A Months Worth of Pictures

With my camera lens having broken while we were in France, I haven't been very motivated to take any pictures. But that changed when I replaced it with an upgraded 50mm lens. 

This glass is SOOO much better its unreal. 

Example 1.

This is inside with no flash.

 Example 2.

I have not been able to get pictures of Ranger because his coat is such a weird color it doesn't show up well in pictures. NOT ANY MORE!

Look at my beautiful dog. 

 This is a ridiculous picture of Lucy just to show you how much she's grown this summer. 

This was a suit that fit her in June. 

She insisted on wearing it. 

I laughed the entire day. 

 Our prizes at the state fair. 

 Asher is now playing flag football. 

I have always used the line "don't smile" to get him to smile. 

So now that I am trying to get a picture of him being "tough" he can't help it, he has to produce the biggest grin you've ever seen.

 Gah, I love this handsome boy. 

 Lucy is as silly as ever. 

We were hiking and she got herself next to a rock and said "Mommy, this will be a good one."

 Then struck this pose. No lie. 

 A boy and his dog. 

I am so glad I captured Asher's expression here. 

Priceless. 

May Masthead

If you actually visit this blog and don't just use a reader service, you may be asking what in the world is the deal with my masthead? That's the thing with all of the pictures at the top of this blog. FYI.

We had the class pet, Marlow visit our home this weekend and we had to take the stuffed animal everywhere that we went. The last time we did this, Asher got seriously ill and missed school for half-a-week. So you can imagine the excitement when he was presented back in the backpack for this past weekend.

But took Marlow around and he had quite an adventure to tell. Thankfully, I used the collage making pages at picnik.com to help me actually complete the project because you don't think that a kindergartner knows how to upload pictures, write paragraphs and layout scrapbook pages do you? Nope. This is my project.
Again.
So, I am taking you all along for our little journey.
Here are the pictures from the weekend that I had to capture. Enjoy.

 Asher is thrilled to have Marlow come home again. 

 Marlow in the hammock.

 Marlow playing soccer.

 Marlow helping me coach soccer.

 Marlow on the monkey bars.

 Marlow got beasted on the slide.

 Can you feel the love?

 Asher serenading the neigh-borhood. Get it? "Neigh"

 Marlow at church. Yes, I took this picture. Yes, the people next to me moved a little further away from me when I did. Like I might think this horse is real. 

 The pigs in downtown Asheville at the Big Love Fest. 

We had Big Love for Marlow. Why not?

 Marlow at a Pig Pickin' for YL. The irony was not lost on him. 

Wide Open Spaces with Marlow.

Now Marlow is sitting on my kitchen table waiting to get packed up to go back to elementary school tomorrow. 

Tell me I don't have to do 700 more school projects like this. 

Tell me that this is not setting me up to do 700 more projects like this. 

Christmas Card Time

It's that time of the year kids.

Christmas card prep.

My sister just bulldozed my day today by even mentioning working on Christmas cards and I decided to get in the hunt too.

Last year, I ordered my cards from (shhh) Walgreens. Don't hate on it.

They have an agreement with Snapfish and their print quality is pretty decent. Not great. But you have your prints in an hour AND you can get a ton of coupons online to make it really cheap.

So this year, I checked out Walgreens.com and I hated the cards. Like hated them.

Then I went to Snapfish.com.

Uploaded some pictures. I was happy. Here is a preview.

I made it ALL the way to check out.

Then I decided to check over at Shutterfly.com and see what they had.

The selection was way better. But WAY more expensive.

But instead of just printing on photo paper, I would be printing on stationary cards which is definitely a nice upgrade.

Plus, they are tied in with Boxtops for Education. So money I spend there, goes to my son's school. (for the record-I checked back in and Snapfish has a deal with boxtopsforeducation.com as well and they give MORE money per $10 spent. So now I feel like a jerk. But here we are.)

ALSO, I used these codes:

SHIP30 (free shipping on items over $30)

FATWALLET5 (25% off entire order)

the 25% off expires on Nov. 17, so if you are going to order, you should do it ASAP.

All that involved, saved about $45 but still spent more money than at Snapfish. But I am SURE that I am going to be way happier with my cards because seriously take a look at this:

With Love Chartreuse Christmas Card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

This card is WAY better looking.

Thanks Shutterfly.com and Sharon Clark at Smitten Photography for making my family look like we belong in a magazine!

For other fun ideas, go check out these links at Shutterfly:

photo Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

· holiday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

Beach Times

We went to beach with several families last week on the coast of North Carolina and truth be told, I kept my camera hidden most of the time.

But I did manage to get a few beauties that I will share. But really, Lindsay Hancock got a bunch of great shots...she just hasn't updated her blog yet.

This might be one of favorite pictures of all of them. Because this is EXACTLY what we did at the beach all week. We rode bikes, Razors, and PowerWings. Hard. Click on the picture. There are so many details you are missing if you just scroll through it...

Who wouldn't want to look THIS amazing after three kids? Heck, BEFORE three kids.

Jeez, she's a walking, breathing advertising for P90x.

Lucy with all her 'tude on our last day wouldn't cooperate for a nice pic.

Serves me right.

Christmas Photo Shoot

As you can tell by my new header (or not if you are using Google Reader), I took the kids out on a little adventure for a downtown Asheville photo shoot prior to Christmas.

We got all dressed up and danced around the Flat Iron for about 10 minutes in the middle of needing to do downtown Christmas shopping. The kids couldn't have been better about this and I am super SUPER grateful for these pictures. The Flat Iron is one of my favorite Asheville landmarks and the kids will probably get their picture taken in front of it for the rest of their lives if I can help it.

Click on any of the pictures to see them bigger. Oh and the dress Lucy is wearing? One of my high school girls made it. MADE IT. In school. For my Lucy. How sweet is that? Lucy LOVES wearing it.

Umm. Guess who's growing up every single second right in front of my eyes?

Just down the road...posing with iron people. They were in hilarious moods.

To be fair, Lucy did get a bit tired near the end...poor widdle baby.

Mean mommy MAKE you take pictures. Ugh.

My Precious Kids and I want a new camera

I was inspired by the amazing weather and evening light to take Asher and Lucy outside, even if just for five minutes with my camera this evening.






















Also, here at some pics that I took at the lake with the cousins over the weekend.





So you might ask, why would I want a new camera? I think that I have maxed out what my camera can do. Also, I am disappointed in the sharpness of the pictures. I think that there are flaws with this camera that I can't work out and it makes me less satisfied with my work right now. I would love to move up a level. Anybody at Canon wanna give me a new fat camera to "demo"?