Just a sweet picture of Maddie

Modeling

Since the kids were born I've wanted to get them into modeling. I was always held back because I didn't know the proper first step to get it done legitimately. Over the years I've connected with people who happen to be in the industry and led me in the right direction. Plus my family was starting to harass me! So I finally sent an email with their pictures to the recommended agency in Boston. I got a phone call to set up an appointment for them to come in and so I could be explained the process. Without going into all the details I decided to go forward with it. They had an initial photo shoot (not with me) to get images for their comp cards and it was a good way to see how they would "perform" in a working situation.

These are a handful of the images we got. They were definitely stiff at first and I was so worried. My plan was to stay away but I could see they weren't getting any good shots so I stepped in and started making goofy faces and jumping around and "hurting" myself in order to make them laugh. It totally worked but I don't know if I'll be able to do that in an actual working environment.

The agency told me that Maddie has a leg up on any competition because of her red hair and Jackson has a leg up because he's a boy.

They were officially "on the market" at the end of May and I just got a call the other day that Maddie is a finalist for a Hasbro shoot in a couple weeks. There is no audition for this so keep your fingers crossed they pick her!

Easter!

I can't believe I haven't even blogged about Easter. This is just ridiculous.

We spent most of the day at Chris's parents' house with the whole family. The kids had an easter egg hunt that I somehow missed?

Jackson with Papa...

Jackson played soccer most of the time we were there. I literally threw his pants away when we got home. There was no amount of stain stuff that would have removed the grass stains. They were hand me downs and this was his second year wearing them so it didn't kill me to throw them away.

Inside for a little hydration

And cupcakes

Maddie kept herself occupied by collecting all of the sticks in the yard and putting them in the fire pit.

Nana and Papa with all of their grandchildren although they now have a sixth who I'll introduce later.

This kid plays hard!

Alyssa decided to pet Maddie's hair. I'm sure she whined about it at first. She's such a touch-me-not!

After dinner we went to my Aunt Judy's where they got to play with my cousin's kids Ben and Jack. They totally cried when we had to leave!

Random stuff

So Jackson has been a challenge lately. When he's good it's so hard to imagine him being so bad but he can really be infuriating. I think it boils down to him being VERY stubborn. I have NO idea where he gets that from (looks around whistling). The odd thing is that my mom says that I was a very easy going kid and always took no for an answer (even though I was stubborn) but Jackson just can't handle no. I was given a technique to try by a psychotherapist since time outs just aren't effective with him. They work perfectly for Maddie but not Jackson. Not only is Jackson stubborn but I also feel like he is looking for attention. So the deal is that when he whines or cries I say "I'm going in my room and when you stop I will come out." It doesn't work if Chris and I are both home because Chris refuses to go into our room. He says he didn't do anything wrong why should he have to go to his room? Great. So I can only do it during the day. The first time I did it I was in there for 45 minutes. It was awful. He was kicking the door, screaming, and coming up with every excuse in the book to get me to come out. Every once in a while I would calmly say, "when you stop crying I will come out". I stuck to my guns and he eventually stopped. From then on just the threat of going to my room would make him stop but the handful of times I've needed to go it's been an under 5 minute deal.

But this isn't to say that everything is solved because there are so many situations that don't fit with that punishment. One issue we have is bath time. He absolutely hates it. He whines and cries that the water is hot (trust me it's not) so he won't get in. Once he's in he refuses to let me wash his hair so he just sits in the bathtub screaming. Bath time has always been a nightmare at our house. Maddie is better at it but still manages to have something set her off every once in a while. It's awesome when they're BOTH hysterically crying.

One thing I've noticed is that if I ever leave them with someone else to watch while I have a photo session or if they're overnight at one of our parents' house they are horribly behaved when we get them back

Madison and Jackson's 4 year check-ups had to be the worst by far. It all started out so well. The kids have been so good lately that I didn't even think to bring another person with me. But like I said it started out well. They were well behaved even though we had a ridiculous amount of waiting. At one point we were left in the room for 45 minutes. They had already had their check-ups and were waiting for the dreaded shots. Madison weighed 32 pounds (21st percentile) and was 38 inches (12th percentile) and Jackson was 37 pounds (56th percentile) and 40 inches (17th percentile). Of course they were very antsy and at one point and were going in and out of the room. I was doing my best to control them but a little part of me didn't really care if they disrupted the office because that's what they get for keeping two 4 year olds waiting for that long. So on one of their trips out we happened to see our friend Spencer and his mom going to the room next to us for an appointment. Boy did they end up getting an earful.

So the nurse finally comes back in with the shots ready to go. FOUR for EACH of them. I had discussed it with the dr. and we agreed to get them over with this year that way next year they wouldn't need any. The poor kids had no idea what was going on or what was about to happen. The nurse asked them who wanted to go first and Jackson very eagerly exclaimed, "ME!!!" Odds are he'll never volunteer to go first for anything ever again. I get him on my lap and hold his arm across his body very securely while the nurse stuck him for the first time. He definitely jumped but didn't cry, nor did he cry with the second one in the same arm. The second arm was a different story. OH my god, his cry was gut wrenching. I seriously tear up now thinking about it and it was two months ago. It felt inhumane. The nurse could have been colder but she also could have been much more sympathetic. So in the mean time Madison is watching in horror. Jackson was screaming so loud and for so long and we couldn't calm him down. Finally after 5 minutes of screaming another nurse came in with some stickers and started to talk to him. It actually worked! He was very interested in the stickers and calmed down. So now we get Madison and she's looking at me with such a horrified look on her face saying "I don't want a shot!" It was so sad. So I get her up on my lap. She definitely cried on the first two in the first arm but the third on in the second arm I totally saw the nurse put the needle in, fumble with it which moved the needle all around in her arm THEN push the plunger (or whatever it's called). The scream of terror sounded like we were cutting her with a knife. That's when I lost it. I just started to cry and so did Jackson. He was SO upset by her crying like that. So the nurse finished up with her and the three of us sat on the floor holding each other and sobbing. It was mentally exhausting. Once I had them all dressed we went out in the waiting room to leave to find Spencer waiting for us. He and his mom heard the whole thing and Spencer told her he didn't want to leave before he saw if they were ok. SUCH a sweet kid. Unfortunately since they made us wait so long we totally missed swim lessons that day but I brought them to the pool anyway so they could play with Noah right after the lesson.

My poor neglected blog

I just can't believe I haven't posted in so long. I know that facebook is killing my blog. It's so much easier to update. I don't like it because if I do post to the blog things are so much more detailed which is better for the future. This on top of the fact that I had 15 sessions including 2 weddings in the last 4 weeks which is absolutely incredible for me but leaves very little time to manage my personal photos and get them on the blog.

For now I'll start with some current things before I forget. Today was Madison and Jackson's last day of school. I am absolutely floored at how fast this year went. Overall it was a fantastic experience. The kids both loved school and their teachers and friends and seeing Nana at school. I think they missed maybe two days of school due to illness (one of which was last week)? I could be wrong but I'm not recalling much more than that. I was sad for them today because I know they are going to miss their friends and I know they don't understand what is happening. The good thing is that they are going to the same school next year for three mornings instead of two and some of their friends will still be in their class. I can't believe in a little over a year my babies will be going to kindergarten. And I know every year from now on is going to go faster than the last. UGH!

Summer is officially underway and we have been to the beach and friends' pools on a few occasions already. Spring here was downright miserable. The continuous rain was just silly. I changed over their winter clothes to summer WAY too early. I always seem to jump the gun on that one but hey, if I'm feeling productive enough to do that major job I go with it.

The one other boy that was in M&J's swim class has now become one of our regular friends. All Madison and Jackson want to do is see Noah. Seriously every single day Jackson wakes up and says "Can we go to Noah's?" which is followed by intense whining when I say no, not that day. Noah's mom is due with a little girl any day now so we do a lot of hanging out at her place which makes me feel bad because she ends up feeding us! They live in a gorgeous apartment complex with a beautiful pool. We felt like we were on vacation as we sat watching the kids play in the water. Not a bad life :-)

I started doing the couch to 5K training program about 5 weeks ago? I downloaded the iphone app and off I went. With my friend Wendy's incredible transformation in the last year (mostly due to running) I was just convinced that running is the only way I'm going to get my weight off. In order for me to be at a healthy weight I need to lose 40 pounds. I knew if I just took off running I would be incredibly pained the next day and then I would just quit so I knew the couch to 5k interval training was going to be for me so one day I just threw the kids in the stroller and went. I was doing great through week 3. At week 4 it was getting tough as the run intervals were up to 5 minutes which for me is a LOT. My shins were really starting to be in a lot of pain. After week 4 I was going to take two days off before advancing to week 5 to rest my legs and that's when I got knocked out with a ridiculous cold (flu?). We all ended up with it and it was miserable but at least it wasn't a stomach bug. I got it two weeks ago and my lungs are just today starting to feel better. I really should have continued walking but I didn't so now I feel like in order to get back into it I'm going to have to go back and maybe even repeat week 3. If I had stayed on track I was going to try to run a 5K in my hometown on the fourth of July but that's definitely not going to happen now. I'm really bummed but I'm definitely still determined to be a runner. I NEED to lose weight!

I'll update soon with some pictures but for now you can go read a blog post about me and my photography business!