Our Thankful 30 - November 2014

On to a new month... This challenge is from Click it up a notch. It's a perfect way to remind ourselves of all the good things in our life and be thankful for them... 

11/1 | Thankful for little baby feet. These will be my last set of baby feet :(

11/2 | Thankful for coffee & donuts. Some nights I get zero sleep with 3 kids who don't sleep through the night (not always). 

11/3 | Thankful for brotherly love. Connor (18 mos older) loves to give Dustin hugs and kisses. It's sweet but the reality is it can be challenging when I'm nursing the baby and there's a toddler hugging him and kissing him lol. Logan (age 4) also loves to kiss Dustin but he listens when I tell him Dustin needs to nurse. 

11/4 | Thankful for fresh veggies from mom's garden. Bitter Melons. Not a whole lot of people like this veggie because as it lives up to it's name, it's bitter. But I've been eating this since I was a little girl. My favorite way to eat it then was with scrambled eggs. I still make it the same way my parents do but sometime I'll add meat too.

11/5 | Thankful that my 4 year old still holds my hands (We were sitting on the couch watching TV) ♥

11/6 | Thankful for slings. Sometimes you just need to be hands free.

11/7 | Thankful for hot tea for my sore throat. This is the first of 2 colds I got in November. :(

11/8 | Thankful for fall. He sure loves playing with leaves... saying "It's the perfect season mommy!"

11/9 | Thankful hubby is home on weekends... and doing dishes ^_^

11/10 | Thankful for arts and crafts with this little guy

11/11 | Thankful for my family {all four boys} as there was a time in my life that I thought I would never have children. Read about my Journey to Motherhood here.

11/12 | Thankful for breastfeeding. I struggled to nurse my first child... gave up once, was medicated & got really depressed but I never gave up and i'm glad I didn't because I loved nursing my baby. There's a special bond you can never explain when you are nursing your child. I nursed him until he self weaned around 1.5 years old. Luckily, my body knew what to do with the next 2 and there were no issues with my supply!

11/13 | Thankful for homemade relief for colds. This cold is kicking my butt. I made Vapor Shower Discs & Vapor Rub. This is the Homemade Vapor Rub using Coconut Oil & Essential Oils reusing my facial night cream container. hehe

11/14 | Thankful for bedtime stories. Since before he could hold his head up, Bedtime stories are a special quiet bond for us... well, not so quiet right now with 3 little ones haha

11/15 | Thankful for a nice hot shower... without the kids. We hardly give the kids baths. We just throw them in the shower with us (me) and so every now and then it's nice to take a shower alone. Just me. Steam. Music. :)

11/16 | Thankful for chapstick. If there's one thing I cannot live without, it's chapstick and this (candy cane) one has been my favorite!

11/17 | Thankful for food on our table... In his case it's good on the floor, I. His bib, and occasionally rubbed in his hair lol

11/18 | Thankful for password protection. He's always climbing on my desk.  

11/19 | Thankful for leftovers. I love throwing leftovers in my ramen. 

11/20 - Thankful for the love my boys show towards their youngest brother. 

11/21 | Thankful for having long hair and having the opportunity to cut 21 inches off to donate. 

11/22 | Thankful for forts m a rainy day. 

11/23 | Thankful for TV remotes. When I lost it for a short period of time, I had to manually change channels. It sucked! 

11/24 - Thankful for DIY projects to keep my creative mind going. Making CD sleeves & stickers for my holiday mini sessions. 

11/25 | Thankful to live through childhood again through my boys. Life was simpler then, wasn't it? 

11/26 | Thankful for quick cookie recipes. It's called Betty Crocker cookie mix! Haha

11/27 | Thankful for being able to spend moments like this with the little one. He sure loves baths. 

11/28 | Thankful that my kids still want to be near me.

11/29 | Thankful for fried turkey. Wouldn't want it any other way! 

11/30 | Thankful for a smaller Sriracha bottle (finally!)

 

Fall leaves in Sacramento

Okay, this isn't so much of a photography project but...

I've been looking for a location for fall sessions. Most of the trees where I live turn brown and ugly. The leaves would fall and the city would have it cleaned up before I can get to it!

We were heading out to a Saturday clinic because my baby was sick... Vomiting anything he ate and his milk... And if you're a parent, you know what cow's milk smells like coming back out. Gross. The poor guy had a little bit of wheezing too so we were concerned about Pneumomia. 

Anyway, of course on the day we take him in to the clinic, he's already feeling better. He's able to hold his breakfast in (yay!). 

Since they boys looked okay, I decided to check out Curtis Park. Sure enough there were pretty fall colors at the park. The best part was with the slight breeze, the leaves were falling off the trees while we were there. It even felt magical (lol) to me.

The boys loved playing with the leaves...

Having a blast running around saying "This is the perfect season!"

 

This is him trying to throw leaves. LoL

 

Photo A Day - October 2014

So back in August I thought I would give the MCP Photo A Day Challenge a try... I wasn't due to delivery my 3rd baby boy until 9/16. On the 5th day, I ended up with a C-Section delivering 6 weeks early (everything turned out good). And on top of that, my 4 year old was admitted for a fever of unknown origin (he is also doing better even though they never did find out why he had a fever for over a month). I just went back and uploaded photos to that blog.

Things have calmed down a little now so let's try again! This time, my goal is to take a photo every day. Most of these photos will tell a story of my everyday life...

Here are the themes for October:

Oct 1 | Squishy - One of the things my son loves to do is silly faces. It's how I get him to relax and goof around before taking non-silly shots. He loves to squish his cheeks with his fingers to get "fish lips" since he can't quite suck in his cheeks. Hehe

Oct 2 | Black & White - Piano Keys (even if it's a toy). You can turn any photo into black & white. That seemed like the easy way out but I chose to look for something that's actually black & white. I bought this for my son because he showed interest in guitars. He was only interested in it for a very short period of time. 

Oct 3 | Free Theme Friday - Boys playing with toys. We went on a last minute vacation to Tahoe City for our 7th year anniversary. We take the kids everywhere we go... This boy loves his cars & trucks. 

Oct 4 | Leaves - I wanted a photo of leaves in fall colors. Well, Tahoe is full of evergreens. I actually started taking photos of trees in the parking lot of a Safeway. During our visit to a park near the lake, I took this one. It was the best I can do since the sun was going down fast!

Oct 5 | FIVE - Fallen pine cones at the cabin we stayed at. Today is my 7 year anniversary with my best friend (husband). It is also our baby's 2 month milestone (everything is a milestone to me). I'm not happy with it... I took this photo as we packed all of our things including the 3 boys. Logan (4yrs) is crying because he wants a snack. Connor (19 months) is crying because he's caught a cold on top of teething pains: 6 teeth cutting through. Dustin (2 months) is crying because he soiled himself and hates car seats. Daddy is locking up the cabin. It was quite musical. 

I was excited to see that this photo was featured on Instagram! The funny thing is, it was featured for the next day's theme (Brown) lol. Oh well, I am still very honored and excited!

Oct 6 | Brown - Maple Tree Leaves... This is the only tree in my yard turning brown. I think it's dying! The other Maple trees aren't turning brown... Ugh oh.

10/7 | FAST - Time goes by fast. I was doing a session with my niece. I kept thinking "Wow, she has grown into such a beautiful young woman!" It seems like just yesterday I was dressing her up (she was just a toddler) & taking pictures of her (before the digital age, using film).

10/8 | Full Moon - The picture says it all. All I know is there's no way I can sneak outside at night to take a photo of the actual moon...that's if it's even visible from my house. My kids are young and by the time they (they're sick right now including me) get to bed.. I'm ready to knock out. My son is 2 months and has been having blow outs up the back of his diaper. This is actually how I've discovered changing his diaper with little to no poops on his head & all over him while taking off his soiled onesie & diaper. Only wish I knew this with the first 2 boys!

10/9 | Time - This Clock is in my bathroom. I had hoped to give it to my daughter but I ended up having 3 boys! Now it's mine I guess. When my oldest gargles mouthwash, we tell him to wait until the butterfly comes all the way back around to the 5 and then spit out!

10/10 | Free Theme Friday - Last week, my 4 year old says "Mom, there's something on the ceiling fa!" & I glanced at it and thought it was a deflated helium balloon which we have a lot of because his little brother is obsessed with it. Today, I laid on the couch and looked up and realized, the balloon is still on the ceiling fan... only it wasn't a balloon. It was his other brother's rompers!

10/11 | Polka Dot - I've been working on a scrapbook for a friend's 50th birthday and I just love these polka dot flowers... & I have endless card stock too! ^_^

10/12 | Technology - I know this isn't new technology but it is to me since I've just purchased my minivan this year while pregnant with my 3rd boy. Having 3 kids age 4 and under, this has helped me tremendously. A press (2x) of a button to open doors! LOVE! People hate minivans (so I hear from friends) but I LOVE LOVE it and wish I had gotten it earlier (hubby was against it but now I think he secretly loves it too!) 

I couldn't resist this other photo too! I staged this but I know some can relate to this

10/14 | Patterns - Love this Kleenex box pattern!

10/15 | Minimal - Dustin's tiny shoes (that doesn't even fit yet) next to daddy's giant shoes.

10/16 | Big & Small - Hubby & Connor's feet

10/17 | Free Theme Friday - Nothing special. A photo of a prop I had. I tried to take a photo of my over-tired toddler and it didn't go well so I grabbed this cute fire truck :) Of course while I was doing this, my son threw several of my props over the rails into the foyer. Trouble maker. ^_^

10/18 | Silhouettes - My son's Dino. It was a busy day and we had a wedding to attend. This was all I could think of after the wedding. I tried to take a photo of my 20 month old but of course he won't stay still. What was I thinking? hehe

10/19 | Bokeh - This one would be pretty simple. I feel like I never get out so I took a photo of my son's toys while we were playing out in the yard. I love Bokeh and sometimes I would add more of it in post processing but I didn't with this one since I used the 50mm 1.4 ^_^

10/20 | Stripes - Disposal straws. My kids chew through the plastic straws that come with their reusable cups. Instead of throwing out the cups, disposal straws work wonders. A featured photo too!

10/21 | Golden - A 24k four leaf clover ring. My husband gave this to me when we first started dating 14 years ago. I got it caught on a nail on my finger and bent it into a teardrop shape & had to get it reshaped. 

10/22 | Something Fake - This wagon (fake Radio Flyer)  

10/23 | Edible - Yogurt!

10/24 | Free Theme Friday - Tulbaghia Violacea . My son always picks these and tells me he loves me and that's he's picked flowers for me because I love flowers... so sweet. But these.. they STINK!

10/25 | Closeup - Sea Salt

10/26 | Selfie or Mirror - I used my iPhone

10/27 | Landscape - Nothing but 2 lonesome trees. Not much landscape in Elk Grove where I'm at.

10/28 | Orange - Orange organizer bag.. holds my crochet supplies. Also making orange & brown face scrubbies for the fall.

10/29 | Creepy - Caterpillars. I hate them but since I don't have a garden where I've found many in my younger years in mom's garden, this crochet camera buddy will do! Isn't it cute?

10/30 | Celebrate - The fall holidays comes with lots of goodies! Hubby came home from work with this yummy caramel chocolate apple!

10/31 | Trick-or-treat - My little munchkins