Monday, January 31, 2011

Jordy Being Jordy

Overheard Jordy singing and couldn’t resist a ninja attack with the video camera. (Don’t forget to pause the blog music on the right hand side of your screen).

The Clone Troopers Week 2

This past Saturday, Jake had two basketball games and the Clone Troopers came out victorious both times! Jake’s energy really started to fade during the second game, plus he had the hiccups, so he wasn’t really into it. But they won anyway so he was excited.


Darrin and I made all these shirts for the league and after last week’s games, the teams started giving us their shirts to be personalized. So I spent some time putting these names on this past week.


This a shot of Jake bragging about the score to his friend Kayla. Kayla belongs to my photo partner, Tracy. There may have been some trash talking in the stands.


Jake, with the inbounds pass.


Jordy, paying rapt attention.


Jake, sizing up his man.


Jake with a smile for mommy, and yup, that’s Daddy reffing the game!


Practicing some shots during half time of game 2.


Working his way towards the basket.

I don’t think he made a single shot during either game, but he definitely made a couple of attempts. This week we worked on rebounding (huge improvement) and dribbling when you catch the ball instead of grabbing it and running (minor improvement). So far though, he loves basketball and that makes Daddy a happy man.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Ice Sculpture Adventure

Last night we headed downtown to check out the annual ice sculpture exhibit. We spent about 45 minutes exploring and playing and taking pictures. Then went out for ice cream. Thank you Grandma Diana for taking our family photo!

oooh, ice sculpturey.

It’s a lot harder than you might think, to get a pic of these rugrats together.

I once did a HS senior photo shoot at this park and took a shot similar to this one through the rings of this bike rack.

They were a little short but we made it work.

Taking a self portrait with a big camera (complete with battery pack and attached speedlight) is really, really hard. It was too big and bulky to hold in one hand. Stellar try though, no?

My babies.

I love my boys!

Rawr!

Doobs is a lover, not a fighter.

I love this guy. He’s amazing. AND HAWT!

My little munchkaroo.


Time to warm up with ICE CREAM!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

My Bugaroo



It was crazy hat and sock day at Awanas tonight. My girl has a straw hat. Get it?

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Team Clone Troopers

Every year, our school hosts a basketball league for elementary age kids. Every year, D and I make hundreds of shirts for all the players. This year we made one extra special shirt. Because Jake is finally old enough to play basketball.

At his first practice the players had to name their team. Jake offered up “The Clone Troopers” which barely beat out “The Gummy Bears” after a team vote.

He also got to pick his team’s shirts and picked the Caroline Blue.

Today was Jake’s first game. Aside from looking generally lost, he made two great passes, brought the ball down the court twice, managed to snag a rebound and took one shot. He made the shot and scored his team 2 of their 16 total points.

The Clone Troopers ended up losing by 2 points but it was back and forth for awhile and was actually tied with about 40 seconds left on the clock. We lost on a last second lay up by the other team.

Jake said it was way more fun than he thought it was going to be.



A quick video of Jake’s sweet pass.



A clip of Jake on defense. Blue number TWO!

Friday, January 21, 2011

My Dog, Moose.

THERE’S A MOOSE ON MY HEAD!



I was relieved to see this moose munching the neighbors shrubs yesterday because last week I saw a dead moose on the highway behind my house and I thought it was him. But obviously, this guy is doing fine.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Another Installment of Favoritisms

Trucking right along with my favorite things, we are now moving on to the clothing portion of the program. Now, keep in mind, I am a stay at home mom who masquerades a few times a week as a photographer and also a ninja. So my clothing faves are not stylish. In fact they are the opposite of that. Comfort is the name of the game. Let us begin.


AMERICAN APPAREL ATHLETIC PANT

Through our little shirt design business, my husband I stumbled upon these yoga pants. It was a random event which turned out to be a horrible business decision, but in the process I inherited about 52 pairs of these pants in three different colors. So I started wearing them. And I never stopped.

I’m sort of a tall girl and my legs are kind of long so generally, when I purchase a pair of perfectly fitting athletic style pants, they shrink up nice and short after the first wash. But these yoga pants are so freakishly long, that they are perfection in poly/cotton blend form.

THE BAMBOO SOCK

Bamboo socks are a relatively new trend in socks but they are the SOCK OF THE FUTURE! They absorb, they neutralize, they wick (what does that even mean?) and they feel really comfy to boot (PUN!)

I live in the frozen tundra, the Last Frontier, the vast frigid wasteland of Alaska. I also have circulatory issues so my extremities are often frozen solid regardless of my efforts to keep warm. So basically, I know socks. Do the bamboo sock.

FUGGS

Remember what I said about not being stylish? This is that statement times ten. Ugg Boots are a trend that is so over that it was obviously time for me to jump on board. But I don’t spend money for a label so I buy the “fugg” version at Costco and save about $100.

They are on my list because of their functionality. They are freaking warm. And waterproof. I live in Alaska. The End.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Favoritisms

Every once in a while, life presents to you something that you can’t believe you ever lived without. Like how I can’t believe I ever lived in a place that didn’t have a dishwasher. My dishwasher is my bestest friend. Without him, I would be washing sippy cups filled with rotten milk by HAND. *shudder*

I’ve run across a few other of these little miracles in my life and would like to now present a series called, “Favoritisms” since Oprah stole my idea for calling it, “Oprah’s Favorite Things.” I should have egged her vacation house when I was in Cabo.

To start things off easily and predictably, allow me to present to you...my favorite food products.

Coffee, in general, tops the list. Coffeemate’s Cocunt Creme Coffee Creamer is so good, I’d drink it straight up if it contained caffeine. When I’m out and about and have an extra $5, I splurge on a Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha. The picture on the right doesn’t quite do it justice so I pulled this one out of the archives.

Oh yeah.

Continuing the coconut theme, allow me to introduce you to Almond Joy Pieces. I thought I’d hit the jackpot when M&Ms came out with a coconut version last Christmas but these, THESE are so much tastier. If I sit down with a bag of these, I finish the bag of these.


Cranberry Sauce shaped like a can.

Don’t try to offer me some freshly whipped up, all natural cranberry concoction with lumps that contains no preservatives. I need the sauce from the can that comes out shaped like the can. This delectable semi-solid graces every Thanksgiving and Christmas feast that I am a part of. It has also found a home in my Christmas stocking every year since I was about fifteen years old. Thanks Pops.


Hello, my Love.

Those who know me well, know that I LOVE fruit snacks. Actually, I don’t think “love” is a strong enough word to convey the emotion I feel when I see fruit snacks. I only had kids so that I’d have an excuse to buy fruit snacks at Costco.

Me and high fructose corn syrup, we have a thing.

Monday, January 17, 2011

For those of you asking how I made my slideshow (below) I used iMovie on the Mac. Pretty easy once you get the kinks out. I googled all my questions and most of them even got answered. :)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

A Tribute to 2010



Every year I make an end of the year slideshow. Because we converted to Mac from PC this year, I had to learn a whole new software and it took forever to learn and tweak and master. Not that I’ve mastered it. But I did manage to finally finish my ode to 2010.

Make sure you scroll down and pause the blog music on the right hand sidebar before viewing the video. Trust me.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

And Again.


I’ve started up the old photo-a-day project again this year. I missed the first two days but have been going strong since then. Want to follow me? Click here.

I’m approaching it slightly different this year. You see, the purpose of the project is so that you will get your camera out and take some photos each day. Well, I take THOUSANDS of photos each week so I’m in no way trying to “get my camera out more often.” My approach is to have a picture of myself posted each day. I will generally be the one taking it, but not always. This photo was from a maternity shoot we did outside yesterday. Not my kid. Photo credit goes to my girl, Tracy.



We took these pictures of each other at the same instant. Suh-weet.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Back to WORK!


Tracy and I are back to work and working hard with our photography thang. We had a newborn shoot on Thursday, a wedding Friday night, a wedding all day Saturday, a nap on Sunday and maternity photos today! We have tomorrow off and then we are booked again. We absolutely love it.

Merry Christmas!

A little late, I know but better than never, as they say. Here is my Christmas photo collection. I sort of think they speak for themselves so, there you go.

















In all the excitement, this was the best shot I got of the three of them. It’s sort of perfect in a way.

Friday, January 07, 2011

Christmas EVE!

Finally getting around to blogging Christmas. This was Christmas Eve at my mom and dad’s house. My brother and sister in law came over and brought PRESENTS! Look how excited we are!

Like, totally flipping out!




Can we open it NOW??



Aunt Kate checking out the new loot.


Darrin, testing out his new eyeballs on a tiny puzzle.

Then it was time for CHRISTMAS JAMMIES!







After the younger kids fell asleep, we let Jake out of bed to be “Santa.” He figured out that Santa wasn’t real when he realized his sleigh didn’t have rockets or anything so it totally couldn’t fly. So he gets to be Santa as long as he never tells the other kids.



Ready to work.


Eating the cookies, carrots and milk.


My Mama