Christmas Eve Eve

I don't know what it is about this year, but I have been just like a kid this Christmas Season. Maybe it's because last year I was really sick for most of December and didn't get to enjoy it, or maybe it's because both the girls are so into it and having so much fun.

Last night I helped Santa wrap gifts. There are a few more that we'll wrap tomorrow night and I have a few other gifts to finish up, but other than that, we're ready.

Today the girls and I are going to make cookies and rice krispy treats for Santa. The rice krispy treats were Natalie's idea and I know Santa will LOVE them. She also wanted to fix him a banana smoothie (??? the girl cracks me up) but decided that he'd like a Dr. Pepper instead.

I hope you are enjoying time with your families. We have a fun few days ahead of us!

A recent Layout to share:

Journaling Reads: A peaceful moment between you two is sometimes hard to catch. I love that you two were being so sweet and reading together under the tree. You girls bring me such joy that you'll never understand until you have children of your own. Love You. Dec09

Christmas Videos

I can't believe how fast the last week and a half went by! Christmas is in 4 days! I still have just a couple of gifts to take care of, and then I have to help Santa wrap everything at some point in the next couple days!

The girls have really enjoyed the holiday season. Especially Natalie who loves all Christmas songs.
Today I have a couple of videos to share. We discovered that Abigail could say one whole line of Rudolph, and while this video doesn't capture her line at it's very best, you should be able to make out what she says at the very end. John is the one talking/singing throughout most of it, but listen closely at the very end.


And then Natalie singing the entire song: You may have to turn up your volume, she wasn't singing very loud.


Today was also my day to post on the Sussies Blog. Head over there for some last minute card ideas.

Ho Ho Ho

I just got in form our ladies Christmas party, which was so much fun! But I am so ready to hit the sack! Just wanted to post these pics of the girls I took yesterday!

Around the House

We are really getting into the Christmas spirit around here. Natalie has sung Rudolph a thousand times the last couple of days. We've watched both How the Grinch stole Christmas and Mickeys Twice Upon a Christmas today. We've also been wrapping presents!
Here are just a couple of pics as we enjoy the day at home.

Srapbook Sussies December Reveal

I don't have a lot of time, so I'm gonna be quick! Here are the rest of my Sussie Layouts for this month. These really got me in the Christmas mood!!





I had a photo session today out at a local Mall. They have a huge tree that made the perfect backdrop. Well, I know Santa is watching because he showed up!!
I hope you've been good!

O Christmas Tree

We don't have any presents under the tree yet, but I wanted to experiment with taking some pictures and getting some different effects.
So here's what I did. For this one I turned the manual focus on and blurred my picture just a little.
Because of the low light situation I had my shutter speed at 1/60 and my aperture at 1.4fFor this one I left my setting the same, the only thing I changed was bringing the picture into focus.


Now with this next one you can see what a difference it makes simply by changing your shutter speed. When photographing Christmas lights, you can achieve a really bright look by leaving you shutter open longer. For this one I set the shutter at 1/10.

These aren't ideal.. I obviously need to move that air filter propped up against the wall.. but you get the idea. If you have a camera that you can actually control the settings on, I encourage you to experiment!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

A few pics from Thanksgiving..

The girls with their uncle..

and with their Obie (grandma)..and having some fun!!

and a group shot of the Wright family..
Currently I have about 6 running to-do lists. Everything from Christmas lists, to household chores that need to be done, to Christmas projects, and so on and so on. I have LOTS I want to do this month. I was hoping to post something for every day of December leading up to Christmas, but I'm not gonna stress myself out over that, so it may or may not happen.

We got our tree up and decorated over the Thanksgiving holiday. Natalie had so much fun doing that with me.


And here's one of my layouts for December Sussies kit. These pics are from last Christmas.
I'll share the others later, for now I'm off to bed!

Practice and Practice More

So I'm still playing with my new flash. Natalie agreed to be my guinea pig. After countless shots this is the best I've got to show for it.
I still think her face is too bright. Making it black and white toned it down some. Here's the color version.

Looking forward to a GNO tonight. Vampires and Werewolves are on the agenda!

Quarantined

So we've all been stuck in the house since Monday. On Monday we found out that John and both kiddos have swine flu. As of today, everyone is much better.

So what do you do when you're stuck in the house for 4 days? You take lots of pics of snotty nosed, puny kiddos. I don't know that I would have necessarily taken many pics during these sickly days except that I have this new toy:

Now let me say straight up, I am a natural light girl. I just don't use flash. Ever. But after a lot of deliberation and research I decided to take the plunge and purchase an external flash. (Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday to me.. LOL)
Here's the problem. I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. Natural light is my thing, so giving me a good flash unit isn't doing much good right now. Next on my to-do list is to settle down with the little manual that came with it and figure out the crazy thing.

Here are some pics to prove my point.

Hello brightness..

Yes, she has her shirt on inside out and she has food on her face. But it gets better.

See? I told you it gets better.



So as you can see they are all over the place.. some are blown out.. some are too dark. I'll just keep playing til I get it figured out. Guess that means I'm gonna get a lot of shots of snot over the next couple days ;)

2010 with Scrapin' Kats

I am so very honored to have been asked to design for Scrapin Kats! Scrapin Kats is a brick and mortar store located in Cullman, AL. The owner, Kathy, celebrated her 1 year anniversary with the store last month. She has decided to put together a kit for January 2010, which will be available for purchase on January 1st. That is only about 6 short weeks away!! Want to see a peek?



This kit will be packed full with Bella Blvd's Honey I'm Home and new stuff from American Crafts.
Sometime on or around the 1st of January, you can check back here to see what I've done with the kit.

Interested in reserving one, so you know you'll have it in your hands? Email Kathy at : kathywittlock@scrapinkats.com and let her know you're interested! Go do it now before you get caught up and busy with the Holidays. Then you're guaranteed a fun kit to settle down and scrap with come January!
Once we get the kit completely put together, I'll have more info on the kit price and shipping rates.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Obie!

Happy Birthday Obie!
We love you! Hope you feel better soon!

Scrapbook Sussies November

Another month of Sussie Layouts! I really loved this month's kit. I love it when I get stuff that I wouldn't normally buy on my own. Then when I get to playing with it, I love the results. I even did a 2 pager this month! Lara does a great job of putting together a good mix of product.I used a mixture of pictures from this Fall and Fall of '08.



I also have been super, super busy with Fall photo shoots. If you'd like to see a sampling from those, head over to my photography blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

Msc Post

That's my girl with attitude. While she can have a bit of attitude, it's rare. She is such a good kid. As a parent I always worry that I'm doing the right things so that she'll always be a good kid. And while she does have her moments, I'm proud of her. We were in T@rget a couple of days ago and a little girl about her age (maybe even a little younger) was throwing one huge tantrum. In the midst of all her screaming and crying she was screaming at her mother "I DON"T LIKE YOU!" amongst other things about how she wanted her toy. It really made me appreciate the behavior of my own kid that age. Although I'm sure there will come a time when Natalie won't like me very much she's yet to realize she has that option. :) And she's never thrown a fit in public like that. *knock on wood.. because now that I say that it will happen tomorrow* haha

Two funny things she said today:

1.Today was picture day at her Mother's morning out. While I was getting the girls ready I asked Natalie to come in the bathroom so I could try out the curling iron on her hair. While I was curling it, she told me she didn't want warm hair. Then she said, "that thing is for mommys, not for kids!"

2. On the way to our destination she asked for her chocolate milk. I had left it at home in hopes of minimizing our trips to the potty. When I told her I didn't have it with us, she replied, "but mommys are supposed to bring the chocolate milk for their little girls."

I think the pictures of Natalie went ok, but when the photographer tried to get some of her and Abigail together, she took all of one picture. Then Abby started crying and after a couple attempts to get some of her, we gave up. I had brought my camera with me, so we went across the parking lot into a field and I took some more. I didn't have the best of luck there, but when we got home I took them in our backyard and took some more.







It's also been a while since I posted any scrapbook pages. Here are two recent ones I've done.



Guess that's it for now! Hope you're having a good week!

Rice Krispy Treats

I don't know why I don't think to make these more often. They are a favorite with everyone is this house and so easy to make. I had promised Natalie that we would make some this afternoon when she got in from school. She recently learned that you can mix red and yellow together to make orange. When I told her we could do this with food coloring to make orange rice krispy treats she got just a little excited.






Such an easy thing for a 3 year old to help with. And although you can't really tell in the pic, they are orange. She told me we had to wait until Halloween to eat them.. until she tasted a bite and she decided it was ok to eat them today.

A couple of other pics from yesterday while we were playing outside. She loves picking up all the acorns.

Craft Fair

Telah and I will be at the DAR craft fair this Thursday (15th) and Friday (16th). If you're in the area we would love to have you come see us. We have a small variety of things we are selling, but our main items are mini bag albums made out of paper bags.



Happy Crafting!

First Fall Photo Shoot

Natalie turned 3 this week and I wanted to take her to get some 3 year photos. We went downtown for a little photo shoot. It didn't feel like fall though. The high today was 87, so it was hot out there.

These are some of my favorites!

Scrapbook Sussies October Reveal

This month at Scrapbook Sussies you will get tons of Halloween American Crafts paper and the new Campy line from Bella Blvd. I hadn't scrapped any of my pics from last Halloween, so they worked perfect.

For this first one, I used a template to trace and cut the big brackets with the patterned paper. I also outlined my title with a white pen, so that it would show up a little better.


For this one:
I cut some stars out of one of the patterned papers and then backed them with a solid color.

I love the pictures on this one. The journaling says: Take a close look. That's Natalie poking Abigail in the eye. But what I love is the look Abigail gave her afterward!
On this one I made the yellow flowers using some strips of the patterned paper. I wish I could say they were an original idea. I will share where I got the inspiration and will do a tutorial on how to do these on the Sussie blog later on this month.
And last of all, this "Slide" layout was really a mismatch of product. I used both the Halloween and Campy papers on this one. I feel like it's kind of all over the place, but it worked.
Thanks for stopping by!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

This Girl:


Is about to turn three. Seriously?

She amazes me. Earlier this week I had to take her to the Dr. for something minor. When the Dr. started to listen to her with the stethoscope she completely lost it. She cried and cried, and cried some more.

On the way home she matter of factually told me:
I didn't want that Dr. to listen to my heart because he had swine flu.

And that was that.

Somebody in this house has been watching to much Fox News. And I don't mean my hubby..

Abby Overload

I know, I know, I just did a post with pics of Abby, but I took some more today and just have to share. Natalie is at Mother's Morning Out today or she would have been in on the photo shoot too.

Enjoy!

15 Months

On a whim yesterday afternoon I decided to take Abigail outside for a few quick photos. We weren't out there long, maybe 5 minutes. But I caught the cutest pic.
Here's the crazy part. Just barely a second before that pic, and I mean literally a second, THIS is what I caught.
I always thought Natalie was a Drama Queen but I think Abby has her beat. Wanta see more of the mood swings? Here's two more:
And I tell ya, sometimes it's really hard not to laugh at her when she takes her hands and covers her eyes like that. Like she's having the worst day of her life.
She's so sweet.