Easter 2011

We had a lovely Easter complete with egg hunts, Easter brunch, flowers, family and.... sick Ellie :) She always gets sick on holidays. Double ear infection and pink eye, blah...  She was a trooper though and even started walking for real over the weekend!

 Egg hunt at the library. Mia wanted nothing to do with Easter Bunny but did a great job elbowing other kids out of the way to get her eggs :)

 Concentrating on dyeing the eggs! She did great this year:)

 Uncle Ben and Grandma helped too.

 Ellie Bunny

 Egg hunt with neighbors.

 The cutest couple and soon to be parents :)

 She had a great time and got completely filthy.

 I always take pictures of flowers...

Easter cupcakes with buddies :)

She did it!

Easter weekend was wonderful! Lots of photos coming soon. But first...

Is there anything sweeter than a 1-year old taking their first steps? This just gets me everytime! She's so cute. Go Ellie :)

Right now

I am very excited to have Easter here with my mom and brother and his wonderful fiance and my soon to be niece! In preparation for their arrival, I thought I'd at least straighten up a little. I was out of the kitchen for about 3 minutes but when I came back there was this...

Maybe I should just leave it to help prepare Ben and Morgan for parenthood :)

Anyway, looking forward to a pretty weekend with egg hunts and family time. Happy Easter to all!
xoxo

Spring stuff

It is absolutely gorgeous here in the spring! The flowering trees are amazing and the bulbs are breathtaking. And soon the azaleas will be in full bloom, yay! How can anyone not enjoy spring :) (Allergies, aside...)

We've been out and about a bit this weekend and I continue to try and take photos of the girls. We visited a lovely little Japanese garden and then the Naval museum yesterday, and meandered through the Botanical Gardens today.


Oh, and we had a date night last night! Just me and Sean! It was so great to enjoy dinner without crayons, sippy cups and high chairs! We found a sweet babysitter who asked Mia when she was leaving if she'd like her to bring some stickers for next time. Mia responded "that sounds good, but what I'd really like are chocolate chip cookies!" ha!


Lots of pictures below. I didn't edit any because I'm just overwhelmed with Photoshop and can't find the time to devote to learning it just yet. But they are still pretty cute :)

 We saw 3 Norfolk mermaids on our walk yesterday.

 That's our climber :) No walking yet, but she can scale a rope ladder!

 My backyard (I wish!! None of my tulips came up this year, ugh! What did I do wrong??)

 Attempts to get cute photo... no luck as usual :)

Amazing tree!!

Our climber

Ellie is a climber. We are thankful that we bolted all of the heavy furniture down a few years ago (although it never crossed Mia's mind to climb furniture). Ellie will climb up and down the stairs giggling happily all day if you let her. We have the bottom of the stairs blocked with a big, heavy trunk because Ellie will try to climb baby gates. At the playground, she is still content to put mulch and sand in her mouth, but soon I think we'll have a little monkey on our hands!

Smiles

Ellie's smile just cracks me up lately! It is so squinty and silly :)

And I just love this photo of Mia taken by Alexis! I have many photos of myself wearing that same cheesy grin :)



Just wanted to share!

Joy of Luck Conclusion

Ok, I'll take a break from the mushy gushy stuff for a bit! I have enjoyed the Joy of Luck prompts, and trying to capture inspired photos, but I have definitely concluded that photography is hard! I am still undecided about purchasing a bigger DSLR camera... I think I would enjoy using it but I know that the really good pictures still require a lot of work and editing. I will be purchasing the full version of Photoshop Elements though because it really is cool!!

Rainy, dreary weekend here...typical for March. I should be spring cleaning or something more productive but I'm absorbed in a good book (The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton) and feeling lazy. Maybe tomorrow. Hope everyone is well!

Rainbows

Last prompt for Joy of Luck:

We all have something in our future to look forward to. This may be professional growth, spiritual growth, growth of our children, growth of our family, or whatever else in life that gives you hope.



What will your luck bring in your future? What blessings do you look forward to? I like to think of this as your own personal “rainbow.”

Easy...

I recently downloaded the trial version of Photshop Elements and have been practicing a little bit of photo editing. It definitely takes some getting used to. But you can make blurry backgrounds (something I love!--see photo of girls in box, above) and adjust all kinds of things. Definitely time consuming at first, but the girls have been napping well this week so I've been able to teach myself a little bit. Lucky me! :)

Days 5 and 6

Hmmm... falling behind a little. Teething babies, beautiful weather, etc. etc.  But, on to the next 2 prompts:

What in your life has brought you the most luck or blessings? It can be animate or inanimate. This can be when you hit a certain age, or when you earned a certain job title or even when you got married or became a parent. When, in your life, do you believe that your life became filled with luck, blessings and joy?



Well, I think I already answered this one last time :) I truly believe meeting Sean was one of those lucky moments where my life changed for the better! We've just had some amazing experiences together, with the most awesome being our beautiful girls. I don't have a good photo to use here (at least one that I took recently.... ) So, here is a fitting one from a few years ago:
 
 

 
We all have “things” in our lives that we are blessed with – lucky trinkets, material goods that we feel lucky/blessed to have accumulated due to our hard work, etc. Now, let’s think outside of our possessions and focus in WHO is a blessing in our lives? WHO are we lucky to have in our lives? This can be someone that has been a part of our lives forever , someone we have just recently met, someone who has passed away, etc. Think long and hard….WHO has been a blessing in your life?


I am going to say the women in my life. First of all, my mother and grandmother. My biggest hope for my girls is that they grow up to be compassionate and giving and kind, like my mom and grandma. And my dear girl friends. They are as different as can be and I appreciate them so much. They are strong and smart and thoughtful and loyal. And all of the amazing women that have a part in shaping my girls lives--grandmas, aunts, cousins...so beautiful and brilliant, every one of them.

Of course I can't think of a photo that would capture this...This has turned into more of a reflection than a photography exercise :) But, I'm brainstorming, so stay tuned.

Luck and Favorites

Days 3 and 4:


What are some traditional lucky symbols that you can think of? How has our culture created its own perception of what brings luck (and what brings bad luck?). look around your surroundings….what lucky “token” can you find?

 I couldn't honestly think of a "token" that I consider a good luck charm these days. But, I have always said that Sean leads a "charmed" life. It's true! Good things happen to him, and things just always seem to work out. I am lucky that I am along for the ride :)


My charming husband did not want me to post any pictures of him on the blog though... I wanted to try to take "artsy" shots of him in profile/black and white etc... but he wasn't in the mood :) So, here is my favorite one of him lately!

I am certain that if you think hard, you can find seven material things that you LOVE. What are they? Capture these with your lens…..the sky is the limit for this lesson. we are all so fortunate for what we have materially. We’re lucky to have these material objects. Let’s focus on our luck and blessings today – capture your favorite seven objects!




Wow, this is kind of tough. Right off the bat I thought of my house, my coffee maker, my slippers, my bed, my hammock, my antique steamer trunk and my photo albums.  And I am obviously reaching the limits of my camera skills!