Christmas wish.

One of the things Miriam wanted for Christmas was a gift card to the Build a Bear Workshop.  A few weeks ago we ventured to the mall and when she walked in the store it was Christmas morning all over again.

Miriam's eyes were big, her mind whirled, and her hands felt every thing as she ran around the store looking at each of the bears, bunnies, tigers, and frogs that she could invite home to sleep with her, cuddle with her, and pretty much get worn out with love.

The store also has all kinds of clothes, sunglasses, hair (yes, really!  little mini wigs!), underwear, bags, and anything else a child could imagine putting on a stuffed animal.  This, obviously, means:

Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. 

Sweet little Hoppy, the bunny, made the cut.  She's the one that came home with Miriam to get her very soft ears rubbed endlessly and eventually have holes worn in her that will need to be mended.

And, of course, Miriam had lots of help.

sweet. LIFE.

(as you can see, I'm messing around with some colors and post processing in these images...what are your thoughts?  love it, like it, hate it? do tell, in the comments...)

glasses for Miss E.

So a few weeks ago the kids and I were all in the kitchen getting dinner ready.  It was getting late and dinner still wasn't on the table.  So I said, "Kids it's getting late.  We need to get this dinner on the table." :)

Emma says to me after squinting for too long at the microwave clock across the kitchen, "It's not that late.  It's only 5:30." 

Ummmmm...It's 7:30.  I think to myself.  Okay.  So Mike and I both have bad eye genes.  We figured we would pass this sweet gift on to our children so we've been on the look out for it.  Emmett needed glasses when he was in the 1st grade.  Mike needed glasses when he was in the 4th grade and I needed glasses when I was in the 5th grade.

SIDE NOTE:  I think I actually needed them before that but my sister, Danita, ended up getting glasses.  And I so didn't want to tell my parents that I needed glasses and have them think I was copying her just so I could get some.  (Uh...yes, I've done crazy, ridiculous things just so that I wouldn't be like someone else since before 5th grade.)  So I squinted at the board for a while.  The day I got glasses and was driving home from the doctor's office with my mom I was so excited.  I said, "Mom, I can see that the trees have leaves!"  I have no idea how long I'd been seeing them as just a glob of green.  I also loved to take off my glasses every 5 seconds when I was at school and clean them with my cute little white cloth and bottle of spritz cleaner.  Yes, the boy next to my desk DID tease me about that.

Back to the story of Miss Emma.  This test is just up Emmett's alley (he loves tests...he and Mike like to sit around and quiz each other about things).  So...Emmett immediately springs into action with a series of vision tests that he creates to see what Emma can and cannot see.  We discover that she clearly can NOT see past about 10 feet.  The next day I called to set up an appointment for her.

The following day at school she told her teacher that she was going to the eye doctor and that she was going to get purple glasses.  There's no changing her mind once she makes it up.  So, no matter how much I tried to convince her that this pair of glasses was cute or that pair of glasses was a great color, she picked the purple pair.  And really, they are the cutest pair of glasses on her because of the way her eyes light up about them when she wears them. 

changing. LIFE.

I have to say that this image just cracks me up.  What the heck is Miss Miriam doing?  And Emma..."What glasses?  I have a lose tooth..."

my husband gets 15 minutes. every night.  no matter what.

(So, no.  I can't count.  Obviously.  This really is tip #12.  Yes, I know that the last LOVE. LIFE. tip. was #15 but like I said.  I can't count.  That's why I'm an artist and not a scientist...and why I have a bookkeeper.)

Every time I say "My husband gets 15 minutes.  Every night.  No matter what."  when I'm talking to a room of women they all break into a roar of laughter.  Because I really don't mean it the way it sounds.  I really mean it much more innocently.  But hey,  I'm all for giving husbands any kind of 15 minutes every night!

What I'm trying to say is to spend 15 minutes of time together but...doing a couple of things other than what you're thinking. 

First, I love reading the scriptures together and second, I don't like having money meetings together.  The thing is both of them go way too long when we do them and so I get to the point where I try to avoid the mention of reading scripture or talking about money. 

The reading scriptures part is fun but we always get to talking and before we know if we've spent the whole night reading and chatting and it's been wonderful.  We have great talks and my husband has these awesome insights but I don't want to do it again tomorrow night because...well...I'll get nothing else done.  I know.  Blasphemous.

The money meetings I really don't like.  They go way too long and I always end up thinking there's never enough money to go around...or something terribly pessimistic like that.  I get distracted.  Lose focus.  And it's all downhill from there.  Talk about numbers and my mind immediately takes a vacation.

The thing is, I know that both of these things are extremely important in my life.  I love the inspiration I get when I take time to connect with my husband and we chat about the day about things like...how we can be more in tune with the heavens and have more wisdom  as parents.  I need that and I think our marriage needs that. 

Talking about money is really vital to keeping a marriage on firm footing.  If you can't talk about money you're going to end up with problems.  So, I know we need to keep tabs on the budget, where the money's going, who needs new clothes, how we managed to spend THAT MUCH money on food this month, how much the orthodontist is going to be, and who will we be buying glasses for next?

So.  I made a plan.  Every night we spend 15 minutes talking about each of these things.  Yes.  15 minutes.  I even have this cute timer for it.  If the 15 minute timer dings and we're not done I'll set it for 5 more minutes and that means we need to wrap it up.  And I'm strict about it, too.  I don't want our whole night gone because that will just make me not want to do it tomorrow night.  (that sounds terrible, doesn't it?) 

To wrap things up when we talk about money we make notes in our little money book. We write what we talked about and what we're going to talk about tomorrow night so we don't just end up rehashing instead of moving forward.  That way when we sit down tomorrow night we can pick up right where we left off.  This short time also keeps me from going into a downward spiral about our financial future.  My husband's always saying, "Our financial future has never looked brighter.  It's awesome!  We have so much going for us."  And he's totally right!  But for me, if talking about money goes longer than about 20 minutes I'm done for in terms of a bright outlook.  I don't know what it is!  I'm silly that way, sometimes.

And we really do love doing our 15 minute sessions.  They've been great...even if the picture at the top looks like we're really in a serious conversation.  We do have fun and laugh a lot.  And that's always a good thing!!

So if you find yourself avoiding some of the things you enjoy because they just end up taking too long to do them consistently then get yourself a timer and break it down.  You'll be glad you did and you won't feel so overwhelmed.  Have fun.  Be creative.

And if the other kind of time with your husband (wink. wink.) feels the same way...get a timer.  You never know maybe you'll love it every night, too!!  (Did I just say that?)

love. LIFE.

I love these photographers.

I'm always inspired every time I look through their images and portfolios.  Many of the photographs are them just walking the streets of their town, some of them are portrait sittings, and some are completely set up shots.  Either way their use of light, circumstances, locations, situations...all of it are completely inspiring.  I love the opportunity to have my creativity sparked as I look through their work and think about how I can better capture the essence and depth of a person or a relationship without manipulating it too much or how to use light more to my advantage or see light in a new way. (Just click on a book to go to a link to purchase.  I have a lot more books I love here, too.)

Dorothea Lange.  Willly Ronis.  Robert Doisneau.

Gracie below searching her 'booklist' for inspiration when she got home from preschool today...

learn. LIFE.

cereal.

Grace and I eat breakfast almost every morning together.  This morning was no different (this is not actually THIS morning...I'm still not able to eat much because I've got what Grace had...).  I planned to just take one picture of us eating together and then we got carried away and had fun taking pictures of every thing from the pouring of the cereal (I love that I have a picture now of Grace overflowing her bowl) to the eating.

Then Gracie decided she was done and left me sitting there alone then I just messed around...too long...and realized it was time to take Gracie to school. 

So what was going to be just one picture turned into this (this is a 10 second clip, make sure to click the play button below):

silly. LIFE.