Happy Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year.  It began with a nice breakfast and beautiful roses that Emily picked out.  Then I got to watch Emily sing in church before we headed down to have lunch with Nana and my parents.  We then continued our journey up to Mike's parents house where we had dinner with them and Grandma and Grandpa.  It was a beautiful day and it was very nice to be with family.  Here are some pics...

Me and my babies

Emily, Nana, and William

And one with me too!

Pop Pop's Turn!

The Moms!

Pretty

Bike riding

Mother Son Moment

Family walk/bike ride after dinner.

Perfect end to a perfect day.

Changes...

So, change is good right???  I think my blog is heading in a newish direction.  Yes I say newish, because it will still be centered around my family (yes mostly the kids) and my photos (again mostly of the kids).  However, I do not want to live by my blog and post just to post and put up pictures just so that I do not disappoint my loyal followers!  I want to post, because I have taken pictures I like or have stories I want to share.  Which may or may not be weekly.  Hey, you may even see something more often and yes perhaps less.  There may even be posts (like this one) that do not have pictures at all! 

Over the last year I have been learning more about using the manual mode on my camera and have been shooting almost 100% manual since last summer.  I am learning that the more I know shows me that there is so much more that I still don't know.  I am practicing and get some great shots and some terrible ones, but overall I see improvement and sometimes know where I am making my mistakes.  I have graduated from using Picasa for my editing or no editing at all to using Lightroom.  I definitely have a lot to learn there, but am very excited about all of the things it can do!  I am not at a point where I have awesome photography skills, but am able to recognize good and bad photos and the perfectionist in me is a very harsh critic.  I am hoping that if I keep practicing, reading, and learning I will eventually be at a point where I get good shots pretty consistently!  Any photography lovers out there if you have any suggestions on resources, please share! 

Ok, for now I'm heading back to editing photos.  Which takes a lot of time, part of why weekly posts with tons of pictures is just not feasible right now!  Doing my best!  You'll have some pics soon, I promise!!

Happy Birthday William

My baby boy is 2!!!  We had a great weekend celebrating with friends and family.  He had a Thomas party and really had a great time!  He loved being sung to, and just smiled and giggled the whole time!  When he woke up Monday morning and I said Happy Birthday he then said he was three!  Not quite buddy, Mommy's not ready for that at all!!  I can't believe how fast it's all gone, but it's been such a joy watching my little man grow!!  I can't wait to see what this next year brings! 

Here are some pics of our birthday party fun...

My one year old

William is a wonderful one year old boy!  Yes, I'm going to use that phrase as much as I can this week, because even though he's already acting the part, my baby is going to be two next week!!!  Where has the time gone????  He is still my snuggly little boy, but definitely has a mind of his own!  So yes, we have our terrible two moments, but the rest of the time it is fun to watch him learn, grow, and play.  He and Emily actually have conversations which is totally cute!  He never stops talking, you would think that would be hard considering his sister never stops talking either, but no, it just makes for a constant stream of chatter all day long!  Both of them come out with new words and phrases everyday.  We've got a couple of smart cookies on our hands!!! They are both totally excited for spring and being outside.  The changing weather makes it difficult but it's starting to warm up, we even had a couple of days where it was warm enough for shorts this week!  We had a nice weekend celebrating Grandma's 88th birthday and playing outside!!!

So, here are some pics of my ONE YEAR OLD and my four year old.....

Helping with the yard work....

Checking out our daffodils that popped in the warm weather!

Ice pop eating, or holding to our heads, or something!!

Crazy Face

Future Golfer...WHACK!

Backyard trees...

(Woods Submission for this week)

 Sidewalk chalk!

Bubble Gun!

Bubbles!!

Bubbles!!

And more bubbles!!!

And the one who really wanted to play with bubbles!!

Preparing to mount the balance beam...

Hi Gia!

Happy 88th Birthday Grandma!

Wow...88 years...where has the time gone?

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

And you're never too old to lick your candles!!!

Pepa and Will waiting for cake!