A day @ the local river

About 1 mile from our house is the meremac river. They recently starting putting a park there so we decided to venture out and take a lil' looksy. It was pretty nice actually. Blaine had a blast splashing in the water much to my dismay!!!! Boys will be boys I suppose! Brian and I had a nice evening out alone for my birthday. He took me to a quaint little place in Clayton known as Almonds. Yummy! Not to fancy, my kind of place. The food was excellent. Thank you MJ and Amanda for taking care of the boys for us! Brian goes back to work tomorrow, bummer! I am getting a summer cold, no fun. I also want to give a special shout out to my BFF Kia, thank you lovely lady for all the many cards and book. You are to sweet and cute and totally something I would do.

Hope everyone has a safe holiday and gets to eat some yummy BBQ~

Happy Birthday

Yesterday @ MOPS I had a couple of moms come to me and say "Your older boy is so sweet" and "That Blaine is such a good big brother, he seems very gentle" naturally, anytime another mom compliments your child(ren) it is a huge compliment. I put Leelee in his crib after his bath so I could transfer some laundry, as I was walking back upstairs I heard Blaine reading to him, so I grabbed the camera and captured this sweet shot. I used to read this book to Blaine all of the time, and there he was, in the crib reading to Leelyn, with his Cubs hat on, lol

Our Blaine is a very sweet boy indeed. This is the best birthday gift I could ever recieve!

I LOVE my boys!

Super Excited

I am soooooooooo EXCITED that MOPS started it's session today! I LOVE my MOPS group! There is nothing better then being around other heart felt, down to earth, good hearted moms! That support system is indeed a glorious thing to be apart of. There is enough struggles and drama in the world, so it is nice to know that there are other moms like me out there ;-) wink wink
I am excited to make this twice a month meeting apart of my schedule again. The Gourleys have remained busy! I am looking for part-time work, perhaps 2 days a week to just get out of the house for a bit. I would love to do something in photography again so we will see how that pans out. Once I get the fundamentals of my camera down, I will be getting very serious about an up and coming business. Let me not get to far ahead of myself just yet, the competition is STIFF out there! I am working on putting a portfolio together, this might take some time.
We have some big parties planned within the next month, two new babies on their way, Blaine's birthday, anniversary, and a couple of trips. I can't wait! Have I mentioned that Leelyn is "saying" mama and dada? Oh yes, he looks at me and says mammma, and the same when he looks at Brian, daddda. Okay so whether or not he knows what he is saying or not, our hearts melt! Love my boys!

My 2008 vote

A day to just love and play

Let me be honest here, I was up as was Brian all night, no joking- with Leelyn, our teething monster! Blaine was an awesome teether. He never cried, he just drooled. Leelyn, poor baby cries non-stop, poor mama. I just hold him close and say "Lord, you will give me the patience and strength to over-come this" LOL After a long hard night of no sleep I am delirious but fear not, I still took the kids out for some playtime where I captured some sweet shots. I love my boys...Motherhood is full of joys, love, patience, determination, strength, and passion.
Oh and my Godson is going to be a big brother to his little brother! YAY Kia!

Dirty lil' secret/confession

I am addicted to the "underground" world of photography, it is consuming me, this can't be healthy, or can it? PROJECT 365 has taken over.....

There is no stopping me now, the dust forming on my furniture proves the truth.........

Crazy town, no wait Fun Town

Today was Gourley family fun day, whoot whoot. We are running out of things to do, go figure. So we decided to venture out to a place near by called Fun Town. We have driven by it countless times, and Blaine is all about go carts (thanks to mario cart which he plays daily) Well it was hot as heck today but we made the best out of it. Yes, even I gave the go carts a run, I don't want Blaine thinking that his dad is the only "fun" parent, however he reminded me after I drove that his dad was better and faster, PFSH! He just doesn't know I was taking it easy on him!!!! I can't say that we loved this place, but for Blaine, he had a great time and that is what it's all about. If you have ever wondered what the term HOT MESS means, here ya go:<----- Hot Mess! LOL
I start photography classes this Saturday and I am so excited to A- do something for myself for a change, B- Get going and learning about this camera of mine. I am so excited, it has been a minute since I have done anything for myself, whoot whoot! lol Next purchase, photoshop Cs3 and it isn't cheap! Back to saving.......

The love and stress children bring

is a funny thing. Some days I want to pull my hair out, other days I just can't stop playing and kissing on my kiddos. Leelyn is a HANDFUL! He is most adorable and most temperamental, lol

I can't believe he is going to be six months in just a week. Gosh, that is scary. This thread is mainly for the GP's and aunts and uncles that read and still have no idea how to post comments, it's okay Grammy n' Papaw, I am just happy you can log on to read and see LOL

Here is Leelyn playing in his bouncer, and by the way, he only plays in it if I am sitting RIGHT NEXT to him....I love this first shot, I feel like I really captured his deep blue eyes. Here is to the days that I can drop Blaine off @ school, take Leelyn to the gym dc and hit the pool for a nice two hours of peace n' quiet! I DESERVE it! Blessed that I am able to be home with my kiddos, and blessed that there is such a thing as preschool, mwahahahahaha

Our Leelyn, sitting

Our Little Leelyn has mastered the art of sitting for about a week now. I can actually sit him down and walk away, come back 10-15 mins later and there he is, still sitting. YAY for Leelee!! For your viewing pleasure, check out that hair, just like his mamas, curly and brownish red, if it continues, it will be fire red by the time he is 2, lol

Dirty lil' secret/confession

Here is this weeks:


I ate fast food FOUR times last week. McDonalds twice, Taco Bell and Sonic.
I haven't cleaned my upstairs bathroom in over a month, good thing Leelyn is the only one using it. The toilet is starting to grow fuzzy stuff which puzzles me since no one uses it..... LOL
I kind of want to see what happens if I don't clean the toilet for another month and I know, that is just GROSS!

Soccer practice, take 1

All in all, it went okay. Not my forte, but it is all about Blaine. I was impressed that all of the coaches were from Brazil. We need to work on Blaine's temper, he would get upset if he couldn't do what was asked, and he wanted to give up which made me a little sad. I will say that for three year olds, what they taught seemed advanced, but whatever. I just love seeing Blaine in his soccer uniform, SO cute! The weather was perfect, I can't believe it is August, we have been so lucky with nice weather. I might just stay home for the practice sessions and let Brian and Blaine do their thing. My favorite part was the scrimmage - Blaine loved that best. It was so hard for all of us to get up by 8 this morning...my family likes to sleep in! ;-) Leelyn decided that it would be a good idea to pretty much scream and cry all night last night (teething) I felt like I drank a bottle of whiskey this morning. I was up from 12:30-1:30, 3:30-5:00 and then 7:30. FUN!


Here are a few shots from today, enjoy!

There is art in everything

I look for art in everything. I not only see art in my children, but always in my surroundings. For the first time, I feel like I can truly capture it. I have been eating, breathing, sleeping the wonderful world of photography. I have been so blessed and inspired my a wonderful mentor and forum I found, thanks Michael Andrew for sharing your wisdom and gift. This forum has been so helpful and has MANY talented photographers that truly inspire me. Photographers from all walks of life and truly get what I see. For me, it just isn't about taking a great family shot or shot of my beautiful kiddos, it is more. The curve of a wall, the colors of the sky, the grains in a tree all of these things have great photogenic aspects that I see. If I post a picture of my crazy raisin with a hair on it, they get it! Like a breath of fresh air. Their CC is based on that, not PO. They give correction where it is due. Thank you again Michael.
Soccer starts Saturday for Blainers, he was so excited to get his uniform as were we. My Blaine is growing up so fast, I am kinda sad. Things are starting to get really busy around here and I am ready for the change of pace. We also have a couple of new babies that are due to enter the world in Sept. and Nov. and we are excited to meet them. I will be an aunt times 11, geesh! lol Leelyn is no longer BF'ing, we weaned this past week, so hello diet and exercise. I am excited to start hitting the gym with my gf Tori and her lil' girl. YAY. Here is to practice practice practice and exercise exercise exercise. For the record, I just don't understand how moms aren't in better shape, you'd think with all of the lifting I do, these arms would be nice and tone! lol