Pictures, pictures, everywhere!

 

Even before taking photography seriously I loved taking photos and looking through old family photos. 

 

Back in the day when we used film or Polaroids before that, we'd take them, have them printed, throw them in a drawer or box where they'd sit until we dug through them looking for something.

 

 

 

The last time we moved which was about 12 years ago I decided to take on the project of organizing all the prints along with all the ones my mom had laying around. 

 

 

I was going to put them in chronological order and get them all in albums and labeled like the ones you see here:
 

 

 

Then when my grandmother passed away in 2004 and we were going through some of her stuff I ended up taking a trunk full of family photos home to go through.

 

 

Problem is, these photos I have posted here.....they were just taken today.  Yeah, that's how far I've gotten on my project over the past 12 years!!

Not to mention the fact that all the 100's of prints I have in these boxes only date through about mid 2004.  That's when I went digital. 
I'd say I've taken thousands since then.  I didn't have to worry about wasting film.  Now all those sit on my hard drive waiting for something to be done with them.

I always figured I'd have a selection of them printed for each year and add them to the rest so we'd have something to physically hold and look at. 

Now I just feel overwhelmed! 
But I hate that they are just sitting around in boxes!

I'm thinking about getting some of these cases to make it quicker and easier to store them rather than trying to get them all in albums.




I'll feel much better when I dig myself out of this hole.  IF I ever dig myself out!




52 Weeks of my girls {Week 5}



Well, I may not be doing everything I'd hoped with my blog when I started out this year, but I am keeping up with my 52 week project.  That was the main goal I wanted to keep up.

Hard to believe this photo was taken on February 4th which is normally right smack in the dead of winter. It's sunny and warm (40s), yes warm for this time of year in Wisconsin!  No coats and barely any snow left on the ground.  Neighbors were out playing basketball and riding bikes today.  

52 Weeks of my girls {Week 4}

They got a couple new games on their iPods that they can't seem to stop playing!

So, it's not lying when they ask of these are going on Facebook and I say no even though they are going on my blog, right?  Totally different thing! 

52 Weeks of my girls {Week 3}

I told her to "go get your sister" and she came back with her in her arms!  They take everything so literally.  This was taken with my iPhone.  I cheated yesterday and used it for my instagram 366 project on my phone as well as my weekly photo of the girls. 

You can see all my 366 photos online on webstagram here: lynnsphotos  Or find me on the instagram app on your phone, username: lynnsphotos. 

52 Weeks of My Girls {Week 2}

Had to get kitty in the photo this week!

52 Weeks of my girls {week 1}

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



Had to get out there and get started right away!

Looking forward to having fun with them this year and getting lots of great pics!

Project Smile {January}

I'm playing along with Alicia today for her project smile. 
She's been doing this for a bit and it's been something I wanted to join in on but like many things in my life it gets pushed aside for whatever reason.  But I think it's time for me to start noticing and appreciating the things that make me smile rather than always focusing on the things that don't.  


The past month has been a great one for my husband and I as a couple.  We've spent some needed quality time together, we've talked a lot and we've really reconnected.  We've become closer and more open with each other than we've ever been.  It's been a good thing for me. 


This past week we've actually had two date nights.  Yes, two in one week!  Now that the kids are getting older it's much easier to get out together.  


Last Sunday they both slept over at friends houses since there was no school on Monday so we used up our Chili's gift card and part of our Marcus Movie theater gift card that we got for Christmas.  We ended up getting to the theater pretty early so we snapped this photo  while sitting in the car.

We saw "The Dilemma" with Kevin James and Vince Vaughn.  I love Kevin, Vince? Eh, I can take him or leave him.  The movie was pretty good though.  We both liked it. And I didn't realize until the movie started that Channing Tatum was also in it!  Yum.....

Another reason to smile. (shhh....don't tell hubby) I was trying to decide between shirtless and tuxedo.  While he looked hot in the tuxedo, shirtless ultimately won out.  

You're welcome.

Then on Saturday we had tickets to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood from the "Whose Line Is It Anyway" show.  We love going to see them.  This was like our 4th year in a row and it doesn't get old.  It's all improv so even though they play some of the same games each year it's always different.  So we snapped another photo that night. 

I don't know how many we took and deleted because I hated how I looked!  People must have thought we were nuts!  Looks pretty similar to the other though doesn't it.  Oh well. 

Click on the button to join in. 

It all started.....

In a small town in Massachusetts

Where I was born 41 years ago.

Now I'm living in Wisconsin, wearing purple snuggies!

And eating chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.

Made with love by my hubby!

Brewer game

Saturday night we went to a Milwaukee Brewers game.  We haven't gone in years.  Mostly because we aren't sports fans.  And don't get me started on the cost of everything either!  EIGHTEEN friggin dollars for parking! 

Skowt's high school band was playing for the pre-game so we decided to head out also.

No home runs were hit so we didn't get to see Bernie go down the slide!

Like I said, not something we normally do but it was fun to go as a family, do something different and watch my daughter out on the field. 

We did get to see the woman who babysat my kids for about 6 years or Nana as they called her.  We knew she had worked at the ball park after she stopped sitting for us but didn't know if she was still there.  Well, we bumped into her on our way out (we left a tad early) so that was nice.  Tiger didn't remember her, she was too young and Skowt didn't get a chance to see her as she had to stay with the band for the entire game.

My little equestrienne

Yes, I had to look up the spelling of my post title!!  I didn't realize there was a feminine version of the word equestrian.  Anyhoo....


I think Tiger has finally found her "thing"! 

Riding horses!

She tried different sports, dancing, saxophone and clarinet.  But she never seemed to really get into any of them.  It's taken a while and much frustration from me because she always seemed to want to quit everything she signed up for but I think this is finally it.

All 3 of the people who helped out asked me if she had ever ridden or had a lesson before.  She's been on a horse twice before this and only on one of those trail rides in the Wisconsin Dells.  Where they just stick you on a horse and they just follow each other along a trail.  No formal training.  But they all could not believe how well she was doing for her first lesson.  Looks like she's a natural.

She's been bugging me for lessons for quite some time now but I was always hesitant given her past history and what I thought the lessons would cost.  But the place we found is pretty reasonable and they are flexible with how often she will be taking lessons. 

She hasn't stopped talking about it since her lesson ended at 1pm on Friday.  In fact she is in her bedroom right now teaching her older sister everything she learned!

No fireworks

Well, this is the first July 4th in years that we didn't go see fireworks.  This year we decided to drive up to Minnesota and visit the Mall of America on Saturday. 

The kids loved it because we got to shop!  They each had a limit and they actually stayed under it quite easily, so I'm putting the rest in their college fund account since we've been pretty bad at adding to that over the years!  We had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.  Everyone had shrimp but me, the picky one!

Then on Sunday the 4th we went to the Minnesota Zoo.  It's a fairly nice one as far as being clean and kept up but the kids were a little disappointed because there weren't all that many animals compared to our zoo.  They also had nice exhibits with lots of room for the animals to move around which then meant they were far apart so there was tons of walking in between.  But overall I thought it was nice.

 

Skowt loves the Prairie Dogs....I think their claws look a little creepy! 

I'm putting the rest of the pics from the zoo in a gallery on my smug mug site. 

How did you spend your 4th?

AAAYYY!!!

Friday we took a drive to Milwaukee to get tickets to see The Cake Boss.  WooHoo!  We all like watching the show so it will be something fun to do as a family.

While down there we took a little walk along the Milwaukee River and had our pics taken with the bronz Fonz....

The kids weren't interested in making fools of themselves!

Sunday we had a nice Father's day.  We slept in a bit, the kids and I made breakfast for hubby, we discussed a few trips we may take in the future, spent some time checking out an Artisan Faire in town, had cake and did some fishing.

Well, hubby and the kids fished......I took photos.......

Today I got talked into buying a book of Twilight songs for the clarinet!! 

 I guess if it gets her to practice her clarinet over summer break it's all good.

Mother's Day #15

Wow, I can't believe yesterday was my 15th Mother's Day as a mom!  And I love my kids more than I ever imagined.  Well...........most of the time ;) heehee

It was a nice Mother's Day weekend.  I was surprised to have the entire weekend off from work considering I had just been off for 2 and a half weeks for my trip. 

I started the weekend with a girls night out on Friday.  I met a couple friends to go see our man Rick Springfield!  As usual we had a blast.  And you know I can't mention a Rick show without sharing a least one photo!

When I got home from the show I found these on the kitchen table..

My kids snuck out with my mom while I was at the concert to get them for me for Mother's Day! 

Saturday we went to Dave and Busters for lunch to celebrate Tiger's 11th bday and we also treated hubby's mom.  Later on that evening after dinner my kids kept whispering to hubby when they thought I wasn't paying attention.  Turns out they had also gotten an Oreo Cake for me the night before and were trying to decide when it was time for cake!

Then yesterday they all made breakfast and we just spent the day at home.  They all did yard work while I slaved away on the computer finishing up the wedding photos.  Seriously, my hand is sore today and I swear it's from all the photo editing!

Here are a few of those...

You can click on any of the wedding photos to get to the gallery to see more.

Hope all you moms out there also had a wonderful Mother's Day!!