Demps Family

All I have is one to share today from a (rather large) family celebration this past weekend. They were celebrating their Mother's 70th birthday. The place was Smokey Bones and even though there was plenty of sunshine, there was absolutely no warmth. However, there was plenty of food fun and laughter. And that's all you really need. Right?

What have I been doing you ask?

Are you one of those persons that makes list? Well. I do. Grocery List. Dinner list. Task list. I believe I am a visual person and so my lists are a way for me to SEE what I have to do. The task list are the things that I plan on doing during the week. They usually include things like: the days I plan to exercise, days I plan to clean (wish I could say that I clean everyday), work days, photography, and etc.  But man, I've been having a hard time checking off this list. My tasks are carrying over week to week. Makes me want to throw my hands up.

Anyway this is what we've been up to. About six months ago, I decided I was going to cut off my hair. I mean clipper cutting short. So I woke up one day a few months ago and decided that, YES, today was the day. Look at what I've done!

When she was cutting my hair, I felt free. Can't really explain it other than that. And since then I felt a little "lighter". Now I am just a shower away from starting my day. No more dryer, flatiron, or curling iron for me. Wish I could say that Jerry felt the same. Ha! The day after I done this, he called me during the day to ask if I was ok. He wanted to know if the kids and baby were too much for me (as I type this it makes me smile). He was genuinely concerned. I assured him I was ok!

My little baby has started (this week) to suck her thumb. She gets that thumb right in the mouth and curls up those fingers right by the lip. While I think it is absolutely adorable, I also know it's a hard habit to break later on. So I've been taking her thumb out of her mouth and giving her a pacifier instead. Only to find that she spits the pacifier out and puts the thumb back in her mouth. Ha!

This One was riding down the driveway on a Big Wheel and hit the garbage can. The impact through her from her bike onto the ground. She immediately came crying into the house and said her neck hurt. Now, I was thinking that she couldn't have hurt herself from the fall. After all, a Big Wheel is like 2 inches off the ground, but since she had just awoken from a nap, I thought she must have just slept wrong (gotten a crook in her neck). I took her to the doctor 3 LONG days later only to find out that she had BROKEN HER CLAVICLE (shoulder blade). I couldn't believe it! I was distraught and felt more than a little guilty. She was laying on the couch all day for 2 days and trying to tell me in her own way that she was indeed hurt. The good news is that the healing has to happen on its own and that it happens in a few weeks. And they would have done nothing for it other than tell me to give her some Motrin or Tylenol. The sling is for her comfort, but since that day she has discarded it and favors just keeping that arm securely to her chest, while she runs and jumps! How in the world do you keep a two year old still?

I can't believe it's been so long.....

It has been over a month since I have last blogged. In truth, I've had a hundred blog subject ideas but no time to committ to them. I've been so busy. What have I been doing you ask? HOMESCHOOLING! So once I got past the mourning of the lost of my mornings, I then got to work on deciding exactly what I'm going to do to get this child of mine to get her back interested in learning. While most schools of thoughts suggest deschooling as a way to decompress. To totally give up learning at all is WAY too lax for my personality. However, we are in a sort of decompressing stage around here. Ours just includes a little Math, Language Arts, and Reading. We mix in a little Science and History. She wants to know about her History, so we've been reading alot about Africa and how we got to the U.S. We've been watching movies, visiting the library and cooking African foods.

My approach to EVERYTHING is to deeply immerse myself in to what I'm doing, most times to the exclusion of everything else and find out as much information as possible. So while I ordered book after book (to Jerry's dismay) on the subject of homeschooling and the different "schools of thoughts" on curriculum (or not to have a curriculum), I literally couldn't do anything else. So that meant, no photography, no extracurricular reading, and no watching Grey Anatomy or Desperate Housewives. It has been about a month and we are still finding our stride, but I have narrowed down our choice of study and I'm hoping it works out. Now I can relax and breathe and I have room to think of something else. So, I picked up my camera and recorded one of our afternoon escapades. Our afternoons are back sunny around these parts. So we are off most days to the park and different beaches, which is the best part. No afternoons and nights of frustrating homework. Now I will shut-up and show you some photos.


We love hanging out at this park because it's actually a park/ beach. I got a little funky in the editing of these pictures. Just trying a little something different.







We walk along the beach and Ariel is very in to looking at the different rocks and shells.

However because of Red Tide, there were a lot of dead fish washed up on the beach. I look back at Cailin to make sure she was still with us and she had a rather large dead fish in her hand. I was shocked and I screamed. Which made her drop the fish and scream. Ariel washed her hands off in the water. Which now looking at this photo, doesn't seem like a good idea, but she had fish scales and other sorts on her hand. I did have hand sanitizer in the car. Which she used right after the hand washing in the bacteria filled water....ha!

There are people that live on the water and until this day, I had never seen or heard them, until this day when I seen them out on their decks. And I kid you not we heard Shake It Fast. You know, the song by Mystikal.



Totally unrelated but I had to share. Rylie had dozed off to sleep in my arms and I was putting her down for a nap (yeah she looks really sleepy, right?) and she popped her head up like this. Please forgive the soft focus as I only had seconds to capture this.


The end.

Merry Christmas

No words today, just photos of my little ones.

Ok, just one, or err.... a few words. Rylie says "HO HO HO!"





















Merry Christmas!

Just one

Just one to share right now, because I am lovin' this photo so much. And to keep my promise to family of sharing  more pictures of the baby. Leaving you with another promise to post a whole lot more. Now off to cook dinner.

"E" Family again....

"Why does Rylie get up so much at night?" That's what Jerry asked me one night. I just looked at him for a moment and then I explained (again) that baby's get up every 2-3 hours because they have to eat. Now, mind you, this is not the first time he has asked me this. I remember when Ariel was still a baby, that while watching television one night, we saw a commercial (can't really remember it now) with two exhausted new parents and a wide awake baby. And Jerry leans over to me and says, "I'm glad Ariel never got up at night." I look at him and say, "No, you never woke up at night."

I have no idea where his amnesia comes from. Especially, since with Cailin I worked night shift, which means that he actually had to get up with her and didn't just let her starve. Now, because of recent conversations, I hope the latter didn't happen.

Now, I remember the sleep-broken nights, but I never remember the exhaustion that comes with it. My little baby is up every 2-3 hours at night and sometimes just won't go back to sleep. We have been up tonight at midnight, 2, and 5am. Now, it is after 6 and she is still up. It's times like this that I wish Dad's could be the one to nurse the infant. After all, we have to carry the baby and endure the labor and delivery. What do you think?
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 It's not often that you meet a whole family that you can be friends with. Someone that you trust with your kids and that's a big one for me.We have the luck of living next door to this awesome family. Dad is handy around the house, just like Jerry and doesn't hesitate to lend a helping hand. And we are made extra lucky with the fact that Mom, runs an in-home daycare. I mean how great is that, to be able to drop your kids off next door. AND my daughters absolutely love it over there.

Meet the "E" family. They were real troopers because it was cold on this day. We were down on the beach with the wind blowing and the sun shying away from it's job.


They were even game for walking along the beach.


Hands inside the shirt but no teeth chattering. Ha!


After a while, the boys didn't even mind. We did though, as it took so minor pleading for Dad to get out of the car again.


You can barely tell here but, Little J just lost his first tooth at the bottom.


I love this little fellow's facial expressions.


I don't know why, but this photo makes me all warm and fuzzy. And look at those eye lashes!


And those round jaws. But it doesn't compare to the jaws of last year.


I had just finished a class on lighting last year and look who let me come into their house, with all my stuff, and rearrange their furniture to take Christmas pictures last year. This is my favorite of this little guy from last time.


And this was my absolute favorite of the session. He did this pose all by himself.


Once we were done at the beach, Mom and I walked laughing and talking back to the car. And the boys ran along without us.

Thanks for stopping by,

"E" Family

I got to hang out with this special family this weekend. The Mom finally talked the Dad into a photo session at the beach. And it had to be the coldest day in Florida :)! Don't let the brightness of the sun fool you. the sun was definitely not doing his job. It was long pants and sweaters cold and my gloveless hands were numb and tingly.

Anyway this was Mom's suggestion for a shot and as I was browsing the photos, I knew this was one that I really liked. More of the "E" family soon......