love. love. love

I had to go to Walmart tonight to get some groceries and a prescription filled (another sinus infection for Beetle) and WOW ... it was like red balloon, chocolate, and flower madness. Why do American's think it's a good idea to put holidays on steroids?

I mean I like Valentine's Day. I like holidays in general ... but sometimes I think it's just a bit much of crap that doesn't matter and not enough of the stuff that actually does.

Overdone is just not my thing.

Done just cause it's February 14th is just not my thing.

I ranted for a good 10 minutes when I got back ... poor Dominic.

He loves me :)



I did a little photo shoot with the girls last week so we'd have pictures to send out with our Valentines.



I told Juliet it was a dance party. So she twirled. And twirled. And twirled. I finally had to give her a sucker just so she'd sit still.




Beetles was not so into having her picture taken. I made two attempts on two different days. Poor girl had a sinus infection ... but she got a sucker out of the deal so it wasn't all that bad.





I didn't make them matching shirts. They are wearing the same shirt (on different days). BUT it happens to be my first appliqued shirt so I was pretty excited!!



After I'd practiced sewing a curved line with all the Valentine making, I thought I'd brave actual fabric. The shirt had a few stains on the front and I had the fabric (left over from the quilt). So it wouldn't have been a huge loss if I had totally screwed up, but I am pumped that I didn't cause now I can make more :)

Juliet - my assistant when I'm pretending to be a photographer - asked me to take this picture of her after we'd taken Beetles picture.



Funny girl.

more snow

The girls are napping and I am just sitting here waiting for the snow to start up again. I need to go to the store, but after a failed attempt this morning, I am waiting for Daddy to get home so I can go alone. This will likely put me at the store with a bunch of crazies out trying to stock up on essentials. Oh well, I would rather leave a store with nothing than loose my patience with my kids over food. So we left. Easy as that.

Some thing I am currently loving. The conversations the girls have with each other. Usually, Juliet does most (if not all) of the actual talking, but it is cute no less.

J: Beetles, do you want to play zoo with me?
B: (blank stare)
J: You do! Ok. Lets go.
B: bunch of jibber jabber ...
J: We will see elephants and lions and ...
B: No. (Often accompanied by an arm swat in Juliet's direction)
J: No Beetles? You don't want to? (clearly appalled)
Mommy, Beetles don't want to go to zoo with me.

They are too darn cute for words sometimes!

We played in the snow on Sunday.

The snow was not really that fun to play in. Kind of like walking on a bunch of big rocks. Juliet spent a lot of time just sitting down cause she couldn't walk around without help. Good ol' snow pants kept her bum dry :)

I used the HDR-ish effect in Picnik on the photo above and it shows how uneven the snow was.

We played on the swings.

Ate snow.

And I made Dominic hold the girls up so I could take photos of them with a beautiful snowy background.

I have lots of funny ones like this. Dominic trying to tickle Juliet to make her smile and silly neighbor's dog in the background ...



Not exactly something you'd hang up in your house, but I like them :)

Beetles didn't have many smiles either.

Unless she was being tickled.

Watching her sister.

Touching snow for the first time since her traumatic face plant.

Not so sure about it.

This was one of those Juliet conversations that just makes you laugh. "Beetles, you want to eat some snow?" ... "I think she don't" ...

Charlie on the other hand, was all about eating the snow.

Silly dog. He had to pee a million times that evening cause he'd eaten so much snow!

More from our winter wonderland later! My babies are waking up :)

2011 Daily Snaps

I am what you would call a wanna be photographer. I sing about as good as I take pictures, but in my mind I sing like Carrie Underwood and take pictures like a professional :) Truly, I have no clue what I'm doing behind the camera, but I am trying to learn more. I've read some, but the best advice I've read/heard is to simply take more pictures. I've seen a lot of photo a day type challenges floating around the internet and thought it might be a fun experiment. Rather than posting the images as a daily blog post, I am linking to a Flickr album in my sidebar if anyone is interested in taking a look. For now, I'm choosing my favorite image taken that day ... sometimes the only image taken that day!!

I've already missed one day, but I am determined to stick with it! Here's the picture I chose today. I totally forgot so grabbed my camera right before bedtime (sure there will be a lot of these over the course of the year).

Beetles with her blankie. She's a blanket lover just like her sister :)