Being in the Photos

I always feel the need to capture my son's special moments in life. I want him to be able to look back and see a clear timeline of his life. To know that he meant the world to me as a kiddo, and even more as an adult. Love only gets stronger as you grow together through more events....right?!
As a mom, especially a single mom, I find myself being left out of the majority of his photos. I am the only one there to work the camera. So many great photo opps and I am not in any of them. But I know many couples...and very few have a daddy who will stick to that camera to insure the perfect moment is captured. So I dont feel alone....but I do cherish the times that someone else is camera happy and can take a picture of me and my boy.
We were at a pool party for the church youth. Lil'Man and I had taken a break from swimming to eat. A friend of mine from high school had her camera ready to shoot....and snapped a good photo for me. Thank you Noel!!!!

Kiddy Pool

My friend and I took our kiddos to the Olympic Pool. They are only a couple of months. My friends daughter spent most of her time hanging out, relaxing next to her mother. My son spent almost all of his time running around, in and out of the pool. He was borrowing toys from other kids and tossing them over the side. He would say "oops!" and then jump over the side to retreive the toy. He is so smart.

Even though I had to run around instead of relaxing with my friend, I still had a great time. I love to see my lil'man enjoy himself. And of course, sense I am taking all the photos, I am not in any of them. Oh well...such is life as a mommy!

Grammy visit

Lil'Man's Grammy came to visit for a couple of days. He is to the age where it is hard to get him to sit still....well he has always been like that but now he is smart enough to know that what he is doing is not right. We could not get him to pose for anything.

So we did what we could...we took a photo of just the two of us. And it turned out great!

Then I did what I have seen others before me do. I let the two of them interact and I just followed them snapping shots. I took as many as I could knowing that I would eventually end up with one or two usable ones. Well, what do you know, I was right. I got two really good shots of my son with his GREAT-grammy. These are memories that we can treasure for years to come.

My Grammy is a great woman. I used to spend my summers with her. We would go to church, eat, hang out around the house, go boating..skiiing...tubing (cause she lived on a lake), play with the neighbor kids, play all sorts of board and card games, and my favorite above all else....we went to plays/productions/theater. I saw several different plays with my grammy. My favorite being Lil'Abner. She helped to give me some culture that I would otherwise not had. When I went to college, we would occassionally meet on the weekends in a town called Crockett and go to a lunch. I miss all the days that I spent with her. I miss the way her house smells and feels.

I am trying to plan a trip there close, if not over, the fourth of july weekend. I am finishing up summer school that week....so it will be a tight fit for planning....but I want my son to have experiences there like I had. I want him to have photos to look back on to remember all the wonderful times he will have at his Grammy's at the Lake.

I love you Grammy!

Summer Fun Part II

Pool time is so much fun for my lil'man. We have been swimming several times this summer so far. Here are so photos of him sportin' the swimmer look.

And here is Nuni another time at the pool.

Summer Fun

Ok...now that summer time is here....its sand volleyball time. Everything Thursday afternoon we drive down to Time Warner Park and Nuni plays threes on a sand volleyball team. They are really great people and we have alot of fun while we are there. Sometimes lil'man goes with us but only on the early nights, gotta keep him on schedule.

Well this time, Nuni's nephew was with him for the week (his mom was working on moving their family to Austin), so he got to go with us to the park. We had so much fun taking photos while Nuni played. Des had never used a digital camera before and was so amazed at how it worked. He took alot of his Nuni, I took several of him, and then we got alittle creative.

He is a great kid and we love him very much!

Cooking

My lil'man has decided that he has to have his hand in everything. I know that I have posted pictures before with him helping me in the kitchen....but now it is just crazy how often he feels the need to be in there with his hand in things.

Last night I was cooking dinner for the boys (we were watching Texas get killed by LSU in the last baseball game of the series) and he scooted a chair right up next to me. He climbed up on top and was perfectly content helping me stir. He is growing so much....it is just so crazy to look at his old photos and videos.

PS...dont judge him because of this photo. We had just gotten home from church and he had been playing hard outside...its not the cutest he has ever looked...but "hims my boy!"

Professional Photography

We had LaRea follow us around in the park in San Angelo, just snapping photos of the entire family interacting. With as many kids as we have, it can just be too hard to get everyone to smile and sit at the same time. We had alot of fun and ended up with some really good looking photos. Here are some.

Looks like he actually posed for this one. How handsome!

Me and my boy. He was watching a remote controlled boat speeding around on the water to our right. It worked well to aid in taking photos.

My 12th man!!!

Summer Water Fun!

What a better way to ring in the summer time than

some good ol' fashion waterworks in the backyard

with family. We had so much fun at my brother's house.

I have a very hectic life....and these are the moments

that I wish I had more of. To spend hours watching

my son play....and not worry about what needs to be

done. I guess I need to re-evaluate my priorities....

I dont want life to pass me by. I dont wanna have regrets.

Cousin's Birthday

We traveled for my nephew's birthday party this weekend. Being in town with the whole family has just been great for the both of us. Lil' Man has gotten to spend quality time with all of his cousins and to top it off....we have the birthday party all day tomorrow.

Lil' Man is also getting older. So we decided it was time for him to try a toddler bed. What could be a better time? This way he gets to spend his first night, in his new bed, next to his cousin.

Well, it did not go as we had hoped. His allergies are acting up, making it hard for him to breathe when he sleeps. So he spent most of the night coughing and sneezing. This continued to wake him during the night....cause him to cry. His cousin could not sleep cause Lil' Man was crying....so he opted to leave the room and sleep in his mommy's bed. Haha....I totally saw that one coming.

Either way, he has a cute new bed with Mickey Mouse sheets. He could not be more proud of his new "big boy" bed.