The Joy of LOVE {Days 1 & 2}

February 2nd, 2011 by Mollie

Photography is my hobby (well, one of many).  I am so fortune to have a side job working as assistant for an awesome wedding photographer, which has taught me an incredible amount over the past year… and I’m only  scratching the surface!  This month I am attempting to challenge myself again an online  workshop through one of my favorite photography websites, Willette Designs.  I have always wanted to do one, but always hesitate to add yet another activity to my schedule. However, this Valentine’s themed workshop is being offered for FREE and the topic is awesome so I couldn’t resist!  There is a new assignment every day and I will try to share as many as possible here on the blog.

{Day 1 Assignment: Capture someone you love, doing what they do}

Every morning, Andy makes me coffee.  He has the timing down perfectly, it usually finishes brewing just as I walk in the door at 6:45 from my morning workout.  He even pours it for me, and fixes it just the way I like it (lots of milk).  This is one of my favorite things that he does, so it was an easy choice!

{Day 2: How they look. Try to capture the essence/expression/posture that describes your loved one.}

This is B’s guilty face.  I see it a lot.  Today I caught him red-handed, sitting on top of the patio table, digging up a pot of my succulents.  Don’t worry, he just got a little scolding, since he ended up  helping me out with my photography assignment.

{Bonus: Because it doesn’t seem right now to have Natalie in here, too}

My house doesn’t get great light, and I don’t like using a flash, so… I am learning to embrace the graininess of shooting at a high ISO because sometimes I can get a great, natural expression like this one!

Snow Trip

January 28th, 2011 by Mollie

Earlier this month we headed to Big Bear for a couple days.  It’s already been three years since we played in the snow in Yosemite when Natalie was a baby!  We wanted the kids to have some kind of idea what that white stuff if, so this quick trip to the mountains was perfect.  We brought along my sister Jamie and her boyfriend Daniel, which made the kids even more excited and entertained!  We went to the Snow Play area on the second day and rode down the Alpine Slide a bunch of times, but this field of fresh snow behind our cabin would have been plenty of fun for everyone.

My sister has this weird thing where she loves to make tiny snowmen… look at her conversing with this one!  Haha, love you Jamie!  Ben was not so sure he liked snow at first– I can hardly blame him, since most of it was too deep for him to walk in.  Then he discovered that he could eat it, and he was content.

Only Jamie would think to bring her boogie board to the snow.  The kids loved their wild rides on it!

Natalie was completely delighted by the snow, and didn’t even mind getting a face full of it every time she wiped out.

Our cabin!  It was comfortable and roomy inside… almost as big as our house I think!

Jamie brought crafts to entertain the kids when it got too cold to play outside.  What a great aunt!

So much fun!  We are hoping to do something like this every year!

Ringing In The New Year

January 15th, 2011 by Mollie

New Year’s Eve was spent at the Curtis’ house with three other couples and 5 kids running around like crazy. It was super fun!  When the kids started getting tired we put them in their pajamas and turned a movie on… it worked great!  Ben went to bed in the guest room and the grown-ups got to keep hanging out.

(Natalie, Grace, and Audrey, completely engrossed in a Tinkerbell movie.)

Playing games and eating brownies till midnight is the best kind of party!

Here’s a picture of Natalie at midnight… she was barely staying awake.

Audrey didn’t quite make it!

The next morning it was off to the Santa Barbara Zoo, our New Year’s Day Tradition.

The otters had 5 babies are they are so cute and fun to watch!  My favorite of the day.

Ben loved these macaws, because he can make a squawking noise just like them.  Natalie’s favorite was the baby elephant statue, as usual.

I thought this was so cute and funny… the gorilla loves his brown blankie, too!  He was dragging it around with him everywhere, just like someone else I know…

We finished off our Santa Barbara excursion at the train station for lunch with Uncle Matt!

Christmas 2010 Recap

January 5th, 2011 by Mollie

It would have been great to blog each Christmas event as it happened, but it flew by way too fast!  Probably everyone has seen my pictures on Facebook, but here’s a little recap:

My sister had to work on Christmas Eve, so we started the festivities early with breakfast at her house on the way to Los Angeles.  She made chocolate chip pancakes for us and we passed out presents.

Christmas Eve was spent at my Aunt Jessica’s house with Mom’s side of the family.  We always have a wonderful time there, and the kids have cousins to play with which is the BEST!

We spent Christmas morning at home as a family.  It was just right!

I think Natalie is going to be a great reader. She LOVES books!

Our family picture… courtesy of the tripod:

We were so happy to have all of our local family members over for a Christmas Tamale Lunch!   Andy’s co-worker’s mother-in-law makes bunches of authentic home made tamales each December, as we were fortunate to discover last year.  We got 4 dozen this time around! Tamales are one of my favorite foods so this is a tradition I can get really excited about (in case you couldn’t tell)

There was yet another Christmas celebration on Monday.  We had a delicious turkey dinner at Ted & Lennie’s house with Matt, who had to work on Christmas.

Natalie is so appreciative of all her gifts!  She has been thoroughly enjoying every single one of them, and that is fun to see.

The Nutcracker

December 17th, 2010 by Mollie

This week Natalie and I were at the ballet again, this time for The Nutcracker!  You may remember that earlier this year, our trip to see Noah’s Ark was a big hit!  Several of Natalie’s good friends and their mommies were also there to enjoy the show… thanks Olivia for organizing this! 🙂

There were more girls, but these were the ones who held still for a picture!  Their expressions are so funny.

We had GREAT seats this time, and really enjoyed the ballet!   Natalie has a surprisingly good attention span for this kind of thing.