Morning Moments of Tessa K

I just love when our mornings settle down and I can watch my favorite little girl explore her world :)

Always has been one of my favorite positions for a kid to sit in. They're so bendy!

Checking out her new bath toys...on the bathroom floor instead of the tub!

Found her big brothers cool glasses. Trying so hard to figure it out!

I love this one. She's had her tongue out since day one. Happy, sad, laughing, crying...there it is! 

ONE MORE THING!

About to head to the mall with all three kids and the hubby. Are we just asking for a disaster? Hoping for a pleasant experience! It seems every time we head out to do errands as a family, we look back and say, 'one of us should have stayed home with the kids!' One day, maybe, we won't say that, and maybe today is the day! Hopeful :)

Talk of Resolutions :)

Happy New Year! So many people have been talking about New Year's Resolutions, myself included. 2012 was the biggest success in resolutions, for me, thus far! It was actually the very first time I had ever kept a resolution for longer than a few weeks. I had 3 resolutions and I kept them all...for the ENTIRE year! My number one resolution was to quit Diet Coke. Some of you who know me may have already heard about my Diet Coke story before, but for those of you who haven't, here it is in a nutshell:

For years, my drink of choice was Diet Coke. I absolutely loved everything about it. My favorite kind was from the fountain. There was nothing like ordering a Diet Coke from McDonald's and having it be freezing cold in all that ice. The bubbles were so fresh and I loved drinking it from a straw (I must sound crazy)! What started off, so long ago, being a special treat and having a soda every now and then, soon became an unexpected addiction! It was all I ever wanted. Not only did I want it, but I needed it to keep myself awake and going during the day. I don't drink coffee so this was my energy that I depended on daily. I also convinced myself that it was like medicine. If it didn't feel good, Diet Coke made me better. I found myself drinking it so much that I didn't drink any water at all. Days would go by and I could honestly not recall my last sip of water. It was when I started waking up in the middle of the night and opening my fridge for a nice cold swig of Diet Coke, that I thought, "I don't think this is normal." I justified it to the end. It couldn't be that bad, there's no calories in it! It could be worse. I could be addicted to something much more unhealthy like cigarettes, alcohol or drugs. I had the attitude that I knew I was addicted and I didn't care! I then started to hear things about aspartame, the artificial sweetener that makes Diet Coke sugar free. I'd do research on it and when I read something I didn't like, I'd stop reading it! Over time, I had done some juicing and fasting, in which I did not drink any Diet Coke. I suffered from awful headaches and body aches.I thought, in those times, that I had overcome this weird addiction. So after a few weeks of not having it, I'd allow myself to have a glass every once in a while. That would always turn into, a glass of it everyday and then just back to drinking only Diet Coke. As the end of 2011 approached, it was on my heart to, once again, try and kick this awful habit. There was a difference in the other times before though; this time I truly felt that God was putting it on my heart.  One day I sat in my living room and prayed to Him, asking Him to guide me into a healthier way of life. I felt like I hadn't been treating my body very good. I had just had a baby 3 months prior, and I felt gross! I wanted a new beginning. It was December 21st, I believe, when I felt God saying to me, "give up Diet Coke for ME, and do it now. Do not wait for the new year." Not really what I wanted to hear. I wanted my last couple of weeks to have my favorite thing! I truly enjoyed drinking it so much that I felt I was going to be in mourning over it (I'm a little dramatic)! That day, I stopped. When we pray for something, we don't ask God to answer our prayers in a couple of weeks, or when He feels like it. We are human and we expect immediate response! Why would I ever make God wait for something that He asks from me? I had to obey... which I'm usually not so good at, but this time I really felt in me that I had to. Over a year later and I haven't had a single sip of Diet Coke! I honestly can say that I don't think I will ever drink it again. I definitely miss it. I still want it all the time, but I feel so much better now! I don't have a guilty conscience about what I'm putting into my body. I've resorted to tea and water... mostly soda water. I still will treat myself to a soda every now and then, but it's usually Dr. Pepper or Root Beer. I feel so thankful that I was able to kick it. Also quite grateful that the addiction that I had, was just a glimpse into the reality of this world of much uglier addictions. I can't imagine the bondage that others find themselves in when struggling to give something up like drugs, alcohol, or even food. I learned a lot from this experience and it's brought me closer to God. 

My other resolutions were, to lose all my baby weight and keep it off (success!) and to recycle (success!) since I was super bad at that before. Holy cow, one whole year and I kept THREE resolutions! Now I'm behind. I would like to be posting another success story in a year from now. I have a few in mind, but nothing that I've committed to yet. The next few days I'm hoping to have come up with a solid resolution!

ONE MORE THING!

I really don't want to take down our Christmas Tree yet! How long is too long to keep up Christmas decor? My sister is visiting with her family for a second Christmas in a couple of weeks. Hoping to convince my husband to keep it up till then! We shall see :)

Quiet House Tonight

Not quite sure what to write about tonight, but the house is quiet, everyone is sleeping and I just feel like chatting! My oldest son, Trevor, is 5 1/2 and beginning kindergarten in just a few short weeks. I thought I'd be more emotional about it, and maybe I will be when the day presents itself, but for now I am eager for it to be here! As you can see, he is a total boy with a stick in his hand and scrapes all over his legs, and his very cool pose!


 This summer we decided to save our money and not sign the boys up for many extra activities. They attended Vacation Bible School for a week and that was it. I'm kind of regretting it now because this mommy has had some moments of feeling insane! My kids are great but it's a challenge to get anything done when I'm constantly busy with them. Not only do I just want my house to stay clean for 5 minutes, but I would love to be working on my photography a little bit more. School days, I know, will open doors for those things to start falling into place. Till then...patience! Then when I think like that I start to get a tad little guilty shock running through my bones. I'm never going to have days on end, at home, with no school or places to be, with my son again. This is it. His school career begins now...5 days a week!! Oh the mixed emotions of it all. How does something sound so sad and wonderful all at once?! I'm still going to have my 4 year old and 1 year old at home, so things will still remain crazy (which is my normal) for a little while :)

Another milestone that awaits us is my birthday. I'm turning 30 in a a couple of weeks. I'm so fine with this. Time has gone by so quickly that to me it seems like yesterday I was 25. And if yesterday I was 25, well then today I feel like 25! There are things about me that I can tell are getting older. I care about different things that I was quite ignorant to in the past. Like the foods my family and I eat, and learning to plant and garden (in containers mostly because Lord knows I can't deal with bugs all the time!) I care more about what God wants for me and not so much what I want for me. I care more about the world in general and how it will effect the new generations. These things are all things that make me feel a little more like 30. If caring more is what makes me feel like 30, I'm not sad about turning 30. I mostly feel sorry that when I was younger and heard that another person was 30, I thought they were old. Now I know that's the furthest thing from the truth lol!

ONE MORE THING!
I'm on day 10 of the South Beach Diet. I can't believe how good I've been on phase one. For those who don't know, phase one means no starches, fruit or alcohol AT ALL! So I've completely changed how I eat in the past 10 days, but I don't feel like my weight has changed that much. Of course my husband is dropping pounds like it's his job. I think it's my cue to start moving this 30 year old body just a little bit more! The question is, how long will I keep saying it before I actually do it?

Tips On Making Your Photo's CLEAN!

Ever wonder why your pictures look crooked or something about the image just says "messy"? Here are some ways of making things look straight, and neat!


Take advantage of the grid in your viewfinder or LCD screen, which is provided in most digital camera's. This is great for keeping everything lined up and even. If your picture includes objects in the background with lines, this grid is very helpful for keeping things looking straight and sharp. This image below I took of my son last summer. The line coming from the top of the fence behind him is what is important to keep even. With a lot of great shots come candidness. In this particular moment, I saw my son standing there looking out at the water. Before calling his name, I took a second to quickly"set up". I do a lot of photography down on one knee since I'm photographing little short guys all the time! That way, we're straight on. So I looked in my view finder, put my subject in the center of the screen (with help from my grid) and then I made sure that the top line from the fence was straight with the line in my grid. I then called out, "Hey Warren!" With a quick turn around, I got my little mismatched boy looking right in the camera, and everything STRAIGHT as can be!

Another option is post cropping. Most software that comes with your camera will offer this option. Your computer most likely also has a cropping option in whatever program you use to view your pictures. Look for an 'edit' button if you don't see the word 'crop'. With post cropping, there's always the chance that you may need to sacrifice something in your image to make it look neater. You may find after playing around with the image that you like the original better. That's when the undo button comes in handy :) But sometimes sacrificing part of an image, means gaining a much more attractive and finished look. Below is a before and after of a picture that was taken very quickly! Taking pictures of lots of little kids and trying to get them to all look happy at the same time means something usually isn't going to be perfect! The swing they're sitting on is slightly slanted on the ground, but who needs to know that in a picture?! Cropping screens always have grids 

as well. So use those lines to line up with lines from the scene you're working with. I have an option when cropping to align the image, or tilt it. Very helpful for situations like this. 

When taking a quick (or even not so quick) picture that may need potential cropping, it's always a good rule of thumb to leave yourself some extra room. This also serves as a double purpose for when you print your pictures. Depending on the dimensions of your print choice, you may need to crop a portion of your image to get the desired size. So if you have some extra room, you won't need to crop off feet (a huge pet peeve of mine that I will speak of in the future!) or tops of heads.

Hope this might help with making your pictures look clean!!!

One More Thing.....

My oldest son (the tallest blonde on the swing above) is graduating pre-school on Friday. I can't believe I'm going to be the mother of a kindergartner. I find myself forgetting so many things lately. I blame it on being a mom of 3 kiddos! I go from one room to the next and forget the reason why I'm standing there! As many things seem to escape my memory, one of the moments I will never forget is the one when I met my first baby. How is it that he's gotten 5 years older, but I still feel like a young chick?! (a young chick with a memory of a 90 year old!) I'm looking forward to enjoying this summer with him before he officially starts his full time schooling for the next 13 plus years! Milestones are so bittersweet. 

A Little Introduction

Anyone who knows me would have my back when I tell you that I was born with the God given gift of gab. Of course I am blessed with other gifts too, but if there's one thing I love to do...and I think I do well... I love to chat! My husband and I will have long talks, (which of course he loves) and when we get to the point when I can feel the energy of our conversation coming to a conclusion, I will often say, "oh and one more thing!". He loves it :) To justify my more recent love of chatter, my full time job is being a stay at home mom to 3 children. Their ages are 5, 3, and almost 9 months. It's pretty obvious that there's not much adult conversation going on in my normal day. When I am with other adults during our day, it takes 2 hours to finally finish a conversation that would've taken maybe 5 minutes if there were no such thing as interruption! So there you have it...this girl has a lot to say, and I think I have some great and even beneficial things to share. I'm hoping to reach out to many readers, but we shall see how it goes. I plan on using my hobbies and other gifts, along with my chatty Cathy gift, to get across to people!
I mentioned my full time job is being a stay at home mom. Before that happened, I was working as a full time cosmetologist doing hair, make up, waxing, and nails. After I had 2 children, I went back to work for a couple of years and loved getting out of the house and having some "non-mommy time". When I got pregnant with my 3rd baby last spring, I decided to call it quits in the salon. I still have some clients and my family that I do from home, which keeps me up to par! What's been keeping me even more busy the past couple of years is photography. I've had a love for this hobby since high school. I took a class in college and then more recently took an online class and did a lot of self teaching with books and practicing by taking millions of pictures!  I officially have started my own little photography business and it's been an answer to my prayers. I'm my own boss, I decide when I work, and I can do lots of the work from home. I love it! One more thing that I've been doing for several months now is leading and teaching a small group Bible study. I've learned so much from doing this and although sometimes it feels like I have a lot on my plate, I know that I am doing what it is I am supposed to be doing right now. Last but not least, I have been very interested in a healthier way of living. I haven't made any major changes thus far, but perhaps in the following weeks to come, we may just see some transitions. 
I look forward to sharing stories of motherhood, beauty tips, photography tips and lots of miscellaneous!
I will always make sure to conclude with a random:
One more thing....
So my husband loves, but does not own, motorcycles. A few years ago a good friend of ours let him borrow a Harley for the summer. As much as I hated the idea of it, I decided to brave up and go for a ride. I started out timid but I found myself enjoying it quite a bit! Anyway, so you know how when one biker drives past another biker they sort of put their hand out as if to say,  "Hey there fellow biker, have a good ride."? Well I was clueless to this little secret (or not so secret) biker code. When I saw my husband do this for the first time I said, "hunny do you know that guy?!" He laughed at my lack of slick motorcycle knowledge and filled me in. I then thought he was the biggest dork lol! Now I know that if you're driving a motorcycle and pass a fellow biker and you DON'T do the cool hand motion, it's just plain rude. Today I was driving in my mini van (I'm the coolest mini van driver ever so don't judge!) and there was a motorcycle in front of me and I witnessed this hand / wave...whatever you want to call it...thing happen. I thought, well why do just these bikers do this? Why don't us fellow mini-vanners do this too?! I mean, a friendly gesture to say, 'have a great day carting your van full of stinky kids around! I support you!' would put a smile on my face for sure. So if you see a crazy, but very cool, girl (yes I still call myself girl because it sometimes sounds weird to me to call myself 'lady') waving with style to my fellow mini van drivers, it's me! I hope you join in doing this, maybe we can start a new trend together :)