Post #8 of Personal Project 52 weeks.
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* Self-timer family photos. Noah eagerly participated by pressing the shutter and running to get into the photo. He was incredibly pleased with his role as photographer. This is one of the outtakes. We did get some great shots. *Happy dance*
* We went to Victoria this week. I love that place. Traveling there and back is just as much of an adventure as being in a different city. BC Ferries has a sale for mid-week sailings until the end of July. We walked on and took the double decker bus into the city. So thankful for the extra 2 sets of hands: Opa & Oma V.
* Enjoyed lunch in front of the parliament buildings.
* Visited Beacon Hill Park. Art climbed this cool tree.
* While we were on the ferry on our way to Victoria, we received the phone call that H&A had a baby boy! Met Caleb the next evening. Photo shoot later this week!
* A walk in the park later in the week.
* Yep. Noah has freckles. I have been inspecting him for evidence every couple of weeks. He has my coloring so I’m not surprised but I was hoping not for him. They are faint. Just a few on the bridge of his nose. I love them. I also found one on his arm. He proudly shows me this little freckle when I ask. Then he checks Art for freckles. None. He so badly wants to be like his dad. He keeps telling us that his hair is black. We tell him he is blonde and he gets pretty upset. Then we tell him that he’ll probably be dark like his dad when he gets older. This usually satisfies him.
* Cinnamon buns. I really like this recipe. Only bummer is that it makes 16. When I bake (not that often) I like to bake a lot. Since it’s in the bread maker, doubling doesn’t really work. But it is a really easy recipe!
~ K
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 Posted in Family
A promotion for my families, babies, newborns, couples and weddings. If a blog post gets 20 comments, that family gets a FREE 8×10 of their choice. So please comment so that I can give them an 8×10!!!! Thanks for looking.
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I had the pleasure of meeting this lovely lady last week and her wonderful family. Witty, smart, funny and beautiful. I bet I could sit with her for hours and listen to her life stories.
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Mrs. J with her 4 sons.
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It was a bit of a special occasion. It had been a very long time since the family had been able to be together. And Mrs. Jarvis had a wish to scatter the ashes of her late husband at the golf course where he scored a hole-in-one. The whole family was present and I was honored to witness and photograph these moments.
Here is the whole gang. Including the first great-grand baby. Well, the baby is not quite here yet.
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And some individual family photos as well.
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All the grandchildren together.
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The setting was so beautiful and I couldn’t resist a maternity shot for Monica & Andy.
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This is Michelle & Andrew. Michelle contacted me to do the photo session and I instantly loved this girl. She organized everything and graciously encouraged everyone to get the photo groupings they wanted. The light was almost gone, time had run out and I was packing up to head back and the rest of the family out for dinner. Her sister mentioned something about Michelle wanting photos with her and her husband. Something a little fun. I’m so glad that we got these shots!
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Thanks for contacting me. You and your family were so much fun to hang out with and get to know a little.
~ K
Post #7 of Personal Project 52 weeks.
Oh I love summer. The weather was perfect this week. Mild, warm and sunny.
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* Oma treated us to ice cream. Fastest way to Noah’s heart. For real.
* Aldergrove Lake in the afternoon for a bbq with E & J and J. Mattias is sporting some stylin’ hair. Noah had smeared Vaseline in his hair one morning while I was showering. And all over the floor. And the walls. And the couch. Oh dear. Cornstarch in the hair plus lather, rinse and repeat about 10 times. It’s not sticking straight up anymore.
* Evening walks around Aldergrove Athletic Park are so fun for the kids. Lots of open space to run. Paths to follow. Sports of all ages to watch. A small playground to visit. Walking through there makes me love my town.
* Berry bush near the park. No idea what kind of berries. Kinda like raspberries but finer, sweeter and smaller. We’ve snacked on them 2x and no one has died. I assume they are safe for consumption.
* Went to the beach with Oma this week. We had a wonderful time. Noah stayed away from the water, preferring to people watch and play in the sand. Mattias wanted to go anywhere and everywhere. He was also pretty social with our neighbors at the beach. We ate a lot of cherries. Messiestsnackever.
* Noah is sporting a new do. A faux hawk. I love it.
* Pretty photo I think.
* Went to the zoo over the weekend with friends. We never tire of the zoo.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 Posted in Baby
During the heat of last week, I made the journey out to Vancouver to enjoy the wonderful coastal breeze with a lovely friend and her beautiful baby boy! My lovely friend is a web designer and also has recently launched a babies & kids organic clothing line. I am so excited for this new venture.
This is the view from her apartment. Yeah. Pretty rad.
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We spent some time catching up and then headed out to the beach.
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Raine loves the beach and I love to take photos at the beach. No escaping full sun here!
It was gloriously windy too. This little man had his hair cut just before the session. And he still has tons of hair.
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He had a blast spraying sand in his face.
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Oh that face makes me melt.
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Lucky for me, Raine was completely interested in the camera.
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Thanks for the visit and the opportunity to make some memories with your little guy!
~ K
Post #6 of Personal Project 52 weeks.
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* Roses from our garden. Noah cut them for me. I hope he won’t take the same liberties in another person’s garden.
* I love this moment with Noah and his Opa reading the ABC book. Opa and Oma stayed with us this weekend. I treasure these visits. Later this year they will move here and the visits will be much shorter (although more frequent). There is something so special about having family stay with you. They get to be a part of daily family activity from breakfast to bedtime. They get to REALLY experience all aspects of us and we of them and we are blessed with a very easy relationship because of it. So I treasure these moments.
* It was hot hot hot this week and the kiddie pool is the perfect cool down.
* Butter lettuce. Lots of it! I never buy it because it’s much more expensive than other kinds of lettuce but Art and I love it especially fresh from our garden. It reminds him of Holland. And me too. Apparently in Holland it was the most common type of lettuce to buy. I’m sure that now they have tons of varieties but when we were kids visiting Holland, we ate butter lettuce. I wish I had Calve Slasaus to complete the nostalgic experience.
* Mattias enjoys motoring from one chair to the other. Head first is the preferred method.
* Spinach gratin recipe. One day I plan to photograph all my favorite recipes and make a recipe book. I love food photography, but I have so much to learn about it. Seems like that would be a great project. Maybe next year? 
* It’s only a matter of time until Mattias is jumping in his crib. He wasn’t very happy about me taking a photo after he woke up.
Post #5 of Personal Project 52 weeks.
What a fabulous week. Probably because it was the never-ending weekend. ♥
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* Mattias turned 1. First birthdays are a really big deal to me. From newborn to toddler are some major developmental milestones, never mind size. We kept the celebration pretty low key for the little guy. He was still overwhelmed and clung to me for the first hour of his party.
* I made lion cupcakes from Hello Cupcake. It was time consuming but Noah and I bonded (read: laughed, cried, fought and hugged) over shopping for candy and making cupcakes.
* Let the harvest begin. First up, spinach. I never knew spinach leaves grew so large. Art measured the spinach leaf at a cubit. We love our spinach salad. Jamie makes a good one. Another recent discovery is spinach gratin: be still my heart. I love this recipe. It’s on the menu for tonight.
* We had a special overnight visitor. Cousin Lucas. The boys had so much fun together. Lots of cars and trucks and outside fun.
* Happy Canada Day! We celebrated at the Abbotsford Parade on Thursday. Hup Holland Hup. The boys watched the soccer match with Art on Friday.
* Noah sweats a LOT when he sleeps. EXIF: Canon 5D 27mm f2.8 ISO1600 1/8. I must have a pretty steady hand because the photo is sharp at 1/8. A sleeping subject helps.
~ K
Look who is going to be a big brother very soon!
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Hup Holland Hup! H is a soccer player and a soccer fan.
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Boyfriend shirt. Delicious evening sunlight. A beautiful expecting mother.
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This is one of my all time favorite images.
She places his hand on her belly and at that same moment the baby answers with a kick. She looks up at him quickly as if to say “Did you feel that?”. He acknowledges her question with a smile.
I could write romance novels. No?
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Monday, June 28, 2010 Posted in Personal
Post #4 of Personal Project 52 weeks.
This past week flew by. I can barely remember what I did each day.
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* Hydrangeas. I love them. They started flowering this week. One of my gardening goals is to have fresh cut flowers inside my home from spring into fall. But especially spring and early spring. I’d still like to find a forsythia plant (notice my inspiration is the branches inside a cool vase) and maybe another cherry blossom. Do you have any favorites?
* It appears that most photos of Mattias are of him crawling away from me. Except when he is contained, i.e. in his high chair. He is the sweetest, giggly baby ever. Sometimes just looking at him makes him explode into laughter.
* California: you got nothing on my strawberry patch.
* Made this dough. Recipe discovered and recommended by my SIL, Alicia. I’ve made it a number of times and love it. This time, I used the dough for calzones. I cheated and used the kitchenaid to knead.
* Ate lunch at Costco on Saturday. Meaning lots of samples. Costco and Superstore are my favorite stores to visit with the kids. They have the double buggies and the whole experience is really quite fun. Noah is quite extroverted and will chat with anyone and everyone at every opportunity he has. His favorite question at the moment “what’re you doing?”. When satisfied with the answer, he will change the subject to trucks and cars and cranes, often inquiring about what kind of car the person drives and then launching into listing all the important cars in his collection.
* Noah treats me like the paparazzi. “STOP Mom. No pictures.” he growls at me, while hiding behind his hands.
~ K
Monday, June 21, 2010 Posted in Personal
Post #3 of Personal Project 52 weeks.
We yurted last week. Our first time in yurts. I am a big fan of the yurt. Cleaner, drier, proper mattresses, less crouching means less back issues and yet the whole experience still feels like camping. Trust me it’s not anything luxurious.
Overall the trip was a smashing success and was relaxing (probably because we were so lazy).
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* That stump is an anthill.
* The kids played NON-stop with the wagon and the ride-on toy. Noah ripped around on that thing for 4 days straight. It was surprising how well he could navigate something with such limited steering.
* Ellison is such a beautiful park / campground and even has a beach – not that the weather was optimal for the beach. We did a couple of small walks but for the most part stuck around our campsites. We yurted with another family and spent our days watching our kids run around, napping the younger ones, eating, reading, sitting around the fire and chatting.
* Poor Mattias didn’t love the crawling on gravel, pavement and dirt so much. When we got home, he was so happy to motor around on a less-painful floor. He did manage a face-plant outside of the yurt and was bruised for the rest of the trip.
* Came home to a surprise. Three weeks earlier I had sent in my camera for servicing and I wasn’t expecting it back until the following week. At least. After Canon called to inform me it was completed. Or so I was told. So don’t worry right? Wrong. Sitting on my front porch in all it’s glory is a huge box. The kind that looks really interesting to a passerby. Did I mention we live en route to a high school? Not tucked behind a pillar. Right in the middle of the porch. And inside my camera and 2 expensive lenses. I’m not even going to tell you replacement value. I figure it had been sitting there for about 3 days while we were away. Seriously, my heart still skips a beat when I think about it. { But I’m so glad to have it back and so thankful that it wasn’t stolen!!! }
~ K
Monday, June 14, 2010 Posted in Personal
Post #2 of Personal Project 52 weeks.
If all goes as planned, we are well on our way on our first camping trip of the year. Depending on how it goes, it also may be our last. A friend of mine calls it “making memories”. How true. Camping trips are not relaxing when you’re running after babies and toddlers. Again. Making memories.
As for posting this to my blog. The computer did it for me in my absence. Technology: mostly my friend.
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* I am always thrilled to get any kind of half decent photo with my kids. I love this one Art captured.
* The week started out so promising. Sunday was beautiful and warm. Actually the whole weekend was really nice. But by Monday the rain started and it rained all week.
* We spent a lot of time inside.
* So we baked cookies to make ourselves feel better. I made a batch of these big, fat chewies. Except I quadrupled it. I expected to get 6 dozen cookies. Yeah. Try 10 dozen. Not complaining because they are delicious cookies. I substituted half of the chocolate chips for craisins and they were still plenty chocolaty. Surprisingly, the recipe called for melted butter. I always thought that the rule for good cookies was creaming the butter. Apparently the melting of butter is critical to the chewy texture.
* Another one of our Saturday morning rituals is garage-saling. Actually it’s an Art & Noah thing. Almost every Saturday, they find something. This week a tub of dinky cars. About 150 of them. For $5. We spent the afternoon having a ‘car wash’ and lining up the cars in rows.
* A favorite part of the nighttime routine is story time. He always asks for Dad to read the story.
* While Art and the kids were garage-saling this week, I was at a photo shoot. This cow in the field next to us was very interested in what we were doing and agreed to model for me.
by Karin
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