Day 31 {I made it whole month!}

I did it!  I made it an entire month and didn't miss a day.  One month down eleven to go.  Tonight I pulled out my black seamless paper again for my homework assignment for class.  Although I do like the brown better with the boys and it is easier to work with and light I need to figure out the black.  So I took the advice from my father which I forgot last time I used it and remembered that black absorbs light therefore turning it gray.  I guess I pay enough attention when I read things because it took my dad telling me what to do to figure it out.......maybe he needs to get a photography hobby?  LOL   

So with my lightening set up a little different this time I tried again.  I did not have to turn the background black this time....it actually stayed that way.  I hope I am moving in the right direction for this. So here are a few that I really liked.   Although I wished I had noticed the 2 big finger print smudges on my lens BEFORE I had started.  they were slightly difficult to work around.  Note to self: Always check for fingerprints before taking a hundred pictures.

 

  

Thanks for looking :)

Day 30 { More climbing}

The climbing thing is Ty's new favorite game.  Today a friend from college was coming over to visit for the day and Xander was washing up some dishes before she arrived.  While he was washing the dishes Ty decided to pull a chair up to the sink and climb on in!  I came into the kitchen to find him standing in the sink covered in bubbles and soaked.   There goes the nice outfit I had on him and my floor was also soaked.  At least Xander got the dishes done though :)

I did manage to take a night shot tonight for class thanks to a friends suggestions of taking a picture of a candle.   Much better than freezing my tush off outside!

Thanks for looking :)

Day 29 {Dancing to the spin cycle}

While doing laundry today I walked into the laundry room and found Ty on top of the washing machine bopping away on top of it while the spin cycle was on!    All day long I had to keep going in and dragging him off the top of washer.  He thought this was a great game and kept climbing back on top.

 

And  then of course he had to go after the laundry soap too.....

Day 28 {night shot}

Slow picture day today.  I did get a cute shot of Ty absolutely mesmerized by the television.....watching In The Night Garden of course :)

After the kids were in bed I attempted to do one of my assignments for class this week.  The goal to take a night shot....well silly me decided to go outside and test out the night mode on my camera.  BRRRRR  I got exactly one test shot before I said forget it and went back inside.  -40 is WAY too cold to be outside to try and get a picture of nothing in particular.

Day 27 {Clean carpet}

I looked at the carpet in my living room and decided it was long past due for a cleaning.  I swear when we own our own home we will not be having carpet.  The kids spill stuff on it, the dog comes in with muddy feet, Bill always wears his shoes in the house and the reasons go on and on.    The carpet which is supposed to be light beige in colour had black spots all over it, to the point where it was just gross.   I used to have a carpet shampooer but after several years it finally kicked the bucket a few months ago.  Which is half the reason the carpet was allowed to get as bad as it was.  We usually rent a good one from the grocery store about once a year and use our cheap one every few months.  So it was long overdue and I sent Bill out to rent one.

Here is what the carpet looked like after one swipe with the machine....EWWWWW

So after quite a few 'swipes' with the machine the carpet did come clean :)  Minus a nice light green mark where Ty got a hold of a marker....it just doesn't want to come out.

Later in the evening after the carpet was done and dinner was over ( BTW my Lamb roast was delish and everybody loved it!) Xander wanted to play the Wii.  So he pulled out the Wii fit ( onto the still damp carpet).  He was having a hard time playing though since Ty decided to join in the fun!

Ty making things slightly difficult for Xander

The boys watching Xander play

Thanks for looking :)

Day 26 {Roast Lamb}

I went to the grocery store today and got a leg of lamb.  I have never had lamb or cooked it before so this is going to be interesting.  I keep getting told to find mint jelly to go with it although I personally think that would be kind of gross, I will try it though.  I searched out a recipe for a marinade and found a good one.  Then after forgetting to go to the grocery store I ended up searching for everything in Walmart while I was there.  Well the Walmart near us is in the middle of building the supercenter and has not quite finished the grocery section so my choices were limited.  I had to get the roast marinating over night so could not just wait to get to the grocery store the next day. While searching around for fresh rosemary ( which Walmart does NOT have) I found an organic marinade in a bottle listing almost the exact same ingredients as my recipe.  SKORE!!!  So I went with the bottle and saved myself a whole lot of time and energy :)

I have it soaking over night now and will cook it with some potatoes and carrots tomorrow.  Hopefully its not too disgusting and everybody eats it!  I think as long as I don't tell Dylan it is a lamb we should be okay!  LOL

Day 25 {They HATE the camera!}

I have given up.  My boys hate when I point a camera at them.....well Ty is still too young to care he just looks at me and says cheese.  The other two?  NO WAY!  They make silly faces, put their hands in front of their face, turn around, leave the room, anything they can to stop me from getting a picture.  Unless of course they are doing something where they actually want a picture then its all smiles.  But normal everyday activity....forget it.  I had to pry Dylan's face away from the Nintendo DS and when I did this is what I got.

So be prepared for a lot of pictures of nothing for the next year....I have given up on my children.

Day 24 {more sparkler fun}

I pulled out more sparklers tonight while the boys were outside and let them have a little fun.  Of course all Xander wanted to do was take a picture with him "peeing sparkles" like his daddy!  LOL

 

Thanks For looking :)

Day 23 { My husband pees fire}

Today I went and borrowed a tripod from Bill's Aunt so I could take a picture showing motion for my class.  A friend gave me a link to a cool new trick (Sparkler Photography Tutorial)  I went out tonight to freeze my butt off trying to get a good picture.  Well the kiddos were in bed by the time I got out there tonight so I had Bill helping me.  This is what I ended up with.....

Not sure if I will be taking this picture to class with me but I thought it was pretty funny.    I will try again tomorrow and let the kids have some fun with it.   Bill and I really enjoyed playing around with it tonight.  Thanks for the great idea Jen! 

Day 22 { sledding}

Boring day in the house today.  I took some pictures for class but since they are of the bathroom faucet I'm not going to share.  LOL  So I took a cue from my favorite 365 blog (:: mcdougall photography: the blog ::) I took a picture of my lunch.  I must confess I LOVE McDonald's Angus burgers with bacon and cheddar.  Cheddar, bacon, lettuce, pickles, onion, and all the rest of the goodies that go on a good burger and all on a cool bun.  mmm mmm good! 

But I did find some pictures from last week to share.  Bill took these with Xander's camera when he took the boys out to the hill for some tobogganing last weekend.   He only took three pictures and they all look the same since he forgot he had the camera in his pocket.  But at least I got one I could show you all.

Thanks for looking :)

Day 21 {one tired kid}

Today Tyler fell asleep at 10:45 am and stayed asleep until  2:30!  I guess he was pretty tired, I think he may be getting sick.  He sounds like he's losing his voice as well.    When he woke up I gave him some lunch and tried getting a few pictures for my homework assignment for my photography class.  While snapping away I took this one and love it!  Not sure why I like it so much, just do :)

Thanks for looking :)

Day 20 {trains and sleep}

Tyler followed in the path of the other boys today when he discovered Thomas the train. An episode came onto the TV today and he started jumping around and talking in mumbo jumbo while pointing to the screen.  I asked him if he liked the choo choo and he ran around going choo choo, choo choo.  So I thought it was time to pull out the wooden Thomas set that was Xander's when he was that age.  I only brought out the trains today but I think I may pull the actual track out for him tomorrow :) 

While playing with his trains he also skipped his afternoon nap. So in the middle of supper tonight this is what I found.  Poor kid was tuckered out.

Day 19 {clay}

The boys got air dry clay from Aunt Meg for Christmas and on the weekend they made stuff with it.  I would say they made ashtrays but since we don't' say that anymore.....they made pencil holders and candy dishes!  They had a lot of fun rolling little 'snakes' to coil around to make a dish. 

They couldn't paint them until today since they had to dry but had lots of fun doing that after school.  I must say I thought Crayola air dry clay was going to be a huge pain in the you know what but it was actually fairly clean and pretty easy for the boys to work with!  Good call Megen!

Day 18 {what happened to the TV?}

So lately the television keeps getting a weird message on it. After playing with the remote I finally looked over at the satellite receiver and discovered Ty had puled open the little door and pulled out the smart card that makes it work. I had to search for almost  40 minutes trying to find the card to put back in it.  I finally found it buried in behind a shelf.  I guess Bill had taken the tape off I had on it for some reason and Ty discovered how to open it and pull it out.   So my solution to this was to stick another piece of tape on it.  Unfortunately I could not find Bill's electrical black tape ( blends in and he doesn't see it)  so I used my best friend....duct tape!  I do tend to use duct tape for a LOT of stuff.  I think I need to stop watching the red green show ;)    Well it did stop him for a little bit.......about a whole hour!  I think I need to come up with something else.  I found it in the bathroom later on.

Later on I caught him right in the act!  Only this time he had moved over a foot and was attempting to shove a dvd into the wii.    This is getting to be a big game for him, time to figure out somewhere else to put this stuff.  At the moment I have no CD rom drive on the computer because he shoved a disc in there and it is stuck shut. What else will this child break before I can get a bigger house with more room to put things up?

Day 17 {sinus pain}

I had a very boring day today and the kids drove me nuts all day. I took absolutely no pictures till about 20 minutes ago when I realized I still had not picked up my camera. When did I think of this? When I was in the bathroom for the 4th time that day doing yet another sinus rinse. I seem to have gotten yet another sinus infection. I do at least 2 sinus rinses everyday ( more in the past few days) and use my prescription nasal spray but it still hurts and bugs me. I must say I have gotten used to shooting water in one nostril and out the other.....although it was gross at first it really does provide relief :)

Day 16 {magic show}

Today Xander decided to take his magic kit he got for Christmas and give us a magic show.  He set everything up on the table and started doing magic for us.



Here is the little owl in the box.....

And now it's gone!   He's good isn't he?

And later on they went outside to play...I looked outside to find them with a plastic croquet mallet trying to bang the ice off the GT.  

Day 15 {Thirsty}

Apparently I do not give my child enough to drink during the day.  This is what I caught on camera this morning, Xander left the empty milk carton on the table.  Ty tried to get the last few drops out of it.

Then for the rest of the day he kept going in and drinking Hooch's water out of the bowl....sometimes with a cup other times just sticking his head in.  He also likes to just play in it.

Day 14 {homework}

Today I had to finish up my homework assignment for my class and get it into my teacher.   I had to try to get a image with more than one person in it and left this one to do till today.  But since the only other person in the house was Ty I improvised and used Hooch as well.

 I had fun doing these assignments it gave me a great chance to just point and shoot at whatever my little heart desired. One of the assignments was to take a low key, high key and high contrast image.   I had fun with this one since it was a bit more challenging for me.   I admit I totally stole Shannon's idea for my high contrast image though.....Thanks!   So here are those images...I won't bore you with all the rest of my boring shots of things around my house!

Day 13 {Potato?}

Today I spent the day chasing Ty from one room to the next.  Its seems every time I turned my back he was finding something else to get in to.  My cupboards seemed to be a big fascination for him today.   I think it may be time for some more childlocks :)

And then I tried to make potato soup.  I turned my back to go grab a knife to peel with and when I came back to the table found this.  The piece he bit spit out onto the table!  Didn't stop him from playing with the potatoes though, 10 minutes later I went into the bathroom and came back to every single one of my peeled potatoes all over the kitchen floor.   It was just one of those days :)

Day 12 {what is that smell?}

Today I spent the day with my camera glued to my hip.  I have a whole bunch of pictures to take for my photography class, I will not share them all here since they are a whole lot of random pictures of weird stuff.  I will however share one I caught on camera this morning.  I was doing dishes and Ty somehow managed to find him self a milk crate and use it as a stool to reach the sink.  He was trying to be helpful, but just kept pushing me out of the way to stick his hands in the sink and  say "hot" when he put his hands in the water.  Well it took quite a while but I did manage to get the dishes done.









After I was done the dishes I noticed a strange smell in the kitchen still.  After searching everywhere for the cause of it I finally opened the oven and discovered that Bill had left a broiler pan filled with grease and two hamburgers still on it in there!  EWWWW  So after disposing of the hamburgers and washing the pan the kitchen started smelling a little better :)  After that I went to get a nice cup of coffee and ended up having to use a travel mug with no lid.  ALL of my mugs seem to have disappeared!  I looked all around the house and can't find any of them .  Then I look in the cupboard and discovered I only have 2 glasses ( not plastic kids cups) left!  I swear three weeks ago I had about 15 of them!  I'm not really sure where all my cups have gone but I have a sneaking suspicion that Tyler and a garbage can may be involved.

So out I go to the grocery store and while I was there I bought myself 2 new coffee mugs because I was not really liking drinking my coffee out of a travel mug with no lid!    Aren't they pretty?  And BIG too!

Oh I also bought a new febreeze candle and some Air wick refills to help with the kitchen smell and oven cleaner  :)