Sick McNasty #2

We had another Sick McNasty visit us for the Halloween season. SOOO gross!! To help you figure out how big it was, it's body was about the size of a quarter, maybe a little bigger. EWW!! Just looking at this makes my skin crawl.

Happy Birthday To ME!

Yes, it's true. Another year has passed and I am now a full 26 of them. Man I feel old. But I had a wonderful birthday. Tyler stayed home and we hung out all day together with Max. We went to the mall and walked around and let Max play in the little play place area. Then Mariah took me out for a pedicure and smoothie -- soo awesome! Oh and we did a nice long child-free walk through Anthropologie (the best store in the WHOLE world). That night Tyler and I went to dinner at Ropongi -- a great sushi place, although a bit pricey.

It really was a great birthday. Tyler made sure I was nice and relaxed and got to do what I wanted. He was very very sweet.

And then on Friday, to continue the celebration, our awesomly great friends the Franklins and we went to Benihana where I devoured their fried rice. I'm still craving it.

Best birthday ever! Thanks everyone for making it a great day!!

Eyes Open

I know it's been a while since I've posted. Don't worry, my long list of posts will be up soon enough. But in the meantime, I had to post this because it truly touched my heart and opened my eyes. Please look at this photo essay on Time.com

The Perils of Childbirth in Afghanistan

It will break your heart. And if you are a mother or pregnant or a woman you will find that your mind is filled with a kind of compassion that borders on sorrow. These poor Afghan women are already dealing with so much adversity in their lives. I can't imagine going through these kinds of trials during childbirth. To us here in the states, or any nation that is not a third world, we can not even begin to imagine what it is like for these women.

I can't help but feel connected to them. To relate to their situation, pain, want and need. But not in the way that is at all similar to their experience. Pregnancy is hard for me. I really don't enjoy it. But these women go above and beyond what I have experienced. While I laid in a clean hospital with clean bed linens, air conditioning, a doctor who had an abundance of sterile purple gloves and surgical steel tools, plenty of pain medication and all the comforts I can think of, these women laid on dirt roads, in broken down cars, in hospitals so ill equipped it would turn your stomach to have to walk into the front door and had their precious babies. While I complain of having an army of ignorant nurses while I labored with Max and while I was shocked by how inadequate my care was there, it is nothing compared to women who have to labor and deliver on beds covered in plastic with nothing but dirty rags and lumps of dirt to soak up the blood.

I am in awe of these women. I truly am. I don't think I could endure that. In fact, I know I couldn't. While I complain of having to heft myself into my car and how uncomfortable it is for me to sit in bed I think of these poor women who walk for days to a hospital, while laboring, for just a slightly better chance of survival.

There is no comparison to our situations. None at all. Except that we are women. And we have babies. And we want to live. And we want our children to thrive.

I am so grateful for the luxuries I have. For the next 6 weeks it will be my goal to stop complaining about this pregnancy. Because this is literally a dream compared to these Afghan women. And when I am done delivering in my nice clean hospital room in my nice clean hospital with my army of hospital staff, I vow to do something about this situation. What it is, I do not know, but I have to. If I can't use my own experiences and resources to help better the lives of women and children everywhere, then what good am I?

Introducing...

Okay, I'm not one into personal plugs, but I wanted to let you all know, give you some options, etc. Go visit my new blog (I couldn't figure out a better way to display them easily). It's my line of holiday photo cards and birth announcements to compliment my photography. Go check it out!! (Click the words below).

BLACKBIRD INK PHOTO CARDS

Momma Loves You and the addiction continues...

With "The Bonnie Hunt Show"!! Yup, we did it again (thanks to our fabulous friend Brooke) and drove on up to LA for a ladies day at this fab new show. Bonnie Hunt is pretty funny and the experience was complete with a pre-game hot dog and root beer handed out in her studio and a trip to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles (only the best fried chicken you've EVER EVER had... not to mention the macaroni and cheese).


While eating said fried chicken, Mariah got yelled at by "momma" for having her foot on the seat, "momma loves you, but you better get your foot of my seat." It was an intense moment my friends. Actually, we laughed pretty hard!


And this time we actually got to see a real celebrity AND we got a free gift. Hilary Duff was the guest and she gave away bottles of her new perfume, With Love. It's alright. I'm not a big perfume person because I'm always afraid I'm too smelly with it on. But the box was pretty and I'm a big fan of Hilary (except she's a bit too skinny now).

A Quick Visit

Tyler's parents paid us a quick visit a few weeks ago on their way out on their big RV Extravaganza. Max was thrilled to have them here of course. (I was shooting a wedding so I wasn't around). He loved "Papa's bus" (said RV) and still talks about it.


He is also loving the birthday presents they gave him. This car is the new hot thing in the neighborhood and we have to keep it under a very watchful eye to make sure no thieves come and take it away. We may even install an alarm system.


He also got a new blue potty (I would take a picture of him using it but I feel bad invading his privacy like that.) He loves the potty and will use it most nights before his bath. I'm not really pushing the potty training thing yet, diapers aren't that big a deal to me. We'll see how that changes when the new little one gets here.

New TV and New Moves

My faithfully bought $10 Craigslist TV finally died on us. I guess it popped and smoked and wouldn't turn on, so we got a new one!! And it's awesome!! One cool thing we can do is hook our computers up to it and listen to music or look at websites. I can even edit photos on it (that's editing photos on a 32" screen -- I cried when I realized I could do that). Anyway, last night we had Tyler's computer hooked up and we were playing some songs for Max and turned on the visualizer in iTunes. Max had so much fun dancing and singing and being mesmerized by the visualizer.

He loves the song "La Bamba." I'm not kidding, he asked for it over and over again and would sing and dance to it. This video is so funny. He went and picked up his guitar and was holding it and strumming it like he was really playing. I guess he learned that from his Da. I can't wait until he's old enough to take music lessons. He's always loved music and his love just continues to grow.



I think we'll make family music night a more frequent occurance in our house.

Jesus Made the Animals (and waffles, and messes...)

Recently Tyler and I had a family home evening with Maddox where we taught him all about how Jesus made the animals. He totally grasped the concept quickly and loved my visual aid of animals pictures cut out of our Zoo News magazine and glued to cards.

Lately though, we've learned that Jesus can make lots of things, especially if Max doesn't want to, or Max doesn't want mom to. The other morning we were sitting on the couch watching Superwhy together and I asked Max if he wanted his morning waffle. He said yes so I asked him if he wanted me to make it. He thought for a second and then said no. So I asked him who he thought was going to make it and he replied, "Jesus" in a very solemn voice.



Another time I got out of the shower and saw a HUGE mess on the floor. He had taken my sticky note pad and peeled them all apart and threw them all over the house. When I asked him who made this mess he replied, "Jesus made all the messes."

Max also loves saying prayers now. Part of our nighttime routine is to say a prayer together before we put him to sleep. He loves to say the prayer and will repeat after us and say an enthusiastic amen! at the end. Just last night he started to add his own things into the prayer, too. It's so cute, he folds his little arms and closes his eyes. Very reverent.

It's incredible what Jesus has been doing around our house these days... ask Max, he'll tell you all about it.

Labor Day Zoo

We decided to brave the zoo for labor day this year since Tyler had it off. It wasn't too bad and we left when it got really hot. Maddox loves the zoo, especially the monkeys and the elephants. He loves climbing on these gorilla statues, too. Can you tell?