Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Real men wear babies

This is the mei-tai Steve insisted that I keep for us... since he's agreeable to wearing it, I will comply! Dominic loves his Papa more than words can say... (and vice versa)




Wednesday, April 23, 2008

brotherspeak

Xavier and Leo sitting at the table. Leo falls off the chair. Leo starts wailing and moans to his brother: "Xaaaavvvviiiiieeeeeerr.... you forgot to saaaaaaaaaaaaavvvve me!!!"


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Xavier and Leo playing some kind of game in their room. I overhear Xavier trying to coerce Leo into doing something: "Leo, if you don't do this, you won't be my brother anymore. Don't you want to be my brother?" Leo whimpers: "yes". Xavier yells: "Then DO IT!!!"

Superman etc.

This is the third child to go through this outfit... Aunt Mandy bought this for Xavier's second birthday; it's been a favorite with all the boys.








And this is what happens when you teach children that once they spill their milk, they will not be allowed any more for that meal; they must have water instead. Some kids just love their milk.



the latest mei tai

I've finally perfected the technique of what I need to make one of these sucessfully. We zipped over to the fabric outlet last Sunday, I whipped this out today. I still can't believe that something THIS comfortable came out of my sewing machine. The key with all baby carriers is weight distribution. And the mei tai style is awesome for heavier babes...



Monday, April 14, 2008

picture parade

Hello all, here's the latest:


Steve's trying to keep his head above water as his final month of firefighter training comes to a culmination. We'll both be thrilled when this is finished!


Ellie has been going baby-carrier crazy and since we can't splurge on the hundreds of dollars the kind she WANTS cost, I've resorted to making my own, imperfect but serviceable ones. These are my two guinea pigs. The beige one is called a mei tai and I'm in love with it. It supports the baby's (or TODDLER'S) weight SOOO well... better than some of my store bought carriers. I learned a lot already and can't wait to perfect my technique with following ones.


Xavier is putting in lots of miles in the backyard.

Leo is busy driving Dominic up the wall.

Dominic is a sweetheart, trying to get over the remnants of his cold. Excuse the boys' pasta faces in the bottom photos.








Friday, April 4, 2008

He's so big

Xavier no longer uses training wheels on his bike!!! We are watching a 6 year old girl today who asked if she could 'coach' him to ride a two wheeler and so Steve took them off and after only about 5 minutes he was zooming around! I couldn't believe it! He was so ready...

Thursday, April 3, 2008

news

First of all, I decided it was time for a new family portrait; and I must say that this is the best I've ever looked in a picture. We are lacking in a "dirty blonde" people for Leo, so the kid with the hat will have to do.

Any news on the family front? Not so much. I've done a couple more photo gigs for small payment so that's nice.... also have another wedding coming up in June. So this convinced Steve and me that it was time to upgrade our camera a bit to better equip it for the professional stuff. And so, we bought an external flash, a diffusion attachment and a camera remote: hooray! Now we can do bounce lighting for indoor shots and have much better control over the lighting. I'll feel 100 times more confident in doing the next wedding than I did in the last one.

Boys are playing hard, we're all still getting over the sicknesses. Leo and Dominic had ear infections and since we've had mixed luck and bad feelings about antibiotics, I went ahead and took matters into my own hands and did a garlic oil drop solution and Hydrogen Peroxide and it's worked well!!!

Steve's working hard as always; the firefighter training continues until May so we'll be excited to be done with these tedious homework nights.

And we were asked to be godparents to our friends Joe and Lindsay's newest baby (she's due any day now) so we are thrilled to add another member to our family. Unfortunately, we can't quite swing taking the whole family out there so just Steve (who was Joe's confirmation sponsor) will be attending the baptism in Utah later this month.

And that's about it for now!