For Spring we play on Springs!

The weather is perfect right now.  Warmish verging on hot in the afternoon, and wonderful mid temps in the evening.  You can feel summer wanting to push through the blanket of spring.  The heat will soon make the beautiful wild flowers that have sprouted around wilt.  So, what do we do to enjoy whats left of spring? We go out and play on a toy that is made of Spring's of course. Last night after dinner we had our desert on the trampoline ( I don't know if a lowfat icecream bar counts as a REAL dessert, but at least it is something sweet) and we enjoy seeing the sunset.  I love it when David gets all silly.  He makes me laugh so hard.  And seeing him up in the air like that and my kids huddled in the corner looking to each other for courage and protection just makes me smile ear to ear.  I am loving this stage of life right now. 

After David saw this picture he labeled it the "Descension.  This one really cracks me up. Everything about his body looks so effortless.  I love him so much.

Happy Friday! 

By the way I am almost done with my new Photography Blog/Website.  I felt like my work needed a little corner of their own lately. I hope people like it! I guess we will see....

Part II Viggo's 4th Birthday

His birthday went great! We got up had breakfast, picked up the home, and before we knew it his Auntie Sara was waiting for us at the house.  He was so excited Sara was coming for his birthday.  He even told us we didn't have to worry about getting him presents because his Auntie Sara was coming. 

Kevin and Sara bought him a motorcycle power wheel.  He loved it! Was a little nervous about it but he loved it.  Micah took a nap while I baked the cake batter.  Once it was out of the oven, I popped it in the freezer and we took off.  We picked up Ariana from school.  She never likes to leave school early.  But as soon as she walked out of the office and saw Sara waiting for her she lit up.  She just ran and could care less that I took her out of school.  We got the kids McDonalds, and headed to the mall. We had some smoothies, and they played on the toys for a little bit.  Then we got home and Viggo decorated his very own birthday cake.  He prepared his green butter cream frosting. And he helped spread it over the cake.  David bought a bag of dinosaurs and he and Ariana placed them wherever he wanted on the cake.  It was really fun seeing him so excited to make his cake.  He loves doing art like things and this was right up his alley.  I think this has been my favorite cake ever, just because I knew how much fun he had decorating it.  

 While taking this picture Viggo accidentally turned the handle and the motorcycle popped a wheelie. I missed the pop part because I was backing up from getting ran over. It was pretty funny.

 He loves his Auntie Sara

These are all the kids from our block.  They joined us to sing Happy Birthday to Viggo.  He is going to miss them when we move.

Licensed to Move and Groove

Two weeks ago I went to get my certification to become a Zumba instructor. The class was from 9-6.  I danced and danced and danced.  My feet were killing me by the end of the day.

I walked away having a whole new appreciation for physical fitness instructors.  Dancing is one thing, but dancing and instructing what others need to do is a whole other thing.  I am trying to get down some choreography, and then I am going to start working on getting my brain to learn how to cue while I am dancing at the same time. 

I am supper excited but a little overwhelmed at the same time.  I really want to be so good at this.  I day dream all the time about how Micah and I will go to the gym together.  I will teach my class, and then how he and I will go treat ourselves to a smoothie after. ( Smoothie time totally not the only reason why I want to be an instructor. But not a bad incentive either.) I love fitness, but I la la la love to dance.  I feel so happy, and it makes me feel like I don't have a care in the world when I am shaking what my momma gave me.  I never have to convince myself to get out of bed to go take a zumba class.  I always feel so great after.  Not to mention I feel like it helps widdle down the love handles.  I just want to be able to teach a class where people leave feeling that they got an amazing workout and leave me with a huge grin on their face.  It may be because of the workout but if I were a betting woman I would say people will have plenty of opportunity to laugh at me. I AM SOOOO EXCITED!!! And a big thank you to my neighbor Lisa who supported me in finding out how to get licensed and has been so kind in answering so many of my questions.  She is AMMMMMAZING! You can find her at Anytime Fitness. Seriously take her class she makes you smile the whole time, and then the next day you wake up sore and realize what a great workout you had.

This was me getting ready to go to my first certification class. 

Hopefully one day soon I'll get to post one up of me going to go teach my very own class one day!

Guess Who Turned 4?

My Viggo is officially 4.  I don't know why but this year that he was three I kept thinking he was already four.  I think it's because he looks so tall to me. He has been super excited about his birthday.  He has been asking about it since February.  Then about 11 days ago he went into count down mode.  

Today he was on cloud nine knowing that he was going to get to celebrate it tomorrow.  I didn't have time to make dinner tonight, and I still needed to pick up some things to make his birthday cake tomorrow. (He requested I make him a dinosaur cake. We will see how that turns out.) The point being that we decided to go out to eat.  Normally we don't go out to eat too much with the kids because it never turns out to be as fun and relaxing as you imagine.  Eating with a one year old has it's challenges.  But tonight we went to In-N-Out and Micah fell asleep so we just ate it in our car.  Viggo and Ariana just had so much fun.  And they actually ate ALL their food.  The lady at the drive through asked if we were sure we wanted to eat our food in the car?  I think she looked at our Prius and thought how is that whole family going to eat in that car.  David and I were laughing pretty hard when she asked us twice.  When people look at us getting out of the car with all our kids I imagine they see us as that act in the circus when all the clowns just keep coming and coming out of the car.  The circus music runs through my head every time I see people chuckle.  

Sorry, I always seem to get off topic.  I just was thinking how fun it was to see how excited Viggo was on the Eve of his birthday.

VIGGO

- You love Ice Age you always tell me you are like the silly squirrel who is fighting to hold on to his acorn. You love to be funny and silly.

- You love to build and draw. You could draw pictures for me all day.  You are so creative.

- You can be very tough and stubborn yet you are also so loving and sensitive.  Sometimes I don't know how you can be both but you are.

- You love books.  You love the book "WIDE AWAKE JAKE"

- You love making us laugh.  Today you told us that you were so full that your belly felt like it was dancing.  You have been potty trained since you turned 2, but you are not comfortable with wiping yourself.  You were doing it pretty well for a while then all of a sudden you thought you weren't doing a good enough job so you stopped.  You started doing it again, but Dad asked you why you had stopped?  Your reply, "Dad people change.  Everybody changes dad. That's life."  Evidence that you hang out with your sister all the time.

- You still dislike cutting your hair. You just want it to grow all crazy.

- You have become very attached to me lately.  I love when dad starts to tease me and you always rush to my defense.

- You don't like the dark right now.  You need light to be in every room before you walk in.

- You don't like to cut your nails because you believe that I am cutting off your claws.  You insist that you need them so that you can climb walls.

-You will only wear dad's motorcycle helmet to ride your bike.

- You love to wear to different pairs of socks.  They can not be the same. ( I have to pick and choose my battles.  I decided to let this one go.)

- When you wear your running shoes, you call them your "Messi" (Messi the soccer player) shoes.  And you insist that they make you run really fast.  

-  And you love to imagine things. You are constantly telling me about your dreams, and I love the places you get to visit and explore in that beautiful mind of yours.

 ( His go to pose right now)

This is what I am feeling inside thinking that you are officially 4.  I feel like it was just a little bit ago that the doctor told me I was going to be having my first boy, and I found myself thinking how will I raise a boy? And what I found is that you made my life very busy but you made my life feel full and complete. 

Feliz Cumpleanos Viggo! We love you so much!

I'm Obsessed!

I love my new lens.  I already blogged about it, but I do! I feel like I am now able to use the body of my camera to it's fullest potential.  I am so happy.  I feel a little nutty lately.  It seems like everywhere I look there is a contest to win a new lens, or camera body out there.  I think I have entered every one.  We are moving up to Washington and I dream every night that I am hiking with my kids through big giant oak trees, and that I have a wide angle lens capturing their little beings in the midst of these huge majestic trees.  I have noticed lately that I love trees! They catch my eye every time.  There is just something about a big old tree that takes my breath away.  Did you notice the bokeh my lens created.  I am in LOVE with you! 

- Side note my little handsome Viggo is turning 4 next week!  Can you believe it I have a 4, and soon to be 6 year old, and not to mention a sweet as honey 1 year old.  I want to freeze time.  I feel like life feels so good and complete right now.  Last night we did our family scripture readying and my kids started singing the Easter song they learned in Primary called "Gethsemane". (Ariana told me that the first time she heard that song in primary, she wanted to cry that it was so beautiful.) I think it's my new favorite song.  Viggo was singing Ariana was singing and Micah was just walking back and forth between them with the biggest smile, and David and I sitting together watching our beautiful kids.  I just wanted to cry.  And to top it all off at the end of it my little Viggo takes a couple of bows and says, "thank you thank you." Sometimes I think how can they get any cuter and they do something like that.   I made sure in that moment to take a mental picture.  I wanted to remember the feeling and remember them in that special moment.  My family is not perfect, but there are certain times in this life when I experience a moment with my family and I know that is what perfect would feel like.  Perfect to me is feeling the Savior's love wrapping you up.  And in that moment I felt like my whole home was wrapped up tight like a burrito in his love. (I'm Mexican that's what tight looks like to me.) Nothing beats feeling that warmth in your hearts and your home. 

 

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

This month looks like it is going to be a crazy busy month, so I am trying to not get behind and just post some things that have happened before I forget.

So, I use my blog as a place for me to document my little family's on goings.  And it has been a great way for me to practice my photography.  I think I shoot a picture everyday.  Camera phones make that goal easy to do.  So.... I didn't know if I should document this but I want to remember everything the good the bad and the ugly.  I know I have been honest here before but I can't recall my blog ever entering the UGLY category.  Well today is the day.  It's about to get ugly.

This past weekend my family experienced what I never wanted to experience.  Yes, my kids had LICE.  Are you itching yet?  I am just writing this! 

I went a little nutty.  I think I messaged called anyone who I have ever known that has experienced this thing.  I was so nervous that my pediatrician wouldn't get back to me since it was Easter weekend.  And I just wanted to have all my ducks lined up in a row, as I was about to go to war against these little blood suckers. 

I don't know how they got it.  Either school, or that cute hat I bought for Ariana from Target.  But they had it.  Luckily I caught it really early.  They did not have many at all.  But it was still so gross!!! 

I decontaminated everything.  I mean everything. Lately I have heard people using home ingredients to combat these little pests.  I found one about tea tree oil.  But, I had none of that.  Then I read about Mayo.  It's suppose to kill the bugs.  But after I had applied it I learned it does not kill the eggs/nits.  And some say it just makes the bugs dormant.  So after lathering both my kids heads in Mayo, I still ended up using the pesticide shampoos.  I was just so scared that I wasn't going to kill them ALL.  But I found that my pre-treatment of Mayo must have helped Ariana's hair from over drying.  She had such shiny hair after.  

I am still obsessed.  I look for them everyday.  And I have been a non-stop cleaning machine.  I am tired!

Confessions-  If I were to believe in reincarnation I think in another life I would have been a baboon.  I am a picker.  I love to pop zits, I pick at scabs, and as grossed out as I was about the lice... I was loving finding those little suckers and picking them out.  Told you this was going to get ugly.  I picked and picked my little girls head for about 2 1/2 hours straight. In a weird way I felt that this was a passage into real motherhood.  My kids have never had any medical emergencies, but this was the weekend that Mommy had to come to the rescue.  Mommy Baboon came out and in an odd and yes disturbing way I was loving having that time with them.  Viggo kept telling me, "mom your the best."  And Ariana kept saying, "thank you Mom.  I feel so much better."  So, as bad and gross as this was there was a silver lining.  I got to spend time with my kids.  They had to just sit there, and we talked and talked, and talked and occasionally we would make up a song about going to war against the lice.  Ariana even pounded my fist with a bomb bursting action after we finished.  Yes, I know we are weird.

No Little Blue Boxes for this Girl!

I have the BEST husband in the world.  Many women swoon over a little blue Tiffany's box, but my heart skips a beat when I receive a gold one with a Nikon label.  He surprised me Saturday afternoon with a new filter for my lens, but it was way to big for my lens. And, right then my heart started beating faster.  I thought to myself if this doesn't fit my lens maybe.... no he wouldn't but yes he must have! He must have bought me my new lens!!!" (proceeded with a lot of jumping up and down and thank you's, and just complete awe over joyed facial expressions.)  Okay, so I just took the kids out on Saturday morning to help me explore this shopping plaza that I have been dying to take family pictures at. I took those with my 35mm.  I have been dying to have this lens.  It is my first PRIME lens!!! I am dying to use it.  I wish I could do the kids pictures over again.  But, I don't think they would appreciate that.  The pictures look so much sharper and the color, oh the color! 

(No editing) 

(BW edit with textured background and radial gradient.)

Now I have to play with it more so we can get to know each other.  I feel like my 35mm and I really became one.   I knew what it did and didn't like. Now I have to figure this one's sweet spots.  But I am over joyed and very excited! Thank you David!!!

Casa Adobes - Kids Spring Pictures

 I had the itch to shoot at this place here in Tucson, so I packed up the kids on Saturday and used them as my models.  We had a lot of fun!