Busy weekend

What do people do when they have more than one child?  We've been on the birthday party express for the past 3 weekends.  This past one was no exception with 3 invites, a luau and the children's symphony.  Tonight is ballet and I am too exhausted to budge from my computer.  The great thing about all these activities is that I have had terrific opportunities to take some pictures.  Here are a few of my favs from the weekend.

New House!

Today Georgia and I scouted out spring weather photo locations.  I dressed her in the springiest dress I could find and we headed outdoors.  Afterwards we meandered over to our new house to see if the water was finally turned on, and it was.  We then watered our transplanted peonies, hydrangeas and tulips.  I was able to get a few adorable photos of her while we were in the garden.  I can't wait to move into the new house, but we are still in the process of renovating.  In fact, the process hasn't even begun.  We are still finalizing details on the changes with our interior designer.  Today we were told that the contractor can BEGIN the process in 3 -4 weeks.  We've always heard it takes patience when renovating and we are ready to be patient, but oh I can't wait!! :)  I will post pictures of the house once we know what we will be doing to it.  Stay tuned.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Georgia, Happy Birthday to you! At 11:37 AM 3 years ago today you came into the world and changed our lives forever. You are a special, fabulous blessing and we love you. We hope you liked your cinnamon roll birthday wake up this morning. And we hope you love your princess/pool/bubble party tomorrow! Kisses forever you darling dearest angel! Love, Mommy & Papi

Le Weekend!

We have had an easy, breezy, beautiful weekend so far. Last night we went over to the lake and walked around. It felt so carefree to just say to heck with routine and bedtime, let's go have fun! We even took Wally and were glad to have our canine companion plopping along beside us. This afternoon we had lunch with Granny to celebrate her 88th birthday-- Happy Birthday Granny! And then this evening we are headed over to my parents to celebrate my dad's 55th (or is it 26th?) birthday. Of course, we are gearing up for Gigi's big 3rd birthday coming very soon. My week is sure to be full of planning and preparations. Ah! I love summer!

Happy Accident

Have you ever seen those tutus on etsy.com? Well, I am hooked to this website and have purchased several as gifts for friends. I decided that the tutus don't look that complicated and tried my hand at making one for Gigi. Georgia loved it and was bouncing on the couch because she was so happy. I was trying to take her photo and fell over while snapping due to her bouncing. The result was this fabulous photo. I love it so much! It is artistic and fluffy just like a tutu!!!! What a happy accident.

Lovely

As we were getting ready for church this morning I couldn't help but notice how pretty Gigi looked. Had to snap a few photos. What an angel!

A few days ago Gigi looked at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, God created flowers. God created butterflies." "Yes," I replied thinking how beautiful it is when little ones talk about God. And then she continued in her serious tone "And God created dunedees." "Dunedees?" I quizzically replied wondering what she meant. Then she burst out laughing as if she were being wildly tickled. I don't know exactly what the toddler joke was, but I think I fell for it. She pulled a fast one on me! :)

Exposure/Aperature/Shutter Speed

Been fiddling around with my camera and doing a little reading. What I need to learn about right now is exposure rather than focus. The above picture is one, in my ignorance, I overexposed. Played with the contrast and something else, I forget now what, and came out with at least a bit of a recognizable image. If I can figure out the editing I can probably just turn all of my mistakes into art. I think the image above, although still too bright, is in a way kind of pretty. It seems kind of sunny 70s.

Love this one. Wish I could have caught a little more of the floor tile. Probably should have lowered my ISO?

Red is definitely a color that pops out on an image. Now I see why they don't let anyone in movies (except the star of the show) wear this color.

Darling.

Darling.

Best. I like this image the best. Don't know why. Maybe it is because it is an action shot. Maybe it is the sunlight. Maybe because it makes me feel springtime inside. Can't say exactly, but I love it!

P.S. Muchas gracias a la Abuelita Orie, Abuelito Ofo & Abuelita Tenchi for this beautiful dress!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Talk about Cabin Fever! The winter has barely begun and I'm already day-dreaming of Caribbean getaways and beachy attire. Yesterday, when it was around 20 degrees F, I wrapped Gigi, Wally and myself up and we went on a walk! It was frigid outdoors but oh so glorious to be out of the house! My goodness. And the sky is gray and dismal to boot. I find myself wondering how I ever survived this weather before? But Gigi and Wally are rays of sunshine in the cold. Here they are yesterday, after our walk, playing around and having fun. Gigi decided to put her head-band on Wally. She got a real kick out of seeing him adorned in what now looks to me like sunshine. I am going to officially name that the "sunshine headband". Makes me feel better already.

Ahdah

Georgia is saying and doing really hilarious things. Today I loudly sneezed twice and afterward she put her hands over her ears and said "Mommy's sneeze blows my ears out". Ha! It is true, I do have a loud sneeze. One time I set off our house alarm by sneezing.

Some words she mis-pronounces. At her school they sing a song before they eat. The end of the song they sing "A-amen, A-amen." However, when Gigi sings the song she says "A-amint, A-amint." This is probably because she and I would eat mint out of our garden this summer. We were always talking about the mint when we were outside.

The word she uses for "downstairs" is "downsteins". The word for "pillow" is "pudd-o" and my favorite, when she wants her sunglasses in the car she asks for her "ahdah". I don't know how she came up with "ahdah" for "sunglasses". The word in Spanish is "lentes" or "gafas". Which, now that I think about it, perhaps she is mixing up the word "gafas", but whatever she has done, I'm pretty sure that she has invented a new word with that one. Here is a picture of her in the car on our way to church a couple of Sundays ago with her "adahs" on!

An Evening Walk

The other evening (October 30 around 5:30PM b/f the time change) when Rodolfo came home from work he asked if I would like to go down to the Myriad Gardens to walk around. I'm so glad he suggested it because it was just gorgeous out there. We saw lots of professional photographers snapping photos. Luckily I had my camera in my purse. We positioned ourselves and Gigi in the same spots we saw the photographers positioning their clients so that we too could take advantage of the light and landscaping. Rodolfo reminded me of the obscure fact that I.M. Pei designed the Myriad Gardens. I had forgotten this fact, for shame, for shame. Pei also designed the glass pyramids outside of the Louvre. Aren't we lucky to have such high design in OKC? I want to return to the gardens to talk with some of the landscapers that work there. Maybe they can give me ideas for my own garden!!!

Just because...

Nothing particularly special was happening when I took these pictures this weekend. I just thought I would post them just because I like 'em.

Summer Star

Gigi's vocabulary is exploding! She is repeating every other word I say and she is stringing 3 words sentences together left and right! I'm so proud of this little girl! I still haven't seen any of the birthday pictures yet but will post some as soon as I can get a copy of my dad's pictures.

On Gigi's birthday she looked up at Rodolfo and said "best friend, Papi, best friend". His heart just about melted. Then later on that day she said to me "best friend, Mommy, best friend." My heart melted too. I don't know what is better, hearing Mommy for the first time, I love you for the first time, or best friend. They are all up there as those shining moments that I cannot forget!

As for an update on the adoptions, they have not worked out. The mothers chose to parent their babies. It is okay for me. Everything happened in such a whirlwind. It is probably better that Rodolfo and I have time to think about what direction we will go next. Plus, I know the decision was very difficult for the mothers and I am glad that they will keep their children. We continue to ask God for a miracle in my ovaries. I know that He hears our prayers.

Say Cheese!

Above is a picture of my cutie saying "CHEESE" by the hydrangeas that are now blooming (my favorite flower). Below is a picture of Georgia singing a song. Doesn't she look adorable?

Sundress

We took a walk today and Georgia wore this adorable dress I found for only $6 at Ross. I had a bazillion great shots, but decided to post these 2. Hope it captures some of the fun we had today!

Happy Days

I just love the pictures I took a few weeks ago and thought I would add more of them here even though I already put the best one on the Valentine's entry.