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.

maybe later

Since the last post I did back at the end of February I have not picked up a book.  Strange, right?  In the beginning of March a switch was somehow switched in me.  I didn't feel like blogging or reading or taking creative-ish pictures.  After a few weeks and then a month I greatly thinned out the number of blogs I read.  I went from reading somewhere around 60 blogs daily to now checking out 2.

Some might guess depression and I would tend to agree except that I've been down that road before and I know what it feels like.  And it's not like I'm too busy, I do have time to play silly games on my iPad or read news and watch Investigation Discovery.

What it really was is that I just didn't feel like writing anymore.  I felt like I had nothing that I wanted to share with everyone.  Things were perfect and I didn't want to spoil it by acknowledging it. 

Emma thrived in school.  She loves her friends, makes them easily and just soaks up all the new knowledge she is gaining.  Her progress is measured in leaps and bounds and now I am just amazed at this little wonder that isn't a baby anymore.  She is so aware of the world around her now and maybe a little too grown up, but she's also still my snuggly baby that wouldn't say no to some cuddle time.  She dances around the house and draws the most impressive pictures of anything that comes to mind.  She's six now and she's sewing her own quilt.  My mom has helped her a bit, but she's actually sewing it by herself.  She lucked out in the creative department.  And so did we.

And the baby is perfect.  She's a happy, two-teeth, not-so-little, rolling ball of joy.  Little O's not crawling (though she's thinking about it) but she gets to where she wants to go quick speedily by rolling around everywhere.  We've taken to using her car seat, baskets of toys and other household items to block the nooks and crannies she sometimes would get stuck in.  She is (at this point) scarily easy going.  She can go a whole day without naps and not completely fall apart.  She's quick to smile at the people she knows and thinks her big sister is the most amazing person in the whole wide world.  She gives me kisses and hugs and has a big smile for Daddy the moment she sees his face.

My kids are truly a blessing.

And I've immersed myself in it for the most part.  The last half of the school year was filled with fun things and it just seemed to go by so fast.  Now summer vacation is here and I've quickly come to realize that 24 straight hours 7 days a week with my eldest munchkin could possibly drive me insane.  She is a constant stream of noise.  She talks continuously for about 13 hours a day.  Continuously.  I know that it's just payback.  I'm pretty chatty, but dang people.

Today I picked up my first ever rented lens from Borrow Lenses.  It's a 50mm f/1.8 Nikon and I've taken about 10 pictures with it so far and I'm already in love.  It's amazing how different lenses change your whole outlook on something.  I've got this bad boy for a week and two days and I can't wait to really experiment with it.

I don't know why I chose today to start writing again.  I watched an episode of One the Case with Paula Zahn.  It's probably close to the 50th episode I've watched and for the first time I was riveted.  I was torn apart inside by these people and the loved ones they left behind.  It got me thinking and then it got my typing.

There's more, there's so much more it seems, but I don't want to write about that now.

Maybe later.

probably not such a good idea, but...

I usually don't do New Year's Resolutions because I NEVER follow through.  Never.  But this year I think it's time I really attempt to complete some resolutions.  I mean, I'm a grown up with kids now.  I should be able to follow through with these things!  I'm going to keep it fairly simple though.  Let's not go crazy.

1.  I'm going to Wreck This Journal.  Completely.

2.  I'm going to restart my general 365 project and I'm not going to freak out and quit if I miss a day.  I'll just tack on a day at the end.  The project will be 365 pictures, not 365 consecutive pictures.

3.  I'm going to try reallllly hard to lose at least 10 pounds.  I'm actually 3 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight (from Olivia, not Emma, let's not be silly) so I'm pretty darn stoked about that.  If I can come down another 10-15 pounds I'll be really happy.

And that's it.  Because the rest of it, keeping my house clean, being the best wife & mother I can be, etc., etc., those things aren't resolutions.  Those are the ongoing goals I have and will always be working on.

labor day busy-ness

We had quite a busy weekend this first weekend in September!  We started with Emma getting to get a hot lunch at school on Friday.  She was so excited and wanted to me to take a picture of her with her envelope of money.

Look at how tan she is!

Of course, she forgot to take her money to the cafeteria with her.

Then Ray and I went on a search for a new bike.  First he was going to refurbish his dad's old bike, but after talking to one of the guys at Sunshine Bike's here in Morgan Hill he realized it would cost as much to fix this bike up as it would to buy a new one.  So we went to just about every bike place we could get to before Emma got out of school.

We didn't find anything.  So we picked up Emma and headed out to Los Gatos and decided to take Emma to La Fondue in Saratoga.  This is probably my favorite restaurant ever.  Emma was excited to try the cheese fondue and steak off the grill, but mostly it was just a stop gap to the chocolate.

She was so excited!  She barely got any cheese on the bread, but she said it was so delicious.  I was too busy eating chocolate to take pictures of her during the dessert course!

Afterwards we headed over to Sports Chalet and Ray found the style of bike he wanted on sale.  The only problem was the color.  It was blood orange with black accents and it mostly just looked red, but in certain light it did look orange.  He bought it, but I could tell he wasn't really super happy about it.

Saturday we headed out to DeAnza College where on the first Saturday of every month they hold a huge flea market in the parking lots.  Lots of fun stuff to look at, though we didn't buy too much.

As with all the school around the Bay Area DeAnza's adding the solar parking lot panels which will be awesome next year in adding some shade on the hot days!

I love these china plate wind chimes so much I took two pictures of them.

This would make the cutest cake topper!

After the flea market we headed out to look for some accessories for Ray's bike and then headed out to my parents' house to celebrate my Auntie Marilyn & Auntie Terrie's birthdays.

You can't see it so well but my mom made the candles from a 'M' and a 'T'.

Course all the kids had to run over to help blow out the candles.

My cousin Austin got some new glasses and I wish I had his dad's senior picture so I could show you how identical their glasses are.  I took a picture of him and he said I had to take one of him not smiling because he's pretty sure his dad didn't smile in his picture.

My Mom & Dad went to the Longworth family reunion down in Southern California a couple of weekends ago and our cousin Wally gave me his old Canon Rebel 2000 film SLR.  I took a few pictures and I can't wait to finish the roll so I can see how I did!

Wally had a 28-300mm lens and a standard lens.  When I was looking at lenses online I discovered that the 50mm lens I've been coveting is much cheaper for this one...*hint, hint* :)

On Sunday we headed over to Sunshine Bikes in Gilroy to see what kind of accessories they had.  While there Ray found a bike closer to the one he really wanted.  

It's the same bike I have except it's the men's version and matte black.  We like Electra bikes.

They're so preeeety.

So now he's a little happier about his bike and we can go on family rides now!

Today we headed over to Valley Fair to use up gift cards that we've had forever.  I got these fancy little beauties!

Sally

Jack

And now they're ready for my Jack & Sally shelf!  So cute!  I love them so!

It was quite the busy weekend, but we survived!  This upcoming week is a whole bunch of doctor appointments and all kids of fun stuff.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!!