I've moved!

Hi all. I just wanted to let everyone know that I've moved my blog... sort of.

Here's where I embarrass myself. I'm SO out of it when it comes to following feeds or whatever... see, I don't even know how to use it properly in a sentence. Haha! Anyway... I don't know what that's going to mean for you folks that follow me in any of those programs that keep up with blogs for you. So, I'm posting this in hopes that you'll be notified that I've updated my blog, and you'll see that I've moved.

So, my new blog is found here:
www.amycoffeyphotography.com/wordpress

However, I've redirected pretty much all traffic to end up there. So... yeah... like I said... I don't know how this works. Haha! Do whatever you've gotta do to keep following me. :) Pretty please?

Thanks a billion!

love, love, LOVE

Cinco de Maya!

Aw... my baby turned five. I truly canNOT believe it. Five. She's a sweet little thing, and she's still very much my baby, but she's also growing up. Maturing. And, before long, she'll be rockin' kindergarten. THAT I can't handle, though I know it's coming.

It seems like the years are a blur. Five stinkin' years... where does the time go? And, what's wrong with my memory? Why can't I remember anything? I've always known my memory is horrible, but I'm starting to be irritated by it. Thank goodness for this blog... at least I have blog entries from the past two years to remind me of what's happened in our lives. I wish I remembered more from when they were babies. I wish I'd been into photography then.

But, alas, I do not remember, and I was not into photography. So, I mourn the loss of those memories and kick myself for not compensating for known weaknesses back then. Sigh.

Do your kids ever just drive you bonkers? Absolutely nuts? As I sit here trying to recall any sweet little anecdote from Maya's baby stage, my children are running around wrestling, squealing, giggling... While I love that they play well together and enjoy one another's company, they're supposed to be cleaning their room. That's not happening. Obviously. All I ask is that they leave me alone while I blog. But, they're not. So, no sweet anecdote of Maya. (Not that I'd actually be able to remember one anyway, but it definitely won't be happening with that sort of distraction.)

And, after I told them sternly (read: yelled at them - hey, I'm not perfect) to leave me alone while I blog, they stomped off to the room they're supposed to be cleaning. Among voices and giggles muffled by the closed door, I hear Emma taunt, "try to bite me!"

Why? Why? Why? That's all I've got. Why? Why would you want your sister to try to bite you? Crazy... I'm telling you... they make me crazy!

I should just get on with the pictures. The craziness keeps me from being able to think straight.

Some of the kiddos... sweet Kyden.  I always LOVE pictures of him:

This is Anson.  He's Emma's best friend, son of my best friend, brother to Maya's best friend, and our neighbor.  :)
Ahhh... and this next one...  Emma ran up to me and hugged me around my waist.  She looked up at me and grinned her impish little grin.  She was so close to me that I couldn't get the camera to focus down on her, thus the out of focus picture.  But, I don't care.  Not one bit.  I have NO idea when I'll see this for the last time, and I'm thankful that I captured it.  I'm sure the end is near, and that breaks my heart.  Even if she wanted to run up to me and hug me spontaneously as she gets older, she'll soon be my height.  (Hey, I'm not that tall, okay?)  Plus, we all know she absolutely will *not* want to hug me spontaneously in the years to come.  :(
This is Josie... she's the girls' cousin, and she loves all things girly!  PERFECT fit with my girls.  We actually had our first quasi slumber party.  Jo & the girls.  Yay!  It went REALLY well!
And, to fit in with the fiesta theme and because my girls ask for them every chance they get, a pinata!  All that remains is this poor bull's head.  The kiddos (and it looks like some adults, too) enjoyed it!  (By the way, I HATE dappled lighting.  Seriously.  I didn't want to take ANY pictures out in this lighting, but I'm trying to force myself to quit being a perfectionist.  I've been doing okay with that, actually.)
This next picture requires a little explanation. See, I made the mistake of making an elaborate cake for Emma on her first birthday. First of all, I HATE baking. I like cooking, I hate baking. Second, I don't have any cake making experience... no classes, no time saving tips, nothing. I just do what I have to do to make it work, and that seems to take me hours upon hours. Third, between mommy guilt and my girls' memories, I can't seem to get myself out of it. Year after year, I make myself miserable making cakes the day before their birthdays.

So, this year, as usual, I ask Maya what she wants on her cake, all the while keeping my fingers crossed that her request will be something SIMPLE. What does my kid request? Her face. She wants her face on her cake. Seriously? Who wants that except Maya? And, how in the world am I gonna pull that off? Ugh.

I had the brilliant idea to base it on her Mii. SO much easier to recreate. It still took me eight stinkin' hours. Here she is with her cake aka my magnum opus:
Maya blowing out the candles:
And, because our families are full of really mature folks, we couldn't resist:
Oh, so bad, but, oh, so amusing!

And, yeah... about the title of this blog entry... Curt's been just WAITING 'til Maya turned five.  I'm pretty sure that idea was conceived before Maya was even born... Cinco de Maya.  Ay yi yi.

A lot to catch up on...

Well, I've been putting off this blog for a while, obviously.  It's been over a month.  In that time, I've celebrated Christmas, visited my brother in California again, celebrated New Years, celebrated Heather & Curt's birthdays, and lost my Nana.  It's that last thing that's kept me away.  I knew I wanted to and needed to blog something about it, but I just don't like to sit down with my own thoughts sometimes.  You know?

I just want to say thanks for all of your prayers & good thoughts for myself & my family as we've gone down this difficult path with my Nana.  Even though we had time to prepare, I think I wasn't even over the initial shock that she was sick in the first place.  It just doesn't seem right.  I know that I should be thankful that we had time to say goodbye, and I am.  But, I still have to say that I'm incredibly saddened that we lost her, not to mention angry that she even got sick.  Stages of grief, anyone?  Except, I'm stuck on anger.  And I have been.  For a while now.

But, that's not what I want to say... I just got sidetracked.  I want to just remember the joy and, truth be told, sometimes frustration that she brought into our lives.  Her personality was larger than life!  She was very much an Italian woman.  She was always so passionate one way or another... it's like she felt things to a greater magnitude than normal people.  I think I got a little bit of that from her, actually.  I'm emotional... whether it be great joy & happiness or a deep hurt, I feel it to my core.

The thing I'll remember most about Nana is how she was always, ALWAYS willing to just laugh, and laugh hard.  Her laugh was infectious.  She never concerned herself with "acting her age."  Not that she wasn't mature or anything... she just had fun.  I remember when she got on a big ol' trampoline and jumped and laughed.  Seriously... she laughed hysterically the whole time she was jumping.  That was the summer of '96.  She was almost 62 then.  Good times.  And, every visit with her was riddled with laughing or occasionally a little drama.  But, that's okay.  I'll miss her... drama & all.

They say she was about 16 years old here:

Love, love, LOVE this:

This is my Nana and Grampy.  He deserves a whole blog of his own... truly.  I've missed him for many, many years now.
This is my most favorite picture of my Nana of all time.  She had this framed in her house for several years.  I just love it.
And, me & Nana the summer after I graduated high school.  This is the summer that she jumped on that trampoline.
You know... I just really feel like we should have had at least another ten years with her.  It's crazy because I had GREAT grandparents into adulthood.  Notice that's plural!  Now?  Now I only have one grandparent left.  I've lost too many, too young.  I'm just so tired of all the losses.  I really am.  Can I say "uncle" now?  I give up.

I'd like to end this post here.  I just don't know that I have the wit to do the rest of this blog justice.  But, I've been a terrible blogger and a terrible blogging mom.  A month's worth of time has passed in my kids' lives without me documenting what's gone on.  And, believe me, there's a lot.  Most recently (maybe I'll work backward... I don't know...), Emma marked a rite of passage.  You know EVERY girl has done this at least once, if not multiple times.  Ladies out there... it's happened to you, hasn't it? 

That's the sort of thing that happens while mom's at Wal Mart, which is exactly what happened this time.  Curt called me assuring me that I'd have to cut it out of her hair.  He was all worked up and grouchy.  Men just don't have the mad hair detangling skills for this.  Or the patience to try.  They'd rather take scissors to it.  I told him to leave it for me, and I'd handle it when I got home.  I got home and laughed hysterically, truth be told.  It was funny.  Look at her.  Then, I went and got my camera.  She was NOT too keen on having pictures taken.  I told her that if you go and get a brush stuck in your hair, you HAVE to have a picture taken.  That's the rules.  She cried.  I'm a mean mom.  I'm okay with that.

Anyway, a couple minutes after I put the camera down, I freed the brush.  And, there was NO involvement from the scissors.  Men.  If they had any experience with this sort of thing at all they wouldn't be so dramatic, right?  I mean, I've had a brush stuck in my hair a time or two (or fourteen).  Why do you think my house is round brush free?

I've GOT to get back into this...

I've been so bad about blogging lately.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I haven't touched my camera since the day after Thanksgiving.  The cold weather does it to me, I guess.  I just don't want to go outside if I can help it, and there's nothing fun going on inside.  Oh well...

So, I've got some more photos to share from when I was in California.  This is right after I discovered Photo Booth on the computer.  :)  Fun times.

Here's me & my siblings.  Heather decided (and announced) just before the fourth picture that we should make a funny face.  Thus, her funny face.  This was the first time we used Photo Booth, so we were totally unprepared for how quickly it takes the pictures.  So, yeah... Heather's the only one with a funny face.  :)

And, we decided to take another round with all funny faces.  I think maybe they were just playing tricks on me in that first one, eh?  And, one more because Miles didn't make that much of a funny face in the second set.  This is better, though, aside from leaving me hanging in the first one again.  Oy. And, then I decided to take some pictures with my Aunt Cynthia because she is SUCH a hoot.  All I could do, though, was laugh hysterically at her faces & commentary.  Good grief, she makes me laugh!  I'll take my four bazillion chins (see the fourth photos) for a good laugh like that!
And, finally... me & sweet Nana.  She liked it.  :)
And, to my family... I love you all!  Thanks for all your sweet comments.  I had SUCH a good time getting to visit with you.  If any of you want a disc with the pictures on it, email me your mailing address, and I'll send one out to you.  amycoffeyphotography@gmail.com 

Take care!