A portrait of each of my children every month: February

I was inspired to do some sort of Photo Project from a blog friend of mine.  Ashley Jorgensen of http://jorgensenbettertogether.blogspot.com/

She does such a fantastic job of photographing her children, herself and her family!  And I loved how she was doing a portrait of her children every week with a little bit about them that week.  Since I barely make enough time to blog anything I thought that I could AT LEAST do it each month starting in February.  Though I technically didn't write it in February I did take these photos!  So, here I go! 

Stella, you turned 8 this month! I cannot believe it because it seems like you were just this little baby and toddler who ran around entertaining the whole family with things you said and did.  You are so smart!  In fact, I am jealous of how easy things come to you!  We sat at the dinner table the other night and were talking about your challenge test that you had taken.  Dad asked "How did your test go?"

You responded so quickly "Well, I think I got them all right." 

Dad and I both laughed out loud. If only things came as easily to us old people. 

You are so sensitive and such a perfectionist.  I think you are just like your cousin Logan.  

You LOVE to read.  Your favorite books are mysteries right now.  I remember really loving mysteries and the Bermuda Triangle when I was your age.

You love to help with your baby sister and brag that she likes you almost as much as mommy.

You really don't like doing your homework and usually end up wrestling your brother instead. And how can I argue with that!  You love to do XtraMath and would spend hours if I let you.  You have always been independent and at this age it is no exception.  You love to just sit and draw, make bracelets, and create.  

I love how you are so thoughtful of others, like how you made me a gorgeous bouquet of paper flowers for my birthday and how last night you worked hard at a dream catcher for your brothers birthday.  

Although we are often harder on you due to the fact that you're the oldest child, we still LOVE you so much! 

Dash,
You turn 3 today!  Last night I sadly hugged you for the last time as a 2 year old.  You make me laugh so often its ridiculous.  Sometimes its because you're being funny and sometimes because you're doing something naughty and I have to hold back.
You love Calliou (we are weaning you off though, yay) and Cars and Trucks and anything boy!!!  You are working hard on your "L's" and still say cute things like - "I yike that truck mommy, yook at that."
You are starting to act like a 3 year old and its a scary thing.  Distraction and timeout are my best friends in making it through some days with you.
Things that melt my heart are when you say, "that make you proud mommy?" "I love you mommy" and "awwwwwww Marlo so cute mommy!  yook at how cute she is"
You are so loving!
Favorite things: Climbing on daddy's shoulders, fruit snacks, getting your own snacks out of the fridge, helping mommy clean, doing anything that is outside of the house.  You love to be told how big you are!  I cannot wait to see what this next month holds for you! Happy Birthday Darling!

Stella's landform, she is quite the artist.

A "cabin fever" gift from our amazing neighbors the Greys.  Stella put it together once and then daddy and Dash did again! Dash was so proud.

A story that Stella wrote about the figure skaters.  I love her stories and am going to start adding them to this.  A child's point of view is just the best.

Chew and his best friend Dash!  I cannot get enough photos of this boy sleeping!

Marlo,
You turned three months this month. I cannot believe how it has flown by.  You go from wanting to get this baby out of your tummy to WOW where has the time gone!  I truly enjoy this time.  You love me so much, in fact, you won't let anyone else handle you from 6pm until bedtime.  This is hard but I do enjoy it when you smile and tell me about your day.
You love when I sing to you and give me some of your biggest smiles. You almost rolled over yesterday.  I was so shocked!  You are so strong and can stand and I can pull you up from laying down.  I know you've been working on your ab muscles ;)
I hope you stay this happy! Love you baby girl!

Awesome photo Stella drew in school.

Flat Stella's Travels

Stella made a Flat Stella, similar to the story book adventures of Flat Stanley.  We mailed her off to our friend Katherine who made this awesome adventure slideshow for Stella!  Enjoy!

Click Here To See What Flat Stella Has Been Up To!

First Edition of BEFORE AND AFTER LeMars Home!

 I am finally getting around to this and I am not impressed with my before photos. :) You'll get the idea. 

Before:  Here is the kids bath. It was PEACH colored as you can see in the toilet photo. I am not a fan of peach yet, it covered nearly our entire home.   Easy change.  The wall with the mirror was covered with rip and tear wallpaper.  Thankfully it was easy to tear down :)

After:  I wanted the kids bath to be bright but not Themey Kids so I went with a gorgeous blue on the cabinets and perfect greige on the walls.  I love the idea of using your own children's work as art and luckily I have a budding artist in my home.  I bought these awesome frames on Amazon and they just look like they were made for this bathroom.  I also love the pop of color the orange towels give the room. I also opted for hooks instead of towel bars and it is proving to be a wonderful choice!  Plus they were like 99 cents each. 

It is not a naturally bright room being that it has no windows but I love the mood that the new light fixture creates and don't forget my awesome steal of a mirror for $12 at Home Depot.  SCORE....  I handed over bath markers and crayons and the children continuously decorate my bath with wonderful drawings. 

Poopy Waters | My Own |

So you may have noticed that I have not been posting much in a week.  Well it has been one of the busiest, craziest weeks I have had in a long time and I have decided to soak up every free moment of time with my children and husband.  That's perfection to me!  Since every post deserves a photo here are a few from my best friends most recent shoot, but of my little Dash...

Dirty boys are the best, don't you wonder what he is thinking? Wait, I do know what he is thinking...

...boy that water looks refreshing (that dirty poopy flood water mmmmmm)

This next series of photos say a lot...  how would you script this scene?

 and the final photo is a bit of a blur as I remember feeling as if it was all in slow motion.  Nooooooooooo as I  ran to get him out of the icky water (yes,  I did refer to it as icky)...  Good times!  Feeling blessed every day.  

Stay tuned- Olivias Post is up tomorrow!

To Little Girls | My Own |

To little girls who think their mother is the most beautiful when she wakes up in the morning.
To little girls who think their mom is the best chef alive when you make her favorite meal, even when its just a meat and cheese taco.
To little girls who wear their moms high heels to feel more grown up.
To little girls who want to wear mascara just like you.
To little girls who sing you the bed bugs song on nights you tuck her in.
To little girls who just want to talk to you, even when you think its not that important.
To little girls who say the funniest things out of the simplest context.
To my little girl...
This is just part of my Stella and tonight I am especially grateful for her... She finishes her last day of kindergarten and is on her way to 1st grade this fall.  I am not the best at showing it all the time but I am so proud of her every day! My little Stella Noelle...

Stella-ism's | My Own |

The end of the school year is fast approaching and I am so excited!  Spending the day with our children is going to be an experience and I am sure I will have some fun stories!

Today I am writing about something I would like to entitle a Stella-ism: basically anything that comes out of her mouth.

Many of you who know us, know that Stella says some pretty outrageous things.  She remembers everything in her life ( especially when she was two, those were the good ole days) and uses that knowledge in asking many too many to count questions or telling us stories of back in the day.
The other day while riding in the car Karlton and I were having a conversation about our kids sleeping.  Stella interjects as she is coloring silently in the backseat.  We can be having a serious conversation like this and she will join as if she has been a part of it the entire time.  And She listens, and remembers everything we say even when we aren't talking to her!

Stella: Did I sleep cry when I was little?
Me: Yes, you still do.
Stella: Oh, yeah like when I was two and I had that dream about mermaids and then I thought that you and dad were going to send me away?  Do you remember that?
Me: (WHAT? Mermaids? 2 Years old? How would I remember a dream my child had 4 years ago) YES, Yes of course I remember.

Trust me ~ its easier to say you remember, ITS ALWAYS EASIER!

...And because every post is better with a photo, here is the star of the story spooning with Holly, and Rose,  playing her 1st Grade Teach Me game on her Ipod Touch.

My Babies

Well I have meant to post some photo's but its REALLY crazy how busy you get with a newborn. It's fast how quickly you forget. I am so in love with the new addition to our family. Dash is so sweet and when he smiles it melts my heart. Even more than that when I see him stare into his daddy's eyes with that big grin on his face, I fall more in love with that man that I call mine! Dash loves his big sister and man does she love him.. She loves to help out and to try and calm him when he cries. There is just a lot of love around the Hector household. Enjoy!

Sucking It In A Little While Longer

Well the past few weeks have been quite challenging. Lack of sleep, empty tissue boxes, red noses, sore throats and having to sit on my butt all day long.

Last week started off quite normal for me, Karlton however had his first family sick day on Monday. He stayed home with our fever ridden Stella. She was sick all weekend. Turns out that she had a double ear infection and we have since then treated that and she is back to her old self. I worked from home on Tuesday and became progressively uncomfortable regardless of the medications they gave me to stop contractions. At 6 I finally decided to give in and call the OB, where they insisted I came in to be monitored. The ride over my contractions became more frequent and even painful (I hesitate when I say painful but at this point in pregnancy I know they shouldn't feel that strong). Once I got on monitors my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart consistently and I was definitely noticing the start-middle-end of them. I was given a subcutaneous dose of Terbutaline shortly after taking my other med Procardia (both meds that are supposed to stop the contractions). For about an hour they pretty much stopped but then I started feeling the contractions again and they were getting stronger, but not showing on monitor. They called the on-call doctor because ours was out of town and made the decision to give me another shot of Terb. and then put me on an IV shooting 3 bags of fluid into my right arm in probably 2 hours. I was well hydrated. The contractions still came for a while but then eventually stopped around 4am. Feeling guilty that my husband was just sitting there in his wooden chair wanting to sleep I sent him to my parents house to get some sleep since that was what I was hoping to do myself. I couldn't fall asleep the meds made me feel crazy and having to wait to use the restroom until a nurse came in to check on my hydrated self kept me from getting comfortable. Haha comfortable in a hospital, I am not sure that is possible. I did eventually cuddle down with the tv on, to distract me from moaning mothers in labor, and fall asleep from 5:30 to 7:45 when I was awakened with breakfast and a wheelchair trip to the Women's Center to have an ultrasound. The conclusion was that my cervix was still doing a good job keeping baby h for the next few weeks. However, until my next appointment I was placed on bed rest to make sure that remains the same.
So that is where I remain for most of my day, in bed. I eventually get up and come to the computer to get in some work before the meds make me feel jittery and unable to focus. I have remained positive because that's the only way I can get by every day. I have a healthy baby who is still in there cooking for at least the next two weeks, I pray, a wonderful husband who does everything for me and a little 4 year old who brings comedy to every day. Nothing to be unhappy about really, I am just so thankful!

Hector Family 3 - Soon to be 4

Well, let me start this post off by saying I am not much of a writer. My intentions for this blog are to keep you updated on the happenings of the Hector's and C Starr Photography. I will do my best but I am a better photographer than writer, I would rather let the images do most of the talking.
We had an interesting weekend that started off with Stella having a fever of 102.. This continued to rise and fall as Saturday progressed and we thought we were in the clear this morning when she seemed to be more like herself. I guess we were wrong because before noon she was already starting to get a fever again. Karlton has made the decision to stay home with her tomorrow and I will return early so he can drive bus. He has been substitute bus driving for the past few weeks.
As some of you may know Stella gets baptized next Sunday and for that we needed a family photo. We haven't had a real one since over a year ago so I had planned on doing a mini shoot on Saturday. Obviously, cuddling and watching movies won that one! So today even with Stella tired we had one. She was quite the trooper, all I had to do was tell her that I would put hair spray in her hair and give her a little make-up. Something that she has learned to love from her Grandma Miriam :)
The Shoot went well with the help of a tripod and my wonderful husband. As you can see Stella was pretty exhausted and was ready to put herself down for her nap as soon as we finished. I am pretty satisfied with the images, its really nice to have family photos... I hope you all enjoy!

Mother and Tired Daughter

This Smile TOOK FOREVER TO GET RIGHT!One of My Favorites

First Post

Hello all, I have had my own website for close to 6 months now and I have used it but 5 times due to the time it takes for me to make a post. Therefore, I have decided to try this out so people can see my photography who aren't necessarily a part of Facebook.

I am going to reminisce in this first post as my baby is soon to be five. I cannot believe that that tiny little 7lbs 11oz baby has grown into such an independent smart little girl. Thats right little girl. They say that time goes by so quickly but you cannot even fathom it until that time has already past. I am so thankful for that little Stella, she brings laughter, joy and much love to my life every day. So here is a small photo montage of who else but ------------ Stella