Our boy turns one.

Wow! Our boy is one! And what an emotional day it was LOL. Ryan and I had a very shakey start but the last 7 months have been absolutely blissfull and he is such a charming little boy now I just want to hit pause.

The week leading up to Ryan's B'day was very busy with party preparation. I was pretty much on my own for the week so just did little bit by bit. The day before his party my fav cousin Jodi decided to pop in PMSL. Can you imagine the shock I got when I answered my door and herself and her beautiful little daughter were standing on my front porch? Seems they caught word of my home made sausage rolls and could not resist the trip (they are from QLD). My parents and Cam had known for months they were coming and kept it secret from me. It was an awesome surprise, an emotional one too.

Anyway as you can imagine the party preps were a little harder then, I was excited and the house was a tad crazy. Still we got there and the party went well the next day.

You will see in the below pics Ryan loved his wheat dairy and egg free cake. He certainly enjoyed "massaging" the icing. This was the only time of the day I got pics as I was too busy for the rest of it.

On his actual B'day he had a Paed appointment and just afterwards we managed to get a family shot at Ryan's birth time.

Another cousin from the same family was also in Vic for the same week and managed to get down to the peninsula for a night so we managed to catch up for a few hours which was awesome. Kellie from Darwin grew up in Victoria and even though we were still about 3 hours away we were quite close, we even managed to stay pen pals in highschool (I still have her letters). We are only a few weeks different in age. Jodi and her DD are from QLD and we hit it off when I was about 18 at my brothers wedding. Jodi and her DD were at my wedding and they really took the edge off. I absolutely loved sharing my house with them (mainly cos Jodi cleaned up after me LOL) however I am now 1.5kg heavier and in need of some serious detox, we averaged 2-3 bottles of red per night and about 3-5 hours sleep. Miss A just looooved having a little playmate though I think Miss O was looking forward to getting some personal space back by the 2nd day as Miss A can be a little demanding and suffercating.

Anyway it was a very exciting, fun but exhausting week with loads of fond and fun memories (some of which I caught on video and might have to make a you tube clip of).

Jodi was also nice enough to let me shove my beloved camera in thier faces for some mummy daughter shots. Can't wait to show them off if I ever get time to process them.

Anyway, that's it for this update, thanks for the last lot of messages. And No Na, your not a troll PMSL. Here are some pics.

The family portrait taken at Ryan's birth time.

This can only mean trouble! From left: Kellie, Jodi & Meeeeeeee. These two are horrible girls, they pinned me to the floor and spanked by bum......Jodi's spank bruised, she's a violent soul who then went on the attack me in the local chemist causing a right scene. Nevermind, she will get hers.....on you-tube LOL.

Distancing myself

Distancing myself from the computer that is, for a few reasons. I wont go into one of the reasons, many of you know anyway but I do not wish to give publicity to the matter on my blog.....Trolls do not deserve a mention on my blog.....AAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH, I just mentioned Trolls PMSL. Anyway thanks PH and EB girls for being so understanding. The main reasons however are that I am just too busy. Ryans B'day is fast approaching and I want to try and cater it 100% myself so I know what is in the food I am serving.....the content of party pies frightenes the hell out of me. I also need to try and make him a dairy and egg free cake, I really should get onto that. Anyway my life is just so wonderfull ATM that I can't be bothered with the Net much. I am enjoying watching disney movies with Anna and TBH Ryan needs ALOT of supervision so I can not take my eye off him when he is up LOL. I have also been concentrating on my fitness. I Have been purposely avoided making any posts about my progress and still will not say too much cos I don't want to jinx myself but I will go as far as saying I have ignighted a previous passion and it is going well......slow but steady and with HUGE improvements (though I am still a fatty and 4-5kg off my pre preg weight Grrrrrr). So I am just not finding much time for the net lately.

I have still been enjoying my little photography hobby but taken a step back from the "business" side of it and decided not to take any major steps untill both kids are in school, I just want to enjoy them as much as I can before I "lose" them and gain some time for myself LOL. Infact Flickr is pretty much the only online community I am semi keeping up with during this massive online community break I am having......and even that is giving me the willies with "fakes", "trolls" and general bitchiness that I have been witnessing.

Anyway the main thing is I am very happy, getting fit again, very much in love with my family (and my camera of course) I have been suffering some terrible headaches for the last few months.......but that is my biggest complaint so Yay to me. The headaches are just another reason to back off the computer IMO.

Vanessa, you scolded me the other day for not posting new photos LOL. I know I have been lazy and I am sorry, here are some new ones starting with my latest absolute fav of Anna. I just looooove this photos of her (below).
Ryan testing out his new "first pair of shoes" (also note the cool beanie)

Ryan with his new home made crochet beanie, more pics to come of that with a link to the pattern.

I know I have been slack with pics from Anna's B'day (back in April) but here is her B'day cake. We get this for her every year. It's the yummiest cake I have ever ever had.

And I just had to show off a friend of mine's handy work. Kate in our Mother's Group would have to be the worlds best baker and for Her daughters B'day she made this scrummy choc cake and surrounded it with these delightful yellow spinkled cup cakes to resemble a sunflower. It looked and tasted divine.

I have a few more pics to share soon. Ran out of time today though. Lunchtime here and I am feeling rather empty after this mornings Gym then jog.

What it's all about.

Anna

And Ryan

Happy Mothers Day!

Meet Seth

A little while back a dear friend of mine let me practice my photography on her beautiful little boy Seth. I'm sure she wont mind me saying it was a little challenging due to the fact Seth had better things to do than sit still for the camera LOL But we managed a few fluke shots. Seth would have to be most layed back, chilled out and charming little guy I know, I personally think his Mum hit the Jackpot with him and I can't wait to take more pics of him....The next lot will feature his big brother.

Anyway....Introducing "Seth"

Above: This is a fav of mine

Another Fav.

Now......Introducing MY BOOTS
Happy Mother's Day to me LOL, this is what I got for Mother's Day, I love them. I had to post them for the PH girls.

I am now 28

Earlier this week I tuned 28, WOW! Most of the time I feel like I am 40. The day before my B'day I got a haircut and my very first ever massage.....I am not hooked....to massages not haircuts LOL. For my B'day Cam and the kids got me a new Lens and flashgun (which I had already recieved) and a backdrop stand with a white backdrop....which is about to come in real handy as it would appear I have my first real "Booking" in a week or so (Thanks Chelle). I am pumped. Anyway Cam and the kids took me out to lunch and then we went for a drive to Sorrento. I took some pics....Oh I forgot about them and wanted to post the pelican pics, oh well, next time. On the way home we witnessed the most stunning early sunset we have seen in a while. Breathtaking as sunsets always are but we could only stop for pics while the sun was still quite high as we had to get the kids home.

Anyway, here are my last SP's as a 27 yr old....April had me feeling a little crazy in the end. I bit off more than I could chew. I am done with Challenges for a while now. The beginners Challenges were frustrating me and killing my confidence and the "Photo a Day" challenge was great but perhaps I picked a bad month LOL. I had a particular idea in mind for these SP's and it wasn't working. I can't even remember what that idea was anyway this was the end result as I just got so frustrated. I love it, it's funny and portrays how I feel most of the time PMSL.

This was hillarious....I had to set the tripod outside to fit the shot in....and didn't realise that I could have worn shorts and a singlet and got the same effect as wearing just my jocks......so here I am running outside, holding my boobs to set the self timer.....I only took two shots, I was too scared of someone seeing me LOL. I am wrapped though cos it turned out exactly as I had pictured it to.....and my hair looks bloody awesome when flipped upside down. This was for one of my "Photo a Day's"

Another one for "Photo a Day" but this is my absolute last pic taken as a 27 yr old on the day before my B'day. I had just got my hair cut and got this annoying side fringe cut into it. I hate it, it looks OK but it is annoying. There is a grey hair in that photo.
Oh My Beer photo....should I add it? Oh what the hell, it got a good responce so I will. Yep....April......definately sends me CRAZY!!!!!

Now for my stunning little girl..........

My first attempt at full on backlighting with low sun trying to get some lens flares. Oh actually I got some of Ryan that evening too.

It's really hard to focus when your looking into the sun and your blinded....so these are OOF. DUnno what the trick is there. Using AF perhaps? My Lens wont AF on my camera LOL....we went to the cheaper option.

Next post I will have to dedicate the the second most charming little guy I know.....Mr Seth. His Mum said I could pick a few fav pics to post so I am going to LOL.

Blog Lazy.....

.......I know I know, I have been neglecting my blog. I have been super busy with Anna's B'day.......Yes that's right my baby girl is now THREE!!!!!! Ah, when did that happen? Crazy crazy. It wasn't just Anna's B'day, on that weekend it was Anna's B'day then the following day it was a little frind of her's Caleb's B'day, I met Caleb's Mum (Vanessa...Hi Ness) in hospital when I had Anna, we were neighbours LOL, then the following day it was Seths B'day party (most of you have seen Seth's photos on Flickr and have already fallen in love with him LOL. I will post a pic or two of him after his Mum has the CD full of photos). Anyway then a few days later it was Mum's B'day.....I have to say....if I see another B'day cake I am going to repeat my actions of the rotten egg incident. Speaking of Cake, I have to make time to do a post featuring Anna's B'day pics. They are not great as I was more interested in enjoying the day than taking photos and really didn;t care LOL......but I will post them all the same to show you how happy she was and how divine her cake was. I also have to post the rest of the necklace pics.

I have not been well, I'm still not. I am suffering terrible headaches, I am exhausted and I have been dizzy. It's all getting a bit scarey actually. I think I am seriously run down. For a week there I wasn't even enjoying taking photos......but then a new challenege was set in the beginners group I am part of and I have been fired up again LOL. LANDSCAPES......somehting I desperately need help with so the practice and CC given on my pics this week are priceless. I love a good landscape and want to be able to take them. If I get time I will post some tonight.

Today I took the kids to the beach, just for some time out of the house and so I could get some nice photos of them for myself....not for any challenges. I also wanted to practice my Backlighting shots. I also wanted to see what Ryan thought of the beach LOL. Turns out he thinks Sand is very very tasty and the sea calls to him as if he were a baby turtle making his first voyage to the water. Made taking photos very hard, but it also made for a fun time with the kids paddeling in the water and me so happy that they were both having so much fun. I got some nice photos of Anna but the ones of Ryan sucked. He had sand all around his mouth too from the fistfulls he was eating.

Anyway, that is my update. I will try to find some pics to post. First here is one of Ryan yesterday drinking his milk....well pretending to drink it LOL. I love this pic.

The above three were taken on Friday (18th April) I just wanted to test out some settings on my camera, trying to get a better SOOC shot. These are all SOOC and I am very happy with them TBH. Beats spending time PPing them. Oh actually....the bottom one was cropped. I also took some in RAW and the colour difference and clarity are amazing.....but I have to say that this time I prefer the SOOC JPEG's. I will post the RAW one abother time, I'll do a storyboard to compare them.

These last two were taken a few weeks back, maybe even a month back. It was a stormy day....actually it was not long before the melbourne storms hit. I had a turd of a time. It was freezing and I had just been to the Gym so I wasn't exactly rugged up. I had the wrong lens on my camera, I had forgotten to change my ISO from the day before, I fell in a canal and got my sneakers and orthotics wet.....soaked, I had to get down onto my belly for that top shot and came home with sand in my jocks and my lens got covered in salt spray. On a positive note I did not drop my camera in the water, my lens is fine and I love the shots I got in the end.

And finally.....here are todays beach shots of Anna.

"Cracking me up"