The Dishwasher

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Mdfrisco

On a typical morning, I will unload the dishwasher after we have breakfast. And when Jacob hears the click of me opening the dishwasher, he drops what he is doing and makes a beeline for it.

He loves to help me unload and takes his job very seriously.

I quickly put away the wine glasses and other more fragile, breakable items before he can get to them.

So far nothing has been broken

And he is so happy to help me out around the house these days, can’t wait until he learns how to take out the trash or mop the floors!

Ugh mom…if only I could reach those knives for you all the way in the back

Moving on to the top rack

Another activity that Jacob likes to do everyday (sometimes multiple times a day) is rearrange the pantry.

He empties boxes of crackers and puts other items back inside the empty box. Things on the bottom shelf end up on the middle shelf or the other way around. It makes it interesting when I go to look for something in the pantry that is not in its usual spot. But hey, who knew shaking containers of rice or even driving a can of diced tomatoes across the floor like a car could be so much fun!

There is a reason I included this on the dishwasher post. On this particular day while rearranging the pantry, Jacob thought that the soup cans would be better off in the dishwasher.

He spent quite some time arranging them so they fit just right

And he is pretty proud of his hard work

And letting him play in the pantry sometimes ends up like this…

Guess we are having pasta for dinner!

A day in the life (part 2)

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Mdfrisco

When Jacob was 4 months old, I did a post about some things we would do throughout the day (by the way, I looked back on this post and omigosh (!) I had forgotten what a little chunky monkey he was!!) Almost a year later at almost 15 months old, those activities have obviously changed dramatically. His toys only keep him busy for a short time and when we are not headed out the door somewhere, I find myself having to get creative to keep Jacob entertained when at home. He has really started taking an interest in what I am doing, so household chores have become his favorite thing to “help” me with.

For example, doing laundry…When I run the washing machine and sort the laundry, he likes to “help” me put clothes in different piles, and he will also sort his own balls, pieces of his train tracks, and other various toys into the laundry basket, so I have to be careful that I don’t toss a toy in with a load! When the clothes are clean and ready to go in the dryer, Jacob likes to help me load them in.

After I check to make sure he didn’t toss a toy in when I wasn’t looking, I tell him it is time to close the door and he makes a beeline for the back of the door.

And with one strong push, he swings the door.

Sometimes he needs a second push to ensure it is really closed.

And after he gives himself a round of applause for a job well done, I push the start button and he puts his hand on the dryer to feel the vibration.

Once the load is dry, he likes to help me hang the clothes up. We have a basket that we keep our unused hangers in (because I really don’t like unused hangers taking up space in my closet). So he sits on the bed and takes all the hangers out of the basket

Then he hands them to me

And if I don’t take it from him right away and tell him thank you, he gets mad

After he has given me all the hangers, he likes to put them all back into the basket.

He loves the basket of hangers and it is one of his favorite things to play with whether or not we are doing laundry.

When Jacob does actually play with his toys, his favorite ones are the ones that make music so he can boogie along to the tune and anything that he can stack up, knock down and put things inside of and take things out. So we have a lot of nesting toys, balls, shape sorters and toys that play music. He is so proud of himself when he fits something through the shape sorters or he delights in piling everything into a bucket and then dumping it out or finding a ball that will fit into a cup just right. It is pretty cool to watch him figure these things out. I have a bag of balls that we used at his birthday party and one day I got a bunch of them out and gave them to Jacob with a muffin pan.

He was delighted that he found something new that the balls fit perfectly into. And he would fill up the muffin pan with balls and then look at me with a big grin and clap his hands.

Now the novelty of it has worn off, but Justin showed him the art of throwing the balls in hopes that it lands in one of the muffin pan holes. I guess it would be the baby version of beer pong! So now we have these balls all over our floor from Jacob throwing them across the room.

The one thing that has not changed from the daily activities we do are our walks.

All 3 of us enjoy getting out of the house, getting some fresh air, enjoying the beautiful weather San Diego has to offer and the exercise (at least for Apollo and I)

Jacob likes to kick back, relax and eat his snacks…Apollo has gotten pretty good at catching whatever Jacob throws out of the stroller.

Aside from playing with toys, walks and household chores, we have been keeping ourselves busy with getting together with other moms & kids, storytime at the library, running errands, daily walks to the park and we’ve been meeting with some MOM’s groups to get to know some new people and find new activities to do. Every day is a little different and we are keeping ourselves busy!

Stay tuned for more about Jacob’s favorite things to do…I’ve been taking the pictures, now I just need to get them on here!

Hat party

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Jacob used to be so good about wearing hats, or at least he never minded when I put one on him and he never tried to take it off. Until…about 9 months old, that all changed. He decided he no longer wanted to wear any hats. The second I put one on him he immediately takes it off. We have some really cute hats for him that I was dying for him to wear. Nope!

So hoping this is just a phase, I took a little break from the hats and decided to give it some time before I tried again. We keep his cowboy hat that he got from Grandpa on the lamp next to the changing table, so after picking him up from the changing table he often points at the hat so I will put it on him and he immediately takes it off and hands it to me. So I put it on myself and that usually gets a giggle out of him. This scenario is repeated all day long as many times as I change him. So in hopes to get Jacob to wear a hat again I decided to start having a hat parties!

We sit down in front of a mirror and get a few hats of mine and Jacob’s out on the floor and put them on.

When I put one on him, there is a split second where he looks at himself in the mirror

Then the hat comes off…

and he usually hands it to me

So I end up wearing all the hats…Jacob thinks it is pretty funny

There’s a short story in Shel Silverstein’s book, A Light in the Attic, about a man who wears many hats who meets a man who has as many heads. I think of that story every time we do this.

ooops! Gotta hurry up and take this one off!

So I guess this summer I will be slathering his head with sunblock when we go to the beach or the pool. And yes, I’ve tried the ones that tie around the neck, those don’t work either.

Engagement fun

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Mdfrisco

When I was a little girl we lived in Bermuda Dunes. To the right of our house was an empty lot then to the right of the lot was another house. When I was two years old, the Feldstein family moved into that house. They had a little boy Aaron who was 12 days older than me and a little girl Arianne who was a couple years older. Our families became close friends. A few years went by and we moved into a new house in Palm Desert and the Feldstein’s moved shortly after just a few houses down the street. All those years growing up together, I have so many fun memories of Christmas parties with Santa Claus, Halloween parties,

boating weekends at the river

and just every day hanging out being kids.

(not sure why we were not too happy in that last picture!)

After graduating high school and moving away we kind of lost touch. Then at one point we were all living in San Diego and Aaron and I were both at SDSU, he was part of the fraternity that my husband was in and we would see each other occasionally at parties. Then he moved to New York to pursue his education and career in sports journalism. We would see each other at weddings and on some occasions when he came to San Diego to visit and when we went to New York on vacation. Every time we saw each other we would check in with each other and see how the family was doing and what everyone was up to.

The reason for this post (and trip down memory lane) is Aaron is now engaged! To a really great girl, Sarah. I first met Sarah when we were in New York a couple of years ago. And during the couple of hours we all spent together in a bar one night, I remember thinking, I really like her. I’m not sure how serious they were at the time, but I did remember thinking that they would be great together. So we are thrilled that they are getting married!

To celebrate the occasion Arianne and their mom Jennifer hosted a party. I was excited to go and see them as well as all the other family and friends who I had not seen in years!

Including the Rothblatt family

Arianne has 3 kids and there were lots of other kids there, which was great since there were plenty of toys and other kids for Jacob to play with. He stuck close to Arianne’s youngest girl, Marlowe and his buddy Brock.

And let me tell you he played hard, about 2 minutes into the car ride home, he was fast asleep.

It was a really nice party. It was good to see Aaron so happy, to catch up with Arianne and meet her husband and kids and to share a big hug with Jennifer! I knew I couldn’t do this post without sharing some old photos and I am glad I had a few, I only wish I had my mom’s photo albums because I know there are so, so many more there.

It is kind of crazy to see the three of us here

And to see where we are all at now

Wonder where we will be 20 years from now?

Congrats Aaron and Sarah, we are so happy for you!

Three lovely ladies

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Mdfrisco

I couldn’t pick just a couple of these to include in my last post of favorites, there are just too many that I love, so this one gets its own post. A friend of mine asked me if I would take some pictures of her and her two daughters. She said it had been years since they have done any kind of professional pictures together. Of course I was excited to do it and we started tossing around ideas of where to go. Then one day I got a text from her that said “I know the perfect place!” There is a park nearby that has beautiful views all the way to the ocean. She goes there sometimes to pray during quiet time so the location had a special meaning. I love going to new locations for pictures since it gives me a new challenge and a new look to my pictures.

Honestly, if you ask me, this doesn’t look like a mom with her two daughters…they look like 3 sisters!

Brandy wanted some pictures to reflect what they are doing at this time in life and a typical night a home looks something like this.

Brandy can always be found working on her computer while Nadia works on her dancing and J’Lyn is rocking out to her music.

Nadia is an incredibly talented dancer and she showed me just a few of her moves

J’Lyn let loose and showed me her spunky side while listening to her favorite tunes

Brandy has done a wonderful job raising such beautiful girls

What was especially fun for me was, how excited the girls were about taking pictures, and they had fun with it. I am so used to taking pictures of families with really young kids and it is definitely more of a challenge since they may not want to sit still, or look at the camera let alone smile. I love doing it, it just takes a lot more patience and energy. These girls made it so easy.

“Photography is the beauty of life, captured” – Tara Chisholm

Just some favorites

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Mdfrisco

With the craziness of the holidays, travels, Jacob’s birthday and the fact that he is only napping once a day now, my time to sort through pictures and blog them is even more limited than before. I am still taking lots of pictures but it takes a while before they are downloaded from my camera, let alone posted here. So I am playing a little bit of catch up…The few months before the holidays I was pretty busy in my little photography world since it was the season to get pictures done for Christmas Cards, there were also babies being born and birthdays to celebrate. Rather than doing a post for each photo shoot I did, I am just going to share a few of my favorites.

First up was my one of my favorite families, The White family.

We went to the Los Peñasquitos Ranch House. I really like this location for the old buildings and nature setting. If you go at the right time of day the sun coming through the trees is magical. Little girls playing in the background of the photo is pretty magical too!

I also did the Wisbach family at the same location.

These kids were so much fun to work with

I was impressed with how willing they were to have their pictures taken and how well they listened to their parents

Good job mom and dad!

Then it was on to the Ford Family to capture their sweet Kennedy’s first birthday.

They live on the bay so we walked down to their backyard onto the sand for pictures

Kennedy was one of those early walkers, so she was a pro at the walking thing at the time of this photo shoot and that was all she wanted to do. I remember being sore the next day from chasing her around!

And my cousin added a second sweet little girl to her family

I love the time I get to spend with friends, family and even people I don’t know that well during these photo shoots. I know I still have a lot to learn, especially in the editing process, but the more practice I get the more I learn about my hobby. I am thankful for all my friends and family who let me practice on them and refer me to people who are looking for a someone to take pictures for them. Sometimes after looking at the pictures I took, I am disappointed that they didn’t come out as good as I hoped, sometimes I am surprised at a shot that I got and other times, I am so excited to share them with my client because I know they will love them as much as I do. Truly what it comes down to for why I love taking pictures is capturing memories.

“Time will never stand still and those moments that bring us such joy become memories in an instant. To capture such a moment and record it forever is truly monumental.”

– Joshua Atticks

The Children’s Museum

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Mdfrisco

I’ve wanted to go check out the Children’s Museum for a long time, so while Grandma was here last week, we did!

There are lots of different play areas and rooms with a theme and everything is hands on and kid friendly.

We played with stacking blocks made from mushrooms, we blew bubbles with homemade pipe cleaner rings (which Jacob loved). There was a play area specifically designed for younger kids where we spent most of our time.

There were lots of balls in this room and that is one of Jacob’s favorite things to play with

Then there was a “sliced orange” that was a never ending cycle of pick up the balls, put them through the holes and pick them up again…we could have stayed there for hours!

We also made our way through the bounce house twice before the older, rowdy kids took over and bounced Jacob out!

If you are ever downtown and need a fun place to entertain your kid, check it out!

Another fun thing about Grandma coming to visit is she gets those cute (and someday will be embarrassing) bath time photos 🙂

Jacob LOVES his bath, even during the day if the door is open, he will crawl up to the bathtub and turn around and look at me (like he is in the picture below) as if he is saying, can we take a bath now??

bath 1ed

Thanks for a fun few days Grandma!

San Diego gems

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Grandma was in town for a few days last week and we didn’t waste a single minute while she was here. Aside from our usual stroller walks, errands and park playdates, we spent time enjoying some of the perks of living in San Diego. First up, the beach!

It was a little bit cooler than the last few times we were at the beach, but there was still sand to play with, waves to chase, rocks to pick up and lots of ground to cover and burn energy before nap time!

Another San Diego gem we took advantage of is the Zoo!

We were entertained by rolling & swinging monkeys, swimming hippos, sleeping bears

and sleeping Koala bears

Jacob’s favorite exhibit is the zebra and donkey, every time he is mesmerized by them!

We saw lots of birds and ducks and we learned that male flamingos walk around with their neck stretched out to attract the females attention.

It is fun to do these things with Jacob now that he is a little older and he takes an interest in what he is seeing. Before going anywhere was just an excuse for me to get out of the house and rejoin society, but now it is such a fun learning experience for Jacob and I love watching him take in the new sights and sounds.

More coming soon!

The Party

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Mdfrisco

When trying to decide what to do for Jacob’s first birthday party, we kept going back and forth on where to have it. There are so many great parks in our neighborhood but it being January we didn’t want to take our chances just in case the San Diego winter weather decided to drop below 65 and actually produce some rain. And our house just is not big enough to host all the people we invited. So I asked my Aunt and Uncle who live in Oceanside if we could have the party at their house. They said yes, with the location secured, the party planning mode was in full force.

We decided to go with an Olympic theme since the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia were starting just a few weeks later (actually I am watching the Olympics as I work on this post). We ordered gold medals and temporary tattoos of the Olympic rings. I went on Pinterest to get ideas for decor and made some Olympic torches out of candle sticks and tissue paper. I have some friends who are creating a business of putting together packages of paper decorative items for parties, they made us some Team USA signs and Olympic themed cupcake toppers.We got cupcakes in the colors of the Olympic rings and I had every intention of arranging them in circles like the actual Olympic rings to be served. But the moment was kind of crazy and that didn’t happen, but hey at least they tasted good!

Another idea that I found on Pinterest was a chalkboard that lists things about your child that you could purchase from a company who would personalize it for you. We have a few chalkboards in our house that we write sayings, verses, draw pictures, etc… on so we already had some colorful chalkboard paint markers and I found a big chalkboard at Marshalls all we had to do was get our creative juices flowing and make our own. It was two nights before the party and it took Justin, me and my mom 2.5 hours to do this with three differences in opinions (and all 3 of us are perfectionists) and two bottles of wine! It was definitely one of those nights that I will never forget. We were excited, frustrated and laughing the entire time. In the end I am pretty impressed with how it came out!

It says JACOB at the top and My First Birthday underneath.
19.12 lbs and 30.25 inches.
4 teeth.
I LOVE: The Dog (tag, tail, toys), Bath Time, Climbing Stiars, Touchdown, Oh No, Dancing, Hide and Seek, Walks, Peek-a-booFAVORITE:
Books: Tickle Me and Little Blue Truck
Song: Jesus loves me
Foods: Pancakes, Cheese, Zuchinni, Avocado, Peaches
First Word: Doggie

A little over 60 people filled my Aunt and Uncle’s yard. Of course it was a gorgeous San Diego day and we are so blessed to have have so many wonderful friends and family to celebrate Jacob with us. I am thankful that my mom took on the task of taking pictures, I was so busy visiting and if she hadn’t done that then I would have maybe 3 pictures of the whole day.

Then it was time for Jacob to have his birthday cake!

After we got Jacob cleaned up from the chocolate and blue frosting the party continued…

Then my cousin’s girlfriend surprised the little girls with some face painting

They were so captivated watching her work

Even little Riley got in on the fun!

Thank you to all those who celebrated with us! We missed those who could not come and Jacob is so lucky to have such wonderful people in his life. Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!

Christmas (part two)

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Mdfrisco

We spent the second part of our Christmas at Justin’s parents house. After unloading the car, Jacob was ready to open more gifts.

One thing that I love to capture in photography is creating some good bokeh (the intentional use of creating blur or haze in the background). You know those beautiful pictures you see where the round refection from the light, there is an art to it and it takes practice (and the right lens) to capture some good bokeh. One fantastic way to play around with bokeh is using the light from a Christmas tree.

Their tree was beautifully decorated and low to the ground so it made a great backdrop.

I just love that little reindeer butt!

Again daddy came to the rescue to put together the toys

Later, it was time for Jacob’s dinner. Justin’s parents found this great wooden highchair that we use when we go to their house.

When he finished dinner and was munching on a teething cookie, I couldn’t resist getting my camera and capturing Jacob in the highchair with the Christmas tree in the background. The bokeh was just perfect.

With a full tummy, Jacob went back to opening gifts. Papa J and Nonnie got him this great Nativity scene.

He spent a lot of time “rearranging” the placement of the characters in the scene.

Not wanting to be left out, Apollo creeped under the tree to get into the action

We had a great Christmas and enjoyed all our time with family. When we got home, we had a couple days to get settled back into our routine and we celebrated New Years Eve with some neighbors. Then we were in full planning mode for Jacob’s birthday party, those pictures are coming up next.

The Frisco Project

Adventures in life, pregnancy, friendships, family & a little photography