Playing Pro

Once we made it through VBS last week, I expected the weekend to be relaxed and carefree. Well, now that its over I can't quite say that was the case, but it was fun nevertheless!

I got up early Saturday morning and did a ton of cleaning. My house had been basically neglected all week last week, so I had a lot of catching up to do. C helped me (or kept me company, haha) with most of the chores, but thank goodness for Sesame Street on Netflix when it was time for me to vacuum and mop!

We ate an early lunch and played outside some more. C had been acting tired all morning, so I decided to put her down for a nap early. By 1:15 she was out on my bed, and I was able to get up and leave her there! This is such a big deal to me. Remember for months now she has to be held for the entire nap. I prefer her to nap in her crib (so I can change my sheets if need be), but I'll take what I can get at this point. While C napped, I scrubbed the bathrooms and finished up the laundry, then I settled down on the couch to transfer videos from the Flip camera to the computer and flash drive. Of course, then I got wrapped up watching old videos, like C's birth and some of her "firsts" moments. Bittersweet!!

After C had been asleep about 2 hours, she woke up and called me. I told her I was on the couch, so she walked in there and climbed up into my lap and laid her head against my chest. I thought she was watching videos with me, but when I looked at her again, she was sound asleep! I held her until I was done transferring the videos, then I eased her down onto the couch, and she did not wake up. It was amazing (lol). She slept about another hour there. I wasn't being quiet at all, but I didn't want to wake her up because I knew she'd be ill if I did that. So she slept a total of 3 hours Saturday! Which of course meant she stayed up way too late that night.

Saturday evening, I left C with her daddy and I headed to the local college to take my niece's senior pictures. That was so much fun! I shot almost entirely in Manual mode, and I was so proud of myself. My sister helped me with poses and props, and she did a great job. My niece was crowned homecoming queen and prom queen, plus she's a very talented soccer player (she got a scholarship to play soccer this fall!), so we had an interesting array of props to work with. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home, but it was worth it. I haven't had a chance to edit any of the pictures yet. Most of them I will be able to leave as-is, but some need some lighting work. If I had one of those light bouncer things or an external flash, things would have been a little easier...! But I'll save up for photography accessories. ( :

is she beautiful or what??

I was also having a weird problem with my camera that was really slowing me down. I'd get the exposure settings just right, take a gorgeous picture, and then the settings would get out of wack. There has got to be a way to lock the settings until I move them again, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet. :/ And I've asked 2 professional photographers that I know, and neither one knew how to fix my problem. So the quest continues.

Anyway, late that night, I posted some sneak peaks of the session to facebook and got a lot of compliments. My sister and niece were really happy with what they saw. I just hope they like the rest of the shots as much!


Yesterday was of course Father's Day. I gave DH his present Saturday nice since I knew Sunday would be busy. We gave him a nice electric razor and he loved it. Men are so hard to buy for, so I am thrilled when I actually get him something he likes! haha

We went to Sunday School, and C went to the nursery class by herself for the first time. It was weird (but nice) not to have her in our class, distracting us. She enjoyed her class and the teacher said she was very well-behaved. We left after that because we had a family reunion to attend. The reunion was fun and we ate some really good food there. And C made friends with one of her cousins, who she nicknamed Pecan for some reason. It was hilarious! (By the way, around here, we say "Pecan" like PEE-can, not pe-CAHN.)

C's inner demon escaped when we got home, haha. She napped part of the way home, and I had hoped she'd go back to sleep on my bed, but that didn't happen. She was wide awake, and of course DH and I were exhausted and just wanted a quick nap. C was overtired so she was being kinda bad and driving us insane. We can laugh about it now, but yesterday afternoon we definitely were not laughing!!

Finally, I decided to play Just Dace on the Wii with C. That made her stop whining and she had fun. Plus I got in a good workout. ( :  After that, we headed to my other sister's house for a Father's Day cookout. We don't see my sisters and their kids often, but I always enjoy spending time with them. My other niece is pregnant with her first child, so its an exciting time. And I'll be doing her maternity pictures and her newborn session, so I'm looking forward to those challenges!

We got home after 8 and we had to feed the animals, so it was close to 9 by the time we were getting our baths and getting ready for bed. I could tell C was exhausted but she was holding up well. She was out in her crib before 10, which was wonderful. Then DH went to bed because he had a headache. I should have gone to bed, too, but I stayed up doing research for our upcoming trip to the Outer Banks of NC. By the time I decided to call it quits for the night, I still had to wash my face and all, and after that I was wide awake, so I read for a while in bed. Like until 1am. (Bad Nikki!!) Not long after I finally drifted off to sleep, C woke up crying. I brought her to bed with us and she kept us up pretty much the rest of the night. I think she was just overtired and couldn't sleep well because of that. Toddlers are so finicky!! So I feel like I've been hit by a truck this morning. Hopefully tonight I can get to bed earlier. And hopefully C will sleep better, in her own bed!

DH's cousin is bringing her newborn baby down to visit everyone today, so I'll finally get to meet that baby. I'm excited about that, even though I know its gonna send my baby fever into overdrive, haha. Everyone keeps asking me and DH when we're gonna have #2, and its hard to know what to say. We want another child, but we're not sure when. Both of us are pretty much just open to God's timing, though. That's how we were when we conceived C. We were cool with having a baby right away or having to wait a while. We'll see what happens. ( :


This is random, but I don't want to forget: Saturday morning me and C had been in and out of the house a lot. I was hanging out clothes on the line and she'd go with me, then we'd play on the swing set for a while before coming back in so I could get more cleaning done. At point point she asked me if we could go back outside, and I told her we could in a little while. She said, "but Jesus is outside!" I love that kid. <3