Raising Cubs in a Campground

I thought I was busy when the campground was open and I was doing photoshoots. I thought I was busy when I got a bunch of book orders all at the same time. I thought I was busy when the kids started school - in two different districts . I thought I was busy when we started helping with more park programming. This week we added speech therapy for Julia twice a week at an entirely different school and it's official - I might as well join the circus. Good thing I already know how to juggle*. What are you juggling right now? * A babysitter taught me to juggle when I was ten.

Who knew that the letter N was going to give me so much grief!? But then I saw these pictures of Julia from last year and just knew. N o More Tangles. Her hair isn't always in perfect ringlets. This is our norm. It's wild - it's unruly. We live in a constant state of seeking No More Tangles. (We don't actually use Johnson's&Johnson's No More Tangles Shampoo - We use California Baby to avoid harmful chemicals ) What little moment do you want to remember that starts with the letter N? You can post a link to your Alphabitty Moments post in the MckLinky below. Some people do a scrapbook page each week, but this was not one of those weeks for me. Next week will be. Why do I know that? Um....because I thought we were on the letter O so I did designed that page earlier today. sigh .....

They go way back ....as far back as a five and four year old can...

Today is my 33rd birthday. So far I've celebrated by cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming, and washing clothes. My birthday happened to fall on a Monday - the day we set a few hours aside for me to do some of the cleaning that I just don't have time for during the work week. I love it. I get that immediate sense of accomplishment. I see results. I finished a task. Oh how that makes my heart happy!!!!! In my line of work it can be months before I can check a project off my list. All the while it nags at me and weighing me down like a ton of bricks that projects are waiting for me. Don't get me wrong, I love love love my job, but I also love that instant gratification that comes with checking something off my list. So when Mondays roll around I am happy to pick up my dust cloth or a basket of laundry....even on my birthday. I don't have any great birthday reflections for today....maybe another day. Instead I want to share my birthday wish with you dear readers. What I wan...

Oh how happy I am that I figured out how to post pictures bigger in blogger without having to use an outside hosting site! And because I wish I could have avoided using trial and error for 3 years to figure it out, I want to share this valuable information with YOU! This topic is important to me as a photographer and for this reason: Did you know that if you want to create Blurb blog book (or hire me to do it for you) that you will more than double your work if you host pictures outside of your blogging platform or if you use LiveWriter to compose your posts? So what's the secret that will save you time and a whole lotta hastle? 1) Upload your picture to blogger (chose the large size) 2) click on the 'edit Html' tab (If you can see your photographs that means you are in 'compose' mode - you need to be able to edit the code to increase the size of your images.) ***It should be obvious, but this method only works for the wide column templates....sorry i can...

Last night I had the life changing opportunity to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children . My friend Kristina and I made the trek to the East Metro and filled bags of food for starving children. FMSC packages millions of meals a year and makes a difference in SO many lives around the world, but little did we know that when Missy organized the event weeks ago that an earthquake would devastate Haiti....the very place our 64 boxes of food is headed based on their distribution schedule. Kristina and I donned our hairnets along with a roomful of volunteers.... Jerry gave us our instructions and we got to work packaging meals. Jen did a great job explaining the production process in her post about the event, but here are some pictures I snapped after I gave up my job of dumping in a container of soy (lower left hand picture) Our shift was over before we knew it. There were many comments of "but we could do so much more!" The camaraderie and feeling of contributing in a tan...

One of the downsides of being a photographer is that I use up most of my creativity and time for that matter, photographing other people. The thousands of photographs on my hard drive can attest to that fact. Browsing through my pictures from the last year, I only have a handful of shots of my family. I get sad about that fact this time of year. It's nothing new. It happens every winter when the chance to take well lit portraits is almost non existent . Here is how winter happens here in BearCountry : By the time we have enough snow to go outside and play it typically gets so cold that we can only be out for a few minutes and even if I did snap a few pics, the snot running out of noses pretty much negates any chance at getting 'the one' (hence why I didn't enter last weeks challenge) Now that our temps are now above zero, the snow we have is dingy and dirty - not exactly the makings of a great background. I'm shopping around for a 85 mm 1.2 lens (know anyone s...

A while back I entered a contest to win a box of Jesus Storybook Bibles and while I didn't win, my friend Tina did. Bless her heart - she sent one to my kids for Christmas. I have heard nothing but great things about how well Sally Lloyd Jones weaves together the Bible stories that I want my children to hide away in their hearts. What I love is how she makes The Truth understandable for little ears. The first night we sat down to read the Jesus Storybook Bible we read 40 pages . That's a whole lotta Truth in one sitting!!! I could go on and on about how I think this is one of the best books you could buy for the little people in your life, but I'll let Sam's words speak for themselves. "Yes, let's read extra pages in my Bible tonight instead of reading a different book first!" "Can you read just one more Mommy?" One of the things we're doing differently in this new year is to not watch TV as a method of unwinding after school. Sam get...

"It's the hand that has the freckle on it," I remind my pre-schooler as we got ready for "4 year old school" as he calls it. We had read the The Kissing Hand and a devotional about God being big enough and strong enough to keep us safe when we are scared. We woke up early, debated about pants vs. shorts, stirred honey, flax, and pro-biotics into our oatmeal, & headed outside to take first day of school pictures. It seems like only yesterday. Today he didn't want me to walk him into his school. I dropped him off at the bottom of the ramp and watched my baby boy walk up to the door and let himself in. I should have asked him for a Kissing Hand Kiss to help me through the rest of the day.

It's Thursday and in BearCountry that means it's time for Alphabitty Moments. To be perfectly honest my heart isn't in it this week with all that is going on in Haiti. I don't even know very many details since we don't watch TV but there's enough talk on twitter and in the little CNN blurbs I get on my homepage to know that it's very very bad. I don't want to be on my computer (thankfully I did my M page months ago). I want to be snuggling my kids and being renewed by their laughter. It's crunch time for my business for Valentine's books so I will continue to plug away on designing pages so I can meet my deadlines but my heart is with the people of Haiti and with the rescue workers who are teaming up from around the globe.

The food was sweet The the company was sweet The strangers who helped us out of the ditch were sweet My welcome home was sweet (PapaBear had left the light on for me & the door unlocked so I didn't have to fumbled with armloads of stuff to find my keys & Sam squealed & jumped into my arms) The the bag of cookies I had forgotten I stashed in my pillowcase (and subsequently slept on Saturday night) taste very sweet as I reflect on what an amazing time I had spending about 24 hours with other bloggers, most of whom had never met in person before.

Welcome back to Alphabitty Moments ! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas break and were able to spend time with your loved ones. We had a snowstorm roll through starting December 23 and it didn't stop snowing until the 27th sometime. We rescheduled our big family gathering that we usually have on the 24th because PapaBear's parents live way out in the country and their road is terrible after it snows. Not that we would know, we couldn't even get our van out of the drivway after our three day stay. It was a quieter Christmas Eve but we were still surrounded by loved ones (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for your hospitality). By the 27th the weather was better so we gathered together as one big happy family. We ate, we talked, we played in the snow , we sang carols, we watched Julia go around the room and give everyone hugs, and we exchanged gifts. We were thankful to be together despite the delay in doing so. It's never easy to decide to cancel a long standing tradit...

I don't think I can put into words how much fun I had with this week's challenge over at i heart faces ! So I won't try. Instead I'll just say that I was dreaming of carving their logo into things a couple of nights ago. It's addicting I tell ya! Our challenge this week is to incorporate the i heart faces logo into our pictures. The timing is perfect because I've been waiting for a reason to post this picture of our cousin snowboarding on Christmas Eve . I learned more about layers this week than I did all last year! If you haven't participated in a weekly challenge I highly recommend you do - it's a great way to think outside the box. Speaking of boxes - here are some of my favorite kiddos boxed in at an orchard a while back. I doubt our bosses here at the park would appreciate it if we carved into the rocks, but thanks to the wonders of Photoshop I don't have to worry about that now do I? I tried my hat at another way of incorporating the l...

I need your help. I'm going to be ordering one of the free prints that Angie mentioned this morning and since I can get half off another one I'm going to finally take the plunge and get some canvas up on my walls. I knew right away which two images I want, but I can't decide if I should do black and white or color. Things to consider...they are both taken in the grass so they already 'match' but do they look more 'artsy' if they are in black and white? I think they will hang above my couch in the living room. (The couch is sage green with a kahki trim.) I have a quote in the middle of that wall that says "We do not remember days, we remember moments" and I think I can position the canvases close together underneath it. Ideally the quote would go under, but that's too high for the canvases and I can't move the quote. So what would you do? I don't want to miss out on the deal so will be ordering in the next 15 minutes or so....Help!

here is done. And so is his.

No red and greens! Gasp! No dress clothes? The horror! No parents? That's new! But you know what? I love it anyway! Do you make your own cards too? Leave me a comment and a link to your card if you posted it - I'd love to stop by and see it!