Life...Through My Lens

another (year) bites the dust

2012-01-26T18:17:00.001-06:00

I have always been a photo album nerd. I have tons of them. Just a few months ago I was at my mom’s house, and I found a cabinet full of all the albums I made growing up…there are at least 20 of them. I used to have a disposable camera on me at all times, and all the prints I got would always go straight into an album.

Even once the digital world came around, I was still always diligent about ordering prints and filing them away in an album every year. I have a shelf with at least 5 albums on it now, which just covers the past couple years, and a box somewhere with I couldn’t even tell you how many more albums inside. Not to mention the separate albums I have from vacations, our wedding, our honeymoon… See what I mean? Photo album nerd.

Anyway, over the past year or so I have gotten bad about ordering prints. (I think part of that is because the number of photos I take has significantly increased…) And any of the prints I did order, well, those have started to accumulate into quite a large pile. So, after seeing the idea on several other blogs and on Pinterest, I finally figured out how to solve my problem.

A yearly photo book! I already upload my pictures to Shutterfly on a (somewhat) regular basis, so all I had to do was drop them into one of their templates, tweak a few things, add some text, and viola! Not to mention they were having a sale, so the whole thing only ended up costing around $20.

I basically just went in chronological order, and made a page (or in some cases a couple pages) for each event, adding a little text here and there. Here are a few of the pages (most of which you will recognize, because I’ve blogged the pictures already):

This was one (of 6!) pages from our vacation to Texas in July. Highlighting our crazy zip lining adventure, as well as the 4th of July.

This is my concert page… in July we saw 311 (if you do not know by now that this is my favorite band, you must not pay much attention…) and I also saw the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys with my mom and cousins. It was a boy band dream, let me tell you.

And as you can imagine, miss Lexi makes a few appearances in the book. :) The session we did in August was one of my favorites, so I had a hard time picking just a couple of pictures to include…

These pictures are from a Royals game we went to with our friends Ash & Zach (who you may have seen before on here…) and also the Chiefs home opener game on 9-11.

And of course I had to do a spread for Halloween. I don’t think I ever blogged these pictures (they aren’t my best work…what can I say…party + point & shoot - does not equal high quality photos!), but as you can see we had some interesting characters attend the party we went to. Snooki and The Situation even made an appearance!

And then on the back cover I had to put a few “family photos”. Of course we don’t have one with all 5 of us together (I don’t think that will ever happen…) but at least when I look back through this album I’ll be able to see how cute all of our furbabies were in 2011!

I am now planning on keeping this tradition up and making a new book each year in January. Although I still have an entire shoebox of pictures from 2010, and even some from 2009…I have yet to decide if I will just ditch the prints and make a 2010 photo book or if I’ll actually fill up one last album (or two. or three. I have a lot of prints in that box…)

I’ve already looked through this book at least 10 times. And I will probably look through it another 10 times before I move it off the coffee table and onto the shelf with all of the other photo albums. I just love it, what can I say! Did I mention I was a photo album nerd?

Lexi ~ 2 years

2012-01-08T15:20:00.001-06:00

ok, so technically she is 2 years + 1.5 months. close enough.

on an unseasonably warm day last week, we finally squeezed in Lexi’s 2 year session. Amazingly, we were able to run around outside, without coats, and we had lovely sunshine to work with. Not your typical January in Kansas, that’s for sure.

We actually ended up at Wonderscope Children’s Museum – we originally went to Old Shawnee Town…but it was all gated up. That turned out to be a good thing, though, because the outside of the Wonderscope building is a great place for photos! They have so many colorful walls, and fun things to play on.

Before we get to the 2 year photos, lets take a quick trip down memory lane…

Here is the little munchkin at only a few weeks old:

And at one year:

And now, at two. She is growing up so fast, it's unbelievable. But she just gets cuter by the minute, and thankfully my camera is there to capture it all. :)

I had so much fun with this session…nothing like spending an afternoon running around outside with my favorite two year old. :) Especially when we get blessed with such beautiful winter weather.

And to top it all off, I leave you with a kiss! :)

just a typical Thursday in January…

2012-01-05T21:29:00.001-06:00

you know… just hangin’ out at the park… in short sleeves… and sunglasses…

yeah, that’s just a typical Thursday afternoon in January around here (HA!)

ho ho ho-liday wrap up

2011-12-30T13:25:00.001-06:00

I have quite a few pictures to share from this lovely holiday season (which, by the way, can you believe it's almost 2012 already?! holy cow!), so I’m going to just put it all together in one big wrap up post. Kind of like a present…just imagine it all tied up with a bow :)

So lets get this party started!

The holidays start in this house right after Thanksgiving, when the tree goes up. After a marathon Black Friday, I managed to dig our tree out and get it all set up and decorated.

I personally cannot wait for the day when I have a bigger house and the room to set up several trees. Matt on the other hand is not quite as excited for that…and I just can’t figure out why…

Once we (I) got the house all festive, it was time for the annual Family Christmas Cookie Decorating Adventure.

My cousins and I had a blast as always, and ended up with a pretty festive selection of cookies:

I of course came home and did some additional cookie baking and decorating of my own.

Along with these sugar cookies I also made Caramel Popcorn and my all-time favorite, Chocolate Covered Pretzels. I swear I took photos of all the goodies I baked, but the popcorn and pretzel photos have disappeared… Just trust me when I tell you that they were pretty and very yummy. :)

Aunt Terri gave each of my cousins and I one of these adorable cookie trays. When its not covered in cookies it also makes a great decoration in the kitchen. :)

After all of the baking came lots of shopping, wrapping, crafting, more shopping, more wrapping and more crafting all in preparation for the big Christmas weekend.

And then I failed as a photographer because I didn’t take a single photo on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Can you believe that!?!? I guess I was just too busy enjoying all of the family festivities. On Christmas Day I was totally bummed thinking that I didn’t have a memory card with me (another major photographer fail, right!)… I later realized that I actually had 2 memory cards with me the whole time. Awesome.

But we had a wonderful time with family, and were so lucky to be showered with amazing gifts.

Yes, that is exactly what you think it is.

I FINALLY GOT A KITCHENAID STAND MIXER! I put one of these bad boys on our wedding registry (over 2 YEARS ago now!) and I finally got it. Although I had to spend all day re-arranging my (tiny) kitchen’s countertops to make it fit, it now fits in just perfectly!

I got another great gift that I am super excited to play with…

Can you say A-W-E-S-O-M-E! Once again this will require some re-arranging to get some use, but I am planning a nice little “craft corner” in our second bedroom/office, so as soon as I can get my butt in there and organize, this puppy will be getting a ton of use!

And thanks to my wonderful husband, I am now the proud owner of a Keurig Coffee Maker! I also get 2 awesome girls adventures with my BFF (a cake making class and a girls night out) thanks to our guys working together for our gifts this year. How clever are they!

In my usual fashion, I also want to share one of my favorite gifts I gave this year…

Not the best picture, but it says “THAMES” which is the family name on my mom’s side. I have seen these letter art pieces floating around for a while, and I decided to try my hand at it. I love how it came out, and my mom’s side of the family loved them too! I also made one for a wedding gift recently, and another one for my sister-in-law for Christmas. Now I want to make one for myself!

So there you have it. Christmas in a nutshell! It really was a great holiday season this year, even if it did sneak up on me and go by in the blink of an eye. Next up is New Years Eve, and then we’re on to 2012! I am hoping to spend a lot more time on my photography in 2012. So hopefully that means this ol blog will see a lot more action! I hope you’ll come along for the ride :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone, I hope 2012 brings great things to all!

party like a two-year-old

2011-12-22T11:37:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago we celebrated Lexi’s 2nd birthday. If you couldn’t tell, it was a sailboat themed party.

Lexi’s other Aunt and I helped her mom plan this shin dig…and I must say we did a pretty darn good job!

We had quite a spread of food… and of course everything had to fit in with the theme. :)

The sweets table was a big hit too…surprise, surprise. I took it as an excuse to make some sugar cookies with royal icing. :)

The birthday girl had a blast…which of course is the most important part!

As you can see, she dressed appropriately for the event (as did her teddy bear!). I certainly learned my lesson – next year a photo session with the birthday girl needs to happen before the party begins…and before she gets into the cupcakes :)

But don’t worry, I’m planning a 2-year session with her soon, and I’m sure the sailor dress will make an appearance.

And I’m sure no one will be surprised at the gift Aunt Brooke gave Lexi…

Every 2 year-old needs their own camera! (and this Aunt clearly needed a higher shutter speed for this picture…)

I learned more than one lesson from this party…

I thought I would try putting my camera on aperture priority for this (since it was indoors, a cloudy day, so pretty low light, and being a party rather than a portrait session I thought having my settings at least somewhat on auto would help), but unfortunately being as low-light as it was, that meant my shutter speed was pretty low the whole time (which = camera shake, which = blur). In-camera I couldn’t see the blur very well (I noticed it on some shots, but most of them looked ok), so I didn’t realize that I wasn’t getting sharp images until too late. It’s not like all of the pictures are completely blurry, so of course it could have been much worse, but for an OCD photographer like myself, I always strive for sharp images. Lesson learned!

Either way it was a great party, celebrating an awesome 2 year-old!

The Moss Family

2011-12-11T21:14:00.001-06:00

I hung out with my favorite 2-year-old and her family for some photos recently.

It was a fun afternoon at the park…the dog park to be exact. :)

Enjoy my favorites from the session…

the moss family ~ sneak peek

2011-11-23T18:07:00.001-06:00

I hung out with these guys at the park last weekend for some family photos…here is a sneak peek :)

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got some turkey to eat over the next couple of days…

Once I’m nice and full, I’ll be back with the rest from this session :)

lexi ~ little farmer

2011-11-03T21:03:00.001-05:00

As you saw in Monday's sneak peek, I hung out with Lexi the farmer last weekend to get some Halloween photos.

I love that she is now at the age where she understands the concept of me taking her picture. And as you can see, she already knows how to ham it up :) That’s my girl!

Here are a few more from our session...enjoy!

Although we started out the session with a few images looking like this…

…I ended up with some of my favorite images of all time. Like the two below.

Is she adorable, or what!?

I still can’t believe how quickly she is growing up, but I am thrilled to be able to document her throughout each stage. :)

boo!

2011-10-31T09:06:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween! Hope you are having a spooktacular day. :)

This weekend I took some pictures of little miss Lexi in her costume – she made a darling little farmer, I must say.

Here are a couple sneak peeks…

Stay tuned for the rest…

and you may have noticed…I updated my little signature stamp…thought it was time for a new look :) let me know what you think!

some family photos

2011-10-27T20:06:00.001-05:00

so I went out on a limb this year, and decided to attempt to get some “family photos” of us…….myself. You know, like a self-family-portrait (or something like that).

I wasn’t sure how it would go…but it seemed like a fun idea, so why not! The husband was oh so excited.

I am actually pretty impressed with how they came out. It only took 2 afternoons, a tripod, and a lot of running back and forth while trying not to look like I just ran back and forth (don’t have a remote for the camera just yet…) Although there were several poses that would have come out really awesome, but instead came out as a beautifully focused tree with two blurry people in front of them, I did manage to get a few good ones (you know, where we were actually in focus). We even threw Daisy in for a couple of them!

I’m only showing you a few for now…I do have to save something for the holiday card you know. :)

I also ended up with some pretty stinkin’ cute shots of Matt and Daisy, which came out of the bazillion “setup” shots I took (while attempting to get the camera positioned, the settings changed, the timer set…)

These two do make a pretty cute couple………

I’ll post all the pictures from this “session” one of these days…if I don’t forget. :)

woof

2011-10-13T19:02:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago, I organized a bake sale at work which benefitted a great charity, Wayside Waifs. If you haven’t heard of Wayside (you probably live under a rock. or you just aren’t from Kansas City), they are a wonderful animal rescue group. And who doesn’t love animal rescue groups.

Anyway, I decided I would also contribute to the bake sale, so I whipped up some sugar cookies with paw prints on them (cute, right?).

I know I’ve posted about my attempts at baking before, and shared the recipes before, but I’m sharing again. Because I can. I am slowly mastering the art of this baking thing…although it is still quite an ordeal. I end up spending more than a couple hours on it each time. But it’s actually pretty calming to me, and, well, the end result is delicious!

I started with this sugar cookie recipe. The dough is amazing. Not that I would eat it or anything. But it’s delicious.

This is the recipe I use for my Royal Icing (and here is a little “how-to” that I use as well).

From there, I just let the creative juices flow. This time it came out in the form of paw prints, just perfect for a bake sale benefitting an animal shelter.

I think this batch turned out pretty well – every last one of them sold at the bake sale, and I didn’t hear any complaints. :)

football and a flyover

2011-10-06T14:21:00.003-05:00

A few weekends ago, we rang in the official start of fall with the first Chiefs game (ok, it wasn't technically the first game, but it was the home opener.)

That day was also the 10th anniversary of a day most of us will never forget.

It's one of those days where everyone remembers where they were, what they were doing, who they were talking to...every detail about when they heard of the terrorist attacks. I know I remember it like it was yesterday.

You see a lot of different ways to memorialize and pay tribute to all those who lost their lives that day - of course the NFL and the Chiefs were no different, so we got to see some pretty neat things at this game.

But lets start at the beginining. As always, the day starts with some good old fashioned tailgating.

Look! That's me! I have been told that my face doesn't show up enough around here...

Well you know it's a little tricky when I am the one behind the camera most of the time, but I'm working on making an effort to hand the camera over every now and then.

(Just ignore the fact that I look like I just rolled out of bed and am still half asleep. That's because I did, and I was. It was a Sunday afterall.)

See, I did it again. :)

Once we had consumed enough ~~free beer~~ good tailgaiting food, we made our way inside.

The first cool thing we saw was the unveiling of this larger-than-life American Flag. I'm not kidding when I say larger than life. The thing covered the entire football field! And if I remember correctly, everyone holding the flag were first responders on the day of the attacks.

Since it's hard to capture this type of thing in photos, I attempted to animate it to give you a better idea of what it was like to see it unfold. Pretty cool. (if the image below isn't moving, click on it to see the animation)

After the unveiling of the awesome flag, a moment of silence, and the national anthem (sung by our hometown American Idol David Cook...) we were also treated to a flyover.

And who doesn't love a flyover. I get goosebumps every time.

Then the game finally started...

...and, I promptly stopped taking pictures. The Touchtown photo above, was pretty much the one and only good moment by the Chiefs the entire game. It was quite sad really how badly the Bills stomped on us.

And the 2 games after that were no better.

But this past weekend we finally brought home a win!

I guess we're just getting off to a slow start this season...or something.

old settlers

2011-09-22T21:19:00.003-05:00

A couple weeks ago we walked over to the Johnson County Old Settler’s festivities, which just happens to set up every year about 2 blocks from our house.

There are lots of fun events – a parade, vendors, a carnival. For some reason, we always end up not making it out until the last evening they are there… I’m sure once we have a little one we will probably have more motivation to get out and enjoy the daytime activities.

But since we’re still young and kid-less, we like to gather a few friends and walk down to enjoy the carnival, some awesome (in a really-bad-for-you sort of way) food, and some serious people-watching. What, you don’t go to carnivals to people-watch? psh.

We did some arcade-game-playing, some who’s-the-toughest-guy competition (aka who-can-win-brooke-a-prize…and just for the record it was not Matt who won that one…just sayin’…), some eating, and of course as I already mentioned, some people-watching. What more could you ask for in a Saturday evening?!

run for rhonda …again!

2011-09-02T18:16:00.002-05:00

Well, I did it again. Yes, I was up and out of the house BEFORE 8AM ON A SUNDAY. Of course there must be a good reason for such craziness...

And there is! Last weekend the family all got out and walked in the Head for the Cure 5k (just like we did last year) in honor of Aunt Rhonda.

We had a great time, and of course it supported a great cause.

Enjoy some photos of the event...

As you can see, Rhonda is doing great - and looking fabulous!

Lexi ~ summer fun

2011-08-02T18:50:00.004-05:00

Like I said last week, it had been quite a while since the last photo session I did with Lexi…I think it was all the way back at her first birthday! Now, she is a whole 20 months old! That’s almost 2 years! Where has the time gone?!?

It’s a whole different ballgame taking pictures of an almost-2-year-old… it now involves a lot of running, chasing, screaming, laughing, clapping, jumping, and some photo snapping in there somewhere too. I love it though – I am lucky to get some experience photographing kids of all ages, just by watching this cutie-pie grow up :)

But I digress. Please enjoy more photos from our session:

(so, I’m trying the whole images-in-a-collage-blog-post thing. I see a lot of other blogs post pictures in this format, so I thought I’d try it too. It was sort of a pain in the you-know-what though, so I’m sure I’m doing it wrong. just call me Photoshop rookie...)

fun in the sun

2011-07-27T19:02:00.001-05:00

it had been waaaaay too long since I did an actual photo session with Lexi… so we took care of that.

I’m working on editing the rest of the photos now, but here’s a few to hold you (Sarah) over. :)

This kid just keeps getting cuter… stay tuned for more!

everything’s bigger…

2011-07-20T21:34:00.001-05:00

…in Texas!

For the 4th of July, we took a little trip down to Texas to visit some family. And by little trip, I mean 12 hours in the car each way. (Although that’s nothin’ compared to our Vegas trip last year.)

The first day of our trip was spent on the water…one of my favorite places to be. :)

Matt and I enjoyed some tubing with my cousins (who you may remember as the flower girls from our wedding)…

And as you can see Sarah is a super star at knee-boarding!

I was not interested in embarrassing myself, so I left the knee-boarding to the professional. I did attempt to water ski, but thankfully there aren’t any pictures of that adventure.

That evening, we did some family pictures. In our coordinating Red, White & Blue, no less. ;)

First up were the 5 grandkids (my second cousins? I think? they are my cousin’s kids, so whatever that makes them…)

And of course a picture of our little family…

And apparently we have a thing for silly pictures in my family…

(that last picture courtesy of my cousin Jen:)

(can we all take a moment to notice that my mom is the one person not sticking out her tongue…ha)

Then, on the 4th we decided to be adventurous.

And by we, I mean my aunt Janet. She had the grand idea that we should all go and ride a zip line. As in, jump off a giant tower and then fly down this cord and feel like you’re going to slam into a tree and die. But it will be fun!!

Do I look scared? Yeah.

When I looked up and saw how tall (and wobbly!) that tower was I was cursing Aunt Janet.

And then when I got to the top I wanted to turn around and go back to the ground.

But the crazy lady hooking us up (as in, RESPONSIBLE FOR MY LIFE) talked me into doing it. So I jumped.

And it was SO FUN!! It was only scary until about 2 seconds after I jumped and then it was pure awesomeness.

I even managed to snap a picture of Matt mid-ride.

See? I wasn’t scared a bit. Ha.

(By the way, of COURSE I had to be the first one to go because I was the only ~~idiot~~ one with a camera)

Although it was fun snapping pictures of everyone else as they flew by. :)

How cute is my mom :)

After our adventurous day, we headed home and got ready for our big night out to watch the fireworks over the lake.

We watched fireworks at the Ski Lodge, which according to my Aunt Janet makes a killer margarita.

And I happen to agree. If you can’t tell.

The next day was the last day of our vacation, and after a long day of shopping we headed to San Antonio for dinner and a visit to the Riverwalk.

We stopped to eat dinner at this 24 hour Mexican place (can you say HEAVEN), which had some crazy decor…

(that’s the ceiling!)

And on the way there we saw the Alamo.

We didn’t actually go see the Alamo, we just drove by. But I still took a picture out the window :)

And then I tried to turn it into a slightly less taken-out-the-car-window picture.

Not bad, eh?

After dinner, we made it to the river walk

My parents. Aren’t they cute. :)

This looked like the coolest store ever (although it wasn’t open). And clever marketing to put their website on the window in front of the cool sculpture everyone takes a picture in front of…

Aww…

After the Riverwalk, we came home, packed up, and then bright and early the next morning we hopped back on the road for the 12 hour drive home. Thankfully this road trip wasn’t *quite* as eventful as our Colorado trip last fall… I haven’t sworn of road trips all together, so I think that is a plus.

2 years and counting

2011-07-18T18:48:00.000-05:00

2 years ago at this moment…

I was nervously sitting in a room with my future-husband, my family, and our closest friends. I was checking my hair, I was making sure I had my bouquet. I was telling my mom to quit peeking into the ceremony room, I was making sure everyone was ready to go. Because I was only a few minutes away from the big moment, on our big day.

Now, 2 years later, I still remember it like it was yesterday. And I’m still just as happy as I was on that day. Actually, probably happier. :) Mostly because I’m lucky enough to wake up next to these 2 every day:

(and yes, I do wake up to 2 other furry creatures every day as well. :P )

To my hubby, my baby, my rock, my friend: I love you. Happy 2 years, and here’s to 200 more. :)

to us ~ forever & ever

jordan

2011-06-12T13:53:00.001-05:00

I told you the other day about Jordan, and how great of a model she was. Here is some more proof of that :)

This girl sure knew how to rock a tutu!

Can you say America’s Next Top Model…

And what girl doesn’t love to twirl in a tutu?

She knew how to have a little fun too :)

Did I mention that she can pull of some killer gymnastics moves??

This shoot was so much fun. Besides the fact that it was about 1,000 degrees outside – we had a blast. And Jordan is such a natural in front of the camera! She managed to look adorable and perfectly content in all of her photos, while I was sweating like crazy and left the park looking like a hot mess… what a rock star! By the way, she has a birthday coming up – Happy Birthday Jordan!!!! :)

tutus and twirls

2011-06-09T22:46:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I hung out with my niece, Jordan. She is a fabulous model, and has a lot of fun twirling in her tutu. :)

And there’s a lot more where this came from, just as soon as I finish editing them all. :) Stay tuned…

another backyard photo shoot

2011-05-20T17:07:00.000-05:00

On another fun evening with the munchkin, I decided to have an impromptu photo shoot in the back yard again. This time I had a plan – I had a really great Mother’s Day gift in mind for Lexi’s mom. Well, that idea worked a lot better in my head, so it will probably be tucked away for next year (when I have more time and a slightly older and more sit-still-capable child on my hands). I did end up with a few great shots, and we still got a great Mother’s day gift out of it all.

Have I ever mentioned the many facial expressions of this child :D

This one (in black and white) ended up making an appearance in a beautiful homemade picture frame for a one of a kind Mother’s day present. I think the best part about the photo is how dirty those hands are. :) The kid is completely at home when she is outside, getting dirty. My kind of girl.

This one is an all time favorite.

Of course Daisy and Lexi have become good friends (in a why-do-you-always-come-over-here-and-play-with-my-toys kind of way). This next series just cracks me up.

“Hmm, child playing in my yard, wonder what she’s doing”

“She has a bucket. I wonder what’s in the bucket”

“Oh. There’s sand in the bucket. And my toy. I’ll take that…”

And of course, Daisy saw the camera and said “oh, you’re taking pictures? great! I’ll just pose myself right here…yes that’s perfect”

I'm ready for the spring/summer weather to stick around so that I can keep getting out there with the camera. Enough of this cold, snowy, stay inside business.

Happy Spring! (kind of)

2011-05-17T12:53:00.000-05:00

Well, Spring did decide to hang around for a little while, but not too long. It tried to skip right over to summer for a minute, and then it was thinking maybe it wanted to go back to winter for a minute. I know I’ve said it before but…yeah…good ol’ midwest for ya.

Somewhere in there when it was actually sunny and warm, I took advantage and got lots of flowers planted. One of my favorite parts about this time of year is getting to spruce up my deck with tons of potted flowers. I don’t really have much of a green thumb, but I still try. :)

Now lets just hope that they are still this bright and colorful in a couple of months…

Happy Easter!

2011-05-15T12:43:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know, Easter was actually 3 weeks ago. So I’m a little behind.

I still wanted to share a few photos of our Easter fun. Better late than never, right?

You may remember this adorable Easter basket from last year.

Can you tell that this girl is slightly spoiled? I know I just can’t help myself when I have a chance to shower her in gifts. :)

I don’t think she minds… ;)

I hope you had a lovely Easter full of good times with family, and the most important part – lots of chocolate. ;)

spring? is that you?

2011-04-07T19:31:00.001-05:00

Well, Spring seems to have decided to make an appearance…at least for now. You never know in good ol’ Kansas what you’re going to get – snow one day, 80 degree temperatures 2 days later… gotta love it.

This past weekend I got to have a play date with my favorite 1-year-old. It was super nice outside and let me tell you this kid LOVES to be outside, so can you guess where we spent most of the evening?! Our backyard gets some pretty yummy light in the evening, so our play time became a perfect impromptu photo shoot :)

We played in the sand… (who knew a horseshoe pit would make a such great sandbox)

And we did a little yard work… (dang lawn mower, always a pain to get started)

and then we did what the little miss does best: look cute :)

I am amazed at how much she has grown since the last time I took pictures of her. Even though I see her all the time, when I look at it in pictures it never ceases to amaze me. My little girl is growing up so fast! (ok, so she’s not technically “mine” but still.)

Happy Spring! Here’s to hoping that it doesn’t snow again anytime soon…

the kids

2011-03-05T23:16:00.001-06:00

I know, I know, we don’t *technically* have any kids. But we do have furbabies, and we love them just as much as we would human kids. :)

A few weeks ago, on one of those snow days, I snapped a few photos of the “kids” just hanging around the house.

Daisy wanted to model her Christmas present – her very own Chiefs scarf. You know, because dogs need scarves too…

And then Dammit (yes, we have a cat named Dammit) was laying on the table by the back door in some lovely sunlight. That spot is pretty much the best light in my house, at least from a photo perspective…too bad it’s in the old, ugly kitchen.

She was really hamming it up for me. :)

I just love her little pink nose – and I really love this shot:

Marley really didn’t want to get in on the photo shoot that day… but I did catch a cute kitty-love moment…

One of these days I’ll have a nice human child to take pictures of. But until then, you’ll just have to settle for my furbabies. :)

the bathroom…finally

2011-02-19T23:20:00.003-06:00

So, yeah. Waaaay back in September of last year, we started the grand task of remodeling our bathroom. And, a grand task it was. We completely gutted the bathroom, and started over from scratch. Luckily, the husband does this sort of thing for a living, so I just did a lot of “hold this” and “get me that”, which was perfectly fine with me. :)

We took a week off of work, and pretty much did the entire project in a 2 1/2 week period. Let me tell you, that was quite an interesting 2 1/2 weeks (we have a grand total of 1 bathroom in our house, therefore we were without a shower for several days, and without toilet for almost 2 full weeks. yeah…interesting.) The first week, while we were off work, we pretty much worked non-stop on the remodel, and the second week we worked on it every chance we got after work and on the weekends. Tired was an understatement once it was all said and done.

But the tired was totally worth it. And the going without a toilet? Also totally worth it. Because I now have a shiny new bathroom complete with fresh paint, new fixtures, and a clean tub. All things that were missing from the previous bathroom which was pretty much just old and dirty, and not much more.

I intended to take pictures and blog some before & after shots quite a long time ago…but, there were (and still are) a few details left that I wanted to finish before the big reveal. Well, I’m not convinced those are going to get finished any time soon, and since pretty much all of our family and friends have come over to see the new bathroom, I figured it was about time to post these pictures.

So now, over 5 months later, here are the before and after pictures…enjoy!

I am in. LOVE. with my new vanity. Especially considering how u-g-l-y the previous one was…

The window was another major transformation. Its so nice not to have to have a shower curtain *inside* the shower, and to not have to look at that old, rotting window anymore! The glass block window is one of my favorite features of the remodel. It is the only thing we paid someone else to install, but it was oh so worth it.
A couple of other details I am in love with about the new bathroom…

Custom tile border in the shower

Built-in shelves in the shower - fabulous

And Matt’s own personal creation – the flat-mirror-turned-built-in-medicine-cabinet! It looks like just a mirror hanging on the wall, but the mirror is actually the door to my custom built medicine cabinet! This is perfect in our teeny tiny bathroom, because it gives us much-needed storage, without taking up additional space.

So there you have it, my rockin’ new bathroom. What do you think?! Not that it matters, because I LOVE it. :)

Oh, and I’m sure the big question on your mind is what was our budget. Well, seeing as we didn’t have to pay for labor (thank goodness for that handyman of a husband of mine), our budget was purely for materials. We allocated $2,000 for the project, and in the end came in around $2,300 (I will admit I never did sit down and do a final total…but I kept tabs on it all along so I had a pretty good idea of where we were). The glass block window is what made us go over budget, as we initially planned on making and installing this ourselves. But, since Matt had very little experience with it, and we didn’t have a whole lot of time for re-dos, we decided to hire it out. Still, in the end, I think we got a pretty fantastic deal on a complete bath remodel. :)

I am still on the hunt for the perfect cabinet to put above the toilet for some additional storage, as well as some type of art for the wall above the towel rack. I just can’t seem to find a cabinet in the right size, and color to match the vanity, and, well, I started my own little “art project” to hang on the wall, but I didn’t really like how it came out and nothing has caught my eye just yet.

So, maybe by September of this year the room will actually be *completely* finished. I’m not too worried about it, though, as long as I have a working toilet and shower, I am a happy girl. :)

be mine

2011-02-13T00:17:00.001-06:00

I used to hate Valentine’s day. Hated it. Thought it was the stupidist holiday ever. (I’m pretty sure the main reason for that was because I was single…)

I’m still not terribly fond of the holiday, but I have learned to let go of the hatred. I’m guessing that having someone to buy me a card and maybe even flowers helps with that… :)

This year I got a smidge more into Valentine’s Day than usual, and baked some heart cookies. Really, I just saw it as a perfect excuse to bake some sugar cookies and decorate them with royal icing again. (I tried this for the first time over the holidays) And then when they were done I thought they were so pretty that it was the perfect excuse to bust out the camera and give that new lens of mine some more use.

These cookies are, quite frankly, a royal pain to make. They take forever, and they make a mess (well, people that can actually cook and have normal sized kitchens probably don’t make nearly as much of a mess as me – I am by no means a chef, and my teeny tiny kitchen has zero counterspace). But, for some reason, I really enjoy making them (ok, eating them). Decorating is the best part - I still need some practice, but I’m getting better. :)

I made these so the husband and I could have a nice treat on Valentine’s Day, but I’m not so sure there will be very many left by Monday…

snow day!

2011-02-02T21:20:00.001-06:00

If you live anywhere near the Kansas City Metro Area, then you too probably had a snow day recently. Ok, if you live anywhere in the Midwest you probably had a snow day.

(In case you live under a rock, a giant blizzard blew through the Midwest yesterday.)

As if we hadn’t already had enough snow this year, Mother Nature decided to dump another foot of snow on us. Gee, thanks.

In honor of the snow days, I thought I would stick with the theme – so, here are some images from the snow day round 1 (at the time, it seemed like we had gotten a ridiculous amount of snow, but looking back: eh, that was nothin’)

Check this massive icicle out – holy moly

And of course, my little snow bunny

Now, some pictures from today:

And, just to give you the full blizzard effect, a (bad) photo looking out our front window:

Unfortunately, the snow day fun is all over and tomorrow I must return to good ol’ work. (Can you tell how excited I am…)

Here’s to hoping that the blizzard fun is over for Mother Nature, and we can move our way on to Spring…I think we’ve all had enough snow for one year.

snow

2011-01-28T13:29:00.000-06:00

Wow, has it really been almost a whole month since the last time I posted?!?! Where have I been??

I really couldn't tell you. But I do know that Kansas has been pretty much covered in a blanket of snow in the past 2 weeks.

On a recent "snow day" (i.e. day where I didn't feel like digging my car out so took the day off) I ran around in the backyard with Daisy playing in the snow and snapping a few photos.

Yes, the snow goes all the way up to her belly.

On another snowy evening the hubs came out to enjoy the snow as well.

What a stud.

(Please ignore the fact that my fence in the background looks a lovely shade of lime green. I'm really not sure what that's all about. I think it's some type of mold or mildew growing. Awesome.)

I hope to post more of my "snow day" photos soon... I'll try not to make it another month from now ;)

one year

2011-01-02T21:01:00.001-06:00

It was right around this time last year that I photographed my niece, Alexus, for the first time. I can hardly believe that an entire year has gone by…and I really can’t believe how much she has grown up in that year. If you’d like to take a little trip down memory lane, click here to see my post of those first photos when she was just a few weeks old.

And now, a year later, enjoy some photos of her from her first birthday party.

A few days after the party, I went over and had a one year session with Lexi. It really is amazing how our sessions have changed over the past year. At the beginning it was a matter of plopping a baby down in some good lighting, and seeing if we could get her to smile. Now, I find myself chasing a toddler around with the camera, trying to catch all the giggles and smiles I can.

I’m really looking forward to another year of photographing this little doll.

Happy first birthday to my favorite one-year-old! :)

new year, new look

2010-12-29T22:46:00.001-06:00

Well... things have changed a bit around here haven't they. What do you think? I was going for a fresh, new, simpler look. And I think I have achieved just that, if I may say so myself. :)

I still have a lot of catching up to do in the world of editing photos and writing blog posts. But tonight I decided to focus on the blog itself.

I also wanted to share with you my most favoritest Christmas gifts this year. And yes, I know, favoritest is not a word. It is in my world.

First, the favoritest gift that I recieved. Well, it's a tie.

For the most thoughtful, the award goes to the husband...

who gave me this gorgeous necklace from Helzberg's I am Loved collection

For most useful, the award goes to my parents...

who gave me this new lens!!!!! it's a Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8

I seriously about peed my pants when I saw this lens for the first time, and realized it was MINE, ALL MINE!! I am so excited to get some good use out of this bad boy. EEEK!

Now on to the more important...the most favoritest gift that I gave!

I made a photo book for the little munchkin, full of all the photos I've taken of her in her first year.

(to see the whole book, click here ~ Shutterfly rocks!)

I'm not gonna lie, it was a LOT of work to put together...but it was so worth it. I love how it came out, and I really can't wait until she is older and I can sit down and look through it with her.

Now don't get me wrong... I received TONS of WONDERFUL gifts this year from my amazing family and friends. And I'd like to think that all of the gifts I gave were equally as wonderful. I just had to highlight a couple of the really super awesome ones. :)

So enjoy the new look of the blog, tell me if you like it (or if you hate it), and start thinking about what you're getting me for Christmas next year so that you too can make my most favoritest list (hehe. I kid, I kid). And stay tuned for (hopefully) several catch up posts coming soon!!

Ho Ho Ho!

2010-12-24T12:52:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas (Eve)!!

First of all: yes, I know, I am terribly behind in blogging. I have several posts in the works, and lucky for you I am off work next week so I should be able to play a lovely game of catch-up. I’ve also been toying around with the idea of re-designing this bad boy (again), so look out for that next week as well. :)

But for today, I wanted to share with you what I was busy doing last weekend in preparation for the holidays!

Just call me Suzie Homemaker…I was a baking fool y’all!

I spent the entire day last Sunday in the kitchen, baking away. It was so much fun! Of course I’m not so sure how much my waistline has appreciated the constant sugar overload, but hey, its the holidays right!

So here is what I made (click on the picture for a link to the recipe):

Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn

Peppermint Bark

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

this was my first attempt at decorating with Royal Icing, and for that matter my first time baking sugar cookies using any recipe other than my mom’s! I went all out for these, buying pastry bags, decorating tips, gel coloring…all the stuff on that cake decorating supply aisle at Michael’s that I’m usually too afraid to go near. It was worth it though, because in the end I was SO happy with how they came out. Now, of course they aren’t perfect…I am still a beginner here. But for my first try, I think they came out great! Of course, I spent longer-than-I-care-to-admit making them, but hopefully that is something that gets better with practice. And the husband gave the final seal of approval, saying they tasted great! So I’m happy to say my first attempt was a definite success. :)

I also made Chocolate Covered Pretzels. I don’t have a recipe for these because, well, they’re pretty basic. One of my favorite holiday goodies though! I may or may not have eaten them for breakfast the other day at work. :)

Well, I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas Eve, and that the rest of the holiday weekend is full of fun, family and lots of goodies! I will be back next week with all of my catch-up posts :)

Ho Ho Ho!

Cake, anyone??

2010-12-09T20:45:00.001-06:00

Over the weekend, someone I know had a first birthday party…

And someone dug right into some delicious cake…

More to come soon :)

Hooray for Holiday Cards!

2010-11-18T17:53:00.003-06:00

Yep, it’s that time again! Can you believe it? The holidays are just around the corner! I swear, just yesterday I was complaining about how hot and muggy it was outside. Now, its FREEZING!

So…what comes along with the cold weather? The holidays! And what comes along with the holidays? Holiday cards! If you remember from last year, I was way ahead of the game and got them ordered super early. This year? Not so much. But that’s ok, I still have a solid month to get them picked out, ordered, envelopes stuffed, addressed, and in the mail. Easy, right?! Sure, no problem!

When I first started thinking about the ol’ holiday card for this year (which I’ll admit, was only about a week ago…) I thought “I’ll make my own!” I mean, I’m creative, I like designing stuff, so I could totally do it, right? Sure. If I didn’t have a job, and a house, and a life. So, that was a nice thought.

Now, the past couple years I have ordered my cards from various online retailers. This year, however, I think I will be making the switch. The switch to Shutterfly. I currently have aaaallllll of my photos from the past couple years uploaded to another site. But I think from now on, I will be uploading to Shutterfly. This place is great, people! Their website is easy to use, uploads your photos in a jiffy, and have I talked about their Holiday Card selection yet? No? Oh, let me tell you about it.

It rocks.

Like, really rocks.

There are TONS of designs to choose from, they come in all different shapes and sizes, and they are all so fun! (well, there are some traditional ones too, if you like that sort of thing)

I have spent the last hour perusing just a small selection of the bazillion possible designs, and I am in love. Let me show you some of my favorites so far…

Snowflake Ribbon Christmas Card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

We Heart You Holiday Card

Christmas cards and holiday thank you cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Send Holiday Cheer Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Aren’t they fun!? I could have gone on and on…but I really need to start cooking dinner. :)

Shutterfly not only has holiday cards, but they have other fun personalized things like mugs andinvitations. How cool is that!?

So, watch your mailboxes folks, you might just see one of these cards! Or, maybe not – there are about a million other designs to choose from… ;) And I won’t lie, I purposely left my favorites out of this post so that I won’t spoil the big holiday card surprise. :P

Bloggers, want to get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly? Click here.

The Moss Family

2010-11-17T18:02:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned before, I went and hung out with my favorite almost-one-year-old and her parents a couple weekends ago for some family portraits. I am really happy with how they came out. :)

By the way, can you believe little Lexi is almost A YEAR OLD. Holy cow where has the time gone!

Anyway, enjoy some of my favorites from our shoot…

Aren’t they just the cutest little family :)

Moss family ~ sneak peek

2010-11-11T10:26:00.000-06:00

I hung out with Lexi and her parents last weekend to do some family portraits. I've been pretty busy so I haven't gotten all the images edited yet, but here is a little sneak peek...more to come!!

Colorado!

2010-11-07T21:54:00.004-06:00

The hubs and I recently took a little road trip to Colorado, to visit our good friends Ryan & Elaine.

Despite a few "hiccups" with the *road trip* part of the trip (such as being pulled over for NO REASON AT ALL, getting a flat tire 10 hours away from home with a spare tire that was STUCK UNDER THE CAR and then FLAT, and a possible red-light ticket in the lovely city of Denver...) we had such a great time!

I took a ton of photos (surprise surprise) and just finally got around to editing them all. Enjoy a few of my favorites!

The scenery is to. die. for. We don't get these views in good ol Kansas.

This my darling friend Elaine, and her adorable little baby boy, James.

We went on a hike near their house, and were able to get some pictures with some amazing scenery for a backdrop!

We also hung out in the wonderful little town of Breckenridge for a day. Such a fun place!

Ryan & Elaine: Thank you so much for hosting us! We had SO much fun! Can't wait to come back and see you again! :)

A Little Ladybug

2010-11-02T21:07:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I got to hang out with my favorite little munchkin, and get some photos of her in her Halloween costume.

How *cute* is that costume!? It’s not just any ol’ costume, that bad boy was homemade. I love it.

Enjoy some of my favorite images from our shoot. And get ready, because there is a cuteness overload coming your way! :)

This is one of my absolute favorites. Isn’t she just PRECIOUS.

Not only does this kid make an adorable ladybug, she makes a pretty stinkin’ cute witch too!

This last one just makes me giggle :)

Ryanne & Travis ~ Family

2010-10-31T20:04:00.001-05:00

As promised, here are some more images of this fun family I hung out with recently! My friend Ash (who you probably remember from here) works with Ryanne, who wanted some shots of her and her boyfriend, and his 2 adorable kids. I think we got some good ones, and more importantly we had a ton of fun playing at the park!

Happy Halloweenie!

2010-10-31T16:25:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone is having a lovely Halloween day full of candy eating and trick-or-treating! In the spirit of today, I thought I would share the pumpkins we carved this year:

You can probably guess who did each one… :) I think they turned out pretty darn good! Of course Matt cheated and used his Dremel, while I slaved away with the cheap-o plastic pumpkin carving set, but in the end I think they both look great.

By the way, I’ve been keeping quite busy lately taking a lot of photos, so stay tuned for lots of posts coming up! :)

Happy Halloween!

Family Fun!

2010-10-20T09:33:00.003-05:00

I hung out with this adorable, fun family last weekend:

Stay tuned, there's more where this came from!
(but don't hold your breath or anything...the hubs and I are skipping town tomorrow to go visit our friends Ryan & Elaine in COLORADO! We'll be back Sunday, so I should have the rest of these images up next week some time :)

Ash & Zach ~ Love

2010-10-12T19:10:00.004-05:00

As I mentioned, a couple weekends ago I met up with my friends Ash & Zach (who you may remember from last year) for a little Holiday Card photo shoot. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a photo shoot, with plenty of sunshine. I had a really hard time narrowing down my favorites, but here they are...

Can you tell that Missy is quite a loved pooch?!

There was quite a bit of wind when we were out on this dock...if you couldn't tell from Missy's "Dumbo" ears. :)

Pretty sure this is my all time favorite from the session:

In looking back at last year's pictures, I think this year's are a vast improvement (not to toot my own horn or anything...). I think the biggest different is my editing skills - well for one I actually have the full version of Photoshop this year, not to mention I *sort of* know how to use it. I'm happy to report that in a year's time I've learned quite a bit, and I think it shows.

Ash & Zach are such a cute couple, and with Missy they make an adorable little family. Once again, I'm anxious to see what image ends up on their Holiday Card this year! :)

Ash & Zach ~ teaser!

2010-10-05T13:13:00.002-05:00

This past weekend I hung out with my friend Ash, her boyfriend Zach, and their pup Missy at Shawnee Mission Park. I just started editing all of the photos, but have already come across a favorite...

Stay tuned...more to come! :)

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-11T17:13:00.001-05:00

We had a lovely weekend at the lake for Labor Day weekend. Plenty of relaxing, quality time with the family, boating, all that good stuff.

I’ll go ahead and warn you now – I took a lot of photos…

That pup of ours was particularly happy to get out for some fun-in-the-sun!

We of course spent some quality time with the munchkin as well. Doesn’t she just look adorable in her little life jacket?! She wasn’t too sure about the thing, but it sure was cute. :)

Roxy dog is not much of a fan of the boat. She seemed to feel better when she was safely nestled between her mama and the little one. It was so cute how just her little nose was peeking out!

I think this is a neat ‘family photo’ of Matt’s sister, her husband, and the bebe.

And although I have no recollection of taking this next shot…I love it.

Lexi got to swim in the lake for her very first time!

Tank (Roxy’s brother) watched from the boat…and was very interested in all the activity in the water! He went for a swim himself a little later.

L.O.V.E. this daddy-daughter shot.

What is cuter than a baby in a pink polka-dot swim suit!?

Matt decided that he and Lexi should be “hat buddies'”. Aren’t they just so cute together!

Like I said, it was a lovely weekend. Just what we needed.

Then on Monday, we took the whole “Labor Day” thing a bit literal, and did this to our bathroom:

AHHHH! Scary, isn’t it?!

Luckily, it only looked like this for a few hours. It is now on its way to becoming the beautiful, new, finished bathroom of my dreams. I can’t wait until it is all done so I can post before and after pictures! So stay tuned for that :)

Here We Go…

2010-09-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

Any big plans for the long Labor Day weekend? I will be venturing to the lake this evening, and spending some quality time with the husband, the water, and my favorite little munchkin. Oh, and her parents too. ;)

Then, once we get back...it's go time...

In T minus 3 days, we will officially be starting our bathroom remodel.

WWAAAHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I’m just a *little* excited? :)

When I say "bathroom remodel" I don't mean slap-a-new-coat-of-paint-on-the-walls-and-buy-new-towels kind of remodel, I mean tear-that-baby-down-to-bare-studs-and-start-from-scratch...you know, like, the definition of remodel. (And when I say "we" I really mean "he", because well, we all know that Matt will be doing most of the work. Although I am fully prepared to go get that, and hold this, and of course keep the husband stocked with food and drink at all times. That's what wifeys do during remodels, right??)

(I chose the paint color on the left, by the way – Sherwin Williams “Sporty Blue”)

And I know what you're thinking: That crazy lady doesn't post anything for a whole MONTH and then she goes and posts 2 days in a row?! What the heck! What can I say...I'm on a roll. Stay tuned for remodeling updates, and hopefully lots of lovely lake photos from Labor Day Weekend. I mean, I am off work for a whole week, and it's not like I have an entire bathroom project to help out with or anything...

Run for Rhonda

2010-09-02T19:46:00.001-05:00

Well hello there! It’s me! That chick who used to post on this blog? Remember me? Yeah, I’m still alive. Just haven’t had much time for blogging (or taking pictures, or much of anything for that matter) lately. But I’m back! And I have some great images to share!

This past Sunday, I got up bright and early and met up with the whole family out at Corporate Woods, for the annual Head for the Cure 5k. (yes, you read that right. I got up bright and early on a Sunday. Shocking, I know.) I personally had never heard of this particular charity up until a couple months ago, but let me tell you it’s a great one!

As the slogan says… Defeating Brain Cancer Step by Step.

We we all went and participated in honor of my aunt, Rhonda, who is currently fighting the fight against brain cancer.

That’s her in the middle, with my 2 cousins Caitlin and Shelley. She fights the fight beautifully, doesn’t she?

Here’s the whole Run for Rhonda team

There were some crazy people who actually ran the 5k. psh. who does that?

Did you see that guy checking out the girl in the red sports bra?!? No really, look again-

How awesome is that!? Ahh, the things you capture when taking photos of random people… :)

My family was much more *sane* and decided to walk.

We made it, all the way to the finish line!

(It only took us an hour)

The walk was a great event, I’m really glad the family participated. And it’s for a great cause! Cancer is a nasty beast, and I think it’s great for so many people to come together and support the efforts to defeat it. I am fully confident that Aunt Rhonda, along with so many others will be able to defeat the beast. And hopefully, with the whole family in support, it will make it just a *little bit* easier.

I read on their website that this year’s event was the biggest ever. Way to go Kansas City!

Lexi ~ at Grandma & Grandpa’s

2010-08-01T12:51:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we spent the evening at Matt’s parents’ house to celebrate Steve’s birthday. While there, we decided to have a little impromptu photo shoot with miss Alexus. I’m really glad we did this actually, because I love how a lot of the images turned out! Grandma and Grandpa G have some really cool “vintage-y” items at their house, which made for some great props!

Cool item #1: this antique rocking chair. It’s been in the family since Grandma was a little one!

And cool item #2: this vintage rocker. Lexi had SO much fun hanging out on it, she was cracking us up!

Can you believe this little doll is already 8 months old?! Oh how the time flies…

An Afternoon with Daisy

2010-07-31T17:18:00.001-05:00

Last Friday, after getting off work (early! at 11:30! woo hoo!), I had a lovely afternoon to myself. I had lunch at my all time favorite Panera, got a pedicure and manicure, and did some shopping. Then I came home and hung out with my Daisy girl. It was just lovely! While I was hanging out with Daisy, I decided to have a little photo shoot with her (and this is where you are free to tell me that I need friends {or a kid!} to do photo shoots with instead of my DOG).

Enjoy some of my favorite shots:

Meet Mr. Hippo – Daisy’s newest “baby”. He was approximately 1 day old at this time…and already lost half his nose.

Sadly, he is not nearly this recognizable anymore. But Daisy sure loves him.

If there’s no one around playing with Daisy, she’ll roll over on her back and entertain herself.

I think it is just adorable to watch her when she does this.

The infamous dog head tilt – all you have to say is the word “baby” to induce one of these {or “outside”, or “walk”, or “ball”, or any other number of things…} :)

We also spent some quality time out in the backyard with the good old tennis ball.

I made a little collage of the photos I took – and I think it turned out pretty cute!

One Year Ago Today…

2010-07-18T13:40:00.000-05:00

…Was hands down the most amazing day of my entire life! One year ago today I married the man of my dreams.

I cannot believe it’s already been a year. Where has the time gone?! They say the first year is the hardest – well, we’ve definitely been through some hard times over the past year, but nothing our love couldn’t overcome. We’ve also had some really great times this past year. And I know we will go through plenty of both in the years to come, but I honestly couldn’t imagine going through it with anyone else by my side.

So now, let’s take a stroll down memory lane, and relive that fantastic day one more time. :)

(Sorry if I got a little carried away with the photos…there are just so many it’s hard to choose!)

All of the images are by the amazing Solar Photographers.

All in all, the first year of marriage has been a great one. And I cannot wait to find out what the next 50 hold in store for us! To my wonderful husband: you are the best. I am so glad that I got to experience that wonderful day with you, and I am thrilled that I get to spend the rest of my life with you. Here’s to us. Forever and ever. :)

My New Kitchen!

2010-07-16T13:06:00.001-05:00

Ok, so the title of this post may be just a teeny tiny bit exaggerated. I didn’t exactly get an entire new kitchen. But I did get a new oven!

And I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting that is.

For almost an ENTIRE YEAR now, I have been using this gem:

At first glance it just looks like a really OLD oven. But it is so much worse than that. Not only is it old, it’s ugly. And not only is it ugly, but it barely works! Here, let me show you:

See?! So for the past year, I’ve not only had an old ugly oven but I’ve only had 3 working burners and the oven itself didn’t work at all! Let’s just say that toaster oven we got for a wedding gift has been getting a TON of use. :)

But, alas, my prayers were answered, and when I woke up Sunday morning and walked into my kitchen I saw THIS:

Isn’t it PURTY!? That darling husband of mine spent his Sunday morning removing the old oven and installing this bad boy, all while I slept off my hangover. He’s a keeper, isn’t he?!

We found it at Nebraska Furniture Mart after searching all over Kansas City for the best deal. We also went to the new Sears Outlet store, hoping for a great deal on a ‘scratch and dent’ one, but the NFM one was actually cheaper than any we found there! So now, my kitchen is back in working order.

By the way, I am in LOVE with the flat cook top. Love. So easy to clean! (Not to mention all 4 burners work!)

So what was the first meal I made in the new oven you ask?

Super Gourmet – frozen pizza. :)

It was late, and we were hungry. I refused to eat out on the first night of having my new {working!} oven, so that was my compromise. I’ve more than made up for it this week, though. I’ve used either the oven or the stove (or both!) every night to make lots of yummy meals – Chicken Enchiladas, Lasagna, Taco Night. It’s been fabulous.

Now if only the rest of my kitchen could magically remodel itself, we’d be in good shape!

Father’s Day

2010-07-09T08:55:00.000-05:00

This year for father’s day…Matt had a brilliant idea of what to get his dad. He works with the guy, so talks to him quite often and knows him pretty well. Apparently Steve (that’s his dad) had been talking about a unicycle (yes, a unicycle) quite a lot recently. He was reminiscing about the days when he had one, and wishing he could get back on one.

Well, if that’s not a challenge I don’t know what is.

So can you guess what we got him for father’s day?

Yep, his very own unicycle.

And I am telling you what he wasn’t kidding. It took him all of 30 seconds and he was riding it up and down the street like he’d been doing it his whole life. It had been over 20 years since he had even tried to ride one! I was amazed.

So amazed in fact that I decided to take a video of him riding it. Enjoy. :)

Not bad for a 50-something grandpa who hadn’t so much as looked at a unicycle in 20 years, huh.

Our Very First

2010-07-08T20:46:00.001-05:00

TOMATO!

So if you remember a little while back, I posted about our ambitious garden for this summer, consisting of an entire one tomato plant.

Well, I am happy to report, that we picked our very first tomato this week!

And promptly after we picked it…

…we chopped it up and used it in our tacos! :)

Here’s to hoping we have many more delicious Roma tomatoes come out of our “garden” this summer!

Anybody still out there?

2010-07-04T13:27:00.001-05:00

As I sit on the couch today, nursing my hangover after an AWESOME 311 concert last night, I realized that I haven’t blogged in nearly a month. Oops! Hopefully somebody is still out there reading this… :)

First of all, Happy 4th of July!! I personally can’t believe that it’s already here, it seems like summer was just starting a couple days ago! I hope you all have a fun filled day planned full of BBQ, fireworks and family – I know I do!

Now, on to the real reason for this post. A couple weeks ago (ok, probably a month ago really) Matt got himself a pair of rollerblades and decided that he and Daisy could have some fun with them. Whenever he has a chance now he loves to take her out for a ‘run’, and it really tires her out! If you know my dog, you know this is very hard to do. One of the first times he took her I tagged along and snapped a few photos…it was just too cute to watch them!

Look at that tongue. She was pooped. And a pooped Daisy = a happy mom and dad. :)

Hopefully life will slow down just a tad in the coming months and I will have more to blog about! I actually haven’t even picked up my camera in over 2 weeks! *gasp* But I will be sure to bring it along for the 4th of July festivities this evening, so hopefully another blog post is coming soon!

Lexi ~ 6 months

2010-06-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

First of all, Windows Live Writer can kiss my... ahem. It doesn't like me today. This post was all nice and pretty and ready to publish, but apparently it can't be that easy. So here we are, back in blogger, and we try again...

Well. I certainly left you hanging on these now didn’t I. Sorry about that. I’m not really sure what happened – there was a holiday weekend in there, some working out in the evenings after work…apparently I have just been super busy! All I know is that was one heck of a teaser, wasn’t it. ;)

So a couple of weeks ago, I met up with the little miss and her mama at the park for some 6 month portraits. She wasn’t *technically* 6 months yet, she was about a week shy, but who’s counting.

As I mentioned in the teaser post… be aware of the cuteness overload. Miss Alexus has grown so much and is getting such a personality now, and it really shows in the images!

This bridge is a really great spot for photos. Matt & I actually took a few of our engagement photos here (with the ever-amazing Josh Solar, so technically I stole the idea for these shots from him, but I’m sure he doesn’t mind. Thanks Josh! ;)

Her facial expressions are getting so much more developed, and so adorable!! I just can’t get enough of that smile.

Speaking of facial expressions... this child has about 4,328 of them (roughly). Seriously. I have a post in the works (in my head at least) titled "the many facial expressions of Lexi" or something like that. Just from this shoot I could probably show you 932 of her facial expressions. For today, though, I'll just stick with all the cute ones. One of these days I'll post all of the funny ones - they deserve their own post. :)

I had to sneak a shot in with Mama… she has all the tricks for getting those big smiles to come out :)

Can I just say that I am thrilled that it is finally outdoor photo weather?! Natural light is where it’s at, people. I am excited for a summer (and fall) filled with lots of photos! And for your own sake, let’s just hope I find some more subjects besides this one – although she is pretty darn cute. ;)

Happy half-birthday little one!

100th Post!

2010-06-07T13:49:00.008-05:00

Holy moly! I just happened to notice that I was at 99 posts on this bad boy, making this one...you guessed it... number 100! Woo hoo!

The last blog I started only made it to 98 posts, sadly. That is not my fault, though. After I got married I sort of ran out of things to post about on my wedding planning blog...

So here we are, at post number 100.

Let's do a little recap of the first 100 posts, shall we?

Post numero uno (that's number one for those of you who aren't fluent in español...)

In this post I blabbed about myself, and then shared the first photo I ever took with my DSLR. Surprise, surprise, it's a picture of my dog. :) And not a very good one, at that. That post was just over a year ago, in March 2009. Ok, that's more than just over a year ago...it's like 3 months over a year ago.

Exactly 1 year ago today, I posted about a lovely Saturday afternoon at the lake. I like to think my skills had started to improve just a bit by then, although I do think I took way too many pictures of the husband and his fishing pole that day... For not being edited at all, I think those images I posted were pretty A-ok. Especially this one, of that crazy dog of mine:

Then July rolled around and I got married. For some reason, though, I never posted about that on here. Hmm. Guess it wasn't that important... ;) I did manage to post about it on the other blog, though...which makes sense considering that's pretty much all I talked about over there...
Later in the year I tackled my first portraits ever, my cousin's senior photos. Looking back, I think if I were to sit down and re-edit them I could improve them a ton, but I think the photos themselves are pretty good. Maybe I will sit down and do a little re-do of the editing one of these days... you know, in all of that spare time I seem to have...In November I was super-ambitious and tackled NaBloPoMo. I'm still amazed that I managed to do it, and now that I think of it, if it weren't for those 30 posts it would probably be more like December 2010 before I reached 100 posts...

I also tackled my next set of portraits that month, for my friend Ash and her boyfriend Zach. And I am proud to say that one of my images made an appearance on their holiday cards last year!

Santa surprised the heck out of me on Christmas Eve, and I became the proud owner of Adobe CS4. I admit that I still have no idea how to even begin using most of the programs, but I am slowly mastering Photoshop (ok, mastering was a poor choice of words. I am slowly figuring-out-how-to-make-the-stupid-program-do-what-I-know-it's-supposed-to-do-and-constantly-wishing-I-majored-in-photography/art/design-in-college)

I also became an aunt right around the holiday season, so since then I've pretty much just been taking pictures of the little booger. I took pictures of her for the first time on Christmas, and pretty much every month or so since then. :)

My, how she has grown in 6 months!

Whew! I have done a lot of blogging in the past year! Well, I certainly am happy and proud that I've made it to 100 posts... now let's see if I can make 100 more! I think this blog has helped me see my photography skills as they grow and improve, and it's definitely a cool way to look back and see what the heck I've been doing this past year. I hope you all have enjoyed the ride so far, and continue to hang with me for the next 100!

P.S. The rest of Lexi's 6 month pictures will be up tonight or tomorrow, I promise. :D

Lexi ~ 6 months teaser

2010-05-24T18:36:00.001-05:00

Warning: you are about to experience CUTE overload.

I met up with my favorite little model yesterday for some fun pictures in the park. I am working on editing them right now, but I couldn’t resist the urge to take a break and post a couple of teaser images because I am loving the cuteness. :)

Stay tuned… more cuteness to come! :)

A Birthday BBQ

2010-05-13T18:17:00.001-05:00

The hubby celebrated his (28th!) birthday last week. I would have had this post up sooner, but a nasty cold decided to take up residence in my head, making last week not-so-productive. Anyway, the weekend before his birthday we had the family over for burgers and birthday fun! Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day…

First of all, check out the awesomeness that was his cake!! Yes, that is grass (made out of frosting!) and 3 (white chocolate!) golf balls on top!!

Once again, Annie O. did not disappoint!! Oh and by the way, the cake was DELICIOUS. I repeat, DELICIOUS.

The birthday boy showing off his cake…just before it was devoured. :)

I thought this was a really cute capture of the little one lovin on her Grandma

And this is my other niece, Jordan, with her adorable little doggy, Dre

Does this girl not have model written all over her?? Look at those eyes…

I really like this next shot – I tried out Pioneer Woman’s PS action “seventies”

I am in love…

I may or may not be slightly obsessed with this look now…

Anyhoo - what birthday would be complete without the presents?!

Matt’s parents got him a money clip…as a joke (hence the ha ha, very funny look on his face – hee hee!). There may have been an “incident” a few weeks ago involving high winds and a $100 bill belonging to Matt’s dad. Let’s just say it didn’t end well…

On a happier note, let me just tell you that my husband is probably the easiest person to shop for on the planet. If it involves tools, golf or tailgating – he will love it.

Exhibit A: Tailgating game.

What happened not 30 minutes after he unwrapped it?

The assembly began. Followed by a fun family game of “Ladder Ball” (such an original name, isn’t it?)

As you can see, Daisy found this game to be pretty intense. She pretty much just assumes any round object being thrown is meant for her to chase. Then when she got tied up so as not to chase every ball down (even jumping on the “ladder” to grab them!) she thought barking ferociously at them would do the trick. Yeah. That’s my dog.

Well, if you ask me, we had ourselves the official start of summer with this BBQ! Of course it has rained pretty much non stop since that day, but still. It’s got to end sometime, right?? And when it does? Bring on another BBQ.

Easter

2010-05-03T17:59:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more photos from Easter…and yes, they are all of Lexi. Thanks again to Aunt Carmen for rescuing me and letting me use your camera. :)

Showing off the sweet presents from her COOLEST aunt…

Hangin’ with Uncle Michael, and rockin’ the shades (also from her COOL aunt).

Getting some love from that other aunt of hers…

And some love from Uncle Matt

And then she just hung out and looked cute…she’s pretty dang good at that.

And I think this is my new favorite photo…

Flower Power

2010-04-28T20:17:00.001-05:00

Well we made it out to the plant sale last weekend, and made it home with lots of purty flowers! Then on Sunday we got everything planted…about 5 seconds before it started to rain. We’re lucky like that. :)

Remember that empty planter I showed you before?… look at it now!

It’s full of Impatients. I can’t wait until they grow and start blooming… last year I had TONS of them, and they were beautiful!

These are Petunias…I also can’t wait until they bloom…I’ve never done them before, so we’ll see how they do in our shady yard.

All the new flowers gave me a great excuse to buy some cute new pots. :)

Recognize that table?

Unfortunately they didn’t have any Gerber Daisies at the plant sale…but since they are my most favoritest flower EVA, I went to Wal Mart and grabbed a couple :)

I could seriously photograph these flowers All. Day. Long. I love them.

I said all day. I wasn’t kidding.

We are also being very adventurous this year, and trying our hand at growing something other than flowers…

Cilantro!

and Tomatoes!

Using the ever popular “topsy turvy” (As Seen On TV!)

I know what you’re thinking, ‘whoa, an entire TWO plants, don’t overdo yourselves…’ but, hey. It’s a start. Considering I can’t even manage to keep the flowers alive most years, it’s quite a brave start at that. :)

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that in a few months I have lots of beautiful images of flowers (and tomatoes!) to show off…

{five on friday} 4.23.10

2010-04-23T13:29:00.006-05:00

Well, it's been a while since we've done one of these, hasn't it! Since I don't have many photos to post these days, I thought I would give you another healthy dose of random ramblings. :)

{one} happy earth day

I know, I know, it was yesterday. But still. Happy Earth Day (yesterday)! I hope everyone took a moment to hug a tree, or something. I can't say I did anything incredibly "earthy" myself, other than wish everyone I encountered a Happy Earth Day, and did some research on the flowers I want to plant this year. That's "earthy", right???

{two} flowers!

The husband and I will be venturing out to Ozanam's plant sale tomorrow morning, to purchase some plants and flowers, all while contributing to a good cause! Ozanam is a local treatment center for children in the KC area (read all about them here). Today and tomorrow they are having their annual Thyme for Kids plant sale (which you can read about here). If you hadn't figured it out, this was the cause for my Earth Day research... we have a terribly shady yard, front and back, so I thought it would be smarter to actually educate myself on which types of flowers would do best in the shade, rather than just buy the ones that look pretty and hope they grow - which I may or may not have done in past years. Hopefully in the next week or so I will have lots of pretty flower photos to share!

Impatients & Begonias...the 2 main flowers I will be purchasing and planting!

{three} almost birthday time...

I realized the other day that hubs' birthday is quickly sneaking up on me! Like, as in, it's a week from Monday. Yikes! But no fear, I had a few gift ideas floating around in my head, and as of yesterday have officially decided what to get him. I won't spill the beans here, though, because you know he reads this blog like all. the. time. And! It just dawned on me (and by just I mean literally as I was typing the last sentence...) that I need to get in touch with Annie O to order him a birthday cake! Boy do I love an excuse to order cake frome Annie O... mmm....

{four} spring "cleaning"

This past weekend we did some Spring "cleaning" around the G household. And by "cleaning", I mean decorating. :) They're pretty much the same thing, right?? I bought some shelves at Bed Bath & Beyond I-don't-want-to-admit-how-long ago, and they are finally up on the wall! Along with some art that has been collecting dust, and my beloved college diploma. I may just have to dedicate a separate post to showing off my new wall trimmings in the near future. I need to make a trip to Hobby Lobby first, though, in order to find some trinkets to fill my new shelves. (Did someone say Hobby Lobby??? SCORE)

{five} i need it

I was recently perusing one of my new favorite blogs, which I know I have mentioned here before, Pioneer Woman, and she had a contest showcasing Macro Photography. Um, can we say love at first sight? I mean I knew what a Macro lens was, and the possibilities, but seeing so many AWESOME macro shots in one place? Well it made me decide that I NEED a macro lens. I don't know that my bank account agrees with that statement, but let's just say it's on the wishlist. :)

3 samples of the awesomeness that can be achieved with a macro lens... the first is the contest winner, and the second and third are runners up. All equally awesome if you ask me! Click here for the original PW Post.

Happy Weekend!

Spring!

2010-04-20T17:47:00.001-05:00

Well hello there! Look at that, I am still alive!

Sorry to be MIA for so long…life has just gotten quite hectic! I also haven’t really picked up my camera much recently, either, so not much to blog about.

But no worries, the camera and I met again, and are back to our old selves. :)

So what has happened since we last blogged…well, Easter for one! Here are a couple cute images of the munchkin from our little family get together…

Unfortunately, I was lame-o photographer of the year and once again showed up somewhere with a dead camera battery. *sigh* When will I ever learn?? {note to self: GO BUY A BACKUP CAMERA BATTERY ALREADY!} Lucky for me, Lexi’s other (not nearly as cool ;) aunt, Carmen, rescued me and let me borrow her camera. Somehow, though, I have still yet to get those photos….*ahem, coughcough* So maybe someday soon I will have the rest of the Easter photos to post… :)

In other news, WINTER IS FINALLY OVER! Can I get a hallelujah?! We have been spending as much time as we can outside, and I of course tote my camera along whenever possible. Of course, it’s not always possible. Like when I raked leaves for 3 HOURS, all by myself last weekend. I’m not bitter at all.

See, look! The sky! It’s blue! The sun! It’s shining! The trees! They have GREEN! Alas, SPRING is finally upon us. {if you couldn’t tell I’m just a *wee bit* excited for spring time}

And I know someone else who is excited… Daisy!

{see how GREEN the grass is?! yay for spring!}

And I am proud to report that my planters and pots are all emptied out and ready to be filled with soil and tons of lovely flowers!

The hubs and I just love sitting out on the deck enjoying the warm weather (while not enjoying listening to Daisy bark at her arch-nemesis squirrel). Look at that stud…

I’m a lucky gal, I’ll tell you what. :)

Happy Spring!!

We're Famous!

2010-04-02T08:19:00.001-05:00

Ok, not really, but still.

So I may have mentioned them before, but the photographers we used to capture our wedding day are probably the coolest, awesomest, most amazing photographers out there (oh, I have mentioned that before? Who knew!). And today, they posted something pretty neat...all about us. :)

Check it out: http://solarphotographers.com/blog/2010/04/02/kansas-city-wedding-photographers-itowbm/

Lexi ~ 4 months {Happy Easter!}

2010-03-30T18:25:00.001-05:00

This past weekend I went to visit my niece Lexi once again, for a fun Easter themed photo shoot. It’s just crazy how fast this little booger is growing! She gets cuter and cuter by the minute. :)

Here are a few of my favorites from our shoot…

Lexi’s mama got her this adorable Easter basket…don’t you love it?!

What could possibly be cuter than a baby butt with a bunny tail on it?!

How ‘bout a baby with bunny ears!

Or perhaps a basket full of Easter eggs and a baby!

This is one of my favorites.

I just had to get crafty and make her a personalized Easter egg :)

And who doesn’t love a baby in a tutu? I seriously LOVE this trend… check out the tutu Lexi’s daddy made her! (Yes, you read that right, Lexi’s DAD made it!)

This is another favorite. I liked the original version, but then decided to give it a little ‘fade’ and now I really love it.

I’m so proud of myself… I took these on Sunday, and got them uploaded, edited and posted in 2 days! That is quite an accomplishment, if I may say so myself. :) The fact that Easter is less than a week away may or may not have had something to do with that…

Happy Easter little miss Lexi! Can’t wait for our next photo shoot :)

Vegas! {part three}

2010-03-25T18:14:00.001-05:00

First of all, sorry about leaving you hanging yesterday! The evening just got away from me… I am sure you were just sitting on the edge of your seat just WAITING for part three. :)

Well, here we are, at the final installment of my Vegas recap. Are you still alive? Hopefully breaking it up in 3 parts made it a *little* less painful to get through. :) By the way, if you missed my first 2 posts, part one can be found here, and part two here. Now…let’s get back to it!

When we left off, it was the eve of 311 day, and the gang was getting ready to go to the concert event of our lifetimes.

Let me first give you a little bit of history and background on this whole 311 day concert experience. Let’s just say it’s a pretty big deal to us 311 fans. Here is a little snippet from the 311 website that explains it quite well:

311 DAY HISTORY
Since 2000, every other year on March 11th ("311 Day"), the multi-platinum group 311 holds a very special concert event that attracts thousands of fans from around the world. The event is typically held in New Orleans. As a result, the mayor of New Orleans officially proclaimed March 11th as "311 Day" in New Orleans. However, due to a massive medical convention overtaking the vast majority of hotel rooms in downtown New Orleans, the 311 Day concert for 2010 is moving to Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, NV.
Billed as "the ultimate 311 concert experience",311 Day is the premiere event for 311 fans to gather and celebrate their love of the group and to witness the most exciting 311 show of the year. 311 plays an extended setlist (5 hours) of hits, rarities and covers; backed by a state of the art light and special effects show. Past shows have also included appearances by circus performers, aerial acrobats, fire twirlers, stilt walkers, jugglers, drumlines, and marching bands.
March 11th is considered a holiday to 311 fans around the globe - and 311's dedicated following of fans travel to the 311 Day show from far and wide.
For 311 Day 2008, tickets were sold to fans in all 50 US states and 13 different countries. The band played a 5 hour show (63 songs) for a sold out crowd of 14,000+ at New Orleans Arena.
In 2006, 311 played a 5 hour show, 66 songs. / In 2004, 311 played a 5 hour show, 68 songs. / In 2002, 311 played a 4 hour show, 59 songs. / In 2000, 311 played a†3 hour and 11 minute show, 47 songs.
A“Live From New Orleans" DVD of the 311 Day 2004 show was released in October 2004 and is now certified Platinum. With many music fans having heard about the concert or having seen the DVD...the legacy of 311 Day is now stronger than ever. And the 311 Day concert event in Las Vegas will certainly live up to the legacy.
It's clear that 311 Day has become more than a concert. It's a true happening. An event that began organically and has taken on a life of it's own. For 3 days the city of Las Vegas will be swarming with 311 fans - meeting there together to celebrate the music of 311. See you in Vegas!!

Can I just say that I get the chills from reading that? Great, because I do. :)

So, as I was saying, we made our way to the Mandalay Bay Events Center around 6pm that night, thinking we had plenty of time to get in, get a beer and find our seats before the 7:00 show. Ha. Oh, were we wrong. We walked down the hallway (the same hallway where we waited in the 3 hour line for merchandise, ironically enough) only to find about 5,000 other 311 fans. I am not exaggerating. There were so many people it was insane. Apparently no one thought about the fact that 10,000 people would all be coming to the same door at the same time, because mass hysteria ensued.

This is a really awful picture, but it shows you what I’m talking about. You can’t even see the door to get into the place in this picture. Yeah, I wasn’t exaggerating.

So after about 45 minutes of moving at one step per minute, we finally made it to the door. (May I also add that in that entire stretch we only saw 1 trash can. ONE. I wish I got a photo, because it seriously looked like a beer volcano. Who were they kidding? One trash can. Ha.) Next up we had to wind our way through all of the people, and make our way to the beer line. We waited in line some more, got our beers, and headed to find our seats. By this time it was about 7:45, and I will admit I was having a small panic attack because the show was supposed to start at 7 and I knew it could begin at ANY minute. Well I was right. Just as we were getting in to find our seats, the place erupted. So we scrambled, we spilled beer, we tripped over people, but before they even finished their first song we were happily plopped in our seats and ready to go.

I did have to sit down for the first song or two, and regain my composure. I am normally not a concert sitter-downer (yes, I am fully aware that I made that word up), but in this case it was necessary. After a few deep breaths and a gulp of beer, though, I was ready to rock. And that is exactly what I did. For 5 hours. Yep, FIVE HOURS.

Here’s a photo of the hubs and I at one of the intermissions. This concert was so long they had to have intermissions. 3 of them. CRAZY.

Please excuse how incredibly pale we both look in this picture…I really can’t tell you what that’s all about. You can also excuse how drunk we look. I can tell you what that’s all about – we drank a lot of beer. :)

And here’s one of Ash and I…

What are you talking about? We are totally sober.

And one of the guys…also sober as can be.

What, you don’t believe me?

Next up are just a few pictures I took of the actual show – now, these aren’t very good, I’ll tell you that right now. I didn’t bring the DSLR to the concert, just my point & shoot, so the quality isn’t great. Not to mention it was a concert and we weren’t right in front of the stage or anything (we were actually behind the stage – weird, I know), so they are taken from kind of far away, as well. At any rate, they do show a few bits of what we saw that night, which was total amazingness (I am all about making up words today), so I feel compelled to share.

This first one shows *almost* the whole band. On the right playing guitar that’s Tim Mahoney (better known as miT), then to the left of him is SA Martinez, gettin his groove on, then you have Chad Sexton on the drums – a rotating drum set nonetheless, with Nick Hexum singing up front, and that elbow on the left side belongs to the bass guitarist, P-Nut. I’m not a 311 nerd, I swear.

Like I said, this concert went on for 5 hours. They played 60 songs. It. Was. Awesome. (have I said that yet?) And we rocked out the entire time.

Here are a couple of photos that are WAY better than any I took, from 311’s website. (Photo credits can be found here. Or click on images to see original.)

Can you see how much fun these guys have on stage?? Now you know why I love them so much. :) Oh how I wish I was close enough/have a nice enough camera/was cool enough to get images like these… *sigh*

So. If I haven’t expressed in enough yet… we had an AWESOME time at the concert. It was seriously one of the greatest concerts ever. In 2012 311 day is supposed to be back in New Orleans, and let’s just say I’m already making plans. :) We will be there.

After the concert, we were all on adrenaline highs (ok we may have been a *smidge* intoxicated as well…), and we roamed The Strip once again. We didn’t last very long, though…we were all pretty exhausted. We made it back to our hotel, tried really hard to get some food (but apparently all 10,000 other 311 fans had the same idea, and the only place open in the hotel was McDonalds. No way were we waiting in that line.), but eventually ended up back in our room. We all gathered in the boys’ room and attempted to order a pizza from room service, but a 3 hour wait was not sounding so good. So we crashed. And boy did we.

I woke up on Friday morning in all of my clothes, on top of the covers. I’m amazed I even managed to take my shoes off. It was about 6am Vegas time, and I pretty much felt like dying. I have never been so exhausted (read: hung-over) in my life. It took me about 4 hours to get to the point where I could even walk out of the hotel room – thankfully the hubs wasn’t quite as bad off and was able to pack up for us while I held a pity party for one.

Once everyone was up and moving, we hit The Strip for one last hurrah before heading out. We drove down to the Stratosphere, being the one main thing left on our list to see.

We all agreed that the next time we go back we will go up and ride the rides (although I was pretty much lying, I don’t EVEN want to ride those things – no. thank. you.), since we didn’t have time this trip.

Then we piled back into the car, and headed home. Well, at least we thought we were heading home. After driving for about an hour, we saw a sign that looked something like this:

Yes, that is the state of CALIFORNIA you see. (The sign actually looked nothing like that, but it did have a picture of the state of California on it!) We all looked at each other, thought about it, and then realized we were going the wrong way. And had been, for the last hour. AWESOME. So 2 hours into our trip home, we were back in Vegas. At the time, it was humorous, but about 20 hours later when we wanted nothing more than to be at our own homes, we were seriously kicking ourselves. But now that it’s all said and done, it’s back to being humorous. :)

The rest of the drive was pretty ho-hum. We were all trying to hold our stomachs together, pretending like we weren’t completely hung-over and stuck in the car for an ENTIRE DAY. But alas, we made it back to good old Kansas, all in one piece.

We took one final photo…

Then we dropped everyone off, headed home, and slept for 16 straight hours. No, I am not kidding. It was blissful. Yet, somehow, I was STILL exhausted the next day, and for about 3 days afterwards. Vegas does a number on you. But I can’t wait to go back!

Well, congratulations if you made it all the way to the end of this. Now you know everything you could possibly (not) want to know about our trip, and have the pictures to go along with it. Well, some of them. I think I added a few since I started, so that “40 pictures” statement from part one is probably a lie now. Regardless, the trip was AWESOME, and I can’t wait to do it all over again in 2 years. :)

Vegas! {part two}

2010-03-23T19:01:00.003-05:00

And we’re back for the next edition of Vegas recap (if you missed part one, click here to get caught up)…got your popcorn ready? Great. Let’s get to it.

If you don’t recall, yesterday I left off at the point where we arrived in Vegas. It was about 11am Vegas time when we pulled into the Excalibur, a mere 24 hours since we left KC. So we wandered into the hotel, saw oodles of other 311 fans, and got in line to check in. This process took some 30 minutes (which feels like 3 hours when all you want to do is get to a room and take a shower).

On our way up to our rooms we ran into Ash & Zach (you may remember them from here) who took the ~~easy~~ ~~lazy~~ smart route and flew to Vegas. They had just gotten there as well, and were about to head out to explore The Strip. We weren’t quite ready for that yet (and by “we” I mean Matt, Casey and Nate. Some of us actually slept in the car…others, not so much).

Finally we found our way to our rooms (all on the 27th floor – they couldn’t have humored me and my OCD and given us an even number? sheesh!), and the first thing Matt did was crawl into bed. I’m not kidding. He didn’t even wait for our luggage to get delivered. I guess it’s exhausting to be up for 30+ hours, driving for 14 or so of them – I wouldn’t know. :) After our luggage was delivered (and I didn’t tip the guy…oops. talk about a nasty look…), and the boys came and got their stuff, I decided to crawl into bed as well and try to get a little shut eye.

That lasted for all of 30 minutes. Really, who can sleep in Vegas? Matt, Nate and Casey apparently. So I was up, in Vegas, in a hotel room, bored out of my mind. I took a shower, I got dressed, I did my hair, I did my makeup, I re-did my hair, I watched Ellen, I farted around on my laptop… Matt snored. I texted with Jeff and realized that he was up too, so he came by to say hi and bring me a (much needed) beer. That helped with the boredom. So now I was in Vegas, in a hotel room, drinking a beer, watching the local news. A little better, eh?

Finally, 2 hours later, the boys had risen, got showered and ready, and off to explore Vegas we were. The first thing all of us wanted to do was eat. It only took us an hour of walking around to finally decide on a restaurant. The ESPN Zone at New York New York it was.

We had a lovely waitress who graciously took a group photo for us. Don’t we all look just famished?! Please note the insane number of TVs in this place…I think I count 5 just in this photo. It. Was. Awesome. Especially at the start of March Madness. Definitely worth the hour it took us to decide.

We cheers’d our huge beers to the fabulous days in Vegas ahead of us…

And then the husband decided to ruin another otherwise adorable photo… *sigh*

We then proceeded to scarf down enormous plates of food, and guzzle our giant beers. It was heavenly. Once we were done, we were all about to chug the rest of the beers before heading out when our waitress came by and brought us – wait for it – TO GO CUPS. I’m sure to everyone that has been to Vegas before this is nothing to write home about, but for us Vegas Virgins it was AMAZING! So we gathered our plastic cups-o-beer, and headed out to explore the Vegas Strip.

This image was taken on one of the bridges, and I really like it. I was kicking myself for not having my tripod with me, though, because I really wanted to get this same shot but leave the shutter open and get some light trails from the car lights. But really, who walks around Vegas with a tripod?? So this will just have to do.

A few more images of Vegas at night-

I just loved the fountain show at the Bellagio. We may or may not have stopped to watch it 3 times that night…

Here is a video Matt took of one of the shows we watched. You’ll have to excuse a couple of things – 1) Jeff singing along to the entire song (it was the Titanic theme song…who doesn’t know that one?!), 2) the constant flash and “click” from me shooting right next to Matt, along with the view of me smack dab in the middle of the show (thanks hubs) 3) the random shot of Matt’s beer can (I guess it was a cheers?), 4) the also random shot of the back of Casey’s head at the end (I think he was trying to show his 311 hat…) 4)Everything else that makes it a totally amerature video. Despite all of that, I still think it's a pretty cool video! Good job hubs!

And then of course it was time for another fun and exciting random group photo.

I didn’t make it in most of these ‘group shots’… I was, well, you know, taking the picture.

So we continued our trek up and down The Strip, and as more and more beer was involved, more and more photos like this began to emerge…

According to my camera this image was taken at 3:38am. That would be 1:38am Vegas time, I believe. Either way, I will spare you the remainder of the drunken photos. Lets just say the night ended shortly after this (and by shortly after I mean like an hour and a half…), and it was one of those nights where the minute you hit the bed you are sound asleep, er, passed out. Ahh, I love those nights.

Fast forward about 6 hours (because who really needs sleep in Vegas…) and 311 day is upon us!! We may have been a little slow to get up and moving, but nothing could hinder the excitement of the day. I mean, this is the whole reason we drove 24 hours after all!

The previous night, we had seen a merchandise stand set up in one of the hallways at Mandalay Bay. The line was pretty long, though, so we decided it would be much smarter to come back in the morning when they first opened. Clearly we were drunk when we made that decision, or just stupid, because smarter it was not. When Matt and Casey got back to that spot on Thursday morning, there were easily 100 people in line. But nobody wants to wait in line during the actual concert, so we decided to just tough it out and wait. I don’t think we realized just how long that wait would be. Jeff, Nate and I finally got ourselves down there to join in the waiting game, and 3 hours later we all had shirts galore. Yes, that’s right, I waited in line for 3 hours for a t-shirt. Actually 2 t-shirts. And a sweatshirt. And 2 koozie cups. Talk about dedicated.

Once we finally had our stinkin’ t-shirts, we went back out to Las Vegas Blvd to pick up the wandering where we had left off the night before. I have to tell you, as we were walking down The Strip, I was in one of the best moods I think I’ve ever been in. It was 311 day, I was walking down Las Vegas Blvd with my hubby and some of our best friends, there were other 311 fans everywhere, it was sunny, I had a beer in one hand and my camera in the other…I could go on and on. It was just a fantastic day all around.

So naturally, I took some more photos of everything we saw.

This might be one of my favorite images of them all… I just love me some sun flare.

We stopped for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was super cool. Although they didn’t have any 311 memorabilia…

Then we stopped at the Paris hotel, and took a ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower

Of course the view made for some pretty awesome images…

Then, before we knew it, it was after 5:00 and we had an hour to hoof it back to the hotel, get showered and changed, and head out to the main event!

So for now, I’ll let you digest all of the awesomeness we saw during the day on 311 day, and tomorrow I’ll be back with a recap of the-awesomest-concert-ever. Sit tight!

Vegas! {part one}

2010-03-22T20:54:00.002-05:00

The time as finally come for the big recap and all of the photos from our recent trip to fabulous Las Vegas. First of all, let me just tell you that I started with 600+ images. No, I am not kidding. I was able to narrow those down to about 350 “keepers'”, most of which I edited. Then I narrowed that down to about 200 to print and put in a photo album (which has yet to be done…). Then I narrowed that down to 40 to post on the blog. Holy cow was that a lot of narrowing. So this is the short and sweet version of our trip – I didn’t want to bore you with ALL 200 or 350 pictures. But you are welcome to come over and look at my photo album any time you’d like. Assuming I get it done.

Now, on to the fun! I’ve decided to break this up into several posts, so that you don’t fall asleep at your computer trying to get through it all. You’re welcome. Now get out your popcorn…here we go!

This is the first official photo from the trip. Note 1) how excited and happy (and rested) we all look; and 2) the super sweet rental car in the background – a 2010 Ford Flex.

Oh, and let me introduce you to the gang. From left to right that’s me (really?), the hubs, Jeff peeking through, his brother Casey, and Nate.

After this photo we all jumped in the Flex, and hit the road! Then we stopped at Burger King for lunch (where I proceeded to spill ketchup ALL OVER myself. Awesome. Can’t beat the smell of ketchup for 24 hours straight…). But then we really hit the road! And off to Vegas we were.

I snapped a TON of photos along the way, and am actually pretty impressed with some of the shots I was able to get from out the car window…

This one is one of my favorites…I love the rays of sun peeking out of the clouds.

I like the phantom speed limit sign in this one (taken in Arizona – I think? – where yes, you read that right, the speed limit is 75!)

The first sign for Vegas…score!

Now, that may have seemed like a short, lovely drive full of beautiful scenery, but don’t let the photos fool you. We drove for 24 hours, through 5 states, 1,500 miles straight only stopping for gas and potty breaks. That is a LOOOOOOOONG time to be in a car (with 4 GUYS mind you). We had a ton of fun, though – we laughed till we cried, we ate munchies like crazy, we listened to great music, we slept, we complained… we did it all. For 24 hours. It would have been more like 20 or 22 hours, but we ran into a BLIZZARD in New Mexico. (What? It snows there?) The snow continued into Arizona (what? it snows there too?), and all in all slowed us down and cost us a good 2 or 3 hours. When you are driving halfway across the country, driving 30 miles per hour on the highway at 4 in the morning is not fun. Just sayin’.

So after a grueling 22 or so hours, we finally got into the great state of Nevada. Then we got stuck in more traffic, but eventually we made it to the Hoover Dam! It finally felt like we were getting close. As scenes from Vegas Vacation ran through my head, we wandered around the dam and did the tourist thing.

We opted not to go on the Dam Tour, just walked around ourselves and took some Dam pictures. :)

Then we saw a Dam chipmunk!

The husband and I at the Dam. Not sure why we decided to pose in front of the construction and random rock tribute rather than the Dam itself…

The first of many “woooo we’re on vacaaation!!!!!” photos. :)

Then we all piled back in the car, and drove for what seemed like 3 more hours. I think it was more like 1 or 2. For some reason I had in my head that we were pretty much in Vegas already, so we could just drive down the street and there The Strip would be. Uh, not so much.

Finally we found our way to Las Vegas Blvd., and drove by the Mandalay Bay where we saw this bad boy-

Yeah baby! We have arrived!

Naturally, we posed for another group photo in the parking lot of the Excalibur, before we went inside to check in.

Note how grungy and stinky we all look after having been in the car for 24 hours. And yes, I changed clothes. Can’t roll into Vegas in PJ pants!

So we made it to Vegas. I think this will be a good stopping point for today. Next up – we roam the streets of Vegas, and go to the most amazing concert EVER! Stay tuned.

Photoshop Fun

2010-03-18T17:34:00.005-05:00

Well hello there! Long time no blog!

If you're wondering...yes we survived Vegas. Barely. Sorry I have been MIA for almost 2 weeks now... it has been a crazy busy (and exhausting) couple of weeks. They aren't kidding when they say that Vegas doesn't sleep...and I think they should go ahead and add on that you won't sleep on the way there or on the way home either...

Don't worry though, I am finally starting to catch back up, and I'm ready to give the blog all the love and attention it has been missing the past 2 weeks. :)

I am currently working on getting through all of the pictures from the trip, and putting a few posts together, so you'll just have to sit tight for those.

Tonight I am going to share with you a couple of little projects I worked on while on the road to Vegas. (I was in a car for 24 hours, with 4 dudes. I had to do something to keep me sane.) Luckily I brought my laptop...I spent a good couple of hours hangin out in the back seat playing in Photoshop while tuning out all the fart jokes. :)

I decided to create a couple of scrapbook type layouts with some images from my 2 photo shoots with Lexi. I have just barely grasped the photo editing capabilities in Photoshop, so the whole design part is compeltely new to me. I'm sure there is a lot more I could do with these, but for a first attempt I don't think they are too bad. Now I don't know if they actually serve a purpose because I'm not sure how I would print them, but let's not worry ourselves with the details now. :)

This one is from our first photo shoot, when the little darling was just barely a month old. The date on there isn't the date of the shoot, but the day she was born - even though she wasn't *technically* a newborn here, I still like to think of it that way since it was the first shoot I had with her.

And this one is from our Valentine's themed shoot back in February. It's pretty crazy to see how much she changed in just that one month...

That smile just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

I can't wait for our next session (coming up very soon...just in time for Easter!)

Stay tuned, I will post a full recap of our trip and lots of photos in the next couple days!

Life...Through My Lens

another (year) bites the dust

Lexi ~ 2 years

just a typical Thursday in January…

ho ho ho-liday wrap up

party like a two-year-old

The Moss Family

the moss family ~ sneak peek

lexi ~ little farmer

boo!

some family photos

woof

football and a flyover

old settlers

run for rhonda …again!

Lexi ~ summer fun

fun in the sun

everything’s bigger…

2 years and counting

jordan

tutus and twirls

another backyard photo shoot

Happy Spring! (kind of)

Happy Easter!

spring? is that you?

the kids

the bathroom…finally

be mine

snow day!

snow

one year

new year, new look

Ho Ho Ho!

Cake, anyone??

Hooray for Holiday Cards!

The Moss Family

Moss family ~ sneak peek

Colorado!

A Little Ladybug

Ryanne & Travis ~ Family

Happy Halloweenie!

Family Fun!

Ash & Zach ~ Love

Ash & Zach ~ teaser!

Labor Day Weekend

Here We Go…

Run for Rhonda

Lexi ~ at Grandma & Grandpa’s

An Afternoon with Daisy

One Year Ago Today…

My New Kitchen!

Father’s Day

Our Very First

Anybody still out there?

Lexi ~ 6 months

100th Post!

Lexi ~ 6 months *teaser*

A Birthday BBQ

Easter

Flower Power

{five on friday} 4.23.10

Spring!

We're Famous!

Lexi ~ 4 months {Happy Easter!}

Vegas! {part three}

Vegas! {part two}

Vegas! {part one}

Photoshop Fun

Lexi ~ 6 months teaser