The Bonnie 5

tt on tumblr

2012-01-26T13:39:00.003-06:00

Ugh you guys! My brain is not working today. I've tried to write the first sentence to this post like 5 times now, and it's not happening. So let's just get to the point.

I started new blog on Tumblr.
It's for Livia.
It's called "the tiny tornado."
I was waiting until I got some fabulous pictures before I shared it with you.
That's not happening.
So I'm going to share it anyway.

Here's the link.

Pop over and check it out. I'll wait here.

See? Just a little photo here and there of our day. Notice I didn't say "daily photo" or anything crazy like that. But I hope to do a couple each week. This was going to be my 'thing' for 2012, but it was so fun seeing her cute little face pop up that I added some favorites from 2011.

I'll be posting most of the photos here as well, maybe in a monthly re-cap or something... so if you don't subscribe to the RSS feed, you won't be missing anything. I just thought it would be a fun little project for me and TT. When I show her the pictures, she squeals "OH MY GOSH!!! That's so CUUUUUTE!" We're still working on modesty.

Thanks for looking! xo

last week looked like this

2012-01-23T19:02:00.001-06:00

And also these things happened...

(Oh, the little squares above? My Printstagram poster arrived last week - YAY!)

Hope you all have a great week!
xoxo

black and light

2012-01-14T18:54:00.003-06:00

Just a little parking garage fun... :-)

the day it was 62 degrees in january and we went to the park

2012-01-10T21:14:00.004-06:00

beauty around me

2012-01-06T13:35:00.006-06:00

It's funny. I was going to ring in the new year with this totally poignant post (which now sounds bit absurd since I actually had to google the word poignant to see if it even meant what I thought it meant). As it turns out I don't have a poignant thought in my head and should just stick to being me. I was going to share my feelings and frustrations about living in a medium-sized Midwestern city, that quite honestly does little to fuel my photographic creativity. But then I was going to inspirationally turn it around and write about how if you really looked, you could find beauty anywhere. Take off the blinders, dig a little deeper, see things in a different light... peel the onion ...

So after much reflection, I've realized...

When it comes to photographic inspiration, this medium-sized Midwestern city STINKS!

Having no cool, urban architecture or bustling city streets to photograph (my passion, although you'd never know it) STINKS!

Having no city night lights to photograph STINKS!

Having a beautiful, 68 degree day in January and having nowhere to go except the local (dead) flower garden STINKS!!

(Oh, and happy new year by the way!) :-)

So now for your viewing pleasure, some wrinkled up old flowers about 4 months past their prime.

But first...not to be outdone by the wrinkly flowers, may I present...... some shriveled up berries. (Let's all try to contain ourselves).

I'm not sure why I'm even posting these pictures. At first I secretly kind of liked them, but after the love goggles came off, it turns out they're not really doing much for me after all.

Well, good thing I didn't go with my original 'beauty around me' theme. Perhaps beauty can't be found in a local flower garden in January.

Or maybe it can.

don't mind me...

2011-12-26T16:07:00.002-06:00

Just popping in to document a little conversation that occurred after gymnastics last week.

Me: Livia, who took Gianna's circle and elbowed her in the neck in gymnastics today?
TT: I don't know.
Me: You don't know? I think you did it.
TT: No I didn't.
Me: Yes, you did.
TT: No.
Me: Oh really? So who did?
TT: You.
Me: Me???
TT: Yes. You did. I saw you.

*sigh*

the thankful tree

2011-12-16T23:29:00.002-06:00

At last... our 2011 thankful tree is done! The five of us sat around the kitchen table last night and wrote on little cards all the things we were thankful for this year. We actually ran out of cards, we were grateful for so many things!

Some favorites from the evening:
Doron: "mom, my best friend" (that's me!)
Karli: "the best kids on the planet"
Collin: "an awesome God"
Drew: "our verses" (no the kids were not prompted, they're just good kids like that) :-)
Livia: "an alien with a hat on it"

See? Not prompted.

If my pictures are looking "off" lately, the color on my Mac is completely different than on my PC. The two monitors are sitting side by side on my desk, and I can't imagine what you all are seeing! On the Mac this photo is very dark and the table has brown tones, but on the PC it's really light, and the table has red tones. Frustration!

If you read my post yesterday about how I've been falling behind lately, that's the reason for this quick shot of the thankful tree. If you'd like to see our our 2010 tree, feel free to click on over. You can get a better idea of what it looks like, but with a different design. Have a wonderful weekend! :-)

the most important thing

2011-12-15T19:08:00.004-06:00

I've had a lot of failures recently.
Deciding to make a Christmas card using this collage with 81 pictures.
81 photos on a 5x7 card? Fail.

I decided to give myself a break this year and not send out cards.
But as the cards came rolling in...so did the guilt.
Now I’m having to address and send out photoless cards that I hate. Fail.

At first my disorganization was endearing.
Now it’s downright obnoxious.

I just started Christmas shopping for my kids yesterday.
I forgot to take Drew to his first day of basketball clinic.
I forgot a chiropractor appointment. Again.
I took Drew to a birthday party one week early.
I waited too long to order the super amazing fantabulous crystal ornaments from Pottery Barn, and now they’re sold out.
Failures #11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

Our Advent calendar got started on December 6th...

Our Elf on a Shelf has forgotten to fly on several occasions...

...and we still haven’t done our Thankful Tree. Fail.

But... I’m trying not to let my kids feel my stress.
I have great kids. I have easy kids. They disappear together for hours playing. Their laughter rings through our house.

I remember a saying I heard last year:
“Act as if what you do matters. It does.”

I try to do that with my kids. Speak to them kindly even when my brain is overloaded. Listen when they're telling me something when all I need is quiet.

Do I always succeed?
*snorts Diet Coke out nose*
Of course not. I have yucky mom moments like everyone else.
But I try hard not to.

My kids are happy.

My kids are healthy.

We’re trying to raise them to love and serve God.

And isn’t that the most important thing?

any given tuesday (part 2)

2011-12-11T14:40:00.001-06:00

Hi friends! Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I wanted to share a few more pictures I took of Livia last Tuesday. If you'd like to see part 1, click here. Thanks for looking! ♥

friday: i'm thinkin'...

2011-12-08T23:54:00.002-06:00

...that my little girl makes the holidays magical.

More thoughts here:

thursday: i'm thinkin'...

2011-12-07T23:16:00.000-06:00

I'm linking up with some of my favorite bloggers today for "i'm thinkin'..."

It's been going on all week, but because disorganization is my strong suit I'm finally joining in today.

Here's what I'm thinking.

I'm thinking that oldest brother better start locking the door to his room.

Go see what these other gals are thinkin'... :-)

Happy Thursday!

any given tuesday (part 1)

2011-12-07T08:32:00.004-06:00

10 on tuesday (err, thursday)

2011-12-01T21:05:00.005-06:00

I don't usually do a pictureless post, but I've had these TT tidbits roaming around in my draft section for probably a month now. I need to just post it and be on my way. If you don't know the force that is my 2 year old, these tidbits might not be particularly funny to you, but trust me, if you could only be a fly on the wall... Plus, I'm really writing them down for me. I know they'll make me laugh all over again one day. :-)

Random TT tidbits:

1. How can you tell if a toddler has older brothers?
~~Example A:~~ Only example needed:
When Esther (the green scallion) from Veggie Tales appears on the screen and your toddler cries out: "Yook ma! It's Princess No-Arms!"

(reeeeally don't think she came up with that on her own)

2. TT loves California rolls. Does your toddler eat sushi too?

3. I wasn't able to take Collin out for a little photo session for his 10th birthday. TT head-butted him minutes before his party and busted his lip open.

4. I was less mad when Livia hugged me tight around the neck and called me her "special heart friend." ♥

5. Livia tells me no less than 50 times a day (literally), "I like you mom." One day I got an added bonus: "Mom. You have a nice face."

6. Livia is also picking up nicely on "tween speak." Last week she says to me: "Do me a solid and give me a hug."
(Yeah, I don't get it either).

7. Things that make you go hmmmmm: When your toddler comes up to you with a big smile and says, "I did NOT throw an orange oval into the toilet, mom." (I never figured this one out, but since she was so forthcoming I can be sure an orange oval was indeed thrown into the toilet).

8. A couple days ago, Livia couldn't get one of her games to work on my iPad. I hear "Come ON you lousy fang!!" Further evidence of older brothers.

9. Favorite TT comment of the week:
TT: "Mom. I like it here."
Me: "Where?"
TT: "In this house."

{melt}

10. Have you seen that holiday lego commecial? You know, total Hallmark moment. Children playing together, parents beaming in the background, little sister walks in and sweetly embraces a lego.... As I was getting a little misty-eyed, TT says with disgust, "Dude. You just kissed a lego."

And so it goes in the Bonnie household.

Happy Thursday! :-)

thankful for...

2011-11-23T16:44:00.004-06:00

...all of the above, and so much more. ♥

I used a free template found here, and took the high resolution version to a local print shop to have it made for our family as a Thanksgiving gift. It prints as a 12x12 image and I thought it was a fun look back at our year. I planned to take a picture of the finished product to show you, but I chickened out and I'm scared to take it out of the plastic! :-)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, friends! XOXO

'mac'ro monday

2011-11-20T21:00:00.002-06:00

Alrighty friends! The days of my computer locking up with every click of the mouse are (hopefully) finally over! My husband brought home a new friend this weekend (an iMac) and I'm almost in love! Almost...because it isn't totally up and running yet. We need some basic programs and we have to upgrade CS4 to CS5. (I didn't want to; you have to). Thank goodness Lightroom will transfer nicely with no upgrade/crossover issues.

Here are a couple quick shots of my new toy. :-)

I just realized I only took shots of the keyboard - duh! Well, we had a wild and crazy weekend...and putting up all four Christmas trees was just one of the many things on our list. :-) We totally re-did our family Christmas tree (if you remember last year, I said I had one year to change it from Hallmark to Pottery Barn), and each of the kids have their own trees for their rooms. One is cute and sparkly, one is stylish and cool, and one is gaudy and tack-tastic! My kids read my blog, so I will not clarify further. *wink*

Happy Monday all! :-)

more from the old market

2011-11-17T08:34:00.002-06:00

party of three: 46/52 (the vision/the reality)

2011-11-15T19:05:00.010-06:00

For this edition of party of three, I thought it would be fun to play a little game called The Vision/The Reality so you could witness a little behind-the-scenes action during a typical Bonnie 5 photo shoot. Fun, right? :-)

First up, the vision:

The reality.

The vision:

The reality. (distraction by squirrel)

The vision:

The reality:

The vision:

The reality:

The vision:

The reality: (brothers are yummy)

Is it just me, or is the reality more interesting than the vision? ;-) A few more pictures from our evening, in no particular order:

Yes, you've already seen this one. I love it that much.

I had so many more pictures to share, but the fact is I've got a ton going on this week and my computer is crashing. Like really crashing. My screen has gone completely black several times today. (eek)

Also, can I just tell you...the comments you guys left yesterday on my inspire me post truly warmed my heart! Thank you to every single person that took the time to encourage me, and I will be around soon to visit you too! ♥ I'm a little slow because of my computer that doesn't want to cooperate and keeps locking up, but thank you so VERY much! If you haven't had a chance to read yesterday's post, be sure to click over because in it I shared the style of photography that truly inspires me (and it might not be what you think!) Thanks for looking! :-)

inspire me

2011-11-14T12:39:00.002-06:00

If you've followed my blog for awhile, you might remember me saying the style of photography I do is not the style I love. I feel like my last few posts have been mediocre snapshots of my kids, and I've felt the creativity draining from my body.

The photos in this post inspire me. It's a bit of a departure from my regular clean, clear style... so if you don't like them, please don't tell me as I am extremely sensitive and will turn into a pile of sniffling goo.

These shots speak to me. They inspire me. The make me want to get out there and take a million more.

They have a feel, a mood, a quality that reminds me of why I fell in love with photography in the first place.

When I take shots of my kids, it feels like something I have to mentally prepare for. And I'm so afraid the session will be a failure.
These shots are effortless. They come naturally.

Just the world as I see it; me alone with my camera. It's pure enjoyment.
Not trying to make anyone smile or laugh or look natural.

While looking through these pictures, I realized I don't give myself enough time to go out and shoot just for me. From an hour in the Old Market, I have 256 pictures that are keepers. Most of the shots turned out exactly the way I envisioned them in my head. That's because I was doing what I love.

Not to worry friends (and mom), I'm not abandoning my clean style. :-) I'm not giving up trying to get better shots of my kids. This is something I need to do every once in awhile to keep the creative juices flowing. Photos just for me.

I couldn't decide on a realistic number of shots to share - LOL! and I didn't want to overwhelm you. More to come this week. Happy Monday! ♥

tt and the trike

2011-11-07T13:08:00.002-06:00

party of three: 44/52

2011-11-05T15:28:00.010-05:00

I'm not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to take Collin, Drew and Motion Blur out to the backyard just minutes before going trick-or-treating last week. But that's how we roll (says my 10 year old)...so here are a few quick snapshots before the evening festivities.

I can't comment on the fact that Drew's head thing is inside out. My only responsibility was to dress the ladybug.

Three kids in the same shot? Shocking.

Are you ready for a blurry blooper? I certainly didn't get many shots of all three kids together due to machete swiping and bullying.

Oh wait! Before you go, here's a story that (if you know me) won't come as much of a surprise. On Monday the 24th Doron came home from work early, we got the kids all dressed up and headed to the annual Boo at the Zoo. We were amazed that on our way to the zoo, traffic was rather decent.

We were also amazed to find an empty parking lot. {gulp}

Gotta love my kids. Not one of them was phased in the least. In fact, the boys just laughed. :-) (Have they come to expect this behavior from me?) So we promised to take them to the actual opening night of Boo at the Zoo (Wednesday), and took them to the park on our way home.

Everytime I see this picture, I think "Shiiiing!"

We did a Boo at the Zoo re-do a couple nights later and the kids had a blast!

Happy Halloween! ♥ Hope you had a great one!

glimpses of october

2011-11-01T12:57:00.002-05:00

Well, it's that time again! Here's a little peek at our month of October. I'm a little short on words today; we just got back from a 3-day getaway in KC and I have 134 emails patiently waiting in my inbox. ♥

And last night, Photoshop crashed on my computer and I lost everything. Everything. I had all my actions backed up except for one set, but it's just months of organizing and personalizing Photoshop the way I like it. Actions organized in certain 'favorite' folders (gone)...all my saved shortcuts (also gone), all my original actions that I worked so hard to create (gone - I never even thought to back those up).

I realized I don't even know how to flatten an image - LOL! Two years ago, I made flattening an image F4, and now all this time later, I only know it as F4! All those shortcuts were deleted, so I have to figure out everything again. Fun stuff!

Welp, onward and upward, right? :-) Here's a look at October.

Oh! Did you see the pictures of my sweet TT at the library last week? If you haven't visited my Instagrid in awhile, feel free to check it out. Be sure to click on the 1st picture in the 3rd row; Livia in a shopping cart looking up at Collin. {melt!!}

Hope your week is off to a great start!

sniffles and hats

2011-10-25T19:44:00.002-05:00

TT was a little under the weather today, so we were goofing around in her room this morning trying on hats. She agreed to model one for you.

That's all I got! Happy Tuesday! :-)

outtakes from the lake

2011-10-24T20:41:00.002-05:00

Wow, you guys! Thank you so much for your wonderful comments on my picture of Livia with the balloons! :-) You know, it's funny...that little photo session turned out SO the opposite of what I was going for, that initially I thought it was a major fail. I wanted to take the 3 kids out for some silhouette shots with Livia holding a bunch of balloons. The sun was going down, so I imagined it would provide beautiful backlight for the balloons, and the kids would be silhouettes. Wrong. The sun was too low, so instead of the balloons glowing vibrantly, they were blah. And even though we were high on a hill, there were some trees in the distance that made everyone's legs look cut off in the silhouettes. I didn't think I had one keeper from the entire evening.

As I looked through the pictures more and more later than night, I began to fall in love with the shot I shared with you on Saturday. It might even be one of my all-time favorites of Livia. :-)

Here are a few more outtakes from that evening.

I love how it looks like she's trying to get a grasp on the balloons - LOL! :-) (The taming of the Tornado?)

I don't know what it is...I'm always a big fan of deep blue skies with swirly clouds, but for some reason the black and white conversion is more magical to me.

OK, this is certainly an outtake in every sense of the word, but to me it is imperfectly perfect! Actually I didn't even realize I had captured this moment until we got home. I can almost see the dust being kicked up from the gravel as Livia threw herself into daddy's arms. ♥♥ (Her skinny little legs just melt my heart!) :-) This shot on a giant canvas would make me happy.

And finally, here's a shot that was somewhat my goal of the evening. A silhouette! Not the picture of my 3 kids with the balloons as I'd planned, but still a sweet reminder of the evening.

I definitely think the balloon/silhouette idea deserves a re-do, so we'll see. :-) Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

black and white saturday

2011-10-22T09:32:00.002-05:00

here i am

2011-10-15T20:48:00.007-05:00

God has shown up big around here lately; proving His faithfulness and reminding me of His power. My oldest son accepted Jesus as his Savior a few months ago, a dear friend's husband also became saved, and a soldier fighting overseas was just reuinted with his family last week. I had been on my knees for these families, and God showed up in a big way.

A friend reminded me of this song recently...

Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes, let me see

Beauty that made this heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You

Here I am to worship,
Here I am to bow down,
Here I am to say that You're my God

You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy,
Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days
oh, so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above

Humbly You came
To the earth You created
All for love's sake became poor

Here I am to worship,
Here I am to bow down,
Here I am to say that You're my God

You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy,
Altogether wonderful to me

written by Tim Hughes

Happy Son-day friends! ♥♥

what's up?

2011-10-11T10:30:00.002-05:00

why i'm always tired...

2011-10-05T20:25:00.004-05:00

Are you ready for this?

Yeah, she can seriously punt a football.

And you know she just turned 2 and a half last week, right? ;-)

Hope my tiny tornado made you smile. ♥

glimpses of september

2011-09-29T12:56:00.003-05:00

Well, I've kept my promise of not continuing to post oodles of iPhone pictures on my blog, haven't I? ;-) (Remember how I mentioned there was some heckling from certain family members)? I'm keeping it all within Instagram and I have to say...I'm having a blast! The inspiration is out of this world, it's soooo much easier for me to keep up on than blog visiting, and I've met some new friends who I admire so much!

Yes, I still love your blogs! ♥ Yes, I'm still going to keep mine going! ♥ It's just that you guys know how behind I get on blog reading, and Instagram can go anywhere with me. I love not being parked in front of my computer!

And for those of you that have left comments telling me you enjoy my iPhone pics, well e-hugs for you, because that makes my day! :-)

Remember, if you don't have an iPhone, you're welcome to click on Instagram in my menu bar to view the pictures I've been sharing with my Instagram pals. (It's a different look and feel than the pics below).

And now to the point. I've amazingly kept my Glimpses project going, so here is a look at September.
C'mon, tell me how proud you are of me.

I started this collage idea in July, and last night my husband and I were taking a look back at the 90 pictures I've taken so far. It was so cool because I could tell the story behind each little snapshot. Fingers crossed that I can keep this up for a year.

OK, that's all from here! Have a wonderful rest of the week! ♥

5 on friday (eyes and ears and mouth and nose style)

2011-09-22T13:40:00.002-05:00

(Yes, I'm a day early. Crazy weekend ahead).

It's a well known fact that I've perfected the walking away shot, especially when it comes to photographing the Tiny Tornado. I mean, my 4th grader could take most of the pictures I post on my blog. So... as a personal challenge I wanted to snap at least 5 pics of TT this week, face included.

1. Now let me just say, I thought Livia's fishy face below was totally cute, so I sought out my 9-year-old for some positive reinforcement.

Collin's reponse to the fishy face: "Hmmmmmm......... {VERY long pause}........ Well, it's medium, heading toward good. I think the problem is the lighting. You see how her white shirt is too bright? Yeah, it's the lighting."

(Blown out white shirt? OK, I'll give him that).

And he also didn't like the fact that one side of her face was lighter than the other. I tried to convince him that was because she was sitting next to a window, and that was called side-lighting. He was not convinced. Nor impressed.

2. Next. Here's sis being herself.

The feedback: "Well. It's better. Now see?... you still have that same problem with the shirt, but it's better. Actually now that I look at it, her hair looks kind of bad. You just need to fix the ponytails."

Note to self: From now on, only ask husband for feedback. He lies.

Some outtakes:

3. OK. This shot is a total gimme. Toddler restrained in car seat.....Veggie Tales DVD playing.....
Hey, it includes eyes, ears, mouth and nose so I'm counting it.

4. Moving right along. Here's a shot of TT playing with her Polly Pocket doll.

The look I got when I asked her to 'play in better light.'

The look I got when I asked her to smile.

5. And last but not least...... and I'll translate...... "you better pack up your fancy pants camera, cuz this is your LAST shot."

I totally overexposed that last shot in camera, but how could I not include it?? ;-) I wish you guys could know the force that is the Tiny Tornado. This child keeps me on my toes 24/7 and she's not even 2 1/2! Love her so much! ♥♥

I'm a day early, but everyone have a great weekend! XO

glad to see your back!

2011-09-19T22:07:00.002-05:00

C'mon now folks. You didn't think I'd make the age old you're/your grammatical faux pas now did you?

No, literally. Glad to see your back. Like Livia's back.

Because that's all I got to see during our race through the forest.

And instead of showing you 9 zillion pictures of her running away from me, I will share just one (even though we had lost her cute little ladybug antennae by this point).

Presenting... our little ladybug! ♥♥

Have a great week everyone!

out of hiding

2011-09-16T10:01:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday folks! :-) Some of you know that so far I've been a big, fat hider on Instagram. I kept my account private and had no followers. It didn't fit in with the effort to simplify my life. I was just doing it for me; not as a social media type thing. But last night I had a change of heart, so if you'd like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me under "karlibonnie." I'm still going to keep my account private, and just share pictues with my mom-blogger friends. So Sarah, Stacey, Ashley and Courtney...you can find me now - LOL! ;-) If you'd like to follow me on Instagram and I don't click on you to approve, it's because I don't recognize your Instagram name. Just drop me an email and say "hey! It's me!" :-)

If you don't have Instagram and would like to see what I've been up to, here's the link to my Instagrid. You can click on each picture to enlarge. (Edit: It looks like the "More" button at the bottom of the Instagrid is not working today; it's probably just a temporary glitch. I have 72 pictures, but right now it will only let you see 20).

AND... in light of the recent egg-throwing, heckling, wedgies and atomic wedgies (where the elastic band of your underwear actually goes over your head) from members of my extended family that are not hip to my iPhone pictures, this post should come as good news to you. I will be sharing FEWER iPhone pics on my blog, and we will resume next week with our regularly scheduled clean, clear, non-iPhone photos. ♥

HOWEVER... don't think you'll get off that easily. Here are a few of my recent iPhone shots.
Just think of it as a last hurrah. ;-)

And of course a collage...

There! It's out of my system! :-) From now on, if you'd like to see my iPhone shots, just click here. I also added the link to my menu bar so you can find it easily. Hope everyone has a great weekend! ♥♥

the blue angels

2011-09-11T21:22:00.001-05:00

On Saturday we took the kids to the Guardians of Freedom airshow to see the Blue Angels. Drew totally whimped out on us and we ended up leaving early, two hours before they performed. It was "too hot," (83 degrees) and we didn't bring cash for food (a lesson learned). My parents were also at the show, and thank goodness grandpa swooped in to buy us some overpriced food and drinks or I think we all would have wilted.

I was hoping to get some cool shots of the Blue Angels (I keep typing Blue Angles - LOL!)...but it was not to be. I'm not sure airplanes are the most interesting genre for us gal pal bloggers, but it's all I have for today.

Edit: I didn't realize the Blue Angels were performing again on Sunday afternoon! So with Drew's permission I skipped his soccer game and went for round two. It was just me & TT, and we had a blast!

Before the show started...

And they're off!

Have a great week! ♥

5 on friday (kc style)

2011-09-08T18:27:00.001-05:00

I was so much more excited about my iPhone shots than the ones that I took with my Rebel last weekend. The 5D was not invited on our Kansas City getaway. He had to stay home where he was safe from grimy amusement park hands and soda spills. My new G12 wasn't invited either because.....{gulp}....I think I don't love it as much as I thought. (a story for another day)

I don't know what it is that's so appealing to me about the iPhone lately. Maybe it's the fact that you are so limited in terms of camera settings that you have to rely on creative composition and lighting to make your shot interesting. And you know I love a challenge! :-)

1. A few random roller coaster rides at Worlds of Fun...

2. The final shot I took as we were leaving Planet Snoopy.

3. One of my favorites from the next morning shopping with the family.

4. This silhouette makes me feel quiet and calm. And you know how quiet and calm is a hot commodity around the Bonnie household.

5. I took this shot as we were leaving our favorite arcade. With all the lights and sounds, Dave and Buster's feels like a G-rated Vegas and the kids love it!

And for those of you that are bummed because you stopped by and don't like iPhone shots, how about a before & after to tickle your fancy.

(Did I seriously just say tickle your fancy?)

Here's my before shot, taken with the Rebel.

And here's the edited version, processed with Nelly Nero's Autumn Vintage. I wanted to mention it because it's a great action for carnival/fair shots...and it's that time of year!

OK! I'm really feeling this 5 on Friday thing. My posts have been too looooong lately. Goodbye 10 on Tuesday...hello 5 on Friday!

Have a great weekend! :-)

more from the fair

2011-09-06T21:09:00.002-05:00

Sorry folks. After a long weekend in Kansas City with the husband and kidlets, my brain cells have been compromised and I seriously can't form a sentence. Well not a coherent one anyway. I just wanted to share a few more shots of my trip to the state fair. ;-)

glimpses of august

2011-09-06T09:32:00.002-05:00

I wasn't sure whether I'd be up for another month of pictures, but this is just way too easy! Thank you iPhone! *smooooooch!*

Here is a little peek of our August.

I'm still telling myself that this isn't a project. If I do it... great, and if not... super. I'll do it until it's not fun anymore, but for now it amuses me. ;-) Oh, and you might notice a few duplicates from my Instagram collage. The Instagram collage was just me playing around with some different editing. This collage is a look at our August as it happened day by day.

Happy Tuesday! ♥

5 (state fair grievances) on friday

2011-09-02T08:47:00.002-05:00

First off, a BIG thank you to everyone who left a comment on my smoke pictures! ♥♥ That's something I had been wanting to try forever, and your comments just made me feel great! :-) I'm so sorry that I won't be able to do any blog visiting until next week. We're leaving this afternoon for a long weekend in Kansas City, and I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I haven't even started packing. Really friends, thank you so much for your encouragement!

Now on to the grievances at hand. On Wednesday, I dropped the kids off at Doron's office as he was getting off work, and took a little road trip (by myself) to our state fair. Before I delve into how things started to go array, first a quick iPhone snap.

No clue why that looks purple. Anyway, on to the 5 reasons why I'm a bit miffed with the state fair.

I....

1. wasn't there 5 minutes before I stepped smack in the middle of a horse patty.

2. didn't realize it was going to be nine bazillion degrees at the fair, and actually sweated a little bit. There was moisture, (visible MOISTURE, people!!) on my shirt.

3. bought a microscopic Diet Coke for three dollars that tasted like some kind of cleaner.

4. took 2 tiny sips of the drink before chucking it into the trash. OK, FINE...10 tiny sips. You and I both know I'm too cheap to throw a drink away that easliy.

5. got HECKLED while taking pictures. OK, so I was only heckled by the dunking tank guy, and the age guesser guy...but STILL.

6. just realized there are a lot more than five reasons, so let's keep moving along.

7. almost sat in an unidentified body fluid on a metal bench.

8. didn't use the restroom for seven hours.

9. didn't eat for seven hours after seeing a sign for "beef sundaes."

10. probably looked like a complete moron chasing after the shuttle that was supposed to return me safely to my parking lot. It kept making all these little stops ahead of me, but the horse-patty-dodging slowed me down.

11. realized that I am not smart enough to follow directions backwards. (ie: Map Questing the directions to the state fair, but not being able to find my way home).

And now, just a few shots of my favorite attraction! :-)

(processed with Florabella's Gypsy action)

(processed with Florabella's Hibiscus action and Vintage Film by Fallout 75)

(processed with Florabella's Vintage Spring action, one of my orginal actions called Karli's Vintage (such a creative name, I know), a warming filter, another of my orginal actions called Warm Me Up, a navy blue fill layer with the exclusion blending mode, and a couple other small tweaks)

OK, I really need to start packing so I'll share more state fair photos next week. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and I'll catch up with you when we get back! :-)

s-mokin'!!!

2011-08-31T12:03:00.004-05:00

Capturing a smoke photograph has been on my photography to-do list for probably over a year. Better late than never! :-) It would have been a lot easier if I had the foresight to charge my flash. Out of every 4 photos I took, 3 were completely dark - beyond frustrating!

If you Google it, there are a zillion sites to show you how to capture this type of shot, so in the interest of time I won't re-invent the wheel. And since Livia is being left to her own devices this morning, I'm going to share my photos and be on my way! Hope everyone is having a great week! ♥♥

Thanks for looking! :-)

something a little different

2011-08-24T17:30:00.006-05:00

Collin (is the only one of my kids that) LOVES to read my blog, so I often ask his opinion on my pictures. Before posting this, I asked him what he thought of my iphone shots. He said "WOW! That doesn't even look like your photography!" I was like "oh geez! Thank you! That's so sweet!"

And then after a pause... I said "wait, is that a good thing?"

And Collin says "oh yeah, it looks like you've really improved!!" LOL! :-)

Happy Wednesday! ♥

date stamped

2011-08-22T20:06:00.002-05:00

Alrighty friends, so I thought I had a moment of genius: to document my week in pictures and put a cool (yet functional) date stamp on each photo. I liked it for the first few pictures, but after awhile I think it became distracting. With both a watermark and a date stamp on each photo, I think it's a little much. And...since I'm blogging less these days, this is a week's worth of photos which might be a bit of an overload. Maybe grab a snack before you dive in? ;-)

I've continued to be a little frustrated with my style of photography lately. My pictures always look simple, clean and clear, but there's a style that has been inspiring me even more these days. I've been reading Molly Flanagan's blog the past couple months (another recommendation from Ashley), and I love love love her style! Pop over to Molly's blog and you'll see what I mean, and how her photos look different from mine. They're so real life...messy backgrounds (which I love), super wide apertures (when I do that, it looks like I messed up)...I don't know. They have a really cool quality that I haven't been able to achieve.

Even though I didn't get the look I was going for, I still like these pictures, and it IS what we actually did during the past week, so here we go.

A morning with my sweet girl at the park.

A hug for biggest brother.

A little walk through the woods.

The picture below is one of my new favorites. ;-)

Running errands after school...

I'm including a shot of the kids' back-to-school shoes so I can share a little TT tale. It was threatening to rain, so I lined up these shoes on our deck to snap a quick picture. I thought TT was following me outside, but instead I turn around to find her sweetly waving goodbye, a HUGE smile on her face, closing the sliding glass door and locking me out of the house. We have 2 decks off of our kitchen: one with stairs leading down to our yard, and one totally enclosed, a good 8 feet above the ground. (Guess which deck I was trapped on?)

After being trapped outside on the deck for quite some time, (quietly pounding on the sliding glass door to get my boys' attention above the roar of the Wii, but so as not to attract attention from my neighbors - embarassing!) with dinner rolls burning in the oven, and TT coming back to check on me and wave every so often...I headed off to the flower garden to pray for my sanity to return.

Seriously went back to the same telephone wires to re-do my bird shot. :-)
(5 1/2 hours apart, and they look kind of the same).

Go Avalanche! Drew's first game of the season and they won!

No one scored while Drew was goalie. ;-)

Fast forward to this morning. Much of our Monday involved me comforting TT who was missing her brothers. She kept crying "I need my bubbies! Bubbies??? Come back!" Then she proceeded to inform me that she needed to go to school too because she is seven. ;-)

Guess who just moved out of her crib and into a big girl bed!

OK, wait! Now here's more of the look I was going for. Kind of hazy, messy...pretty much the opposite of my regular style. :-) What do you think?

Did anyone make it to the end?? - WHEW! I actually started these pictures last Wednesday, but I think I'm going to stop here on Monday. Too many! If you made it all the way through - yay! And thanks for looking! :-)

10 on tuesday

2011-08-16T10:00:00.004-05:00

1. This morning when I checked my iphone, it offered this warm greeting: "Welcome back, Collin Rulz!" {grrr}

2. I'm officially an uncool mom because I have no idea how to change it back.

3. It's hard to keep a straight face when your 2 year old gets all dressed up and proudly proclaims "Yook! I'm a booty queen!"

4. I love when people say: "My 2 year old never cooperates for pictures! Looks like Livia is always up for getting her picture taken." {chuckle chuckle}

Evidence to the contrary:

5. But my favorite photo sessions are the ones where she refuses to turn around.

6. Our 2011 baseball season is done! I had all these great ideas for capturing the little details, but in the 100+ degree heat, my energy and creativity seemed to wither. Snapshots to follow...

7. And now for Drew's team...

8. Just a few more...

9. Time for a coupon update! I purchased the products below from Walgreens, CVS and Super Target. Guess how much they cost me out of pocket??

Less than TEN DOLLARS! I was going to tell you the exact retail price of the products, but I can't hang on to a receipt to save my life. Do receipts have a way of escaping you too? I'm guessing the items would have cost around $65-$70.

10. Alrighty friends...that's #10 and I'm off for a pedicure!

Oh wait...before you go, just a couple more from a few minutes ago. (I had this post done yesterday, so the pictures below are in real time).

Waaaahhhhh! My boys started school this morning! :-(

We miss you already bubbies!!! ♥♥♥

one day...

2011-08-05T22:34:00.002-05:00

One day I'll capture a rainbow with my real camera.

Not today...but one day. ;-)

Have a wonderful weekend!

project 365: finito!!

2011-08-03T19:38:00.004-05:00

Alrighty folks! I'm done! If you read my last Project 365 post, I needed to complete days 181-192. (I started in July, 2010). I was hoping to come up with some really great shots to finish out this project. But because of our crazy summer schedules and this insane heat...it just didn't happen.

I only took six pictures during days 181-192, and three you've already seen. I did a total of 154 photos, which was more than 1 every 3 days. Pretty good for this commitment-phobe, huh? OK, let's end this!!! ;-)

day 184: on the lake

day 185: Silver Dollar City

day 189: boys with toys

day 190: what a poser

day 191: high key stairs

day 192: the end!

And you know I have to end with a collage...

Voila! And the project is complete! Thanks for looking! :-)

glimpses of july

2011-08-01T14:56:00.006-05:00

Remember how I said I wasn't going to commit to any more projects...Project 365, Party of 3, etc.? Well somehow last month I ended up taking nearly a picture a day with my iphone. (I'm as shocked as you are). ;-)

Awhile back, Ashley sent me a link to Christine Pobke, a wedding photographer in Australia. She did a 365 collage with the same setup I'm using here. I emailed her asking if she would mind me copying her layout and she said to go right ahead! :-) What a sweet gal!

So, without further adieu...I present "Glimpses of July."

Every one of these pictures has meaning to me: somewhere we went, something we did, just little glimpses of our everyday life. (And no, that little brown house in the center is not mine; if you're curious about things like that). ;-)

I don't know if you'll see Glimpses of August... I know better than to even speak the words out loud. I hear it's supposed to be 114 degrees here today, and the heat is sapping my ability to form words. So...that's all for Monday. Have a great one! ♥

10 on tuesday (and a mom sighting)

2011-07-25T22:53:00.002-05:00

1. Favorite shot of the week:

2. I considered showing you my SOOC, but who doesn't love a little element of mystery, right? ;-)

3. You might be surprised to learn that (given her wild nature) TT doesn't try to climb out of her crib. We recently discovered that Drew is somehow able to drag her up and over the side of the crib. The first time he walked into the room declaring "we have a visitor!!" (read: Livia) my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

This has happened on several occasions, but I have not witnessed it with my own eyes. Livia is 30 pounds and Drew is 50. I can't imagine pulling something more than half my body weight up and over the side of a crib.

4. Goal of the week: to capture a picture of this feat of super-human strength (see #3) on the sly.

5. Worst idea of the week: cracking open a sunflower seed and giving TT the little morsel inside. I have now become a one-woman sunflower seed cracking machine. A little mom-sweatshop, if you will. My hours are from 9:00am to 9:00pm on demand, I don't get any breaks, and I can't eat any seeds myself. :-(
(Yes, I tried buying the already cracked open sunflower seeds. Those were immediately met with a frown and a wave of dismissal).

6. Remember how we've discussed that I don't have a creative bone in my body? And how I have such admiration for people that do? Enter: The Tiny Tornado. Recently she's begun naming her artwork. Some recent masterpieces include "Fox in the Grass," "Motorcycle and Fireworks," and "Two Guys Playing in the Garden and Trees." Is she the coolest???! (If you mix up all her artwork, she can even tell you which title goes with each picture!)

7. Some examples of her earlier work:

I totally see the leaf and the glasses, don't you? And the airplane........genius! :-)

8. Sweetest thing I heard all week:
TT: "Mama! I wanna hug you for a little minute."

9. Have I shocked you into unconsciousness with this rare appearance on my blog?

10. These pictures make me SMILE! And...... {drum roll please} another rare sighting by yours truly. Doron took these shots of us at Silver Dollar City last month with my new G12. I will now pause for you to congratulate me for stuffing my 5' 9 1/2" body into that tiny little caterpillar ride. The boys are usually more than happy to ride with Livia, but in this case they were off seeking out the biggest rides in the park with their cousins.

Well, that pretty much sums up our week! What have you all been up to?

Have a great one! ♥

please grab my new button!

2011-07-24T23:23:00.002-05:00

If you have my button on your blog, would you please for my sanity take off my apple button and replace it with this one? I took the apple picture last year, right as I was getting into photography...and the apples must go! Scary!

Be sure to stop back tomorrow for a 10 on Tuesday (and for all those of you who think I don't show my face enough on my blog)... a rare sighting by yours truly. *wink*

Thanks so much (seriously, please take off my old button and let's promise to never speak of it again!) and have a wonderful Monday! :-)

tt at the park

2011-07-22T19:18:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share a few pictures with you. The boys were at Camp Sonshine all week, so this morning Livia and I took a trip to the park.

Let's get the slightly out of focus (but totally TT) shot out of the way).

So stinkin' cute I can't even stand it!! ♥♥

OK, somebody stop me.

This is one of my favorites of the morning.

There ya go! Just a little glimpse of our morning. Have a wonderful weekend! XO

hope these make you smile!

2011-07-19T14:32:00.002-05:00

project 365: catching up

2011-07-10T16:38:00.004-05:00

Ugh, you guys! I'm so happy I'm almost done with my Project 365! I mentioned in my last 365 post that lots of my current pictures are either repeats or snoozers.

Alright...scroll fast! You've already seen most of these. Zzzzzzzzzz. I still have to post pics from days 180-192 and then I'm done. DONE! No more Project Anythings for me! :-)

day 116: colored popcorn

day 117: flowers 'n blue sky

day 121: bowtie pasta

day 124: it's a jungle out there

day 127: dandelion

day 128: tall

day 129: kerplunk

day 141: blowing dandelions

day 164: out of focus

day 172: every night before bed

day 173: happy new phone day to me!

day 174: breakfast

day 175: run!

day 176: bubble bokeh

day 177: just for her

day 178: lightning strike

day 179: coneflowers

day 180: water fun!

Anyone still looking? ;-)

It feels GREAT to finally get these pictures posted and move on! :-)
Hope you're having a great weekend! ♥

party of three: 26/52

2011-06-30T23:09:00.003-05:00

I'll bet you thought I forgot all about my weekly Party of Three shots, right? I remember saying that when summer came, it would be much easier to get shots of my kids together. Um, WRONG. When your kids play every sport known to mankind, the practice and game schedules can get a little hectic. Lately we've had baseball games last until 10:00pm.

We're leaving for vacation (and I'm supposed to be packing), so I'm going to make this a quick one. I feel like these photos are a step back from where I'm trying to go with my photography, but I came ready with an excuse: From the very first shot I noticed my camera battery was dying, so I didn't get a chance to snap all the "little details" like I'd planned. Some of these shots are a little snapshot-y, and I would have liked to put more thought into it. My run baby, run post is more the style of photography I'd like to work on.

But anyway, here we go! Here's my picture for week 26.

TT started out slow on the small water slide.

The big slide looked a little daunting, even for a tiny tornado.

But there's always a brother to help.

This isn't really the face I was going for here...and you would have DIED if you saw her face at the end of her first trip down the slide - tee hee! But I had to keep running into the house to charge my battery for a few minutes at a time. Stay tuned for more water slide shots this summer. TT is a PRO now! :-)

I love the relationship between these two. They always build each other up...never put each other down.

But let's be real. This isn't quilting club. They are brothers after all.

My sweet boy turned 7 today. Happy Birthday Drew! ♥

Here's Collin at 9 1/2. I guess I'm documenting their ages today because who knows when I'll get to another Party of Three post. :-)

OK, so there you have it...my kids at week 26. Thanks to everyone who left such sweet comments on my pictures this week. I'll be away from the computer for a while, so I'll catch up with you all when we get back. Off to the cabin!

run baby, run

2011-06-29T09:21:00.002-05:00

10 on tuesday

2011-06-28T09:12:00.002-05:00

1. If you were wondering why I recently took pictures of my 2-year old in a bucket...well I'm glad you asked. That wasn't my creative genius hard at work. {cough} The intention was to show off a super cute shirt that my friend made for TT. What you didn't see was the hour and a half prior to the bucket pictures: TT running though the park like a maniac calling out "Yook Mommy Daddy! Another paff!" (path)

At age 36 I no longer travel at the speed of light, so we pulled out the bucket for containment purposes. If you missed it, Livia was in the bucket for less than two minutes and I got these questionable shots.

Check this out. A "tiny tee" for my Tiny T. (get it?)

My sweet real-life friend has an Etsy shop called Twinspirations. I will do my best to get better pictures of TT wearing her other new shirt with an appliqued peace sign. So cute! ♥

2. Would you believe it if I told you I got a new camera this week?

3. That's right! The Canon G12 baby!!! I'm seriously as excited about this camera as I was when I got my big girl camera. Eeeeeek! This will be for vacations, amusement/water parks, etc. You can even purchase a housing for the G12 so you can take it underwater.

4. Most embarassing moment of the week: Livia yelling "Mommy's naked!!!" in the aisles of Super Target. Yes, that is aisles, plural.

5. Livia is quick to point out well-behaved children in the grocery store. We have this conversation daily as I keep stuffing her back in the seat of the shopping cart:
TT: "Yook mama! Baby boy seeting nice!"
Me: "That's right. And are YOU sitting nice?"
TT: "No." (insert mischevious, but extremely cute smile) "I stand UP."

6. I caught my reflection in the mirror of the merry-go-round at the mall this afternoon. One word to describe the way I look today? Haggard.

7. I feel I'm overwhelming you with my 10 on Tuesday posts. Perhaps a 5 on Friday?

8. From time to time I sense there is a bit of confusion over my name. You guys know my first name is Karli, right? Bonnie is our last name (not my middle name). No parent in their right mind would name someone Karli Bonnie Such-and-So. My middle name is Allison. :-)

9. Go Ritche Bros.!!

As of last week, Collin had the highest RBI's on his team. YAY! I took these photos with my 70-200mm f/2.8 IS L. It's a bit hard to shoot through the fence when your lens is the size of the Hubble telescope. (The G12 will be joining me at the next game).

10. When the kids are away...

...mom will

Happy Tuesday! ♥

protection

2011-06-27T16:37:00.005-05:00

Last night a storm blew through our area. The boys and I were out playing ball on the driveway watching it blow in. Less than 5 minutes after we went inside, lightning struck the tree right by our driveway, not even 10 feet from where we were playing. The sound shook our entire house.

The lightning travelled down the tree, blew a hole in the ground and threw dirt from our lawn into the street. It cracked our curb and caused part of the street to sink in.

The lightning caused an underground gas line to rupture, and the smell outside was almost unbearable. We had men walking through out house at midnight taking readings to make sure the gas levels weren't dangerous.

This verse came to mind:

Psalm 121:5-8
The Lord watches over you; the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm; He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

I understand that doesn't mean we will never get sick, injured or harmed. That's the reality of the world we live in. But today I'm just thankful for God's hand of protection on my family. ♥ Have a blessed Monday!

outtakes from a humbling photo shoot

2011-06-24T23:38:00.002-05:00

Did you ever have a photo shoot not go as planned?

Did you ever have a subject that was less than cooperative?

Was the lack of cooperation nearly palpable?

Were the non verbal cues hard to miss?

Welcome to my evening.

yellow & blue

2011-06-15T23:35:00.002-05:00

a few things...and an SOOC

2011-06-15T14:32:00.001-05:00

Edit: If you're not interested in couponing, this post will be boooor-ing! In that case, please read #1 below (Blogger commenting issues), then scroll down to the bottom to see a picture of TT. Please read below the picture too...also about commenting. Feel free to skip the rest! :-)

Happy Wednesday! Thank you so much for your wonderful comments yesterday! There seems to be a lot of interest in couponing...and I'm happy to share. :-)

A couple things...

1. I wanted to let you know I'm still having trouble commenting on some of your blogs. It makes me sign in over and over, and I'm unable to leave a comment. I had the same problem on my blog a couple weeks ago, and found a solution here. It totally fixed the problem. Please check out the link if you are still having commenting issues through Blogger. It's such an easy fix! (Blogger is working on fixing this glitch, so this is a work-around for now. It affects people using Internet Explorer as their browser).

2. Also, here are a few of the couponing blogs I read:

The Krazy Coupon Lady
Common Sense with Money
Totally Target

I'm not going to lie...it takes a lot of time and effort as you're trying to make sense of all the information. But it's totally worth it! I saved probably $300.00 in the past 4 weeks alone. I'm literally walking out of stores with free items: band-aids, razors, Motrin, rolls and rolls of Scotch tape, toothbrushes, mouthwash (name brand everything, not some weird store brand)... oh, and today I got $8.50 worth of free Sharpie hi-lighters at Office Max! Just walked in, gave them my coupon and walked out. :-)

3. Before you click on the links above, please click on this link first: The title is What is Free or Cheap at Drugstores Starting 6/12. It gets overwhelming knowing where to start. I've spent hours and hours researching, but this post will show you right away that free items are possible.

A few of you had questions/comments about couponing in general (and you're totally right).
*It seems like it takes a lot of time - yes, totally! Hours and hours!

*It seems like there are lots of coupons for products I don't use - definitely true! There are tons of grocery items that I don't buy, so I just skip over those coupons. I have better luck and Walgreens and CVS getting super cheap/free items like paper goods (toliet paper, paper towels, Ziploc bags, tinfoil) and bath items (razors, toothbrushes, deodorant, mouthwash, etc). My favorite recent freebie: Crest Total Care Mouthwash. The huge bottles were on sale for $4.00, and CVS gave me back a register reward for $2.00. I had a $2.00 coupon from the Sunday paper, so...free mouthwash! (I got 4 giant bottles of it).

*Oh, and if you've watched the show Extreme Couponing you'll see people getting like 80 deodorants (or whatever) for free. I've never bought/got more than 4-5 of one item at a time. I'm not a person that likes to draw attention to myself, so I do it pretty low-key.

I'm going to stop there with the couponing info. :-) I'm not great at explaining things and I'm still new to it as well. It takes time to learn!

And now, an SOOC of Livia I took this evening. It has been cloudy for 2 days straight, so I thought perfect... let's go out while we have some even lighting for a few pictures. The second, and I mean SECOND we got in the car, the sun came out full force - ahhhh! So poor TT was in the blinding sun in the middle of a field of flowers. It may have been harsh lighting, but I got a pretty blue sky! :-) More pictures coming this week, but here's a preview.

You guys know I'm not always able to visit everyone back that leaves a comment, but if you leave a question for me...please know I will make it a point to respond. If you don't hear from me, check back in the comment section on my blog. It just means I wasn't able to contact you.

Have a great one! ♥

10 on tuesday

2011-06-14T10:52:00.001-05:00

1. Last week Doron's mom was visiting from Israel, so my parents took us all out to eat at our favorite Japanese steakhouse. It's one of those restaurants where everyone sits around a teppanyaki table and the chef cooks in front of you.

It's amazing how quicky fine dining can turn into a gag-fest when your 2-year old loudly announces "I FIND GUM!!!" and proceeds to pull a huge glob off the underneath side of the table.

2. After the chewing gum faux paux, the aforementioned two-year old is able to redeem herself by catching a shrimp in her mouth just like the guys. (No kidding).

3. I've become quite the couponer lately thanks to TLC's Extreme Couponing. I've always used coupons here and there, but I didn't realize there was a science to it. I've been studying various blogs to learn how to do it right. Check out one of my recent trips.

Guess how much I paid for all the products shown above?? $7.42 total!!! See those razors standing up on the right side? Those are $10.00 razors, and I paid 89 cents each for them! See the yellow boxes of fish oil in the back? Walgreens paid ME $2.00 for each box I took!

4. If you're curious how it's done, here's an example. See the 2 shampoos and 1 conditioner below? I paid 46 cents TOTAL for the three! (I should have used a lego man or something for scale. It's hard to tell, but these bottles are huge!)

Here's how I got all THREE for 46 cents:
Each bottle was $5.99, for a total of $18.00
I had 2 $3.00 coupons (printed from Target's website) and 2 $2.00 coupons (from the Sunday paper).
Now my total is 3 bottles for $8.00
Target had a promotion where if you buy three John Frieda products, you get a $5.00 gift card back.
Now my total is 3 bottles for $3.00 (Actually $3.46 after tax).
When I paid, the cash register generated a $3.00 coupon for my next John Frieda product which I will definitely use.
So the total for 3 bottles is $.46! Woot!

We only use organic bath products so this was a little out of my comfort zone, but it's reeeeally hard to pass up products at this price. I won't use these on the kids...just for me and Doron. (And yes, Doron is happily using his poisonous Nivea shaving gel pictured above).

5. Someone stop me now because I will go on for hours about how much money I saved on each particular item at each particular store.

Other family members have gotten on board.

6. I'd forgotten about this picture I took a couple weeks ago. I didn't post it because I was using my 50mm f/1.4 and my aperture was too wide causing my focus to be softer than I like.
Sometimes I do this while taking a picture to get TT to look at me:

Perhaps my pictures would be sharper if I wasn't holding my camera with one hand and bonking myself on the head with my lens cap with the other. Something to think about.

7. While I'm not opposed to dolls being anatomically correct, with 2 boys in the house I'm seriously re-considering my recent purchase of the little Disney princesses with interchangeable outfits. WOW.

8. Last week we took a trip to the Omaha Zoo. We're not avid zoo-goers, so it had been a year since our last visit. I asked TT what animal she was excited to see and she said a dragon. Yep, we better get her to a zoo pronto.

{A special thank you to the white-throated monitor who was an acceptable substitute for the much anticipated dragon).

9. I'm not sure the animals were ready for my tiny tornado whirling through the zoo like a maniac.

Many were caught off guard.

Some eyed her warily.

Some cowered in fear.

10. But others...

...just plain weren't impressed.

So those were our happenings for the week. What's new with you? :-)
Have a great Tuesday! ♥

her middle name, and embracing the rebel

2011-06-01T10:31:00.002-05:00

You guys certainly know how to put a huge smile on my face! Thanks so much for your sweet comments (and emails...because my comment box wasn't working for awhile yesterday). Thank you to those that let me know it wasn't working, and to Skye who helped me fix it! :-)

I got a few guesses by email yesterday about Livia's middle name. Sheri, you guessed it!! Livia's middle name is Soleil. (pronounced so-LAY) Doron used to call me Sunshine, and Soleil means "sun" in French. Clever, aren't we? :-)

Come to find out, Collin (my oldest) thought her name was spelled S-O-L-A (how's that for a phonetic spelling!?)...and he thought it was Spanish! LOL! Drew (my Kindergartner) knew the correct way to spell it. (Figures).

I'm really missing my camera which is off for repair, so I got out the Rebel and gave it a whirl. I thought I'd honor TT's request to "walk in-a water with-a green rainboots" ... so off we went.

I like it! :-)

Canon Rebel XSI
AV mode
Aperture: f/2.8 + 1 stop overexposed
Shutter speed: 1/640
ISO: 200

Happy Wednesday! :-)

10 on tuesday (photoless)

2011-05-31T13:27:00.005-05:00

I've been debating all morning whether or not to even post this, because I'm not sure my weekly ramblings can stand on their own without pictures. But my camera has been sent off for repair, so this is all I have for the week.

1. Yesterday was the first day of summer vacation, and I slept in until 8:52am. (You're hating me, right?) I've trained my kids well. They know that rested mom = happy mom. :-)

2. I have a bone to pick with whoever came up with the phrase "it's just like riding a bike." Unbelievably bad information, since every Spring I have to re-learn how to ride my bike. (In my defense, I've never claimed to be coordinated, and I'm 5' 9 (and a half)" and 128 pounds...so pretty much just visualize a long gangly giraffe trying to pedal a bike. I will admit however, to providing my neighbors hours of comedic relief.

3. It seems Livia has recovered nicely from her fear of the "purple monster over dare on the carpet gonna get you mama"...and she's now able to play alone with her toys in the TV room. For a month we were attached at the hip. This now allows ample time for me and my cleaning supplies to get reaquainted.

4. Want to play a fun guessing game? OK, here's the first clue. Livia's middle name begins with "S" and ends with an "L"...but the L is silent. It's French. Any guesses?

5. Random request and purchase of the week: a dry erase board (for Drew). Random request and purchase for Collin? A cactus.

6. Conversation of the week:
Drew (the Kindergarter): "Did you know that 90x90 is eighty-one hundred?"
Me: "What?! How did you know that?"
Drew: I just figured it out in my bed.
(scary)

7. Want to hear my latest and greatest? So we've lived in our house for what, seven years now? In our master bathroom we have one of those oversized corner whirlpool tubs. I've only used the tub an handful of times... (like when do I have time for a whirlpool bath?) specifically while I was pregnant and so miserable that jets of water spewing into my back sounded more irritating than pleasant. The point: I've never used the jets. A few nights ago, Livia and I decided to have 'beach night' so I threw her in the whirlpool tub.
Fact: You have to have water covering those little blow hole things or your 2 year old will come sailing out of the tub on a tidal wave that rivals the one in the movie Deep Impact.

8. In the other room I hear Livia singing:
"Ring around the Rosey"
"Pocket full of Posey"
"Ashes, ashes"
"Fall down the car-pet and hurt the yeg." (leg)

9. an·noy·ing (adjective): when your husband finds the time to draw a rather detailed sketch in the dust on your armoire, but doesn't have the time to actually clean it.

10. OK, I have to retract #9. My husband is A-MAZING around the house and deserves a shout-out. Seriously...the best! Awesome at cleaning, wonderful at taking care of the kids, he'll run any errand for me at any time day or night, he cooks on the weekends, and he fixes me a snack in bed every single night. I know I've written this before, but it's still true: I'm usually in bed before he is, so I'll use the phone in our bedroom and call him downstairs on his cell phone in the kitchen. He'll answer "Doron's kitchen?" and I'll place my order. Awesome I tell ya!

Anyone still here?

My kids like to read about our "happenings" for the week, so I thought I'd do a little post for them, even though my camera is gone. If I find my house TP'd and egg'd tonight, I will take that as a sign that my photoless post was a thumbs down.

EDIT: I just got 2 emails from sweet friends saying my comments aren't working. Hmmmm....does anyone know how to fix that, or is it just a temporary Blogger issue? If you have any ideas, feel free to email me at karlibonnie@gmail.com

EDIT #2: I think it's fixed! (Thank you so much Skye)! If you're having a similar problem...check out the link I posted in my comment section. It fixed the issue I was having. :-)

Happy Tuesday everyone! ♥♥

project 365: the home stretch

2011-05-26T13:18:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! :-) To those that left such sweet comments on Livia's birthday post...thank you so much! You know it makes me feel awful not to respond to everyone personally, but with my crazy schedule it's just not possible. I'm so sorry! Soccer and baseball season overlapped for a bit, and with both boys in sports, I feel like we're running constantly. Collin had two baseball games this week scheduled at 8:00pm, meaning we don't get home until 10:15pm on a school night. Thank goodness one got rained out! (I know, that's awful). But I want you to know your thoughtful comments about my sweet baby girl mean so much! ♥

For the first time since starting Project 365, I feel like I'm ready for it to be over. You know me...I have no problem missing days here and there. That doesn't bother me. But I'm finding with my 10 on Tuesdays or my "the way I see it" posts, I'm having trouble not duplicating pictures. I'll take a picture and then I'm not sure where to use it.

But here's the great part: my Project 365 ends on July 12th so I'm in the home stretch! YAY! I thought I'd do a little collage to motivate myself to finish it out. Here are my shots starting at New Year's.

I have several more 365 photos waiting to be posted, but I feel like some of them are a little ho-hum, and a few others are duplicates. I need to throw some more interesting ones into the mix before I do a catch-up post. Yesterday I had to ship my camera away to have a hot pixel repaired, and I won't get it back for a couple weeks - WAHHHH!! - so that might be awhile.

Hope everyone is having a great week and thank you again for all the sweet b-day wishes for Livia! ♥

the tiny tornado turns two!

2011-05-23T12:03:00.003-05:00

Actually Livia turned two seven weeks ago, but it's been so cold and rainy I hadn't had a chance to take her out and snap some birthday pictures. Last Saturday evening Drew was at a slumber party, so Doron, Collin and I took Livia to the park for a little walk. I wasn't even planning to take her birthday pictures, but there are a few that I really love, so here we go! :-)

We had a little mishap right out of the starting gate, so Doron and I looked at each other and held our breath.

Phew! Nothing a little fence climbing couldn't fix.

With a nickname like the Tiny Tornado, it goes without saying that she's a spicy little thing.

But oh my goodness is she SWEET!!! ♥♥♥

Cuddly, lovey...she always has a hug for everyone.

When we go shopping, she's always calling out to other babies: "Hi baby girl! Hi baby boy!" Sometimes an adult might even get a "Hi man!" She attracts attention wherever she goes, and is gawked at by the early morning Panera Bread retirees when we go on our daily coffee run. (I do find I drink more coffee now than I did when it was just me and the boys).

She always hugs me tight around my neck and says "I love you too much mama!" ♥

She keeps up with her big brothers, no problem. (Or should I say she runs circles around them).

She's smart, funny, and she's got an incredible sense of humor. She'll sing the wrong words to songs on purpose with a really goofy voice like she's making fun of herself.

She runs everywhere she goes and never keeps still.

She talks non-stop, she always compliments me on my jewelry and she potty trained herself.

I love how she says y's instead of l's. (I yike yemons!)
I love how she wants to eat breakfast on my lap instead of in her high chair.
I love how she can catch a football as well as her brothers. (no kidding)

Her brothers are so over-the-top crazy about her, they beg me to have another baby.

Doron and I are so crazy about her...we've actually considered it.

We love you sweet baby girl!! Happy #2!! :-)

operation dandelion

2011-05-07T22:52:00.003-05:00

the way i see it

2011-04-28T21:19:00.003-05:00

Last month I did a post called "the way i see it"...little snapshots of my day. It seemed time for another one, so here we go!

This morning on my coffee run, I noticed this tree so I pulled over to snap a shot. I love the heart shape formed by the branches. It reminded me of something that I will be posting about soon.

Nope, not a morning snack. Just cleaning out my kitchen cabinets. Time for me and the colored popcorn to part ways.

Livia was playing at the table this morning so I decided to experiment again with backlighting. Backlighting and I have not been on speaking terms since last summer, but I will figure it out.

Here I am breaking 'photographing kids rule #1': wash child's face before taking a picture. I will wait for your praise as you admire my hard work with the spot and patch tools.

Say hi to Posey Poserton.

Playing a bit of peekaboo on the deck after Livia's nap.

Is this the cutest wreath you've ever seen?! I won a giveaway on my friend's blog, and this was one of many beautiful things I received. This sweet gal is the person totally responsible for getting me interested in photography. We were real life friends a million years ago, lost touch, reconnected on Facebook...and that's where I discovered her blog. (I didn't even know what a blog was before last year, seriously)! Click here to see all the things I won! ♥

A few hours later...

You guys...I'm OLD! (New eye cream from the dermatologist to prove it).

Have I told you how in love I am with my new washer and dryer? *squeal!!!!*

This is a serious piece of machinery. I've drooled over my sister-in-law's for years and always find an excuse to do laundry when we stay with her. (Hi Maya)! ♥ Doron and I joked when we first got it we wanted to pull up lawn chairs, crack open a Coke, and just watch it spin.

I'm still on my wearing glasses embargo...so I literally can't even see my computer screen right now. Not quite sure what these last few pictures look like, but you get the idea...a few snapshots of my day.

Have a great weekend!

10 on tuesday

2011-04-26T11:09:00.005-05:00

1. Edit on July 15, 2011: The picture I posted here bugged me so much I finally removed it. It fell into the "what was I thinking" file.

2. Our flowering trees are saying Spring, while our rainy, windy, freezing cold weather and dark cloudy skies are saying otherwise. Oh, and did I mention I had to pull out our winter stuff again? Dislike!

I think I've seen blue skies twice in the past 2 weeks. I thought I better document the occasion.

I have a sweet blog friend that lives a few hours west of me. She'll email me and say "Karli! The sun peeked out for like three minutes! Keep your eyes peeled!"

3. So after being unhappily chained to my computer for the last few weeks, I am caught up on my scrapbooks! **pats self on back** If you had any idea how much I detest scrapbooking, you would know how great it feels to have this done! I had to go back as far as April 2010 (I will never get behind again, I will never get behind again) all the way through February 2011. I used MyPublisher and ended up ordering 3 100-page albums.

4. To the girl at the Sephora make-up counter: When you suggest a certain lipstick and I say "oh, I'm too old to wear dark lipstick," next time please feel free to disagree with me. Some acceptable responses could be "no way!" or "what? you're crazy!" or even "nuh-UH!" Saying "oh" and nodding your head... not an acceptable response.

5. BUSTED!!!

6. I hear the boys playing a new game they made up. It involves Justin Bieber meeting with some 'unfortunate circumstances'. Collin is usually Justin Bieber and Drew is the one inflicting bodily harm. Harsh.

7. Thank you big wavy slide that occupies my Tiny Tornado for hours.

7. I just took a few tubs of clothes to sell at a local consignment shop. I got back almost $200.00!!! Is that normal???

8. So it seems my feathered archenemy, the OWL, is back for the Spring. We've lived in our house for seven years, and he joins us every Spring and wears out his welcome through the Fall. I'm normally a pretty good-natured gal...but listening to his hooing every night as I'm trying to fall asleep and every morning as I'm trying to stay asleep is going to cause me to be institutionalized. I lay in bed getting angrier and angrier. Does anyone know of a good owl ~~extermination~~ relocation program?

9. Livia's musical potty chair is starting to freak me out. It plays its 'royal tune' all by itself, any hour of the day or night. Paranormal activity, anyone?

10. Speaking of paranormal activity, my husband is completely freaked out by ghosts. And by ghosts I mean little boys with hollow eyes that live in the attic or stand in your hallway and watch you sleep. You know the kind. So awhile back, I got some of Collin's clothes and stuffed them with rolled up towels. I blew up a balloon for the head and put a hat on it. Knowing Doron goes down into the basement with the lights off to watch man-TV (show with pyramids, space stations, antique car auctions (the WORST!!), history so boring you'll want to gouge your eyes out, pawn shops, etc)...I stood the little boy ghost behind the couch. My marital status nearly changed in two seconds flat.

I was going to re-create the little ghost boy person and take a picture for you, but I have been sucked into the show Extreme Couponing (awesome show!) and I have pages of coupons in the kitchen waiting to be clipped. Yes, I do live a wild and crazy life. Try not to be jealous.

Those are all the happenings around our house for the week. What's new with you?
Happy Tuesday! ♥

day 114: happy easter!

2011-04-24T15:20:00.001-05:00

what i believe

2011-04-21T21:30:00.004-05:00

Hi guys! After my good Friday posts, I received a comment asking me to share more about my faith. I had been wanting to do that for awhile now, and this gave me the little push that I needed. :-) So here's a little bit of my story...

I thought I was saved as a child (prayed the prayer, and lived the life for many years)...but it took until I was almost 30 years old to understand that my faith was not real. I lived a very "colorful" lifestyle in my 20's, with complete disregard for God. I used many things I had gone through as an excuse for sin, when the truth was...I just enjoyed sinning. I kept telling myself "oh, this isn't really me....this is just a phase...." but at some point I had to get real with myself. I had to understand that my actions and lifestyle did not reflect a person that had truly given their life to God. I was leading; God was not. My actions proved what was in my heart...and it was really ugly.

I believe that I am saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Not good works, not baptism, not communion...nothing I can do "adds" to the work that Christ has done (dying on the cross for our sins). If I believed faith in Christ *plus* any of those things...I would be denying that Christ's sacrifice was sufficient. It would be saying His death was not "enough."

True faith in Christ results in a complete lifestyle change. I'm not saved by good works, but they are indicative of a changed life. Your actions will prove what's in your heart.

Doron and I were sharing with the boys the other night in bed. We asked them "If you stood before God and He asked...'why should I let you into Heaven'...what would you say?" Drew answered "because I'm good." But if being a good person was enough to save someone, why was it necessary for Jesus to die?

Now that I have given my life completely to God, do I still sin? Oh my goodness yes!!! I fall on my face DAILY. I fall out of step in my walk with God by not being in the Word consistently. We do a nightly Bible study with the boys, but that's not a substitute for my personal time reading the Bible. If I say I love God, but have no time for Him...how does that show that He is important to me? I have plenty of time to take pictures and be on the computer, but not 15 minutes a day to give to Him?

If you stood before God... and He asked why He should let you into Heaven, what would you say?

I hope you all have a blessed Easter weekend! ♥

good friday (part II)

2011-04-20T19:44:00.011-05:00

On Monday, I posted Part I of one of our family's traditions for good Friday. Here are the instructions for the rest of the project:

The goods:
1. pipe cleaners to make a Jesus figure
2. paints and brushes to paint the tomb
3. a rock to be placed in front of the tomb
4. fabric to wrap Jesus

Guess why I didn't get a lot of pictures of the kids doing this activity. :-)

(Just because your 2-year old wasn't interested in the making of the actual tombs, doesn't mean she won't want to paint one).

Here's what we will do on Friday:

And on Sunday morning...

The crown of thorns and blood are removed, the stone is rolled away, and Jesus is RISEN!!

I got an email from a friend on Monday after she had seen my Part I post the night before. Her email read "our tombs are in the oven..." It nearly brought tears to my eyes! How wonderful to teach our children the real meaning of Easter. ♥

good friday traditions (part I)

2011-04-17T20:10:00.004-05:00

I wanted to start the week by sharing a family tradition we do with our kids to explain the story of Easter. This is the time of year we celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection, and this project helps our kids visualize the story. We make salt dough to symbolize Jesus' tomb, and we'll place Him in the tomb on Friday of this week. We'll check back to see if He is still there on Saturday (He will be), and we'll check again on Sunday (He won't be). I'm going to split this post into two parts so it doesn't get too long. Sound good?

First, the recipe (for 2 tombs):
8 cups flour
3 cups salt
3 cups water
2 TBSP. oil

This little project couldn't be easier:
1. Add all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix together.
2. Form the dough into a hill shape (for the tomb).
3. Make a little opening in one side of your hill (to fit Jesus inside).
4. Bake the dough at 250 degrees for 4-5 hours.
5. Let it cool, then paint.

Guess who wasn't interested in making salt dough?

We called in for backup.

But no one ever actually catches the Tornado.

Fast forward 4 hours, and here's what we have so far.

Be sure to come back (hopefully Wednesday) for Part II. We will be painting our tombs, finding rocks to be placed in front of the opening of the tomb, and making Jesus's to be placed inside. Hope to see you then! :-)

project 365: days 79-89

2011-04-16T13:07:00.004-05:00

Sorry friends! Nothing to see here... These are all repeats, but I wanted to put them all together in one post and tag them with my 365 photos.

It's 43 and windy here today, so these pictures make me miss Florida all the more! I hope the weather is better where you are! :-)

Have a great weekend! ♥

day 79: my 3 with papa

day 80: crane

day 81: castle

day 82: bokeh lights

day 83: boats

day 84: beach bike

day 85: publix truck

day 86: beach chairs

day 87: sandy tushie

day 88: soar

day 89: clouds

the sandpiper

2011-04-14T12:18:00.003-05:00

Happy Thursday! ♥ First, a huge thank you to everyone who left a comment yesterday about uploading photos! I really appreciate your time and thoughts. So after reading your comments, I began to get all excited about Flickr. But then I realized...if I cancel my Photobucket pro account (or stop paying the annual fee), the links won't work for all the photos I currently have on my blog - WAHHH!!! Can you imagine re-uploading all the pictures that I have on my blog?? Huge bummer! I emailed Photobucket to confirm my theory, and I'm waiting to hear back. If I switch to Flickr, then I'll be paying for two hosting sites; one that I wouldn't even be using, but just paying for to keep my photos up.

Moving along. So this will be my last Florida post, except for a Project 365 post tomorrow; a picture each day we were on vacation. You've already seen the pictures...I just wanted to post them all together and tag them to my 365 pics.

Oh, and because of the Photobucket issues, some of you may have missed my shots taken from the window of our airplane. If you didn't see them, be sure to pop over. I think you'll like them! :-)

Way too much talking here. OK, back to the Florida pictures. Doron was so excited to reserve a room for us at the Sandpiper Hotel. Our room was on the top floor overlooking the beach. It was gorgeous!

This is the view from our hotel room, and it was one of the highlights of our trip. We had the sliding glass door open the entire two days we were there.

Livia was having tummy troubles and woke up at 5:00am on our last morning. Doron took her out on the balcony, and she slept on his chest for two hours while he watched the sunrise. He said it's a moment he'll remember forever. ♥

Thanks again for your sweet comments yesterday. Have a great one!

party of three: 15/52

2011-04-13T13:04:00.004-05:00

Well helloooooo there! :-) I have a couple posts waiting in the wings, but if you've stopped by my blog lately you've noticed that my pictures can't be seen because of an issue with Photobucket.

So I'm curious...would you guys mind leaving me a comment telling me what image host you use to upload photos on your blog? I see many of you use Flickr (that's what I used for this picture)...and I'm just trying to figure out the best way to do it. It seems like no one uses Photobucket except me. Hmmmmm. Anyone?

I'd love to love Flickr, but it oversharpens my thumbnails which kind of bugs me a bit, but I don't think it oversharpened my picture below. Maybe it's just the thumbnails in the photostream? Help/suggestions? Thank you so much! :-)

OK, now on to the picture at hand. A word of warning to any of my feet phobia friends. The following picture contains 30 little toes - beware! (Lori, can we still be friends after this?) ;-)

I'm happy to report that my genes prevailed in the feet department, and all three of my kiddos have toes that go neatly in order...tallest to shortest. The correct way. My husband will argue that the second toe being longer than the big toe is the correct way. It's not.

(You know I'm kidding, right)?

So there's my picture for week 15, uploaded through Flickr. It seemed to work out OK - yay! I had to upgrade my Photobucket account because I exceeded the maximum amount of storage space. Is the same true with Flickr? I'd love any comments about how you upload your photos! Thanks! ♥

soar

2011-04-09T12:37:00.007-05:00

Isaiah 40:31

Those who wait for the Lord
will gain new strength;

They will mount up with wings like eagles,

They will run and not get tired,

They will walk and not get weary.

ft. lauderdale

2011-04-08T12:42:00.006-05:00

This is a fun post for me because Ft. Lauderdale was where I met Doron, where we got married and where Collin was born. (We actually lived in Plantation, and Collin was born in Margate, but same thing). ;-)

It's funny, I've always told Collin he was born in Coral Springs. Only when we were driving to the hospital so he could see where he was born...did I realize it was actually Margate. The cities are so close to each other in South Florida, you can be out of one and in another before you know it.

I like the walking picture, Doron likes the picture at the stop sign, so you get both.

Drew and Livia were born in Nebraska, and we often drive by the hospital where they were born. Collin doesn't share that little bit of history with them, so I thought it would be cool to show him University Hospital where he was born.

I snapped this shot of Livia in the little park right behind the condo where we used to live. I used push to Collin in his stroller there all the time.

Here's a shot of me and Doron's old hangout...San Loco, a little taco joint. It's now Tyrannosaurus Mex. Ha! :-) Same food, different name.

We spent parts of two days just driving up and down A1A. When I lived in Florida, I used to do that all the time. This is the pier in Deerfield Beach where I lived before I met Doron. I actually lived on this road (Hillsboro) for you locals. :-)

So let's see...I think I'm going to do two more Florida posts and then things will be back to normal around here. One will be pictures from our stay at the Sandpiper Hotel on the beach, and the other will be shots from the airplane as we traveled home.

Have a great weekend! :-)

florida part III

2011-04-07T14:24:00.003-05:00

If you'd like to hear your Kindergartner say woo hoo 547 times in a 30-minute period...then by all means, please see the Lights, Motor, Action! Extreme Stunt Show at Hollywood Studios. People fall off buildings, slide through gasoline, things explode, bad guys chase good guys. You know. Fun and general merriment.
(Seriously one of the coolest things I saw on our entire trip).

See? I'm keeping it brief. Here are a few shots from the next day as we head to Animal Kindgom.

I love this one. We thought we were going to have to surgically remove Livia from her papa at the end of our trip. To say she was enamored would be an understatement. She would gallop around him with a huge smile on her face saying "Papa! Yook at me!" :-)

I would have loved to have gotten more shots like the one above, and this one below; more creative, less point and shoot. I just didn't want to slow the kids down and take away from their excitement by stopping to snap pictures. For the shot below, the sun was setting and I could see in my mind exactly how it would look before I snapped the photo.

I want to say thank you so much for all the sweet comments and encouragement you've given me this past week. You even humored me with my signs post - LOL! Thank you! Have a wonderful Thursday. ♥

signs, traffic & intersections

2011-04-06T12:15:00.003-05:00

Hi, I'm Karli, and I love signs.

I mean I loooooove signs.

Traffic, intersections...yep, I love it all.

Seriously, is it just me?

My mom tells a story of when she took me to the zoo as a toddler. When we got home, she asked me what we had seen that day. She even recorded my answer on a tape recorder. Yeah. That's right. Tape recorder. I'm old.

In a little toddler voice, I answered "signs!"

And now my story has come to an abrupt end because I have no more sign pictures to show.

And here's a shout out to Doron, my chauffeur...who humored me while I took 9 million pictures through the windshield going 75 miles an hour. ♥♥

Happy Wednesday! :-)

florida part II

2011-04-05T18:08:00.002-05:00

Here are a few more pictures from our day at the Magic Kingdom. I was trying to keep up with our group of 5...so I didn't have a chance to snap any super creative photos. I was pretty much walking and snapping at the same time. But hopefully these will bring a little color to your day, or if you've been to Disney...it will bring back a few memories.

Are you still with me? Nothing creative, but I did have fun processing these shots. You know I have fun processing anything without a face. ;-)

Isn't it cool that this castle shot is SOOC? I cropped off a few heads along the bottom, but otherwise no editing. It was handheld at a 4000 ISO. I think I gave my camera a pat on the head after this shot. Good boy!

I knew we'd be seeing some fireworks in Florida and I meant to google how to shoot them. I can never remember. We weren't really in a good spot for fireworks when I took this shot; we were just getting off the "It's a Small World" boat ride. It was kind of a point and pray type shot. Not the best location, but I think it's pretty cool anyway.

I hope these pictures aren't causing a big snore-fest on my blog. I just don't want to overwhelm you with too many pictures in one day. I'll post a few pictures every day this week, and it looks like my favorite ones are going to come on Thursday when we went down to our old stomping ground in Ft. Lauderdale. But you can still come back tomorrow too, k?

Have a great one! :-)

florida part I

2011-04-04T19:41:00.007-05:00

So. Here's the scoop with the Florida pictures. I have lots and lots that are family scrapbook-worthy, but only a fraction of which are blog-worthy. (There's a difference). ;-)

We had such an amazing time that we ended up extending our trip to 12 days, and we spent the first few days in Orlando at Disney's Carribean Beach Resort. We took the kids to Downtown Disney, the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Then we headed south to be with family for the rest of our vacation.

I decided to post a few of my favorite pictures in several posts this week. These were taken at the Carribean Beach Resort.

TT taking a snooze on her papa (Doron's dad).

Probably one of my favorite pictures from the day.

The closest thing I got to a portrait shot the entire time we were in Florida - LOL!

Many more pictures to come! Hope you had a great Monday!

party of three: 12/52

2011-04-03T19:21:00.006-05:00

party of three: 11/52

2011-04-01T13:21:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! ♥ I need to get caught up on a couple weeks of my Party of Three pictures. I took two weeks worth in Florida, but just need to get them uploaded. Here is the set for week 11.

Picture of the week:

If you're waiting for beautiful shots of my kids on the beach at sunrise/sunset wearing coordinating outfits....yeah, that didn't happen.

If you'd like a dose of harsh, midday sun...well, we got plenty of that. ;-) (See squinting and nose-wrinkling below).

We all have different reactions to the beach. A typically calm child remains calm.

A tiny tornado too, remains calm.

A middle child, on the other hand, might have a different reaction.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek! :-) Have a wonderful weekend! XO

we're back!

2011-03-31T14:35:00.002-05:00

Hi friends! ♥ I only have a quick second to pop in and say hi. We had such a blast in Florida, we ended up extending our trip a couple days. I have 221 unread emails in my inbox, so please bear with me in responding. Thank you to everyone who left such sweet comments on my last post. I had so much fun with those pictures, and your kind words put a huge SMILE on my face. I read your comments all the way to Florida!

OK, have to run...but I'll pop in soon with more vacation pics. Hope you're having a great week! XO

party of three: 10/52

2011-03-18T18:32:00.006-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! I should be packing for our trip tomorrow...so I'm going to make this quick. I just took these shots a couple hours ago, and I was so happy to get the kids outside for week 10 - yay!

Picture of the week:

TT decided the grandmas were going too slow, so she left.

But not long after, a competition of some sort broke out.

The short attention span continues...

...and it's back to the merry-go-round where she lays down the law.

Let's kick this party up a notch ladies!!

I guess someone got a little big for her britches, because she did need rescuing from time to time.

This shot cracks me up!! Check out Drew in the background....he looks like a little toy person. :-)

Alrighty then. Week 10 - check! OK, now I seriously need to start packing!

I apologize in advance that I won't be able to do any blog visiting before our trip. We're leaving tomorrow morning and will be gone until the end of March. We'll be in Orlando for 5 days doing Disney, MGM and Animal Kingdom...and then we'll head south to visit family for the rest of our vacation. And we'll be celebrating THE TINY TORNADO'S 2ND BIRTHDAY!

Have a wonderful weekend! XO

the way i see it

2011-03-15T11:45:00.006-05:00

I had a completely different idea for this post, but because TT is still not 100%...my pictures took a bit of a different turn. My intention was to capture little bits of my day; the little details (kids included). Have you heard of that blog hop, 10 on 10 (or something like that)? I think you take 1 picture an hour for an entire day (10 hours total) on the 10th day of the month. (Did I get that right)? Anyway...I'm not organized enough to commit to one picture per hour, so here's my version. Just little bits of my day, sans kiddos.

Here we go! Fueling up for the day.

Heading home to spend the morning with Livia.

The bane of my existence.

Bane #2.

I've tried a couple times to catch my reflection in a soap bubble (I mean how bad could I look in a soap bubble, right?)...but it was a total fail. Here are my sad little supplies lying in the sink after I gave up. ;-)

Sis colored a few masterpieces this morning. They are now proudly hanging on the fridge.

Lunch time! (No, I don't eat like a bird. I had a hamburger and a hot dog for breakfast. Yes, really). The old Karli would have been very bothered by that piece of blurry lettuce in the foreground. The new and improved Karli doesn't mind.
Edit: Upon closer inspection, the new and improved Karli does mind, but is fighting the urge to re-take the photo.

Fast forward to 5:30. (See??...I can't commit to one photo per hour). After my macro water drop picture, several of you asked if it would work without a macro lens. A different effect, but still fun. (It's the 2nd picture if you click the link).

Later, I wrote "good night" in steam on the mirror after my shower - lame! And I had a couple other ideas in mind to end the day. I wanted to get a shot of some traffic lights at dusk. Or a beautiful sunset on the golf course behind our house. Or little bokeh circles on a nearby lake glistening at sunset. But because TT was a bit of a nightmare this evening (she's still feeling yucky)...please enjoy this picture from the kids' bathroom window.

So what do you think? Fun, right? I even tagged this post "the way i see it"...and I think I'll have to try it again.

Happy Tuesday! ♥

party of three: 9/52

2011-03-11T18:04:00.019-06:00

I know, I know...my blog is scoring major points in the lame department lately. I have truly been enjoying this time away from blogging...just hanging out with my family. :-) It's been wonderful!

I'm a little behind on my Party of Three pictures, so if TT is feeling better I hope to have another one up this weekend. She had a little touch of the stomach flu, and thank goodness no one else has gotten sick. If you happen to think of us, I would soooo much appreciate your prayers for health and safety as we get ready to leave on vacation next week - yay!

There is some serious side-lighting going on here, and I left this picture pretty much SOOC. This week totally got away from me, and you can see TT was not really up for pictures this afternoon. (She had to go to big brother for some love). ♥ Hopefully my pictures for week 10 will be outside. :-)

Have a great weekend!

day 61: golden light

2011-03-02T18:49:00.005-06:00

party of three: 8/52

2011-03-01T12:34:00.004-06:00

Take one picture a week for 52 weeks of the 3 kids together. How hard could it be? Well, you can already see I am ridiculously behind on this week's post.....and after my super successful week 7, it's only fitting that I be knocked squarely backward onto my posterior for week 8.

Let's recount the day's events:

-6:50 alarm goes off
-hit snooze repeatedly for 30 minutes
-7:20 realize I can no longer put off the inevitable; get up
-8:09 screech into the school drive-thru lane with one minute to spare (nice!!)
-8:15 arrive back home & feed the tornado
-make 2 doctors appointments and 1 dentist appointment
-get a wild hair and start re-organizing a random kitchen cabinet
-get distracted and hunt down the tornado
-play dollhouse
-9:30 there is a request for toast; feed tornado again
-cuddle on couch with tornado; watch Dora
-10:30 put tornado down for nap
-debate between cleaning up kitchen cabinet disaster or taking picture of dead tulips
-take picture of dead tulips
-11:00 realize picture of dead tulips is nothing exciting and debate between re-tackling kitchen cabinet disaster and online shopping
-decide on online shopping
-become overjoyed to find the cool peace sign leggings the tornado had as a baby are back for another season!!!!
-order peace sign leggings in size 3T
-12:00 peer warily into kitchen, become overwhelmed with kitchen organization project and head upstairs for a quick nap
-12:30 awaken with a jolt to the sound of shrieking from the tornado's room
-rub tornado's back as requested
-12:45 bring tornado to my bed to see if she will go back to sleep
-she doesn't
-1:00 win the mother of the year award by opening only one eyeball as I see the tornado perched on the edge of my (massive) king bed telling herself to "be careful"
-1:10 win another mother of the year award by still pretending to be asleep even though the tornado is softly patting my leg saying "yake up mama"
-1:15 jolt awake again to "hungry eat!!! all done seeping mama!!!"
-grudgingly roll out of bed to tackle the laundry
-put piles of folded laundry away
-return from Collin's closet to see tornado back in my bed, under the covers, hands behind her head, reclining on a pile of pillows and saying "watch tv mama"
-realize I could have rested for 30 more minutes
-1:30 turn on Bubble Guppies
-1:35 come downstairs to type this list
-1:45 realize this list is really boring
-fix lunch for me and tornado
-2:53 pick up boys from school
-3:15 arrive at allergy shots
-debate between waiting the mandatory 30 minutes or being a rebel and leaving after 15
-leave after 15
3:30 hit the mall

Perhaps the day's events caused my brain to short-circuit, but here was my thought process: Take the kids to the mall, let them have a pretzel and lemonade for a snack and snap the picture of the week. Everyone occupied - check! Cute sibling moment - check! TT strapped in a high chair and unable to escape - check! All the makings of a great candid shot.

Did you ever notice that when you get your child's picture taken professionally, they don't eat while taking pictures?

So now...not only do I have to deal with 3 kids making odd faces at any given moment (blinking, sneezing, scratching a nose)...now I have to deal with chewing. And it wasn't pretty chewing. Think horse and hay bale.

Picture of the week? Here ya go.

Now for some tips/tricks/things I learned, etc:

1. I thought the lighting at the mall was going to be a breeze. It's always light and bright and there are huge skylights overhead. Would you believe my ISO was 1,000, my shutter was 1/100 (too slow) and my aperture was f/5 (too wide).

2. If you're not into photography, you might wonder why I always say my settings are "too slow" or "too wide" or my ISO was "too high." When you're using natural light (no flash), everything is a balancing act. If I set my camera to my ideal settings: let's say f/8, ss 1/500, ISO 200....the picture would be underexposed; probably to the point of being totally black.

3. I mentioned my ISO was 1,000. For some reason I can't allow myself to go over 1,000...I have no idea why. It's a mental thing. Did you know that a properly exposed photo at a higher ISO has less noise than an underexposed photo at a lower ISO. (I always lowered my ISO and used Photoshop to bring up the exposure. WRONG!)

4. Are you wondering why my b&w shots are hazy with low contrast? If you try to do a dramatic black and white when there's a lot going on in the picture, it can be overwhelming to look at. (This is only my opinion!) By adding a bit of haze, you're reducing the stark contrast between dark blacks, and light whites...kind of toning it down a bit. (Again, just my opinion).

If you're thinking I forgot my new mantra of not taking 50 pictures from the same spot...

...and forgot to incorporate "quite observation from afar..."

...I haven't.

I just didn't want to be creepy creeperton roaming around the food court with a camera.

So there you go...week 8 is done! :-)
Happy Tuesday! ♥

project 365: day 52-56

2011-02-25T13:28:00.002-06:00

day 52: my kitchen window, 4:23 p.m.

This is the crazy sunflare that blinds me every evening as I'm cooking dinner. I took this shot with my 100mm macro. Remember, to get all those little pointy things on your starburst, you need a tiny aperture. I used f/22.

day 53: a gigantic oops (i mean abstract spoon)

Totally not what I was going for here. Posting this picture anyway is good for me and my new motto: it doesn't have to be perfect, let it go! :-)

day 54: c'mon spring!

day 55: 23 hours later...

No joke. Accoring to the memory card, the tulip shot was taken at 5:44 on Wednesday, and the snowy shot was taken at 4:51 on Thursday. I was going to do some artsy shot, you know...snow on the seat of the swing, snow on the tips of our fence posts...
Let's cut to the chase: I'm not a cold weather person. So please enjoy this shot taken from under our covered deck. ;-)

day 56: an awesome idea!

I recently came across a blog called SKC Photography. One of her suggestions was to use the TV as a background. Genius! So much color, softness, variety...I love this idea! I was drawing a blank as to what to use for this shot, and remembered a beautiful shot by Allie. Thanks for the inspiration guys! ♥

Hope everyone had a great week! XO

party of three: 7/52

2011-02-18T20:40:00.004-06:00

OK, here we go! Week number 7, picture of the week! :-)

You'll never hear me tooting my own horn, but I have to say...I really like that one! ♥

We're having amazing temperatures for February (60 today, I think), so I piled up the kids after school and we headed for the lake.

First we had a snack...

...and then we went for a run.

Here we headed down to the boat dock. (Kathy, you're not going to call me out and say it's not a boat dock, are you)? It's kind of a boat dock. ;-)

I knew about the rule of thirds before I was ever interested in photography. I don't know what it is, but my subject always winds up right smack in the center of the frame. I even toggle my focus points on the back of my camera. Oh well! I could have cropped it, but this is part of my new mantra: stop obsessing over ever little detail, and let it go! :-)

I don't think every picture is a candidate for a black and white conversion, especially if there is a lot going on in the picture, but I wanted to try a low contrast, hazy black and white conversion with this shot.

OK, last climbing picture, I promise. Just capturing a bit of TT's personality.

It was wonderful to get out in the sunshine today! Are you ready for Spring?! :-)

Have a wonderful weekend, and thank you SO MUCH for your sweet, sweet comments on my latest pics of TT (and the attempt at a new perspective). I wish you could know how much your encouragement motivates me! ♥

Happy Weekend!

creative composition: tornado style

2011-02-17T12:37:00.002-06:00

Remember a month or so ago when I said I was going to try and be more creative photographing my kids? Well, I did one post on it...got busy...and forgot! Something has really been bothering me lately with my photography; especially my Party of Three shots, but I couldn't put a finger on it. I think I had a light-bulb moment today.

One of my favorite photographers is Keli at Kidnapped by Suburbia. I follow her blog, I admire all of her pictures on Flickr, so I thought to myself...besides her super cool processing, what is different between her pictures and mine? I think I figured it out! She takes pictures as if she's quietly observing what's going on in the room. With many of her indoor shots, I feel a sense of calm and quiet...and I love how there's not always interaction between her and her daughters as she's photographing them.

I take pictures like a camera-wielding maniac, often times 6 inches from your face. I wave stuff around, I try to get TT to look up and smile............WHY??!!

I thought I'd try a different approach today.

See? Here I'm being a silent observer from the hallway.

Try focusing on something other than your child; just get them playing in the background.

Snap pictures of the little details, rather than 20 of the same shot of your child's face. (I'm totally guilty of this - LOL!!) ;-)

Here's something else I discovered. Usually I'll tidy up a little if I know I'm going to be taking pictures in a certain room. By doing this, my pictures can look plain and boring. AND staged. Look how all the clothes hanging in the closet behind Livia add a little color and interest. (When I saw TT coming, I almost jumped up to close the closet doors. I'm so glad I didn't! It is a child's room after all).

Something else that totally sapped my creativity...I got all caught up in facing the light, facing the light, facing the light. I usually have my back to a window, with my kids facing the light to get those big catchlights in their eyes. Look at the picture below. I love that little bit of side-lighting coming in from the window and falling on her left cheek, don't you? I would have missed that if I was between Livia and the light.

I went way overboard with facing the light.

Here I am again, low to the ground, observing from a ways back. I could have composed this differently; maybe closer to TT from the waist down. Just for a more artsy effect.

More of the little details.

I was trying to do some more creative shots like just hands, feet, etc...but I was using my 50mm 1.4 and my DOF was too shallow. (That's not a lens I normally use, and I need more practice with it). My shots were kind of a blurry mess, so I'm going to try again. (For those of you with the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L and the 50mm 1.4, do you notice your shots being softer with your 50mm?)

Don't be afraid to get a little hint of furniture in your shot, like the shadowy part of the dresser you see on the right side. It shows where you are in relation to your surroundings and looks like you are peeking in the room.

The next 3 pictures are how I normally take pictures. Livia facing the window, me right in front of her. I don't dislike them, but they don't reflect what I was practicing..."quiet observation from afar." ;-)

I wanted to include them anyway because I love TT's sweet little face. :-)

I've always liked getting down really low and shooting up at my subject. Just make sure your subject is somewhat looking down so you don't see up their nose. (Seriously). ;-)

Can you tell I like my Mickey Mouse idea? - LOL! There's a much better example of this here on Brooke's blog. Very creative!

And that's where my attempt at a different perspective ends.

I had all these ideas I wanted to try with Livia in the crib...

...but not surprisingly, she wasn't in there for a millisecond before plotting her escape.

Two of my blog friends that are exceptional at thinking outside the box when photographing their kids are Stacey and Naomi. If you photograph this way too, or know of a photographer who does, I'd love if you linked me to their blog in a comment. I'd love the inspiration!

For those of you that are new to my blog, I apologize that I'm not able to visit everyone back that leaves a comment. But please know how much I value every word! ♥
Have a wonderful Thursday! :-)

project 365: days 42-47

2011-02-15T12:22:00.004-06:00

I think I'm having some mathematical issues, because I don't think today is day 47. Hmmmm. I got off on my numbering last week, so I'm just going to post what I have. M'kay?

day 42: it arrived!

I'll spare you the long, boring story of my macro lens; basically I returned mine and got a new one. I thought it had issues, but it turned out that I have issues. Oops. The picture above is a shot of my new lens, but instead of focusing on the lens, I focused on what the lens was "looking" at. Cool, or just plain weird?

day 43: testing 1, 2

Here I'm playing around with the macro lens. I wasn't going for anything in particular here...just standing at the sink fixing lunch.

day 44: a gift from Israel

A couple weeks ago, Doron's uncle came to visit from Israel. It was wonderful to see him! He brought this bracelet; a gift from my mother in law.

day 45: valentine's day

day 46: powerlines

You know me...I love a good powerline shot. I wish the clouds would have been more interesting, but I'm trying to be more consistent with my 365 pics, so I had to have something. ;-)

day 47: non verbal communication

This is the reaction I got from TT when she saw me bringing the camera to the car. I think the message is pretty clear.

Is everyone having a great week? I hope so! Happy Tuesday! ♥♥

party of three: 6/52

2011-02-12T20:44:00.007-06:00

Every week I swear I'm quitting this project - ahhh! and today was no exception. My "planned" picture idea this morning was a total bust. Wardrobe malfunctions, face issues, a sunglass/eye-poking incident, you name it. Later this afternoon, we headed to my parents' house for an early Valentine's Day celebration, and I didn't even have my kids dressed for pictures. When I saw Livia's new tea set (and knew I had several additional adults for backup), I thought I better snap a picture while I had the chance. The boys were so cute with Livia, so I'm definitely going to have a tea party re-do in the future.

I've had a little flurry of new followers lately (hello! ♥), so if you're not familiar with my Party of Three posts, sometimes I provide photography tips or tricks (read: what went wrong). If you are not interested in photography, please stop HERE. :-)

Since I wasn't planning on taking pictures, the little tea party set-up was about 25 feet away from the nearest windows. Always scoot as close to a window as possible if you're using natural light. Because we were so far away and I didn't bring my external flash), I had to adjust my settings to the following:
Aperture: f/4 (too wide!)
Shutter speed: 1/60 (too slow!)
ISO: 1,600 (eeek!)

I was aware of my settings when I snapped the shot, but I didn't want to raise my ISO any higher...so that's pretty much all I could do without a flash. Drew is a bit out of focus because he is on a different plane than Collin and Livia. A smaller aperture (f/8, etc.) would have solved this problem. And a 1/60 shutter speed when taking pictures of children is ridiculously slow. Do not attempt! ;-) My personal preference is to never be slower than 1/250. 1/500 is even better!

The color is weird because we had to turn all the overhead lights on. You can see this especially in Collin's hair. If I had my external flash, I would have turned the lights off and bounced the flash off the windows behind me since it was still daylight outside.

We're supposed to have some warmer temperatures this week, so maybe my picture for week 7 will be taken outside. YAY!

Hope you're all having a great weekend! ♥

day 41: in flight

2011-02-10T11:19:00.001-06:00

You're not going to believe it...two 365 pictures in a row! :-)

Here's a picture I snapped this morning after dropping the boys off at school.

I'm going to save up a few and post them all at once so you don't have to keep popping over for one picture.

Have a wonderful Thursday! ♥

day 40: tt's favorite book

2011-02-09T13:29:00.005-06:00

My Project 365 has become a major snoozer, huh? Sorry! With my promise to blog less this year, I had to cut back on something, and my 365 pictures really took a hit. I want to keep my Party of Three going and an occasional 10 on Tuesday...and with our crazy schedule, that seemed to be keeping me plenty busy.

But last night I got an email requesting an artsy photo (you know who you are! ♥♥) so here ya go: The Tiny Tornado's new favorite book.

I'll try to do better with my 365 pics. My year ends on July 13th, so I have a ways to go.
Hope you're having a great Wednesday! :-)

party of three: 5/52

2011-02-04T10:38:00.004-06:00

Everyday after school, the boys sit at the table, doing their homework.
(Actually Drew doesn't have homework, but just go with it).

A warm sunny kitchen.

Rays of sun beaming through the windows.

Healthy snacks being prepared.

A quiet, peaceful enviornment for learning.

Oh wait...this is real life.

Dun Dun Duuuuunnnnnnn.

That's right bubbies. Party's over.

There was some proofreading.

Some fact-checking.

A bit of mulling-over.

If this wasn't my second attempt of my Party of Three pictures this week, I would have taken Collin's embryology report away from the Tiny Tornado post haste.

Unfortunately for Collin and his science grade...I was desperate.

I can't decide which picture I want to choose for my shot of the week. I like the second one (you know, the fee fi fo fum one)...but I like this one too.

Livia was certainly having a fantastic hair day.

Am I losing your interest here? It's just so rare for me to get all three faces in the same frame.

OK, I have a zillion more pictures, so I'll just wrap it up. In a nutshell, I started waving an M&M around...the Tornado started shrieking "have it! have it! have it!" while waving her little wrist around in a circle; you know, the usual.

In unrelated news, below is a before & after of a new action I've been working on creating. From the girl that knows how to do like five things in Photoshop...creating an action - LOL! It's supposed to be kind of vintagy, hazy...but you know me. I think my editing style is fairly subtle. You can see the difference, right? By the way...the right side is my edit - ha!

Whew! Five weeks down, whatever 52 minus 5 is to go! I'll say it again...I can't wait to get these kids outside for their weekly picture. Actually, I can't wait to get outside in general. How about you?

Have a great weekend everyone! ♥

noreply-comment@blogger.com

2011-02-02T10:58:00.008-06:00

I did a post on this a few months ago, but I never included the "how-to," so that wasn't very helpful of me, was it? HA! I remember Mandy doing a similar post recently so I thought I'd post it here again too.

I get so many thoughtful comments on my blog, and you know how much I appreciate your sweet words! Thank you! ♥ I know I've mentioned that I can't visit every person's blog that leaves a comment, but sometimes I'll get a question... in which case I always make it a point to respond. I read your comments through my email account, and it's very convenient to respond back to you that way. But occasionally when I click on someone's name to reply, I see "noreply-comment@blogger.com." If that happens, I'm unable to email you back.

If you'd like to change your settings, here's where this can be done:
(And by the way, I've noticed a TON of people have recently changed their settings - that's awesome!)

1. Go into your Blogger dashboard, and click on edit profile.

2. When the window pops up, make sure you check the box "show my email address." (shown below)

3. Enter your email address. (shown below)

4. Make sure you SAVE your profile.

That's it! Quick and easy, and it allows me to respond if you have any questions. Or sometimes if I get behind on blog visiting, I can say "thanks" by email. :-)

And because posts are better with pictures, here's how I feel if I can't respond to you!

And sometimes I feel like this.

No, actually we're all feeling that way because we're having another snow day. Weird, since it's sunny and I can still see my grass... They close our schools when it's really cold and windy (isn't that kind of indicative of winter)? If you have cabin fever too, click here to see what we were doing last year after the nine millionth snow day.

(There was a gal that left me a comment on my 10 on Tuesday post, with a blog-related question. I'm so sorry I couldn't email you back. Please feel free to email me again at karlibonnie@gmail.com with your email address, and I'll be happy to help!) :-)

10 on tuesday

2011-02-01T10:12:00.005-06:00

1. If you are one of the 214 people (gasp!) that commented on my last 5 posts...please, PLEASE know how much you made me smile! :-) E-hugs all around! ♥

2. An idea popped into my head this week that I'm excited to share. When Collin was a baby, I started a list to document milestones, funny things he said or did, etc. When Drew came along, I had less time to add to it, and by the time Livia came along, I hadn't touched the list in years. So I thought...why not start a new (private) blog to document some of those fun things! And so my new blog "The Things They Say" was born.

Now I can just type quick little things that made me laugh that day, and they're all organized by date. Cool, right? I made three blog buttons, one with each kiddo's picture on it, linking certain posts to certain kids. When the kids get older, they can pull up the entire blog or just click on their picture to see all the posts that were specifically about them. Does this make me seem incredibly organized or what?!

Here is a little glance below. I haven't decorated/designed the blog and since it's a private blog, I probably won't. I can write things that other people wouldn't find particularly funny, but that are funny to me. There won't be any pictures, just some ramblings that my kids might like to read one day.

3. Moving along. There was some interest last week as to why my husband's socks can't be washed with the rest of the family's socks. To clarify: if you remove your sock and it remains in the same shape as your foot after being removed, it gets its own wash cycle.

4. SERIOUSLY??

5. The Cliff Notes:
a. Yes, this snowman (and I'm being generous with that term) was made by Doron.
b. No, the snowman had not melted in any way before I snapped the picture.
c. I guess when you marry someone from South Florida, what can you expect?
d. Seriously though, you've never seen a picture of a snowman???
e. It doesn't help that the 2nd grader down the street made a whole family of snowmen/women/children who are all correctly assembled with three distinct balls.
f. To avoid shame and embarassment, I went out the following morning to try to "correct" the snowman. To my horror, it had turned into an ice sculpture (read: inpenetrable block of ice) and I fear it will be attending our summer block party.
g. Perhaps I did look a bit silly out there with an extension cord and a hair dryer.

6. Do you enjoy exercises in futility? Teach a Kindergartner to snap his fingers.

Ignore picture below of Kindergartner who (although he previously agreed to cooperate and pose for finger-snapping picture) now refuses to come out from behind his DSI.

7. Are my kids always eager to take pictures that correspond to my thoughts of the week? (See #6).

8. Why is the pretty pink stroller that Livia got for Christmas getting the most use from the boys?

9. My 9 year old is going to make a great husband someday. Encouraging, supportive, always on your side, you get the idea. Two minutes after we got the Fisher-Price Loving Family Minivan home and the twin babies buckeled safely in their car seats... OFF came the door. (Compliments of the Tornado). I hear Collin telling her "it's not your fault Livia. It's the company that made it's fault."

10. A friend once told me her daughter was not a "pretty crier."

I wasn't quite sure what that meant.

Ohhhhhhh. I see.

Not to worry, grandparents. I'm familiar with the Tornado's routine. See how she's opening one eye, just to make sure I'm still present and observing the show? This means she'll be done soon.

10. Occasionally I'm wrong.

And with that, you're now caught up on current events around the Bonnie household. :-)

Truly...thank you again so much for all your kind words! XOXO

party of three: 4/52

2011-01-28T12:14:00.011-06:00

Are you ready for a real doozy this week? I won't tell you how many pictures I took to get this shot, but I seriously have one keeper. (Sort of). It's going to have to be a keeper, because we have family coming in from out of the country today, so last night was my only chance.

Instead of some outtakes, how about some reasons why Super Target is not a Super place for pictures of your kids. (Are my little pointers helpful in any way...or are they just boring)? If I should just post my picture and be on my way, feel free to tell me. ;-)

1. Even though fluorescent lights look bright, the camera reads it as very low light. So that's bummer #1.

2. For close-up shots of my kids, I can't stand my ISO any higher than 1,000. (I'm trying to find a noiseware program that I really love). This contributes to the bad picture quality; but otherwise there wouldn't be enough light.

3. My actual settings for this picture: f/2.8; ss 1/160; ISO 1,000

4. My dream settings for this situation: f/5.6 (at least); ss 1/500; ISO 100-200 (But you can't do that because your picture would be super underexposed).

This picture might not be a masterpiece, but it is 100% real life. We are at Super Target at least 4 times a week, and you'll see my kids looking just like this. :-)

Oh! I almost forgot. One more thing to share. You might be wondering why in past weeks I've been yammering on about having a picture of the week; as in one picture. That's because I'd like to print a book of 52 pictures at the end of the year. Another reason: I just started a Flickr photostream, and having my Party of Three pictures so neatly in little rows makes me feel incredibly organized. (insert hysterical laughter here)

Check it out!

Seriously...how cool is this going to be after 52 weeks? :-)

Not to worry, parents and grandparents. Although my Flickr photostream is private, (I don't need one more thing to worry about keeping up on - ha!) I won't post anything on my stream that you haven't already seen on my blog.

And with that, I'm off for the weekend to be with family. Have a great one! ♥

watermelon vs. frog

2011-01-26T12:54:00.002-06:00

I buzzed over to Gymboree last night because the little senorita was in need of a new "swimmy" suit. So what do you think...watermelon, or frog?

First off... one day I will do a correct white balance in my kitchen. I mean, not today. But someday.

Who doesn't love a baby with orange skin anyway, right? ;-)

The only editing I did to these pictures was the PW's cooler action at 50%, and TRA's lux hard action at 30%. No levels, no curves, no contrast, no soft light, and nope... not even Aly's Basic Boost, my long-standing favorite. *gasp*

I luv this one. ♥

There's always black and white when you really mess up the color. Too bad it doesn't help with limb chops. (oops) But just ignore that and look at that sweet lil' face! :-)

Livia was pretty much over the modeling by this point, so the faces are a little questionable. But I did change my white balance here. It's still not a custom white balance (too much trouble), but I changed it from cloudy to sunny. (Cloudy will give you more of an orange cast; certainly not needed in my already orange kitchen). I didn't mess with the color on these last two pictures. Just Aly's Basic Boost, and that's it.

OK, so what do you think? Watermelon or frog?

party of three: 3/52

2011-01-23T14:14:00.006-06:00

Alrighty, three weeks down...49 to go! You guys, this is hard! Since it's winter time, it's so dark in our house...and working in a small space with minimal light is proving to be a challenge. I was beginning to wonder if I got anything yesterday morning...but I think there are some shots here that I really love.

I hesitated to choose the picture below as my picture of the week. I like the others so much better, but it was one of the only ones where I got all three faces semi-decent. It seems like at any given moment...at least one of the kids is making a funny face, blinking, looking away, sneezing, you name it. It's hard to get all three kids looking good at the same time.

That's pretty much the best I could get of the three of them! :-)

Now on to some pictures I like better.

I love how they seem completely unaware of me.

One thing I love about my kids is that any combination of them plays so well together. The boys are great friends, and each of them has a very special relationship with Livia.

I had to get a shot of those little curls - eeek! ♥

OK, here's where I need your opinions. The picture below is one of my favorites of the bunch. Just because it makes me laugh! :-) So... between the first picture and this one, which would you have chosen for the picture of the week? Would you choose one just because it included all three faces, or one that you really love? (If this was just a picture of two of the kids, of course it wouldn't have been in the running for my picture of the week, but you can definitely see all three kids are present). I love pictures that speak to me, make me smile, make me remember the moment...and that's why I like this one. :-) Collin helping Livia, again the curls!, and Drew's face - LOL!

If it sways your decision at all, the photographer I got this idea from (taking one picture a week of my kids together for 52 weeks), does not always include a full shot of each child. You can see that all of her kids are present, but sometimes it might just be a hand or the top of a head...

You can see the blinking game hasn't gotten old. Oh, and before I forget...the boys will have you know they are only playing with these legos because I asked them to. Livia loves them, and I thought it was something that would keep them all busy while I took pictures. Toddler legos are not one of their usual pasttimes. (Though Drew does look pretty serious about it, doesn't he?)

If you're wondering if I tell my kids to hug each other or if they do it on their own...they do it on their own.

The proof? Look below to see what happens when I give instructions. Here I said "Collin, put your arm around Livia," and "Drew, peek out from behind your tower."

Fake city! (Although it still cracks me up). :-)

For the picture below, I just let them be; no instructions.

I think it's better to just let them be. ♥

project 365: 9-13, 20-21

2011-01-21T19:09:00.004-06:00

day 9: strawberries

day 10: snowy trees

day 11: oil and water

Sorry, you guys have seen this one. I usually don't duplicate pictures on my blog, but this really was my shot of the day, and if I ever make a book of my 365 photos I'd like to have one of my first oil & water attempts in there. Moving along...

day 12: special to me

This looks like an ordinary snapshot, but it's something I'll want to remember. I had just called the kids out on the deck to snap a picture, and guess who was the only one that came racing out, just to make me happy. He's standing there waiting patiently for the others to show up. This is so typical of him, and it's special to me. I love you Collin! ♥

day 13: dislike!

day 20: downtown

day 21: fun food friday

I ran across Jill's blog (Meet the Dubiens) a few months ago, and I fell in love with all the cute activities she does with her kids. One of my favorite parts of her blog is Fun Food Friday. Her creations are amazing! If you haven't stopped by, I want to link you to Jill's top 10 fun food Fridays of 2010.

Really... make sure you stop by. My sad little version doesn't do her blog justice. :-) You'll also find amazing recipes, crafts for kiddos and she's a great photographer too.

With that, I'm off for the evening to watch a little Avatar with the fam! :-) Have a great weekend! ♥

10 on tuesday

2011-01-18T18:30:00.006-06:00

1. Four things I've learned in the first week of potty training the Tornado.
The tiny Dora the Explorer underwear: acceptable
The soft, comfy Dora potty seat: acceptable
The princess potty chair that 'plays a royal tune as a reward' that we had to buy because the comfy Dora potty seat suddenly became unacceptable: acceptable
The M&M's used for bribing: more than acceptable

Completing the transaction: well, we're coming up dry.

2. Oh riiiiight. I learned one more thing. The gatekeeper of the M&M's better be in full combat-ready protective gear. Because you will be mowed to the ground.

3. Drew suggested I purchase the InStyler. (Funny, I don't remember mentioning anything was wrong with my hairstyle).

4. The day after the InStyler incident, I was complaining that everyone always throws their junk all over my desk in the kitchen, causing me to miss some important paperwork I was supposed to fill out. And no, my being a scatterbrain has nothing to do with the oversight. Collin says "mom, you really need to get the Wonder File." (Infomercials, anyone)?

5. I've receive many emails asking if we have great natural light in our house. In a word, no. That's why most of the pictures I take inside are in our kitchen. Definitely not by choice; rather by necessity. Here's a pullback so you can see where I usually position Livia. See how she's facing the light?

Are you hyperventilating? No? It's just me?

(I learned that trick at Paper Heart Camera).

Seriously, my blood pressure is still rising. Four tornados, can you imagine?

6. The hubs and I are having our first standoff in the ten years we've been together. He's been complaining that he never has any clean black socks to wear, so he informed me that he was going to keep buying black socks until I washed the ones in the sock box. (In my defense, his socks are not allowed to be washed with the rest of our laundry, so it's only natural that I forget from time to time.

I'm not sure who the winner is here:

7. Oh. Look back at the picture above. Do you notice anything in the background? Yep, standoff #2. We've both walked past that Christmas tree for two weeks and no one will take it downstairs.

8. Whenever Livia gets in trouble, she yells "RUN!! RUUUUUUN!!!!!!" Wow, that fight or flight thing kicks in early, huh?

9. Last time we discussed the fact that we were having problems of hygenic proportion. (Livia refusing to take off her Elmo jammies). Now were are having problems of dermatological proportion. She panics when she gets out of the tub and finds her fingers all shriveled up from the water. She cries "wrinkles!!! No yike it!!!"
I get it. I don't yike wrinkles either.

10. From the basement I hear:
*thwack*
(3 kids giggling)
Livia: "my bad!"

Alrighty...those are current events around our house for the week. What's the latest with you? :-)

Have a great week! ♥

party of three: 2/52

2011-01-15T18:17:00.010-06:00

Whew! I barely squeaked in with my Party of Three pictures this week. I procrastinated until this morning, the Tiny Tornado was not feeling 100%, I was experimenting with off-camera flash, the boys only had two days of school this week (and were a bit nutty), and right before we began taking pictures, the Tornado tripped up the stairs and bit her tongue (or lip)...I don't think we ever figured it out. We began the pictures with red eyes, a runny nose, a blotchy face and an injury to an unidentified part of the oral cavity. Not the best combo.

So here's my shot for week two:

No seriously, that's the picture.

If only you could be a fly on the wall at our house. With Collin and Drew both in karate, guess who insists on having her own belt. So we have a red belt, and green belt and a snake belt.

And now for some outtakes:
(Trust me, we tried to remove the sippy cup but decided it just wasn't worth it. And it's doing a great job of hiding the face issues mentioned above.

A certain member of our family doesn't like ~~headless~~ artsy shots. Until a certain grandpa can properly expose and get three kids with varying heights in focus and who can move faster than any shutter speed known to my camera, then I will invite him to enjoy what we have here. (Hi dad!) :-)

Notice Drew in the green belt. Growth spurt, anyone?
(It's a little known fact that capri-wearing ninjas are fierce).

I think they're discussing whether or not to mutiny. Livia was very much over the pictures at this point.

To prevent the Tornado from completely falling apart, here she is being soothed by a game of Ring Around the Rosy.

For the record, I didn't suggest this idea; the boys did. That's how awesome they are. ♥