I did a little photo shoot with my own kids tonight. I just haven’t been photographing my favorite (HA!) subjects lately. My kids are so sick of my camera and it always ends in frustration for all of us. But I have really been wanting to get a good one of the three of them together. Tonight I took them out onto the golf course behind my parents house. There were so many great spots to use! I was able to get a few good ones of them together. Yippee! I have lots of keepers and a bunch to edit, but here is one to tide you over.

This week at I ♥ Faces the theme is “Back to School”. Of course on Emma’s first day of 2nd grade we got up early so we could take pictures I took a bunch of her at home that I really like, but for this contest I wanted to enter something that really showed it was the first day of school. I always drive Emma to school because we live too close for her to take the bus, but too far for her to walk. We got there a little bit early so we took some photos around the school. Here she is in front of her classroom door.

Be sure to check out I ♥ Faces to see all the amazing photos that were entered in this week’s contest.

Emma started second grade last Monday. I know that all moms say the same thing every year, but I just can’t help myself. Where did the time go? I can’t believe that I have a second grader! I have so many vivid memories of my own second grade year. I feel like I was so much older than she is now! I remember walking to school by myself. We lived in a nice neighborhood and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. I still live in the same town and go visit that house once in a while. I can’t believe that I walked all that way by myself when I was in second grade. I guess times have changed. I can’t imagine letting Emma walk to school by herself, even though technically we live within walking distance of the school.

Emma woke up early and was excited to go to school. Ian and Nora started a week later, so Emma got to enjoy the spotlight all by herself. I got her up a little early so she could take a shower and do her hair. I knew that I would want to get some photos, so she had to have cute hair

She got all ready and I drove her to school. I decided to park and walk her up to her classroom. It was also a great opportunity to get a few photos. Her teacher was just coming out of the classroom. I was really excited to get a photo of Emma and her teacher on the first day!

She was really excited to see all her friends and she didn’t seem nervous in the least bit.

I’m really happy about her teacher this year. I have heard great things about her, and Emma seems to love her so far. She is a really warm person, which is great for second grade. She also is very open to having parents in the classroom. I’m looking forward to being able to spend more time in the classroom since I have all 3 kids in school now–at least for a few hours.

I am sure that Emma is going to have a great year!

The morning of Emma’s surgery went really smoothly. Emma woke up in the morning in a really good mood. I am firmly convinced that the surgery class was a life saver. It helped her feel so much more at ease with the whole surgery ordeal. Ian and Nora spent the night at my parents house so that we could have a nice calm morning. We all got up and got ready. Emma couldn’t eat, so Scott and I skipped breakfast too so that Emma didn’t have to watch us eat.

We got to the hospital and spent some time in a few different waiting rooms. Emma was happy and calm the whole time. She brought her surgery buddy and spent time doing one of her favorite things–coloring.

After about an hour, they were ready to take her back into surgery. They loaded her into the wagon–which she was really looking forward too.

I was a little worried that when it was finally time to say goodbye, Emma might have a hard time. But she didn’t at all. They wheeled her down the hall and we said goodbye at the “See ya later door”. She chatted with the anesthesiologist the whole time about the pictures on the ceiling. We gave her a hug, but she barely noticed that we left.

While she was in surgery Scott and I ran down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. Emma was gone about a half hour before they said she was ready for us to come back and see her. When I got back there she was still kind of out of it, but she was asking to watch TV and she already had a slushee.

The next few hours were kind of rough for her. She was crying and complaining that her throat hurt. She was also nauseated. They gave her some anti-nausea medicine and some pain meds. But it didn’t help much with the nausea. She started vomiting and pretty much didn’t stop until she went to bed that night. They kept us longer at the hospital hoping to get it under control. I think they finally realized that she wasn’t going to stop vomiting and they thought she would be more comfortable at home.

We got her home and got her tucked into our bed and put a movie on for her. She spent the rest of the day in our bed and we let her sleep with us just so we could keep an eye on her. The first day was rough. She felt terrible the whole first day and threw up until she finally fell asleep for the night.

Luckily the next day she was like a new person. She had hardly any pain and the vomiting finally stopped. Over the next few days she took Tylenol a handful of times and she was back to eating close to normal by the 3rd day.

Right now she is 10 days out from surgery. It seems like we are in the clear and that the worst is over. I know that at day 7-10 the scabs are supposed to fall off and the pain can be pretty severe again. I looked in her throat today and I can’t really see any scabs. Maybe they already fell off.

I’m really glad that we went ahead and did the surgery. I could tell the first night that her breathing was better. She slept silently for the first time in her life. She is also keeping her mouth closed and breathing through her nose. Hopefully both of these things will help her sleep and help to give her a better quality of life.

I didn’t take these photos of my kids. Unfortunately, they just don’t cooperate for me. I’d much rather photograph someone else’s kids–it is a lot more fun for everybody. These were taken by my awesome photographer friends, Katie and Dan, at Peekaboo Photos. I know I have put quite a few photos on this blog lately, I thought I better put some up of my own kids too.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for weeks, but I kept putting it off. Better late than never, right?

I took Emma in for her evaluation with the Pediatric ENT, Dr. Grimmer, a few weeks ago. We talked about the issues Emma has been having related to her tonsils and adenoids. Mostly about how she snores and has periodically failed her hearing tests at school. He also talked about another issue that I wasn’t even aware could be related to the tonsils. He asked me if she wets the bed a lot. I told him that she doesn’t now, but she was NEVER dry at night until we tried the bedwetting alarm. He told me that is a classic symptom of children with obstructive sleep apnea. So that added one more symptom to our list. Given all of her symptoms, plus her dad’s history of sleep apnea, we decided that it would be best for her to have both her tonsils and adenoids removed. I felt very comfortable with the doctor and lucky to have such a great children’s hospital so close to home.

Since then we have talked to Emma about the surgery a few times. She thought it was a terrible idea at first, but came around when she learned she would get to eat ice cream and popsicles for every meal afterwards!

Primary Children’s has a surgery class that they recommend for children. I took Emma to the class this week. It was such a good idea and a great experience. As we walked in Emma was totally nervous. She didn’t want to leave my side. When we got there they showed the kids a little video about the surgery and the hospital. Then the child life specialist met with the kids and showed them all the equipment. The kids got to put on surgery hats and play with the anesthesia mask. They got to touch and feel the IV catheter, and see what the EKG leeds looked like. They even gave them all little cloth dolls called “surgery buddies” to take home with them. After that they gave them a tour of all the rooms they would be in. Emma’s favorite was the slurpee room! By the end of the class she actually seemed excited about the surgery. I am really glad that we went. I think it helped to ease a lot of her fears and just make her feel more comfortable.

When we got home Emma decorated the surgery buddy. She drew a face on it and then we worked together and figured out how to put hair on it. It turned out so cute! Emma loves that doll. She has been dressing it and taking it everywhere with her. She changes it into pjs and puts it to bed at night. I have never seen her take such an interest in a doll before. It is really cute and it will be good for her to have it with her on the day of her surgery.

The surgery is scheduled for next Monday. I’m sure everything will go fine. I’ll keep you all posted.

Ever since Emma became a Brownie she has been looking forward to going to camp. When I found an overnight camp that she and I could go to together I thought it would be a perfect introduction to camp for her. We signed up with 3 friends from our troop. Emma has been jumping out of her skin waiting for it to get here. On Friday night, the day finally came.

We got back from Idaho Falls just in time to dump out our suitcase and fill it back up with everything we needed for camp. Camping in Utah is almost always freezing at night. I packed jackets all kinds of warm clothes to sleep in. We loaded the car and Emma and I were off.

As soon as we got in the car, I felt so happy to be spending the night with Emma. She was so excited to be with me, she was just glowing. We don’t get to spend very much one-on-one time, so this was really special for both of us. She kept looking at me and grinning and saying “I love you, Mama”. It just melted my heart. I felt so lucky to be with her. I just felt this little glow about me too. I was really happy to be with her and I really savored every minute of it.

We got to the camp and found our cabin. We were at the end of a little steep path. Getting our bag down there was a bit of a challenge, but we made it. We unpacked and got things ready so that when we got back from dinner and the campfire program, we would be all ready for bed. I noticed that our cabin only had one tiny window and it was rather hot. But, I was sure that as soon as the sun went down it would cool right off.

We went up to the lodge for dinner and the campfire program. We sang a bunch of silly songs and did some crazy dances. We both laughed a lot, cuddled a lot, and held hands a lot. We just enjoyed our time together.

Bedtime was crazy. The four girls jumped from bed to bed giggling uncontrollably. Our cabin was incredibly hot and it was full of mosquitoes, but they didn’t seem to notice. We finally told them it was lights out about 10:00pm. They all went to sleep almost immediately. For the moms, it was a bit different. I don’t think any of us got much sleep. We were hot and getting eaten by bugs. The one tiny window didn’t make for much cross ventilation. Still, that didn’t dampen my enjoyment of being there with Emma.

The next day there were all kinds of camp activities planned. I let Emma be totally in charge. She chose to go canoeing–which we did 3 times, swim and do multiple art projects. I love the canoeing. It was so peaceful being out on the water, just her and I. She learned the proper way to get into the canoe and how to paddle. She took charge and did great. The whole day was perfect.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how lucky I was to be there with Emma. I truly didn’t think about anything else for 24 hours. She got every second of my attention, and she loved it. I was so proud of her. I saw so many of her good qualities while we were there. She was so kind to the other girls and so much fun to be around. She worked hard and was adventurous. She wasn’t scared to try new things. I just couldn’t stop smiling the whole trip.

We both came home exhausted, but it was one of the nicest things I have done in a long time. I know it will be something that Emma remembers for the rest of her life. I hope that we can do it again next year!

Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I don’t have a single photo Luckily one of the other moms took quite a few photos. As soon as I get them from her, I’ll get some put up.

I blogged about this free PhotoShop class a few weeks ago. I feel like I have gotten pretty proficient at photo editing lately, but there are still so many tools in PhotoShop that I don’t know how to use. I thought this would be a great class to help me learn some of those other tools.

Today we added a border and word art to a photo. Here is what I did:

I think it turned out cute and it was a fun lesson!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the week. Ian found a cicada on our deck one morning. He picked it up and carried it around. Scott told him about the life cycle of a cicada and Ian was fascinated. I just had to snap a few photos.

Here are a few more from one night on the playground. I was playing around with one of my old lenses and I loved how the photos turned out.

Please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom to view all the Weekly Winners participants.

Here is my entry for the week:

Be sure to check out I ♡ Faces to see all the amazing photos that were entered in this week’s contest.