Budding Blossoms!

Just playing around with the camera again. This time with my micro lens which shoots close up. These are all blossoms from the little tree right out front of our house. Spring is on its way!

Crowns, Cakes, and Candles

We celebrated Audrey and Lilly's first birthday on Saturday. It was a great time with aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even great-grandparents! It was so much fun to watch them open gifts and crawl around with their little crowns on. Cake time was the best time, though! I got some great pictures of the girls. Here are some pictures I captured throughout the day. Well, actually I captured 220 pictures, but I thought that would be a bit much to share them all, so here are a few! It was a great party Brining family! Happy birthday girls!

The cousins and Aunt Jennifer

Mom and Dad with the birthday girls

Audrey enjoying something to drink...it is hard work opening all of those gifts!

We love these noisy toys!

Lilly in her summer hat. Notice the pineapple on it...and no I didn't get that for her...Grammy did!

Happy birthday to you!!!

"Hey Sis, how's the cake?"

Audrey with frosting up her nose!

Yummy, yummy in my tummy!

Lilly at the end of the cake fiasco!

All cleaned up and ready for one more picture before bed.

Four generations!

Through the lens of a camera on a rainy day

Our "almost" one year old nieces

Drew and I got to babysit for Audrey and Lilly the other night while Mark and Ashlie went out to celebrate the end of tax season. Well, I warned Ashlie before I got there that I would be bringing my new camera out and her daughters were going to have to be subjected to my obsessive picture taking. So, sorry Mark and Ashlie, but I did get a little out of control. I got some really good pictures and some not so good pictures that were blurry and such because I was testing out all of the settings to see what works and what doesn't. I really wanted to wait to share these pictures for their birthday on Friday, but I couldn't wait. So, here are some of the many that I thought were worth sharing with everyone! Enjoy!

"Hey Lilly, what's out there?"

I can't believe how much Audrey loves her books! She loved reading with Uncle Drew.

Just me and my camera again!

Just a few pictures I captured out at Mark and Ashlie's the other night. The first "landscape" pictures with my new camera! Fantastic!

My projects

I have had the urge to change things around in the house a little bit...or just add different details, I guess. The first few pictures are of our bathroom where I changed out the pictures in the picture frames. I used to have really bright pictures of beautiful flowers that I took in Mexico, but I just wanted to warm it up a bit and make them a bit more architectural. So, I simply took some pictures of objects around our house and printed them in Sepia and this is how they turned out. I also found the little outhouse looking shutter at Peebles for 50% off. Can't beat that!
The bottom project is something Ashlie helped me with when we went shopping. I wanted a little something for next to the sink in the spare bathroom. Here is what we came up with! I think it turned out great!

Photo collage in our bathroom!

Up close of the architectural pictures I took! I think they turned out great!

Spare bathroom! The little tray on the top shelf was a $1.25 purchase at the Sheltered Workshop! What a bargain!

I know, I know...I could get out of control

Couple more of Molly outside. Ashlie, I will post pics of my bathroom projects soon! For now, I am off to Zumba. Maybe I should take my camera there!!! Aye, aye, aye!!!

Two new obsessions in the house

Well, I have done it. I have gotten a new camera. Drew and I went to the mall on Monday and we purchased a NIKON D60 camera. It came with one lens and then we purchased a "micro" lens also, so I can do my close-up shooting! I only have two subjects in the house to take pictures of and since my husband was watching 24 last night, he didn't appreciate the flash going off in his face every two seconds. Poor Molly caught the brunt of my excitement. However, she made a great subject because we bought her a new toy yesterday and she has seemed to become quite obsessed with it. We call him "Stewey" and he is her new friend. She hasn't let him out of her mouth since yesterday. She even carried him into bed with her last night! It is just too cute! So here are some of the shots I caught last night. I have so much more to learn about the camera and Drew even bought a subscription to a camera and photography magazine today (isn't he the best!! :) ) to help me along with the process. I can't wait for spring to get here, so I can start shooting the flowers!!!!

Pretty girl!!!!



Here's her new best friend "Stewey"

Too funny!

Her best trick yet!

Yes, we are still alive!

Well, what has been going on in our lives? Not a whole lot, as you can tell my my entire month of not posting on here! My spring break was this past week and I can't believe it is already almost over. It went by so quickly. I started off my break by attending a bridal shower for my cousin, Alison. Then, we all headed out to my Aunt Dinah and Uncle Kenny's for a Sparty Party. We ate and visited for awhile and then jetted to Mark and Ashlie's to watch the game! (This was the game to get into the Championship game, not the "other" game :( ) On Tuesday and Thursday I babysat for Lucie, my cousin's daughter. We went down to the warehouse both days to have lunch with Drew. That was so much fun. I had a little photo session with Lucie....see the pictures below! On Wednesday, Ashlie and I went shopping and unfortunately had no problem spending money. However, I did get some stuff for the house to spruce it up a bit, so that was fun to get little projects done! And yesterday was Good Friday and I had breakfast with Janis at "The 'Mill" and then got another little project done in my bathroom. I will have to take a picture of that and post it...and don't worry it will be before April is gone! I am very excited for Easter to spend it with family and I am especially looking forward to Monday. Drew is taking the day off and we are spending the entire day together before I head back to school on Tuesday! We are heading back to the mall to get him some sunglasses and to look for a new camera for me! Exciting stuff!

All of the cousins!

Grandpa and I all decked out in our Spartan gear!

Aunt Dinah and Uncle Kenny's piece of art work!

Erin and I at the shower

My "photo session" with Lucie

I was playing around with my computer and here are a couple of pictures of Audrey and Lilly I goofed around with too!

So cute!