one last post for today

man, i guess today was the catch up day! scheduling out the next couple of weeks, planning projects, catching up on emails & posting... welcome back from vacation! lol. anyway, as for vacation catch up, the girls pretty much hung out in their jamies all day today. they colored and read books and lounged around. funny how much vacation can wear you out. i did {barely} convince emma to let me take a picture of her for p365 today. she looks so sleepy. poor baby! i was messing around with shooting & editing in RAW today. it's cool the amount of control you have with shooting in RAW, it's just that the file sizes are so big. ah finding balance, one of life's biggest mysteries. :)

hope you had a happy saturday!

project 365 catch up

we were so busy having fun at disneyland, i didn't get my pictures of the day posted. mind you, i tried... i was sitting in the hotel room after each day looking back on our fun pics, but i kept falling asleep! guess that's what happens when you walk a hundred miles a day at disneyland! lol. (i should have worn my pedometer to know just how much we walked.) these are a few of the highlights, i posted a bunch more on facebook, if you want to see more.)



i figured i'd add a few real mom tips for a disneyland vacation, too. so here goes...

1. if you have a friend that does disney a lot, pick their brains! they're full of tons of helpful. my soy friend amanda gave me a ton of help, as well as my friend heather. they linked me to helpful websites, reservation lines, gave me hotel tips, ride tips... it was an amazing help!

2. february (not during president's day) is a GREAT time to go to disney. the lines were 15 minutes or less on every ride. (thursday it was a little busier, and we did wait in one line for 40 minutes, but that was only once). wednesday was the least busy day.

3. staying at the disneyland hotel was totally worth it! this was my first time staying there, and man-o-man, it was great. we were able to walk to everything. the peter pan pool was fabulous. when we got soaked riding the grizzly river run (in california adventure) we just walked back to the hotel to change. the convenience was one of the big perks, but the other was that disney just knows how to do things right. the service was great, the room was perfectly set up for families... they really are #1 at making an experience.

4. if you head to california, fly into john wayne airport rather than lax. it's smaller, less busy, shorter lines, all for about the same price.

5. if you can spring for a character meal, it is the way to go for seeing the disney characters. we had breakfast at goofy's kitchen on wednesday morning. the characters come right to your table, autograph the table cloths (paper) and everything. you'll get lots of pictures with no lines. that and the food was kid heaven. they had every kind of kid-tastic food you can imagine. there was the gummy worms in the pudding thing, cobblers, crepes with fruit, custom made omelets, tons of meats, pb&j "pizza", soft serve ice cream... i mean, there was EVERYTHING! goofy even came out a couple of times and did these singing routines & the kids got to participate. very fun. oh, and the bonus is that the meal price includes tax & tip, so you don't have to worry about that.

6. dusk is a great time for getting pictures. the light is wonderful, and some of the areas are less busy with a lot of people on the rides. that's when i got the pic of the girls & the walt disney statue with the castle in the background.

7. if you're planning on doing any dining at the disney restaurants, you can make reservations ahead of time. of course, i was a procrastinator... so we made them the day we arrived. we picked "off times" so they'd be a little less busy. we ate at the blue bayou (the one that overlooks pirates of the carribean) at 4pm, and did our goofy's kitchen meal at 7:40am. it worked out well, and was a little less busy than typical meal times. oh, and if you're a fan of southern food, the blue bayou makes a mean jambalaya. yummo!

8. if you go on the grizzly river run... bring a poncho, a change of clothes or stay close! we got all of our riding done in a row... we rode three times in a row, got soaked, then went to change.

9. keep a gallon sized ziplock bag in your pocket for stowing your camera on the water rides.

10. ride the water rides in the evening for smaller lines. we were able to ride splash mountain a bunch of times with no lines after the sun went down.

11. if you're a member of the military (active or retired) disney is offering HUGE discounts right now. you can pick up a free ticket for the service member and up to 5 three day park hoppers for the price of a one day at MWR. they're also offering hotel discounts if you call the disney reservation line!

12. if you have a "big daddy" (i.e. digital slr) camera, it is very much worth lugging it around. we brought stan's point & shoot camera, too, but the pics were just so much better on the nikon. we only carried the p&s around the first day. as a side note, i used my nikkor 18-200mm lens for the trip.

those are all of the things i can think of right now. i figured i better write a few of them down while they were fresh in my mind... since i quickly forget stuff! lol.

the daily digi - more with four

the daily digi
more with four challenge

i had a fun opportunity just before i left on vacation to do a challenge for my friend janet's site called the daily digi. it's called the more with four challenge... taking 4 products and making something fun with them. check out the kit, the projects and the fun on the daily digi.

disney - day 1

just a quick check in from the happiest place on earth... well, we'll actually head into the happiest place on earth tomorrow, today we hung out at the happiest hotel on earth. this is the first time i've ever stayed in the disneyland hotel... so so so fun! it just makes the whole thing more magical. i love it. oh and that you can wear shorts in february... that's not too shabby either! :)

thanks for all of the love about the scrap review team! make sure you stop by next week for some super fun giveaways!!!

somebody pinch me! the scrap review

somebody pinch me!
{not really, that hurts}

holy mackerel! sometimes you get those emails that makes your life feel a little like a fairy tale. one of those fairy tales that includes running with scissors... i'm not exactly sure how many fairy tales world wide contain sections on running with scissors, but i'm sure they're out there... somewhere! anyway, all of that rambling is leading to something. something big, something cool, something full of big cool fun. now really, i'm going to stop this silliness and tell you. really, i am.

right then, back to the email. recently i got an email from the very talented, amazing, hilarious and inspirational emilie ahern asking if i would be interested in joining a team of real life scrappers reporting on real life scrappy products... handing out the good, the bad and the ugly on them. i was totally in! how fun is that?

so i'm very excited to announce that i am one of the very lucky reporting members of the scrap review website! come on down and visit us, there are fabulous giveaways everyday march 1-7. so come and party like it's 1999! (only we won't be cutting our pictures into heart & star shapes with deckle edge scissors! lol)

write them on the doorframes of your heart

our church is in the process of building a new building. the framing beams (if that's what they're called)... so our whole church went out and wrote bible verses and prayers on the beams of the new building today. a very cool moment for our church.

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
deuteronomy 6:6-9


we headed down to seattle for the start of our vacation today. our first stop was dicks burgers in seattle. celebrating 55 years of drive up yumminess this year.

the jean king

the jean king

my darling wonderful husband and his all denim all the time look he sports whenever he does yard work, always gives me a good laugh. not that it's that big of a deal, and not that he's out there to impress. i think it just reminds me of youth group functions trying to find someone in the mall dressed in all denim. so don't ask me why it strikes me so funny, but i guess those fun memories run deep. :) he loves that jean jacket, because it was his grandpa's. how cute is that?!

anyway, he was out enjoying some saturday morning yard maintenance. (yah, he enjoys that!) and i snuck a pic of him talking to torrey. gotta love that handsome workin' man.

i worked on a scrappy project today that i'll be able to post soon... oh and i have a fun announcement that'll be coming on monday. (while we're at disneyland... yahoo!!!) so maybe i'll have something other than pics to post soon. hee hee. i'm totally loving this 365 project!

mad science

mad science
well, really it's pretty happy science

can i just say i love the girls' school? of course i can... and i will! i LOVE the girls' school! lol. torrey's been working on her science project for about a month... learning all kinds of things about electricity and its effects on water. well, because of our crazy weather this winter (snow & floods) the school had postponed the science fair. with the change the science fair would fall during our vacation, and torrey wouldn't be able to share her project. torrey decided it was worth asking if she could share her project early. turns out, it was worth asking. one of the judges made a special visit to her class today and video taped her presentation. i just thought that was so great that they would make such a special effort for her to be included! what a cool school. :)

death, taxes & science fair projects

what might the title of this post have to do with this lovely picture of my sister & niece? well, nothing. my sister does a co-op school deal with her kiddos, so it leaves some time for a girls day on thursdays sometimes. they stopped by with a suitcase for us to borrow for our trip & had some coffee. and that was the highlight of my day.

the rest of my day was filled with the other fun-ness. taxes. blech. seems like there was a ton more paperwork this year than in the past. so it's been a lot of sorting, printing & imputing. i worked on taxes for a good portion of the day, then helped torrey with her science fair project when she got home from school. she needed to get her display board done to turn in tomorrow. electrolysis & water. it would be today that my printer ran out of black ink, and a major headache to strike. murphy's law, i guess. thanks a lot murphy! we did get everything finished, though. [she's turning it in early since we're heading out on vacation.] i forgot how much work went into those babies. i'm really gonna need our vacation after that project! lol. but now i'm rambling with my headache... so it's time to say goodnight.

oh! and wow, i guess i hit 50 days on 365 today, too. whoo hoo!

where's waldo? or was it where's wemma

the girls played outside after school today. it's always nice this time of year when you have a partially sunny day that's not freezing. the girls were out climbing trees (and bushes) in the backyard. i was wondering around getting pics of them doing their thing. i had my 50mm lens on, which i love. it does mean you have to use yourself to zoom, though. by that i mean, if you want it closer, you've gotta move yourself closer. :)

anyway, so there i am with my 50mm, and emma asks me to get a pic of her climbing a "tree"... or whatever kind of shrub it is that she was climbing. so i stepped back to get the whole bush thing in the pic... and man, she looks so tiny up there. can you spot her? lol. i added a hat to the one below to make it easier. lol.

the girls call their tree climbing spots their "crow's nests" in the yard. and i was informed this afternoon,"it's not like the nest of a crow, mom... it's like the crow's nest on a ship." well there you go. i'll have to watch out for my spies in their crow's nests... although i have to admit the bushes look a little like the singing shrub from the three amigos. :)

a spot of tea

a spot of tea

emma and i had a little tea party before torrey woke up this morning. it was the last day of their midwinter break, so torrey was really looking forward to her sleeping in time. emma, on the other hand, wakes up earlier and generally in a better mood. so this morning after some snuggling time, we decided to have a spot of tea. she made chai tea in her little tea set we got her for christmas. i found it this past summer at an antique store, and it's handmade. it was just one of those things that screamed her name when i saw it. :)

some days i really miss those mornings of yesteryear. you know, the ones from before the kids were in school and we had lots of time for these little moments. it seems like there is less and less time for them as the years go on. so i guess you do the only thing you can as a mom... relish each one of these moments when they come because all you've got is that moment to cherish it.


after torrey got up, we ran some errands to pick up a few things we needed for our vacation next week to... disneyland!!!

old friends - new friends

old friends - new friends

we got to visit with some old friends today. the last time our families had hung out together was on our move back from florida 5'ish years ago. they've moved back to the great state of washington... and we got to meet their two youngest sweeties for the very first time. their baby boy is just the cutest thing ever, he's a chunk with the sweetest smile this side of the cascades. we didn't get a picture of sweetie #2, between playing with emma and being camera shy it just wasn't going to happen.

torrey had a great time playing with their oldest girl. they climbed trees, rode bikes, spied on the little ones, and generally had a great time together. we're so glad to have them back in state so we can hang out more often!

balloon baby

balloon baby

emma was playing with her balloon baby in the backyard this afternoon after church. it was pretty darn cute. i'll have to figure out more to tell about it later when i'm not so distracted! :)

{later that evening} so i'm much less distracted now. it's nearly 1am, and the house is very still. now lets see if i can come up with something clever for these pics. doubtful, but slightly less doubtful than earlier this evening! emma grabbed a balloon she brought home last night and drew a couple of faces on it (a man on one side, and a lady on the other). she asked if i would take some pictures of her with the balloon. i gladly obliged, and was thinking that i could con her into taking a couple without the balloon, too. turns out the pics with the balloon turned out kind of fun, so i went with those. good idea emma!

when i was post processing the pics in photoshop, i thought i'd see how this one would turn out in b&w with a darkened background. i selected just emma (quick selection tool), feathered the edge of the selection a bit (refine edge button), selected the inverse (CTRL - shift - I). copied (CTRL C) then pasted (CTRL V) the selection. took the new layer with the background and selected multiply to darken just the background. i duplicated this layer a couple of times to make the effect more dramatic (right click the layer, and select duplicate layer).

you can change an image to b&w in pse several different ways. you can use enhance > convert to black & white. or you could use enhance > adjust color > remove color. or you can use layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map, then select the icon that goes from black to white and click OK. using any of these will work with slightly different results. you can mess around with them to see which one you like best. it's a good idea to add a levels adjustment layer to boost the midtones, shadows & highlights. you can also add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer to boost the contrast by, say +10 or +20.

here was one of the balloonless pics. it's still in her hands... you just can't see it. one of those not so tricky mom tricks. lol.
got this one of stan at church this morning. thought it was really cool looking. i take pics for my brother in law (who is our worship pastor) sometimes, so i get to "sneak" my camera into church. lucky me. :)

{one more thing to add} i had a couple of questions on where the cool picture frames came from that i used yesterday (and today). i picked them up online at the new house of 3 store. they're by rhonna farrer who is one of my all time favorite digital designers!

happy valentine's day

gotta love any day that starts with a wooden card. stan made me this card. lol. he said, "hey, you're always making cards for me... i thought i'd make one for you." he burned the words in and everything. i got such a laugh out of it. now i've gotta find a way to hang it up in my scrap room!

i also got some flowers from my handsome handy husband. (he also got the girls heart boxes filled with candy and little cards to go with them.) i'm pretty sure he should win dad of the year!

and since stan was actually in this country and not working on valentine's day (and this is such a rare occurance), i had torrey take a couple of pics of us. he's one darn good looking guy!

safety first

safety first

got this shot while driving today. emma was at a friend's house, so torrey and i spent the day together. we hit the mall & target. on the way down she was drawing while we were listening to an audio book, one of the hank the cowdog stories. so i grabbed the camera and shot this one. i figure it turned out ok considering i wasn't looking through the viewfinder. :D

be my valentine

nothing like last minute preparations for something you've known about for weeks! lol. the girls had their valentine parties in their classes today, so naturally this is an occasion to dole out some sweet yummy goodness to the kiddies. :)

well, i'd planned on making something, then i wasn't feeling well last night, so that left me this morning to decide what to make. after some digging in my pantry, i found these small heart shaped tins i'd bought a few years ago (i think the year torrey got the chicken pox on valentine's day). so i whipped up 48 of these heart-shaped cupcakes for the girls' classes. strawberry cakes with cherry icing (from a mix & from a can... no time for homemade-homemade!) lol. i'm pretty sure the kids liked them, anyway. which is all that really matters to me!
i got some pictures of emma's class. first graders still like to have their picture taken. yea!

check out the look on her face. isn't that just the cutest? nothing like the sheer joy of dumping out an envelope full of sweet loving little cards from your classmates!

they played "heart" bingo with m&m's. i mean, this is a win-win situation. if you win a "heart" (bingo) you get candy, if you don't get a "heart" you get to clear your board... which means eating the m&m's. i like this kind of game!

emma asked if we could get some more jumping pictures at recess, which i happily agreed to. they'd jump 4 or 5 times, then run over and look at the pics... then jump again. the best kind of subjects!
now apparently third grade is the year kids start getting a bit funny about wanting their picture taken. torrey said she didn't like it taken as much when she was at school. but it's not just her... most of the class is like that too. not entirely sure of the reason... but it's a great excuse to pull out the super-secret spy lens! i was able to take a bunch of pics in the classroom before the kids figured it out. lol. but after i was found out... it was over. but note to moms: third graders think super-secret spy lenses are pretty dang cool. i pulled it off the camera and let them all look through it... which was pretty fun. i love those kids!

another cool thing about third graders... they're goofy, funny & creative! they wanted to do a funny pic, and asked them to think of something valentine-y. the heart fingers is what they came up with! i love it. wish it was easier to see their little hand hearts, but i'll take this!

i {heart} class party days!

little sickie

little sickie

torrey stayed out of school today with a tummy ache. we listened to audio books... hank the cowdog & emily windsnap and the monster from the deep. but i think i might have picked up the tummy yuckies now. :(

the lands within our home

the lands within our home

my friend tina, who i met through the blog, stopped by today with her sweet little girl. she is too stinkin cute, so she just had to be the picture of the day. she was playing with this purple popsicle stick. don't you just love how simple little things entertain kids for hours.

this was the runner up for pic of the day. the girls came home from school and built their own "lands" in the living room. emma had the lego castle land, and torrey had lincoln log land. it just cracks me up listening to them play. emma had this whole cowboy drawl going. it was too funny.


i had a hard time with the coloring of these pics... i didn't have my white balance set right. {{sigh}} and i'm still trying to figure that whole white balance thing out. :)