A crazy day!

Today was a crazy crazy day. Seriously exhausted. Im thankful tomorrow is a new day. I had really bad anxiety all day thinking of all the tasks I had to do and how much work I have this week. I kept wishing it was Sunday which is our first day off. Normally I let the anxiety over take but i just tried to deep breathe every time my stomach would start to flip flop and get queasy and start praying. It helped most of the day. The day did not go as planned and turned out being super crazy but it all worked out. It was just one of those days that by the end of the night so much had happened its just comical. By the time it was 730pm and I'm just sitting in the studio waiting for a client who forgot our meeting that was set for 7pm, I just had to laugh. Threw my hands up, walked out of the house and laughed it off and went and got some killer tacos. :D Even though I am so tired and today was far from great I feel really blessed. I really do want to find the time to be thankful even after a crappy day. So here is what I'm thankful for today.

1. My sweet son who made me laugh more times than I can count today.
2. Todd's sweet parents who are so loving and sweet with Jax and watched him for us today on last minute notice.
3. A fun Photoshoot in a beautiful location with some super sweet kiddos!
4. Mexican food! I mean it really is the best food on earth in my book.
5. That it was a warm day.
6. Getting to kiss my hubby while standing outside on the sidewalk for a brief moment in between running from one place to the next.
7. Excedrin :)
8. Jax hugging and kissing me and saying "mama mama mama!" over and over.
9. Finding a few minutes to sit, listen to worship songs and read part of my new Beth Moore book.
10. End the day with a yummy glass of wine at The Vine watching "My week with Marilyn." while hanging with a friend.

Yup. Not to shabby even among the craziness. Bring it on tomorrow!!!

Jax 18 months old!

Cannot believe how big my boy is. Growing like crazy!!! I realized we hadn't done any updated pics of Jax since he has been walking so I really wanted to do a mini photoshoot with him. The shirt he is wearing in these photos is a shirt I've held onto for a very long time. I bought it about 5 years ago on sale at Target for $1. I just loved it and envisioned having a little boy someday with this exact outfit on. Jeans, button up shirt and some vans or chucks. I forgot all about it until I went through a box of clothes last week to find some baby clothes for a friend. I'm so glad I found it!! It is exactly the size he is in right now. =) I think I always knew I would have a little boy first.

I'm bummed because we forgot the reflector and diffuser at the house so the lighting was not as controlled as I wish it was in the photos. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to getting the light the way I want and envision. I'm bummed about some of the hot spots in the photos and that I wasn't able to pop more light into his eyes but oh well!! They turned out cute enough for me! Normally he totally hams it up for the camera but he was not in the mood to be photographed and was super creeped out by walking on rocks and grass. Haha. The field has uneven pavement and he's never walked on something like that before and it totally freaked him out. Everytime we'd stand him up and walk away for a shot he'd start freaking out like he was on hot lava and whimpering. It was so cute and sad all together. Haha. So he LOVED sitting on top of the suitcase with Gerald (his beloved stuffed animal) and even decided to stand up and dance when we put some music on. It was like his own little life raft in the "lava" of rocks and dirt. Such a silly boy. There are a ton more cute pics but this is just a preview of what I've gone through so far. Enjoy! Jax I love you so much and am so proud of how loving and sweet you are!!! Can't believe you're almost 2!!!!

  

My favorite things #1

Hey guys! Totally me cheese ballin it but I wanted to start doing favorite things videos and also once in awhile some vlogs. Check out my current fav's and leave a comment and let me know what kind of videos you would like to see. This video isn't great quality because I shot it with my computer but I'll have a better camera soon. =)

Sunday

Today has been lazy and wonderful. We slept in... Kinda. Jax woke up early and laid in bed between us watching Sesame Street while we snuggled with him being half asleep. We lounged around and played in the morning and all day I've been watching Downton Abbey. I'm completely addicted to the show. If you haven't sen it I HIGHLY recommend watching it if you are a fan of Epic early 1900's English drama types of shows or movies. The cast is fabulous, the costumes and scenery beautiful and you will be hooked from the first scene. The show documents the life of both the servants and the aristocrats of an English household. Drama, love, scandal, war and all. Totally hooked. Todd just rolls his eyes. Todd spent the day cleaning out the storage unit. Not a fun task but it's going to save us about $100 a month. The garage it stacked to the brim with boxes of junk. It's not gonna be very fun going through it all but it needs to be done. It will be freeing to get rid of junk.

Jax took a 4 hour nap!! That was great. I just finished feeding him and now we're hanging out. It makes me so happy that he LOVES reading books. He has two favorite books and will go find them and come crawl up on our laps to have us read to him. His favorite is "Who's coming to our house?" he has me read it over and over. I love it. :) gonna hang out some more with my guys and after he goes to bed probably watch some more Downton Abbey.
Hope your Sunday was restful and fun!

- Katie


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Running!!

It's been a crazy couple of days. Todd ended up getting food poisoning and was out of commission. Never seen him that sick before. :( Poor guy. Since he was home sick for a couple days I got to go to the gym when I'd put Jax down for a nap which was great! Not great that Todd was sick but that I got my workouts in. I've recently started doing workouts 3 times a week with some awesome ladies. About a month and a half ago I put out a Facebook post seeking friends interested in running 3 times a week. My friend Lisa offered to come join me and also train us. She rocks! I've done interval training before but this takes the cake. She pushes us passed our comfort level and has been a huge encouragement. We now have up to 6 of us (depending on the day) in our group. Anyone is welcome to come with us! Guys and girls welcome! We do running outside and circuit training either outside or at my house depending on the weather.
This year for me is all about balance. Balance is very hard for me. Being a wife and mom, business owner and main photographer, and a person trying to maintain my passion for art and also my own health. I know there are a ton more things I need to cram in but I decided at the beginning of the year that I wasn't going to make any more excuses for getting healthy emotionally and physically. If you've known me for a long time you 'll probably know my weight has always been a struggle for me. My pregnancy tipped the scale for me and I've never recovered. It's been very draining carrying around the emotional and physical baggage that comes to being bigger. It was really hard for me last year to take the time for myself to get healthy. Work and being a new mom and then part laziness when I actually had a free moment that I could have worked out. Last year I tried every diet and worked out here and there but never consistently. I know for me it was more of a mental barrier. When I'd get to a certain point I'd feel like even though I'd lost some, in my mind the rest felt like it would never come off and I'd give up before I'd barely begun. Ive lost and gained the same 20 lbs 3 times. So ridiculous. I really want to have another baby but I know I cannot emotionally handle it until I feel healthier. I want to be strong and fit and a healthy example for my kids. So this year, as selfish as it sounds, is about me. Not just about what I want to get, but what I want to give to my family. I signed up for my very first race. I'm going big. Half Marathon in Disneyland in September. I needed a goal that I could envision every time I go workout. That seems to be all I think of when I'm working out. Mostly my mind freaking out about "will I be able to do this????" but I keep going and I feel my body getting stronger. My body has not been doing well getting used to running again. I've had horrible shin splints and foot pain but I'm seeing a sports medicine chiropractor and he is finding some ways to help me. Basically I have the most messed up feet ever but I'm not gonna let it stop me. As Lisa told me weeks ago and I remember it every time I'm hurting "Pain is just weakness leaving the body." So true! I'm definitely getting stronger. No matter what I have to do. I can't wait to see the results of my hard work. I know it will not be on my own. God has seriously blessed me with a great group of workout accountability buddies. I know I wouldn't be as strong on my own without the mutual support we all share, as well as God giving me the strength to dig deep out of my emotional blocks. I will post my progress on here leading up to the race. Any prayers would be greatly appreciated. 13.1 mile race seems so far away from the 2-3 miles I'm up to know. I will do it though.
After I got home from the gym I came home to my two favorite guys. Thankfully Todd was feeling better so I got to shower in peace while he watched Jax. A shower in peace is rare with a toddler! After my shower I felt like looking somewhat attractive so I put on a little makeup with some help from my little helper. He likes to stack it all for me. :)







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It's the little things you do that make me smile...

As I sit down to type this my head is KILLING me but I have to update things. I want my kids to be able to look back and read about our days. Some people keep physical journals but this is easier for me. It's a digital age. I'm ok with that. I can still print them out and put them together in a book for them. Jax you are getting SO grown up. You are no longer my little baby, although I still call you "the baby." As I watch you play I am reminded of how much you are a TODDLER now. You look like such a big boy now! You absolutely love playing cars and trucks! They are your favorite toys. Your other favorites are bouncy balls and stuffed animals. You still LOVE your stuffed giraffe Gerald. I think he'll be your favorite lovie for a long while. Things I love about you.... I love how you say "Mama-dayyey." as one word. You love when we're both around. You also say milk, chicken. toes (toast) where it go, der is (there it is) Elmo, mim maaws (mickey mouse). Right now you love eating apples as a whole. You are the pickiest little eater but when you love something you get so excited about it and say "mmm num YUM YUM mmmmm!" It's so cute! You started walking about 3 weeks ago. You are still crawling too but you are walking so well and moving all over the place. One thing I don't love so much is your new found love of screaming and throwing tantrums. Which is exactly what you are doing as I type this while daddy tries to change your diaper.... Mommy is trying to be patient and I know one day you will know how to communicate better and learn how to behave. You really are the sweetest little boy I know. I can tell already you are going to be loving and sweet. I love how you know when I am sad. I've been hurt a couple times or very sad about something and started to cry and you ran up to me instantly and laid your head on my chest and touched my cheek and gave me a kiss. I'm pretty sure it was the sweetest thing I'd ever witnessed. You notice all the details. You obsess over something once you get your mind on something which can be frustrating if you don't understand you can't have it, but I know that it will help you achieve goals once you know the right way to communicate as you get older. You are so friendly. Everywhere we go you say "HIII!" to everyone we pass. You love people. When you meet new friends you can be a little shy at first but after warming up you always try to hug and kiss them and play with them. I know someday you'll be a great big brother. You love to share. You love sharing your food with us. You think it's so fun to give us bites. You love water but you prefer dringking out of my water over your sippy. You like the big starbucks cup. =) You LOVE music just as much as you always have. Just like mama. We have dance parties all the time in the living room during the day. When I put on music you instantly crawl up to me and reach up your arms for me to pick you up. When I pick you up you start dancing and bouncing on my hip. Every time. It's the cutest. You love going for visits in Nonnie and Pappi's room. If their door is closed you walk over and knock on the door and say "Nooonni!" You love to snuggle and watch movies with Nonnie and play with their abundance of remote controls. At night when it's time for bed you grab your binky and lovie and crawl into your favorite corner of the couch and pull the blanket over yourself and lay down. It's so funny. You are very particular about which blanket you use too. It has to be the red and white quilt great grandma ruth made. You crawl up and say "nu nye!!" You think brushing your teeth is the coolest thing ever. At least for now! I know someday I'll have to make you. All we say it "brush your teeth" and you pretend to brush your teeth with your finger. Haha. I could go on and on about all the cute little things you do. I've never loved someone so little as I love you. You are my little buddy and mommy's favorite lil guy. You make me smile when somedays I don't feel like I can at all. Love and hugs, Mama

Let it snow!

Had to post this one photo from when we went downtown and Jax played in the "snow" in the fountain. He wasn't too sure about it. His cuteness kills me everyday!!!

1ST Hair Cut!!

Today we went to the All about Me kids salon. I highly recommend going there if you have kids! So fun! Jax got to sit in a Thomas train and we got a certificate for his first hair cut with a lock of his hair. He did so great! He didn't even freak out. Love my kid!!

Missouri Trip

So much has happened since I last wrote. I got super busy with work and was in shoot, edit, shoot, edit, rinse repeat mode for the last few weeks. I have had the last week off and it has been so refreshing. Some of it has been forced since I have been really sick. We can't seem to shake illness in our home. We all just pass it around. No fun. I got it this time while on our trip to Missouri last week.

The last few weeks Jax dressed up in his first Halloween costume! He was a cute little lion! We went to the downtown halloween carnival on the weekend with my mom, carlos and my Dad, and then on Halloween night we surprised Todd's parents and went to "Trick or Trea"ing at their house. We spent some time over at their house visiting. It was a fun night. Jax had his first taste of candy bar and was completely obsessed.

Last week we traveled to Missouri for Peter's graduation from boot camp. Jax did amazing on the plane. I packed so much stuff that he never had the chance to be bored. His new favorite show is Yo-Gabba-Gabba! Unfortunately I only downloaded 1 episode and kept forgetting to download more when we actually had wi-fi. So we watched the same episode over, and over, and over... Lets just say mom and I know the songs by heart now. Peter's graduation was wonderful. The first day we were there it snowed! Nothing that stuck, but we woke up to a flurry outside. It was fun to run to the car with swirly snowflakes falling.

I am very proud to have an army engineer brother and to be part of the army family. Our trip had its mishaps but overall it was a great trip that involved lots of fun bonding time with my mom, brother and dad with Jax and I. Jax now knows who his "Boppa" is and even learned how to say it and recognize who my dad is. I love it. It melts my heart to see him get excited to see my dad now.

Please pray for my brother as he journeys to Fort Hood in Texas next week where he will be stationed. He will be deploying in January or February to afghanistan. I'm trying to pray with faith and trust his life in God's hands. It is such a scary feeling knowing he will be going into danger but I know this is what he is meant to do.

Here are some photos from our trip. Enjoy. I'm proud of you Peter!


my Mom's sweet fellow army mom/friend Julie, her family which includes Peter's battle buddy Ethan. And a video of all the PVTs marching in on Graduation Day!

Our weekend update!

How was your weekend?? Ours was pretty good. Jax was in a great mood all day and so were we because he slept pretty much ALL day. He usually wakes up like I've said before, at 730am. He slept in until 1045!!! He would have slept longer but I went in finally to get him up. We thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in for once! Jax then started falling asleep laying on my mom at around 1pm so we put him down for a nap and he slept until 4pm. Crazy baby.

 While he took a long nap we did day #6 in our P90X workouts. Kenpo day! If you've ever done kickboxing or taebo it's a lot like that. I was SOOOOO sore!! Muscles I didn't realize I had were super sore! It was the perfect sunny day on Saturday. Just the way I like the temp. Super sunny out but not hot and not cold. I'm not sure what the temp was exactly but probably a nice 75 degrees. Perfect!!! After our workout we sat ourside on the porch drinking water and G2. I love where we live because we can people watch!

 Saturday night we met up with Todd's parents for dinner at Eddie Papa's! Jax did pretty well and was in a great mood! He got a little squirmy at the end but he had been sitting in his high chair so well for about 35 minutes so I don't blame him! Below are some pics I took at the restaurant. I'm trying to take pics everyday. The restaurant was super low lit and I didn't want to bring a huge flash to dinner of course, so the lighting is bad! I just turned them all black and white to get rid of the horrible white balance. Shot with a canon 5D with a 50mm 1.4 lens. I shot it wide open so sometimes all that is in focus is Jax! He was the center of attention for most of the evening so... meh. I guess it works.

Sunday we went to church. After we came home we cleaned up the studio for a meeting I had. After my meeting we watched the 49ers game with my mom and Carlos and my mom made us a yummy lunch. Todd designed some business cards for me. I love them!! I helped a little but he always puts the finishing touch to any huge project I do. Except my website... I did that by myself. When Jax woke up from his nap he was so grumpy and threw a temper tantrum for 2 hours on and off. I surprisingly had a lot of patience. It's so hard to handle tantrums with a 14 month old baby. He can't fully understand when I tell him "NO that's not ok to act like that!" I didn't give in to his tantrum though. It would have been much easier to just give him what he wanted to pacify him for our sake but then I'd be allowing him to begin the bad habits I really do not desire my children to have. I think that even at his young age it's never too early to start. All his needs where being met, he was offered food, milk, cuddles and playtime, but 1 thing wasn't exactly how he wanted it so al hell broke loose. It was pretty trying for me. It's hard to see him scream and kick off an on for that long but so far today it's been better. After I got him to somewhat calm down, he ate a ton for dinner and was happy to go downstairs and play. I got out some crayons and showed him how to draw on some printer paper. It was so cute! He was fascinated by all the colors and kept pulling new ones out to see the color. I asked Todd to snap some pics of him real quick because it was so cute. After he got done coloring he wanted to play with the baby monitor which he thinks is a cell phone. He kept holding it up to his ear saying "Hi!" as pictured in the photos below.

After Jax went to bed, Todd made us buffalo chicken salads and we layed in bed eating dinner and watching boardwalk empire. Todd fell asleep and I watched Kim Kardashian's wedding. I was up much too last night writing a blog post I haven't finished yet. It's pretty deep and personal so I'll leave it for another day this week. Enjoy the pics from our weekend and also a couple of my purchase finds last week. I love this top right pic!! This totally is his personality. He plays this game where he offers you a bite of his food and then quickly shoves it into his mouth. Such a tease! Usually he's sweet and shares but sometimes he'll do his lil game. That's what this face was, and Todd's fake look of shock which Jax eats up!

Monster Jam's!

His cuteness kills me!!!! I didn't have time to fully edit these because I am getting ready to send my brother a letter so I wanted to get them up fast so I could print them out for him. I still have to edit them more but they look good for now! My cute little monster! I love these PJ's so much!! We got them at TJMax for like $8 I think. I always get so sad when he grows out of his cute clothes so I figured I'd start taking pics of him in his outfits I love the best... and just because I love taking pics of course! Enjoy! He just woke up from his nap so I'm off to get him. Todd just called and told me there was an office chair on the corner of the street for free so I'm going to go check that out too!!! xoxo, Katie