I love

these little faces so much.

and this big goof ball face too.

The International Space Station

Ok, that's a stretch for a title but maybe you'll understand after I post this picture

And then tell you that the reason Lucy has a bandaid on her forehead has to do with this
And her brother trying to land it on her head, hence my (clever) title.
Poor babe. It's not pretty under the bandaid. And sometimes it's not easy to have a big brother.

340

the number of lights Mike had to replace to make our tree go from this

to this

The tree is top heavy this year because of this

And this is what my house looked like when we were decorating for Christmas. Please tell me that your house occasionally looks like this too?
Happy Monday!

It's the Most Wonderful Time

and all of us are really enjoying every little detail. Especially this guy.

But of course as exciting as this time of year is, many stress and fuss over gifts gifts gifts. Myself included. I was checking in on The Mac family, you may remember I blogged about them a few months ago, they lost their baby girl, Cora, very quickly to cancer. On her blog she posted about giving the gift of water at Charity:Water.

4500 mothers bury their children EVERY DAY due to contaminated water. The lack of access to water is the leading cause of death in underveloped nations. That is an awful statistic. But did you that just $10 can provide one person clean water for 10 years. YES. $10 for 10 years.

So join me, click here to make a difference, $10 for 10 years of clean water. Unbelievable that such a small amount can make such a huge difference. Give a little, give a lot. Then tell everyone you know. Water: for Christmas.

Intriguing

Photography really is complicated. And intriguing. And I love it! Took this shot yesterday morning and I kind of liked it.

I hope I have some post worthy shots from my photography class to show you this week. Have a great start to your week!

In my dreams

Today I got to pretend I was a photographer! My sweet friend, Nikole, asked me if I could take some pictures of her beautiful family for their Christmas card. What a brave soul she is to trust me! Well I had a blast this morning with her, her hubby Chris and her darling twins, Eryn and Landon. Here is a sneak peek! Well because that's what the real photographers do.

Glendale, Ohio

On Wednesday, which was Veteran's Day, we packed up the kids and headed down toward's Cincinnati to a little town called Glendale. It was a gorgeous day and wow, this little town, was right out of a picture book. The houses were breathtaking, historic and lovely. The town was founded in 1855. We went there because I heard that there was a restaurant right on the train tracks called the Iron Horse Inn and that trains pass by at all times. We knew this would be something right up Brady's alley, and it didn't disappoint. After lunch and some shopping we found a park and just had to get out there to play in the leaves. Unfortunately, my photography skills were lacking and I just couldn't seem to get my camera to cooperate with me the way I wanted and then my camera battery ran on so there are not as many shots as I would like.(Dear Santa could you please bring me an extra battery for my camera please? Love, Jenny)

Ok, like this picture for instance What happened???? I was messing with settings and this is what I got. BLAH. Well I still kind of like it anyways...even though Mike's face is overexposed!

If you live in the Dayton/Cincinnati area, visit Glendale, it won't disappoint.

Lifelong learner

In a quest to learn something new and keep my mind working (because sometimes this stay-at-home Mom gig turns my mind to mush), I enrolled in an online photography class. Class started last Wednesday. I turned in my first homework assignment last night and boy, was it a challenge. In a good way. I might be in way over my head, I'm not sure yet, lots of the people in my class are seasoned a bit in photography and I am definitely an amateur. Knowing that, I cringed as I posted my pictures because out of the 5 pictures I had to post, I was *happy* with only 1. The other 4 - UGH! I am anxious to get feedback on them so I can improve. Below is the 1 picture that I really liked. I was trying to show a shallow depth of field in this shot. So my camera was set to a low aperture (1.8) and a low ISO. See the blur in the background, that's called bokeh (which in theory means I achieved the goal of that part of the homework which was to show shallow depth)! Over the next 6 weeks you will probably see a lot of my successes and failures as I learn how to truly operate my camera and continue on the path of a lifelong learner!

The (grown up) Mice

Remember I said I might do one more Halloween post....here it is....

Thanks for the laughs Mom, Dad, Laura and Mike!

Sigh

Today, this one is 11 months old.


I've been dreading this day since she turned 10 months old. 10 months I can handle. 11 months. No, not so much. 11 months. 1 month away from a year. Oh they grow too fast.

Lucy May when you smile, my heart, well, it grows and swells. 11 months old looks good on you my sweet darling.

My wild things

I ran downstairs to retrieve Brady's blankies and I came up to see this. Good thing that camera is pretty much always attached to my hip, you never know when you'll catch moment you never want to forget.

Together

Brady and Grace
They go together like cake and ice cream, celery and peanut butter, pizza and Friday's.

We've always said that there is something special about these two goof's, ahem, I mean sweet children.

Something special.

The Pledge of Allegiance - a song

Did you know The Pledge is also set to music? At least in Brady's world ....

So proud of you little Buddy for knowing the words to this very important piece of history. Thank you St. Brigid preschool for teaching him this (the words that is, the music part, well that comes from his heart)!

Trick-or-Treat

Warning: Lots of pictures below!

Mema, Pop and Laura were in town for the big Trick-or-Treat night, both Brady and Lucy were (as always) delighted to have them around. My parents and Laura passed out candy while Mike and I took the mice around the neighborhood. We were so very surprised that our Minnie Mouse kept her ears on THE ENTIRE TIME. Mickey Mouse....not so much....but he was happy to put them on and take them off as photo opportunities arose. Sorry for all the pictures, I just don't know how to narrow it down!

A very blurry shot here but wanted you to see our Mickey and Minnie pumpkins!

Phew, I'm Halloween'd out...probably one more post about Halloween before we tuck it away in the memory bank. Hope you had a happy Halloween!