Grandkids

13 Grandkids.

That feels huge.

Until I started chatting with Brad's grandmother who has 20 plus grandkids, 41 great-grandkids . . . and acutally remembers each of them by name! Pretty impressive for an 80-something lady!

At the rate our family is expanding though, I am sure we can "beat" this legacy record!

Help! I've Stood Up and I Can't Get Back Down!

Well, it has finally happened.

(Actually, it happened a while ago, I'm just getting to write about it now.)

Avery figured out how to stand up in her crib . . . but hasn't mastered getting back down.

This means that during nap times and the middle of the night I will hear a blood curdling scream (or several) until I go in to help her find her way down.

Our little floor sweeper (as her clothing can attest to) is really making tracks these days. Her prefered mode of transport is walking, but as she is still unsteady she needs a helper . . . usually Mom. And naturally, she never wants to walk to the laundry room, or alongside mom as she vacuums, or does ANY cleaning. Nope, it's always to the basement or up and down the staircase, where ever the boys are usually.

When I do manage to get her to move on her own she bee-lines for the dog's food, water dish, or any of our three staircases. (It's almost easier to just walk around with her.)

The cutest thing about Avery and transportation though is the little motor sound she makes with her lips . . . kind of like a car or boat motor. It seems that it helps "propel" her around since she doesn't try to move until the motor is "running."

I guess that is what happens when you have a girl with two older, car-infatuated brothers.

busy, Busy, BUSY.

Things are really getting busy in the editing department here! After all the photoshoots this summer, it's time to start editing and printing images. So, there might be a lag in family photos for a bit . . . especially since I am shooting a wedding this weekend. YIKES.

But, if you would like to see what I've been up to, check out my work at: melanietemplemanphoto.com Follow the links to "sneak peaks" to see my current work. There have been some fun sessions.

And cottage pictures will probably be finding their way there too in the near future. (Of course, I will have to find some time to write about the week here too.)

Dude, I'm Getting a Dell

But I really should have held out for a Mac.

Business has been good lately and has brought the need (and money) for a more powerful computer.

We toyed with the idea of a Mac, but since I had other "needs" on my list and limited funds, I had to settle for a Dell. (Truly, you just can't beat their prices. And in the past we have had great luck with them.)

Until now.

I don't so much have a problem with Dell, or the quality of their computers. I think that is still the same. My problem lies within one word:

Vista.

I cannot tell you the aggrevation this word has been in the last few days.

Why MS has launched such an annoying program before they have fixed all the kinks . . . I will never know. Or why they insist on shoving down everyone's throat when they know full well that it has major issues.

I think they have done improvements with it, but unfortunately for me the one program I absolutely need (and ironically was programmed to be the one program that was vista compatible) is incompatible.

I spent the weekend transferring everything from my old hard drive to this new one. This isn't an easy feat considering that I have 3 cameras and about 9000 photos from one alone. After all of my hard work I realized that my program doesn't run properly.

That means we need to get a new hard drive, buy and load a down-graded OS on it, hope it sovles the problem, and then reload all my software and files again.

What a hassle.

Thank goodness the head of my technical department (aka: Brad) is so clever with computers. He has been a life saver.

Next time though, I will have to do better planning and save for a Mac. Vista has really turned me off PC's.

A New Start

Most people use the New Year as a good time to start fresh.

Not me. I'm too busy eating left over Christmas cookies and candy.

My "Fresh Start" begins with each new school year. I guess it must stem from the fact that between myself, Brad, and now Jayden, there is always someone in school.

There's just something that happens as soon as the stores put their "Back to School" signs and sales up.

Something inside me that makes me feel the urge to get everything in order. To get the kids fall clothing somewhat set; to get my house organized; to arrange extra cirricular activities.

This year is no different.

The kids have clothing ready for the cooler days of fall. I am in the midst of getting together kids' (and big kids') activities for the fall (and winter and spring--I like to plan ahead!). With Brad's absolutely insane schedule with commuting, work, personal time, and church callings, we will have to do some serious and strategic time management planning. And then there is the reality of Brad being out of school . . . and the repayment of loans.

So in addition to all the other stuff, this year we have looked to balance our financial lives a little better. In doing a search online for some free software, I came across this site: http://www.lulu.com/content/1581272
I thought it looked fantastic and decided to share it. Let me know what you think and whether it works for you.

Only time will tell if it will work for us, but gosh, it really feels good to see where our money is going on paper. If only it will feel this good when we are implementing our new budgeting strategies.

Now, as for the organization of the house . . . we'll see how far we really get with that!

Coming Back to Reality

After spending the last week up in Cottage Country with the Templeman clan, we had a rude awakening on our return home.

In addition to mountains and mountains of laundry and bags of stuff to put away, we had some fun surprises too.

On one of the days that Brad travels 1.5 hrs to work, the alarm didn't go off. Oops! We didn't realize it until he had about 45 minutes to get to work. On his way, about halfway there, his car ran out of gas on the highway. What a fun day he had!

Unfortunately, I didn't have reason to be jealous. While I was in the shower, Guillermo was a little sick. He shot little piles of diarrhea all over the upstairs carpet. A few in this room, a few in that room--you get the picture.

The worst of it was that I wasn't the first to find them.

Jackson was. And he stepped in the piles and walked everywhere else upstairs until he realized he had poo on his feet.

Fun.

Yes.

We are wishing we could escape reality a bit longer these days.

Jackson's Third Birthday

Now that it is August, I figure I should get around to blogging about Jackson's birthday . . . held in May.

Our little guy had a Monster Party. The invitations were made by Jayden who drew a fabulous monster.

I tried my best to find "Monster" food, but it was tricky. Especially since I couldn't really make anything myself as we were leaving for Europe the following day.

We made do with gummy spiders, "Monster Claws" (aka Bear Paws), chips, monster juice and Jackson's personal favourite treat: caramel popcorn.

Unfortunately, Jackson was too clever and found his present from us early on. It was a Little Tykes firetruck car. I guess the big blanket we put over it wasn't a great disguise.The worst of it was that once Jackson saw the car, he refused to get out and participate in any of the activities.

Grandma from Calgary flew in the day before and brought a slew of handmade books. She had written a story especially for Jackson called "Jaxonatto". It was about a little boy who wanted to be a scary monster but could never seem to scare anyone. (And of course, the only way we could get Jackson to listen to the story was to let him "drive" his new car over to the story corner.)

Activities included making monster puppets out of brown paper bags. These also doubled as favor bags. (Obviously, the puppet making occurred before the car was discovered. Just barely though.)

During the time between when Jackson finished his puppet and when everyone else was finishing theirs, he found the car. Getting a photograph of the group and their puppets proved difficult until we relented and let Jackson sit in his car for the photo.
The car proved to be a great purchase in the weeks to come. The boys spent hours playing with it in the back yard. That was the best $50 I've spent.

The cake was a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake decorated with Mike from "Monsters Inc."

Jackson got some great presents: sidewalk chalk, bubbles, a monster pencil sharpener, and of course, the firetruck.
The guests went away with a copy of "Jaxonatto" to colour and Monsters Inc pez dispensers.

Brothers

My sweet little boys.

Individually, they are both such sweet little boys. Together, they can certainly cause a lot of noise . . . and bruises.

But at least they enjoy being together and take care of each other. Even on this rock by the water, Jayden was worried that Jackson was going to start rolling over the edge (even though they weren't anywhere close to the edge). So, he held onto his little brother to make sure he was safe.

I love this portrait. There is something so peaceful and serene about my boys in it. You would never think that these sweet little boys could possibly have blown up an electrical socket with a penny . . . or have conceived the idea of putting a little dog in a fridge.

But you do see how they care about each other. When one boy is crying, the other (without fail) will go comfort him. And when one is in trouble and sent to bed without dessert, the other will sneak a snack up for him.

Okay, So I Lied.

It seems that ripping myself away from "work" is harder than I thought.

We have been doing a lot of fun things with the kids. Lots of parks, picnicing, swimming, building a bookcase, etc. But with all the great comments and suggestions for my website I've been burning the candle at all hours fixing things and tweaking others.

In the midst of all of that, I have had to make some new business cards and flyers. This flyer is for FRIENDS AND FAMILY. My guess is that if you are on this blog, you fall into that category.

To view the business cards, head over to: melanietemplemanphoto.blogspot.com