Saturday, June 18, 2011

Day 18- Eyes

Day 18 by AprilJT
Day 18, a photo by AprilJT on Flickr.

My baby's blue eyes. They are simply breathtaking. People always stop me to comment on her eyes. I love them. I'm not sure where she gets them from, one of her uncles I think, but she didn't get them from Chris or I.

Day 16

Day 16 by AprilJT
Day 16, a photo by AprilJT on Flickr.

So I haven't taken day 15 or day 17 yet. So we will come back to those. I am leaving for vacation in the morning and wanted to make sure I got these up before I left. Sorry to be jumping around but I need a little more practice to get those right.

Day 16- Mason/Jelly Jar

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Day 14: Someone you love

Well this one was easy.  I take many, many, many pictures of someones I love every single day.  First there is my Rowe Baby...
You like his stick dinosaur?  The rock is its head.  He's so smart. 
Then there is little miss PhePhe...
Oh, she makes me smile.  I had to use an old picture of her (as in a week old) because she wasn't feeling well.  She is having some allergies lately.  Her nose is running and her poor eyes are so red and puffy since she keeps rubbing them.  Poor little one.
Then there is my husband.  I love the man, I really do.  Even when this is what he does every single time I pointed the camera at him...
He can be such a pain. 

**************on a completely different note*****************

My lovely mother in law got me 3 months of a fruit of the month club subscription for my birthday.  My first shipment finally showed up yesterday.  I was so excited I barley had time to clean them off before we devoured them.
 Aren't they pretty?  They tasted amazing!  They were juicy and delicious and I loved every single bite!
 So did Rowen.  He was probably eating them faster than I was.  And I wasn't paying very good attention because Phoebe got ahold of mine.  I figured she already had it in her mouth she might as well get to try her first strawberry. 
 She loved it! 
 It was so juicy!

And there was NOTHING left of it.  Little miss loves her some berries.  She had blackberries for breakfast and strawberries for lunch.  Nothing wrong with a little fruit. 

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Days 12 & 13

So I took a couple days off while my husband was home.  Its so nice when he is actually home I tend to forget everything else.  But now I'm back and he's in Chicago.  That seems about normal for us. 
Day 12 was a sunflare.  I almost forgot to take this picture and then I rushed outside right before sunset to get it.  This is the first time I've tried to do this but I'll be playing around with sun flares some more in the future.
Day 13 was something that reminds you of childhood.  I thought a lot about this.  The things that remind me of childhood are snow, running in the sprinkler and hanging clothes on the line.  Those are my very strong memories.  Its June and the temp is no where near freezing so snow was out of the question.  I don't have a sprinkler or a clothesline so I had to keep thinking.  That's when I saw Phoebe doing what she does every single day: playing with Rowen's Tonka trunks.  This brought back a flood of memories of my baby brother Toby playing in his sandbox with his Tonka trunks. 

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Day 11: Silhouette

This was a fun picture to take.  Rowen was a great little model.  He had so much fun standing around letting me take his picture. 
I really love this challenge.  When I first got my camera I used to play with it all the time but I haven't been lately.  I used to know how to use all the different functions and took some really cool pictures.  But then I got lazy and just used the point and shoot function.  My pictures haven't been very good for awhile and I'm so excited to start relearning how to use my camera.  Plus, for the first time since I was in high school I've started editing my pictures again.  I love some of my finished products.  Like this picture.  I love it.  It makes me smile. I want to put it on my wall.  I love knowing that I took this and I made it look like this.  I've realized that the more I learn the more I want to learn.   

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Day 10: Animal

I had a terrible time trying to get a picture of an animal.  I should of just done what Rowen suggested and taken a picture of him playing with his dinosaurs.  But I was bound and determined I was going to photograph a real animal.  My lovely dog is kind of a PITA.  He will not sit still.  He gets extremely excited when he gets shown the slightest amount of attention, so taking a picture of him that didn't end up being blurry was nearly impossible.  I finally got this one.
Meet Sulley. 

Friday, June 10, 2011

Day 9: Fresh Fruit

My mother in law gave me a wonderful present for my birthday this year.  She gave me a subscription to a fruit of the month club from Harry and David.  I am so thrilled about this gift!  It was so thoughtful and original.  I love it!  I would love it even more if my fruit would ever arrive.  I'm still waiting on my May fruit even though I received the letter from H&D saying they were on their way.  I might call.  So I was hoping I would be able to photograph my fresh strawberries from May or even the mango's from June... but I still have no fruit.  Boo!
So instead I decided to take pictures of my tomatoes on my back deck because yes, tomatoes are a fruit.

And my little farmer too...

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Day 8: Sunset

The sun sets behind my house.  Its nice because I can sit on the back deck and watch it after I put the kids to bed in the evening.  The only problem is there are lots of very big trees behind the house and also a nice big hill.  Its beautiful and nice for privacy, but not so nice for taking pictures of the sunset.  Oh well, I tried. 



Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Day 7: High Angle

So I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this picture.  I live in West Virginia so we have no shortage of hills.  My backyard is a giant hill and Rowen has been known to roll down on occasion.  I also have two decks and plenty of stairs.  I thought long and hard and still hadn't come up with any wonderful ideas.  So I was looking for inspiration when I saw Phoebe playing in the middle of the kitchen floor.  She does this every single day.  She loves pulling everything out of the cabinets and playing with them.  But I loved so she kinda got lost in all the stuff on the floor. 

Such a busy little girl!  Now if I didn't have the glare of my kitchen lights on my floor, it sure is shiny! 

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Day 6: Books

Books are a very big deal in my household.  I love to read.  I could spend all day reading.  I love being swept away in a story.  I can see it all perfectly.  No matter how much I like TV and movies they could never ever compare to a book. I have passed my love of reading onto my son.
This is his nighttime ritual.  When I put Phoebe to bed every evening his job is to do something quiet to relax and unwind.  He almost always picks this.  I love the gigantic stack of books next to him.  Like its really going to take me that long to put Phoebe down.  But it makes him happy.  Books are the only thing I never say no to.  Every single time we come back from anywhere we have a new book with us.  Rowen loves books.


Here is the picture I took originally.  My favorite books: Harry Potter with my Kindle in front of them.  I love my Kindle.  All the books I could ever want right at my finger tips.  But it really doesn't compare with holding those books and turning the pages.  There is something magical about a real book.

Day 5: Breakfast Today

I was eating breakfast when Chris walked in the room and said, "Did you remember to take a picture of that?"  Oh crap!  Well I hadn't feed the little one yet, so you get to see her for breakfast today.  She didn't want me to feed her, she wanted to feed herself.  She is getting so independent these days. 
I took a whole bunch of pictures but I couldn't get the lighting right.  I'm not thrilled with the lighting on this, the flash is so harsh, but I love her grumpy morning face.  And by the way, she's 10 months old now!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Day 4: Clouds

So I realize I should have posted clouds 2 days ago but I've been having a small problem on that.  I headed outside first thing Saturday morning and realized there wasn't a single cloud in the sky.  Rowen and I stood there for the longest time searching the sky but there wasn't a single trace of anything white.  So I continued about my day checking the sky in search of clouds.  Now I think I'm the only person around complaining about having two perfectly beautiful days with no clouds in sight, but it made it rather difficult when you are suppose to be photographing clouds. 
That changed this morning.  When I went outside I realized that while there might not be any clouds in the sky there were plenty on the ground.  So I figured fog worked just as well for clouds. 
I took a couple.  I think they look beautiful.


Friday, June 3, 2011

Day 3: Hands

These are my most favorite hands in all the world.  Even better when they are holding onto each other.

I love this picture.  It makes my heart melt.

Day 2: Your favorite shoes

These are my favorite new summer shoes.  I adore sandals.  What I love even more is putting those feet up while I watch my beautiful children play.
Oh, and good news.  I found my camera!  Can't wait to share all of my Easter pics with you finally.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Day 1: Self Portrait

Self Portrait

Yeah, I took two...

30 Day Photo Fun

A friend of mine posted about this on her facebook last night.  I was so excited about it I decided I would bust out the camera and play along.  Until I realized I can't find my camera!  I know I took it with me to the IL's over Easter (to meet my lovely new niece) but I haven't seen it since.  I really need a new camera, so maybe this is what it will take to talk my dear husband into letting me spend large amounts of money on something I already have.  Anyways, I'm rambling.  The point of this was to say I am going to play along anyway.  It will only be cell phone pics but I'll post them here daily for you all to see.  And maybe this will help me get used to blogging and I'll show up more frequently after the 30 days is done.
If anyone else wants to join in the fun the original blog post is actually from A Feathered Nest and featured here: http://projectsforyournest.blogspot.com/2011/05/photo-fun-in-june-come-join-party.html
Come play with us!

Big changes

So I really need to get better at this whole blogging thing. I have lots of things I want to get on here and write about I just haven't found the time.  Life continues to get in the way.  I'm trying to get our house ready to put on the market so we can prepare for the big move.  The big move location has changed to.  So much to update on!
We'll start with the move.  We were suppose to be moving to NYC and I was pretty excited about it, after having a brief panic attack when I was told that is where we were going.  I have several friends there and I figured this would be an amazing experience and something I would love for the kids to look back on. But my husband was not so very quietly freaking out.  My husband would have really been a fish out of water.  He is such a farm boy and to throw him in the "concrete jungle" might have killed him. Seriously.  So he was more than thrilled when they decided to move his plane out of NYC and base him back in Chicago.  So it looks like the big move will now be to the windy city. 
I have been trying to get the house all ready to put on the market.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I want everything to look perfect before we even call the realtor.  Its hard to have a perfect house with two kids.  Even harder to paint when you have a mobile baby.  So not much has been accomplished. 
We live on a street that is full of almost identical houses.  I hate it.  But its good for figuring out how much you can get for your house when you decide to sell.  The house behind us sold within a month for a great price.  I was really excited and started working hard on getting everything done and told Chris to call the realtor.  Then we noticed the moving van at the next door neighbors house.  Turns out they had already bought another house.  They got to the realtor before we did and priced their house to sell.  They ask $20,000 less then the house behind us sold for.  Luckily it sold within the week but now we are nervous that we won't be able to get what we need since they sold so cheap.  I swear I'm renting from here on out.  I don't need this stress!
More updates later... I hear the little one screaming from her crib!



Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of their summer as much as we are!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Things I love

1.) My daughters new found obsession with the dishwasher. 
It doesn't matter what she is doing, as soon as I open the door to the dishwasher, here she comes from across the room.  Crawling as fast as her little arms and legs will let her.  And then she pulls up and has the time of her life.  If the bottom rack is pulled out she pulls out silverware and either throws them on the floor or chews on them.  If its closed she plays with the water on the door, or tries to climb completely IN the dishwasher. 


2.)Rainy Days
There is something wonderful about sitting inside and watching it rain.  I love falling asleep listening to the raindrops hitting the roof and I love how green everything is becoming.
The kids can't get enough of watching the rain, but Rowen kept chanting, "Rain Rain Go Away Come Again Some Other Day."
However, you can't pry Phoebe away from that door!
3.) Bathtime
Phoebe has recently graduated from the baby bathtub to the big kids tub.  Bath time has since turned into one of my favorite times of the day.  She loves it, esp since she gets to take a bath with her big brother every day.  She gets so excited every time I put her in the tub.  Like she's saying, "Really Mom?  I really get to get in here!?"

 And they spend the bath entertaining each other.  They play so well together.  Their baths last until I get tired of Phoebe's new game.  I stand up, Mommy sits me down, I giggle and stand up again.  Its great fun!

Like my bubble beard?  We're cool like that.

4.)  My daughter's grins
I love the way she looks at me.  "Yeah Mom, I know I'm cute!" 
 5.)  The way these two can't get enough of each other.
Look at her looking at him.  That's love.
Kisses


 6.) Daddy Time

 7.)  Phoebe following Rowen to the bathroom
Its a new thing, and it makes me laugh every single time she does it.  She crawls over to the door, pulls up to standing and starts banging on the door screaming, "Row Row!"  I love it!  He secretly does to.