Hello from Dallas!

We are having a great time at the JVS lighting workshop! This was the longest I had ever been away from Norah all in a row, and it wasn't easy! I am used to having her right with me, so I wasn't too happy having to be apart from her for 9 hours! I really appreciated Aunt Melody, Mrs. McIntosh and my cousin Nina for taking such good care of her though. We are lucky to have such a wonderful family!

Anyway, I am way too tired to play with most of these pictures (it's been a rather long day), but here are a couple from the lighting workshop this afternoon. More to follow when I'm not about to fall over from sleepiness!















p.s. We found the hotel room we are staying in on Priceline for $29 a night. It's clean and cozy and has a full kitchen. Go Priceline!!!!

Road Trip!

I am super excited to be hitting the road with the one-and-only Jason Hudson (and darling baby Norah) for a trip to Dallas! We are going to be learning some awesome new lighting techniques from our good friend JVS and his wife Anne. They are having a lighting workshop, and to add to the fun, we just found out that the photographers in attendance will also be the models! This way we can end up with some cool shots of ourselves while we practice the new stuff. I can't wait!

While we're there, we'll also get to hit Ikea so we can pick up some furniture for our new digs. We won't have room for our massive dining room table in the new place, and Autumn and Norah will be sharing a room, so I'm excited to see the options Ikea has for us! They're all about creative ways to live in small spaces, so it will be perfect! Not that the new house is small, exactly, but it's certainly smaller than the gigantor place we're in now, which means we get to downsize a little. I am secretly thrilled. Less house to clean + more coziness = Happy Kori!

We are also going to hit up our very favorite Mexican restaurant while we're there, Chuy's. They have the BEST tortillas in the whole, wide world. I plan to eat enough of them to last me until my next visit!

Totally Rad!

Although I felt really funny leaving the house like this, I was doing much better once I actually got to the 80's party! Everyone else looked just as ridiculous, and the fact that we were in the awesome splatter-paint room made it feel like we had actually gone back in time! We ate some kind of yummy homemade salsa that had avocados in it (nice touch!), played 80's trivia and danced like fools... It was a blast! : )

Here are a few photos from the evening.














Fun with the splatter paint wall:
























To top it off, Brooke's husband Finley, who came to the party decked out in a flight suit as "Maverick" from Top Gun, gave us top prize in the costume contest! I will treasure my copy of Ferris Bueller's Day Off forever. Seriously, though, I love that movie!




Thanks for an awesome evening, guys, and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful friend Brooke. Her actual birthday is today, and I hope it's great!

During Daddy's Shoot

Norah somehow slept through our adventure in Cheap Thrills, so I thought I would post these of her that I snapped while Jason was doing a photo shoot the other day. We tagged along just for fun, and Norah was a very good girl in her stroller the whole time! I think she might be teething... She is starting to drool a lot, and she loves chewing on her hands, or pretty much anything else for that matter! This hand chewing business seems to keep her entertained, which I am totally fine with, because the child will not take a pacifier for anything!

Cheap Thrills!

I am getting very excited about going to Brooke's Awesome 80's birthday party tonight! We took the fam out for a fun shopping trip to Cheap Thrills yesterday so we could try and find something to wear. I discovered that they had an entire rack filled with delicious vintage 80's finds... Shoulder pads, tapered legs, Members Only... You name it, they had it! 





I have managed to put together an outfit whose hidesousness I never could have even imagined had I not seen it for myself. If I can work up the nerve to actually wear it tonight, I'll have Jason snap some pictures so I can blog it! Anyway, we had an awful lot of fun playing around in the store as we shopped. Autumn and Barrett thought they needed every single thing they saw, because there was just so much crazy stuff in there! In the end, Bear walked away with a cool pirate eye patch and Autumn found an ACDC splatter paint hat that she thinks is the coolest thing she's ever seen. It's actually surprisingly cute on her... Only our Autumn could pull that one off! She is hilarious.







This chair drove the kids crazy. Once Autumn told Barrett that he wasn't supposed to sit in it, what do you think was the only thing he wanted to do?












We had a great time, but I suspect that the staff at Cheap Thrills was not exactly sad to see us go! ; )

Workin' On My Fitness!

I have been working really hard lately to try to get myself back into shape! After Autumn, the weight sort of fell off magically on its own, and after Barrett, I waited patiently for all the baby fat to melt away... But no such luck! It seemed to take an eternity to get back to "normal" (or at least back to the "new" normal that sets in once you have kids!) after Barrett. I figured if I was ever going to be able to wear my clothes again after baby #3, I had better get my behind in the gym, pronto! My good friend Brooke, who is incredibly fit and looks way better than anyone with 3 young kids should, cheered me on and peer pressured me into it at the beginning (thanks Brooke!!!), and now I think I am addicted to the endorphins! : )

Anyway, things are going well, and now I have recruited Jason and Jamie to be my gym buddies too! I have lost about 15 pounds so far, and I even have 2 pairs of pre-prego jeans that fit me now! Yay! In about 10 pounds, almost all of my clothes will fit, which will make it so much more fun to get dressed in the morning. In the meantime, I was finally feeling okay-enough with the way I looked to let Jason take some new headshots for my Facebook page. It's so fun to be married to such an awesome photographer!











I also love love love my new workout clothes that I got for my birthday! Thanks Jason! Jamie and I are hitting Body Combat at 6:30 tonight at FAC (think 55 minutes of Tae Bo minus Billy Blanks, plus lots of extra karate kicking!) if anyone wants to join us! Fun!

Then we will get to watch Grey's and The Office, too. I love Thursdays!!!

Thanks Everybody!

I have the best friends and family in the whole wide world! A big "Thank You" to all of them who made my birthday so special! This was the first birthday where I'm a regular Facebook user, and I was totally blown away at all the birthday wishes! I think it is completely genius that the site helps you keep track of when all your friends' birthdays are. It makes it so much fun, and easier to not forget! And I need all the help not forgetting I can get! : )

Anyway, after a wonderful day of productiveness and working out, we met Kris and Kara and the various assorted Robinsons at my very favorite restaurant, Pad Thai in Springdale. Although it looks a little bit like it might be a hole from the outside (being located in the lovely Sunrise Inn and all, it has the most delicious Pad Thai with extra shrimp ever! We had a great time, even with the 6 children ages 7 and under who were playing a rousing game of Hide and Seek under our feet! Thank goodness there was not really anyone else there! Ha!

After dinner, I went home and found that Jamie and Joe had baked me a surprise birthday cake! Jamie even managed to track down my very favorite icing in the whole world, RAINBOW CHIP! I didn't even know they made it any more! I told her she could have just skipped the whole cake-baking thing, and just put a candle in the frosting can, and that would have made me just as happy! Anyway, Joe Joe even hand-lettered a special birthday card for me, signed by both of them and my 4 pet nieces and nephews. Even Jamie's cat Lizzie "signed" it, and she hates me! : )

Here are a few random photos from the night... Somehow despite there being 4 photographers in attendance at Pad Thai, none of us remembered a camera! We snapped a couple with my iPhone, though.










I loved all my cards and gifts (even the evil gift certificate to Coldstone Creamery that Kara got me!), but mostly I loved getting to see and hear from all of my lovely friends on my birthday. You guys are wonderful! Thanks so much!

February 17, 1982

Well, people, it appears that I have turned 27. Yikes! Actually, it doesn't feel that much different than 26. It's just a shame that I only have 3 years left to live, because you see, I cannot possibly ever turn 30!!!!!!! ; ) Anyway, to commemorate the occasion, I plan to eat a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from McDonald's for breakfast, process 3 print orders, lay out a coffee table book of someone's wedding, jump around like a maniac for 55 minutes at Body Attack class, eat Pad Thai with my lovely friends and then perhaps enjoy a delicious margarita. Sounds like a good day to me! I hope everyone else has a good day too!

Sunday Paper

"But Mommy, I don't WANNA sleep by myself!"

An odd (but super fun!) Valentine's evening...

Top Ten Things We Did on Valentine's:

1. Walked at Gulley Park, where each of us commented about a hundred times in mock surprise, "Hey, look over there, a tree fell over!"
2. Purchased the domain name www.bailoutjamie.com
3. Kori and Jamie re-enacted the Mena cheer and played contortionist, discovering that they can both still do the splits and put both of their legs all they way behind their heads (No pictures of this, thank goodness!)
4. Ate sushi and giant, lumberjack steaks grilled by SuperJoe.
5. Watched a YouTube clip of Joaquin Phoenix staring vacantly into space and mumbling during his Letterman appearance.
6. Learned a fun fact: It would allegedly take 658 of the 5 mg pills of Valium to comprise a lethal overdose.
7. Drew up various floor plan maps for the table setup at Jamie's wedding reception.
8. Searched in vain for Kori's hand weights.
9. Practiced a fancy new exercise Kori learned in Body Attack that combines a plank-type yoga pose with pushups.
10. Used extension poles and ladders to replace all of the really high light bulbs in our house.










And the number one thing Jason and I FORGOT to do on Valentines day? Deliver our cards to each other! Oh well. It was fun anyway! : ) Happy Valentine's Everyone!