One Last Peek

Every night before I go to bed I quietly go in to Randal Jean's room to take one last peek at her before I go to sleep.  I love watching her sleep.  She is so peaceful and angelic, but what I think I love most of all is that when she sleeps she still looks like a baby and not the going 100 miles a minute toddler that she is during the day.

Enjoy!

Dessert Before Dinner?

One day after work we had my mom bring Randal to meet Matt and I up at the strawberry patch near our house so we could enjoy some of their homemade ice cream :)  I know Matt and I were excited about our dessert before dinner and I thought Randal Jean would enjoy her dessert first as well, but I was wrong.  She took about two licks of her ice cream and that was it!  I have no clue how with parents like us she didn't inherit a love for homemade ice cream, and strawberry ice cream to be exact!!!

Although the pictures make it look like she enjoyed her dessert before dinner I can assure you her interest in the ice cream was very short lived. 

Enjoy!

Can Someone Relate?

So on Thursday night as I was straightening Randal's room  I opened up a box of brand new shoes...and GASP!  There were not two brand new shoes in the box (do what?, yeah...).  There was one brand new shoe and an old dirty shoe too.  Take a look...

So, I bet your thinking that the store somehow had a switch up, but no.  All the blame here can go to this mama writing this post.  Those are both Randal Jean's shoe.  The size 5 is her current size and the size 6 is what I bought for her to grow in to because I liked them to much.  So what does this mean...  1) I am totally out of the running for Mother of the Year 2) My kid has been running around in two different size shoes since Mother's Day (when we bought the size 6 pair).  All I can guess is that when I tried the size 6s on her in the store she got really antsy and I didn't manage to put both new shoes back in the box and put both old shoes back on her!!!!

So after this discovery I ran to find the white sandals that she has been wearing.  And it probably bears noting that one shoe was in my car and the other on the kitchen table.  The chaos that a toddler brings in to your life is REAL people! But oh so worth it!!!

So here is what my daughter has been wearing a few times a week since Mother's Day:

Sometimes you just have to laugh...and laughing at myself and this chaotic life with Randal Jean is exactly what I did Thursday night.

Despite the two different size shoes she has been sporting she has been running around as if she had on two of the same size shoes.  Here is a pic from this past weekend where you can see the difference in shoe sizes...

I really hope that out there somewhere there is a mama who can relate.  Also, let's find a positive here...she has been walking around in the same style shoe.  I get points for that, right?

Me and My Girl!

The only unfortunate thing about being photography obsessed and taking a zillion pictures of Randal is that I am rarely in front the camera with her :(  At our Mother's day brunch at Oceanic Matt was able to snap these quick pics of the two of us :)

Enjoy!

 And what did I get for Mother's Day you might ask?  I got the gift of grout cleaning, patching, and painting.  Seriously (no, really!) it's what I wanted.  Matt also promised to help me with filing my business as an LLC when he gets done with his CPA exams

Pretty clean grout....it is sad how happy this makes me :)

Kirk Graduates

After Kyle's graduation on Friday we moved on to Kirk's graduation from NC State on Saturday.  I didn't even attempt to take Randal to this graduation so she and I went to Crabtree Valley Mall while the rest of the family went to the graduation.  Let's just say I wasn't complaining about going shopping while everyone else had to go sit through a long graduation.  After graduation was over everyone met back up and we headed out to a post graduation celebration at the home of one of Kirk's roommates.  

Enjoy these pics from Kirk's big day!

With the graduate:

I love this one of the twins.  PS- Kyle was a good sport and put back on his cap and gown so his mom could have pics of the twins both in their graduation gear

 

More pics of the family with the graduate(s)

At the graduation party :) Kirk with his roommates (left to right: Kirk, Bell, Zach, and Braxton).  Braxton's dad (I think it was Braxton's dad) gave the boys scratch off lottery tickets for graduation.  The perfect gift for this group of guys.  I think between the four of them we had a $15 and $10 winners.

 Proud mamas with their boys

 

The grads with their dads and then Kyle and Bryan joined in as well

 

Braxton and Bell with their families

 

Kirk and Randal Jean 

 Randal Jean with the college grads!!!

 

 Kirk- Good luck in Charlotte.  Hopefully we can come visit in the fall and take our favorite lil' cheerleader to some Panther's games :)

Kyle Graduates

Matt's brother Kyle graduated this past Friday from the Cameron School of Business at UNCW.  We attempted to make the graduation a family affair, however, bringing a 14m old to a college graduation might possibly be the worst idea, ever.  After about 5 mins (note the graduation had not actually stared) Randal Jean was over it!  I took her outside to see if I could just get her jitters out, but it became obvious very soon that there would be no returning to the graduation so Randal Jean and I left and came home.  Luckily Matt stayed behind with the camera to capture this special time :)

Enjoy!

Kyle and his girlfriend, Jill, entering graduation

 

Apparently Kyle and his friend, Mitchell, wanted to celebrate while walking back to their seats

The graduates :)

 With the family

 Jill and Kyle

Kyle- best of luck in Jersey.  Hopefully you can find reason to come visit NC often.  I know a lot of people in NC will be missing you.

Ranch Dressing

Randal Jean has taken a liking to ranch dressing.  She likes ranch so much that she thinks it goes with everything...including grapes, yes the child has been known to dip her fruit in to ranch.

Enjoy!

Putting her hand directly in to the ranch...

Now with a triscuit, although I think the triscuit was only used as a vehicle for the ranch and it was never eaten.

Ranch face!

Easter

For Easter this year we spent the day in Calabash with Matt's family.  Randal Jean enjoyed all of the treats left for her by the Easter bunny :) and gathering all the eggs for her basket.

Enjoy!


Randal's Easter basket in Wilmington.  And what does the Easter bunny fill eggs with when your 14 months old?  Goldfish!

 Playing with her basket and eggs in the front yard

 Easter basket #2 in Calabash

More egg hunting fun :)

Reading with Grandma

 Checking out the baby birds in the bird house

 Family photo

With Matt's parents

 The twins having too much fun with the camera :)

Rolling in the Blanket

Randal Jean thinks it is just the funniest thing to roll around in the floor in a blanket.  She literally cracks her self up :)

Enjoy!

Down at the Boardwalk

The other weekend (yes, way behind on posting) after strolling through the vendors downtown for the Airlie Festival we strolled down the boardwalk.  Randal Jean had a great time running up and down the boardwalk and playing with her daddy in a near by grassy patch of land.

Enjoy!

Strutting her stuff

 Oh, how I wish she would just leave a bow in her hair!!!

 

With Daddy

Blogging, Photo Editing, and the Life of a Photo

I have a love/hate relationship with this blog...mostly love, but there is some hate in there too.

Here's why I love it:

*Allows us to share Randal Jean with family near and far
*Has helped me think more about capturing Randal's life in pictures
*Makes me sit down and remember what is going on in our life as I have to remember details atleast long enough to blog about them
*Creative release
*Furthered my love for photography

Here's what I hate:

*Above mentioned love for photography has now led in to desire to edit every single photo we have before I share it with you
*Photo editing = Lots of time goes in to putting a blog post together....and I don't have much spare time :(

So, I've made a decision to eliminate some of what I loathe when it comes to blogging...

You see, in the beginning when I first started playing around with pictures I had just one type of photo editing software, Lightroom.  Then I dove deeper in to photography (aka became obessed) and I got Photoshop.  Problem is for the past while I have been editing all photos in LR and PS which is taking a lot of time.  Both of these softwares are essential to my toolkit as I prepare to embark on my career as a photographer (hang in there folks, I promise it is coming soon!!!).

Anyhow, I have been thinking a lot lately about the life of a photo.  Some photos if I am being really honest with myself will only live out their life electronically on this blog or maybe end up a small square in a photo book.  Considering we have over 10k pictures of Randal thus far (not even kidding people!) all photos simply will not make it to a print or a frame.  With all that being said I have decided that if the photo isn't something that needs PS editing (ie will be used for my business or printed and framed) then it will only get LR editing.  I hope you all don't mind...my precious angel is just as beautiful with or without editing.

PS- If anybody reading this has been debating LR or PS so they can enhance there own photos I definitely recommend LR to start.  It absolutely rocks to knock out editing a bunch of photos quickly and on top of being great for photo editing it is a photo organizer as well....highly highly highly (got it!) recommended!!!

Here's some examples of what I am talking about...in case you are hanging in there for this post:

This is a pic of Randal at an easter egg hunt.  I love the look on her face...its like she's guarding her eggs and keeping an eye out on the other kids.  Despite the cute look on her face this picture has been shared on this blog and will probably make it in to our 2011 family photobook in a section for April....however, this photo will not be printed on its own and will not be framed.   The top photo is straight out of the camera and the bottom is with LR editing.  Good enough for family blogging and a 2x2 in square in a photo book, right?

Now on to this beauty of a picture.  I am in LOVE with this picture.  I love how the light is coming through her hat and hitting her face.  Oh and the expression on the beautiful face...just makes me want to kiss her all over I tell ya!!!  This photo gets the full treatment :)  This photo has already been printed in mass quantity and in large sizes and was given as Mother's Day gifts to all the moms in our lives.  The top is the photo straight out of the camera, the middle photo is LR edits, and the bottom is the final edit after taking the picture in to PS.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Happy Mom's Day to all the Mommas, Grandmas, and Great-Grandmas in our lives.  We love each of you so much and are so appreciative for your love and support.  We hope you have a truly wonderful day :)

Good Sport

Cobi is such a good sport when it comes to Randal Jean.  He lets her poke at him, play with his teeth, pat him not so gently, cover him with blankets, and a variety of other things.  The other morning Randal got a hold of the spray starch lid and kept trying to make Cobi wear it as a hat.  Being the good sport that he is he just laid there and took it.  I can totally see Randal Jean trying to play dress up with him when she gets old enough :)

Enjoy!

Real Quick

Sorry, I've been MIA so far this week.  I've been editing pictures from a recent session with a friend and her little boy.  When I have sessions to edit this blog will take a hit :( as having a full time job and trying to build a business on the weekends and at night takes a lot of time....and oh yeah there's being a mom thrown in to the mix too...and a wife I guess :)

So just real quick...I had to edit just one pic of my own cutie tonight

Enjoy!!!