Remember The Journey

Hello Blog!!

2011-05-30T20:34:00.002-04:00

Wow you've been neglected. I think I'm in the process of re-prioritizing my life, not in a formal way where I have a definite plan, but rather just thinking a lot about how I'm spending my time. If anything, I came to the realization that I wasn't doing enough of this:

And taking enough photos of my own family! So I'm working on changing that a little! ;)

Singular Focus

2010-11-07T11:28:00.002-05:00

Since the girls are away, someone gets a little more attention....and loves it!!

Some stats of the day:

Cute as a button;
Still not walking;
LOVES broccoli, go figure;
Sleeps all night long;
14 months old;
My baby girl!

Sunday morning and all is quiet...

2010-11-06T13:54:00.005-04:00

Sunday morning and it's just Eric, Madison and I (the two older girls are at grandma's for a sleepover), it's quiet peaceful and a little lonely... but only just a little! I guess this is what life is like for those who have 1 child. Calm, manageable and relaxing on weekend mornings. We can actually do things for ourselves! However, never in a million years would I trade in the craziness and the wonderful things that I do miss this morning for anything. The things to miss are the beautiful little smiles that greet us, the giggles between sisters, Madison's clear LOVE for her sisters - she giggles and screams when they are in the room, and follows them everywhere; I also miss the details, Gillian's puffy blond hair and her cuddly little 3 year old body, Abigail's wonderful smile, her square feet (!!) and her "conversation"; I'm pretty sure they had a great time sleeping over and are probably running around their house as I type. So fun was had by all, on both sides - peace and quiet here, fun and adventure there.

Some photos from Halloween last weekend:

I jiggle...

2010-10-16T20:22:00.003-04:00

I've never jiggled before, even when I was a little on the heavy side at the end of high school/university. Back then I was at least strong... soccer, rowing and working out at least once a day certainly helped, and as a result I was heavy, but at least I didn't jiggle. Now, when I run I feel things moving that really shouldn't be moving, namely my butt. And parts of me are soft, and squishy where before I had a little bit of definition... just a little bit. Otherwise, I don't feel over weight, I just feel weak. I get out of breath faster, I can't bike as fast, and I get tired holding Madison (who for the record, weighs 28lbs at 13 months... cute little porker!! :))

I know exactly what I need to do, I even have access to a great gym at work with every kind of machine available to me. I am just so tired all the time, I've become lazy (well ok, find... lazier!) I'd rather sit on my butt eating M&Ms (kind of like right now). I just wish my motivation hormone, gene, DNA or whatever would just get kick started.. but it hasn't happened yet. It was turned off over the past year, I think having baby #3 turned it off. And I'm afraid my body will be too deteriorated (cursed with really bad knees, stiff toe, and loose ligaments) when that motivation button has actually been pushed... my fingers are crossed that a good base that I had will carry me through....

Time for another bag of M&Ms....

Annual Autumn Photo

2010-10-04T21:44:00.001-04:00

Each year I'm just so stunned at how beautiful it is up here when the leaves change. I love every minute of it!!

Whao... not another page!!

2010-09-23T21:10:00.002-04:00

I'm scrappin' like crazy, it's so much fun! Just wish my supplies were better organized! I have them half categorized.. it will be a work in progress for a while :) All three last weekend at the park. Off to watch Survivor!!

Gillian

2010-09-23T09:48:00.003-04:00

My favourite set of photos of Gillian from the summer... I just love everything about each and every photos I took of her on this walk up the road... her puffy flowing hair, her dress and how it contrasted against the greenery, and the action shot! Typical Gillian! (Thank you to the wonderful Kayleigh for your inspiration!! I completely lifted your page because I loved it so much!! Thanks!!)

Big Week Here

2010-09-21T21:00:00.002-04:00

Abby lost her first tooth! She's only 5.. seems too young to loose her first one, but I think she was "working" on it, making it come a little sooner than it should!! As soon as she got it out, she started yelling and screaming with delight, and rushed downstairs to show Daddy, so cute. Now all that remains is a huge gap, just waiting for the first adult tooth to come.

This week....

2010-09-13T20:30:00.005-04:00

I rode my bike 3 times!! I scrapbooked!! I also started work!! OK so the last thing, not so exciting, but I'm on a new project, new office, new people, so it's making returning to work a little easier. 3 days a week helps too!

The kids have been looking at their individual scrapbooks quite a bit these past few days. Abby has one with her pages, and receptively Gillian with hers. Then Abigail said "Where is Madison's book??" uuuhhhh... well... Mommy hasn't put it together yet! I've been caught! So I've made it a priority to get at least a few pages started, and done, to start putting together her book! Of course I also created a few with Abby at the hot air balloon festival. Off to hammer off a couple more :) Later!

Getting into the swing of things...

2010-09-03T09:17:00.002-04:00

Summer is over...well summer "holiday's" are over, and now that we have entered the world of sending a kid to school, we actually can say we DO summer holidays now. It's been a big week for our family, Abby started school, Madison started at the daycare, and Gillian is getting ready to start nursery school. Big, exciting changes that luckily everyone is very excited about.

First there was the obligatory Back to School haircut last week. Took the girls to the "Salon" and they got washed, cut and curled... a very exciting thing for them - they are such rough and tumble girly girls! Curls one minute, rolling in mud the next!

Then came home to play in the yard

(Madison isn't quite ready for haircuts, but won't be long!)

School didn't start for Abby until Tuesday, so Monday we did a quick trip to Valley View Animal Farm... where the kids always have fun:

And then it was time! Time for Abby to move on to the next stage in life... with routines, responsibilities, learning, fun, new friends, and new experiences... Kindergarten!

We are so lucky that our neighbours and babysitter take the same bus.
Someone to watch over her and help her!

And for the other girls.. a few more years to wait. So it's home time with Mommy - which is special too!

My friend Jen

2010-08-24T21:23:00.003-04:00

On Sunday Aug 15th I came home from shopping with Abby to have my husband give me the shocking and sad news that my friend Jen had taken her life on Aug 14th. She was a young professional woman, mother of two beautiful girls, wife to Matt and an aspiring photographer. But, most importantly she was my friend. We met at Neuchatel Junior College in September 1992 and quickly became best friends, spending all of our time together, traveling together around Europe and getting in trouble together. We arrived as kids, experienced the excitement, the challenge and the joy of living abroad, which allowed us to grow up, gain confidence and return home as different people - as adults. After graduating we both attended UBC, and while we were in different faculties, with different friends, we still remained good friends. Trips to Whistler to ski, Rowing on the UBC rowing crew, and the infamous beer gardens, we still managed to have loads of fun. We again graduated, Jen got married, I moved to Ottawa then Taiwan, then back to Ottawa again, but through all this we kept in touch, and eventually discovered the convenience of Skype. We spoke often about photography, and kids, as we were both launching a small photography business and were experiencing the same struggles and frustrations of doing so.

When I heard the news I was shocked, I had no idea she was unhappy. I was so sad to have lost a good friend, someone to talk to about the business, and life. I was sad for her family, especially her children and husband. But even with all the questions, the guilt, the feelings of wishing to have been able to do something more, and the sadness, I had to look back at our friendship, and cherish what we had, what we experienced and know that she will forever me in my memories as my happy, crazy, argumentative, stubborn, smart, creative friend. Here are a few memories from our year to share.

Suicide is a scary thing, I don't profess to understand it, and no one can. Just remember to hug your best friends, tell them how much they mean to you, and talk to them honestly and openly. We all struggle and get down, it's nothing to be afraid of, or ashamed of, you don't have to suffer alone.

I'll miss you Jen, have a beer with Andrew will ya, it's on me!

The wonderful world of Madison

2010-08-13T07:24:00.003-04:00

She is really turning into quite a little girl. Just starting the very foundation of communication, saying a few things that sound more and more like words. We never got into the whole sign language movement, which is a great thing, I just didn't have the time and patience for it, so her communication is really starting from scratch verbally! It's such a cute age when they start to "speak" - saying Bye Bye, saying Uh Oh, when she purposely drops things, (actually she says it even before dropping them!), and clapping. She also has the most expressive face, smiling at everyone - which just started happening recently, before she was a little hesitant - squinting, and the most classic Madison face is what I call the "Frankenstein", where she will drop her head and look out of the tops of her eyes, to really pretend she is hiding from you... it's quite funny! It's really fun watching my last baby grow up and cherishing each moment of it... bitter sweet in a way.

Melow Yellow, Green Day

2010-08-09T18:22:00.002-04:00

The weekend was nuts. Nuts in the fun sense of the word, but still nuts.

Friday night, as I've already blogged, was full getting ready for Abby's party, which was a huge success. Saturday was the clean-up and prep for an evening out with Michael Buble!! We went with our cottage friends for dinner and concert, and while I was totally exhausted, I really really enjoyed the night! And what can I say about Michael.. he is just so charismatic, hot, talented, and fun to see in concert! Sunday rolled around and still with little sleep, we managed to get ready for having our parents over for Abby's second birthday party/dinner! I made a fantastic Stuffed Pork Tenderloin from the Canadian Living Cookbook, parents brought the wine and gift and my mother in law brought the cake. It was so good, even the kids ate it!! :)

We were all just bagged after all this, so today was a mellow day! We didn't go anywhere. Just stayed put. It was so nice not to have to drive, grocery shop or clean the house. Eric went for a run and I went for a walk in the woods. I rarely get to go out for a walk on my own, no kids no husband just me and the dog. I took the opportunity to bring along Gigi the G11, and try and capture my photo of the day for The August Break. I was feeling inspired and motivated, perhaps because I was alone and had some time to think about what to shoot, rather than just tending to the kids. It was fun. And this is what I got:

The August Break, Aug 9th, 2010

And just one to share from Sunday night, as all the other shots were crap, so I'm not posting them!

The August Break, Aug 8th, 2010

5th Birthday Celebrations!!

2010-08-07T13:20:00.004-04:00

It was Abby's 5th birthday yesterday! I look at her and still see the tiny little face that greeted me the first moment I laid eyes on her in the hospital. The shape of her mouth, her eyes and little nose. It's so amazing that no matter how much they grow up, they will always look the same! at 5, she is kind, competitive, loving, short tempered, beautiful, bossy, friendly with everyone - especially very nicely dressed women!!, a pest and awesome kid all rolled up into one! I'm mixing up all those adjectives together, because that is really who she is. Those are the ones that describe her the best. This year is a big year, she starts school, she will leave the comforts and security of home and a wonderful home-care daycare, and she will enter the world of routines, responsibilities, homework, new friendships and challenging relationships. It's the beginning of an era!

Aug 5th, 2010

2010-08-06T00:28:00.002-04:00

Labour Day for me. My baby's 5th birthday tomorrow, how exciting!! And for The August Break:

Big day tomorrow, night night!

Cottage Trip...

2010-08-04T09:05:00.002-04:00

We had the pleasure of a three day "trip" to our friend's cottage over the long weekend. They are great friends from Chelsea, who are lucky to have a beautiful cottage on Lake Clear neat Eaganville. It's a two hour drive, and going was relatively easy, the girls only getting a little crazy near the end. We don't go to many places, so a two hour drive for them is VERY long, and they are not used to it!! The drive is beautiful with so many photographic opportunities, but we didn't have the time to stop, so I'd like take a day to "drive in the country" and shoot with Madison...

We stayed for a couple of night, swam in the day, played games, and cards at night. It was nice to be away from home, to hang out with friends, and swim at our leisure in the beautiful clear lake! While it was a good time 99% of the time, the last night Madison decided that sleeping in a playpen was NOT her thing, and decided to scream and cry for about 2 1/2 hours. She had never done this in her life, so it was tough to try and settle her, and eventually she just exhausted her self (and us) and fell asleep. It's too bad because you kind of go away to relax and rest, but ended up more tired on the way home... oh well, that is life with babies!! (third photo represents our drive home!!) Anyway, got to run, baby is a callin'

Gigi's getting a great workout!!

2010-07-31T22:48:00.002-04:00

Our after dinner trip to La Cigale!! The best ice cream shop in the region - definitely worth the trip up from Ottawa, the ice cream is to die for, the backyard where you can sit is beautiful, and who doesn't love a bright green building for taking photos! Although taking a photo against that green wall does some crazy things to the auto white balance, next time I'll be sure to shoot on RAW and manually set my AWB!

August Long Weekend

2010-07-31T14:16:00.002-04:00

Cheers to the holidays! While being on Mat leave, each day is just like the rest, but still there is something kind of fun about long weekends and holidays. Our daycare provider closed for her three week holiday and Eric also took the 3 weeks off as well, so technically we are on holiday right now! We decided to just stick close to home with no plans to really go anywhere major during the time off. Honestly with where we live, and having so much access to water, why do we need to go anywhere really? The first week has been jammed packed full of swimming, visiting and fun in the beautiful sun.

As you know I was so upset because my camera had to off to the "shop" again, so I was kind of in photo withdrawal. I had been planning on upgrading my camera in the near future to a 5DMII, but I also had it in my mind to pick up a Point and Shoot to have something manageable to carry when out with the kids for the day. Also a point and shoot is a little less intimidating for Eric to use. So I decided that the 5DMII can wait for Christmas, or next year's birthday, and to pick up the Canon G11. We used to have a Canon G6 (at least I think it was a 6) years ago that my dad had given us, and I really liked that camera. And since I'm generally a Canon fan, I stuck with what I knew and picked it up yesterday! I know seems a little impulsive, but honestly I was planning on giving Eric a camera for Christmas last year, but decided to wait!

And then a few shots from today!

Camera gone again...

2010-07-28T22:15:00.002-04:00

I'm disappointed, I had to send my camera back for servicing AGAIN!! I'm fearful that I bought a lemon, or that I just have terrible luck with electronics! In April I finally brought it in because of a recurring error99 message, where I'd depress the shutter, and JAM. And the only way to un-jam it was to pull out the batteries, and turn the power back on again. Turns out the entire "mother board" or sensor had to be replaced. Thank god for purchasing the extended guarantee eh! But ever since I got it back, the noise in it has been unbearable. At ISO 200, it's noticeable and then forget ISO 400, speckled! This should not be happening with the Canon 50D. I accept that it will be noisy at 800, and a little noticeable at 400, but not as bad as it is! So I brought it back, as there must be something wrong with the new sensor they installed last time.

The pain is that it's going to be gone for a month! I am on "holidays" for the next three weeks, but still I really want to shoot the kids, I need a camera for Abby's 5th birthday and Madison's 1st birthday, so it is a real in convenience to have this happen now!!

I'm considering buying the Canon G11 for a couple reasons, to at least have a camera on hand, and also to have a smaller point and shoot for those days - (like Lac Phillipe days) - when I just want something small to take snapshots, and don't need to carry around the big DSLR. But then again, maybe I'll just continue saving up for the 5DMII, full frame noiseless wonder! But it's too damn $$$ right now!

Signing off - frustrated! Night Night!

It's Summertime...

2010-07-27T10:20:00.002-04:00

And that means lots of time spend in bathing suits!! Yesterday we went to Lac Phillipe for the afternoon, and had a great time. It's so perfect for the girls right now, because Madison can sit at the water's edge and play in the water, it's so warm. Abby and Gillian can go in a little deeper, and because of is shallow water and a gradual slope they are learning how to swim very quickly! But with all the activity and having to watch them, it's very hard to take photos while up there. Also not to mention the fact that we have to leave our stuff up at the picnic table while we swim!

We managed to stay for about 3 hours, and needless to say, on the way home all three girls fell asleep in the car. The drive is only about 20 min, so it wasn't much of a nap but a sleep none the less. Of course when we got home we figured they would just want to flake out and relax, but NO, as soon as we got home they hopped into their bathing suits again and into our kiddie pool for another 2 hours. By the end of it, and by supper time, we were dangerously close to meltdown time! But apart from the little grumpy face blow, no meltdowns!! Yeah!

Macro shot of the weeds while the girls swim!

Madison

2010-07-26T20:37:00.004-04:00

11 months old.
Still doesn't crawl yet.
Strawberry blond hair.
Big and tall.
Wearing size 12-18, but closer to 18 really.
Smiles a lot.
Giggles at her sisters.
Giggles at Bender.
Rarely cries.
Sleeps all night long, and two naps during the day.
Claps.
Just starting to wave bye.
Loves going to the beach.
Is almost too tall for her change table.
Starting to look like a little girl rather than a baby.
Doesn't know the meaning of separation anxiety, unless hungry.
My last baby.
The last grandchild on both sides.
Just had these photos taken on her 11 month birthday:

On blogging....

2010-07-19T21:18:00.003-04:00

Been missing my little blog lately! I've had a million post ideas going through my head, but when it comes down to it, honestly, I forget them!! ;) Ok, so I'm suffering from major mommy brain, but really, can I not just remember something fun to blog about each day? I think that I over think a post, making it too complicated and long that I then put it off, procrastinate on blogging! Anyway, no more of that, I have a fun little laptop now so blogging will be a little easier. I will start back at work soon (booo), so I'll have some free time to jot down a few ideas. But at least for now, I'm enjoying the summer, the weather has been amazing and it's a good time to be alive! Bye for now!

Christine

The Weekend Update!

2010-03-22T20:53:00.002-04:00

I think last weekend was the most popular weekend for going to the sugar shacks around here. You know how boxing day is the most popular day for shopping and Dec 23rd is the busiest day for flying. Well around here some weekend in March is time to sugar shack! Just check out Beth's blog, she went... :)

We went to Domaine L'ange Guardien just north west of Gatineau, and while the grounds are nothing to write home about (or photograph for that matter) the food and atmosphere is GREAT! It's an all you can eat breakfast with everything from french pea soup to pancakes to sugar pie (just in case you didn't get enough sugar with all the syrup and taffy, they have to throw in classic Quebec sugar pie!!).

On Saturday we had our own little sugar shack operation going on at our place. We (Eric) tapped about 6 trees and after two weeks we had enough to boil off. Saturday morning, Eric got up early, set up the fire and boiled for most of the day. His set-up isn't the most efficient, but it's sure is rustic and traditional, giving our homemade maple syrup a unique smoky flavour to it. Very good! Girls loved it, and spent most of the day outside!

Scrapped!!

2010-03-20T21:33:00.002-04:00

I finally did a couple of pages!! Woo hoo!!! Back on the bandwagon... hopefully :) Got a lot of material anyway 7 months of photos for Madison...Yes, she is 7 months already. Boo hoo!

Pink and the will of a toddler!

2010-03-10T09:09:00.001-05:00

I have 3 children and they are all girls. The oldest went through her Pink phase, and has kind of grown out of it (now it's the "flower" phase - anything with the greatest number of flowers on it the better). Now my 2 year old is well into her Pink phase, and dressing herself! It's beyond cute watching her choose her clothes, watching her dress and seeing how proud she is with the results at the end. Yesterday was no exception! Here she is in all her Pink glory!

Last post Jan 11th... ? WHAT?

2010-03-03T20:56:00.002-05:00

I've been seriously neglecting this blog. Don't worry it isn't dead I am still here and it's often on my mind, but while I was swamped with life (loads and loads of laundry, one after the other and the other.....) and my other "job" (photography) I decided to just let this one "rest". I also felt like I didn't have much to say here. I have LOADS of photos to post, but it just felt all overwhelming to think of going through them and choosing ones! Sad. But the lack of something to write has been a pain. I think it has been the weather or something, but I've been super low on energy and creativity lately so I kept putting off updating my poor old blog! :)

So to sum up the past month or so, I'll start with Madison:

- She is now 6 months
- She weighs a whopping 19 lbs 6 oz
- She has two teeth on the bottom
- She is just starting to sit up
- She is the most even tempered child we have, and it's just wonderful!!!
- She has reddish hair and a very light complexion
- She is now bottle fed, I just didn't have enough milk for her and the blocked ducts were just getting me down!
- She likes to eat, but not a lot.
- She sucks two fingers (index and middle) and falls asleep on her own
- I think she is friggin' cute!! ♡ ♡ ♡
- and growing too fast!

Her sisters LOVE her!!

Gillian:
- she is now 2 1/2
- just like Abby, she is very agile, and athletic. We put skates on her and she was practically skating on her own after two tries!
- her smile lights up the room
- She isn't speaking as well as she should be for her age, so I'm going to look into speech therapy
- She LOVES to get dressed, and does it multiple times in the day so there are little socks all over the place because she changes them about 4 times a day!
- Is pretty much toilet trained during the day - haven't even tried at night!
- She still wakes up early - 5:00 am early, but is better at just lying quietly in our bed

walking down the tracks in Chelsea

My little Picasso!

The sulking princess

Gilly and her friend Paige

I wonder where she learned this???

At Winterlude 2010

And finally a little update on Abigail:

- she is now 4 1/2
- She will start school in September, and is pretty excited about it, especially taking a school bus
- She learned how to skate this year
- She loves to talk
- She loves her baby sister Madison, won't leave her alone really... !
- She whines - A LOT, but then when she chooses to be nice, she is beyond nice!
- She can make her bed neater than I can, I'm not sure how she does it... maybe she can teach me!
- She LOVES to wear dresses, the flowery the better!
- She loves to wear jewelery and have her nails painted

Her first "real" haircut!

Loves to paint!

Here she is saying what I say to them when I try to take a photo - it was priceless!

Gillian getting right into it!

Fell asleep watching the Olympics!

Can't get enough of Madison!

So that is my quick update, thing happen so fast and the girls change so much from day to day it's hard to keep track!! Hope to update more often, but we'll see - no promises. Bye for now!

Some shots from Christmas break...

2010-01-11T21:43:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted much from Christmas, as I was very disappointed with my photos from Christmas day. And I'm ashamed, embarrassed, and devastated because I didn't even take a photo of Madison on Christmas day!! Her first Christmas, and I didn't even take a photo!! Clearly there was something wrong with me. Thankfully my parents and mother-in-law took some, but really what was wrong with me!! Anyway, here are some shot I did get over the holidays:

Christmas Eve skating on the pond

Christmas Eve Sliding!

A beautiful Gillian lying on the floor - I love this one!

Beautiful little Madison! It's her smile the cutest!

The Gingerbread house thief!

And then one from today I just had to post: Bender - the forgotten child! :)

Team Photo

2010-01-03T08:54:00.002-05:00

So we didn't exactly "clean UP!" but if you give us a handicap of 15 then we would have still lost one game and tied another. But most importantly, we had fun. I think a few of the guys were a little frustrated to say the least, but they weren't sure how to play against 11 and 17 year olds. Do they go all out, or back off a little, thus allowing they to skate around them like pilons? I played all out, but really that meant I was playing like a bad 11 year old, so it didn't have too much impact!

Hope we get to play next year!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T07:39:00.004-05:00

I woke up this morning with the determination that I was going to update my blog. Everyday I have so many ideas of what to write in the blog, but so little free time, that it never gets done! The kids and their amazing "mommy's on the computer" radar keeps me from writing. Then they go to bed, and I fall asleep. So needless to say, New Years was not excatly a rockin' late party here. We had our friend over for supper, they have young twins (5 months old) and a 2 1/2 year old so they also crashed early. But it was fun to get together, eat and have a few drinks regardless of what time we stayed up until.

On New Years Day Eric and I participated in the first annual Chelsea Pond Hockey Tournament. It was organized by a friend of ours and held at the pond just around the corner from our place. We had our first game and got thumped 15-6. Regardless of the score it was really fun and quite a unique experience to play on the pond. The organizers have build two full sized European sized rinks on the pond and today is a big day out there, games every 30 min from 9 am to 4 pm. We may as well wear our boots by the end of the day because with no flooding, the ice will be mush! I'll try and take some photos today between our games.

After we came home and warmed up, I decided it was time to introduce rice cereal to Madison. She has been so hungry lately and I'm barely able to keep up with nursing her, so at 4 1/2 months, I decided to try it. Abby, of course, wanted to help out so I had her feed her while I video taped and took photos. The only problem with that was Madison just wanted to eat her fingers so Abby was struggling with how to get the spoon in her mouth! It was quite funny. And not surprisingly she liked it and was happy to get some food in her!

Now working backwards from New Years... we had a wonderful week in between Christmas and now. The girls were home and we had fun hanging out together. They were a little sick, but nothing more than a cold developed, thankfully! On boxing day there was an ice storm here, and by some miracle our power didn't go off. It would would randomly turn off for a second then back on again, but nothing sustained, which is usually the case when that happens. The days following the storm were so incredibly beautiful. Everything had a thin layer of ice and when you stood outside in the quiet windless day, it sounded like tiny pieces of glass breaking all around you.

And for Christmas, I won't have much to post. It was a fun and tiring day, lots of gift opening, eating and family. I didn't take nearly enough photos and of what I did, they all really suck! I'm too distracted on Christmas morning to get my photo taking self together, it's funny! It happens every year and I look back on it kind of sad because I wish I had done a better job of capturing the day! It's just so overwhelming! Next year will be slightly easier since I won't be nursing anymore... but we'll see!

Anyway Off to bed - I started this at 7:00 am, it's 9:15 pm now, and my body needs rest after playing so much hockey in two days! Night!

It's not really looking like Christmas...

2009-12-06T20:17:00.004-05:00

There isn't a stitch of snow, the temperature is barely making it below 0, and we don't have any decorations up yet! I really hope it starts snowing, because I'd like to ski this year. Since I didn't even put my skis on once last year, I have to make up for lost time and also take advantage of being home with Madison. So fingers are crossed that it snows!

We had a good weekend. The girls and I (OK mainly I) make an advent calendar. I basically spent the day Mod Podge-ing Christmas paper onto 24 little tiny boxes!! Gillian, surprisingly helped more than Abby. While she didn't exactly cover the boxes evenly, she was at least doing it. After starting at 9:00 am, I finished at 8 pm. Of course with the kids running around and Madison needing me throughout the day, I wasn't working on it 100% of that time. But I must admit, by the end I had had enough and wished I had bought one for $1.99 at the grocery store!! :) I'll post a photo of it tomorrow after I hang it on the wall.

Today, we went for a hike, then just chilled in the afternoon. Here are a couple shots:

And a couple cute shots of Madison standing in for my me while I check my lighting for my last shoot:

Tomorrow we start gymnastics and maybe a little visit to Santa!!

When Gillian is quiet...

2009-11-30T21:47:00.001-05:00

You know you are in for a great surprise...

(Note: she was in the basement, "colouring" when she came upstairs growling like a tiger...Thank God for Crayola washable markers!!)

The girls from good to bad

2009-11-20T22:35:00.003-05:00

I had my background set up the other day for a shoot I was doing, so I figured it was a good opportunity to take some shots of the girls.

Done up with a little texture.

Gillian got into the mix after her nap, but by then Madison had had enough!

Then, why not try for the lot. This may be the Christmas Card picture with the quote - "Peace and Harmony for All", I'm just not sure... :)

Holidays in Hand

2009-11-18T07:17:00.003-05:00

The big thing in Scrapbooking is documenting each day in December. Why some may wonder? For me, I think December is a special month, so many traditions, new snow (hopefully), winter fun outdoors, snowmen, giving, opening presents, decorating the tree, eating (!). This year, I'm joining Jessica Sprague on her Holidays in Hand class and the goal of the class is to prepare you for documenting December so that when December comes we are ready. I will do mine digitally, and hopefully print them out at the end into an album. As I haven't been scrapbooking much lately I hope I can at least get a few pages done. Things are going to slow down on the photography front, and I'd like to focus on scrapping!

For our first assignment we are to list our values, our hopes, our traditions and what we treasure most for these holidays and here are mine:

1. Now that the girls are a little older and Christmas is starting to mean something I'd like to establish traditions for them that combine what Eric had growing up and what I had growing up: eggnog, oranges in our stockings, selecting a real tree and cutting it down, decorating the tree (without a big fight .. heheheh), decorating the house.

2. Playing in the snow. (hoping that we actually get snow by Christmas). It will be fun to see the Girls get so excited about it and play like kids should play.

3. Spending time with family, eating, laughing and exchanging gifts.

4. Taking lot of photos to capture the moments.

I'm sure I'll have more, but this was the beginning of my list.

The Value of Backing Up

2009-11-17T09:51:00.002-05:00

I like to think that I'm pretty organized, I also like to think that I'm diligent about backing things up like my photos, my documents, my taxes etc. This theory was kind of put to the test last week when my computer spontaneously started to crash and reboot itself over and over again. I was just able to get an e-mail off to Francois, my computer guy, saying that my computer was starting to act funny (I think it heard me) when, poof I got the black screen of death. My brain immediately went into panic mode trying to figure out when I last backed up my photos. Ironically two weeks ago I decided to move ALL of my images onto two EHD and changed my downloading and any work I did to one of them rather than my computer's hard drive. So now everything I did was off of my 2TB EHD. So I was pretty confident that if my computer's hard drive was fried, I wouldn't be loosing much. Thankfully in the end it turned out to be the motherboard that bit the bullet, and it was easily replaced, all data I had on my computer's hard drive was saved, and everything was fine. The only inconvenience was not having my computer for 4 days and then having to install all my programs on again. Since the last time I replaced my computer, I've moved to using my e-mail strickly through the web, and similarly with bookmarking, I change to using Delicious. So whatever I can save on-line I will. Very useful when your system crashes!

Halloween Minis....

2009-11-03T11:36:00.003-05:00

Highlight video from Saturday's mini-session. I had a lot of fun with the little ones! They were so cute and posed very well for me under the circumstances... Bribery with Halloween candy will go a long way!!

It was tiring, but I very fulfilling - learned a lot, met a lot of new people and had fun all at the same time. The only downside of it was missing hanging out with the girls and Eric getting ready for Halloween! I didn't even take pics of my own kids on Halloween!! But I'll recreate it next weekend for pics.

Wow, where have I been!

2009-10-27T20:42:00.005-04:00

I've been sick, the girls have been sick and finally, finally everyone is healthy. I realize how difficult it is with 3 kids and how as soon as one is sick, a few days later the other is sick, then I get sick, then Eric gets it, then the baby gets it, then three weeks later - we're healthy. I'm not exactly sure how one is supposed to manage this when working full time?!! During all of this I had to proof a couple of shoots I did, and I still have two to go. Can't do much when you are up 24 hours a day, and the kids are home, supposedly "sick" yet running around like it's party time! I did manage to take a few photos during all of it and some favourites are:

My girls! Notice how Madison is staring at her hand. She started
chewing it a couple of weeks ago.

She also started following things that move, like her jungle
animals on the swing.

Her eyes are a stunning blue. (just ignore the crusty nose, I didn't feel like
photoshopping it out!!)

Where's Waldo?

Gillian and Madison spend some quality time together.

All the leaves fell... so lots of fun to be had!

Over the past week, I've made some yummy desserts: Pumpkin Chocolate Squares, and Chocolate Coconut Bars. I also made a couple really good and really easy dinners one of them being: Apricot Pork Tenderloin with Cranberry Black Pepper Sauce.

That's it, tomorrow I have a shoot (a baby!!), Thursday I may try and get vaccinated for H1N1 with the girls...(however waiting in line with them for 4 hours may just be too torturous!) and Friday I have to prepare for my Halloween Mini Sessions at HUSH!

Envy...

2009-10-06T09:31:00.003-04:00

Isn't the best trait to have, but I do envy people who do stuff like this:

Monthly Roundup

Katie the Scrapbook Lady does a monthly roundup, answering specific questions to highlight the month. It's such a great way to capture memories, everyday memories that you may forget about, and would have liked to! Considering how bad my memory is, I'd start this then forget I did and only do it once...

...now what was I doing...

What the $@&% is that??

2009-10-04T22:04:00.003-04:00

My kids spotted this crawling rather quickly on the rock in the backyard today...they thought it was pretty neat. I had other opinions about the "inch" worm, as Abby referred to it. (I thought it was more like the 5 inch worm)

At least it was a pretty cool colour though!

Scrapbooking Challenge #14

2009-10-04T11:08:00.005-04:00

I'm in the middle of finishing challenge #13 but I thought I would post our next challenge today, in case I don't get to finish it today.

ETA: Finished the page, well almost, I just re-read the challenge and realized I didn't meet the criteria, it was supposed to be 5 images of equal size, oops!! Anyway, I'm just happy I got one done, here is mine for this week:

This week lift the following Creative Inspiration Copy Cat Wednesday, AND post your layout on their site (via Designer Digitals or however way you want!).

Have fun scrapping!

Fall

2009-10-02T11:38:00.002-04:00

Some people think we are crazy to live in Quebec, and at times (usually April each year, during the first snowfall trying to drive to work) I have to agree with them, but on the most part I would have to disagree with them. This is one reason: The view from our deck:

It takes my breath away every year!

Location Scouting

2009-09-25T15:48:00.003-04:00

Fall is the most beautiful time of year around here, and I love it! As I have two photography sessions coming up soon, I thought I should start to scout locations I have in mind for doing them. So last night after daycare around 5 pm, I took the girls to location #1, Meech Creek Valley midway between our place and Wakefield. We actually had our wedding photos taken here. While the light was still a little too high in the sky, I was very excited about the possibilities of this location. Here are a few samples:

(just please insert better dressed kids here - they are cute and all, but who dresses these two, I mean really....?)

I tried to play around with back-lighting, lens flare and shallow depth of field while there. I think the sun needed to be a little lower as well, but overall I loved it! What do you think?

Beautiful Sunday

2009-09-20T07:46:00.003-04:00

It's Sunday, the girls woke up only at 6:30 am... which may sound brutal, but when the usually wake up at 5:00 am, 6:30 is a treat!

The river was completely covered by fog, which meant a cool night and the heat coming out of the water, but it also means - summer is over!! I love the fall, but I really am not prepared for the start of winter. I hope the weather stays nice for a while longer, easing the psychological blow of that first snowfall. Winter is great for skiing and playing in the snow, but it also means, struggling to get the snowsuits on the girls, cold weather - too cold to get outside, and dark mornings and nights.

So far we've had a great weekend, swimming yesterday am, birthday party yesterday afternoon, and a nice walk this morning. Everyone is in good spirits and the weather is nice, so it's been a fun weekend. Thank god, because the past few weekend have been really hard! I took my camera with me, and got some great shots of the girls!

But before we did that I had everyone pose in order to try a baby pose I saw and was hoping to try out this week at a shoot. Here is the result:

I'll post more of our weekend tomorrow... it's already taken me all day to write this post...

More florals and textures

2009-09-15T16:08:00.003-04:00

I am having fun photographing flowers against walls! Then applying fun textures to them. My real intention is to make cards to sell at the local flower shop... more on that later! Here are the latest creations.

I'll have a round-up of all of these in the near future and as that you all vote on your favourite ones!

got to run, dog barking at me to let him in and baby waking up from a long nap!!!

Little Mommies

2009-09-14T21:38:00.003-04:00

I had the girls post for some photos after daycare today. They were all too willing to sit with Maidson and cuddle her!

A weekend with no pictures

2009-09-14T10:06:00.003-04:00

Two whole days and I didn't even pick up my camera! We seem to have tough weekends around here and I'm not sure how to change that. We did start swimming with the girls on Saturday, which they love, and it's a great diversion, so that was fun. But the rest of the time was pretty tough. I think they are bored, need attention because mommy is quite often with the baby and they are two and four years old. So all the chaos, screaming, crying and fighting make for a pretty stressful weekend and doesn't put one in the mood for being creative! Oh well, such is life, I'm sure it will get much better as time goes on. I also need to plan more activities for the weekend to keep their little minds busy! Any tips from all you experienced Mom's out there?? Pass them along!

In other news... I was watching the Oasis HD channel the other day and happened across a show called Great Escapes or something like that. I was so enthralled with the location that they were covering, that I didn't pay attention to the name of the show. The location featured was Bora Bora. My parents went to Bora Bora for their honeymoon way back when, just after planes were invented (hahahah!! I think it was 1970) and I still have the slide images of their trip (unfortunately I haven't scanned any yet). The show focused on Hotel Bora Bora and wow was it ever amazing! So I figure I work hard over the next 4-5 years and Eric and I can go for our 10 year wedding anniversary, and my 40th birthday. It looks like paradise, and I'm sure it is.

Off to take some photos because I'm in withdrawal.....

Brag Book Sample

2009-09-10T22:25:00.001-04:00

Click here:

ETA: Ok so the first link I put in didn't work as I hadn't shared it publicly yet, so here is try #2, let me know if you can't see it:

Madison Elizabeth

Playdate and Photos

2009-09-10T08:50:00.005-04:00

I hosted a play date yesterday with some Chelsea moms and a couple stragglers from Barrhaven (hehehe just kidding girls). It was a fun filled morning of babies and goodies and fun was had by all! Including Madison who basically slept through the entire thing! I prepared some yummy Chocolate Coconut Bars, which didn't exactly turn out like they were supposed to, but were delicious none the less. Here is the recipe for those who asked for it - it is super easy!:

Chocolate-Coconut Bars
Makes 20

* 3 cups finely ground cookies (12 ounces), such as graham crackers or chocolate wafers, or a combination
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
* 1 cup pecan pieces
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
* 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
* 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly splash a 15-by-10-inch rimmed baking sheet evenly with water, then line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, stir together cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter until combined. Evenly press onto bottom and up sides of prepared baking sheet. Bake, rotating halfway through, until firm, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; cool, about 20 minutes.
3. Sprinkle cooled crust evenly with pecans and chocolate. Pour condensed milk over the top, spreading to cover completely (do not let it drip over the edges). Sprinkle with coconut.
4. Bake until coconut is toasted, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely. Trim edges, if desired, and cut into equal-size bars.

Tip: Before you pour the condensed milk over the top, place can in hot/boiling water for a few minutes to warm it up and it will pour better. I didn't do this so it didn't exactly "pour", so it came out clumpy.

The most relaxed mom of twins I've ever seen!

Cute little Selina

Loved Ava's onsie!

Andrew and his little dimple.

Cohen gives me the cutest smile!

Quinn tries to get Andrew to wake up. Trouble maker :)

The gang of babies! (I love how Meaghan is the only one looking
straight at the camera smiling - what a star!)

Once everyone left, I set up for my afternoon photo shoot with Jemelee, Lee and baby Hogan. Hogan was 15 days old and super cooperative! Here are a couple random sneek peaks, visit my blog later on for more shots from the session:

Time is flying by...but enjoying it!

2009-09-10T08:18:00.002-04:00

I can't believe how fast the time seems to fly by! One day just seems to speed into the next and the next... Madison is growing before my eyes, the girls are getting bigger and bigger by the minute and I seem to have so much on my plate (all fun stuff mind you), and I never get any of it done because I get distracted by more stuff!! But regardless, I'm happy, feeling good and enjoying ever minute of being home with Madison, enjoying the girls humour and sparky personalities, enjoying my photo shoots and the challenges of starting a new business with little time to do it in :), and definitely enjoying this amazing fall weather!

Two weeks Today

2009-09-03T20:44:00.004-04:00

Madison turned two weeks old today. It's always amazing how fast time flies, already two weeks since I was in labour! She continues to be a fantastic baby. We hang out at home, go for walks with Bender and is so calm all the time. I can take her out shopping and she won't really wake up for 2 hours, it's crazy! So much different from Gillian. Gillian and Abigail continue to LOVE their new sister and fight over who is going to hold her. I've found Abigail only once with Madison in her arms and her saying "look mommy I can carry her"! Even though they love her, I think they are feeling the change in the household with 3 now, and the sudden absence of mommy time with the new baby. I need to feed her and change her and all the while it's taking away from their time with me. It makes me sad, but it's the new reality, and once Madison grows up a little things will even out again!

I'm also happy to report the alarm trick has worked the past two mornings, they both didn't get up until the music started playing. I really think it's more because they are so exhausted (both physically and emotionally) that they need to sleep! Let's hope that it continues like this!

Here are a few photos to share:

Madison - cross eyed newborn cuteness! Aren't they just so funny
at this stage?

Gillian getting up to no good at 7:00 am

Abby needs hair intervention - time to visit a salon,
mommy's haircuts don't work anymore!

Some more visual fun...

2009-09-01T20:59:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post tonight.. heading off to bed. It was a beautiful day and I had fun with flowers and textures!

Nutty Weekend

2009-08-31T10:18:00.003-04:00

So this weekend was a weekend I don't need to re-live. It rained the entire time, the kids were NUTS - like "Where can I return them" nuts. I love them to death, of course would never return them for real ( ha!), but really, I think I was having another nice postpartum hormone flush, because I was basically in tears all morning Sunday. Very little sleep for two nights adds to that too... Then we are having a terrible time the the girls and sleeping. Gillian is up EVERY night at one point, usually 1:30 am screaming and lost, and needs to be straightened out in bed and re-tucked in. It wakes Abby up, so she starts to cry and so on. Then Gillian is up and yelling at the baby gate at the door EVERY morning between 4:30 - 5:00 am. This of course wakes Abby up, who joins her in her chorus of "let me out, I want milk!!". Madison, the newborn is almost sleeping better than those two at this point which is sad. So I went out on Saturday, and bought an alarm clock for the girls room. New rule is that they aren't allowed to come out until 6:00 am. Right now that means lots of screaming between 5:00 and 6:00 am, but we need to stick to our guns and be consistent for them to start to understand. When they do, be it in a week or in a month, the time will change to 6:30. Gillian, has more trouble understanding the concept, but we just need to keep repeating ourselves for her to get it.

As for the baby, she is an angel! So far so good, at 11 days old she is a wonderful little baby! (I'm knocking on wood right now...) She feeds really really well, and perhaps I feel it's so good because I had such trouble with Gillian (I think she was tongue tied enough to cause problems) , so the fact that I'm not in excruciating pain from sores and blocked ducts is a miracle! She sleeps well, seems to be rather consistent, and only cries when she is read to eat. But hey, it all may change at any moment, so I'm really enjoying it and making sure I don't take it for granted!

Abigail LOVES her new baby sister - can't get enough of her!

Gillian, looking very tired, stops for the camera!

Abby is very proud to hold her (luckily she didn't pee!)

Nana loves to hold Madison also!

Thankfully it's Monday, kids are at daycare so that gives me a little time to recoup from the weekend and hopefully plan a better weekend to come. It really is my fault for not organizing things for us to do, and on a rainy weekend it's deadly! I slept pretty well last night, don't ask me the stats as I don't remember how long/how often I was up. All I know is that I feel relatively rested and ready to face the day!

First Photo Shoot!

2009-08-26T21:34:00.002-04:00

I set up the studio yesterday, and set out today to do Madison's first photo shoot! She was a little difficult to get to sleep, took a good couple of hours to get her asleep enough to pose her, and still she resisted in her slumber. Still I got some really cute shots and hope to get a few more tomorrow, if I have the energy! It's tough work being the Mom and the photographer all at once!

Here are the highlights so far:

Thought I'd try a little texture on these two and loved how they turned out!

I just love little feet!!

Sisters

2009-08-25T19:53:00.002-04:00

Sisters, originally uploaded by Christine - AbbyG.

Just a quick post of this photo I took of the three girls. I think this is the beginning of an amazing relationship between the three! I can't wait to see what life has in store for them... fun, heartache, mischievousness, and adventure!

Getting used to it again...

2009-08-25T10:01:00.006-04:00

Sleepless nights, sore bobbies, on demand feeding, and did I mention sleepless nights...?? Actually it's all fun and all worth it, Madison is a cute, adorable hugable little girl! She feeds well and really does sleep well, all she does so far. But really at 5 days old what do you expect! Abby and Gillian just adore her, and want to be with her ALL the time. Abby wants to hold her and gets mad at me when I put her down for a nap in her bed. Gillian is very gentle with her, will give her hugs and loves to hold her, but is content playing on her own most of the time. Eric is doing a fantastic job of taking care of the girls, making our meals and supporting me as we get through these first few weeks, unfortunately he has to go back to work in September... so back to reality after that! Here is a shot I just took:

We can't really decide/figure out who she looks like. Abby and Gilly were so distinctly Eric, but Madison is much different. Who do you think she looks like the most?

I have my studio all set up for some photos today, I hope to post some nice ones tonight... other than that, nothing else on the agenda today! Just chillin' with baby!

Our Daughter is Born!

2009-08-23T09:55:00.003-04:00

She arrived on Thursday August 20th, at 5:23 after (thankfully) a few short hours of labour. Luckily we were smarter this time and decided to go to the hospital a little earlier! Contractions started at 5:00 am, but subsided around 7:00 am, so I thought it was a false start at first. But around noon, they started back up again, light, manageable, but still regular - every 6 min or so. Around 1:30 - 2:00 pm, they were getting slightly closer together - 5 min 30 sec, and a little stronger, so Eric suggested that we head into the hospital. Of course I thought - too early, but I'll entertain him and we'll go and they'll tell us to go home. We arrived at the hospital at about 3:00 pm, and sitting at the triage desk was Heather, the nurse we had when we delivered Abigail - who in fact was the person who delivered her, because our Dr was not exactly in the room when she came out... we had fun catching up chatting while they monitored me. The resident came in and checked me to see how far along I was, and to every ones surprise, I was between 7-8 cm. So I was admitted at about 3:45, and as soon as we went to the L & D room, it really started to pick up. The Dr came, broke my water around 5:15, and then came Madison Elizabeth, at 5:23 cord wrapped around her neck -twice. But thankfully the Dr had it all under control and she was fine. Here are her first few images from the hospital:

Did I check anything off...

2009-08-19T08:32:00.003-04:00

Not really. I kept busy yesterday, but not with anything on my list. I proofed more pics from my friend's maternity shoot, got tired so had a nap. Then went shopping at St. Laurent with my friend - didn't buy anything, but it was nice to be in air conditioning! Then came home, went for another walk with Eric and Bender. Then picked up the girls. Unfortunately, all that walking and staying up didn't induce labour. I had more contractions, but not the full on what I was hoping for. But, at least I was having contractions again, so today I'm going for two longish walks with the dog. It's cooler outside and hopefully the bugs aren't too bad. I'd also like to stop by the Chelsea flower shop to get some nice flowers, I have a little "project" in mind! But for now, the dalia's are blooming and beautiful right now. They are my favourite flowers in the garden after tulips. Actually tulips and dalia's are equal, and luckily they bloom at totally different times!

This is called: "Dalia after the rain"

Keeping Busy

2009-08-17T21:13:00.003-04:00

August 17th and now officially 4 days late. I was 3 days late having Gillian, but right on the nose with Abby, so I guess this one is just waiting for the perfect moment to come. It's really hard not to sit here 24 hours a day and think about how I want more than anything to start labour, and meet this little girl. But I do, and it's probably stressing me out. Eric is now at home, and we get daily calls from everyone wondering if I've started yet. Trust me at this point, everyone will know if it starts!! I've been pretty good at keeping busy, but now the pain of baby's legs pushing my ribs outwards is getting to be a bit much and it's hard to walk because of where the baby's head is. So as much as I have a million things I'd like to do, just the act of sitting here at my desk to write hurts! But the only way to keep my mind off of things is to keep busy, so here is the to do list for the rest of the week.

1. File. I bought a new filing cabinet last week, built it this weekend, now I need to file.
2. Go for walks with Bender - hope the intense heat dies down a little... we are both very slow!
3. Design the birth announcement, I'm determined to send them out this time, it's the last time and I'm hoping to get a cute shot of the three girls after the baby is born.
4. Scrapbook, I'm so way behind it doesn't matter where I start!
5. Get my health card renewed - yuck. It means having to make myself look half decent, going to the SAAQ office, waiting for an hour, and getting the photo taken. Not high on my to do list, but I think I'd rather do it without a screaming newborn than with!
6. Get passport photos taken and renew my passport. Perhaps 5 & 6 will be done together - tomorrow.
7. Design business cards - got to do this because people are starting to ask for them.
8. Blog...
9. Sleep....
10. Bake a cake - I have a craving.
11. Keep taking pictures, it's hard when you are in so much pain and can't move!
12. Burn/Backup my images...I think my hard drive is getting full!

So there you go, I think that is plenty to keep me busy until the weekend, at which time I'll have to see the Dr again, who will then probably send me for an ultrasound and book me for induction. Not my first choice of going into labour, but what must be done, must be done!

A few parting shots from today, before heading off to bed...

night night!!

A Refresing Update!!

2009-08-14T10:46:00.004-04:00

I decided to update my blog. Considering I'm still pregnant, now 2 days overdue (if you consider my due date as Aug 12th) awaiting baby to start her journey, I needed something to do. Well, I'm not exactly short of things to do, I have quite an extensive list, that would probably take weeks to get through, but this was one on that list, so I did it!! I found photography centric blog templates from: Our Blogger Templates and decided to upgrade. The advantage of this template is that it's much wider and allows you to post much larger photos. I can also put an image background, which I happen to like and in general I find it looks so much more polished. I also upgraded my photography blog: http://christinedenisphotography.blogspot.com/ (Please comment and tell me what you think!!)

Don't you just love the huge photos!! Probably too big for some screen resolutions, but works on mine!

The story behind the photos: I went for a walk with Bender, trying to induce labour by walking in the 35 degree heat... but instead was just eaten alive by mosquitoes! Each time I'd stop to take a photo, they would find me and attack! So needless to say, I didn't take too many and had to change my route.

Maybe I'll hit the road again...off to walk the dog!

Did I say I would update this...

2009-08-11T20:18:00.006-04:00

Well clearly I was lying to you all! I am not sure what has happened over the past couple of days to take up all of my time, it certainly isn't labour and delivery since I'm still sitting here, with a huge tight belly, ribs being pushed out from the inside and a foot kicking me. I think it's just that I don't move very fast, so anything takes time!

So just to cover my butt, here is a photo of my beautiful baby girl who turned 4 last week. Here she is celebrating in the garden with her PJs on:

And for all you curious folks out there, who have been hounding me for a photo of myself here it goes....

Terrible I know, I should have done it when I actually had had a shower and brushed my hair, but that happens so rarely when someone else is around to be able to take my photo... so alas, this is what I have. Maybe if I haven't delivered by the weekend I'll do it properly!

Like Jem did for our shoot last week, check out my work blog:

http://christinedenisphotography.blogspot.com/

If I could only look that good...

night! :)

A funny Video to share

2009-08-10T08:20:00.002-04:00

I found this through a blog I follow regularly and it made me laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

What a GREAT way to kick of a wedding ceremony!! There is no reason why you shouldn't be different!

I am still here...

2009-08-09T21:27:00.002-04:00

I haven't gone into labour yet! And, I realize I haven't posted in ages!! I had a surprisingly busy week with Dr's appoitments, Abby's birthday and a maternity shoot, so I decided not to post all week. I have the day to myself tomorrow, and other than some business to take care of, I'll have the entire day to play, as well as go for a long walk with Bender to try and induce labour - ha!

So stay tuned for a more interesting post, full of photos and fun!!

Christine

More on Textures

2009-07-29T07:12:00.002-04:00

Funny how I post yesterday's post with a couple textures applied to a photo and then look what is featured on Digital Photography School's blog? None other than this: How to Use Textures to Enhance Your Photographs

I find that the technique is quite easy to do, technically speaking, but creatively speaking it's tough (for me anyway...) to get it right. I've taken photos of textures (rocks, bricks, bark, grass) but find them hard to apply well. After reading this, I'm going to try and take photos of softer textures and see what happens. I'll also search for free ones on-line. Of course, there is always the option to purchase, I happened to find this cool site yesterday: Florabella which has some beautiful photos that can be printed and used as artwork, and you can purchase the textures the artist used.

I'd love to see what you can come up with using textures...

Tuesday Musings

2009-07-28T08:15:00.011-04:00

Again a big break in blogging for me! I'm now at 38 weeks minus a day!! I have two newborn shoots to proof, but can't muster any energy at night to do them...so I'm falling behind a little. Oh well! I am just trying to survive the 3 weeks at home with the kids at this point in my pregnancy, and so far so good. I find that I'm relatively sane most of the day, but then I get super tired and impatient with the girls and things go downhill! I know it's because I'm tired, but it's so tough sometimes, especially when they like to take off on me when we go out shopping. But it's life and it's temporary, in a couple of weeks I'll be even more sleep deprived but cuddling my new baby girl each night!

Nothing like some pictures to pick up the energy and spirits:

Another one taken with my 100 mm Macro - I'm loving this lens!
Settings, just for fun!: f 5.0, 125, ISO 200

And these that I've added textures to... I want to print these for wall art, I'm so happy with how they turned out!

Same image from above, with texture added.

I also found a fun creative blog to follow (my list is getting so long - 70 subscriptions on my Google Reader, I think it's time to review it and remove blogs I don't really read!!). It's called The Creative Mama And as per usual when you find a new blog, it tends to lead to other blogs, one that caught my particular attention was 503 Photography, she has some great shots and does a "Photography Friday" piece that features some kind of photography tip.

And finally as I close off this post, this is what happens when you finally have a hot sunny day, and your mom is 38 weeks pregnant - can't go to the beach so the next best thing:

Wow.. had to share this...

2009-07-20T21:17:00.003-04:00

I just saw this amazing set of photos!! I see a challenge here... I'll have to try this. Well I'll have to try taking sharp photos of bubbles first.. then the popping part!

http://stacyclaireboyd.blogspot.com/2009/07/popping-bubbles.html

Macro Fun

2009-07-20T20:48:00.009-04:00

So today my morning started like this:

Followed by a rather annoying trip to Walmart with the girls. Luckily, the afternoon got better after a little early b'day shopping for me. The weather was fantastic so I had fun playing with the girls and my new toy... Macro lens 100mm. I wanted it for taking close up shots during newborn sessions, and also for taking nature photos such as these:

Now, I can barely sit up, since my belly is tight, my back is sore and the baby is moving around like crazy - her time to dance is between 8-10 pm every night. It's like "So you think you can dance?" in my belly! So I'm off to bed!

All of a sudden...

2009-07-18T06:49:00.016-04:00

It's July 18th and I haven't updated this since the 9th. I'm going to loose all my loyal readers (hahahah!). There is no time for blogging... well with work done and watching the kids, it's pretty nutty. Last night, I had virtually hit the wall, Eric was at hockey, the kids were quite crazy yesterday, the Door Doctor came 2 min after I got the kids in the bath to fix our garage door that was fried by last weeks storm that fried out electrical AGAIN! Then Grandpa came to pick up his cooler, so the girls were yelling at him from their window... needless to say they were a little wound up to try and sleep and it required a good dose of "close the gate and ignore" therapy, to get them to finally sleep. And also needlessly to say, I was tired and needing space. But really, overall the week was fun, I'd much rather bust my butt watching the kids than what I was doing before. It's fun to see how they have changed, and how they change everyday, Gillian is cuter than ever, talking more and more everyday - and surprisingly settling down from hitting the terrible twos wall a couple of months ago. She is still determined, but responds much faster when I shut it down than Abby ever did. Abigial is becoming quite the big sister, and little mommy to her babies. She is beyond excited about the baby coming and likes to announce it to everyone. She hugs my belly and tells the baby to come out. She puts her ear up to my belly and tries to listen to her. Very cute!

Here are some highlight photos from our first week on holiday:

We went to the local park

Abby did a little dancing

Gillian did some sliding

Then I managed to catch the girls together!! and got some really cute photos:

My favourite of them all! I just love their expressions

Now it's Saturday, and it's pouring rain, no big surprise as it seems to rain every weekend this summer. But it's looking up for next week! Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Photo Shoot Setup - Sharing trade secrets!

2009-07-09T09:51:00.012-04:00

I promised my friend Jen that I'd post some pictures of my photo studio set up next time I did it. I set it up in my living room, by moving all the furniture out of the way... yes, a real pain, but it's the best space to do it! Put the floor down and set up the backdrop. I took these photos at a bad time of day, lighting wise, but by the time people show up the sun has moved a little, or I can just close the curtains to cut out that harsh sunlight that you see.

I would like it if the portable floor could be propped up about 3 ft, so I wouldn't have to crouch down so far to shoot (which is a real pain right now, considering I'm 8 months pregnant!!), the lighting in the room is amazing because of all the windows we have, but a more confined space would be nice for keeping the heat around for newborn shoots (hot = sleepy). And I would love not to have to set it up and take it down each time (but dedicated studio = $$$$). Other than that it's great, and I'm really lucky to have this resource so close at hand!

These are the resulting images:

What does your studio look like?? I'd love to know! :)

Happy 45th Anniversary!

2009-07-07T21:34:00.011-04:00

We celebrated my in-law's 45th wedding anniversary on Sunday. Wow, 45 years is amazing. Eric and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary this year, so to think of 45 is just so abstract!! I hope we can celebrate it though one day, surrounded by our kids and grand-kids like we did this weekend... it would be so special!

45 years later!

Holly, helping me out. I was trying to get
good back lighting and sun flare... like the pros!

My two cuties!

Looking for fish!

Sadie and Holly

Raw Addiction

2009-07-05T21:14:00.003-04:00

I think I'm addicted to photographing in RAW. I didn't exactly switch right away when I got my camera. I had to upgrade Photoshop because the version I had didn't recognize my version of RAW and when I finally did upgrade, I still shot .JPG and RAW at the same time, so I would have both versions of the same photo. I thought about why I would bother doing that, and couldn't figure out why anymore so I switched to RAW. I then shot exclusively in RAW for a while, but then I started to think about the huge amount of memory it consumes, so I decided that I would strickly shoot RAW for any photo shoots I do, but keep it to .jpg for my own family spontaneous shoots I do, and if the lighting conditions were tricky I would switch. Today, was such a day where all the photos I took were the usualy weekend fun, but I felt the whole time like I really should be switching to RAW. The conditions weren't terribly difficult, full sun, but nice shade to work with. But I still felt this nagging feeling like I should switch to RAW. So at the end the day when the sun was setting I switched, I just couldn't help it! So there we go another GIG of memory gone! But now I have some nice beautiful RAW to play with... ahhh I feel better already!! (Photos to follow... got to go to bed!!)

Sneak Peak...

2009-07-04T17:40:00.002-04:00

I've been working on this for a few days now... still far from finished, but going along really well. I'll need a few proof readers when done!!

Circles!!

2009-07-01T11:38:00.003-04:00

I did the challenge for this week - yippee!!! Here it is:

Happy Canada Day!

2009-07-01T05:53:00.004-04:00

Today is Canada's 142nd birthday, and we have a day off to celebrate. Normally if we were teens we'd dawn our Canada T-Shirts, get drunk and party in the Market... but that is so 1996. Now we are responsible parents, who happen to be pregnant so now I'm too big to fit into my Canada T-Shirt, and I'll be drinking juice all day. It's the kids turn to party! We'll be heading to our friend's place this afternoon, and we're just hoping that the weather clears up as it's cloudy and rainy today. Seeing as it's 5:30 am right now (thanks to Gillian) I guess we still have hope that it will clear up by evening, but I doubt it, it's looking like the clouds are here to stay.

Ages ago, Beth and I were discussing how our digital scrapbooking has evolved over the 2 years that we've been doing it. After a number of tutorials and courses, mine has definitely gotten better. I'd say better supplies to more realistic drop shadows were the major improvements. I also suggested we post our very first digital pages and while Beth was a good girl and did it. I never did (or if I did, I don't recall doing it!). So here is the very first page I ever did... Yikes!

I say "yikes" for various reasons. 1. the bad attempt at creating "torn" paper 2. the terrible font used 3. no shadows to be seen, and 4. that frame - what was I thinking... But I still cherish the page, it's a photo of Abby and I walking down by the river in Wakefield in May 2007, I was 8 months pregnant with Gillian, kind of where I am today in this pregnancy.

To see all of my pages, just click on the link to the right... the whole history of my scrapbooking is there!

This week's Challenge #11 (?) is to do a page using circles. You can use circles for the photos or circles for embellishments. Have fun!

The heat and sharing a room

2009-06-25T20:57:00.006-04:00

We don't have air conditioning which is really ok 350 days a year, but for those 15 or so really really hot days, like today, it's unbearable! There is no wind, it's 29 degrees INSIDE the house, and we have 10 fans blowing like crazy all at the same time. I don't like it. I know it's only about 15 days, ok maybe 20 in a bad summer. But man it's tough. Then add on being pregnant! We have been talking about getting a Geothermal heating and cooling system, because we have a 180ft well sitting there doing nothing, and even though it would cost a minor fortune, it would have MANY advantages. For one it would include a cooling system, so no more dying in the hot hot summer; and then in the winter, no more heating with oil - which costs an arm and a leg now, so the cost of heating with oil would be transfered to paying for the Geothermal system, and pay itself off in about 6 years at the rate we are paying now for oil; It's environmentally friendly; and would increase the value of our home for resale. So we called the supplier and they will come tomorrow and give us a final quote on the thing, and I think we are going to do it. Not that I want more debt, but this one is worth it in the long run!

So while we all swelter in the heat, we also choose this week to be the week the girls start sharing a room. Not exactly the best time to choose to transition them, but it had to be done. Last night was the first night and let me tell you it did not go so well. We need to refine our system!! putting them both in there awake was a nightmare, because they just giggled, then eventually started running around, then started slamming the door.... etc. Then they cried because we closed the baby gate and started fighting... etc. Yikes. So we pulled Abby out, calmed Gillian down and got her settled, then finally put Abby to bed at 9:45! Needless to say, they were awfully tired and cranky this morning! Gillian was also up at 5:15, as she woke up in a different place and had to get up. Tonight we just put Gillian to bed first, and kept Abby up until 8:00 pm, and that seemed to work out well. Abby is still finding ways to put off sleep by coming out of the room, saying she can't sleep, has a belly ache and so on, basically stalling to no end! But I guess it's normal and as she gets older we can't expect her to go to bed at 7:00 like before... bummer!!

And before I part, here are some photos from today:

I hope for rain and wind tonight... I need to cool off!

The missing photos from last night...

2009-06-22T21:30:00.004-04:00

I wanted to post a photo last night, but was ready for bed before I had time to process it.These were taken on Saturday. I had left my setup there to specifically take photos of the girls. Gillian wouldn't sit for me, but Abby did:

My watermark is on there, because it's for my gallery and my other blog. Do you like them??

Photoshoot, sleepover and bunk beds

2009-06-21T19:58:00.003-04:00

I did a really fun photoshoot on Friday. An old colleague and friend, Yana, came over with her little boy - 8 months, and also brought along a friend, her husband and their brand new baby girl - 14 days!

I was a little nervous about shooting two different babies at the same time, but it worked out really well, while Dina tried to get her baby to fall asleep, I would shoot Yana's boy. He was great, didn't cry, didn't pee on anything and had lots of smiles for us!

Here is the link to my blog to check out some of my favourites from the shoot:

http://christinedenisphotography.blogspot.com/

Saturday we had a treat, in that Eric's parents offered to take the girls overnight, giving us a date night/sleepover combo. We went out for supper to Suisha Gardens, yummy sushi, followed by a martini at Zoe's at the Chateau Laurier. We went with another couple, since we never get the change to hang out with them without our little ones running around. It was a lot of fun, but needless to say I fell alseep on the couch at 10:00 pm, about 20 min after we got home! It was very strange to wake up and not have the girls around, I sure did miss them, but I did enjoy the quiet morning also!

Before going to pick them up, we drove out to Ikea to finally buy a bunk bed. We've been looking for a while on-line, second hand, and in stores, but decided on the Ikea one that matched the furniture we already have in Abby's room. We still haven't put it together, but Abby is already excited to see it, and start sharing her room with her sister.

I only have 3 more weeks of work! And non of them will be a full week. The next two are 4 days long, followed by a 3 day week, then I'm done! I'm at 32 weeks, and today I started to swell up. I never experienced that with the other two, and I must say - I don't like it! My lower legs fell really tight, and even my wrists are feeling "full"! I just hope it's normal and as a result of lots of soya sauce last night and not enough water... just hope it goes away!!

Tuesday Update

2009-06-16T07:15:00.002-04:00

I see my posts are getting farther and farther apart!! Yikes! I just can't wait to be done work. I work, get home put the kids to bed, then fall asleep - earlier and earlier. I want to update my blog with all the fun and exciting things going on, but I just can't muster the energy! I'm doing this now just before I leave for work...I'll just be a few minutes late I guess :) Blogging is more important! hahaha!

Here is a bullet form recap of what has gone on in the past week:

Had my Dr's appoitment, and everything is going well, I'm up another 3 lbs. No diabetes with is good to report;
Gillian had her eye check up, she is doing well so far. No treatment necessary yet.
I booked a couple more "shoots" for my portfolio, so I really look forward to those;
My dad helped me build a floor platform for use in shooting... I'll take a photo of it today and post later. It's beautiful and can't wait to try it out!
Abby started her soccer group, an informal group of parents who have organized soccer for the 3-4yr range. Soccer Chelsea only starts for kids 5 and older. I didn't get to go, but Eric went and said it was fun. She came home chanting a cheer, which was really cute;

Guess that is about all I can remember right now!

I didn't get a chance to take my backlighting photo for the photo challenge this week, as it was pretty cloudy all week.

And couldn't possibly go without posting a photo:

Have a good Tuesday!

Layout Challenge #7

2009-06-07T20:55:00.003-04:00

I can't believe I've completed the challenge for this week already! Just had this flash of inspiration!! Here it is:

I probably could have varied the photo a little more, but I decided to stick to this series I took of Gilly swinging on her birthday. Such a thoughtful pensive look...

Friday Photo Challenge and Layout Challenge #7

2009-06-07T14:59:00.000-04:00

Are we at layout challenge #7?? (Not sure Beth can correct me because I'm sure she will remember) Anyway I thought since I was my turn I should post the challenge of the week. For the photo challenge, it will go along the lines of my last post: Use Back lighting to light up your subject.

The layout challenge will be to use a photo cluster on a page - that is a cluster of 5 or so photos. See this product here for an example: http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/supplies/product_info.php/products_id/7599

Now lets hope for a sunny week to get those back-lit shots... it just clouded over here...

I love back lighting...

2009-06-06T21:23:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to post this. I do love the look of back lighting, it's so fun to play with when the sun is shining brightly and it's hard to take any other photos in the full sun!

Beautiful Saturday

2009-06-06T20:23:00.011-04:00

It was an amazing day today here in Chelsea, the sun was shining the temperature was perfect and there was enough wind to keep the bugs away! First thing in the morning was Abby's final Gym class, so we got to enter the gym and take photos today. It's so hard to take photos in a big gym lit by fluorescent lights, but I did get a few to capture the moment. I didn't use my flash, so they aren't the sharpest.

This is Gillian look that says "I'm just looking
to see what Dad's response is to me, as I'm just about to take off
and join the gymnasts!" Basically - pure mischievousness!

After naps we spent the afternoon playing in the sun, it was so nice! A little swinging and a little sisterly love, and we were ready for supper!

Now the girls are in bed, and I'm off to catch the rest of the hockey game! Hope it doesn't rain tomorrow!! Fingers crossed.

Happy Birthday Gillian

2009-06-04T20:49:00.005-04:00

My baby girl turned 2 today! Of course at two she didn't really have a clue what was going on, but I think by the end of the day with all the singing and ice cream at daycare and then singing and cake at home, she knew something was up! Abby had fun to, eating all the goodies and helping blow out the candles, and she is now, even more so, looking forward to her birthday in August. I'll have to plan something a little better for her as, she is now getting to the age where she will remember and know what it's all about!

Now to recap what I've been up to! Well, lots of sleeping! I try to watch the hockey games, I try to stay up "late" but I'm usually crashed out and sleeping on the couch at 8:00 pm, so it doesn't leave much time for blogging! I miss it. I miss having the energy to scrapbook (sorry Beth - I've fallen horribly behind on the scrapping challenge). I miss having the energy to take photos (mind you it's been pretty cold and rainy here... sorry Jen for not keeping up with the photo challenge!). But after the baby comes, I'll have lots of photos to take and lots to scrap!

Last weekend I attended a Baby photography workshop with Amber Shereen. She held it at her place, and there were only two of us there, so it was great to get such personal time. We had 3 baby models, each around 7 months old. Two we shot in her natural light studio and one in her basement studio with strobes. It was fun to see how she set every thing up and how she goes about getting the fabulous photos that she does. Here is a link to my other blog that I decided to set up for posting these photos: http://christinedenisphotography.blogspot.com/ I was really happy with the way my photos turned out and couldn't wait to do it again! I just have to work on the set up of the "Studio" to be able to do it successfully!

Lallow Mommy

2009-05-30T07:34:00.002-04:00

Gillian is going to be 2 next week, which shocks me! 2 whole years! Lately her speech has been really changing from just "saying" (only we understand her!) only a handful of words, to being able to communicate so much better (caveat: just with us and Phyl, others probably have no idea what she is saying!!). Some funny things she says is: playing with dolls and you ask if she wants a dress for the doll, she will pronounce "Yeah, dress" really well. When she wants to colour, she'll ask "Lallow, Mommy" which I she picked up from the colour "Yellow" used in colouring. Then she'll say "chi choo, Mommy" which means "Thank You Mommy". Then the cutest of all she will say "Bah Bee" which is the way she says Abby. She has a tendancy to stick the sound "b" in front of many words, "buppy, buppy" means "uppy uppy". It's just so much fun seeing her develop into this beautiful little girl, who loves to talk, sing, run and scream at 2:00 am!! :)

Happy weekend everyone!

Friday Photo Challenge

2009-05-26T21:48:00.005-04:00

Ok, this is catching up from last week. I only took a few self portraits... need to try it again, when I have time, but at least I'm posting them! I didn't use much creativity with these, I'll have to come up with something a little better next time, and incorporate the belly! :)

off to bed...

I'm not missing... really I'm not...

2009-05-25T20:58:00.012-04:00

Jen and Beth have been wondering where I went this week. I explained to Beth today that I, unfortunately, am completely running out of steam these days. After working all day, making dinner, and putting the kids to bed, I have just enough energy to download any photos I took that day and then, basically, I'm burnt. I don't have the energy, and as a result the brain power to muster any kind of creativity or thought to think through something. So scrapping and Photo-shopping have been put on the back-burner. At least until I'm done work, on July 10th and have a couple of minutes a day to rest. It's not to say I'm doing nothing, I have been working on some images this week, it's just taken me a week to figure out what I'm doing!!

Here are some favourites:

There is just something so cute
about kids reading books, and I
love to take pictures of them when reading.

The concentration, wonderment and amazement
that each page brings. It's so cool!
(I also love kids feet!)

I love her in this funky 60's dress! Perfect on her!

more reading...not even noticing mommy
making funny noises and acting like a goof
to get her to look at the camera!

Off for a short after supper jog. This one
is a runner!

Abby laying in the grass... love this one!

I really like these two, however I'm not sure
who this child is or where she learned to pose
like that - it's kind of freaky really.

Singing "Head & Shoulders"...

Bender looking regal.

And that is it for now... off to bed!

Layout and Friday Photo Challenge

2009-05-18T21:40:00.008-04:00

I'm falling a little behind on my challenges. I didn't post anything for last week's layout challenge of a photo one year apart, or this weeks challenge of using a photo as a background. So it's a good thing I had a 2 hour nap today, because it gave me some energy to scrap tonight!!

Here they are:

One year apart
(I'll post credits later!!)

Photo as a background.

Then for the photo challenge, Jen made it to shoot at your widest angle. I have a couple for this one:

@ 24mm (or whatever it translates to
when you don't have a full frame sensor)

@24mm

just to compare = @70mm

@24mm

For this week, both challenges will be connected. The photo challenge is to take a self portrait, and the scrapping layout challenge is to create a layout about you - could be that self portrait you took. A photo of your favourite outfit at the time or your favourite thing... but the subject must be all about you!

Bye for now!

Photo Montage

2009-05-15T08:38:00.003-04:00

I've not been spending too much time on my computer lately, still burnt from last weekend! I now have tonsillitis which I probably caught because I was so run down. This pregnancy is really taking it's tole on me, and I still have 3 months to go. I'm at 27 weeks now, and am wondering where I'll find the energy to make it to the end.

But of the 15 min I did spend on the computer this week, I put together a photo composite montage. A technique my friend Cheryl shared with me after a workshop she did. It's so very simple, almost ridiculously simple to do. Here is the image:

Notice how it has some texture in the photograph. It's basically done by putting a texturized image (in this case I used a photo of an old brick from the market) over an image and changing that layer's blending mode to "multiply" (overlay and softlight could work too) then adjusting the opacity. Gives it a painted renaissance feel to it. Then I stuck on the "May" word art for fun.

Wedding Workshop and Tulips

2009-05-12T19:55:00.011-04:00

I've been MIA for a while now, since Thursday. Things have been crazy and I had no time (or energy) to update my blog... Saturday and Sunday were spent at the Algonquin College Wedding Photography Workshop and then Monday was spent photographing the beautiful tulips.

The workshop was interesting. Each day we had the morning in the classroom, and the afternoon was spent shooting a bride and groom. They were just stand-ins to the real thing, but it was still fun to have a woman dressed up in a bride dress, and a man in a suit. There were 15 of us in the class, all taking it for various reasons, whether it was to open a business or because they were shooting a family member's wedding that summer. Unfortunately the weather really wasn't that great, so we were really limited in where we could shoot. We were at the Stitsville United church on Saturday and the Algonquin College green house on the Sunday. Overall the weekend was challenging and somewhat humbling, because it really showed us that to take photos under pressure in crappy conditions (ugly church on a rainy day!!) is really tough. I'm not totally turned off of shooting a wedding, I'd just rather mentor someone for a summer before plunging right into it on my own!

Sunday was Mother's day and unfortunately I wasn't home to be pampered and feted, but I did get the weekend "off" which was more than enough to ask for in my mind, so I had a fun mother's day in the end. Abby put together an art project at daycare which was cute and fun to see. She is really starting to grow up and to see her create things (with Phyllis' help) is fun!

Monday morning I had arranged to meet a woman from my photography class, to get up really early and meet down to Dow's Lake to photograph the tulips. They were so beautiful and in perfect bloom, it's so hard not to take a million photos! I did fill up a whole 8 Gb memory card with flower pictures, some good and some bad. Here are some samples (SOOC - too tired to edit! and I don't think they need it):

And then today after work I picked up the kids and took then down to Major's Hill Park to see what was happening at the Tulip Festival. Not much really and I must say pretty pathetic this year. But for a 3 year old, just to get to ride on a Merry-go-Round is exciting enough, so it was worth it!

Notice that I cut Gillian's hair... her bangs to be specific... she looks so different! Like a big girl!

Anyway, off to play... I'm so behind, I'm already a week off in our Scrapbooking Layout challenge!

Ode to the 24-70....

2009-05-07T19:54:00.007-04:00

Beth and I have been sharing our camera wish lists with each other for some time now, and while they do have their differences, they are quite similar. We have been both coveting the 24-70 2.8L mm lens for a while and as of today, I am a proud owner of one. Beth may be jealous, but Beth should remind herself that she is way more smart, disciplined and responsible than me, and now she could just borrow it from me... :) And me on the other hand is not so smart, impatient and impulsive... but enough about that... I've only had it on my camera for a few hours and I already love it. It's focusing speed is SO fast. I really notice the speed of it, it's amazing. I've taken a few shots and here are a few samples...

It's a heavy lens, but nice and solid. I think it will be the one that I put on my camera and never take off!

Catching up on Project 365

2009-05-05T21:49:00.004-04:00

I started the doing layouts for my project 365 back in Jan, and I've just only completed Feb! Oh well, I still plan on doing it here and there, and changing the look for each month. Here are the remaining pages for Feb. Due to the kids being sick and me being tired and sick, there are many black spots where I didn't take photos. Lost my drive in Feb. Good thing I got it back... well sort of, skipped today...

Night!

Layout Challenge for this week

2009-05-03T21:31:00.001-04:00

I thought I would post our challenge for this week. In honour of my( and I think soon to be Beth's) one year anniversary blogging, use two photos exactly one year apart. Similar to my pics of Gillian from Saturday.

Layout and Friday Photo Challenge

2009-05-03T21:03:00.007-04:00

Last week's Digital Layout challenge was to use a mask. Since I use masks in basically every layout I do, I decided to take a mask, colour it and used as it's own element. Here is my page, can you see the mask??

It's the faint yellow flourished square
tucked in behind the photos and paper!

The Friday Photo Challenge (which is slipping far from happening on Fridays!! ha!) was Food. Here are my two photos from that:

Flour

Milk

I decided to go with B&W for these shots, because really, flour and milk don't really have much colour contrast!

We had a good Sunday, although not terribly exciting - with swimming in the morning and shopping in the afternoon. The black flies have started, but they aren't totally unbearable. I imagine by next weekend, they will be getting there. So to take advantage of the nice, bug free weather we went outside after supper to throw rocks in our stream. Fun!

Back to work tomorrow. Not fun.

Take care!

One Year

2009-05-02T12:58:00.003-04:00

I forgot to post on April 30th to celebrate my first full year of blogging!! Wow, I can't believe that it's been a whole year going strong (well some weeks stronger than others!). I know of a few of you out there that read this, but are there any others?? Probably not, since I don't do a very good job of tagging each entry or passing the word around! But that is ok, I only started this for myself and for fun and I'm still having fun! So rock on fellow bloggers!

I thought I would add in a couple photos taken exactly one year apart to celebrate:

Gillian, at 11 months

at 23 months

A walk in the woods

2009-05-02T12:40:00.007-04:00

I love that it is spring, and that the bugs haven't come out yet! We can go for walks in the woods and not get eaten alive!!

Saturday Chats at DD and Meech Creek

2009-04-25T20:38:00.010-04:00

Today was the quarterly event at Designer Digitals, where everything was 30% off and they had chats going all day. I managed to make it to quite a few of them as we was home with the girls doing laundry and other stuff around the house. The weather was beautiful so we did spend a good amount of time outside too, don't worry!!

I did the following two layouts for a couple of the chats:

Click layouts for credits

After we had naps and snacks in the afternoon, we took advantage of the warm weather and not bugs and went for a walk down the Meech Creek Valley. I've posted photos from here before, but this time was with kids!

Heading out with two determined kids
(not as determined on the the return trip,
they probably heard "let's go girls" about 100 x)

Also the first day in shorts!
She learned quickly that when you fall,
you scrap your knee.

I love this one of Gillian!

Our destination-the small bridge over
Meech Creek. A great swimming hole, that only
Bender got to try today!

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, and be much cooler. We have swimming in the morning and we'll head over to the in-laws for dinner in the afternoon.

Hope you all enjoyed the nice weather today (if it was nice where you were!)

In the Neighbourhood and Monochromatic

2009-04-24T20:22:00.009-04:00

Didn't blog too much this week, sick again and tired. But I did manage to do the layout for the challenge this week: Monochromatic. And I also managed to take a few photos from around the neighbourhood. Here it all is:

These are shots from around the neighbourhood. Not really what I had envisioned when I thought of the challenge, so maybe tomorrow I'll go out again and get some other shots more representative of where we live!

Heading up the hill on our evening walk!

Old fallen tree.

Gillian walking on her own.

The girls love getting on top
of the big rocks in the neighbourhood.

Abby and I split off and took the path
through the woods, while Eric and G. took the road.

Surprisingly, and sadly at the same time, the mosquitoes were starting to come out! I was actually bitten a couple of times, which sucks because it seems so early for that.

And here was my monochromatic page for the challenge this week. It was fun, and can't wait to see the challenge for next week!

Off to bed!

Friday Photo Challenge and Layout Challenge #4

2009-04-21T20:07:00.002-04:00

For this week's Friday photo challenge I thought it would be fun to answer the question:

"What's in your neighbourhood" It can be anything and everything! Give a glimpse of the world very near around you...

And for the Layout Challenge (I think we are at #4) it is to do a monochromatic page. Making all of the paper and elements monochromatic, but the photo can be colour if you wish!

Good luck, can't wait to see what you come up with!

Challenges, Swimming and Lightroom

2009-04-20T11:15:00.011-04:00

I seem to be falling into a pattern of only updating my blog twice a week!! By the time I'm done downloading my photos and playing with them in Lightroom, I'm exhausted and can't muster the energy to update my blog!! So I'm falling behind!

I have managed to take a photo a day (pretty much) and try to complete the Photo challenge and layout challenge. This week's photo challenge was to pick a colour and photograph it. I choose Green, thinking with spring here, I'd have many green things to take photos of. I went for a walk down the Meech Creek valley hoping to get some nice shots of green things and this is what I got: BROWN!

Ok, maybe a little green here but that's pushing it!

I should have chosen vibrant brown as my colour! Luckily on Sunday I got this shot:

For the Layout challenge, Beth said it was to use brushes this week. My creative juices were not flowing last week, so it took me a while to get it done, but once I did one, I had to do another one. Here they are:

I picked up a tutorial of how to make custom brushes
from patterned paper, and so it was perfect timing.
The brushwork on this one are the flowers.

For this layout, the brushwork is the "dripped stains" on
the beige paper in behind the photo. I LOVE these brushes!

I will post the next challenges in another post later on.

For the rest of the weekend we had gymnastics and swimming. The girls started their first swimming lessons, Eric went with Gillian and I was to go with Abby, but as it turns out I signed Abby up for the Pre-School A lesson, which means the parents don't go in the pool with them. I wasn't sure how Abby would take it, but typical Abby, she just walked right in there without me and did the whole class with no worries at all! And I just sat there like a beached whale in a hideous maternity suite watching her... fun! I was so proud of her. It was so cute to see Gillian in the pool too, nervous at first, but getting into it by the end. I wish I could have taken photos.

And finally I'm trying to teach myself how to use Adobe Lightroom. It's a very fun program, and typical Adobe, has a million and one tools and techniques to make photos look fantastic! It allows me to do so many fun things at a click of a button! Mind you, I still love using photoshop, I just need to learn how to use the two together most efficiently! And then get to work!! Right now I'm spending so much time fiddling with the photos, I don't have enough mojo left to blog... so much to do so little time eh?

Easter Weekend - Newborn Shoot, Egg Hunt, Easter Monday

2009-04-15T19:41:00.018-04:00

Last weekend was a long weekend, well for those of us who work and aren't retired - when every day is a long weekend really....

Anyway, Saturday I had the opportunity to do my first baby shoot, with Shawna's baby. Selena Marie was born on April 2nd after narrowly avoiding being an April fools baby. She was 8 days old when we did the shoot and unlike most newborns - didn't want to sleep. Perhaps there is some technique that newborn photographers use to get them to sleep, but clearly I didn't know what it was. To my defence, we spent the first hour of the "shoot" slurping up Pho and chatting, leaving me with only a short amount of time to take photos. One of my take home notes: leave yourself way more room to not be stressed out! Still with the 30 min or so to shoot I'm pleased with the outcome here is a sample:

Then it was Easter Egg Hunt day on Sunday. Abby was very into it this year and kept saying for days after - I want to go outside to find eggs, I want the Easter bunny to come back. Much fun and chocolate was had by all!

Eric was back to work on Monday, so I went for a visit with Beth.

I got to see her newly finished basement (very nice!!) and take a couple photos, of course!!

By the end of the weekend we were all pretty tired, especially Abby. I had my photography class on Monday - second to last one. But I couldn't stay the whole time, I really burnt out by the break so I went home. We've been working on Photoshop for the past 3 weeks and I've learned a few cool techniques. I've also realized that I know Photoshop well for some things, but for photography, I have loads to learn! But that is all part of the fun eh?

Yikes

2009-04-14T21:54:00.002-04:00

Before I post the weekend recap, which will happen tomorrow because I'm too tired now, and it's late. I just wanted to say Yikes! I was just backing up the latest photos on to my EHD - and it's full!!!! 230GBs of photos (2008 and up to April 2009), scrapbook pages, supplies and other docs... So I must buy another one! Wow, those RAW files are eating up space, so OH so worth it!

Off to get another EHD....

Day off, Layout Challenge and Photo Challenge

2009-04-10T20:55:00.009-04:00

We have a long weekend and thankfully the weather is supposed to be nice all weekend!! After this past week and or so, I think we are all looking forward to some sunshine and warmth!!

We had a fun day with a morning play date with my friend Joanne and her kids, we hung out inside for a while, then head outside, and it was surprisingly chilly in the morning. Unfortunately with our lawn not yet seeded and grassed, we had to stick to the driveway to play, which can be pretty boring after a while. Regardless, we had a fun visit anyway and next time we'll head into town to her place where they have grass!! :)

The afternoon was spent napping and playing outside again. Here are some photos to share which also coincide with Jen and My Friday Photo Challenge for the week: The sweet spot! For me it was my 50 mm @ f2.8 (but I used ISO 400 - does that mess up the sweet spot?? I don't know...) Anyway, I think most of these are @2.8. I did a little playing in Lightroom, not sure if I like it.. perhaps a little too overexposed.

Then Beth and My Digital Layout Challenge of the week: Use Stitching:

And a couple more I liked from the week for an added bonus: