Day 59

Kate is not a big eater, but every now and then she hits a spurt where she eats so much. She's in one now. I told her to quit eating, I can't afford to keep replacing the pants that are all getting too short. I can't wait for spring, capri weather!

Day 58

Kate gets her fashion sense from her father...

Days 56 & 57

Lucy had a rough day at work... She's a programmer for Barbie Laptop Inc. (I really wish she would act a bit more modest and not show her belly at work though. Kids these days!)

I just had to take this one of Kate, it made me laugh:)

Days 54 & 55

A couple of shots of my cats - first up, Spike. He's our chicken cat, he's afraid of everything. He's a good looking guy, though (Of course in this pic you can't see his horrible hair cut, I have to shave him down periodically because he gets such bad mats in his fur, he looks like I cut his fur with a lawn mower... maybe that'd make a better pic!)

Next up our fluffy girl, Suds. (Like soap suds) She's not afraid of anything. She's sweet but doesn't sit on your lap, she hangs out next to me as I scrap.

Day 53

So I started potty training Kate too early, she was always willing and happy to go on the potty, but it took her body a long time to learn when it had to go. Lucy on the other hand, has until this point been nearly defiant about the potty. Jeff took a half day off with her on Thursday though and must have had the magic touch because she's been interested since that day, she wants to "potty like Molly" (the girl in her potty book.) Isn't the most exciting thing about potty training getting "Tinky Bell" underwear?

Such a great look, with no pants and a pair of Crocs. She did really well all weekend, no accidents, she told me when she had to go until... "mom, I poopy." ugh. It wasn't pretty.

Day 52

Kate had a Karate graduation today - she moved from her orange belt to a purple one. I took this picture of her demonstrating her nun chucks, I love the look on her face :)

My flash wouldn't reach far enough, so throughout the graduation I kept playing with settings. I ended up taking this with 1600 ISO, everything else was so dark. I just read about this Noiseware program on the DailyDigi, I think it did a pretty good job. Times like this, I really wish I had a personal photography coach! Is there such a thing?

Days 49, 50 & 51

I found this fabric last weekend at this amazing quilt store - I fell in love with it immediately. I bought it and one other Asian print. My mom is a great sewer and makes the greatest things for the girls, I think it would be so cute made into tunics to wear with cropped leggings, maybe something like this or this.

We took the girls to see the National Acrobats of China last night, holy cow! What an incredible show and what an amazing group of talented people. The girls had such a great time, we had great seats and they were oohing and aahing the whole time (as were we.) After the show the performers were signing autographs. This amazing girl did an entire 10 minute routine on ONE hand perched upon a really thin pedestal. I can't even imagine the strength that would require, but check out the muscles in her back, wow! I would highly recommend the show, see it if you can.

My friend bought me these daisies for my birthday, absolutely my favorite color and what a nice surprise to have them waiting for me on my desk at work! It was such a great birthday :)

Day 48

Look what I got!! My awesome friend Kimberly surprised me with this more than appropriate shirt for my birthday! Isn't it sooo cool? I know I've said before how much I love Edamame and it was actually Kimberly that introduced me to those beautiful green delights a little over a year ago when I first met her in person. Thank you Kimberly, you sooo made my day! I love it!

Day 47

Everyday I go in to get Lucy from her nap and she's quietly reading books in her bed. Isn't that the greatest?! It's so darn sweet, I can hardly stand it. Here you'll see her with one of her two favorite books - it's called "My Potty". She loves it, though it seems to have had zero effect on her willingness to be potty trained. She is completely not interested, I asked her if she would ever go potty and she said, "no." I told her she'd be the only one at prom in diapers and she said, "yup." I guess it'll be her problem by then... lol!

(Soft and Faded photo action by Pioneer Woman)
On another note, I thought that once I got a flash for my camera that was adjustable, that I'd take decent flash pics. Seriously! Flash pictures are just as hard as manual without a flash. This photo is so grainy. I need a personal photography trainer! Any suggestions on how to learn to use my flash? Anyone? :)

Day 45 & 46

We spent the weekend with my in-laws at an indoor water park. (Seriously, the whole atmosphere, you know screaming kids and chaos, stresses me out - but we had so much fun!!) Lucy wore herself out, she must have climbed out of the kiddy pool, climbed the stairs to go down the little water slide 1700 times in a row.

She was sharing a room with her sister so it took them a while to settle down and finally sleep. I checked in on her and found her like this... Sweaty, wore out and 1/2 naked! lol!

I found this awesome Asian Stir Fry play set by Melissa and Doug this weekend... soooo darn cool! The chopsticks and food pieces have Velcro so kids can pick them up easier and the pieces can be sliced with a wooden knife through the velcro too. So cute!

Days 42, 43 & 44

I finally got my laptop back tonight. The worst part is that nothing was fixed. They couldn't fix my USB port without replacing some big expensive thing and apparently my RAM is maxed, I can't add any more. That was the most disappointing news.

So I'm playing some catch up here...
day 42:
Kate made this snowgirl in her kindergarten class after reading the book Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. The illustrations are so wonderful. Kate brought in a variety of fun things from home to make her. I LOVE her lips! Kate made them out of pipe cleaners, it just cracks me up!

day 43:
Kate and I made this delicious Valentine dessert - oh yum! I found the recipe here. So yummy and so easy.

day 44:
My birthday is next week, but we always celebrate it with my father-in-law and brother-in-law too since our birthdays are so close. Anyway, Jeff bought me this...

I'm so excited, can't wait to play!

Days 40 & 41

I was going to wait until I had my laptop back to post my pictures, but I don't know when that's going to be. It's funny how foreign everything seems using someone else's. (plus I have to use a really old, PS Elements v. 3.0 to edit my pics - I might as well be carving this blog from a block of stone... lol!) So here it goes...
Day 40's pic is some felt heart pillows that Kate is making for her grandparents and her teacher for Valentine's Day. She's such a good hand sewer. My mom taught her really early and she's got a knack for it.

and Day 41... I totally started laughing when I realized that Lucy saying, "Let's cook!" meant a plastic cookie and two stuffed cupcakes in the play kitchen microwave. Bon Apetit!

Day 39

So Kate and her dad had a great time at the dance last night. They went with Kate's friend and her dad too. They went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant where they had sparkling grape juice waiting and a glass with their name on it (compliments of Kate's friend's mom). The girls got corsages and they all got their pics taken at the dance. Jeff said that it was soooo crowded. It more than filled the high school gym and they had to do photos in a separate gym to fit it all in.

Kate's feeling a bit under the weather today, she's got a cough and fever. We're thankful it didn't keep her from the dance!

The picture of the day is the girls (pre-fever confirmation...). I can tell now that I look at this pic that Kate doesn't quite look like herself. Isn't it funny that as a mom you can see it in their eyes so easily?

I used Annie Manning's (Paint the Moon) Perfection photo action :)

Thank you to all of you that posted such fun and sweet comments about the dance pics!

Day 38

Dance day! I had a really hard time getting a good, crisp shot... Lucy was running around singing "I can't do it, I can't do it, I can't do it!" because she couldn't step down from the porch during our photo shoot. We were all about busting a gut!

Here's the best shot (BTW, I wasn't torturing my family, it was almost 50 degrees today! Ignore the snow!) Lucy had moved herself directly behind them at this point, still singing of course!

Daddy and daughter are still out, they must be having a great time!

Day 37

So Kate got a mini make-over tonight, all in preparation for the big Daddy/Daughter dance tomorrow night. I had bought these cute nail decals a long time ago and totally forgot about them, I thought they'd be perfect for her pre-dance manicure! She's such a girly girl :)

Day 35 & 36 too

So I took my laptop in because I had a USB port that wasn't working... umm, apparently they didn't find anything wrong with it - grrr! Of course it won't work for my mouse, EHD or camera... not sure how that equals "works fine."

Anyway, here's day 35 - (Kimberly, this is for you ;) ...) Edamame, just the pods. I love edamame like crazy and I found these great little individual packs frozen at Cosco. I'm so excited because I love them and Kate loves them too - this pile of empties is actually hers. I just love hearing my girls excited about veggies!

Day 36:
I remember loving Valentine's day as a kid so much. Choosing your cards and creating your Valentine's box, eating those disgusting conversations hearts even though you hated them (they were sugar, after all!) Anyway, I love watching it now through Kate's eyes. Of course she thinks it's ValenTIMES day... So here's Kate working intently on filling in her name on her cards for her class. She chose High School Musical ones and Kung Fu Panda too.

Day 34

Kate has a Daddy/Daughter dance at school this upcoming weekend and after wavering back and forth over whether or not to buy her a new dress we finally decided, "yes." (I rationalized that she can wear it for Easter, a Wedding we have in April and the dance. Plus, her Easter dress from last year was too short and I just didn't really like the one I bought for $5 at the re-sale shop...) So Kate was trying her dress on and wanted the picture of the day today to be her new dress. I, on the other hand, wanted to save pics of her dress for Saturday, the day of the dance. So today we get kind of just a sneak preview... in b&w :)

I used this tutorial on the Daily Digi to do my b&w, it was really great, lots of flexibility and it works for Elements too!

Day 33

So my picture for today... It's the end of the semester at school and each quarter, Kate's kindergarten teacher sends home their journal. It is such a treat for me to read through and see her ideas (and her invented spelling). This page in particular cracked me up...
Her writing says, "buy camouflage". I think that's a darn smart idea - and so darn funny too!

I had a few people ask about the color on my pictures. I'm completely addicted to post processing now, I love photo actions. I always sharpen my pics and fix the exposure and contrast. The last one of Lucy, I used Annie Manning's Perfection Action, I bought it after looking at the before and afters on her blog here. You can get it along with a few others at Oscraps - here. My other favorite actions are by Pioneer Woman (she's got two sets now, and they're free!) get them here and here. (one note about the actions though, they're not available for Elements :( I'm also starting to learn and use Lightroom - it's amazing what you can make better with all the sliders there. Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments!! It really makes this project that much more fun!

Day 32

Somewhere along the line Lucy learned who Spongebob is, she never watches it, but gets excited when she sees him. (Personally, he cracks my butt up, but I don't love the show for younger kids.) So Jeff found these PJ's and Lucy loved them!

Perfection Photo Action by Annie Manning (Paint the Moon) at Oscraps :)