Catching up!!

Oh my goodness, let me apologize to all of my blog readers!! I've completely neglected my blog for over a month now! Life just got a hold of me I guess, so let me catch you all up. Where do I begin....

Okay first let's talk about my parents...Their house caught fire last month. The fire started in the kitchen. They think maybe the stove was left on or a faulty light switch next to the stove shorted out. No one was home. The neighbors called the fire station and the fire was put out before the entire house caught fire. The entire kitchen is gone and the rest of the house has smoke damage to it. They've been working day and night to restore the house. I feel awful for them b/c they haven't been able to enjoy their house since Hurricane Katrina. I almost feel like it isn't fair that this happened to them, but I have to remind myself that everything truly happens for some sort of reason. We may not understand why it happened now, but once they bounce back and can look back they'll see and understand God's plan. Thanks to everyone who helped my parents to clean and rebuild.

Now about me...I've been SWAMPED with photo sessions, which is a good thing for me b/c I love what I do and I love to watch my work get better and better. I love learning my camera. The best thing about all of the sessions I've had is that mostly all of them were through word of mouth. That says alot about my work! Things are starting to slow down a bit so I'm thinking of new marketing strategies for the summer season.

I have some AWESOME news about one of the most important men in my life, my husband....Daddy hasn't had a cigarette in 21 days!!!! I am so proud of him. Daddy has been smoking for over 20 yrs and decided on his own, 21 days ago, to stop cold turkey. It was quite hard for him in the beginning, but now I don't think he even thinks about having a cigarette. Thank God for that!

Now about J :D He's been doing so much lately. I've noticed that my son is no longer a baby anymore. He's a big boy!!! He understands just about everything and he does things that Daddy and I thought he was too young to do. For instance, a few weeks ago, my 16 month old son played football with his older cousins (ages 4 and above!). He would run back and turn around for the ball and hold his hands in the air to catch the ball. Then even if he didn't have the ball he ran for the touchdown and would stop and cheer. Now how did my baby get that much sense to know how to play football?!?! I was floored! He got tackled a few times and I grimaced each time for him, but he just got right up and rubbed his head and continued to play. He also has become quite the mocking bird. He repeats EVERYTHING!! My cousin was taking his picture and told him to say "cheese". I'm the type of photographer who doesn't tell her clients to say "cheese" so I had never told J to say it. Imagine our surprise when he said cheese and sported the BIGGEST smile I'd ever seen and posed for the camera!! Also, he's developed an obsession with our dogs. When they come inside we usually point them to the kitchen and say "Go". As soon as J sees our dogs, he points his little finger and says "Gooooooooooo!!" This was really funny last night when we had to wake J up at 11pm b.c one of the dogs got himself stuck under J's crib. J woke up and saw Kodi under his bed and pointed his finger and said in the sleepiest voice "Gooooooooooo,gooooooo!" He's so funny! He also repeated something last night that we hope he never says again!!! Daddy was telling Kodi and Kaci to "sit" for their treats. J just watched. A few minutes later, I was in my room and Daddy was doing dishes when we heard J tell Kaci "shit"! We both were like WHAT?!?! LOL!! We know he was trying to say sit, but it didn't come out right. Hopefully he doesn't say it again! We got him a new pool over the weekend and everytime he sees Daddy through the french doors filling it up he yells, "Yay!!" and does a dance. Then he gets in his pool and does all sorts of tricks! He's been in it everyday since Monday and I put him in for about 30 minutes and when I take him out, he hasn't had a tantrum yet. I'm so impressed. Maybe 30 minutes if enough for him. But he loves it. I'm uploading some video footage of this cuteness and I'll post it here for your viewing pleasure. He's been going on the potty very well lately, but I can't say that he's potty training b/c he doesn't have the ability to tell me he has to go. We just keep an eye on him and watch for clues. One main clue is when he goes into his bathroom and puts his potty ring on the toilet. Usually if you put him on the toilet he will use the potty and we do a happy dance. I don't expect to be buying pullups or big boy undies for another year or so, but at least he's getting used to the idea. We've recently realized that he has a strong attachment to his blue blankie, as a comfort item. We actually found out the hard way on Mother's Day weekend. We were on our way to my mom's for the weekend and were driving right in the middle of his nap time. I thought I'd planned this perfectly, thinking he'd sleep the entire ride. Well I could see him getting sleepy but instead of falling asleep, he started to melt down. It got so bad that he started almost hyperventilating. It killed me to see him like that and I was figthing back tears. I held his hand and he rubbed it on his face then I just knew what he needed. I dind't have a balnket for him so I gave him his little jacket and he immediately pulled it up to his face and calmed down and fell asleep. Daddy was astounded. So now we know that blankie has to travel with us if we take long car trips. We'll be driving to Fl next week and I know that blankie will be the first thing I throw in the truck!! Well, honestly, J is doing so much that I couldn't possibly catch you up with everything in this one blog post, so I'll leave you with that until next time, hopefully tomorrow. I'm going to update my photography blog now, so if you have that link, be sure to check it out in a few minutes! Enjoy these pics!