Photo Tag, I'm It!

So, I'm sitting here, in my pajamas, about to go to bed, and I decide to catch up on my blog-reading. I love reading blogs. So, I'm sitting here fully enjoying myself, reading about how Stellan is home (praise the Lord!!!), and then I get to Jen's blog, and her post about being tagged. Apparently, Jen's friend tagged Jen on her blog, and Jen had to drop what she was doing and take a picture of herself immediately upon reading it, without fixing her hair or her makeup or getting herself all cute, and then post it on her own blog. Fortunately for Jen, she is always cute, so she didn't need to stress about it. I really was enjoying reading her post! That is, I was enjoying it until she got to the part about tagging ME!!! Gee, thanks Jen! :P So yeah, as I was saying I was sitting here in my jammies, just about to head off to bed when I discovered that I, now, had to immediately grab my camera and post a picture of ME on MY blog! No time for makeup (but I never wear makeup anyway so that would be weird if I put it on just for this picture, right? It's against the rules, anyway)!

So, I sucked it up and took the pictures.

Unfortunately for me, my 50mm happened to be on my camera. My other lenses are inaccessible at the moment, otherwise I totally would have switched for one that wouldn't' have given quite an extreme closeup! My freckles really would have appreciated that. (Did you know that even my lips have freckles on them? Yeah, I didn't either... until I saw these pictures.) By the way, it is seriously HARD to take a picture of yourself with a 50mm lens when you have short arms like mine! Frame after frame all I managed to do was capture a blurry shot of part of my face, which was contorted in a look of intense concentration as I tried to get the shot without dropping my camera! After about 25-50 frames I finally found two that were moderately acceptable. I still couldn't fit my face in the frame, but at least they're more or less in focus! And I didn't drop my camera!

I promise that is not my "trying to look sexy when I don't smile as though I'm a teenage girl taking my myspace photo" face, nor is it my "Tyra Banks: smile with your eyes" face. It's my "I've just shot nearly 50 frames of myself and I'm so over this, can I please just get one shot that works!!!" face.

I know you're looking for my lip- freckles, but hey, the rules didn't say anything about photoshop, right? ;)

And now, it's my turn to tag people! So, since I have only 5 followers, I'm tagging all of you!

Angela
Susan
Sabrina
Laurinda
Heidi

It's YOUR turn now!!! Stop, grab your camera, take your picture, and POST it on your blog!!! And I read your blog so I'll know if you do it!

I Heart Faces, Week 16- Reflection

This week I actually had pictures that fit the theme of this week's contest over at I Heart Faces, so I was able to join in! One of these days, I'll remember to look up the theme before hand and actually try to purposefully capture a moment with the theme in mind, but for now, I'll have to settle for looking through my archives. The theme this week is Reflection... we are supposed to creatively capture a reflection of a face!

Here is my entry into the 'Kid' category. Of course, it's of Jack Jack!


This was taken on a rainy day back in February. He had a lot of fun playing in the rain, but I think his favorite part was splashing in the puddle that had gathered on our patio table.

And my entry in the 'Adult' category is a picture of me and my brother!


I got the idea for this picture when Jack looked in Uncle Travis' sunglasses and said "I see Jack Jack!" I thought it was pretty funny and snapped a photo so that later I would remember to write that down. (Oh, and if you're curious, yes that is a reflection of the airport, specifically the helicopter 'playground' behind me... I took this when we were visiting the B-17 a few weeks ago.)


I'm having a lot of fun looking at everyone's entries each week and it's always fun to see the creative ideas people come up with! I probably won't ever win any of these contests, but I'm totally okay with that, as I am enjoying the challenge and the inspiration that I'm finding over there. Click on the button below to see the other entries over at I Heart Faces, and get ready to be inspired!

Music, Music Everywhere!

At Jack's birthday party I was very impressed by how well Jack's friend Dylan, who is three weeks younger than Jack, swung the 'bat' at the pinata! I mentioned this to Dylan's mommy and she told me that he has a tee-ball set that he plays with all the time, and so he's used to swinging bats around. I immediately made up my mind to pick up a tee-ball set for Jack Jack as soon as I got the chance. Jack got some money for his birthday, so last week I took him to Toys R Us to pick out a few toys, including a tee-ball set! Today the weather was perfect for tee-ball, so Jack and I went outside to play!



I figured that it would take a little while for Jack to get the hang of it. Jack is a creative sort, and doesn't seem to be interested in the 'right' way to play with sporting equipment- he prefers to make up his own rules. Soccer balls stay as far from the goal as possible with him, and basketball hoops are either for putting his arm through all the way up to his shoulder or balancing too-big-to-fit-in-the-hoop balls on the rim and hitting them off with his light saber (it may be argued that this last action mirrors the game of golf, but golf isn't a sport so it doesn't count- plus he has no interest whatsoever in his actual golf set). So, I was pleased to find that Jack seemed to really enjoy playing tee-ball the right way!

He'd put the ball on the tee,


and he'd take the bat, audibly remind himself to "use two hands", and swing away!


Didn't matter that he didn't seem to be able to aim very well, he still thought it was hilarious when he knocked the ball off the tee... even if it ended up going backwards.


So, I settled in to watch him play, cheer him on and take millions of pictures (would you expect anything else?). I was surprised that he was so into this!

And then he started behaving more like I expected.

Suddenly, he stopped swinging the bat, and held it up to his mouth and started humming on it. Can you guess what he told me when I asked him what he was doing?


"It a FLUTE!"


Yup! That's my kid! He reminds me so much of his Uncle Travis: always seeing and hearing music wherever he goes. I won't be surprised if he starts tapping random things with pens just to hear if the note it makes is a C sharp or a B flat! Maybe he'll become a composer, as well!

Say 'No' To Crack

Thanks Grandma And Grandpa!

A few days after Jack's birthday, my parents took Jack and me to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday present for him! They decided on the Naturally Playful Front Porch Playhouse, and they came over the next day to set it up! Jack was really excited to see it come out of the box piece by piece! He had fun 'helping' level the ground with the shovel, and watching grandpa build his new 'clubhouse'. And he had a lot of fun playing with the huge cardboard box that it came in, too! He and grandma had a lot of fun hiding in it, as well as racing cars on top of it!

Job well done, grandpa!

Stellan's Heart Surgery

Less than a month ago I posted about little 5 month old Stellan, who had been hospitalized for SVT (a dangerously high heart-rate, in short). A lot has happened since then, but not a lot has changed in his status. Stellan has been in the hospital this whole time, and just last week he was flown to Boston to be under the care of a new cardiologist, as it became evident that Stellan's stubborn heart would very likely need to have a never-been-performed-on-a-baby-so-young-and-never-performed-on-babies-in-general heart surgery, called an ablation. As part of the plan, they began to wean Stellan off of the medication he was on (he has to be completely off the medication for the surgery). Poor Stellan had so much medication in his system that it was making his tummy so sick! As they weaned him off the medication, his tummy started to feel much better, but his heart is once again getting stuck in very stubborn bouts of SVT. His surgery was scheduled for 8:30 tomorrow morning, but with the most recent rhythms Stellan's heart is producing, they maybe even start his surgery tonight. Please be praying for Stellan and his family! His mom has posted a list of prayer requests on her blog, and you can check there for more information by clicking this button:




Oh, and check out the reception Stellan got in Boston! That little boy is so loved!

Visiting A B-17

On Easter weekend, the EAA brought their B-17 to our Airport as part of their tour, and we definitely didn't want to miss that opportunity! Jack is obsessed with aircrafts, and we knew he'd absolutely love it, so Jack and I picked up my parents and my brother and made our way over to see it. It was awesome! Jack thought the big airplane was so cool! I had the wrong lens on my camera (didn't even think about it!), so I couldn't get any pictures of the inside of the plane, but it was really neat to see, and Jack thought it was cool to sit in the seats and look out the windows!

Jack's favorite part of seeing the B-17, though, was the helicopters that were 'testing' right next to it! They were doing all sorts of maneuvers, and I know Jack Jack would have run right over there and jumped in one if we would have let him! One of the pilots noticed how intently Jack was watching them, and he was showing off for Jack. He even turned and wiggled the helicopter as though the big machine were waving at him! We all thought that was pretty cool!

Wordless Wednesday

Okay, some words... Don't worry, I only let him eat a little bit of the ears, and that was it! I think he had more on his face than in his tummy!

He Is Risen!

He is risen, indeed!

We had such fun celebrating Easter this year! One of the awesome things we do to celebrate Easter is attending the sunrise service... at 10:00! Yes, that's right... the sunrise service starts at 10:00! We meet at the house of one of the families from church and we worship on their front lawn. Their house sit on top of a cliff on the ocean, and the view is amazing! It's definitely the way to go as far as Easter services are concerned- what better way to worship God than to bask in the beauty of His creation, especially on the day that we are celebrating Christ's resurrection?! So after breakfast we made our way over to the service, making a disappointing while-we're-in-the-area stop at the hardware store, which was closed, and ended up being early. So we decided to go on a little walk before worship began

When church began, Jack wanted to see the guitars, so I took him to the back and let him watch the worship band through the opening in the aisle. He was enthralled until the B-17 (more on that in a later post) flew overhead and he started talking about it quite loudly. Luckily the worship band was still playing, so I'm not sure many people heard him. However, and I had to smile at this despite being embarrassed, as soon as the worship band ended their final song, Jack told me, again quite loudly, "I like that song!" As the heads began to turn towards me, I headed back to our seat! To my relief, though, Scott stood up and announced that there was a children's program on the tennis court, so I hightailed it out of there! I'm pretending that he wasn't directing his comment specifically to me, though! Actually, he probably definitely wasn't. Right?

So, I took Jack up to the tennis court for the children's program, was thrilled to see that Kathy was up there, and headed back to the service. I was just starting to wonder how Jack was doing when I was tapped on the shoulder and informed that Jack was crying pretty hard for me! Apparently he was perfectly fine until Kathy had to step out, and then he missed her! So, I popped back out of the service and back up to Jack Jack. It only took a little bit of rocking, snuggling, and only 3 songs to calm him down, and then a helicopter flew overhead and he was perfectly fine- he got down and started playing ball with his friend Sofie. When I heard the worship band start back up I decided that it would be okay to bring Jack back down to the service, since I knew he'd love to see the worship band and the guitars again. This time when he told me how much he liked the song, though, it wasn't quite as loud so no one looked (that I saw!).

After church we headed home to hunt for our Easter baskets and Easter eggs! Jack picked up the first egg and immediately opened it up to find the toy car that was inside! He had a lot of fun searching for the eggs, and he was too excited to listen to our directions about putting the eggs in his basket until after he had found and opened up all the eggs!

After the egg hunt, Dave decided that our grass needed a little bit more water and he grabbed the hose. This, however, proved to be too much temptation for my boys, and they spent some time playing in the water!

After that, we headed over to my Aunt Sandra's house for some good eats and fun family time. I'm pretty sure Jack's favorite part of the entire day, was having Sandra's undivided attention as she helped him clean out her M&M dispenser! He was so excited as the M&Ms came down the shoot that he was shaking! The novelty never wore off, either- he had the same reaction every time! He was a good boy, though, and shared the M&Ms with everyone else when they came down.

Jack was a little confused during the egg hunt at Sandra's, though! We hunt for real eggs at Sandra's house, but Jack kept trying to open them up like he did with the plastic eggs that morning! Every single egg he picked up had holes the size of Jack's thumbs cracked into the sides!

I love Easter, not just because of the fun, food, and family but because of the reason that we are celebrating on this day. Christ's victory over death and the devil!