Easter Weekend-Saturday

I'm finally going to share some Easter photos with you!  You'll notice my photos don't have the watermark right now because the trial software I was using has expired.  I'm still debating which version to actually buy (Lightroom or Elements... anyone have a vote?), so as soon as I make up my mind it will be back.

This first batch of photos is from Saturday afternoon and evening.  We drove down to Kevin's aunt and uncles house so that we could be there on Easter morning.  Kerriann just loves their entire family so we knew she would have a great time.  Julie found all of her kid's old Disney stuffed animals and Kerriann was in heaven playing with them.  She set up camp on the stairs with them and didn't want to do anything else.

She kept saying she wanted to go "Night night on Goofy" and saying that Goofy was her pillow.  She was also asking for Donald over and over again all weekend but we couldn't find their Donald stuffed animal!

We finally got Kerriann to leave the stairs and head outside with us.  Of course, we had to bribe her by saying that Minnie could come outside too.  Kevin and his cousin Meggie were practicing lacrosse so we brought out a stick (is that what they're called?) for Kerriann too.

She had so much fun running around the yard and pulling a ball around in it.  She wouldn't put Minnie down the entire time.  She had to have all three things at all times. It was so cute!

The rest of the evening was spent eating and visiting with family members.  Kevin's brother, Sean, joined us for a few hours and Julie's other daughter, Marisa, made it home from college too.  We had a great time and we're so glad that we were able to go down early!

Momma in Focus Friday

So we didn't end up with an amazing shot of Kerriann and I together over Easter weekend, but we did get ONE after she woke up from her nap.  We didn't even get a shot of all of us in our Easter dress clothes-sigh.  Anyways, here it is to hold you over until I get the chance to post the rest of the Easter photos:

More Severe Weather

I had hoped to have most of my Easter pictures up by today, but with the crazy weather we've experienced the past 24 hours, it just didn't happen.  As a lot of you know, I'm terrified of tornados, and anytime we have warnings my life pretty much stops.  I honestly can't do anything productive!  I turn on The Weather Channel and try to keep Kerriann busy as I plan escape routes and think about all the "what ifs?"  Luckily, we don't have a lot of warnings in this area.  At least, I don't think that having three of them in less than three weeks has been normal.

The warnings started here around 2pm Wednesday and are supposed to end at 3pm this afternoon (10 more minutes!).  Last night the entire family slept horribly.  Kerriann woke up around 1:30 crying which is so abnormal for her.  I assumed it was because of the storm so I let her come into our bed.  I knew I'd end up paying for it, but I felt better having her tucked in between us "just in case."  She finally fell into a deep sleep about an hour later, but I was awake more than I slept for the rest of the night, and today I'm paying for it!  I was able to sneak in a little power nap, but I'm still feeling pretty groggy.  I'm just glad that the bad weather seems to have passed by us without too many problems.

With that said, I know there are so many people in the south, particularly in Alabama, who were not as lucky.  The Weather Channel has been saying that this might have been the worst outbreak of tornados in recorded history.  We were lucky that while we were in Alabama, we only had two really close calls.  The worst damage we ever saw was the neighbor's trampoline ending up on our roof.  So please say a prayer for all the people who were injured, killed or affected in any way by this extreme weather.  If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so through the Red Cross website or by texting REDCROSS to 90999.

Wordless Wednesday

*I can't take credit for this CUTE photo, pretty sure it was taken by Kevin's Uncle Larry, or his wife Julie, or daughter Meggie.  This was taken when they watched Kerriann during the Cherry Blossom Festival and I thought it was too cute not to share today!*

Shutter Love Tuesday-Easter

Easter egg hunt goodies on Sunday afternoon... she was more interested in eating the bunny shaped graham crackers than finding more eggs!

Happy Easter!

I had hoped to share a photo of Kerriann with the Easter Bunny today, but our trip to meet him last weekend did not go as planned!  She was terrified of the big bunny and refused to sit on his lap.  So no Easter Bunny photo this year!

Instead, take a look back at our photos from meeting the Easter Bunny at Ft. Rucker last year.  It's so crazy to see how much she has changed.  Here is another link with photos from Easter morning 2010.  What a cutie!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day with their friends and family!  And hopefully we can all remember the true meaning of this holiday as we look past the jelly beans and egg hunts and rejoice that Christ has Risen!

Project 365-Day 100 Reflections

Over the past 100 days I have been trying my best to keep up with my Project 365 Blog, 365 Moments in Time, as well as this blog.  My goal was to take at least one photo every day for a full year.  So far I think I have done pretty well.  I have missed a few days here and there due to illnesses (the last thing you want to do when you have food poisoning is think about picking up your camera), but other than that I've been able to at least snap a quick picture on my phone.

Day 6

I was hoping that through this project I would increase my photography skills and come out with some really awesome photos to show for my hard work at the end.  I also thought it would be great to be able to look back at this year and remember what I was doing on certain days.  It's easy to forget the less important days of the year, but all it takes is one photo to jog your mind and then you can actually remember that walk through the woods or random trip to the grocery store.

Day 34

At 1/3 of the way through, I think my photography skills have improved, but I know I still have a long way to go.  A lot of days it has felt like a chore to attempt to get a good quality photo to share.  Other days I'm entirely motivated and can't wait to load what I've taken onto my computer to pick a favorite.  I guess that's the way it goes with anything, you can't be "on" every single day.

Day 44

I really want to make more of an effort for the next 265 days to really improve my technique.  I think it will be much easier once the weather warms up and we can get outside.  There is only so much you can do when you have dark winter lighting to work with!  I hate using my flash, so I try to squeeze in as many great photos of Kerriann as I can playing near the windows on sunny days.

Day 97

I think I'm also going to start sharing my photos each week on this blog in collage form, because I doubt anyone really looks at the other blog. ;)  But whether anyone else ever checks out the pictures or not, they're really for ME (and Kerriann someday).  I can't wait to look back on them all at the end of the year and remember the little moments that I have forgotten!

Check back soon for DAY 100! :)

Saying Goodbye to Naptime?

I think the time has come, and I'm just not ready.  I'm pretty certain Kerriann isn't actually ready either, but she's pushing in that direction and I'm not sure how to stop her.  The past two days she hasn't napped even though she's looked exhausted.  She's falling more, getting hurt more, much more cranky and she says "No!" a lot more too.  She's not my happy baby.  It's crazy how different she is on days when she is well rested.  It's hard being home with her all day when she's not in a great mood, and I find myself letting her watch Elmo and Dora more than I probably should.  At least it keeps her from crying and getting hurt, and keeps my sanity a little more intact.

For moms with older kids, how did you know when it was time?  What did you do to ease the transition?  I've already started putting her to bed earlier but in turn she has been waking up earlier which seems to make her act even worse during the day.

Today I wanted to participate in a photo challenge that encourages moms to get in front of the camera with their kids.

I barely have any pictures of myself with Kerriann, though I have thousands of her, and probably a hundred of her with Kevin.  So I sat down and tried to get a few using the self timer and she was not having it.  She kept pushing me away and wanted to grab the camera.  Oh well!  Instead, here's one of us with Kevin from Sunday when we visited the Inner Harbor.  It's still not very great, but it's the best of the worst.  I'll share more photos from that as soon as I can.

Next week's theme is "Easter" so hopefully we'll be able to get at least one half way decent photo of us together over the weekend.  I'll have to recruit Kevin to help with that.

Hide and Seek with KA

I've been meaning to share this for a couple of weeks now.  One evening we were playing hide and seek with Kerriann.  She loves hiding behind the living room curtains and saying "Where's Kerriann, where is she?"

After Mommy and Daddy were sufficiently worn out on hide and seek, we noticed that Kerriann was hiding her dolls and toys behind the curtain and saying "Where is Dolly, where is she?"

She is just so smart and picks up on everything these days!

Wordless Wednesday

Kevin's Surprise Birthday Party

This past Saturday we celebrated Kevin's 26th birthday with a surprise party.

I've been working on pulling this together for the past month, and it's been so hard not to blow the secret!  I really didn't end up putting as much into the "theme" as I had hoped, but the party was still a huge success!  I was originally going for a vintage travel/plane theme.  In the end, I'm not sure if I accomplished that, but the point was for Kevin to have a great time with his friends and family and I know for a fact that he did.

It took a lot longer than expected to get Kevin out of the house on Saturday afternoon, so we only had about 45 minutes to finish the food, pick up food and last minute supplies from the store, and set everything up.  The guests started arriving around 4pm while I was still at the grocery store!  Luckily, my mother in law saved the day and started entertaining and putting people to work to pull everything together.  Thank you especially to her, but also to the others who helped make everything perfect before Kevin arrived.

Kevin and his Dad joined the party a little after 5pm.

We ate, drank, and visited for the rest of the evening. The weather was pretty crazy, though, and we even had a tornado warning.  Of course I was the only one concerned about that!  Because it is so dark and we barely have any lighting in here at this point, a lot of my pictures are kind of blurry.  So annoying, but what can you do?

After the storm had passed, and we took Kevin out for a little while in Bel Air.  Kevin's parents stayed with Kerriann while she slept (thank you again!), and we enjoyed a great evening out with adult conversation.  I think we are still recovering from the sleep we lost that night (which is why I'm just now getting around to posting).  We just can't stay up late and wake up at 7am like we used to!

Thanks again to all of Kevin's friends who made the trip for the party.  It really meant so much to both of us to have you all here.  Can't wait until we can all get together again!

Happy Birthday Kevin, WE LOVE YOU!