***UPDATE***
My awesome friend George found what I was looking for! Here is the link.

My friend Sarah told me an interesting story a few months ago. She was at a friend’s house for dinner, and she asked if she could get herself a glass of water. As she opened the refrigerator door to grab the water pitcher, she noticed that there was a sticky note on the pitcher. With the words PEACE and HAPPINESS (or something like that). Intrigued, Sarah asked her friend the purpose of this. Was this a misplaced sticky note? Was it to serve as some sort of reminder?

Her friend then explained to her that studies have shown that water molecules that have formed in positive environments fare better than those that form in negative environments. They are more uniform, more patterned, look more beautiful and healthy. So if water molecules can be affected by positivity, how much more can we be affected by our environment?

I tried to Google this study to see its accuracy, but I guess my Google skills weren’t quite up to par. I didn’t even really know what to type in the search bar. However, I don’t doubt the accuracy of it one bit. You can’t deny that being in a stressful and negative environment affects your mind and your body. That’s when sickness creeps in. That’s when poisonous thoughts creep in.

In my lifetime, I have never paid much to my environment. But as I get older (hitting 30 this year, yeah!), there is just SO much I want to change to better my life. Yesterday, I went into the “Life is Good” store with my in-laws. Let me tell you, if you are having a bad day, step inside and read their merchandise. Everything has positive messages on it. And I was so inspired to rearrange my way of thinking. For a season, I battled depression and learned how powerful my mind could be. Since then, I’ve learned to submit my thoughts to Christ and fight back toxicity. But I realized that I needed to do more than fight back, I needed to replace that toxicity. And positivity is the obvious choice, duh.

Happiness seems to be very undervalued and underappreciated nowadays. I’m not talking about annoying perkiness or being fake. And I’m especially not talking about being overly spiritual. But I’m talking about joy and peace. And just being content and happy. Thinking the best. Glass half full. I’m gonna try that from now on. And don’t nobody spoil my fun or ruin my parade.

Saw this on a shirt at the store, and I immediately thought of the kids. Outside of my womb anyway.

Happy Monday!

In technically 1 month and 2 days, I will become an aunt for the first time. And my brother and his wife parents for the first time. And my mother and father grandparents. It’s amazing how one baby can bring about so many firsts for so many people.

As I look back on our family, it’s so funny how things have taken a turn for the American. Yes, the American. There are 5 of us cousins on my dad’s side of the family (Mom’s side of the family is waaay too big and completely Asian). And so far, 4 of us have married (or is engaged) to white people. You really can’t blame us when we all live in the States. And so of course, mixed babies are on their way!!!

Jason & TJ were contemplating what their child would look like, and they came to the conclusion that she would probably look a little bit like me at first. How freaking weird is that?!?!?! But also, a little cool. After rummaging through my baby photos a few weekends ago, I hope they’re still okay with that. Shoot, I was a cute baby!

Anyway, we snapped a few maternity pictures while they were in town during my dad’s annual visit to the States. I don’t know about you, but how amazing does my sister-in-law look! She’s 8 months along!

LOOOOOOOVE that little owl canvas that will go in her room!!!!

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I promise you guys, these updates will be few and far between. Why? Because to be brutally honest, I find it really annoying when I go to a photographer’s blog, and 75% is filled with pictures/updates of their baby. Yes, I know they’re cute. Yes, I know they’ve changed your life. Yes, I know that the heavens part every time they yawn or toot. But if they are going to take up that much blog real estate, then I think that merits their own blog. So that I can actually see what I came to your website to see.

And of course, people assume that because I’m a photographer, I will take ridiculous amounts of pictures of my kid. Probably true, yes. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to post them all over my blog (or the internet). In fact, I’m probably going to try very hard not to. It would annoy me too much.

I will, however, share the following updates. Because I figure, if you’re here, you’re here on purpose. You’re not scrolling down your FB updates, catching up with everyone. You’re specifically interested in me. And I’m very grateful that you’ve made the effort.

We go in on Friday for our 23-week check-up. I’m starting to feel her move when I’m standing up now, which I couldn’t do even last week. She always seems to stop moving or slow down when Aaron’s hand is on my belly. He must have a soothing/calming effect on her – let’s see if it works when she’s crying at 3:00 am. My belly button has started to flatten out, which is the weirdest thing ever. Some people think it will eventually poke out, but I doubt it because I’m an innie. I don’t think that’s physically possible unless you’re an outtie. But I guess we’ll see. I can’t really see my feet anymore when I look down, unless I lean forward a little bit. A friend of mine came up to me yesterday and said, “Hi, beach.” Apparently, he was referencing a beach ball. But let me tell you, that is NOT what it sounded like. It gave me a good laugh.

I’ve finally picked out her nursery colors. At first, I tried to think of a theme or a cutesy-wutesy animal, but everything just seemed so childish. I know, I know – the nursery is for a CHILD. But let’s be honest, the kid ain’t gonna care about her room. It’s really for my sanity when I’m up all night. So I decided to stick with the modern theme to match the rest of our house, and go with white, gray, light purple and dusty pink. I’ve reserved the entire month of September for us to register and paint her room. We’re still very clueless about what to get. The other night, Aaron googled “What is the best temperature to give bottled milk to a baby?” Because we had no idea – is it okay refrigerated? Do we have to warm it up every time? Room temp? Do we have to squirt some on our wrist? Oh, that makes me think of the Friends episode. How did new parents survive without Google?

Lastly, it appears that this kid is not going to be short on stylish shoes. She got her first pair of Chucks from Kristyn as well as a pair of pink Teva flip-flops from her Gigi (Aaron’s mom).

Now, her “uncle” Josh got her a pair of pink Uggs (and they’re dusty pink, too!).

Happy Wednesday!