photo {easter drawing}

My sweet niece (almost 11), made baby coleman two super gifts for his first easter (which we spent at her house). one was a shaker craft she made and she put "baby's first easter" on it. the other was this drawing. so sweet!

photo {school portrait}

spencer's fourth grade spring portrait

courtesy of lifetouch

photo {hilarious}

last photo from easter weekend - just too funny not to share.

my niece maggie and nephew teddy are to blame for this:

photos {easter lunch & egg hunt}

After church, we had a very taste lunch outside. The weather was gorgeous. Then, we had an Easter egg hunt which was a TON of fun. We all brought eggs filled with candy, money, etc. Even the teenagers enjoyed themselves :) I was hoping to land the egg with the Starbucks gift card, but no such luck.

photos {easter sunday}

Easter Sunday, we all attended my sister's church. We took some nice family photos afterwards while we were *all purdied up* :)

the hutchison crew

all the cousins (except spencer, since he wasn't there)
me and coleman

the moore family

somehow, four of us ended up matching - not planned

the Easter bunny brought this for coleman

photos {michelle's 40th birthday}

One of the reasons we went to Conway for Easter Weekend was because it was also my sister's 40th birthday party. We planned a surprise party for her. She thought we were just doing a family cookout that evening. Instead, a caravan of friends showed up at her house and we whipped up a party right there in front of her. It was pretty cool!

We had a lunch with her friends (our "cover").

Do you think she was surprised???

She got off easy - only 4 candles instead of 40.

photos {not just cousins...}

It wasn't all just about the cousins though...everyone wanted some cuddle time with our sweet baby. I think he was held 99% of the weekend :)

aunt michelle

uncle marion
grandma sharon

aunt sherry

uncle chip

photos {cousins}

One of the great things about spending Easter weekend at my sister's house was that Coleman's cousins were able to spend plenty of quality time with him. I have been really surprised how taken with him they all seem to be!

photos {boosterthon fun run}

Back in March, Spencer's school did a new fundraiser, called the Boosterthon Fun Run.

LOM {categories}

These are the categories I set up for my Category Drawers. I used the same titles for each of the four "drawers" as Stacy Julian (in larger font). Each drawer has larger categories (underlined) and subcategories. Going through the photos a second time really helped opened my eyes to some new category possibilities. I provided explanations in many cases (in italics).

All About Us (immediate family)
To Each His Own
Matt (dad)
Holly (mom)
Spencer (child)
Coleman (child)
Rio (dog)
Cooper (dog)
So Happy Together
All in the Family – all three or four of us
Odd Couple – Matt & Holly
Mama’s Family – Holly with Spencer and/or Coleman
Who’s Your Daddy? – Matt with Spencer and/or Coleman
Brothers - Spencer & Coleman together
Man’s Best Friend – Someone interacting with dogs

People We Love - extended family and friends
Relationships
these are relationships from any generation - it could be myself and a cousin, my mom and her cousin, my son and his cousin, etc.
Cousins
Sisters
Grandparents
Aunts/Uncles
In-Laws
Group Shots
Family
these are set up by last name for the "branch" of family
Cotton
Blackwell
Doty
Bishop
Hutchison
Moore
Pets
Friends are Forever
as more photos are added, I will probably pull out more specific families to have their own tabs
Herrons
Comers
Williams
Family Friends
Spencer’s Friends

Places We Go
No Place Like Home
Mancke Drive - first home as a married couple
Winding Branch Rd - current home
Older Homes - any of our homes from before we were married
Home away from Home - important homes in our lives, but not where we actually lived
In the Yard
Around Town
photos from our current city
Glencairn Gardens
Winthrop
Downtown
Parks
Far and Away
Beach - common vacation spot
Mountains - common vacation spot
Columbia - nearby city we visit frequently
Charleston - nearby city we visit frequently
Georgetown - childhood city

Things We Do
Everyday Life
Music (concerts, etc)
School
Games (video games, board games, yard games, etc)
Food (anything associated with food, eating, cooking, etc)
Wheels (bikes, wagons, motorcycles, cars, etc)
Yard/Flowers (things having to do with the yard, but not activities - that would go into "in the yard" in the previous drawer)
Work
Technology (computers, cell phones, TV, etc)
Sleep
Hobbies
Fishing
Scrapbooking
Horses
Volunteering
Crafts
Sports
Reading
Special Activities
Sporting Events (attending, except Gamecock - see below; if participating it would go under "sports" in the hobbies section)
Gatherings (cookouts, parties, etc)
Festivals
Gamecocks (we are big fans, so lots of related pictures. Gamecock sporting events go here instead of under "sporting events")
Water (pools, boating, ocean, water parks, etc)
Holidays
Christmas
Thanksgiving
Halloween
Easter
St. Patrick’s Day
Birthdays
Seasons
I'm not convinced the color tabs will make sense for me. So, for right now, I'm skipping them.
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter

{coleman update}

I thought I'd give a little update on how Coleman is doing at 6 weeks old.

Tummy trouble: A few weeks ago, we switched formulas to Enfamil AR, for acid reflux. We saw some improvements but some symptoms remained or worsened. The doctor recommended trying Zantac, which we started a few days ago. We are hoping it will give his poor tummy some relief so he can be a happy, shiny baby again. He is having some pretty cranky days lately :)

Nights: He is starting to get his days/nights straightened out. He stays awake more during the day, which not only helps him sleep at night, but also is more fun for us! The longest stretch he's blessed me with is four hours, but the norm is around 2.5 to 3 hours at a time.

Happy Times: He is full of laughs and smiles now, which is awesome! It's so cool to see what entertains him (and what doesn't).

Eating: His tummy troubles have not hurt his appetite at all. He's been eating like a champ (35 ounces on some days) and he's really chunking up!

photos {it's in the water}

Anyone that knows me or keeps up with this blog, knows that there is something in the water in my neighborhood that has made baby boys. In a period of less than a year, we will have 7 baby boys born (in a span of about 10 house lengths). Three of us who live in a row were pregnant together (the three boys were born within three weeks of each other). Here are some pictures of these kiddos that will hopefully be growing up together.

#1 - McRea - He's 7 months old. Lives across the street from us and goes to the same in-home daycare that Coleman will be in. Seriously - could he be any cuter???

#2 - Colton - Lives two houses down from us. His mom, Tara, and I are very close. He is 2.5 weeks older than Coleman.

Coleman is #3 of this group.

#4 - John Michael - lives next door to us and is 4 days younger than Coleman.

photos {easter part 1}

We don't have Spencer this weekend for Easter, so we did Part 1 of our celebration already.

Here is just a small snippet of our Easter decorations:

Wednesday night we dyed Easter Eggs. Spencer still really enjoys this (which makes me happy). This year we bought two kits - a sports theme and a camo theme.

I made an egg for Coleman :)
Thursday morning, baskets for Spencer and Coleman were waiting on the kitchen table. The Easter Bunny is smart and knew Spencer wouldn't be here.
Spencer opening his basket (with Rio's help of course - he always has to be in on the action).

photos {recent stuff}

here are a few recent shots from our lives...

this is one of my favorite coleman faces

last week i worked a bit on my 365 project - still behind though :)
spencer found 3 four-leaf clovers in a matter of a few minutes at his grandparents' house - pretty impressive!

spencer working on a school project (yes, he has a desk. yes, we have tables - and a counter, but no...he chose to work on the kitchen floor). he did a mandala based on harry potter characters.

isn't he sweet? he looks like Baby Jesus or something...

LOM {Lesson 4}

Still getting caught up on LOM lessons...
Earlier this week I accomplished a pretty large project - Category Drawers. Luckily, I'd already pulled together a good number of photos for them. I did this based on the book, Photo Freedom, prior to starting the class. This past week or so, I worked on the *bubble charts* part of our class, which helped us set up categories. From there, I created dividers for my Category Drawers. My *drawers* are actually just a photo box. Right now, all four categories fit into one box. But, I have plenty of boxes that I can use as my collection grows.
This was a good exercise. I had come up with some "rough draft" categories in the past, but was able to really fine tune them and get a better understanding of what categories made sense for me. I also enjoyed "touching" all of these photos again and moved around a good number of them, as I found categories that were more appropriate. I was making plenty of connections throughout the process (and making notes along the way).






While working on Lesson 4, I actually completed a piece of Lesson 3 that I had skipped - the Photo Connection. Below are two photos of Matt & Spencer in which they are play fighting. The pictures were taken four years apart, in two different houses. It really captures the playfulness of their relationship and how, despite Spencer growing up, some things never change. I look forward to doing a layout of these :)

Also this week, I was able to do something that relates back to Lesson 1 (yeah, I'm slack). Now that I have purchased 4 storage binders, I need something to put in them. I had spent a ton of time paring down photos from 2006 to 2008. I decided to start my printing with 2008. I went back through them, cropping them all to 4x6 and paring some more. Then I uploaded them to Shutterfly. I was shocked at how many I still had - 568 photos!! But I ordered them. They are scheduled to arrive next week. I still need to order the other two years, but am getting over the shock from the one year!