Sneak Peek…

I am so excited to be heading out to L.A next month. So in honor of this, here's my tribute! Gotta love the 80's and THIS song!!!

Capturing Your: First’s

I love watching first’s. First time walking, first time feeling sand, first time eating ice cream….or pickles, first time down a roller coaster, or first time eating In N Out (preferably a number #2 combo animal style). When my niece was visiting, I was able to capture her first time playing in the snow. She had so much fun eating it, throwing it, kicking it, and laying in it to make a snow angel. Here are some of my favorites in the few minutes that she was outside….come on, it was 20 degrees!

Hot and Not

My FB status this past Friday read: Friday! Yay!!! We had a great day going to our local pool, spending a few hours with the kids playing in the water, had a great lunch, good naps, some yummy Chinese food for dinner, and had the kids in bed at a reasonable hour. After the kids went to bed, Chad and I got to spend some time together cuddling on the couch, eating popcorn and watching the movie The Hurt Locker. It was a great movie about the reality of the Iraqi war and just war in general. My appreciation for these men and women who bravely risk their lives for our country has deepened significantly. On our way upstairs, we heard Travis say, “Daddy, my throat hurts”, so we both went into the room to check on him. Chad picked him up to rock him when Travis hurled ALL over him! All I am thinking is…REALLY? You can’t be serious! So, for the next hour, Chad and I spend the remainder of our Friday night, cleaning up puke, bathing Travis, taking him back to the bathroom to hurl some more, giving him medicine and giving some may-ja TLC to our little sick-e-pooh. Nothing screams romance like nights like this, however, I must admit, my love for Chad and the awesome partner that he is, deepened that.much.more.

 

My husband and best friend Chad. Thank you so much for taking the “hit” for our team.

Our troops who have left their families and friends to bravely defend our country. I am speechless when it comes to their sacrifices, especially those who sacrificed their lives. Speechless.

Resolve Cleaner. Darn, you can get the stain and smell out of ANYTHING.

Blog love…oh how I love you. Thanks for the shout outs! Hollar!

65 degree weeks during winter. I am so close to being happily reunited with my precious flip flops.

 

 

Ummm….this one is easy. Vomit. I am so.sick.of.my.kids.getting.sick!

The Bachelor! Boo on your Jake. I can’t believe you picked Vienna over Tenley. Can’t wait to hear that you guys are OVER!

The Bachelor…again! For picking Ali as the next Bachelorette instead of Tenley. Um hello, she left the show for her job…what makes you think she won’t do it again?

Telemarketers. What makes you think I will say “yes” at 7 AM in the morning?

Foxes in the city. You ate my friend’s dog Reba. So not cool. RIP Reba.

Sneak Peek…

Capturing Your: Flavor

This is an easy peasy fun recipe! I made these for Travis’ birthday party as party favors. Nothing like making an apple unhealthy :)

Ingredients: Granny apples, caramel wraps, chocolate bark, and sprinkles.

Wrap caramel around apple…cover from top to bottom. Insert stick (should come with wraps, if not use popsicle sticks) on top. Melt chocolate bark, then drizzle over top of apple. Pour sprinkles immediately onto warm chocolate. DONE! Told you it was easy :)

Capturing Your: Laughter

Never in a million years did I think our Mexican genes were able to produce blue eyed babies. Never in a million years did I think my brother would have not, one, but TWO blue eyed children. This is my beautiful niece Carissa. She is the spittin image of her mother…SPITTIN! If you could reproduce Renee all over again, this is exactly what she would look like. There is absolutely no sign of my brother David. None. Now my nephew Nathan…well that’s a whole ‘nother story.

I can still remember going to the hospital and seeing my new niece for the first time. She literally came out a few minutes before I knocked on the door. She was all bundled up, staring around at the world around her and just beautiful. Our lives and family instantly changed. Then, I remember the first time Carissa met Travis. She was so thrilled to finally meet the baby that was in my belly. She loved Travis before he was even born. She would give my belly kisses and cuddle next to me so that she could be closer to the baby. I can remember the first time that she held her cousin Travis. Travis was just about 8 weeks old (it took that long because he was a preemie and we were first time neurotic parents who didn’t take him out of the house for well, 8 weeks) and Carissa was beaming from ear to ear. It was an INSTANT love and bond that these two shared. Travis would look at Carissa and smile and he didn’t fuss or cry once as she held him. He just stared at her and had this little twinkle in his eye. He was just as calm as if I was holding him. I still look at those precious pictures with such love because there WAS so much love between them…I knew that it was going to be the beginning of something very very special.

   

To this day, Carissa and Travis still share that special friendship and love. It was so hard to make the decision to move away from family, especially knowing how much Travis loved them and how much he would miss them. Every time they are reunited, it as if no time has passed. They both squeal and laugh in excitement, sharing many hugs and kisses with each other. It is truly a special bond that I cherish witnessing. For Travis’ birthday, Carissa came with Grandma for the weekend and helped us celebrate. She has come every year since we have moved, making Travis’ birthday extra special. I know that more than the cake, gifts and balloons…the thing he loves the most is having the people he loves with him to celebrate.

So, I was a bit selfish and decided to seize the moment and take pictures of my beautiful niece. It’s not very often that I have a little girl in my house, who will let me curl their hair, put bows in it, and take pictures of her….especially my niece! All it took was, “I’ll give you a sucker if you let me take pictures” and she instantly responded with “what flavor?” And with that, these beautiful pictures of my niece emerged as long as the memory of the fun that we shared that afternoon. Towards the end, Travis joined along for the fun (with another sucker as payment) and you’ll definitely be able to see the love, laughter, friendship and fun that these two share. I can’t help but smile when I look at them, not just because it’s my son and my niece, but because you can truly see the love and fun that these two share.

Special Announcement!

I love blog stalking. I stalk everything from photography, to scrapbooking, friends….food…you name it! My daily routine is to check email, run downstairs to make sure the kids are ok, run back upstairs to attempt to “stalk”, run back downstairs to ask, “what happened?”, run back upstairs, attempt to “stalk” again, then run back stairs and finally give in to the kids and put on a show. After multiple runs up and down the stairs, I usually just give up or continue stalking.

Well, today on one of my blogs I stalk, Justin and Mary announced that they will be giving away one lucky blogger the new Totally Rad Actions Lightroom Presets! SCORE! I use Totally Rad Actions to help me with my editing process and just recently Doug Boutwell came out with Presets for Lightroom! I can’t tell you enough how awesome his actions are, how much time they save me, and how much I love playing around with them to create my own actions. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE (get the idea) to own the TRA Lightroom actions…it would be like celebrating Christmas in March, or better yet…like wearing flip flops in March…or even better….celebrating Christmas in March while wearing flips flops and enjoying a Mai Tai (Oh beach and warm weather, how much I miss you)!!

So in addition to the cool presets, I wanted to encourage all those Photographers who will be attending WPPI in Vegas next week, to be sure to attend Justin and Mary’s Platform speech a week from today. I broke the rules a bit because I do not tweet via twitter, however, I think a blog is just as powerful to spread the word to all my blog stalkers. So in lieu of a tweet, here’s the info:

justinmarantz and @marymarantz are giving away "STUFF WE LOVE" at their WPPI Platform one week from today. Tuesday, March 9th 3:30pm Pls RT"

And if you haven’t checked out Justin and Mary’s blog yet, please stop by and take a look. They are EXTREMELY talented photographers and I know that you’ll become a blog “stalker” too! http://www.justinmarantz.com/

Hot and Not

Today, everyone and their mothers thought it was great day to wash their cars. I drove by 4 different car washes….all FULL. Each lane had at least two cars or more waiting for their turn to wash off all the layers of mud that have accumulated over the past few days. I can’t stand having a dirty car….I believe it is the Californian in me. All the cars in L.A are nice and shiny…even the beaters are clean. However, living in seasons…it’s impossible to always have a clean car, ESPECIALLY in winter. On the way home after running errands, I did a drive by to the self car wash and it was still two cars deep. On my way out, I noticed that the gas station’s car wash was empty…so I quickly purchased a car was then drove up. At that point I was only 1 car behind, with one car in the stall. The inside must have just started because it took another 15 minutes before I actually got to drive in. At that point, I was annoyed because the kids were getting restless (I don’t blame them…it was nap time) and when I glanced back at the self car wash, the car I would have been behind, was LONG gone. So, we roll in, watch the machine spray soap, water, more soap, water…kids start freaking out….me calming them down…..then finally, we are done. I pulled out slowly to let the fan blow off the excess water, got out to push the mirrors back out, only to notice that the car was STILL dirty! Are you kidding me? UGH! There is nothing more annoying than to pay money for something and not get what you paid fo. I am done with drive thru car washes. This leads me to my new segment of the week….Hot and Not. Each week I will be sharing a few of my experiences …the hot and not so hot moments. Enjoy!

 

 

American Airlines. They had such awesome last minute airfares, my mom and niece were able to visit for Travis’ birthday! YAY!

Costco. They have this sneaky way of making you feel good about spending more than you planned on by only charging $1.50 for a hot dog combo. Great marketing.

Beth Moore. I absolutely LOVE listening to this incredible woman speak and teach. Each week, in our bible study of Ester, she says something that speaks to my heart and fills me with peace.

Salvation Army…check out the post below to see my new antique camera. Even better….the price tag: $9.99!!

Girl scout cookies. It’s all about Thin Mints and Samoas!

Windows Live Writer. You can create a post, add pictures, publish without going online! The best feature is how easy it is to upload and resize pictures….instead of hassling with blogger and having to change all the dimensions the hard way. I highly recommend this for all your bloggers out there!

 

 

 

Drive thru car washes…need I say more?

Costco. I got tricked again in buying more than I needed and now I am reminded about it every time I burp up hot dog.

The Olympics coverage. Our networks seem to have limited coverage of all the events…not to mention have interfered with my favorite show Biggest Loser.

Winter….you’ve been torturing me since September….now just-go-away!

Winter.

Winter.

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure…

You’ve heard that saying, “one man's trash is another man's treasure." So often this has become a reality of mine. I love garage sailing, hitting flee markets, even going to thrift stores. I remember when I lived in California, we lived amongst the rich and scored so many deals on their “charity”. There was a Salvation Army right down the street where we lived and every now and then, I would go in and take a peek. I was always amazed on what was donated there….pretty much brand new merchandise was available. I love finding the needle in the haystack, even if it means I have endure the awful smell of a thrift store and sterilize my clothes and self after rummaging through all the junk….I guess that is part of the fun.

During the spring, I especially love going garage sailing! I will checkout Craigslist to “map out” my plan of attack and either drive throughout the neighborhoods or plan my run around areas that are close to my neighborhood. Even Travis has gotten in on the fun and asks, “are we going to look for junk today?” Currently, I am in search of a Victorian Style chair to use for my photo shoots which you will most like see once I find the perfect score, but until then, I will keep searching online and visit our local antique stores….which brings me to the whole reason for this post :)

When I was in Californian visiting, I went shopping at this huge antique store called King Richards. There is so much to see, it could seriously take HOURS of visiting every booth that is set up. When I was there, I found my first “antique” camera. It’s a 1970’s Polaroid camera…and if you look at my profile picture at top, you will see it. It came with it’s original case, the flash, instructions, and even some old film. Eventually, I will order some new film and give this Polaroid a whirl. Today, I added another addition to my camera collection…and old antique Kodak camera. I completely love all the intricate details and am curious wondering who’s family, memories, hobby, and travels it captured. It is a bit beat up on the outside, which to me, only adds more character and charm to it. I look forward to using it in an upcoming themed photo shoot I have in store and putting this camera back in to use….or at least back into the “picture”.