Hashtag- Purplehairdon'tcare

So, remember a few days ago when I was complaining about my hair, well I did something about it... a purple something.  I go to a pretty conservative salon in a smallish town, so I've been told that I'm a hair dressers dream client.  Once every 6 months or so I get bored and boredom leads to change and this time change led to purple hair, hence the #purplehairdon'tcare.

I love it.  Jim loves it.  The boys keep saying "you have purple hair!" or my favorite, "it looks beautiful, Mom!"  The only thing that doesn't love it are any surfaces that it touches, like my pillow case, my shower, my neck, etc.  All of those look like they have come into contact with Grimace and not in a good way, in a Grimace-got-caught-in-a-rainstorm-and-smeared-all-up-on-things kinda way.  But it looks so freakin' cool that I'm keeping it, at least for now.

What do you think?

But no matter what color it is, Arden is good for a least one hair pull a day.  Thanks, kid.

Wanted: A Baby Sister

Not too long after we told the boys that they were going to have a sibling, the gender talk started.  My husband was firmly in the boy camp- thought it was a boy and wanted a boy.  I, on the other hand, thought that it was a girl and said I wanted either a boy or a girl... but I won't lie now, I really wanted a girl.  As most things went in our household at the time, I figured I would be outnumbered in the wish-upon-a-baby-boy-star, but surprisingly that wasn't the case; the boys really wanted a baby sister.  Obviously, there's nothing that we could have done at that point to grant their wish, but they were the first two people I thought of when we learned it was a girl; her big brothers were going to be happy.

So far, they love having a sister and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that she's great.  On the rare occasion that she cries for longer than 30 seconds, one of them comforts her by saying, "I'm here Sissy, don't cry."  I realize that this kindness and concern may only last for another few years, and eventually they may become the cause of her tears, but for now I'm sincerely in love with their love for her.  They are much more gentle with her than with anything else in the whole world.  When they talk to her, they both use a soothing, higher pitched voice.  They, above all else, show me that they love her and that's all that I've ever really wanted, love for my children.

This week, I've been nearly ready to put her in her crib.  (I know, I know; that beautiful nursery that I'm so proud of hasn't gotten any real use...) We've been hanging out more in her room and she's spending little periods of time in her crib to grow accustomed to it, but when all is not well and Sissy is done with the crib, her brothers come rushing in and soothe her and tell her not to cry.  And she stops and watches them and then everything is right in the world again.

The Announcement

Well, sorry to disappoint my Mother, who guessed a puppy and my Sister and Father who both guessed another baby, but the big announcement is that I will be doing 30 blogs in 30 days.  Anyone who blogs knows that doing 30 blogs in 30 days takes a lot of commitment and time, but I've done it before and I will do it again.

However, I do have my naysayers; when I let Megan, my sister know about my latest endeavor, her response was, "yeah, yeah, yeah."  Well, to that I say, self-proposed challenge made and self-proposed challenge accepted... starting June 1st!

New Hair, Don't Care... Or Do I?

Yeah, I think I do care about my hair.  Although, this vanity may be lost on anyone that sees me on the weekend, 'cause Lord knows that my weekend hair looks like duck.  Seriously though, it looks like ducking duck.  But here's the thing, I've had the platinum and black look for a little while now and I'm bored.  I've Googled and Googled and Googled the duck out of new hair, but I've come up empty.  Therefore, I'm going to turn my hair over to the pro and see what she can do.  Here's to hoping!

A Little Break

Well, I've returned from an unintended mid-spring break.  The time away was for a good reason, I was caught pretty off guard during a family tragedy that I will write about later and needed to take the time to spend with my family in order to be well again.

During the time away, nothing too much happened.  The days went on and the kids grew up; I missed the blog... Is that weird to say?  Probably, but this blog is that feeling I have at 2:00 am when something mom-genuis pops into my head.  It's a guilty little thought when I see the kids doing something awesome that I want to scream and shout about! like Baby girl rolling over at 7 weeks.  Most of all, it's a place where I've been as real as possible about a lot of things: motherhood, my marriage, my family, etc. and this newest chapter is something that I feel compelled to share.

Please be patient with me, I've got a lot of photos to share and little stories to tell.  A kinda big announcement is coming your way by the end of the week, so stay tuned.  Until then, here are some pictures from Mother's Day, please enjoy their simplistic beauty, which translates to a not taking a shower and snapping photos on the iPhone.

Mom Blogs Are Like Dinosaurs

Has anyone noticed recently that Mom-Blogs (a.k.a. cisforcullen) are going a little... extinct?  I read a lot of crap on the internet on the daily and it wasn't long ago that I was reading crap on a lot of Mom-Blogs, but now, I'm kind of not.  Why is that?  I think it's because the DIY Blog has replaced the Mom-blog; evolution y'all.

Since purchasing our second home, I've become obsessed with decorating blogs and websites, scouring the internet for Ikea Hacks (or makeovers to the layman) and tons and tons (and tons) of DIYs.  Move over parenting tips and birth stories, I've got mason jars to chalk board paint and Pottery Barn rooms to replicate up in here.  But as I'm sure the T-Rex did, when I see my fellow Mom-bloggers falling farther from the top of the food chain, it makes me wonder how long anyone will want to keep reading blogs about kids... and more precisely, this blog about my kids.

It is true that I've done a few DIY posts myself.  I love a good DIY or make over, but not reading about motherhood would be hard for me.  One of the biggest reasons I started writing this blog was to have a sense of community, meaning that I don't have a lot of friends who are mothers, so I had to seek them out on the internet.  Once I started reading other women's stories, I didn't feel so alone.  Mom-bloggers were funny and real and sometimes they shared their heart-break; I don't know how to describe the connection I had other than saying that it felt like I was reading an email from a friend, a friend with a kid (or two or three) who was going through what I was going through in real-time.

It's not that I don't appreciate the internet for what it is: a place to figure out how to do everything from being a parent to sanding and refinishing your hardwood floor, but I've just never been part of anything that I see being "yesterday's news."  I think my crew of Mom-bloggers is probably safe for now,  cause women are still havin' babies and other women want to read about it, but it does make me wonder how long we Mom-bloggers will still be relevant.

For now, relevant or not, I'ma do this blog my way so that me and my children have the opportunity to look back on these memories and see lots of pictures of them rather than a whole bunch of painted furniture, because after all, these children are my greatest DIYs.

(Excuse the throw-back pictures of the boys, I was cleaning up my phone and wanted to share some of the photos that I had never gotten around to doing previously.)

Pictures Have Never Been Easier

When I was pregnant with Arden, Jim and I decided that we needed to get a "good" camera.  Sorry, rinky-dink point and shoot, but we wanted "profesh" grade pictures of our kids.  We did minimal research and found a camera that we love(d).  Naturally, we ran to Target that very day and plunked down our benjamins and walked out with a camera that was more expensive than my wedding dress.  That camera is amazing.  The photo quality is impeccable and I absolutely LOVE the moments that have been captured, like these:

But as time goes on, I'm reaching for our big,  good camera less and less; these days, it's all about my iPhone 4s and as it turns out, I don't think I'm alone.  I've been reading on a few other mom-blogs about the camera phone replacing a professional grade quality camera and like these women, I'm not feeling bad about it.  I'm sure each of them have their reasons, mine is two-fold: first, I'm trying harder to capture more organic moments and lugging around a two pound camera with a big, dangly strap isn't conducive to that and second, I'm lazy; obviously, laziness is more of a factor than I care to admit.

Lately, I've been feeling a little guilty.  After capturing hundreds of moments with the good camera during Jameslyn's first week, the dslr camera has been sitting on the counter since then, staring at me.  However, my phone, which is in my hand more than it should be (tisk, tisk), has been snapping away.  One day, I'm very sure that I will be glad that I've heard the apple-camera-snap more than the authentic dslr click and I've all but resigned myself to the fact that these pictures are going to make up the majority of my children's photo documentation.

Despite my acceptance of my phone replacing my dslr, I wish that phone pictures were better quality.  But wait, there's hope for people like me and it goes a little something like this: photo editing apps and basic photographic skill, both of which Kelle Hampton has helped me explore.  Recently, I read her how-to tips and I'm glad that I did, these are all useful, practical ideas that can be used with both a dslr and a camera phone.  After a few days of being conscious of her tips while taking pictures, I think my point of view behind the lens has changed... for the better.

Don't get me wrong though, photo editing apps like Afterlight are still my jam and for good reason, the quality of the iPhone will never hold a candle to the dslr (check out the before and after below).  These days, with a little luck and the right exposure, I'm pleased with the photos that I'm taking; although, I think it helps that the subjects of my photos are beyond cute, because there ain't no app for that!