Swan Lake

Ellie loves the Barbie movies.....Princess and the Pauper, Rapunzel, 12 Dancing Princesses, and Swan Lake.

She likes to watch them in Mom & Dad's room so she can lounge in the recliner or lay on the bed.

She also must have her tutu on in case she decides to dance along with the movie.

I really need to catch her dancing along on video one of these days! :)

My Workspace....

Jenn, over at I Hate Whine posted a challenge to post a picture of your "blogspot"....and you had to snap a pic without cleaning or straightening up anything...so I did it, but only because my clutter pile in front of the laptop was smaller than usual this morning! :) I like that you can see the Perler beads that the kids were working on this morning, and the partly colored picture on the easel...and Ellie and her "binky bear" snuck into the picture as well. :) Keeping it real!

If you'd like to play, post a photo on your blog, and then come comment here so we can get a look-see! :)

More pairs!

My husband acquired a new possession today....Jared was thrilled about it because last week, Ron sold his dual-sport bike....

Anyway, he brought it home, and all I saw were pairs....PAIRS EVERYWHERE! So I just had to do it again! Without any further delay:

Two of a kind
f/8, 1/250, ISO 100, 28mm, action: PW Boost

Oh, and do you like Jared's watch? Yeah, my 4 yo thinks he can tell time!

Pairs.....

Hope & Believe is a fun photo-a-day blog that I like to check out, hoping the creative juices flowing there will spill onto me over the web! They even have weekly challenges, and have invited anyone to participate. So this week I finally decided to do it. The challenge this week is: a pair. On to my offering.....


Here is my little Ellie, she has lived for a pair of years, has a great pair of blue eyes, and today, is sporting a pair of pony's! :) Thanks for letting me play!

Photo info: f5.6, 1/200, ISO200, 55mm, action used: PW Boost

I Love To See The Temple...

Here's a good thing that came out of today's photo session....I caught this cute shot! This was after running a couple of actions on it(PW Vintage & a simple vignette frame). I ordered one for each of the little's bedrooms, because I've been meaning for the longest time to get a picture of the temple in their rooms. Now I've got it!

Slow week?!

Yep....not much going on around here....at least not really thrilling stuff anyway!

Monday, Nicole had her first piano recital. I am so glad to be done with that song! She's been practicing that little number since MARCH! I will really be so happy to never hear Matt, My Cat ever again in my life. :o) She did well...played her song a little too slow....and moved her mouth as she was counting, and was a bit distracted....which was evidenced by the fact that she let her eyes wander out to the audience during her playing! Oh well, she is her teacher's youngest student, and in my opinion did better than some of the older kids that started piano at the same time she did. If I get the nerve to try and upload the video we took, I'll add that later....I haven't even watched it though....that's how much I don't ever want to hear that song again! Here are some still shots though...

She's so talented, she plays with her eyes closed! just kidding....Mommy the master photographer only got one shot of her playing though, and I didn't check it close enough to notice that they were closed! Oops!

Flowers for our little performer.

The rest of this week was taken up with working on a little project for Father's Day. Which now Ron has a huge idea about, since I needed his help in editing the pictures.

We have a large wall in our dining area that has a picture on it that I'm tired of. So I wanted to take some cute pictures of the kids, blow them up, and make a picture wall. I decided to do a 16X20 of a group shot, and then surround that with 8X10's of each kid. I found some cute black frames for 50% off(woohoo!) at Hobby Lobby, and have spent the week trying to get shots of the kids...I finished off today and wondered to myself why I even try! I finally did get some good ones...but holy cow, my children do not follow instructions! I bet they will look back at these pictures one day and the only memory they will have is me freaking out at them to just look at the camera and smile! I hope that I can come to appreciate the pictures as well, as I gaze at them daily...and forget the frustration felt while taking them! ;o)

Here are some of the rejected shots....thank heaven for digital photography!

Riley really did do fine with the following of directions...it was the wind that kept "blowing" her shots! I crack myself up...

I'm pretty sure I asked for a smile....but instead I got this...

Ellie was much more interested in picking the flowers, smelling the flowers, not sitting down...pretty much anything was more interesting than looking at the camera.

Jared....in between the fake smiles and goofball poses I did get some cute shots of him.

There is the greatest place for pictures down by American Fork Hospital. Someone has a bunch of old cars, and they have built an old fashioned looking garage/gas station to store them at. The old rust buckets are outside, but the inside of the garage has a bunch of restored cars in it. Very fun for pictures!

The group shot....I have lots of these....between getting Nicole and Jared to just hold a pose and smile, and trying to get Ellie to just look at the camera....I almost gave up!

I think one of the most frustrating parts was editing all the pictures, and then downloading them to Costco for printing....only to realize that I needed to crop the pictures before I downloaded them. My editing and actions got all messed up if I didn't...so I had to go back and redo all of them...and I of course picked the photo sizes that require the most cropping (just FYI....if you are planning on printing your pictures in an 8X10/16X20 format, take the picture with a lot of extra space around it to allow for cropping. I, unfortunately, did not, so my favorite pictures that I chose to use lost a lot of their visual interest and charm because of it...dang it. Live and learn.:o) Oh, and 16X20 enlargements at Costco are mail order only. So Ron's Father's Day gift isn't going to be exactly complete when he gets it. Oops! Maybe the big print will show up next Saturday.

Vacation plans!!!

Well, we got our dates and house all finalized and set-up today, so that's a load off!

I bet you can't guess where we are spending a week this summer....anyone....cause I don't think I've ever talked about it before....

Okay, you dragged it out of me....

OURAY!

COLORADO BABY!!!

Yep, cause we don't love going there or anything.

If you have missed previous posts about one of our favorite places on earth, check here, and here. And here is a website...and another...and a webcam!

Ron and I decided which house to rent this year, and are excited about our choice....although I found the most awesome cabin that we are shooting for next year.....it was completely booked this summer. We are heading out the first week of August. I know, most people take their summer vacation earlier, but in order to catch the mountains around Ouray at their best, you have to go in the end of July-beginning of August. That way the multitude feet of snow have time to melt and the wildflowers are in full bloom. Oooo...just thinking about it...I can't wait! :)

Plans and updates...

**EDITED TO UPDATE FURTHER***
My mom's surgery is done, went well, and she says she feels great, like nothing happened. They found a large tear in her meniscus, so trimmed that up, and arthritis, but nothing can be done about that! She told the surgeon about the "blood clotting sisters" issues, so he put her on lovenox shots for 10 days...shots: bummer, but blood clot protection: bonus!

Nicole's follow-up appt. went well. She's still healing up, but he said it all looks good. All I can say is thanks for the fantastic outcome! No snoring, and hopefully no more strep problems! :)

*********

Not that this is too interesting...but it helps me keep track!

My mom goes in today at 2 pm, with my Aunt Carol taking her and then taking her back to her house. My aunt was able to talk my mom into coming and staying with her, which I feel much better about. See, my mom has stairs in her house to navigate to the bedrooms while my aunt does not. So, I won't be doing the sleepover at grandma's tonight as my mom will at my aunt's for the next 2 nights. So maybe Friday we'll do a sleepover, depending upon how she feels. She'll probably just want to be left alone at that point! ;)

Aunt Diane....blood clots behind both knees, and in the upper part of her right lung. They meet with her doctor tomorrow to discuss next course of action...like can they really leave Monday for California. Scary thing is, she flew about a week ago....good thing those clots didn't break loose then. I bet they end up putting a filter in her vena cava like they did to Aunt Carol. The doctors are in a conundrum as to how she could have clots behind both knees without having any symptoms at all...we always knew Aunt Diane was weird! :) :)

The best news is that now that the doctor heard that 3 of 4 sisters have documented clotting issues (and the oldest one died from it), he is talking about having them tested for clotting factor problems, or something.....which means my mom better get tested, and I feel like I should too. Like I said though, my mom is the odd one out, so far, with no evidence of problems, so maybe I got her good genes...then my mom has to remind me of 2 people we know who ended up dying from pulmonary embolus (blood clots to the lung) after having their knee scoped. Thanks for the warm fuzzy's mom! :)

Well, hopefully posts from here on out will be full of happy-happy-joy-joy and fun....and pictures! :)

Happy thought for today.....it's a beautiful cool rainy day today. I love the rain when the grass is green, the flowers are out and the trees have leaves. Washes everything clean and colorful again. And I save pennies not having the a/c on yet!

Phone calls with unwelcome news

So, my mom calls me at least once a day. I got the phone call today, and she started it with, "Well, here's the news...."

1st: Apparently my mom had an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon today. I knew her knee had been bugging her, but last time I asked, the celebrex, or whatever she'd been taking for it, was helping. So today, she told me, no, it hadn't been helping anymore, and her knee was hurting and swollen. So the ortho. told her she didn't need a knee replacement yet(WHAT?!) but the cartilage looks to be pretty much gone so she needs a scope...that she's getting Wednesday...in two days. Goody. I have Nicole's ENT follow-up, so I don't even know if I'll be able to go with my mom to the procedure, but her sister is going. I guess I can go after and make sure she's comfy at home. My Aunt Carol says she'll stay the night with her that night...but c'mon...my 79 yo aunt (who isn't 100% herself) taking care of my 77 yo mother? I think we might be having a lil' sleepover at grandma's house Wednesday night.

2nd: My Aunt Diane....the one who is supposed to be leaving tomorrow for a mission? She has been having some energy issues and not being able to catch her breath recently....mentioned it to her Dr. and had an MRI or CT or something today.....blood clots in her lungs. Good Grief! That is three for three aunts that have had blood clot problems....and the first aunt died from it. Now I'm wondering when it's my mom's turn, but hoping that she won't have any problems like that and that those good genes got passed on to me! So, Aunt Diane is starting on the blood thinner tonight, and they are now postponed in leaving until next Monday. yeesh.

Don't you hate phone calls like that?! My other issue is that my mom hadn't told me anything about her knee hurting again, or about her appointment today....there are some things she tells me about 3-4 times, but this? Not once.

Oh well, I guess I should be glad she called me about it at all. There are times mortality stinks. Especially when watching parents and loved ones get old and fall apart. :)

June 1...

Wow. It's already June. Summertime is officially here. Sixth month of the year, and I still have to think about what year it is when I write it! It think that's a sign that I'm getting old...old as the dirt. Not much happening around here....we had ants.....in the house....I hate ants. Hate, hate, hate, hate 'em! But Stewarts pest control came to the rescue and did a respray....yeah, we'd already had them here for a usual preventative spray, but the little buggers showed up anyway. Now they are gone! Phew!

Jared and Ron went to the Father & Son campout Friday night. For the 1st time ever, Jared stayed all night. And since they were trying to sleep in the car and hadn't planned on it being cold, Ron got about 2 hours of sleep. But Jared thought it was the best thing ever and was so proud of himself for staying. They both took naps yesterday afternoon!

My poor husband not only brought home exhaustion, but a nasty cold as well. So, needless to say, he's not feeling too hot. Stayed home from church even.

Tonight the kids and I, since Ron isn't going to share his cold, are going to farewell dinner for my Aunt Diane and Uncle Mel. They leave Tuesday for their 3rd mission for our church. The first time, they were mission presidents in California. The 2nd was 16 months in Ivory Coast, Africa, coming home 2 months early due to health issues. Now they are off again for 18 months in San Diego....yeah rough! :) They will be working on the military bases there in the branches.

Lots of busy-ness this next week. I get tired thinking of it. My goal is to get some pictures of the kids though for an idea I have....