ABBA

Hudson likes the brunette from ABBA. 

Yesterday, we were playing "You Can Dance," the Wii game with ABBA dances. There's a Karaoke section of the game, showing the original music videos from the band. He saw the brunette in one of the songs, and said, "she's beautiful! I want to have her come to our house. Is she at her house?"

Bekah likes to sing Mama Mia. Here's her version:
Mama Mia
Here we go again
My my
Whining at your sistah

Jasmine likes "Money, Money, Money" best of all of their songs. She's already decided it will be her ring tone for when Grace, her best friend, calls on the phone she's not going to have for many years.

Unrelated to this post, I found some awesome, friendly roots at Rock City:

Abby

This is Abby:

Abby is Hudson's special doll. Hudson insists that Abby is a boy's name and calls his doll (wearing pink) "he." But when he wants the doll to be a girl, he's started calling her "Sarah." 

Jasmine just threw Abby across the floor. Hudson ran over to it and picked it up saying, "don't be dead! don't be dead! C'mon, baby. Talk. TALK! It's not talking to me!"

Just another boring day in our house!

No time to chat

I have a long list of things I need and want to do today, but I wanted to share my pictures first!

I took pictures as a second shooter at a wedding last weekend. If that's a foreign term to you (it was to me until recently), it means there's a main photographer, and I'm there getting the "what else is going on" shots. When she was taking formal pictures of the family, I got one of the 9-year-old son carrying his mom's bouquet. (it was a second marriage for both).
I had a fabulous time, and I can see trying it again once we're settled in Florida and I've made some connections.
Here are my favorite pictures from the wedding!
And here's a teaser so you know it's worth checking them out:

Also, I've taken pictures from the rooftops of a few important buildings in the area. I've had a blast, met some fascinating people, and gotten some awesome pictures! You can see those here (click on the picture):

Cute Kids

Yup, I got 'em.

This one just finished her art book for the year. Last night she asked if she could erase it all and do it a second time. So later today I'm making a trip to the basement to go through all the "school" boxes to find the third copy Josh made of the book so she can do it again.

This one edited her own picture. She told me what style she wanted it to have and then told me to post it on Facebook.

This one's heard Jasmine and I talk about photo editing too much lately. He saw this one and said, "Delete it!" Sure, it might not be perfectly exposed, but I couldn't convince him this one was too cute to get rid of. Spunky monkey.

Rock City Park

This weekend we went to Rock City Park. It's a place Josh used to go to as a kid, and his sister thought it would be a fun way to celebrate her upcoming birthday.
So off we went!

(a note about the picture of Hudson with the stick; when he saw the picture, he told me to delete it. I told him he was too cute and I loved the picture so I wouldn't delete it. I guess he's heard Jasmine help me edit pictures too often lately!)

(storyboards for these layouts comes direct from my Charmbox store!! Top is Four-Square Storyboards; bottom is the 12x18 storyboards!)

Store Stuff

My scrapping store, where I sell my templates and actions, has had a rough week.
We were supposed to have a Homecoming Weekend last week, to celebrate the anniversary of its opening. But Monday morning we had site problems. When it happened again Tuesday, our webmaster realized the server was crashing.
The news got worse and worse for awhile. The backup was corrupted. The store was completely lost. The gallery is patchy.

It's been a tough week, but we're back up and running. So the homecoming celebration was postponed a week, but it's in full swing now!

All my stuff, including the three things I just put in the store, are 35% off today through Sunday!! So now you can stock up and not spend nearly as much!

Saturday morning, we'll be having a virtual parade of hybrid templates. I've actually created two of them (because I've just been so bored the last several months, ya know ;) ) so I hope you'll come see them :D

Quarters: Theme One

It's that time again!!
The time when I spend hours going through the pictures I've taken in the last 10 1/2 months, choose my favorites, edit them, and upload them and ask for votes.
If you're on Facebook and see them there, feel free to vote there instead. Please don't vote twice, because it won't actually help anything. It will just confuse things! (and it doesn't matter where you vote. I'll be checking both closely, so go with whichever is easiest for you!)

Here's what I'm asking:
Please look through the following pictures and choose your favorite three. Leave a comment with which ones are your #1, #2 and #3 choice.

Feel free to share the links for these themes with friends. The more people who vote, the better a representation of what the strongest pictures are!!

I'll add titles to simplify the voting!
1. Tea Party

 2. Ballerina

 3. Hot Air

4. Waiting for Christmas

5. Flowers

6. To Infinity and Be-Yawn...

7. Learning Mama's Craft

8. Niagara Falls in Miniature:

9. School

10. Waiting for the Movie

Contest: Food

Theme three for the contest is food.

Quick recap in case you're seeing this post first:

If you're on Facebook and see them there, feel free to vote there instead. Please don't vote twice, because it won't actually help anything. It will just confuse things! (and it doesn't matter where you vote. I'll be checking both closely, so go with whichever is easiest for you!)

Here's what I'm asking:
Please look through the following pictures and choose your favorite three. Leave a comment with which ones are your #1, #2 and #3 choice.

Feel free to share the links for these themes with friends. The more people who vote, the better a representation of what the strongest pictures are!!

I'll add titles to simplify the voting!

1. Bagel Sandwich

2. Coffee love

 3. Sushi

4. Butterfinger Cupcake

5. Artisan Bread

6. Wheat Bread

7. Breakfast Rolls

8. Kohlrabi!

 9. Apple Picking

9. Testing the Apple

10. Irish Bread

11. Rolling Pin

12. Pesto noodles

13. Caprese Salad

Contest: Wabisabi

Wabisabi is a Japanese word sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete." Anything rusty, falling apart...finding beauty in the imperfect.

I will repeat the directions:
If you're on Facebook and see them there, feel free to vote there instead. Please don't vote twice, because it won't actually help anything. It will just confuse things! (and it doesn't matter where you vote. I'll be checking both closely, so go with whichever is easiest for you!)

Here's what I'm asking:
Please look through the following pictures and choose your favorite three. Leave a comment with which ones are your #1, #2 and #3 choice.

Feel free to share the links for these themes with friends. The more people who vote, the better a representation of what the strongest pictures are!!

I'll add titles to simplify the voting!

1. Laundry Day

2. Good Eats

 3. Hotel Patio

4. Mombasa Bicycle

5. Wonderbread Factory

6. Restaurant Porch

7. Restaurant

Contest: Black and white

Quick recap of the rules:

If you're on Facebook and see them there, feel free to vote there instead. Please don't vote twice, because it won't actually help anything. It will just confuse things! (and it doesn't matter where you vote. I'll be checking both closely, so go with whichever is easiest for you!)

Here's what I'm asking:
Please look through the following pictures and choose your favorite three. Leave a comment with which ones are your #1, #2 and #3 choice.

Feel free to share the links for these themes with friends. The more people who vote, the better a representation of what the strongest pictures are!!

I'll add titles to simplify the voting!

1. Window

2. Falls

3. Sibling Love

4. On an adventure

5. Storytime

6. Precious boy

7. Watch and learn

8. New books

9. Favorite book

10. Windy Day

11. Cute Suit

12. Ballerina

13. Sneaking in one more book

14. Baseball practice

15. Tiny Dancers

16. Secrets

 17. Love

18. Senior

18b (oops). Love and loss

19. Meeting her niece

20. Pout

21. Rock Star