Paperchase update

News on the adoption front...

 Our home study is almost ready to send off

to our placing agency for review.

Once there, it'll take about two weeks to get approved.

Then we'll finally get to send off our I-800A.

I know I said before that I'm not really motivated to do our paperwork

this time around.  And I'm still not.  

But I'm excited that, some time this summer, it will be completed, and

we'll be DTC!

Woot!

And since I have a hard time posting without photos,

here are a few from what we've been doing a lot of lately.

Swimming.

Who knows?

Maybe next summer we'll have three "fish" in the pool!

Or are they whales? Or dolphins?

Maybe Madeline will enlighten us.

Have a great weekend!

Linking to:

Favorite Photo Friday  Photo Friday Link Party 

Doing "the daily"

As I mentioned in a previous post,

I am seriously working on seeing life as a photo op.

It has really made me stop and think about all the many moments that pass in a day.

(And how many of those photo ops I miss!)

My two cameras (Nikon D700 and iPhone) follow me everywhere.

Well, almost everywhere, for the D700, that is.

So, how did I Embrace the Camera and see myself as part of a photo op this week?

 Well, Caleb finally got a new "bigger boy" bike since he had outgrown his previous one.

Consequently, it would take a little practice getting used to the new size.

What happened?

He took a spill in the driveway, scraping up his knee and elbow pretty badly.

And Madeline's reaction?

She cried.

So I comforted her.

Now for this shot, if you can believe it, Caleb handheld my D700.

That's a pretty heavy camera for a 7 year old.

A little bit later, the princess begged asked me to paint her piggies.

At the same time Caleb wanted me to watch him play basketball in the front yard.

So what better place to paint piggies than in the back of a minivan parked in the garage?

Right?  Doesn't everyone?

Actually we spend a lot of time this way, sitting in the back of my minivan.

When she's tired of playing and wants to watch her brother instead,

this is where we hang.

Yep. We sure do, usually with an ice cold Gatorade or Vitamin Water in hand.

And now if you think taking photos of Mommy and Madeline together

has gone to Caleb's head, well, it has!

He's now asking when he's going to get his own DSLR!!!

Uh oh!!! lol

Linking up with

Embrace the Camera  This or That Project 52

And she said

Last night as I was putting Madeline to bed, the following conversation took place.

Madeline: I might be a whale or a dolphin.

Me: Really? When?

Madeline: Maybe when I'm older, say 5 or 6.

Me: Well, honey, you're a little girl, and you'll always be a girl.

Madeline: I might.  I hope you don't be disappointed at me.

She's such a hoot!

Some birthday fun for mama and the gang

Some of this.

It's just what I was hoping for to celebrate my birthday/Mother's Day this year.

Watching my kids enjoy themselves.

The best hubby in the whole wide world decided to take the day off from work 

and spend it with me and our two precious dumplings.

His idea?

To rent a boat and cruise along the river.

I said yes!

And thank you very much!

So we rented a little pontoon boat for the morning.

And thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Madeline thought she could help BaBa "drive."

Caleb enjoyed some fishing.

The homeschooling mama in me enjoyed the wildlife.

We spotted several double-crested cormorants.

And this little guy...a ruddy turnstone.

Nope, I didn't know his name when I took his photo.

I knew he was related to the sandpipers and had to look him up.

So there he is.  He's glad to meet you, too.

We "dropped anchor" on a small island in the middle of the river.

Then we walked along one shore and across a shallow sandbar to another island.

The kids did a lot of digging.

There wasn't any sand here, just fine, broken shells.

So Madeline was a bit disappointed she couldn't build a sand castle.

It didn't keep her from digging though.

I just loved watching Patrick with the kids.

Loved it.

He's an amazing daddy.
I am so very blessed!

Caleb enjoyed fishing on the shore as well...

The kids had such a great time they were wondering when

we're going to rent a boat again!

If only it were that simple and cheap! Ha.

Anyway, I do hope that those of you who are mothers truly enjoy your day today.

Mother's Days are tough for me.
I've never had the chance to celebrate a Mother's Day
with either mom or my gramma as a mother myself, as they both
passed on before Caleb joined our family.
It does make me a bit sad, if I'm being honest.

I'm grateful to my mother-in-law, Barbara,
for raising an amazing son and for being
the amazing mom and mother-in-law she is!
I'm thankful for my sister and sister-in-law, too.

And I'm most especially grateful to two mothers in China
who made the difficult decision to place their children in someone else's care,
until they could come home to their forever family.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!


Linking to:

Simple as That  Sunday Snapshot  Show Off Your Shot

A case of the giggles

The other day, as I was putting Madeline down for a nap, I had an "ah ha" moment.  

I was pulling her curtains closed when I noticed all the light streaming in.

So the nap was delayed.

And instead, I asked the dumplings if I could possibly snap a photo or two, 

as I'm attempting to improve my indoor shooting.

Madeline was interested in other things, 

but I did manage this one shot.

{That big, bright, pink thingy behind her  is her princess tent.}

Caleb thought it would be fun to make faces at me.

Look at his stink eye! lol

Great, now that we got that out of the way and know the lighting is fine,

what happened next?

Well, they hopped on Madeline's bed and snuggled.

Then they got a major case of the giggles.

They love to 

tickle each other, 

squish each other, 

and giggle uncontrollably.

{And yes, Caleb's tongue is blue, courtesy of a jolly rancher he just enjoyed.}

Madeline thought it would be funny to sit on her brother.

Apparently Caleb thought so too.

Ah, these two.

They have so much fun together.

Rolling around on one of their beds in a fit of laughter is an almost daily occurrence.

It warms my heart to hear and see it.

  Linking to:
Favorite Photo Friday  Photo Friday Link Party  Shoot.Edit.Submit.

Me, my little man, and my sunshine

One of the things that I feel pretty crummy about with respect to my photography is the lack of photos

which include myself or Patrick with our dumplings.

This is most apparent during the holidays.

Sure, I'll snap some photos of the kids, perhaps a bunch.

But where are mom and dad?

Hmm..

So I've decided to do something about it.

I'm going to make a greater effort at getting in FRONT of my lens more often, 

not just behind it.

I will be utilizing my tripod and remote shutter release, on occasion, but more often, 

my trusty iPhone, to get the job done.

I might also recruit an assistant every so often, 

which is very easy to do in this house,

seeing that new photos mysteriously show up in my iPhone photostream frequently.

I snapped this the other afternoon when Caleb and I were playing in the front yard.

I also had to get one of me with Madeline, too.

Different day, of course.

In my search for inspiration, I have stumbled across a few new blogs, 

one of them being Emily's over at The Anderson Crew.

She hosts a weekly linkup called Embrace the Camera,

for those who wish to find themselves on the other side of their cameras.

Jackpot!  

This is just what I'm looking for to motivate me.

Now Rebecca over at Simple As That has created a checklist for photos

you should take with your kids.
I'm lovin' it!

This week ...

I'm sharing some kisses with my dumplings.

I also captured a shot of me helping Madeline wash her hands one morning.

This next photo almost didn't happen. 

We celebrated my birthday yesterday by taking a boat ride on the river (lots more from that later).

We were getting ready to pack the minivan back up when I realized that I had 

no photos of ME with either of my kids on my birthday.  Pathetic.

So I tried to rectify that.

Obviously, all of the above images were taken with my iPhone.

However, I also wanted to try to get at least one with my real camera.

So earlier in the week, while Caleb was coloring with his pencils, he asked me to sharpen one for him.

I immediately said yes, then ran and got my camera.

Our school room is small, and there's no room for a tripod.

So I stacked some books on our window bench and hoped for the best.

Caleb had fun triggering the shutter with my remote.

And me?  

Well, I'm just tickled to have captured this moment.

When we're done with school, the kids are always drawing something at the table 

while I get work done on the computer.

This?  Is real life.

And I'm happy to me a part of it.

Cluttered school table and all.

Happy Birthday....to my sister and me!

Happy Birthday to us!

I couldn't think of anyone better to share my birthday with!

We'll be celebrating it together a bit later this month since we both have so much going on.

Anyway, go check out the cute card she made herself. 

She's so talented!

Here we are celebrating our birthday together last year.
We definitely need more photos together!  Sheesh!

Love you girl!

{I must be wearing higher shoes in the shot because I definitely look taller than her, and she's got me beat by one whole inch!}