Photo Shoot with Elsie

Today I had the opportunity to take my neice, Elsie's 3 month pictures. Here are just a few (in no particular order.)

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Do you have a favorite? (numbers are on top of pictures) Thanks for letting me share!

Big News

(This is why I've been so busy!)

Some of you already know, but I am about to have a career change. For the past two years, I've been teaching preschool with my mother. My parents have owned a preschool for about 30 years and decided to add on and build a child care center. During their planning, they were approached by a local business and were asked if they would run a large center that the business had received grant money for. So, to make a long story short, the 1+ million dollar center is about completed, and I am going to direct the new "Smart-Start Quality Child Care." The center has a capacity of approximately 90 children. Our opening date is June 1, 2009. Yes, just one week from tomorrow. There's a lot to do before then! Here are a couple pictures of the building.

We have different rooms for the different age groups. We will provide quality, nurturing, and loving care for infants through 5 or 6 (until they start public school). This is one of the rooms.

This will be my office. (Desks aren't in place yet.) Both of my parents will also have space in the office. The plan is that Celeste will just hang out with me in my office and hopefully I can get work done! I have been so busy trying to wrap up our preschool year and on top of that, trying to hire staff, figure out schedules that make everyone happy, enrolling children in the center, and getting all my paperwork done so we can get licenced through the state. *sigh* It's been a little crazy around here and I'm VERY anxious for everything to be up and running and going smoothly. We'll see how long that takes to happen!

And on top of all that work, here is a picture of one out of three truck loads that are coming. My mom has been extremely busy "shopping" for state of the art furniture and equipment to put in the rooms. Starting tomorrow, we'll be busy unpacking all these boxes and more to come and setting everything up.

So that's what's been going on around here! It's been a new experience for me doing job interviews and talking to so many people and parents. I'm excited for the things I'll learn and this great opportunity!

1 Year Portraits

I tried to take pictures of Celeste this morning. She was up early, we were getting ready and it was a nice overcast day, perfect for lighting. I was so excited. 20 minutes later when we were ready to walk out the door, the sun was shinning bright. That's why there's lots of shadows. Bummer. Celeste wasn't cooperating very well. She just wanted to walk around in the grass and was much more interested in what the neighbor was doing. I couldn't get her to look at me or smile. I guess we'll try again another day. Here's a couple okay pictures I got, though.

I'd really like to improve my photography skills, so if anyone has any suggestions, dos, or don'ts, please share! Lighting is something I really struggle with, too. I just need lots of practice. If anyone wants me to practice on them, their kids, or family let me know! I don't guarantee they'll turn out great, though!

1st Pig Tails

I put pig tails in Celeste's hair for the first time today! She looked so stinkin' cute today! These pictures really aren't great, sorry. She wasn't interested in getting her picture taken right after I did them and then we were busy and gone all day today to take more.

I have so much to blog about but no time! I'll explain in a post soon! I need to take Celeste's 1 year pictures. Hopefully I can get those taken soon to show you. I also have a photo shoot with my niece in a few days so I'll be sharing those pics also. Stay tuned...

1 Year Stats

Last Thursday, Celeste had her 1 year well child check. Her are her stats:

Weight: 18 lbs 14 oz - 15th-20th percentile(I guess we'll wait to turn her car seat forward facing until she gains another pound!)

Height: 29 inches - 50th percentile

And just a random picture I took a few days ago:

This is Celeste's new favorite thing to do at preschool when we're outside playing. She figured out how to make herself go backwards!

Birthday Girl

Happy 1st Birthday, Celeste!

Has it really been a year already? I can't believe it.

To celebrate, we had all our family that lives around here over for dinner, presents, and cake. We had a great time! Thanks everyone for coming, your love, and your support!

Dinner
We had one of Celeste's favorite meals, pizza! She is a great eater and will eat anything, but seems to really love pizza! She ate two pieces tonight.

Presents
Celeste was starting to catch on to opening the presents. Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts. We appreciate you all a ton!

Ryan and I got her this little ride on/push toy. She loved it. We also got her a little water table to play in outside this summer.In this box was a super cute outfit from Aunt April (my sister)
Aunt Kara, Uncle Drew, and Cousin Elsie (my sister and her family) got her these cute jeans/capris

The puzzle came from Grandma Dee (Ryan's Grandma)

In this box was a yellow outfit from Grandma Mikesell (Ryan's mom)

Grandma Mikesell also got her this swing. We had to try it out after we had our PJ's on. She loved it!

Cake
Sorry folks, I don't have any cake decorating skills. This is as good as you get! Celeste loves cake and thoroughly enjoyed eating it tonight. Even though the cake was kind of ugly, it still tasted yummy! (I made it from scratch)

Hum, sprinkles, never seen these before.

No problem, it's still edible.

She really didn't make that big of a mess with it. Of course, this wasn't her first time eating cake either. We only had a few crumbs on the floor and some that spilled down into her lap. (What she didn't eat was just a pile on her tray.)

I think her tummy was full so she decided I should finish it off.

We feel SO blessed that we were able to have Celeste. She brings so much joy and love into our home. We love you, Celeste!

Easter Pictures

I told you I'm behind on my blogging! (Scroll down for the other post) These pictures weren't actually taken on Easter because for some reason the pictures I took on Easter didn't stay on my camera card. They're gone. Needless to say, I was very disappointed! Next time Celeste wears her Easter dress, I'll get more pictures and post those.

Celeste got bubbles in her Easter basket. They didn't go over too well the first few times. They scared her! She is starting to enjoy them more now.

Celeste also found her Easter basket that was on our coffee table and managed to get ahold of it. I sat and watched her! She was in heaven! (See, I'm not that mean of a mom)

Look at that grin :)

By the way, for those who don't know, Celeste LOVES to eat. And she will eat ANYTHING. She is such a great eater and we are very grateful for that.