Newborn Photos

I'm so blessed to be Aunt Megs, that my nephew knows and loves me, that between us my sister and I have FOUR kids under the age of four, and we all live in the same neighborhood.

I love that our kids are going to grow up friends, two boys and two girls and maybe more? I don't know, but these four are going to have fun. And probably get into lots of trouble, but not too much. :)

Last Saturday I had the privilege of photographing my sister and her new baby and their beautiful little family.

And while this is clearly an outtake, it's one of my favorites from the day. Look! There's a pretty baby right there! I can't look at it and not laugh.

They are such happy parents and I'm so very happy for them - and for me. Because I get to love on their kiddos too. Being Aunt Megs is pretty special.

So is Anna Kate.

Her lips? Amazing! Seriously, people would pay good money for those.

I hadn't done a newborn shoot in months and months. I only do them for friends and family so my opportunities are pretty few, but I love them. They're tons of work, but so worth it.

If I were ever going to go pro I'd want to do more babies. They're squishy and adorable. And I'd take a workshop on posing. It's hard, y'all. At least for me.

But the best part is that I get to take more and more photos of Anna Kate. See? I'm so blessed to be Aunt Megs.

Project 365 on Instagram

I started a 365 project on Instagram this year. (Come follow me! I'm @MeaganMusing). I'm having so much fun with it.

I've found it really easy to take at least one photo a day, edit it in an app and then tag it with my hashtag. And that's it. Surely I can keep this up all year.

I recently ordered a poster from Printsagram of some of my favorite Instagrams from last year, and it arrived on Friday.

It totally made my day.

I can't even tell you how excited I am to get this framed and hung in our house.

I've also been using my Photojojo lenses more often since I'm thinking about my iPhone photos more. Well, I'm using the macro lens a lot.

It's amazing what you can capture on your cell phone camera.

If I could just be a little bit steadier these could be even more awesome. I'm working on it.

What have you been shooting lately?

All photos taken with the iPhone 4S, Camera+ app and edited with Afterglow.

Preschool Lunch Bentos - Weeks 13, 14, 15 & 16

Oh hi. Remember when I posted photos of my cool bento lunches for the kiddos?

Yeah, it's been a while. But I'm back with lots of lunches to share!

Let's go waaaaaay back to before Christmas break.

Tuesday, December 11:

Andrew had ham and both mustard and ketchup. He had lots of apples, soaked in lemon juice to keep them crisp, and little scooby bones. He was crazy about these crackers and begged for them!

Sweet Caroline had blueberries and more lemon juice soaked apples, ham and cheese and Christmas goldfish. Those totally made it Christmas-y, right?

Thursday, December 13

Andrew had a Christmas dinosaur pb&j with red and green tortilla chips for the spikes and a few on the side. I threw in some yogurt and grapes in the little water proof cups that come with the Yubo Lunchbox.

Tuesday, December 18

Andrew had superhero sandwiches and a few little peanut butter crackers, Christmas goldfish and lots of blueberries all in his cool frog box from All Things for Sale.

Caroline had peanut butter crackers, blueberries, Christmas goldfish and ham. I threw in a cute little decoration, but I have no idea what that is. A shrimp maybe? I figured she'd get a kick out of it!

And then it was Christmas break and I made like four cute meals the whole three weeks we were off school. I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed the time off.

Not that I don't love making their lunches, but it was nice to recharge a bit, you know?

So on to January.

Tuesday, January 15

Caroline was sick so I only had to make a lunch for Andrew. We woke up on our first day back to school and it was SNOWING! We were shocked and Andrew wanted to play so I threw something together real quick so we could get outside. (The superhero sandwich stampers were from Williams-Sonoma, but it looks like they're no longer available. :( They still have Star Wars and Sesame Street though.)

Thursday, January 17

It was a big day. We had painters at our house repainting our ceiling and my sister had her baby! She was in labor and I wanted to get to the hospital, and it was all I could do to send Andrew to school with ice water. This is what he got.

Frogs! I used his new CuteZCute cutter and I was just so-so about it. Maybe I need to try different bread. I tried to cut the face, and I didn't get a good cut so I ended up just stamping it. It's cute, but it needs some work.

And that brings us to this week. Whew...

Tuesday, January 22

Andrew got a cut-up turkey dog with ketchup for dipping, carrots and cucumbers, strawberries, pita chips and graham sticks. I was going for a bit of a Valentine theme with the pink and the hearts. He loved having a hot dog! He ate everything I sent.

Caroline had some Pirates Booty and ham, yogurt melts, cheese and raspberries. Hi little lamb. She loves to tell me what the lamb says, so I thought she'd like him. She ate all her lunch too! I felt like I rocked Tuesday's lunches - ha!

Also, this little red and yellow box is on sale for $1.99 - seriously! You should get one. You do need a band to go around it to keep it together though. Like this one.

Thursday, January 24

Andrew had a little tangerine flower with blueberries, graham sticks, ham and ketchup and celery with peanut butter. I threw a little dinosaur in for fun because he's always asking for dinosaur lunches. Ha!

Now we're all caught up. As always let me know if you have any questions. I still think Amazon and All Things for Sale are the best online sources for boxes and supplies. But you can sometimes find great stuff at Target and Michael's too. You just have to be on the lookout.

Good luck!

P.S. I had a guest post at the Dallas Moms Blog earlier this month about getting started with Bentos. It's a great article if you're just beginning your bento lunch adventure.

Valentine Banner & a Printable

Valentine's Day....

One of those funny holidays that means so much more now that I'm responsible for small children. I want to make it special for them, something they'll remember.

So we decorate our house and we make pink funfetti cupcakes and we read little stories about making Valentines for our friends.

 This sweet banner is hanging in our front hall and it makes a big statement for such a small piece.

I made the tags in Photoshop and then cut different sized hearts out of coordinating Valentine themed scrapbook papers. (I used my new Silhouette to cut the hearts because I'm obsessed, but any scissors will work.)

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You'll just need a hole punch and some twine for an instant Valentine banner. I also like to use these pop dots to add some dimension. 

I picked up a little book of Valentine papers at Michael's a few weeks ago, but if you're looking for digital paper, Paper Tree House Studio on Etsy has darling packs you can print.

Enjoy!

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Linking up with The 36th Avenue.

Ultimate Weekend Recap

This weekend's theme was most definitely My Favorite Things with My Favorite People.

We had a babysitter Friday night so we ran up to the hospital for a bit to love on Anna Kate.

Oh man...she's tiny! You'd think as a mother myself that I'd remember how mini brand new babies are, but I forget every time.

After some quality baby snuggles Brian and I had a fabulous dinner out. We wanted to try someplace new and picked a southern restaurant close to our house. We got there at 9PM and thought we'd maybe have to wait for 10 minutes, but they said it would be an hour.

Sigh...we're too old to eat dinner at 10PM.

But the host took pity on us and found a cancellation and we got to sit right down to a delicious dinner.

Andrew's swimming lesson show was Saturday morning so we all headed out to the pool. Brian takes him to his lessons on Saturday mornings now, so I hadn't seen his progress. He can do the backstroke! Color me impressed. He's swimming half-way across the pool now. I really think swimming may be his sport, just like his daddy.

We had a crazy family taco lunch date after swimming, and I got to work on some house projects while Caroline napped and Brian and Andrew went to the park, Home Depot and Central Market.

We grilled chicken outside, my mom and dad dropped by, we listened to fun music. Saturday was good.

Today was full of pancakes and eggs, double stroller rides, laundry and solo grocery shopping.

See? Really, all my favorite things crammed into one weekend.

Brian has been finished with school for about six weeks now. Lots of those six weeks were occupied by Christmas preparations and celebrations and Andrew sickness.

So this weekend felt like a preview of what life will be like for us post-MBA school.

And I'm pretty excited about what's in store for our little family.

Snow Day

So my sister had her baby girl today!

She's as pretty as can be, and her name is Anna Kate. Our whole family is in love. Also? She was 6 lbs 7 oz, which is exactly what Caroline weighed at birth. And our boys' birth weights were within an ounce of each other. How crazy is that??

I have about 500 photos to go through from today, but before I get to that I want to share these photos of my kiddos in the snow on Tuesday, which seems like it was ages ago already!

We woke up to snow on Tuesday morning! It's a pretty rare treat around here and Andrew wanted to play in it right away. But it was his first day back to preschool from Christmas break so we had to get our snow time in fast.

Caroline has no boots, poor sad southern girl. So I wouldn't let her run out in to the snow which was exactly what she wanted to do of course.

Hahahaha!

He's into buttoning his own coat these days and I'll never tell that he's off one here. :)

She looks so dainty and girly here, which she's not.

See? "I'll eat that snow!"

Brian made us a tiny snowman.

Wrong shoes. :(

I have no idea when we'll see snow again, but it's been so nice to have a bit of a real winter this year. Although, we're totally going to the park tomorrow to enjoy the the 60 degrees and sunny day we're supposed to have.

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Check back soon for baby photos. I have lots to share from today, and Kelsey has asked me to take newborn photos for her. I have a few new hats and a blanket that I'm super excited about. I'll try not to overload y'all too much. :)

Quiet Moments

My kids are at a new stage for me, at almost four and 17 months, where they can play together on their own for a bit without needing constant intervention.

I still find it a little disconcerting to be outnumbered most days, but we're settled and comfortable and generally know what to expect.

But at 5PM you can throw that all out the window.

It's like my kids turn into wild animals.

The craziness that is dinner, bath, pajamas, playtime, stories and finally glorious lights out! leaves me begging for my own pajamas.

But the other night I grabbed my camera and decided to look for the little moments that I want to remember about our race to bedtime.

And I caught this:

Seriously you two?

This is one of my favorite photos ever.

They might be loud and rambunctious, but they're also sweet and loving and make me so very, very happy.

Ten on Ten - January

I took a little ten on ten brake over the fall/holiday season, mostly because I forgot. We were on vacation in September and then it just went downhill from there.

But it's a new year and a new 10 on 10! The idea is to take ten photos for ten consecutive hours to remind you of all the beauty in your everyday.

I didn't spread them out quite as much as I'd like today, but it was close.

Enjoy!

Brian's been out of town and Andrew's been sick. Guess who's been sleeping in my bed? This is such a rare sleeping photo. I love it.

Good morning sunshine! (So maybe it takes her bit to share the sunshine.)

My breakfast of champions.

The sun came out today, but it took it a bit to burn off all the rain.

Sweet baby, always snacking on something. :) Also, she only wants to use big brother's big cups.

The sun and the clouds were beautiful today. We've been having a real winter the last two or three weeks and I welcomed a respite from cold and gray today.

First of the day in the afternoon. Ahhhh.....

As long as it took me to get this up on our chalkboard I think it will stay all month!

Dinner of champions...some days I really do cook real food. I promise.

Ready for bed. Caroline was already sacked out in her crib because she DIDN'T TAKE A NAP! Also, Halloween pj's are perfectly acceptable year round. He calls them his Spiderman pajamas.

I love him.

Happy tenth, y'all! Did you remember to take photos today?

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