Galveston.....

my poor, sweet neglected blog! i try not to go so long between posts, so i am updating, but it will so short.

we brought the kids down to Galveston this past weekend with our neighbors. our first stop was the train museum, and OMG it was hot on those trains!!!!

then we headed down to the beach. i still can't believe how much fun both of the boys had!! we will be headed back soon to play on the beach again.

Yes- Scott is a goof!!! and i had such a hard time getting the right light at the beach, i need more practice, and my composition mojo did not join me on this trip!

surreal.....

when i saw this sky the other night, i could not resist trying to capture how breath taking it was. i did not do it justice, it was amazing.

banner.....

i know my banner is enormous, i am trying to fix it as fast as i can!

kids are so observant.....

just a few minutes ago, while i was zoned out in front of the computer, K and S were watching Thomas the Train. K came in to see me, with daddy following, telling me K needed to do something.
K walked over to me, looking so sweet in his night, night underwear and t-shirt(NO more jammies for him, gotta be like daddy, all but the pull up). he had this look of such seriousness on his face as he as he stood in front of me and asked, "wash your mouth, momma?"
i leaned down, very curious as he proceeds to wipe my mouth with a wet wipe.
then, as i am looking at him puzzled, he sticks out his tongue, licks his finger and wipes my lip.
such mothering instincts, spit is the best face cleanser and hair fixer!!!!

sick of farm pictures yet?.....

i finally got around to a few more pictures from the farm. i still have so many it is daunting! i never knew just how time consuming photography was gonna be, and what is sad is the time consuming part is not the part i enjoy the most, the clicking of the shutter.
the post processing of digital images is not a short process when you are learning an editing program by yourself, by trial and error, it is HARD! but i am learning so that is a good thing. it makes it hard sometimes to pick up my camera because i get so frustrated with the editing part it is not fun to take pictures.

i know i will soon be over that hump and well on my way to enjoying the entire process!

until then......

totally commited.....

to the big boy potty and those cute big boy whitie, tighties!! K have been practicing with the potty for a few months now, in anticipation for the real deal while i was on my vacation. it has worked well, he loves to go potty right before bath time and loves to wear his underwear to bed over his diaper, so i figured the perfect opportunity would be the week i was off, so we could totally commit to underwear ALL day!

monday and tuesday went well, but wednesday was the real test. T had a doctors appointment first thing in the morning and figured that would be the perfect time to test how well he would do out of the house. i could not believe he had NO accidents! we did however visit the restroom in the doctors office 4 times and once on the way out by the elevator. i bet you can't guess how many time he actually went potty? none. yeah, i was warned that i would know where EVER single restroom was in every store or place we visited, just so he could look! i just didn't know it would happen the first day!

he has done so well, an accident every now and then, and he still wears his night, night underwear(which he hates!), i'm still not sure if i am ready to wake up all night for him to potty.

i am just so proud of him and surprised at how quickly he has caught on. now i am preparing myself for the fact that i will take 2 years to potty train T, just because that is how it works, right?

on the farm.....

i finally uploaded the last memory card of pictures from the shoot i did at my sister-in-law's family farm. i finally realize that i need props to keep k's attention, aren't these so cute with the guitar. i have several, but i won't bore you with all of them!
i love how romantic this one is, i love the sunflare and just the over-all feel of love in this picture.
but, this one is by far my favorite! when i saw this pop up, i couldn't believe that i captured it and how awesome they look. one day i hope i can get that feeling about all the pictures i take.

photography club.....

i was invited to attend a photography club meeting with a friend last night in town. the meetings are held at an unusual, but very interesting meeting place, the museum of printing history. i never would have know that place existed had it not been for the club, and i can't wait to go walk through it and look at the current show, it is a display of photographs of the sign grave yard in Las Vegas. some of the most amazing photos are hanging up in there of the old signs.

now the photo club, i was admittedly nervous on the way there because of the area of town. anyone familiar with the montrose area of houston would know that i was worried about being the only un-pierced, un-tattooed straight person from suburbia at the meeting. now i know that sounds like such a stereotype of people in an area, but it is what it is. so i figured it would be filled with artsy type photographers, that was so not the case. the other thing i was worried about it that the people would be stuffy, pretentious, photo snobs. but holy-cow it was so opposite, i think those feelings come from my own shortcomings as a beginning photographer.

while my friend and i were the by far the youngest people at the meeting, it was a hilarious group of older folks, mostly men. the women were happy to see us there, and hoped that we join and continue to be at meetings.

the meeting last night was different from most, each member created a short slide show of their best or most recent images to show off! it was neat to see the different styles in the group. most of it is landscape, flowers and such, but such a variety. i am not to terrible interested in sweeping landscape photography, but it is beautiful and i can learn so much from these very forthcoming people. the group goes on field trips around houston once a month and several times a year they travel to places around texas. i think that will be so much fun, to go around taking pictures with them.

the future meetings have guest speakers and workshop type meetings.

i am so happy my friend invited me, i think i will be a good once a month outing for myself!

4th of July celebration.....

our family, along with my sister and her family went to the oil ranch(a local family place with a petting zoo,etc.) to watch the fireworks display. to kids, there is nothing better than an open field with the freedom to run, as soon as we parked and K&K's feet hit the grass, they ran until the fireworks started! as you can tell from the rainbow and clouds in the background, we were worried about a rain out, but the weather held out and it was not to hot!
it was such an American tradition complete with snow cones and crackerjacks,glow'n the dark necklaces and and fireworks. it really is so much fun to involve our kids in such traditional celebrations.
is he the most beautiful thing with those bright blue eyes??
the fireworks where not that great, but the fun the kids had the hour we waited for the display was worth it! they thought it was the most amazing thing, complete with oohhh's and aawww's!
after the display was over at the oil ranch we went to shelly and corey's house to watch their fireworks and so the kids could do sparklers! it was such a great family night.

copy cat.....

here is the latest picture that i have edited from a few weekends ago. i am SO slow and nervous about editing the pictures i took, so i keep practicing on my pictures and not the picture i got paid to take. i will get to them soon because i am feeling more confident in my editing.

so what do you think? i upped the color a little, did an eye pop process and sharpened.

are the eyes to much?

so the story behind this is, i was taking shoots of my niece and K got jealouse of all the attention she was getting. S brought it to my attention that right behind me, K was doing everything i was telling my niece to do. i was able to turn and get this shot before he ran. the little bogger HATES to have his picture taken!

9 days.....

***whhheeeewwww*** as of 3:14 i am offically on vacation until july 14.

i have been so busy at work and it has been so crazy here at home trying to get the floors complete, i need this time off!!

Hopefully i will be able to post a little more in the next week.

until then, i hope everyone enjoys the 4th! be safe.