Etsy store to Open

ETSY STORE

This week you may notice something new gracing our sidebar, and yep it will be this button above.  I have been working on design for a while now, and it's something else that I really enjoy doing.  SO as a part of Frames of Infinity, I am designing custom T-shirts.  Parents could order them per say for an upcoming photo shoot, or just to have honestly.  Custom T-shirts are all the rage and I'm really excited about starting out.

Don't get me wrong, I ADORE photography and everything related to it, and yes am quite busy with it, but this is just something fun for me to do as well.  If you click on the button above, it will take you to our Etsy Store, and over the next few days I'm going to be uploading a few more designs as well, but these are the basics that we will always offer.  Please feel free to stop by and say "hi"  and look around.  I am sooo excited about this venture!

A BIG week

Wednesday...

was a BIG day, Maggie turned SIX! Presents poured in from all over the place, so THANK you to all of you that thought to ship her a gift. She really was THRILLED opening all those gifts. So much so that I have a whole post dedicated just to them coming up. You all really know how to make our princess smile!

THURSDAY...
was an even BIGGER day, as Maggie started FIRST grade. oh my is all I can say. She went from the downstairs to the UP-stairs this year, and it makes it a little hard to eavesdrop on her class, lol. With the windows being open in the fall you could hear what was happening if you stood under then windows. All I can say is, I wasn't the ONLY parent doing it! But way up there, well there is NO chance of being sneaky. We took our first day of school picture in front of the angel, and I thought this was something we did every year, but I guess we missed it last year, so that makes me sad!
As I was taking her pictures, all the other kids (that were already there) went inside so she got a little ticked at me. She told me that NO she didn't want me to walk her up this year...BUTI snuck up behind her a few seconds later and snapped this from the door way. See she doesn't look that mad, LOL. This is the first year she has her own desk, so this is BIG. She was sooo excited. Thursday and Friday were half days, so it eased us back into the routine. We had coffee and doughnuts in the gym with a lot of the other parents for a while, then it was off with Fionn for his 15 month check up. He is doing well, up to 24 pounds(over but I can't remember exactly) and he only had to have two shots this time. Here he is with Bogey(his monkey) when we got to the dr.s office...He was not quite this happy when we left!

We went grocery shopping and then had to hurry home to pick up sissy from the bus. He was so excited to see her, but she came off the bus looking like this. She took a little tumble running out to the bus and scraped up her chin, hands and knees. Yes, on the first day.

But on the way home, he wanted to hold HER hand, and I heard her say " I did miss you brother" as she told him WHY she had to go to school...

What about the rest of you, did your children start school yet?? Those first days are awful hard arn't they? We just got used to having her home with us all day, and now, off she goes again...
I would like to say that Fionn is lost without her, but Friday morning he sure had a great time smashing her new Barbie jeep into his dumptrucks for head on collisions...but that's another story, lol. We hope you all had a great week!

Maggie's Surprise Birthday Party!!

Surprise, Happy Birthday Maggie!

Goodness knows how i pulled it off, but I did. Less than 24 hours after our plane landed in Pittsburgh, I pulled off a surprise pool party for our birthday girl. That look above, the only time in my daughter's short life that she's been speechless! Maggie, a true diva, showed up LATE to her own birthday party, so it was short, but full of memories none the less. This was her very first birthday party since we moved to Pittsburgh (three years ago) and although we missed all our family and friends at home, Maggie enjoyed a party with all the kids from school! A lot of kids were busy since it was the last weekend before school started, but there were still enough there to make it a fun time!
We were nervous, when we woke up the sky was overcast, and it really looked like rain. I thought to myself "Lord, not today...please" Either he took my pleading to heart, or we just got really lucky because less than two miles away it POURED the entire time she was having her party one of the parents told us!

Here is a little play by play from her party:

As she was walking in, all the kids and parents jumped out and yelled "SURPRISE" I know you are thinking, well why did she dress like that if she didn't know?? I'll tell ya, I told her there was a back to school pool party and I had to help with it, and then go to a meeting at school with daddy. She fell for it hook, line and sinker!! (in her defense there was a pool party at the end of the year so she just assumed i would tell her the truth) HA!

In the pool with a bunch of her friends from St. Philip's. She's holding Grace's hand here, she's one of her bff's that lives down the street. This is them together below as well. Grace was Maggie's very first friend when we moved to Pittsburgh, and they're still close!Aunt Shelli, Uncle Bill and Mikey stayed over night so they could surprise the birthday girl! Look at Mikey go! Pretty soon he and Fionn are going to be unstoppable!

Hats off to this great life-guard who stood at the bottom of the slide to make sure that Maggie was okay. This slide has a lot of kick, and it's the first time she went down this one. You have to be able to swim the length of the pool and she's not quite that strong yet, and it's just a little over her head. He stayed in the water so she could go down a few times! He told us when she was done, that he was impressed, and doubted she would have even needed his help. You know me though, better safe than sorry! We had cupcakes, cupcakes, and MORE cupcakes! I made the blue beach themed ones above and we ordered the yummy looking ones below from a great lady from Erie! They were peanut butter and jelly mini-cupcakes and Kim did a great job on them. They were SO good in fact that the birthday girl didn't even get one! Here's a link to Kim's blog. Seriously ya'll these cupcakes were DELICIOUS! And of course there were presents! Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate our princess'' birthday with us. It was a great day filled with lots of fun and friends!
And it produced these smiles:

Vacation is exhausting!

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Okay, well exhausting isn't the word to describe our actual vacation...it was lovely, peaceful, beautiful and fun. I had my husband by my side for 12 days, so really there were no complaints. We had our children, our family, then sun, the sand, the pool and palm trees, what else could you ask for?? I even had time to read TWO books! We swam almost daily, went to the beach four times, and laughed a lot. There was so much to do, we even went shopping on two different days! I took so many pictures that I can't wait to share, but for now here are a couple teasers.
Fort Lauderdale was just what the doctor ordered! Coming home is the exhausting part! Soooo much to do to get ready for back to school this week.

Saturday the 15th--At the beach for the first time, and it started POURING!

Think it was warm?
On our balcony the first morning we woke up there! Fionn thought it was great to stick his toes through!

Pop-pop grabbed my camera and shot one of all of us in the shallow end!

First day in the pool, he still isn't sure about this police"boat"

On Sunday the 16th, we went to the ocean with the whole family...Fionn couldn't wait to change into his swim trunks!

Mikey and Maggie had just as much fun in the sand! They were all covered in it, and it was great to see them having so much fun.

There will be more to come over the next few days. We are only TWO days away from the Princess turning six and three days away from starting school so this looks to be a busy week! We hope you all enjoy our vacation pictures, because we sure had fun taking them!

Beach Bound...

We are packing up, and heading out of town for our first leg of our trip. We head home tonight to Erie County for a newborn session for me tomorrow then Mikey's first birthday party to finish up our time in Erie County.
Tomorrow night is a whirlwind trip BACK to Pittsburgh, we will finish up our packing (most will be done today) and I will attempt to sleep(even though I'm sure i'll be too excited)before we head off to the airport bright and early Saturday morning.
Saturday morning we are hopping a plane to Ft. Lauderdale with Shell, Bill, Mikey AND Mema and Pop-pop. If you are also on that flight, I apologize now for the two one year olds who I'm sure will be making some noise! After that we are beach bound for the next week, so don't look for any posts during that time. I'm not even taking the computer!

If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it up with Maggie...

Yeah, I wouldn't mess with her either! See you all soon!

Happy Birthday Mikey

Today our nephew Mikey turns one years old, and it seems like yesterday that he was born! I know that Fionn is only 12 weeks older, but wow did this year go fast.

I mean seriously, I don't even want to compare these feet now, but next week I'm sure I will, once they are all sandy!

A couple weeks ago we got him to hold still for a few minutes to try( i say that loosely) to take a couple pictures of him, but as you can see...There's no stopping this boy!
Happy Birthday buddy, we love you sooo much and can't wait to see you tomorrow for you party.

Heavy Heart

This is NOT the post I had planned on writing tonight, but my heart is heavy and physically hurts...

I know that "family" is a term that can mean so much, but I know that MY family is my world. Greg, Maggie and Fionn. There is nothing more precious to me in the world than my family. I thank God everyday for the blessing he bestows on us. "Life is Good" has been OUR motto for a long time...
BUT

Then days like today happen, and the term "family" brings on a whole new meaning. MY parents, who NEVER come to Pittsburgh just "to visit" us came to town, last minute, for a STEELERS celebration at Heinz Field. For a BILLY RAY CYRUS concert, not ME or their grandchildren. Okay, not a big deal, I figured they would just stop by and say hi, and we waited...the kids bedtime came...and we waited...the kids finally had to go to bed.
It's 2:43am, I'm still waiting...

Not only were my parents here, but my sister and all her children as well, INCLUDING my niece Zarah who we've yet to learn IF she's coming to live with us or not. School starts in TWO weeks. I'm not impressed to say the least. Not only am I not impressed, I'm hurt.

Yeah we come home all the time, and I hardly see my family, but I come home to WORK most of the time, or we already have plans. IF they would ask to do something we would meet them.

But no, nothing tonight when they came HERE, five minutes down the street from my house...

My relationship with my "family" is not great. I know that has to be one of the reasons that I won the in-law lottery, seriously ya'll, I did. God knows who you need in your life, and as if Greg wasn't my perfect man already, he came with a BEAUTIFUL family as well. I am honored to be a part of their family.
BUT..it still hurts that my own parents barely know me, or their grandchildren. They spend every day with my sister and her kids that for them to not even know anything about us is just unreal to me.
I know i'm whining, but this is MY blog, my place to do that...I'm too upset tonight to even include a picture, so you know how bad it is! On that note i'm going to bed!

The wind of change is blowing...

So it's no secret that I LOVE Photography and everything related to it. I love photographing kids, love watching families interact, and catching all the beautiful fun moments together. Well I also LOVE designing, so I thought, why not do that as well? I have been doing more and more designs for people over the last year, from x-mas cards to birth announcements to birthday party invites, so after careful consideration I have decided to open a new side to Frames of Infinity specializing in custom designed tee shirts. They are all the rage right now, and I love designing them! I've been looking around at everyone else's and really didn't find anything that just "fit" my style...so i designed my own!

I had a couple great volunteers this week (thank you Boltes) to try out my designs, and here are a few of them, all hand drawn and designed by me!

Hope B.--not only sporting one of my t's but a great bow from 5 blessed bows

Ben B. rocking out a RED guitar and tee-shirt, imagine that!

Luke B. with a serious shot outside!

Fionn outside sporting his "Camp Fionn" custom t

and last but NEVER least is the princess, sporting her Birthday girl custom t...because being a birthday girl is HARD work!!

I have 12 designs already completed and waiting for customization, and we're working on more all the time. I am working on an Etsy storefront right now, and will unveil it hopefully at the beginning of next week! We are still in "product development" so we are starting slow, but going forward with this very excitedly...
Let me know what you think!