Happy Belated Sweet Birthday Boy

My boy turned four yesterday.  

I heard a saying-

"the days are long, but the years are short"

My, how true that is.  I don't know where the last four years went.

Happy Birthday to my sweet boy. The one who will always be my baby, my only boy.

Jude- this is who you are at four years old:

A talker- when you get started, man can you talk. And talk, and talk and talk.  Questions follow questions followed by deep four year old thoughts, followed by funny little four year old jokes. 

A snorer- see previous post about you sneaking into bed with us almost every night. I can hear that woobie (blankie) with my super sonic Mommy hearing, being dragged along the carpet seconds before the door is pushed open.  You promptly crawl into bed with us, arrange yourself diagonally and the snoring begins.  But oh do I love waking up to that sweet dimple, even if my back is twisted in every direction because I was relegated to two inches of mattress space to make room for you.  You still love that woobie. And I do too.

A whiner- oh you can whine better than any other kid I know. It's really quite incredible. I know whining is caused by a need for attention, but it's hard sometimes with three other kids! I hope you can understand that one day and appreciate the joy that having a big family brings and not just the crap.  I know I do, although it is very challenging sometimes!

A baby brother- despite the sibling rivalry, you really do get along with your sisters very well. Emily is sometimes a mother figure (occassionally surprising us all by getting you ready for bed), Kaylee is your pal, and I think right now you are closest to Presley. It seems every time we go in a certain women's clothing store, I lose the two of you in either a rack of clothes, or find you playing on the floor like little puppies.

For your fourth birthday, we went strawberry picking at Atkinson Farms.  I tried to score some photo ops, but you weren't really that interested until the nice farmer came out with a big watermelon for you to pose with :-)

Then she let you play on the tractor and four wheeler and you were in heaven!

The birthday celebration will be held next weekend-  a joint birthday party honoring you and your friend JackJack, who was born one day before you.  We had our yearly photo shoot in Kemah this year.

We went to Kemah about a month prior to this shoot and here are a few more pictures of you I just adore (it's a little eery how realistic this face painting job looked!).

And last but not least, some picture of you from our recent family shoot with the brilliant Michele Anderson.

Mommy loves you SO much. Happy, happy birthday!!!

My Boy

Almost every night, a little visitor, about 3 (ish) feet tall and 37 pounds, creeps into our bed.  He sleeps sideways, relegating us to about 4 inches of mattress on either side of the bed. We suffer through kidney punches and side jabs as this little visitor actively dreams whatever his subconscious conjures up.

And every morning I say never again! I am SO tired of getting kicked all night... tonight is the night he stays in his bed ALL NIGHT. 

But then I look at this sweet face and big blue eyes... my only boy...and know I will never be able to tell him he can't sleep with us if he feels he needs to.

I know I will miss it when he no longer comes around. 

I had these pictures in my head for a long time. Feels good to get them out.

Love these.

I ordered three big float wraps for his room... I'll try to post pictures later. Poor kid- his room is such an afterthought... the price he pays for being the fourth I guess :-). There is still a little girl's chandelier hanging from the ceiling that we have been meaning to move for YEARS, and the bedding and walls leave much to be desired. But I am going to fix that! Soon!

Thank you Michele

... for making me unbelievably happy with these family pictures. We traveled to Austin one weekend where I ran in the Austin half marathon with one of my besties. That afternoon, we had a family session with the oh-so-brilliant Michele Anderson ... and she gave us the perfect blend of portrait and lifestyle photography with just the right amount of quirkiness and "perfect imperfection" I was looking for.  


This is what I mean by "perfect imperfection." There is a rubberband around my wrist in the pictures. Totally didn't realize it at the time but I'm a mom and that's what we do. We fix our kid's hair and leave the rubberbands around our wrist. I did it without even thinking or realizing it was still around my wrist and now it's in our pictures for all of eternity. But I think its hilarious and LOVE IT.

You see photographers need family pictures too. Maybe more so than others- after all, we live and breath imagery... photographs are our lives!  There are lots... LOT,  of big beautiful canvases, prints, standouts etc. of the kids all over the house.  But there were very few family pictures that showed US. 

But not anymore.

I feel like a lovesick teenager when I look through this gallery. I study the images and can SEE how much this family means to me. Maybe I am being melodramatic, but ...

...they make me smile from ear to ear. 

Remember this picture I took?  Well, Presley remembered it and begged me to allow them to smash ice cream in my face. As you can see, I obliged- the last picture of our session :-)

I hope my clients feel the same way I do when they look at the pictures I take of their family. Makes me feel really truly deep-down-in-my-gut-blessed that I get to make people as HAPPY as she has made me for a living.

Michele- I already cannot WAIT for our next family session! A million, billion, zillion thanks to you!

I bought all of the digital files and this is a large wall display I created from them.  When Michele posted a picture of this display on facebook- my dad called me fifteen minutes later absolutely flabbergasted I would frame a picture of our feet. But it's one of my favorites :)

I get asked often for clothing advice... especially for larger families (like mine!).  This is how I approached the issue and how I suggest my clients approach it. My house is pretty earthy (lots of wood, the walls are kind of a light khaki green), so I knew I wanted a lot of color in the pictures. Jesse is more of a neutral kind of guy and I absolutely crave a LOT of color, so we have to balance out both our tastes. Anywho, there is this lampshade I have in my living room from Anthro that I LOVE. Like I love it so much if my house were on fire, I would probably run back in the house to try to save it.  I used that lamp as my color inspiration for our clothing. I knew I wanted a large wall display, I knew I wanted color, and I wanted everything to coordinate (but not match... big, HUGE, difference).  I learned the color inspiration trick from David Bromstad of Color Splash... he has his clients pick out a favorite piece (whether its a painting, a piece of fabric, etc.), and designs room around the palette in that piece. A nifty little trick if you ask me!  I also tried to mix in different patterns- I did not want everything to be solid. Don't be scared of graphic patterns- they look awesome in photographs!

Ms. Jelly and her Cake

I was quite pleasantly surprised when Mom surprised me at the end of this session with request for some one year cake smash pictures!

And it could not have been more fun!

I'm catching up on blogging sessions from the fall... in between kid's gymnastics, swimming, and tae kwon doe (allow me a small digression here to push the merits of your little princesses learning martial arts. I'm all about seeing little girls in dance recitals, but I am so incredibly impressed with the skills they are learning in tae kwon doe. Skills that could potentially save their life one day. As crazy as it sounds, I can't get enough of watching my little girls learn how to fight and defend themselves. This is coming from someone that tears up every time she hears the song "Imagine." And they look just as cute in a gei as they do in a tutu :-)).

I think this was my favorite Christmas card I designed this fall:

Front:

Back: 

(I mean, seriously, how much does this family rock for changing into Christmas jammies in the woods, in sub-zero temperatures?!? 

(OK, you have to know I am kidding about sub zero temperature right? This IS Houston after all!)

Expect to hear me talk more about the mommy from these pictures above. She is starting a business full of mouth watering, deliciously tasty and equally as beautiful eye candy, and ... well you'll just have to wait to hear more about THAT later.

Speaking of tutus- check out my niece!

Happy FIFTH Birthday Presley

Presley, my sweet, sweet Presley.

Four years and 364 days ago, Daddy and I went out for sushi with friends. It was one week before you were due on January, Friday the 13th, 2006.  I remember I was wearing a black wool turtleneck sweater that covered my humongous pregnant belly, low rise dark blue jeans (not maternity jeans I might add... don't hate), and black high heeled boots. The friends so happened to be Chad and Katie, who you know now know as Annemarie's mommy and daddy. We all went back to the townhouse Daddy and I had at the time to hang out a bit more. I was laying on the couch, trying desperately to pretend I was not falling asleep, when I felt a very weird popping sensation. My heart started pounding and I shot up and ran to the bathroom, but after an uneventful minute or so, I figured I must have imagined it. I walked into the kitchen, and there, in front of everyone,  a huge gush of "water," more water than I ever could have imagined was being held in my belly, was all over the kitchen floor.

The contractions started immediately, and at about 2-3 minutes apart.  You were coming much, much quicker than I thought possible for my first birth. I had only partially packed my hospital bag, and Katie ran upstairs to help me finish. I remember her laughing because I was trying to find my straightening iron in the midst of the contractions (girls with hair like me go nowhere, and I mean, NO WHERE, without their CHI).

I won't go into the details of the L&D with you just yet, but I will tell you this. I was TERRIFIED of the process. My entire life, it was something I dreaded having to do. Had I known what I know now, that terror would have never esisted.  Bringing you into this world was the best, most amazing, meaningful, and profound thing I had ever experienced.  The physical pain and mental endurance it took was unimportant and forgotten the split second I became a mom for the very first time.

I just feel like you should know this story of your birth... I don't want you growing up in fear of something that is in fact... incredibly beautiful.  I want you to look forward to that moment when you become a mom and your heart grows a thousand times bigger.

Love you my dear.

This is who you are at five years old:

1) Affectionate. Soooooooo sweet and affectionate. I hear "I love you Mommy" or "I love you all the way to God and Jesus and back," at least twice a day from you. It is almost always the first thing that comes of your mouth in the morning. Of course, sometimes, in the thrust of a meltdown-over-nothing-because-that's-what-kids-do, I hear "I don't love you!" which is sometimes followed by "and you are NOT coming to my birthday party!! or "I'm going to live with Nanni!!" (I thought I had those outbursts to look forward to when you were a teenager?) But I know you don't mean it. Which leads me to your next quality.

2) Despite being so sweet, you sometimes have quite the temper. Daddy and I call it the "doe-ee-bird rage" (you DO know this business is  the nickname we have for you right?). Luckily, that rage does not rear its ugly head too often... but when it does- whoaaaaaaaaa- watch out world!

3) Generous- the very act of giving is more important to you than any material possession. Yesterday, I allowed you to pick out a ceramic piggy bank as your birthday present. You and your siblings have wanted new ceramic piggy banks for a very long time... at our house, there seems to be a trail of previously owned and quickly broken swine, and I refused to buy new ones. But since you so earnestly asked for one for this very important fifth birthday, I allowed you to pick one out. As soon as we brought it home to show Kaylee, you noticed the look of yearning in her eyes and the catch in her voice as she admired it. Without a second thought or any hesitation at all, you gave it to her.

4) Funny. Really stinkin funny. You crack me up on a daily basis.  You told me just this week, in your sweet little four year old voice that still pronounces "r"s like "w"s- "Mommy, for my sixth buwfday, I want to have a pawty in the dawk, where ev-we-one is naked. OK?"

5) Shy. You are more like I was as a kid than your dad (who was likely born crazy and outgoing). You take a while to warm up to new people and situations and they usually have to earn your trust.  But once they have it, WOW- you are just as sweet and affectionate as ever. Bringing presents and cards to your teachers that you love is a weekly occurrence.

And oh, you are SO camera shy. Out of all my kids, you like getting your picture taken the least. I have to catch you in the right mood, at the right time, or else its a no go.  Totally unlike Emily, Kaylee, and Jude, who usually love it!

6) Opinionated. Especially about clothing. I gave up trying to dress you a very long time ago.  When you find something you like to wear, it is not surprising to see it six out of seven days a week. You were this way with your pink Beatles Tshirt (a mighty fine shirt I must admit), and various other outfits.  And you HATE when I tell you that you are "cute." Sorry I say it so often... but you really are.

I hope you have a wonderful fifth birthday today and that your party tomorrow is everything you have been wishing for.  I love you all the way to God and Jesus and back.

Love, Mommy

Hi.

Gheeesssshhhhh, someone needs to kick me for neglecting this blog, and especially for neglecting to post Emily's 8th birthday post!  I thought about it almost every day, really I did, but couldn't find the time to sit down and put it all into words.

So I missed Emily's 8th birthday post... it should have happened the day I got back from Mexico- on her actual birthday-  but here is the belated version :-).

Happy 8th my Emily.

Eight is a strange age to me. Not quite a little girl, but definetly not yet a pre-teen.  

This is who you are at eight years old:

1) Creative- your eyes gleam when you saw the motherboard the appliance repair guy removed from our refrigerator. When he left the old one on the counter, you were the first to grab it and work it into one of your creations. A spare box is NEVER just spare box to you. It's usually ends up part of a robot, a computer, or some new piece of furniture for your room. 

2) Still a performer- you do love a good audience to show off those dance moves. And if I could do the robot like you, I would probably show it off every chance I got as well.

3) Tenacious- you won the Presidential Academic Award at the end of first grade, not for the best academic performance in the first grace, but for the most improved academically. I've got to tell you- that makes me so proud that you overcame some academic obstacles to show such vast improvement.  You still struggle with math, but let me tell you a little secret about life. You will have an "aha" moment one day when those pesky equations click and it all makes sense and you won't even remember how you struggled with them. You may not even realize you have had that moment, but I hope you do. I hope you have many "aha" moments and realize you have had them. To be honest with you, my most profound "aha" moment came in college. After struggling through a statistics class, I had subconsciously decided I would just never "get it" and accepted it as such. But it ended up clicking one day. And I realized it had clicked and that I was so wrong to accept I would never understand....and I've never been the same since. Not because I understand statistics now (although I have likely forgotten 99% of the theories), but because I realized the struggle was there for a reason. Tenacity, my dear, is much more important than "getting it" the first time around. Cherish those "aha" moments.

4) Courageous- you were chosen by your second grade teachers for the "Dynamite Dolphin" award for Courage. Your teachers explained this was because you always have the courage to raise your hand and participate, even when you are not sure you have the right answer.  And because you stand up for people if someone is being unkind to them and tell others "no" if they are asking you to do something you know is wrong. Just typing that out makes me want to cry with joy. Kindness and Courage. What important qualities to possess.

5) Friendly- although not quite as in your face crazy  outgoing as Kaylee (and really, who is?), you make friends easily and get along with everyone. I never have to worry about you in a social setting- I know you will do just fine with anyone you happen to encounter.

I hope you had a good 8th birthday! You certainly seemed to have fun at your first ever birthday sleepover, I busted a room full of giggling girls still wide awake at 1:30 a.m!

Oh and I forgot one thing. A pose-for-the-camera beauty! See photos below.

... although often, I end up with shots more like this...

Just got back...

... from a little vacation...and am more swamped than ever! Blog is going to have to take a little break for a couple weeks, but I promise I will be back soon!

This is where I was... with my rockin' husband.

That time you see? That's 11 HOURS, 23 minutes. Over 11 hours of cardio, over 140 miles total swim, bike, run- the triathalon of all triathalons... and he killed it!

If all I had to do all day...

... was photograph smiley, blue eyed babies like this one - I would die a happy woman!

And I just can't resist posting this picture. This is the kind of scene I walk into on a daily basis.

Welcome to a little slice (or should I say crack?) of my life.

SOOO glad I had my camera with me this day...

I don't normally carry my pro camera around because it weighs about 787 pounds.  But I happened to have it this day at the park.

And these pix make my heart smile.

Big.

Love these guys.

{discombobulated}

I am going to start a new series on this blog of random and discombobulated thoughts and happenings around the Robinson household that are totally unrelated to my photography business. Or maybe the posts will be related to the business. See? I'm random and discombobulated that way.

- I went to read the book "Wierd Parents" to Emily's class last month. Before I began, I asked the group of first graders if any of them had wierd parents? Emily blurted out with "I do! I do! My dad holds my head down and toots on it!" As I turned red and tried to hush her up, I saw the teacher duck her head to hide her smile and pretend she didn't hear that particular outburst. Keep in mind the dad Emily speaks of is an administrator for the district. (We'll see how long this thought stays up before Jesse makes me take it down :))

- I've somehow convinced myself that it is OK to wear ugly fake furry Crocs in public. With yoga pants. I am thinking that if I wear gym clothes and look really gross in public, people will think I have been working out for hours and will be impressed by my committment to fitness. If you see someone pushing a shopping cart with four loud kids, wet hair pulled into a bun, no makeup, and brown furry Crocs with gray yoga pants, it's probably yours truly.

- Random announcement by Kaylee "Mommy, I AM pottytrained. I just sometimes don't wipe my butt."

- School lunches are appalling. Why in the world would they offer children cookies and ice cream every day if they want them to actually behave? I think I am going to start a facebook group - Conroe ISD parents for healthier school lunches. Who is in it with me?

- I think we are going to cut Emily's hair off to her chin (her request) and donate it to Locks of Love. That makes my heart smile.

Speaking a smiling heart- check out my boy. {love him}

My clan

At first glance, I didn't like this picture. After all, it would have been perfect if not for the semi smart-aleck expression on Emily's face. But the more I looked at it, the more it grew on me. Now I love it. Totally, absolutely love it.

Let me tell you why.

No the picture isn't perfect. But neither are the Robinsons. That is the same expression Jesse and I get from Emily as she has started to think we are... well... weird. As most parents of school age children are, right? Something about first grade has opened her eyes to the onset of parental geekiness. Oh how we love to torture her with tales of chaperoning future school dances ... we demonstrate all of our slick dance moves in the kitchen as she stomps off to her room, pretending to be mad, but I'm pretty sure she thinks we are as funny as we think we are... because she comes peeking around the corner wanting to see more and hiding a smile. Then she finally gives in and shows us her own slick dance moves as she and Jesse hold a robot dance-off next to the fridge.

I am skilled enough at photo editing that switching out her head with a picture from another photo would be a breeze. But why would I do that, when this picture evokes all these memories?!?

So on this Thanksgiving weekend, I am most thankful for this family.

They are my life.

It's chaotic. Noisy. Messy. Sometimes crazy and stressful. At any given moment in time, there's a good chance a weird pee smell will be emanating from one of the kids room or bathrooms...

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

PS: Thank you Courteney for these priceless memory of my little family!

A Series Of Random Outtakes

So as fans (yeah, I like to call my friends "fans" Don't you?) of my family blog have been pointing out recently, its been horribly neglected the past couple months. I keep intending to update it, but blah blah blah (this is where i was going to insert all my ramblings about how busy i am, but its really just one blah blah blah).

Allow me to use this blog to pontificate (there I go pulling another S.A.T. word out of the air) about the Robinson Clan and Other Items Of National Importance.

Item One- would like to encourage ALL to start/participate in veggie co-op. Concept is this: Every two weeks, one person/couple goes to the farmers market (in my case, one in Houston) with $10 from the other people in the group (in my case, this equates to $120 total) and purchases a variety of fresh, locally grown fruits and veggies. They bring it back to their house, divide it up equally, then the other couples pick up their portion from that house. Each person/couple only has to go to market once per year.

You get a TON of fresh, locally grown veggies for $10, which likely would have cost $30-$40 in a grocery store. You also get to experiment with new veggies you may have never thought to purchase yourself. We are 100% FORCED to eat more fruits and veggies... which is not a bad thing.

Yes- that first load I got resulted in a call to a friend to ask what those little yellow thingies were (squash). And my kids had never ever seen a real carrot and thought the "giant carrot" was way cool and ran out the door squealing to our neighbor's house to show them. However, this variety is a good thing. As Kaylee's PreK teacher says, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

Need to know how to start one? Email me. I'll direct you to my friend that had to take over the organization of our veggie co-op bc I was slacking.

Item Two- met a new client who was drawn to me bc she also loves loves loves the word "discombobulated." That's neat.

Speaking of my discombobulated life, here are some totally random pictures.

Jude tearing into an orange like its nobody's business. Not quite sure why he felt the need to pull on his face like that, but there appears to be no permanent damage.

And that same child wearing a peanut butter beard.

Item Three- after paying off all of our student loans this summer (which painfully started at over $70K, my portion of this was $20K... and allow me to digress and explain just why I racked up so much in 1.5 years of graduate school. Story is simple. I met Jesse right before grad school. I was in looooooooovvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeee and chose to spend every waking second driving to his college (an hour away) instead of working (and lets be honest- or studying) like a good girl. Oh yeah, and I bought a car with my student loan money. Hey- no one ever accused me of being the brightest bulb in the bunch), Jesse has been making noise about going back to school. Two very different choices- to either teach or work on a PhD. The teaching part would be in an effort to eventually move into a Principal role, as even with 10 years experience in educational administration, he can't be a Principal unless he teaches a couple of years. Dern. The PhD would be in clinical psychology... everyone needs a shrink in the family right?

Here's your future Principal doing his part to bring down our neighbor's property value by making a mess outside and letting the kids run around in diapers.

Item Four- Presley. She Takes. An Hour. Every Morning. To Decide. What to Wear. And Throws. Many Tantrums. In the Process. She's Three. What Am I Going .To Do? Advice. Please. Why Am I Typing. Like This? This Is. Funny.

Item Five- an outtake from our recent family shoot. Aside from Emily's eyes being closed (dern... loved this picture otherwise...may need to swap her head out), I love the fact that Kaylee is giving the photographer, my dear friend Courteney Miller, some of her own medicine and doing her own funny, shake your booty dance to get Courteney to laugh. Love that girl.

Me and my four punks.

That's all for now. Back to editing client pictures.