I have NOT been in a blogging mood for the past few weeks...okay, the past month or so...it's been so crazy around here (and work, and my little photography business, and swimming lessons, and planning my little cookie's birthday party...OH MY!) that I am finally getting a chance to catch my breath.

With that, I'm ordering myself an epiphanie camera bag.

In all seriousness, it has been one crazy adventure after another and I cannot wait for summer to get here! Mother's Day weekend was especially fun---my friend Ashley flew down from Wisconsin and offered her time and talents to help me tag-team a photo shoot to raise money for my Breast Cancer 3-Day account. She needed a "vacation" and I needed someone to kick my butt to get a fundraiser going---so YAY!

We had such a great time (I can't even begin to write about how awesome she is) and raised about $500 for the 3-Day! We took some amazing pictures of some of my favorite photographic subjects to boot! The picture above is one of my favorites I took of Reece that day. I love the colors and the dirt under the fingernails. Swoooooon.

Ash also took our family pictures, which I have BIG plans for! Hopefully I will have everything framed and printed by Chase's birthday so you all can see!

Sorry for the completely disjointed post today, it's kind of how my mind has been the last few weeks!

Trey tells me that Reece probably ignores me because I've got the camera in his face all the time.

It's no secret now that I have very few pictures from our cruise. I let Reece have his own point and shoot camera the last couple days of the cruise and I'm glad I did! While there are thousands to choose from, these are just a few raw pictures I thought were beautiful. He has NO idea what he's doing, but I love seeing what was important to HIM, and from a child's point of view.

Cheesy self-portrait...CHECK!

The carpet in the Windjammer. I didn't notice it. Apparently HE thought it was news-worthy.

The tile around the tide pool in the waterpark.

Be careful, mama!

A new-found love for soft-serve.

Textures.

Our view.

Little brother's got new trix.

The bar where we shared a (virgin) daiquiri.

Daddy monster.

Coincidence that he got some of these shots?

Yes.

I can't help, though, but marvel in the beauty of things that I overlooked on the ship while I was trying to get MY perfect pictures. Thank goodness for little boys.

We were given an overcast day today so we put on our sweatshirts and headed to the park. "The playground without sand" as Reece likes to call it! Chase loves to swing and people-watch...Reece loves to do anything where the wind is blowing through his hair. He's 100 mph all day, every day, inside, outside, up, down, and all-around. I wish I had his energy!!
As for Chase, we're awaiting crawling from him...any day now, literally. He "army crawls" all over the place, snacking on bits and pieces he finds along the way. He gets up on his hands and knees, but hasn't moved forward yet (backward, yes!) We are hoping he'll be moving in 2 weeks when we go on our cruise! Then I'm sure I'll be wishing I could take back my words :)

Reece is into all sorts of role-play these days...this weekend he ran the range of everything, from baby tiger to "real" pirate and everything in between. I love how his imagination works ('sept when I'm making dinner, trying to talk to Trey and all I hear from the porch...yelling...is "hey Mommy say 'come out, baby tiger...come OUT baby tiger....COME OUT baby tiger...Mommy, say COME OUT BABY TIGER!'").

Yesterday we had to run to Target for something (surprise, surprise) and we were looking for foam swords to replace our pirate sword from Disney. I couldn't find a foam sword, but I found these fantastic swords in the party favor section...of course I had to buy two because Chase just HAS to have everything his brother has (did I mention he's growing up way to fast?!). Two swords later we're heading to the fabric store...swashbuckling little old ladies, bolts of tulle, racks of satin ribbon, and "aaaaaargh matey"-ing everyone in sight. Two people stopped their cars in the parking lot, rolled down their windows, "said "arrrrrgh matey", locked eyes with me, and laughed.

....and I smiled. They're mine, and this is my life. Arrrrrrrrgh-en't I lucky?!

The theme around our house these days is "better late than never". It's been horribly hectic and we just keep adding to our busy-ness...this week I signed Reece up for indoor soccer (squee!), scheduled 7 photo shoots for Valentine's Day, put the finishing touches on Philana's guestbook table for her wedding on Saturday, cared for a toddler with the stomach flu, took on a new project at work, and...in the midst of all of that...accidentially chopped a hunk out of my left index finger on my paper-cutter at work.

Like I have time for THAT.

Chase is 7 1/2 months now, but I just got around to making his milestone picture for 7 months.

Better late than never, right?!

His bike has been sitting in the garage since Christmas day. The directions still in the zippered pocked on his handlebars. The tires had nary a touch of dirt on them. He had been excited about it on Christmas morning, but when he tried to pedal...and went nowhere...he parked it and forgot about it.
Every now and then I'd ask him if he wanted to ride. "No, it's too hard", he'd say.

This morning, while I sipped Starbucks and my littlest nugget finished his nap in the driveway, he told me he wanted to get on his bike and go. I wasn't sure if my heart could handle the frustrated tears or the meltdowns when he pushed the pedals backwards (which are the brakes). Reluctantly, I set my tea down and hoisted him onto the seat.
And what do you know? He took off. Fast. Down the driveway, up the driveway, around my Jeep, clipping the corners of grass, across the street, down the street, into our neighbor's driveway, through a puddle of water, and back again. His jammied little tushie rode like he had done this a thousand times before.
I could grab a few photos of him as he zoomed by (yes, helmet-less, and yes, we do have one, and YES he wears it now....don't worry!) and went on his way again.

This kid reminds me SO much of myself. He's a perfectionist in every sense of the word. He's so stinkin' stubborn--when he gets something wrong, or he's frustrated by something he sets it aside and comes back to it and does it better than ever before. He says he "can't do it", lets it go, and then when no one is looking he just gets up on it and goes....
...and I love that about him.

It's been an interesting past couple of days around here...days we'd rather forget than remember, but I thought I'd let everyone know exactly what happened and why Chase was in the hospital Wednesday night!

I picked Chase up from school on Wednesday and he was inconsolable. Because he rarely cries, this was somewhat alarming to hear him screaming. At first we all thought "ears"--as he would cry when we put him down or picked him up. After 3 hours of screaming, Trey brought him to the ER at Sarasota Memorial to find a source of his pain.

**side note** WHY do these things always happen after office hours or on the weekends? I swear it's a conspiracy...

Anyways, Trey took Chase to the ER where he went through a series of tests (bloodwork for kidney function, ultrasounds and x-rays of both arms because that seemed to be where the pain was) everything came back within normal range. The only thing they could find was a little constipation, which Chase always has. Everyone was stumped! Because he couldn't calm down and his condition wasn't any better, they decided to admit him.

Now, I'm not sure if you've EVER had to see a baby get an IV, but I bet you could just imagine. It was HORRIBLE. After that, I hugged him and we both fell asleep in the hospital bed together. Trey had returned home with Reece so he could get some sleep too.
When he woke up Thursday morning, it seemed that a little rest did his body some good. We managed to get a couple smiles out of him and he drank a big bottle. They checked both his arms and couldn't find any breaks or dislocations, so possible muscle soreness? Who knows. It was so frustrating for him not to be able to tell us what was wrong, and even moreso to no know any answers from the pediatric doctors.

He's still a little sore under the arms, and we're still not sure what happened or where he's actually hurting, but that smile says a LOT...it is leaps and bounds better than how he was feeling the night before. He ate and slept well again last night, so i'm hoping he's on the mends...seeing your baby in pain is about the most HORRIBLE thing in the world!

I posted the other night on facebook that I was finishing up my "mommy gift" for my boys for Christmas. I had several people ask me what they were and since I'm sort of a "visual" person, it was hard to explain!

These are just sentimental collages I made for them, they're 20"x20" and I think this is going to be my gift to them for several years...I even found 20"x20" frames at IKEA so I can switch the pictures out every year!
There is no rhyme or reason to any of the pictures, they're just pictures I LOVE of my boys ;) So, there ya go, and now you know! I'm sure they won't care...ha!

Oodle, our "Elf on a Shelf" has been rather mischevious this year! My sister, Rhea, bought the Elf for Reece's first birthday. He started out rather tame, but now it seems he's really up to no good while we're sleeping....check out what he's been up to this week:

Had some Italian Ice and hung out in the freezer. Good thing he had on a scarf and earmuffs!

Toilet-papered the bathroom. What a mess! Reece just stood in the doorway with his hand on his hip shaking his finger and scolding Oodle!

He brought some snow from the North Pole and make snow angels in the kitchen!

He used Mommy's sharp sewing scissors to cut paper...and cut himself! Bad Oodle!

Eh, just "hanging around"! (*side note- Oodle MADE me clean the fan blades...YUCK!)

Putting out the blazing fire of a (north pole-scented) Yankee Candle!

*It's hilarious because I've been posting these on Facebook each night and now people are expecting things from Oodle! I have to be sure to keep my game up until Christmas Day :)

He told me he was "dressin' up to go see his 'manager'." I'm positive he's going to get the gig, dressed up like this!

This year Halloween was a kockout...literally! We had been preparing Reece for Halloween fun for a couple of weeks, asking him what he wanted to "be" for Halloween, etc. His answer? A tractor. Not a farmer, not a trucker, not a John Deere Sales Rep...nope, a TRACTOR.

Yeah, ix-nay on the tractor. We've had creative costumes for the past two Halloweens, and my kid was NOT going to be a tractor this year! Ha! I figure this may be the last year I can whip out the mom-veto card, so I did....and the featherweight champion of the world's costume was a total knockout!
What else would this little nugget be but an arteeeeest?! He had lots of fun looking at all the lights and pumpkins, but man...as soon as that clock struck 8pm (aka bedtime) all hell broke loose! He had had it with the beret, people in his face, looking cute, the whole shebang. Dunzo. Hey, he's a man of routine, what can I say?!
We gave it the one-two punch and a TKO---another Halloween bites the dust. Where is time going?! Before I know it it will be November and my big boy will be three.

Oh wait....

I am soooo far "behind" these days, it's not even funny. Well, maybe it is laughable to some who think that I'm always on the ball. The other day I said "hey babe, Chase is 16 weeks old today"--only to be told otherwise (by the hubs who is severely N.I.D*) "um, you mean...tomorrow?!"

*Not Into Details

Yeah. That's right. Tomorrow. Ugh.

I realized I haven't even blogged about our trip to Ohio to visit Trey's family or how my little photography "business" is doing. Or how Trey fixed our hot water heater so I could enjoy a HOT shower instead of the lukewarm ones I've been used to for the last 3 years.

3 years. Say whaaaa?

Alas, life continues to chug away and I realize that our little love is now 16 weeks old! (PS- it's crazy how this works--to me, 16 weeks IS 4 months. In doctor-speak, 4 months will be on the 22nd of October when Chase will---literally---be 4 months to date. I like my thinking better, but that also means he's growing up way too fast for my liking!

Here is Chase's 16 week (4 month) milestone picture:
Isn't he the cutest thing? He refuses to smile for the camera, yet he smiles and laughs all.the.time. It's insane--the gas pump? Hilarious. Me tripping and stubbing my toe? Funny. Doggie breath? Laughable. He is just the happiest child, and probably the only one in our family that wakes up in a good mood!

Not to be outdone, big brother is turning 3 in less than a month. I went into panic mode today and started ordering all sorts of stuff after Reece told me he "weelly, weelly wanted a blue motorcycle birfday". I can't find blue motorcycle stuff, but maybe he won't notice :) I'm doing a little party for him with his buddies at school and then we'll have a family gathering at our house that weekend. We've also promised him a trip to Sea World (which he just can't get enough of!) Even though he's growing up way too fast, I just love hearing all of the new things that come out of his mouth. Trey and I look at each other and laugh every day when he says something and we have NO idea where it came from. "Where did you learn that?!" is a phrase we are constantly saying.

So yeah, the secret is out...I look seemingly put-together on the outside, but really...I'm behind. I'm working on it!

I am 99.97% sure my friend Philana doesn't read my blog...but if you do, girl...CLICK THE RED "X" now!

Philana sat behind me in Mrs. Davis' English class in 6th or 7th grade. I remember the first day of school and my snazzy pink tie-dye Billabong shirt I was wearing and everything...anyway, Philana decided she would jazz-up my t-shirt and write on it. IN PEN. Yeah, Mama D had something to say about that...and couldn't belive we soon became friends!

In High School we were inseperable. There were MANY sleepovers that included home-made Glamour Shots (don't be jealous, peeps), cooking escapades (fortune cookies anyone?), and Saturday Night Live skits dreamt up. We were the first "Bennifer"--our names were synonymous with each other...you never said Philana without saying Joanna as well.

Well, gone are the days of "Philana and Joanna", but we still keep in touch and Philana is getting married in February! I am so happy for her because she always said she'd always be single. Her Ben is a super nice, funny dude, too...which makes me even more happy that they're becoming Benlana.

Where the heck am I going with this? Oh yeah, the wreath in this picture. This is the first of four gifts I am making her for her bridal shower next month. I'm expected to be the crafty gift-giver at bridal and baby showers alike, so a gift off the registry is SOOOOOO a cop-out. I'm making her four wreaths, one for each season of the year. This is her Spring wreath, made of felted flowers. This is also the most complicated of the wreaths, and most time-consuming. Well, I think so anyways, the others should be a little easier. I had never made felted roses before and I went a little overboard with the amount of them I tackled this time (seriously, there have got to be 300+ on there!) but I just love the way it turned out!

Then again, ask me the night of November 4th as I'm scrambling to get them done for her shower!