Photo Assignment 5 - "Quiet"

I took this after I had play group at my house with 7 adorable three year olds. I just thought the mess was a very telling picture, quiet after the storm. I love how I got the fuzzy effect in the background, I don't know if I've ever done that with my camera. I put it on ISO 400 and cloudy setting. It was interesting, because I took a few shots on manual and then also one on auto setting, and there was a huge difference, the manual ones were much warmer and the lighting was better. I guess I'm learning something...thanks Beth!

Love These Girls

Last week we went to La Quinta near Palm Springs for some R & R. We stayed at an awesome place that had rows and rows of hammocks. I just love these pictures...love these girls.

Photo Assignment 4 - "Out"

I had a lot of fun with this assignment. I asked the girls if I could take some pictures in Grandma's backyard, and they had a lot of fun doing the different things I asked them to do. "Okay, now skip toward me." or "Talk to each other, pretend I'm not here." and "Look up at me...closer...closer...that's too close!" All this was done at about 3pm in shadow. I used 100 exposure and set the camera to daylight mode (I have a point and shoot).

Photo Assignment 3 - "In"

For Assignment 3, we were supposed to try taking a picture inside using just natural light. My Mom will probably be calling me soon to remove this photo, but actually, I like it a lot. I think the composition is really good (not that I meant to do that), but to me, it's interesting. And Mom, you look beautiful, love you!! I didn't do any tuning at all to this photo, and I think the light is just perfect.

Photo Assignment 2 - "New"

Here are three pictures for my next assignment - "new". This is my niece, Hailey Anne, she's 6 weeks old. I really enjoyed being able to hold her this week, she's still so little! I'm curious to know which one of these pictures you like the best, leave a comment and let me know. I think my favorite is the first one...

Photo Class

My friend Beth organized a free photo class this month (link on my sidebar). Since I got a new camera for my birthday, I thought I'd give it a try. It's just a point and shoot, but I still have a lot to learn about taking pictures. The first assignment was "old". Here is my picture:



We were out of town for Spring Break this week in La Quinta, which is close to Palm Springs. Since I didn't have most of my possessions with me, my mom and I went out to scout out something old. We came across this cute little restaurant, the Homestead, and found some fun things on the premises. We had a great time taking pictures of Annie and her cousin Lizzy, and this old wagon that was part of the grounds. Here are some other fun pictures we got (just for fun)...

Coolest Cake Ever

It's my London double-decker bus cake. Made by the oh-so-talented Jodie and so thoughtfully commissioned by James. I had a hard time cutting into it, it was just so cute! But it was worth it, the chocolate cake with caramel flavored frosting was divine.

Here's James and I on the bus:

Annie's Curls

We have 1 o'clock church this year, so we have a LOT of time before church. This Sunday I decided to put Ann's hair up in sponge curlers before church. When I took them out Natalie exclaimed, "She looks like a different kid!" I thought so, too, it was a fun change. And by morning, it was back to being straight, without any water!

Happy Valentines

So these are the cards Natalie made for her class this year, she made 30 of them! And she loved doing it, in fact, she had them done by the end of January, she was that excited. She's a crafter, that one. Unfortunately, she missed her Valentine party yesterday because she came down with the stomach flu...poor thing. And then she gave it to me--blah! Hopefully, the worst is over. My Mom came over today and sanitized my house for me, she's the greatest!!

Picked this Up Today at the Library...

I'm pretty excited to read it, we discussed it at our book club last night, and it sounds like it has some pretty good advice. Have you read it? I'm curious to see what people think of it. I can't wait to get to the chapter on what to do with sassy 5 year olds and whiny 3 year olds. :) My children are not difficult mostly, but there are situations that come up where I'm at a loss on how to deal with it, so it will be great to get some good ideas!

2011 has not been good to us...

...so far. However, I am completely optimistic that it will be a great year, and there's nowhere to go but up! Unfortunately, after Christmas we were hit by a bug. And from what I hear, we were not alone in this! Natalie had a temperature of 103 for four days!! Poor little thing, I have never seen her so sick. Here is what we did New Year's Day at our house:




And then, as soon as Natalie was getting better, Annie got worse. And then, I got worse. And then, James got food poisoning or something. Today is the first day that things are looking up, and I actually got out of the house today for a good three or four hours. Yay! We are on the mend, and can't wait to be healthy and active again. At least we weren't sick for Christmas, right?

A Very Merry Christmas

Our big surprise this Christmas (courtesy of the great-grandparents):



And let me just say, good thing we opened the box Christmas Eve fairly early, because it took us a good hour and a half to put this thing together. It was a huge hit with the girls, thank goodness!

And here is our tree with all the presents under it. I love Christmas trees, especially the lights. It was a great Christmas, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the girls came away with some nice things, including Leapsters, Barbie's, American Girl dolls (we love Grandparents), a trip to Balboa this Summer (really, we love grandparents), and some new games. 2010 was a great year!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Grateful

I know Thanksgiving was last month, but I'm feeling so grateful this holiday season. Especially for my family, I'm so lucky to have my two girls and a wonderful husband. I also am very blessed to have wonderful parents who live close by and are so selfless, and some pretty cool brothers and in-laws too. And I'm grateful for good friends, near and far, I really do know some quality people. And I don't know how often I can say this, but I'm grateful for trials that make you realize how very much you do have, and help me to appreciate these things that much more. Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season and holding those you love a little closer. :)

Overheard...

On our way home from Chili's, it was dark outside.

Annie: I spy with my little eye, sum-ting...black!

Natalie: Is it the whole world?

Annie: Yea! It is!

Happy Halloween!

And...Happy November, can't say I'm too sad that Halloween is over. :) It was fun, but seemed to be never ending with all the parties and such! Annie is our little ladybug, and Natalie is a Barbie Musketeer. Pretty cute! James and I were the original mouseketeers, which was totally lost on our babysitter and nieces and nephews, guess they're a little young to know anything about that!

Three's A Charm

Our sweet Annie turned three yesterday. I have pretty much been thinking of her as a three year old for the last 6 months, mainly because of her height and vocabulary. But now it's official! We are so glad that Annie is a part of our family, we love her so much!


She's one of a kind, our Ann girl. Her favorite color is red, she is going through a Barney phase right now, she's a champion whiner, loves to pretend, loves her sister (except when she's being teased by her),


loves nursery and preschool, loves jam sandwiches (just jam!), chocolate (like her daddy), does some great donkey kicks but still can't do a somersault by herself, loves to paint with watercolors, is scared to go anywhere by herself, sings in the car, and makes us laugh every day...multiple times.

Happy Birthday James!!

So James' birthday was actually yesterday: 10/10/10. Pretty cool, huh? I feel pretty dang lucky to have such a great hubby. I don't like getting all mushy on blogs really, but I'll just name one thing I love about James: he's just so very nice to everybody. He really is the most thoughtful guy I know, a cut above the rest. :)

And he is a fun guy to go to Disneyland with, and eat giant corndogs with, have you tried these at Disneyland?



If you know James at all you will know he's a big fan of chocolate (to put it mildly). I made him a Coca Cola Cake for his birthday, it was really good, if I do say so myself. Check out the recipe on my cooking blog.

Annie Got A Haircut

And I think she looks really cute.

Annie's First Day of School

Annie's turn has finally come. I'm so excited about Annie's preschool teacher this year...she's awesome! She homeschooled her four boys until the 8th grade, and now they're all grown up so she does preschool out of her home. Annie was so excited when I picked her up today, and she has yet to put down all of her little projects she did today. Yay Annie!!