Even with the mundane, I like to take at least one photo every day {usually with my phone—because it’s quick & easy, and usually of Elise—because nothing else seems as noteworthy}. I have about 50 creative ideas swirling around in my head of what I’ll do with all these daily photos someday, but in the meantime, I’ll share some with you.

(If you follow me on Instagram {@kteharris}, then you’ve already seen some of these pics.)

(And if you’re like, “InstaWHAT?”, then consider this your lucky day to see some new photos!)

.  .   .   .   .   .   .

i looooove chubby baby feet.

Easter morning sunshine.

landscaped during nap times. {i tore out 4 dying lavender bushes.}

watching the rain.

a rose for ellie rose.

garage sale find.

post-brunch fun @ Jason & Shauna’s.

strawberry + cake batter gelato @ sirena.

first taste. she liked.

8 mile run along river.

new ‘do by Sydney

big girl bath.

found a rogue Cheerio.

First, I wait until we have some good natural light in our west facing family room, then I lay down the colorful quilt that Grandma H made (with an extra blanket underneath for padding). Next, I edit the file that I designed for her monthly tag—all I do is change the number, but maybe someday I’ll change them all ahead of time so I can be ready through month 12. Then I cut out the circle and clip it to a ribbon with a tiny clothespin.

Time to prep the model. I make sure she’s fed and happy. This is very important, as nobody wants to work with a drama queen. Then I dress her in a white cloth diaper & basic white onesie, fluff her hair up, maybe put a bow in her hair, lay her on the quilt, drape the ribbon over her like a sash, and ‘voila!’. Ready to shoot.

I usually take about 60 photos before I decide I have at least a couple decent ones and say, “It’s a wrap!”. Then my model can go about doing her business, such as chatting, having a wardrobe change, or yelling at her agent (that’d be me).

Here are some outtakes from the past few sessions. She’s not always the easiest to work with….

too stubborn.

too excited to pose.

too distracted by a cat.

too goofy.

too much like a helpless bug flailing on her back.

too wiggly, therefore blurry arm & leg.

too distracted by a cat. or tree. or dust particle. who knows, it could be anything.

too tongue-y. not the smile I was looking for.

too slobbery & squinty.

uh-oh, we’ve discovered something to put in our mouth.

um, yeeeeah. that pretty much sums it all up, right there.

Funny, I used to think she had chunky thighs back when she was two months old. One thing is for certain, I love being able to see how she changes from month to month. And I hope you do too.

Lots of ladies from our church attended, and BOTH grandmas were able to come for the celebratory occasion and stay all weekend.

BOTH Grandmas!  Yaay!

Thank you, Aubrey (and Ryan), for opening up your lovely home. Thank you, ladies, for EVERYTHING. It all was so cute, every detail carefully thought out, and the food…..mmmmm. I have some very talented friends, indeed.

Fun games & opening presents followed. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful support system around us out here. It’s certainly not easy being so far away from our family & friends, but we have a wonderful ‘substitute’ family of sorts through our church. And being that our baby will be the 5th one born this year at our small church (+ 2 more others due), it meant a lot that everyone was still enthused for yet another baby shower.

Can you tell these ladies are a bit excited to be grandmas?

Since several people weren’t able to attend the shower, we acquired quite a few more gifts for the baby at church the next day. And since—as the guy—Todd usually only gets to see everything after I bring it home and have show-and-tell, we figured it would be fun to let him open these presents. I think he rather enjoyed himself.

]]> http://toddandkatie.com/2011/06/10/showered-with-love-2/feed/ 1 http://toddandkatie.com/2011/04/03/paint-it-blue/ http://toddandkatie.com/2011/04/03/paint-it-blue/#comments Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:12:45 +0000 Katie http://toddandkatie.com/?p=2960

Baby Junebug/Squirrel and I at 28 weeks.

We are purring right along. I’m sure the due date will be here before we know it, but in the meantime, we are gradually doing prep work for his/her arrival. This is how we’ve spent most of our weekend:

No worries about the pregnant lady there slaving away. I used an all-natural wallpaper removal solution of vinegar and water—which may’ve been a bit more tedious and slower than the special stuff you buy at the hardware store, but it was free and safe for baby.  I’m just glad we only had to remove a border, and not an entire room of that stuff!

And fortunately for me, I get to sit out on the painting part while Todd is doing all that hard work.

Blue!

You’d think that’s the future nursery…..but it’s not. It’s actually our office, but every computer contraption that Todd owns has been camping out in the nursery until this room is painted, new desk assembled, and shelves hung. Once that happens, nursery decorating will be back on in full force and I can’t wait. I have lots of fun projects to entertain myself with for the next 12 weeks or so. And hopefully there will be a few I can share with you before the baby arrives—but only the ones that don’t give away gender, name, etc. of course.

]]> http://toddandkatie.com/2011/04/03/paint-it-blue/feed/ 0 http://toddandkatie.com/2011/03/09/hard-at-work/ http://toddandkatie.com/2011/03/09/hard-at-work/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2011 07:11:33 +0000 Katie http://toddandkatie.com/?p=2921 Hope you haven’t minded that we’ve been absent for a few weeks. We were busy doing stuff like this:

And this….

And all of this….

Tough job, but somebody had to do it.

I’ve officially been told I have a big belly. Could be because the only things that are truly comfortable now are maternity shirts and they’re made to emphasize the bump, or it could be the fact that I ate a lot of shave ice & a massive amount of luau pork and it all caught up with me after vacation.

Either way, I love this belly—no matter how ‘big’ some say it is—because it means that we are healthy. Junebug/Squirrel/Baby Harris has become an active little boxer, and is packing on the ounces, weighing in at just over 1 pound. And judging from our most recent ultrasound images, quite the cutie. Ok, maybe we’re a little bit biased.

24 weeks down. ? weeks to go!

]]> http://toddandkatie.com/2011/03/09/hard-at-work/feed/ 0 http://toddandkatie.com/2011/01/06/special/ http://toddandkatie.com/2011/01/06/special/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 05:26:31 +0000 Katie http://toddandkatie.com/?p=2862 I mentioned in my last post that this Christmas was special. Not just because we got to be home on Christmas Day, but because of a little surprise we had in store:

Merry Christmas, Grandpa & Grandma!

My dad wasn’t quite sure what it was a picture of at first and whispered to my mom, “Is she pregnant?”

Yes, yes we are.

Grandma & Grandpa Harris got one too (though they’ve known for a few weeks already).

So that’s that.

Cat’s outta the bag.

Little baby Harris is due to arrive towards the end of June.

Every August, our church has a weekend campout over in Central Washington. So we packed up our tent and headed east to the Columbia River for sun & fun.

The next weekend my best friend rolled into town. There was kayaking, wine, relaxing and just catching up on life.

September ended with my mom & Aunt Janice coming for a weekend visit filled with sightseeing.

And a bit of a hike.  I’d asked Janice if she wanted to do a ‘little’ hike and she thought that sounded like a good idea. Never having done this hike before, I didn’t realize that it was a bit more strenuous than preferred.

Mom & Janice turned around after awhile and Todd and I continued up to the top of Little Si. Great view. Sweaty workout. Next time we need to wear actual hiking apparel. And maybe someday, we’ll conquer Big Si.

Most recently, we feathered our hair and morphed back to the 80′s for a joint birthday party for 5 of our friends.

There was dancing, karaoke & even prizes! I won the award for wearing the most neon (or something rad like that). Even though the Aqua Net didn’t hold my hair as high as I would’ve liked, I still rocked the glow-in-the-dark tights I customized for myself with puff paint.

And in the midst of all those activities, we celebrated our 2 year anniversary, spent a weekend in Idaho with Todd’s parents (how did we not take any pictures??), started up our second year of teaching Sunday School, bought me a new set of wheels, celebrated our kittens’ 1st birthday, and flew through lots of other activities that have left us in need of a nice vacation. In due time, in due time……

Until then, I promise to be better at the blogging. I know there are a couple of you who still check the site. And at some point, I’ll eventually tell you all about Russia.

]]> http://toddandkatie.com/2010/10/28/flashback/feed/ 6 http://toddandkatie.com/2010/09/19/one-year/ http://toddandkatie.com/2010/09/19/one-year/#comments Mon, 20 Sep 2010 06:29:42 +0000 Katie http://toddandkatie.com/?p=2712 Exactly one year ago today, we were over here….

……immersing ourselves in the majestic beauty of Switzerland.  We spent our last couple days in Switzerland in the city of Interlaken.  At a 2-star hotel above a mexican restaurant, with the communal shower one floor below us and the toilet one floor up. Certainly not the fanciest of digs, but we didn’t care at all when we were so worn out from traipsing through the Alps all day.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love jumping?

And that I love Swiss cows so much they made me squeal with glee every time I saw them?  Look at them, just chillin’ in the Alps. No fence. No worries. Just a strange American girl squealing in their faces.

These pictures don’t even do the beauty of the Bernese Alps justice. Where else can you eat your lunch and spend a whole day hiking with this magnificent view as your backdrop? Perhaps in Heaven? (yes, that’s right. When I get to Heaven, I want to go hiking with Jesus.)

My words cannot even come a million times close to describing the awesomeness of it all, so I won’t even try.  I was so happy to be there, I frolicked in the wildflowers.  Switzerland, I love you love you LOVE you.

And then after a stop at Lac Léman in Geneva for a couple hours we hopped a train to Lyon, France for 2 days where we basically ate our weight in quiche, crepes, croissants and panaché. Mmmmm, panaché.

We talk about going back to Europe at least 5 times a week. Perhaps that’s why I’m super reminiscent right now.  I want to be there.  Amongst the gentle cows, the waterfalls, the Eiger & Jungfrau. Eating my cheese & grapes on a mountain bench.  Sitting at a sidewalk cafe sipping rosé and savoring creamy French crepes.

Lost in the languages, but happy all over.

We were blessed to have so many loving family and friends celebrate our wedding day.  It’s not the dress or the flowers, the cheesecake or the dancing that we remember the most.  It’s all the hugs and love we felt all day long.  Those memories will forever be engrained in my heart and in my mind.

Cheers, my sweet love, to many more wonderful years together.

]]> http://toddandkatie.com/2010/09/13/two-years/feed/ 6 http://toddandkatie.com/2010/06/30/in-bloom/ http://toddandkatie.com/2010/06/30/in-bloom/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:26:27 +0000 Katie http://toddandkatie.com/?p=2569 What I’m growing at our house…

It’s big. And blue.

I have more hydrangeas than I know what to do with.

Seriously. I wish I could just give you all some of them.  I have already made/given away several bouquets and you can’t even tell we clipped any.  Not that I’m complainin’….just sayin’, I wish I could give more away.

This is a young one. Working on blue-ifying itself.

Mom H says I can change the color for next year by altering the pH of the soil. That’s chemistry….I don’t know if I should delve into that.  But good to know that if I tire of the blue, I can have pink/purple ones instead.

They look lovely grouped in large bouquets.  Especially in my pretty purple birthday pitcher from the in-laws.

Unfortunately, if you have cats your pretty bouquets may not last as long as you’d like. They like to play the game of “lets pull mom’s flowers out & leave them all over the house for her to pick up after they’ve withered away all day”.

Who me? I’ve just been sleeping here all day. Not being mischievous whatsoever.