Who loves her hubby and the external flash he bought her for Christmas?

OMG.  Seriously.  How on earth have I been taking pictures of my son for the past 8 1/2 months without an external flash?!?!  Why oh why did not someone inform me of my foolishness?  I have no idea what I'm doing with this thing yet, but my fantastic, amazing, fabulous hubster got me an external flash for Christmas.  And it is AWESOME.

(For anyone reading this who happens to be a photography luddite, whether intentionally or, like me, inadvertently, here is the little that I know.  I have a wiggly baby, which means I need to use a camera setting that requires a lot of light so I can capture his movements without everything being a big blur.  I have crappy indoor lighting, and hate the look of my camera's flash.  But it was a necessary evil, until now!  Check out these two pics of Belle, one with the camera's flash, and one with the external flash.  And if you want to know more, don't ask me.  I'm really a photography idiot.  If I said something stupid just now and you know better, well, I'll leave it up to you if you want to inform me of my error. :) 

Belle with camera flash:

Belle with the fancy new external flash that the hubster bought me and I don't yet really know how to use:

End of semi-instructional parenthetical.) 

Sadly, for the very first time in my entire life I was content to wait to open my presents, and didn't open this one up until we got home Christmas night, after I had been taking pictures all day long.  But I took about a gazillion pics today, including a couple of Jonathan opening the last of his presents.

A. How did I get such an awesome husband?
B. How did I get such an adorable kid?
C. How did I live without this flash?
D. Is there anything else painfully obvious that I should have or know about with respect to capturing the adorableness that is my child?

Photobomb.  Go.

 

Citrus Lane Review

I've been meaning to write a review about Citrus Lane for ages, so here goes.  First, let me say that I am a customer.  I have not been given anything for this review, not even a free sample of some kind.  They have no idea I'm writing this.  I just want to pass on how awesome they are.  :)

We signed up for a subscription for Citrus Lane just before Jonathan was born.  Our first box arrived in March, and he was born in April, so we've had items from our subscription as long as we've had him.  Without question, his favorite toys and many of the most useful items we have came from those boxes.

If you aren't familiar with Citrus Lane, it's a service that provides boxes filled with age-appropriate goodies for your baby (newborn to age 3) and sometimes for mom.  The contents of each box are a surprise, so it's a fun present from the mailman in the middle of each month.  Think of it like a fruit of the month club only with baby stuff.  Super good quality baby stuff.  Eco-friendly, all natural, awesome baby stuff.  (Green Toys, Skip Hop, iPlay, Plum Organics, etc.)  Not only do we get awesome, useful items every month, but they also sometimes include discount codes and coupons for other websites and products.

Ok, enough yammering from me.  You can find out more about them on their site.  What I really want to say is that our Citrus Lane subscription is AMAZING.  Worth every single penny and more.  I would sign up again in a heartbeat.  In fact, I already have, as we recently extended our subscription to make absolutely sure we never run out.

I wish I had more pics to hand of some of the fabulous stuff we've received.  But, here are a few at least.  The towel, sun hat, clutch toy and art card are from some of our earliest boxes.

If you are on the fence, I highly, highly recommend signing up for a few boxes.  I promise you will not be disappointed.  Every month we get items that we need and items that we use every single day, for less cost than we would spend if we bought them all separately.  We are waiting until Christmas to open our December box and I CANNOT WAIT.  :)


 

8 months!

Although I haven't been blogging about it, I have faithfully been taking J's monthly pictures.  I'm still trying to really learn how to take pictures of him, and the lighting in my house is pretty abysmal, but overall I've not been displeased with how they have turned out.  They may not be professional pics, but I've managed to capture some mighty cute faces.

As he gets older, taking the pics gets more and more interesting.  We were lucky enough to have a helper today, so I got a few cute smiles, even though he wasn't in a super cheery mood.

Every month we take a few pics next to the panda, to see how he is growing.  (Jonathan, not the panda.  Lord help us if the panda gets any bigger.)

Then I take a few pics of him on the floor.  He's almost too long for me to do this now.  Maybe I just need to get a taller chair so I'm high enough that I can get all of him in the picture...

The last three months, since he's been big enough to sit up on his own, I've been taking some random pics, too.  These are quickly turning out to be my favorites!  My biggest problem is that I don't like taking pics with the flash, yet he moves around so much now that I almost have to use it.  Perhaps I could just tear down a wall and put in a giant window instead so we could have more natural lighting.  No big deal, right?  All in the name of a good picture.

Thanks to my helper for getting some adorable smiles!!

Sure, I get that I'm biased.  But are these not two of the most adorable baby cheeks you have ever seen?!?!?

Uh oh.  Someone officially got tired of wearing a number.  Much, much more fun to eat the number.  Happy 8 months, little mister!

The Hubster

I really have an awesome husband.  We've been married for 11 1/2 years, which is absolutely crazy.  I've always known how awesome he is and how lucky I am to be married to him, and I always knew he'd be an amazing dad.  It's been an absolute pleasure to be vindicated in that belief.  :)

He is without question the best man I could have picked to be my partner in life, my best friend, and the father of this sweet little guy who will probably be just like his daddy.

(Pics are in no particular order, but include all ages from the day J was born until today.)

Sneak peek

I've been telling myself I would wait to share this pic until after our Christmas cards go out.  But apparently, while I am in the middle of the final 18 days of my law school career (during which time I have to write (finish) a 20+ page paper, do 2 final projects, and take 4 final exams), I have lost all other forms of willpower.  I cannot resist sharing this face.  Right now.

I am obsessed with this picture.  Obsessed.  I love this face.

Enjoy.  :)

Could you say no to this face?

I am really not keeping up with this blog anymore, am I?  I guess having an adorable 7 (!!) month old and finishing up my last semester of law school is a good excuse.  Right?  No?  Ok, well, I'll try to do better.  But don't hold your breath.

Seriously, J is 7 months old.  Don't ask me how that happened.  It's ridiculous.  He's ridiculous, in a ridiculously awesome kind of way.  Yesterday I leveraged his cute face to talk a professor into cancelling class tomorrow, so I can stay home and play with him on the day before Thanksgiving.  Seriously, the prof didn't stand a chance when presented with this:

Go ahead, admit it.  You couldn't have said no, either.