Somebodies battery ran out.

He is a bouncing fanatic! After awhile you tune out all his chatter and the clank of the spring…but it hit me last night that it was pretty quiet and when I turned around we found him like this!

All out of steamed.  We noticed the we didn't here him jumping anymore and found him like this.

All out of steamed.  We noticed the we didn't here him jumping anymore and found him like this.

and Chloe found a little hiding place in the kitchen corner. This may be her punishment in the winter when the radiators are at full-blast. Kidding….

could she smile any more goofy?

Somebody found a hiding place

Somebody found a hiding place

So I am home with two sick kids today…good times, good times.

A sea of randomness….

Pssst…..I’m here and I am about to download an amazing amount of randomness upon you. Just think of me as that Starbucks coffee splurge. Grande size! It is warm and good and you don’t know how it comes together, but you are glad it is here and you look forward to the next time you get one. You can’t have one every day or you would get spoiled. See that is why I don’t blog every day…I don’t want to spoil you or burn your tongue. So nice of me. Too abstract of a comparison? Yeah, well….me no sleepy in long time.

Okay, buckle your seat belts! If I get to be too much, your exits are located above, kindly known as the “back arrow” or if you are really confused with this post then click the red “X” and forget it ever happened.

Where to start (cracks knuckles).

First of all, just when you thought you heard the words “Kellan Studios” too much. I will briefly make note of a very cool honor bestowed by my friend and lovely Canadian blogger, known as Dutch Blitz, who is the lead editor for the Arts & Design Channel for BlogNosh. We were given our very own shout-out highlighting our business. So go check it out, how fun is that? Thank you Angella, we are so honored!

Speaking of Canadians….Angella’s friend and neighbor and my besternet friend, Amanda “Kickyboots” Brown, sent Bennett two awesome gifts from Etsy. Sorry for the blurry shot, had my shutter speed a bit slow.

A gift for Bennett from blogger Kicky Boots

Amanda, Bennett will do that onesie proud. I mean who will say no to these eyes? You are the coolest…I will hit you back when your second sweetie enters the world.

Bennett chilling in his jump-up

Okay, now I am off to dispel a nasty rumor ( I am embarrassed to say that I spelled rumor “roomer” for 1 second and then scratched my head and wondered why that looked wrong. Man I am more tired than I think!)

Every time I post a picture of my house I get comments like:

“Where are the toys?” “How do you keep things so neat with two kids?” “I could never keep my house clean all the time”

ARE YOU SERIOUS???? Do you really think I live that way? I wish. I would have to put Chloe in a straight jacket if I wanted to keep my house perfect. So not going to happen. When I take a picture of a room it is during nap time so I can pick every thing up just for a few brief moments. Why would I take a picture of a room in chaos? So I thought, what the heck. You want to see what our Monday morning looked like?

See, my house is not perfect...laundry gets done and toys are played with

I didn’t touch a thing…this was completely organic. Laundry, toys, Chloe with her disheveled morning hair. If you cut me I bleed. Don’t go feeling bad about your house being in chaos and glorify mine…so not the truth! Yes I LOVE order and cleanliness…but not when my kids are awake. The second they go to sleep it is all whisked away into baskets and closets.

Let’s talk about my kids. My kids who absolutely make me smile from sun up to sun down, I freaking love them!!!! I love them so much I blow up their pictures to ridiculous proportions…..

my homage to Bennett.  I love my boy! (I love my girl too)

My homage to Bennett. Ryan thought it was a bit much….why not have a giant picture of your kids? I see nothing wrong with it.

Speaking of Bennett. Being freakishly tall and strong catapults you out of infancy really really fast and you are able to do way more than your average four month old. We broke out the jumper a few weeks ago and now we have our very own Tigger. It is hilarious to watch him. I so wish our bodies had sound effects. I want his legs to make the noise “doing, doing, doing” every time he springs up. But alas…they do not.

Look at him. A man, his swing and his thoughts.

His new talent...jumping in his retro 1993 patterned jumper

closer

His new talent...jumping in his retro 1993 patterned jumper

looks like he rode his horse all night.

His new talent...jumping in his retro 1993 patterned jumper

I asked Chloe to give him a kiss. This is as close as she got to him making the “MMMMMM” sound of a kiss. Close, but no cigar!

Attempting a kiss...making the "mmmmm" sound, just no actual physical contact, that would be yucky

Can we take a moment of silence for Chloe’s beautiful hair?

Love her curls and highlights...so Pantene commercial

I mean..the curls and highlights and this is after being slept on all night! The next Pantene girl? Maybe?

I mean this was almost one year ago to the day.

independent woman

Her hair has grown so much in a year!

So we have finally entered the world of talking. It is AWESOME….she is ridiculously funny and now I understand how parents are the only ones that can understand their kids. There are moments where I would love to buy a vowel or get another consonant, but usually in context I can figure out what she is saying.

She says Amen and raises her hand “AHH MEAN”. She says Jesus like a southern baptist pastor “JEEE-SUS”. I love it!

She says all of her colors, but our favorite is the color yellow. She says it “LELLLL-OOO” and her mouth looks like this.

This is how she says the word "yellow"....."LELLL-O" and it is a very dramatic face like so

She has an amazing range from low and raspy to high pitched and breathy. This kid is my laughter.

Okay so I saved the best for last. This is not everyone’s humor, but it is 110% our humor. I got a bunch of books while digging through a pile of crap someone dumped on the side of the road (long story for later) anyway, I didn’t really pay attention, just thought “BOOKS….Chloe loves books”. Well after going in the basement to pull some of them out I came across this gem. Oh man oh man…..it is called “Once Upon a Potty” the boy edition.

I must say that I have never ever read a potty training book but I would bet money this is one of the most graphic. I mean I am all about calling a spade a spade….but…this has to be the most hilarious book I have ever seen about potty training. No stone left unturned, no question not answered…let there be no doubt how it works and where it comes from.

This is the story of Joshua and how he learned to use the potty. I am so glad they clarified what this hole is for.

The most hilarious book I have ever seen about potty training.  No stone left unturned, no question not answered...let there be no doubt how it works and where it comes from.

Ryan and I were laughing until we were crying.

Still confused, let me show you another page.

The most hilarious book I have ever seen about potty training.  No stone left unturned, no question not answered...let there be no doubt how it works and where it comes from.

Oh Joshua…you coiled one next to the pot and not in it!!!! That is nasty. Is anyone else confused why they are using a pot? This book isn’t that old.

One more for the road. This is the page following the one where Joshua feels the urge to poop so he remembers to go to the pot and he…..

The most hilarious book I have ever seen about potty training.  No stone left unturned, no question not answered...let there be no doubt how it works and where it comes from.

YEAH JOSHUA!!!!! You did it!

I wish I had the time to photograph all the pages, maybe I will give you a transcript and spare you the very detailed illustrations.

So anyway, that either made you laugh, smile, make a disgusted face or erase me from your feed reader. Remember you had the back arrow and “X” option and you didn’t take it! You can only blame yourself.

Okay, off to continue to watch Gilmore Girls….I am hooked. Erin and Joy…you were right and you know what? Ryan is hooked! He isn’t requesting it, but he doesn’t mind me playing episode after episode. We even watched about four episodes in bed on Sunday afternoon on the laptop. I rolled over and giggled and told him he was the best girlfriend I ever had! He didn’t find that as amusing as I did.

Okay, that’s all I got…but man…that was a lot!

Surviving and thriving….

I did it, I made it through…I survived. First wedding in 8 months and you know what….It kicked donkey tail. It was so much fun, perfect weather, about the most fun bridal party you can ask for and BEAUTIFUL. Hello…the beach…twist my arm.

We had a VERY rocky start as we realized 10 minutes before we were walking out the door from my parents house (a.k.a.-The nanny’s) that Ryan had a rip in his dress pants…in the butt! WHAT?? We have a two plus hour drive somewhere we have never been and now we have to find dress pants for a 36 inseam. NOBODY carries that in store. So under much duress we walk out the door and head to the nearest mall (after missing the exit adding 7 more minutes to our tight schedule.) JCREW…come on JCREW…come in clutch on the ole 36 inseam. Nope..nada..zilch. You have to be kidding me? They do make them, just don’t carry them in the store. So what do we do? Get a bigger waist and stick with the 34 inch inseam. Baggy butt and barely hitting the ankle…but no rip! Lesser of the two evils. So after much traffic, the whole mall incident..we made it just 3 minutes late. Not bad at all.

I was nervous…cue pit sweat. Not because I don’t know what I am doing, but it is a big leap going back to 8 hours on your feet, thinking, creating, persevering….not easy. Not to mention, I was about to go 12 hours without breastfeeding and had my pump in the Pilot incase I needed to hop in and pump away. Did I really need gravel boobs to boot?

Needless to say, we had a BLAST! They were the coolest, the whole vibe of the beach, the weather, just being out with Ryan….inspiring!

You must see the best shot of the night. I am in love with it. The romance, the beauty. Her headpiece was to die for. Totally want to reincarnate my wedding so I can do the 20’s vibe.

My hands down favorite of the day...perfection...Morgan and Tom-Va Beach, VA: August 16, 2008

Seriously, you have to see the images full size. My blog does not allow for such things. I know I keep cramming Kellan down your throat and like good, polite little blog readers you oblige. We are just so happy to be doing this together and feel like God has lifted a veil lately (no pun intended) and allowed us to take it to the next level. This is definitely an art medium that is ever evolving and we want to make sure we are pushing each other to learn more and edit more creatively, etc….so we love when people get excited about our work. Not blowing smoke…I hate a kiss butt. Seriously, don’t like it, don’t believe it when people do it. Just sincerity please.

So last minute I decided to stay in Richmond for three days to catch up on some editing while cashing in on some free babysitting at the awesome bed and breakfast known as my parents house. They have a crazy awesome house. I pretty much get my own wing…so call me stupid, but I know a good thing when I see it. It is a Monday afternoon and I am sitting in Panera..BY MYSELF…drinking coffee, eating a cinnamon crunch bagel (heaven in bread form) blogging and editing and my children are getting mad love and attention from Papa and grandma. This is good. This is really good for me.

So off I go…time to edit schmedit. Miss you guys.

Keep your eyeballs peeled

If you are in a 60 mile radius of the “Burg” then keep your eyes peeled for the Fall/Winter Soiree Magazine to drop in September. We made the plunge and purchased a full page ad because money is no option for us. I wipe my butt with 100 dollar bills regularly. Nothing like a crisp 100 across the tailpipe! Don’t I wish….about money being no option not wiping my butt with a tiny slice of paper with ink on it.

Here is our lovely ad in all of it’s glory. Ryan and I nearly get a divorce (kidding) when we have to come up with an ad. Can I tell you how hard it is to find ONE picture that encompasses your style for your ENTIRE business? So we hemmed and hawed and pleaded our case for this picture and that when a big giant lightbulb went off in my head…”Dummies…use lots of photos…not in the college dorm room, decorate your door with a mess of pictures sort of way….classy, separated, bold….”

Soiree Fall/Winter '08 add.  Flickr made the green a bit Cra-zah-zee...it is much more muted in print.

I am not sure why Flickr likes to mess with my head because I can promise you we did not use 80’s neon green for our ad. I know it has some technological reason with the whole internet only reading certain colors ( I do semi-listen Ryan). It just makes me mad. I also have to tell you, I was at my parents last week and pulled our Kellan site up and was shocked. I mean my parents have a decent laptop…but our site looked so dull and dark. Is this how you guys see photos on the internet? Are Mac screens calibrated that much better? I was so sad that many of you are looking at our photos thinking “those are okay…but kinda lifeless”…..so sad. I wish you could see them in all their colorful glory on the mothership computer! You must be blowing some serious smoke up our butts that you like our pictures if you have an old computer monitor…LIARS!!!!! You should run…not walk…and drop a wad on a good monitor for the sheer pleasure of experiencing the internet’s buffet of color and of course to keep up with our latest work. Too obnoxious? Sorry. Dial it down Kelly.

I have a post written in my head with tons of pictures from my time in Richmond…but unfortunately, we have shot two nights this week and leave for VA Beach to shoot a wedding tomorrow. GULP…my first wedding back since December. I don’t know if my feet and back are ready to take the plunge again. Wish me luck. I will also be meeting up with a fellow blog friend of two years, O Mama Mia…better known as Jess to the real world. We are having breakfast and will swap labor stories and I am sure laugh as much in person as we do over email. Can’t wait Jess!

So that is your carrot to keep reading….I will check in next week if I can stand upright.

Caption?

This is my nephew Noah. He’s silly. He thought it was hilarious to put on these glasses, which were a gag gift for my uncle’s 50th b-day.

This picture needs a caption. Please…leave me something funny to go with this picture.

Silly Noah

I will write more later this week when the dust settles. I have been gone for 8 days to my parents. No editing, no nothing but to relax. Now I am back to reality and my butt is so tight you could bounce a quarter off it. SOOOO much to do I want to throw up. Baby steps, baby steps…..