Praying Mantis

So, every morning I have been running up and down the road...in a way to work out, and "race" my 4-year old on his bike. (Actually, I'm just trying to get him comfortable with a bike....sneaky sneaky)


Anyways...afterwards, I thought I would pull up some MASSIVE weeds we had taking over our front porch (I can't wait to get grass) and in one of them, I found little friend......


Meet Mr. Praying Mantis!







Here he is posing for a picture

Now cleaning up for the rest of the photo shoot. Silly praying mantis....you look totally fine!






























Damon and Bode were a little nervous around it.




This is about where the praying mantis got it's finger into Damon's ear...and he started to scream










































Oh...Bode got brave! Good job Bode. it won't hurt you.....he's our friend. He eats bugs...and spiders (I think)


Bode tried so hard to be brave....Damon thought it would be OK to give it another try...
















Here they are being friendly! See....Mr. Praying Mantis is nice!


























And this concludes our Praying Mantis adventure for the day. Yay for Praying Mantises.

Long Hot Weekend

We had a wedding on saturday....4 hours in the sun...wow. And then another photoshoot on Sunday. Yes, I know that we should use Sunday as a day of rest, but oh well.

Saturday Wedding - Way fun wedding. Had that place that makes ice cream by shooting that freezing smoky stuff...I don't know what it is called....it probably ends with '...oxide" or something. Anyways, that was fun, they had a photo booth, and a candy table. We got to take some candy home for the kids, who of course ate a ton of it...thus not being hungry for dinner. And trust me...we tried.



For Dinner on Saturday we went to Sushi, and Ien actually ate all of his food. Damon didn't even touch his. Mike and I compulsively ate the sushi until we were totally full. Then went to a movie with the boys. G-Force. WAY fun show! I thought they were hamsters in the previews, but they are GUINEA PIGS! The boys loved it.

On Sunday, we shot one of our all time favorite families that we have shot so many times before. But this time, they brought along their 4th child....and his name was Tiger. Yup...Tiger! Isn't that an awesome boy's name! They brought him over to our house afterwards, and they were practically the same size as the twins. But he had a LOT of hair. He looked more like a mini little gentleman than a baby. But SO cute.

Oh, and I can't forget. I stepped on a snail at that photo shoot! And it was this really easy "CRUNCH" that haunts me still. it was a big snail too!! And it was like stepping on an empty egg. You know that easy break crunch. EWWW!!! Stupid snails.

Wedding and Candy

We had a wedding to do today, that had lots of candy involved. The bride and groom were super sweet to let us take little boxes of candy home for the boys to eat. They loved it. :-) It included Skittles, Jelly Beans, Jolly Ranchers, Laffy Taffy...and probably more, but I forget. :-)

First day of school

So I applied these new widgets...you should see them on the right hand side of this page. They are an interactive hamster and fish that you can feed. WAY fun...but my 4-year old loved them. Especially since we have fish and hamsters at our house anyways. Damon kept on saying "I LOOVE fish" or "I LOOOVE hamsters" or "It's so CUUUTE!" :-) I love doing something that sparks their interest like that.

Today was Ien's first day of school, and we were almost late. And being the random boy he is...he decided he wanted a Peanut Butter and Jam sandwich for breakfast. LOL. So I let him. I mean, the protein would be good for keeping him full until lunch, so I was OK with it.

I cut the sandwich with this little dinosaur sandwich cutter I bought a while ago. So it gives the impression that you are eating dinosaurs. My boys LOVE that. It's now the only way they will eat sandwiches...I don't know how I ever managed without it.

We also forgot to get Ien his lunch money, so I scrounged $2 from my purse, and gave it to him. Thank goodness the lunches are only $1.25 each.

Damon had orientation at his preschool too, and we packed him a lunch in his new "Mario Cart" lunchbox. He was so excited. He was looking forward to finally going to school, and then eating out of his new lunchbox. Before making it to the preschool, we dropped off more lunch money for Ien, and Damon insisted on carrying in his lunchbox, even though he wouldn't be getting the food out yet.

Mike met us at the preschool, and took Damon over from there. He is such a sweetie for doing that. Thanks Honey!!

It's Magic

Ok, so my 4-year old keeps on singing this song like crazy!

Oh oh oh, it's magic, you kno-o-ow, never believe it's not so....."

Here's the real thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWi9vS3WYl4

I will post him singing it as soon as I can figure out how to minimize videos to be small enough to upload.

Doesn't school start today?

Today I thought that school started. Mike told me that his sister had told him....that it started today. Which was odd because Damon's Preschool starts tomorrow.

So we woke up, and got Ien all ready for school. Packed up everything, and drove to the school....which was empty of kids. Doh!!! And there was a big sign saying that school started tomorrow. So I drove on by...as if nothing unusual happened, and called Mike to make sure it was tomorrow. It was. :-)

So we went and got gas at COSTCO, and I took the boys to the daycare at the rec center so I could get in my daily workout. The boys were so cute in their new clothes...it was kinda fun to see them all dressed up and stuff.

Once I got home, I took a break from photography and post processing. I mean...I love photography, but when you are doing photography between every extra moment of your awake hours....oy....it can burn you out. Photographers HAVE to take a break every now and again, or else they would turn into robots!! And trust me, you don't want a robot photographer!

The next door neighbor kids came over and I remember my son specifically gettig excited about a new episode of "Wizards of Waverly Place" (Is that the right name) that was coming out here soon. Damon has been singing "Oh oh oh...it's magic, you knoooow, never believe it's not soooo.." over and over and over. I think he got it from that show.

We are also having scheduling issues with school and Preschool. What do working parents do with their kids after school? I'm sure we aren't the only ones out there, but it sure feels like we are. Otherwise they would have programs or something for the kids after school.

Ok, eventually I will get some pictures up on our family blog. Maybe when our photography slows down or something. We have a lot of pictures to show....just not a lot of time to work on them.