Every Moment in Time

I take an obscene amount of photos every month. I whip out my camera almost every day to capture something special, something I deem cute, something that makes my heart sing.

Cesar enjoying swinging

Taken the other day at the park

I often ask myself, “Self, is it really necessary that you take hundreds of photos every month? Do you really need to capture every moment?’

The resounding answer is always, “Yes. Yes it is important to me. For every one of these great moments there are an equal number of not so great moments. During those times I can reflect on those incredible instances. I can look at those photos. I can think about those memories. I can trust in the knowledge that this too shall pass and just over the ridge there will be another moment that will make my heart sing!

Let’s face it, life has plenty of these moments too!

 

 

 

The Awkward Stick Was Thrown Javelin Style

Studies have shown that the “awkward stage” is officially over. Girls no longer go through this awful transition period. You know that stage during adolescence where your outer appearance is, well, awkward.

Okay, so there really wasn’t a study done on this. It is purely one of my recent observations. I am basing this off of sightings at the mall, pictures on the internet, a middle school volley ball game I attended and lastly on my own two nieces who have managed to steer clear of the awkward stage.

I was always under the assumption that every girl must go through a mandatory “awkward stage.” I certainly know that’s how it was back in my day. The awkward stick hit every girl I knew. Some got whacked harder than others but at least everyone got a few taps.

Apparently, the awkward stick was thrown javelin style straight at me because I present to you my most unfortunate look ever:

My 7th grade picture

Keep in mind this is a school picture, so I can only assume that I was alerted to the fact that they would be snapping a photo of me so therefore meaning that this look was the cream of the crop as far as what I could achieve appearance wise. At least you can kind of overlook the bad hairdo by the size of those spectacles.

If I remember correctly I believe I cut my own hair during this time period. I did this because I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. You see, I didn’t always have curly hair. I had some curls when I was little and then it went stick straight when I was in 1st grade. You can see that picture here. After that it started to get some wave to it.

My 4th grade picture

My 5th grade picture

My 6th grade picture

For some reason after 6th grade my hair got crazy curly and the first picture I showcased was a prime example. Instead of applying mouse or gel to my hair, I would just snip off fly-away curls. Apparently, I had a lot of fly-aways.

By 8th grade, things were getting a little better:

My 8th grade picture

I had discovered mousse and left the years of wacky glasses behind by getting contacts.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of my awkward stage. The summer after 8th grade I doused my hair in Sun-In in order to achieve the sun-bleached blonde hair that was advertised on the commercial. After hours of laying in the sun slathered in baby oil and my hair drenched in Sun-In the only thing I achieved was a terrible burn and bright orange hair. I am sorry to report I have no pictures of this to share with you. I think I may have successfully destroyed all evidence of this period.

I think I may have successfully got things turned around when I was 17 years old and began reading Seventeen magazine and got myself acquainted with all of the latest fashions, makeup and hair tips.

I blame the internet, You-Tube tutorials and hundreds of new and improved skin care and hair care products for phasing out the “awkward stage” in this present time. Girls today have so much information at their fingertips. All the girls I’ve seen recently, that fall into this age category, have beautiful, shiny hair. They have good fashion sense. They keep their make-up to a pretty lip gloss and some mascara.

I am happy for these girls and yet I feel bad for them.

They will have nothing to look back on and laugh at when they get older!

It’s Tough Being A Kid At Our House At Halloween

It’s tough being a kid in our house at Halloween. My husband and I both love this holiday and we have forced our love on our kids since they were wee little ones.

You get thrust into pumpkins for the sake of cute pictures!

Iris at 5 months old began this tradition

Bency at 4 months old getting the pumpkin shot

Cesar at 1 month old being shoved into the pumpkin…have to keep tradition alive!

You get laid in piles of leaves for the sake of cute pictures!

Iris at 5 months for her first leaf photo shoot

Bency at 4 months for his leaf photo op

Poor Cesar at 1 month keeping up the tradition and hating every minute of it!

You are expected to help decorate the front yard with whatever crazy ideas your parents have.

Iris’s first time helping us make a scarecrow back in 2006

The witch the kids help me make this year

When your Dad is an expert pumpkin carver; you must follow in his footsteps and create many pumpkin masterpieces starting at a very early age.

One of my husband’s pumpkins this year!

Bency working on his pumpkin this year

Iris’s pumpkin this year

Cesar’s first year of getting to make his own pumpkin

Lastly, the hardest part of being a kid in our household is your Mom makes you wear Halloween clothes ALL month long!

Bency & Iris wearing the same pumpkin shirt in 2009

All three kids in Halloween gear in 2010

All three kids sporting their Halloween outfits in 2011…Cesar still hated Halloween!

In case you missed it, check out our fun Halloween project…Spooky Barbie… we did this year right here!

The Hopeless Photo-Taking Family

Here are just a few quick pictures for you this Sunday before we begin spending our last day with my mother-in-law before she heads back to Albuquerque, NM.

I mentioned in my very first post Motherhood is an Art Form that we are NOT a photogenic family. Either something happens right as the camera is clicked or we just can’t get ourselves together to look decent.

Our last family photo was no exception. Last weekend we attended a Green Bay Packer football game and here are our results!

Here we are at my parent’s house, dropping off our littlest one before we headed out to the Packer game. Bency, our 5 year old insisted on wearing his Spider Man mask to the game!

Here we are at the Green Bay Packer game! This is the only photo we got with all of us in it! Notice Iris, our 7 year old decided to fix her hair just as the photo was being taken…and of course, Bency still has that Spider Man mask on!!!