Of course it's more princess pictures!  This weekend, Rory's friends had a princess/super hero party.  It was so fun seeing all those kids dressed up.  They all had so much fun!  As I said last week, Rory has been dressing up like a princess at home for months, but I broke down and got her an actual princess dress for the occasion.  I don't think I could have given the kid anything that would make her any more excited.  She was so sweet when I gave it to her, and she repeatedly told me, "THANK YOU, MOM!" all weekend.  {Disclaimer:  These are photos that a mom took, not a photographer!}

After the princess party, I took Rory to McDonald's for some chicken nuggets, and she wouldn't take the outfit off.  The reaction of every kid in there was, "Look!  A princess!"  Funny.

We came home to a brand new big girl bed set up in Rory's room!  She wanted to go to bed right away.  More on that to come.  I need to get some photos.

My wonderful husband also accomplished a ton of stuff in our basement over the weekend, and we were finally able to get things put back into storage.  That is a relief.  He had spent the last week finishing the laundry room, which meant we had no washer or dryer for over a week.  I had to go buy him new underwear because there were no clean pairs in the house!  So I spent a ton of time trying to catch up on washing clothes, bedding, rugs, etc.

It was an exciting weekend at our house.  I love busy and fun weekends, but unfortunately that only makes the weekend go by way too quickly.  And we woke up Monday morning to more snow; 17 inches total.  I am refusing to look at the forecast, but I heard it is supposed to get nice again this weekend.  We can't even be excited about that because that only means that everything will start flooding again.  Wonderful.

Make sure you listen to the music.

That's what Rory has been saying for the last few days.  Bad is an understatement.

Much of our state and parts of Minnesota are experiencing severe flooding due to rising waters of nearly every river and creek.  Entire towns are being evacuated, and only adding salt to the wound, a major snow storm passed through, causing impossible travel conditions and dropping up to two feet of snow in some areas earlier this week.

Please keep everyone affected in your prayers.  There is so much more ahead, and I just pray that everyone stays safe.

Thank you everyone who has emailed me asking if we are okay.  We live far away from all of the flooding that has occurred in Bismarck, so all is well for our family.

1.  This weather stinks.  Flooding, rain, blizzards, 50 mph winds…this state has seen it all in the last few days.  I just hope everyone stays safe.

2.  I spent the entire day Sunday going through the stuff we have had in storage since we moved to our house.  I got everything organized and cleaned up, and wow does it feel great!  Now as soon as Josey finishes up the storage room, we can get it all put away, and hopefully the basement won’t be such a mess!

3.  I went through all of the stuff my mom had saved for me throughout the years.  Boy, did I find some gems in there!  Apparently, there was about a four year span where I really didn’t get along with my brother Adam very well!  Some of the stuff that I had written for school projects:

“I love my mom because she takes me to town and not Adam.” and “My biggest pet peeve is Adam.”

Hilarious!  Funny thing is, I don’t remember disliking him so much.  I kind of felt bad looking back at that!  I’m sure that’s what Rory is going to be saying about Baby Brother in about five years, though.

4.Speaking of Rory, she has been killing me with some of her comments lately.  A couple nights ago, as she was getting ready for bed, she heard the wind howling outside.  Right away she said it was a “bad, bad storm.”  Since she is always saying she’s scared of storms, we told her that no, it wasn’t a storm, just the wind, and it’s not scary at all.

Well, the next day, which was yesterday, I walked into Carole’s to pick her up, and told Rory that the weather was bad, and we were going to get a storm.  Right away she scolded me saying, “I TOLD you!”

How does she remember these things?

5.  It’s been four months since I first posted that Rory had renamed herself Cinderella.  And even when I wrote that, it had been going on for a couple months.  Well, guess what…that phase has not ended yet.  For more hours of the day than not, she is decked out in her crown, glass slippers, princess gloves (aka her socks on her hands), and pretty dress (aka her blanket tied around her torso).  With a drinking straw as my wand, and a quick bippity boppity boo, she is transformed.  She spins, acts surprised and exclaims, “What a wonderful dream come true!”

It is dramatic, let me tell you.  And pretty much word for word from the movie.  Josey just loves it! )

6.  Those of you who have not discovered etsy, you need to ASAP.  Of course, I have mentioned my friend Jenn at Sweet Birdie before (here and here), and there are so many more talented people with shops over there.  Some of the many things I’m lusting for lately:

I have to find some way to use this in Baby Brother’s nursery, plus I can’t wait to get some cute hats for newborn photos.  And I’ve enlisted the help of Mary Had A Little Party to make a cute banner for Jenny’s baby shower!

7.  Has any body else been watching American Idol?  We all love this show, and I think there are some pretty good guys on there this year!  I am cheering for Danny and Matt.  Adam down right scares me!  I felt like I needed to go to church after watching his song last week.

8.  My most recent pregnancy craving…Capri Sun.  I am addicted to those things!  I bring them to work, and hope that nobody sees me sucking out of that little pouch like an 8 year old.

9.  We got Rory a big girl bed.  We just have to go find a matress and get it all set up!  I think she’s really excited about it because she keeps asking me about it!  One day, she tried to convince me that Baby Brother was going to sleep in there with her.  When I told her that he was going to be sleeping in the crib, she was fine with that.  She would just sleep in the crib with him, then.  She’s a little confused!

10.  I’m going to be participating in an online photography workshop starting at the beginning of April!  I am so super excited; you have no idea.  I am hoping to not only learn a lot from photographers I truly admire, but I am really hoping that it gives me the motivation and inspiration I need to pick up my camera some more.  I have had a hard time with that in the last few months.  I am tired of shooting indoors, and Rory keeps giving me a scowl every time I try to take a picture of her.

I've seen this video on a few blogs now, but I wanted to share.  Because I am constantly asking myself these questions.

Art, art I want you.  Art you make it pretty hard not to.  And my heart is trying hard here to follow you, but I can't always tell if I ought to.

How could I spend so much time in my life trying to perfect a technical, mathematical, scientific way of thinking, but still want to express a completely different creative, artistic side?  Can I?  Do I even have that in me?  If I do, would anyone even like it or care?

But the truth is, my art, my photography, is for me.  I do it because it makes me happy.  It makes me feel satisfied.  Who cares if anyone else likes it?

But I do care…it's complicated, I guess.

Any guesses?

BOY!

And a very healthy boy, at that!  All I can say is that, aside from the actual birth, the ultrasound is the most amazing experience during a pregnancy.  If I hadn't had to go to the bathroom so badly, I would have wished it would never end!  A photo of our little man…

And I hope this works.  It's a video clip of the ultrasound.  The thing pulsing in the middle is the heart, and you can even see him moving his mouth!

So, who won the contest?

Congrats, Kelli!  I'll send you an email so I can mail you the prize.  Thank you everyone for voting!  It was fun to see all the guesses!

Only one week, and we will hopefully find out if Thing 2 is a girl or a boy!  Although, I am horribly impatient, and I am hoping that doesn't jinx anything, and this baby will cooperate when the time comes.  Of course, all I'm really hoping to see is that all is well in there, and that we have a healthy baby.  I thought for a little fun, I'd hold a contest. 

Leave a comment below with your guess, and then next week I will take all the correct guesses and randomly draw a winner.  If for some reason you can't leave a comment, you can email me your guess at everydayartphoto@gmail.com.

The prize:  This cute mug, a biscotti, and a $20 Starbucks gift card!  Even if you hate coffee like me, everyone loves Starbucks…hello Vanilla Bean Frappuccino!

So take a guess!  You you have a 50/50 chance of being right!

It seems that since this little one took over my body, I have been horrible about updating this blog.  That kind of makes me sad, and I miss it.  I really need to get back because this winter weather has me in a funk.  I do have a camera full of photos {snapshots, really} that I just haven't had a chance to even download, and it is just no fun blogging without photos to post.  My photo editing and blogging time is usually during nap time on the weekends, but lately I have been choosing to take a nap myself during that time.  And during the weekdays, by the time Rory goes to bed, there is usually a couch and a dvr calling my name. 

Aside from being just worn out, which I think is more the effect of this long winter and the yucky cold I've had, rather than being pregnant, I am feeling great.  The pregnancy sickness has subsided, hallelujah!  I really wasn't hopeful that it would go away because it never did with Rory, so it is a nice surprise.  I am feeling lots of kicks from this little one, which is really the best feeling in the world.  I cannot wait until it is strong enough that Josey, and especially Rory, can feel it.

We have been talking with Rory more and more about the baby and what it will be like to be a big sister.  She likes to give the baby kisses, and often insists that I give her baby a kiss, too, pulling up her shirt and sticking out her belly!  When asked if she thinks the baby is a boy or girl, she usually has mixed opinions.  Sometimes it's a boy, sometimes a girl, and other times BOTH.  {I don't think so, darling!}

Baby names have been a common evening discussion topic.  We dug out the baby name book that we used with Rory, and Josey sits on the couch reading off names to me.  The perfect names in Rory's opinion:  Lucy for a girl, and Skeeter for a boy.  LOL! 

It's hard to believe that it is almost half over already.  This first half has been long and tiring, but I think the second half is going to fly by!  I always hate to wish away time, but I really cannot wait to meet our fourth family member.

And a couple snapshots that I actually had downloaded.  All three of us have been sick with awful colds, so we've spent a lot of time doing this; sitting on the couch, twirling our hair, and watching princess movies.

And this was one morning before church.  She was jumping on our bed.  We are going to have to do this again some day when the lighting is better in there.  I got some fun, but technically terrible shots!  This was cute, though.