life in cornwall land

just to update you on life in cornwall land :)

• our computer is acting up... again. you would think that i would learn my lesson and back up all of my work. you would think. but alas i have not. so if we can't get the computer up and running i will loose lots of stuff. we did order a portable hard drive... so if this happens again, i WILL be ready! (so this post is minus pictures since i am on jack's work computer) so... the computer finished scanning and we ran the error codes. looks like our hard drive is failing. wonderful. one of our friends is hooking us up with a computer. we are very thankful!!! it may be a few days before we are back in computer contact with everyone.
• madeline is 5 months old! wow that has gone by fast!! she is still super laid back, but very stubborn about some things. she is pretty happy just hanging out kicking on the floor... or rolling over and over. if i leave her to hang on the floor for a few minutes, she will roll several times. i am SO not ready for her to crawl... but i don't feel like that is too far off! she also loves toys. she likes to chew on them or just stare at them. but when i was out of town for a couple of days, she refused to take the bottle for the first 24 hours. after that i guess hunger got the better of her and she took it (don't think we are horrible parents, she did eat cereal).
• brooke has been SUPER easy to potty train. with the exception of the first 2 days, she has only had about 4 or 5 accidents. it was so much easier than i ever thought it would be!
• hana is having trouble hearing. what? hana is having trouble hearing. around christmas (during sick christmas!) the girls all had a virus which lead to ear infections. ever since then, hana has had fluid in her ears and has had trouble hearing. we have taken her to the pediatricians office twice. it was getting better, then got worse. so today we went to an ENT (ear, nose, and throat). they did lots of tests and we go back tomorrow to see what is going on. she is having a lot more trouble hearing out of her right ear. in fact jack said he was in the room during the test and he could hear the beeps (through hana's earphones) and hana couldn't. so hopefully it will be an easy fix tomorrow. i will keep you updated!
• update about hana: we went back to the ENT for results. her hearing is in the "normal range". we have a follow up apt in 6 weeks. in that amount of time 90% of kid's ears will clear up. if they haven't then we may have to talk tubes. all in all, the best we could have hoped for. now we just need for her to be able to hear again :)

so that is about all that is new in our land. i hope yours is doing well!!

children's museum

we finally got our passes to the children's museum with some of our christmas money. it was a chilly rainy day and hana was off of school, so it seemed the perfect day to head downtown :)
of course the kids enjoyed themselves. knowing that we will be able to go back as much as we want, we were able to take our time. i look forward to going many more times this year :) thanks nanny!!

brooke swabbing the deckbrooke mixing colors (love the mirror placement!!)hana and brooke playing together :)

New Website!!

Hi everyone!! (i posted this on my photography blog, but i wanted to let you all know too! I am SOOOO excited to share!)

I am SO excited to announce that my NEW website is up and running!!! Please go check it out!! There are lots of new and exciting things! The way you see and order pictures will be all new :)
And in an effort to get the word out, I have a promotion going on.

I will be having a drawing for two prizes:
1- a free regular session
2- 50% off session fee(regular or mini- your choice) and 50% off prints or CD purchase

In order to get your name in the "hat" for the drawing, you can do any or ALL of the following things (to get credit, you will have to send me an email referencing each thing so I can see that you did it)

• mention my website on facebook in your "status" bar (you may have to become my friend first “Tiffany Barger Cornwall”)= 2 entries
• write a blog about my photos and about my new website= 3 entries
• send out a mass email to your friends and family telling them about my new website (cc me)- 1-5 people=1 entry, 6-10 people= 2 entries, 11+ people = 3 entries
• send out a bulletin on myspace about my website= 2 entries
• send out a tweet about my website= 1 entry
• THE DRAWING WILL BE SATURDAY JANUARY 30TH AT 12:00pm (I will email the winners and post the results on my blog)
  

Also, if you book a regular session in the month of January and the session takes place in January or February you will receive 25% off of the session fee and 10% off of prints or cd purchase!!

OK, here is the new website!! Go tell people :)

http://tcophoto.com/




thank you hilary for your help! thank you greg for helping and hosting it!! (greg has a web design company here is the link)

big things are happenin...

2 big things happened in the cornwall house...madeline rolled over! a couple of weeks ago i realized that madeline was 4 months old and probably should have rolled over by now. but the problem was that i never gave her tummy time. in fact, i never gave her time on the floor at all! i mean with 2 other kids running around, i feared a little bit for her safety. but for the last few weeks i have made a conscious effort to lay her on the floor. and today she finally rolled over (and the more difficult roll from back to stomach!) yea madeline!! (she has also started playing with toys... she is interested in them and will hold them for a few minutes)
brooke was (fairly) easily potty trained. now some of you may be thinking.... isn't brooke already potty trained?? i mean i have started it 2 other times, so it is a fair question. but the answer was no- i had given up the other 2 times i had tried. both times i was pregnant (i totally wanted to get it done before madeline was born!) the first time i was new pregnant and it made me sick. the second time i was huge and just didn't want to deal with it. so i planned to do it the week after christmas when hana was in school. we stayed home the whole week (even turning down play-times with other people!) and did it. i am happy to report it was MUCH easier than i thought it would be (i mean i had dreaded it for a year!). the first 2 days we had some accidents (one of them being poopy- yuck!) but after the first 2 days it was pretty much smooth sailing... she has not really had any accidents since then and she tells me when she has to go!! she has even pooped twice! (i sure hope i am not jinxing it by sharing this!!)

so that is what is new in the cornwall house! big things are happenin...

top 10 things i have learned having 3

10. i can easily ignore the crying. with one, when they cry you stop everything and fix it. with two, you still fix it but it might take a minute or two to get there. with three, you may or may not even hear the crying. it just depends on what else is going on.

9. i do things with number 3 that i would never have done with number 1 (or 2 for that matter). when hana cried at night, we NEVER went into her room. never. with brooke we hardly ever went in. with madeline we went in AND re-wrapped her.

8. things that remained stain free through 2 other girls will definitely get stained with number 3. inevitable.

7. hand-me downs are great. with number 1 i really wanted everything to be new. with number 3 i love whatever she has, new or not. and i definitely don't want to spend more money on things, because i know she is the last.

6. i don't mind spending money on something for hana.... someone else will definitely get to wear it! with 2 other girls coming along, someone will be the right size at the right season!

5. i am ready to get rid of things as soon as she is done with them. with hana i would look at each outfit lovingly and want to keep it for the memories. with madeline, i have a box in her room right now full of things ready to go to once upon a child. we are done with it, why take up space? i have TONS of pictures for the memories!

4. i don't sweat the small stuff. with hana everything had to be just right (part of that was us and part of it was hana's personality). she required many steps just to go to bed at night. i worried about everything i did and if i was doing it right. now i know that i won't do everything right. and madeline will still be able to grow into the wonderful person that God made her... if i mess up or not!

3. i loved her so much faster! with hana it took me a few weeks to love her. well that is not true, i loved her right away, but it took me a couple of weeks to lay-down-my-life love her. with madeline that happened immediately!

2.i am able to cherish each and every moment. as a mom, i know what i am doing. i know that she is not going to break. the little wrong things that happen daily don't bother me, chances are pretty good that they have happened before. i know this will be the last so i can cherish everything... even the things that would have made me cringe with number 1 or 2!

1. most importantly i am so thankful for the precious lives that i am trusted with. i love being a mother. i know that i was put here to do this... at least for now!


all in all having 3 is great! it has taught me a lot. a lot about kids and even more about myself!

bringing in the new year

we did nothing, and i mean nothing, new years eve. it is the one holiday that is almost impossible to do with kids. i am so not a night person that i rarely see the ball drop anyway. but we did head over to the folands for some new year's day fun :) all the kids enjoyed playing together and of course the adults had a great time. it is wonderful to start the new year with such great friends! love you guys and happy new year!