Surprise!

Steph and the kids were planning to come visit us this weekend, but the status of their visit was a bit up in the air thanks to the massive amounts of snow dumped on their area. However the snow ended up allowing them to come down a day early because schools were cancelled. All the main roads were fine for travel, it was just all the neighborhood roads that were an issue for buses.
Our kids got home from school this afternoon and worked on their homework. Just as they were almost finished, the door from the garage opened and in walked Sam, Cam and Stephie! They were completely surprised and thoroughly excited. And to top it all off, Kevin got home several hours early from his 3-day trip to Houston. It was a banner day for all of us.

There IS a Sun!

After almost a week of cold and dreary days, with some rain mixed in for good measure, it was a thrill to see the bright sunshine pouring in my front windows this morning.

Some People Love Ice Cream. And Some People LOVE Ice Cream...

Apparently Ryan's ice cream sundae was exceptionally good tonight. I suppose tomorrow's lesson on table manners can't come too quickly...

Back to the Grind

We were supposed to celebrate the 100th day of school last Friday, but our little snow storm pushed things back. One of the projects that the first grade classes do in preparation is completing an "I can Read and Write 100 Words" worksheet. It is amazing how many words the girls can actually read now and we had fun going through a few different books to fill out the worksheet. One of our favorites was "I can Teach my Dog 100 Words."

Game Time

Winding down for bedtime on a cold winter night. You can't see it real well, but the fireplace is going--Kevin got it turned on today and the kids are loving it. A joint game of A-Z is being continued while Olivia gets her bath. A nice end to a quiet weekend.

Captive Audience

The girls have logged a lot of hours at big brother Ryan's sporting events throughout their lives. I used to keep them entertained with snacks and little toys. Now they bring their DS's and I have pads of games they can play to help pass the time.
They check out the score every so often, and get excited when Ryan's team is winning (which has been every game so far this season). But generally their time is spent patiently waiting to leave.

Still There

Typically when we get snow in North Carolina, the kids have to race out in the morning because it is gone by the afternoon. But this year, not only have we gotten more snow than usual, it has stuck around longer. This has been one of the coldest winters recorded for our area. Darn global warming...

Here we are a week after it began to fall. I know it's nothing compared to what our northern friends have been experiencing, but I'm done with the white stuff. It can go away now please.

Bounce

Ryan finished his homework before any of his friends were available to play. He was dying to get outside so he made his own fun. I snapped a picture while he was bouncing a golf ball off our front porch steps and then I reminded him that perhaps he should be using a softer ball in case it accidentally slipped and hit a window...

Stir Crazy

It snowed on Friday. We only got about 8 inches. Today is Wednesday, and the kids are still home from school. Seriously. It is 55 degrees outside, and what little bit of snow that was left is close to being gone. The kids haven't been able to play outside in the snow because it rained Monday and Tuesday and we're all just a little bit stir crazy!

So instead of being bored, we went bowling! It was just the kids and me, but we had a great time together.

Dramatic Much?

"I look miserable." --Ryan, age 10.
With age comes responsibility and Kevin and I have decided that it is time to pass the torch of scooping the box to Ryan. He is less than thrilled with our decision. *insert evil grin here*

Dam Ice Dams

Somehow all of the snow has caused an ice dam on our roof. Fortunately the leak seems to be isolated to the garage. Kevin had to take down all the tubs from the top shelf and punch a hole into the soaking, soggy drywall to create a drain last night. This seems to be helping the water not to spread and cause more drywall damage, but there is still a fairly large wet spot.

This afternoon while drying clothes, I noticed a smell like burning lint. I immediately turned off our dryer and called Kev at work. He said that our dryer vents out to the same part of the roof that had all the snow, so perhaps the vent was being blocked.  I pulled all the clothes out of the dryer and hung them in the laundry room and our bathroom to finish drying. During the process, I tried to keep reminding myself that we were fortunate to have a home that could sustain damage, and clothes that required drip drying. But to be honest, I was a little frustrated at the situation.

When Kevin got home tonight, he climbed up on the roof (scaring me to death and prompting a LOT of praying on my part) to shovel the snow away from the area that he suspected was the source of the leak. Sure enough, he discovered an area that had melted, but then had re-frozen into a huge chunk of ice. This ice was blocking the melted snow from going down the roof to the downspout and the water was rising over the facia board and going into the garage. Hopefully the issue is fixed now, and fortunately Kevin is handy enough that he should be able to repair the drywall himself once everything dries out.

Hitting the "Slopes"

Those Eyes

They still get me every single time. What a lucky girl am I to wake up to those eyes every morning.

Here Comes the Snow!

We are predicted to get 6-10 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. So far we have about 2 1/2 as of 9 p.m. The kids are ridiculously excited and can't wait to break in their new snow boots and snow pants that they received for Christmas. It's a chilly 18 degrees F outside right now, and the snow is fine and falling steadily. It will be interesting to see what we wake to find in the morning.

The record snowfall for Charlotte, NC is 12 inches. I'm hoping we don't go breaking any records, otherwise the kids will not have a spring break!

More Toys

As much as I would prefer being a completely "natural light" photographer, the reality is that there are times when there just isn't sufficient natural light to get a decent image. My camera does have a pop-up flash, but these create such harsh light and shadows. So I broke down and got a Speedlite flash that has the ability to change the direction of the light (up and down, side to side), as well as a cool little gadget called a Flip-it. The Flip-it allows me to both bounce the light regardless of the height or color of the ceiling and acts as a diffuser to further spread out the light coming off of the flash. So, just when I was starting to figure things out, now I have more to learn!

Evidence of Them

It looks like the girls have been playing on the front porch and front sidewalk again. I know that the day will come that I miss finding these little reminders of their being here, and I try to keep that in mind. But if we're being honest here, I sure would prefer seeing the chalk that they left behind at least put back into its container...

Doodling with Legos

When Ryan first became obsessed with interested in Legos, he would primarily follow the directions for whichever set he was using. But now that he has an abundance of pieces, he has started enjoying making his own creations (he refers to this as doodling). Currently, he, Brandon and Brady are working on a base and several new fighter jets. The project can keep them occuppied for hours.

the rain rain rain came down down down

We had a ridiculously heavy rainstorm this weekend. At one point while I was outside for about 2 minutes, I got completely soaking wet!

The downpour was so hard that it washed a bunch of mulch out of our side bed down into the yard. Kind of an interesting pattern, but now we need to rake it back so it doesn't kill the grass.

Perhaps a good job for our growing son...

Girls Scrapbook Club

Some of the moms in our neighborhood have started scrapbooking on Thursday nights. Our daughters have all been expressing interest in scrapbooking too. One of the moms was kind enough to host a scrapping party for the girls this afternoon. They were all so excited to pick out pictures and do some cutting and pasting! Marc (our hostess's husband) is an amazing cook and surprised the girls with special cupcakes that he decorated just for them. We are going to try to make this a monthly event since they enjoyed it so much.

Action!

Have I mentioned how much fun I'm having with my new camera?! These shots were taken indoors, without benefit of any flash. Pretty cool, huh? Now, I know that some of the action is a bit blurry, but the overall quality is so much better than last year.

And while we're talking about things being better, you should see these 4th grade boys playing basketball! They seem to have grown so much in just one year. Not only are they taller and faster, their skills are so much better. And they're playing on courts with the net at full height. You should see them running plays with screens and their defense is getting really good too. It is so much more fun to watch their games now, not to mention exciting.

My First Newborn Photo Shoot

Today was my first attempt at photographing newborns in an artistic way. This sweet little boy was just one week new, and it was quite an experience! The process to get the pictures takes much longer than expected because of the need to take frequent breaks to allow the baby to eat, or to settle the baby down and get him back to sleep (and keep him asleep when the clothes/swaddle comes off). And then there is the physiological issue of what babies do when they are without a diaper... Regardless of these factors, I'm still really pleased with how the photos turned out. Here is a small sampling of my final results.

Embracing the Spirit of the Woods

There is a wooded area in our neighborhood that has become the location of a fort for the boys. Ryan, Brady and Gavin have been busy building and collecting and imagining for several months now. When Ryan describes it for me, he reminds me of when I was a kid and the fun I would have in the woods with Laura and Susan. They have created a world in their minds similar to the one in Bridge to Terabithia.

Sometimes the slightly older boys will come to play too, but they tend to scoff at the make-believe. Ryan was thoroughly annoyed with Brandon's attitude one time and said, "Look, Brandon. We know this is pretend, but we're having fun. You just need to embrace the spirit of the woods." I was so proud of him for standing up for himself and the other boys. And Brandon has begun to join in with these activities now too.

In this picture they are collecting grenades (pinecones), arrows (sticks) and other weapons for their armory.

A-Maze-ing

We were given this space maze when Ryan was about 2 years old. Kevin's uncle used to work for Back to Basic Toys and someone had returned this item. They usually sell for over $200, and he got it for about $20. Cool, eh? We only pull it out a few times a year since it tends to take up an entire room while it's out, but every time it comes out the kids have so much fun with it. I love it because I make them clean the playroom before I'll set it up! Sometimes it is a playhouse, sometimes they play hide and seek in it, and lately they've been playing a game called "crusher" which involves a group inside the maze crawling around as fast as they can trying to avoid the person (crusher) outside the maze who tries to, well, crush/catch them.

Willing Model.

Baking Brownies

I received a Perfect Brownie Pan as a Christmas gift from Nana this year. The kids were all very excited because they had seen the amazing things this pan could do on its TV advertisements. Then, Olivia and Katy were given personalized aprons from Aunt Melanie this weekend. We have finally finished all of the Christmas cookies, and needed to make something yummy to put into the kids' lunches. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to give the new pan and aprons a try.

We found a new brownie recipe to try on Allrecipes and we were off! The girls did all of the measuring, dumping, egg cracking and mixing with just a little supervision and advice from me. They even managed to crack four eggs without a single shell fragment in the bowl! I gave the brownies a final stir or two and poured the batter into our new pan. (FYI, I followed the advice in the comments section for the recipe and reduced the amount of flour to 1 cup because we like fudgy brownies, not cakey ones).

The recipe had to bake a little longer than prescribed because our pan is a bit deeper than a 9 x 13, but the end result was delish. Ryan commented that they were the best he'd ever had, and that the advertisements were true, they really were soft on the inside and a little chewy on all four sides.

Home Again, Home Again

Happy Birthday, Mandy!

So my sweet, adorable niece, Mandy, is one of the cutest babies I've ever seen! She is pensive, and thoughtful, and gentle in spirit. And thanks to my precious husband, I was able to be in Maryland when she first came home from the hospital, and again this year to celebrate her first birthday.

Of course I had to bring my new appendage toy camera! I took a lot of pictures, as I am currently in the "spray and pray" phase of photography: you know, take a bajillion shots and pray that a few of them turn out. And then study those that turned out to figure out what I managed to do correctly. And for those that didn't turn out quite as I had hoped, play with them in Photoshop to see if I can make them better.

My sister and brother-in-law have seen the originals of these pictures, and I think they can vouch for the fact that I have made them better. Unfortunately I didn't do as well as I had hoped in capturing this event. But I learned a lot, and that's important too.

And one of the things I learned? My sister is an awesome baker! The cupcakes and giant cupcakes she made (from scratch!) were moist and delicious, and the frosting was some of the best I've ever tasted. Go Beth!

Winter Berries

Bella is Bella

When we got Bella almost a year ago, she was a cute little kitten, but her markings weren't that special and she was rather scrawny looking. She really didn't live up to the meaning of her name, but in the name of Twilight, I pushed for  suggested that name anyway. In a way, she reminded me of the little kitten that the very old man and the very old woman from Millions of Cats adopt at the end of the book. Well, just like that kitten, Bella has grown into herself and has some really beautiful, distinctive markings. And she is just as sweet, and diminutive as the kitten in the book. She's my little shadow who jumps her upper body up to meet my hand when I bend down to stroke her. She has earned a special spot in all of our hearts.

Before the Cut

We took Ryan to get his hair cut today, so I convinced him to let me take a few pictures before it got neatened up. I actually like it this length but it drives Kevin nuts. This is another one of those photos where I applied the color popping technique. I think I like the technique, but wish it didn't leave the skin looking quite so washed out. Have to see if there's some way to do this while leaving the skintone more intact.

By the way, while I play around with the camera and such, I would really love any input about the results--do you like techniques used or should I not fiddle so much? That kind of stuff. Feel free to be brutally honest, please. Perhaps I should post before and after pics? In advance, thanks!