Abbie, Bud and Zabe

Bud took Z for a cruise today on the snowmobile.  Zabe really didn't want to come in the house after the ride.  He was taking it all in, as trying to get a smile out of him was quite a chore.  It didn't happen.  I think it got to about 28 degrees today which feels like a heat wave.  Hopefully, I can get out for a walk with the mutt tonight.  We both need it.

Actually his mom dropped him off the for the day so she could go get pampered with a facial, massage, shopping and enjoy some time to herself.  KIDDING, she went to a baby shower.  Leslie spent the afternoon with Bud riding 4-wheeler, snowmobiling, and walking through the woods looking for deer horns.  We went out to dinner tonight with Grandma and Grandpa Flom, Em, Leslie, and Tammy.  Zabe seems to be cutting some more teeth in that little mouth of his so for the 2nd time in 2 weeks we have a runny nose, fever, rosy cheeks and a cough.  Poor kid. 

One of the many faces while playing video games.  He's a riot.  

Don't you think they could pass as brothers.  Leslie has a cough also, and the rosy cheeks. 

Super Mario can get pretty stressful.  LOL!

His hand in his pocket.  Waiting for his turn. 

I love how Zabe has his legs cross and his hand on Buds leg.  He sat like this for about 10 minutes. 

Check it out here.  So, so SO very exciting. 

for the weekend. Tomorrow is the first wedding of 2008 that I am helping Emily with.  I'm excited as I love to help her shoot weddings.  

The response to Abbie Flom has been amazing.  Thank you everyone for your support, and kind words during this new endeavor.

Everything on the home front is pretty much same old.  Zabe is doing fine.  He is finally starting to walk a little more.  After last weekend following Leslie around, he's started to get more brave and sometimes does really well, otherwise he still thinks crawling is much faster and easier.  Z and Bud have passed their colds back to each other which is not fun.  For some reason, Zabe has been a little more irritable and whiney.  Then sometimes he just plain old doesn't know what he wants and gets really irritable and whiney.  I can't say it enough, how I am so ready for spring.  We've gone for a couple walks around town and he's in pure heaven while we are out there. 

This a.m. he woke up about 8:00, I changed his diaper and put him back to bed because he was way to crabby to begin his day.  It's 9:15 now and he's still sleeping.   I may have to start doing this more often, and hopefully he will be in a good mood when he wakes up.  I am sure he will be so excited to see his cousins tonight.  I was telling him last night we were going to see Em, and John, and Holden, and Leslie and Harrison tomorrow and he got soooo excited.  He is really starting to understand things like that.  He also did really good repeating their names.  Hopefully he will also see these guys.  As he still says Jackie when he sees Jackson's school picture.  

Ok, I best get to packing.  Have a good weekend everyone. 

This is the newest thing he has been doing.  Before he stands up he looks through his legs.  He thinks it hilarious. 

The purebred.  Bud cut his bangs, he wasn't able to see very well.

were sick here.  I actually have been since roughly Saturday night as we were Up North.  So not a very fun week thus far.  Then of course Zabe has come down with the same thing today.  Hopefully we will be on the mend real soon as I hate this crud.  I did get a couple cute picts today of Zabe as he was sitting in the chair. 

I will post more later about our weekend up north.  FYI- it was extremely cold up their this weekend!

one wedding down that is.  I had a fun time shooting the wedding with my ever so talented sister and M.I.L.   Oh, and how could I forget this punk.  I can't even explain to you how cold it was up there.  Never in my whole 26 years of life have I been so cold.  Ok, well maybe I'm exaggerating a little but seriously the wind chill in that house was about -50.  Kidding guys, kidding.

There are a couple pictures of the couple I took up on Abbie Flom Photography.  The bride had a beautiful name and the grooms name is one of my favorite names too.

So, first of all, Z and I are feeling much better, my headache which I have had since Saturday morning finally disappeared this afternoon.  Now Bud is back on the couch feeling like crap, chills and all.  When I was making supper tonight I was getting so hot and looked at the temp on the thermostat and it read 72.  We NEVER have the house set that high.  Usually around 68-69, and Bud freaks out if it goes any higher so I knew he really must not have been feeling well. 

Since I was feeling better I decided to make Bud supper and was trying out my girlfriend Geila's recipe of Taco Pie for the first time.  While making it my mouth was watering because it looked so good and I was so excited to devour it.  I took it out of the oven, set it on the stove top and ran Z up to bed.  Dished up myself a small square and sat down to eat.  Bud was sleeping on the couch so I new I would be eating alone.  As I was sitting down at the table computer eating it I thought I smelt something burning, I had actually smelt it shortly after I took it out but just thought some must have fell off in the oven.  So as I am sitting enjoying it talking to Shell on the phone I smelt that burning smell again, walked into the kitchen and realized when I browned the hamburger I didn't turn off the burner.  Oops, I thought to myself so I picked up the glass casserole dish because it was halfway to 3/4 on the burner, and when I picked it up it shattered, into a million and six pieces.  Glass, shrapnel, food, more glass, more shrapnel everywhere.  Seriously EVERYWHERE!  I dropped the phone and watched my tasty, taco pie go right down into the stove.  (I had the door of the stove open letting the heat out into the house.)  So glass in the oven, glass on me, I cut my finger, glass all over, and one piece of the pie in my stomach.  What a waste.  Ah, I hate when stupid things like this happen.

Note to self.

1.  Turn off burner when done frying hamburger

2.  Get rid of Purebred who wanted to eat food that fell onto floor.

3.  Take bigger proportions next time, just in case.

4.  Don't use glass plan, stick to aluminum.  Kidding, that aluminum is just terrible for you.

5.  There is a reason for those fancy covers to go over the stovetop griddles.  Had I had some of those bad boys, no glass would have went down in there.

5.  Remember it's V-Day, tell the love you love him and sorry but he's going to have to fast for the night.

6. Enjoy a beer while cleaning glass and food up for next 1.5 hours. 

How was your V-Day?  Can you top that?

**Update- I forgot to add this earlier.

I made cookies today, because mom and Shell said we could cheat on our Life Style Change since it was V-Day, and cookies sounded REEEAAAALLLLYYYYY good to me.  Here's how most of them turned out. 

Nice and Flat.  Real Flat.

Really flat.  I couldn't figure out what the heck I did wrong.  I even put the dough in the fridge for a while to see if that would help.  Nope. 

Then I realized I forgot to double the flour.  (Thanks mother!)

Doesn't this look better.  They were sure tasty, even the flat guys.  Feel free to stop in and enjoy 1 or 17, because I only have an hour to eat them before it's back on the lifestyle change.   I love dieting.

The last thing I do at night is watch my DVR'd Channel 4 News.  Can be a tough way to end the day, but it's so routine that I just do it.  Many times Don Shelby's In The Know confuses the heck out of me, last nights was very good.  Minneapolis has had only 2 murders in 2008, but they are both such sad, sad stories. Read Below.  I'll post something a little happier later, but if you missed last nights V-Day Supper Disaster just scroll down and catch yourself a laugh.

In The Know: Less Murder, But Helpless Victims

 
Don Shelby

(WCCO) Minneapolis has had only two homicides so far this year. For a town that was once called "Murderapolis" that's very good news. But Don Shelby says after reviewing the two murders, he doesn't feel much like celebrating.

From what I can tell the criminals have taken a few months off in their incessant efforts to kill each other. Police clear the vast majority of murder cases by arrest and prosecution.
That will be the case in the first two murders of the year, and so we ought to feel some sense of relief.
But, I'm not relieved because the victims of the two killings we've reported this week were a 4-year-old boy, beaten beyond recognition, and a 70-year-old woman, stabbed to death in her home. Maybe I am not sensitive enough to the loss suffered when two drug dealers gun each other down. But when the victims of murder are children or senior citizens, it gets my blood up, and I'm not likely to feel good about the advertised low crime rate.
John Donne once, famously wrote, "Every man's death diminishes me."
If he had to report the murder of a 4-year old and a 70-year-old in the same week, he might have used the word "heartbreaking."

My cleaning ladies came this afternoon, it was great.

Photos by Shelly, who did a fab job.

Giving mama some love.

Concerned about the humming of the clipper.

This would be a nice shot Shell if you didn't see right up my nostril.  I like how she is learning though!!

It was so long, so this nice little clean up we gave him looks real nice.

Another great shot by Shell.  Love his huge feet.

Grandma feeding him a healthy snack of bananas M&M's. You gotta do whatcha gotta do.

He was done. He does so well, but it was time to get down.  Another great shot but Shell, seriously how many chins do I have!

One of the main reasons I am so sick of it is because I am soooo ready to get outside and take pictures.  Everything right now outside seems to be same old same old, and I want green and sunny and new life.  I feel like the below picture describes my mood these days.  On Sunday I had had enough of neglecting my camera and made Shell drive me around so I could take a few pictures of SOMETHING.  These are what I got.

Cool wind effect snow.  I can't believe I just said cool and snow in the same sentence.

This poor, poor car.  I can't even talk about it I'm so upset about it.  The poor, poor thing.  It must be so cold. 

And this man is to blame. :) I love you dad.  But 4-Real, the poor car.

Lately Zabe has been a REALLY big mamas boy.  Not that he doesn't go to anyone, he'd leave with anyone who'd take him, but when were at home he wants me much more than Bud.  He wants me to read to him, me to feed him, me to hold and carry him.  ME.  And it's really annoying.  Not sure why lately he thinks I'm so cool.  I mean he's right, BUT!  There's a time and a place for all that.  Bud has been home quite a bit lately since we live in an ice box so I don't know if he's just filled up with daddy love or what!  So anyway today for awhile Zabe and Bud bonded like men.  They both had their recliners, and then they gardened. It was pretty cute. 

I'm blaming Zabe's spaghetti face on Bud because he fed him lunch and didn't wash his face.

After reclining in their chairs, they headed to the kitchen to plant some tomatoes.  I said to Bud before he started planting, "So where are the plants?"  He laughed and said, "Right here, their seeds!"  OMG, so funny.  So needless to say the best sunlight is in our bedroom window so that's where the dang thing is.  BOYS!

Hey sis, this is my attempt at getting the Lunar Eclipse.  The reasons why it didn't turn out.

1.  It was -10 out when I tried taking the picture.

2.  I was sick of trying to get the camera focused onto that small dot in the sky.

3.  My arms got tired of trying.  Wimp.

4.  I think my camera was starting to freeze.

5.  I had capri's on because I played volleyball tonight, and my legs were starting to freeze so I gave up, and the last time I took pictures in the cold I got frostbite on my ear. 

This is one of my clients After pictures, I forgot to do a before.  I loved how this color brought out her eyes so much.  The blue just popped. 

Very cute!I love these colors together, a deep red with a very subtle highlight.

I went to celebrate my girlfriend Geila's birthday with her on Saturday night.  Oh such good times.  Geila and Chris are getting married in May, they are such a cute couple.  Love them.

This kid is obsessed with shoes, he tries to put them on or he'll bring them to you for you to put on.  

My friend and classmate Ryan Buck was in a serious snowmobile accident Saturday morning.  As of right now he has no movement from mid-chest down.  Go give your prayers and support to his family on their Care Page.  You will have to create a sign in name and password.  After creating that select visit and type in rdbuck.  Ryan is such a great guy, he is totally in God's hands right now, I pray for his family during this difficult time they are going through.  Goes to show us all how quickly our lives can change in a matter of seconds and why finding the wonderful in today is so important.

My new background stand arrived today and the first thing I did when I noticed it was here was set up for Zabe's shoot.  The pictures turned out so cute.  I have a small problem of taking so many pictures just like my sis.  Not that its a bad thing, but there are just sooo many to look at.  I think I took roughly 150 in about 30 minutes.  Snap, snap, snap.  Here are just a few as I know Zabe's aunties are waiting to see some. He's such a good model, will post more later.

Yesterday, Shel, Ann, Zabe my cousin Ashley and I went to Sherburn, MN to meet up with my mom, aunt Lori and cousin Mickey who flew into MN from NM to celebrate my moms aunt Grace's 97th birthday.  Grace's sister Donna flew in from MI to surprise her and their other sister from Farmington also went down to celebrate with her.  Grace is amazing.  She still drives, lives by herself, walks around like she's about 24 and is as full as life as they come.  At lunch she had a beer. :)

The weather was awful on our drive home, what should have taken roughly 2.5 hours, took us 4.  Fun.  Fun.  So glad we went.

....97!!

Donna, Grace and Charlotte.  Grace is the oldest, followed by the late Uncle Harry. Then it was my mom's mom who passed away when she was 53 from cancer, next is Donna who is 77, and then Charlotte who is 75.  Don't they look amazing!!  Makes me so sad I didn't get the chance to meet my grandma.  These ladies are sooo fun and funny!!

Grace and Donna's hands.  

Front Row- Mickey (her mom is behind her) My mom, and aunt Lori.

Their hilarious. 

96 year difference.  So glad I got a couple pictures of these two.