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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
We are so proud of him!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Scouts
Kyle had a Court of Honor for Boy Scouts yesterday. I was unable to attend since I was working, but Cole went and took some pictures for me.
Repeating the Scout Oath...
Receiving his Second Class and First Class awards...
We are so proud of him!
We are so proud of him!
Build-A-Bear
Last year, I decided to make a tradition to take Talia to Build-A-Bear every year for her birthday. It made even more sense to me with her EXTREME love of her stuffed animals....she has so many, but insists that they all sleep in her bed with her, and knows when one is missing. She is so sweet with them...they are her babies.
I wanted to go to the Gateway, but the weather was snowy, so we headed down to Fashion Place Mall. We met my sister for lunch at the food court, and then we headed over to Build-A-Bear.
She went straight to this cute, pink bunny with daisies on it. (I was glad, because it's the seasonal limited edition animal, and I thought it was really cute!). She did waver for a moment at a sparkly purple bear("it's your favorite color, Mommy!)...but I knew she would be happier with the pink bunny.
She picked a heart for her bunny...
Gave it a kiss...
Then she put her heart in her bunny, and helped to stuff it. This year, she wasn't afraid to press the pedal, in fact, she thought it was fantastic!
Now it's a real Bunny!
Next we were off to "bath" her bunny. Last year she was terrified of the bathing station, but this year, she LOVED it...in fact, she must have given her bunny 6 baths, she kept saying her bunny was still dirty and needed another bath...
Then we perused our clothing choices. After looking at everything, Talia chose to dress her Bunny in a ballet outfit and shoes.
Then it was time to name her Bunny. She was insistent that she get to do it herself, but since it was typing information, I had to help...she was not happy and was a bit grumpy for a few minutes...
She chose the name Lexi (?)
Me and my best girl!
It was such a fun, fun day....
(Oh, and I am LOVING my new camera...I didn't need the flash for any of these pictures! How cool is that?)
I wanted to go to the Gateway, but the weather was snowy, so we headed down to Fashion Place Mall. We met my sister for lunch at the food court, and then we headed over to Build-A-Bear.
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| From March 2011 |
She went straight to this cute, pink bunny with daisies on it. (I was glad, because it's the seasonal limited edition animal, and I thought it was really cute!). She did waver for a moment at a sparkly purple bear("it's your favorite color, Mommy!)...but I knew she would be happier with the pink bunny.
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| From March 2011 |
She picked a heart for her bunny...
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
Then she put her heart in her bunny, and helped to stuff it. This year, she wasn't afraid to press the pedal, in fact, she thought it was fantastic!
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
Next we were off to "bath" her bunny. Last year she was terrified of the bathing station, but this year, she LOVED it...in fact, she must have given her bunny 6 baths, she kept saying her bunny was still dirty and needed another bath...
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
Me and my best girl!
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| From March 2011 |
It was such a fun, fun day....
(Oh, and I am LOVING my new camera...I didn't need the flash for any of these pictures! How cool is that?)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Happy (very early) Birthday to Me!
As many of you know, I've been getting more and more into photography in the past couple of years. I haunt the photography blogs, I pore over my friends' photo's, asking about techniques and tips....and I've been researching digital cameras. I have loved my current camera, the Canon 980IS. However, when I bought it, I didn't know enough about photography to know what I really wanted/needed out of a digital camera. As I've been reading and researching the past 6 months or so, I've discovered what I want is full manual control (like a DSLR) in a point and shoot size package. I know myself, and I want a camera I can throw in my purse when I'm out and about, or stick in my pocket when I'm riding rides at Lagoon. I don't go anywhere without my camera, and a DSLR is just too big and bulky for me. So, I've been researching smaller options, and for me, the best option was this camera....
This little camera has full manual control, an f/2.0 capable lens, and some nice program and auto modes (for those moments when I don't have time to compose a shot).
I've been watching the camera on Amazon since February. It went on sale, I didn't buy it, and then it went back up to full price. Then it dropped a little...but I waited. Finally, it went on sale for a pretty good discount again...I talked to Cole, and we decided to not wait to see if it would still be on sale in May, for my birthday. We bought it. It came last Wednesday....when I was sick. I was so excited, but didn't feel good enough to do much with it. I did play with it a little, however, and got some pretty good pictures considering I don't really know what I'm doing with the manual settings...
This one's a little dark...no flash.
Better...my princess was being so sweet to "take care of mommy" while I was sick...
Doesn't he look like a miniature lion? I love the way the light coming through the window makes his fur glow!
After I was feeling better, I played a bit more.
I LOVE how I was able to get pictures of the actual snowflakes coming down...something I haven't been able to get to work on my other camera all winter....The white balance is a little off though....
Then, yesterday, we had a family bridal shower. This is my Grandma's side of the family, and even though we really only see each other when we have someone getting married, we always have such a good time catching up. I took my new toy to see what it (and I could do)....
All these pictures were taken indoor without a flash. The natural lighting was pretty good, but my other camera would never have gotten such clear images...I was doing an internal happy dance!
There is a little movement blur, but I still don't really know what I'm doing, so I was thrilled with these results. I didn't want to use the flash because it's distracting, and my family has a bad habit of running from the camera, so I knew that my best chance of getting pictures was to shoot without the flash. The last picture in that bunch was my Aunt and her grandaughter. My cousin and family just moved to Vegas 3 weeks ago, and it's been really hard on my aunt and uncle not to have their grandkids next door. I really wanted to translate the special relationship between Gram and Quinn on camera...and I think it turned out beautiful.
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| From March 2011 |
I've been watching the camera on Amazon since February. It went on sale, I didn't buy it, and then it went back up to full price. Then it dropped a little...but I waited. Finally, it went on sale for a pretty good discount again...I talked to Cole, and we decided to not wait to see if it would still be on sale in May, for my birthday. We bought it. It came last Wednesday....when I was sick. I was so excited, but didn't feel good enough to do much with it. I did play with it a little, however, and got some pretty good pictures considering I don't really know what I'm doing with the manual settings...
This one's a little dark...no flash.
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| From March 2011 |
Better...my princess was being so sweet to "take care of mommy" while I was sick...
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
After I was feeling better, I played a bit more.
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| From March 2011 |
Then, yesterday, we had a family bridal shower. This is my Grandma's side of the family, and even though we really only see each other when we have someone getting married, we always have such a good time catching up. I took my new toy to see what it (and I could do)....
All these pictures were taken indoor without a flash. The natural lighting was pretty good, but my other camera would never have gotten such clear images...I was doing an internal happy dance!
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
There is a little movement blur, but I still don't really know what I'm doing, so I was thrilled with these results. I didn't want to use the flash because it's distracting, and my family has a bad habit of running from the camera, so I knew that my best chance of getting pictures was to shoot without the flash. The last picture in that bunch was my Aunt and her grandaughter. My cousin and family just moved to Vegas 3 weeks ago, and it's been really hard on my aunt and uncle not to have their grandkids next door. I really wanted to translate the special relationship between Gram and Quinn on camera...and I think it turned out beautiful.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Scrapbooking and Sick...
I had the opportunity to join my friend Michele at her house to scrapbook on Saturday. Everyone else was doing traditional, but that didn't stop me from taking along my computer, and completing some digi pages....
I find it takes me about as long to craft a digital page as a traditional page...but Cole says I'm ahead because the setup and the cleanup takes a lot less time when I'm digi-scrapping. :)
I'm having headaches again. There are some days when the pressure is so intense, you can see all the veins on my forehead popping out. I'm also not sleeping very well. The bouts of insomnia have recurred on and off since I got pregnant with Talia, and I figure the headaches are probably related to the lack of sleep. To top it off, Talia woke up from her nap yesterday with a high fever, and shortly was throwing up.
Poor little sick girl...
I was worried about Talia, and my head was killing me, so I finally gave in and dragged out the Percocet that I was prescribed the last time I was having major headache trouble. I don't like to do that, because it sometimes makes me nauseous, and Cole says I always act stoned when I'm taking it. I was hoping it would cure the pain and help me sleep. It did kill the pain...but I didn't sleep, I spent the night laying in bed, having
"head rushes" (the only way I can think of to describe it when the blood seems to flood to my brain in waves), and by morning, Cole decided to call in sick to let me sleep and take care of our sick daughter.
I can already feel the headache creeping back...and Talia still can't keep much down. Life goes on.
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| From Digi-Scrapbook Pages |
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| From Digi-Scrapbook Pages |
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| From Digi-Scrapbook Pages |
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| From Digi-Scrapbook Pages |
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| From Digi-Scrapbook Pages |
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| From Digi-Scrapbook Pages |
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| From Digi-Scrapbook Pages |
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| From Digi-Scrapbook Pages |
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| From Digi-Scrapbook Pages |
I find it takes me about as long to craft a digital page as a traditional page...but Cole says I'm ahead because the setup and the cleanup takes a lot less time when I'm digi-scrapping. :)
I'm having headaches again. There are some days when the pressure is so intense, you can see all the veins on my forehead popping out. I'm also not sleeping very well. The bouts of insomnia have recurred on and off since I got pregnant with Talia, and I figure the headaches are probably related to the lack of sleep. To top it off, Talia woke up from her nap yesterday with a high fever, and shortly was throwing up.
Poor little sick girl...
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
I was worried about Talia, and my head was killing me, so I finally gave in and dragged out the Percocet that I was prescribed the last time I was having major headache trouble. I don't like to do that, because it sometimes makes me nauseous, and Cole says I always act stoned when I'm taking it. I was hoping it would cure the pain and help me sleep. It did kill the pain...but I didn't sleep, I spent the night laying in bed, having
"head rushes" (the only way I can think of to describe it when the blood seems to flood to my brain in waves), and by morning, Cole decided to call in sick to let me sleep and take care of our sick daughter.
I can already feel the headache creeping back...and Talia still can't keep much down. Life goes on.
Friday, March 11, 2011
"Alec"xander the Great
The 3rd Grade at Alec's school did a Wax Museum on Wednesday night. The idea was, the kids each had to pick a historical person, research his/her life, and write a short (30 second) speech about the person. Then, at the Wax Museum, they would dress as their character, with a container for coins. Parents and others would put a coin in the container, the wax person would come alive, say their speech, and go back to "wax".
At first, Alec wanted to be Christopher Columbus...I think because he must have been the first on the list of possibilities and they must have used him as the example when they explained the project in class. When we discussed the project with Alec, however, we explained that he could be ANYBODY from history. This opened up a whole realm of possiblities.
Alec, Kyle and Cole love to play this game called Civilization, where you build a civilization from the beginning. It uses real historical characters and information, and when we told Alec that the root of his name is from Alexander the Great, that was all it took for him to want to become him.
Alec did a great job with his report and the memorization of his speech. Cole did a fantastic job of building Alec's costume...
(if you want to know more about how the costume was made, check out Cole's blog)
Alec was so funny, he was in character almost the entire time, and LOVED giving his speech over and over. He is definitely my performing child...he loves to act.
The school gym was packed, and very chaotic. I tried to get a video of him giving his speech, but it was really loud. I guess that's the mark of a successful project.
At first, Alec wanted to be Christopher Columbus...I think because he must have been the first on the list of possibilities and they must have used him as the example when they explained the project in class. When we discussed the project with Alec, however, we explained that he could be ANYBODY from history. This opened up a whole realm of possiblities.
Alec, Kyle and Cole love to play this game called Civilization, where you build a civilization from the beginning. It uses real historical characters and information, and when we told Alec that the root of his name is from Alexander the Great, that was all it took for him to want to become him.
Alec did a great job with his report and the memorization of his speech. Cole did a fantastic job of building Alec's costume...
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| From March 2011 |
(if you want to know more about how the costume was made, check out Cole's blog)
Alec was so funny, he was in character almost the entire time, and LOVED giving his speech over and over. He is definitely my performing child...he loves to act.
The school gym was packed, and very chaotic. I tried to get a video of him giving his speech, but it was really loud. I guess that's the mark of a successful project.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Happy 30th Birthday Heidi!
For all my Facebook friends who were intrigued by my "Happy Dance" post last week, here is the full story....
My sweet brother in law Adam has been planning a surprise 30th birthday party for my sister Heidi for a couple of months. I really wanted to make her birthday cake, THIS cake. I wanted to try out the vertical layer technique, and I LOVED the simple beauty of the roses, not to mention the idea of lots and lots of frosting (we are buttercream frosting people in our family). As I previously posted, I had a few issues the first time I practiced the vertical layer technique. After tweaking my recipes a bit, my second attempt, the cakes for the party, turned out GREAT! Thus the reason for my happy dance last week...
From the top...
From the side
Up close and personal with the frosting...
All 3 completed cakes...
I used the tutorials provided at the above link (and if you want to try out a lot of cool stuff, check out all her posts...I love her baking blog!). I also found it CRITICAL to use the simple syrup to bind your cake layers together. I had read that using simple syrup can make your cake soggy if you use too much, but I didn't use quite enough on the cake with the yellow outer ring...
(the carnage from transport)
2 of the 3 cakes stayed together pretty well, but with the trauma of getting there, and not using enough simple syrup between the layers...oh well. It still tasted DIVINE...and it made me feel good that all the brothers and sisters were sneaking tastes of the broken cake before the party started...
Back to the surprise party story...
Of course, I worked the weekend, and since Talia has dance on Mondays, it was a crazy day. I only got about 3 hours of sleep, and right as we started down to the party, it started snowing...heavily. By the time we got to Salt Lake, the roads were terrible, and we had driven our little Corolla because it gets better gas mileage. I actually felt very blessed that there were no major incidents on the way there...and that we got there and back safely.
The first part of the evening was a family dinner. We all arrived, and waited for the guest of honor...
My parents playing lookout...
(and a special thanks to Cannon...Adam's younger brother, who shoveled constantly for about an hour so that no footprints would be visible)
I didn't get a good picture of the "Surprise" moment...Heidi turned the wrong way. However, she was completely surprised, had not a clue about the party, so it was really fun.
My sweet nephew Logan...
Opening her present...
Adam had a really cool scrapbook made for Heidi...
After dinner, the second part of the surprise...Adam had invited a bunch of Heidi's friends to come celebrate!
Blowing out the candles
Me and my baby sister...
And of course, before I forget...the inside of the cakes...
It was a really fun party, and even though the weather could have cooperated a lot more than it did, I was really happy to get to celebrate with my sister. Happy Birthday Heidi!
My sweet brother in law Adam has been planning a surprise 30th birthday party for my sister Heidi for a couple of months. I really wanted to make her birthday cake, THIS cake. I wanted to try out the vertical layer technique, and I LOVED the simple beauty of the roses, not to mention the idea of lots and lots of frosting (we are buttercream frosting people in our family). As I previously posted, I had a few issues the first time I practiced the vertical layer technique. After tweaking my recipes a bit, my second attempt, the cakes for the party, turned out GREAT! Thus the reason for my happy dance last week...
From the top...
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| From March 2011 |
From the side
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| From March 2011 |
Up close and personal with the frosting...
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| From March 2011 |
All 3 completed cakes...
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| From March 2011 |
I used the tutorials provided at the above link (and if you want to try out a lot of cool stuff, check out all her posts...I love her baking blog!). I also found it CRITICAL to use the simple syrup to bind your cake layers together. I had read that using simple syrup can make your cake soggy if you use too much, but I didn't use quite enough on the cake with the yellow outer ring...
(the carnage from transport)
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| From March 2011 |
2 of the 3 cakes stayed together pretty well, but with the trauma of getting there, and not using enough simple syrup between the layers...oh well. It still tasted DIVINE...and it made me feel good that all the brothers and sisters were sneaking tastes of the broken cake before the party started...
Back to the surprise party story...
Of course, I worked the weekend, and since Talia has dance on Mondays, it was a crazy day. I only got about 3 hours of sleep, and right as we started down to the party, it started snowing...heavily. By the time we got to Salt Lake, the roads were terrible, and we had driven our little Corolla because it gets better gas mileage. I actually felt very blessed that there were no major incidents on the way there...and that we got there and back safely.
The first part of the evening was a family dinner. We all arrived, and waited for the guest of honor...
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
My parents playing lookout...
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| From March 2011 |
(and a special thanks to Cannon...Adam's younger brother, who shoveled constantly for about an hour so that no footprints would be visible)
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| From March 2011 |
I didn't get a good picture of the "Surprise" moment...Heidi turned the wrong way. However, she was completely surprised, had not a clue about the party, so it was really fun.
My sweet nephew Logan...
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| From March 2011 |
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| From March 2011 |
Opening her present...
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| From March 2011 |
Adam had a really cool scrapbook made for Heidi...
After dinner, the second part of the surprise...Adam had invited a bunch of Heidi's friends to come celebrate!
Blowing out the candles
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| From March 2011 |
Me and my baby sister...
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| From March 2011 |
And of course, before I forget...the inside of the cakes...
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| From March 2011 |
It was a really fun party, and even though the weather could have cooperated a lot more than it did, I was really happy to get to celebrate with my sister. Happy Birthday Heidi!
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