Lunar Eclipse

One day last week we had a lunar eclipse, Tuesday or Wednesday or whenever and I decided I had to try getting some pictures. So here are my attempts. It was very cold out, like 17 degrees and my hands were freezing so I didn't spend a lot of time trying to play around with the settings. And I didn't stay outside long enough to get the full effect when the moon had that reddish glow though I later wished I had. I also locked myself out of the house (must run in the family, Jen) but luckily Dom was home to let me back in!

On the mend

For the past week Becca has been sick with the flu which then turned into pneumonia. She went back to school today. We'd been lucky so far this year no one has been sick but I guess it was just a matter of time since it seems people are getting sick all over. Now I just have my fingers crossed that the rest of us don't get sick. Of course one of the first things that Becca said to me after getting home from school was that one of her friends threw up in class today and was sent home. Great. If we can just get throught the next couple of days then we get a week off for school vacation.

Another snow day.

Yesterday we woke up to this:
Which then turned to sleet and freezing rain like this:

Which built up on the powerlines like this:

Which means we spent the evening like this:

Lots to Learn

I have been trying to learn how to use my camera to its full potential and not rely so much on the presets but it hasn't been easy. As much as I had hoped that just sitting down and reading the manual cover to cover would work it didn't. I found the technical stuff aperture, exposure, ISO

very hard to wrap my brain around because my brain just doesn't work that way. So I got another book about my camera and read that and yet another and after reading the three different books and retaining very I little went on a search to find something else to help me learn because what I really needed was hands on step by step lessons with the camera. There weren't any classes readily available but I came across two books that were helpful-Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and Digital Photography by Scott Kelby. Both great books. But what really helped was my favorite Scrapbook sight-Two Peas in a Bucket offered a free 12 week course online. I have been doing it for 6 weeks and learned a ton and the best part is that they explain everything step by step and then give you step by step challenges, exactly what I needed and now everything is making sense and I actually took pictures in manual yesterday(meaning that I chose the shutter speed, aperture and white balance) and some came out pretty good. And Kenzie even agreed to be my model!

So here are some of the best ones. All were done in natural light, because one of the first things that I learned was that I no longer like the onboard flash and avoid using it as much as possible.

All pictures are straight out of camera as I haven't learned how to use photoshop yet either, that is on my long list of things to learn too! Shot with a 50mm lens that is awesome for shooting indoors!

And I had to include this last one just because it makes me laugh.

This is the "Haven't you figured that camera out yet??" Look.

So I always on the lookout for new victims, I mean models, so if any of you are in the area and want to do a little modeling, let me know. You know just hop on a plane and come on out here. How about it Jill? Cause you always look "fabulous"!!

Bunnies

I don't know if you remember our little fuzzy friends, Thumper and Brownie, our bunnies. Just thought I post a little update. They have grown quite a bit, but are still very cute and fluffy.

When the weather was nice we would let then run around on the grass in a little play yard. For obvious reason we can't do that in the winter so we let them have some time to run around the family room. The girls love it and the bunnies seem to enjoy being able romp around and stretch their legs out. Brownie has the brown face and Thumper has the lopsided ears.

Go Patriots!

Later today this evening we will be cheering on the Patriots and I hope that all the rest of you are too! I made some cupcakes for the occasion. You know cause we didn't have enough cupcakes after the ones I made for groundhogs day yesterday. All the extras will be going to work with Dom on Monday in case you were thinking we were making total pigs of ourselves.

The girls who have very little interest in the Superbowl are very excited about Puppy Bowl that is on Animal Planet this afternoon. They were busy making little flags while I decorated the cupcakes. They even let me snap one picture. Actually I took several pictures before realizing that their was no card in the camera. DOH! So by the time I got it they barely stuck around for the one pic. And yes they were still in their jammies at 2:00 in the afternoon.

Happy Groundhogs Day!

So Six more weeks of winter according to Punxsutawney Phil.

Wow.

Big suprise.

Not.

But it does mean that winter is half over and so to celebrate I made these really cute cupcakes with a little groundhog peeking his head out of the ground.

Got the idea from the book," Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor" by Anne Byrn. Lots of cute ideas. I would recommend any of the Cake Mix Doctor books.

Check back tomorrow for Superbowl cupcakes!

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.

I don't have time for the haters

The Patriots have gone 16-0. They broke all kinds of records last night. First the Red Sox and now the Patriots. What a great time to be a New England sports fan, right?!

Except all I hear is how much everyone hates the Patriots, their a bunch of cheaters..blah, blah, blah. Not that I condone what they did, but they are not the only team in history to cheat. And seriously are they cheating when Brady throws a touchdown pass to Moss over and over and over again?? The team in freakin' awesome!

Nuff said.

ChrisMess!

We had a great Christmas and hope that you all did too. The girls were spoiled as usual and everything was a big hit. Nonna and Nonno arrived Christmas eve and spent the night so that they could wake up with the grandchildren on Christmas morning. Nonna cooked a big seafood feast for dinner, then we kicked her out of the kitchen for Christmas day. I wanted something different to change things up for our Christmas feast so Dom and I decided on cornish game hens which came out pretty tasty! We also enjoyed sausage and apple stuffing, green beans and rolls. For dessert I made pumpkin mousse parfait, cause as donkey from Shrek says "everybody loves parfait!"

Boston Pops Concert

So I am finally getting around to posting about last weekend. We had lots of fun in Manchester.

We got there early and braved to crowds at the mall to bring the girls to Build a Bear as a special treat. Becca made a polar bear that she dressed in a cute skating outfit. Kenzie made a Bunny that she dressed in a cute Christmas outfit similar to her own christmas dress. I had to get in on the fun too and I made a bear that I dressed in a Bruins outfit. The girls brought their new furry friends to the Pops concert which was great. The orchestra was joined by special guest Cantus which is an all male singing group. They did a reading of The Grinch backed up by the Pops and they did a singing version of Twas the Night Before Christmas as well as several other songs. The girls really enjoyed it and we are planning to attend again next year.

We spent the night in manchester but despite getting up early the ground was already covered with about four inches of snow and it was coming down like crazy! Needless to say it was a slow ride home but we made it safe and sound. Now it is snowing again and has been snowing all day!

I don't have as many pictures as I had hoped. I forgot the camera for build a bear, nor did I have it at the Pops concert.(It was so dark there I don't think they would have come out anyway). I do have some pictures of the girls in their dresses and of course our furry friends.

More snow headed our way

Not a lot going on here, just the normal getting ready for Christmas type things. I got all my packages sent and Christmas cards too are all on there way. It has been a pretty unsettled week around here and man has it been cold. You know its been cold when 35 degrees feels warm! We got about a couple inches of snow on Monday morning and yesterday afternoon we got about 7 or 8 more. Poor Dom left work as soon as it started to snow down there and it took him four hours to get home! More snow is expected on Sunday so we will definitely be having a white Christmas.

The four of us are headed to Manchester tomorrow to see the Boston Pops perform at the Verizon Arena. We are all excited to get dressed up and go out. We have decided to spend the night right in Manchester and then hopefully get home before it starts to snow on Sunday.

I should have lots of pictures to share when we get back.

Tunes!

I am so proud of myself for figuring out how to add music to my blog. I did it all by myself without any help from my husband. This is extremely rare as I am not very computer savy, but I did it! Now I can annoy you all with my music. I know you will all be so excited. I will start by driving you crazy with Christmas music, some of my faves. Actually there is a pretty wide range so I bet you can find at least one you like, yes I even included Gene Autry and Roger Miller for mom and dad. And well if you don't like the tunes then turn them off! A little hint the music is way at the bottom of the page and you can click on whichever song you want to hear...or none at all..if your the Grinch or something.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

We had our first big snowstorm of the season today, actual it is still snowing. We probably have close to ten inches. There was of course no school so we spent the day playing in the snow, watching Christmas movies, drinking hot cocoa and eating chocolate chip cookies. What better way to spend a snow day?? We did some snowshoeing too.

We have close to 14 acres of land behind our house and way down in the back is a river. The land was logged long before we ever bought it and many of the downed trees are still in the way making walking kinda rough. Because of this we haven't done much exploring back there. This fall Dom took on the huge task of creating a trail to the river which he just finished a week ago. Yesterday we took a walk out to the river before the snow and today we did it again in the snow. It was fun. We all used our snowshoes though the girls abandoned theirs about half way through the walk and alternately walked and rode in the sled. It was pretty fun though Boomer was an absolute pain in the butt!! Boomers favorite winter activities are "steal the mitten", "Knock the kids in the snow" and " sled tug 'o war". All of them are kinda funny the first time. By the fifteenth time it's not funny.

It is still hunting season so that is the reason for the very fashionable bright orange.