J Cooper Photography

This little guy is growing up.

At 7 months he is such a hoot. I love so many things about this little man. I love that he always wants to be the center of attention…he’ll work the crowd from across the room so he can flash you one of his giant gummy grins. I love his chubby fingers waving “bye-bye” and that determined wrinkled brow that comes out when he tries to say “mama”. I love that he’ll leap out of my arms when he sees all the grandmas at church…he knows just when someone needs a bit of baby love.

I love him in these little vintage-y overalls…barefoot…with chubby rolls. I love his unruly hair that never seems to lay quite right. I love those little chapped cheeks that are rosy red from all the drooling, blowing raspberries, and chewing.

I love his curiosity….how he log rolls from spot to spot to check out the world around him. I love his big brown eyes that seem to look straight through you…and melt your heart.

I love you little man…every little part.

I disappeared for a few days…took a nice weekend trip “home” to see my parents. The kids always seem to enjoy a weekend away and since we stayed close to home during the holidays, we thought it would be a nice diversion from all the wet, cold, winter weather.

So now we’re back…and I thought I’d share my latest completed project. I found this old store display case on craigslist. It is gigantic (over 7′ long and 5′ high) and barely fit down our basement stairs. Nor did it fit in our van. I really need to stop browsing craigslist…I am forever finding things I MUST have. Somewhere, though, in the process of renting a U-haul and inviting all the strong men in the neighborhood over for a night of heavy lifting, my husband almost disowned me. So I’ll behave. I promise.

The cabinet was a bit of a mess. It had nasty glue all over the base (from the store linoleum I’m guessing) and needed some trim work in places. It is solid wood (mahogany I think) and took six jillion coats of paint (oh ok…three to be exact). But it’s fantastic for fabrics. And some day when I finally get my way and we live in a crickety old house…it will be divine in our family room or office.

I’ve been busy sorting and folding, and stacking and throwing out. I’ve paired down my collection and organized it by color and/or season…with all the wovens to the left and the knits to the right. I can honestly say it was quite the fun afternoon for my OCD personality. I’m sure it will be a disaster in no time…but for now I am enjoying staring at the pretty piles of color.

I’d like to add in some decorative pretties as well. Need to rumage through my storage room and find a few lost treasures to incorporate!

Here’s to starting the New Year off spiffy clean and ready to roll!

This little guy is pretty special…he belongs to a great friend. We hope that our little guys will grow to be the best of friends over the years. And since he’s just a few doors down, I get the privilege of documenting his growth….and has he grown! He is one chunky little monkey…as squishy and sweet as they come…and I love him to death!

He has a big tuft of auburn hair and crystal blue eyes….more wrinkles than my post-holiday thighs, and the biggest smile for his mama…

We were able to capture several sweet grins in our quick mini session!

Thanks for spending the morning with me you little hunk of love. Big squishy hugs!

Do you ever feel like life is pulling in so many directions that having a split personality might actually come to your benefit? I’m beginning to feel that way. I was contemplating the idea of cloning myself to be able to get more done…but then it would still be me…exhausted…trying to get it all done…of course there would be more of me…so maybe not all that bad. I’m thinking the split personality might be a better option. That way someone else can help out around here. I can take care of the fun stuff and “Cybil” can clean my toilets and do the floors. Not a bad arrangement in my mind.

I guess between school, preschool, violin lessons, orchestra practice, photography sessions, editing, a BIG paint job (promise to share the end results), looking for a studio (hoping and praying that I’ll have some great news here soon!), ebay listings, sick kiddos, and those darn toilets….life is feeling a bit chaotic. Good thing I have this blog where I can come and gripe and complain

If you could use a little pick-me-up as well…stop by my latest ebay listings and soak in some fun spring time fashion. It is a proven fact that shopping releases endorphins as well…so snatching up some deals might just cure you of your winter blues (warning…I tried this at Old Navy yesterday and although it is hard on the pocket book it does seem to provide a brief bit of relief!)

Click HERE to see both auctions!

My kids have been getting pretty creative in their play these days. “Sick game” is one of their favorites. If you have been to my house and had to play patient in this horrible game I am deeply apologetic. This week their babies were feeling under the weather.

Here are the babies on their hospital beds…A has a mighty nice hospital band so she won’t be arrested trying to visit the babies….wouldn’t want to set off any alarms at the nursery!

I’m not 100% sure if that wet Kleenex is her mask…I’m thinking I’d rather not know.

This way to the hospital entrance.

This poor baby needed an IV…although her blood pressure is darn good at 110/60. Hmmm…I’m thinking my kids have come to visit me too many times in the hospital? Maybe we should see a counselor about that?

And speaking of hospitals. I went in for what I thought was a fairly routine exam today only to find out I’ll be having outpatient surgery in a few weeks. It doesn’t sound too bad…I’m mostly irritated that I will have to spend a day or two “recovering”…which is nice way to say I’ll probably be desperately bored. Maybe I can send my other persona in that day for the procedure? Think the Dr. would buy that excuse?

And lastly…promised to share J’s new curtain upon completion.

Pretty easy little one-hour project (especially if I don’t mention that it took me about 2 hours because I am apparently needing more work reading a tape measure).

That’s it for now in the sharing department. We’ll see (like how I said we?) how the rest of the day unfolds. Maybe me, myself, and I will get a bit more done than I think we can!

I was so fortunate to start off the New Year with this sweet baby girl. Have I mentioned how much I love babies? Oh, I have? OK…carry on then.

She’s really quite sweet isn’t she? Peachy fuzz hair, porcelain skin, and just tired enough to get one sweet sleepy shot. At 9 weeks she was a bit big for the traditional newborn session…but after much bouncing, swaying, and shushing…she finally drifted off.

Pretty enamored by her Daddy I think. She kept her eyes trained on him the entire time!

Thanks again for the chance to meet your sweet little girl! Safe travels home!!

Since the weather has turned cold and plans to stay that way for the next few months I’ve been working on trying some new things inside. I’ve got a sweet little baby girl heading this way tomorrow and wanted to try out some new backgrounds as a trial run

Still working on the textures too. Wishing that my girls’ faces didn’t look so stripped of color once I erase back the texture…any “texture gurus” out there who have a few suggestions?

We’ve got some sickies in the house (perianal strep…if you haven’t heard of that you ought to google it…WOW…didn’t even know it existed until a few weeks ago…and now it has made its way through our house again despite my best efforts to clean obnoxiously). A actually was swabbed for strep throat too which was positive but you’d never know it as she is as happy as a clam.

So we are staying inside and trying not to infect the rest of the neighborhood with our germs. Hoping these antibiotics will kick in and get us all on the road to recovery asap! This little guy has been tugging at his ears and fighting off a cold. Hoping he’ll fight it off on his own without another trip in to see the Dr. We’ve been in so many times this month they greet us by name at the front door!

Especially love this in sepia

Hope everyone is staying warm and cozy. No big New Year’s resolutions here…I figure the less I resolve to do the less chance I have of being disappointed in myself HAPPY NEW YEAR!