Wide Open

Yesterday I kept Ford and after the kids got home from school we had about 20-30 minutes to kill before I had to feed Ford and head out for piano.  I decided to head outside for some fresh air.  And take some pics, of course.

I grabbed my 50mm 1.4 and headed out.  I wanted to play around with the f/1.4.  Since there was a lot of light, I put my ISO all the way down to 100.  My shutter speed was anywhere from 320 to 1000 depending which side the light was coming in.

Having the f/1.4 aperture meant that there would be a very shallow depth of field (DOP) which makes very little in focus.  And a super blurred out background. 

Here are a few of the pics!

Ford was quite entertained watching all the kids play on their riding toys!

I told Lillian to get some play clothes on and this is what she came out looking like.

Clearly she just grabbed some clothes without looking. :)

And somebody needs a haircut.....again!  He gets more haircuts that I do!!

My beautiful nine year old! :)

Happy Thursday Y'all!

Her Par-Tay!

Olivia's party was this past weekend and she chose to take the girls in her class out to dinner!

We went to a pizza place that has games.  Robert handed out their money.  We had the place to ourselves!!

Robert got in on some games too.  :)

Ate some YUMMY pizza!!

Then it was home for presents and ice cream cake!

She kept saying how much fun she was having.  I definitely like the smaller crowds where you can actually talk and play with everyone. 

We sang to her and enjoyed some cake!

And Rhodes, just couldn't hold back...he climbed up there so fast to blow those candles out! 

She has such a sweet class and I am so grateful for her friends!

Birthday Busyness!! 9 and 7

My babies have turned NINE and SEVEN!!


WOW.  Seriously, stop growing. Mmmkay?

Olivia and Landon's birthday are just a day apart. I had her at noon Feb 5th and Landon 1 a.m. Feb 6th!  How's that for timing...so they could have their own "day". :)


So Olivia's "party" is this coming Sunday.  We are taking the girls in her class to dinner for some food and fun.  There will be many pics so I will share next week.  BUT, on her actual birthday we took her to lunch and then wandered over to the mall where we "wandered" into Claire's and told her she would get her ears pierced!  She's been asking for about 2 years, and we felt now was the perfect time. 

NO PICS MOM! 

She did perfect!  Not scared a bit!  And she's been diligently taking care of them 3x/day every day since.  :)

You let this one loose in a store where 60% of it is on his level, and well.......

Pretty girl, inside and out!

Landon opted out of a big birthday and asked for a nice mountain bike.  So that was easy!

I also took him lunch at school and got to hang out with ALL my kiddos!  So fun!

But a couple of weeks ago, the Dairy Queen by our house had a sale and the entire store was 50% off.  Robert went by that night to get some and they had some freshly made cakes and he was able to get their names put on them!  So 2 cakes for the price of one!  I'll take it!

We enjoyed some of that cake on his birthday night.

Lighting his own candles.  As far as those candles....4 plus 3 little ones = 7.  :)

Singing Happy Birthday!

Robert keeping Rhodes from blowing out the candles...again. 

Happy Birthday Olivia and Landon!  We LOVE you and are SO proud of you!!!

Shindigs: Mountain Brook Mondays

For everyone who lives in my neck of the woods, I wanted to let you know about my brother-in-law's food truck that will be parking in Mountain Brook on Mondays!  Off Heathermoor Road near Mountain Brook Elementary School!



Head on over to Lacey's blog to get some more info.  You can even reach their twitter and facebook pages!

click truck to go to their site

What is so great about this is it makes it easy for busy moms like me to get my Shindigs "fix" when I need it! :)  They typically park downtown (which is going GREAT for them and all the business districts) but it's not easy to pull up with 4 kids, park, get out, eat, etc....while battling downtown traffic.  And one way streets.  Not that I've *ever* driven down one of those the wrong way or anything. ;) 


So go get your taste buds spanked!!

HELLO! A Recipe And an iPhone Dump :)

It's FRIDAY!  And we don't have school!!  YAY!

I recently have had many sweet comments and emails about the blog/a post/photography and I want to say THANK YOU!  And for the new commenters.....HELLO!!  Thanks for stopping by!

I did have someone ask about my butternut squash soup recipe.  Here it is!

click on pic for recipe

It was super easy and I used olive oil instead of butter (because of the fast).  I think I even added a bit of cloves and cinnamon to flavor it up a little.  Next time I make it, I may even add some half&half or milk.  But then that just adds more fat/calories, etc. 

I love butternut squash and eat it all the time.  Another one of my favorite recipes with this squash is a spinach salad.  Peel/dice the squash and roast with Pam olive oil spray, salt, pepper, and cinnamon.  To the salad, add walnuts, dried cranberries, grilled chicken, and blue cheese and top with Ken's Light Vidalia Onion dressing!  YUM!!!  You can substitute any nut/cheese/dried fruit/dressing/lettuce to change it up a little.


And a few pics...

Boys being boys with toothpicks...

My little helper...

What my car would look like if I had 5 kids...

I almost burned down the house.  But I needed new spoons anyways.

Someone got a haircut!  2" off!!

Lunch box notes...oh, and mom's smart! ;)

Teaching Ford to coupon!

Cousin loving Cousin

Lil Sis had a BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Ford stays with Aunt Lindsay!

A late night indoor baseball lesson for Rhodes!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!