Holiday/Vacation photos....

hi there! we're finally back. what a busy but fun holiday for us. our trip back to north dakota/minnesota/wisconsin was just over 2 weeks long (which is way too long, we found out!) but there is nothing like being with family during the holidays. we spent a lot of time eating, sledding, opening gifts and eating some more! even though 2 weeks seemed like a long time it actually went by pretty fast. it was a great trip and thanks again for those of you who put up with us invading your homes and keeping us fed! we're very blessed and greatful to have the families we do!
happy new year!

Just checking in...

so december is flying by as usual! i had to force myself to take a photo of the girls in front of the christmas tree (again) because i was just not organized enough to think of something else. so after about 25 shots i finally got this one...hopefully i can get my holiday cards done before we head out on vacation!

with that quickly approaching as well, i really need to get my ducks in a row. we are almost done with our shopping and i have done some baking... so things would appear to be in order. :) i love this time of year but i can't help but think it's almost over! i was in a store the other day and they were condensing the christmas items and breaking out the valentines stuff. i am really looking forward to spending time with family before the holidays. just to relax and enjoy the season, and even some snow! (it's raining here!) yuck!

i went to a candle light advent the other night at the church that we've been attending. it was just for women and each person who was hosting a table was to decorate the table. my friend was actually hosting the table but i did the decorating. i wish now that i had taken photos of our table. i never really think much of the things i do and think why bother with a photo. but it was actually pretty unique compared to the rest of the tables. quick description....i had taken tree branches and spray painted them white (wanted to spray with adhesive and sprinkle with glitter...just never got that far). i had 3 glass hurricanes (all 3 different sizes, the tallest being about 18" tall) i had the branches coming out of 2 of the hurricanes and silver ornaments in the other. from the branches i had silver snowflakes hanging. i had 8 smaller glass votives with glitter in them along with candles. they sat on top of white glittery snowflakes. and a few silver ornaments laying around. each place setting had a silver charger and a dessert plate that was frosty in color but had snowflake shapes all over them that weren't frosty. i made little napkin rings out of resin snowflakes (clear and about 3" in diameter). i strung ribbon though the holes and attached a metal rim tag that was handwritten and said, "joy", "love", "peace" or "hope". and also attached was a silver bell. probably pretty hard to imagine it all but it was pretty darn cute, if i do say so myself. :) ha ha

i took a few photos of kati the other day. she wanted to get dressed up so i thought i would jump at the chance to take some "pretty" pictures of her. (not necessarily her personality but she thought she was a "snow princess". ) the expression on her face cracks me up!

anyway, if you don't hear from me again until after the holidays...merry christmas everyone and a happy new year to all! with much love.....

Holiday Shoot Etc...

hi! thought i'd take a break from baking cookies and post a quick note. i took some holiday photos for someone last sunday...how cute is this little play house! it couldn't have been more appropriate for the photos! i posted quite a few. i had them in a slide show but the slide made all of the photos blurry so this is a lengthy post. but the shoot was a blast and the kids (2 sisters, a cousin and a dog) were so much fun. very cooperative, they didn't get mad at me when i kept taking photos, they smiled nice. i didn't get "that's enough pictures mom, put the camera down now!" it was just nice. (only a few of the photos are edited w/ some color changes so far etc. )
not much else is new. we're getting ready to head home for the holidays. looking forward to that! we have a girl watching our house and kitty for us, so i feel ok about leaving. we're almost done buying gifts. just have a few left for our girls.
anyway, i had better finish my cookies and get kati out of the tub. she wasn't feeling well last night, ended up getting sick on my living room carpet! oh, i can't wait for the day that she can actually hit the inside of the bucket! so i spent the rest of the evening cleaning my carpet and cleaning up my messy kitchen from trying to bake cookies. fun times! (and yes, i stopped baking cookies after this event took place and i washed my hands. ha ha)

Hellooooo....

so it has been brought to my attention that i need an updated post! guess halloween has been over for quite some time now! can't believe thanksgiving is just 2 days away... which means x-mas is less than a month away!

so what have we been up to....i did our holiday decorating this past weekend. i usually wait until after thanksgiving but we're planning on taking the girls to kansas city to the great wolf lodge. it's the largest indoor water park? we've heard a lot of good things about it. the girls are beyond excited! so anyway, i thought i'd decorate early so when we got back we could just enjoy it and i wouldn't feel rushed to get it all up. christmas is my favorite holiday so for me, the earlier the better!

i haven't done much in the world of scrapbooking lately or any other type of craft. i guess my time is being consumed by other things. but i did start working on a few of these little guys. thought i'd share them with you. it's just a lunch sack folded in half to make a pocket. i also glued the sides so the hot cocoa and chocolates wouldn't slip out. just a fun little party favor or teachers gift. i was planning on making chocolate spoons for the bags but haven't gotten that far yet. so i improvised and used the cute little wooden spoon for the photo! ha

i have a few photo shoots lined up. i'm hoping those go well. i have a couple of fun ideas for them so i'm hoping i get to use them! they aren't for a few weeks yet so when i get the photos done i'll post them if the families don't mind.

have you started christmas shopping yet? i haven't even made a list. i did get a few little things purchased the other day but we aren't even close. we're trying to avoid toys this year! with all of the recalls it's just easier to not buy them! which really stinks as for kids it's all about the toys! guess we just need to make wise choices!

let's see....i'm still pluggin' away at the gym. in fact terry and i just switched gyms. i am so excited! there is a new golds gym that i tried out a few weeks ago. wow! it's pretty tough to compete with a bright shiny new gym... with all of the top notch equipment and so much more!

the girls are doing good. kati has a bit of a cold right now. in fact she had me up all night last night. i think i finally fell asleep at 5:30 am. as i'm dragging myself out of bed at 8:00 (in a panic to get lauren ready!) i wondered how i managed when they were both babies and i lived on 2 hours of sleep for months at a time! ha ha i'll leave you with a picture of kati. cute smirk, huh!

Happy Thanksgiving! safe travels!

A Witch and her Kitty!

just wanting to share a quick Halloween photo of the girls.... Halloween this year was a lot of fun. we couldn't have asked for nicer weather. 2 other families got together with us in our driveway for a little fall dinner spread and a nice fire in the pit. i have to give credit to the the guys who organized the entire evening. terry was on top of everything. by 5:00 he had the entire driveway turned into a little party pit-stop! :) have a good weekend!

Photo Slide

i tried getting this photo slide to be on the sidebar but i am having a heck of a time....so here it sits! i would love to switch over to type pad but i have a tough time paying for a blog site when i can get this one for free! i don't have many photos on this slide but a few of my favorites and more recent snapshots.

not much else is new here. life is finally slowing down for us. well, not terry so much but the activities are coming to an end for a few months anyway. lauren played her last soccer game on sunday. she'll play indoor in january. so the break will be nice for all of us. we're also taking a little break from gymnastics as well. a new gym opened up not too far from our house and after a trial run lauren decided she would like to switch. i'm a bit relieved as my drive time is cut in half if not more! kati is doing good. both are trying to get over colds. nothing major, just a cough and runny nose.

i think we have finally found a new church to attend. i have only been to 2 services but i really enjoy it. it seems to be a younger congregation and very laid back. the first time we were all going together i had a dress picked out (not too difficult to pick out as i only have like 3!) when terry told me that i should maybe rethink what i was going to wear as it would be too dressy! so we get there and everyone or just about everyone was in a nice pair of jeans of khakis. i was kind of disappointed that i couldn't get dressed up but the second service we went to i had gotten over it and was relieved i could throw on some khakis and go! the music at the church is amazing. i sit there with tears in my eyes half the time. so i think this is a good fit for us. the girls really enjoy sunday school and it's nice that terry and i can go to the service alone and just be together and listen.

we carved pumpkins and made sugar cookies tonight. not quite sure why i signed up to do both in one night! but it turned out ok and the girls had fun. even the neighbor girls joined in to help cut out cookies. oh, i even made the pumpkin seeds! yum. lauren even liked them! kati, not so much.

one last thing.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANE! the girls called tonight but had to leave a message! we were thinking of you! hugs!

More photos and I've been tagged!

as promised here are a few photos from the pumpkin patch. (thought the relatives would like to see the girls) the photos are untouched, meaning i didn't edit any of them.

kati's first time on a pony. she loved every minute!

lauren cruising around on 3 wheels.

if you look close enough you can see the pumpkin in mid-air. this was hilarious. they were launching pumpkins out of these canons. they would go as far as over those trees which were at least 100+ yards away. such a country bumpkin thing to do though.

oh, don't we look like we're happy and having fun! :)


these pictures were taken about a month ago. i wanted to take photos of them at this wildlife preserve but i didn't realize or notice how dead the grass was until after i loaded the photos onto my computer. there is NO color....but thought they still looked pretty cute. it probably doesn't help that their wearing brown. ha

so cari has tagged me....i'm not really playing right as i am supposed to tag 7 others but i'm skipping that part. i've actually already done this tag a while back so i'm not sure i can come up with 7 fun/funky facts about myself. let's see.

1. i have to chew gum when i work out

2. the toilet paper HAS to go over not under

3. i can't sleep without a fan! (i bring one whenever we travel!) this goes way back to when i was little! i remember having friends sleep over and they would freeze to death!

4. i have to make the beds before i leave the house. (unless terry is still sleeping of course, which means i usually come home to an unmade bed!)

5. i don't have any tatoos

6. i no longer drink diet coke! only when there is nothing else....

7. (man, this is hard) ok, so i can't think of a 7th.

better run. have a great week.

Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself (on your blog, we all want to know them).

Catching up!

hi....so it's been a while since i've posted. seems to be the norm! thought i'd get caught up....

the 80's party we went to was a good time! lots of fun costumes. and sadly enough it brought back a lot of memories. ha ha

terry went as a guy from "revenge of the nerds" (doesn't he look hot!) and melissa and i have on big ol' jump suits. my hair doesn't look quite as big in the photos but it was big. and my frosty eye lids look fabulous, don't you think. ha ha it was fun!

had another photo shoot a few weekends ago. i can't say it went that well. i did get a few decent photos but the odds were against us. i had to bring lauren and kati with me. which only meant an additional distraction. not to mention it was 85 degrees and they were in sweaters. (october has been very warm) so i got a few good ones but hope to retake now that the temps have cooled down a bit.

i wish this last photo would have been in focus better. i have to figure out how to shoot a moving target better....

an update on my father-in-law.....his open heart surgery went well. he is recovering nicely and i believe he has been cleared to drive already. prior to his surgery (about a year or more ago) he started to exercise daily and changed his eating habits. i can imagine that has been a huge help in his healing process.

i celebrated my b-day this past tuesday. terry invited a few of our neighbors out for dinner on saturday night to celebrate. we had a great meal and a lot of fun!

we took the girls to the pumpkin patch this past sunday. they each picked a pumpkin, rode a horse, played some games and watched them launch pumpkins from a canon. (i'll post pictures later...i keep getting an error)

i had better call it quits....the girls need to get to bed.

Photos to share...

i took a few pictures today...of this little sweet pea! isn't she beautiful! (gets her looks from her mom!) i was able to edit a few but have several more i would like to work on. i wish editing came easier to me but i'm learning. i shot the photos in auto and in the AV mode. natural light was minimal but for this little peanut i didn't need much. so don't be too critical when you look at the photos....i'm still learning. there is one photo in this bunch i didn't edit, you can tell which one. and then there is one where she looks very tan! :) i think i over did that one! ha

Random Stuff....

so once again several days have gone by since i have last posted! no big surprise there. just a few things to report....
* my father-in-law had open heart surgery today. thank goodness everything went just fine and he's now in ICU for a bit and then will spend just a few days in the hospital. i realize he still has a ways to go until he is completely recovered but it's just such a relief that he is out of surgery and he's on the road to recovery.
* thanks for the anniversary congrats and the e-mails.... our anniversary was very nice. we couldn't actually celebrate on our anniversary but terry took me out for a nice dinner followed by a cardinals game (they lost). he also came home with a huge bouquet of flowers and a card with some cash-o-la. which i am saving most of so i can buy some new clothes once i lose a little more weight!
* the girls are doing good. school is going great for both of them.
* i haven't scrapped or created a darn thing in ages. i did buy a crappy little chair from a thrift store that was painted red, white and blue and had sponge painted stars all over it. i am in the process of painting that black. it looks like an old chair with the rounded back and spindles. i thought it would be fun to use in pictures. i'd love to find a wheat field or something and use the chair in the middle of the field and take photos of the girls. lots of things to contend with though. sun, shadows, bugs, the girls and the fact that i would be in the middle of someones field. ha ha so we'll see if that ever happens. if nothing else i thought the chair would be cute on my front step with a vignette of pumpkins, leaves etc.....
* it's finally cooling off here. it was 90 just yesterday. i'm so over the heat! i'm ready for sweaters and hoodies!
* we're invited to an 80's party in a few weeks. not quite sure what we're going as yet....i'm thinking i'll do the flashdance ensemble. leg warmers are coming back baby! terry was afraid that i was going to parade around in a leotard. ha ha ah, no! i'll do the big sweatshirt and belt it, with the neckline ripped. wear some leg warmers.... i told terry he should go as vanilla ice. or mc hammer. too funny! this should be fun!
* no big plans for the wk. end. some soccer practice, a game and 2 b-day parties. that's about it.
anyway i had better run. take care....

9 Years Today!

today we have been married 9 years! we actually started dating when we were 18 and 19 so we've been together for almost 19 years. i'm not sure how those years went by so fast but it doesn't seem possible. happy anniversary sweatheart!