Panda Mommies!

Motherhood has many joys. One I'd like to hilight is the joy of connecting with other mommies! Vent...drink.....laugh....be nasty (shhhh)....dance....and laugh some more. I'd like to toast to my fellow Panda Room Mommies!

And to Carol for always organizing us and getting us out!
L to R: Staci (Gianna's mom), Angela (Carson's mom), Carol (Isaiah's mom), Nicole (Nicholas' mom), me (Shelby's mom...HA) & Jenn (Josh's mom)
Looking forward to our next outting, Ladies!!! :->

Photo Workshop

Rebecca and I had soooo much fun at this workshop! We were bummed because when we signed up MONTHS ago, it was for an outdoor weekend involving a winery, dog show, portraiture, etc. But, it POURED and a tornado even hit Friday before we got to Santa Rosa. Crazy. So, indoor lighting lessons it was. I learned so much! I really stunk at indoor lighting so this was a much needed lesson.

Here Rebecca was my model (just as gorgeous as the paid model we had)Day 2 we had a model, Michaela, come in. She was a ton of fun to work with. She let the whole class boss her around for a while. What a trooper, and so photogenic!The rain quit for a few hours, so we ran outside and I played with reflectors and how to make overexposure work for ya. Yes, the side of her face is clearly over exposed, but it just seemed to work.
On the first day we had a few boys come in and they were stinkin' hilarious. I played with photo editing until I got the Opie look I was going for on this one. What a hoot.

This is Paul. He's pissed about Lord knows what here. He was one of my assigned partners. There were only 3 of us with Nikons, so we took off to learn. We were testing the hair light in the tree. Paul was angry at the non-inclusive term and asked that we call it a "rim light". LMAO.....loved him. Hysterical.

Rebecca and I missed our little ones, but knew they were in good Daddy hands, so we relaxed, soaked up the knowledge and had fun dinner and drinks Saturday night. YEAH for the get-a-way! Huge thanks to the guys for letting us go and to Rebecca for all the planning to make this happen.

Daddies/Kids weekend

Rebecca and I attended a photography workshop in Santa Rosa (Sonoma) last weekend. While we were away, the guys (Stacy & Brian) got together both days to keep the kids entertained. Shelby & Nina had so much fun at an indoor wildlife museum learning about animals like hawks and owls.Apparently they were pretty cute, holding hands most of the time.
And on Sunday, they went bowling.
Such cute buds! On Saturday night, Rebecca and I went to a nice dinner, ordered a nice bottle of wine and toasted the guys for letting us have our time away. ;->

Exceptional Performance for Shelbster

Whew hew! Stacy and I were beaming with pride yesterday when Shelby came home with ALL smiley faces for all 5 days!!! We've seen it all now...ha

Ms. Eliana had indicated that Shelby was doing better and had started to mature and here's the proof.

If they get enough smiley faces they get to pick a prize out of the prize box on Fridays. The box is supplied with lots of treats we all donate (picture McDonald's prizes kind of stuff). Shelby told me he had a surprise for me. He used his prize to pick out something for me! It's this precious little plastic hand-held mirror blue on the back and yellow on the front around the plastic mirror. He handed it to me and said, "Mommy, I got this for you so you can look in it every day and see how beautiful you are!"

MELT.......MELT........ And those, my friends, are the moments that make motherhood worth all of it! I love my kid when he's bad even, but I ADORE my kid when he's this damn precious.

GG's...still missing you all!

I didn't get a chance to blog a handful of the pics from Cantrell's baby shower. She wasn't due until this week, but instead, Tatum is already weeks old and doing great! After the first few weeks in the hospital, he's been home and mom & dad are adjusting well.

These pics make me miss my GG's soooo much!

Happy belated Birthday to Lu (February....yes, I'm still the worst at b-days!) and before I miss it, Happy tomorrow Birthday to Julz (who will be celebrating in Cabo!)

Now, if we could get Jamie to just find out the sex of that baby already and see if the GG's are finally having a girl or continuing with the GG boys..... :->
Jamie & Cantrell

Julie & Cantrell

I love this pic, because Eric (Jamie's hubby) had just flown in and when he saw Cantrell's belly he couldn't help himself, "Whoa!"
Me & Trell
Laurie, Dominic & Cantrell
This pic is funny....you can tell that as much as we love our husbands and kids, when the GG's are together we can't help but be close...see how Jamie abandoned her fam on the left to be right there with the girls...LOL! We didn't have the Vicic boys or the Jones boys for this pic, but we still had a great crew.
Love you all!!!!!

T

Unblogged...

So often the unblogged pics in my computer haunt me....calling my name in moments when I sit and think "I'll just read this one magazine article I've had my eye on."

"No....no rest for you...blog me, I'm cute!"

This little play date over the Xmas holidays, left unblogged, was too precious to ignore anymore! So, Oprah's "organization" related articles that have already inspired me to re-organize my wanna-be excuse for a 'closet' here in Cali where 'walk-in' references a more eco-friendly version of drive-through (yes, I made that up) will have to wait.

Shelby, Isaiah and Nicholas had a bike ride and playground playdate while school was closed.
Though the pics are slightly blurry, because I only took the cheesy camera with me, they're still so sweet. Look at these precious boys.

And today I blog them out of guilt. Shelby and Nicholas argued over a toy at school today and out of anger, my son poked Nicholas in the eye with a fishing pole! What in the world! He had to eat all his dinner with no option of dessert. He bows his eyes in shame when I tell him Nicholas' eye has been reported to already be black and blue. Grrr.....
Nicole and I were totally cracking up when she and I managed to wear matching red velour suits. CHEESY!
Thanks again for the big boy bike, Grandpa & Grammy!

The "Sharting" Incident

So, there are things they don't tell you when you say, "I want to be a Mom/Dad some day," because they know you'll wrinkle up your face in disgust and either not believe them or run the other way.

"Sharting" is one of those phenomenons we don't think through as parents.

Shelby got out of the bath last night and felt the need to run around naked and be silly. The next thing I know he's laughing so hard he passes gas. Wait...what's that look on your face? Oh, no.... Shelby stands up and squats before I can stop him...Wait! He squats and drops "it" on the floor. And again, WAIT! Don't move....too late. He's already stepped in "it" and is running off to the bathroom, trailing "it" on the pathway.

EWWWWW! Really? (Insert sigh)