3 Days and Counting

OMG, if I never see another photo, my camera or my computer again, it will be toooooo soon. lol. That took FORRREVER but glad to have it done and be all caught up. :)

3 more work days of maternity leave. Is this for real? I cannot BELIEVE how fast the time has gone and I'm not ready to go back, AT ALLLL. It's supposed to be 70 degrees and sunny on Thursday. At least that is what my mother-in-law tells me. Who goes back to work on a day like that?? Nooooooo one.

I'll miss my lil peanut, Reba and wearing yoga clothes 100% of the time. Ha. I somehow need to convince myself to be a morning person. How, I do not know. We can work flex hours at work, which is awesome. But to get to work by 6, I need to LEAVE MY HOUSE AT 5. Or to get there by 7, I need to leave by 6. OMG, this is so not my bag, baby. Help!

K, I was just bored so I thought I'd whine via blog :) :)

Hope everyone has a bueno weekend. Belle has a playdate tomorrow at her BFF's house. Sunday we are going to dinner with a big group of friends. Yum. Other than that, not a whole lot going on. At some point I need to get down my humongous stack of work pants from The Limited and try them on. Yikes!

Mucho love,
Ann

Week 8's Great...

On a roll! There were a lot from Week 8 that I liked. Favorites posted in usual spot!


In case anyone is wondering why I always refer to everything as Week 8, Week 9, etc, it's only because that is the way my photos are organized in my computer. lol. I don't typically speak in "weeks".

Love, Us :)

Week 10...

Favorites are uploaded to www.kurtandannsteward.shutterfly.com for anyone that cares. :)

Here are a few of the faves from Week Numero Teno (unfortunately, my Spanish is still no bueno):

Love,
Us :)

Pics Posted! Yippee!

OMG, I got the Week 11 album posted to shuterfly for anyone that cares!

http://www.kurtandannsteward.shutterfly.com/

So sorry I'm behind on Weeks 8, 9 and 10! Will post soon, I hope!

I decided to pull out favorites and just post those to Shutterfly so it doesn't take so long for everyone to flip through. The other weeks had about 100 photos and Week 11 only has about 60. :)

Mucho love!
Ann :)

Here are some randoms from Week 11:

Starving Artist??

Belle got some art work into the Figge Art Museum! Their school system apparently had a unit on etchings. In elementary school, I think this is where you color a piece of paper, paint over it in black paint and etch off a pattern. Teachers can submit various students' artwork to the Figge for display. They have a presentation for the kids and their artwork is actually framed in the student gallery. It was cute and she's so proud of herself. It seems like a great program! From her school, only one other third grader was submitted!

Yesterday we went to the presentation and checked out her art! Very excited and proud of her! Uncle Jay and Aunt Andrea met us at the Figge to also see it. :)

Here are some pics. Hers is the top one in the frame, with the pink and blue dots. As you can see, her artistic style veers widely toward the abstract. lol. And yes, I still hate the hair. :)

Yay, Belle!

Tomorrow's going to be a rough day for Bellabop. We see a great orthodontist for her every six months. Six months ago, she had to have HUMONGOUS molars pulled. We went again last week and she needs another tooth pulled. This is happening tomorrow. The good part is that for her, having braces will be the EASY part after all of these mini-surgeries!

Love,
Us

Mama Got a Rockin' New Camera...

and a pimp a$$ lens. OOPS!

I've always been kinda picture obsessed. I took about 1,000 photos of Belle per week when she was a baby. Ahhh, the 35mm days... And I still do take a TON of pictures of her, especially when it's warm outside.

I've had some pretty great point and shoot Canons since going el digitalo, including my muy bueno G9. My latest maternity leave took the incessant (annoying) photo taking to a new level since we had a pretty decent SLR camera and some lenses just sitting around rotting. It's more Kurt's camera than mine, since he has always used it on our vacations while I was in holy matrimony to my lil' Canon G9. I have no idea how many thousands of photos I took with that G9...I still love it!

ANYHOW, so I bought myself a bueno bday prize in the form of a rockin' camera (bday was Tuesday but I couldn't wait so I bought it on Monday). Then I decided I needed a pimpin' lens to go along with it. Again, oops. Oh well, what can I say...I'm getting old. Every other year I have bought myself a handbag for my bday. If I only had approximately $8,500+ more dollars to burn, I could buy the other three lenses I need (a.k.a. 'want reallllllllllly bad') and call it a day. Now you know why I will ALWAYS work!

So that's what I've been doing...trying to figure out how to use the freakin' camera. Hanging w/ le bebe and taking pics, pics and more pics...capturing the joy and whatnot. Taking lots and deleting lots. I cannot FREAKING WAIT for it to get nice out. Every summer I have taken tons of pics of Belle. I will post some blasts from the past here soon. And no girls, don't worry, I don't mean from The Stickma.n's, Halftime or Iowa City days...I mean of Belle when she was younger. lol. I think we all know the baby blog is no place for those kind of pics. haha.

This summer should be pretty fun since I'll have a baby that will be sitting up *sighs* *smiles* *hugs baby* and (DOESN'T COMPLAIN LIKE HIS SISTER) combined with the bueno backgrounds of our current digs. I also counseled Belle yesterday on the importance of me taking her pictures and her not complaining or being a B. :) She likes looking at pics when she was younger so HELLO, DRAMA QUEEN, obviously next year you'll like looking back to this years. Women! Ugh!

In a very short time I've learned two important things: PHOTOGRAPHY IS EFFING EXPENSIVE and THERE IS A LOT TO LEARN (including a lot more math than I imagined). I bought myself about 800 photography books, too. I can't believe how hard it is.

So here are some pics from the last week. These are all shot in manual mode (aka not "auto"). I didn't even realize before last week that there were other "modes" than auto. lol. My goal this week is to teach myself to shoot in RAW mode and/or how to use the external flash OR how to use Lightroom 2.6. We'll see how that goes. But here are the pics -

Ahhh, my baby boy!! He's soooooooooooooooooo sweet!!

And, finally, here he is showing his wild side:

The last picture was really funny because he's actually wearing a shirt with a guitar embroidered on it. I thought he was kind of showing me a "rock on" sign *lol* but I wasn't quick enough to get the vertical shot that would show the guitar!

As a side note, Belle wanted the short haircut and told our main man Brian to give her bangs. I was apprehensive. I'm still not a huge fan but they do look pretty good in pics. She looks so old! Argh!!

Mucho love to y'all...

I gotta get back to my lil guy here :) :) :)

Love,

Ann

PS - Those park pics and the last pic (rockin' guitar baby) are taken with the prior camera/lens combo. I am dying to get back the park with the new goodies. Too bad there is an inch of snow on the ground and I'm still not sure how to take pics in snow.

"Back in the [Stroller] Again"

Hola! Me & Le Bebe are hitting the town! Right now he is whining in his sleep right next to me. IT'S SOOOOO SAD. Frowny face :( and all :( I always say he's dreaming of mean babies and empty "botts" (bottles). Poor guy!!!!

This week, my grandma bought me an AWESOME book about babies that has baby pictures in it! It also has super sweet baby quotes in it. I love it! That was how I got the idea to use the afghans. I realized that books are a cool gift to give people. That being said, I need to run into town and buy a couple of gifts (a.k.a. books). Hopefully, they like receiving books as much as I do. :)

I also need to hit up Von Maur to get Will his baby bath wash. Yes, he is high maintenance already. In his defense, Noodle & Boo rocks it hardcore. Men, do not be ashamed to use good product! Even if you are only 2 months old!! I told Kurt I needed to get Will baby bath from Von Maur and he said, "WTH...can't he just use Dial?" omg.

Trelle Belle gets out of school at 1pm. I'm going to pick her up and take her to the park. I'm sure she'll be sad to not ride the bus. Did I mention that this is the first age I've HATED (she's almost 9). She is somewhere in between the first grader who was OVERJOYED I showed up to pick her up at school and the teenager who never wants to see me again. Not a fan of it. One day I picked her up and told her we were going to Gap Kids to get her some new clothes. She said she already had enough clothes so could we just go home and watch Hannah Montana. Grrr. I assure you, we went to the Gap. She's fine once she is there, it's just getting her to do anything that is the struggle. Argh!

Well, Reba is over (haha!) so I should get in the shower. I am going to get a DVR before going back to work so I can dvr Reba. THREE MORE WEEKS TIL I GO BACK TO WORK! No bueno!! :) I miss everyone at work but I'll miss this lil' peanut when I'm there. It will be nice to have a schedule though...I guess... :) J/K, I have a great job so it will be good to get back. Five days a week just seems like a lot when right now it's 9:30 a.m. and I'm still wearing leopard print flannel pajama pants and a tank top. Sexy mama...not!!!!!! I need to get in the shower! :)

Spring is here! It is sunny outside! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love y'all!
Love,
~Us

Two Months!! :(

Our little baby is 2 months old! I can't believe it!! I'm having an impossible time narrowing down my favorites from our two months photo shoot. I'll post just some of the good ones.

It's crazy how ordinary things in your life become so precious the moment your loved one who made them takes her last breath. My grandma was amazing at crocheting things. By far better than anyone else in the world. Oh, how I miss her...

Below are some pics of Baby Will with afghans my Grandma Bernice (R.I.P.) made and also the baby blanket she made me when I was born. Fortunately, I spent LOTS of time with her in the summers when I was growing up and was periodically allowed to pick from her secret stash of completed afghans (it was hidden in the bottom of her closet underneath big boxes of yarn)! I've always kept them and my baby blanket in storage so they are in such great condition still. I'm missing one though, for sure, so I need to find out if my madre has that one stashed somewhere :)

I love him! I'll post a full album of these pics HERE soon. (Click on "HERE")

Love,

~Us :)