Leona Lane

LUCY | THEN & NOW

I just love how photography captures the passage of time. One of my favorite past time is looking through photos of Lucy on my computer. Every now and then I will come across a photo and it will remind me of another photo I took a long time ago. Each time this happens, I save the two together and make a little collage. This blog post is a combination of several of these collages that I've saved in the past few months. They each tell a story of how much our lives have changed in the past year and a half!

Lucy at Three Weeks: My little sleeper. She did not move at this age so I could just rest her in the big chair to take a photo. I was still getting used to posing a newborn and figuring out the most flattering way to photograph her...I soon learned that shooting from above v. below was much cuter! But still...I love seeing those cute feet and that strawberry hat that she wore all the time.

Lucy at Fifteen Months: She no longer sits in the big chair to take a photograph. Now she must stand up and try to bounce around. And this must be a good time for her to check out her pink socks. 

Lucy's First Thanksgiving: We stayed in Seattle that year. Lucy was just a couple of months old and she slept on and off throughout the day. She woke up just in time for dinner at Grandma's. I did not get to enjoy my dinner because she was pretty needy that day. I remember that night was the first time Lucy slept through the night! And she kept on sleeping like that for quite some time...we lucky parents.

Lucy's Second Thanksgiving: We celebrated in Couer 'd' Alene this year with my parents. Lucy got to sit at the big table! My mom bought cute plates for both Lucy and her cousin Jaela. She started eating with a fork for the first time at this meal! I was so proud that my girl ate pretty much everything on her plate. We lucky parents. (She wakes up more at night now, though!)

Lucy's First Christmas Party: The party for my work is always fun, with lots of dancing and live music. Lucy slept in my arms for most of the party (at age three months) but she did get a chance to dance with her Dad.

Lucy's Second Christmas Party: I don't think I've ever seen my girl have more fun. Not only did she dance the night away with her Dad, but she found a pink bouncy horse to sit on. She brought it right in front of the band so that she could bounce to the beat of the music. She was really social and fun. She stayed up until 9:30 that night and I was amazed. And so, so proud to be her mom.

Lucy gets a Bumbo: At age three months we bought Lucy a bumbo! She was so chubby that her little legs would barely fit! I loved that it allowed her to sit and see the world. She would sit next to me on the counter and watch me cook. She sat on the floor and played with toys. At six months we used it for feeding her. We still have never bought a high chair because this bumbo has been so useful.

Lucy still uses her Bumbo: I love breakfast time with Lucy. She sits in her bumbo and eats her egg. Her monkey is always nearby and she's still in her jammies. This photo was from December and it was before daycare started in January. Although she still eats breakfast like this, life is a little more hurried now. We don't have as much time to just hang out in the morning, except for on weekends.

Lucy at One Month: I have so many photos of Lucy snuggling up with her Dad in the mornings. He always drinks coffee and checks the news on the lap top. Ever since Lucy was born, she is right nearby! At a month old, of course she is swaddled. She's just finished her breakfast and will probably go back to sleep soon, since sleep was all she did at that age.

Lucy at Sixteen Months: I love this {blurry} photo of these two. Still Dad reads the news and drinks his coffee, and Lucy loves to join in the fun. She loves to sit next to him and read books. Here she is reading her favorite books, which of course are highlights magazines.

Lucy's First Superbowl: I made her this onesie to wear at the Superbowl party! We got to cheer for the Seahawks as they won their first championship. Truthfully, Lucy was five months old and refusing to nap, so I pretty much missed the whole game. She finally feel asleep for me to catch the half time show! I loved watching football that year (2013) because Lucy was always in my lap.

Lucy's second football season: She's a lot more excited about football this year, even if it just means giving us high fives after a touch down. Mom and Dad get so excited and she gets excited too...its awesome! Her onesie doesn't fit anymore, but we got a her a real jersey on sale on Black Friday! She's the best little Hawk fan. I'm glad I have these photos of us together, even though I'm fat and pregnant now, and even though we didn't win this year. Football season is a big deal in our house. Go Hawks!

Thanks for reading all these stories! I know they are all personal and may not relate to everyone. However, I hope you are inspired to take photos and keep them and put them together with old photos and tell new stories. This is the best, best part of photography!

RIGHT NOW...

-I am feeling more than a little guilty for neglecting this blog, especially to Renae who works so hard here.

-I am thinking that a list type blog post about nothing would be the easiest to write.

-I am loving feeling lots of baby kicks from my BABY BOY who has yet to be named.

-I am still wishing that I had the nerve to take some pregnancy photographs.

-I am also still wishing that I no longer had conjunctivitis because then I would be able take those photos AND get out of the house.

-I am loving that Lucy loves daycare, but hating that she cries when I leave.

-I am loving silly Playstation games such as Peggle, and silly IPhone games such as Soda Crush.

-I am so thrilled to admit that although I've been SICK for a month and my baby has been sick for a MONTH, I am NOT nauseous! Nausea is 10x worse any kind of cold, cough or snot.

-I am also thrilled to be eating vegetables again, even if they are in the form of a smoothie made by the Vitamix.

-I am beyond excited that the Seahawks will be going to the Superbowl this weekend, and yes I cried during the last Playoff game.

-I am nerdy enough to be listening to Sports Radio so I can learn as much as possible about the Seahawks, the players and the game itself. Knowing all the lingo really makes watching that much more fun.

-I am happy to be posting to Instagram (almost) every day this January. I've missed a few days, but I don't think anyone wants to see photos of a sick kid.

-I am planning on continuing to post photos on Instagram as well as keep scrapbooking with Project Life. I'm almost caught up and this makes me SO HAPPY. I've been using my cell phone to edit my photos (Afterlight, and A Beautiful Mess for collages) so it's easier to print them each week.

-I am loving the fact that in Seattle, it's over sixty degrees and sunny. It feels like California outside! I sure hope this weather lasts all week. 

What is something you are enjoying on this lovely Monday? Tell me in the comments what you are up to.

JENN'S THANKSGIVING 2014

Today I am just posting some favorite photos from our Thanksgiving vacation with my family in Couer 'd' Alene, Idaho. Matt, Lucy, and I traveled over there to celebrate our favorite holiday! Lucy experienced her first plane flight, which was very successful. My mom made a delicious meal, with lots of traditional foods such as sweet potato casserole, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy. I made this stuffing recipe, which I discovered last year and is my absolute favorite!

My favorite part of Thanksgiving was sharing it with Lucy for the first time! (Last year she was too little) She really enjoyed her little plate of food and even learned to feed herself with a spoon for the first time. Of course she also loved her time with grandma and grandpa and the cousins. My mom has a large stuffed giraffe in her livingroom and Lucy just cannot get enough of climbing on it. Of course after the family and food, we also love the football! And it sure was fun to watch the Seahawks beat the 49ers. Great day. 

AROUND HERE | JENN

 

It is so good to blog again! My dear best friend Renae has been holding down the fort for me the past month or so, while I've taken a much needed break. I have more to share about this in the future, but life has been just crazy around here! Today I thought I would write a really easy post, just sharing some "Now" photos around our house and updating you guys a little about our life.

Fall is here. My favorite season! And with that comes Pumpkin Everything! Even pumpkin ravioli from Trader Joe's. I've also been drinking pumpkin spiced lattes and I've even been lucky enough to eat homemade pumpkin pie made by my husband.

I just recently got a few fall decorations out. Last year I made this leaf garland, and while I liked it last year displayed on the fireplace, I thought I would put it on the kitchen bar this year, surrounding my favorite Pottery Barn pumpkin and collection of squash. Speaking of that, I'd like to make Renae's delicata squash recipe this week.

As far as crafting goes, my Project Life has been put on hold just a bit. I have a pile of things I've saved from the month of October. This is the first time ever that I've been behind, so I plan to do things differently in these last months of the year, maybe just doing one spread per month. I have done some traditional scrapbooking recently though! (The last kit I just got from SC is KILLER. Probably my favorite in the past year.) I finally have gotten around to organizing my layouts in an album, and even started an official "Lucy" album. In addition to scrapbooking, I've also been doing some other crafting as well, including making a banner for an upcoming party this weekend! I will be taking lots more photos of the event and all the projects we do, and hope to share a few here.

There are just a few more random things I want to note. My baby girl is walking!! Photos of her have been fewer because she is just always moving. She's almost 14 months now, and I can believe how fast she's growing. She and I love to watch Gilmore Girls together on Netflix and she always get so excited and dances when the intro song comes on. We also listen to Seahawks radio together, watch the games every Sunday, and listened to Serial on Thursdays. (Well, I mostly listen to the podcast when she's already in bed!) Life has been busy but also very normal. I look forward to sharing again soon!

A STRANGE ANNIVERSARY TRADITION

Every family seems to have some kind of tradition. Joe and I aren't really traditional kind of people - or at least it doesn't feel like that. We're not really even big holiday people (except for Thanksgiving - there's always an exception right?) 

But for some reason, I kind of wanted a tradition for our anniversary. Something that was us. Just for fun. 

Shortly after our fifth anniversary, Joe was wandering through the local value village with me. I can't remember why, I think we were bored... Usually I fly solo on thrift store visits.

But for whatever reason, we were there browsing the aisles. We happened to walk by this little ceramic dog clock and we both found it hilarious, we just started cracking up right there in the aisle. We talked about buying it as a joke since it was so ridiculous looking. 

However, practicality took over and we decided against it. But we were still cracking up over the thought of the funny looking dog clock the next day. And that is when the idea for the perfect tradition hit me. Spoiler: we went back and bought it.

Now, every year around our anniversary, we go to a thrift store and pick out the most ridiculous looking thing we can find. The only criteria is that it has to make both of us laugh. Then we go home and put it on display for the year. The next year, it goes back to the thrift store and we pick something new.

It seems that we have a penchant for ceramic animals. It all started with the Dog Clock, the next year we found Steve the Squirrel. Last year we picked the Creepy Bunny and this year we found Cross Eyed Bambi.

I'm trying to collect pictures of all of them to start a little book with. I just need to go back and find photos of the first two! I'm sure they are buried in the archives somewhere.

So that is the story of our bizarre anniversary tradition. But it feels like us, it makes us laugh and that's all that matters!