Project 52 (weeks 1-6)

One of my friends (and photographer) is hosting a project 52 this year. The basic theory is that you take a picture every week in line with a theme and watch your photography improve over the year. Now I have zero intention of actually being a real photographer but I love and always have loved photography. It started in college, my grandpa gave me his old (super old) manual canon SLR camera. I took a few photography classes in college and have dabbled in it off and on ever since. When film went to the wayside I had pretty much stopped taking lots of pictures. I couldnt fine a good digital that I liked so I just didn't do much. Once we had kids, I realized that I was taking tons of pictures again but they weren't the quality I wanted. So a couple years ago I finally broke down and got a digital SLR (best investment ever). Since then I have been taking tons and tons, and tons of pictures. I've taken a couple photography classes and am working to improve. I love it! I love taking pictures of my kids (which is pretty much the focus of most of my pictures at this point) and now have started to work on editing them more.

So here are my first few pics (and edits) for project 52.

Week 1: Random 

Original

 Edited

Week 2: Hope

Original

Edited

 Week 3: Light (as air)

 Original

Edited

 Week 4: Random

Original

Edited

 Week 5: Exploration

Original

Edited

 Week 6: Free

Original

Edited

Dallas!

Meena, Addy, and I took a trip to Texas to visit Aunt Robyn and do some wedding dress shopping! It was a successful trip in that Robyn, Addy, and I all were able to get dresses. We packed a lot of fun into our short time there and got to see quite a bit of Dallas!

I gave addy my old point and shoot camera since I never use it. She is quite the budding photographer! She took pictures of EVERYTHING! and actually ended up with a few good shots. 

We went to the aquarium which was just amazing and beautiful.

 Spent some time in the stockyards. Had dinner at a Texas steak house and AJ and I shared a yummy steak!

 Watched the cattle drive. It was cool but very short and probably the slowest cattle drive in the world!

Addy even got to ride a longhorn!

 Self portrait...

 Having fun on the plane.

 Took a few pics of Eric and Robyn while we were there.

 And Addy of course!

 She found a pink cowboy had that has a princess tiara on the front so of course that is what my girly girl wanted! A little bit country, a little bit princess!

 We went to see the Mustangs of Las Calinas which were fantastic! They were amazingly huge, very detailed, and the fountain made it look like they were running through the water.

 Robyn was a gymnast when she was younger so she was showing Addy her skills! They had fun and did everything together!

We did some shopping, lots of eating... did I mention the eating? And got to spend quality time with Robyn and Eric. It was sad to leave. Addy had so much fun and was so good on the trip! I'm pretty sure she is a much better traveler and flyer than I am!

January 2013

January brought snow! We have been sledding a few times and the kids just have a blast! They are even pretty good about walking up the hill.

 Addy and I had a trip to Texas planned so I wanted to make sure I got some TYTY time in before we went so JT and I went to the local bounce house, a toy store, and to dinner!

 He even got to ride on a mechanical bull!

Meena surprised Addy with a belated birthday gift that was mailed to our house (she loves getting real mail!). 

Dolly and me matching outfits!

December 2012

December seems like so long ago already!

Addison turned 5 EEK! 5 is such a milestone age. It marks the beginning of school and the start of being all grown up! My little baby is getting big! (I'll save the for prosperity sake here's why she is wonderful at age 5 post for when I have some time :))

We decided to have her party right at the beginning of December to allow more friends to come and not interfere with the holidays. She had about 15 different ideas for her party but then settled on a gymnastics party. Lots of friends were able to come and everyone had a lot of fun!

 We went to a fun little nutcracker tea party with some friends! It was super cute watching the kids!

If this doesn't look like trouble, I dont know what does! They watched the performance very nicely and at the end they asked if anyone wanted to come up and dance and these two were the first ones up. I'm sure they had been waiting the whole night for their chance!

 Addy was very accessorized! Hair bows, beads, gloves, many necklaces, bracelets, a wand, and a basket!

 Christmas was a little more low key this year which was really nice. We had three celebrations but had them spread out a little more this year so it wasn't so crazy!

 Seriously, how cute are they!

 Ty was blessed with some snow to shovel in December as he had been asking for WEEKS when he could go and shovel!

 Instead of gingerbread houses this year we did trees! They were perfect for the kids and were fun to use as part of our centerpiece.

 For Addy's birthday, I took the kids up to the Mall where we rode on rides and did build-a-bear. Ji'Robert chose to make the grinch and addy made a bear.

 They were thrilled!

 Got to spend some time with cousins...

 Delia had to sneak in our nice pic!

 Meena got the kids sit up pillows! After each gift he opened, JT had to go "relax" on his new pillow!

 Twister, always a fun game and good for coordination!

 Aunt Robyn splurged and got Addy an easy bake oven. We both had wanted one when we were little so it was super fun to play with! Addy can cook her things mostly on her own!

 JT got a jeep! He loves the ones his friends have so we finally broke down and got one! We took it to a local school parking lot to let him drive it around on Christmas but it was REALLY cold out! I'm sure this spring he will have a blast with it!

 Addy got to go bowling with some friends and she had a lot of fun! Sometimes the ball was barely moving as she didnt throw it hard enough but she still got a strike!

 

 Another trip to Santa!

 We have a super cheap white and silver sparkly tree skirt so we thought we would take a pintrest find and try it. Our first set of handprints now adorns the edge of our tree skirt.