moosh in indy.

I am a Mormon. And darn proud of it.

Today Cody and I made the two hour drive to Louisville, Kentucky to attend the temple.

Amazing things happened. You wouldn’t even believe me if I told you.

I don’t care if you believe what I know to be true or not.

I know what I know. And I love what I know.

What I know is that there is a Savior who loves and knows each and every one of us individually.

I know He knows all of our struggles, weaknesses and strengths down to the very finest detail and better than we will ever know for ourselves.

If we ever need help all we need to do is ask.

He’ll take care of the rest.

I know this to be true with every chin hair of my existence and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

(This is reposted from my trip to NYC back in February of 2009.)

All taken at St. Paul’s Chapel, directly across from where the twin towers fell eight years ago today.

Terrorists suck. America rocks.

The terrible twos are called terrible because suddenly your sweet bundle of joy develops an opinion.

Three is just as bad because not only do they still have the opinions, they also suddenly have the desire to do things ALL! BY! THEMSELVES!

Then there’s four (almost five.) Complete with the opinion plus desire to do things ALL! BY! THEMSELVES! only now having the ability to actually start doing things ALL! BY! THEMSELVES! comes into play.

the moosh can do so much.

Calling her the moosh seems so juvenile compared to the real person that spends her days with me. In the past week I have had to get her bigger clothes, no longer can I shop in the toddler section. 5T is a thing of the past. Her feet grew two sizes over the summer which meant bigger shoes and bigger socks. We had to get her a bigger bike, her knees were hitting the handlebars of her old one. She barely fits in her toddler bed. We even had to get her bigger underpants, she’s been without diapers for almost two years.

She’s starting to read. She can write “I love you mom and dad.” She knows what prosciutto is. She knows how to make toast and how to frost a cupcake. She can brush her own teeth and sings along to Hannah Montana. She knows the difference between dark and milk chocolate. Her head comes up to my chest. She no longer fits in shopping carts. She can swing in the big swings all by herself. Last week she washed her own hair during her bath.

She hasn’t fallen asleep in my arms in almost two years.

She has 16 freckles besides the dozens sprinkling her nose.

Her name is Mary Adelaide and she is named after my grandma.

Everyone who loves her dearly (and there’s hundreds) just call her Addie.

There’s nothing baby about my baby anymore.

Except that she will always be my baby.

About two years ago tiny gramma left a comment on my blog and it has always been one of my favorites…

Everybody now…awwww.

While my mom and dad were very agreeable upon custody and visitation between the two of them while my sister and I were growing up, a majority of the mundane work fell to my mom. We didn’t always (if we ever did) get along, but we both turned out okay. A lot of the little things that get me through life these days were learned from my wee little mama.

So imagine my pride when I saw a post my mom, the one and only tiny gramma, had written for a local photography blog in New Mexico. She was asked to guest post seeing as how she keeps winning all these awards with her photography. (Part of the reason I have such a inferiority complex with my photography. THANKS MOM!)

So with her permission I am reposting it here. Because I’m proud of her. And this IS her. For as long as I can remember her cameras have always ALWAYS been an completely natural extra appendage. I could never imagine my mom changing a diaper. But lying in the mud for over an hour to get the perfectly lit shot of a mountain stream? Yeah. That’s my mom.

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The following was written by my mom, about her quest to obtain the picture directly below which she titled “Morning Glory”

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For those of us who photograph, we’ve all found that eating can wait. Getting warm can wait. Sleep will sometimes be in short supply. But when the alarm rings at 4:00 in the morning, we get out of our warm beds, we munch on a granola bar and if we’re lucky, we have a cup of coffee on the 45 minute drive to where we want to be when the sun comes up. But, do we really know what we are getting up for? It’s dark. Is that sun going to come up? Or will it rain? Will I have the perfect clouds? Too many clouds? Horizon clouds? (ugh!) And let’s not forget the wind.

Having the opportunity to shoot a location wedding in Jackson Hole last year, I made a week out of it, getting up early each morning and shooting each evening. What a feast of lush green for my starved New Mexico senses! You know, just being in gorgeous surroundings should be enough, but no, we have to make it harder by lugging around equipment, searching for the perfect shot, fretting over whether we will get the right conditions and hoping we don’t have some brain contusion wherein we blow the shot. Why do we do this to ourselves when we could just sit back and joyfully soak it all in……? (or just stay in bed!) I don’t know. I just don’t know… Except to say, personally, I just have to be out there with a camera. Just have to… It’s in my bones – I was born with the disease.

So on one of those mornings only a matter of feet from the Schwabacker’s Landing parking lot, Morning Glory materialized and suddenly, every other minute spent in the not-so-good-could-have-stayed-home-conditions, was forgotten. Every instance of alarm cursing was dismissed. I’m here for this moment in time. AND I get to take it home with me.

You’ve been there… You know…

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Word mama. xoxo, your favorite kid.

***This is a post where a company (Maghound) was all “HEY TRY OUR STUFF FOR FREE” and I was all “OKAY BUT ONLY IF IT’S AWESOME” and guess what? It is awesome. And I get to give the same thing I got away to one of you. No money traded hands. Just glossies. P.S. I love being ad free and the boss of my own blog.***

the moosh was about two. I got a subscription renewal in the mail for Parents magazine- RENEW NOW! 5 YEARS FOR ONLY $25! Sweet right?

Wrong.

My baby is almost five and there’s no other baby around. I don’t want to read about breastfeeding or 75 ways to raise a healthy! confident! baby! I scan the recipes and then just get depressed looking at all the swollen bellies and cute things they never had when I had kids (yes, I’ve become one of those people.)

Yet Parents magazine will be showing up at my door for another three years. Hurrah. *eye roll*

So here’s the deal with Maghound.

It starts at $4.95 a month and you pick any three magazines you want. They are delivered to your house and if you hate one of them? Or stop being pregnant? Or decide that a certain fashion magazine just makes you feel frumpy? Change it out for a new one the next month.

(So yeah, kind of like Netflix. Only with magazines.)

Let’s say you subscribe to American Photo (hi!) and it only comes once every other month. Or you pick a magazine that only publishes ten issues a year. You get to pick alternate magazines to replace the ones that aren’t monthly. So on the off months that a new issue of American Photo isn’t published I’ll get National Geographic in its place.

All it takes is a few clicks to change around any of the magazines your getting, want to get, don’t want to get or to do other things like add another subscription, change your address or have a particular magazine come in a particular persons name. (you know, like if you were a parent who liked to share and let your kid choose Disney Princess magazine it could come in her name. Or you could be like me and never let her know that there is such a thing as Disney Princess magazine. (As an aside, it’s only $3 more a month to get two more magazines.))

So here’s the deal (if you’re not in the United States SORRY! I HAVE MISLED YOU! Maghound is currently only available to US addresses.) Go ahead and tell me how you’d split up the magazines. Or would you keep them all for yourself? *ahem* Which ones would you get? What do you think the greatest benefit of using Maghound over a regular subscription is?

Leave a comment below with an answer to one of the above questions and you’ll be entered to win a one year subscription to Maghound from me. That’s at least 36 magazines of your choice for free for an entire year. Tweet about this giveaway for an extra entry (my twitter user name is @mooshinindy.)

My contest will end at Midnight EST Wednesday September 9th. But there are over a dozen other opportunities to win a membership throughout the month with the sites and dates listed below. (You can enter all, but you can only win once.)

Independent Fashion Bloggers: September 1-4

The Coveted: September 2-8

me! September 3-9

GearLive: September 8-11

Hack College: September 9-12

Lisa Reviews: September 10-13

Our Ordinary Life: September 11-14

One Day, One Job: September 12-15

Greeblemonkey: September 13-16

The art of accessories: September 14-17

Gear Diary: September 15-18

Tierra Wilson: September 16-19
Chris Pirillo: September 17-20

A Couch with a View: September 18-21

Nadine Jolie: September 19-22

Two of a kind, Working on a Full House: September 20-23

Chip Chick: September 21-24

GOOD LUUUUCK!