Life in Motion Photography by Lyndsay Stradtner, Austin Texas Child Photographer

10 on Tuesday: Snapshot Edition

For a long time I got caught up on always taking a correct photograph, even just of my kids, hanging around the house or whatever.  Thankfully, over time, I've gotten over it.  I actually take a ton of snapshots.  I shoot a ton and while a lot of them land in a file called "proof once my children are older, out of the house and I'm bored in my empty nest", I do proof some and print some, but I barely ever share them so I thought it would be fun to share a few on a 10 on Tuesday post...

1.  Little T, swinging at the park this morning.  No more baby swings, she's all about that big kid swing.  Right after this we blew lots and lots of bubbles....it was fun.

2.  Ty, on his way out the door on the first day of school.  His bus leaves at the crack of dawn, so it was still dark.

3.  This one is for my mom....she bought this for Taryn for her birthday and wanted to see what it looks like all hung up in her room....so here ya go Gee Gee....

4.  Our Taryn's dog Kylie.  Follows Taryn everywhere.  All.the.time.  When Taryn is outside with me or Jase, Kylie sits by the door and waits for her to come back in.  When Kylie hears her voice getting close, she starts to spin around in circles like a big 70 lb tornado dog.  This is Kylie's signature loving head tilt...

5.  Jase installing our new storm door, and T painting the front walk while he works.  I love the new door, lets in tons of light.

6.  Just one of many reasons Little Dude loves hanging out in Taryn's room...

7.  Jason helping Teagan learn how to sit.  Love my boys.

8.  I can do it, I can do it, by myself.  I hear this 1,008,632 times per day.  Damn that Barney.

9.  Little dude now loves sitting up his crib.  It cracks me up to walk by his room and see nothing more than his cute little mohawk and eyes peeking over the edge looking out at me!

10.  One of our prizes from winning the bump contest on the nest.  Still don't know what we are doing about Jamaica.  Its been a little frustrating trying to figure it all out, while we'd love for the whole family to go on the trip, we just can't justify putting ourselves in debt over it.  Figuring out who is going to go, well, that's been a pretty constant debate.   We also haven't had much luck in dealing with the marketing company handling the trip for their client (the resort)....she is nice as can be but replies to us without really saying anything or answering our questions even though she uses a lot of words.  Kind of politicianesque LOL!  So, for now, it's still all up in the air.  Love, love, love the gift basket though!  I also heard from the Bump magazine last week, they needed to confirm the spelling of our names.  Good thing they called cause boy do we have some doozies!  The publication will be released this fall, can't wait!

Thanks for stopping in!  =)

A testament to my laziness

Remember this...I couldn't forget about re-doing this shot all together.  But I also couldn't bring myself to iron, so I ditched the pretty (wrinkled) euro pillows.  Yeah, I'm pretty lazy.

And hey, do you know where lazy people like to hang out??  JAMAICA!!

How ya like that segway ;)

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO VOTE! Thanks to all of you who have voted for us daily....we'll be on pins and needles until the winner is announced Monday!

bunch o snapshots

That's about all I've got tonight.  I've been working my tail off trying to get everything ready for the grand opening of Life in Motion Photography, new forms, new info packets, new everything.  It's all finally starting to come together and I am really excited about it!  And we're still fighting the sickies at our house, yuck. 

Enough yabberin, on to the snapshots....

Look who it is...long time no see huh?  Posing for a sneak peek into his new room.  He chose the colors and it's gonna look pretty darn cool when it's done!

Ok, so there is nothing fabulous about this photo.  Unless of course you consider that it contains 1 pair of piggy pj's, 1 set of maryjane rainboots, fun sidewalk chalk and a fabulous almost 3 year old who uses words like "OAPS" and "CATTIN".  HeHe....she pronounces "opps" like "oats" with a p.  Cracks me up every time.  And what's a "CATTIN" you ask?  Why that would be a baby cat, of course!  Oh, and she starts every other sentence these days with "Well, actually...."  Almost 3 going on 30.

Her art, and mine.  Shared office space.

Her job.  Thanks Ms. Alli for the pretty pink flowers and the pretty princess "watering cup" as she's named it.  She loves her job.

not much going on today

I decided we needed a day in, so we're having a pj day.  I'm nursing Teagan and after all our running around the last few days, my supply is low.  So, today I'm at his disposal to try and get things right again.  During his morning nap, T and I dove into a few craft projects for her new room.  We started working on her new magnet board and then we painted these hooks.  I'm too cheap to pay for the Pottery Barn ones I wanted, mostly cause I needed 6 of them.  So instead we made these...

Pardon the cruddy photo please.  We painted 3 hot pink and 3 green.  T's paint job needed a little touching up ;)  Her much loved Dora paintbrush needs replacing but she won't let me near it.  $1 pegs from Michaels, plus Memory Makers flowers and brads.  The green pegs have white flowers with pink and white polka-dot brads.  Six of these cost me about $12, not too shabby huh?  The plan is that these will be part of a photo wall above Taryn's bed.  We'll hang big photos mounted on styrene with fun colored ribbon from each one.  I'll post a photo when it's all done.  I'm trying to have at least Ty and Taryn's rooms finished up before my mom gets here in a few weeks.  That's the goal anyway.

Randomness...

I'm sitting here stalking UPS.  Teagan's birth announcements are due to arrive on my doorstep any second.  Given that I designed the announcements two months before Teagan arrived, you'd think it would have been easy, but no such luck.  Problems with printing delayed them, I couldn't decide what pics to use and the perfectionist in me started over from scratch several times.  I finally decided to just throw in the towel and purchase a template.  I got it all done and now all I need is UPS to show up....tapping fingers.

Ty is giving us fits.  I wonder how I'll make it through the teenage years, he's driving me mad.  Hormones kicking in I suppose.  Forty-five minute battle over homework yesterday.  He was convinced that we bought him a faulty dictionary that absolutely, positively, without a doubt, did not contain the word "caught".  We're such horrible parents...how could we be so irresponsible?!

Ty tells me last night he's "getting popular with the ladies".  Nooooooooooooooo.  Oh good Lord, I'm not ready.  He then proceeds to tell me how he knows this.  Follow along close now...."Because Michael told Debbie that he doesn't like her but then we told Michael that he shouldn't tell Debbie he doesn't like her because that means he does like her.  So then Debbie tells Michael that she doesn't like him but everyone knows that Debbie does like Michael so Debbie just said she didn't like Michael to cover up the fact that she does, really like Michael.  Know how I know Mom?  Cause if a girl says she doesn't like you but still stands by you anyway, then she likes you.  Even is she says she doesn't."  Oh good grief.  Someone help me. 

We recently had to move Taryn's carseat around in my SUV because she was messing with Teagan too much.  Poor Ty though, because the move resulted in him being squished and stuck between the two little ones.  And when T gets bored, she messes with Ty...and vice versa.  After a good 20 minutes of bickering in the car last weekend, Taryn looks over at Ty and says "Tyler, I don't want to listen to your smart mouth anymore."  LOL!  No idea where she heard that!

We might be crazy, but we decided to move the kids rooms all around.  Ty got the big room when we moved in because Jase convinced him he should get to choose since he's the oldest.  Only his furniture never fit well in that room, the door hits the furniture and quite honestly, Ty doesn't use his room all that much.  He's gone all day and is either outside after school or reading/playing in the living room.  Taryn is busting at the seems in her room and uses it all day, every day.  And she's ready for a twin bed, which we just bought her last weekend.  Her new bedding is getting ordered tomorrow!!  So excited!  So, we left the decision up to Ty, I didn't want to make him give up his room, but he decided he wants to move into Teagan's room, which is a much better fit with all his stuff.  So, musical rooms it is.  It'll work best for everyone long term, even though it kills me to redo Teagan's nursery.  It's gonna be crazy, painting and moving everyone all around, but, I'm excited to get rid of the blah builder beige in two more rooms!  We went and bought paint last night...woohoo!

I can't wait to do a photo wall in Taryn's new big girl room.  I've got it all planned out in my mind and I can't wait to execute it.  Ty and I  are working up some photo ideas for his room too.

We bought a new couch this weekend too.  A cheap one from IKEA.  We give up on nice stuff from La-Z-Boy.  Our big sectional just doesn't fit right in the new house.  So the beast is headed to a consignment store and our new smaller couch is here waiting to be used and abused.  We got smart and bought one that is slipcovered.  Easily washed or replaced.  Perfect for when the kids ickify it.  Photos of all house changes coming soon as we get it all put together.

Teagan is 8 weeks old and still hasn't thrown a smile our way.  After watching him smile AND giggle in his sleep, I've come to the realization he just doesn't think we're funny.  Little stinker.

Ok, I typed all of this out doing the one handed nurse and surf and Mr. UPS is still not here.  Humph.  I'm so impatient!!

And just cause I can't post without a pic...one from last month I never shared...I love the soft effect accomplished by tweeking Kubota's doll face action.  Can you believe he's 2 months old already!?!

tag canvas

I started working on a few craft projects for the nursery before Teagan was born.  Once he arrived, all I had to do was add a few final details.  This is a simple 12x12 canvas that I finally finished up this morning.  It was so easy to do and I just love how it turned out...

I made one for baby Calla / Anne Marie too but forgot to take a pic before giving it to her. 

Jamie also asked about the photo blocks in the "little things" collage.  They are still half finished but I hope to get them done soon.  I'll post pics when I do!

a quick nursery update

I got another round of prints in today.  Including the 12x12's I ordered for Teagan's nursery.....

They look much sharper and crisp in person.  I really love seeing my images in print, I need to be placing orders much more often, I've really gotten to be bad about it.  I have no excuse either.  I upload all the images I take each month into an online album and then share it with our family and friends.  This way, if there is anything they want to order, they can get exactly what they want.  I used to just take requests from the grandparents, but that got a little overwhelming (and expensive).  My mom is a total self-proclaimed photo junky (that's where I get it from!).  If you ask her which she'd rather have in her family, a doctor or a lawyer, she'd say "neither, I want a photographer!".  No kidding!  Anyway, I upload at the end of every month so there is no excuse for me to not order some for myself, other than being lazy.

A few of you posted comments asking what lab I use.  For family stuff, mpix is easy, because I can upload and share with family.  Mpix is the consumer side of Miller's professional lab.  For business stuff, I've tested out quite a few online pro labs but have actually had the best luck with White House, Custom Color.  I am however looking for a good pro local lab before opening the new business here in Austin.  It's on my quite long to do list =)

how cool is this?!

CHECK IT OUT

Save-on-Crafts is featuring Teagan's nursery name letter project on their website!  So exciting!!!  And they even did a nice write-up with links and everything!

 

Teagan's Nursery

HA!  Did ya'll catch that title?!?!

I called our baby boy by NAME!  Yuhessss!  We are so excited, after 8.5 months of deliberating, to have decided on a name.....Teagan Jude Stradtner.

And yesterday we finished the nursery.  It's a tiny little room but I just love the way it turned out.  I still have a few little projects I'm working on, but it's 99% done.  We decided at the last minute to forgo the pretty chocolate colored upholstered rocking chair, we have two other rockers in the house and just couldn't justify the expense.  If we find we miss having one in there we can always add it later.  I also still want to add a big brown circle rug to the middle of the room, in time.

So here it is....Teagan's nursery....we re-used all of Little T's old nursery furniture so we didn't have to buy anything new furniture wise.  And thanks Mom for the gorgeous bedding!!

Please, please tell me I'm not the only one addicted to Baby Style

I'm so proud of these and they were so easy to do!  6x6 canvas's that I bought from Save On Crafts, I then printed out letters in different sizes and fonts, traced them onto each painted canvas, filled them in with a different color paint and voile!  My intention was to hang them in a straight line, but as Jason was hanging them last night one tipped to the side, he started to tilt the rest, we both loved and just decided to let them stay that way!

close up of the name letters...

The frames will eventually have baby photos in them. 

I altered the little clock to have it match the room.  Big thanks to McGee who went shopping at Hobby Lobby for me, and even walked the aisles with me on the phone so I could craft shop vicariously through her!  Only a fellow crafter could truly comprehend the urgent need for Hobby Lobby, even on bed rest!

And look, the Lush Monkey made his way into the nursery.....I sure hope he can manage to behave himself in front of the baby!  ;)

The frame in the top right corner is a sneak peek at Teagan's birth announcement.  I have them all ready to go, I just need a baby and some photos!  The bear on the shelf is sentimental as well, it was sent to us as a gift after Hurricane Katrina and has been a favorite of the kids ever since.

I've done nursery storyboards for clients a hundred times but I've always wanted to do one of my own - yay! 

And thankfully, staying off my feet is working.  I made it to 34 weeks yesterday, which is a good benchmark for our little guy.  If I go into labor, they won't medically intervene to stop it at this point.  Of course we want him to stay in for awhile longer (notice I didn't say as long as possible!  ha!).  I will say that every time I get up to do something, the contractions start up.  I think all it would take is a long walk and a few speed bumps to kick labor into gear.  So here I sit, with my feet up, doing my job of baby grower extraodinare.  How's that for a job title?  My next OB appointment is tomorrow to check for progress and see how our little man is doing...I'll keep you posted!

my office

Round 2 of house pics.....I'm sure I'll be taking and posting more as we clean everything up, put stuff away and prepare to host Christmas at our house.  It's a good motivator! 

When we moved my Mom gave us a going away / housewarming gift of gift cards to Pottery Barn - yuhesss!  Thanks Mom!  We couldn't decide what to buy and ultimately decided what we needed most was a place for me to work.  So we added some $ to it and bought a new desk.  At the old house we had a small built in work space in the addition so we had to start from scratch when we moved to the new house.  This room was intended to be a breakfast nook, but our table wouldn't fit in here so we ditched the idea of using the formal dining room as a combined office / playroom.  The location for my new office is perfect, right off the kitchen and living area, there is a door behind the desk leading to the back patio and the big window to the right lets in a TON of light during the day and looks out over our back yard to our amazing view.  The frames above the desk will have constant rotating photos in them, they will house my favorite photos of the moment and I will change them out often. I LOVE how it turned out.  Sorry for the weird color cast, I had to try and take this at night, there's too much light during the day to catch a good shot of the photo frames without glare =)

And of course there are more photos of baby Calla on the way!! 

indecent exposure

I have to share this, because it makes me laugh. 

Can anyone guess how tall Taryn is??

Our poor, pitiful tree.  Naked at the bottom, giftless, yanked on and warped branches, with a crooked star at the top.  Poor thing went from living large on the tree farm to having a tortured final few weeks in the home of a toddler.

A few other pics of the house since it's finally starting to come together....

My mom sent us a GORGEOUS live wreath this year.  It smells soooooo good when you walk through the front door, I just love it!  Thanks Mom!

Our mantel and stockings, which will be monogrammed once we decide on a name for our baby boy.

We're still working on the nursery.  Jason finished painting in there but we still need to hang the chair rail, hang curtains, and get it all put together, hopefully this weekend it will be closer to done!  My new office area is about done too so I can share pics of that soon too!

ETA:  the onesie is from Target for those who asked!  I found it on the end of an aisle in the baby section (not clothing dept though).

 

mission accomplished

Those are the first two words that popped into my mind when I woke up this morning.  Mission Accomplished.

We've spent the last 4 days in Austin and we bought a house! Thrilled, totally thrilled!

On the last night of our last day there after seeing wayyyyy too many houses. So relieved! Jason and I couldn't agree on any house until we saw this one. We both fell in love with it immediately.  Four bedrooms and perfect for us in every way.  It met every wish on our list...

I think my favorite part is that it backs to a greenbelt that can't be built on so it has a great view with no back neighbors.

We decided to go a bit further out than we planned but are actually pretty happy about that, we're getting more house for the money. We bought for the school district and neighborhood - I can't wait for Ty to be able to ride his bike all over the neighborhood plus there is a park and neighborhood pool right around the corner and down the street from the house!  We can walk there every day!!

very cool pool with fountains and water buckets....the kids will be in heaven

And a few interior pics, it's so open and new....the foyer...

standing at the end of the foyer, formal dining room to the  right, looking in to the living room...

view from the living room into the kitchen...the breakfast area is to the right, down the hall is the master.  On the left are the kids rooms down the hall...

I'm in LOVE with the kitchen, it makes me want to cook!

Gotta love the garden tub and I think our new closet is as big as our present bedroom!  Total score!

So after an exhausting, whirlwind weekend, I'm just plain exhausted from all the in and out of the car in the heat.  Thankfully Jason's parents were there Saturday and Sunday to help with the kids so they only went with us the last day and a few times here and there.  Taryn took them right away even though she hadn't seen them in awhile, "c'mon Grandpa!", and off they would go.  When it was time for them to head home she actually stood in front of the door and said "I don't want you go".  Sweet baby.  Thank you Grandma & Grandpa for driving in to help us all weekend!!

Ty is really excited and relieved to see where we will be.  So are we.  Change is good but soooo unnerving!  Guess it's time to pack =)