Memories revisitied {and edited a bit}

I recently decided to invest a little more time into being able to use our 'big kid' camera correctly.
I mean if you have the tools, you may as well know how to use them the right way, right?

And while our camera takes good pictures in the 'auto' mode...
they don't always turn out as I envision in my mind.
I needed to learn to be more confident in the 'manual' mode of our camera...
and be able to tell the camera what to do...
not take a picture, say a few 'Hail Mary's' and hope for the best.
Conveniently, about the time that I decided to start looking for a workshop to attend,
I received an email from the one and only,
Angie Penrose of Angie Penrose Photography,
inviting me to attend her upcoming workshop.
AAAHHHHHH!!!!
Divine intervention.
I couldn't wait to attend!!

Giddy like school girl!

I had a great time...
...even learned a thing or two
{Thanks Angie for all of your patience with me}.
You'll have to wait for some of my new and improved 'manual' photos,
but I can show you some of the things that I learned in editing.

***I will include the disclaimer here that I am not a fan of overly edited photos, but a few small touch-ups here and there, to make a great picture even better, isn't necessarily a bad thing.***

The following pictures are the untouched version first...
followed by the edited version.
I love each of these pictures in their original version,
but the edited just tweaks them enough and changes the 'feel' of them.
What do you think?

This was actually taken by my father in law, Oobie Doobie, at Jas' cousin's wedding last summer. I love the silhouette effect.

This is my cousin Carrie, and her little man, L, throwing rocks in the river last summer during one of our 'cousin playdates.'

I took this one of A last fall when we went to the ocean to visit my momma's side of the family.
I really like the {vintage} feel that the edits add to it.

Of course I liked this one from the 'get-go'... it has my favorite man in it!

...and my two favorite girls.

We went from playing in the ocean on an overcast, slightly chilly afternoon...
to what can be perceived as maybe a little more warmer day
{minus my sweatshirt}.

I am really excited to take some more pictures now that I understand our camera a little more and the abilities that it as {and now that I have}.
Hopefully, the two of us can reach an equal understanding and cooperate with each other to capture/create amazing memories.

Snow Day!!!

Isn't this ice covered tree amazing?!?
As each season approaches,
I am most amazed at how creative God is
and just how beautiful His creations are.
Case is point...
Each needle of this tree was frozen in time with ice.
AMAZING!!!

After the gorgeous and peaceful snowfall on Thursday,
we awoke on Friday after having it rain ice.
It was still peaceful and still gorgeous...
everything was covered in a coating of ice.
{I'll post pictures of this is an upcoming post}
The only drawback to the pristine layer of ice on everything...
a lot of branches of trees were incredibly heavy and as a result snapped and broke...
landing wherever they wanted.
The result...NO POWER!!!
No biggie...
{I secretly like it when the power goes out...everything is so still and quiet - except the girls}.
We spent the morning, like most...
except instead of our typical peanut butter toast we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
And after calling to a few of our local Starbucks to find one with power...
the girls and I jumped in the car and drove to get this
momma a double tall nonfat stirred caramel machhiato.
...
On the way home, I received a phone call from my friend Amy,
whose was at our other friend Amy's home...(each has two girls)
{Seems to be a theme in our neighborhood}
Anyhow...we stopped in (as they only live 3 streets over} and all 6 of the girls
put on their boots, gloves and hats and headed outside to get a hands-on winter wonderland experience.

Here is Miss Abra-Cadabra...
playing hard to get
{little stinker did her best to keep from being photographed}

I turned my camera's attention to the right and found Miss Had,
she was keeping her hands tucked safely in her pockets and admiring the ice covered branches.

A joined in on the effort to get a picture of Abra-Cadabra...

Ab's older sister was really intrigued by the branches in her yard and how they had been preserved by the ice.

Well...wouldn't you want to see what it taste like also?

I love that they were all in their jams...
no reason not to be as it was chilly and they didn't stay out long.
BUT BEFORE I LET YOU GO IN TO WARM UP and have lunch...
I need a quick group picture...

OK...everyone look this way and smile...
{Abra...please???}

As I was taking this pic...A announced...
'We don't have to smile...
She's just taking a picture of our boots!'
{Man, that girl knows me all to well}

OK...ladies on the count of three...
ONE...
TWO...

THREE...

JUMP!!!

OK...everyone inside...
kick off your boots and let's eat!!!

Did I mention that Amy's husband was home and had hooked up their generator so they had limited power?
These gorgeous beauties were grilled on their camping propane stove...

...as was this tomato soup.

Is there a more appropriate lunch for a group of girls on a 'Snow Day,'
than grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup?
It was delicious and warm...
better than what we would have had at home...
same as breakfast...
PB and J's.
The soup proved to be too hot for immediate consumption...
and the girls were wanting immediate.
Any ideas on the quickest way to cool off your soup when there is 6 inches of snow outside...

Amy...so smart...grabbed a handful of snow and put a little scoop in each bowl.

On one of the many trips home to check on our puppies...
I drove past this cutie-patootie...
pants rolled up

and more than eager to get to throwing some snow!!!
He is all boy!!!
{recognize him...he is the cute little blonde from my previous post.

I was bummed that Jas wasn't able to spend as much time with us because of his company's emergency service services and it was his week to be on-call.
But the time that we did get with him, was awesome and uninterrupted.
Lots of time spent reading books and coloring by the fire...

I am excited to create our next post...
as it really captures the beauty that those days presented us with.
I hope that most people were able to rejoice in it's simplicity and grandeur...
even without power {for 40 hours...but who's counting?}

PJ's and Honesty...

Hmmm...I'll bet you are wondering to yourself about now what in the world the title of this post means....
Well, it is what made up the two most important part of our girls' days.

Today was Pillow Pet/Pajama Day at Had's preschool.
So here she is...
in her Pretty Pink P.J's,
holding her Penguin Pee-wee Pillow Pet
ready for her Preschool Pajama Party.
I was told that they would Participate in a Pillow Pet Parade.
(ok...enough already...I get it)

But isn't she Precious?

Precisely my Point!
Did I mention that we watched Mr. Popper's Penguins this morning

(Ok...I'm done)

So after dropping Had off for school...
Jas and I rushed down to A's school
where she was secretly being awarded a Citizenship Award.

Proud momma and daddy-o!!
I know that I am biased...
but darn it...
she looks so cute in her jeans and cowboy (excuse me, cow 'girl') boots.
This month's awards were in honor of 'honesty.'
Her's said the following:
"A is honest through and through. She is honest in work and play. When working in our room and when spreading joy on the playground, A is one to seek out to be a positive role model. She sets high standards for herself and is an honest friend, learner and citizen.
Thank you, A for being a great model citizen."
We could not be more proud of our little lady...
nor could we think of a more important characteristic for her to be honored for!!

Now, it's not that I wasn't paying attention to the rest of A's peers as they got their awards...
It's just that my attention kept being stolen by the two cute kiddo's that were sitting in front of me...
I wasn't fast enough to catch this sassy little lady's face...
but trust me..she is stinkin' cute and has an alter-ego that I like to refer to as
'Yo-la.'
Her sister is one of A's good buddies and was receiving an award as well.

Same as this little man (one of his sissy's in also in A's class and was being recognized)...
who was ever so quietly playing his cars on the ground.

He thought it was awfully funny to turn his head back around as soon as I lifted my camera.
Little Stinker...but OH SO CUTE!!!

He is Had's age and the two of them find refuge in each other when they are ganged up on by the abundance of older girls around.

I GOT HIM!!!
It took a few tries...
but I captured his cute little self.

Tell me that he is NOT the cutest little boy you have EVER SEEN!!!

After numerous attempts,
I was finally able to catch 'Yo-la' as well.
Sassy side-pony and all!!!

And here they are...

our little award winners!!

The three of them are great friends...

and the other two have some of the best parents you could wish your child's friends to have!

We are Blessed!!!

I am cataloging these into their 'Senior SlideShow' folder!

We look forward to many laughs and memories with all of A's great friends...

and their families!

Winter Wonderland...

WOWZA'S!!!
I know that our blog gets neglected from time to time...
but this is ridiculous!!
I even had to stop and think hard about what my password was to our blog...after three attempts,
I got it!

I was foolish enough to think that since Had was starting preschool that I may actually have a free minute every now and again to blog...
WRONG!!!
It seems that something always comes in the way...
I am not complaining...so please don't misinterpret.
I have filled what would have been my 'free-time' with some pretty great things.
To be discussed later...

Anyhow, over the past few days, we residents of Western Washington have found ourselves in the midst of a winter storm
(snow-pocolypse, snow-magedon, ice-a-palooza, you get the idea)
and it has created some beautiful scenery for us to enjoy.
It also erased anything on our schedule (besides Jas's work) and provided us some un-planned time to spend with friends.

Our school district called it the night before that school would be canceled the following day (sidenote: it hadn't even started snowing yet when they canceled school-something Jas still scratches his head at; canceling school because it's supposed to snow?).

So I called A's friend, Rags momma, to see if Rags could stay the night. You should have seen the look on A's face when we walked in the door. She was so excited.

After staying up far past their bed time,
they woke bright and early to see if it had in fact snowed.
IT HAD!!
They bundled up and got ready to go play...
They had a blast!
I'll cut to the chase and get to some pictures already:
These are from our 1st 'Snow Day.'

After much warning from A and Rags to NOT EAT yellow snow...Had just couldn't wait any longer to try some of the white stuff.
Rags is such a sweet girl...and her family is incredible.
And she is super cute to boot.
Oh...our girl!
I love how her front teeth are slightly too big for her face...said with a mother's love.
Hoping these two remain friends throughout their school career...and beyond.

They were in the same kindergarten class last year and this year were seperated into different first grades...but hopefully next year, they'll be together again.
I think of the friendship that I have with a most special gal that I went Kindergarten thru Graduation with...and we are still close and are 'Auntie's' to each others girls...and I hope this for these two also. A few hours later, Rags mom and dad showed up to take her home...
Mom in her Volvo...
and dad on his quad.
You can only imagine the giggles that these three let out as they were being pulled along
(at a safe speed).

They kept coming up with fun new scenerios to play out and pretend to be while being pulled.
A was supplying the 'rooster' tail, since they were going too slow to create their own.
I love this picture! I just wish you could see the smile on Had's face.

Had got tired of being the 'cream filling,'
stuck in the middle...
...and talked her way into the driver's seat.
A wanted to 'fly.'

The only regret I had, was that Jas' job keeps him super busy during times of extreme weather, and he missed our day-o-snow.
He worked VERY LONG HOURS the last few days...
and now that I think about it...
I think that my motivation for blogging our last few days is to share with him what we did while he was so hard at work.

Hopefully, there will be more blog posts to follow...