new year!!!

so long 2010....



welcome, 2011!

anyone have any good resolutions? mine are, in no particular order...

1. not go to T@rget all year. I tried this last year and made it to May (OK, maybe April), so this year I'm determined to last longer. Its a cost issue for me...i cant walk into that store and not blow $100, even if I'm going there just for popcorn and paper towels.

2. drink one bottle of good {expensive} wine each month of the year. My husband thinks this is a bunk resolution and not really a resolution at all, but I couldnt disagree more.

3. relearn to play the piano (explanation here)

4. go to church regularly, not just on holidays

5. take at least one mini vacation, sans kids, this year with the husband. I think I may have figured out where we are going, so I'm not sure this technically counts as a resolution. but, I figure until tickets are purchased and we get there, its still on the list & I can count it...




wishing you and your loved ones a fun and safe holiday & a peaceful new year...

merry christmas!!!

time to breathe...

cookies are baked, presents are wrapped, plans are made....all i have to do is sit back and relax until the fesitivities begin. that means I have time to myself to do.whatever.it.is.i.want.

and, last week after little C's dance class, she was in a little bit of an ornery mood and i wanted to take her pictures. her outfit is handpicked by her, and is pursposely converted to black & white because it is a lovely mix of retina-burning hot pinks, red, blues and a random bright yellow.


{singing}



wishing you all a beautiful holiday season!

post-it notes & pianos

apparently i have a thing for post-it notes.

when i was interviewed by the fabulous Becky, i talked a bit about how this little post-it note was a catalyst for some changes that i have made in my life over the past two years. it is an important little piece of paper for me that I am revisiting this holiday season and making some changes to for the new year.

and just about the time that i decided i would come up with some fun, new resolutions, as well as some serious ones, i found another post-it note in a bunch of paperwork that i went through last weekend.

this post-it note is the piece of paper i took notes on the morning that my mother passed away. it would be my last phone conversation with her loving nurses about what they hoped to do to ease her pain and make her comfortable. and, at the time, i had no idea that it would also be the day she would join God and my dad in Heaven.

so, again, i find myself faced with a post-it note, at the seemingly right time in my life. and, although i'm sad and prepared for a difficult Christmas, i'm also really looking forward to my first, and most important, resolution of the year....

my mom loved music & my childhood was filled with music and instrument lessons, church choir, dancing to 45's, and seeing the Boston Pops. She was able to plan part of her memorial service before she passed away, and the thing she focused on wasnt the scripture readings or homily or any part of the Bible....it was the 3 hymns she wanted sung, with a specific request that the service end with Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, sung in a low bass voice.

I dont know why I never realized it before, but it was during the process of planning for her memorial that it just slapped me in the face...i got how important music was to her, and that she was the one who had instilled that love in me. In the subsequent few weeks that I have been feeling blue, a little window into my past keeps opening wider and wider, and leads me back to my childhood.

so, resolution #1 in honor of my mom...relearn to play the piano. santa is bringing a keyboard and i'm filling the bench with mozart, bach, beethoven & the beatles (for little C and me).


and, if i could have figured out how to convert the .wma file into an mp3 and then figured out how to get music on here, i would have posted Swing Low Sweet Chariot, sung to piano music in a low bass voice, for you. but i couldnt figure it out.


you'll just have to trust me when i tell you it was beautiful.

(and if anyone can help me figure this out, i would love to share it...)

yikes

she's not as innocent as she looks...


every night after her bath, I find that a barbie massacre has occurred.

there are different variations of the massacre, with different barbies on any given night, but the outcome is always the same. the most disturbing ones are the ones who's poor knees are bent back so far it looks like she chopped them right off.


and, because i love Dexter, I am starting to worry about what this means for her future....

sneak peek

the 3 C's and their beautiful mom....

o christmas tree....

it was a tad chilly this weekend, but we bundled up, got our hot chocolate ready and braved the cold to go pick out our tree on saturday morning. it was little C's first time at a tree farm, and she decided she liked the freedom to run - only to stop long enough to give her approval of the tree we picked. the girls named it prancer, and he is gracing our living room with his beautiful color and smell.

happy hump day, everyone...head over here to see more b&w photos!

marching to her own drum

the thing i've learned about little C is that when she has her mind made up, there is no changing it. sometimes I try, other times i just flat out give up.

so when it was time for parents day at dance, i wasnt all that surprised that she exerted her little 3 year old self's right to not dance.

I sat there for a while wondering why I was paying for dance class, when clearly she has decided she does not want to dance.

but then she decided to exert her little 3 year old self again and join in the fun...

and now i'm glad that i'm paying for dance class :)

s

the junkyard

her mom wanted some senior pictures, so we went to a quaint little place north of town and had a nice time...

then we took it to the junkyard and had a blast! you'd never know it was only 43 degrees outside when we shot these. you were a trooper, bri, thanks for a really fun shoot!

the city

we never seem to get to new york often enough. its one of those things where we say 'we should really go to new york" and just put it off. so, to celebrate an important milestone in our family, we took the girls for the first time and had a blast seeing the lights, hearing the noise and experiencing the adventure of new york through their view of the world.

We also met up with a shutterbug friend & I got to be on the other side of the lens while she clicked away and gently encouraged my girls to smile. When I say gently encouraged, I mean that she flashed these lollipops in front of their faces to make them smile (a girl after my own heart...)

and, my friends, I have decided that this will be my guiding mantra leading me into 2011...

my sentiments exactly....

nyc at night

ellis....

{and her new little sibling}

thank you....

to all of my family & friends who have helped and supported me this past week, thank you...

words cant begin to describe how appreciative I am of so many people reaching out to me. emails, calls, texts, kind words, and simple gestures of kindness made this difficult week a tad easier to get through because of you.

so, thank you. thank you. thank you...

my toothless wonder

she's lost her 4 top teeth and another one is loose on the bottom. she goes to the dentist next month, and I'm not sure he's not going to have many teeth to clean


but, something tells me that i'm going to get a referral to the orthodontist. oh well... at least she has a sense of humor about it!

brady...

who says superheroes aren't real?

and who says they cant fly?

parker & peyton...

sneak peek...

jack nate

and little madelyn leading her crew :)

sneak peek....

maya & drew...

and as if they werent sweet enough...their little cousin, Sienna