week seven: anything is possible

These baby sprouts are from the little bit of indoor gardening we did on valentine's day. It is really suprising to me to see them this tall because I have carried this preconcieved idea that I have more of a black thumb than a green thumb and being plantless and vegetableless was my life sentence. I honestly did not expect our flowers to ever poke through the soil and here they are, waving their leafy arms at me!

Haley waters them everyday and it makes me so proud of her. Every morning she insists on feeding her fish and watering her flowers because "dey grow-wing mommy". Her sense of duty and responsibility makes me giggle and I cherish her nurturing side as a lot of times that image is disrupted by her dragging cameron across the floor yelling "dance camma! dance!"

Little triumphs like this have helped me to believe more in myself and my abilities. I am also grateful for the special little half hour Haley and I spend tending to our plant and animal friends. I hope she always finds a bit of pleasure in life's every day tasks.

How is it March already?

Gracen Ruth Conner

I had my first newborn session with my friend Amy and her baby, Gracen. It went really well considering I had never photographed a newborn like this before and since gracen is 2 weeks old and was wide awake during my visit. I am now aching to do a newborn shoot with a really sleepy, 3-5 day old baby. Hopefully one falls into my lap because when they're that young you can contort them into all sorts of crazy positions and they don't seem to mind.

Let me know what you think! <3

Children's Museum of Winston Salem

We made the long trip to Old Salem to visit their children's museum on Tuesday. After about a month and a half of being trapped indoors because of snow, ice, and rain for days and days at a time, we thought a little romp around the big city would kick these winter blues!

My favorite part of the museum was the three bears cabin that I posted about on Tuesday. Haley found that pretty boring as climbing, running, and anything that involves potential injuries are her major hobbies as of late. I couldn't believe how brave she was while being up in the air without us beside her. I was also really impressed with how well she followed our directions on how to get down and how she inventive she was in reaching each level. I catch myself saying this all the time, but i`ll say it agian, our little girl is growing up!

I probably have about 100 other pictures to upload from the day- there was just so much to do and see and a million little details I wanted to remember. I'm sure I'll post them all on Flickr eventually, but I am pretty tuckered out as far as the computer goes.

If you have a children's museum in your area, I highly reccomend paying it a visit. And if you don't, the drive is totally worth it. You will leave with a pocketful of memories, some extremely happy rugrats, and the triumphant feeling of kicking winter's tail!

Happiest Weekend, love bugs!

Practice practice practice

Phew, have I been busy! I have so much on my plate to complete and so little time to do it in. 2 kids really takes it out of a person and as much as I want another now that Haley is out of the bed, I know my body, mind, and lady parts especially, need to rest.

Yesterday I had a practice photoshoot with my friend Brooke and her English Mastiff, Dually. It was definitley a challange and a change of pace, but something I wouldn't mind doing again.

I think dogs are so interesting to photograph. Their faces tell such a story if you look close enough and there is just so much character to be found in wrinkles and fur and big wet snouts. After awhile, all Dually's face could say was "Get that lense out of my way sister" but that is a dog for you! He must have thought I was some strange alien following him around with this big black contraption held up to my eye half the time.

My favorite shot of the day:

I still have several to sort through, but these are some of my favorites so far. I am working on my photography website and plan on opening up my services to the public in April. I am so excited for this new adventure and am so grateful for the support of friends and family along the way. I am getting more and more comfortable with my camera with every shoot and learning valuable lessons with each one as well.

It is one of the best feelings, I tell you...

Making your dreams come true ♥

gratitude tuesday: week six

Reclaiming our bed, a place to call their own

Nick and I have always co-slept with our girls, i love being able to kiss their cheeks and play with their toes in the middle of the night. Four bodies in a double is really toasty and a great birth control method, but it also causes a lot of backaches and grumpy mornings. We finally have moved Haley into her own bedroom and are in the process of finding the perfect beds to match the perfect quilts I found while off on one of our thrifting adventures. We went to the children's museum at winston salem today and I wanted to take these sweet bunks home with me. This just may have been the extra push I needed to get started on the girls room, I wish I could replicate this room in it's entirety. If it's good enough for goldilocks and the three bears, it is a storybook dream for us!

I haven't had a chance to post about our Up!-inspired Valentine's Day but I still wanted to pop in and wish everyone a happy week outside sans mittens, scarves, and snow boots. We are off grabbing this little blast of sunshine and warm weather by its toes and hoping to drag it home with us for keeps!

The girls are gone for the afternoon and I am left home alone to enjoy the sounds of the birds chirping amongst the silence of our house. They have found the little pine cone sunflower seed feeders we made them and are singing their happiest songs.

Days like this are so good for the soul

Love day, love day!

A little love day treat from our family to yours! :)

gratitude tuesday: week five

A little late for Tuesday, but I couldn't help but hold out for this sweet little addition to our extended family.

Welcome to the world,
Gracen Ruth Conner

It was so great to finally meet you! I am sure you are going to be the best of friends with my girls. We can't wait for play dates, sleepovers, ball games, birthday parties, proms and a million other sweet memories with you :)

We love you so very much already ♥

I need your help! BIG TIME!

So, the bad news is that Nick has to work on Valentine's day and we won't get to celebrate it until he is off on the 18th. But the good news is that this set back gives me a little more time to get things together and for this darlin' outfit I ordered from Etsy to arrive! I really hope it fits because I can't imagine a more perfect Wilderness Explorer outfit.

I have decided on doing an Up! inspired Valentine's day, except I am making a few changes to the whole shebang because it is the day of love afterall and pink, red, blue and white are a lot more appropriate than the traditional wildernesss explorer colors on a day like this.

To do:
+ Make 3 Badge Sashes
+ Make lots of little badges to earn as they complete tasks
+ Make Wilderness Explorer pennant flags to wave around
+ Make Wilderness Explorer Handbook filled with challenges
+ Make "My Adeventure Book" for Nick
+ Make little house with tons of balloons tied to it

Challenges:
+ Homemade Trail Mix
+ Learn a Hiking Song
+ Swimming (bathtime!)
+ Recycling Project
+ Tub Fishing
+ Build a Tent for a living room campout (bedtime!)

Please send along more toddler-friendly ideas that can be completed inside. It's a bit too cold and snowy to fly kites, go on a hike, collect rocks, build a fire, or complete any of the more fun (sad face, mad arms) camping tasks.

And the winner is....

Thank you so much to everyone who left comments on my first little giveway! I was delighted to meet so many new followers and hear what you all are looking forward to this spring. I hope you all will stick with us through the rest of winter as we have many wonderful things to share in the upcoming weeks:

+ The birth of Gracen Ruth Conner (My best friend Amy is in labor, right now!)
+ A visit from my BFF, Taylor Mae
+ Another Practice Maternity Shoot for my friend Jennifer
+ An Up! inspired Valentine's Day and other love day spoils
+ Potty training celebrations
+ Long awaited packages for the little akorn family and Marshall family
+ Home Renovation Projects

Oooh, it has been a rough winter indeed, but I am happy to cap it off with new babies to spoil, snowy photoshoots and packages, a diaper free toddler (well, hopefully) and la la la loveeeeeeee! ;)

The winner of the giveaway is,

*drumroll*

Brooke (ruinedyou)

Mandy and Fallon, you are the winners of the two additional little zip pouches. Get me your addresses ladies (kpritchar (at) radford (dot) edu) and I will mail these packages out to you ASAP! :)

(another) winter wonderland...

I hope this short update finds you all warm and well. Our snowy little town has been without electricity for the last few days and several areas of our county are still in the dark. We have tried to make the most of it, but being powerless has literally left me powerless to completing certain tasks and I just feel like I will never see the end of my to do list. I have much to update about, but those entries will come later as right now I am knee-deep in snow, etsy orders, love day planning, baby poop and all the dirty laundry it brings.

Stress stinks, snow stinks, poop stinks... but I will leave you with this list of happy snow day things because these are the things that keep me afloat:

+ Getting cozy in front of the fireplace
+ Bird and Deer watching
+ Uno and Checkers
+ Long naps
+ Successful Potty Training
+ Toddler toe nail painting
+ Pipe cleaners and paper bouquets
+ Cameron's sweet baby clapping
+ Sister cuddles in a pit of snow white pillows

Please send happy thoughts my way and don't forget to enter the giveaway! :)

A Labor of Love

After seeing this sweet garland on Wild Olive last year, I put it on my mental checklist of things I would like to complete this valentine's day. I didn't have any brown kraft paper or paper bags on hand, so I opted for some trusty old book pages instead. I have several more strands to go but I am taking a little breather before I find myself in the midst of another heart attack.

This time around, I am making the strands with several cohesive skinny hearts. I am definitley prefering the emaciated heart look over the healthy, plump heart. Hopefully this batch will balance things out a bit because I am not feeling ambitious enough to start the whole project over! Eeep!

What is it about garlands that makes our lives seem a bit more fuller and the world a bit more happier? ;)

A Happy Little Giveaway

Alrighty, so the blog geek within has me convinced that it is time for me to do a giveaway on my little corner of the net. I have always wanted to do one of these but did not really want to hold one without any rhyme or reason. In the midst of a winter wonderland, I figured a bag full of happy spring loot would be the perfect pick-me-up for many of us! It certainly put a smile on my face putting it together.

What's included??

(*) Reusable Oilcloth Picnic Lunch Bag
(*) Green Polka Dotted Tissue Holder
(*) Haley's Signature Spring Flowers Hair Bow
(*) Brown Muslin Upcycled Pin Cushion
(*) Sweet Bird Patterned Pouch for your goodies

To Enter simply:
(1) Follow my blog and leave a comment about your favorite spring activity on this post
(2) Recieve an additional entry for commenting on a previous post (grab a cup of tea and please stay awhile)
(3) Recieve an additional entry for posting this giveaway on your blog (and please note that you did)

If there's enough interest, I will be drawing 3 names and be sending out 2 additional spring-themed zip pouches :)

Drawing will be held Wednesday, February 10th!
Good Luck, Sweet Friends!

gratitude tuesday : week four

Being snowed in and subsequent snow day baking!

Haley and I fixed the most glorious homemade icecream sandwiches this past weekend. With that said, I guess I am also thankful for vanilla icecream, sugar cookies, and little but willing sticky toddler fingers too :)

Finally...

Be still my heart, my little lady is growing up! It only took about 2 and a half years, but Haley will finally let me stick bows in her hair without throwing an all out temper tantrum. Everyone take note of that SMILE! Now, the length of time she'll keep them in varies, but I will take what I can get. I want to make her a million more of these. They are simple and quick and I feel a new upcycling project coming up.

We are all about back to 100% health and to celebrate we are doing a little spring-themed giveaway.

Stay tuned...