Halloween 2011

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. It's so much fun to dress up and in this case, watch my children enjoy the season. This year is probably the last where we can tell Drake how to dress. He's definitely got his own opinions about what he likes and dislikes, but we did manage to convince him to go as Luigi from the Mario brothers this time. Link went as Mario and together they were too cute! They had a blast trunk or treating.

Hope your Halloween was just as enjoyable!

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 14

This week's challenge hosted by A Step in the Journey is sunsets. Unfortunately, sunsets around here are often lackluster. I didn't manage to snap the one decent sunset this week due to the fact that my camera wasn't in the car with me, so I'm re-using an old one that I snapped a couple of months back. It really was stunning, so posting it twice is hopefully okay. Enjoy!

Soccer, toddler style

We enrolled Drake into a pre-soccer training camp thing on base. It lasted for eight weeks and they were learning the basics of soccer. They had their last practice this past Monday. I honestly couldn't tell you any single thing specifically about soccer other than you're supposed to use your feet and not your hands. But I'm proud to say that my boy thoroughly enjoyed it and that makes it so worthwhile to me. He wasn't just learning the basics of soccer. He was learning how to listen to other adults, how to make friends, how to be patient, and how to be a good sport. These are lessons that I cherish.

At the end of their last practice they had a fun ceremony where the kids all received a participation trophy (usually I'm against these as it teaches kids that it's okay to be mediocre or that you get rewards in life just for participating, but they're three so I think it's fine for this age) and a certificate. All the kids got different "awards" like bravest defender, best listener, etc. Drake got the Hustle Award for always being first in line and the first to volunteer. I definitely think it fits him.

Besides, I have video of him playing goalie and randomly running off from his goalpost whenever the opposite team came at him so best defender or even adequate goalie were out for him.

Dinosaur Park!

Last weekend a friend of mine and I took the boys to the local dinosaur park. They have huge statues of dinosaurs as well as a park, soccer field, and a playground all inside the compound. It's really a lot of fun for the boys. Every time we go they have a blast. This past weekend they had displays of pumpkins in the theme of fairy tales. The boys were unimpressed with the pumpkins, and more interested in the slides and the playground. Oh well. It was nice to get out and do something "fallish" with the boys.

This is the cheesy smile you get when you have to bribe your child to sit for photos. Ugh. lol.

"How big is it, Drake?" "BIIIIGGG!"

My friend holding Drake up so he can see the pumpkin displays.

Beautiful fall foliage

Rawr!!!

No photos, please.

He was entirely uncooperative the entire time and I have maybe 2 photos of him from the entire outing. boo.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 13

This week's challenge hosted by A Step in the Journey is silhouette. This should be easy since I have two cute little guys that I love to photograph, but again, life happened. I've been so busy that I've barely managed to pick up my camera, except for the times when I'm teaching photography to the kids at my workplace. That's really sad because my kiddoes are at such a fun stage that I don't want to miss capturing the memories we're making. So I'm resolving to be better about that. Anyway, here's two shots which maybe, kinda, hopefully count as silhouettes:

First bike ride! Check out the cool shadow.

These black birds were so dark that it's almost like they're a silhouette, right?

check out some fun silhouettes (and most likely better) over at A Step in the Journey

Road Monogram for the Playroom

Inspiration from Pinterest strikes again! I found myself this morning with about 3 hours of spare time. My options to fill that time were: a) nap, b) be crafty, or c) clean the house. Option A was awfully tempting but alas today for some reason I'm wide awake. So I opted for Option B since it sounds like so much more fun than Option C. I re-created this fun road monogram that I found on pinterest:

My monograms aren't as exact as the original pin, but I wanted them to be more child-like. I used black construction paper, cut out the letters I needed (D for Drake, L for Lincoln and then P for Proffitt), glued them onto a white piece of paper, then with chalk added my lanes. I used hot-glue to glue my cars onto my streets. I also made these smaller (the D and L are 8x10 size) so I used the party supply cars (you know, the ones that come as favors). They were also cheaper than purchasing hot wheels. Voila! Super cute artwork for the playroom on the dime.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 12

This week's challenge over at A Step in the Journey is bokeh. One of my favoritest things to capture! I love setting up my camera to blur my background and sometimes even adding in more bokeh on my processed images. Unfortunately, I just have not had much time to get anything done. I would feel like such a slacker, except for I'm incredibly busy with other things, just non-bloggy things. Here's my single lonely capture of bokeh for this week.

Check out more bokeh in all its glory over at A Step in the Journey

New Christmas Designs!

So things have been crazy hectic around here. I'm still trying to catch up. I keep adding things to my to-do list without ever crossing any off. It's kinda getting pathetic. I might just have to put things on there that are easy, like "kiss the kids." Then I can feel all accomplished for the day!

At any rate, I've been listing some new holiday Christmas card designs in my store. I'm really excited about them and I have a few more in mind that I need to work on, but that's only when I find the time. All available at my store HERE.

There's either a white or a black border aroudn these images that won't be printed on your card if you choose one of my designs. It's just the easiest way to format them and make them square for etsy's photo restrictions. All designs are completely customizable and more can be found at my store HERE.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 11

This week's (ELEVEN!) challenge of the 20 Week Photography Challenge is orange. Again, I had such high ambitions of getting things done around here and then having plenty of time to snap away til my heart's content. It didn't happen. I did manage to snap two orange items for you...

Some orange popsicle sticks, and red, and purple, and..

These circus signs are showing up everywhere around here. They're kinda creepy.

So there you have it. My pitiful attempts at orange. But maybe this weekend I'll finally get to the pumpkin patch or the castle at the top of our city to shoot some lovely fall foliage.  Linking up to the challenge HERE.

Cork Monograms

Inspiration from Pinterest strikes again! I've seen it several times pinned all over pinterest, so I just had to do it myself: a cork monogram. I actually just did one initial (for our last name). It turned out really really cute, so I made one for my brother as well for Christmas (shh..don't tell him!). His kitchen's decorated in a wine theme so his cork monogram should be absolutely cute and fitting.

I tried two different versions of the monogram, one with the corkends showing and one with the long sides showing. I can't figure out which one I like better. The one with the corks on their end definitely takes a lot more corks, but I think it's a more substantial piece in the end. There's really no tutorial here, since it's just as easy as it looks: you layout your letter, then once you're happy with it, hot glue the corks together. The M initial got a bit unwieldy and unsturdy due to its size, so I hotglued popsicle sticks to the backside as bracers. Thank you, Pinterest and all its wonderfully creative people!

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 10

This week's photography challenged hosted by A Step in the Journey is Hands. We have plenty of cute little hands around here. Hands that get into trouble, hands that get messy, hands that explore their world, and hands that give hugs and caresses. Here's some of my favorite hands shots this week:

Linking up to http://www.astepinthejourney.com/. Cheers!