Being Artistic

My parents have a great yard for nature photos. Here's a few that I think turned out pretty good!

Fun at Grandma's!

On Sunday Mike wasn't feeling well, so I took the kids and headed up to my parents to give him some time to sleep.  While we were there, they needed to do some yard work and Amanda was more than happy to help!
Helping Grandma take the pool cover off:


Getting the broom to sweep up the pine needles around the pool area:


Helping Grandma sweep up pine needles


And dumping them in the trash can


Posing with the broom:


Then it was time to clean the pool! First the spa


Then the pool. But first, a pose for Mommy!


She did it all on her own (one pine needle at a time)


Then Kevin got up from his nap


When we got home, Daddy showed Amanda how to do a somersault on the trampoline!


All in all an exciting day :)

Catching up!

Amanda LOVES bubbles, and the bath bubble machine that she has makes tons & tons of them. Here she is playing with the mountain of bubbles she got.





Pic of her after I cut her bangs (which were getting so totally long)



Preview for Halloween. Trying on her Cinderella outfit:



Kevin playing with a tennis ball tube





And one of the funniest pics I've taken. I was playing with the monochrome setting and Kevin came right up to the camera lens!

LOVING my new camera

I decided on the Canon Rebel T1i.  It's a DSLR, 15 megapixel camera, and so far I am loving it.  I can't believe the quality of pictures it takes.  And I've been reading the manual and perfecting my technique.  Here's some of my favorite pics I took of Kevin at Lake Nacimiento this weekend.

More to come.  I'm also learning how to use our new Adobe Photoshop program to edit images.  Fun stuff!

By the way, I get SUPER mom of the year award.  Look closely at the pictures (the top two I think show it best), and you'll see a fairly large scrape on Kevin's forehead and nose.  Yeah.  That's because as I was packing up for the weekend and going in and out of the front door, Kevin climbed out.  And fell.  Down 2 steps on our front porch.  Face first.  Again.  Yeah... this kid has no fear.

In memorium...

Well, apparently that last post is the last pictures my camera will ever take.  It died on me this weekend.  Now I have to figure out what to buy next.  I want a DSLR (I take enough pictures!), but Mike thinks I won't want to lug it around everywhere.  So what to do?

Seeing things from a new perspective

They say kids have a unique perspective on things, and one way of seeing it is to give them a camera.  Well, normally Amanda puts her finger in front of the lens 90% of the time and all I get are pictures of her finger!  But a few weeks ago, she took my camera and started taking pictures while in the car on the way home from the market.  And what she captured is absolutely hilarious! What's even funnier is she seems to have captured a picture with every sentence she said that day, and seeing the pictures makes me remember the entire diatribe (and you'll also get a feeling for what I put up with in the car every day)! So here you go - for your viewing pleasure...

Picture from the backseat of my truck:
"Mom, can I take pictures?"


"Kevin's tired mom"


"Mom, when I get bigger, I'm going to go there"


"Mom, why is my sweater on top of the seat?"


"Smile Mommy!!!!"


"Mom, Kevin's trying to grab the camera"


"Mom, there's a car next to us. I'm going to take a picture of it"


"Mom, Kevin's still trying to grab the camera away from me!"


"Mom, is that Nick's house?"


"Mom, my shoes are coming off. I'm going to take a picture"


(We then got home and I unloaded groceries to the front porch. I told her she could wait on the porch while I parked the car, or come with me. She decided to wait on the porch)
"Bye Mommy!! See you later!"


Here is her view from the front porch:



(Once the truck was parked, she came running out to meet me)



"Mom, Kevin is leaving"


"Mom, I'm going to take a picture of you"


And there you have it. About 20 minutes out of the life of a 3 1/2 year old :)