Cute, cute, cute

This little girl was so fun! At one point I told her to throw a snowball at me. I was thinking no way she'd hit me. She's 3!

Nailed my camera. Right on the lens. Good thing I had a UV filter on! Here she is scooping the snowball up!



I love so many out of this shoot. You can see the rest right here.

And here are a few that I loved.

Aria's new exclamation

I don't know where she came up with it. She normally says crap (which I admit, makes me laugh everytime she does it). But I'm good! I don't let her see me laugh, and I usually tell her to use appropriate language.

But the other day she got frustrated and exclaimed "Creckin' Crewsh!" That time I laughed out loud. She's said it several times since then.

At least it's nothing bad...or real...

Book Review - The Kite Runner

I don't normally "do" book reviews. I remember in 5th grade we did this reading auction where we got "money" for reading to go towards this really cool auction at the end of the year, but you only got the "money" if you wrote a book report. And I hated that. I ended up reading way more books than I actually wrote book reports for, although I still ended up with the second highest amount of "money" to spend. Go figure.

I've always wanted to be in a book group, but I'm a little intimidated by them. I was that kid in school that knew the answer but never, ever raised my hand to offer it. Even when the class was silent and the teacher was staring us all down. I was partly protecting myself in case I was wrong and partly just not wanting to talk in a group setting like that. I still get embarassed to say anything in a class. Even at church. Oddly, if you put me in charge or if I'm giving a speech/talk, I have no trouble at all. Go figure again.

Anyway, I'm rambling. The point is, I read a lot of books, and I needed an outlet/discussion place for this one.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

This book is set in modern Afghanistan (from the early 70's to today). Basically, knowing very little about the Middle East prior to reading this, it really opened my eyes to the horror they face every day.

I found myself strongly relating to Amir. He is soft. He is timid and wracked by guilt. He has a stong loyalty, but it is overshadowed by fear and it takes tragedy and life experience for him to grow strong enough to face his demons. There's a passage in the book where he is witnessing a public stoning. He has his head down in his hands because he can't bear to watch. I understood him there.

I avoid the news. I convince myself that I don't need to know. Since I can't do anything (besides pray) at this point, I don't want to know what's happening in the world. I don't want to put those scenes and images into my head to come back and haunt me later. I don't want the weight of the horror that exists to press me down. I purposely read and watch a lot of "happy endings" style books and movies because I want to believe that the world is still basically good. And, considering the content of this book, it does have a rather happy ending.

But when I do allow myself to see what's happening out there, I tend to come away contemplative. I find myself with a new resolve to raise my children as confident, happy people who can make a positive impact on the world. I have more gratitude for how incredibly blessed I am. I realize that knowledge really can be empowering.

Like Amir, I find myself being more willing to stand up for myself and my family as I get older and put more experiences behind me. I've learned a lot about people and understanding them over the last several years. I know I still have a long, long way to go, but I'm looking forward to it!

I love that God set things up so we can learn line upon line, precept upon precept. It's amazing when something that I need to understand just settles into place as if I'd known it all along.

That was all a bit disjointed, I think. But if you've read the book and have any comments, I'd love to hear them!

The cutest little tree - a bright spot in the winter blahs

We are sick.and.tired of winter around here. Every single day when we drive by the park, Nathan and Aria discuss how much they want to play there.

Nathan inevitably reminds me that the groundhog didn't see his shadow, therefore, it should be summer now. (Thank you, Kindergarten, for teaching him that little nugget that he didn't quite grasp)

Aria then discusses the wonderfulness of swings. She looooves to swing. Perhaps I've even mentioned it before, I don't recall. But she is dying to swing again. She goes on and on about how she can't wait for me to give her an "under dog high run". That's no ordinary under dog. It's like and under dog with oomph. She wants to fly! She talks about how swinging high gives her a "tickle in her tummy" and that she loves to laugh while she swings so high. Then she heaves a big dramatic sigh and ends with "I wish it was summer today."

But last weekend we got a taste. I nice little spring-ish day that got up to the 60's! We didn't wear coats, we turned our faces to the sun, we were reminded how much we love spring/summer/fall around here. (winter...not so much).

These next pictures are all from our wonderful spring-ish February day.

I'm in love with this tree. It's little. And cute. Also love the cool mural. And the building opposite it. I can't decide if I like color or b/w better on this one. Feel free to weigh in!

This is the building opposite the cool tree.

And, more shopping with Grandma.

My little chocaholic

Gabe has some sesitivities/allergies. He doesn't do well with milk or eggs. So my Mom found some dairy free chocolate chips and gave him some.

I think he liked them.

The first taste...

Going for another one...

When he couldn't get it off the table with his fingers...

and, along these same lines...Gabe in a candy store. He's got a sweet tooth, this one!

There's nothing like it.

A good sale. And not just a good sale on regular, every day, normal priced clothing (although that's good too), but a good sale on designer clothes. Oh, man. If you've read the shopaholic books...you know how it feels.

Now, I'm pretty good about my shopping. I love new clothes, but I don't feel like I go overboard and I never ever pay full price. Ok, mostly never. shhh. But getting beautiful clothes at a slamming price is euphoric.

So, this last weekend, I was visiting my hometown and we were drawn to this store. It's a store I've been in maybe once before. And that time I walked in, looked at one price tag, and turned around and walked out. But this time, there were racks of clothing outside with giant 75% off tags everywhere. Just inside the door were all these beautiful shoes...also 75% off.

I saw these first and fell in love. There were only 2 pair left and I just knew they wouldn't be in my size. I mean, when does that ever happen? It's usually the teeny tiny sizes and the giant sizes that are the left overs. But they were my size!!! And at 75% off, just $19. I grabbed them and wandered around the store a bit and my wonderfully awesome Mom said she'd buy them for me for a Valentines Day present!

So, I didn't feel badly when I found these shoes for $23. Also in my size! I bought these ones. They're so comfy. Like a foot hug.

Even Aria found something she absolutely had.to.have. A really cute topaz ring. It was normally $55, so I figured it'd be just under $15 and I left it there. I didn't think it was such a great deal right then.

But then my sister got to town and she's even more of a shopaholic than I am so we went back the next day. And that's when I really scored. She found me some jeans. And not just any old jeans. The most comfy, soft, perfect fit, long-legged, make-my-butt-look-awesome jeans.

Citizen jeans.

Oh, they're beautiful. And you'll never believe the price. $40! Oh, man. I may never take them off.

I also found an awesome black shirt, that totally hides my post-3-babies belly, but I don't have pics of that (it's still packed and I'm too lazy to unpack it right now).

And I was good and passed on 2 gorgeous skirts (I'm in this Dave Ramsey money class...so I had to be a little good to avoid the guilt).

Right before I checked out, I noticed that Aria's ring was still there, so I grabbed it to check the price. Turns out it was more than 75% off and only $5! So, it went with the loot. I'll probably save it and give it to her for her birthday or something.

Happy Valentines Day!

I'm notoriously behind, so...I'm a day late. But I thought I'd share my 2006 holiday cards with all of you that I didn't have addresses for. (I know, that doesn't make any sense...why am I talking about holiday cards and valentines day???)

So, here.....I sent them out last week along with a letter full of excuses for being 2 months late. (click the picture to see it better!)

Dance party!

We love dance parties at our house. We crank up the music and dance and spin and hug and boogie...it's the best ever. Gabe even break dances. lol. So I tried to capture it in pictures.

Our current dance party CD of choice is Regina Spektor's latest.

What do you think?

It's back! It's back! It's back!

3 weeks. 3 looong, horrible weeks.

My camera was sent in for a cleaning and minor repairs and it took THREE WEEKS to get back.

It was like having a severed limb. Seriously. There were so many pictures I could have taken. So many things I didn't get to record. 3 weeks is a long time.

But IT'S BACK!!!!

So, I took some pictures.

Learned a cool new photoshop technique

I can't remember what it's called. I'm on dh's laptop and I don't have it bookmarked, I'll edit this tomorrow to give credit. But look how cool!

Ok, I checked. It's the Orton Technique.

Before



After

My Mama Model had her baby.

A girl. She was born right before Christmas. Here are some of her last three months of pregnancy photos. (Here are the rest)

Month 7-

Month 8-

Month 9 -