Our Fourth of July - Instagram Style

In Which My Kid's Stage a Murder Scene

Otherwise known as "I don't make the news, I just report it."

I can't really explain this picture to you. I don't know why the toy car is turned over, I suppose it was involved in a wreck. I don't know why Barbie is a) naked and b) lying there at Maddie's feet. Speaking of Maddie's feet, I don't know why she is lying under the tree house climber. I also don't know why James is looming above them - but I do know his shadow looks so menacing because the sun was really, really bright that day.

All I do know is that I had to take a picture. And that the picture is best presented in black and white.

Having Way Too Much Fun With Instagram

Today is the last day to enter my CSN Stores giveaway!

I am loving the free iPhone app Instagram! I downloaded it a week or so ago and I am having way too much fun with it!

You can take pictures (or select from your library), add fun filters, and share to your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, Posterous, and Foursquare all at once, individually, or in any combination you choose. I mostly share to Twitter and Facebook. You also have an Instagram stream of all of your shared photos, and can follow and comment on other's streams. In case you want to follow my stream, my user name is - wait for it, it's a shocker: narniamum.

The filters are all super cute, most of them with a vintage feel.

You can magically transport your kids to the 1970s . . .

Make any photo look artsy . . .

Make girl's night drinks look as good as they taste . . .

Make your every day life look postcard worthy . . .

(In-N-Out, yums)

Have you tried Instagram? Are you having as much fun as I am?

Crossing Things Off My List

I have been wanting to submit my manuscript to an agent for awhile. I sent it off to a few publishing houses that accept unsolicited submissions earlier this year with no success, and I thought why not see if the agent route would work better for me? If I think my manuscript is worthy of publication, then shouldn't I think it is worthy of having someone other than me fight for it?

So I did my research and found an agent I am interested in and I have sent it off via cyberspace. I totally unduly stress myself out over these things . . . I want everything to be 1000% perfect and so I get all tweaked, and I am sure I annoy all of my friends and family. I received a very nice auto response saying:

"Thanks for your submission, if we want your stuff we'll let you know, if you don't hear from us in six weeks then go jump off a cliff."

. . . ok, that isn't really what it said.

I suppose I shall use the next six weeks to research other agents I feel might be a good fit for me, because the odds are that the first agent will say no . . . actually they won't even say it, they just won't ever email me back.

I realize these are the odds, but even so I will probably react like this at the end of six weeks when my email box is sad and lonely and empty:

Isn't this an awesome photo? It's one of my "sneak peeks" from the photo shoot the babies did with Marisa a few months ago. Doesn't Maddie look as if she should be sitting in the middle of war-torn Sarajevo or somewhere equally awful? But she's not. She's sitting on a trolley track in Glendale. I suppose as a mom I should look at this photo and say "awww poor baby," but I don't. I look at it and laugh hysterically.

Here is our sneak peek of James from the same session. Notice he is not screaming. He's just standing about looking beautiful. That's pretty much how James handles getting his picture taken . . . it's sort of like "well of course you are taking my picture, why wouldn't you?"

Agent submissions aside, I am horribly behind on the rest of my life due to this whole working for a living thing. If you are waiting for a package in the mail from me, I promise they are all going out Friday . . . Saturday at the latest. Really . . . I promise.

Cuteness overload

Two January goals down so far!  I had a garage sale this weekend before our huge week long rain storms hit.  I got rid of some stuff and managed to make a little money.  Still have a ton of stuff to get rid of, so we might have a second sale this weekend if the rain lets up.  Today we went to Target and got some official pictures of the babies!  They wore their Christmas outfits from Uncle Andy and we did some winter theme pictures as we didn't get any professional Christmas shots.  We also got some baby style pictures taken of James, and let me tell you - he is a ham!  Every picture was great, which makes it so hard to choose.  Every time the photographer called him handsome he would pose and smile!  I think I have a future entertainer on my hands!

Winter Pictures

My sweet Maddie princess, I honestly don't think she could be cuter

Look at this grin!  The gorgeous white blanket was made by my Mom.

Mommy is not going to fixate on the random piece of hair falling onto Maddie's forehead, really, I am not . . .

I love this picture because it looks like Maddie is sharing with her brother, and she often does, it just might not be quite true in this particular case

Jamie's Six Month Pictures

This blue blanket was also made by my Mom.  

You gotta love the chub!

I feel very accomplished that I have crossed two things off my list!  I have a few more in progress as well, so yay me!