Amelia's army crawl

Keeping Up

School is out, and the girls are raring to get out and have some fun. I'm not sure what that will entail, but I hope I can keep up. We'll visit parks and have picnics, do some crafting, eat lots of ice pops, do some sewing, celebrate birthdays, and hopefully work in some spelling and multiplication business as well. Madelyn took this photo of me and baby. She wants to practice her photography skills along with dozens of other things, so we 'll see how it goes!

baby with giant flower on head

Do we love the giant flower or no?

No more auto-shoot for me

I have been wanting to go full manual with my camera for a long time, but never seemed to have the time or brain power to jump in and experiment. The last couple weeks I finally did it, and have been thrilled with the results. My straight out of camera photos are much better, and the manual settings give me so much more freedom when indoors, and not right next to a good light source. Anyway - it has been fun and eye-opening. The photo above was shot in the shadow behind our couch, but turned out lovely. I love seeing Hope "reading" one of her favorite books about a mermaid, and it's also nice to have her blanky in the foreground. She loves that thing like nobody's business.

A friend came over this morning to talk photography. I helped her to understand her camera a little better, and it was a fun excuse to make some pretty flower clips for my girl models.

Love this in black and white, too!

Banana Pancakes

Hee Hee

Happy Mothers Day

I have had a lovely Mother's Day, complete with chocolate, flowers, a clean house, notes and homemade books.

Jon honored the women in his life in a talk at church, and has made sure I have everything I need. He even got to stay home from morning Bishopric meetings to help get us out to church together.

We took these portraits of the girls to send to the grandmas. (I hope you got your packages yesterday?)

Being a mother is the toughest and the sweetest job there is.

It helps to be surrounded by the ones we love most.

The Hostess with the Mostest

Madelyn was in her element tonight, as she was helping hostess an open house for some friends in our ward who are getting married. She carried up refreshments, welcomed guests, put away presents, and helped clean up.

One of the perks was going to her young womens president's house beforehand to do her hair and makeup with the rest of the girls. She looked darling! (Cailin is just biding her time until she turns 12...)

Avery

We took some pictures of baby Avery this morning. Such a sweet angel. Congrats, Debbie and family!

soccer girls

Spring soccer has begun! Madelyn and Emma went off this afternoon to their first practice, while Cailin and Hope stayed home for their own soccer fun. All four girls were wearing their UAE soccer gear. It was very adorable. I would've gotten a picture of everyone together if it weren't for the crazed last-minute hunting for soccer socks and shin guards. Emma came home so excited about her new team and the drills they did. She also showed me her best push-ups, explaining that her coach told them if anyone touched the ball with their hands, they would have to drop and give him five. She finds this hilarious. I can't wait to watch the teams in action.

photo shoot

I took some photos today of a friend and her darling family. Here are a few of my favorites.






I went ga-ga for this Amish rocking chair. It was so gorgeous and comfortable. The view from the backyard was amazing. I was so glad the weather was nice enough to take a photo outdoors. Charming!

Amelia at 7 months

This is Amelia today. If you look real close you can see her two lower baby teeth peeking out of her gums. She is a busy little girl - rolling and scooting and putting everything she can find in her mouth!

Tableau Photography

Jon and I went to a fascinating lecture tonight by a visiting artist. Gregory Crewdson makes these elaborate tableau style photographs, using complicated lighting, fog machines, burning houses, and a whole crew of hirelings.

It was very interesting to hear where his passion for still pictures comes from, and how much work goes into a single photograph. We're talking months and months for one image.

He attempts to make his pictures seem apart from time and place - neither coming nor going - an unanswered question. Really intriguing stuff.

inkablinka

I'm experimenting with a new blog format. I can use my iphone to upload posts and pictures, so it may turn into a picture-a-day kind of thing. You can check it out here.

Eat Here

I put Jon to work on Saturday, hanging up mugs (no more used water cups laying around my counters!) and my awesome vintage metal "eat" sign I found at a local antique store (on sale - bonus!).

chicken salad bliss

Chicken Salad Pitas are my new favorite lunch.

Cranberry-Walnut Chicken Salad

1 c cubed cooked chicken
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
1/4 c celery rib, diced into small bits
1/4 cup dried cranberries
dollop of mayo
splash white wine vinegar
dash salt and black pepper

Combine and stuff in a couple pieces of red leaf luttuce in a toasted pita.

peanut butter playdough

I introduced Hope to the joy of peanut butter playdough yesterday. She was more interested in the pretzels than the dough - I think she was confused as to why I would suddenly encourage her to eat the playdough. Tragedy struck when my pb snowman suffered a debilitating pretzel blow to the head. Ouch.

I tried to motivate play by making pb kitties...

pb suns...

pb bunnies...

pb trees...

But Hope only wanted to eat pretzels and dismember my creations. Oh, the humanity!

Design at the Henry Ford

We had a fun trip to the Henry Ford Museum yesterday. Jon wanted to see the design exhibit with all his favorite chairs. Above is the famous "marshmallow couch".

Hope got busy at the jr. design studio. She is really into tracing hands right now.

Occasionally she stops and puts her pencil or crayon to her lips and thinks while saying "hmmmm.".

We also made our own "house of cards". Afterwards, we saw "Alice in Wonderland" at the Imax theatre. It was a lot of fun.

Dress Up Day

Madelyn and Cailin dressed up this morning to go to school as a favorite book character. Cailin is Luna Lovegood.

Madelyn in the blue witch from "The Key to Rondo".

See the resemblance?

Hope had to go incognito as well. I call it Looney Tunes meets Casablanca.

Big Red

Amelia rode in Big Red for the first time yesterday. The most thrilling part seemed to be chewing on her shoulder harness. Ahhh, the good stuff.

Spring Fever

Watch out - it's contagious.