Today's the Day!

We're leaving an a couple hours to go to pick up Claudia from the airport. Her father called a few minutes ago letting us know she's in the air. She flies from Seattle to Atlanta, where she'll have an almost three hour layover before heading the rest of the way home.

She loves the layovers; there's nothing like having a group of people who's job it is to make sure you're taken care of. They'll take her to get food if she's hungry and to the unaccompanied minors room to hang out and play games or watch movies until her next flight.

To make it a fun day for the rest of the kids, we're going to Geppi's Entertainment Museum before we go to the airport. This should be fun; I know Anakin and Jesse (and Dad) will love it for the Star Wars stuff displayed.

I don't know how I'm going to make it through the rest of the day; my baby's coming home!

At least the waves were big....

Last summer we went to Dewey Beach for the first time instead of sticking to Ocean City as we usually do. It was August, the water was nice and the waves were high.

That day was the first that I took my 300mm zoom lens with me and got a couple of shots of Jason on his boogie board.

It wasn't until we got home that night and I uploaded them to the computer that we realized how big some of them really were.

To this day they are his favorite pics. Men...they never grow up.

(im)Perfect Princess

This was the second week of Gotta Pixel's Scrap Star Contest that I talked about here. This week's challenge was to use an imperfect photo to create a layout with at least 80% white space and uses a kit called Spring by Heather T.

This was a challenge for me as I'm apt to erase any pictures that don't come out to save space on my hard drive. I think I tried three or four different pictures before I decided on one of Mia in her tutu. I was trying to photograph her when she while she was fidgeting and being all around silly.

In the end, it was the Perfect choice. :)

Those Eyes

Before I got my Rebel a couple years ago, I had a simple Canon point and shoot. My mom bought it for me when I was pregnant with Anakin and it was my first digital camera. Now with the ability to erase pictures as I shot them and to view them on my computer, I began to love photography more than ever.

Sometimes I like to look back at some of the pictures I took using that camera and comparing them to the ones that I've taken with my xti. I imagine I will do the same when I upgrade again.

But beyond the difference in quality or ability, I'm just amazed by how quickly time passes. Today I was looking at a picture I took of Anakin just a few weeks before he turned a year old. I look at his face and am struck by how much he's grown and changed and by how much he still the same.

One things for sure, he will always have those eyes.

Families...

Having five kids it can be almost impossible to get a great group shot. Especially when you have babies or toddlers, though sometimes I think my bigs are even worse. For a couple of years I tried to get a shot but there was always someone not sitting still of giving bunny ears or pulling faces.

It was these pics that inspired me to scrapbook one of my favorite pages.

I've not tried in a year and a half or so, but I've not given up totally. Maybe this will be the year that I get a good group shot.

(Kit used is Fried Pickles by Rachel Donald)

Funny Face

It was not easy to choose a picture to enter in this week's I Heart Faces crazy, silly, funny face challenge. I'm much more likely to get a silly face out of one of my kids than a nice, happy, smiley one which I'm sure I will be seen in future days on my blog. :)
In the end I settled on a picture I had taken back in March of 2008. I had taken the little ones to the park and just followed them around snapping shots as they played. I've always loved this shot, but had never done anything with it until today.
I'm glad I rediscovered it.

Getting Noticed

I love going to the zoo and so do my kids. Luckily we have a small zoo close to us that we go to multiple times a year. Usually when the weather first starts turning in the spring, I start getting antsy to go and this year was no different. Of course, I make sure I have my camera with me because I love taking pictures of the animals. Sure, it's the same animals every time we go, but you never know what they're going to be doing and this last trip was a great example.

We have a few peacocks at the zoo and I love sitting and watching them and hoping that they will display their beautiful feathers. This time, though, one was also being very vocal trying to get noticed by the peahens. I spent a while just sitting there watching him until I was finally able to get the picture I wanted and since this week's I Heart Faces challenge included Pets or animals, I knew I had to enter it. It also fits the challenge of funny or silly faces.

Now if I can just choose which human face I'd like to share. :)