Nana's Birthday

A few weeks ago we celebrated Mom's birthday by going bowling and having dinner at Old Chicago. It was Sydney's first time at a bowling alley and she did great. Lots of things to look around at and she got lots of love being passed around while people waited for their turn to bowl. We all had a blast despite being terrible bowlers - only a few of us broke 100, except Dad of course - he bowls on a league and did very well.

Speaking of Dad, Sydney was fascinated by his mustache - loved to touch it. I find it so funny because for the most part Jake and Missy's kids didn't like it.

I love this shot of Becca because I can totally remember doing this as a kid!

I think the ball weighs more than she does. :)

Happy Birthday Nana!

BTW - New Look

While I'm certain it's pretty obvious I changed my blog layout again, I just wanted to note why. Even though I spent hours customizing the last layout and liked it very much, I found it annoying how long it took to load, even for my fast connection. So I found this one and thought it was quite cute so a switch-a-roo was made.

6 Month Photos - Behind the Scenes

I've been meaning to post these for a while - I wanted to give a snapshot of what went on behind the scenes of Sydney's 6 month photo shoot.

We took most of the photos in the dining room because it has the best light. We wanted to get some shots of her playing with her feet as that is her new thing of late. I really wanted to get a shot of her legwarmers since they didn't turn out that great in her 3 month shoot. She was jabbering away and very happy, but we didn't really get any smiles.

The next set of poses we put her back in the basket we used for her three month shoot. This series of shots is my favorite - she got really happy and we got some BEAUTIFUL shots of her with her infectious grin.

We did an outfit change and her picture tolerance started to dwindle. Below is her, "Mom - I'm starting to lose it" look.

Thankfully, we were able to get a few more shots - I really wanted to get some shots of her in the rocking chair that my Grandpa Hassler refinished for my mom when I was a baby.

The "Mom-I'm starting to lose it" look turned into a full fledged "Stop Taking Pictures Now!!!

Despite our better judgement, we tried one more location but this was the best we got. :)

iPod Toilet Paper Holder

Not sure if this is totally lame, or totally awesome. :)

Tunes

I am a positive person – happy even -- but I gotta tell ya, I find myself very drawn to angry girl music. Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos…all have a shockingly high play count on my iPod. I’ve been blissfully happy with Eric for about seven years now so it’s been a good long while since I’ve been jilted by love – and yet there is something about singing Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” at the top of my lungs while driving in the car…and I’ve never even been cheated on!
So, at work angry girl music doesn’t seem quite so appropriate, so the Pandora station I listen to most is Michelle Branch – it usually picks some pretty accurate matches – but today…well, something unexpected happened. I was doing a bunch number crunching in Excel and only half listening to the music. I liked the song and when I switched over to see who the artist was it was, um. Miley Cyrus. So, yeah, while The Climb doesn’t have the same angst as Jagged Little Pill…it’ll do. :)