Friday Flashback... On a Monday!

So I totally missed Friday's Flashback as it was Hallowe'en and my day was REALLY busy! (I'll blog and post photos of that later!)

But yes... As most of my photos are on my other computer's hard drive I'm dealing with not to far in the past photos for now.... Sorry! *L*

Emma and Zoë November 2007

This photo was taken at Chelsey's new home... It was one of the first photo shoots that we did with Chelsey that was 'Professional'.... And it was awesome! My girls had their photos taken in their Christmas Dresses and then some relaxed photos in their normal clothing.

As well it showed everyone Chelsey's amazing talent with children!

I was very thankful that Chelsey was kind enough to take time out of her day to take such wonderful photos of my girls. Some of my favorite photos are from this shoot!

Thanks Chelsey for taking photos of my beautiful little girls!

And now you're Rice Photography!

*Speechless!* Part Two

So I have slowly been getting photos form the three photographers - Chelsey, Nikole and Ami - at my last shoot... And I'm in love with every image that comes in!

I thought I'd share a few more photos with you!

Photo by Ami:

Photos by Nikole:

(My last *Speechless!* blog had some of Chelsey's photos!)

*Speechless!*

It's not very often that I look at a photo of myself and am.... Speechless.

Believe me, this is odd.

But today the nearly impossible happened.... I saw a photo from my recent photo shoot that I did on October 11th. I had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time with three amazingly talented photographers, Chelsey (Rice Photography), Nikole (Nikole Bordato Photography) and Ami (Photography by Ami).

This particular photo was posed by Nikole and taken by Chelsey.... And it stole my breath... Not just took it away but stole it! When I got to Chelsey's web page I took a quick glance at the photo and then caught myself staring at this beautiful women. I loved her hair color... And how her hand was placed... The softness to the edgy look... And then I realized, it's me!

I'm not here to brag about how I look.... Quite honestly I usually feel like crap.... Trying my best to make myself feel somewhat out of the "SAHM" category by putting on some eyeshadow and blush (only if I have enough time to though!)... And if I'm really lucky, or a bit selfish, I'll do something with my hair....

But it sure made me feel amazing to look at a beautiful photo and realize "That's Me!"...

I strongly suggest every one to go out with a friend and take photos of each other with no major plans except to take photos. It's so wonderful to see the creativity that comes out of random photos that friends (professional photographers or not!) take of each other.

And maybe, just maybe, you'll see that 'someone you used to know' inside a photo of yourself!

(It was chilly, hence the goosebumps!)

I know, I know....

You're all on pins and needles waiting around for me to write the blog about Emma's first day of school (well, aren'tcha??!! *L*)....

I promise you, I'm working on it! Chelsey loaded all of the photos that she took of Emma yesterday morning and handed them over to me this morning! Geee! They're wonderful so now I'm trying to choose my favorites to place on here.... Or else you'll end up wit 55 photos! *L*

But for now here's this!

I came across this site today called Happy Worker.... Here's some info I got off of it!

Key Mom Stats:
2 billion in the World (82.5 million in the U.S.)
First-time Moms: Average age of new moms is 25, vs. 21 in 1970
Kids: Modern moms average 2 kids (1950s: 3.5 kids; 1700s: 7-10 kids)
4.3 babies are born each second

Working Moms:

72% of moms with children over 1 year old work (about the same as childless women) , vs. 39% in 1976
55% of moms with a child under 1 year old work, vs. 31% in 1976
Moms with a full-time job spend 13 hours working at the office or at home on family chores

Baby Chores:

Diaper Changes: 7,300 by baby's 2nd birthday
Diaper Changing Speed: Moms take 2 minutes, 5 seconds (adds up to 3 40-hour work weeks each year!) , vs. 1 minute, 36 seconds for dads
Giving Attention: Preschooler requires mom's attention once every 4 minutes or 210 times / day
Taking Care: Preschooler moms spend 2.7 hrs / day on primary childcare, vs. 1.2 hours for dads

Household Chores:

Chores: Women average 2.2 hrs / day, vs. 1.3 hrs / day for men
Laundry: 88% is done by moms, totaling 330 loads of laundry & 5,300 articles of clothing each year

Least Favorite Chore: Vacuuming the stairs

Bathroom Multi-Tasking for Moms: Reading is the most common activity, followed by talking on the phone, meditating, watching TV, drinking coffee, eating and balancing the checkbook

Mommy Records:

Most Kids: Mrs. Vassilyev of Russia gave birth to 69 children between 1725 and 1765
Oldest Mom: Rosanna Dalla Corte gave birth to a baby boy when she was 63 years old in Italy in 1994
Heaviest Newborn: Signora Carmelina Fedele gave birth to a 22 lb 8 oz boy in Italy in 1955

Mother's Day:

1st Mother's Day: May 10, 1908; Founded by Anna Jarvis; made a national holiday in 1914 by President Wilson
Busiest Phone Day: 68% of people plan to call Mom on Mother's Day, totaling 122.5 million phone calls
Card Giving: 50% of households give Mother's Day cards, totaling some 152 million cards

Misc Mommy & Baby Facts:

Most popular birth month: July
Most popular birth day: Tuesday
Most popular birthday: October 5
30 Pounds: Average weight gain during pregnancy
Baby Gender Gap: 105 boys born for every 100 girls
First Year Baby Costs: $7,000 of baby items before 1st birthday
Cost of Raising a Child: Middle-income families spend $242,070 to raise a kid to 18 (not incl. college!)
Most Popular Names of 21st Century:

Baby Girls: Emily, Madison, Hannah

Baby Boys: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Research suggests that moms who give birth later in life, live longer
Having kids may make you smarter

...........................................................................

When I read all of this I just had to share it with you all! Made me giggle... Especially when I realized I was born on a Tuesday in July! *LOL* Oh dear.....

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On a whole other random topic, I watched one of my neighbours wash every inch of his car today... And I mean every inch of it! It took him between 1.5-2hours to wash this thing (and it's not a huge car!)..... I think he's been done maybe an hour and it's started to rain! *LOL* Oh goodness, isn't that always the way? So in a few hours it'll be rained on and dusty from the wind (as we have no protection from weather behind our houses, only farm land!)....

*giggle*

(Note: I didn't actually sit there and watch him the whole time... I had to much to do with writing this blog and working on Emma's School Blog! But I did check in on him from the comfort of my warm home!)

S-C-H-O-O-L!

Well as I write this Emma will have been at her first day of Kindergarten for about an hour and a half....

On her own....

Without me....

Or Zoë....

*L*

Funny thing, I'm actually really excited to hear all about he first day (aka: Intro day of about 5 students)!

I'll write a blog about Emma's morning with ricephotography here (thanks Chels!) and how I got lost later on....

Once I hear about her day.

I'll also add in the part where Zoë expressed her feelings about this whole school thing....

More later!

Photos from the past...

Chelsey Rice over at Rice Photography has been taking photos of my kids forever now... She's also taken photos of Tyler and I that I'm totally in love with! I'll have to share some of those another day... But for now, please enjoy the photos below from November 2007.