the food as building blocks.

You can't see it in this picture, but underneath the tea are 2 packages of deli meat and baby food jars as well.
ER came running to me and said "eyes, eyes..". She had gotten into my makeup and put on my mascara...pretty well I might add!
Sunday church picture
helping mama make cookies for daddy

Bohanan Clan

These are from a month ago at the UT Agricultural Gardens. It was fun capturing this family!
You can see the rest of this shoot if you go to http://www.lillianprincephotography.wordpress.com/

The Campbell Family

I LOVE this picture of Aaron and Laura ! Go to www.lillianprincephotography.wordpress.com to see the rest from this shoot.

The Moores

Check out some pictures of the Moore family at
www.lillianprincephotography.wordpress.com Stay tuned,...I have the Bohanans, Campbells and Claymens to post. Yes, I am busy. but I count it all a blessing from the Lord!

Cowgirl

Ella Reese keeps losing her crocs, so this is the only pair of shoes that fit her right now.
Everytime I pick up ER, I am reminded by her weight (in comparison to Dean's) that she is growing more each day into a girl. She is learning so fast....She is learning her colors very well. It use to be that everything was blue. Now she can tell me correctly several colors. She almost always tell me "fank you!" in a very sweet high pitched voice without me having to tell her to say thank you. She also says excuse me, or "oh! cuoose me!" when she bumps into me or a toy on the ground. And sometimes she will tell the toy she bumps into that she forgives it after she trips over it. This morning I went into her room and she was laying down with hands by her side staring at the ceiling completely naked. Diaper off sheets hal fwet, and the other stuff dry but smelt like pee. I investigated and came to the conclusion that she had stripped herself sometime in the middle of the night and slept naked.

Keene Wedding

Man this was a fun wedding to shoot! Go to www.lillianprincephotography.wordpress.com to see the pictures.

Busy Season

I try to read the Girltalk blog often because I am always encouraged by God's goodness and by the Gospel. (http://girltalk.blogs.com/).
There are a few posts on dealing with Interupptions and Managing in Busy Seasons. It was so edifying and rich that I was tempted to cut and paste all the posts onto my blog.
If you haven't read it, make your way over there! It is gold!
It is funny because the other day I went over to get caught up at girltalk and saw the title, "Dealing with Interruptions", and thought ..." OH! I need to hear this. This is my life right now...interruptions". But lo and behold...I was interrupted by the babies and could not read it. So the rest of the day the title kept lingering in my head and I found myself pondering..."But WHAT is it that I feel like I am being interrupted FROM?". I found myself awnsering...my dishes, my laundry, my tasks, my photo editing, my blogging, my reading, my visit to the bathroom...and the list goes on. And I noticed that in all those things...they were things that I thought were important to be completed. MY TASKS. And heaven forbid those things do not get done...except the going to the bathroom part.
So is my day have meaning and importance when these things are competed?? Or is my first priority my husband and my children?
Hmmmm....it struck a chord.
I pray God would help me this week to not see any of those things as "interruptions", but instead my heavenly calling to glorify and serve God in this very unique season. And every thing else I can sacrifice, or can wait to be done later, and I know that I will begin to experience REAL JOY !

My little Van Gough

I graduated with a degree in Art and it wasn't until this summer that I really made an effort to do art projects with ER. It just dawned on me one day....
But up until that point I only really let her color. So one day I pulled out all the stops. We went outside and brought out markers, glue, watercolors and scissors. She had the best time. Since then her favorite thing is to paint.

I thought it was hilarious that she would lay on her stomach to paint and draw. Now when she colors or draws she will assume this position.
Her first mixed media collage. Quite lovely huh? I did cut out the flowers for her to glue. Since this day I started doing all kinds of projects with her. I've saved egg cartons and cut them into caterpillars for her to paint as well as using those egg cartons to make some tulips with pipe cleaners. I saved boxes and turned them inside out and we painted it to look like our home. She is quite a natural at art...or just making a huge mess....

But I must say that she now colors with more purpose than just making scribbles. And she colors/paints with intensity. You can see the progression....

Her favorite thing is to make hand prints. She did these paintings that we keep on the fridge. In the second painting down the blue mass is the sky. She told me this as she was painting.


...and now hand painting has turned into body painting....

Bradshaw Pics

These are up! Go to www.lillianprincephotography.wordpress.com to check the out!

quickie

Okay, so I am a lame blogger. I am finishing up the Keene wedding right now and I have the Moore family to begin. I have a bazillion pictures from this summer of the Prince fam and I have yet to post the Bradshaw pictures.
Check back in a week and there wil be oodles and oodles of pics...but for now here are some of the kiddos from Sept.

This is how the like to play. They roll on one another and laugh, or "craf" as ER says. The kid LOVES avocados. He always says "mmmm" after every bite and opens his mouth like bird for more. Note that Ryan was feeding him.
I started bathing them together, but after a week Dean starting standing and somehow getting out of his chair. SO no more chair and the kids take turns for baths now.

Also, as of tewo days ago Dean started standing in his crib. Yikes! I know. Ryan is proud and says it is very manly.

He is pulling up on everything. I even see him trying to climb up a wall or a door. He gets multiple face plants a day and has hints of bruises on his noggin. He will be 8 months on the 12th. I think he will be walking at 10 months. Yes, I am scared for me too...

My little Picaso. She has turned painting into a new form. She always ends all her painting session by painting her hands or her body. It is a mess, but she loves it. She calls paint "pink".
Very intergalactic, huh?
She wore these all day the day she first saw them. We went to the library and ran errands,..and she would not take them off.

Who wants to try cloth diapers?

I've had lots of people ask me how I like cloth....and now that I have been doing it for about 7 months I really do like it a lot. I ran across a site on a blog where you can enter in a giveaway for a $50 gift card for Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers( one of my favs).
So if you'd like to try some, head on over to ...http://www.thriftyandchicmom.com/2008/09/fuzzibunzonlinecom-giveaway.html
and enter in. It is super easy and fast. With $50 you could easily get two diapers and some accessories.

In other news...we are super busy over here. I shot a wedding last wedding and I am really excited how they turned out. I also have Bradshaw family pics done which I need to post.
Ryan is working hard on his Cisco job. We are so grateful for this great opportunity with the biz!
I am working hard too here at home and lovin it all the same!
It is amazing the grace God gives during this special season and I am so thankful that I get to be home and witness all the fun and silly things the kids are doing.
One, is that Dean is crawling! Yes,..you heard me. He started a week ago and he is growing in mobility daily. Two, is that they both love to laugh with one another. ER says that Dean is "crafing". They will do this weird low, deep cackle back and forth to one another. When ER first heard it she thought he was coughing. To which I told her he was laughing. To which she refers to it now as crafing. Silly kids.
I have boo-coodles of pics to post and stories to share ,...but I have no time right now!
Give me a week and I will be back with more blogging goodness and fun!
Have a nice weekend!!!

My heart is full

Tonight Ryan and I watched videos of Ella Reese and Dean from birth to present. As ER sat in my lap, I couldn't help but hold her tighter and give her multiple kisses. My heart melted to see ER as a little baby and how it seemed like yesterday she was Dean's age. We both were blown away at how fast these past two years have flown by.
As we both looked over, I think almost every video we ever taped of ER, I recounted all the blessing from God and was overwhelmed with gratefulness.
Dean has a bit of a cold and I just left his room, the fourth time since 8pm, and this time I held him longer and let him sleep in my arms for some time. I know that before I blink this little body which fits so perfectly in my arms will soon have long legs and arms that will hang around me. And the little head that sits on my shoulder as a whimper turns into a sleeping baby will very soon no longer fall asleep in my arms.
The loud clapping noise of Ella Reese destroying our hardwoods as she walks around in her Cinderella glass slippers, bits of cereal and snacks forever lost in our area rug, surprise discoveries of sippy cups with remnants of sour milk, watching the same movie or Blues Clues episode over and over and over and over....it is all such a short period.
This time next year we will be sitting once more watching videos from this year and be amazed again at how much the kids have changed and again have hearts filled with thankfulness to God for all his blessings.

To Chattanooga we go!

Ryan and I got away for a night last weekend. He just landed a huge job with Cisco and will be quite busy for the next month or two. We had so much fun! This one was my favorite getaways he has planned so far. We went to Chattanooga and stayed at a Marriott (on our Marriott points), went to the Aquarium the next day and did a lot of eating in between.

Thanks Ryan for a romantic and fun time where I felt spoiled. It was so nice to not be cooking, cleaning and wiping bottoms all day! It was such a treat ! Oh course what getaway would not complete without a little sushi action. Yum! Of course it looked much better before we ate it.

Okay, so I have been wanting for a long time to shoot Ryan (no not with a gun). But he is very uncooperative and hates having his picture taken. Who doesn't, right? Well, usually when I am photographing a family and I have a person who is reluctant or uncomfortable they still do what I ask and I get great pictures eventually. Since Ryan is my hubby, he could out right oppose my instruction. Which he did. Or he made faces in the camera. I had to sneak to get a good pic, and even then it wasn't what I really wanted. Oh well, better luck next time.

This is how he responded when I started photographing him.

Ryan took a few of me. I like this one.

In this pciture a bird was about to poop on Ryan perched on the bridge. After we crossed the bridge we went to Clumpies for some yummy ice cream.

I had to get some of us at the Carousel at Coolidge Park. If only we could have gotten one with the both of us...

Chattanooga Aquarium Pictures. We saw some amazing animals!

It only ignited my heart to praise God at what a creative and amazing Creator he is!
I have never held a butterfly. It was very cool!

This is a seahorse. I forget the name . Amazing, huh?
This is a kind of Dragon Seahorse. This was probably the most bizarre and amazing creatures I saw!

Look at those nails!
We had so much fun together ! It was a great little getaway and I still am continually surprised at how much more my heart grows in love for Ryan.