i keep forgetting...

becky tagged me a long time ago, or at least it seems like a long time ago, and i keep forgetting to post my random things! but i'll have to try to do them next time. tonight i have a few random things that i need to get down. they really need to be scrapbook pages but it will probably be quite awhile before i get to scrap again. maybe later next week!

cookies ---




this winter we got in the habit of making cookies most thursdays. the kids love to "help." anna usually does the eggs, ella loves to do the sugar the most, and wilson sometimes gets to do a little oatmeal, but today he chose to crawl up on the counter and try to lick the brown sugar that had spilled out a little. stinker! lol! we got a new oven earlier in the winter, and my mom bought me some great industrial pans from her school. for christmas kurt bought me a kitchen aid stand mixer, which i love! so with all of those goodies i can make 3 dozen at a time, so i can make the whole recipe in just over an hour (not counting dishes). it's great! i've never been much of a baker - or well good at anything domestic actually. lol! but these make me happy. :)


i have to remember to scrap a few ella things too. she's at such a fun age. she still very much loves her mom. :) this is one of the pictures she drew using my wacom tablet. she's way better at using it than i am. she draws all kinds of these types of pictures. she loves to write all of our names and draw hearts all over the page. she's constantly coloring and drawing and painting. she loves to give me a hug and a kiss goodnight too. my favorites are "squeeze hugs," but lately she's been giving me kisses all over. she kisses my forehead, my chin, both cheeks, and then my nose. and then she rubs them in. lol! she also says i'm the hero princess mommy, and that she loves me to the moon, the universe, and to texas and back. :) i usually tell her i love her to all of those things and front and she giggles. she sings ALL OF THE TIME. she drives her dad crazy because she will stay in the bathroom forever watching herself sing in the mirror. she even hums while she eats if she's enjoying what she's eating. anna is taking dance classes this year, and we tried and tried to convince her to take them too. but she told us very clearly, "i don't want people to tell me how to dance." lol!!!

i just have one page idea for wilson for tonight, but he's such a funny guy i'm sure i'll have more soon. one of his favorite things to say is our names, and he seems to prefer to group them together. he'll just walk around randomly saying, "mommy daddy mommy daddy mommy DADDY!" and he always says the last one with gusto. lol! he loves to say "mimi and papa and mimi and papa and mimi and papa and papa and MIMI!" too. sometimes he likes to switch them up for the last group. lol!

i wish i had some great page ideas for anna, but i don't. she is just growing up way too fast, and i'm really having a hard time with it. she's more into playing with her friends and doing her webkinz games for the day or watching or listening to the disney channel. she's really getting into music, so we've had fun with that. we're reading mrs. pigglewiggle together. i love that she's enjoying it since i did so much as a kid. of course i think i was in at least 3rd grade before i read it! she does still like us to snuggle with her at bedtime. i think sometimes she struggles just a bit with wanting to be more grown up but missing that cuddle time too. i hope we get to sneak a little more in during spring break. i can't wait!

splash

splash, originally uploaded by holly k 123.

i finally figured out how to blog pictures from my flickr account. - here's the potd from yesterday. now if i could just figure out how to do more than one at a time!

thank you!

thank you all for all of your kind comments about my photography - here and on 2 peas! i kind of feel like i should clarify myself a bit. i have a canon xt; 50mm 1.8, 28-135mm, and 85mm 1.8 lenses; and i recently got the 430ex speedlight. i've been practicing some with that, but i really need to practice with it more. i really prefer natural light, but i know that won't be possible at the wedding. i have a diffuser, which is great! but i've also been learning about bouncing the flash. i loved one of the tips i found about bouncing it off the wall behind me. so far that's my favorite flash technique. i have read understanding exposure and one of the scott kelby books, and i've been shooting in manual for about a year or so. i switched to shooting in raw last summer too, but it would be good if i could learn a bit more about the conversion process. i have a really hard time getting the white balance right unless i set it manually before taking the shots. i've read a lot about grey cards too, so i should try that out next i think. i use photoshop cs and pse 4. i have photoshop on our computer upstairs and pse on my laptop. so i know it's better to edit the pictures with photoshop on the upstairs computer, but it's almost always more convenient to edit on my laptop. i just wish it could be more reliable. i have calibrated it with the spyder pro, but of course it's never quite right. so that's about all i know! lol! sorry if i've bored some of you! here are a few picts from this week. i've been doing a picture a day - they are all posted at 2 peas and on my flickr account, so sorry if you're sick of seeing them! lol! eta - boo! blogger isn't letting me post picts now. i'll try again later.

photography...

it's been on my mind constantly since my brother and his fiance asked me to shoot their wedding for them this april. just about a month away! ack! i'm soooo nervous - i really don't feel a bit qualified, but they've seen my pictures and they still think they want me to do it. i will be working for a good price. ;) i've been able to get some new equipment and i've been doing a TON of practicing. everyone in my family is THRILLED about that. lol! i've put some of my better pictures on my flickr account (the link's on the left). if anyone has any advice or constructive criticism or can recommend any kind of study materials i would be so happy! i will be starting a class a few weeks before the wedding too, so hopefully that will help too. i definitely do much better in well lit situations, of course. and of course the church and reception will be pretty dark. ugh. this picture is from saturday when it was so nice and warm and sunny! tonight we're set to get more snow. i can't wait for spring! :)