Rachel Kate Photography Blog

Morning!

Never thought that I would get to write this post about a new baby in our family that is of the girl variety! We NEVER get girls. We only get boys and they are all real cute but it always made me sad to think about the fact that I will never have a little girl to buy ruffle bum tights for or to take to get her nails done when she’s a little older. I have always wanted a girl baby and to be wicked cool Auntie Rachel who takes her shopping and buys her sparkly tiaras just cuz it’s Tuesday.

We got one!! My sister and brother in law were kind enough to give us a sweet baby girl just the other day and I am head over heels in love with her. Isla has SIX older cousins and brothers to watch over her for her whole life and I have a feeling she might get a little bit spoiled.  This angel is Pat and Jessie’s 4th baby, and while this is a concept that I simply CANNOT wrap my brain around, I am very happy for them. They are blessed with four happy, healthy children and they know it.

Just as a funny side note..the other day I took a picture of her and posted it on Facebook with the caption “Our Sweet Isla Girl”. I also tagged Pat and Jess but by the number of likes it got and my random high school classmates who were liking it and who had NO IDEA who Pat and Jessie were, I feel like I may have given the impression that I went ahead and gave top secret birth to a baby girl named Isla.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa.

*Whew* That’s pretty funny, huh?

Anyway. Here is our little princess..the apple of all of our eyes right now.

She looks JUST like Jessie.

I love this. She slept for most of the time we visited. But she gave me a little pirate smile here… ANd just a quick little dance move here. Exactly like her mom… Such a pretty little thing… My beautiful Jess.

Love you little girl. I promise I will be your best friend..the aunt you come to when you can’t tell your parents what stupid thing you did and I will let you drive without a permit and stuff like that. And we will BOTH wear tiaras on Tuesdays for no reason at all.

xo, Auntie Rachel

Morning!

So, I have been thinking lately about the finite amount of time we have here on this planet and the things that take up my precious time that are just not worth doing.  I think about and add to this list periodically throughout the day as I try and figure out how to put off doing anything that will require me to exert more energy than I feel comfortable exerting.  Which, let’s be real here, isn’t that much. I thought I might share that with you today. Mostly with the hopes of getting a comment here and there from people standing up in lazy solidarity with me.

1) I have recently surrendered to matching and folding and putting away socks. I’m done. They won. They have been trying to bring me down from the very first day that I had other people’s laundry than my own to deal with and I am not too proud to admit defeat.  There are not enough minutes in the world and breaths in my body for me to fight this battle anymore. I don’t even wear socks. Like ever.  I am done losing time trying to match up 700 pairs of all black socks and finding the appropriate drawer homes for them. Done. I now take any socks that feel it a good idea not to lose themselves in my washing machine and I throw them in a mismatched pile in the corner of Aidan’s room where all the black sock wearing people in my family can go to find coverage for their feet. At some point I might even get a basket or something, because while this has eliminated aggravation from my life, it doesn’t look all that good. But for now? They sit in a smug little pile right there in the corner of the room and sometimes I walk by and give them the finger.

2) Making my bed. Honestly. I can’t think of a bigger time waster. It is just dumb to make a bed every morning that you have to unmake every night when you lie down. Stupid.  Yes, my room could look neater if my bed was made, but seriously, how many people are upstairs hanging out in my room? Besides Princess Missy the Wonder Dog the answer to that is none. I am in there to sleep. IN MY BED. So making is just redundant, in my opinion. I don’t do it. And I don’t feel bad. And I don’t require it of my children.

3) Folding fitted sheets. Besides the fact this this whole concept is just an impossibility, I can think of no other more futile task. I roll them and smash them into a manageable size and shove them into my linen closet and that’s the end of that.

4) I have recently given up wasting seconds on trying to shove my kid’s foot in his sneakers. That little shoe putting on ship has sailed.  The sheer amount of energy I have to exert trying to wrangle his lazy foot into an Air Jordan while he sits slack jawed and open mouthed watching Bey Blades on the television as the bus is making it’s way down my street and I am beginning to sweat and occasionally swear, is ridiculous. I won’t stop tying them. Because by tying them I spare myself the intense, maniacal frustration that comes seeping out of me while watching my future member of Mensa try to master the fine art of shoelace tying at the pace of an elderly snail while the bus is honking at the end of our driveway. So what if he just learned to tie his shoes in the 3rd grade? So. What. That kid can make PALACES in MineCraft and that has to count for something, right?

5) Getting angry about the Hanger Game that Eric plays every day. I am done getting myself worked up and therefore wasting time out of my life stewing about it. I have instead decided to find it endearing, the way that he hangs his shirt hanger on a different hanging apparatus every day. What will it be today? On the chandelier in the dining room (his fave)? On the tall pantry cabinet in my kitchen so when I open that cabinet to get out the cereal it clatters to the ground and I have to pick it up and find a proper home for it before I even have my coffee (the proper home in my head being somewhere in the vicinity of Eric’s eyeball)? On the freezer door? Or maybe in some creative place like the shower head? NEVER do they appear in the closet in the dining room where all their other friends live. Never there.  But it’s cool. Cuz I’m cool with it. I’m so fine with it that ‘m not even going to talk about it any more.

6) Reffing my kids. Over it. Silly little rabbits think I still care and will still take time out of my life to listen to their petty disagreements. Over it. No longer spending seconds of my life listening to that nonsense when those same seconds could be used to play Scramble with my sister or watch something on Bravo. This is what I say when one of them comes up to me to tattle on the other one..” What about me makes you think I CARE about what you are saying right now. I don’t. Not even a tiny bit. Move on.”

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

7) Spending any more time feeling guilty for drinking soda which is supposedly the single most horrible thing you can ingest into your body. Life is short. And soda is delicious. And that is all there is to it.

8. Not going to waste away precious minutes seething over the jackasses on Facebook that make me certifiable. You know who you are, you overly political hate spewers, you “woe is me” cryptic status updaters, you inflated sense of self ego maniacs who are so incredibly shameless in your self love and feel the need to post it so that a whole bunch of mindless “friends” can agree with you, you just plain weird self portrait takers. I am going to hide your asses and spend less time letting you take up space in my brain. Deeeeeeep breathhhhhh. Let it goooooooooooo.

9) Trying to convince myself that there are a million different versions of me, the photographer, the mother, the daughter, the wife, the friend that are just waiting to be met with a boundless potential that I just haven’t tapped into yet. I do not want to spend more time beating myself up and envisioning the other, skinnier more ambitious and patient version of me that I may never aspire to. I want to be cool with me and spend seconds instead thinking about how I can be nice to other people instead of being mean to myself. I think pretty much every woman I know should join me on this one.

I am sure I could think of a 10th time saver but instead I am going to move on to why you are really here today. You TOTALLY want to see a baby in a basket. I know you do. So I am not going to make you wait any longer.

Ah! Nicolas is RIDICULOUS baby that my former couple Stephanie and Peter made. OMG. I miss him. I WANT him. He is the happiest little soul…such a charmer. I don’t even think he could fake being in a bad mood because he just finds being happy so very enjoyable. It was SO great to see Steph and Peter again (these two make it clear why Nicolas is so beautiful) and our session was BEYOND a pleasure.

This is my EXACT expression when I wake to find out there are no K Cups in the cabinet. C’mon Nicolas. That expression on the right? Too much. Hard day at work. Are they not all gorgeous?? Can’t deal. Stephanie is so beautiful. I love this picture. Um. Sorry, Steph. But Peter is kind of beautiful, too. Gak! Overload. Can’t. Stand. Him. STOP IT!!!

 

Thank you SO much guys. It was SO great to see you and I am in love with your kid.

xo, Rachel

Good morning!

Completely digging this dark rainy day. I got nothing besides editing pictures and organizing some stuff on my plate. The organization part will be minimal, I can assure you.  I will also spend more of the day than I should trying to talk myself out of going on the treadmill, avoiding taking the dry clothes out of the dryer and putting  the wet ones in, feeling chubby and marveling over how it is EVEN POSSIBLE for my yoga pants to be tight and make me feel like a moo cow when their whole implicit purpose is to make one feel comfy and content  and at some point I will go to the store to buy wine to drink tonight. These are my ambitious plans. I could not be happier.

Want to meet Connor? I wish I could call him my boyfriend. I would like nothing more than to talk to you about the mutual admiration we had for each other upon meeting for the first time. Sadly, I cannot, because that admiration was fully one sided and he, if he was even aware that he had arms and hands and little fists, would have probably used them to punch me in the nose. He is the BEAUTIFUL little guy made by a couple of my favorite people, Kara and Pete. I shot their wedding a couple of years ago and I can tell you, there is nothing that makes me happier than when I hear from one of my former brides a few months before she is due to set up pictures for a baby who isn’t even here yet. It warms my heart in ways that I can’t even explain. I had been waiting to see who Kara and Pete would make and was so happy I heard that baby Connor had arrived. Kara and her mom brought him down for his shoot and he decided upon arrival that he kind of didn’t want to be friends with me. He was good. I think he might already have enough friends or something…I am trying not to take it personally. He is so cute (even if he was real mad at me that day) and he looks just like his dad. We got some pics at the studio and then I went and visited them at their house a week or so later to see if Connor had warmed up to the idea of sitting still for half a second. Eh. I wouldn’t say he warmed up to the idea but I was able to fool him for a bit to snap a few more before he realized that he wasn’t moving.  Getting to have two visits with my Kara in under two weeks  was awesome and even though he made us work a bit, I couldn’t be happier to have met the little prince.

I like his “fight the corporate power” pose on the left.  Isn’t he real cute?

This just makes me laugh. Because what I think he is doing is laughing AT me…“Oh..silly photographer lady…you think you are a match for me???” Love Kara.  Gah! I outsmarted him here. How BEAUTIFUL is he?? Could he look less amused by me? Doubt it.

Congratulations Kara and Pete! He is awesome. and I swear I won’t hold his hating my guts against him. Kara..you are such a good mom..I couldn’t be happier for you.

xo, Rachel

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

Jeeze. It has been a MINUTE since I have last posted to you guys! We went on a family vacation to Disney. Which was very enjoyable, although not quite as MAGICAL, as I remembered Disney being the last time we went. I think one magic filled vacation to the happiest place on Earth is quite enough for anyone. I am so glad we went back before Aidan enters pre-teenhood and decides that being seen with us is equivalent to going to school naked, but if I am being honest, the thought of ever having to go to Magic Kingdom again sends shivers down my spine. Sea World, on the other hand…was AWESOME and Jameson and I have been trying to figure out the possible chances of adopting a sea lion and having it live in our hot tub out back. We realize that a killer whale would be much too big for the tub, and that either and otter or a sea lion is our best bet for any marine mammal at our house so we are actively perusing the dream of donning our own fancy wetsuits and feeding fish to a sea lion who can do tricks for us on command on our back deck.

I will let you know how it goes.

Of course, because we are the Griswald’s, we were gone for the big, giant blizzard and scheduled to come home the day that it hit. We got to add an extra day to our time in sunny Florida, so it wasn’t a bad thing but it is just so typical of us and traveling. My poor brother and sister in law went with us on our trip, unaware that we have a traveling curse that hangs quietly over our heads and ended up having to stay 3 extra days down there. Poor things. I suppose I could have warned them that they were essentially doomed before they committed to coming with us, but I didn’t. And if I am being completely honest, I found it rather enjoyable to watch the way they tried to hang on to their flight home and them the subsequent nose dive of expectation when they figured out that by waiting to change flights they had to stay 3 extra days. This doesn’t make me the nicest of people, but by that point I had spent a lot of time standing in lines and bumping into people and yelling at my kids to stop fighting and I was at the end of my patient, nice rope. The drama of the flights was a welcome change to reffing my kids and to I took enjoyment out of it. I just did.

When we got back I planned to blog and get right back to it all. But, because I am me, instead I spent over a week trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with my computer which was infected or something with some sort of virus that affected ONLY the programs I needed to work. Obviously. So, instead of rejoining you here with some cute baby pictures I spent the better part of a week and a half stressing on my couch and avoiding my computer all together. I have had most of the issues worked out finally, thank God, and so today I will show you some baby pictures after all.

And also, since it is all about honesty here today, I got sucked into and basically abducted by Downton Abbey and I slipped into some sort of weird depression like state where the only place I was happy was on my couch watching the lives of the Crowleys unfold before my very eyes. It got borderline obsessive as I was starting to talk with a high class English accent in my head and literally dreamed at night about living in an Abby and getting really, fancy dressed up for dinner every night. I am finally caught up with all of them and so I am released from my Downton Abbey vice and can now face the world again.

OK…so, now that the baby who I have been waiting to share with you is now 16 and just got her driver’s license I will finally show you her newborn pics that I took 16 years ago,

This is little Aurelia. The perfect little baby girl of my friend, and former bride, Alyson. Her big brother Eamon, who is still very much a baby himself, came with his sister to visit me right before I left for vacation. Alyson makes really adorable babies, that’s pretty much all there is to it.

Soooo pretty.

Eamon is very smart.  And freaking adorable.

 

 

Congratulations Alyson and Eamon. She is prefect. Sorry that you didn’t get these pictures until she was ready to leave for college.

xo, Rachel

 

Hello there!

I thought that I would share with you some truths this morning. I feel like it has been a significant amount of time since I last questioned and/or bitched about the love of my life and I also feel like since I am safe and secure in knowing that he doesn’t read my blog and I have spent the last 5 days within 20 feet of him I can report some truth telling to you this cold, winter morning.

1. This one I came up with this weekend after yet ANOTHER mysterious registry of motor vehicles fiasco (because incidents like we (read: HIM) had this past weekend occur on much too regular a basis with car insurance, the RMV, and the cable company, etc and are always a MYSTERY with blame pointed at the inaccurate information that he consistently receives from people that are supposed to know the EXACT answers that you are calling to ask them). I am pretty proud of it, actually. It is a simple truth and it goes like this. “THINK harder and make life easier”. Simple words of wisdom, but if he just lived this way his/our life would be smoooooth sailing so much more of the time. Just think a little harder on a day to day basis. Because, if I am being truthful, there are times I wonder how he finds his car in our driveway most mornings. Just think HARDER, baby. A little bit harder and life could be much less irritating.

2. There is no real reason, not one that I have yet to come up with yet and I have been thinking long and hard about this for the past 11 years or so, that a person can’t put their dirty dinner plate IN the dishwasher instead of on the counter top directly ABOVE the dishwasher. Nope. No real reason at all and yet he does this. ALL. THE. TIME.

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While I strongly believe that there is no real REASON for this there HAS to be some sort of twisted thought process that is to blame and other than some underlying, subconscious or even conscious need to drive me up a wall and back every morning, I can’t figure it out.

3, I will never, ever, never, ever, care about what his story is in the bathroom. Never. Unless he somehow morphs into my first newborn baby. Then I will care.  Until then this information needs to be kept to one’s self. This is a truth above all truths and I don’t know why he ever feels like anything surrounding this topic would warrant conversation. It doesn’t. This same truth goes for all of the other men living in this house as well.

4. The coffee isn’t that hot. Don’t slurp it. Because it makes me want to take the mug out of his hand and slam it against the side of his head until he stops slurping.

5. He isn’t sick. HE JUST ISN’T.  That is all I really have to say about that.

6. Mowing the lawn three months out of the year will NEVER measure up to going food shopping and making dinner on a year round basis. We are not equals when it comes to this and when there is whining about having to change a light bulb in the middle of January the visual of me tearing my own hair out is the only picture in my head. Also, since we have global warming to thank there has been no winter outside upkeep to maintain so putting the clothes in the dryer once in a while wouldn’t kill anyone (specifically HIM). **this being said the guy does rub my feet on command and will go get me candy whenever I ask…for those reasons I will do the laundry and food shopping without complaint..besides the one I just wrote (and, let’s be honest, the ones I will mutter at a just barely audible decibel as I am walking by him with a basket full of clean clothes while he watches Bamazon on TV)..because it is kind of funny and it is a truth…**

7. Talking while I am watching any Real Housewives, or anything on Bravo for that matter, is unnecessary. And the attitude I get when I say “Shhhhhhhh” is also unnecessary. Zippa the lippa, big guy.

8.  Just because a pot or a pan was used for dinner prep does not mandate it to be left soaking in the sink for 24 hours or until I come along and can’t stand to look at it any more. Sometimes, yes, a pan can use a soak. But not ALL the time EVERY time. Wash it. Godddammit, WASH THE THING, it won’t kill you.

9. I love him. This is the most basic truth. He makes me laugh every day and there simply isn’t a way I could live without him. He is my other half.

The half of me that has the single handed ability to make me want to bang my head off of hard things all of the time.

Whew…that feels better.

Why don’t I get right to my little Jack point since I feel all vented and now can move on with my day.

My good friends, Tom and Tricia just keep having baby boys. Like, it seems like they are having a baby boy once a month.  They have my good friend Thomas, my new favorite two year old Seamus and now they have to most beautiful little boy ever, Jack.  All of these people make me happy…all of those baby boys are so lucky to have Tom and Tricia..they are awesome parents and make having 3 under 4 look easy. Well, that is a lie. Nothing could make that look easy, but at least they didn’t look like they wanted to run for the hills when I came to visit and I find that quite impressive.

Honest to God. Look at this baby!! All of their kids look so different from one another. This one has a tan.

He also has a wonderful sense of humor and he likes me very much.

So damn cute. The expressions on Tommy and Seamus kill me. This was Seamus putting on his best moves. They totally worked and he is now my boyfriend This was when I told Jack it was just about time for me to wrap it up. He wasn’t psyched. Understandably. .

 

 

Congratulations you guys!! Just another perfect boy to add to the mix.

xo, Rachel