Monthly Archives: February 2012

California……

25 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by in Quick Snippets, The Family

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Public Policy Polling just came out with a poll saying the most hated state in the U.S. is California.

Perhaps it’s a political thing, but personally I was shocked when I read that! I can’t tell you how much I adore California. I love the diversity, the scenery, the variety, the food… It will always be my home.

So, here’s one of my favorite songs to send some love to the sunshine state:

In other news, our Oregon trip wore Little T out, who is now sitting in our hotel bed with a cold. Poor little guy, he keeps bringing us his shoes or trying to get into the stroller because he wants to explore some more. He sounds terrible though. Looks like we’ll be spending our last night snuggling and watching movies together. Definitely could be worse than that!

Hope you all have a happy Sunday. ~Jenna

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Portland Part 1

24 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in Photography, Quick Snippets, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels, vegan

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Pioneer Square:

Portland’s known for their food carts, and we had one we were dying to try:

The Vegan Food Cart: Homegrown Smoker

We got the side plate with Cornbread, baked beans, collards, MacNoCheese, and the STFU puppies:

Their menu brought back some sweet memories of my grandma from Oklahoma. Now, if only I can find some biscuits and gravy…

Later in the afternoon we drove over to the Vegan Mall to pick up a few things for my mom. Before we went shopping, we stopped at The SweetPea Vegan Baking Company and picked up some tasty treats.

Lemon Pastry, chocolate chip cookie, bostom creme pie cake:

I also ordered some vegan chili for Little T, but we didn’t prefer it. I was expecting a beany chili and we don’t usually eat a lot of fake meats, so it wasn’t what we were used to and Little T only had a few bites. I’m going to have to stop here again though, because there were some other things on the menu that I’d really like to try.

There was a beautiful park where I wanted to take Little T, but I couldn’t do it because there was a homeless person sitting on one of the benches and I’m still having a hard time from what happened last month. I usually wouldn’t have walked through the park anyway, but it was too hard right now. I’ve noticed that I’m also really jumpy when I hear police sirens. =/

After the park, we got lost and took an accidental scenic drive around Portland (teehee). Little T took a nap, and then we went to have dinner at Big T’s conference. On the way we stopped and showed Little T a living wall. We’re trying to teach him plants, leaves, flowers, branches, etc. Whenever we give him a flower to smell, he blows his nose at it instead of sniffing in to smell the rose. Ah well, he’s getting there.

Travleing by shoulders=Little T’s favorite way to travel in Portland:

We had a great time at the dinner, and Little T managed to obtain a tiny football from one of the conference vendors. We chatted and played with Little T until they started to take the tables down and we figured that was our cue to leave. 😉

During the day, Little T and I have been going solo while Big T’s been working hard at the conference, so the next day we took the metro to the Children’s museum.

On the way, we stopped in a building with some fountains and I snapped a picture of the other side of the street. I don’t know what it is about the colors in Portland, but the stones and the lights on the building are so beautiful. It’s peaceful, walking through the buildings.

On the metro. This is the only way I get pictures of myself on vacation (I’ve got to get Little T to stop relying so much on his pacifier, if any mommy out there has tips, please let me know):

The Children’s Museum was wonderful. Little T loved exploring the exhibits and stayed for three hours. I was planning on staying for only two, but after lunch I put Little T down to gather up my things for the metro, and he went running/screaming with glee back into the museum. Erm, I guess he had other plans for us. I couldn’t resist his enthusiasm and decided to let him stay.

The digging room:

The Train room:

The Theater room:

And playing with a giant light up peg board:

We didn’t get back until 2:00, and Little T slept until it was time to go meet Big T and some colleagues for dinner. We went to Persian food, and they had a very extensive vegan menu and homemade pita bread and we were in heaven.

After dinner, we walked by Powell’s Bookstore on the way to Voodoo Donuts. The outside of the donut shop was covered with glitter. (!!!)

I asked the lady at the shop which vegan donut she recommended, and she handed me a donut called, “The Old Dirty Bastard”.

It had dark chocolate, oreos, and peanut butter. It was a donut sent from the heavens and it gave my taste buds a ride on the flavor train to yumsville. My tummy was a little upset afterward, so I wondered if I’d been given a donut that wasn’t vegan by accident, but it might have been the sugar overload. Definitely stop there if you’re in Portland.

When we were finished, we walked back and listened to some street artists. One of them came up and hugged us because he said he was adopted like Little T. 🙂 Little T enjoyed the music and I think the artist got a kick out of watching Little T having such a good time.

So that’s what we’ve been up to so far. I bet you’re all looking forward to the weekend, I hope you have a great one.

Can I share something?

23 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in The Family

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Today we were at the Children’s Museum in the train room. The train room turned out to be pretty intense, with lots of little 3-5 year old train enthusiasts hanging around. One little boy (I’ll call him Freddie) was playing with the trains and Little T got a little too close and Freddie turned and shouted, “PLEASE DONT PUSH ME!” The mom said he did a great job using his words, and Freddie did! He may have shouted, but those sorts of things are hard for a toddler to articulate and I’m glad he’s learning to voice how he feels instead of pushing or hitting. Another little boy moved over to Freddie and grabbed one of his trains, and Freddie started crying in frustration and his mom encouraged him to ask for his train back. With all of his strength, Freddie shouted through his tears with his fists clenched, “PLEASE GIVE ME MY TRAIN BACK!” The little boy didn’t give Freddie his train back, which made Freddie cry. The mother then picked Freddie up and took him to another room to give him a break.

What made me sad, was another mom in the room who looked at me and rolled her eyes when they left. I smiled and said, “sharing can be so tough for kids this age.” The mom agreed and changed her tone. Parenting is tough, and I truly believe that us mom’s have got to stick together. The truth is, sometimes I feel like a completely inadequate mom. Today I was juggling a tired Little T, while I struggled to find change for the metro in my purse, and dropped nearly everything on the ground. It’s so easy for me to think about how I should be more organized, how I should teach my 18 month son to stay nearby or hold my hand so I don’t have to hold him when I’m looking for something, and how I’m probably getting the stink eye from people who are wondering why I don’t have my mommy act together. But I can’t be perfect and make perfect decisions all the time, because then I’d scare people away with my perfect decision making super powers. 😉

We’re all doing the best we can, and every child is unique. Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I hate it when people judge others, especially when they’re trying so hard. So please, if you see a mom having a hard time, give her a smile of encouragement. I live for these smiles when I’m having a tough mommy moment. That mom in the train room probably really needed a smile instead of an eye roll.

But anyway, excuse my rant…we really had a great time at the Children’s Museum today. If it weren’t for his nap, we would have stayed there for hours!

We made it to Portland!

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in The Travels, vegan

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We’re here, in Portland, Oregon! The vegan food capital of the world!

Oh Little T, I hope you are ready for the food adventures we are going to have today.

The sad news is: I didn’t bring my fancy camera. It was too much to bring. Traveling with a baby requires so much stuff! Big T and I used to pride ourselves on traveling with nothing but a backpack. We must have stared at our luggage in the living room for about 30 minutes while we tried to see if we could leave anything out. Nope, we had to take the baby stroller, the pack in play, the car seat, and the other things that go along with a baby. How can one little person need so many things?

Highlights of the trip so far:

  • We went to Trader Joe’s to get some last minute snacks, and the lady gave Little T a spoon of vegan cookie flavored peanut butter. Five minutes later, he had peanut butter all over his face and was still holding the spoon and saying “thank you” as we got in the car and drove away from the store.
  • Little T was upset that he couldn’t help me pack. Big T tried to get him out of the packing room by playing a drum and marching into the hallway, to which Little T responded by turning around and closing the door on him after Big T had marched out of the room. Then Little T turned around and said, “geez, mama! We’re finally we’re rid of that goofy guy.” 😉
  • Little T and I were waiting for Big T to meet us in the airport lobby. I was having a hard time juggling the bags, the baby stroller, and the baby. A really nice girl stopped and looked and me and said, “are you alone? Do you need help?” A random black man happened to walk in the door at that moment and she looked at me and Little T and said, “oh, you’re with him” and walked off.
  • Little T’s love of restaurants runs deep. He decided to walk up to every restaurant in the airport and try to convince us to buy him more food. This was while he already had food in his hand.
  • Every time he’d see a kid that was the same age as my two nephews, he’d chase after them screaming and laughing. This was fun for Little T, but slightly frightening for the little kids.

But of course, our favorite part of the trip was this:

Little T was great on the plane and loved the trip. We were worried beause he’s older now and loves to shout, but he did fine. When we got to our hotel, he kept running up to these two random women and pointing at things he wanted to show them while shouting, “look!” The hotel receptionist was also vegan, and helped us start out the trip right by ordering a vegan pizza that was delivered to our room. Little T and I fell asleep before the pizza arrived, but Big T told me it was delicious.

Happenings Via Instagram

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in All Others

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Little T is exceptionally skilled at convincing people to give him balloons.

And drumsticks, this was given to him by one of the drummers in a Disney parade after they saw him drumming:

extreme sports-Baby Acrobat edition:

Everyone watching with Little T as he goes through a glass elevator for the first time:

Pretty new shoes:

Little T has finally found a place where he can shout all he wants:

Big T getting a major award. (Christmas Story reference intentional)

My favorite beverage in the whole wide world=Lavender Lemonade:

Brushing Little T’s hair has turned into an active experience that involves me chasing him around the house with a hair pick.

Scott’s “baby”, Miss Molly.

Valentines Day dinner before Fiddler on the Roof. This was made while we wondered why baby tomatoes are always thrown in a salad. The answer? To be used as a nose in food art, obviously. You can’t take us anywhere.

Little T’s lunchbox for his plane trip= Clementine Oranges, Edamame, Kashi Snack Bar, Blueberries, and Organic Bunny Grahams. Not pictured=pasta salad.

Almost ready to go, Angel does not approve of the packing arrangements so far.

That was our week, I hope you all had a great one. 🙂

Meeting Little T’s Daycare Teacher

16 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in All Others

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Two of the couples I’ve photographed have made it into the Disney Wedding Blog finals! If you have a moment, please take a second to vote for Michelle and AJ for Best Proposal, and Wendy and Patrick for Best Floral. Thank you so much!

Click this link to put in your vote!  

In other news, we took Little T to daycare to meet his teacher today. Now I know how parents felt when they came to meet me for the first time (I used to teach kindergarten). I was so anxious on the way to daycare. I remember one of my teaching mentors telling me that parents want someone who is going to love and care their child. Someone who will understand that they have faults, but love them anyway for it. I could relate to that today. I walked up to the daycare center, all the while thinking, “please-please-please let her be someone who will love Little T, even though he has a tendency to shout, loves to get into everything, and believes that everything should be tested out with a drumstick.” While we waited in the office, the receptionist laughed as Little T danced for everyone who walked in the door. He played around the other kids during observation time, but kept running back and saying “Momma” to make sure I was still there. If that doesn’t tear at your heartstrings, I don’t know what will. 😉 I loved the daycare teacher and felt better knowing it’s an environment that fits my style of parenting.

It’s going to be hard not having Little T around me every second of the day, but I have four weddings and five engagements next month, and I’m going to need some time to work. I’m sure he’ll also benefit from having time with other babies. Ugh, it’s still hard. Logically I know it makes sense, but emotionally…

My Fun Filled Full of Photography Weekend (phew)

13 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Photography

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I told you my schedule was about to get busy, right? Well, last weekend was the start of it all, and it was soooo much fun!

I started out my weekend with an engagement shoot at Cal Poly with Ashley and Chris. If you think you’ve seen Ashley before, it’s because she’s an actress who has worked as an extra on a few popular television shows. It was fun getting to work with her, in fact…I didn’t really feel like I was working. I just had to watch them be cute together and snap away. 🙂

Towards the end of our shoot it began to rain. Fortunately, Cal Poly had a beautiful hallway (used in the movie Gattaca), that we were able to duck into.

On Sunday, I got to meet Rosanna and Steven. It was the first time we met in person and our shoot began with a great big hug. Always a fun way to begin. Steven and Rosanna met at my house ahead of time so Rosanna could have her hair and makeup done by Jenna Murray. We had bagels and chatted while our dogs played together in our living room.

Hair and makeup by Jenna Murray.

Steven works in the film industry and they’re both huge movie buffs, so I’d arranged for them to have their photos taken at the Laemmle Claremont 5 Theatre in Downtown Claremont.

It. Was. Awesome.

My better half, Trevor Henderson, set up the lighting while Jenna kept Rosie’s hair and makeup looking perfect. Here’s a sneak peak of a few pictures, I can’t wait to share the rest with you!

 

and we finished our shoot at The Last Drop Cafe…where we may or may not have snuck in some time for a Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip cookie. Heh heh, I hope my trainer doesn’t read that.

After our shoot, we went back to my home to see what trouble our dogs had been up to, and we wound up talking for another hour or two. I’m really looking forward to their wedding, I know it’s going to be as beautiful as they are.

That was my weekend, I hope you all had a great one!

Michelle and Hay

11 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by in Photography

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I always go and check out the location of a wedding before it happens. Yesterday, I went to meet with Michelle and Hay, a super awesome couple that will be getting married at the Diamond Bar Center. I can’t tell you how inspired I was by this beautiful location and this sweet couple. I can’t wait for their wedding day, when I get to photograph all of them for real! 😉 Here’s a picture I snapped from last night. Isn’t this place amazing?