Labor Day Inspiration

My beautiful 12 week old baby (today!)

Z being a rockstar w/ Mom's sunnies

Let me just put it out there right now, that I am soooo blessed. I have a great life. One beautiful, caring, loving, motherly, amazing, talented, hard working wife and 2 just as beautiful, smart, funny, inspiring and loving girls. Life could not be better.

*knock on wood*

Stacey loves to read blogs. It's how I know what I'm doing. Soon I'll be putting these little "Mommy Blog" ads on the side and be knee deep in contests, give aways, and marketing ... blah blah blah. Naw, I dunno if that'll happen ... we'll see. But I love blogging for a couple reasons:

1.) It helps me keep track of my life. Putting photos online and writing about what happens on a day to day basis is a way I have found in the past almost 10 years of blogging. I can go back, look at photos and remember what I was feeling when.

2.) It attracts clients. I've said it before, but anything I do online is either for work or pleasure. This is a little bit of both. When more people are coming to my personal blog, more people are going to our website. When more people are going to our website, we get more photoshoots! It's the law of physics. ;)

Being creative via painting w/ Water Colors

3.) My family loves it. OK, they haven't come out and told me this directly, but friends of family, friends of my late mom, they LOVE seeing photos of the girls and reading what I have to say. When my mom was alive she used to "force" me to write newsletters to our friends and family. Like most good things in my life, my mom inspired me to write and that creates the 4th reason to blog:

4.) It helps me be creative. I don't remember the last time I picked up a pen and wrote in my journal. I used to do it all the time. Spill the beans to no one in particular. While this is different, and I have no idea who is reading it, I'm not always 100% honest. Don't get me wrong, I don't straight out lie ... but I'm not going to tell you how much money we have in the bank. I won't tell you if Stacey and I get in a fight (cuz we're perfect ... we never fight!) ;) but I will be real with you. Just not a completely open book like other blogs.

I think the thing about writing a blog (sorry if this is all about writing a blog "geee, all Marc blogs about is blogging" is to just write. Create some kind of idea in your head and sit down and just let it flow.

Now that blog university is over with here are more cute pictures of my family!

I chillin' pool side!

Z eating a chip (which she loves) pool side on Saturday.

Just a side note and something for all your stalkers to look forward to, my familias are coming out for Christmas! Stacey's parents and my entire family are trekking out to Cali for a Cali Christmas! Fun stuff, huh?

OK... time to get ready to go to the pool and labor through this day. Hahaha, get it? Labor day? Ok, I'm done.

-marc

p.s. my family is cooler than yours ;)

Saturday Morning Vloggity Vlog

Since y'all love my face, I talked to a camera and uploaded it to the internets for your viewing pleasure!

Cheers,
-marc

Butterfly Blob

Last night the kiddos and I took a walk and I brought the old trusty dusty iPhone w/ me to shoot some more Hipstamatic photos.

Don't know what Hipstamatic is? Check it out here: http://hipstamatic.com/the_app.html It's a cool iPhone (and Android?) camera app that emulates film. While there are limitations (you can only take 9 high resolution images at a time?!) and some of the filters suck (dots in the frame), it's a fun app to play with. I actually downloaded it in the hospital when I was born. Some friends had gotten me a $50 iTunes gift card so I downloaded every film, lens and feature. The debate between Instagram and Hipsamatic is an intense one, and I've only played with Instagram a little bit ... for now I'll stick to Hips.

As far as the kiddies go, Z decided to wake up before 6:30 this morning and wanted to eat. So ... we've been up since 6:30! Let the early mornings begin again! I, however, did not want to wake up and was so stinkin' cute in our bed. She slept til like 8 o'clock! That's why this blog is coming out in the morning, I'm a cup of coffee down (surprisingly not more).

Stacey mentioned how I and I are very similar, and while writing I might get you confused when I'm talking about I. Am I intentionally messing with you? Or is I just so dang beautiful that I want to call her I? ;)

Have a good weekend! Stacey gets off early today so we're super excited!!

-marc

p.s. click here to check out all the photos from last nights walk.

Day 1!

Ha! The question on the interwebs today was "How's Day 1?" Someone asked me at like, 8:30! "How's it goin' so far?" "Um...great, just got back in the door from droppin' Stacey off! No hospital visits or melt downs yet!"

We chilled this morning while I tried to keep Z away from the electrician, I attempted to check my e-mail, and we even got to Gmail Video Chat with the Grandparents! Always fun stuff. Then we went to see mom at work and have lunch, cuz, yeah - we miss her.

So as the day kinda winds down, Stace gets off work in less than an hour, I'd call it a success. Z is still sleeping, I just woke up and I have a few seconds to punch out this blog. As Stacey was ordering our food I took a table from a business man who was just a little bit older than me. He offered me the shady table for what I call our Limo Stroller and we started talking. He had a 9 week old at home, and wished he could stay at home with his wife and child. We somehow got around to it being the first day (DAY ONE!!!!) of my time staying home w/ two and he applauded my bravery, I gave him a business card (booyah) and he went on his way. Verrrry interesting.

Stacey is such a trooper. I don't know a stronger, more beautiful and motherly woman than her. You'll hear me brag 100x on this woman, because even through teary eyes she can see the benefits of being away from her babies for a few hours a day. We are a team, doing the best we can even though it's not always easy, we'll always be together pushing forward.

Cheers,
-marc

Stay @ Home Dad of 2 Under 2!

Wow... so Blogger has changed. "Huh? What's Blogger?" I'm excited to see how Google incorporates Blogger into Google Plus. "Huh? What's Google Plus?" For now - we'll stick to Blogger until the jump.

Tomorrow embarks a new journey in our family ... Stacey is going back to work. Yup! It's been a short but very sweet maternity leave and now her time has come to go back and provide for our family. This is all while I sit by the beach, sip lattes and work on my tan. :) Not really, I'll be working just as hard in a different way taking care of our beautiful children, Z & I, who are both under two. At the same time I will successfully run two businesses (Blackwell Photography & Websites By Marc). Need some professional photos or a website? Wink.

In case you're new to ... well, me, Stacey is my beautiful wife who has birthed 2 of the most beautiful baby girls I have ever seen. We got married a little over 2 years ago (yup, you do the math) and live and play in California. That's enough back story, right?


I know it's becoming more common for the man to stay at home as women get more rights in the work force, as the recession bounces up and down, and as men become more involved in raising kids. In some cases the father loses his job and can't find another one so he stays at home with the children. In other situations, the mom had the higher paying job to begin with and it's easier and wiser for a parent to stay home then shell out the $600-$1k a month for day care. In our case, I just wanted to stay home with the kids. ;) Just kidding. I have always worked from home and financially it makes sense for me to continue to balance diapers and photos. Besides, I don't want a stranger raising my kids anyway! I stayed at home with my mother, who took off work when my oldest brother was born, and stayed off work until I went to Kindergarden. That's the kind of parenting I want my kids to enjoy.

So ... I've been thinking. Scary, right? I want to blog more. Who doesn't? Wait ... do people still blog? But I know my time just got twice as limited. I will still have photo shoots on the weekends, and long nights staring at code as I punch out a webpage ... but I want to publish a book eventually of what it's like to be a stay at home dad with 2 kids under 2! Z won't be under 2 for very much longer, but that makes the book title sound so much sweeter. (You always conceptualize the book title before the content, right?) I will not blog every day. I'll try. And you can always check out my Google + (if you get accepted in the right circle) you'll be able to see updates of my kids. I'm not going to be on Facebook or Twitter as much personally, but you bet Blackwell Photography will have a strong presence there in order to boost sales.

So what now? In the past couple months I have really tried to focus on family. Yes, I did the shoots 100%, and made awesome websites, but I wanted to really spend quality time w/ the 4 of us while we were all together. Now, in this bittersweet moment as Stace is preparing to go to work tomorrow I'm thinking "Oh my god ... what is going to happen?" I know nothing bad is going to happen *knock on wood* I just don't know a.) if I'll get any work done b.) if my hair will turn completely grey by 2012, or c.) I'll want numero tres sooner than later. :)

So stay tuned, I'll post all this crap on Facebook and Twitter cuz errbody knows bloggin' more gets you more hits to your website, and more hits to your website means more money ... and more money means diapers, cool camera equipment and ... oh yeah ... bills.

Cheers!
-marc

p.s. i just smacked a fly out of the air. obama, you aint got nothin' on me, son.

Being A Parent of 2!

Whoa. Two is intense! One is crazy enough, let's change it up and add another beautiful little dependable creature to the mix!

I is wonderful. She's beautiful, healthy, smart and loves her big sister! Z is doing great, everyone seems to ask that question. ;) She loves her "shisha", gives her kisses on the forehead and even helps out by bringing diapers and throwing things away. Ha! Z is a little dancing genius. Loves to dance to heavy beat, club like songs.

Stacey is doing well. She's such a strong, powerful, willful woman who is the best mother I know. Any woman who can birth 2 babies, one a 9.3 POUND baby, is astonishing and sexy in my eyes. :D

I've come to the conclusion that life does not slow down. Ever. So run w/ it. Go with it, keep up. Get tired, but sleep enough, and play the game hard! It's fun. And kids increase the positive aspects your quality of life. Creating, nurturing a pregnant woman, helping birth, and watching what you created evolve and grow as you continue to nurture and love that child is the most amazing part of life I've experienced to date. Twice!

I love the ladies in my life. Everyone always jokes, you loved the ladies, now you got 3! It's true! And I love them soooooo much.

This is what being a parent of 2 is like. It's a little past midnight on Friday night and I'm blogging! What happened to the days of going out and drinking on the town? :) I had those nights, and they will come on special occasions, but that life was lived and good ... now on to more important tasks at hand. Raising children!

Stacey and I laughed tonight at a memory when we went to a coffee shop, sat on a street corner and sipped our lattes without a care in the world. Nothing to attend to, no worries or real big responsibilities ... that life is behind us now. We now get excited about renting a movie off iTunes on a Friday night! Good times though! Being at home, eating dinner with my family, playing with my daughters and cuddling with my wife is so important to me now. In time Stacey and I (plus kids?) will travel the world, explore space, host art shows and expand our potential. For now our goals are our kids futures, and ensuring they're set to go out into the world and make it a better place. In fact, I like to think I'm making the world a better place by creating more people who, hopefully, will make the world a better place. :)

Alright, have a good one. There. I blogged, ya happy!? :)

-marc

Indie Rose Blackwell

Stacey, Zoe and I would like to introduce Indie Rose Blackwell! She's a beautiful little baby girl and we all love her very much. She came into the world on June 13th, at 8:56 pm weighing a whopping 9.3 pounds and 22 inches long! She's happily settling into her hard life style of eating and sleeping and getting her photo taken. Zoe loves her, gives her kisses and calls her "baby" and "sister" and we're adjusting great! Not to say it's easy, but a fun challenge and opportunity to grow as a family ... literally! :)

Love y'all. Be nice to each other.

-marc