jodified

I was playing around with some really basic kid thank you designs tonight and as I was creating this one I started thinking about the photo of Bailey I stuck in there…

It’s a cute photo and her still baby chubby cheeks, unruly hair and ultimate almost three year old look about her will make me remember this time in her life when I look at it in 20 years. It will remind me how funny she is and how sweet her little heart is. I’m sure memories will come flooding back.  But what it doesn’t tell me, and what I might not remember are all the details of my life that aren’t photographable. I swear that’s a word!

Anyway, it got me to thinking about all the things I NEVER photograph. The messy playroom with toys everywhere. Dishes in the sink. Laundry piled high on my bed. Bathtime. Me after a day at home with the kids and no shower. Me uncomfortable in my post-baby body. Dust. Weeds in the yard.

I don’t photograph those things b/c they are the parts of my current life that I’m embarrassed about or not proud of or ashamed of. Dirty kids, dirty house, dirty me. But those are also the things I’m going to so easily forget in 20 years.

When I ask my mom about her life when my sister and I were the ages of my girls she swears she really doesn’t remember much. And I believe her. It breaks my heart, but I believe her b/c how can we remember this time in our lives? I can barely remember to brush my teeth! When you have small children you are in survival mode, just getting through the minutes from morning to night without giving up and walking out.

But the thing is, I really want to remember this. I want to remember Bailey pooping on the floor the first day of potty training, Parker standing at the end of the counter begging for a Flinstone vitamin and Grayson sleeping through the girls climbing on his crib. And even though I hate it now, I know I’m going to want to remember how tired I looked at the end of a long day at home with three kids three and under. Because one day I’m going to look back with fondness and miss this.

So my challenge to myself, and to YOU, is to take time this weekend and photograph all the things unphotographable. Take a photo of the dust on your tv, the crumbs on the floor and the fingerprints on the walls. And photograph you. If you have a blog and post your photos please link it in the comments for us. Share your life! I promise that by the end of the weekend I will do the same! Frizzy hair, blood shot exhausted eyes, dark circles, stretch marks and baby fat photos of ME too!

These are the things I swear someday we’ll miss! Capture them!

I’m in my bed at 9am doing a happy dance b/c CHRIS JUST GOT HOME from his canceled soccer camp! Grayson’s sleeping, the girls are busy with Daddy and I get at least an hour to hole up with my laptop, watch the Today Show and kick ass on some of this work I have been putting off! Yahoo for a rain day!

So yesterday really wasn’t so bad, and in fact, a lot of it I truly enjoyed. If I had experienced yesterday on at least 5 hours of sleep I would have been golden. Or if I didn’t have a list of Jodified projects to do the second the kids were in bed (which was 9pm, 2 hours after I actually PUT them in bed!) keeping me up late and cursing my lack of time during the day to work, the day would have been near perfect. It’s the whole "I-have-a-business-to-run-so-we-can-eat-and-diaper-our-children" and "I-haven’t-slept-more-than-2-hours-in-a-row-in-almost-6-weeks" that made yesterday hard.  Ok, the puke wasn’t fun and the fact that I don’t think I sat down for 4 hours was a little tough, but really, it wasn’t so bad as long as I kept go go going.

SO I either need to hire a babysitter for a couple days a week so I can work during the day more and not always until 1am or teach my one month old to sleep through the night or quit my business. Considering none of my children have slept through the night until well past a year of age and also that Jodified Designs absolutely is the only thing keeping me sane with three small kids, I guess we’re on the lookout for a sitter!

Ok, a few photos from my day yesterday…

the girls were being so cute and laying with grayson… if only the photo was as cute as they were acting!

The best was that during the hour Chris was home for lunch I asked him to do a few chores, one of which was to go upstairs and find our sippy cups. He insisted he was doing a good job of bringing them down lately and there weren’t any up there. I told him to just go check. He came down with five cups and after opening one to put in the dishwasher THIS is how he tackled the rest of them…

I was dying! Doesn’t the photo lend itself to a true vintage feel…

So funny! The sippy cup bandit!

Don’t worry, the big wimp survived the loading of the dishwasher!

To prove to you, and myself, that I have gotten some work done this week…

And a photo shoot from last week will be in an album by the end of today…

I went to high school (Kirkwood) with Emily and it was SO great to see her 10 years later! She has a beautiful family and runs her own gymnastics center with her mom! It’s so nice to see people grown up and happy. And get a load of her gorgeous one year old son! He was a ham and just smiled the entire time!

Thanks guys!

Ok, so the troops just headed to the park, the baby is still sleeping and NOW I will get to work. I have an invite to finish, the album to upload onto the blog, a banner to create, KCCI work logs to insert photos into, an ad to design and emails to return. I could work all day and not finish but I’ll give it a go!

You hear that Tuesday? I have help! I can work! I will not lose my mind today! Get out of my way Tuesday or I’ll bowl you over!

It’s 6:18am right now, I’ve been up for an hour b/c after Grayson ate at 5am he had the biggest blow out diaper I’ve ever experienced with any of the kids, which required him getting cleaned up, laundry started and me in the shower. Seriously. It was a lot of poop.

Chris leaves in 30 minutes and I think I’m going to run like the wind to Bread Co. so I can get a 32oz Mnt Dew in me before I officially tackle this day. It might take the edge off the 3 hours sleep I got, which was actually one hour naps between major eating sessions last night. He was a hungry kid which makes his blow out not such a surprise I guess.

Anyway, I think I just needed to pop on here to document the beginning of this week. A week without Chris here to help. A week that is going to exhaust me beyond belief and end with my first ever wedding this weekend. I hope I’m not so tired by Saturday afternoon that I fall asleep on my feet while shooting!

Good morning Monday. I hate that you’re here already so I’m going to kick you in the tail! Mountain Dew here I come!

led to some really sweet photos… oh how i love the men in my life!

*he’s holding his head up so well already!

*i LOVE this squished little face!

The girls are spending the night at my inlaws, GoGo and Bubba, so we’ve had a quiet and relaxing evening.  I’ve been working, Gray’s been sleeping and C’s been reading (Three Cups of Tea). So nice. The best part of the girls being gone will happen tomorrow morning when 5am passes quietly by without two little curly headed girls ready for "nack and juice!"  Grayson will wake up around 6am for a feeding and then hopefully give us another hour or two of sweet sweet sleep! I know Chris is especially excited since he’s been getting up with the girls this summer. 

I have a photo shoot to post tomorrow and a great idea for an easy Christmas gift! Oh yes I am already working on homemade Christmas gifts! I’m all about saving money and being creative! Is anyone else working/thinking about Christmas already or is it just me?

Oh, and I finally have Chris reading this blog on a regular basis so leave him some comment love about being a trooper for me and my camera tonight!