Miscellany Flix
2010 Mish Mash
Posted on December 20, 2012
Oh my … it’s a boy!! We are up for an all new and exciting adventure around here – not just three kiddos, but a BOY too! The girls seem to be most excited about the prospect of dressing their baby brother up like a girl … maybe I shared too many stories of me and my baby brother with them, LOL! I hope he loves unicorns, fairies and pink things because our playroom and half of the house are covered in girly things!
Some 19 week belly shots of me … not perfect, as they are all self portraits (see my assistant in the bottom photo, who held up her lambie so I could set focus).
And my little assistant …
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Posted on November 14, 2012
I promise I have a good reason for once again disappearing from my little blog here! I’ll let the photo do the talking for now and be back soon with some real talking (because there is a heck of a lot to talk about now, LOL)!!
And another silly outtake (my eyes disappear when I’m super duper happy like I am here) …
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Posted on December 22, 2011
Catching up with Matilda’s latest antics. This gal is amazing … we’ve gone on two out of town trips this mont and each time she manages to get there before us (she can fly pretty fast you know)!
On Adeline’s sixth birthday we woke to a very loud sound … Miss Matilda had the song “Kriss Kross Will Make You Jump” playing *very* loudly through the house and as we walked into the family room we discovered the bounce house filling the room from wall to wall! We had a couple days of nothing but bouncing in the house (and, yes, you can bet I was in there with the girls … although Scott almost made the thing collapse on itself, LOL).
Before Adeline’s huge Rock Star birthday bash (which I am just finishing the photo edits for posting very soon – they are awesome if I don’t say so myself!), Miss Matilda decided to have a little rock concert for herself. Again, we woke to very loud music (all of Addie’s favorites – Johnny Cash, some Ramones, etc) and playing her heart out for a huge audience of little creatures forming a little mosh pit. She was dressed in studs and holding a black guitar under the lights of Addie’s punk party tree … she even had a band of ducks playing with her.
Here Matilda is after building a little “castle” for the girls … she spelled out Hi ABM (Adeline Brett Manning) and EJCM (Eliza June Clementine Manning … yes, it’s long, but it’s because Scott wouldn’t agree to Clementine for her first name and Addie and I loved the name so much – so we tacked it onto the end!) … LOVE, MATILDA. 
Oh, that Matilda! She got into my purse and was Christmas shopping on Amazon! She did have some nice things on the list for the girls (although, as you’ll find from future letters from Matilda, she doesn’t really know that much about babies – under Eliza’s name she simply wrote, “Baby Stuff?”), however, she also had a number of things just for herself … candy canes, cotton candy, maple syrup you see her adding to the cart. All my credit cards and some cash were laid out and she was in the middle of a purchase when we caught her – and I have a feeling that a certain bottle of maple syrup is going to be showing up on our front doorstep here at Sunriver!
Over last weekend we went on a little trip to Portland and Adeline was terribly worried that Matilda wouldn’t be able to find her way to where we were staying. We woke to find her inside the little playhouse nana gave the girls with the rock party tree decorated for Christmas, a Christmas book propping open the door and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows waiting for Adeline. Her note reassured Addie that she would find her way to our hotel for the weekend.
When we arrived at our hotel we were amazed to find Matilda waiting for us in our room (she had the window propped open from flying in earlier). The little map Adeline had made her was all crinkled from the flight up and laying next to her along with a crowd of little horses in honor of our weekend seeing the show Cavalia.
It was so cold in the room from the window being left open that we cranked the heat up and went to sleep toasty warm. We woke to find Matilda inside a bucket of ice with a “Too Hot!” note next to her … I guess we forgot that elves are used to the cold weather of the North Pole and might not appreciate the cozy, warm room!
The second day we woke in Portland we found her on my computer writing a little note to Santa. The most enjoyed parts of the letter (according to Adeline’s giggles) were, “Eliza a great kid – she does poop in her pants a lot and pulls her mommy’s hair, but I think that is normal for a baby … this is my first time around a baby – is that normal?? She also eats garbage off the ground – is that normal?? Otherwise, she’s a really cool little kid.”
After returning from our little Portland trip we packed yet again and were off to Sunriver for a week for Christmas. This time we were not as worried that Matilda would make it there okay without us. Here she is all packed with her own suitcase (yes, a candy cane is a necessity!), reassuring us she would see us in Sunriver. She even had made a little felt stocking (again, stuffed with candy) to take with her for the holiday vacation. We, again, left her a little map to let her know where we would be.
And here she is again … sitting in our room waiting for us! She is amazing!! She was in the bedroom with the TV on watching Polar Express and had made a trail of broken, half eaten candy canes all the way across the room. Tsk, tsk.
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Posted on December 19, 2011
Wishing you all a little magic this holiday season! I have more Elf on the Shelf antics to share and Miss Adeline’s very fun, totally amazing Rock Star party photos from her sixth birthday party. But for now I just want to send out a wish for a little holiday magic to touch each and every one of your lives.
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Posted on November 21, 2011
I love these images because that amazing (and seemingly never exhausted) energy that Addie exudes 24/7 is captured just perfectly. Miss Eliza was freezing her tushie off – that’s why she looks like she’s doing the robot walking towards me (the sand on her hand was bugging her as was the ice cold wind). We were there for maybe 20 minutes since it was so dang cold, but Adeline went totally bonker dancing and twirling and falling down over and over again … and then went on a roller coaster up on the pier.
Warning: Technical stuff from the business blog … don’t read unless you’re interested in the photography side of things.
For those interested in the technical aspects of the images, here’s a little more information. I know these are far from technically perfect … she was spinning, dancing and running so darn fast (the beach and sunshine can create that kind of giddiness in my girls in an instant), and so combining that with the fact that much of the time I was crouching down with my baby girl in one arm and balancing the camera in the other hand – I ended up chopping feet off and not nailing the focus every time. The color cast was all natural as the sky was absolutely glowing with a kaleidoscope of colors in pink, orange and yellow. I decided to just enhance that in post processing with some actions from Picture Perfect (Paint on Color Pops Richer), Wonderland (for PSE users it would be in Fresh Wonderland) and some new actions I’m working hard on.
But I don’t care about any of that because these photos capture the pure essence of my little girl’s spirit … she is wild, free and happy to no end. And I even captured a few of the more serious moments as well (you can see she can almost snarl in her seriousness when she’s so inclined). Little baby Eliza was freezing her little bum off, and therefore, was in my arms for most of the photos I took. I just sat down in the sand with her and snapped Adeline as she twirled. Shot with the Nikon 85mm 1.4G. The settings ranged from ISO 200, f1.4, 1/500 to 1/2000 second, depending on which direction my camera was pointing in (the sun was very bright even as it was setting). I use spot metering (on their faces) and Single Point AF where I choose my own focus point.
I hope you enjoy these and are able to go capture a little of that childhood happiness for yourself today – no matter how old you are!
If you enjoy my little, rambling blog, and have a second (literally), I would so appreciate it if you could pretty please click the banner below to vote for me (and thank you so much if you do!) … each click you make is your vote – heck, you can even vote every day, LOL!
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