mmhmm.

Today I had a little boy who was like this:

 

every waking moment.

Don't get me wrong- I love the squealing laughter and overflowing joy that he exudes from every pore...

I just wish he'd share some of his energy with me.

Man, oh man...

this mama is tired.

It probably has something to do with a little girl who was mostly like this:

 

and a little something to do with this:

(Please note- I do have other maternity shirts. I actually have this one in...ahem... four colors. Just happened to be wearing the yellow one again while we were playing with the new camera in the garage. It is my favorite. Well, was. Until I bought the purple one. Okay, I'll admit it- I can't pass up $3.24 t-shirts that fit me perfectly! (thank you, once again, target.))

We had our Harvest Party at church and it was good. 

I'm thankful for the last minute costumes from my friend Brook... Halloween seems to be an afterthought for me every year. I just don't get excited about it. I will, however, be scouring the clearance racks for princess get-ups and superhero costumes to hide away for Christmas presents. Oh, and candy corn hershey kisses. I'll be looking for those, too.

Anyway. I have 3 photo sessions tomorrow and one on Sunday and four still to edit and I'm tired.

So...I should really get to work.

Or go to bed.

Either way- 

happy weekend.

=)

today:

• My furnace didn't work. It was 59 degrees inside. BUT- praise God- our wood burning stove is AMAZING and within an hour it was 68 degrees inside-- just using wood! I love the way our house smells, and secretly, I like feeling like a pioneer. or something like that.
• I worked out. This might not sound monumental, but I AM 31 weeks pregnant. And currently sedentary. Twenty five minutes on the elliptical trainer never hurt so good. Loved it so much that I JOINED the gym. Call it peer pressure, but two good friends of mine were joining, too... and with child care built into the price AND spinning class, lap pool, hot tub, treadmills with tv- you had me at hello. I am really excited!
• After I worked out, I may or may not have eaten a McDonalds cheeseburger. I'll leave that up to you to decide, but know this: I passed on the Diet Coke and chugged 64 oz. of water instead. You can pat me on the back tomorrow, if you want.
• I like the house silent during nap times. I crave quiet. It wasn't exactly readily available to me initially today, but I folded laundry (because it was in my way) and plopped in my oversize chair+ottoman that happens to be located next to the fire, and I sipped my water (not diet coke) and edited pictures and enjoyed every single minute of it. It was glorious.
• I hurriedly got ready and ventured out into the gloomy, windy 45 degree air. I took pictures of a beautiful little 2 year old girl and got to really test out my new camera. It's love, my friends. I am so stinkin' excited.
• I got groceries in peace (read: sans kiddos). Mothers of multiple understand what a treat this is. And then on my way home, I got a vanilla chai from (as Corban calls it) "Dunkin' Chai-nuts", and came home to dinner waiting on me. Oh sweet day.
• We all played in the garage and watched my little girl dance and my son throw strikes and I sat amazed at what sweet gifts I've given. I put jammies on Caters and she sang 'He loves us, Oh how He loves us..." to me and I melted all over again.

I'm a big fan of today. :) And now, it's time for bed. Hope your day was great, too!

why I love being a mom, #982

 

and then... click on this to REALLY see my boy in action.

 

These kiddos... I love seeing who they are, their individuality, how they're wired.
Nothing better than being Mama.

=)

p.s.- My new new camera came today. I don't think I blogged about it, but my other one arrived broken. All is well now, though, and I can't wait for the munchkins to wake up so we can test it out. Oh happy day!!!

hang on!

 

This week is chaos. 

I had 3 photo sessions last week, 7 this week, 4 next week.

I purposefully jam packed this month- with it being prime time seasonally for pictures and with my upcoming hiatus due to the birth of a child.

But it sure makes for craziness around here.

I'm really excited, though, about a lot of things. Like being a photographer. And taking a vacation (in two weeks, my friends...). Having time with just my family after all this busyness. It's good. It's just a few weeks of chaos. And I love it. The moments that I'm not letting myself be overwhelmed, anyway, I really do love it.

So hold on, life will sort of soon resume normalcy. Except for the holiday season quickly approaching, and then adding another child to our family. I guess a NEW normal will soon arrive. One where we have three kiddos and I have a small business. 

Crazy.

And amazing.

God is so good to us.

I'm really excited about life right now. 

Even amidst the chaos. 

I have a lot to say on all these subjects; a photography business, a third child, a vacation, my husband, etc., and hopefully we'll get to it all soon. But now, it's time for bed.
Sweet dreams.

:)

how sweet it is...

I know... I spend an awful lot of time talking about my kiddos on here- but I'm a stay at home mom who loves her job more than anything... what do you expect?! :) Tonight, though... my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude. It's 12:30 a.m. and under normal circumstances I would be long time sleeping, but I drank a latte (thanks to our housemates' recent employment a la buck of stars) at 8 p.m. and my brain just wasn't ready to settle down. After laying in bed tossing and turning for 30 minutes, I decided that instead of just thinking about my monstrous to-do list, I'd get up and actually DO something. For the last forty minutes, I conquered Mount Saint Laundry that had overtaken our sitting room, and as I moved from chair to futon placing clothes in their appropriate stacks, I noticed a little something that that sweet boy of mine had done tonight.
It's part of our nightly routine to read a story from the Bible that Jordan read as a young boy. The kids are quick to remind us and quickly settle onto their Daddy's lap when it's time. Tonight, though, Corban kept telling us to hold on or to read without him. He had found a bag of clothes that someone had given us, and had started to dig through them when a sweatshirt sporting balls of all sorts caught his eye. Jordan had told him to put them back because it was time to read the Bible and time for bed. I'd heard him say something about 'making Mommy happy' and folding clothes, but I wasn't sure what was going on. He eventually came and listened to the story and I thought nothing of it until I was nearly done with my million loads of clean clothes.
There sat in the middle of the room a perfectly folded stack of six or seven shirts, piled right next to a half-empty bag of clothes.
He had been pulling the clothes out of the sack and folding them neatly for his Mama.
That little boy... he amazes me daily. I can't believe we've been given such a sweet, precious gift to raise and watch grow. I can't believe that he is the way is, despite my many shortcomings as a Mom, despite the long year we had. He is a helper at his core. He likes order and routine. He lights up at the first words of praise and rewards you with a smile that will melt your heart. He's an encourager. He loves to give, to assist, to clean- and I love those things about him. He's got the most inquisitive mind, and while at times it's exhausting, I can't get enough of hearing his little brain process and connect thoughts and ideas.
I'm just reminded and in a fresh awe of what a privilege it is to be a mother. I am so thankful that God has so blessed me, that we have Corban and Cate, that they're made the way they are. There were many, many days over the last year that I'd wished for calmness, that I'd wished for quiet, that I wanted still, that I wanted uninterrupted this or that. I'd let other people's comments and expectations and really, my own selfishness rule my opinion of my kids- why wouldn't mine just sit still? Why wouldn't mine be content for a quiet activity? Why wouldn't they sit on my lap while I tried to talk?- but over the course of the last few months, the Lord has totally changed my heart. Those very qualities that make them hard to handle at times are qualities that He's intentionally created them with. He gave them their strong wills... for a purpose. That extra dose of energy and curiosity... they're there for a reason. So many of the qualities that I see in both of them that can be difficult are the same qualities I see in my husband... and are the things that make him who he is, that I love so much about him, that make him perfect for his job. In seeing all of this, my whole perspective of being their Mama has changed. I want to nurture and encourage these things in them. I want help train them to use these strong personalities to be leaders, to use their strengths to point people to Jesus. I don't want to stifle them! I don't want to force them to be who they're not for my convenience, you know? I want them to know every single day how much I love being their Mom, how much I love them... exactly as they are.
I've got a long way to go, a lot of things I want to work on and change- I want to be so much more intentional about being Mama, being a wife (and that's a whole 'nother post)- but I can say in all truthfulness that I've never been grateful or more in love, more content. How sweet it is to be a wife, to be a Mama, to follow Jesus...

ladies and gentlemen:

My new camera has arrived!

  I used my Rebel for a week shy of a year and it was a wonderful, wonderful camera to learn on. But now- it's time for bigger and better things. Like higher ISO and more focal points and 15 megapixels (amongst many other things).

I even threw in a new lens because it only cost a few extra dollars to do so (and the lens retails for much more than a few dollars, let me tell you!)

It's a happy day in this house.

I'd show you pictures that I took with it, but....

I didn't realize it took a different kind of memory card.

And it's too late to go buy one.

Friends, I've got a lot to learn.

:)

Anyway, we had an incredibly beautiful morning today, and outside in Indiana is just beautiful. 

There's a lot I probably could say about these pictures, but it's past my bedtime and my brain is d.o.n.e. for the day.

Soon I'll really write. 

Happy almost-weekend!

28 weeks

Here I am, 

28 weeks pregnant 

with Baby McG #3:

 (picture taken by my husband)

Too much work to do to write much else tonight!

Happy 10.10.10!

park play

 The weather outside in mid-central Indiana is unbelievably perfect. This time of year, you realize why people live in this state, why they stay... 67 and sunny, beautiful colors everywhere... absolutely perfect.

Needless to say, we're spending as much time as we can outside enjoying.

We hit up the park just a mile or two down the street this morning, and the kids enjoyed just running around. They play so little on the equipment- they prefer to just run. Guess there's not much need to drive to the park if that's all they want to do! :)

Anyway- just LOOK at how big my daughter is getting. Seriously. She's a full-blown toddler (and aren't those pigtails wonderful?). She's really shot up here recently, and is also slimming down. Not much of that round little toddler belly left. She's speaks really really well- full sentences- and amazes me with the things she puts together. She remembers names and who belongs with who every bit as well as Corban does. She's very much a people person, and very much a mama's girl. :) And in case you were wondering, she insists on wearing her 'Cindereya' watches (they're actually Belle- our elderly neighbors who are moving found them while boxing things up. They were their granddaughters- who is now in college!), at all times, and on both wrists. She's got a thing for all things princess or tinkerbell, despite never having seen any of the movies. Funny how you don't have to teach a little girl to like to frilly pretty things, huh?

Anyway- a few pictures from our morning:

 

 

 

  (she was taking off her shoes, as always)

 (He's a running machine! Just loves to go!)

 (any guesses on what was happening here? Corban's new favorite game... 'BAM!'ing Cate. He runs behind her and bumps her with his chest... usually knocking her over. Mmhmm. Nice, huh? Thankfully, she finds it funny and loves to try and outrun him.)

 

I love how he looks so boyish, but still my baby in this one. 

 

I told you she was huge! :)

Okay.. kids are finally quiet in their beds, which means that I can bathe without fear. I've got a senior photo session late afternoon today and one late morning tomorrow, and then we're spending Saturday up at Taylor University with my brother-in-law, Isaac and also Hopey. Jordan and Isaac are running a 5k race in the morning, and then we're watching Isaac play football in the afternoon and Hope play volleyball in the evening. Hoping to squeeze in visits with some recently graduated youth group kids while we're up that way, too! 

Enjoy this beautiful day!

normal

Let's see if I remember how to write a post that is jovial and light and talks about everyday things like being a mama to the most perfect (for our family) kiddos on the planet or delicious recipes or house projects.
Ready, set... go!
Today is a Wednesday, which seems to catch me off guard every week. Wednesday means its almost the weekend, and I'm not sure how that happened when it was just Sunday, know what I mean?? Anyway, I cancelled morning plans this morning because of this dumb head cold I'm fighting and the lack of energy causing me to want to wear to pajamas and lay on the couch. So that's what I did until the temperatures hit above 50, and then I made a cup of hot cocoa, and sat in my rocking chair as I watched my kiddos play in the 'fort'. The fort is part of our 'un'landscape that has a rock border and is full of dirt and extends underneath the most giant pine tree that could grow on the corner of our house. My father-in-law trimmed off some of the lower branches to make room for the kids underneath, and we've spent countless hours shoveling dirt and climbing limbs since. That little boy of mine is quite the tree climber- got higher than my head yesterday!- and gets so frustrated when he can't find his way down. He'll mumble under his breath that he's 'not brave of the tree' and I remind him that he is, or he wouldn't have started climbing it in the first place. He's a funny one, my Corban Gabriel. I'm amazed watching the person he's becoming... I enjoy who he is more than I ever dreamed possible, amazed that I once thought I wouldn't live through the year of 2. We've come a long way, and I so so love being his Mama. Really and truly, those aren't just words.
Anyway, I made the kids a quick lunch, of which they both ate seconds of everything- and then added a box of raisins and half a bagel afterwards. Can we say... growth spurt?! I can't keep up! I made us grown-ups spicy peanut thai noodles (using up my leftover angel hair pasta from the spaghetti we had Monday for lunch! Two points for resourcefulness!) and they were spectacular, if I do say so myself. :) I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, and the products have been well received. It's so nice to be cooking and enjoying food that's not chicken nuggets and french fries again. Much nicer on the pocket book, too. So yes, lunch, Jordan and Jacob (our housemate) got home right as I finished cooking and I left as they arrived to head to my 28 WEEK doctor appointment.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am in my third trimester.
Holy smokes.
The baby looked perfect. It measured a few days ahead (like putting my due date at 12/29), the same that it's measured every ultrasound but one since about 8 weeks. 'It' weighs approximately 2 lbs 9 oz and is in the 59th percentile. I find it overwhelmingly amazing... this baby that was so unplanned, had all these odds against it... absolutely perfect. We tried to get a 3-d ultrasound, but Baby McG #3 had its hands in front of its face- yet again. What we were able to see was its little pouty lips and chubby cheeks... with a jaw line and chin looking just like its brother and sisters' do. I am so excited, and I cannot wait to meet this little one face to face. You'd think with 3 babies in as many years that it might seem commonplace at some point, but I find it as amazing and miraculous as the first one- and I am so in love!
So after the appointment, I had french fries with Maddie- you remember the beautiful girl who just turned 16 that I got to do the pictures of? her.- at Arby's and we sat and chatted. As I said before, I'm so thankful for her, to be a part of her life. Really, I am so blessed and thankful for our youth group kids, and that we get the privilege of being a part of their lives. I have a lot I want to say on that subject, and will someday soon... but I'm really proud of these kids and love my time I get with them.
And with that said, I'm going to bed. We had youth group tonight and we had both kids at church (usually it's just Corban) and I'm not feeling great and I'm sleeeeeeeeeeeepy. So, this was my attempt and resuming some sort of normal blogging, outside of just heavy posts or just picture heavy posts. Sweet dreams!

the best...

  The best part of waking up...

Seeing these faces..

Being Mama to these munchkins.

Love, love, love.

=)