Day One

Today is Day One of my brand new 365. The plan is to bring out my camera every.single.day for an entire year, then upload my captures to this blog as a way for me to both see progress in my photography and to keep a record of our day to day lives. The girls are growing so quickly and I am simply amazed at how much they change even by the month, so I think it will be fun to compare pictures from today and the ones I'll take on this day next year. :) I have to be honest. I'm horrible with keeping up with my blogs. It's something I always want to do and wish I had, but finding and making the time to keep up with it is another story. I feel like our days are over in a blink (MOST of the time. Other days feel like they'll never end) and I, of course, want to spend my nights with Micah. That usually means me trying to catch up editing photos. Right now, I'm working my way through two weddings. Whew! What a lot of work! I had two weddings in one weekend, so I'm trying to work on both at the same time. It's fun, and I like to be creative with my editing, but it's also getting to feel like a bit of a task. Culling through and editing 1200+ pictures can be a bit daunting. I'm happy to report that I am about 1/2 way done and it's only been two weeks. I consider that a success since I'm currently 31, almost 32 weeks pregnant and have two little ones 3 and under running around. Let's begin this right. A few pictures from Wednesday first. Micah and Hannah spent some time reading while I put Sarah to bed.

Thursday, I snuck a few shots of Sarah napping. Yes, she still sleeps in our bed...but only for naps. ;)

Friday, we finished up our first official week of school with Hannah. She did wonderfully and asks to "play school" throughout the day. So sweet. Sarah brought two friends along with her as she ran through the house.

Later on, we headed upstairs so that Micah could start prepping Noah's room for paint. Hannah and Sarah followed to watch. Hannah eventually got bored, so she played on her LeapPad in the hallway.

These pics are so small, and I honestly have forgotten how to upload them any larger, so bear with me as I figure that out...again.

I'm back!

Wow, it's been so long that Blogger now has a completely new look. As I sit here completely confused as to what all of this new stuff is, I'm trying to think of something witty and exciting to say. Where do I begin? I last posted on February 17th. A lot has happened in the past, what, almost THREE months? For starters, we are now expecting baby number THREE! We are beyond thrilled and can not wait to meet our newest addition on or around October 14th. We found out at the beginning of February and have been telling the girls about the new baby in Mommy's belly. Hannah is very aware and I believe she totally understands that a new little one will be joining our family. Sarah likes to lift up my shirt and kiss my belly...when she's not violently poking it. ;) We will find out what we're having in the next few weeks, and I'll be sure to keep up with my posting to at least announce it. Life has been so busy lately, and I haven't had the motivation or the want to to keep up with the blog. When I get like that, I find it best to leave it alone until the "creative streak" returns. I've tried to force it in the past, and it ended in an abandoned space on the internet. I still refer back to it to read up on what life was like with just one baby. The memories are sweet and I'm so glad they were documented, but I do wish I had taken a break when I felt the need so as to not abandon the blog altogether when I got tired of typing. The weather has been crazy here in Pennsylvania, going from the 40's and 50's to the mid 80's within a matter of days. We take advantage of the warm days and spend time outdoors. The girls got a swingset for Christmas and Micah and my Dad recently built it in the backyard. The girls love to play on the swings and in the playhouse. They are becoming pros at climbing the steps to the slide. I can't believe how independent they are each becoming. It's happening so quickly! On the way to a friend's house a few weeks ago, we pulled over to the side of their driveway and Hannah posed for a few pictures.

Sarah is at that tough age for pictures. I feel like I have next to none of Hannah at this age and the trend is continuing with Sarah. She's too quick! She does smile and say "Cheese" when I ask, but by the time I press the shutter, she's already fifteen steps ahead of me. I take what I can get these days!

The easiest way to get a picture of Sarah these days is like this:

or this:

She is Pap's girl. Most days she wakes up calling for him and has even called his cell phone from mine. She's too smart! It's always funny when I hear her gabbing away only to find that she really has someone on the other line listening! I'll leave you all with that. I promise to try to update way more often than I have the past few months. School is almost out, so things will be settling down here for a few months! Happy Monday Eve!

Blogging Hiatus

It's been almost a month. That's a real shame.

We've had an interesting month. The day after my last post, Hannah came down with a horrific cold that resulted in fevers, snot, congestion, vomiting, sleepless nights, cranky kids, Sarah catching it a few days later...it was awful. Thankfully, that's all behind us now, and we've been enjoying good health for the last few weeks.

In the meantime, I've acquired studio lighting and have been playing around with it and loving every minute. Before I decided what I wanted, I took my speedlite off camera and used a 60" shoot-through umbrella.

Oh my, do I love this one!

After I knew I was going to like this whole studio thing, I decided to purchase studio lighting. After much debate, I decided on a "martian" pink Alienbee 800, and a giant softbox. It's a huge learning curve, but I'm having a blast torturing begging my girls to pose for pictures.

Sarah wasn't having this whole picture-taking thing. The huge softbox scared her and she just wanted to be done. :(

:)

Ooooh, Monday...

...how you sneak up on me every week and leave me sad and disappointed that the weekend is officially over. :(
When I looked outside this morning to see terrential downpours and strong winds, I dreaded the drive to work and the walk from my car into the building. Needless to say, I prevailed against the nasty weather and had a decent start to my week.

This weekend, we had more appropriate weather for January, so we took advantage of a gorgeous blanket of Saturday snow and ventured outside.

It's amazing to me how much more independent Hannah is this year than last year. She's able to trudge through the knee-deep (to her!) snow and pull a sled, as well as make snow angels with some help!
Oh yes, and she learned to throw snow. She eventually got the hang of it and realized that throwing it up in the air didn't always end well...

Sarah wasn't too thrilled with being bundled to the point of being immobile, and she certainly wasn't a fan of her first trip down the hill on the sled which ended with a face plant right into a snow drift, but she did pose for a few pictures!

After sled riding at Gram and Pap's:

Then Daddy came home from work and the girls told him all about their adventures in the snow that afternoon.

I ordered Hannah a booster seat this past week, as Sarah has been slowly outgrowing her infant car seat for a few months and will need a convertible car seat very soon. We decided to move Sarah to Hannah's convertible car seat and get Hannah a booster seat that can grow with her for several years. No worries, it's a five point harness system, so she'll continue to be safe and sound on all of our outings. ;)
It arrived this afternoon in a huge box, perfect for playing.

This face cracks me up!

Sarah decided she had had enough and proceeded to climb out:

It was a good thing Daddy was close-by to ease her fall!

Just for kicks...aren't these soft, wispy curls just delicious?!

Lastly, for the sake of only doing one blog post tonight, my entry for the ABC challenge. This week, the letter was "D"...
D is for downward dog.

Happy Monday!

Weekend.

This weekend, we hung out with Mark and Linda, went out on a date, went shopping, painted the dining room (pics to come!), did laundry, cleaned, cooked, played outside in the melting snow, had a FHGI meeting, ate too much, and watched Veggie Tales more times than I can count.
It wore some of us out:

The Kennedys welcomed us into their home for our weekly praise and worship meeting this Sunday. Hannah loves the Kennedys and loves going to visit at their house.

Ruth and Amy found a Princess table and chairs set while they were out running errands the other day. They offered to pick one up for me, as the set was on clearance for next to nothing, but I declined. The set looked way bigger in the picture than it actually was. I was pleasantly surprised with I how much I loved it (they decided to pick one up for their house for the girls to play with when they come to visit). The girls loved it, too. I called our local Walmart and was thrilled to hear that they had one left in stock. I high-tailed it over there to pick it up, only to find that it was missing the pink flag...Hannah was not happy. Micah saved the day and created one out of a painted lollipop stick, a piece of pink construction paper, and a few princess stickers. Voila! Hannah was happy.

Tea parties commenced early Monday morning.

Please excuse Hannah's hair in this next one. She had asked for "two pony tails" that morning, but then rubbed her head all over the couch until it looked like this:

It's back to work tomorrow after a week off, thanks to MLK day. :)

C is for:

This week's photo challenge is C.

C is for cake donut. ;)

You can join in or follow along on FB HERE.

Snow Days.

We've finally had a few days of good snowfall which has kept me and the girls inside. It's been bitter cold, windy, and as Winnie the Pooh says, just downright "blustery".
To beat the winter blues, the girls helped me try out a copy-cat Starbuck's cake pop recipe. I'd include it, but trust me, it's not even worth attempting. I was very disappointed with my results, but we did have a blast eating the goodies!

This morning, Hannah emptied every toy from her toy basket in the family room and climbed inside. I convinced her to allow me to move the basket into the center of the room away from our end tables to prevent injuries and ended up with both of them in the basket.

Their serious faces

Hannah's giving her one of her infamous "head-lock kisses" in this picture...look closely.

Being a kid seriously rocks...

I love this one of my girl.

Micah and I went out on a rare date night this evening with Mark and Linda. It was fabulous.

Linda snapped one of us:

Good friends (and family!), good food, good fellowship. It was a wonderful night!