two years and counting

Two years ago today she was barely bigger than a package of baby wipes!

Lucky to have the best big sister in the whole world!

She liked being snuggled up in blankets.

And for some reason she loved having a bucket on her head!

When she was littler she wasn't so picky about her food.  Today all she wants is 'fre-fries'.

She loves to smile just a little bit more than she likes to make frown-ie faces.

She still has a little bit of chubbies on her cheeks.

We tried bangs, but somehow hair still ended up in her face.

She tolerates Batman.  Maybe she'll be my geek girl.

She can be pretty lazy.

She still loves owls.

She throws around lots of attitude already.

And today she turned 2 years old.

Every day she makes me laugh and makes me smile.  She runs to me and gives me hugs and kisses.  She is the best little big addition to our family.  I'm so incredibly lucky for you baby girl.

september photo challenge

I'm still taking pictures!!  Here's my next five days:

September 6 - Getting Ready

Emma's getting ready to make gyoza for the first time.

September 7 - White

Dim Sum for my Auntie's birthday

September 8 - I Made This

We went Girl Scout camping this summer and when I was a GS we always had 'sit-upons' for keeping out butts (somewhat) warm & dry.  Emma and I made some for us before we took off with some duct tape and newspaper.  I was pretty proud of how they turned out, especially since I am not crafty!

September 9 - On The Wall

Artwork by Emma (the penguin was when she was about 4) and a super cool comic book (Batman, of course) purse that my super crafty friend made for me.  These hang out by my desk.

September 10 - Sweet

I help out in Emma's class and when I was done stuffing homework folders Emma's class was out at computer lab.  So before I left I put a sticky note on her desk that said 'Have a good day!  I love you!  xoxo'.  When I asked her after school if she got my note and she said 'Yes, it was so embarrassing!  Everyone was laughing at me because of the xo's!'  So I told her I wouldn't do that anymore and sighed a big sigh.  The following Monday I went in to do homework folders again and when I put everything away I saw that she left me a note on her desk.  It said 'I love you Mommy!  You can do these notes again xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox'  She's such a sweet girl!

I didn't do much editing or try for some ambitious photos this set.  Most of the pictures I just edited the exposure some if they needed it, but that's about it.  For the 'Getting Ready' picture I did use a filter - Orton I think...

let's try this again

Back in July I thought I would do Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day Challenge.  I got about halfway through and then I just completely forgot about it.  *sigh*  This time, I've added reminders on my calendar with the day's prompt to help me remember so we'll see how that works out.  Though I am feeling this more this month.  I'm getting back into using my camera and also seeing what I can do with my phone.  I also found another free editing site that's really similar to picnik for people like me who are too lazy to learn Photoshop right now.  If you're like me, check out PicMonkey.

So here's this month's prompts:

For some reason the pic I'm getting for that is coming out all crappy, but it's the best I can do!

I'm going to try to do this in fives so I've got an even number for each post.  See how I start out so organized and eager??

September 1 - Together

Got the cousins to take a picture together on Labor Day.  I think I snapped about 30 pictures and this was the only one where they were all pretty much smiling and Olivia wasn't trying to run away.  Didn't do any editing here though it could probably use some.

September 2 - My Name Begins With

'K' is for Kari & 'K' is for Kindle.  This one was edited in Instagram.  Kelvin filter with the focal shift dot on 'kindle'.

September 3 - Lines

I edited the heck out of this one.  Using PicMonkey I applied some kind of filter I can't remember and did an overlay of light lines.  It did take awhile to take the actual picture.  I set up the tripod and played around with the vertical blinds in the kitchen.  Turned off all the lights inside so it was just lit from the outside bright ass streetlight.

September 4 - Alone

Olivia waiting for Emma to get home from school.  All alone with her cute little toes!  Changed to black and white in PicMonkey.

September 5 - Forever

I took this one with Instagram and used the Brannan filter.

 Five days down, twenty-five to go!

photo a day: july 7th-14th

July 7th

Where You Are.....

At the NKOTB concert with my sister!

July 8th

Path....

To a giant mess.

July 9th

3 Things....

 

3 random t-shirts from Tee Turtle!!

July 10th

Smooth....

 My clean kitchen table!

July 11th

I Wore This!

My favorite t-shirt.  It's comfy & I love the design.

July 12th

A Bad Habit....

I stopped smoking years ago, quit biting my nails a month ago so I guess it would be sweets, but at least these are organic, all natural & GMO free!  I couldn't very well take a picture of 'being a bitch', could I?

July 13th 

4 o'clock

 

Sleeping baby at the mall.  Riding around in a stroller is tough work, people!

 

July 14th

Edible....

Spicy sauce from our favorite ramen place, Kahoo's.

And now I'm all caught up with my posting!

photo a day: july

July 4th

  Red, white & blue.....

Olivia has decided that my rubbermaid containers should go in the recycling bin.

July 5th

Love....

My love, my best friend, my favorite person

July 6th

Favorite Smell.....

The heat has done a number on my lavender plant, but it still smells lovely

photo a day: july

 
My friend Kristan posted a picture of the photo challenge that Fat Mum Slim has started for the month of July.  Actually, I think that this photo project has been going on for a lot longer than that, but this post is for the month of July so it's the perfect time to start!  I've tried doing the 365 project, but it started to feel like work and I was running out of inspiration.  These kinds of projects are great for me because there's a focus and sometimes I need that!

I meant to post on the 1st and go from there, but I slacked off for sure!  Here's my pictures for the first three days of July.

Happiness Is....

my babies laying on the couch with me

Shoes....

My favorites, tho they've almost killed me

Cold....

7 Eleven's Coke cans.  Ice turns blue when it's cold enough to drink.

bone: tall tales

bone: tall tales
tom sniegoski & jeff smith
graphic novels/ya
scholastic
published 2010

Long before the Bone cousins were ever lost in the uncharted desert on the outskirts of the Valley, Big Johnson Bone, the discoverer of the Rolling Bone River, founded Boneville. But little is known of the mighty explorer's adventures before he started his famous trading post. So when Smiley Bone sits down with a group of young campers to retell the legendary stories of Boneville's origin and its tough, no-nonsense founder, what they hear are tall tales in typical BONE fashion--wild antics complete with rat creatures, dragons, and a snarky little monkey!

This was a fun collection of stories about Big Johnson Bone, founder of Boneville.  How he was born and what he was like as a kid and then his super adventure saving the forest from the rat creatures.  The rat creatures always make me laugh and while there was no Fone Bone, Thorn or Gran'ma Ben it was still an extremely fun adventure.

I tried reading about the adventures of Rose, but since Jeff Smith didn't do the art it was kind of a bummer.  Luckily here he did with Tom Sniegoski writing the story and sticking pretty true to the rat creatures' attitudes.  Big Johnson Bone was kind of like all the Bone cousins combined with Phoney's penchant for exaggeration, Smiley's personality and Fone's bravery.  It was a great book for someone who wasn't ready to leave the Bone cousins behind quite yet.

birthday extravaganza

doesn't she look thrilled?

it was 1st birthday funday this weekend!  she had no idea what was going on, but she was excited to see friends and family and even more so to see cupcakes & cake pops!

my first pinterest project.  saw this & thought it looked easy enough for me to try and it worked!  they turned out really cute.

thanks to my sister and Jen we had little owl cake pop favors!  they turned out so cute and delicious too!

 

luckily the baking fairy has blessed both sides of our family!  my sister-in-law has done the cupcakes for every single one of emma's parties and now she keeps the tradition going with olivia's first party with these way too cute owl cupcakes!

 

olivia had no idea why everyone was singing to her and didn't know what to do with the candle.  she's lucky to have big sister around to help her blow it out.

 

she loves her food, but she's generous enough to share with cousin.

 

not too bad, but it was straight into the bathtub for her!

 

she was much more interested in opening presents than emma was at her age.  though the cards seemed to be much more fun than the presents until emma got them open for her!  she's clapping her thanks for all her great gifts.  she's one lucky girl!

we were able to get her down for a nap in the morning before the party and then one in the afternoon, but i think there was too much cupcake in her tummy.  she woke up in the evening pretty unhappy with all of us!  but today she was eying the leftover cupcakes already!

thank you to all of our friends and family who came out to help us celebrate!  we're so incredibly lucky to have all of you!

what am i reading now?

I'll give you one guess.

The other day I was feel nostalgic for books that I have read multiple times and loved every second of reading them.  I'm trying to slog through the books that have been sitting on my tbr shelf, but I'm just not feeling it.  I did pick up a book by a new (to me) author and so far am loving it, but everything else just isn't exciting so far.

Yesterday I decided that I was going to reread The Hunger Games.  Then I picked up this new book (Heartsick by Chelsea Cain) and got into that so I put it off.

Then today Ms. Lauren over at Busy Bee Lauren wrote this post about rereading The Hunger Games together so I thought it must be meant to be.  If you want to join in the reading happiness you can participate in the tweeting madness that will occur starting tonight.  I'm @knowitnotsomuch and Lauren is tweeting specifically about the book here @TheLaurenGames Of course, you can follow me on twitter, but I'll warn you that my previous attempts to keep up with that junk have been grossly unsuccessful.  For this group reading thing it's best if you follow Lauren.

Maybe I'll post about each chapter as I go along, but I'm not making any promises 'cause I pretty much suck at bloggie follow through.  *sigh*

So get your books out and your favorite HG bookmark & let's get to reading!