Love Thursday

Love can be found everywhere when you just stop and look for a moment.  Go by and see more Love Thursday over at Shutter Sisters.  Have a wonderful day!

Visitors

We are blessed with wonderful family on both sides.  This month we have had the chance to see both of Matt's Aunts from Chicago.  

Over Mother's Day weekend Auntie Barb came into town with Matt's folks to see us, meet the twins and enjoy their second birthday.  It was so much fun seeing her ~ it's been 4 years ~ and letting the kids get to know her.  We talk about her and now they have a face with the name.  Unfortunately the kids were a little "over done" in the picture department by the end of the weekend when I realized that I hadn't taken enough pictures of them with her.  But I thought this picture below was a great one with Garrett.

Can you see all of the books in Aunt Barb's lap?  There were at least 4 here and she had already read 2 or 3 before.  She was such a trooper and didn't turn him down.

This weekend we had the treat of seeing Matt's Aunt Renee and Uncle Ken.  They too live in the Chicago area.  They stopped by Saturday night and had dinner with us.  Avary talked Aunt Renee into a game of Candy Land, in which Garrett and Claire proceeded to help with the cards.  Everyone had so much fun.

Then today we all went to breakfast and on a little shopping spree.  The shopping took a bit out of me, there are just too many options, but the kiddos all got a new toy thanks to Aunt Renee and Uncle Ken.  The weather today started off gloomy and muggy, but it turned out sunny.  So before they left I grabbed the camera and took a few quick pictures of everyone.

Below is a picture of Claire with her treasured new toy ~ a purple ball.  She has hardly let go of it since we left the store.

Thanks Aunti Barb, Grandma Meryl, Grandpa Bob, Aunt Renee and Uncle Ken for coming into town to see us.  We love having visitors and we are so happy to see you. 

Busy Weekend

Originally when we were planning for this weekend we had planned on a quite, relaxing weekend just us and the kids.  We knew Matt's Aunt and Uncle were coming in for a quick visit from Chicago and we were thrilled.  But the weekend has turned into much more than that.  So due too being so busy, you'll have to suffer through a couple more of my favorite pictures from last weekends Urban Photo Safari. 

Hope you like them.  Have a happy and safe memorial day weekend!

Love Thursday

These are pictures from Garrett and Claire's 2nd Birthday party. It is so satisfying to see them share so much love, not only with each other but with the family and friends around us.

Claire is particularly in {Love} with Elijah. When she sees him she says "baby, baby, baby" and points at him. She then runs to be close and can't give him enough kisses. We do have to be careful to make sure she doesn't mother him too much.

This was the first time we had let either of the twins hold little Elijah. Claire was over the moon. She touched his head, fingers, toes, gave him kisses all over and even got real close to "talk" to him. She is was so sweet. Garrett joined in on the fun, giving his own kisses and even held him for a moment. (sorry I didn't post a picture of that).

So happy Love Thursday pop over to Shutter Sisters to check out more love postings. Have a great day!

The Many faces of Children

It has been a rough few days around here. The rollercoaster of emotions has been on overdrive. It started Sunday. Something with the kids was off, all 3 of them woke up in grouchy, crabby moods. After several hours, feeding them, trying to distract them with tickles and games I finally turned to the television. Oh how grateful I am for Playhouse Disney. A wonderful round of Handy Manny and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It is never my first choice to let the TV be the quick fix, but oh how wonderful it was on Sunday. Their mood changed after a couple of shows. Then we played outside, ate lunch and everyone took naps. In the end it was a great day.

All seemed to be going along great until tonight. Tonight the crabby, moodiness and tears were focused just with Avary. One minute she was a cute, laughing little girl and the next she was the picture above! Oh my precious girl, I wish I could fix whatever is putting you in this mood. I was actually able to "snap" her out of her mood for a little while when I pulled out the camera to capture the many faces of Avary. After several minutes she smiled at me and started to have fun.

I hadn't planned on the pictures making her laugh, but I'm glad they did. My plan was to try and document even some of those not so cute moments. I want to capture every part of them. They are my everything and they are growing so fast. It is amazing how these four years have gone by and even though nights like this are tough on everyone, I am trying remember that one day I will miss this.

Urban Photo Safari 2008

On Saturday I participated in this really fun event. It was the Urban Photo Safari. I think this is the 7 year that Dean Olufson has been putting this event together. All money donated is being donated to a great charity, Reaching Out Incorporated.

For the Urban Photo Safari everyone meets at a starting place, this year it was Indicia Design. We all check in, are given a map and then are given 4 hours to explore and take as many pictures as we wanted. We just needed to take a minimum of 10 pictures and one self portrait. I of course took way more than 10 ~ it was something in the range of 150+! Imagine that. Though many of the pictures I took were just 5 or 6 pictures of the same subject.

Anyway, below are my entries to the contest (there are 9 here and the 10th picture is in the "God Is.." post below). Later this week everyone that participated get to vote on their favorites. Feel free to post your comments below. All of these pictures are SOOC (straight out of the camera). No funny work with Photoshop here.

Flowers at the River Market
Dancing Girl at Kauffmen Gardens

Shuttlec0ck at the Nelson-Atkins Museum

Tulips at Kauffman Gardens

River Market

Charlie Bird Parker - 18th & Vine

Self Portrait

Messages

You know how sometimes you look up and see messages in unexpected places?  This was one of those for me.  I found this down at the Crossroads area during the Urban Photo Safari on Saturday.  It made me think a little.  More pictures will be posted during the week.

Bubbles

For their birthday Garrett and Claire were given bubbles from Avary.  We finally had great weather last night.  They had so much fun and made quite the mess.  The only problem with bubbles is trying to get the kids to put them away.  

Have a great weekend and hopefully your weather will be as great as ours is supposed to be.  We will be spending every moment outside enjoying it.

More Birthday Fun

He hated the hat ~ I was lucky to get a picture

They weren't too sure about all of us singing to them

~ Yummy cake ~

Silly Grandpa Bob

A Piece of Me

I love the daycare that my children attend.  They are always thoughtful and do a wonderful job of teaching the kids.  For Mother's Day each of the kids brought home something special that was made for me at daycare.  I enjoyed everything and especially liked the poem that was on Avary's

A piece of me

I give to you.

I painted this flower

To say "I love you."

The heart is you, 

The hand is me, 

To show we are friends - 

The best there can be.

I hope you will save it

and look back someday

At the flower we shared

On your special day.

~Kathleen Lademan

As with most everything the kids make (especially the things they make for special occasions) I will save this and look back on it many years from now.  

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I did.

Outside Pictures

Click on a picture to see larger

Claire ~ Avary ~ Garrett

What kind of Mom~Photography Lover would I be if I didn't drag the kids outside for a little photo session.  Of course this session consisted of my 3 kids, their grandparents, an Aunt and 3 nephews.  A little craziness and silliness never hurt anyone ~ just makes it a little tougher to get my 3 to sit still and actually look at the camera.  

Thankfully I have a new (9 months old) digital slr that helps capture the kids quickly.  The picture below was taken just seconds after the one above.  Even though it is out of focus, I like it  as it shows how quickly our life changes on a daily basis. 

Here are a few more from the picture session outside...

Avary stopping to smell the rose from Aunt Amanda

Claire watching everyone behind me 

Garrett refused to look at me while I had the camera in hand

Happy Birthday Garrett & Claire

Grandma with baby Elijah

Tune in on Tuesday when I'll post more pictures of the kids eating cake.

Happy Birthday!

Two years ago today, I woke up and realized that I might be in labor.  Less than 12 hours later these two bundles of joy came into the world ~ 5 1/2 weeks early!  Garrett weighed in at 5lbs 4 oz and Claire was a nice 5lbs 14oz.  Not bad for preemies.  Three days later we came home as a family of 5 and it hasn't been the same since.

So today when most of the country is celebrating Mothers or graduating from high school, I am celebrating our little miracles.  We know how lucky we are to have gone through 2 IVF cycles and come out the other side with 3 beautiful children.  We know that the odds were against us, but this time the odds fell in our favor.  Our double blessing of twins has paid us quadruple what we could have ever imagined.  I am one of the lucky ones and for that I will gladly give every Mother's Day for these two.  

Happy 2nd Birthday Garrett and Claire!!  We love you to the moon and back again!  Enjoy the photo montage below - it's a look back on how tiny they were and how far they have come.

Little Ballarina

Hopefully you don't mind another picture of Claire. She was the only one who would stay in the room with me while trying to take pictures. She usually doesn't keep the tutu on for very long. So getting several pictures with her dressed this way was a lot of fun.

For this picture I played with Photoshope and was trying to "antique" the picture. It's a different effect. Need more practice.

On another note, please keep my best friend's Mom, Flo, in your prayers. She had a liver transplant over a year ago. Yesterday she went to see a cardiologist for some pains and they ended up admitting her to the hospital and within 2 hours she was in surgery having a stint put in. Her and the family could use lots of positive thoughts and prayers.

Multiple Obsessions

Oh how the kids love Lily. But not her kisses and she has plenty to give out. Claire kept calling and calling for Lily to sit next to her. But when she did, all Lily wanted to do was give kisses! The pictures are the best quality, but I think they say it all.

Little feet ~ kids feet ~ painted toes. I can't get enough of the kids feet. Especially when they run around in shoes too big for them. Claire loves, loves, loves trying on everyones shoes. Sometimes even when she has her shoes on.

On this day she found Avary's flip flops. She must of had these on for hours. Thankfully Avary didn't mind.

Weekend Fun

Isn't interesting how kids could care less what goes together. Just a few fun pictures from yesterday. The girls decided to pull our their tutus and run around for a little while. At one point the tutu even made it onto Lily. Poor puppy, she did not like it. But it was fun.

Springtime

Click on the picture to view larger.

Photoshop Actions

I finally learned how to install some actions into my Photoshop Elements 6.  Just thought I'd try one.  Top picture is the SOOC (straight out of the camera) and the bottom is the action.  What do you think?  Too soft?  Or do you like it?

Stacking

Garrett was having a little fun while waiting for his breakfast.