Just me My Soldier and our 4 little chicks

thursday hodge podge

good morning y'all! i sure hope your week has been beautiful so far!

ours has been full of swimming lessons and getting ready for school next week. this part of summer is hard for us. the whining kicks in and i think EVERYONE is ready for school. :)

first, i want to announce the handmade+modern winner:

129 Amy Bew said...

Would I LOVE to carry around one of those journals in my purse?! Why, Yes, YES I would!! Thanks for the chance to win!

congratulations amy! y'all don't forget to check out the elmer's giveaway, it's still open below and chock full of goodies!

also, don't forget about my special free shipping code (orders over $35) at two peas >>>>> SHIPSH. i've noticed they have gotten in new basicgrey,fancy pants,and jenni bowlin in the past few days (LOVE THE DOILY FLOWERS).

♥♥♥♥♥

 

i've been sloooowwwwwly sorting through photos from our texas trip. i have only gotten through a few, but oh my goodness do i love them. i thought i'd share a few of my favorites.

cate asleep on nonna

 

lucy meeting pops (j's grandfather)

 

 

the bigs with pops

 

cate meeting nana (j's grandmother)

 

cate and g-daddy

 

cate and BB

 

lucy

 

bb and cate

 

sadie with the BEST hose fight face EVER. you talkin' to me?

 

movie time w/ g-daddy

 

granddad sandwich

 

i love how these turned out. you can tell our trip was all about family. and togetherness. we didn't go many places. we just stayed at home and enjoyed being together.

and can you tell cate was teething (2 bottom teeth!!!!) and wanted to be held the ENTIRE time? she's in almost every photo while lucy was just content. HA!

happy happy thursday!

xoxo

s

our fourth

**gussy sews giveaway still open below!**

this photo has nothing to do with this post, as it wasn't taken on the fourth of july...but it's one of the few photos i have of me+the girls and i wanted to share. :)

our fourth was awesome.

we declared it a "fourth of july crafting extravagaaaaaaaaaanzga!"

or as the girls say "a fourth forgunza!!!" hahaha. i guess extravaganza is a hard word to say!

we painted our nails red,white,and blue and did a BUNCH of patriotic crafts.

there was also water play. lots of water play. and slippin' and slidin'.

a different kind of fourth, to be sure...and our hearts were missing someone terribly,but we had a blast. and talking to our soldier on the phone made it even better. :)

i'll share photos of the crafts soon! i just wanted to share some photos of the girls, this is the first time i've ever dressed them all alike. i have to admit, they looked pretty dang cute!

 

 

happy thursday!

xoxo

s

the week in photos

how was your week? ours went QUICKLY! which i both love and hate. i pray for the passing of time so that we can be together as a family, but at the same time i DON'T want time to go quickly. i love the ages the girls are right now and i want to savor it.

wow. too early for deep thoughts. moving on.

our week was full of the usual things.crafts,water play,target trips,the ymca...

speaking of the ymca, kickboxing=the devil. it hurts. and my limbs are WAY too long to do it gracefully. last night? i fell OFF of the exercise ball. that's right OFF. during ab work, i rolled right off in slow motion. and the guy behind me? snickered. whatever, he'll get his. haahah!

i wanted to share some photos from the last week. hope you don't mind!

here's a sneak from the sara jane boutique advertisement shoot. miss h won a contest a while back and she is one of the "faces of sara jane". how fun is that? shana cawley did the shoot and i think she is just fabulous. and harper? worked it. i was dying laughing. she was totally POSING. heeee!

 

last sunday we were invited to a brunch for all of the ranger wives and children. a wonderful, GENEROUS local couple threw us all a gorgeous brunch at a country club, complete with gift bags. it was overwhelming and so kind.

here's the howell chickies before the brunch:

 

i don't know what this is all about...but harper? looks EXACTLY like me here. hahahahhaha!

this one makes my heart ache.

sadie says "what in the JOSE?"

i don't know what's up with these two, but they have NO personality. snicker.

precious precious girls. sadie's not sure about how to smile here. :)

a. why is their hair connected? b. the bigs are screaming in this photo. can you tell by the look on lucy's (left) face? hahahaha. oh my. this one makes me laugh hard.
 
lucy reminds me so much of harper as a baby. i had to take a photo of the two of them together.

and one of all of us during art time this week:

hmmm. attractive. and a reminder that art should always be VERRRY VERRRRY serious.:)

happy friday, hope your holiday weekend is beautiful!

xxo

s

falling into the trap.

**lisa leonard giveaway still open below!**

i'll admit it.in the past i've fallen into the trap.

you know that trap...the one of self doubt regarding my photos.

the trap of thinking that i need to NEVER USE A FLASH!

and that photos i use on layouts need to be amazing. that they shouldn't be grainy, or composed wrong. and that if my photos don't have a certain level of perfection i shouldn't share them. or scrap them.

it's ridiculous.

below i see my husband meeting his daughter for the first time. i see me telling j that we've had a baby girl. i see generations and the love they share. i see so much i could have missed if i waited for the perfect shot. i see love. period.

who cares that they are blurry. who cares if they are grainy.

i do not have time to get my camera on the perfect setting before i take every.single.photo. hopefully one day i will, but today i do not.

sometimes i say screw it and USE THE FLASH. sometimes i SHOOT ON AUTO! GASP! but i'm sorry, when i have a million kids doing a million things at once, and i have ONE second to take one photo...sometimes it's on auto. shock and horror!

sometimes i use my iPhone. sometimes i don't have a camera at all. b/c i think it can come between me and living. i want to live the moment...experience it. so sometimes i don't have a camera at all.

i am not a professional photographer. i've never claimed to be, nor do i ever have a desire to be one. i really don't know how to use PSE.

my snapshots are just that. snapshots. my life is not beautiful and crisp all the time. sometimes it's messy. and composed wrong. and blurry.

i don't want to have to edit all of my photos.

and i've gotten to the point that i'm okay with that.

because the heart of my photos is there. the love is there. the emotion.the ties. the affection. these ARE perfect to me.

i'd rather have a million messy photos documenting US than hundreds of perfect photos.

 
i'm not going to get caught up in it anymore.

you want to know something crazy? i don't think i've scrapbooked any of these photos!

photography truly interests me. but now isn't the time for me to learn how to do it the way i wish i could do it.

i'll leave the professional quality photos to the professionals. no more pressure on myself to learn how to be an outstanding photographer.

i'll admire others that are outstanding photographers, and i'll keep attempting to keep documenting our story in an outstanding way that is realistic for me.

whew! i feel better already. :)

eta: this post is not meant as a "oh, woe is me, please tell me i'm fabulous" type of post. it's a stream of consciousness post about my thought process regarding my photography as just a mom, not a pro. these are thoughts i had yesterday when i came upon the first image of me holding the phone and telling J we'd had a baby girl. i realized how much i loved that photo, even though it was not "technically" a good photo.

this post is about the fact that it doesn't matter. just like i don't believe anyone will be scrutinizing my pages one day looking for "the visual triangle" i don't believe anyone will care, or notice, that i used a flash. :)

xoxo

s

weekend photo shoot

poor h had a tummy bug this weekend. :(
she missed her pk graduation and everything, bless her sweet heart.

she was quarantined up in my room watching movies for several days and while we missed her, i sure did have some wonderful "feshal time" (as she calls it) with sadie.

yesterday she told me to go get my camera so i could quote "take her picksha".

what did she have in mind? a princess photo shoot? an 'ashion photo shoot?

at the VERY least a sweet and demure smile?

oh sister,please. this is sadie we are talking about. and by now, we should all know the type of photo shoot she would have in mind.

the word mischevious comes to mind.

click to see them in all their...um...glory?

 

oh.my.

there are no words.

actually, who are we fooling? i ALWAYS have words. so my first 4 words are these.

what

in

the

JOSE?

i love her. love love love her.

i mean, only sadie....only.sadie.

i also love how platinum streaks in her bangs are randomly longer than the rest. sister needs a trim.

i love that she has always made faces.

anyone remember these?

hahahahahhahahah! oh sadie.

i actually did a layout yesterday for the june studio calico kit about sadie and her sadieisms:

she said something really funny on easter that i totally forgot to share here.

we'd been talking about the real meaning of Easter. and,understandably, the idea of someone rising from the dead is a little bit scary to wee ones.

before church we saw a big bug on the porch and i stomped it to smithereens (to prevent harper's SCREECHING that she does any time she sees ANY bug).

sadie wouldn't stop worrying about it.

i finally said...sadie he's DEAD! don't worry!

and she said "ummmmm MAMA? what if he WISES???? (rises)"

and j and i laughed for about an hour straight.

did i mention i think this kid is the bee's knees?

 

happy monday!

super awesome giveway coming tomorrow!

xoxo

s

{lately}

here's our lately, in photos and a few words:

me and my girls today after sadie's mother's day tea. it's a self timer shot, which means we took 323849283 photos and NO ONE is looking in all of them, and all of them are blurry, but i L❤VE this one anyway. and i love that we found the perfect spot to take photos when j is gone.

miss h on the eve of her birthday. i love her big eyes and the excitement in them.

 

overjoyed at being five.

SOAKING up the daddy time:

bike riding,

guitar playing

 

getting ready to graduate *tear*

lizard catching...LOVE h's face here. she is so me.

 

bday party decorating

 

being entertained by sadie being sadie.

*NOTE* this lipstick is one i bought for the 80's party last spring. i don't wear flourescent fuschia on a regular basis. HA!

that's our now. hope your now is beautiful and blessed.

xxo

♥be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.♥

first things first, here's a winner for the my shadowbox creation giveaway!

True Random Number Generator Min:1 Max:274 Result: 6

that means that this is the lucky winner:

6 Kathy R said...

Those frames are beautiful, as is your layout of the babies. Thanks for a chance to win. Enjoy your vacation!

Reply April 19, 2011 at 07:41 AM

Kathy- you didn't leave me an email address, so I hope you see this! Email me at harpersmama8(AT)gmail(DOT)com...and if i don't hear back in a few days I'll have to draw another winner. :(

❤

so we are back after a week in the mountains of asheville. and even though i didn't want to leave, it sure is nice being home and sleeping in MY bed and using MY shower. :)

there's no place like home, after all.

the trip was FANTASTIC. really...the perfect family vacation for us. it had the perfect amounts of good food, nature, relaxation, exploration, and FAMILY TIME. which i treasure so much.

i have to give a shout out to my two "virtual tour guides" kimber leigh and heather. thank you guys SO much for all of the suggestions...it wouldn't have been half as amazing as it was if it wasn't for you!

we had one rainy day where we didn't leave the cabin all day...and j said that was his favorite day. :)

we stayed in chalet quietude, a sweet cabin about 12 miles from asheville.

it had gorgeous views

and amazing morning light (which of course only *i* saw...well,technically i guess the babies saw it. HA!).

but my favorite thing about the cabin was being TOGETHER in a secluded, quiet location. it was wonderful...j grilled every night and we had family dinners.

wine,food,smores,more wine...perfect.

we hiked the blue ridge parkway, visited looking glass falls in the rain, visited the biltmore, ate in asheville, shopped in asheville, and left without getting to do LOTS of other things that were available...just not enough time! we're already planning a trip back in the fall.

i will have to share photos from the BRP and the biltmore in another post. the photos alone warrant their own post, nevermind the stories! :)

this week i'll share more pictures and words about our trip and the family favorites that we found.

the trip was initally much more for J than me. he's the one who loves biking,hiking,running...just being outdoors WAY more than i do.

but i have to admit, it was the perfect place to visit.

have a beautiful saturday!

xxo

s

welcome back, friend.

dear camera-

oh, how i've missed you. it's so, so nice to have you back.

i admit, i went a bit nuts this morning, snapping away.

but the girls didn't seem to mind or even notice, i forgot how fast you are!

some of the things you captured took my breath away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

some of the images you captured made me laugh:

 

 

 

 

and some images just made me plain old happy:

 

 

welcome back, friend.

thank you for allowing me to capture on film what i feel in my heart and see with my eyes.

happy tuesday everyone!

back soon with the gussy sews winner!

xo

s

 

happy friday!

happy friday, sweet friends!

and indeed this is a VERY happy friday for us. it marks the end of the four weeks of training that j has been doing.

he's only been home for hours here and there, and when he is home he is sleeping, bless his heart.

do you have any idea how HARD it is to keep two little daddy's girls from waking their favorite person up? not easy i tell you. :)

today i want to share some more photos from the photo shoot we were lucky to be a part of a few weeks ago.

this has turned out to be such a COOL experience.

i get to see my girls through so many different perspectives. i never would have gotten to experience anything like this if this weekend wouldn't have happened. it's such a blessing!

i will treasure these photos forever. :)

first up are these are from anna mollet. thank you, anna. i love the way you have captured my girls...especially the bigs.

 

 

for those of you who asked on facebook,

these outfits are from crewcuts. And also, this isn't our home...we met everyone at a loft downtown!

 

 

i cannot even begin to tell you how hard this next photo makes me laugh. let's just say this...me thinks lucy claire and sadie are going to be best buddies.

 

 

 

 

not only is jill a talented photographer, but she also crafted these sweet little headbands for the shoot!

 

 

this last set was photographed by emily morgalis. thank you so much, emily!!

this is the only one i make an appearance in. i was NOT camera ready. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

have a beautiful, blessed weekend, friends! xoxo

in our last weeks as four (photo heavy)

i hope you'll indulge me today as i share more of the photos from our photo shoot with ker-fox photography.

we received the rest of our photos today and although i could easily share ALL of them, i love them so much, i thought i'd share a few more. i can't help it. hahaha!

i honestly don't think i could decide on a favorite if i was forced to. okay, that's a lie. i think my favorite is probably the one i shared previously, the one of sadie with the dirty knees and the "shoot, i got caught!" look on her face.

but here are more of the ones i love second best. :)

hope you have a beautiful tuesday- i have an OB appt today and i'm curious if there has been any progress!! :)

xxo

s