Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Happiness

Happiness is........



Realizing that your hair WILL grow again.
And playing outside with your trucks.......




Clean sheets drying on the clothesline....





A fresh, clean blankie, dried by the rays of the sun....




Sitting on a lawn chair, warming your pale winter skin in the sunshine...



Riding your tricycle barefoot....



Knowing that spring is here to stay:

NO! MINE!

Right now, as I type this, my two boys are fighting over a sock.

Steve-o's sock. From yesterday.
It's laying on the floor in the living room - dirty, smelly, stretched out.
Apparently, from what I understand from AJ's crying and yelling, Owen stole it from AJ, who had it first.

AJ (crying): It's my sock! Mine! Wah-ha-ha!
Owen (taunting): ungh-uh! Mine.
AJ: hysterical crying
Me: What the heck is going on out here??
AJ (crying): It my sock!
Me (rolling eyes): You guys are weird. ( I turn and come to the computer)

The fighting continues for a few minutes, but I think AJ won, because he just came in here, nasty sock in hand, took a swig of my coffee and left.

Never a dull moment.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Catch ya in a few

We're out for the weekend to visit some friends in north Georgia, so if you happen to call our house 18 times this weekend (dad) that's why we're not answering.

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Horses, Ostriches, and a Couple Zebra

I was feeling in the mood to take some horse photos, so I called upon Casey and his endless connections to hook me up with some equine subjects. Off to the Fowler farm we headed (as in Jim Fowler, owner of Parks at Chehaw, who happens to be Casey's uncle).

I love the Fowler farm. It's one of my favorite places to do senior sessions, engagement sessions, anytime anywhere sessions. There is a plethora of scenic places to photograph - including old barns, abandoned shacks, rusty cars from the 1950's, fences, bamboo forests, dirt paths, open meadows.....it's a photographer's dream property.
Anyway, they also have several horses so out we went to snap a few pictures. Unfortunately, when we arrived I had a complete creative brain fart and was feeling totally uninspired. Thus follows my rather boring pictures of some horses:

I can't remember the name of this little beauty, but they were working her when we arrived. She's the youngest of the group I think, only 2 years old, and she was fun.



This shot makes me laugh every time I look at it. She was tied to the hitching post here to get groomed after her workout and she was VERY curious about my camera. When I knelt down in front of her though, she wasn't so sure about what I was doing.




This is Casper, who was a very poor model. He had quite a knack for stepping into the perfect golden lighting, and promptly turning his back on me so that I would have a glorious shot of his massive behind. Or, he would be holding beautifully still and looking perfectly regal, and when I would kneel down to take his picture, he would saunter over to stick his velvety nose right on my lens and nudge me around looking for treats.
I even sent Casey over to have a word with him, but he was having none of it.
Note to self: Next time, bring bribes for Casper.








Feeling a little bored and quite uninspired, I was ready to leave the horses so we decided to drive over the wild animal pasture and see if we could get anything over there. Now, the zebras apparently were under the impression that I was a tiger lurking in the Serengeti about to surprise attack them at any moment, so they promptly trotted away at my approach.
Ironically enough, the freaking ostriches were rather interested in us and came right over. This gave me a few heart palpitations, seeing as I have this thing with birds. Specifically, I hate them and consider them to be evil tools of world destruction used by Satan himself.
Here you see a giant male ostrich approaching with purposeful strides on his giant dinosaur-like feet to see what we were all about. What you DON"T see, is Casey behind me whispering, "Oh sweet Mother of Mary, he's coming this way" as he scrambles back towards the car. Seems that I'm not the only one who has a bit of "thing" for fowl. In the name of photography, I took a deep breath and held my ground. You can't let them smell your fear, you know.

Or something like that.


He finds me to be rather uneventful and decides to wander off to do better things.
Like twist his snakey neck around to pick feathers off his butt, and leave a giant ostrich poop about 25 yards further on.





But his girlfriend finds us to be EXTREMELY interesting and walks right up.
Like within 2 feet of me.
Like close enough that she could have stuck her neck out and pecked my eyes out.
Or at least one eye, since the other one was behind the camera lens.
I told Casey to watch out for the male, who I was certain was planning an ambush from the side while his girlfriend distracted us and I had my face behind the camera.



Here she is pondering how tasty my flesh might be. I think she's preparing to tear the hair off my scalp as an appetizer.
Ostriches are carnivores, you know.



Here she concedes that it would be a dang shame to peck me to death because my beautiful 70-200mm lens would crash to the ground and probably break. And even this stupid bird knows THAT would be a travesty.


One more shot --- of the zebras, who have been watching the human-ostrich interaction with trepidation. I think they were just glad to have the ostriches off their backs. I think the ostrich hunt the zebras when no one is watching.



Cue Casey, who would not stop singing "The Circle of Life" as I took my last few shots.


FYI


Cooked broccoli smells horrible after it's been in the fridge for 2 weeks.

The Haircut

AJ's hair has been getting a little out of control. It's long, it's wispy and fine. We've never taken him to have it cut by a professional. Ever.
He HATES to have his hair cut, so usually haircuts for AJ usually consist of me pinning him in a chair while I attempt to trim his hair out of his eyes and off his ears without severely wounding him or drawing more than a little blood. There's crying, there's wiggling, there's whining. And then there's AJ - who's even worse.
Well, his hair has progressively gotten more choppy, more uneven, and more mullet-like as the months go by so yesterday I decided to take him to someone who actually knows what they're doing and let them have a go at it. I promised AJ ice cream if he would sit relatively still and let them cut his hair. He was all about the ice cream....the sitting still part was NOT gonna happen.
I plop him down in the stylist's chair and she tried to amuse him by pumping his chair up and down.
"Isn't that fun?" she crooned.
AJ shakes his head no.
"Here. You wanna wear my batman cape?" she asks as she spreads it over his lap.
"NO!" AJ says.
She fastens it anyway but he keeps flapping it up and down like a parachute.
"How much do you want cut off?" She asks me.
In the next 3 minutes I tell her what I want, these sentences included:
"Something a little shorter for summertime, since it's starting to get warmer outside"
"But NOT a buzz-cut"
"A little shorter in the back, longer in the front"
"I don't want it to look like a military cut"
"It needs to be long enough that I can put some stuff in it and spike it up a little or something"

Is that difficult? Does it sound hard? I didn't think so. I thought it was pretty clear.
To be honest, I had something like this in mind: yes, McCauley Caulkin in his younger, cuter years. Blond, spiky, adorable, right? But I didn't want to actually SAY "make my kid look like McCauley Caulkin, because well....that's kinda weird. And she could've made him look like freaky-deaky greasy punck McCauley Caulkin, and that was so NOT what I was going for.

Anyway, she says she's going to use the biggest attachment on the clippers, which I think is no problem, because when I cut AJ's hair I use that one too. The only difference is, that I use clippers ONLY on the back part of his hair, and then I scissor-cut the top, so it's a little longer. This is what I'm expecting her to do, but instead, she turns the clippers on and runs those blasted clippers over his ENTIRE head.
I reeled back in surprise, my mouth fell open. I was about to scream at her for ruining my beautiful child's hair and jump on her back like a banshee and shave her own head bald with her own dang clippers, but I figured it was too late now, what could I do??
She continued until all his gorgeous blond locks were all over the floor. I sat in shocked silence while Owen was beside me giggling, "AJ's get his hair cut. It's all ova the floor"
By this point AJ is crying uncontrollably - tears rolling down his face and pulling away when she comes at him again with the clippers. I think he knew the magnitude of his loss.
"Is that about what you had in mind?" she asked me.
"No. That was the exact OPPOSITE of what I had in mind" I replied.
She didn't say anything.
I was horrified.
AJ was glad to be climbing out of her chair.
Owen was skipping out the door for ice cream.
I paid.
I did not tip.
I am sad.


All of AJ's beautiful hair, gone.
It'll take at least 6 months to grow back.

I told Steve he went from being a really cute kid, to just an average kid.
I told Steve he looks like one of those kids that you look at and think, "oooh. that kid looks like a brat"
Steve said it looks like we've decided to join the KKK and we started our transformation with AJ. All he needs is a swastika tattooed on the back of his neck.

It also looks a little bit like he has a Mowhawk (steve asked me if I had them cut it into a Mohawk) because he has a streak of darker hair running down the middle of his head.

AJ, I'm so sorry. It'll grow back. And I'll never cut your gorgeous hair again.

If anyone wants to make a hat donation, we're accepting.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Roll Call Take Two


Alright, tomorrow I'm leaving town at 5 am to drive to Tallahassee FL for a volleyball tournament, so I won't be in blogging land for a few days seeing as how I will be going to bed at 8pm tonight and when I get back on Sunday I'll no doubt be crabby and tired again and will need to retire by 7 pm. I think that was the longest sentence ever.

ANYWAY, how about a roll call? Some introductions? Some de-lurking? I posted Roll Call Part One back in Sept. and I'm feeling like doing it again. Who's out there? Who reads my blog? Who lurks around and never comments? Who hates my guts and reads my blog anyway? Who worships the keyboard I type on and is secretly cyber-stalking me? Who thinks I'm an idiot but can't stay away from the pictures of my adorable children? Let it spill...reveal yourself to us, tell us your name, how you found the blog, your uncle's middle name, the daily toilet habits of your dog, the kid that sat next to you in first grade, whatever. We want to hear from you!

I'll go first.

Hello. My name is Tammi and this is my blog. I have two beautiful boys - Owen and AJ, and a hottie hubby Steve-O. I talk about everything on this blog, from tampon crafts to wieners to volleyball to politics and religion (although I typically try to stay away from the last two). I share in boring detail my health experiences, travel experiences, photography experiences, chasing after two crazy boys and daily life.
I'm a photographer. And I finally feel comfortable saying that out loud and not feeling like a total fraud. I coach volleyball, I like beer and hot wings but I also like green tea and sushi. Oh yeah, and I just recently found out that I'm knocked up. That's about it.

Your turn.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

The Tricycle

AJ got this Lightening McQueen tricycle for Christmas from his grandma. He loves it of course, and has been scooting around on it for the last month by "walking" his feet on either side of it. Steve-o and I have been encouraging him to pedal it with his feet, which he's been trying to do for a couple weeks now.
Well, yesterday it all clicked and he's been a tricycling fool ever since then. It's freezing outside and he wants to go up and down the street and around the block over and over again. He's pretty fast too, although that doesn't surprise me - he's very athletic and has never had a problem doing things requiring gross motor skill.
Owen, on the other hand, refuses to even TRY to ride his bicycle, but instead chooses to walk or ride along in the wagon as we circle the block! Funny kid. :)
Some pictures......





Overexposed this one, but I like it anyway.







Later!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Saturday, February 10, 2007

My Beautiful Boys -- Part II A.J.

Alright....here's the pics of AJ. He was slightly less cooperative than Owen, but still did good. He's really photogenic - when he wants to be. :)




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I wish I had had a little suitcase or something sitting there beside him, but I wasn't expecting to be able to get this close to the trains. They're closed off, and the lady that runs the museum just happened to be there, saw us, invited us in and unlocked it for us. The boys loved it - I was wishing I had brought more stuff with me!












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I'm thinking of getting this one done in canvas as well, and then hanging it next to the one of Owen, from the previous post. Whatcha think?













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Thanks for looking. And thanx Ginny for the jackets. :)

Friday, February 9, 2007

My Beautiful Boys-- Part 1: Owen

Well, I hinted at it earlier, and I'm totally stoked about my little mini-session with my boys today. It's the best photo shoot I've had with them in.....a really really really long time. Seeing as how they both have a horrid case of Photographer's Child Syndrome, my expectations are never very high when I set out to take their photos.
I've been meaning to get some done for their valentine's day cards to give to family and friends at "school" and since V-Day is actually coming up next week, I thought I should get on the ball. I bribed them with candy and movie rentals and they were digging it, so I pulled up my big-girl-optimism pants and we set out. They did great! I decided to break the blogs up into Owen and Ayden separately, since I couldn't pick just a few to show you. So Owen's up first.
Oh, and I also numbered them for the grandparents, so if you want a copy of one, email me or let me know in the replies what number and what size you want it, and I'll email you a copy.
Warning: picture overload pending......




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I'm thinking of having this one done on canvas, but I'm hesitant about the color, since I'm mostly a black and white girl. However, I don't think the b/w has nearly as much impact as the color. If there's any other photogs out there reading this who'd like to chime in and let me know what they think about this one in canvas, I'm all ears!

Doin' the Happy Dance

I've been meaning to take the boys out to do a Valentine's Day photo shoot with them, for their Valentine's Day cards. Today I finally got around to it.....I don't expect much when it comes from my 4 yr. old and 2 yr. old terrors, but with a bribe of some candy and some movie rentals they did SO good!!!!
I took about 150 shots, and there are over 40 keepers, which is monumental for my kids!! I'm so geeked....I'll be proofing and editing them tonight and will show you some of the results in the next day or so. Yay!

Thursday, February 8, 2007

A Baby Showcase

I think I've got me some baby fever. I'm preggo, and I know of several other people who are too...Amy Lynn, Amy Potts, Faith, and a few others. There's something in the water, I guess. :)

Anyway, I went digging for some old pictures I've taken of newborns so I thought I'd share 'em here on the 'ole blog....watch out! There's a bunch! And I'm not responsible should you see the pictures and pine for a new baby of your own. Forthcoming conceptions of wee cute children are not the responsibility or liability of said blogger. Peruse at your own risk.....
Amy Lynn, Amy Potts, Faith....these are for you! Here's to new babies! Cheers!

This little sweetie was fresh out of the birth canal in these next few pics....I was actually there to photograph the birth, which was awesome! Wish I could share more pictures or the slideshow that I put together of it - it was amazing (even Steve got a little teary-eyed watching it) but to protect the privacy of my client, I'll refrain. Next time you're at our house, just ask and I'll show it to you! It was amazing. Oh....and I'm up for birth photography anytime! Just ask me and I'll be there! You won't regret having photos of such a life-changing moment.
Here she is...just minutes old:

(click any to enlarge)







Same baby, a few days later at her "official" newborn session:















My newest nephew, Kenny:







My niece, Sammi - almost 2 years ago:





And a few other miscellaneous:
This cute little chunker was about a couple months old, if I recall:





This one was about 2 weeks I think:




That's it! Hope you enjoyed!