Hawaii 2011

We are back from Maui!  Oh my god..it was so beautiful there.  Even though this was our 4th time being there, you forget how truly warm and beautiful Maui is until you are there again!! The first time we went to Maui, before we had kids, we stayed in Kehei.  then when Emma was 4 weeks old we went and stayed in Wailea. Bart's work sent him, and we stayed at The Grand Wailea Resort, but the past two times we have stayed in Kaanapali.  We like to be on that side of the island.  This time around we stayed at the Westin for part of the time and then we moved over to Napili Beach and stayed in some condos.  The condos were right next to the beach so it worked out well with all the kids!  We went with 3 other families...so we were a big group...a force to be reckoned with!  I am sure the restaurants cringed when they saw our group of 16 headed their way! :)

So I have a kazillion pictures...no really, a lot..like over 1000.  But I will not bore you with all of those.  I will just put some up everyday this week to show you what we were up too!  Most of my shots were of flowers.  I have a lot of flower shots...so I am going to just make one post all flowers!

So this first group were some shots from the Westin...nothing spectacular.  I was playing with my new Lensbaby Composer lens.  It gives that blurry effect.  Some call it artistic..others just say it makes them dizzy! LOL!!  It is a fun little lens to play around with...but not an everyday lens for me!

 

Lauren with her rosy cheeks after the first day at the pool! :)  Then me playing in the mirror before leaving for dinner below! 

Here we are in a little town named Paia.  It was on our way to dinner so we stopped off to walk around.  Ian and Bart struck up a conversation with some guy that was an arborist and had tons of cocunuts in the back off his truck.  He yanked one off and opened it up for everyone to taste.  We all passed except Bart.  Of course he had to slurp it down like he had been on a desert for 2 years straight without a drink. ((rolls eyes)) 

 Ok...I definitely would not be washing my clothes at the Paia laundromat above.  

Next we headed to dinner  at a restaurant somewhere near Paia called Hali Imaile General Store where we had delicious food!

The kid table.

Some shots back at The Westin.  More shots coming soon! :)

Joy of Love: 15

15:kiss

Ohhh….today is ALL about smooching your loved one on the joy of love!!!!

But my Joy of Love is all about Emma and Lauren.  So I will have them smooching..as you can see..they are not fans of touching lips.  Oh yuck, gross, germs MOM!!!  LOL!!

I was a little behind on posts...that is why there has been so much blogging lately!!  We are leaving for Hawaii in the morning so I will have to do all the assignments when I get back and just post them as they are completed!  So if there are no posts for a few weeks..you will know why, I am laying on the beach soaking up the sun in Maui...probably with a nice fruity drink in my hand!! ;)

Joy of Love: 14

14:jewelry

Capture that wedding band on his finger today.  If your loved one is not married to you, then try to document a piece of jewelry he or she wears.  If they are a baby and not yet ready to wear jewelry, perhaps try to document the child wearing a necklace of yours or with daddy’s wedding band on his finger/on his little tiny toes.

OK..so for jewelry..I thought I would take a shot of each of the girl's jewelry boxes.  I love that they still make the jewelry box with the twirling ballerina.  It reminds me of being little.  Both of the girls have these and have them packed full of earrings, necklaces, rings and all their other little bobbles. You can see that Emma's has the peace sign earrings in her box.  She loves peace sign anything!  

However, once I took the shots...I realized..even though my girls love their jewelry and their cute boxes...the accessory that they are in to right now is those SILLY BANDZ!!!  So I really needed to get a shot of that! They are crazy about them...they have hundreds of them and love to trade them at school and wear as many as they can fit on their little arms!  Who would have thought that making a rubber band into a silly shape would spark such a frenzy?  It really boggles my mind...I so need to think up something like this to become a millionaire.  What will be next??

Joy of Love: 13

13:routines

The mundane, day to day routines are often the part of life that we forget first.  Capture your loved one going through the motion of his day today.  Getting his coffee, brushing his teeth, reading the paper, checking email…..whatever is a routine should be captured!

Well, I already did the brushing the teeth..and I already talked about our long drawn out bedtimes...I could have done homework..they have that everyday..but of course this week, they didn't!!  So we just snapped off some shots during tuck in.  This is something they have to do every night...go to sleep!   This is when the house is quiet and I spend time editing photos from clients or for personal projects such as this.  ;)

Candy Project 2011...Good & Plenty

Joy of Love: 12

12:the eyes

Today I want you to take a crisp photo of your loved ones eyes.  The eyes are the window to the soul, to try to truly capture your loved one’s eyes today.

I didn't need to take  a new picture of the girls today to capture their eyes.  I have hundreds of pictures on my hard drives of their eyes.  They have the biggest, most beautiful eyes ever!  When I take pictures of my girls or anyone's kids for that matter I always focus on the eyes.  They really are the window to one's soul and both of my girls have very soulful eyes! The shot of Lauren was taken a few weeks ago in my bathroom...it was almost dark and I was getting some use out of my speed light.  The shot of Emma was at our cabin in John Day, Oregon this past summer!

Candy Project 2011...Candy Buttons

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Bart and I don't do much for Valentine's Day...well actually we do nothing for it!!  LOL...I really do not care if I get presents or flowers or candy.  We just both told each other Happy Valentine's Day and went on with our day.  Boring...but simple!!  The girls on the other hand will take any opportunity to celebrate a holiday.  Lauren was even a bit miffed she had to go to school..since Valentine's IS a holiday!!!  She thought she should get to stay home and eat candy all day!!  They both loved getting their own mail this weekend, a Valentine's from Bart's parents and they were joyfully filling out their store bought valentine's last night.  Lauren choose the groovy themed peace Valentine's with tattoos and Emma picked the lick-a-stick ones.  She said all the rest were for babies!  Well..la-di-dah!!

They did have a little treat on the table this morning when they went down for breakfast..of course green and blue for Emma and pinks and purple for Lauren!!