Mmmmm. We went out to Yanagi's Friday night (thanks Billy & Sarah). Nice quiet dinner away from the kids. :) If you haven't tried the lobster roll, you've got to; it's incredible!
I took these a couple months ago at Strother Park for a friend. Is she cute or what?
We had Christmas at our house this year; a first for us. The whole (immediate) family was able to make it. It was alot of fun, but alot of work too! I can appreciate a little more now my mom cooking dinner for all of us along with wrapping all the presents and staying up most of the night on Christmas Eve. And now I know why she refused to get out of bed until we had a cup of coffee ready and waiting. God bless coffee.
Over the last three days, too, I don't think I took one picture. How aweful! Thankfully, I think my sister rattled off a few that I can steal and maybe post.
Also, the big news: we're having another baby! I found out Christmas morning, and yes, I'm excited. I should be due sometime around the beginning of October, and I'm hoping it'll be another boy. (If it's a girl, I'll come back and edit that line out to avoid any need for therapy sessions should she read this when she's older.)
So, we had a great Christmas and hope you all did too!
It was brought to my attention that I didn't post any of my own pictures from the sunste in San Luis. So, here's one of mine:
And below is a panorama of the valley(a little mismatched color-wise might I add, but I didn't have much time) I've been playing with the photomerge option in photoshop; I have yet to fine tune my techniques on shooting "pano's", but it's been fun.
Last night we went to Edna Valley Vineyard to watch "God paint the clouds pink". Emily and Gianna sat on the hood of the car wrapped up in a blanket with their bags of popcorn. I set up my tripod on the roof to take pictures, and we all watched the show.
After I was done, I took the camera down and told Emily to look through the veiwfinder and push the button when she saw something she liked. She wanted to take pictures of everything. She ended up getting some pretty good shots, I think, for a 3-year-old! Lookout, there's gonna be some competition in the family. I posted her pictures below. :)
Nope, the girls and I had a "spa" day. It was cold and rainy outside, so we stayed in and played. Mud masks, fingernail polish and make-up; what a great rainy day. And even though Bubba didn't get to join in (much to the consolation of Dad), he still had fun watching.
It included caramels this year. But not just any caramels; they're Leslie's caramels. The best I've ever had, and now I know how to make them. Be jealous. Be very jealous. (That is, up until I gain 10 pounds from eating them all instead of giving them away) It's oh-so worth it though...
How Do you get this many people all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time? I think I've decided the anwswer is: you don't. As long as everyone's eyes are open, you're good! Fortunately, everyone smiled alot anyways, so it wasn't hard. Thanks guys!
This year was the girls' first year picking out and cutting down they're own Christmas tree. Plus they got a tractor ride out of it; I think they enjoyed that even more than getting the tree!
Dave and Caitlin needed school pictures done, so Hatti called me! The light was awesome, and they had so many good places to shoot just around their house that it was easy to get good pictures. They're such little models too!
You have been incredibly blessed. I can't wait till this baby gets here! Congratulations and praise God!
Better late than never...right?
This last Thanksgiving was great. We had the usual - friends, family, way too much food, but we tried a couple new things this year too. Frying a turkey, for instance. For those inexperienced at turkey-frying, my tip for you is this: ask a pro before attempting.
With that said, on to the story.
Those who know my dad know that he has an innate gift for "rigging" things. (Not always an appreciated talent, especially when household items like kitchen utensils get commandeered.) With him, anything can be accomplished with whatever may be on hand at the moment.
Case in point: Thanksgiving, we needed a turkey deep-fryer. No problem. Here's my dad's solution:
1)You start with a deep fryer basket. Surprised it's not a household kitchen colander? Me too.
2)Attatch some long peices of bailing wire so as not to get burnt when lowering turkey into the oil.
3) Wrap ends of bailing wire around a long...wait...is that a tire iron? Why yes, it is. Remember, it's all about improvising.
4) Have your OSHA-approved, high-tech gas grill ready outside.
5) Make sure there will be plenty of room between your hand holding the tire iron and the boiling oil in the pot.
6) Now lower carefully...
7) Uh-oh. Realize there may be too much oil in the pot and remove excess to avoid catching the lawn on fire.
8) Successfully extinguish the flames and allow turkey to cook to proper temp.
9) Stand back and wait. The hard part's all over.
I regret that I didn't get any pictures of the finished product. It really was beautiful, and possibly the best turkey I've ever tasted. (Don't tell mom.) In spite of the slight mishaps, a great time was had by all. And nothing irreplacable was burnt. Maybe by next year, we'll have a "real deal" turkey-frying setup. Then again, where's the fun in that?
I got to do some senior portraits for my sister-in-law last weekend. We had SO much fun and got some great shots too. It helps when your subject is this pretty. :)
Wednesday it was 80 degrees out. Yep. 80. I had to check twice to make sure it was still December. So, what else to do on a hot day but break out the squirtguns and let the kids run wild. They had a blast, and since I was outside with them, of course I was their favorite target. Hence, most of the shots below are taken while running away, but oh well,they had fun. Who doesn't have fun squirting their mom?
I'm figuring out how to set everything up; hopefully I'll be all settled (and fancy and personalized) within a day or two. In the meantime, here's recent pictures of the kids. Stay tuned; more to come.
Much, much more...
