Monday Manifest on Thursday

Baking Supplies I Keep On Hand At The House:

1. Flours:  All-Purpose, Bread, Whole Wheat, and Vital Wheat Gluten
2. Jar of Rapid Rise Yeast
3. Salt
4. Sugar
5. Brown Sugar
6. Eggs
7. Vanilla
8. Thermometer
9. Butter
10. Milk
11. Honey
12. Baking Soda
13. Baking Powder
14. Cornmeal
15. Ground Flaxseed
16. Oats
17. Wheat Germ
18. Non-Stick Cooking Spray
19. Parchment Paper
20. Press and Seal Plastic wrap
21. Tin Foil Pans

Gagi

Here is my sister Gretchen.

Can you see the resemblance?

Sonya and Teddy love when Gagi comes to town.

Notice Sonya's smile in these pictures.  

This is her new mug for the camera.  

Lovely.

I love her face regardless but,

I prefer this this one.

We love you Gagi.

Catie O. your next...

Embracing the Grain

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about my rocky relationship with my camera.  I attended the the Fresh Moms class, and it was just the "therapy" we needed.  I have been shooting almost everyday.  I am understanding my previous mistakes, working on my settings, composition, lighting, and totally loving it!! 

I have also been embracing some of my mistakes when I can't get the perfect shot.  

Which leads into these sweet pictures of my boy.  He fell asleep on the couch in a ridiculously cute position, so I had to get a picture of him.  The lighting conditions were not the greatest, so I bumped up my ISO to 1600, lowered my shutter speed to 125, and set my f-stop to 2.0.  I knew was going to get a grainy shot, but I love them. 

These are straight out camera except the black and white conversion.

Here is the color of the last photo version also SOOC.  You can see more of the grain.

The grain makes him look so peaceful, soft and kissable.  I love how the photos have a vintage feel because of the grain.  One of my favorite genres of photography are the grainy photos from the 60's and 70's.  I think it makes you want to take a deeper look at what you are seeing, really know the story behind the picture, and

maybe ask yourself questions about the photo 

like...

"Why is he so sleepy?"

"How did he get so cute?"

or

"Why do I have the urge to squeeze him?"

Those are just a few.

As Kim and Jodie say,

"Embrace the grain."

I have.  I have.

Curious Edit....

So I actually have another set of photos, I should have posted with these.  They are slightly different.  

Same question about color with the additional questions...
Which set of photos do you like better and or which one is your favorite, can you even tell the difference, or do you think they all are crap?

Which do you like better...

color,

(new photo)

  black and white,

(new photo)

 or neither?

Let me know.

I can take it.

I stare at these photos so much that it is hard for me to decide what I like  and don't like sometimes.

Thanks for your opinion, and patience.

Curious...

Which do you like better...

color,

  black and white,

 or neither?

Let me know.
I can take it.

Stella Rose

Here is my sweet niece Stella Rose. 

We love her very much.

Here are my other sweet girls.

We love them very much, too.

The Pool and Dinner

This weekend we bought a baby pool to go out on our deck.  With Teddy's nap schedule and ear infections getting the WG pool might be difficult this summer.  This way we can have pool time anytime we want.  The original pool I bought was 8x8, it was too big for our deck, so Josh and I went back to Target and got this pool. 

Josh spent a good part of his morning setting this pool up with Sonya's "help".  First he put together the foam squares which I highly recommend if you have a blow up pool, gives it a nice little cushion.
Then the real work began.
Blowing up the pool.
Don't worry he did use a bicycle pump and not air from his lungs, but he definitely broke a sweat.
I did not photograph Josh during this part for fear that he might shove my camera where the sun don't shine.
  Once it was finally ready we turned the water on, and it was chilly.

Sonya did not like how loud the water was coming out of the sprayer and hitting the empty pool.  We turned it off and and filled the pool the old fashioned way with just the hose.

Like I said before the water was chilly, but with all of the whining that proceeded the pool set up Josh made Sonya get in, and stay in.
We also put Teddy in the water.
Big surprise, he was not happy about it.

Sonya finally warmed up, and had a great time.  I think this pool is going to save my sanity this summer, by wearing my kids out.

Here is a clip of "Gabriella" jumping into the pool.

Watch the whole thing...

There is an AFV quality to this video.

Side note:  We had a nice dinner of beef kabobs, roasted carrots, and seeduction bread on Sunday night.

I love the colors on kabobs, so pretty and fresh.  Anyway while we were eating dinner Sonya asked,
"What's in my carrot?  Is that sweet potato?"
 She is a genius.