we’ve been so dry here in colorado lately.  i’m really itching for a big snowstorm.  hopefully we get one more big one before the season is done.   of course as soon as (or 18mo after, lol!) we leave virginia, they get their biggest snowstorm in years.  figures!  we barely got a dusting the 5 years we were there!  :)  we are due for a big three inches this week!  better then nothing, i suppose.

we’ve got another sick kid (norah, AGAIN!!), so we’re just having a lazy day around the house getting ready for john’s cousin to fly in tomorrow.  i ran outside for a minute in john’s boots and my pj’s to try to snap some macro snowflakes.  i used the 60mm 2.8G micro.  it’s harder than i thought it would be to nail focus!  these are just resized for web & corners rounded.  no cropping.

i didn’t have anything dark to catch the flakes on, so i cut part of a black velux blanket (that i use for a backdrop).  hence the “hairy” background, lol!  here’s a pull back of where i was shooting them on the front porch….

i’m definitely going to try again later when john’s around to make sure norah doesn’t attack the baby (in the nicest way possible, of course) while i’m out there.  :P

this morning while i was getting dressed, i had charlotte on the bed.  well, that’s just sweet chubby bait for norah.  she came running in in a pettiskirt from the dress up box, and jumped right on top of charlotte, lol.  i grabbed my camera & snapped a few pictures.  they’re so cute!

and look at the privacy you get when you’re trying to get dressed & have 4 kids….  one day i will pee alone again!

what do you do when it’s 42 degrees out?  some people break out the winter coats, down comforters  ….. here in colorado, the spring clothes come out!  :D  boy were we all glad to get some warmth this week.  we have all been going a little stir crazy.

i had just cut norah’s hair & wanted to take a pic.  how do you keep a 2 year old still?  stick her on the bathroom counter!  she didn’t budge an inch.  :)

these faces kill me!  she is so expressive!

that’s all folks!

after much deliberation the past year, john reenlisted on thursday.  it was a huge decision for him, and us as a family.  this pretty much means he’ll stay career, and will be a navy family for the next 12 years.  his reenlistment is for 6 years, but that will take him to 14 …. and at that point, he might as well finish out the 20.  it also means we will be leaving colorado for sure next summer.  that is a little disappointing, but i hope we get to come back one day!  it would be a great place for john to start his second career after the navy.   the navy has been good to us, though.  the pay and benefits are decent, he’s gotten to see so many places he may never have, & there is a lot of great support.  i am excited to see where we go next, & am glad the decision is finally made.

here are some pics a friend took during the ceremony.  kayleigh got called out of school sick 10 minutes before we were getting ready to go pick her up, so she was laying on a bench at a table during this….

we’ve been visited by the sickies again.  this time it’s ethan.  he’s got a sore/swollen throat thing going on & is not too thrilled about it.  he fell alseep on the floor a couple days ago – that is how we knew something was  up.  ethan hasn’t napped regularly since he was one!

i also got a new lens yesterday.  The 60mm 2.8G Macro.  ♥♥♥♥love♥♥♥♥  unfortunately, i played with it for a while yesterday, put my sd card in the computer’s card reader, had a static shock – and the card was ruined, pics gone!  i’ve always worried about that happening, so i usually use the usb cord.  but we got a new computer, adn i hadn’t hooked it up yet.  bummer!  here are a couple from the ones i got off the card earlier …. but the others were oh so cute.  ugh!

poor nor-nor.  look how dry her face is?  that is one thing i don’t love about colorado.  how dry it is.  but it’s probably the ONLY thing.  :)

i think the lens hood freaked charlotte out a bit – ha!  she’s used to a big lens in her face all day, but i think the hood pushed her over the top!

john is reenlisting tomorrow.  for six more years.  not sure if it’s a good thing or bad thing.  it is what it is, though.  the navy has been good to us, just not looking forward to sea duty and deployments again.  it’s been so nice having him home the past 18mo.

i always thought swimming would come naturally to my kids. but it didn’t, lol!  so they started swimming lessons today.   they did really well.  i was super proud of ethan.  it usually takes him a while to warm up to people, but he loved it!  :)  obviously. kayleigh did, too.  :)

i have a really bad habit.  does anyone else do this?  buy lots of crafty things with no project in mind?  i have so much fabric, trim, thread, ect…. and neraly none of it coordinates, even .  i just got these ribbons on etsy the other day.  aren’t they adorable?  but what am i going to do with them?!  any ideas?  i was thinking of it trimming a matilda jane-ish dress?  or toy holder thing like this?  or putting it on a new camera strap …. decisions!

and i thought this was sweet.  still can’t leave the big one alone with the little one, though.  we’ve never had a mobile before.  partially because our kids have never slept in the crib.  it’s just bunked up against our bed to make sure no one falls out of our bed & give us a little more room to spread out.  better view of that HERE, (before norah moved in with kayleigh & we got stuff up on the walls, lol).  but my aunt sent gift card for all the kids for christmas, so i picked this up on clearance for her.  charlotte really likes it.  it keeps her attention long enough for me to get dressed & brush my teeth even some days, lol!

oh.  by the way, i’m giving up on the 52 week project.  that lasted long, huh?  i just have too much going on with four kids, and a baby who doesn’t like to be put down.  ever.  so i am still going to do some sp’s that i have in mind, but without the pressure of doing it every week i think i can actually have quality over quantity.  hoping to do another 365 next year … but this baby is a lot of work!

she’s two.  man oh man – time sure flies.  i now have a two month old, two year old, four year old, and six year old.  man – I’M old!  :P  norah’s birthday was monday.  she had a great day after being pretty sick all weekend.

trying to do “two.”

the cake.

the birthday cake gods were smiling down on me that day.  i had waited until the day of her birthday to make her cake, and john had work.  charlotte who usually needs to be held all day, and rarely sleeps, slept for THREE HOURS! in the living room.  if she didn’t, poor norah would’ve had a much less grand cake.  :D  it is my favorite tradition in our family.  making their birthday cakes.  :)

and a goofy-flashy smile while opening presents.  happy birthday silly girl!  :)

ALREADY!  someone slow time down!!  click on the “month birthday” tag at the bottom of the post to see the previous month shots.  :)

i have so much to share, but i have to post my 52w from last week first!  i had a couple different ideas in mind this week, but due to not having access to photoshop, i went  easy.   i have been trying to do the “poor man’s macro,” (when you take your lens off & flip it around & hold it over the hole the other way), but i was pretty unsuccessful.  i am definitely not steady enough, and i was having trouble getting correct exposure.  i got a cheap reverse mount for $10 at amazon & it made it much easier.

the little black circle in norah’s hands is the reverse mount.  such a simple little thing, but it made things MUCH easier!  and the little ball of the end of the hanger is what i used in the pic above.  you can see the “wrong” side of the lens in the reflection.  :)

and just some sweet baby lips with the poor man’s macro.  definitely harder to achieve focus than a real macro lens!