in the waning light

being one who takes almost all of my pictures with natural light... the changing of the season is sure having an effect on my daily life! it's getting kind of hard to sneak in a natural light picture when the girls get home from school. by late afternoon so much of the light is already gone. guess it makes for a good reason to learn how to use my flash better... today i played around with the lensbaby and the creative aperture disks again. i gave the heart a try today with torrey. thought the irony of her grumpy face and the hearts sort of flying away worked. i did get a bunch of her smiling too here.

we have theis amazing japanese maple in our backyard that turns the most vibrant shade of red in the fall... then gets even brighter when it's wet with rain. i completely missed getting a picture of it since it dropped all of its leaves suddenly one day. well, by golly, i wasn't going to miss it this year! so the past couple of days i ran the girls out there for a few shots by the red tree. there are a few more shots of emma here.

this was one of those i-missed-the-opportunity-to-use-natural-light moments. so i grabbed my flash {nikon sb600}, used my on camera flash in commander mode... and did my best.

on a scrappy note... my very favorite scrapbook store is making bunches of cards for service members on veteran's day this year. they asked if i'd write up a blog post for them... which you can see here. if you're in the area & would like to come by the store to make cards for soldiers on veteran's day, there's a bit more info here. we hope to see you there!

i also have a new layout up on the ella blog along with my fabulous ella friends. the super cute tami morrison wrote the post up. while you're over at ella, check out stacy julian & lain ehmann's latest book "20 simple secrets of happy scrapbookers".

a week flies by

so here i am behind on posting again! so once again, i'll do a quick sum up of our week with project 365 pics...

spent most of the week just keeping busy with daily life... scrapping, family time and the lot. we're down to the last few weeks of having stan at home, so we've definitely been packing in every moment of family time possible. playing yahtzee, having breakfast together, reading together, wrestling around... you know, just the perfect little moments that make everyday life wonderful.
 

saturday we all slept in & stan made one of his yummy breakfasts. lucky us! we never eat as well when he's away! after breakfast emma and i headed downstairs to brush our teeth. while we were downstairs i checked her little wiggly teeth. those babies were definitely ready to come out. so i pulled them out for her & she ran upstairs to show daddy her new toothless smile. there are a few more shots here. good thing the tooth fairy had some cash on hand for her visit.

after the toothy excitement had waned a little, we pulled out our boxes and boxes for christmas decorations. yes, i know it's not even halloween yet, but well, we're celebrating christmas a little early this year. on deployment years, we always put up our christmas decorations before stan leaves. by the end of the day the tree was up & decorated. by sunday we had most of the garland up and ornaments hung from the kitchen ceiling. it's beginning to look a lot like christmas here! all of this early decorating does add to the sadness a bit... knowing that it's all up because stan's not going to be here. still, i'd rather decorate and celebrate together. just something magical about the whole thing.

with the tree and lights up, i figured it would be a good time to mess around with my lensbaby & the creative aperture star-shape thingy. (it's a cool little disk that slides into the lensbaby and changes the lights into star shapes.) the picture above is an ornament my great grandma made for me when i was in junior high. when we were decorating the tree together, i was telling the girls where all of the different ornaments came from... i was thinking, man, i'm the only one who really knows where all of these came from! note to self: take pictures of ornaments & tell their stories at some point.

well, i'm now all caught up... well at least for another 29 minutes until the clock strikes midnight & i'm behind again! lol.

are you a happy scrapper?

i remember when i first started scrapbooking "for reals" (i.e. with actual scrapbooking products) i was sure that i had to scrapbook every single picture i took. why? i'm not exactly sure, it's not like someone told me that's how it had to be... or else. but nonetheless, it was a rule i had for myself. it took all of one album to break me of this self-imposed unrealistic expectation. after 40 some pages of torrey's first two months of life, i realized i would never be able to keep up. so rather than taking less pictures (clearly not an option for me) i decided to scrap only the pictures i felt like scrapbooking. FREEDOM! without the stress of crazy mad-minded rules, a whole new world of happy scrapping opened up for me.

ella publishing's latest book, a combined effort by stacy jullian and lain ehmann,  20 simple secrets of happy scrapbookers, nails real-life right on the head. with one of lain's tips, it's how you think about it,  as inspiration i scrapped about a little change of heart that changed my perspective in a big way.  check out this very cool book today, and watch the ella blog on wednesday for a chance to win some very fun goodies!

let there be light

don't you just hate it when you sit down to write something and.... blank... nothing. there you are in your chair staring at your screen & keyboard with nothing witty or even remotely interesting to say. well, that's me today. so forgive me for this post in advance! {pretty please!}

first off, ashley harris posted a team review of melody ross's line for gcd studios on the scrap review today. check out the great layouts & tsr team thoughts on the line here.

and as for daily life:
we spent a fabulous weekend doing about as much as i can think of to write. nothing really. we spent a bunch of family time together. saturday stan took the girls bowling while i headed to a weight watchers staff meeting. we met up afterward to pick up a few deployment necessities... a shower/toiletries bag & a new duffel bag for the traveling man. the desert always seems to do a number on his bags, and they don't usually survive a deployment. i, of course, teased that he was picking up a cosmetics bag & said he should try to get one of the gift with purchase bags at macys. no dice. guess he was looking for something slightly more manly than that. lol.

we got home after dark, so i pulled out my flash {sb600} do try for some not terrible flash pictures. after much fooling around, and a child who was seeing spots, i came out with this dandy of emma that i really liked. someone on facebook mentioned that she looks like a retro silver screen star. amazing how much of a difference turning a shot to black & white can make sometimes. i liked it so much i used it on my tsr layout (above). even added the xoxo, emma joy to the bottom for that movie star face shot effect. love that facebook inspiration. thanks guys! 

the saturday picture {with flash} went so well, i gave it a second run with torrey on sunday after church. it took me only slightly less time to get it right than saturday night. oi, this lighting deal is hard to learn! in the end, with minimal retina damage, i had another picture i liked. what a lucky mom i am to have such willing subjects!

forgive the random picture order. this was friday's after school shot. torrey with my very favorite tree in our yard. it's amazingly beautiful in every season. i'm not even sure what kind it is... but it flowers in the spring, is lovely and green all summer, turns a beautiful golden color in the fall... then has leafless branches with berries in the winter. what's not to love? i'm hoping we can zip up to the mountains before stan has to leave. we try to get up into the cascades this time each year to check out God's canvas. we live in such an amazing place and there is just so, so much to be thankful for.

speaking of being thankful... emma and i read "did i ever tell you how lucky you are?" by dr seuss together the other day. i love dr seuss' take on life lessons. in addition to being thankful for all of the blessings that come into our lives, we can be doubly thankful for all of those things that don't come into our lives. and if we're having a hard time getting to doubly thankful, maybe we can work our way into feeling not so bad by being thankful "for all of the things that we're not."

When you think things are bad,
when you feel sour and blue,
when you start to get mad...
you should do what I do!

Just tell yourself, Duckie,
you're really quite lucky!
Some people are much more...
oh, ever so much more...
oh, muchly much-much more
unlucky than you!

-Dr Seuss
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

everyone loves eskimo kisses

i figured i'd post a few projects i've been working on lately for lasting memories using basic grey's eskimo kisses line. love this super cute, almost scandinavian style, line. of course, it's always good getting a few of last year's christmas pictures scrapped before this christmas rolls around!

forgive the picture heavy post today... i'm playing catch up, as usual! :)

and for my past few days of project 365... i was out getting a few pictures of emma after school when stan got home from work. so she sweet talked him into getting into the picture with her. i'm always amazed how much they look alike when i see them in pictures. i always think torrey looks more like stan, but there's no denying the two of them belong together!

loved this cute little laughing shot of torrey in her new retainer. shows off her sassy, sweet personality that seems to be growing up by the minute!

emma was running (more like jumping) around after school and picking flowers in the backyard. she stood still long enough to get a couple of pictures. i was surprised how much blue was still left on the hydrangea at this time of year. there are a bunch more pictures from the past few days here and a few more detail shots of the scrappy projects here.

mixed emotions

i'm sure in the next few weeks, i'll likely have a lot of deployment talk going on here. it's a new gig each time... with the girls ever entering new phases of growing up, and me plugging along {doing my best to keep my head above water usually}. anyway, all that to say, stan had his last day of pre-deployment leave today, and the girls were back in school after our water park escapades last week. so stan and i spent a quiet day together, hanging out. perfect kind of day to get ready for the road ahead. ahhhh, the peaceful moments that make up the highlights of life.

yesterday i grabbed a quick picture of stan & torrey showing off their tongue rolling skills. yah, we've all got the gene. i've even taught my children the art of shooting peas from your rolled tongue. {p.s. this trick also works with cherry pits... just ask stan after the pelting he got while we were camping this summer. lol} wow, does it feel like it just had a mood swing between paragraphs there? wowza.

speaking of mood swings, today's picture came after emma finished up a frustrating bit of homework. that whole explain-your-answer thing in math can be very frustrating sometimes. especially when we use it to work on spelling, too. we had one too many rewrites this afternoon. my sweet little miss had a bit of a break down, which only lasted about five minutes... but gave me enough time to snuggle her through the frustration & snap a quick picture.

it's been amazing to look back on the 365 pictures throughout the year. having a camera in hand a lot of the time does lend itself to getting pictures you wouldn't ordinarily have. maybe it's being 284 days in that's made the camera seem even more like a part of the family. maybe it's just that i've got a crazy photo-taking problem. maybe it's a little of both. either way, it'll be fun to look back on them for years to come, each with their own little story & all with the underlying message... life is good.

they've got betty davis eyes

i found a new favorite photo spot in my house with nice filtered light... which also happens to make eyes light up beautifully. so the girls took turns being the subject of the 365 pictures for the past couple of days. we've spent the last couple of days laying low and enjoying family time.

stan heads back to work next week, then off on deployment sometime next month. living the usual military life, we're not exactly sure when he'll be taking off... we're on the need to know basis there, and apparently, we don't need to know yet. lol. we are hoping he'll be home for our 10 year anniversary and for thanksgiving, but one never knows. either way, we celebrating moments, even if they're not always on their given date. stan was hoping to go somewhere tropical for our anniversary, but it's not in the cards on a deployment year. i told stan not to worry... 11 is the new 10. :)

forgive the ramblings, just some random sunday reflections. give your family some extra lovin' today!

{family} first

i'm back, and once again trying to catch up on the old blog. so here we are for what seems like another week in review post through 365 pictures.

sunday was my mommy's birthday. she turned {according to my facebook friend} 35. lol. but really, i'm pretty darn blessed with a great mom.

when the rubber meets the road, when life throws you against a wall or into the dirt, she's always there... like an anchor to help you weather the storm

she has a beautiful heart, a contagious laugh and an enveloping hug

when you're sick or injured... she's there with a creative solution to your problem at hand. {the rolly office chair & my foot surgery is a personal favorite}

she's taught me how to be a friend, how to forgive and how to laugh at myself {often}

she makes people feel special, appreciated and cared for

she's always there for my near daily phone calls just to say hi and talk about nothing

she's my mom. she's beautiful. she is amazing.

{inspired by my mom & this ella book}

who says monday has to be a crummy start to the week? i had the day off work (mondays are my weight watchers work day). stan was on pre-deployment leave for the week (military speak for vacation time before you deploy). stan spent the morning fishing with a couple of fellas from church, while i got the girls off to school. we met up for breakfast then headed down to our favorite local bike trail. we rocked the 34 miles round trip in 2.5 hours... let me just tell you, my legs were so wobbly at the end, i wasn't sure it was safe to get off my bike. i'm not sure i would have charged through it that fast if it weren't for the fact that we didn't want to be late for torrey's orthodontist appointment! those kids always keep you moving. lol.

tuesday we met up with the amazing becky in seattle for some super fun family photos. if you're in the area, and are looking for a fabulously fun & creative person to hook you up with some great family pics, becky is your girl! we hit gasworks park & pike's place market, even had lunch at dick's burgers.

as if that weren't enough to make the day perfect, at least for me, stan & i had planned a surprise trip for the family to great wolf lodge. the girls had no idea until we pulled into the parking lot. we might have even mentioned to them that we were planning to spend a couple of days digging ditches at a friend's house... much to their surprise, we spent a couple of days soaking wet and pruney at great wolf's indoor water park. holy cow, is this place fun! from a mom point of view: i'd definitely recommend it to any family looking to spend a few days of fun somewhere. we will surely be back.

we stayed two nights, and played three days & added a bunch of pics of our trip here. water slides, wave pools and thousands of gallons of dumping water, oh my!

thursday, after spending one last morning slipping & sliding in the water park and pressured by a scheduled orthodontist appointment, we headed toward home. we rolled into town, and went right to the orthodontist, where torrey had her expander taken out & was gifted with a brand new retainer. how i walked out of the office with 77 pictures of the process, i attribute to the fact that my camera is just super speedy. yah, that must be it. scrolling through the pictures at home, while getting some good family laughs, i kept thinking... these are moments that most people don't have recorded... and there's probably a reason for that! lol.

now off to make & record some memories for today!

world card making day, baby... oh & a lensbaby, baby!

so today was world card making day. as i often say around my house, "honesty is policy"... so truth be told, i did not make any cards on world card making day. ::gasp:: instead, i spent the day with my sweet family. with stan's deployment in the not too distant future, we're squeezing in every minute of family time we can. we met up with a friend this morning who was working on a photography project for her masters. she took some pics of our family for her project... we laughed a lot, and ended with a family breakfast at one of our favorite local breakfast joints. you know, one of those places that's called one thing, but everyone in your family calls it a "pet name"? ok, maybe that's not normal...

anyway, after some inspiration from denise & hubby this morning, i decided to pull out my lensbaby. i picked it up back in july, but with the craziness of the chief's initiation, i didn't really get around to experimenting with it. it's a cool selective focus lens, which you can read all about on their site. i took a bunch of pics of the girls outside. emma pulled me aside part way through, and asked if she could sing me a song she made up. seriously, it was the cutest thing ever. all about enjoying being out in the wind in nature & how good it is to love God. how could you not help but pick her up in a giant hug and swing her around after that? well, i couldn't help it, anyway. there are more of the lensbaby & singing pictures here.

we topped the evening off by watching the 50's musical, funny face. the girls get such a kick out of watching fred astaire dance. after trying desperately last night to get halfway through 2001 space odyssey... the pace of the movie was a welcome change. if you don't remember watching it when you were younger (we didn't) or think it's a good idea to rent... let me just give you this little tidbit. i didn't realize that they were going to show just how long it would take to go to jupiter in REAL TIME. holy moly. after an hour and a half into the movie, you finally figure out the first tidbit about the plot. wowza. we didn't exactly make it through the second half... we changed it out for guys & dolls. hurray for 3 movies, 3 days, 3 dollars!

like i said before, we're getting close to deployment #6, and for webcam ability purposes it was time to update stan's laptop. amazing how quickly computers are obsolete, isn't it? well, i've been talking to him for months about switching over to a mac when the time came. i believe the phrase was, "once you go mac, you never go back." my darling husband, who is not keen on technological change, in a moment of weakness, caved. he came home with a new lappy... and he LOVES it. he has said, no less than 10 times in the past two days, "you were right!" that is one MIGHTY mac! hee hee. (and yes, i'm pretty sure he'll never go back!)

and since it was world card making day, i figured i'd share a couple of cards i made for lasting memories, using the my mind's eye's christmas line. so there it is. out little weekend i, so far, in a nutshell. hope yours is wonderful & family filled.

look! we're a {real} party

.

my all time favorite site for party decorating ideas & inspiration made my day {yet again} with a surprise email from the fab owner, jenn, the other day. she asked if it would be ok to feature stan's chief/birthday party on the hostess with the mostess blog. let me think about that one for a sec... OF COURSE!!! what a huge honor.

wanna hear a little secret? i pretty much copied all of the ideas for stan's party from different inspirations from her site. so thank you again, jenn, for the amazing resource you are to all of us regular joe's out here wanting to have super cool parties "with a modern twist".

follow hostess on facebook here, and check out all of the fabulous-ness of the hostess site here.

and quickly my 365 shots from yesterday & today. emma and emma. after school sweetie in red & a halloween costume preview.