Fireworks!

I am trying to get better with my fancy pants DSLR camera. So last night I tried something new. I shot with a manual shutter speed and a fixed f/stop (f/10) in order to get these shots. I took a lot more than I posted, but these are the best of the best.

OOOOOOO..........

AAAAAAHHHHHH........

These were taken at the show in WG last night. I have to say they were some of the best I have seen in recent years. (That being said, we stayed home last year and watched them on TV and that was pretty lame. We were still in the "shut-in" phase of new parenthood.)

mg

My First...

Gus' pretzel!!!

Gus' pretzels is a family owned and operated business in South St. Louis City that has been open since 1920. They have amazing pretzels and we had 18" initials at our wedding three years ago. (If anyone has a photo of these we would love to see it, b/c they were devoured by the time we got to the reception and we never did see them!)

On Thursday I was downtown with my dad at Soulard and we stopped at Gus' for pretzels. When Kevin got home we had a pre-dinner snack of Gus'.

July3- I love this photo! What a face!

Maddy and Daddy enjoying Gus' together as Olive watches out the door.

As we were sitting down to dinner our neighbor knocked on our door to let us know that there were two baby bunnies in our front yard one on our porch and one in our bushes.

Then our neighbor proceeded to pick them up!
Although adorable I wouldn't have tried to pick them up not to mention put them in a bucket!

The neighbor and his 6 yr old son then released them into our back yard where one of them refused to leave the bucket and the other one jumped as fast as he could back into the front yard. Yesterday as we were leaving for dinner I saw a "mommy" bunny with one of the babies in the front yard. I guess we have some bunnies living in our yard. I just hope our neighbors can restrain their desire to man handle them again!

mg

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Independence Day everyone!

This is by far my favorite holiday of the year. I love the parades, the barbecue, the friends, the family and best of all, the fire works! This holiday has all of the fun but none of the responsibility of Christmas. I don't have to buy presents or make time to see all 100+ of my various family members across the city. (Which is more complicated when you get married and then even more complicated when you add kids into the mix!) The Fourth of July is sunshine, beer, swimming parties and did I mention fireworks! What is better than that?

Madeline and I went to the parade in WG this morning with Uncle Bryan and Beth. I will post photos tomorrow when I have time to download. She looked so cute in the onesie and hair clip I made her for the occasion. She didn't quite get the concept of parade. But she did chase after every dog or minature pony screaming "AHLA! AHLA! AHLA!" (That is "Olive" for any of you who don't yet speak Madeline. Olive is our cat and every animal is an "Olive" to her.)

Tonight Madeline heads to Grandma and Grandpa's for a sleepover so Kevin and I can watch fireworks with Scott and Becky and then stay up too late swimming in Mrs. P's pool and playing Rock Band. Have I mentioned how much fun it has been to have them home from HI?!?!

We are off to our second barbecue of the day this time at Becky's mom and dad's first. Did I mention that I love this holiday?!?!?


mg

A conversation with my mother

My mom stopped in last night as I was posting the new header picture.

Mom: She really does look like Kevin. Except for her eyebrows, that is all you.
Me: Of all the features I could have given her that would not have been my first choice.
Mom: What are you talking about, you have a beautiful eyebrow.
Me: Yeah, that is kinda the point.


mg

See!

The photo I spoke of in the previous post is now my new header! Enjoy!

mg

Wacky Wednesday

I am a really poor speller. For that reason alone I hate Wed-nes-days. Now that I got that off my chest I feel better.

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Normally the bop-oo is reserved for bed time only. But on Saturday Maddy found one under her bed and brought it out into the living room. I caught this moment and it is now one of my favorite photos of her. Look at those curly locks and big lovely eyes. She really is an amazing little love isn't she?!?

June 28

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Madeline is so curious about everything. On Sunday night she kept looking to her grandparents watering can. Just to see if there was anything inside. How cute is she?! (And how pink are those pants! Whoa!)

June 29

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Scott and Becky are in town for the holiday and we have spent time with them every day since they got home. On Monday Kev and Scott got out the RC cars and raced them around the island in the subdivision. Kevin is thrilled to have his best friend home for the week. None of us are getting any sleep! (It is a good thing really...) I got a really good photo of Madeline that night, but I have special plans for it so I am not going to post it now. Try back tonight or tomorrow and I may have finished my project... (that is a tease so you will come back!)

June 30

June 30

mg

Making myself happy...

So I haven't gotten quite the response I was hoping for with the previous post. I did get a comment on my MoBot photos from Kim and that was nice! She is a lurker no more! And thanks to Jodie and Kelli for the comments. Even if I was a lurker on your sites first! I guess I am just going to have to be more interesting. If you are a lurker out there and you still haven't commented please do! I'd love to get to know ya!

For now I will let you in on a secret in my life. So you can laugh at my neurosis.

I have some OCD-ish tendencies. No, I don't wash my hands ten times every hour or knock on the door exactly 20 times in a specific rhythmic pattern... but I do obsess about the weirdest things. The most recent to show itself to me; the order of Madeline's blocks.

For Christmas we bought Maddy a set of Alphabet blocks. She has recently discovered them and dumps them on the floor whenever possible. When she goes down for a nap I put them away like this:


Yeah, that isn't crazy or anything. I could be cleaning the kitchen or checking blogs but no, I am arranging blocks in alphabetical order. The worst part of it all is that when that nap is done, this is what they look like:


And my cycle of crazy starts all over again.

So post, just don't tell me how crazy/weird I am... I think I have that under control!

mg