Easter

It would seem that if you aren't hosting a holiday it should be a breeze right? I guess when you have two Easter egg hunts, three places to be within 48 hours, and two children the word breeze doesn't come to mind. But, we had a blast. A big thank you needs to be said to those that did host us. I said a little thankful prayer for you people all weekend as I didn't have to have a clean house or food on the table. Praise the Lord. Evie slept through both hunts which is why you don't see her a ton in the pictures. There are some randoms of the past few days thrown in simply because I have actually decided to use my big fancy camera.  Enjoy!

Let's start with an impromptu photo shoot with Evie. Doesn't she look thrilled? 

So yea, this is how it ended. This would be a visual of the scream, string of snot and all.

Egg dyeing... I've decided it's such a weird thing to do. I mean, Lila liked it. I guess that's what matters.

Random botanical gardens picture.

*Easter morning*

Um, what exactly is the point of this gigantic bunny again?

Look closely at the puzzle. Yea, it's 101 pieces. It was bought in the dollar aisle at Target. It has since mysteriously disappeared and the Easter bunny has decided it does help to pay much closer attention no matter how distracted while shopping.

Egg hunt round #1.

Evie's post nap appearance with Grammy. I promise her hair does that on it's own. 

Egg hunt round #2. I just love these pictures of her.

I hate profile shots of myself, but this profile of her reminds me of pictures of me as a kid so much. This is my favorite picture from the entire weekend.

Here's what's happening: Patrick and Madelyn can't figure out why we are still waiting to take the picture. Carson is talking up a storm about something. Lila is having a very hard time staying on the slim piece of wood that they are all standing on therefore delaying the taking of the picture!

While the light was amazing at Seth's mom's house on Easter, I am sure the pictures I took could have been a million times better. I had the best time taking them though. She was looking out the window at the cat and following him from the door to the window. I could just smooch that little face all day long.

The pictures start to get a little out of order here, but Blogger is a pain in the rear so this is how they shall stay. This one was taken today. Lila got a big kick out of the flower crown and necklace I made for her. Anyone else make these as a kid? I just adore this picture too.

See! Wrong spot...weird but beautiful picture.

This was today too. We are entering the land of more and more attempts at playing with each other. They had the best time!

This is just hysterical to me and a great way to end the photos. The slide gave them matching hairdos. 

Have a good weekend ya'll!

Pictures

I have cleaned just about everything I can find to clean. That was my plan when summer/full-time SAHM began. I wanted to clean EVERYTHING. I wanted to clean out everything and have less crap in my house and I have done all of that. I mean, there are things I still want to clean, but a person can only handle so much cleaning.

Today was the first day that I looked at Lila and thought, what on earth are we going to do today? That's when I remembered that I just finished my first photography class. Digital 101 is done and while I felt like I learned an insane amount of information, I was sure I didn't really know how to do anything.  I still don't feel confident. BUT, as I was taking an insane amount of pictures I noticed that I was switching modes and fixing lighting and even catching her when she was moving! I was kind of proud of myself. The new header picture is the very first picture that I have seen/taken of LJ that looks almost identical to a picture of me when I was a kid. I find myself seeing more of me in her lately.

That being said, the following pictures are supposedly a major no, no. It isn't supposed to look like the sun is coming out of her head and that's exactly what it looks like. BUT, I love them. I think they are fantastic. And for the first time I truly captured her hair.

Not sure what happened to the lighting but can we say flock of seagulls?

I mean, I don't even know what to say about this one...

Gotcha!

I had to give her all of the remote controls, my phone, and a piece of a magazine she had already torn so that she would sit in the light and stay there. She is feeding Molly the magazine...or trying to.

Two more favorites of the day...

Seriously random

When the doctor says, "surely we won't see three zebras in one week" you can be sure that your diagnosis will be less than specific.  Saturday evening my feet began to swell like crazy. That isn't entirely odd for me. However, by the time I went to bed my hands and feet were blowing up and hurting tremendously. On Sunday the swelling continued along with some seriously splotchy skin. I assumed I was having an allergic reaction and went on about my day just hoping it would go away. Well, I woke up repeatedly last night with severe tingling and pain in my hands and arms. When I officially woke up and got out of bed my knees felt like they were going to buckle. I got in the shower to find a lump on the back of my head that hurt to touch. Needless to say at this point I am convinced I am dying. I call the doctor, list my crazy symptoms, make an appointment, and seek out some sort of solace in webmd.  I get to work and just try not to lose my mind before my appointment at 3:15. Two of my students come in looking like they are really sun burned on their faces and I think nothing of it. They later tell me they have fifth's disease and they so sweetly explain what this is. I am a teacher and I have NEVER heard of this mess. So I google it. Apparently adults "catch" fifth's disease and the symptoms are very different from this childhood illness. I went to the doctor for him to tell me that he has seen two other young teachers in the past two weeks with the same symptoms. He says this is the type of question doctors answer on their boards but pretty much never see in real life and now they think they have seen it three times. So he tells me to take an obnoxious amount of ibuprofen until the swelling and pain subside. I also had blood drawn to rule out arthritis possibilities. So here I sit, laborously typing with my fat sore fingers. I just made a really long story even longer. I just can't help but find the whole thing to be super weird and I now have a new understanding of those who do have arthritis.

On a more positive note, the festivities of turning one have come to a close. The party was a huge success with the help of my wonderful friends and family. My little baby who picks up pieces of sand with her perfect pincer grasp also found it necessary to only pick off the pink icing on the massive cupcake cake. Dainty? Maybe. Not necessarily into getting dirty? More than likely. Either way, she did still get some on her as you can see.

I am so excited because I went to my fourth photography class tonight and the teacher loved my picture that is now in the header. He seems to be hard to please so I am pretty pumped. Up until tonight I have been pretty self-conscious about my picture taking abilities. Now I feel like I at least have a little more confidence. The photography field trip to the Oakland Cemetery on Sunday was supposed to help us reach some composition goals. I didn't think I had done it, but I did!  Keep in mind I left said field trip early to go watch my tennis team win city. It was such an exciting set of matches and I am so proud of them! Anyway, below are pictures to show of my randomly fabulous weekend.

Birthday!

Photography class pictures:

1) This would be my square foot vegetable garden! Here I am working on depth of field...

2) Next we have the cemetary....this composition rule shows something called leading lines...

3) More cemetery (framing)

4) And lastly, using the rule of thirds, my most important subject :-)