Silly Princess...Tricks are for Kids

I found this image online today and thought it was hysterical. This goes out to all of those parents out there who sometimes want to give a noogie to Alice in Wonderland or stick their tongues out at those blasted Disney Princesses. If anything, show this to your 3-year-old and you'll get a good laugh out of her.

Whenever I Wake Up...

I left to take out the trash this morning and when I came back in, this is what I saw...



...and then she said, "And when I am finished, I am going to wipe MYSELF off!" Okay, Miss Independent!

Sleeping with a Hottie

Guess who I shared a bed with last night while Kenton was away? No, it wasn't this guy...

...but he is pretty "McDreamy." (Hardy-har-har) It wasn't this hottie either...

...although I could think of how NOT to lose him in 10 days.

Nope, not that guy above either. I'm pretty sure he has been pretty busy with Renee Zellweger lately.

Oh yeah. Wish it were this dude from Brothers and Sisters, but he's engaged now.

Yep, you were right. It's this little punk.

And he WAS a hottie. "Ugh, Jack! You're too hot! Get off of me!"

Gabby Klum

Kenton is on a business trip and Gabby and I have been filling our time with coloring, baby dolls, books, movies, and crafts. We did take a trip to church today as well, which was really nice. The biggest event of the day was the massive tantrum my daughter threw when I asked her to wear this cute dress and the adorable coordinating red tweed jacket (with faux white fur collar and trim on the cuffs) to church. I bought this dress for her to wear for Christmas, but she was so enamored by the one her grandmother bought her, Mommy's choice was chopped liver. Each week I stare at this cute dress hanging in her closet and wonder what it would look like on her. Then I get angry that we spent money on a dress my daughter flat-out refuses to wear. I don't want my daughter to grow up thinking it is ok to just not use things we spend money on. So what does any "good" mom do in a situation like this? Force your kid to wear it, of course. I mean, c'mon!

Usually I am a "pick-your-battles" type of mom. I let Gabby pick out her outfit most days and try to give her control in situations when I feel like I can allow her to have control. But there is just something about this dress that made my blood boil when I thought about her not wearing it. It seriously is SO cute with the jacket. Did I mention it is adorable? I did? Okay.

I figured maybe I could bargain with her to wear the outfit in some way. She gets something she wants and Mommy gets to see that sweet dress on her sweet girl. Ummmmmm, no. My little pistol wanted nothing to do with my adorable dress or it's adorable matching jacket. Curses! I bribed her with a sucker and even that didn't work. She began throwing a temper tantrum, so I sent her to her room. When she came out, she said in the sweetest voice, "Mommy, please don't force me to wear that dress." It broke my heart to hear her use the word "force," so in my sweetest voice I said, "I'm sorry, honey, but you have to wear it." What is WITH me? It's just a dress! Do I have no heart? Do I have no soul? Get over it, Mom! Something inside me just wouldn't let go. It seriously was NOT about the control or power of the situation. I just was so mad that there are plenty of outfits that go to "waste" when she refuses to wear them for whatever reason. This dress was not going to be a casualty of my toddler's opinion. She would WEAR the dress and she would LIKE it. Okay, so she would wear the dress. Liking it was optional.

(Coat photo added after original post was written)

So as you can see, I do have photos of her in the dress, so eventually I persevered. What did it? I figured if I could get her in the dress for a short period of time, she would come to my side...and she did. I told her she had to wear the dress for the hour prior to church (and let me take photos of her in it), but if she wanted to change before church, she could. Once she put the dress on, what did I hear? "Wow! I look so cute in this. I love this skirt. The jacket is itchy, but the dress is cute!" Geesh. Women. Here I was seeing into the future a scene of me going to the mall with my middle-schooler who tells me everything I pick out is ugly (I'm pretty sure I did that to my mom). It wasn't pretty, but maybe, just maybe, things will be okay. I hope in the future a sucker and promise of a clothing change will have the same effect on my 13-yr-old as it does on my 3-yr-old. Anyone know who the patron saint of fashion is? I think we may need help from a higher power.

D.C. Daddy

Daddy is in Washington D.C. and his girls are very sad without him here. Miss you, Daddy!

Dora's in Color

What are we going to do with this kid?

A video fresh from the archives...

Paint by Letter

Gabrielle was begging to paint with her "messy paints," as she called them, today. I don't mind the "messy paints" but they do take a lot of time to get out, set up, and then clean up. I wanted to do something new with her craft time today, so I combined the idea of "color by number" and the actions of using a Lite Brite to make "Paint by Letter." I printed off a Disney princess coloring page from the internet then wrote letters all over Ariel's body. The letters corresponded with the color of paint she was to use. I also color-coordinated the paint brushes with each paint color (mostly because I happened to have a variety of colors and could do that). It made it easy because she didn't have to wash her brush out at all! This is what we came up with:

It was a great way to reinforce letters while having fun!

Fun with Filters

After an impromptu photoshoot this afternoon, I decided to have a little fun with the filters that Picasa (photo editing program available from Google) had to offer. Some of these were too sweet by themselves, but the filter effects gave them a different feel. It was really fun to see how the look of the photo changed with the added effects! In the one above, I wanted to focus on Gabrielle's gorgeous eyes, so I put a little glow on the rest of her to draw your eyes onto her face. She's beautiful, isn't she?

In the one above, Jack was a little soft and I didn't want that to be as obvious. Because of this, I did a focal point B&W shot where you can make the majority of the photo B&W, but the focal point is in color. Cool, huh? Daddy and his "kids."

The photo above is so sweet. As much as I love Gabrielle's full, toothy grin, sometimes that closed-lip smile is so endearing. I did a soft glow on this one, but looking at it now, I think I need to back that blur down! Whoa, I'm getting carried away. Please don't get your eyes checked. It's a little blurry in here.

Looking at the above photo, I thought it might be cute to take the saturation down. There was something about the idea of the ballerina pajamas she is wearing that shouted "girly" and "sweet" and "soft."

Daddy decided to get in on the photography and snapped the shot above. I look slightly tired, or drunk, or maybe it's an allergic reaction! Barring that, it's nice to have one with me and Gabrielle, as I am so often behind the camera instead of in front of it.

Daddy took a quick snooze on the floor in Gabby's room with Jackers. I didn't mess with this photo as it was just endearing on its own.

Hand and paw...two buddies cuddling up.

Proof that sometimes my husband does remember to wear his wedding ring. He takes it off to shower and often forgets to put it back on...or at least that's what he tells me. Better not be picking up any hottie-patotties when the ring stays at home!

Oops! There I am again, catching a glimpse of myself in Gabby's princess mirror. This one seemed better-suited in black and white, so I converted it. Maybe that's just me trying to be artsy-fartsy.

Hey, even Gabrielle got in on the photography. She took the shot above and the one below. Not joking. She had no help holding the camera and got both of these. I thought she did a great job! She must have the photography gene in her from her Great-Grandpa Fred, Uncle Freddy, and Uncle Travis!

One of these is going on my facebook page!

Hair Do's and Don'ts

Dear Gabrielle,

You have beautiful, gorgeous hair. It isn't as dark as mine and is much more fine, but it is still very pretty. You are extremely obsessed with your hair at your current age. I'm hoping it is a phase. I often hear, "my hair is ugly" or right when you wake up, "Mommy! My hair is so messy!" through tears and whines. You are a girl who likes to have your hair "done." Here are a few things that are not an option to you:
1. Static. If you sense static in your hair, you rush upstairs to wet it down.
2. Fly-aways. We all have them, but you point all of them out after I put your hair in a ponytail to make sure I hairspray them all down.
3. Pigtails. You may have worn them almost daily for about a year, but you are not interested in them anymore and it breaks my heart since you are still a little girl. Little girls are supposed to wear pigtails, darnit!
4. Any fancy hairdo. You enjoyed your hair for Halloween, but you will NOT let me do anything that is remotely fancy or out of the norm. Seems strange since you love your hair so much, but you must love it only in certain styles.

Here are a few things you love:
1. Hairspray. You remind me all the time to make sure I "spray it" when I'm done.
2. Headbands. You could wear them all day everyday, even though you often don't even put them on correctly enough to hold your hair back. They are a "head accessory" of some sort to you.
3. Hairbows with ponytails. You don't care for bows when your hair is down, but any ponytail deserves a good bow. You also like picking them out for yourself and MOST of the time, they don't match your outfit. I don't care. I like that you want to choose them for yourself.
4. Ponytails. I think you must see my hair in a ponytail way too often, as it is your go-to hairdo of choice.
5. Curling and flat irons. Whenever I am doing my hair, you often ask for me to do yours too. It's very sweet. I think you just want to be like me and that makes me smile.

I love you and your hair obsession all the same.

Love,
Mommy

*For a girl who does not enjoy fancy hairstyles, I was amazed when Gabby let me put this braid in her hair a few weeks ago. It's just too cute, isn't it? She even let me do two french braids later that day. She must have been feeling open since I haven't convinced her into anything except a ponytail in about a month. Hmpf. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but to a mom who wants her little girl to look "little" for awhile longer, it might be worth a bribe to see my little sweetie in pigtails just one more time.

My Best Subject

You know when you take a photo and you look at it and say, "I love that picture." The one above is my favorite photo of Jack. I love how his little ear is perked, his head slightly tilted, his eyes so focused. He is a photographer's dream subject. He is cute, has stark color contrasts in his fur, an adorable patch over one eye and ear, a handsome little dog beard, sit very still, and will perk his ear up for you if you say "treat" or "go for a walk." The nasty tricks I play on my dog to get good photos of him. He is easily my best subject for practicing photography. So over the past few months, I have gotten a really random, yet wonderful variety of photos of Jack. Hope you enjoy looking at his cute face (while not having to smell his dragon breath)! Someone call Westminster - we have a new entrant!