You gotta love these eyes

This is my nephew Richard. This poor child has so many names he will be very confused when he is old enough to talk. He was born Richard James. His mother calls him RJ. He also answers by the names Jamie and Booga. To be honest, he prefers Booga. Next month he will be one. It is so hard to believe a year has gone by. He is the most loving baby you will ever find. He loves to give me kisses. Today he called me Tee Tee. It was awesome. It is an aunt's version of "mama". I love my role as Tee Tee. I look into those big eyes and I can't help loving him.

The problem with lying

So I'm thinking this parenting thing is kind of messed up. They should have come with an instruction manual. Our current challenge is lying. Jasmine isn't very good at it. Oh don't get me wrong, she tries really hard. Today I walked in on her with a big glob of lotion in her hair. After several ridiculous excuses she decided to convince me that that same glob had been there since 7:30 this morning. I had two problems with this: 1. It was 4:30 pm and 2. I had combed her hair and found no lotion at 8:15 am. When I pointed out the holes in her story she decided the lotion just jumped in her hair and she has no idea how. Why don't they just tell the truth and get it over with? I remember encouraging her to talk only 5 short years ago. I need a time machine to go back and slap myself.

Today's adventures with Sarah included searching for the perfect picture for photography class. We grabbed our favorite responder and found an excluded spot to get motion shots. After 30 cold minutes outside, we were able to obtain some fun shots.
I then moved on to find a cute kid to take pictures of. My neighbor's little girl was only too happy to volunteer for the job. She is soooo darn cute. As soon as I got started I realized I was creating a monster. She loves the camera. It was so fun watching her play in the leaves. When we were done with the leaves I had to see just how fast she could go on her scooter. As you can see she moves pretty fast.


I am so suppose to be in bed right now. Jeff and I are going to my Rescue Chief's wedding tomorrow and I can't wait to try out some of the knowledge from class. I will post pictures tomorrow night.

So far in October...

We are only a couple of weeks into October and I'm still trying to figure out where summer went. Blacksburg weather is behaving its usual ADD way. It can't figure out if it should be hot or cold. We have been able to have some great mommy/daddy time. We went to the football game this past Saturday. Yep, VA Tech beat the pants off Boston College.

I started taking a photography class last week with Sarah It has been an eye opener. We had homework so Sarah and I went out to find things to take pictures of. Here are some of the things I found:
Yep, this kind of homework will be more fun than the homework I had 12 years ago.

I've only done a "Not Me Monday" once. I wish I would have done one yesterday. If I had, I wouldn't have written about my 9 year old who bites her nails. While showing my 9 year old how to open a clementine orange, I explained that nails come in handy and maybe she shouldn't bite hers. I did NOT find her later using her sharp toe nails to open another orange. I did not then hurt myself laughing at her and find it quite impressive that she came up with that option.

Jasmine started cheerleading. My biggest regret is that I didn't take video of her first practice. OMG that child has NO coordination. Her little legs look like a new colt with big tennis shoes on. Now picture those same legs trying to jump and kick. Yep, I'm a horrible mom because I almost wet my pants watching my child and encouraging her to keep going while holding in my laughter until I almost cried. She will never know my smiles were hiding amusement. Oh who am I kidding, I will so tell her when she is old enough to handle my humor.

I must go now and dash the hopes and dreams of the other two.