Wednesday 31 August 2011

Oh Bella.

I love this girl... Obviously!
The other day, I gave Isabella leftover homemade pizza for lunch. Yummy, right? Guess not. She insisted on having broccoli instead.
Then later that day, Dan aksed Bella if she'd like to have some cow to eat. She said, no, she'd like to "kiss a cow"! (we're still working on finding her some cows to kiss)
xoxo



Pintrest


Lately, I've been loving pintrest. It doesn't help things that I also have the iphone ap.
I'm a creative person and and curious to see what others are doing. So, if you want to you can follow me, and see what I am liking.
Shhh, just don't tell if you see some of these ideas in my house, or photos!


Snap Shop

This summer has flown by! We have been busy as always. I have taken sooo many pictures. I am still putting ones from the summer onto my laptop, and sometimes can't even find the time to go through them and even rotate them the right way, and delete the odd one.
Last week I filled up a whole memory card (900ish pics) in under ten days. Yikes!! Thank goodness I don't have the burden of editing them.  Editing is something that I would like to learn to do. However, I feel its more important to be able to be able to take pictures as close to how I want them as possible.  Because, I can't seem to find the time. And I would rather improve my skills as a photographer, than as an editor.  And that is currently my focus.
I recently took part in Ashley Ann's snap shop. This was a great online photography class. I have taken photography classes in the past. But this is my favourite one yet. I already knew a lot of what she taught, but I think it was still important for me to read through those sections.  It caused me to be more purposeful in my photograph taking.  I was able to go through the classes at my own pace, and not feel stuck to look for a sitter on specific nights.
She gives pointers and shows very specific examples of everything she is talking about.  Which makes learning a lot easier.
I would suggest this class to others looking to learn and improve their skills. I also like that she is a mom, who takes loads of photographs of her kids- like me. I have found with other photography classes I have taken in the past, I am the only one with young kids, and everyone, including the instructor is more interested in taking pictures of non human things.
Here are a couple of my favourite photographs I took through the duration of the class.





The thing about taking pictures for me (and Ashley Ann) is that they should tell a story.
That's what makes them special for myself and our family. I'm not into posed pictures (cheese!) (though some are okay occasionally). I prefer to take photographs of our days, and to capture the moments.
So, for example- the first picture is the kids helping eachother get shoes on to go outside (that's not going to last forever).  The second is Ben looking out his window for daddy or a tractor.  The third is a wonderful beach day, where my son could finally swim on his own (thank goodness for puddle jumper floaters).  He's a wanderer. He likes to do his own thing, so this made him very happy and made us both feel secure. The next is Bella after a whole day in our little pool. She was learning to lay back and put her face underwater. I loove the look on her face when she came up. Shocked, and proud.  Lastly, eating one of many apples now that its harvest, and they can pick their own.

I hope that over time my photos get better, and maybe I can buy the lenses I think I need! Until then you get to see me practicing.

Monday 22 August 2011

Piano


Friends of ours moved into a new home (Congrats!),
which had a piano in it that they didn't want.
Dan and his team of movers brought it to our home.
My kids LOVE it.

Sunday 14 August 2011

Wedding, part two

To follow the bride and groom pics, here are some photos of how the day went, and the guests.



Jes and Jenn


The girls and the groom


Jenn and Mom. Someone else took this on my camera; I like it.


Almost our whole family. Missing one sibling.  I love laughing pictures.


(Step) father- daughter dance.


Father- Daughter Dance under the gazebo

    


I Loooove Jenn's reaction!
Want to see what they are surprised about?


A few weeks before the wedding, my mom had this idea that we should all wear our wedding gowns once Jenn inevitably changes into track pants or PJ's (which she does at every function shortly after dinner).





 

Posers!

 
Jes and I.  At both of our weddings we weren't able to to get a good picture of the two of us together. So this was our shot at a re-take!




We all changed into our comfy clothes/PJ's after dinner.

Then there was dancing. Even mom joined in. Briefly.




Erica and Sara decorated the married couple's van.
Instead of writing "Dwayne and Jenn" on the back, they used their somewhat embarrassing middle names...
"Belinda and Elvis"
tee hee

The perfect ending to the perfect day!


A nice quote

I saw this on the bottom of my cereal box the other morning while we were having breakfast:

"Our lives are not in the laps of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks" -Lin Yutang

I thought it was interesting, so I repeated it to Dan.

To which Isabella replied "Mommy, I don't want you to cook my cereal!" :)

Thursday 4 August 2011

My big sister's garden wedding! (Part 1)

On June 25th, my sister, Jenn married her babe, Dwayne.
They are an awesome couple, and are really good at dealing with anything that comes their way.  They have been engaged for a while and had intended to get married next April (on their anniversary).. but, (Jenn loves to change her mind :)) they decided to move up the date, and just finally be married.
As part of the short timeline, Jenn wanted to keep things simple, and as things snowballed, we volunteered to plan most of the day (parents, and sisters). I totally loved this- I would seriously be a wedding planner if I could!
The ceremony was in my parents beautiful backyard, and was very intimate, with just under twenty of us.
The day started off dreary, but optomistic Jenn kept reminding us it wouldn't rain!  Just as she walked down the "aisle" the sun came out and the sky turned blue.
Here are some pics from that day:


Jenn couldn't stop smiling!

My niece, Erica, stole a quiet moment away with her new stepdad, groom, Dwayne.






Jenn: "Say it!"
Pastor: "I now pronoounce you man and wife"
Jenn: "woooo hoooo"
(that's roughly what was happening in this pic)
The new family (Jenn's kids- Cameron, Jacob and Erica).
The kids said vows to Dwayne, their new step dad during the ceremony.  It was sweet.



I think that since this post has taken me ages that I will share Jenn and Dwayne's wedding in a couple seperate parts.  So this was part one.  More to come!