Find Your Happiness

There are so many things I love about these photos! (The nasty yellowish-green tint isn't one of them though. Boo.) I love that they get along and play so well together. Of course they don't always share but 90% of the time, they are always laughing together. And my son taking a photo? What's not to love about that? ;) That is a boy after my own heart. And the last picture is mine and my son's favorite and we still laugh and talk about it.

Clockwise: Hubby, 1986. Me, 1986. Amelia, 2014. Nathaniel, 2010. Recently, I have been hearing often how Amelia is a spitting image of Hubby. Or that she doesn't really look like me so she must look like Daddy. Personally, I have always had trouble seeing who my children resemble. Sometimes when we go out, I feel like I look like a nanny taking care of two light hair, fair skin children. So Dean decided to show me this old blog post  I wrote from when Nathaniel was nine months old. I can definitely see it now!

Everyone knows Nathaniel is one animated boy. He inherited my loooooud voice and his father's love of storytelling. I don't remember exactly what he was telling his Daddy in these photos but I'm sure it was as grand as it seems. ;) And oh, these all happened within a minute.

Welcome to our first volume of Life {Unscripted} blog circle! I am so honored to be a part of a team of very talented lifestyle photographers. We have a passion for capturing raw, honest and unplanned photographs and we created this community so you would hopefully be inspired and join us in documenting your lives {unscripted}. And a special thank you if you are here visiting from Natalie Wheeler ! Here is a glimpse of my life unscripted for this September 2014: And if you have a chance, please visit Meagan Dwyer's Life {Unscripted} for September 2014 . She, along with her children, just went on a trip of a lifetime!

Today was Nathaniel's first day of school. To say he was very excited would be an understatement! He has been begging us to move back to Georgia because he has a school there (Mother's Day Out program) and none here in North Carolina (we moved from GA to NC in January). But Nathaniel's enthusiasm about going back to school mainly comes from being able to ride the school bus! I am against it and nervous about him riding the school bus because I think he is still too little. And I completely do not mind dropping him off and picking him up. But I was outvoted by Hubby and he also says it builds character. And in the end, Nathaniel did great and I survived (I won't even tell you how early I arrived at the bus stop to pick him up). Nathaniel absolutely loved everything about his first day---and the school bus may just be the main highlight.

Two days ago, Amelia turned seven months old! As evident with the photos, she is no longer tripoding and is able to sit up on her own. She sat on her first restaurant high chair when we went to Williamsburg, VA with my sister and her family. And she really enjoyed our recent trip to the beach since she was free to explore (and eat!) the sand. Amelia now has two bottom teeth! She has also started solids and really loves rice cereal. I am making all her baby food and she prefers if I mix it with rice cereal. Hubby jokes that I am training her to eat eeeeverything with rice. But let's be honest here: Amelia is half-Filipina. We eat everything with rice. Baby girl loves to growl. Sometimes she sounds like a possessed little baby with all the deep growl and grunting sounds she makes. Nathaniel is still the number one person who could make her really laugh. I am very grateful these two get along so well. It took Amelia a day to adjust to Daddy. It didn't help that when th...

Weight: 18 lbs, 13 oz (81st percentile) Height: 27 1/4 inches (80th percentile) Head: 16 inches (50th percentile) Amelia had her six month old well baby visit this morning (side note: she is actually seven months old today). Our precious Chubster (as Daddy loves to call her) is developmentally on point and is healthy as can be. I notified the pediatrician that I have been non-compliant with giving her daily Pulmicort because I worry about the side effects of inhalant steroid. I was reassured (again) that although it is not normally prescribed until a child is a year old, it is best to do preventive steroid inhalant compared to the oral dose, which she has needed twice for reactive airway symptoms. (The oral dose is systemic and affects the entire body whereas the inhaler is targeted directly to just her airways) I am still torn but with Nathaniel starting school next week and the cooler months ahead, it may be something we need to do. See One Month Well Baby Visit stats...