Halloween Costume #2

Here are some pictures I took tonight of our little Ryane Bug! She's not a big fan of the shell part, so it was pretty much dress her up, snap a few pictures, then she was ready to take it off. Does this mean I need to have 4 costumes next year for 2 kids??

For those interested, I got most of the scrapbooking "supplies" for free on www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com. Check it out, they have some pretty fun stuff.

Neewollah

We spent a long weekend down in Matthew's hometown for their annual Neewollah celebration. (It's Halloween spelled backwards) We had a really fun time as always. A fun-filled eventful time doing lots of stuff and spending lots of time with family. My parents and brother was there on Friday and two of Matthew's Aunts/Uncles traveled up from Texas and Oklahoma. Friday afternoon was the kiddie parade which Matthew pulled Ryane in her wagon through the parade (first of many I'm sure). He walked with his HS best friend and his little one Aiden who is a year older. My niece and nephew Hannah & Carson also walked nearby as well as cousins. I also had a niece, Shawlisa Pollman, who played/marched in the St. Paul Jr. High band, so it was a parade filled with family members. Of course I had my camera on me the whole weekend and you can see the pictures here.

Deuce...

A picture is worth a 1000 words...




Matthew and I recently found out we are pregnant with #2! We are very excited. We told the family this weekend by putting this shirt on Ryane. We are due mid-June making our kids 20.5-21 months apart -- perfectly planned we think!

Beware of the Lion!

We bought Ryane's Halloween costume several weeks ago. Since then we have played dress up a few times with it. Ryane isn't a big fan of keeping the hood part on, especially when she figured out how easy it is to just rip off. So we play with it often trying to make it look like fun to wear. Tonight, it was nice weather outside, so what better to do than get all dressed up with makeup and all for costume pictures. The more attention she got about how cute she was, the less she remembered the hat.


Here's a couple pictures of the biggest pumpkin Matthew and Ryane are growing in their garden. Will it be ready by Halloween?

My Dear Friend ~ Photoshop

Photoshop is definitely an addiction for me. Thanks to my loving husband who bought it for me as part of our 1st anniversary gift. I just love all it's wonder and capabilities and those are only the ones I know of. I'm still learning new things monthly, so I can only imagine all the stuff it can do that I haven't even learned or imagined yet. Here are a couple of my photoshop projects that are fairly new.

I just did Ryane's name collage tonight with her 1 year pictures.


Here's another picture that I photoshopped awhile back. Took this picture of Matthew and Ryane as they watched the Chiefs first game this year. I wasn't crazy about the background in the original picture so I placed them over a picture I took last Nov. at the Chiefs game--now, it's MUCH better! :)

Relaxing weekend at home

Not much went on this weekend - we mainly had a nice relaxing weekend at home. I had two photo shoots that took up some of my time and we went to the ESU football game on Saturday. We ran into a couple of Matthew's high school friends and their little one, so that was a nice surprise. Yesterday was SO nice outside that we took advantage of it and took Ryane for her first official bike ride (the short one in the dark a couple weeks ago doesn't count!).

Playing peek-a-boo with daddy. Ryane shows a lot of patience when hiding - very surprising!

















Now, what is cuter than an itty-bitty bottom?! Ryane does NOT show patience when it's bathtime! :)
























Loaded up and ready to go.

Pumpkin Patch Time

We had a Howe Family first tonight. We took a trip about 10 miles southwest of Emporia to Roga Pumpkin Patch for Ryane to get a couple "Ryane-sized" pumpkins. Ryane had fun pounding on the big pumpkins and playing with the little ones. She even taste tested her little little one on the way back to town. :) It was fun family evening. Now, we can't wait to see what pumpkins Matthew's mini-pumpkin patch will produce. As of now they are still green green and growing.

After working on Ryane's 1st-year scrapbook and the time it took, I think I'm leaning more towards digital scrapbooking. Here are a couple pages I put together with tonight's pictures using free digi-paper. If you want to see the pages bigger, you can click on them to see the actual pictures better.

Mommy Goggles

I finally managed to schedule in Ryane's 1-yr old photo shoot! :~) I can't help but take a lot of pictures of her as she seems to change so much and is always doing something new. We went outside for these pictures as she is definitely not a fan of staying by the backdrop in my studio. Just Ryane and I went out one day and Matthew joined us the second day. No one can get smiles like those that Matthew gets. Now, if I could only decide on my favorites of my favorites. I liked so many for different reasons and different parts of Ryane I see in each. Maybe it's just my mommy googles, but I'm glad that I don't really have to choose and I can just get prints of them all! Here are my favorites (in no particular order) and feel free to express your opinion on which ones you like the best.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

Ryane's Toy Box

For Ryane's birthday, her Nana Howe and Great Grandpa Endres made her a handcrafted toy box. It turned out absolutely fabulous--they are so talented! We can fit so many toys in it already! Today (Sunday) I spent painting it white and then painting her name on it in purple to personalize it for her. I love that Ryane now has an heirloom that will grow with her. I'm thinking when she is older and done with it as a "toy" box, it can become a storage chest of sort and we can always upholster the top too to make it a bench seat for her room.


Picture Papo took of Nana and Great Grandpa when they were finished with the toy box


Box after I got it painted white


All Done!

Smells so new

We've had an interesting set-up in our house over the last month and a half. I sold our old couch and loveseat to a photography client after I tried to sell it for weeks. So, we've gone without furniture until last week when we moved Matthew's college couch up from the basement for Ryane's birthday party. I already had our new furniture picked out, but I had to order through a local store as they didn't have it in stock. Well, six weeks later, it finally arrived. Happy Late Birthday to ME! :) It looks awesome and smells so new. Ryane is loving having the furniture to climb one - she's still too short to climb up by herself which really frustrates her. But, once she's up there, it's all fun times for her.


This last picture is Ryane trying to follow in her mommy's footsteps. :) Or, at least my shoes. Ryane is really getting into shoes more lately as she is wearing them more. She's trying to put them on when she sees them--hence the picture with my shoes.

Decades gone by

Yesterday was a GOOD day. It was my birthday and I reached a new milestone--I turned the big 30! It's amazing how young 30 can feel. :) I spent the day at work and a nice evening with my family. Matthew and Ryane took me out to eat, then we had a relaxing evening at home. I'm officially 3 decades old and hopefully wiser for it.

On a Ryane note, Ryane wore her new cute Halloween PJs tonight (thanks Aunt Sherry and Uncle Lou). There's something about a little one in footsie pajamas. It makes me want to snuggle with her. However, Ryane is one and doesn't have time to snuggle with her mom--she's too busy playing with all her new birthday toys and perfecting her new found walking skills. I didn't get any snuggling from her last night, but I managed to sneak in some this morning before we got up and around for the day. I think I could snuggle with her for hours if she'd just let me.

I've added another link for Ryane's most current month of pictures. ...to the left..

Humor Day at Work

We are celebrating Customer Service Week here at Birch. Of course Birch has great customer service! :) Anyhow, today is Humor day and it makes me think of this little video. While it has nothing to do with telecom, it does relate to photography and is SO true with some kids. I like to think it takes a special kind of patience to photograph kids. Also as Ryane gets older, she wants less and less to do with mommy with a camera. I don't get it.... :) Here's the video called "What the Duck" I'm sure those with small child can relate.

Anything for Ryane

Move over Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray--there's a new cake decorator in town! OK, probably not, but it was fun to give it my best shot. Growing up my mom always made our kids' birthday cakes and decorated them all up. I have fond memories of my cakes, so I wanted to carry on the tradition with Ryane. After some quick searching online, I found two safari-themed cakes that I knew I had to try to make. The monkey head was actually found on Martha Stewart's website and the Lion on some other. They looked easy enough to make. Overall, I enjoyed making them for her and it's definitely a tradition that I'm going to continue. Next year she just might have a balloon themed party--sounds like an easy cake to me!