Project 52 - Week 3 - Black and White

This week's theme is black and white, as I have been lacking time this week, I opted for a photo I took in the past. I used this photo to practiced my black and white conversions, something I still need a lot of practice with. And as an added bonus I have yet to show off any of my America's Top Chef winner Yigit Pura, so I thought I should get on that!

Please don't forget to check out the rest of the amazing talent of my friends at the Bloom Forum by starting with Nicole!

January Randoms

These photo's are the randoms. They don't exactly fit in anywhere else. Some are terrible technically, but I love em anyways, others are great, but don't have much of a story so they don't get their own post.

The daily Grind....

This was pull every bowl, pot, pan or container out day. Take note of the chair, he even got the chair in order to get the clean bowls off of the stove.

This was pull every blanket, towel or sheet within reach day (yes it included everything in all the drawers, and on beds.

This was pillow day, I had to convince him not to add the sheets, and blankets. And yes we do this everyday, it is great fun for the lil ones, but it is exhausting for mom.

My lil artist in training, Devin is a great teacher!

Devin drew our family portrait on the i-pad!! (you can tell the one he started with and then ended with)

Sweet dreams, my angels!!

DUHHHHH
Duhhhhh

Cailey's 1st Birthday Party

We opted to try a birthday dinner as we were still exhausted from Christmas, and Devin's birthday festivities. Who knew that a "smaller" (and I use this term loosely) would be more work than the other evens combined?! I had a vision of what I wanted but our small house could not accommodate what I had pictured, but as luck would have it, it turned out better than I thought, and we were able to celebrate Cailey's first birthday in style with all of her immediate "family"!! It was wonderful, unfortunately she was too exhausted to even eat her cake, but don't worry, I have a special treat planned for this weekend, and of course there WILL be pictures. Unfortunately once the party started, the camera was too big to lug around, so there are no other photo's other than our very first guests, Nana and Papa, so I apologize to the rest of the family for that one. But Nana made the adorably cute cake and Gigi helped prepare and cook for our guests, Cailey and I thank you both for all your help!!

Project 52 - Week 2 - Red/Pink

I had glorious ideas of what I wanted to do for this weeks challenge, and they didn't quite turn out as I anticipated. So what I have will have to make do. I like them, I am not in love with them. Although after I uploaded them on flickr and went to import them into blogger, one became someone's "favorite" so that makes me feel better about it!!





And please go check the perfectly playful and stunning photo Jobrina has submitted this week, and of course continue clicking through the loop to see all 20 photo's!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

We had a great time at the aquarium last weekend! And as always cannot wait to go back.

Project 52

I'm so excited to tell you about my new project for the year! 19 other photographers and I are doing our project together to not only treat all of our blog readers, but to keep us honest and on track. We have a list of 52 “ideas or themes” that we will shoot each week for the year. And since we're getting started a week late, I'll roll it over into the first week of 2012. I will take a picture of our theme for the week, the way I interpret it, and post it on my site. Then under my post, I will link another photographer who is part of the project for you to see her interpretation of the theme. After you see hers, you will notice a different link under her picture that will then take you to the next photographer’s website. If you continue to click on the link under each picture, in the end you should see 19 other pictures and eventually make it back to my site. When I say there is some AMAZING talent in this group, I am not lying, you will definitely want to check out everyone’s pictures!

This week’s assignment was a self portrait. These self portrait pictures will allow you to see the photographers who are doing this project and put a face to a name. Self portraits are definitely not everyone's forte, but it forces us to be on the other side of the camera and remind ourselves what our clients go through!


Just click on the super talented Crystal to continue through the loop of talented photographers!

Playdate escapades

Devin Turns 3

I have not done a Devin update in a long time! We just celebrated his 3rd birthday with a house full of his closest friends and family, and boy was it a houseful?! We even tried to split up the party, by having family come later in the afternoon for cake then dinner, and it was still a packed lil house. Devin had a great time, and has certainly started to embrace parties, he didn't even shy away into his bedroom. And has officially gained the fondness for gifts, he tore right into them. Then on his "official" birthday we enjoyed a little park time with just the family, and then Gigi, Papa and Uncle Kevin came over to have dinner and cake, and I think he loved that just as much as his "big" party.

As for his stats, he weighs 39 pounds and is 39 inches tall. And his heart rate was 99/99. Apparently he loves the double numbers! He is in excellent health, and is progressing right on track, still at the high 95 percentile. The doctor isn't worried about his speech, although it is reassuring, I still worry a little, but at the same time, he is progressing quickly. He has an incredible memory and can remember everything, even from a year and a half ago, which is incredible. He loves watching Caillou, Cat in the Hat, and Curious George. His favorite things to do is paint, draw, jump on the trampoline, go to the park, or have playdates with his two besties, Jazzie and Faith. He loves and talks about all his grandparents and his uncles (and soon to be aunt) all of the time, he wants to visit them all daily. He is helpful, curious, loving and mischievous. He adores his sister, and she has to be in the same room with him at all times, and if she is not, he will yell across the house "CAAADEEEEE" in the sweetest voice. He thinks the world over of Daddy, and wants to do any and every little thing that daddy does. He loves to help cook, and wants to fix everything, occasionally he wants to clean.

His favorite foods are mac N cheese, bananas, blueberries, toast, peas, apple juice and anything sweet, especially donuts (wonder where he got that from LOL) He has become extremely picky (unfortunately that one is from me). He is officially potty trained, and has done incredible with it, he only had a handful of accidents, and can sleep through the night without any, and it took less than a week! We have been practicing his numbers, shapes, colors and the alphabet, all of which he does awesome. He doesn't like to sing, but he loves to dance, and especially play ring around the rosies. We have just started playing Candy Land, and he loves it, Chutes and Ladders, not so much. He is in preschool one day a week, and he loves it, he loves his teacher, and gives her a big hug every day before we leave. He especially loves the paint projects, and the teeter totter. He does not like to be away from mommy during snacktime, but we have found a good alternative so that mommy does get in some teacher advice, even though it is constantly disrupted. He hasn't made any friends in particular, but at the age group most still play individually side by side anyways, so he is still right on track there.

December Fun

The lil ones were sick most of December, luckily they were much better for the holidays, and for Devin's birthday party! But we did manage to have some fun even through it all!

More Christmas