Valentine's Day photo session

Andrew and I took off for an early morning photo session yesterday. It was sooooooooooooooooooo cold but the light was soooooooooooooooooooo beautiful! So we made it a quick one and decided we'd finish the rest later. I just had a few more ideas that I didn't get to because our hands were freezing! He was such a tropper and loved his lipstick kiss and huge sucker.

This photo has nothing to do with Valentine's Day but oh how I love it. The lens flare and bokeh just make me smile and I can't stop staring. :-)

I couldn't make up my mind between color and black and white....

Biggest Loser - Week 4

Congratulations Marianne!!! You have been doing an amazing job and I am so proud of you!

That goes for everyone else too. Please hang in there. We are one month into the contest and have four months left for round one. I hope everyone has started making new healthy habits to make 2010 the year they get healthy and lose some weight.

Thank you again for joining this contest it has been a great motivator for me. I look forward to every Friday even if the scale isn't saying what I want it too. I know eventually I will see the results I am working so hard to get and so will all of you.

Have a great weekend everyone! Here are the full results....

Tiny Tots Orchestra

Andrew had a field trip yesterday to the Tiny Tots inside the Orchestra event. Basically all the kids/parents sit in a big circle and the orchestra is positioned all around the circle. We were up front right next to the cellos. It was completely geared towards children with lots of fun songs from cartoons and Star Wars. They even gave an ice cream sample out at the end. :-)

Blake gave Andrew an up close and personal view of the mountain lion.

The conductor was great. Very animated and really involved the children in the program.

They had the giant cellos put on elephant masks to make their elephant stomping sounds.

me playing with my camera. :-)

This little girl was only 6 years old and had been playing for only 1 year. She was incredible!

Andrew enjoying his "tiny" ice cream after the show.

Wisdom Wednesday

I saw this post on a photographer blog the other day. She is amazing by the way! It inspired me to look at the little things in life a bit differently. It all started when we went to Sam's club and Andrew got a smiley face on the back of a receipt and was happy as could be. So, I just started paying attention to all the little things in life that bring a smile to my face or warm my heart. You should try it, it really changes your perspective on life.

So, here are some pictures that bring happiness to our lives.

Christmas leftovers

We all have Christmas leftovers of some type. Somethings like wrapping paper and ribbon we can store away for next year but some things you either throw away or have to eat! (like candy)

I saw this idea on a blog somewhere and I can not remember where. But I thought it was a great one. What do you do with all the Christmas cards you get? Please don't say throw them away!! Especially those with a photo on it. Yes I have an obsession with not throwing away photos. It's just not right.

I think it's so much fun to look back at Christmas cards throughout the years. Here is a way to keep it organized...Just punch a hole in the upper corner of each card and attach them to a metal ring. I added a simple tag that I printed out on the computer that has the year on it. You could go a step further and add ribbon and more embellishments. Next Christmas I plan on putting a basket somewhere around the house with these little card "albums" in it.

On to my next Christmas leftover. Mini candy canes! What do you do with these? I saw these little creations on this blog. (see below) What a great idea, huh? Just in time for Valentine's Day! I did these the other day for Andrew and he loved them. He laughed at them but ate them right up. You could even make these and put a wrapper on them and give them to your children's school friends. I'm not doing that but hey I though it was a good idea. No, I have something else planned for his school friends.

See below for all the pics...

No candy cane in this shot but I had to include it. Just look at that sweet face. :-)

Biggest Loser Week 3

Congratulations Loni! Below are the rest of week 3 results.

Yes I had a zero for this week. Talk about frustrating! I've been working out six days a week and eating healthy and haven't lost much of anything the past two weeks. However, I am here to encourage each one of you (if you haven't already) to measure yourself. Blake talked me into measuring ourselves on Day 1 and I am so glad he did. We measured ourselves again yesterday and I have lost a total of 9 1/2 inches. I was blown away and the best part was that 4 of those 9 1/2 inches were off of my stomach. YEssssssssssssssss! ;-) Those yoga and pilates classes are really paying off.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Valentine's Day!!

I've been working on a few Valentine's Day projects here. We made Andrew a heart mobile to hang in his bedroom doorway and I was inspired by this blog to make this fun XOXO decoration below. Her blog is just full of amazing projects and I wish I had more time in the day to do them!

The best thing about the XOXO project (I also made a LOVE one) is that I already had all of the supplies and it literally took me 15 minutes to make each one. You can't beat that! If you want directions please click here.

I'm working on one more Valentine's Day decor project so stay tuned for that. Plus I've got some great ideas for Teacher and friend gifts.

the marbles really sparkle when the light hits them. So pretty!

Here is Andrew's mobile...

Again, super simple and easy to make and Andrew helped me every step of the way. I just cut out a bunch of heart with my rusty trusty Cricut.

Grabbed some white netting I had left over from Christmas.

Layed out the hearts in the order I liked and punch a small hole at the top and bottom of each heart and connected each heart with the tulleing. (pardon my ridiculously dirty table - guess I should have wiped it down after lunch! :-)

Then we used tacks to place them above the door frame.

Voila! Easy peasy.