No pictures today. I can’t justify sitting at the computer editing photos when Corin has the flu and my house is in shambles. So we have been fighting the stomach flu. YUCK! So far the babies Chester and I have not come down with it…just Corin. He crawled back into bed this morning at eight and fell asleep. I think that fully explains how horrible he feels. Of course this happened right in the middle of us moving all the babies into the larger of our two bedrooms. I have painted Chester and my new room a light gray and will post pictures eventually. Chester put the bed in last night and started laughing because nothing else will really fit in our room now. The important thing is the babies have space and will be able to sleep in a crib (for the first time) and not a pack-n-play. Last night was their first time all sleeping in the same room and it was a complete success. I do not assume that it will be this easy from now on because they are babies, after all, and babies are prone to waking up screaming in the wee hours of the night. I will, however, say how blessed I feel that my children have done so well thus far. More later on the room switch. Evan is screaming so off I go!
I have been going through photos of the past five years. Which means early dating and married photos. Here is Chester about a year after we were married. He was born in the 70s (barely) need I say more?
Corin asked me to take some pictures of him and Evan. The first one turned out cute and the next few went progressivly downhill. Corin’s idea of a fun photo shoot was NOT fun for Evan. Probably because Corin’s idea of playing right now means mauling, poking and biting. (sorry babies!)
Here are some other pictures I have taken over the last week or two.
I have been getting my camera out a lot more lately. It is fun to have so many pictures of the kids. I am hoping to do a 6 month photo shoot of the twins…we will see if time allows for it.
So I am terrible! I still don’t have a wedding book made up. We had a close friend take the photos for our wedding (4.5 years ago) and he did a great job. He sent us the RAW images and we said we would do the editing. So 4.5 years pass…we now have three kids and I have not processed a single photo. Well that is not true I have processed two photos. I am going to take a few at a time. Then when my two year old starts screaming and throwing a fit in the living room behind me I will take a break and do a few more the next day. Here are the first two photos. I love Photoshop, maybe I will post the pre-processed for you so you can see the difference.
So four and a half years later and I love my man a hundred times more. We escaped our house with the baby monitor and used the neighbor’s couch, living room, and flat screen the other night. Afterwards I told Chester, “Sometimes I forget how much I love being with just you!” I guess that is why people say to keep dating after kids. More wedding and kid pics to come.
Corin is 2 years old today. I can’t believe that much time has passed already. He is so much fun, and I have enjoyed the last two years so much. I don’t know how much time I will have today for a Birthday post so I am doing this quick one just in case I don’t get a chance to write more. Corin amazes me daily with his vocabulary and understanding of the world around him. We are having friends over and he preceded to explain “Hudson, over…Tanner, over…Isaac, over” “Knock, knock on door” “Come in!” “play” “sit down watch movie” etc. I can’t believe his comprehension some times…and then some times I don’t know how he doesn’t understand not to bite his friends…sigh. Hopefully more pictures later. Here is my little man.
I was trying out a picture with rounded edges but my blog posts with rectangular borders. I will fix it later.
There are often people over…whether for my own sanity or Corin’s. My close friend Amy Geer and her son Hudson come over a lot and the boys love to play. Here are some pictures I took of Hudson.
Another good friend Bunnie Gerber also comes over a lot…this time to bring me Trader Joe’s goodies from down the mountain. She brought her son Isaac who is the same age as Hudson and Corin. I snapped a few quick photos just because the lighting was good and he is so darn cute!
Enjoy!
I have many friends here at Hume and I feel so blessed to be here. They are helping me to survive three kiddos under the age of two (I can only say that for one more week). I am working on a post about the twins who are now five months old, so that will be coming soon.
I love that things of nature are in style, when it comes to home decorating. I already have lots of growing things in my house, and I have an advantage to others, because I live in the mountains. For example, I found this nest in my back yard (before it started raining, snowing) yesterday. I have been wanting to build a nest but didn’t know where to begin…so when I found this nest already made it was perfect. Now I had to acquire faux eggs to go in the nest. Everywhere I looked faux eggs were either flimsy, plastic, or just out of my price range. I got the idea to make some myself. I got walnuts (in their shells) and wrapped them with some silk fiber I had in my yarn collection. The result looked even better than I hoped it would. Here is a picture. Now I just have to free up one of my apothecary jars so I can display it somewhere in my house.
This Christmas, the Meister of Coffee gave me the best gift EVER! Doesn’t it look just beautiful in my kitchen? …Well, okay, I know this picture just shows the machine, but you can just trust me—It does indeed look beautiful.
How It All Happened
I have been bugging my father about this espresso machine for months, because it was sitting neglected in his garage. Now before you all ask me why he didn’t just give it to me sooner…Please understand what this machine is. It is a Brutus II Expobar double boiler espresso machine, which means it is very expensive. Much more expensive than my Rancillio Silvia. (Chester and I purchased the Silvia when we got married for around $560.00.) Needless to say, I didn’t ever really expect to get Dad’s Expobar as a gift.
Christmas rolled around, and my dad said he was considering giving me the Expobar, but didn’t know what to give to my brother and sister. He agreed that if I gave my Rancilio to my brother, I could have the Expobar, and he gave my sister a really nice camera lens. (Also, Chester and I won’t be expecting any more presents for the entire year!) I still cannot believe my parents’ generosity. They have a coffee morning in their home every Friday, during which they make coffee for anyone who wants to come over –no charge. Thank you, Mom and Dad! You amaze me daily. I love you both!
Here is a picture of my dad, the Kaffee Meister, and some others of my new machine in action.
Corin is the baby in this picture…watching his Grandpa in action. (obviously this picture was taken a while ago.)
As you can see Corin still loves watching the coffee making process!
I haven’t mastered foam art on the Expobar yet; it’s still kind of hit-and-miss. However, because of its temperature control and the double boiler, I have been able to pull amazingly consistent shots. Please come over and experience great coffee!
Well the twins are almost five months. Evan and Fiona are starting to reveal their personality differences. Evan laughs at EVERYTHING. He is very ticklish and Chester lovingly refers to him as a “goober”. Fiona smiles at us often but is much harder to make laugh. She steals things from Evan because she is so fantastic at grabbing. Here are some photos of the twins. It is very difficult to get photos of the two of them together but I keep trying.
Enjoy!
Corin has a train track and cars that he got for Christmas. He doesn’t know yet how to play with them himself he is always bringing us the track pieces and saying “fix it!”
While in Santa Rosa CA for Thanksgiving I went shopping at a local thrift store (I spent Black Friday at Joann’s Fabrics and Salvation Army HA). I found these amazing footed soup bowls that were a dollar a piece. When I got home I looked them up to see if I could find some more. They are Denby which is a company out of England and they retail for between 30-60 dollars. Needless to say I will be using the three I have for decoration or serving small food items. I don’t think I will have a set of them any time soon.
I got some succulent plants while down in San Diego for Christmas and planted them when I came home. This beautiful wood piece I used is from a wedding of some dear friends of ours. My house is a mess but I keep small parts of it in order to keep my sanity. Here are some pictures for you to peruse.
I talked to my sister about my neglected blog at Christmas. She made a good point…”just put up pictures since your blog is called snapshots of your life.” So in the times when I don’t have the time to write I will share photos. We definitely have enough of them. I love this photo of Corin and his grandfather (Tim McLaughlin). It is just…special.
