Pics With My New Baby

These are the pics I took using my new baby....my lens...thank you Maranda!!!
These are some pics when I was just playing around of some of the kids I tend to.

Very Valuable Gift

God grants us many gifts in life and the greatest gift he gives us outside of the family is friendship. I have a very special friend. That friend is a gift herself, but that friend sent me a gift in the mail today. I want to publicly thank her. My old friend Maranda (or what I used to call her in high school was Marz) sent me a package. Wait, first I need to back up in the story....I went out to AZ in March. We all met at the park for a little bday party for my Maelee. Maranda brought her very cute son Ryker. Maranda and I share a love of photography. I was sad on the first day of my vacation when Delana dropped my camera. I thought "how in the world am I going to make it through the week without my camera." So before Maelee's party I went to the store and bought a Canon Digital Rebel, a camera I had been wanting for a long time. So I told Maranda at the party about my new purchase. She told me to take the camera back because she was wanting to get rid of her canon rebel because she had just upgraded to a better bigger camera because she just started her own photography company . So I took my camera I just bought back to the store and practically stole the camera from Maranda because she would not let me pay her much for it. I have been so blessed to have such a wonderful camera. Oh and by the way, the camera she sold me (allow me to steal) is a better model than the one I bought. I love that camera! I have been shopping around for a new lens. Maranda was giving me hints on what kind of lens to buy. Then it came to the point that I really needed one because Maelee dropped my camera and broke my lens. I pulled out my old lens from my rebel 35mm....it has kind of been working...

Now back to today. Today I pulled up and I had a package on my doorstep. I saw it was from Maranda. She told me that she sent me a package last week. I was not sure what was in it..we have both been shopping around for TuTu's so I thought maybe it was a tutu or some fun photo prop. I was not prepared for what was in the box. It was a camera LENS. I could not believe it. She sent me a 85 Prime lens. WOW!!! After I was done crying I played around with it and took pics of the kids.....what an amazing gift. Thank you Maranda!

Field Trip

I went on a field trip with Maelee on Tuesday. I brought along one of the little girls I watch during the day named Lauren. I left Delana behind with a friend. And all I kept thinking the entire time was how glad I was that I left Delana behind. We went to a historical plantation called Gunston Hall. It used to be the home of George Mason.

So what did we learn....if you ask the kids what they learned they will tell you that there was no bathroom and there is a pot at the foot of everyone's bed for you know what. And the kids remember that people back then did not wear underwear. And of course they remember that the people only took a bath once a year. Gunston Hall was very beautiful and full of history.

Memorial Day

"This is the best day ever!!!" is what Maelee said today as we were out on a family outing. I have to agree, it was one of the best days ever for our family. We do not get a lot of time with daddy. He works so hard for us but this makes us so lonely without him. He works a second job at a catering company. Normally he only works there on Saturday nights. But he has been picking up extra shifts, two or three extra evenings a week. He goes to his normal job at the Commandant's house at 6am until 4pm then he leaves and heads off to the catering company and stumbles in some time before midnight. He leaves and gets home when the girls are asleep. So we have missed him very much.....so we planned to spend all day Monday playing together.

We headed out on a family outing and went bowling at one of the Army Bases. It is one of my favorite bowling alleys because it has these really awesome couches at the lanes, rather than chairs. The game started out great....I started with a strike, followed by a spare. I think Scott started out with a gutter ball. We were so empressed with the bowling alley because of its bumpers in the gutters. We knew we would have to play with bumpers because of Maelee. But this bowling alley has a cool thing that the lane knew to only put the bumpers up when it was Maelee's and Delana's turn...how cool is that!!! So I was winning and then about 5 frames in I lost my grove and Scott ended up winning, Even Maelee beat me. Delana was even having a great time until we ordered some food. Once the food came she did not want to bowl anymore...she just wanted to eat. Actually now that I think about it, I think when the food came out is when I lost my zone and started losing. Delana and I are so much alike! We would rather be eating than doing anything else. Here are some pics of our fun day out. The best day ever!

Here is a book that my mom got for Mother's Day this past year.
Grandma's Girls

I Am A Mother

So you know how you always hear stories from mothers about the time all the kids were sick at the same time and or they have these tales of how hard motherhood. I have not had a ton of those stories. I have had a hard year of health issues....my back was out for four months. That all seemed like nothing compared to what we went through today. Delana and I have been fighting a cold for the last four days, nothing major. Scott worked late last night and when he got home at 11pm Delana heard him come in and woke up. So it took me a few hours to get her wound down and back to bed. Just as I got her down, Maelee came into my bed crying about a toothache. So I was up until 3am with her. And my work day begins at 6am when some kids I tend to come. I actually should not complain about that because Scott let them in this morning and let me sleep. The kids are good about going right back to sleep when they come that early. So we all got a little bit more sleep. I decided to keep Maelee home from school so I could try to get her to the dentist. I knew that there was no way that she could go to school in that much pain. So I dropped my other kids off at school and then started getting ready to get Maelee to the dentist when I noticed Delana looked like she had a golf ball coming out of the side of her neck......What was I supposed to do? Rush Delana to the ER or take Maelee to the dentist. Both of them sick and in pain. So I decided to rush Delana to the ER since I had no idea what that golf ball thing was. So we spent 5 hours at the ER. I had given Maelee some Tylenol but forgot to take it with us and it wore off the last 2 hours at the ER.....The Dr's all thought Maelee was the patient because of her crying until I pointed to Delana and their jaw would drop at the site of her golf ball. It ended up just being her gland swollen from her cold. So we got our medicine and then rushed off to the dentist just to find out that Maelee needs a root canal. They did not have time to do it yet, so we will go back next week. In the meantime she will stay on antibiotics and Tylenol. So the kids will line up for their meds.

So now I have one of those Mother days to always talk about. I can hear myself sharing this story when I am 70 sitting at a baby shower when all the mothers are sharing stories about the joys of motherhood. Atleast I hope this is the only story I will have to tell. I know some mothers have had worse days. And if this is the worst it will get, I will take it!

PS...I did try to take a picture of Delana's golf ball because I knew no one would believe me. But my camera did not have its memory card in it. Scott gave me a hard time for trying to take a picture. He said a normal mother would have just rushed out the door without trying to take a picture. I said a bad mother would have tried hunting down the memory card to get the picture. At least I did not spend the time hunting for the card.....so I am not that bad!!!

Delana's Favorite Part of Her Body

Most kids first body part they learn is their noses and eyes and stuff...not Delana. She loves to rub her belly. She walks around with her shirt up whenever she can she rubbing that big old thing.

Tinker Bell Needs To Cut Back On the Cookies!

I love my Delana. Her nickname has been Bojangles for a while.....I don't know why...it just seem to fit. But lately we have been calling her BoChunkos. She is so chunky! I just want to bite her, she looks so juicy! I love chubby babies! We like things chunky around here.

Maelee's New Clothes

I am a huge clothes horse!!! I am a shopaholic when it comes to buying clothes for myself and especially my girls. But I have been a little under the weather this year and I have not been shopping for them in a while. And something happened that I thought would never happen....we ran out of clothes!!! For the first time I HAD to go clothes shopping for the girls. This is Maelee's favorite outfit. She has asked to wear it everyday! She is so funny. She is hard to shop for because she only likes skirts. No pants. We had a hard time this winter getting her dressed because she wanted to wear skirts all of the time....and short skirts. So I was glad that we could find her a long skirt that she loved.

Maelee and Ahmid

We got new neighbors a couple of months ago. They have a boy the same age as Maelee. They are in the same class at school and quickly became BFFs. You can tell how happy they are by the looks of these pics.

Pictures

I am just going to post some of my favorite pictures from these last few months of the girls and the family.

You are Never too Old to play with Bubble Wrap

I had gotten a package in the mail from my mother. It was a beautiful antique children's piece of furniture. I will be using it as a prop in photography endeavors. Thank you mom.....and my neighbor also thanks you for the bubble wrap in the box. The kids had taken all the bubble wrap from the box and decided to take it out front to play hop scotch on it. Which I think is pretty brilliant of them! Later that day when all the kids were inside I decided that I had better go out before it got dark and pick up all of the bubble wrap. When I went out I discovered my neighbor (which is a grandmother that just moved here from Sudan to help tend to her grandchildren) was sitting on her front porch with the bubble wrap in hand popping it. It was so cute. I ran and got my camera and asked in the best way I could to a women that does not speak any English if I could take her picture. She shook her head yes. This picture lets us know that bubble wrap is fun for all ages!

My First Blog Spot Post

Here I go.....I have been reading other people's blog for a little while now. I tried starting one almost two years ago but stopped after only after a few posts. Hopefully I will be able to stick to this one better. I was inspired to start this by a friend Sabra. She said people need to hear about my cute little family. I had so much fun reading her blog that I thought, "what the heck, I had better start one."

So a little bit about myself for those that have been wondering what I have been up to......
I have two little girls: Delana is 19 months and Maelee is 6 years old. I am married to the love of my life, Scott. We have been living in Northern Virginia for the past four years....wow...four years. I can't believe it. I love it here. I miss Arizona in the winters. But I love the flowers and green of Virginia.

I am lucky to stay at home with my girls. I work out of the home. I have my hand in many things. I have done in home daycare since our first month of living here. I am the neighborhood daycare lady. After four years all my daycare kids are growing up and now I only have kids before and after school. This leaves my schedule during the day free to play with baby Delana and to work on my true passion of STORYBOOKING. I am an independent consultant for Heritage Makers. I help people preserve their precious memories and photos. This business was made for me. We are a perfect match. My life has been so blessed for the past three years because of it. It fits right into all my other hobbies of photography, writing, scrapbooking and helping others.

So I hope I can use this as a tool to show off my girls. And keep in touch with some long lost friends....this is the Zabel's and this is our story! What is your story? Whatever it might be, I can help you write it.