Bedtime photo shoot...
So I got my new 50mm lens today, LOVE IT!!! Linds was quite the model tonight, she is always cooperative, not so much from the boys. Took a bunch of Carter hanging out in Jeff's chair, but they were totally not good enough to share, still learning the in's and out's of ISO, shutter speed and apeture. I love the second shot of Linds in mirror checking out her empty space. She lost her third tooth the other day, now I can scrap about it!

Busy, busy, busy...

So we were busy this weekend, lots of fun stuff going on and the weather was great for getting out and about! First on Saturday we headed in to Madison for the Kids' Expo, that was crazy! Lots of kids and moms, even a few dads too. We stood in line for blow up bouncy things, did some crafts, got lots of info for other fun summer things to do. Kaleb was totally interested in doing a robotics camp that they have in Madison, but after reading the brochure he is just a year too young for this summer, we'll hold on to that for another year. Check out that picture of Kaleb on the Pony ride! He has never wanted to do that, I was really amazed that he got on. I think he said he had fun. I was trying to "play" with some settings on my camera, big mistake! Most of my photos came out blurry, not sure yet what I was doing wrong. Oh well!

Then on Sunday, along with Grandpa & Grandma Johnston, we went with Jeff to an archery thing and sports show in the Dells. It was a very long day, but fun too. Carter was not so happy to be stuck in the stroller again, but we let him out to run every now and again and that seemed to help. The archery thing was another pop-up tournament, Jeff ended up with the first place win, he did a great job and this morning Kaleb was recalling lots of his great shots. They also had dock dogs, it's where big dogs run off a dock and jump as far as they can into a pool. That was fun to see up, close and personal, all of the dogs were so friendly, Carter got quite a few licks. He just squealed with excitement. I wanted to try and get some action shots of the dogs flying though the air, but thought of that just as they were finishing their show, not shots gotten...

this week we are keeping on the busy track, today and tomorrow we are watching an old friend and tomorrow Linds has a girl friend over. Wednesday we are heading out to scrap for the day, and Thursday we will try and catch daddy for lunch, then I have my photography seminar (cannot wait), on friday we may just have to play catch up with household chores. Why is it that vacation time is just way to busy to feel like a vacation should??? I think that is my fault though... Can you believe that Easter is this weekend??? The only reason that excites me is that spring is coming and then Summer! I want 80 degree days! It is getting better around here, the snow is melting and you can see the brown grass in lots of spaces, lots of mud too, not liking that!

CAMERA CRAZY!

So I signed up for this photography seminar Captivated by the Light next week in Madison and ever since then I have been going crazy thinking, dreaming, surfing the net for all things camera related. I am planning in my head a fabulous studio operation and that I will become this amazing phototgrapher, guess it's my latest craze. I am really excited though, and what makes me even more excited is a friend of mine has asked me to take easter pictures of her family and then in May take 1-year pictures of her littlest. I am so flattered that she thinks I am such a good phototgrapher, I guess I just feel the need to do all that I can to make myself even better. I am having a really good time with it. And today I took one more step to better pics, broke down and bought myself a new lens! Yes I finally did it got the 50mm that everyone talks about, check it out! It is meant to do great portraits with natural lighting, I cannot wait until it arrives, hopefully before my class. I am already thinking of test shots with my sweet little daycare princess and of course Carter if he will stand still for more than 2 seconds.

Been doing lots of scrappin lately too, got myself going Friday night with my monthly crop group and then snuck out during Carter's naps on Saturday to hang with another group, and well I just have kept going. My goal this week is to complete one layout each day and post to my gallery at TallyScrapper. You can check my work out here. Carter had his first sucker the other day and I got some really fun shots, got an idea in my head and I think that will be what I do today. Then I really need to print some pictures of Kaleb, been lacking on the K layouts lately.

Lindsay got a trim!


She has been begging me to let her have a "short" hair cut for quite awhile now and I guess you could say that I finally folded. Called Aunt JoJo and made the appointment, not really thinking what I was going to let her do. So we did it today, they cut off right around 8 inches. Boy does she look grown up. Not my little baby girl anymore. I guess I will be ok with it and heck I took lots of great pictures to scrap the whole event. We even came home with a good chunk of hair to put in the book too.

I just need to tell someone....

Ok I am so ready to scrap I can hardly contain myself! You may have seen that last weekend I was in the Dells with a whole bunch of TallyScrapper gals, had a wonderful time, but the creative bug really wasn't biting. Not sure why, but I did enjoy gossiping and telling stories with everyone so it certainly was not a lost weekend. Hey any weekend where I don't have to take care of hubby and kids or clean the house is a FABULOUS weekend!

Back to the scrap world, I was pocking around on the net this morning and did a little window shopping at Tally, I am waiting for the March kit, lots of green stuff, did you know I LOVE green!!! Well anyway that got me to thinking that I haven't visited a few other sites that have wonderful insperation for scrap pages in months. Checked out Pencil Line Sketches (link is to the right), that's what got me going. I can not say enough good things about this site, I just love everything on it. So now I am all excited that tonight is our local group work night, printed out some sketches to lift, but now all I really want to do is let the babies sleep for the entire day so I can play with my paper and pictures. Is that really so wrong???

So I am going to re-print a couple pictures and get a few pages laid out for tonight, maybe I can do a little more scrappin and a lot less chatting... we shall see!

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!

So this past Friday I took off for a Tally Rally scrappin getaway in Wisconsin Dells, I stayed at Blooming Escapes with 15 other TallyScrappers. A few were old friends, but most were gals I have never met except for an occasional bump on the internet. It really was wonderful how we all got along so well. Not a bad person in the bunch. Saw some amazing scrap work, and had lots of fun chatting and getting to know each other. Got the best advice from Rachel, check her out here, I was telling all about miss Linds and her new what if questions, Linds is always saying to me what if I was, what if we lived, what if, what if, what if. I am staring to get wacky about the if's! So I was mentioning it and Rachel says I need to turn it around back onto Linds, say she asks what if, then I ask her back so what if that was whatever. Well last night when I was tucking Linds in she says to me "Mommy, what if I was eight (as in age)?", I turn it around and say, "Yeah, what if you were eight Linds?" She thinks for a moment and says "I would be in second grade and Kaleb would be in third." Very content with her own answer. I was just amazed! So thank you Rachel! And to the rest of you moms with question throwing little ones, just try turning it back onto the little one or repeating the last things they said, seems as if you can't go wrong!

Enjoy the rest of the pictures, these were my favorites :)

Fabulous group shots! I do have to say that I did not take one picture while I was away, Brought the camera, just never pulled it out, and when you are hanging with really seriously good photographers that's really easy to do! I brought the laptop along so we downloaded everyone's disks on it and I came home with lots of great shots to do with as I please, way better than trying to get them all with your own camera!

Yes we did have a little bit of fun with some of the shots, Can you tell which backend is mine???

Work, work, work... well sort of! The first pic was taken by Debbie, my table mate. That is her stuff in the front, my side is the back, I was working on Carter pictures. Actually got one LO done of the little monster. Spent most of the time gabbing and getting my journal pages done.

Upper crop room.

Downstairs with Shawna and Shannon.

Katie taught us all how to make beautiful necklaces, I love how mine worked out!

Saturday Night Dinner at MooseJaw!

Crazy, goofy moose antlers for all!