“Enjoying Life” Photo Contest

I’m going to have to take as many pictures as I can before my husband deploys later this year and most likely takes the good camera with him.

I decided to take the camera along on a recent visit to the sprayground and got some great pictures of Kelsey in the fountains and clmbing on the lion statues (which she can now do by herself, oh boy). I managed to snap the shutter right at the exact moment to catch her dumping water over her head which she thinks is hilarious to do. It is second only to pouring the water on me.  Just trying to enjoy this part of our lives.

 

Check out the photo contest at I Heart Faces:

Yellow Photo Challenge

I took a few snapshots of Kelsey playing at a nearby playground with my cellphone a couple weeks ago so when I saw a “yellow” challenge I knew what to put her in and where to go to get some great pictures with a better, not as grainy camera. So glad I did because I got a couple of great shots of her.

It’s weird and great at the same time to watch her climb and go down slides all by herself now. She’s grown so much and now says a couple of not very well pronounced words (car, cracker, shoes, chair, banana, honeydew). I have to admit it is nice when, even though I know she can do it by herself, she’ll reach out for my hand to help her up.

 

Check out The Paper Mama’s Photo Challenge:

I Heart Faces “Happiness” Photo Challenge

I recently tried my hand at taking some baby pictures for a friend. I think I did alright but definately have room for improvement. Good thing I’ll probably get another chance in a little while to try out some other ideas.

While we had things set up, I took the opportunity to snap a few of my little muse. Here is one I thought fit the “happiness” theme of the I Heart Faces Photo Challenge for April. She’s just such a happy little girl. In this photo I was asking her where her head was. She’s always so proud of herself.

Enjoy!

i heart faces: Beautiful BandW Photo Challenge

Another photo from Valentine’s Day shoot!

I Heart Faces: Hugs and Kisses

I love my little girl. When I ask for kisses she’ll turn my head to “kiss” my cheek – it’s still more of an open mouth, slobber fest, but it’s cute.

Valentine’s Day 2012

Even though I knew it was coming, Valentine’s Day still kind of snuck up on me. Mostly because I didn’t really think I was going to do anything for it but in the last coupe of days before it, I decided why not celebrate a little?

I decided I wanted to try to take some Valentine’s-ee pictures of Kelsey. I had a hand-me-down dress that fit Kelsey but wasn’t overly hearts and pink. Someone was giving away baskets on freecycle so I spray painted one white. I was tidying up some stuff in my craft area and came across a couple bunches of red carnations left over from a project a couple of years ago. I saw a little heart garland in the background of someone’s picture that I thought was cute.

Let the Valentine’s decor begin!

I picked up a couple of sheets of felt from Walmart, cut into fourths, then cut out hearts. I then cut slits into the hearts to run the ribbon through, which I already had. I stuck a few nails in the fence out back to hang them from. I put the flowers in the basket, put Kelsey in the middle of it and started snapping away. I have found that keeping her in one spot works best if I give her things to play with.

After the shoot, I hung the hearts around the living room and the flowers turned into a door decoration. I picked up a half ball of floral foam, tied ribbon around it to hang it from and just stuck the blooms into the foam. Viola!

For my husband, I took advantage of a free personalized card from Tiny Prints and I decided to make something yummy. Most importantly, I finally found a use a heart pie baker we got for our wedding almost 6 years ago!

I followed the directions to make this No Crust Strawberry Pie I found through The Frugal Girls. However, instead of whipped topping, we heated up and drizzle some dark chocolate topping over our servings. Who doesn’t love chocolate and strawberries?

I gave Kelsey a couple of treats in the morning. I picked up a box of Sweethearts on sale and got a heart lollipop from a wedding I went to last week. She promptly turned the candy into a shaker and proceeded to swat the dog with the lollipop.

Since my husband stil had his regular, into the middle of the night work hours, we got the idea to go to IHOP for breakfast.

In the afternoon, it was girls time at the mall. I picked up my free, travel-size, Signature Collection item from Bath & Bodyworks from their facebook promotion and then picked up an Icedream from Chik-fil-A, soft serve with pink sprinkles! Kelsey had a few nibbles, the child won’t drink milk or eat cheese or yogurt but she likes ice cream.

We both worked off our treat on the playground – Kelsey by climbing up everything and me by having to carry her down off of everything. She’s still not too sure about getting off items but she’s starting to gain an appreciation for slides. Here she is giving the dolphin a kiss!

Earlier in the day, my husband gave me a card and a box of Zombie Bonbons – chocolate with cherry brains – and picked up a copy of Breaking Dawn from Redbox, free one night rental through their facebook promotion. I had a MacDill Enlisted Spouses Club meeting but once we got home and I got Kelsey to bed, I was able to finally watch it. Yes, I’m a little bit of a Twilight dork.

All in all, it was a pretty good (and relatively cheap) Valentine’s Day! I hope you had a good one, too.

Here’s a few more pictures, I can’t help myself.

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge – Hearts

My adorable little Valentine!

Kelsey’s First Christmas

It’s 70-something degrees outside here in Tampa, FL but I’ve been trying to get into the holiday spirit the past week or so. I have Christmas music playing now to keep me motivated. The past month or two I haven’t been feeling well and ended up having my gallbladder removed. Thankfully, everything is getting back to normal and I’m feeling like my old self again.

Unfortunately, I ended up in the hospital over Thanksgiving. I was so excited to have Thanksgiving dinner as our new little family and let Kelsey try turkey for the first time and take lots of pictures of food all over her face. (I was also all set to make that pumpkin pie. I’ll get to it eventually.) Thanksgiving ended up being in the hospital cafeteria, my husband eating cafeteria turkey and sides, Kelsey eating a jar and turkey and veggie dinner store baby food, and me “going rogue” drinking some weak cranberry-something tea. At least we were together and I wasn’t in the hospital for anything life threatening or even remotely close. However, I still felt bad that I had ruined Thanksgiving.

We had already defrosted the turkey so my husband cooked it and I was able to have a little once I got home but we never had a Thanksgiving “do over.” I was felling pretty down that I might not feel better by Christmas. I know Kelsey is never going to remember this Christmas but I still did not want to ruin it. I made myself got jolly and my husband helped. We got some lights put up outside, we taped the cards to the wall, and we put up our little tree with pink and silver ornaments I picked up last year to celebrate having a little girl this year.

It also got my husband and I thinking about the traditions we want to start in our family. What did we want Kelsey to remember doing every year? To an extent, some traditions just kind of happen over time – like my Mom and Stepdad’s side leaving Oreo’s and a wine cooler for Santa instead of milk and cookies – but what were the things we enjoyed and wanted Kelsey to experience? So far, we’re keeping it pretty basic, knowing full well that other traditions will come in time. I can’t wait to add in crafts and making treats with Kelsey as she gets older.

I’ve been excited to play Santa for the first time this year. I don’t think I went overboard, but Kelsey’s been a good girl and Santa is sure to be leaving her a few toys to enjoy. Of course, the boxes from relatives have been coming in and will be sure to give Kelsey some presents to unwrap.

I decided to “wrap” her presents by putting them in boxes with the flaps pushed in, wrapping the outside of the box for decoration and then covering the items with tissue paper. I’m hoping she’ll do what she does when she’s digging through the laundry basket and pull the paper out to uncover the toys. We’ll see how my plan goes. I also took advantage of a Vistaprint deal and got her a stocking with her name embroidered on it which I’m putting a couple of jingle bells strung together and a stuffed animal into. Thinking about it with just a day to go I’m getting so excited for Christmas morning!

I guess I really am feeling better because I’ve been taking some pictures for fun and even spent a chunk of this afternoon prancing around the living room with The Nutcracker on tv. I may have roped Kelsey in to it by dressing her as the Sugar Plum Fairy while she followed me around the house.

I’m happy to be a Mommy and this last year has had its share of ups and downs, but I love looking at Kelsey’s little face when we go look at the lights outside or when I plug the tree in. Priceless.

Holiday fun we’ve been having so far:

Kelsey checking out the beads she got at the Downtown Tampa Parade and Santa Fest

The mascot at our wrapping fundraiser

"Helping" to put up the Christmas lights

Water Pictures, Con’t

We had the sprayground to ourselves this afternoon. It rained just after lunch time so I guess that’s why no one was out. It was humid, but since it was a little overcast it wasn’t so bright out. It was nice to be able to walk around and not worry about other kids running Kelsey over. We didn’t stay long but we had a good time running our hands through the water.

Here are more pictures I took. I think I’m starting to get better. I see photos that I like and then try to make a mental note to try out a concept or two. I worked on angling the camera for a while and it’s coming a little more naturally now. Now I’m working on the subject being off center.

i heart faces: Water Challenge

Catching Water

This week’s photo challenge over at www.iheartfaces.com is “Water.” We recently discovered that Kelsey actually enjoys playing in the water and doesn’t mind the water splashing her at the sprayground.

There is a free, public park near our house so now that she is sitting up very well and interested in exploring, we have somewhere to hang out on hot days. We’ve already had a playgroup playdate there and can’t wait to do more!

(More photos from today here.)

Also being entered at http://thepapermama.blogspot.com/, Summertime Photo Challenge.