i’m gonna be honest: i’m having a little writer’s block when i sit down to start these daily doses. i’ve been wondering if i should just jump in, feet first, to the random thoughts and ideas that have been running around in my head all week, or should i give a nice lead-in, coaxing you closer before i  *SNAP!*  trap you into reading the WHOLE post? bahahaha, i’m still undecided, so with that awkward lead-in, your daily dose . . . enjoy!

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turbojet had his school pictures this week at preschool, which of course lead me to thinking about school pictures and how they make me feel as a photographer. as a mom, of course i’m like, ‘pictures of MY cute kid? of COURSE i’ll buy them in large quantities and pass them out to anyone who will take them!’ but as a photographer, i’m thinking, ‘the lack of creativity is excruciating.’ and then promptly throw up in my mouth a little.

but seriously though, i’ve been thinking about this and have determined my stance on school pictures: though they do lack in the creativity department {understatement}, i feel like it’s kind of a right of passage, documenting turbojet in a similar fashion each and every year so we can look back and, through a limited number of images, see how he grows. i have not committed to using them to adorn my walls {i think i’ll save my walls for a more creative expression of my turbojet}, but i will be one of the moms that purchases them every year, heart happy knowing i’m creating a visual timeline of his ever-speeding growth.

i couldn’t send him off to school pictures without snapping a few of my own, right?! that would just be wrong on all levels, so here you go!

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things that make me happy :

• people who leave me and my blog some blog-lovin’ . . . otherwise known as comments! when i get a new comment from a blog reader, i get all giddy and excited like it’s my birthday or a surprise package came in the mail or something. they make me THAT happy! so a big shout-out and THANK YOU to everyone who has been commenting! and please, feel free to leave some happiness whenever the mood hits ya!
• {*punctuation*}! . . . especially when used improperly! :o)
• that sunshine insists on eating his ice cream cone from the bottom, up
• that every once in a blue moon, turbojet calls me mee-ma, not sure why, but the sound of it makes my heart sing!
• this super annoying and yet somehow very amusing song found here. beware: will be stuck in your head for DAYS and if you let your kids hear it they will bust out in song everytime they see either a pizza hut or a taco bell :0) {now you’re too curious NOT to listen, huh?}

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want to see what heartbreak looks like? i imagine it’s something like this . . .

sunshine watching his balloon fly away up into the sky. for a two year old? heartbreak.

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have you seen these plates by jane jenni? i have a slight obsession with them in a collect-the-whole-set kind of a way, even though the current fullness of my cabinets doesn’t warrant that. they are simple and graphic and fun!

yes? a ba-jillion or so more options, so be sure to check them out for yourselves!

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if you were with me last week, you know one of my new projects is embracing the camera—a project where i do my very best to start showing up in more pictures with the boys and in our everyday life. inspired by this blogpost. so here we go, embrace the camera.

again, nothing through the roof from a technical, photographic standpoint. but hey, i’m in it right? embracing the camera AND my babies. love.

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in recent weeks, we kicked off *operation baby’s room* in my somewhat weak attempt to get the baby’s room done and put together before we hit the highway at the end of the month. *operation baby’s room* has recently morphed itself into *operation disaster zone* and now what started in the baby’s room has grown throughout the entire house like a bad weed and is choking us/me out as i type {gack! get away, you voracious piles of junk! stay back, i say!} {insert dork comment NOW . . . }

i want these daily doses to be an honest-to-goodness, real life picture of what my life is really like right now, so i’m stepping out of my shell, out of my comfort zone and showing you this picture, highlighting the current state of my bedroom floor . . .

EEK!  and by doing this, proving to you that i’m not perfect. {not that anyone said i was . . . it’s just that sometimes it’s easy to get hung up on all the ‘perfect’ images blogs are covered with}  the good news for me is: i have a sneaking suspicion you’re not perfect either, so you’ve got my back on this. and i’m hoping that maybe, MAYBE, just maybe, your house has looked like this too at some point in time {perhaps right now?}.

today’s challenge? take a picture of whatever mess surrounds you. take it to remember. to motivate. just do it. and then, get busy, ha!

and now, if you’ll excuse me, i have to go defend myself from lover, who will undoubtedly be wondering what possessed me to post such an ADORABLE picture of our home. to which i’ll calmly explain . . . easy, hormones and this poster, which if you love, you can purchase here.

love you, lover!

and happy weekend to YOU!