It’s so easy to get caught up in everyday life and to forget what’s really important.  It’s so easy to wish that Brayden would sleep for just a few more minutes so I can get a little more work done.  It’s so easy to tell Brayden to go play by himself so I can get a load of laundry done.  Or take a shower.  Or finish a phone call.  It’s so easy to get frustrated on days when Brayden won’t leave me alone for a second and every time I leave his sight he yells, “Mama!  Mama go?  Mama!”.  It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by being a Mom.

And then you read Layla’s story.  And suddenly those small things seem like nothing and getting to be a mom is such a gift.  Brayden is healthy.  I am healthy.  Chuck is healthy.  We’ve got a roof over our heads and food on our table.  We are together and that’s all that matters.  I read this on Layla’s blog a couple of weeks ago and every time I get tired or frustrated or annoyed I think of what her mom wrote:

Layla now spends most of her days sleeping. 30-45 minutes after she wakes up, she is ready to lay down and sleep again. Is this God’s way of preparing me for all the quiet time that is coming soon? The house is quiet. I am able to go through the motions of laundry, dishes, cooking and picking up without interruptions. But I WANT interruptions. I WANT Layla to be under my feet asking for cookies. I WANT to hear her playing with her toys. I WANT to take 45 minutes to unload the dishwasher because she keeps trying to help. For every time I uttered the words “I just can’t get anything done with these kids under my feet all day” I am eternally regretful. The days that I looked forward to naptime so I could get a grocery list made, or finally fold all the piles of laundry…I regret those days too. If I could do it all again, I’d enjoy EVERY SINGLE WAKING MOMENT I had with her. I would never wish for her to sit still or take a nap or go to bed early. I would never look forward to the days when she could sit through an entire episode of Dora silently. I would treasure every second with her.

I know I’m not perfect and there will still be plenty of times when I get frustrated and tired.  But, after reading this I have done my absolute best to treasure every single waking moment with my baby.  Life is just so short.

This picture makes my heart happy.  It’s also a good explanation of why they don’t let 2 year olds drive real cars.  He was a maniac!

*  Taken with the Canon G10.

That is the number of hours that we spent at Disney World.  We weren’t there for very long, but we fit a lot in!  I have been to Disney World twice.  Once in fourth grade and once for cheerleading nationals in 1998 (go PACE All-Stars!).  But, this was Chuck’s first trip (first trip to Florida even!) and obviously Brayden’s first trip.  We’ll be making a big Disney World trip for Brayden’s 5th birthday so we kept this one short just because a 2 year old can only handle so much excitement.  Here are a few of my observations about Disney World:

*** Pics in this post are taken with Canon 5D and the 24 – 70 2.8 and my Canon G10 point and shoot.

-  While the Magic Kingdom has a better castle, Disneyland is a much better park.  Everything seems more updated there.  I’m probably totally bias.

-  Disney World resort is a much nicer resort than Anaheim.  Much prettier and spread out (which is kind of a good thing and a bad thing).

-  The Tea Cups are much better at Disneyland, but to a 2 year old a pink tea cup is a pink tea cup!

-  People are much friendlier at Disney World.  I think it’s the Southern hospitality.  And I love hearing all the Southern accents!

-  Animal Kingdom is awesome.  Brayden loved the jeep safari and Dino Land.  I won a teddy bear and a lizard for him there.  That’s how we roll in this family.  Mom has to win the prizes.

-  Animal Kingdom resort is a nice hotel.  It was Disney without being too busy.  The savanna view rooms are kind of a rip off.  We saw an ostrich, two giraffes, and some other animal that I don’t know the name of .  Maybe we would have seen more if we would have stayed longer.  B was pretty darn impressed by those giraffes.

-  Florida ducks are not nice.  If your kids are eating popcorn beware.  They will get bit.  Poor Brayden is scared for life!  But, like any good parents would do, we tortured him and made him take a picture with Donald Duck later in the day.

-  For a two year old the bus ride to the parks may  just be the best ride in the park!

And we had a great time in the JAX.  Brayden and I visited St. Augustine while Chuck was at his conference.  We rode the train around town for an hour (it was freezing!).  B loved the train and I loved learning about the history of the city.  Total win-win!  We then visited an Alligator farm.  It was a bit smelly, but B enjoyed it very much.  He especially loved feeding the gators.  We also visited St. Johns Town Center (twice) and I got a new pair of jeans and a sweatshirt from GAP (if you follow me on twitter you know why!) and a super cute shirt and purse from Anthro.  I also got to visit Ballard Designs.  I get the catalog and was SO, SO, SO excited to see everything in person.  Love that place!  Thanks for all of the suggestions, friends!

Every time we see an airplane I ask Brayden where the airplane is going to take us.  He says, “Forda”.  I ask him what is in Florida.  He says, “Pink cups.  Mick.  Rocks (rockets).  Choo choos.  Bumbo (Dumbo)”.  Why we are flying all the way across the country to go to a theme park that’s almost exactly the same as one that’s 15 minutes away?  I don’t know.  But, I know it’s going to be an adventure (especially the plane ride with a 2 year old!  Yeah!).

Thanks for all of your awesome suggestions about what to do in Jax.  I now know that the cool kids call Jacksonville Jax so now I don’t look like a dork.  Because we are going to Animal Kingdom on Saturday I think we are going to go St. Augustine instead of the Jax (not Jacksonville) zoo.  Or maybe we’ll go to both.  It’s going to be a LONG day and I don’t want to be in the hotel so we shall see!

I know we’ll be riding a pink cup at some point though

I’ve been a bad blogger.  You know I’m very busy when I’m not blogging!  That’s what 4 shoots in 6 days and getting ready to go out of town will do to you!  I’ve been a bad Formspringer too.  From now on I will probably start taking some of the questions I get over there and answering them here.  Today’s question is:

What’s your normal attire when shooting a wedding?

I always wear all black (or at least dark colors) to weddings.  I want to blend into the background and not stand out like a sore thumb in their wedding video or their guests pictures.  I try to make it fun by wearing cute shoes that are a bright color.  I always try to look cute at weddings, but at the end of the day I’m a sweaty, frizzy haired mess.  But, it’s not about me anyways, right?  I don’t try to wear heels or skirts.  For me it’s about comfort and practicality.  I’m climbing on chairs, laying on the ground, and running all over the place.  I want to be comfortable while looking professional.

I don’t really have too many pictures of me shooting.  I usually delete all the ones my second shooters take because I look like a dork ball.  I do have one that’s my absolute fav.  Taken at 36 weeks pregnant.

Photo by:  Jasmine Star

We’re leaving for our big Florida adventure later this week and I’ve been meaning to do some research on fun things to do in Jacksonville for Brayden and I while Chuck is in his conference.  But, I’ve been to busy so I am turning to you, my Internet friends.  Anything fun for us to do?

And, Floridians, can you please tell your state to warm up for me by the end of the week!  I’m not liking these cold temperatures I’m seeing!  Really, as long as it doesn’t rain on Saturday or Sunday I’m happy, but if you could try and warm it up to like 75 that would be awesome!

You know what’s awesome?

When your kid is sick and he coughs non-stop from 5am to 9am (no that’s not the awesome part).

So you contemplate if you should make an appointment with the doctor.

After another 15 minutes of non-stop coughing you make an appointment.

He coughs all the way to the doctor and the whole time in the waiting room.

Then the doctor comes in and he doesn’t cough once.

Not once.

And the doctor looks at you like you are crazy.

She says everything looks fine and probably notes in your chart that you could have munchausen syndrome.

And then you get the kid back in the car and he coughs the whole way home.

That’s awesome.

Happy Friday!

I’ve got a sick boy here.  Fever, cough, threw up once.  All fun stuff.  The problem is that while his fever ranges from 100 to 102 he acts like he feels fine most of the time.  Just more tired than normal.  I don’t want to take him out because I don’t want to get anyone else sick, but we got major cabin fever yesterday after watching Cars, Thomas, a few episodes of Wonder Pets, and only taking a 45 minute nap.  So, we went out for a little drive and picked up some Starbucks at the location with the drive thru.  So we wouldn’t infect anyone.  He spent most of his day like this though.

PS  Do you like my new artwork?  I love it!  Not only one of my favorite songs ever, but also our first dance song at our wedding.

If you like free stuff you should really head on over to the Bloom Workshop birthday extravaganza and enter their contests!  You could win some really rad things including an UNposing Guide!  Who doesn’t love a giveaway?

Happy Birthday, Bloom Workshop!

Chuck and I were born and raised in Anaheim.  We’ve had annual passes to Disneyland since we were kids.  We’ve probably both been hundreds of times.  We are spoiled rotten and go to Disneyland several times a month.  It’s one of the pros of living in Southern California along with 80 degree weather in February which most of the time outweighs the cons (EARTHQUAKES!, traffic, ridiculously high cost of living).  It’s just what we do when we are bored.  It’s so easy to go for a couple of hours, ride a few rides, grab dinner and head home.  Obviously B isn’t complaining!

While Chuck and I have pretty much done everything you can do at Disneyland, we both had a first this weekend.  We got to ride in the front car on the Monorail!  This was B’s first time too and he just loved it!  The weird and creepy kind people that were riding up front with us reminded us that you can’t do this at Disney World because “a whole bunch of people died on this thing”.  While that made me a little nervous the pure joy on Brayden’s face as he acted as our tour guide and pointed out the “cars”, “cups”, and several other things that I didn’t understand because I couldn’t make out his Branglish helped me forget about the dangers of the Monorail.  It’s such a little thing, but I’m glad we all got to experience this first together!  And in less than 2 weeks we will have a very short trip to Disney World!  I’m very excited to take Chuck because he has never been before.  Actually, he’s never even been to Florida before!  Should be fun!

I hate going to the post office.  Actually, I hated it before I had Brayden and could go by myself.  Now I absolutely loathe going to the post office with a toddler in tow.  Nothing about it is fun or easy.  The parking lot is a disaster and I always feel lucky when I come out of there unscathed.  The lines are just ridiculous at anytime of day it seems.  It’s just not a pleasant experience in general.  I found myself procrastinating shipping my packages because I hated going.

Now, I know I’m probably the last person on the earth to try this.  But, last week I started shipping my packages online and scheduling for my postman to pick them up at my front door.  And I think most of my packages actually got to their intended recipients.  It’s brilliant, I tell you!  I might actually enjoy shipping my packages now!  I have some of the priority mail flat rate boxes (which are free!), but the aren’t the most ideal sizes for shipping prints and the flat rate shipping prices are kind of pricey.  I’ve found that using my own boxes (which I recycle from my lab) is cheaper.  Then I just print out my postage online and schedule my pickup!  It’s easy peezy!

If you’re not already using it, you should.  It’s life changing!