Saturday, October 18, 2008

PJ Lessons

Sweetie was concerned that we'd forget which ones were her favourite pj's so she asked Daddy to take a picture of them for future reference. The other two wanted in on the photo shoot action and had to have their pj pictures taken too!

On Friday Grammie came over & the girls were giddy & goofy! Lovey is showing off her new 'teeth' that came in her goodie bag from Old Nanny.
Sweetie is practicing her "good" smile. "Is this it Mumma????" She's had a cold most of the week and the other 2 as well. By Friday she was the only one still showing signs of it so I kept her with me instead of sending her to preschool. We went grocery shopping & got the stuff home & unpacked. At this point she said "this is fun, it's just like being a singleton!"
At 3:20 am Friday morning she was hollering "Daddy! DADDY! Daaaaaaaaaaaady!!!!!!" Finally Murray came to & stumbled in to her room, bleary eyed, asking 'what Sweetie? what is it?" In the dark room he heard her little voice say "Daddy, what's the French word for butterfly ??? Inquiring minds want to know. Luckily he was able to come up with papillon or I can only imagine what would have happened next!!!!!! I slept through the whole thing though.





A couple of recent photoshoots in the last week!







Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Focus Focus Focus!



Sweetie & I were sporting similar hairstyles in the wind yesterday!




I find I still need a little work on my focus technique so just took a bunch of random shots yesterday, try land the focus where I actually intended it to be. Most look alright but I did some family pictures on Monday for someone else & some fuzzy ones when I downloaded. It must have something to do with whether I'm nervous or not. I'd timed it for around mid morning, before the sun gets too strong & makes everybody squinty. When I got there, the sun was already out in full force, blazing everywhere! Ugh. I had a hard time finding spots to stand them out of the direct sun but with enough light so I could still get decent exposure. One of the kids was in a playful mood and wasn't cooperating as much as usual so that was freaking me out a little too. I had no idea what to do about either problem but to deal with both simultaneously must have given me the shakes! LOL







So I thought I'd better work on it at home but it seems I do know what to do most of the time & just need to relax. (hmmm I just may have been told that before....) It's not like there's huge amounts of money tied up in this to cause so much anxiety! There are several that will work so it's not like the whole thing was a wash but I'd prefer a higher percentage of shots that turn out!







We're having a busy week! There was no school on Monday due to the holiday so I got to go to the gym & Murray held down the fort. I met with a personal trainer last Friday & he set me up with a program to follow. I had been trying out the gym over the summer and decided to sign up for a year's membership so they offer this "orientation" session with that. Just wanted to clarify that because Murray was a little concerned that I'd been frittering again. Anyway, I tried out the new program on Monday & it didn't kill me so that was either good or bad, I'm not sure! I was expecting to be pretty sore the next day but wasn't.... so we'll see. Probably the free sessions aren't as good as hiring a personal trainer to whip you into shape.







After the gym I went & shot the family pictures and came home for lunch. Murray decided to take the kids for a wagon ride & I thought I'd join them but after eating lunch I wasn't able to keep up with his jogging pace & he left me in the dust! The kids had a great time & when they got back, he took them to pick out pumpkins at the local produce stand. They were quite excited with their selections!







Monday night I went to bible/book study at Nicolle's. We're doing The Power of A Praying Woman . We have a really great group doing this study & it is so awesome to hear what others have to share & getting to know more women from the church. There are lots of young moms like me & one girl from Mexico who is here working as a nanny for a family from our church. I'm hoping I get to platicar (chat) with her more! I had to skip out early on Monday as Murray had a hockey game and apparently you will get cut from the team and beaten with a sharp hockey stick if you're ever late or miss a game!







Murray was happy to lace up & hit the ice again and enjoyed his game. (uh crap. I'm a bad hockey wife & not only do I not remember the score, I don't even remember if they won, yikes!) I think he starts church hockey this week too so he should be getting his fill of sweaty stinky sport again. He's out tonight for another game, hopefully more details will stick this time when I ask in the morning. I always remember to do that, I just don't seem to retain it. I can't be cluttering up my memory with things I will never have a use for! ;)







Yesterday preschool was cancelled so the girls were home all day but I could tell a cold was coming on so they probably wouldn't have been able to go anyway. I wasn't feeling the greatest either so I'm probably coming down with a version of it also. I'd just put on tv for them & got feeling really sleepy & decided to lay down & have a little catnap at 11:10am. The next thing I know, it's 12:30! I couldnt' believe I'd slept that long but I must have needed it.





Lovey took this picture! Pretty good for a 4 year old. I'm going to have to make her her own watermark if she keeps this up!

Today we had playgroup and then a big lunch date at Old Nanny's! The girls have been wanting to see her for quite awhile but her touring schedule has been keeping her busy. We were lucky to get this lunch in before she takes off for warmer climates next week! She made a yummy shepherd's pie which the girls pretty much wanted nothing to do with. She gave them hotdogs instead but they didn't like that kind.... a bit embarrassing but not much I could do. I thoroughly enjoyed it so hopefully that makes up for 3 little fussy faces! We had a great visit, I won $20,000 playing Wheel of Fortune so I can't complain about that! I needed to pick up some medicine at the grocery store so she took the girls for a walk and met me over there. She is SO good to us and we love her!
Gotta cut this short, Sweetie's awake, has a temp of 99.2 and is complaining of a sore throat and says her ear hurts too. Not looking good....

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Make It a Day of Thanksgiving!

Murray found this bird in our downstairs bathroom. Apparently PW had gotten some take-out to bring home to share. So thoughtful!
Sweetie has learned a new trick that cracks us up every time! Unfortunately, my watermark experiment is sort of overshadowing it.
On Thanksgiving we went to M&D's for turkey dinner YUMMMMMMMMM! and we decided to go for a little walk down to the river. It was a little muddy and Sweetie was deadset against going as she'd just started to play with the Strawberry Shortcake sticker thingies so we had to drag her kicking and screaming half the way. The things we do for some quality family time! Once we got her to the path, she remembered she does like going for walks in the woods and she had the most fun crawling around the rocks and checking out the water. So much so that we had to keep a close eye on her adventures or she'd have been swept away!

Honey was ready to hit the trails without too much prompting at all & looked very fashionable in her $8 outfit I got at the clothing sale last month!

Lovey didn't need to be told twice, she loooooooooves walking in the woods and took off at a run and we had to keep up with her!



Ugh. I was playing around, trying to come up with a different way to watermark the photos so did this online tutorial, made up a business name & everything but it doesn't take into account the size of the picture after cropping. On a full sized picture it's barely noticeable in the corner but if I cut it down, apparently it sticks to its original size. Oops. I'll have to play around with that some more.... IF I ever have access to CS3 again. My free trial EXPIRED YESTERDAY *cough*cough*


We are thankful to have been blessed by our wonderful little family & also our larger extended families & friends. We are so fortunate to have all that we do and are truly grateful. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving & lots of turkey!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Horsing Around



One night last week I heard huge bursts of giggles coming from the living room so I went to investigate and found them all playing together, not sure doing what exactly but they were definitely enjoying themselves!