I can't wait to show you more... :)
birthday boyS! {40 and 8}
15 years ago
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
a sneak peek
I thought I would give a little sneak peek via my personal blog. The Falders spent some time with the Chicago Smiths this weekend. We love our cousins!
I can't wait to show you more... :)
I can't wait to show you more... :)
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Today
While setting up for a session today, I had the kids step in front of the camera so I could check my lighting.
Here they are...just as they are.
Here they are...just as they are.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Demorest Designs
Most of you know my friend Beth of Demorest Designs has a God given talent for interior design. I'm blessed to call her my friend, but I'm also blessed to exchange talents with her! We did Jonah's room a year ago, but we hadn't put forth the effort to take "after" pictures for her blog/business portfolio.
They're done. Finally. Check 'em out!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Never a dull moment...
I can never let down my guard. I know that. Sometimes I just forget.
Jonah is seven. It shouldn't be unreasonable to give him his privacy in the bathroom. But sometimes what's "reasonable" doesn't work in Jonah's world. The kids were upstairs playing. I was getting a few chores done downstairs before starting homeschool. I think it may have been Lydia who called me although I don't really remember.
I ran upstairs and was greeted to an inch of water in our bathroom with water continuing to pour out of the toilet. Jonah was sitting on the counter and Lydia must have been in the hallway. I screamed. And then frantically paced the floor.
I ran downstairs to put on some boots, ran back upstairs, moved Jonah, and then paced a bit more.
Hmmm. Call Mike.
Oh yeah, Mike was in Chicago for the day. Lovely.
I still called him.
Crying.
He told me to gather towels to get it cleaned up.
"No, you don't understand!!! It would take ALL DAY to clean up with towels and the water is not clean!!! There's toilet paper and other 'stuff' in it!!"
He advised me to get the shop vac.
Lesson #1: how to remove the filter so that the shop vac can handle water.
Without giving too much information, Jonah was a little dirty, so I sent him to the shower while I prepared the shop vac. In the meantime, the nasty water was still just sitting upstairs...or so I thought. After Jonah got out of the shower and I was, by this time, back upstairs shop vaccing (is that even a word?), Jonah yelled to me that water was coming into my closet.
My closet?!!!!!
It was pouring through the second floor bathroom into the light fixture in the closet ceiling on the first floor. Lots of it. Two and a half buckets to be exact.
I put Jonah and Lydia on "switch the bucket" duty and prayed that he would be kind to her while I continued to shop vac the water in the bathroom. Then I prayed for patience...and more patience... and lots of patience.
I felt like Superwoman. Really, I did.
I'll spare you the other details.
Insurance was called the next day. Serv-Pro was here quickly thereafter. I won't discuss the three days we lived with seven industrial fans blowing constantly in our home, "cooking" the moisture out of the wood with 118 degree temperatures in both rooms.
The ceiling in our closet was removed. So was the bathroom floor and some of the hallway carpet. We have towels in place to protect ourselves from the sharp tack strips!
I think Jonah learned his lesson-- although you never really know....:)
Jonah is seven. It shouldn't be unreasonable to give him his privacy in the bathroom. But sometimes what's "reasonable" doesn't work in Jonah's world. The kids were upstairs playing. I was getting a few chores done downstairs before starting homeschool. I think it may have been Lydia who called me although I don't really remember.
I ran upstairs and was greeted to an inch of water in our bathroom with water continuing to pour out of the toilet. Jonah was sitting on the counter and Lydia must have been in the hallway. I screamed. And then frantically paced the floor.
I ran downstairs to put on some boots, ran back upstairs, moved Jonah, and then paced a bit more.
Hmmm. Call Mike.
Oh yeah, Mike was in Chicago for the day. Lovely.
I still called him.
Crying.
He told me to gather towels to get it cleaned up.
"No, you don't understand!!! It would take ALL DAY to clean up with towels and the water is not clean!!! There's toilet paper and other 'stuff' in it!!"
He advised me to get the shop vac.
Lesson #1: how to remove the filter so that the shop vac can handle water.
Without giving too much information, Jonah was a little dirty, so I sent him to the shower while I prepared the shop vac. In the meantime, the nasty water was still just sitting upstairs...or so I thought. After Jonah got out of the shower and I was, by this time, back upstairs shop vaccing (is that even a word?), Jonah yelled to me that water was coming into my closet.
My closet?!!!!!
It was pouring through the second floor bathroom into the light fixture in the closet ceiling on the first floor. Lots of it. Two and a half buckets to be exact.
I put Jonah and Lydia on "switch the bucket" duty and prayed that he would be kind to her while I continued to shop vac the water in the bathroom. Then I prayed for patience...and more patience... and lots of patience.
I felt like Superwoman. Really, I did.
I'll spare you the other details.
Insurance was called the next day. Serv-Pro was here quickly thereafter. I won't discuss the three days we lived with seven industrial fans blowing constantly in our home, "cooking" the moisture out of the wood with 118 degree temperatures in both rooms.
The ceiling in our closet was removed. So was the bathroom floor and some of the hallway carpet. We have towels in place to protect ourselves from the sharp tack strips!
I think Jonah learned his lesson-- although you never really know....:)
Monday, February 07, 2011
Florida
Mike and I were able to take a little trip with friends last week. Check out a few pictures on my photography blog!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Yeah!
I got great news on Friday night. I was chosen as one of the top photographers to be listed on the Matilda Jane website. There were nearly 1000 entries and they chose 59. It was completely unexpected so I'm still in shock :)
This is actually a contest with one winner. My goal was just to make it through the first round, but I've been encouraged by friends/family to not give up yet! Round 2 is to photograph a little girl (probably Lydia) in a dress they're sending me in the mail this week.
Thanks for your help!
This is actually a contest with one winner. My goal was just to make it through the first round, but I've been encouraged by friends/family to not give up yet! Round 2 is to photograph a little girl (probably Lydia) in a dress they're sending me in the mail this week.
Thanks for your help!
Friday, January 07, 2011
Thursday, January 06, 2011
A Profound Moment
I know that as Jonah gets older he'll be able to articulate things about SPD that we just can't understand. We get little glimpses of it right now-- like when he told me last year that he didn't want to go to the basketball game because "that thing" (the buzzer) hurt his ears.
We discussed the anatomy of the ear yesterday in homeschool. At the beginning of the lesson we were supposed to be quiet for 30 seconds and just listen. I heard a fan in Lydia's room and her quietly read books. That's all. It was a quiet house. After about ten seconds of silence, Jonah said something like, "When my brain processes, it makes this [humming] sound."
"What do you mean?"
"When it's quiet I always hear this [humming] sound in my brain."
"What does it sound like? Like this [humming] or like this [I made a few other noises just to clarify]."
He made a monotone hum noise. That's the best way I know to describe it.
I got tears in my eyes.
"Do you hear this all the time when it's quiet?"
"Yes. Well, not all the time, but a lot of the time. It ANNOYS me."
"So is that why you make loud noises when you play?"
"Yes..."
and the conversation was over. He didn't want to talk about it anymore.
I was dumbfounded. All the research I've done has said nothing about this, but it makes a lot of sense to me. His OT has told me that his SPD gives him the feeling that he wants to crawl out of his own skin all the time. Yep. I'd say. If I heard a humming when I was quiet, I'd want to crawl out of my skin too!
I brought it up again at the dinner table. It was a nice family dinner. Jonah was in sync. I asked him to make the sound for Mike.
He paused and waited in silence. We all did too. He was waiting for it to appear in his head. After about six seconds, he hummed aloud, apparently joining in with the sound he could hear.
I'm fascinated.. and sad...and overwhelmed...and amazed...and so thankful.
Today I learned why being still is difficult for him.
We discussed the anatomy of the ear yesterday in homeschool. At the beginning of the lesson we were supposed to be quiet for 30 seconds and just listen. I heard a fan in Lydia's room and her quietly read books. That's all. It was a quiet house. After about ten seconds of silence, Jonah said something like, "When my brain processes, it makes this [humming] sound."
"What do you mean?"
"When it's quiet I always hear this [humming] sound in my brain."
"What does it sound like? Like this [humming] or like this [I made a few other noises just to clarify]."
He made a monotone hum noise. That's the best way I know to describe it.
I got tears in my eyes.
"Do you hear this all the time when it's quiet?"
"Yes. Well, not all the time, but a lot of the time. It ANNOYS me."
"So is that why you make loud noises when you play?"
"Yes..."
and the conversation was over. He didn't want to talk about it anymore.
I was dumbfounded. All the research I've done has said nothing about this, but it makes a lot of sense to me. His OT has told me that his SPD gives him the feeling that he wants to crawl out of his own skin all the time. Yep. I'd say. If I heard a humming when I was quiet, I'd want to crawl out of my skin too!
I brought it up again at the dinner table. It was a nice family dinner. Jonah was in sync. I asked him to make the sound for Mike.
He paused and waited in silence. We all did too. He was waiting for it to appear in his head. After about six seconds, he hummed aloud, apparently joining in with the sound he could hear.
I'm fascinated.. and sad...and overwhelmed...and amazed...and so thankful.
Today I learned why being still is difficult for him.
Monday, January 03, 2011
opinions, please
I'm getting ready to enter a Matilda Jane photo contest. The advantage for me is if I'm one of the 50 photographers they choose for the first round, I'll be listed as a "photographer" on their new website. This should bring in great business with great clients. They have very specific requirements for the way the photograph needed to be cropped; therefore, my choices were limited. Here are a few of my favorites. If you were me, which one would you send in to the company? I can only choose ONE. It needs to represent me well, but I also want it to stand out with the hundreds of other photographs they'll receive of cute girls wearing their clothes.
Number 1:
Number 2: one negative to this photograph is that my lens wasn't as good so the quality isn't as good as the others...
Number 3:
Number 4:
Number 1:
Number 2: one negative to this photograph is that my lens wasn't as good so the quality isn't as good as the others...
Number 3:
Number 4:
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Christmas
I'll post some Christmas morning pictures later, but for now, look at my photography blog for some of our time with the other Falders!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
another plea
Here it goes again--that desperate plea where I ask my family/friends to help boost my fan base on Facebook. There's a reason for my madness. It's not about vanity. Please know that!
So it may have a little to do with a competitive spirit. Yeah, I just said that. Write this date down in history. I'll say it again-- I was being competitive!
Here's what you do:
Go to my facebook photography page. Under the profile picture it says, "suggest to friends." Click that and your friends will show up in a box. You can click the friends that you believe would enjoy getting updates from Traci Falder Photography.
I can always tell who has sent fans my way-- and who hasn't :)...ahem...
Thank you!
The goal: 700 by Christmas
Monday, December 13, 2010
beauty shop
Lydia's enjoying my straight hair. She can finally play beauty shop without her brush/curling iron/rollers getting stuck or lost in my curls.
I'm enjoying the head massage. I'm my mother's daugther.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Everything We Know about Exterior Illumination
My husband is a special guy.
We decided last week that we would adorn our home in outside Christmas lights. We've never done it before. Well, not really. Last year we got really adventurous and put three strands on our small bushes and dwarf pine tree. But this year we wanted to REALLY do it.
We've watched after Christmas sales the past few years to get a good deal on some outside lights. The outside light shelves were always empty, and therefore, we never got the lights. So we trudged into Lowes last Saturday with the intention of buying Christmas lights that would transform our home into a winter wonderland.
We chose large-bulbed white LED lights.
Clark Griswold spent last Sunday afternoon hanging the lights with our extension ladder in his hunting overalls in 10 degree weather. I even heard him quote, "Where are you going to put a tree that size, Grisworld?" Lydia and I hung out in the car so that I could see if he was falling to his death and could critique his light-hanging technique if needed.
At dusk, we eagerly awaited the big reveal.
anticipation. anticipation. anticipation. anticipation.
oh no.
let down.
They didn't look good. The white LED lights were actually blue, and the 150 feet of lights looked like it really should be lighting a small box in our front yard. Furthermore, the typical incandescent white lights on the Christmas tree inside our front window looked horrible against the outside lights.
Clark spent all week thinking about the lights (Let me rephrase for fear of exaggerating. After work this week, he OFTEN asked me, "What should we do about the lights?")
We discussed adding red lights. Yeah, that would do the trick; it just needed some color. No, we should add some multi-colored lights to our bushes. That would surely help.
There was only one real solution though. Clark was disgusted.
He had to take all the lights down and return them.
So that's how he spent his Saturday.
He took the lights down, went back to Lowes, bought new lights, and hung them in the rain.
My husband gets the Husband of the Day award.
It was worth it. They look so much better.
Stay tuned for more next year!
We decided last week that we would adorn our home in outside Christmas lights. We've never done it before. Well, not really. Last year we got really adventurous and put three strands on our small bushes and dwarf pine tree. But this year we wanted to REALLY do it.
We've watched after Christmas sales the past few years to get a good deal on some outside lights. The outside light shelves were always empty, and therefore, we never got the lights. So we trudged into Lowes last Saturday with the intention of buying Christmas lights that would transform our home into a winter wonderland.
We chose large-bulbed white LED lights.
Clark Griswold spent last Sunday afternoon hanging the lights with our extension ladder in his hunting overalls in 10 degree weather. I even heard him quote, "Where are you going to put a tree that size, Grisworld?" Lydia and I hung out in the car so that I could see if he was falling to his death and could critique his light-hanging technique if needed.
At dusk, we eagerly awaited the big reveal.
anticipation. anticipation. anticipation. anticipation.
oh no.
let down.
They didn't look good. The white LED lights were actually blue, and the 150 feet of lights looked like it really should be lighting a small box in our front yard. Furthermore, the typical incandescent white lights on the Christmas tree inside our front window looked horrible against the outside lights.
Clark spent all week thinking about the lights (Let me rephrase for fear of exaggerating. After work this week, he OFTEN asked me, "What should we do about the lights?")
We discussed adding red lights. Yeah, that would do the trick; it just needed some color. No, we should add some multi-colored lights to our bushes. That would surely help.
There was only one real solution though. Clark was disgusted.
He had to take all the lights down and return them.
So that's how he spent his Saturday.
He took the lights down, went back to Lowes, bought new lights, and hung them in the rain.
My husband gets the Husband of the Day award.
It was worth it. They look so much better.
Stay tuned for more next year!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
reminder
Matilda Jane show TODAY. Contact me or Mel with your order.
www.matildajaneclothing.com
www.matildajaneblog.com
Thank you!!
www.matildajaneclothing.com
www.matildajaneblog.com
Thank you!!
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