Here's our annual virtual Christmas/New Year's Card...just for those of you who couldn't open the link I sent out. ALSO, it was supposed to have audio (music) and I've been told by a few that the music didn't work?! That is too bad. Anyway here is the link to watch.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and best wishes for a WONDERFUL 2010!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Happy New Year!! Wishing everyone health, happiness and all good thing for the year ahead!!!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Those lips, those lashes, that hat..
Does anyone know how much I love this shot?! It is my treasure. My photos are my treasures...and this one is one of my all time favorites :)
Sunday, December 20, 2009
First Snow with a tear
She was just SOOOO cold! Everybody wanted to go out to play after the first snow but it was just FREEZING outside. Poor Kaitlyn lasted only about 5 minutes and was just FROZEN. It was -15 C yesterday...one of our coldest days ever! I snapped this when she cracked a tiny smile---at my mention of HOT CHOCOLATE!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Sweetness
Gosh I just can't resist taking pictures of this little guy!!!! It seriously makes my day (and takes up a good bit of time from it too,lol). I'm just capturing every tiny detail before he goes and grows up on me!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Fuzzy and warm
He loved this soft fuzzy rug! I can't believe he turned 11 months old 2 days ago. I have to write his 10 month recap report (and get up the photos from the Cousin's visit). Things are crazy here now with the end of the year chaos....but we are all well and looking forward to a fun Christmas together! Krista has a gym show and Christmas party tonight...Should be fun!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Innocence
This will be a quick way for me to update with photos onto my blog! Hooray for convenience! I've recently joined flickr to help me progress with my photography...It is a wonderful place to share ideas and technique as well as receive commentary on photos. On my first day I had one photo placed by a group moderator into a gallery for "World"s Best Photos"... Lovin' that! I'll post that photo soon too. It was a keeper! A short session with Evan napping like a newborn. So now I have found an easy way to update the pics for blogger. I've been bad about blogging, but very very very good about taking lots of pictures (just not posting them here...now I will :)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Krista's Regional Competition
So we had a full weekend with gym. Krista had her Regional Competition and I'm happy to say that she'll be competing in Paris in mid December for the Zone Competition. She had two nice performances (freestyle and hoop). Our goal was to be in the top 10 and she did it!!! (10th place). Her coach was very happy with her because she was really set back by being penalized for her music in the first competition (she placed 6th in the local competition). The judges are a bit biased that she hasn't joined the local elite club so the took the opportunity to take points away on her music!!! Amazing. Especially since they had no problem with this SAME music last year. Really incredible. SO she had to redo her routine completely with new music in 3 weeks! I'm very proud of her and I'm excited for her going to Paris in 4 weeks! Our big goal for this season is to make it to the Nationals. This will be tough, but I think she can do it. Once we are out of Alsace we might get some breaks :) Nothing like local judges to drag down the scores when you are not part of the elite local school.
Krista looked wonderful for her first time performing with the new music (and only 3 weeks to train). She also sported a completely NEW look. She looked so gorgeous! She had been due for a bigger hoop for some time now so we took advantage of the "changing" time to upgrade her. Her old hoop was only 75 cm and she is allowed to use 80 so we ordered her a new hoop (by Pastorelli which makes hoops for the Italian national team). Her trainer decorated it with the colored sparkly tape that we picked out... and since she was changing hoops she had the opportunity to change leotard colors. We thought that with the music change she should change her look also. Our trainer suggested a gymnastics sports tailor and we had her measured for a custom competion leotard. It is beautiful and arrived JUST in the nick of time. The tailor only had 3 weeks to make the leotard. It arrived on Friday (with the competition on Sunday). I also added some sparkly sequence to her old red and black competition leotard for a change also. She used the new leotard with her hoop exercise and her old red and black leotard for the freestyle exercise.
Here are the videos of her 2 routines. ENJOY!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Evan's 9th Month Update
Some of my photographic endeavors from this month. (Yes, I've been playing photographer more or less constantly these last few months). I have to start a photo blog soon. I've been shooting exclusively in manual too (yea for me!). I've learned so much and am having such a good time with my pictures. Enjoy!
Today is my last "legal" day to post the 9 month report so I better get cracking! Yes, my little man has now officially been in this world for as long as he was in utero! Amazing! He has progressed so much this month too. His big acheivement this month was pulling to stand. He is now on his feet most of the time when he is playing. He pulls up to stand on anything he can get his hands on, and can now even free stand for a few seconds. He stands easily with just one arm so I'm sure his first steps will be before his 1st birthday! He just flies when crawling now too, although I HATE him crawling on our hard tile floor. I'm so afriad of him hurting himself.
So in a nutshell, the big news this month is his standing. Some other big firsts---WAVING! I love this! When you wave to him he will wave back--either by folding his hand or by waving his whole arm! It is just absolutely adorable and melts my heart! He has become such a social little man lately. He smiles at everyone at the kids' school and loves to make his little scrunched grimace face at people as well. A little ham!
Evan has 8 teeth now and I THINK we are done with teeth for awhile. He sure had a hard time with those teeth. I'm hoping the molars are easier. He had 7 teeth for SO long and now finally got his 8th this month. And on the weight front, I weighed him tonight and he is 11,200 grams (24 pounds something). ONE BIG GUY!
Other firsts...NEW FOODS. Evan has learned to self feed and practically wants to feed himself all of the time. He loves bread, bananas, salmon, green beans, saltine crackers etc. This month he took a big leap into solid foods and will FINALLY eat 1/2a jar of baby food. He mostly wants to feed himself bits of food and really doesn't show a big interest in the spoon, but this month he will FINALLY tolerate it. He does love yogurt and fruit and opens willingly for that! I gave him his first juice a few days ago and he LOVED it. I used a regular adult cup. I'm not a big juice pusher, but he certainly loved it so I won't hold it back from him. He does drink water from a sippy cup also. He finally figured that out too this month. He won't drink more than an ounce at a time but at least he has learned how to work the sippy cup!
Breastfeeding is still going well, although I'm afraid he is drinking MOST of his milk at night. This happened with the other kids at this age as well. It was hard for them to slow down during the day so they caught up on mother's milk at night. It makes it really difficult for me because he is still waking 2-3 times a night, but I know that this will soon pass! I'm trying to savor every moment of his littleness.
Naps...are mostly are on the go. I hate this but it is a reality. He usually falls asleep in the car when we take the kids to or from school, so he ends up taking naps in his baby seat. I just carry his seat into the bedroom and he continues napping, but I don't like him learning to nap this way. I'm not fighting it right now though since I just can't seem to keep him awake in the car and I can use the break from monitoring him. I need time to get the big kids lunch or clean up so I just go with the flow and let him catnap. Hopefully when he turns 1 he will just need one long nap that can be scheduled.
I guess that it now for the basic update. I hope to post some more in the coming days. We had Toomas sister visit from Sweden and I got some great shots of the kids that I will share soon!
Today is my last "legal" day to post the 9 month report so I better get cracking! Yes, my little man has now officially been in this world for as long as he was in utero! Amazing! He has progressed so much this month too. His big acheivement this month was pulling to stand. He is now on his feet most of the time when he is playing. He pulls up to stand on anything he can get his hands on, and can now even free stand for a few seconds. He stands easily with just one arm so I'm sure his first steps will be before his 1st birthday! He just flies when crawling now too, although I HATE him crawling on our hard tile floor. I'm so afriad of him hurting himself.
So in a nutshell, the big news this month is his standing. Some other big firsts---WAVING! I love this! When you wave to him he will wave back--either by folding his hand or by waving his whole arm! It is just absolutely adorable and melts my heart! He has become such a social little man lately. He smiles at everyone at the kids' school and loves to make his little scrunched grimace face at people as well. A little ham!
Evan has 8 teeth now and I THINK we are done with teeth for awhile. He sure had a hard time with those teeth. I'm hoping the molars are easier. He had 7 teeth for SO long and now finally got his 8th this month. And on the weight front, I weighed him tonight and he is 11,200 grams (24 pounds something). ONE BIG GUY!
Other firsts...NEW FOODS. Evan has learned to self feed and practically wants to feed himself all of the time. He loves bread, bananas, salmon, green beans, saltine crackers etc. This month he took a big leap into solid foods and will FINALLY eat 1/2a jar of baby food. He mostly wants to feed himself bits of food and really doesn't show a big interest in the spoon, but this month he will FINALLY tolerate it. He does love yogurt and fruit and opens willingly for that! I gave him his first juice a few days ago and he LOVED it. I used a regular adult cup. I'm not a big juice pusher, but he certainly loved it so I won't hold it back from him. He does drink water from a sippy cup also. He finally figured that out too this month. He won't drink more than an ounce at a time but at least he has learned how to work the sippy cup!
Breastfeeding is still going well, although I'm afraid he is drinking MOST of his milk at night. This happened with the other kids at this age as well. It was hard for them to slow down during the day so they caught up on mother's milk at night. It makes it really difficult for me because he is still waking 2-3 times a night, but I know that this will soon pass! I'm trying to savor every moment of his littleness.
Naps...are mostly are on the go. I hate this but it is a reality. He usually falls asleep in the car when we take the kids to or from school, so he ends up taking naps in his baby seat. I just carry his seat into the bedroom and he continues napping, but I don't like him learning to nap this way. I'm not fighting it right now though since I just can't seem to keep him awake in the car and I can use the break from monitoring him. I need time to get the big kids lunch or clean up so I just go with the flow and let him catnap. Hopefully when he turns 1 he will just need one long nap that can be scheduled.
I guess that it now for the basic update. I hope to post some more in the coming days. We had Toomas sister visit from Sweden and I got some great shots of the kids that I will share soon!
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Halloween Portraits of Evan
Some of my favs from our Halloween portrait shoot. I've been playing photog very intensively over the last month or two. I have many, many more to share. I hope I'll have some time to upload them.
A few bits of news...Toomas sister visited this past week from Sweden. We had a great time and I took some great pictures. I'll get those up soon.
Evan can stand now for a few seconds without support! He is learning so quickly. He is sleeping terribly at night still but that is not new news!!! He has also learned to wave and make a silly face at the same time. It is just ADORABLE!!!
The kids head back to school soon (Thursday) and I'm looking forward to that. For now enjoy the pics!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Happenings
Well there is a lot to report...but it just time seems time is my major obstacle at the moment. Okay, upcoming news: Krista's gym happenings, Mike's new album release, Evan's developments and Kaitlyn's school adaptation.
Yesterday's big news headline before I head off---Evan is standing! I left the room yesterday with Evan happily playing with his stuffed toys in his playpen, and when I got back he was STANDING! He had a 10 inch grin across his face and was SO PROUD to have pulled up all by himself! Today he has been pulling up all day and has taken a few crusing steps around the playpen.
He started crawling about 3 weeks ago (a little over 8 months) and now at 9 months and a few days is on his way to cruising! Boy this little man works FAST!
More updates and pictures soon!
Yesterday's big news headline before I head off---Evan is standing! I left the room yesterday with Evan happily playing with his stuffed toys in his playpen, and when I got back he was STANDING! He had a 10 inch grin across his face and was SO PROUD to have pulled up all by himself! Today he has been pulling up all day and has taken a few crusing steps around the playpen.
He started crawling about 3 weeks ago (a little over 8 months) and now at 9 months and a few days is on his way to cruising! Boy this little man works FAST!
More updates and pictures soon!
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Erik's Portraits age 7 1/2
Well I've now switched over to shooting exclusively in RAW for my portrait work. I've been having a lot of fun working with the kids lately and luckily they still enjoy posing for me :) I've also been warned about posting these w/o copyright so if you notice the watermark you'll know why. I don't want these to end up somewhere they shouldn't be...and I'm also now only uploading very low resolution images. I was warned that on Facebook for instance, they reserve the right to use anything you upload! Well if they use my pictures they are going to be at 400 x 600 dpi so nothing serious could be done with that resolution anyway.
Here is a glimpse of my growing man at age 7 1/2 (he was officially at the halfway mark on the 6th!)
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Mr. Sunshine
Crisp, clean whites....wooden clothes pins, precious baby clothes, sparkling white towels AND a smiling baby! Had fun with this
!!! :) Click to enlarge!
!!! :) Click to enlarge! 
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Ballet Photo Shoot with Kaitlyn
So I did a shoot yesterday with Kaitlyn. It was FUN! I got some keepers for sure. I really loved a few of them....She wanted to try on Krista's pointe shoes so I made a little storyboard with the shoot.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Evan's 8 Month Portraits
So I was feeling inspired and decided to do a few shoots with Evan. He is so fun to take pictures of! I really got into both of these series. The fuzzy hat was really inspiring for me. I went with a cooler feel in whites and grey. In the sleeping series I was all about warming things up. Those 2 fuzzy blankets just screamed soft light! The one taken from the back of his head just melts my heart! If you click to enlarge you can literally FEEL that soft baby hair...go ahead, touch your screen! :) I got a zillion shots of him sleeping. It was a rare moment back in the newborn sleep poses. All in all a fun set! Enjoy!
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