Visit from GoGo and BaBa!

We love having visitors especially when they are grandparents. I lived very close to my grandparents. My girls live very far from their grandparents however their love for them is no different than what mine was for my grandparents. It is always a treat when family comes into town. We welcome more to join us here for visits or maybe live here.

Brandon and his mommy.

Edward is always making friends with random people.

I love this picture of Gillian and Brandon.


All of the cousins together. It took awhile to get the kids in a position that they liked. Well I guess it was just my kids causing the problems.

Everyone enjoying lunch at the local Red Robin. Lots of eating out when family is in town.


The girls looking darling and clean before church.




Can't wait to have you out again.

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!
I have not done these giveaways in awhile. I absolutely love these skirts. I want to make one for me! My girls and I can all be matching. Yea!!

Christmas!

Hooray for Christmas! We really did have an amazing Christmas. We were lucky enough to have Tobi fly in for a week. We have made it a tradition in our family every Christmas Eve to pick a place to go out for dinner. This year we chose The Irregardless Cafe. I think it will be our choice every year from now on. The live entertainment was so fun for the whole family and the food never disappoints. Here are a few pictures from the week.

Brooklyn sporting the new dress ups I made for the girls.

Brooklyn got herself dressed and styled her hair.

Camden in her new shirt.

Yea! We got a trampoline and it was free. Thanks to friends that look out for a family in need of a trampoline.

We also had the Colemans over for a lovely Christmas meal, gourmet hamburgers.

Camden covered in piggy pudding.

Tobi and the girls ready for church.

Family Twister night.


Brandon and Brooklyn's beautiful sand art.

Picnic at the park.

Lets hope that next year I will post sooner and Tobi will be here again and more.

I bought a couch!

I love in photos when families or individuals are on a couch or chair in a random urban or natural setting. I have been in search of a couch, chair, or love seat for a few months now. I obviously can't afford the thousand dollar couches that are used in the high end photography studios. So what do I do? I hit the local Goodwill many times a month, Raleigh's awesome flee market, and craigslist daily. I finally bought an ugly modern multi print couch yesterday from Goodwill. I think with a rich bright colored slipcover this is going to look awesome for family and individual portraits.

It is really cool when a family already has a really cool prop like a brightly colored red chair. No worries the mom was right on the side of the chair and had let go for just a second so I could get the shot.



Here is my attempt at being cool like some really cool photographers.

Now imagine it in a beautiful field of tall grass with a wall of majestic trees for the backdrop. The couch is draped with a fitted slipcover in colors of gold, red, or deep purple.


What do you think? I will for sure show you the finished product. I am still on the lookout for a Queen Ann style chair or sofa. I am not very good at craigslist.

Pittsburgh Trip

Just before Christmas we had the opportunity to drive up with Brandon to Pittsburgh, PA. We have not been up there since Brandon's graduation from Carnegie Mellon. Brandon was meeting with some students at Carnegie Mellon for work so we took the opportunity for all of us to go. We were able to stay at our friends Scott and Margie. Here are some fun pictures from the trip.

We also went over to our old house to visit with our friends and Landlords whiled we lived there. They have since moved to the downstairs where we lived and have totally changed the look of the house. They tore up the nasty shag dark brown carpet and magically found beautiful wood floors underneath.


Brooklyn loved their hill in their backyard.

Camden not so much.


This is Rex. This picture almost looks as if he is trying to lick is nose clean.

This is Felix. He was almost a year when we moved from Pittsburgh. Brooklyn had a lot of fun with both boys.

Margie and Scott were very nice to allow us to stay at their house even after some other friends of ours were visiting over Thanksgiving weekend.

Camden was pretty much stuffed into her jacket and snow pants.

Saying goodbye. I love the look on Felix's face.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My most favorite memory of Valentine's Day is every year we would wake up to our family room decorated by my father and a yummy breakfast made. I have decided to carry on that tradition with my family. This year I decided to do more. The girls loved it and Brandon even got in on it.

Yummy!







These are the twirly skirts I had mentioned in an earlier post. They turned out very cute.







P.S. Many more post to come. I never even posted Christmas. Will do later. It is never too late, right?

For your consideration

I want to see this movie:

12 week Challenge

I got this challenge from my friend Beth. I think I can do it. Feel free to join in.

The premise of the 12 week challenge is to achieve a set of goals every day, each being worth one point:

1. Seven hours of sleep (not necessarily consecutive)

2. 45 minutes of exercise (not necessarily consecutive)

3. 64 ounces of water

4. No sweets

5. No soda, unhealthy snacks, or bad fast food

6. Eat two servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit

7. No eating after dinner, or 8pm

8. 15 minutes of scripture reading or other religious text

9. Write in your journal (any length)

10. Express sincere appreciation or praise to your spouse (or someone special)

***SUNDAYS are FREE POINTS DAYS, where you may do/eat whatever you like


I did forget to update my push up challenge. I was able to complete the 6 weeks. However it took me more like 8 weeks. Sadly I was never able to reach the one hundred push ups. The good news is I went from being able to max out at 23 all the way to 70 push ups. For me that is a huge accomplishment.

I will try to update this challenge on my blog.

Yipppeee!!! Snow Day!!!

We have been praying for snow. Brooklyn wakes up this morning and immediately says her prayers have been answered. We woke up to 4" of snow and it is still going. This is the most we have seen since we have lived here. It is so beautiful. I love the sound of the snow falling.



Camden does not have real snow clothes. I found my old yellow rain coat and turned it into pants for Camden. They don't look real attractive but they kept her warm.

Brooklyn is wearing her snow suit we got her when we lived in Pittsburgh. She refuses to hand it down even though she is close to flood height.

Camden was like this if I was not holding onto her hands. She did not like being left alone.

Stay tuned in for more pictures.

New Project

I think this might be my newest project, a twirly skirt, for both my girls.

Texturizing a picture

Just playing around with some textures. I have never liked the result I get from pictures when using photoshop textures. My results usually are on the tacky side. With that said as Brooklyn and I were exploring the other day I was overwhelmed by the textures on all the different trees. Here is my first example.

Started out with a cute picture. I added some contrast, took out some red from her face, and increased the vibrancy.

Here is my texture I used. Pumped up the vibrancy to bring out the gold.


Here is the finished product. I think it turned out pretty good.

Exploring in the Forest/Backyard

Brooklyn's new favorite activity is exploring. She loves when Camden takes a nap because that is her and my time to explore in the backyard. She walks through the wooded part saying things such as, "Wow, it is so amazing!", "This is a beautiful forest.", "Why do people live in the middle of the forest?" It has been really fun for the both of us and better than watching TV. We finally took Camden out exploring today. Sadly she did not enjoy it that much. I think She fell in every hole and mud pit along the way.




Brooklyn and her telescope.

Brooklyn pointing in the direction we need go.

The first exploration finding, poop. I had to pull back Brooklyn's fingers before it was touched.

The second exploration finding, a bone.

This is her favorite spot out in the forest.

Brooklyn thought it was so cool she could jump across the water. She kept telling me not to worry.

Camden not having a very good time.

Camden trying to catch up to Brooklyn and just before she fell into mud.

Family photo session

Our family has not been photographed by another photographer since our wedding. We have always set up our tripod and shot away.

We finally decided to allow someone else take our photos. Thanks Julia for going out with us in the cold. We had a lot of fun although the girls struggled a little. I can't post all of them so I will post only a few.


Camden is off on the side doing her own thing.

New Title Picture

I have to give props to the amazing Sloan Photographers for the idea with the new title picture. We went out this morning to experiment with the concept. I think it turned out well. It is too bad Brooklyn is a fast runner.

Picnic at the lake

I had fun with the family photographing seagulls at a recent picnic at the lake near our backyard.

Why do my posts go without comments? Tassi sneezes and the world comments.

Are Wii all crazy?

50 kids happy to get a Nintendo Wii for Christmas