Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!

I know it's a little late, but we've had a busy Halloween weekend!  Here's a couple of pictures from one of the trunk-or-treats we attended (see, I told you we were busy!).
 We had a lot of fun this year with Cadence!  Last year she was just a cute little lump in a pumpkin sleeper.  This year she was the most observant ladybug ever.  I say observant because she didn't really do much other than look and stare and point.  She was in awe at the number of people and all the great costumes!  Derek was the Brawny Man, but everyone thought he was a lumber jack.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Poops, she did it again...

in the bathtub.  And this time I've got it on video--I just happened to be video-ing her cute babbling at the time--but for obvious reasons, I won't be posting it.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

My Kid's a Genius

but unfortunately I don't have any pictures to prove it!  I was enjoying the moment to much to pull away to get my camera.

This evening Cadence started "organizing" her toys.  She took them out of the basket and placed some of on a nearby shelf, some of them on a box, and some of them back into the basket.  She was so serious about it!  After we finally got her attention we clapped for her.  She got a HUGE smile on her face and then clapped for herself so of course we had to clap again too.  Then she continued organizing her toys! 

I Like Bread and Butter...

I like toast and jam,


 That's what my mommy feeds me,

I'm her lovin'... um, that's where my altered lyrics end.  I can't think of the right rhyme!  Do you recognize the song?

Anyway, this girl loves to eat toast and jam.  It's great because it's easy for me except she gets really impatient when she can see me making it, so I have to be stealthy! :)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

It's interesting isn't it...

It's interesting isn't it how the two things I remember consciously thinking I would never do--not really because I disliked them, but because I didn't think I could ever really do them well--are the two things that have become a huge part of my life.

I'm not talking about being a mother.  That's something that I've always felt was inevitable.  I couldn't picture myself being pregnant and having children partly because my brother and I were both adopted (it was normal for a baby to just show up at your house one day), and partly because I have a slight fear of children.  Not a big one, but just enough that I was never that girl who babysat or held the baby in the room.  I think I can count on one hand the number of families I've babysat for since I was 12 or 14 years old.  I love my baby and I like her a lot.  But other people's kids?  I need a little time before I really feel comfortable with them.

But that's not what I originally planned on writing about.  I was writing about teaching piano and being a photographer.  Those are two things I never thought I'd ever do.

Once when I was a senior in high school, a friend of mine was a piano teacher.  She told me I should do it too.  "It's a great job and it's easy!" she explained.  "All you have to do is get the beginner books and then basically read what the instructions say and help the students along."  My initial thought was, there is no possible way I could ever do that; playing the piano is easy but teaching?  Plus, my friend had (and still has) a lot more natural talent for music and the piano.  Of course it would be easy for her, but not me.

But then 9 or 10 years passed. Cadence was born and we moved my mom into a facility, effectively our income in half.  I needed another job to fill in the cracks of Derek's income that wouldn't require us to pay for daycare.  Because Derek works two jobs and goes to bed somewhat early, there were really only two options, babysitting other people's children or teaching piano.  And we all know how I feel about babysitting! :)  So teaching piano it was.  I was really unsure about it when I started, but you know what?  It is really easy and I love it! 

The other thing that I thought I'd never do is take good pictures.  When Derek and I got engaged, my awesome roommate/friend took our engagement pictures.  I was thrilled with the finished result and decided then and there that I would never be that good at photography.  I thought, she must have some amazing natural talent (which she totally does) that I could never cultivate in myself.  After all, I didn't have a  creative bone in my body!

Then after a few years, I realized that all of our photos from living Korea while stunning in subject, left a lot to be desired in quality.  That was a sad day for me.  Derek and I had a blast in Sokcho, South Korea and I knew the chances of us returning were slim to none.  I wouldn't get a chance to re-do any of those photos.  Plus, you can't go back to the past!  I never wanted to have so-so photos again!  So I asked for a better camera thinking it was a camera issue (it wasn't really), and got an amazing Nikon for Christmas.

Just a couple of months later, Derek and I found out we were expecting!  I knew I wanted amazing pictures of our baby right from the start so I started practicing.  A few weeks before Cadence was born, I saw a Project 365 on someone's blog, and I was sold!  What better way to record a baby's first year than to take one picture every day for 365 days!  Through that and reading many, MANY blog posts and tutorials, I gained experience and cultivated that photography talent I'd never thought I'd have!  Now I'm hooked on photography!

I can't really imagine my life without either of these two things.  And isn't interesting that both my job as a piano teacher and interest in photography were both inspired by my daughter!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Portrait Challenge


This big guy was so much fun to shoot!  This was one of the last pictures I took that afternoon and I probably wouldn't have gotten it if he hadn't said, "Hey, take my picture!" as we were walking away.  I turned around and he was all sprawled out on the ground.  Mixed in with a few crazy poses were a few amazing ones!  Who knew a 4 year old (he is 4, right Kristi?) could be so great at posing!


Touch-up Tuesday

Touch Up Tuesday's at the Paper Mama

This is my latest favorite touch up!  I love my grandparents' vintage photos!


It's not perfect yet.  There's still a lot of work to be done, but considering it came from an almost completely yellow original, I'm pretty happy.  It's really coming along!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Evacuate!!!!

This evening as we were bathing Cadence, Derek turns to me and says, "Uh, I think we should get her out now."  I looked and saw floaters.  Brown ones.  Yeah, it was gross.  I made Derek scoop them out of the tub with our kitty poop scoop.  He is now disinfecting Cadence's bath toys.

Our Fine Player Piano Player . . . Piano


When it's too hard to pick one, I pick two. Even when they're practically identical!


Brownie points for anyone who can name that movie/musical! :)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Today

 This is Cadence's latest thing.  She loves to hold something (especially this white bear she got from her Great Aunt Laura and Great Uncle Bob) while she's drinking her bottle.


Albertsons had doublers this week ::Hooray!:: So I did a mini-Albertsons run. I ended up spending $6.67 (I didn't have doublers for everything, and I had no coupons for the hand sanitizer), and saved $47.33!!!   With doublers and coupons, the Ronzoni noodles were free, the Miracle Whip was free, half the Yakisoba was free, and the Quaker oatmeal was .50 a box!  Thank you A Thrifty Mom!!!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Sleepy Saturday

This is what I came home to Saturday afternoon. Derek was in charge while I was at our ward's Super Saturday activity. They both slept there for about an hour! I was really surprised because she's never conked out on the floor before!
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Full Manual Mode

I am proud to announce that I am shooting comfortably in FULL MANUAL MODE!! :)  

I thought the day would never come!

Faith's photography class over at Simplicity was a huge help along with reading tutorials on digital-photography-school.com.  Seriously, awesome resources!

Here are some photos from a recent shoot.




Pianist

Cadence loves the piano!  Our friends have this really cute toy piano and while we were canning the other day, I caught this video of Cadence.  She is seriously playing!



Dancing Machine!


So I guess Cadence is a typical kid who doesn't perform like you'd like on camera! :) I was hoping to get a good video of her new dance move. She plays a song on her table toy and then shakes her bootie from side to side. SO CUTE!! You can only see it a little here, unfortunately. Maybe someday...