Kelly Gorney Photography | Meadville, Pennsylvania Photographer

Just because it’s been a while, here are a couple recent 52 weeks pictures!

Well, I attempted to post this numerous times last week, but apparently hackers had a different idea for me.  Thanks, hackers.

NOW, I would like to wish you all a very happy, albeit belated, Earth Day!  I realize that Earth Day was here and gone,  and I know most people tend to remember being green and loving our Earth on that day, but I think it’s a great idea to remember to do it year ’round.  Even though I feel we could do even more to improve our carbon footprint, I am happy with the steps that we are taking.  It is important to our kids future and only fair that we make attempts, however small, to improve it.  Even the smallest efforts make a difference.  We do things like use reusable beverage containers (the kids LOVE their Contigo cups, recommended to us by Amber), use reusable shopping bags, recycle, unplug things when we aren’t using them, using reusable containers for food, etc.  I know there are a lot more things we can do, and we will work on it, but I am happy that, for now, we are taking some steps and showing our children that it is important.

Okay, maybe I am easily amused.  It’s probably not the coolest thing EVER, but it’s still pretty darn awesome.  For those of you who are parents to a potty-training or potty trained little one, I am guessing you will understand my excitement about this.  Our bathroom is on the small side.  Okay, it’s VERY small.  Tatum is potty-trained, but is still pretty small, so she can’t yet use the “big” potty without her little potty-seat ring-thingy.  It’s not that big, but it’s awkward and, obviously, we don’t all use it, so we’re constantly getting it out, putting it away, finding it laying on the floor because Tatum didn’t want to put it away, etc.  It’s kind of a pain, really.  Well, we found an awesome solution to this problem yesterday.  It seriously rocks my [apparently boring ] world.  Introducing, from our bathroom, the  Bemis Next Step toilet seat!!  It’s truly fantastic!

Here it is, closed.  You cannot tell it’s anything other than a normal toilet seat.

Here it is, opened:

And the wonderful child seat, down!

We found ours at Home Depot and they had them in regular and elongated.  It makes me so happy.  It’s the small things in life :-)

Five.  FIVE!  They say time flies once you have kids.  I knew it would happen, but I just can’t believe HOW FAST it really goes.  It seems like yesterday that Bryan and I went to dinner, knowing that we would be parents the next day.  Excited, nervous, unsure about what to expect and whether or not we were truly ready.  Five years later, I guess we were!  HA!  Now, today, our baby boy is five years old.  FIVE.  He is smart and independent and helpful.  He is sensitive and caring and sweet.  He is always thinking of others and I love that he is that way.  I am so proud of him all the time and loving watching him grow into the wonderful little boy that he is.  Here’s to you, Peyton!  Happy 5th Birthday!  We love you!!

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So, yesterday, my baby girl turned three.  THREE.  I cannot believe it.  It seems like just yesterday that we were heading to the hospital (in the snow, no less) anxiously awaiting her arrival.  Now she is a big girl.  She is our little Miss Independent.  She is tough and funny and girly and goofy all in one little package.  We adore her.  She makes us smile and laugh everyday and we love her to pieces.  Here’s to you, my awesome little girl.  We love you so much!

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Happy Birthday, little girl!

A few weeks ago, I found out that my hair stylist started offering a new service.  When I heard about the service, I was over the moon excited.  Those of you that know me, know that I deal with some pretty crazy hair.  It is curly and frizzy and I have a ton of it.  It drives me batty on a daily basis and most of the time, I despise it.  For YEARS, I wished and wished I had someone else’s hair.  Now I do.  Well, at least it *seems* like I do.  I have spent the last several years blow drying and flat ironing my poor hair.  ANYTHING to get rid of the curl that devastated my junior high and high school existence (yes, you GM’ers know what I am talking about).  Who all remembers my HS nickname?  The one that I STILL respond to when someone says it.  Sigh.  Anyway, I digress.  Point is now, I found something that has changed my hair life, thanks to Jenny at Head West Hair Saloon.  Her amazing new service is Brazilian Blowout.  She is one of the first in the area to offer this treatment (beware of imitations, they can damage your hair) and I could not believe the results.

I am going to post some before and after photos for you.  Now, keep in mind this is difficult for me to do as I HATE the way I look sans makeup and with my hair in shambles.  I have very minimal make up in the first two shots, so be gentle ;-)

Here is my hair BEFORE Brazilian Blowout.  I had just blown it dry, no flat iron:

Here is my hair BEFORE Brazilian Blowout.  I had blown it dry and used the flat iron (a TON) on it:

Here is my hair AFTER Brazilian Blowout.  Jenny styled my hair, but it took about 15-20 minutes, versus the normal 45-60 minutes it would take.  INSANE!

This one was taken the day after I had the Brazilian Blowout treatment done.  Still unbelievable!  This does NOT seem like my hair!  SO smooth and shiny.  LOVE!

So, if you are thinking of getting this done, go see Jenny, she did a fabulous job on mine.  Tell her I sent you ;-)