Celebrating Me

Sunday the 27th was my 37th birthday and I got this brilliant idea that I would do a post about me and do something totally new and unheard of and actually include a picture of myself. As you have noticed from my blog posts that I am always behind the camera and never in front of it, which most of the time that is where I prefer to be. But when I go back over the photos of certain events it appears that I am never actually there. Having made this decision I then proceeded to drag my feet about actually doing it and that is why the post about my birthday is four days after the fact. I actually took the photos myself with a tripod and a little help from my asstant Mackenzie.

Okay so enough babble about that and onto my actually birthday which was spent at home doing whatever I wanted which was actually a lot of nothing, but it was nice. It snowed all day but there wasn't much accumulation and it was the perfect day to just hang out and cozy up inside. The girls were instructed to go to dad to get all their needs met and I just chilled, watching TV, surfing the internet and just enjoying not being "on" as mom.

As well as giving me a day off my husband spoiled me with a very cool iTouch for my birthday. I can store songs, videos, surf the net, all kinds of cool stuff. I got wireless headphones to go with it because I don't like earbuds and I can bop around the house wirelessly. So fun!

Another very cool thing was getting a call from my sister-in-law, Lisa,(who also shares the same birthday)She and her husband were in Vegas celebrating(her husband Chuck shares a birthday with Becca)She went to the roullette table and asked me if I wanted red or black(I chose black) and she put a dollar down for each of us on 27 black and won $70.oo! I thought that was really cool and she even offered to split it with me!

Happy Birthday Becca!

Becca's birthday was on the 18th. She got to start out the day with a two hour delay from school which, though she likes school she was happy to get to sleep in. On Saturday we had a party at the house with some of her friends. A gaggle of giggling girls is a fitting description and though I had many activities planned the girls really just wanted to play so they did. We did of course enjoy cake and ice cream. The theme of the party was Shrek and Becca requested a castle cake. It was really fun to make and thanks to a castle kit it wasn't too hard to pull off. I also found some cute little Shrek characters to put in front of the castle.

The girls did enjoy a game of Pin the Tail on Donkey and several games of Twister!

Winter so far

So far this winter we have had lots of snow. I am no longer going to complain about it because quite frankly it does no good. So I am just taking it as it comes and using it as a learning experience with my camera. We got lucky last week and had a January thaw that melted a lot of the snow. Monday we had a snowstorm that brought it all back. According to the news we are on track for a record breaking season of snow. Oh well. Just want to share some of my favorite pictures of the season so far!


January thaw!
Sledding with Annie. My own children ignored me but Annie was a willing subject!

Kenzie pretending not to see me while Boomer tries to steal Beccas mitten in the background.

Out in the woods, near the river behind the house.

The Mad River behind the house right after a snowfall.

One of the many turkeys that visit Mom and Dads house.

Indiana Jones meet legos

I love the Indiana Jones movies and I happen to love legos so when I saw this I thought it was so cool. If you are a fan of either or both (like me!) click on the link and then click on the link for the Indiana Jones trailer.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/legoindianajones/media.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=tabs&tag=tabs;videos

For those of you who don't want to check out the link it is a new video game coming out this summer based on the Indiana Jones movies, only it is all done with legos. I am also happy to report that there are Indiana Jones lego sets also available.
There is also a Star Wars version too.

(And, yes, I do enjoy playing with my kids legos as if I didn't already make that abundantly clear.)

Mamarazzi strikes again.

As you all know I got a really nice camera several months ago and, having mostly used a simple point and shoot, I have a lot to learn. I've gotten many shots that I am happy with but they are mostly done in auto mode letting the camera take care of all the technical stuff. Now that the holidays are over I am determined to really learn the camera and hopefully improve my photography. This of course means taking lots of pictures. My favorite subjects are my beautiful children, but the more often I pull out the camera, the less often they actually want their picture taken.

Here are some typical shots, not good by any stretch of the imagination, but amusing none the less.

"Oh no, mom's got the camera again!"

"I said no pictures!"

"Don't make eye contact. Maybe she'll go away."

"Hide behind something. I learned this from Auntie Ellen."

But when they cooperate it sure is nice!

Special visitor

This weekend we got a chance to visit with Jen. Her husband Micah was covering the debate in Manchester and while he was busy working Jen got a chance to come for a quick visit. The girls were so excited to see her and even more excited to have her spend the night on Friday.

Mom and Dad picked her up in Manchester and brought her to our house where they stayed to visit for a little while. The girls showed off their Christmas gifts and showed cousin Jen all their favorite video games. After dinner she got a chance to come to Becca's dance class and check out her new Irish dance steps. Saturday was pretty low key. We did take a hike out into the woods which was pretty fun. After warming up and drying off a little it was time to bring Jen back to Manchester so she could have a chance to see her friend Katie. It was really nice to get a chance to see her. I think we may have even convinced Kenzie to get on a plane and make the short trip to Baltimore to visit Jen and see her new house!

Happy New Year!

I wanted just one shot of the girls for New Years Eve. I asked them to just stand in front of the Christmas tree, together, with thier cute party hats and blowers. Quick and painless, right??
Not exactly. For your amusement I have included the play by play:

Me:"Okay girls, go stand in front of the tree. I just want one picture."

Me:"Uhh....That was ONE picture, TWO children. Where's Becca?"
Kenzie:"I don't know."

Now I've got both girls standing 4 feet apart on either side of the tree. No

picture here because of course they are not even close enough to be in the frame.

Me: Big sigh. "Can you stand next to each other?" The ever helpful dad shows up on the scene, with a bowl on his head, to usher the children together. They are still not IN FRONT OF THE TREE. Nice. Am I speaking english here people??

Okay, just the girls this time.

Me:"Pretend you like each other. Pretend you're sisters and you love each other. (I am desperate by this point.)"You can have ice cream after the picture."
Bingo!

Me:"That's great! Now just one more."

Kenzie:"Moooom, you said just ONE Picture."

Me:"Yeah, just one more, Please?"

Kenzie:"No you said we could have ice cream after ONE picture!"

Me:"Just one more."

Kenzie:" No, I'm outta here. I want ice cream!"

And that was the end of that.