Friday Photo Shoot

Lincoln got to go to school to see all the kids again today. I took him with me to watch my students run laps for the jogathon, on this, my last day of maternity leave. I go back to work officially on Monday, and my 7th graders are thrilled. This little guy will probably be less than happy, but at least he's got Daddy to hang out with all day here at home. And Daddy's already set up some parent play dates (a.k.a work at a friend's house) so they shouldn't be too bored.

We did a little mini shoot this afternoon in Lincoln's room, because he was just so darn happy, plus was wearing an adorable outfit: two things that always make me want to bust out the big camera. And he did not disappoint. Look at this stud! :)

2 Months

Finished Lincoln's 2 month page. Such a difference in his expressions from 1 month. He's all smiles and smirks and blue steel in these photos. Much better than the perturbed expressions and screaming from the first month...

Paislee Press Submission

Project Life 2016: Week 2

Week 2! Soooooo much less journaling than Week 1's page. A currently card sums up a lot of it, and the big journal card goes over Lincoln's current sleeping schedule. Among other things this week, I worked on prints for Lincoln's baby book, we had a play date with the other November babies (three of us 8th grade teachers got pregnant at the exact same time), Lincoln and I went to the breastfeeding support class to get him weighed (we passed 10 pounds, woot), and Chris decided cuddling time was the perfect opportunity to teach Lincoln about Clash of Clans.

Materials: Project Life Golden Themed Cards, Project Life Midnight Edition, Project 52 2016 Edition, Paislee Press Joie de Vivre, Rukristin Currently card

Project Life 2016: Week 1

Week 1 has tons of journaling, because I added in my blog post about my One Little Word this year. Way more journaling than is usual for me.

This week also includes the story of Lincoln's first drive-in experience. We went to see Star Wars one night, stopping for pizza and soda in Lakeside and then having a little party of 2 + baby in our car. Link did great at the drive-in; we moved his car seat to the middle so he could see through our front bucket seats for awhile, but Chris chose to hold him not long after. He just chilled in Chris' lap, "watching" the movie with us, then Chris passed him over to me midway through and he fell right asleep. Who says you can't go out to the movies once you have a baby?

Materials: Project Life Moments Like These Edition, Project 52 2016 Edition, Paislee Press All the Stripes Photo Templates

This Weekend

Chris' parents are down from Yucaipa to be with us this weekend. I've been waiting for weeks for them to arrive. Mostly because I love it when someone else is around to hold Lincoln for awhile, so Chris and I can get some stuff done. We love that little guy, but during the day, he demands attention and cuddles and entertainment. You know how newborns are supposed to sleep so much? Yeah, not really with this one. He'll only fall asleep for a good nap if you're right there with him, either holding him or curled up next to him so that he can cuddle on up. I'll admit, his cuddling is really sweet. He'll grunt and kick to give himself the momentum to slide over a couple of inches to be arm to arm, then lay a hand on my arm. The unsweet part is that I usually end up falling asleep with him, so while a good nap is had by all, the things... they do not get done.

So Chris' parents being here has me so excited to do all the things! I just got back from grocery shopping for the week, and it only took an hour and a half this time, plus I had plenty of room in the cart for the actual groceries. (When Link's with me, he takes up about 80% of the cart.) Chris and I are about to head off to an engagement shoot at Balboa Park, sans baby. This will be my first shoot back from "maternity leave" from the photography business. My last shoot was in September (and at almost 9 months pregnant, it pretty much finished me off), so it's definitely been awhile. Lincoln gets to stay and hang out with Grandma and Grandpa T., which he is very pleased about. Who better to snuggle you all day long then the grandparents?

Last night after Lincoln went down I was able to get through some Project Life 2015 pages as well. My goal is to finish last year before I head back to my teaching job (in two weeks), but man, it is not looking good for me. My perfectionism is really killing my productivity these days, even when I go into the project thinking, "Just do the bare minimum! Get it done!"

In light of this, I've decided that 2016's album is going to be purely digital. It's going to save me a ton of time, not only with getting photos and cards printed, but with my crazy indecisiveness. It's much easier to commit to a color scheme/card/title on the computer, where I know it can be changed any ol' time I feel like it, than it is to commit in print, wait to go pick up said prints, and spend time putting it together at home. Not to mention how much easier it is to pick up a project when everything's digital and all I have to do is sit at my computer, instead of pulling out boxes and albums and leafing through for perfect cards, yada yada.

Here's this year's title page. I'm not generally a pink person, but I'm really loving it with all these black stripes.

Supplies are from Project Life and Paisley Press' All the Stripes frames.

1 Month

Finally got around to making a Project Life page for Lincoln's one month photos. We've been super busy prepping for the Swoon wedding show, but now that it's over I can spend some time cranking out some photos from the last couple of months. And, since Lincoln's still rocking his sleep schedule, I've been able to grab a couple of hours at night to be creative. Trying to embrace that time!

Materials used in this page are from the Project Life Midnight kit and Moments Like These kit, and the Paislee Press All the Stripes photo templates.

Now that Lincoln's approaching three months, it's crazy looking back at these photos and seeing how different he was. I mean, he looks the same, but he's got so much personality now! He smiles all the time and loves having conversations with us now... these photos show pretty much all he did at one month old. At that time he was just starting to follow us with his eyes if we were right in front of him, he'd been using his pacifier for about a week and a half and freaked out when it dropped out of his mouth (which happened a lot), and he still had his "perpetually perturbed" face most of the time.