Where I have been

I have been super busy around here, but have some blog posts in the works (meaning I have thought about writing them and gotten no further).

I need to blog about getting my very first tattoo! I'm waiting for it to finish being all gross and peel-y so I can get some nice shots of it.
I also did senior pictures (along with a couple of family shots) for some friends in the Pearl in Portland.
Judah turned 8 months (crazy, right?) on Tuesday. This is the first month where I didn't get his month pictures on the 21st... Things were just too busy, so I took them this morning instead.
All of those things deserve their own posts with photos... So look for them in the (near?) future.

I've been super busy trying to get my photography company, Viewcrest Photography, up and functioning on the double. It is pretty much absorbing all my time (as my lack of house cleaning can surely attest). Of course "all my time" is really what I would like to be giving it, however, as anyone with a baby knows the amount of time I can actually dedicate to it is rather limited. Especially when your baby stays up 2 hours past his bedtime (side eye to Judah). Still, making progress daily... just wish I was making more! So much to do. I'm very excited about the whole venture though. When I announced my intentions I was planning on having this be a much slower process, but I have already had multiple inquires about services which shows me that I need to get everything together asap.

Wish me luck!

Pita bread and yogurt. Breakfast of champions?

It's been a while since I've posted photos of Judah. Things have been pretty busy around here, but, then again, when are they not? I definitely thought being a sahm would have a lot more down time. It feels like there is pretty much always something going on, and there are definitely always ten thousand things I need to do.

Anyway, Judah and I were down in Oregon last week visiting family. Bill couldn't come because he had to work. I had a consultation for an upcoming tattoo (my first! very exciting). It sure was handy having family around to babysit Judah. Thanks to them, I am now caught up on season two of Downton Abbey annnnd I was able to go shopping and out to lunch. Niiiiice.

Now we are back home and trying to catch up on all the house work. Laundry, and vacuuming, and bathrooms, oh my.

We watched the superbowl at a friend's house and I made hummus (my first attempt at homemade hummus, it was good, but there is definitely room for improvement). We had leftover pita bread from that and Judah is in love. Not really in love with the greek yogurt, though. That just made for good smearing.

this one makes me giggle

Kirk + Julia

During the summer of 2010 I went to Wisconsin for the wedding of my friends, Kirk and Julia.

And just a few days ago I got Lightroom.

The two events came together to bring you this post.

I am trying to work on my editing skills. So, expect more posts like this where I go back and edit events that are loooong since past.

The full set is on Flickr. I just got an account today, so I'm not really familiar with how to best use Flickr. If anyone has advice on getting the most out of Flickr, please leave it in the comments. Thanks!

Swimming!

We took Judah swimming at a local pool today. The only other time he was in a pool was this summer at our friend's house. That was a very short swimming experience as it was an unheated outdoor pool. We pretty much just dunked him twice and called it good since it was so chilly out.

This time around we were able to play for a quite a while. He pretty much loved it, which didn't surprise us because that kid is ca-ca-ca-crazzzzy about bath time.

We brought our underwater camera (of course we did). So, here are way too many pictures of Judah at the pool.

Our camera is the Canon Powershot D10 (in case you were wondering). It is our second underwater camera. The first one we had was a Fuji and it was a p.o.s. It took on water and died while in Hawaii. My DSLR camera is a canon so we went that route for underwater/point&shoot.

I edited these photos using Lightroom, which my friend recently recommended to me. I think I might be in love. Lightroom is great. I'm currently using Adobe's free trial, but will definitely be making it my own once the trial runs out.

Check me out

Over at the boo and the boy today... Judah's nursery is being featured.

When planning Judah's nursery, I was constantly finding inspiring images on the boo and the boy.

So. Many. Great. Kid. Rooms.

I'm honored that I can join the ranks. So, get over there and show some love.

Yum, broccoli!

Judah had broccoli for lunch today.

And loved it.

Even if most of the time he had the wrong end in his mouth.

Gotta love Baby Led Weaning!

Monkeyshines 2012: the year of the dragon

It's Chinese New Year and in Tacoma that means magic is in the air... It's Monkeyshines time!

Not sure what I'm talking about? Here is Exit 133's article on them and here is my post on them from last year.

Judah enjoying his rabbit orb from last year and new dragon medallion

Last year, Bill found an orb during an early morning walk with the dogs. He found it outside the conservatory at Wright Park around 5:30 am. While he was doing that I was at home feeling sick and pregnant. Blech, no early morning searching for me last year.

The 2011 rabbit monkeyshines orb

This year, Bill was not inclined to get up early to walk the dogs. So, it was up to me. When Judah woke up I checked online and saw on Exit 133 that people had found some monkeyshines. I then quickly got dressed, changed Judah, and we were off. But, dammmn, it was icy! There was tons of black ice on the streets and sidewalks, so our progress was pretty slow going.

We first checked people's park and the planters around there on MLK. No luck (saw afterwards that some people reported finding marbles at peoples's , but there were out much earlier than us). We then (carefully) made our way over to Wright Park. We saw quite a few other hunters. I had been checking the landmarks in the park, but figured all the other hunters were probably doing the same. So we went off path and, wouldn't you know, we found a medallion sparklingly in the base of a tree trunk! Yay!

You can kind of see the swirls of color...

See the dragon?

That is now two years in a row that we have lucked out in Wright Park.

Judah really likes how the medallion tastes.

I am super glad we found a medallion, but, yowza, the photos I've seen so far of the orbs are crazy awesome. The artists outdid themselves.

Here is one that was posted on Exit 133

And one posted on the Exit 133's facebook page:

I'm posting this from my iPod while Judah naps in my arms. Once he is awake I'll update and add better photos... And now updated!

ipod photo

ipod photo of the medallion glowing when held in front of a light