Monday, November 30, 2009

Maggie's 4 months old!

Her 4 month stats are:
Height 24.75"
Weight 14 lbs 6 oz
and again she is 100% PERFECT!



I quickly laid her down to run and help someone and came back to this!! PS don't mind the laundry!


I can't believe she's already getting so big!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

What does Virgina have?

A Turkey, one crazy Uncle, two darling Aunties, and five favorite Anderson cousins!!
We decided after a crazy few weeks at work for Steve (6 am to Midnight 4-5 days a week!!) We needed to get out of town so we could see him! We are so lucky to have some family close enough to drive to (if you call 8 hours close)!! We spent a weekend of cooking, eating, shopping, eating, movie watching/going, swimming, eating, playing legos, doing odd jobs, eating, and spending some good quality time with family!

The cooks!
Align Center
The snacker & the crazy uncle/ photographer


The spread & the table decor!

The table setters!

Me & Avery...I taught her how to do the orange rolls this year!

Gordon & Duce writing their thankful notes

The kids table...that got a bit rowdy!

Our table was mildly more in control!


And then the next day...in classic "Thanksgiving Family get-together" style...somebody got sick!

In this case we had 2 pukers....good thing the "bug" was short lived and didn't pass beyond our two!
Oscar kicked off the puking with Eleanor to follow closely behind (oh and by the way Steve was home alone with all the kids while Erika, Shanda & I were shopping!)
Steve really was the Champ that day, he fed, cleaned, attended to sickies and Entertained 8 children for 4+ hours while EVERYONE was awake!!!



The girlie cousins!

Where did all these kids come from?
Steve was a Champ and watched/ took all the 8 older kids on 3 separate occasions!

We were sad to go but had to be back for school and the dreaded end of year work schedules!
I guess we'll see Steve again at Christmas time!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Turkey Lurkey...

One of my favorite things about kids in school...no it's not having them gone though at times it is hard to beat...it is the fun holiday things! Anyone who knows me knows I love to do stuff especially holiday things, so having lots to do is right up my alley!

Gordon's Kindergarten Feast

Oscar's Pre-school Feast

They had the children decorate their places and write their names ("I only do the O & C" so he was helped with the rest)....That's Oscar's self portrait!
I LOVE HIS GUYS!!


Oscar loves Emily aka M & M!
Some wild Indians

Mind you it's 40 degrees out!
(the boys were out "planting" food/flowers...my silk flowers I just bought for a project!!)

Making Turkey Crafts

I am going to try my hand at....

...photography!
I have always loved it and I think I could actually do it...plus I think my kids are so cute and LOVE to have good pictures of them! So I guess I'll just do it my self!
I am going to enroll in a class to hone my skills and learn to master photo-shop.
My aim is to take great pictures not edit crappy pictures to look good--which is what SO many of the photographers I have found in these parts do!! So to start practicing I borrowed a friends nice camera for the weekend (note...I need a good camera

Anyway enjoy some of my first attempts!
Please keep in mind that these are straight fro the camera no edits...and it's my first try....
**I must say I am a little shy to actually put these up for some reason- it seems personal in a weird way...??

Day one trying to figure out bokea (it's the effect of have the subject clear and crisp with the background nice and blurry...) through messing with the aperture (a note almost all of these are close

(PS I shot these all in RAW but had to downsize them for posting here...so if you click them they may look a bit less clear...)


Day two a real try at portraits...of course my kids were the guinnea pigs and they all earned Dollar store prizes for being so good!

I upped my ISO for these ...I love the really light effect...maybe not quite so light next time but a version of this appeals to me!

Gordon was beginning to lose his patience with me!


All in all I am pretty excited for my first attempt...I think with just some minor tweaking on some of them in photo shop and they'd be perfect!
Now I just need to get my own camera and photoshop!!
I'll keep you posted with what comes from my newest hobby!