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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Upcoming Weekend Events!

Sam comes home late tonight from his work training in TX. Tomorrow morning bright and early we are off to Whidbey Island (my old town) to hit up our old tattoo artist (yes, I'm getting another) and then spend the weekend at our friend's house and celebrate his homecoming. He's been out on the boat for 7 months and finally made his way back to his wife and kids. There's going to be a huge party for him on Saturday. Should be a good time.....though you know how I feel about going back to The Island. I love it there and it makes me so sad to go back and see my old house and all the familiar surroundings I wish I still was among.

This is the general jist of what I'm going to get on my back under my quote. A Japanese maple tree with it's flaming red leaves. I love beautiful, strong standing trees and their deep roots and the symbolism of it all. Plus, I love the color red and Autumn. It's going to be beautiful. And painful.

The kids come home to me on Tuesday. My mom and sister will be driving them home and stay with us for a few days. I'm ready to have them home and see their smiling faces!

With love,
Mama Hauck

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Etsy Shop!

I've wanted to for awhile, but lacked the courage to do so. Recent events have shown me I need to break out of my comfort zone and go for the things I want and feel will bring me happiness. I'm pretty proud of myself.

This is what has consumed ALL of my Sam and kiddo free time:


That's right. I've opened up a shop where I *hope* to sell some of my photography. PLEASE go and check out my Lynn Elizabeth Photography etsy.com shop and tell me what you think! (and maybe buy a photo!) :)

It has certainly been a labor of love. It's been far more work than I thought it was going to be and I have, without exaggeration, worked day in and day out on my shop. Researching, writing, ordering things, photo editing, etc. etc. But it's all been worth it and I'm so excited to finally have it up and running!  It takes a long while to upload the photos and fill out all the info, so I've only uploaded half the photos so far. Be patient. Check back often.

 So, without further adieu.......
OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!!!

Please feel free to share this link with your friends.  

http://www.etsy.com/shop/rebeccahauck

With love,
Mama Hauck

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Hey Little Girl


Hey little girl
Look what you've done
You've gone and stole my heart
And made it your own
You stole my heart and made it your own


With love,
Mama Hauck

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Engagement Photo Shoot

I designed and ordered business cards for my Lynn Elizabeth Photography through Vistaprint.com! It was annoying I had to pay extra to upload my own photos onto the card, but I'm pretty happy with the end results.

(Sorry, had to black out my phone number for privacy reasons.)


My client called and ordered the photo prints she wanted after viewing her photo proof book. She said she really liked all the photos which was a huge relief for me. I'm always nervous to hear back from someone on if the photos lived up to their expectations or not. It took me a little while to order the prints for her through the site I'm using because I must have triple checked every move I made to make sure I wouldn't mess the order up, lol. 

Here are a few of my favorites.

Engagement Photo Shoot
March 14, 2011
Maryhill, WA
(That's the Columbia River Gorge in the background)




With love,
Mama Hauck

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Oregon Coast Photos

Here are the photos from our Oregon Coast trip two weekends ago I said I wanted to share with you!







With love,
Mama Hauck

Thursday, March 17, 2011

First Professional Photo Shoot

This past Monday I did my first professional photo shoot....as in, I will be getting payed for my work! It was an engagement photo shoot for a friend's mother in law. The shoot its self went very well, though I was extremely nervous about it. The couple was very cooperative and super easy to work with and I found my nerves quickly diminished. I took the kids along with me (something I hope to not have to do in the future) and they behaved very well! I was one happy Mama. :) The shoot was originally scheduled for the previous Thursday, but we got rained out so had to reschedule for this past Monday. It was sunny for only a brief amount of time, but the photos turned out great regardless of the overcast weather and lack of sun. The shoot was done at our local winery, Maryhill Winery. I was hoping to get some shots in front of the large, beautiful building there, but there was construction going on so we had to be content with getting other shots. I hope to show you some photos soon! 

I currently just finished editing and making up a proof book of 30 photos I am to give my client. I also wrote up a summery of my services and explanation of my copyright terms. Not surprisingly, there are no professional print shops around me so I went online and found an awesome site I will use where I will be making prints of the photos they choose and adding those print fees onto my photography service charge. Do I sound professional yet? Good. I'm trying.

I'm super stoked I did this and hope to do more in the future. I'm going to be making up some business cards here shortly and see where things lead me. I hope to grow more confident in my skills and comfortable with the process in general. Right now I'm learning the way things go and crossing my fingers all goes well and they love the photos! 

Wish me luck!!

With love,
Mama Hauck

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Oregon Coast Weekend

This past weekend the family and I took a trip to the Oregon coast. We stayed with our friend Tim and his wonderful family at their beach house. It was very sweet of them to open up their beach house to us!

The beach house was sooooo incredibly beautiful and we had such a great time! The kids were well behaved and it was fun seeing them running around having a great time all excited to be some place new and be around new people. It rained a fair amount of time we were there so we didn't actually go down to walk along the beach, but there were some beautiful sun breaks and you better believe we took advantage of them and went exploring around the towns!

Our friend's parents were so kind to watch the kids for us and we were able to go out and do some things without them. It was great! During our weekend stay we took drives around the surrounding area and stopped in at a lot of small shops, went to a few bars, bought some crab, sat by the fire, listened to music, stopped at an awesome antique shop, went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, did a little wine tasting at this quaint, out of the way winery (I bought some yummy sweet plum wine), went to the crab races being held that weekend (people race crabs as well as feast on them, lol, awesome!), and just ate and ate and ate delicious food to the point of bursting!

What an awesome weekend.

 


At the crab races





I have a few more photos of the coast to share, but I will share those in a later post. 

With love,
Mama Hauck

Friday, March 11, 2011

Mols and Mama

When I was in NY, my friend Jill took took some sweet photos of Mols and I. I was looking back on them the other day....I love them....they make me smile. Love you cutie pie! 


With love,
Mama Hauck

Friday, March 4, 2011

NY Trip


Lets just say the flight to NY was less than.....fun. The kids were very well behaved and I was very proud of them, but it's just not fun to travel by yourself with two children. It was an extremely exhausting feat to make it from one gate to our connecting flight. I carried the diaper bag on my shoulder, Molly on my hip, and Anthony chugged right along at my side. I felt like we walked miles before reaching our gate. Gosh! On the second flight I was mean mugged by an older lady....each time I looked over at her, she was glaring at me and I felt really uncomfortable under her gaze! But you know what, I held my stuff together with continuous positive thinking and we all made it to NY alive and well (well, I did have a headache, but at least it wasn't a migraine!) Guess I can't ask for anything more! After getting to my dad's house, we all were happy to crash!


Saturday, the 12th: We got ourselves settled in and then headed to the grocery store for a little shopping. One of my cousins and his gal work there, so I was able to say hello to them. That night we went over to my sister's place for dinner. It was my first time seeing my niece, Haley. Anthony and his cousin Jacob got along fine and had a grand time playing. Molly, not surprisingly, wanted nothing to do with the mix and clung to my leg the whole time. It was nice to see my sister and her family after not seeing her for over 2 years.

Jacob and Anthony playing
Little Miss Mols
Haley

Sunday, the 13th: My dad, the kids, and I headed out to Applebee's for lunch where I met up with an old pal of mine. We chummed it up for a bit and then headed out, but not before snagging balloons for two kiddos who were grumpy during lunch and probably didn't make a good first impression (Sorry, Nick!). After lunch, we all took a drive to my dad's co-worker/friend's place and had dinner there. He does tattoos in his off time and I ran my tattoo idea past him and we agreed he'd come to the house on Thursday and do it for me. Sweet!

That night the sickness hit. I woke up at midnight and thought I'd check on the kids. I walked into the bedroom and immediately the smell of vomit hits me like a ton of fricken bricks. I looked over at Molly and see puke....EVERYWHERE. I swear it coated both pillows, the whole mattress, and was even matted in her hair and face. CHUNKS. It broke my heart to know she just kept puking and rolling over and going back to sleep. I swooped her up, striped her naked and put her in the tub. Good times. I grabbed a barf bucket and a towel and carried my sweet little Mols to bed with me. She fell fast asleep and I thought we were good to go, but the poor thing spent the rest of the night throwing up every 15 minutes or so. She was so weak and tired, she couldn't even sit up herself. I'd hear her gagging and have to rush to sit her up and get the bucket under her chin.

Molly being all cute before the sickness hit!

Monday, the 14th: Happy Valentines Day! Sam sneaked V-day cards into my suitcase, so the kids and I had cards to open. By mid morning Molly was golden....like the whole night never happened! Ha! We went to the laundry mat to wash all of Molly's disgustingly chunky bedding and then went out to lunch. Later we went to my sister's place for dinner again. After going to bed that night I was lying there all paranoid, thinking to myself how awful it would be to have to deal with more barfs. All was well until in the middle of the night, round abouts 1, Anthony walked into my room asking for a glass of water. I got him a drink and he burped in my face. His breath smelt like vomit. Oh crap. I asked him if he had been sick and he goes, "Yes, Mama, I threw up in the potty." POOR LITTLE GUY! So now there I was with Anthony in bed with me, helping him puke in a bucket every 15 minutes or so. :(

Mols hamming it up
Grandpa and Anthony
Jacob snoozing
My sick little man in the middle of the night

Tuesday, the 15th: Anthony was such a sickly little boy for a good part of Tuesday. I took Molly and we went for a drive to Walmart to get more diapers and wipes. Her sickness left her with a horrific case of diarrhea and we were burning through diapers. NOT fun. Later that night when Anthony was feeling all better, we headed to my Aunt's place to see her and my cousin. We all caught up with each other while playing Wii Bowling. After heading home and putting the kids to bed, I headed over to my neighbor's house whom I've been friends with since middle school and played catch up over a few drinks. Do you know what happened next? I GOT THE SICKNESS. Ugh. Molly Sunday, Anthony Monday, Mama Tuesday. I felt so horrible, surely I was dying!!

The kids and I with my Aunt Susie
The kids and I with my Cousin Doug and his daughter

Wednesday, the 16th: I spent the whole day curled up in the fetal position recovering from the barfs while the children played with Grandpa. 

Thursday, the 17th: I was back to feeling fine, thank goodness!!! I had an old gal pal give me a ring and stop in for a visit. Alyssa and I were first pen pals from different elementary schools, then became friends when we finally met in middle school. I remember we use to spend so much time at each other's houses. It was great to see her and have her meet the kids. :) After our visit, Grandpa, the kids and I headed to the grocery store to pick up taco stuffs for dinner. It was tattoo night (YAY!) and we wanted to make a special dinner for my dad's friend Scott and his wife Becky, along with my brother Matt and his girlfriend Erica who also came to visit. After we all ate, Scott set himself up with his gear and got to work on my tattoos. Originally I had wanted the kiddo's foot prints done on my side, but after a lot of thought, I decided to get them done on my arms. I LOVE THEM! What do ya'll think?I'm stoked to have finally gotten them done after wanting them for so dang long.

The kids and I with Alyssa
Alyssa and I
Grandpa and Anthony baking peanut butter cookies! Later brownies were made. :)
Working on my tats
Finished work!

Friday, the 18th: The kids and I, my dad, and my brother Matt and his girlfriend Erica all spent the day at the mall. Do you know just how excited I was to go to a mall!? It was like heaven!.....except I was getting frustrated because after 6-7 stores, I still didn't purchase a single item. I actually felt overwhelmed by the size of the stores, the amount of stuff in each store, and the tons of people surrounding me. Guess I'm use to the small town feel now a days. I felt bad dragging everyone around with me, lol. After recharging with some food court deliciousness, I finally came across some stores I actually found stuff in. Hooray for new clothing!! :) After the mall we headed back to the house to relax a bit. My friend Jill was driving to town and wound up getting in at 9. After putting the kids to bed, Matt, Erica, and I went and picked Jill up and headed into Albany to go to The Pearl Pub....a bar/club place. We had a blast! I ordered a rum and coke, got some onion rings and chowed down. After a bit, Jill and I went to the back room and danced for a long while. It was FUN!! I don't know how long we had been dancing, but in comes my brother looking all ill. He told us it was time to go because he had....THE SICKNESS!!! Dang!!!! We left and the poor guy felt so ill. I felt horrible....he probably got it from the kids and I! All in all it was a great night and I wish Jill and I didn't live clear cross the U.S.....I'd go out dancing with her every night! 

Jill and I in the car on the way to the bar
Jill and I after a drink and some dancing. 

Saturday, the 19th: Since my poor brother now had the pukes, our plans to go to a camping expo in Mass. was canceled. Instead the kids and I headed over to Jill's house for a few hours to visit Jill's mom, sister, and gram. The kids were well behaved and played games, colored, ate snacks and watched Spongebob. After our visit we headed back to my place to get my dad and head to a different mall! I was so excited to get a big pretzel with cheese, something I always did when going to this particular mall. It was just how I remembered....delicious!! We drug the kids and my dad around from store to store and finally finished off the night with dinner and ice cream at Friendly's. I love that place!

Jill and I with the kids
Before heading to the mall!

Sunday, the 20th: The kids and I headed back over to Jill's place to spend a few more hours with her and the family before Jill had to leave. Anthony spent much of his time downstairs with Jill's mom and sister watching Spongebob, haha. Jill and I did our typical bf photo shoot and sweet little Molly got in on it too. We said goodbye to Jill and her family and headed on back to Grandpa's for some down time. Molly took a nap and I contacted my brother and sister to arrange a bowling night! At 5 we all met at the bowling alley and had a GREAT time! It was Anthony and Molly's very first time bowling and they just had a blast! The majority of my bowling was done with Molly on my hip. I actually did better while holding her because she balanced me out! We were able to get a few family shots which I'm super glad to have gotten. And just an FYI, I kicked butt for one of the games, haha. After bowling it was off to dinner at a local diner and then on home.


My cutie and I. Anthony was patiently waiting for the toast he so randomly asked for. Ha
Anthony giving Jill's gram a big 'ol goodbye hug.
Molly snoozing away. :)
Mama helping Anthony bowl. He was so upset with me for making him get a gutter!
Anthony and Grandpa watching the ball
My sister Robyn and her son Jacob

Mama helping Mols. Look at that sweet little excited face!
Grandpa helping Molly
My brother Matt playing with Anthony
My sister Robyn, me, my brother Matt, and his girlfriend Erica
Sister, me, brother
Sister, me, brother, dad
Mols being all cute, lovin' up on the kitty


Monday, the 21st: My dad had to go to work Monday. I took the kids and we ran to the store to take the photos I'd taken so far and put them on a disk so I could upload them onto my dad's computer. The kids and I spent the whole day hanging out at the house watching a few Disney movies, taking naps, and working on photos. 

My little man and I
My sweetie plum taking a nap on her Mama

Tuesday, the 22nd: Tuesday was much like Monday. Dad had to work, so the kids and I hung out at the house. I finished working on my photos and the kids played. When my dad got home, we ordered Chinese food and went out to pick it up. Delicious! I love sesame chicken. That night, after I put the kids to bed, I spent a few hours at the neighbor's house again having a few drinks and talking music. I said my goodbyes then seeing as the rest of my week was filled up.

The kiddos eating breakfast.

Wednesday, the 22nd: Vermont day!! Grandpa, the kids, and I took a day trip to Vermont. Almost every year as a kid, my family and I would take a drive to Vermont in fall and hit up tons of little shops. It definitely wasn't as pretty as fall time when we went this time, but we enjoyed it all the same. Anthony got car sick on our way there and we had to pull over and let him throw up in a store parking lot, lol, but nothing a little Dramamine couldn't fix. We stopped at many of the stores we'd go to when I was a kid (though a lot of them were closed because of the off season) and did a little shopping. I picked up some really cool drinking glasses for a friend at this huge antique place. At another shop, I picked up a few more items for Sam and another friend. Soy candles, syrup, honey, hand made soap, wool beer cozy, etc. I love little shops like that. We stopped at the same restaurant we'd eat at when I was a kid. The kiddos had delicious mac n' cheese and I had a burger with onion rings and BBQ sauce on it. The drive back was filled with big houses and even bigger barns. Gorgeous. I could have spent all day taking photos of the huge farm houses.....and would have if it had been fall time and prettier out and not so dang cold! We did stop at this covered bridge we use to always stop at and I took photos of that. It was fun taking the kids to all the places I use to go to. I hope to be able to do it all again sometime when it's fall and the peak of tourist season!

Grandpa and the kids waiting for lunch
Covered bridge we stopped at for me to get photos of on the way home
 
My dad took these photos of me. Good job, huh!?

Thursday, the 23rd: Dad had to work again, so it was another quiet day at home. My friend Alyssa came over for a few hours for another visit and we chatted for a long while. After dad got off work, my brother and his girlfriend came over with pizza. We all hung out chowing down on pizza and ice cream before an early bed time.

Grandpa feeding Mols some ice cream!

Friday, the 24th: Snow storm!!!! Thursday night and into Friday it snowed and snowed and snowed. Naturally the kids wanted to down their suites and go out and play. :) Grandpa shoveled the driveway and it was the cutest thing watching Anthony and Molly help him! I stayed out long enough to enjoy the falling snow and take a few photos before snagging Mols and heading back inside. It was COLD. After resting up a bit, we spent the remainder of the day at my sister's place for dinner. We were celebrating her daughter Haley's 1st birthday! I tried my best to get family photos of everyone, but it's difficult when one or more of the kids aren't happy and won't cooperate. Other than the bowling alley, I didn't get any photos with my brother which sucks. But I got a few with my sister. I didn't get any one on one photos with my dad either. And I tried to get one of my dad with all the kids, but Molly was in the corner having a melt down so she was missing. I managed to get a good photo of all the kids sitting on the floor playing, so that was cool! *sigh* Maybe next visit I'll get all the photos I want!? lol

The kids and I relaxing
Anthony ready to shovel!
Mols ready to shovel!
The kids helping Grandpa
Our dirt road
Me!
My niece Haley, me, and Mols. I love how they're looking at each other.
My sister Robyn and I
Grandpa in between his daughters and grand daughters!
Haley, Jacob, Molly, Anthony

We flew out of NY on Saturday the 26th. We were suppose to board at 12:10, but didn't until 12:40. Then we had to sit on the airplane for 20 minutes while they sprayed de-icing stuff on the plane. The kids were far better heading home than they were going to NY and I was very relieved! Molly slept most of the way on the first plane ride, as did Anthony. We finally land in Chicago and had to wait 20 minutes to taxi in and find stairs for us to get off the plane. I was suppose to have an hour and 40 minute lay over, but seriously as I was landing, my next plane was boarding. We were so late! Oh my gosh, it was so stressful finding our gate. First I had to figure out that we needed to take a shuttle to the C gates as we were in the B gates. Then I had to find the right shuttle. We waited for what felt like forever for it to get there. We got on and it dropped us off at C9 and we had to go to C19. That was a loooooong walk. Once again I had the diaper bag on one shoulder, Molly on my hip, and poor Anthony basically running at my side. We got there right as they were calling for anyone who was left to board the plane. I do NOT want to do that again!!! Luckily we sat next time a really nice lady who enjoyed playing peek a boo with Mols and talking to Anthony. I splurged and ordered an expensive salad for myself and a huge snack box for the kids. Molly slept for half of the 4 1/2 hour flight on my lap while Anthony watched the in flight movie with those huge headphones on his little head. Once Molly woke up, there were some tense moments of bickering between the kids, but all in all everything went smooth and I was pretty impressed with the kids. When we landed in Portland, a random guy even came up to me and told me my kids were the best children in the history of flying. How's that for a sweet compliment! I chucked and said thanks, but on the inside I was laughing hysterically and wanted to tell him he was lucky he didn't sit near me on the way to NY! HA!

Other than the sickness and the many canceled plans due to everyone being sick at different times, we enjoyed our stay. Though I'm thinking next time we'll be heading there in warmer weather! We love you, Grandpa!!! :)

With love,
Mama Hauck