Happy Chaos

My little Conor has this cute little trick where he likes to happily scream really high pitched, sounding something like a baby Velociraptor. It is cute because he is my kid. I am quite certain others do not find it cute or endearing in any way. After today I am positive of this...

Picture it.

Two moms and ten children ranging in ages from 13 years old to 3 months old at a pizza restaurant during the noon hour. All the large tables were taken so we were spread out over 3 booths. All the kiddos are well behaved but even the quietest of chatter between 10 children can be a dull roar. Insert screeching baby into this happy chaos. Now if that was not bad enough another baby 3 booths down heard the screeching and decided that was a challenge. Every time my little guy took a break for some air that baby would start screeching too and once he took a break, mine would start screeching again. It was an old fashion screech off. I am sure the two business men at the booth next to us were thrilled with this situation. In our defense, it is a family friendly restaurant and they did come sit by two women and 10 kids on their own free will (there were other booths open, I swear).

This is my life, happy chaos. I love it.

Freak Out Mode

I am full blown freak out mode. I will be working full time again a week from TODAY. Ack! I am freaking out! It is bittersweet. This job is perfect for me. I am excited about it. I know it is a good career move.

But I just do not want to leave my sweet baby. I wish I did not have to.


I am so sad about leaving this sweet face :(

Project 52- Week 8

Shooting the moon

This picture is a huge accomplishment for me. I know it is not great but it is HUGE for me. I shot this 100% in manual mode. I also shot in manual focus, which I never do. I do not have any editing programs so I did some minor sharpening and resizing on my Mac. That's it. I am pretty pleased with the outcome.

The Reluctant Big Brother

My oldest three children are pretty close in age. The oldest two have a 12 month age gap and my second and third have 15 month age gap. There was a good 3 years before my fourth came along. Now because everyone is so close in age, we have dealt with very little sibling rivalry. They do not really remember a time without each other. And it was a known fact that our forth, Cillian is the baby. Cillian was very much treated like the stereotypical baby. And he very much enjoyed this role in our family. In fact, he was quite proud to be the baby. He got attention every where we went from the time he was very little because he was fair haired and very different from my other babies who all had very dark hair and eyes. Cillian loved that attention and role and happily enjoyed it for almost 8 years.

Along came our fifth. Now little baby Conor was quite the surprise. The older three were pretty excited to find out they were quite unexpectedly receiving another sibling. Cillian was not. Not in least bit. We tried to involve him and tell him how fun it would be to have a baby brother. Someone to look up to him. He was not having it. I even took him to a siblings class at the hospital to help get him excited for a new baby. Nope, still not having it.


Waiting for the sibling class to start. Doesn't he look thrilled to be there?
I was pretty worried about how this was all going to play out.

But since the baby was born he has been nothing but an attentive loving big brother. He is helpful and kind. And one of the first people to run and grab the baby as soon as he starts crying. The other day Cillian gave Conor his beloved Elmo doll. Awww. He loved Elmo when he was little. We have gotten rid of most of our baby and toddler toys over the years (we had to start over fresh with Conor. Talk about expensive...but I digress). But we held on to that Elmo doll. And Cillian proudly and lovingly gave that his baby brother.


Poor Elmo has had a rough time in our home. Please note his missing nose.
Cillian is still very much my baby, my bear (Bear is his nickname). But now he happily shares the baby role with his little brother. He is proud of his baby brother. Aww, I worried for nothing.

Photography toys

I have immeresed myself in reading about photgraphy, watching videos/tutorials, joining photography forums and of course practice, practice, practice! When I first started reading it all seemed so overwhelming. It is all starting to click now(Ha ha, get it? Photography? Click?). As with any hobby, the more you get into it the more toys you want to go along with your hobby. Photography is no different.

I have created a little wishlist. I figure my birthday and Mother's day is just around the corner and a girl can dream, right?

- a 50mm lens
- A super adorable camera bag. I already have this one and it is awesome but I can't resist that girly looking bags that look like purses!
-A speedlite

That is all for now. I am sure as time goes on I will find some more toys to purchase. Now I just need to get out there and shoot.

I can't wait until my children start track and football. I figure I should be able to get in tons of practice in a their practices, meets, and games. Can't wait!

Working Girl: Part 2

I got the job! The job I really wanted and knew would be a perfect fit...the one close to home and my children's schools...the one I never thought would call me for an interview and I GOT IT! And they offered a higher salary than I expected (which is a downright miracle with state government)! I am so excited, I think this job is a prefect fit. I start on March 4.

I have two big worries though...

I am worried about putting my sweet baby in daycare. I feel so bad. My older 4 were with me when they were were babies. In fact, only my 8 year old was in daycare. And he was 4 years old when he started daycare so it was a little different. But I have not choice and I need to just accept it and be at peace.

Secondly, I am worried about organization. I am such a terrible working mom. I am just so frazzled and so disorganized. I just do not know how to fix it. My kids are all expected to do certain chores. They help with dusting, vacuuming, putting away laundry, cleaning bathrooms, emptying the dishwasher, etc. But we have no system to their chores. they just do it when I tell them to do so. If the dishwasher needs to be emptied I just get one or two of them to help. I wash and fold the laundry and then call the kids to come get their laundry and put it away but I have no set laundry day. They help and they are good about it and never rarely complain.

When I return to work our schedule will for something like this:

5:45am-Get up, get ready, get kids up and ready/fed
7:10am- Get 11 y/o and 8 y/o on bus.
7:30am- Take baby to daycare, go to work
8-4:30pm- WORK
4:30- Leave work and pick up baby, pick up 11 y/o and 8 y/o.
5:00pm- Pick up 13 y/o and 12 y/o from track practice. Then take 12 y/o, 11 y/o, and 8 y/o to football practice. Luckily the 12 y/o has track and football at the same field.
5:30-7:30pm- Hang out at football practice with one of the kids (usually the 8 year old, he is still a baby in my mind). I generally use this time to jog/exercise.
7:45pm- Get home, eat dinner, and then homework, baths, and bedtime.

Clearly we have little time for anything else. I NEED to keep my home in order. I am trying to tackle any projects (get rid of clutter) in the next two weeks. I need an organized system to make it all work. I have meals down to an art (I am all about meal planning and my crockpot!) but the cleaning is something I struggle with.

Any tips?

My babies

My first attempt shooting in Manual Mode.

Project 52-Week 7

Let me tell you, we have the BEST sunsets here in the Southwest. The absolute best. Unfortunately, my view to the west is a bit obstructed so I am unable to get a good sunset picture from my home. One of these days I will venture out to where I have a better view. Monday evening I settled for a reflection of the sunset on the mountains to the east. This is my view from my driveway every evening during sunset.

The days are long but the years are short

My sweet little baby is 7 months old now? How in the world did that happen? How can my baby possibly be 7 months old? It happened so fast. Didn't I just bring him home last week?He still loves sweet potatoes and fruits are hit or miss. Some days he eats them but most days he can do without. He loves his siblings and I fear he might never crawl because someone always wants to hold him. Although, he has seemed to master the art of rolling all around to get what he wants. His best friends remain Sophie and Mothra. He is growing like a weed!

On that note, all my kids are growing like weeds. When you first have children everyone tells you that they grow up so fast. It seems rather cliché because you hear it all the time. I think you (well *I*) sort of took it for granted. But it really is true. I just finished filling out the high school pre-registration packet for my oldest. My baby starts high school next year. How did that happen? My 11 year old son starts middle school next year and we just filled out all that paperwork as well. How did that happen? My sweet little 8 year old will be all alone in elementary school. When people tell you it goes by fast, they are not kidding. It really does. The days are long but the years are short. *sob*

On the job front...well I have no news. I am feeling pretty down about that entire situation. I had one lead that I really thought was going to work out but it looks like it is not happening. I am pretty bummed out about it and feeling like a loser. I knew better than to get my hopes up but well, too late. I am a ball of stress about finances and my self esteem has been punched in the face. *sigh*

My middle schoolers start track in two weeks and my boys start spring tackle in a month. I am ready, they are ready. We all need to get out some more. I am feeling rather like a hermit these days. The kids need the exercise and in a sick sort of way, I love the busy schedule (well most of the time).

Today I was at Target getting some last minute items for Valentine's Day and I came across this little gem. It was splurge these days due to our super tight budget. But I figure it is a Valentine's Day gift to myself. Yummy!

Project 52- (belated) week 6

Ok, so I am late on my Project 52. I took this picture last week during a walk/jog session with my little guy. I realize there is nothing really special about this picture. There are lots of technical issues. But this is picture is important to me because I trying really hard to actually learn my camera. I am trying to practice outside of the auto setting. I took this picture with in Aperture priority and was was just playing around with my other lens...I call it my YAFL lens because I hope to get lots of use out of it come football season :D.

I am a very timid person who has a hard time stepping out of my comfort zone. This picture is representative of stepping out my comfort zone. Yes, it is full of technical issues but I am trying and that is what is important.

Dirty Laundry

People always ask me what I think is the hardest thing about having a large family. When they were little I would say, "Buckling them all into their carseats." But these days I only have one in a carseat. The hardest thing for me is laundry.

Laundry itself it not hard. Folding laundry is not hard. Putting it aways is not hard. But keeping up with it is hard, at least for me. In theory, I think the key is doing at least a load or two a day. Right now, I am home 24/7 so that is feasible. But when I am working it is just so hard to do that. By the the time I get home from work, chauffeur kids to activities, come home, make dinner, help with homework, and on and on...laundry is just not high on my priority list, well not if I want to sleep at all. Therefore I end up doing it all on Sundays (a good 10-12 loads of laundry). The kids do help, they put away their own laundry. But it still takes most of the day.

I feel like there must be an easier way. I will be working again soon and I need a better system. Oh and the ironing...I hate ironing. Hate it. When I starting working full time again, the FIRST thing I will do is haul a load off the dry cleaners. I know it is a bit of a luxury, but it is so worth it.

How do you handle laundry in your family?

Running, running, running

Today I was determined to get in a good workout. I got up and got my children to school and got the baby ready only to find out I had a flat on my stroller. No big deal, just get out the bike pump, right? Wrong. I could not get it to fill up. I was not sure if it was the pump or if my tire needed to be repaired. At my husband's urging the baby and I headed over to a bike shop to find out it indeed had a hole. We paid extra for the special Thorn Resistant inner tube. By the time we got home I was all annoyed and ready to call it a day. But I pushed my lazy, over weight butt out the door anyway. My adorable running buddy and I jogged/walked a total of 3 miles. I even brought my camera and we took a few photos.

My adorable running buddy started to meltdown around mile 2 so I ran most of mile 3 trying to get home to soothe my little guy. It was the push I needed.

Plus it was down hill so that it always nice.

I am glad I went. I always feel so good after a run...even though I am really really really slow. I am ready to go again tomorrow. But I just notice another flat. Oh, the joys of living in the desert surrounded by goat-heads.

And just for fun, a picture of the beautiful Sandias that I am so very lucky to live by!

I am not a morning person

I am not a morning person. I am a total night owl and I am one of those people who is most productive late afternoon/evening. I have always been that way.

But I have to admit, when I go back to work I am really going to miss my mornings with the baby. After the kids leave for school and the husband heads off to work the baby and I have our special little time together. We snuggle and watch the The Doctors and Kathie Lee and Hoda (don't judge, I already judge myself enough as it is) and I feed him oatmeal while I sip coffee/tea. I love every minute I spend with him but I really love those weekday mornings. I just cannot explain it.

I have been applying for jobs and I already have a few interviews lined up. I know that the process can take a while. But still, I know this time will end soon. It makes me a little sad. I am really going to miss our mornings together.

For the budding photographers...

If you are like me, interested in photography but have no idea where to start I have a few helpful sources I would like to share. These two websites really break down the basics and explain all the important components (ISO, shutter speed, aperture, exposure) of photography one by one. I found them extremely helpful.

Manual Mode

Exposure Guide

Hopefully these website will help someone else as much as they have helped me. Please share any websites you find helpful as well because none of us want to end up here...

You Are Not a Photographer

*I have included a gratuitous picture of my baby because he is super cute. It is the best picture I have ever taken of my cute little guy with my fancy camera. And by me I mean my 11 year old. Yep, my 11 year old took this darling photo. *sigh*

Project 52-Week 5

Tonight I attended a photography workshop with a few friends. It was straight forward beginners type class taught be a local photographer. She was really nice and really helpful. She plans on offering some more classes in the future and even offered to let people shadow her when she works. This was the very first picture I took with my telephoto zoom lens. The picture is really nothing special other than the fact it marks a step in my little journey to be a better photographer. My goal with photography is to learn to take beautiful pictures of my own family and maybe take pictures for friends, just for fun. I really want to be good enough that others would want me to take pictures for them but not necessary go professional...if that makes any sense. I have a lot to learn but I think I can do this!