9.15.2007

Living for the Weekends!

It is so true that I feel I am living for the weekends lately! I love my job but I love family time more!!!!

Gotta share some photos of what we have been up to!
An 85th birthday bash for Dusty!

A typical face Kennedy gives us when she doesn't like what we have asked her to do. Her grouchy face!!!

Today we went to Autumnfest in Edwardsville. We met Grandpa Lou and cousins Logan & Elijah!

While there both Kennedy and Logan painted pumpkins!!!! They both really enjoyed it!!

Kennedy's finished pumpkin!And I am finally scrapping again!!! I was asked by a fabulous group of gals to join a blog group. We are called Scrap Faith. We are from all different religions and want to inspire others to scrap about their faith (or lack there of!). Our first challenge dropped today and below is my layout. Head on over to our blog and join in the fun!!

9.12.2007

Lately

We have been soooo busy lately! I just wanted to share some photos of what we have been up to recently!

For Labor Day we visited Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead - one of Kennedy's favorite places! I just loved this photo of her! I know it isn't in great focus, but I still love it!


This last weekend was Old Settler's Day in our town. It is a 3 day long festival with lots of fun stuff to do and yummy things to eat! We volunteered to walk in the parade with our wonderful church. Jeff handed out water to spectators. I pulled Kennedy in the wagon. I really thought she would love it and get into waving at people. Nope. She didn't ever realize she was in a parade! She spent the ENTIRE time using her wipes to clean! She cleaned her entire body, her shoes, the wagon and everything in the wagon! Goofy girl!


Of course all great kid events have carnival rides! And Kennedy is fearless so she wanted to do them all! She rode a bunch and didn't want to leave!

Riding the fishy!!

Going down the HUGE slide with Daddy!

Riding a zebra on the carousel!
The alligator roller coaster - I think it was her favorite!
I loved this shot of the ferris wheel. And yes - she rode this one with Daddy too!

That's all for now! I will be back on again with more photos!!! :)

8.19.2007

BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!

So......
I have really, really been bad about blogging the past month.
Really bad.

And I haven't scrapped in a month.

And I haven't taken many photos this last month.

And I haven't cooked or cleaned much either. (poor Jeff)
What is going on? you may ask.

Well......

The news is out!!!!!!!



WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are EXTREMELY excited!!!! But I am sick, sick, sick. Much worse than I was with Kennedy. So, that is the reason I have been missing for the last month. The nausea is horrific but I am also just amazingly exhausted each day too. My doctor described it as "You look at the end of the hallway and think 'There is no possible way I could walk to the end of the hall and not just collapse in exhaustion.'" That pretty much sums up how I feel - well, along with feeling the need to throw up every minute of every day too. But, I just keep telling myself it is all worth it! Because it is! :)

So, the due date is March 8th for now. That
puts me at 11 weeks. The end of the first trimester is in sight!!

In other news:
  • Disney World was a blast!!!
  • Jeff and I both celebrated birthdays!
  • We celebrated our 5 year anniversary!
  • I started back at school.
  • Kennedy started back at day care.
These photos were taken by our AMAZING day care provider, Debbie! Kennedy is so happy to be back! She loves the Bakers!

And here are a few layouts I had been hanging onto and finally posted online. Nothing like Christmas in the summer!!

Hopefully soon life will get back to normal and I will be online more often!!!

7.12.2007

Photo Lesson with Monica and Scrappy News

So I told you all about meeting with Monica, right?! Well, she let me use her camera (Canon 30D) and her SWEET lens! So the photos you see are taken with her camera - not mine! I am VERY pleased - she taught me so much and I am convinced I need a new lens!!!

Typical Kennedy face

Fun smilely shot

I am pretty sure Monica actually took this shot of Kennedy looking at me!

Playing peek a boo with Monica!

Monica tried to get her to peek around the tree at me - no luck! But she did get Kennedy to HUG the tree!
And with my camera I never could have gotten this shot! Her camera is so much faster than mine! My camera would have given me a big blurry shot!

And onto some scrappy news! I was asked to be a hybrid card designer for Amy Teets! I am very excited because Amy is sooo talented! Also, I had 3 cards picked up by CARDS magazine! I have never worked with them so I am VERY excited! Look for them in the November issue! And I have other scrappy news I can't spill until next week!!!

7.11.2007

Quick Shots!!!

Just some quick shots I have taken the last few days! Kennedy and I have been busy as always! Monday we went to a VERY cool place called Paradise Park. She was in heaven and I was impressed! It is like a kid's wonderland!

Here Kennedy had finished her "kitchen session." Each child had their own tray with three cups. One cup of milk, one of ice cream and one of grape juice. The "cook" instructed them how to mix it and make it a grape shake! Then they got to eat it! Do you think she liked it?!
They also have an art room with 3-4 different art projects to choose from! She loved the painting one!
Outdoors were all sorts of fun things! Cool playground equipment, a trike riding track, a dinosaur bone dig in the sand, and Kennedy's favorite - the fishing hole! There were magnetic fish in the water and the kids used poles with magnets at the end to "catch" the fish! Oh- she thought it was THE best!
Another favorite spot was the water room! She loves water and got herself quite wet! Notice we did this AFTER the area where kids paint their own faces! :)
In addition, there was a room full of miniatures: doll houses, barns, people, animals, furniture....FUN! There were make believe areas too: a bank, a house, a pizzeria, a schoolroom, and a grocery store. They made them as real as possible - kids use fake money, working cash registers, items with prices on them, real desks, a bank vault, you name it! Plus the dress up clothes to accompany each room! As if that wasn't enough, there was a play room with a ball pit and slides and a building room with hard hats, bright orange vests and tons of wood to build with! Every few hours a large stuffed bear does story time, too! It was a great day!

Today the weather was PERFECT!!!! So we spent the morning on the deck and had "Art Day!" We played with sidewalk chalk, Play Dough and finally finger paints!!! Below you can see which was the messiest!!!


This afternoon I met with a new friend, Monica, so she could teach me more about photography! She is amazingly sweet and taught me so much!! So expect pictures from our session to follow in later blog entries!!!!

7.08.2007

Fireworks!

This was my first attempt at shooting fireworks the RIGHT way!!!
It is the first time I have shot manual!
And it is the first time I have shot in RAW!!!!
We were quite a ways away from the actual fireworks because Kennedy doesn't like the sound!
I did use a tripod, though!

I changed the setting multiple times to try to get a feel for it so I will post each photo's stats individually!

Canon Digi Rebel
18-55mm kit lens


ISO 100 F/10 shutter speed 30 sec. no flash

ISO 100 f/22 shutter speed 30 sec no flash

ISO 100 f/4.5 shutter speed 10 sec no flash


ISO 100 f/10 shutter speed 30 sec no flash


ISO 100 f /11 shutter speed 2.5 sec no flash


ISO 100 f/5.6 shutter speed 30 sec no flash

ISO 100 f/10 shutter speed 10 sec no flash


And a funny shot of Grandpa Lou, Daddy and Kennedy watching the show! We had seen a smaller show up close on the 3rd. Kennedy did NOT like the noise and wanted Daddy to plug her ears the entire time! So on the 4th we parked a bit away and camped out so we could just enjoy the sights! The sound wasn't bad and she loved the show! She called them "sparkles!"As always, CC is greatly appreciated!!!!!!

7.07.2007

4th of July!

(Isn't Izzie the cutest lil dog?!)
Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!!! We sure did!!

We started the day by meeting Grandpa Lou at VillageFest in Prairie Village! Silly me - I forgot to put the CF card in the camera before we left so I have no photos to show you! ARGH! BUT - we all had a fantastic time! It was extremely, extremely hot but Kennedy didn't mind! She got to pet and feed LOTS of animals and birds! She watched some sky divers jump from a plane and land! She watched a Chanook helicopter take off! She watched a phenomenal performance by the Marching Cobras! Those kids are beyond amazing! I had sweat running down my face and back just standing there - I don't know how they performed in that heat! Kennedy also jumped in some inflatables, got a Dora tattoo, did some crafts, watched a puppet show and rode a pony! It is something we hope to make a yearly event!!!

I am including the photos below for my family! Kennedy humored me and modeled a few dresses! Both the red and blue dresses are ones that I believe my grandmother made for me when I was little. Mom - if you are reading this and you were actually the seamstress - I am sorry!!!! One of the two of them made them by hand for me! And now Kennedy can wear them!! And I didn't tell her to pose with the umbrella! I swear! She just thinks it is the greatest new toy!
We grilled out and had yummy kabobs - steak, chicken, shrimp and yummy veggies!!!! Then we headed for the fireworks! More on them in a later post! ;)

7.01.2007

Rain, Rain Go Away!

It rained here for 4 days straight and we are sick of it!!!! Today it was cloudy and gloomy but no rain thank goodness! Kennedy and I were getting stir crazy! We have done LOTS of reading and some baking. We have watched Dora and The Wiggles, too!! Speaking of - below is Kennedy modeling her Backpack - or Packack as she calls it!!!
Because of the rain I was able to do a little scrapping! I fear my mojo has left me temporarily, so I have been creating quite a few cards instead. Below is just one of them. It was for the Caardvarks challenge to use circle punches. I used 9 punches for the petals and one for the flower center. And stitched around each one!

ETA: I had to take down the photos of my card! It was accepted for publication! So look for it in the November issue of CARDS magazine!

And I did do one layout. It is not AT ALL what I intended it to look like! But, hey, I got the photo scrapped!!! ;)


Have a great 4th of July everyone and stay safe!!!!!!!!!!