early morning...first day of school.

Well this morning around 4:30 I lay awake in my bed with a restless baby... 5:30 rolls around and I get the call telling me its time to go do the water birth i promised i would do. So tired i lay in bed thinking of how to juggle three children in a home with 6 already and cover this mamas first water birth... and get Max to school on time for his first day. So i decided that i wasn't going to make it happen by laying in bed thinking about it... so I woke the kids up.. got them dressed and we drove over and had what i consider to be a successful photo shoot Lucy was on my back the entire time in the bundleboo and max and katy were mostly occupied by the other children... Katy was more fascinated with watching the birth. What a privilege it was to be there... she was amazing. There are a few more photos posted on my flickr.. you can find that link on the right hand side of my page.. hopefully i will have more updated soon.

Max did get to school on time... so super cute.. he decided that he wanted to be a big boy and ride the bus... his face lit up as he stood in line waiting his turn to get on. Picking him up a few hours later he was beaming and excited about his day. He's really looking forward to going back tomorrow. Yay for max!!!

(o i did get pictures of course of max.. i still need to upload them ...so I will post them when i can)

wrapping up the summer

I met Max's teacher yesterday... its so odd being in a public school again for the first time since i graduated high school... well... really exploring the school. The walls smell of fresh paint and the teachers have colorful media all over the rooms. Max's classroom has 20 students with a teacher and aide. Mrs. Costello is her name and she is super bubbly and sweet like imagine all kindergarten teachers should be. After some thought I think that this year will be okay for letting him ride on the bus. The bus driver keeps all the smaller students in the front.. .and the afternoon dismissal is all kindergarten students. It will ultimately work out better than trying to juggle drop offs and pick up with both Max and Katy being in school. Next week is Katy's turn to meet her teacher at first Presbyterian weekday school...Katy will be attending class 3 half days a week. Her BFF Hannah will be in her class also...im so excited for her. She also talks constantly about her ballet class coming up.

This upcoming weekend is a REALLY busy one for the r.gonzalez photos... I am full all weekend.. plus really looking forward to baby Saturday at my parents... i get to see my nephew who's been with this mom for the last 6 weeks. Yay!! Hugs everyone!

Meeting the teacher

Did I mention that my baby boy starts kindergarten this week?? I know!!! Today we get to meet his teacher... Mrs. Costello. I am so excited for him... I can tell they are so ready to be rid of me. A parent at church mentioned how well my kids did after being left. Perhaps its the genetics working..but my kids never have had separation issues... well maybe a little when Max was small.. but for the most part they like to push me out the door. Grateful and Sad all at the same time.

Well off to run some errand's... hugs everyone... I need to catch up soon on all of your blogs.

catching up

Its been a pretty productive week... getting the house put back together, catching up on laundry (the story of my life) and getting the kids ready for school next week. Monday we meet with Max's teacher and see his new school. Katy starts school the first week in September and ballet the second week in September. My work schedule is booking up fast also.. so its going to be interesting trying to balance my schedule...definitely no complaints tho!!

Next week I start my CA baby boutique project... www.gennysue.com is sending me inventory and has asked me to photograph babies and children wearing her clothing line. Very exciting. So September 2-3 I will be doing some rockabilly type urban baby shots in downtown Winchester... let me know if you are interested in signing up to have your baby model..and earn free Genny Sue clothes. r.gonzalezphotos@yahoo.com .

busy week..

So, I positively LOVE my job!!! I am finding that my niche is definitely "child photography" we'll see if i can extend that into weddings when October rolls around and i start shooting those events. I get that rush and excitement that i got from being a paramedic... Its a job that allows me to be creative.. enthusiastic...social...and genuine. It keeps me sharp and organized...and its an valuable outlet for stress... I can't say enough about it. Anyway, I have a busy next couple of weeks coming up... I'm really excited... so i may not be able to post here everyday... so if you want updates i recommend checking my fan page or my facebook profile..

love you all!

salad dressing or facial cleanser?

As a teenager I could have never imaged in a million years putting oil on my face... I wanted it all gone. My face needed to be so squeaky clean and tight feeling that it felt like I was wearing a mud mask. That was the indicator that I've successfully rid myself of all this hateful oil. Little did I know at the time that stripping my skin of this oil was not only not helping my breakout problem...it was making it worse. I learned later on that...depriving your skin of its natural surfactant causes it to go into overload producing more to protect itself. I've also learned that oil it itself does not cause breakouts... dirt, bacteria, hormones and other genetic and enviornmental factors...many of which are completely out of our control do.

Anyway, 10 years later I've come full circle... oil is now becoming my friend... as my skin has matured I'm starting to crave a texture on my skin that can't be confused as a beach. And as I've become more environmental and health conscious naturally I look for a safe and healthy alternative to my usual over the counter chemical beauty regimen. I'm starting to take the philosophy that if I cant pronounce it my body probably doesn't need it. To be honest I cant remember where I first heard about using olive oil on my skin...but looking for an alternative to the dryness and texture problem Ive been having I went online and started researching. Now I'm sure you know that skins best friend is water... so there really isn't any better alternative to moisture than drinking the recommended amounts of water everyday. (something by the way i am terrible at remembering to do)... once you get the water in there... you add a surfactant to protect and smooth the skin...keeping the moisture in. Olive Oil is a fantastic surfactant...plus it has loads of antioxidants that help rid your skin cells of free radicals that cause environmental skin problems. Vinegar is a natural toner and cleanser..helping to rid your skin of harmful bacteria that hide in pores causing those nasty breakouts (skin infections). Sugar is a really excellent exfoliant removing dead skin cells, promoting circulation and regrowth of fresh new surface cells. I have been using this regimen for about a week now and I can see a dramatic difference in the texture of my skin... now if I can only remember to drink the water everyday and I'll be in good shape.

awsome couple of days...play area police

The last couple of Days have gone by really fast! Andy and I were looking at each other at dinner tonight trying to figure out why the days are suddenly flying by so fast. We had a great couple of days tho... Max woke up yesterday and decided what we were doing. "Mommy, I want to go see the caves!" ... so we packed up the kids and drove to Shenandoah caverns. Totally a touristy thing to do but we had a blast. Everything about the trip was fascinating to Max...and Katy made best friends with the tour guide and had a questions for everything. (she is going to love school!)

Today was mostly errand running..my photoshoot was moved up to later in the month so we spent another day together as a family. We had a few things to do in leesburg ... then headed to Dulles Town center to let the kids go bananas in the play area. It was a great alternative to melting in the heat...bleh... glad the whole summer hasn't been like this. There was a little boy about 2 in the play area that was running around pushing, pulling, slapping and hitting the other children. I had my eye on him and couldn't see a parental intervention at anytime. This went on for about 25 minutes. Finally this little kid tried to forcefully shove an older boy off the playset stairs and I jumped up to stop him. Again no parent around to intervene. I gently grabbed the little boy from running away and asked him where his mommy was. My husband... of course...Cop Andy from the other side of the play area...yelled.. "where is the parent for this child!!!???" And still we had to get her attention... I mean common! Anyway... she scooped up her little boy and marched over to my husband and demanded to know what the problem was. Andy explained that she needed to be watching her son who has been running circles around the play area for the last 30 mins assaulting every child he came in contact with. Of course she defended and denied everything we were telling her. Are we the bad guys now for standing up to this little kid?? I saw at least 10 different children cry because of this and NO ONE was speaking up. What are parents afraid of??????? Okay, I know that this is typical 2s behavior.. but this is why your supposed to be there to parent your child... not give them the freedom of say a 5 year old. Anyway... off my soap box.

Ready for school

So we ran around town like a family of banana heads getting caught up on overdue obligations and shopping. Max is finally fully in the system at greenwood mill elementary school. I can't believe my monkey will be going to kindergarten!!

So whats left... school shopping... supplies and fall clothes for both the eating me out of house and home children that I have. They've both grown immense amounts in the last 6 months. Amazing they aren't actually made of rubber for the amount of vertical stretching they've been doing.

revision or not?

So my husband and I have been trying to figure out if we should take katy in for a cleft lip revision or wait until she's old enough to decide if its something that she wants. It looks pretty good in this photo but the scar is a bit hard and some facial expressions show it more than others. We certainly don't care what she looks like... but we aren't thinking of ourselves...we want to do right by katy. Part of me doesn't want to put her thru another surgery... this would be her third. The other part of me doesn't want to wait until she gets teased to make a decision. Katy has such an amazing personality I'm afraid it will kill her spirit if she gets made fun of because of her scar.

Whats your take?

dog days of summer...sex ed in elementary school?!?

(the photo is of a client gift I made for someone this past weekend...its a flower pot pen holder... the flowers are all pens...she asked on facebook how to keep people in her office from stealing her pens)

So its been pretty hot and muggy these days. I've been trying to keep the kids inside when it that hot out. We emerge from the den around 5ish and go to bed a tad later...to beat the heat. Tho I know come the winter months I'll be longing for some sweat.

Lucy is walking half the time now... I tried to get a video of it this afternoon but it isn't working.. so I'll get another one tomorrow. They are such awkward drunk looking little creatures when they just start walking. I love it!

Max will be going to the brand new elementary school right around the corner from us. Close enough that in a few years he can ride his bike to school. I have been contemplating letting him ride the bus to school...I've heard such horror stories of what the kids talk about on the bus...what kids learn from each other. I'm just not ready for that level of unsupervised growing up. Plus Katy will be going to preschool 3x a week so it may just be easier to drive Max to school on the way to drop katy off... rather than be late dropping katy off to wait for Max's bus.

Okay so don't get me wrong..I don't need a dose of... your kid is going to hear it anyway.. so why shelter him from it. But...5??? We live in such a mixed society of parenting that its not uncommon in some households for the parents to throw the f-bomb around like its nothing. Or to use fowl and derogatory terms for body parts... not to mention the topic of sex... oh no...don't get me started on that. Whatever, talk like that in front of your kids... but then they get on the bus and teach my children how to talk like that too. So now I have to unteach your nasty bad habits to my child. (okay getting off my soap box) Late elementary school kids are having sex these days... WHAT?!?!? Not to mention the fact..well maybe rumor... we'll have to see... about the school sex ed program not requiring permission slips anymore. Hmm... not good in my book. More reasons to make $$ and put my child in a private school..where parents have more of a hand in what our children are and are not being taught. I'd be all about home schooling... but I'm not :) its not my cup of tea... and I think that my children would certainly benefit more from a scholastic institution... i just don't have a structured bone in my body.

Anyway, off to catch up on some ghost hunters... night everyone!

generations of women

I had a great time in suffolk this weekend...I met a new friend and was welcomed into the home of a fantastically loving family.(I don't have permission to show the family photos here...otherwise I would ) Katy was with me as my assistant...lol. We had a fun girls day and she also made a new friend. After our suffolk photoshoot we headed to Dumfries VA to meet up with an old high school friend. I offered a free photo shoot and print credit to people who refer weddings.. and so I have her to thank for one of my october weddings coming up. She gifted the photoshoot to her parents. Oh my goodness.. so much fun!!! I am still working on those..hopefully will be done by tomorrow. Anyway...off to do some laundry. HUGS everyone...I miss hearing from you all!

(just a sneak peek...more later)