above and beyond

Whenever I describe my sister-in-law Lisa to anyone, I describe her as Above and Beyond. She never does anything half way. Or even all the way. She goes past all the way...

I was just washing my mirrors with some glass cleaner she loves and gifted to me. A while back I had asked her if I could borrow her cupcake tree for a birthday party and the next night at church she left for me two different cupcake trees, medium and large plus a huge bottle of her favorite glass cleaner thrown in just for good measure. I opened that bag and saw the two cupcake stands and the glass cleaner she had grabbed at Sam's club that day and said, "above and beyond. That is Lisa Groves."

And the glass cleaner? Awesome. I'm afraid Toonces my try to fly through our windows.

the every day

I came across these pictures while putting the printed version in our family album. I love having captured the ordinary, every day. I need to take more pictures like this. These shots were taken on a Saturday when the three of us worked hard at the kitchen table. One was working hard on business stuff, another on thank you notes and the other on neck control.

getting myself in the pictures

I am in the middle of a monstrous picture printing/documenting project. Actually, the monstrous project is simply trying to keep up with Ivar's little life. I printed 400 pictures a few weeks ago when Walgreens was running a deal and now I'm trying to get them all into an album. (I know. 400 pictures in 4 months is a bit extreme. But he's our first and this is what parents do with their first child.)

What I began to notice, however, is how many adorable pictures I have of Rory and Ivar together. Mama seemed a bit absent from the shots. I wasn't entirely absent, but if we were keeping score (and maybe we were...) Rory would have won. Though I don't fault him...there have been a few photo opps where I asked that my pajama-pant-dirty-hair-self be left out of the photos.

All this to say, today I staged a photo shoot for me and my baby boy. We were in our Sunday best and feeling photogenic. He was wearing a sweet cardigan and corduroy outfit from Mom Groves that was given at Christmas. Adorable. Reminded me a lot of my Grandpa Bredberg in his button up cardigan.

So mama's, grab the camera and enlist your hubby, sister, bff or mom. And get in the pictures!

be sure to look for our clothing line

My niece, Maddie, sent this on to us today...it's an email from Forever21 announcing their new line of clothing by designer Rory Beca. How crazy is that?!!

Weather Defender

Click here to read a great article on Rory's company. It's a good read.