Baby M is on his little way!

So I wanted to share a maternity session I did for some good friends of ours who are expecting their first baby in about 2 weeks.  We are beyond excited to meet this little one and so incredibly happy for them.  I know them well and know they will be amazing parents.  Sounds cliche, but they really will.  Baby M is also going to be gorgeous and I'm looking forward to his session in a few short weeks.  Can you believe how good she looks?  Don't let her cute little belly fool you, she's still teaching spin classes at 8.5 months pregnant!  I wish I could share them all, but here's a few...

Pumped Up Kicks

I wish this was me...just sayin ;)

Ohdeedoh

Just wanted to post a quick link to Jude's Room Tour on Ohdeedoh!

Thanks Ohdeedoh!

Canned Hammin' It!

Finally!  We did it!  We bought a 1966 Fan Camper and we are ecstatic which is actually an understatement.  It should arrive from Michigan on Friday morning.  It's ready to go other than putting our own spin on it.  It's the cutest thing I've ever seen so cute.  It sleeps our little family of four plus Fiona.  I bought this book a few weeks ago and to my surprise I opened it up and saw a similar little camper.  Ours is the exact same color!  Now we can take her out west with us and see so much more ;) I'll post some photos when we get her finished.

a funk.

funk 1 |fə ng k| informalnoun1 (also blue funk) [in sing. ] a state of depression : I sat absorbed in my own blue funk.• chiefly Brit. a state of great fear or panic : are you in a blue funk about running out of things to say?

Yep, that pretty much sums up me lately, BUT things they are a changin'...I hope.  Sometimes funks happen and it stinks but my lack of motivation has given me a lot of time to think about things and about what's really important.  I deleted a bunch of blogs from my reading list b/c I realized that I was spending waaay too much time on that kind of nonsense and it really wasn't helping my state of mind.  I plan on tidying things up around here and maybe going private and spiffing up my photo blog and making that more of the public space.  Not sure.  Undecided (which is a funk induced side effect).  I love having this place to record memories and then print it out in book form each year.  We'll see :)  
Blogger changed there interface and this new one is making my head spin!  Anyone else?  I am such a creature of habit.
This food allergy thing we have been dealing with has been interesting and a tad bit stressful but we're managing.  We've also been flirting with the idea of eating a vegan diet, which really is about 70% of our diet anyways.  But then I crave a bun less hamburger and it's all over.   Darn you Kind Diet!  Now I have anxiety when I eat my bun less hamburger!
About 2 weeks ago we got back from Gulf Shores and spent the first part of the vacation smack dap middle in Tropical Storm Lee.  You better believe we were the dummies out there in it yelling look at me as the wind almost knocked us down.  It was awesome.  It was not awesome getting woken at 3am to sirens and a voice saying "Attention!  Attention! Attention!  An emergency has been reported.  Please evacuate and do not use the elevators".  Yeah, not fun.  We are sheep though so we evacuated for a bit and we are still alive.  YAY!  It was also so cool that we were on the 14th floor of the condo and the light fixture was swaying.  Lots of wind.  Lots and lots of wind.  We did manage to have about 4 days on the beach and the waves were great.  The husbands surfed (not mine) and we basked in the sunshine and boogie boarded until our hearts content.
So, soonI hope to get this blog thing figured out :)  Have a great weekend!

A Journey.

So our family has been on a little journey.   A few years ago I found out I had a gluten allergy as well as a dairy allergy.  The day I gave those things up my life improved.  But oh how quickly we forget.  So like human tendency, as soon as I was feeling better, I slowly started eating gluten and dairy daily.  So now I haven't been feeling so great.  I wake up sore, tired and cranky.  Then my youngest, my baby, who rarely gets sick, started getting recurrent strep infections and tonsillitis.  This has been going on for the last 7 months.  So we took him to our naturopath in hopes of getting to the bottom of it and treating what's going on instead of removing his tonsils.  The result?  We found out he is allergic to eggs and oranges as well as gluten.  This is major.  He drinks orange juice daily and usually got some form of gluten and egg daily.  We also found out that he has a yeast infection in his stomach (from all the antibiotics).  These things are weighing his immune system down so that is why he can't get rid of the strep.  We're trying to be balanced though and if he needs his tonsils removed we'll be on board.  We just hope we don't have to go that route.  It will take a few months to see hoe his body responds.  So far so good.

Finding out these results has had a tremendous impact our family.  I'm forced now to avoid these things too which is good since I too have an allergy and we all feel better.  I'm learning to cook with egg substitute and my sweetheart of a husband bought a bread maker with a gluten free setting and I have been making the most delicious gluten, dairy and egg free bread ever.  We don't eat a lot of bread, but it's a must have for almond butter sandwiches for school.   And this year there school has banned sugar!  YAY! No more junk, no more candy.  We bring our child's own snack and they have water bottles instead of germy drinking fountains.  This could not have happened at a better time because last year they were given unhealthy snacks and candy everyday.  Now I'm on a mission to make healthy gluten & dairy free lunches everyday and get creative with it.

On a side note, despite the debilitating heat we have had ALL summer, our little garden did really well.  I haven't watered it since we got back from Cali and yesterday I pulled off a few tomatoes as well as a cucumber and we have more growing.  Yay me!  I put a lot of peat in the soil this year and made my own blend so I think maybe that's why it's doing so well.  The peat is holding the water.  That means a bigger garden next year because my Whole Foods bill just went up a little ;)  I'll post some recipes soon :)

Last Vacation Post...I Promise.

Summer 2011...NoCal & SoCal from Aja Vaught on Vimeo.

A few favorite memories from our trip that I don't want to forget...

Jude taking a big bite of Calimari a Riva's in Santa Cruz and giving us the thumbs up, then me telling him he was eating squid tentacles and him instantly gagging and choking and spitting the chewed up squid tentacles out.  I know, I know.

Looking out at Glacier point watching Jude climb a rock and then watching Jude lose his balance and tumble down the rock feet moving faster than he could go and catching himself at the edge of the point and saying "I meant to do that".  Us checking our pulse to make sure our hearts were still beating.

Watching our children explore Yosemite fearlessly and curiously.

Picking Eric up from the airport in San Francisco and watching all the Asian flight attendants come off the plain from Bangkok.  Seriously, they looked like Barbies or dolls.  Wish I got a picture of their hair pieces and uniforms.  Our flight attendants are so boring in the states.

Watching T carry Tristan off the Indian Jones ride in Disney.  Bella and I bailed at the last minute.  Apparently it was a wild ride but Judo LOVED it!

Tristan and I sleeping in a twin bed together for a week.

California's bounty.  They have the best farmer's markets in the world and I have a new love for peaches.  Can you believe I have never tried a white peach before?  WOW!

Sleeping in a Yurt and being lulled to sleep by the sound of water flowing through the Tuolumne River at night.

River rafting on the Merced River in Yosemite Valley.

Lunch at the Awahanee Hotel.

The Giant Sequoia Trees.  WOW!

Watching the surfers in Santa Cruz and looking for Lost Boys on the boardwalk ;)   Come on Kiefer, where were yo?

Walking on the beach in Santa Cruz, freezing and playing in the ice cold water barefoot.

The Fischers.

Lunch with the Fischers at Half Moon Bay.

Singing show tunes and songs from the 70's, 80's and 90's and commenting on how cool it would be if we actually had one of those infomercial rock ballad cd's.

In-N-Out's.  Enough Said.

The games we played trying to keep each other awake while driving at night.

Missing home and all the people who make it home.  It's good to miss home.

Escaping 115 degrees back home.  It was in the 60's to 80's.

Watching Bella take care of her little brother.  At one point Jude fell asleep in the car with gum in his mouth.  Bella was so worried about him choking on it that she woke him up and made him spit it in her hand.  That's a few hours after we had to separate them b/c of fighting.

Also, watching Bella almost in tears b/c she was worried about her little brother riding Indiana Jone's.  She just kept saying "poor Jude".  I love to see how much they love each other.

Hanging with Fisch...you know you love us Eric ;)

Hanging out under the stars in our little Yurt Village with my tripod and camera and a glass of cheap Cali vino, eating tortilla chips.

San Francisco.  Oh how I thought I would not like you.  You are great and beautiful and have so much to explore.  I can't wait to visit you again (minus the wharf).

Getting the Mister some Dogfish Head.  Finally.

Surprising the kids with Disney and Bella saying "You Promise?"before she officially got excited.  Too cute.  I have a separate Disney post planned.

Traders Joe's and 2 Buck Chuck.

Yosemite.  All.  Of.  It.

370 Miles.

Thank you Sleep Inn and Suites for you accommodating accommodations, where bed jumping is allowed.  After 16 STRAIGHT hours we arrived, only 370 short miles from home.  The kids could not contain themselves so they took it out on the hotel bed and Audrey posed along with them ;)  Still going through tons of pictures and had to share these.

Yosemite.

We stayed up late one night, sitting outside our Yurt, eating tortilla chips and drinking cheap wine.  Eric told us stories of Thailand and we waxed sentimental about how much we miss him all while waiting for this exposure.  My 30 minute exposure at Yosemite.  It's not what I was going for, but I didn't have a wide enough lens and there were so many darn trees in the way.  It would have turned out my way if we were at a higher elevation too.  Pretty cool how you can see how much the earth rotates from looking at the stars.

San Francisco

So I had a plan to post al of our vacation pics from Northern and Southern California, but it's just too many to post so this will be it ;)  I'll try to get a slideshow posted in a few days of the whole trip.  I love slideshows for the memories anyways so its all good...

Here are a few from San Francisco, most being near Golden Gate and Fisherman's Wharf and Mussee Mecanique.

 

 

Home Again.

And it feels so good.  I LOVE California and have dreamed of living there, BUT I have come to realize that there is no place like home.  We are so glad to be back and we're slowly getting back into a routine.  Two weeks is a very long time to be away from normal so it's taking me a bit to get things done.  I will share pictures soon!  School starts next week and I'm a little sad about that, but anxious to get some things done.  We are also leaving again in 3 weeks for Gulf Shores so lots to get done.  I'll be updating this little blog like crazy soon!

Bella...Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco

Greetings from SoCo....

We're in Southern California at the moment, about to head down to Huntington Beach.  NoCal was beautiful and so different from the south.  I have so much to share and so many pictures to wade through, post vacation bliss.  More soon ;)

Mr. Jude's Room

I have been meaning to post pictures of his room forever, but never got around to taking pictures and there's still a few things I want to do.  But I decided to go for it and show off the awesome bed that Tristan built for his little guy.  Everything in the room is things we already had except for the rug (purchased from CB2 with a gift card), the desk chair (from Ikea), the ceiling light (Ikea) and the brown floor pillow from Land of Nod.  The wood rolling bins we built ad I stained them and I bought the castors for them from Ikea.  I haven't bought bedding yet b/c really it doesn't show from the floor and I rarely make his bed b/c it's too difficult!  His room is pretty small and so we decided to build a loft style bed.  We found the one from Pottery Barn Teen and made it pretty similar.  Like I said, it is a work in progress right now, but one day I'll get around to the rest.

Some beats.

Listening to this right now while cleaning out the kitchen drawers, literally dancing eating a piece of cold leftover g-free homemade pizza.  Life is good :)

Summer Lovin'

It's been 100+ here the last few weeks and today it was 107 degrees.  Northern Cali is callin' our name louder and louder.  Three more weeks and we are counting down the days.  SO far, our plans are to pick up Eric from the airport in San Francisco the day after we get there.  His flight gets in from Thailand about 10:45 am so we'll get to hang out for the day there and then maybe stay with his sister in Napa later in the week and take a ferry back into the bay area.  We also plan on visiting Yosemite and camping, although the whole bear thing scares Tristan and Jude a bit.  I'm more worried about a bear sniffing out a lost french fry under a seat in our car and then having it smashed to pieces by the relentless bear trying to eat that french fry.  I have heard you can pee around your tent and vehicle and they will stay away.  Between the 4 of us I'm pretty sure we can conjour up enough pee to frighten a whole bear habitat away.  Actually I'm pretty sure Bella and I have that covered for the whole family.  The second week we are heading to southern Cali for some theme park fun and a few days at the beach.  We also would like to visit the HUGE flea market in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl.  Needless to say, I may not be coming back to Oklahoma.  Especially if it's 100 degrees!!!  

Some good friends of ours visited from the valley in south texas...

That black stuff is charred marshmellow NOT chocolate.  How she ate that I will never know!

Swimming.  Swimming.  Swimming.