some recent Gennie cuteness

So, since the last few posts have had just Josiah in them, here are a few of Gennie's recent antics. We finally got a space cleared in the front room for her to get out her Dora Dance Party Mat from Papa and Marilyn. It came with a Dora outfit (shown), maracas, a plastic mat with all the Dance Adventure places marked on it, and a DVD of Dora's Dance Adventure. In the photo she is inside the pyramid dancing like the ants. This is her new fav thing to do for right now, and she has insisted on wearing the outfit for a least part of everyday this week. Good thing it's washable.

And here she discovered that when you take off your silky pajama pants and put them over the heater vent, they poof up when the heater comes on. She disappeared for a while the other day and when I went looking for her, I found her half naked, hovering over the heater in the bathroom, making "balloons" out of her pj's. Discovery! Never mind that we were leaving for somewhere in 10 minutes and she was supposed to have been getting dressed and ready to head out. It's hard to get mad at her for wasting time when she gets soooooo excited about what she discovers.

Kev's b'day pix and other fun still to come. Stay tuned!

Josiah at 7 months

So, I figured I'd better get this on here before I forget. Seven months already!

He:

- can sit up by himself, finally.

- wants to be on his blanket surrounded by his toys. Gone are the days of bouncing in his saucer.

- can hold his bottle by himself, although more formula ends up on his clothes than in his stomach.

- has tried all the 1st foods except prunes. No need to temp fate.

- has 4 teeth - 3 on the bottom and one top - and is cutting his top front teeth, AT THE SAME TIME. Bad news.

- has no interest in crawling still but will pull himself up on anything within reach. Time to lower his crib.

- will stand forever on your lap or on the floor as long as he has something to hold on to, even tv trays. Bad idea.

- has decided the best way to get me to come get him after nap is to yell, "mamamamamama" at the top of his lungs until I appear. First word?

- is loved thoroughly by his family!

and here's the rest . . .

So, I finally took the time to finish editing the rest of the portraits of the kids. I'll be printing them for the fam sometime in the next weeks. Some I liked better in sepia (brown) and some I liked better in color and some I LOVED in Midnite Sepia (the two that are in color but rustic looking). And honest to goodness I didn't fuss with Josiah's hair . . . that's really what the camera picked up. Maybe he'll be a redhead afterall.

So, the problem with absolutes is . . .

. . . they come back to bite you in the butt. I'm not a rigid person; I'm usually easy-going and welcoming of new things. But several times in my life I've taken a stand on something that I swore I would never do. And this week it bit me again. First I swore I would NEVER SHOOT DIGITAL. Here's a look at my workhorse:What a load that was. One shoot with my dad's Canon 20D and I was hooked.

The second was that I would NEVER DRESS MY DAUGHTER IN PINK.

Again, baloney. Too bad she looks really cute in all shades of pink. Granted, this is an old photo but pink just really goes well with her coloring even now. And of course she loves all things girly and princess-y.

And the last, and probably biggest since Kev wholeheartedly agreed, was I'll NEVER OWN A MINI VAN. Look what we bought this week:

So, now that we both feel sheepish, let the teasing commense. You get one minute. Let 'er rip.

Aaaannnnddd there's your minute. Now I'll tell the story. We've been looking . . . well, Kev's been looking and I've been tolerating the constant car talk . . . for something to replace his little beater 93 Geo Storm. He got it just to go to work and back and has had it for 3 years. I think it was a cat in its past life because only the additional 8 lives can be credited with keeping it running. He was to the point that he couldn't take it on the freeway for fear that it would just lose power and drift off the road. He was looking for an old pickup or something, again just to take to work one mile each way, but for the amount he wanted to spend there was hardly anything in cars or trucks. So Monday nite we pulled into the Nissan dealership in RS to see if the Lebaron he'd seen on their website was still there. Again, not at all what he wanted but better than his Geo. They had a 98 Mercury Villager in the same price range, awesome condition and only 84,000 miles on it. Long, long story short . . . we bought it. It took some convincing that mini vans aren't only for soccer-moms, etc, but we did it. He'll drive it for now since it's not 4WD and our roads are crappy right now, then I'll probably have it in the summer and he'll take the Blazer.

The moral of the story --- Be careful of absolutes. They just make you look stupid later on down the road.

a busy week

So, we've been doing 4th birthday and 6 month portraits this week. Here's a quick peek:

We also had Ethan and Avah over to do friends pictures.

If the boys were in the suitcase, of course the girls had to be . . . and so our day went. We started them on Monday and I finished up Josiah's today. Hard to be at the whim of a 6 month old boy. I borrowed the jewelry from a friend so the girls could play dress up and they had a blast digging in the suitcase and trying on the bling. I did some of Josiah in his little bathrobe and bare buns, too, but haven't gotten to edit them yet. Can't wait to show how red Josiah's hair looks, too. The lights really picked it up this time. More to come!

"and I'd like to thank the Academy and my husband and my mom and dad and ..."

So, the long-awaited day has come . . . MY WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING!!!! Can you tell I'm excited?! We've been working on it like crazy these last two weeks . . . hence the absence of blogging . . . and finally finished it last nite. I got all the galleries and info ready and Kev worked his computer magic and uploaded it for me. Now I can advertise at the high schools and around town again . . . I've been waiting to get new promo stuff printed so I could put the website on it . . . and hopefully get some spring shoots lined up.

www.andersonfotos.com

Come on over and check me out!!