Happy Easter :)

Happy Easter from our house to yours! I snapped a bunch of wonderful photos of the kids today. While this one wasn't the most technically perfect, I love their expressions! :) 

I really need to update the blog and soon, but for now, just some photos of the three little creatures who make my heart go pitter patter. My Easter wish for you is that your heart is as full as mine! ♥

More Cuties! :)

Got around to editing a few more pictures today! I love these ones! :)

Coming Or Going

I barely know whether I am coming or going lately! It's the same old stuff, it's just that blogging seems to fall by the wayside. I'm not sure how to make time for it. I realized today I hadn't edited or posted any photos of my kids THIS YEAR! I do really think, that other than Instagram, I hadn't posted any photos since Christmas. The GOOD news is that I've been taking them, just not getting them off the camera. Ever since I started shooting in RAW, and that slowing down my post processing, I've been more and more reluctant to DO my post processing. My flow has become much slower and I'm not good at batch editing. The sheer overwhelming task of it all makes me avoid it entirely. Here are a few of my faves from this month...I'll share some from January too, but let's not get crazy or anything :) 

                    

Comfort Zone!

I have to share a few layouts that I recently completed...one of them totally pushed me out of my comfort zone!

I adore this layout for two reasons. 

1. I adore the girl in the layout

2. I adore the kit it was created with!

Now, that being said, that was where my comfort level ended. I used a template being offered up over at Scrap Orchard for a template challenge. It just had the tiny photo on it, the circle one. That's a beautiful way of scrapping, and the original layout was amazing, but I hate having such tiny photos! So, I modified it by adding a second photo on there that was a little large at least. It's important when you're scrapping to make things yours in that manner. It only takes a few touches to personalize your page. 

I'm working on my photography skills and I want to show off the photos when I get great ones. So I'm trending towards layouts like this one lately:

(using Elise's Pieces' Just Friends at The Digi Chick)

Now, I enjoyed creating both layouts, but my heart leaps for a large photo like that. I'm still glad I tried the first one though, because it's a good thing to get out of your comfort zone every now and then! 

Till next time, friends! :) 

Boo Bash 2011

Every year, my sister and I get our kids together and throw them a Halloween party in lieu of trick-or-treating. Trick or Treating depends on the elements. It can be dangerous. It is exhausting when you have small children (and for my sister Tabatha, one nursing and one in a wheelchair)...it's just not always feasible to trick or treat. We're not opposed to Halloween or anything, but we determined 3 years ago that a well-planned party and a pinata filled with candy will be just as fun for the kids and more enjoyable for mom and dad, too! Here are the highlights of this year's Boo Bash!

• Naomi and Parker (Naomi's costume is a ghost but looks like Mickey Mouse in that photo! She also had a mouthful of candy in that photo :) 
• Our Candy Corn veggie tray which everyone neglected.
• Juice Box Mummies :)
• A very shy "owboy"...my nephew Julian.
• Candy Corn pudding in a trifle bowl.
• Franken-marshmallow-pops. These turned out great and were a bit like Cake Pops: The Rematch (this time Lena wins!)

• Naomi hitting the pinata, and NOT like a girl I might add!
• My nephew tristan taking out all of his 7 year old agression on the poor ghost.
• Parker ain't afraida no ghost.
• Eventually my brother in law Tim had to dump the candy out for the kidlets because one of the kids hit it so hard that the plastic zip tie holding the ghost onto the tree broke, but the pinata itself wasn't ready to give way yet. 

• Our boo crew
• Ghostly brownies
• Miss Sophie AKA the mermaid who refused to smile. (she smiled PLENTY once out of costume)
• Parker chasing down a ghost!

• Like vultures descending on their prey.
• The ghost chasing the ghostbuster. Something's wrong with this picture. 
• More ghastly treats :) 
• Gabriel as Spiderman and Gwendolyn taking a nap in the sun. This is funny on SO many levels. We have photos of Gabriel sleeping at every family function EVER. We always say it's not a holiday unless Gabriel is asleep. Since he has special needs and can't be forced into a sleeping schedule, he sleeps when he wants to :) Since Gabriel mostly crawls everywhere, when all of our guests came in on foot and Tim sat Gabriel down and Gabriel started crawling all over, Gwen (who is REALLY laidback) arched her back and backed up. Tabatha and I were laughing so hard at the cat being afraid of the "giant baby" (He's not as big as every 8 year old, but he is pretty big). So, she obviously decided that Gabriel wasn't a giant baby trying to eat her, and decided to indulge in a nap with him.
• Monster eyeballs. Probably the grossest thing we made, and the least eaten. Which is sad, because Mr. G worked hard on them. 

• The coolest cowboy.
• Monster pudding cups. Well, the best I could do. It is HARDER THAN IT LOOKS to draw on a cold plastic cup with a Sharpie.
• This was supposed to look like a ghost. The individual balloons were filled with candy and they took turns popping the balloons. It was a lot of fun!
• Our treat table.

Here's a quick 13 second video of one the balloons:

• Witch hats, filled with ice cream!
• Mummy Hershey bars
• My nephew Bumblebee (Sometimes we call him Tristan)
• I love her ghastly expression here. 
• The pinata before it was sorry it ever met these children. 

It was another great Boo Bash...Thanks so much for sharing our photos with us! What do you think? Till next year, friends! :) 

Will melt your heart :)

Naomi has always said Parker's name with a hint of a Bostonian accent (for no particular reason). Everyone has always marveled at the way she pronounces his name and a bunch of other things, too. Just this week Parker started saying his own name. And he sounds just like Naomi :) Parker's nickname is Biscuit (sometimes Biscuit Butt) and I often call Naomi Sugar. Lately he has been using these nicknames more often and I think it's cute :)

Argyle Nails, Etc.

Well, my last post included my first try at at a digital scrapbooking hybrid manicure. I'm happy to report my manicure lasted about 4 days and probably would have lasted longer if I hadn't had chores to do ;) This time I decided to go with argyle! I'd like to share the 8.5"x11" image in case any of you want to print it!

Argyle Nail Transfers

Besides nails, I had a great weekend, how about you? I want to update some of my more recent 30-day photo challenge photos :)

First of all, here is the missing cloud photo from day 3 :) That day there just weren't any clouds, but I did catch some this week. How cool is this? Taken at the UK Arboretum.

And that's all from me for now, friends. Toodles! :)

Project 52, Week 18

I love the way the layouts look together for the year so far! :)

Project 52, Week 17

Project 52, Week 16

Happy Easter, all! :)

Project 52, Week 15

Project 52, Week 14

So I haven't been saying much on the blog lately...mostly just been letting the photos do the talking! There just hasn't been that much to say...I've always enjoyed photography and blogging but sometimes I'm too busy enjoying my life to photograph it and write about it. Our days lately have been quiet, routine-filled days at home...cleaning, playing with the kids, going to the park, the usual :)

Until next time! :)

Project 52, Week 13

Project 52, Week 12

Okay, okay, I got behind....AGAIN! LOL! It's been a crazy few weeks and I've been taking a TON of photos but not taking the time to create my layouts. Glad to take a few minutes today to finally get around to it. :)

Here, a fourth of the way through P52 (or almost, atleast) is what my year looks like so far. How's yours been?

Project 52, Week 11

Project 52, Week 10

Project 52, Week 9

I feel like this year is barreling by faster than I can keep up with it! I'm glad at the very least that I have P52 to remind me to take a minute or two to take pictures! :)

Here's this year in a blur so far!

Project 52, Week 8

Project 52, Week 7

Week 7 is here :) Font is Pea Dacia and the word art is by Ali Edwards. I'm already working on my week 8 layout too....this year is FLYING by already, dontcha think? I can't believe next week it will be March already!

Project 52, Week 6

Since things have been crazy lately, I've almost forgotten to share my P52 layouts! Here's week 6 =) Paper is by Zoe Pearn and font is CK Stenography :)