My Kids

I am still working on my project.  It is in full swing.  Things are going really well.  But, I have noticed that I may need to add something to this project and this is my external flash.  This lens is amazing but I need more light.  

In doing this project I have spent a lot of time just watching my kids do their daily things. While watching them I got to really see them and learn who they really are (not that I didn't know them before, but you know what I mean).


So we will start Claire.

 Claire is 4 and a half going on 17.  She is super smart and hilarious.  Claire needs to know how everything works.  Simple answers are not good enough for her, she needs to know it all. 

Claire is very girlie.  She loves clothes and shoes.  Especially her new slippers!!  She is already complaining about her beautiful curls!  She keeps telling me that she wants LONG hair.  When her hair is wet in the bathtub she flips it around and plays it until it curls back up.  She keeps asking me to flat iron it but I told we can't until she is 7.

Claire is an excellent big sister.  She is very helpful with Oliver and rarely gets frustrated with him.  She loves to play with him and teach him new things. She calls him "Bubbies" and uses a special voice to talk to him sometimes and I just love it.

Claire likes her alone time.  She likes to go into her room alone and just chill sometimes.  She used to go into her closet (or her nest as she called it) for some alone time but now she just grabs her DS or a book and hangs out in her room with the door shut.  Claire loves to be the center of attention but she also likes to just be alone to regroup sometimes.

Claire gets angry sometimes too.  She likes to joke and have fun but sometimes when it goes too far she gets mad.  And I mean really mad!! And I will admit that sometimes we may get her going :)

Claire loves her Daddy.  I swear she thinks he hung the moon.  They are BFFs.  Every morning Claire and her Daddy get up early (while Mommy and Oliver sleep in) and have their breakfast and hang out.  

Claire loves computers and video games.  She would sit and play on her DS or the computer all day.  This is her at Build A Bear typing in her new kitty's information.  She also loves books and notebooks.  She likes to draw and write.  She will practice writing her letters and numbers for hours.  Sometimes we will find her set up on the kitchen table working on her "budget" as she calls it.

Claire loves her friends.  Her best friend is Giada and no one can take her place.  But she also has her school buddies.  One of her favorite friends at school is Anthony and let's just say he is the "goofball" of the class.  Regardless of how many time outs he gets Claire just loves him and wants to help him.  GRREEEAATTTT!!!  She loves school and spending the days with her buddies and learning new stuff.  

Claire is a thumb sucker.  She only sucks her thumb when she has her silky.  When it is time to relax she will grab her silky and get cozy and suck her thumb.  To "silk" has now become a verb in our house.  If Claire gets hurt she will say "I just need to silk it." and that means to rub her silky on the boo boo.

Claire is my buddy and the I love her more than words can say.  I love just hanging out with her and chatting away.  I am so proud of the little girl she has grown into and I can't wait to see what the future holds for her.

Now there is Oliver.

Oliver is silly.  He loves to make people laugh.  He also needs to know how things work and will examine everything.  Oliver also loves to help.  He loves to have a job.  He is thrilled when you tell him to put something away or put something in the garbage.

Oliver LOVES books.  He loves to look through them and look at the pictures.  He also loves when you read to him.  Every night we get him all cozy in his jammies after his bath and then I will rock him on his chair and he says "Book mama...book??".  He would sit for hours and read books.  He also loves to sing.  His favorite songs right now are "The Wheels on the Bus" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" he sings some of the words and does all of the motions.

Oliver loves his big sister and follows her everywhere (notice that even when he follows her he still has a book in his hand).  He doesn't say Claire yet but he has been calling her "Sissy". The first thing he does every morning when he gets up is say "Dada? Sissy? Where dey go??"

Oliver loves to play and try new things.  He is always crawling in something or behind something.  He loves to explore and wants to know what everything is.

 Oliver still takes a bottle at night.  Yes I know "stop the bottle at a year." but he loves it and it is our time to relax and read and unwind.  We promise we will stop it at 2. Anyway, Oliver is super smart!!! This is a picture of Oliver telling us "Poop" right before he pooped in the potty!!  He loves to try the potty every night after Claire does and always tells "Wee wee" or "Poop" when he is wet or has poop.  Hopefully this means he will potty train fast!!

Oliver loves Choo Choo trains and trucks.  Everyday when he gets home from school he climbs on the couch and covers up with a blanket and says "Choo choo Mama??  Choo Choo!" and when I turn on Chuggington he throws his  arms up like this and yells "CHOO CHOO!!"  Again notice there is a book in the box with him.

Oliver loves to eat.  And I mean LOVES to eat!  He moans the whole time he is eating and constantly wants more.  You cannot feed him fast enough!  Doesn't matter what it is he will eat it!  But his favorites are meatloaf (any kind of meat really), oranges, bananas, milk, bread, and pasta.  He eats more than Claire and almost as much as me and Mark!

Oliver loves this guy.  He call him "Petey" and follows him around.  He is always petting him and kissing him.  Oliver spends more time with Pete than Claire ever did.  If Pete barks Oliver has to know why and will find him and say "Petey wha?"  and put his little hands up.  Whereas me, Mark, and Claire just yell and tell him to be quiet.

Oliver is my little man and I love watching him grow and change everyday.  Everyday he learns something new and amazes me in a new way.  I am so proud of the little man he is becoming and I cannot wait to see  what the future holds for him.

This project has been great.  I am learning so much about my camera and how it works (and flashes and white noise balances) but this project is really helping me to just stop and hang out with the kids.  In doing this project I am just watching my kids become their own little people and I love that!

New Project

Lately I have not been blogging too much and I haven't really been taking too many pictures.  So I decided to give myself a project.  My project was shoot a few pictures every day but to only use my 35mm fixed lens.  I will be working on this project for 3 weeks.  Here is what I have so far. 

 Day one of my project - swim lessons.  Yeah...NOT the best way to start this project.  My 35 lens is a fixed lens which means you cannot zoom in and out.  In order to get a closer shot you have to get closer.  Which means I was the crazy Mom at the pool chasing my kids around to get pictures!  Plus they really frown down upon "street shoes" on the pool deck (or so says the 45 signs that they have all over the place).  So me and my Ugg boots were not winning anyone over.  At this point I had one decent picture (see above) and I was ready to give up.  I missed my zoom lens!!  

On the way home I played around a little with my camera in the car.  Now, let me say this...I LOVE my 35, I am not just very good with it.  I feel like I "miss" a lot of shots because I can't quite get the right subject in focus.  It is great for super close up shots, but I feel like i can't get the whole picture when I am trying to take well...whole pictures.  So anyway, in the car I got daring and switched the lens (not the camera) from auto to manual.  This just means that my lens will auto focus on a subject if I leave it on auto but if I put it on manual then I have to fiddle around to get the right focus.  I don't normally play around like this because while I am doing this I miss all the good shots of the adorable stuff my kids are doing.  But today I figured why not, it is part of my project!  So in the car I switched it and I learned so much!! I finally realized that I could get the whole picture!  This picture of Oliver doesn't really prove that...I just think he looks super cute reading his "Melmo" book and watching Tom and Jerry.

Ok, this is not a great picture of the fam but I did get Claire and Oliver to both be in focus while shooting with my lens (again the lens not my camera) on manual.  They are all very busy playing video games on Daddy phone while I was trying to get everyone ready for Uncle Johnny's birthday dinner!

My handsome guys in their sweaters and button downs.  This one was easy because I was standing right in front of them.

My hot mamas.

Now here are the kids playing.  I am sitting close to them but they are both in focus.  This lens is great because it is has a pretty wide angle.  FYI Oliver loves this Elmo (he is a big fan of Elmo lately)!!

And here is Susie just being cute.

Claire wanted to show off her DS.  Now while fiddling with my lens on manual I could get really close to Claire and get both her and the DS in focus while still getting great aperture. I am getting somewhere!!

This is just my family.  I didn't really do anything, they are just that good looking on their own.

Here is the birthday boy!!  Happy birthday Uncle Johnny!!!

Here is Oliver with his favorite book (thanks Aunt Di).  He takes it everywhere (which is not easy because it is so heavy) and reads it over and over!  Notice how I got Oliver and Ricky in focus :)

And some pictures are just cute regardless of aperture or settings.

Happy birthday!!!  Clarie didn't want to sit with Uncle Johnny for cake.  Mark had to run to work for a bit and she was missing her Daddy so she was little off.

Nana and her boys.  I almost got it but Oliver is blurred!  It was at this point I was missing my zoom lens again because I felt like I was missing good pics!  But I gave myself a project and I was sticking to it!

The Popp boys.  Annndddd Oliver is blurred again but hey, I got most of them in it!

Ok Claire was back in it!  She perked up  and was ready to be my model again!

The hardest part about using my 35 is that I am literally climbing on the table (due to my limited height) to get close enough to get everyone in.

So I slapped the lens and the camera back on auto and handed the camera to my brother so that I could actually be in a shot.  Apparently Uncle Johnny didn't feel this was gonna be a good shot.

A little better. 

Claire and her buddy.

By the end of the night the kids were beat.  So they snuggled up and watched Despicable Me.  Oliver didn't want to sit with anyone else but Claire.  I love that they love each other so much! And I think it is adorable that he is sitting her lap and he is almost bigger than her!

I have a bunch more pictures and I will share more of them throughout the next 3 weeks of my project.  Wish me luck!

Also, Happy Birthday Uncle Johnny!!  

Words cannot describe how proud of you I am and how much I love you!! 

Happy New Year!!

This year for New Year's we stayed home to have our usual family dinner.  This year Uncle Nick, Aunt Jessica, and Giada joined us.  We had a perfect evening!

The guys made us a delicious dinner of lobster and steaks!  Here is Mark cutting the rubber bands off of our lobsters.

As much as I love lobster, I have a hard time watching this part.

Nick did an excellent job whisking.

Aunt Jessica and Uncle Nick brought the kids balloons!  Oliver was THRILLED!!!  He loves balloons and this one was bigger than him!!

They also brought noise makers and fun New Year's party supplies!!

Even Pete got to wear one.

Oliver loved the noise makers and balloons.  But mostly I think that he was just thrilled to be involved and play with the big kids.

The Cappelli girls loved trying out our noise makers.

Claire loved playing her buddy and celebrating New Year's with her friend!

Oliver loved it too but I am pretty sure he just loved his gigantic balloon.

 After dinner we brought the little monsters upstairs to get their jammies on for the "ball drop" and the girls had a blast pulling Oliver around by his jammies.  Poor kid, he loved it!  Just as long as they were playing with him, they could do whatever they wanted!

They do love each other :)

 Me and my favorite people in the whole world!

I am pretty sure they love me too.

After some fun playing, we had our special "Happy New Year" (around 9:30) so that Oliver could go to bed.  The kids loved counting down and blowing their noise makers!!!

We loved sharing our New Year's with the Cappelli's!!!

I was taking a ton of pictures when we noticed Oliver grabbed his camera and was yelling "cheeeesseee".  I love this kid!!

We had our early "New Year's" believing the girls would pass out at some point.  But these little rock stars made it all the way to the end!!  Here they are 1 minute before 2012, still going strong.

They even put on a show for all of us :)

Overall, it was a perfect evening!  I never would have thought that the best New Year's plans would be staying home and having dinner with my family.  Back in the day we went all over the place and partied all night long.  Now, this even better!!  I wouldn't change a thing!!!!  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!