It's been a while...

...since I've thought about posting a blog. This year has been good so far. The first day of the year we took the stupid for sale sign out of the yard! So that was a great start, which led me to claim my house back so I went through every part of our house, even the attic and organized. It was actually fun!
Todd's drum business is still in progress, he's at the tail end of it and by next week should start selling them, we are very excited. He plays a show this Saturday night in Orlando, there's going to be a live radio station & a few record companies there watching.
My work has been eventful, a few weeks ago I started doing lash extensions on a male, which has been interesting. He is a trans gender and feels he's a female inside a male's body. He is a very sweet man and of all things he is a self contracted plumber!? It was a bit awkward for me at first, what do I say when I'm finished? "You look so pretty with those lashes!"..."You are FABULASH"...or what I spouted off last time I saw him was "you wear them well!" And I thought to myself, that was well put!
Recently I had a new bride & her mom come in for a makeup trial run. It was Daughter Barbie & Mama Redneck Barbie! Each one had huge collagen injected lips, and it wasn't enough to have HUGE lips, but after one spoke, they would pout them and push them out and pucker them as far as they could and would look at each other, staring with wide eyes for approval. And me, staring back and forth with wide eyes, thinking, are these chicks for real? As I did Daughter Barbie's makeup, Mama Redneck Barbie with black roots, left over lip pencil on her lips, had her legs crossed knitting a blankie for a friends baby, would every so often look up from knitting and pucker her lips out, I wasn't sure if it was in approval or disapproval. And did I mention they were both as fake and baked as fake & bake could possibly be? They must go twice a day! And the bronzer they had on, on top of it!!

Side note - you know I'm just doing this in fun, right? I mean, it was hilarious. The girl was so sweet, she was actually tons of fun, you know, just like Barbie!

So when I was done doing Daughter Barbie's makeup, OH NO! Staring in the mirror she says "I love my eyes", pucker, pucker, turn my face to the side, oh and another pouty pucker, "I love everything" pucker, "but I need a brighter pink lipstick"...pucker. Looks at me, "do you have anything brighter?" Well she was wearing the bright glow in the dark neon Barbie pink shade when she came in, and that is what she wanted..."I'm so sorry the owner doesn't have that color, maybe you'd like to go home and put yours on and see what you think", I said. She looks in the mirror, pucker, pucker...imagining the glowing neon hot pink lips..."okay, I'll do that." So the following week she came in and we did her hair trial run because she loved the makeup with her fabulous glow in the dark neon pink Barbie lipstick! (Gag, barf) Hopefully her soon to be hubby likes it, I'm sure he's blinded by now with it, so it'll be all good on the BIG day with those BIG neon pink lips! :) Don't you just wanna be there on the wedding day to see what HE looks like after they've said their vows and kiss?

Here's a few examples of Gracie's conversations:
Tonight after eating a fruit roll up, which she just had for the first time at her cousin's house this past weekend and loves them, she was sitting on my lap, turns around and looks at me and says
"all done...more?!"
me- "I'm sorry, they're all gone!"
Gracie - "Ooohhh nnnnooo!....More?!"
me - "You ate the last one, sweetie, it's in your tummy!"
Gracie - looks down, pulls her shirt up, looks at me "NO WAY!"

This past week for 3 days in a row she was very distraught about not being able to see the moon. She LOVES the moon, says it with such passion..."MOOONNA" And points and laughs and waves and says "Hi MOOONNNA" The first night she couldn't see it, I told her it was hiding, playing hide & seek with her. So she comes in the house with her head down walking around with this sad look and says "Mooonn, Hide it!" "hide it...Moon!" And sulked. It was pathetic, I felt so bad for her.

Everything is "YAAA" or "WHEEEEE" or "OOOHHH NNNOO" or "NO WAY" or "SHELBY!" or "WOW!" she sings "I said no, I said wow, I said no" And she calls me by my name sometimes, it's very funny.

This morning was a horrible wake up experience, I'll back up and say for some reason she woke during the night, so since I was too tired to check on her daddy went and just brought her in our bed, nice, so that made a wrestless night for all of us. Not to mention Shelby decides to pee in the walkway to the bathroom in the middle of the night, which is a rare occurrence as well. So I wake up to Todd swearing because he got up and stepped in it! Then Gracie wakes up shortly after at 6:30am, sits up, looks at me and says "DONE!" I just stared at her and then wack, she hits me to get up, and before I could react, she takes her other hand, wack and hits me again. I thought, do I need to put her in time out or spank her before we've even gotten out of bed? No good morning, no huggies, just sass and attitude. So she's on the floor, standing next to me, pulling my hand - and this also is not a typical conversation in the morning, the whole night was wacked...
she says "show"
me- say please
gracie- "no"
Todd - trying to silently laugh under the covers
me - say please
gracie - no
Me - say please or you get no show
gracie - no way
me - fine, no show and I'm staying in bed
gracie - no - pulling my hand - show
me - say please
gracie - pu, pu - even though she can say please
me- okay fine I'll take it even though I know you can say the word

This situation showed me we are both stubborn mules, but I won! haha ~ I know, not proper "mom" behavior, actually she was a big girl saying please! Good girl, Gracie!

Side Note: This morning she woke up, gave me the biggest hug, snuggled with me for a little while, then got out of bed, pulled my arm and..."PLEASE"! :) YAAA! Much better morning.

Big Doll Baby

Okay, these photos are ones that the grandparents will appreciate, seeing Gracie all dressed up in her Christmas dress. (We'll miss you Grandma K. K. and Grandpa Bear!)

Gracie's 1st Christmas Party!

Gracie's 1st Christmas party with her sweet little friends.



Gracie & Jack eating candy canes for the 1st time! nummy! num!



Gracie, Jack & Shannon (the babies of the bunch) listening to Ms. Stephanie tell the Baby Jesus story.

HO HO!

Gracie likes Santa, can't you tell? Actually, while standing in line Santa kept waving to her and smiling, so she kinda warmed up to him before she got up to him, which helped I think. So she just stared with wide eyes in amazement and was petting the fur around his sleeve cuffs. Once he gave her crayons they were buddies and when leaving she gave him a little smirk, as to say, I think I kinda like you!

Christmas Decor...Field Girls Style!

Gracie hanging her 1st ornament!


Gracie in full concentration takes trimming the tree seriously.


We made Christmas cookies & decorated the tree. For the grandparents reading, you'll be proud to know she was learning her colors while stringing on the lights. She said "pink" & "boo" :)


Oooohh! Nummy Num!


Gracie likes to feel the fuzzy stockings.


Gracie's Sparkley Red toes! Oh the joy of having a girl!


Gracie girl & Mommy


This is our tree, yes there is a feather boa on our tree...I just heard of a red neck tree so I guess I can have a fru fru tree?! Tonight we were being silly & decided to all wear the boa.


Miss Gracie!


Me


Shelby looking rather sophisticated & fru fru in the boa!

Indian Princess

This is Pari, I just had the opportunity to do her hair & makeup for her Indian wedding and thought I'd post a photo of her. It's not the greatest photo but the only one I have for now. Indian weddings are very elaborate, much more than the average American wedding, and we think American weddings are getting outrageous! This photo of Pari was taken the night of her Garba, which is a party/dance they have a day or two before the actual wedding. After this there is a cleansing ceremony, then a henna artist decorates her with henna all over her hands, arms & feet. Then there's the wedding. The wedding time is chosen by the priest & he chooses it according to the date & time the couple were born, their sign, how the stars align, etc. It's good luck to do it that way. So I was the lucky one who got to be at her house at 2:30am to start getting her & her sister ready for pictures at 5:30am and the wedding ceremony was at 8:30am! After all that work they headed over to the court house to get married! haha Then they went to their temple to pray. She couldn't eat until noon because she had to be "pure" during the ceremony. I said well Americans considers something entirely different to be "pure" but the average American still puts on a white dress & calls it a day!
I met up with her at 3pm that afternoon and did an entirely different look for her reception/party. Before the reception can begin, her husband has to find his name hidden in the Henna art on her hands & feet. Can you imagine the pressure not being able to find it & everyone is waiting? It's for intimacy between the couple, cute, but I think I'd cheat & tell my husband just in case! Everything turned out beautiful, all the jewels she wore & face jewelry, it really was amazing. This was my 2nd Indian wedding and with 3x times the work comes 3x the reward so I'll do Indian weddings any day!

Geisha Girls

Photographer: Katie McDonnell www.howiwonderphotography.com