Pictures again...

So as I get ready to have Darrian's 3 month photo's taken I find myself trolling all sorts of photographer websites and blogs. I am looking for ideas, and for a photographer who is reasonably priced and does the type of pictures I am looking for. I think in a former life, or in this life I long to be a professional photographer. I LOVE pictures. I love taking pictures. I honestly think the Canon XTI SLR I got for my birthday this year was the best gift I have ever ever gotten. Who knew I was already creating my favorite subject (Darrian) when I opened it! I want to go to classes and learn more about it, photoshop, and get lenses for it.

I admire the work of others who have already mastered the trade. So today I ran across this website of a photographer.. http://portrait.nicholev.com/. It honestly takes my breath away. Her pictures are amazing and her price is reasonable. One glitch.. she is in Utah. I honestly wondered for a minute how much it would be to fly there.. haha. I did send her an email and let her know how much I admired her work and if she was EVER in the area I would love to have her take Darrian's pictures. Hey I can hope right?

Meanwhile two that I am looking at that are local are :

http://tinywater.blogspot.com/

http://www.ruthwoodruff.com

Also I ran across this Mom on Flickr who decided when her son turned one to take a picture a day documenting his life. That is sort of a neat idea, I wonder if I could actually keep it up. Perhaps I will start it Jan. 1st. It helps that she takes amazing pictures..Here is a look..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelav/

Happy FRIDAY everyone!

Bumbo..

So searched everywhere for a "bumbo", the mothers in my Mom's group recommended it. It helps a child sit up who can't sit up yet. Darrian loves to sit up so it is nice to put him in it and set him next to us and not have to sit him on our lap all the time.

Also makes for great pictures ! Here are some pictures of him in his bumbo..






My fun with photoshop on the next two pictures.. I am learning. He is cracking himself up in this one.. He giggles out loud which is SO CUTE!

Jumperoo...

Darrian likes his Jumperoo we got him for Christmas.. here are some pictures of him playing with it.

His feet don't touch the floor so we use a pillow :)
He's trying to figure out the monkey. It lights up to reward him for jumping which he likes. And the chair turns around full circle to play with everything on the saucer..

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas...

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. It comes and go so quickly huh? We had a good Christmas and Santa was kind to all of us. Saturday we went to Lynda's for a Christmas get together, and exchanged gifts with everyone. It was fun and Darrian did really good with all the people. Sunday my Mom and I took Darrian to SF to fight the crowds and go to Gucci to get Keith a wallet he wanted. It was pure insanity in Union Square, I ran into Gucci then ran back to the car ... nuts! We then went to lunch and came home. Our nephew Devan and his girlfriend Tan flew in that night and we hung out. Monday was pretty lowkey, wrapping gifts and hanging out. Our other Nephew Jason flew in that night, Tan and I stayed behind and wrapped gifts.

I went to midnight Mass that night, the service was really nice. After I went home and we all opened gifts. Darrian was even awake! I got some great gifts.. coach purse, perfume, iphone docking station from Keith and Coach shoes, digital frame, fondue set, giftcard from my Mom.

Darrian got lots of great gifts too and seems to like the jumperoo Keith and I got him.

Christmas day we had family over and I cooked dinner for everyone.

All in all it was a great holiday weekend... I have pictures that I am trying to post but it isn't working for me.

In the meantime I wanted to share this great website I found with baby beanies! They only have 6-12 mo. as the smallest size but I am going to get some for Darrian. I think they are so cute !

http://www.borntoloveclothing.com

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone... Sorry I have not posted in a while. It has gotten busy with the holidays rushing up quickly upon us. So much to accomplish in so little time. Also in true Thornton fashion it wasn't a holiday without some drama. Most of you know my sister-in-laws can be a true pain, if not this blog isn't long enough to capture the 10 years of drama. I will say when a family emergency came up last weekend I found myself blessed to have friends I could call on that put their own lives on hold to be there. Especially Devyn, Chris, Julie and my Mom... they have shown Keith and I how truly blessed we are. That no gift under the tree will compare to the gift that they have given us. We are forever in debt. As Devyn said I had my own little "Christmas Miracle" ... now we move on towards Christmas hopefully drama free.

We got a tree for Christmas, I haven't been able to get enough pictures of Darrian in front of it because I have had to upload pictures and I hadn't had the time. Finally I did and wanted to share our tree shopping pictures, and the final product here.

Enjoy! I will try and post before Christmas, if not we send our love to everyone and hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday!

Couple of Favorite Pictures as of late...

The first picture is Keith's "shot out" to Bernice, from Darrian. Bernice is Donna's best friend since Keith was in diapers. She holds a special place for him, and she always calls now to comment on the blog so Keith wanted Darrian to say "hi"!

The second is the money shot, the shot that melts Mommy and Daddy's heart.. this is his laughing picture.. so cute..

Darrian Meet Santa.....

We took Darrian to meet Santa over the weekend. The line wasn't too long, but he fell asleep in it so we tried to wake him up real quick. Grandma showed up just in time for pictures. I have more pictures at the link below, or you can click on the above pictures to make them bigger.




http://tinyurl.com/ynvrs7

Thanksgiving

Count down to Christmas...

Happy Late Thanksgiving everyone! Sorry I didn't make it on here prior to Turkey day to wish everyone a happy one. Hope all you and your families had a wonderful one and that you got all the turkey you need.

Things are good at the Thornton home. We had a nice Thanksgiving, more of a potluck style this year. I made the cornbread stuffing, Keith made the potatoes salad, Ashlei made the mac n cheese and red velvet cupcakes, Devyn made the greens and an upside down pineapple cake, my Mom brought the turkey and the ham. It was a group effort and was so nice! We had it at our house and had fun all spending time together and playing board games. Darrian was a trouper, didn't want to miss any of the action so he didn't sleep much but he was SO good. Just sad there and watched us play board games.

Friday I managed to get my Mom up early and go to the after thanksgiving sales. We had a great time, and I found some great deals and got a lot of Christmas shopping done (yay!). Then I came home and relaxed and slept. Saturday I went to run some errands and hung out at the house. Devyn let us borrow American Gangster and we watched that, a really good film. Sunday I took Darrian to church, then after went to SF with my Mom. We took Darrian to the beach for the first time and then to Beach Chalet for lunch. It was fun, and Darrian did pretty good.

I have some pictures here of the centerpieces I made for turkey day, Darrian in his turkey outfit, and more... There are a bunch more in the slide show below.. enjoy!

http://tinyurl.com/2nwb6r

BRUISER..

Keith has been calling Darrian "bruiser" since he was born. It was always sort of funny because Darrian was so small when born. I guess Darrian decided to live up to his nickname.

We went in for his two month check up today. We were excited to see how much he weighed. I knew he had gotten bigger, I thought maybe about 8 lbs. We got him down to his birthday suit and put him on the scale and the nurse says... 11 lbs. 13.8 ounces!! I asked her if she could do it again because that could not be right.. lol. She did and it was! He also measured 22 inches long. So he has been growing lots. I was already going to ask if we could cut him back from the higher calorie formula, and she agreed saying he was already caught up in his weight and they usually use that for the first 6 months but he did it in two! He is in the 55% of a baby who is actually two months without being early!

Everything else looked great, she was impressed with how strong he was and also that he hit all his milestones on time even if he was 6 weeks early. He smiles back at us now and also can see and focus in on things. He also lifts his head from tummy position, and holds it while sitting up.

All in all one healthy little boy ...bruiser!

Memories...

Most of you know that I LOVE pictures and I love photography. Some of you remember the wall of pictures I had at my parents house, some children had posters I had an entire wall that I built up over about 10 years of pictures of my friends and I doing fun things. A whole wall. I think at one point I had a picture of the wall itself :). Some of you know me from working with me and remember all the pictures plastered all over my desk of my friends and I. Some of you can tell that just by looking at this blog, and the amount of pictures I have here. I ADORE pictures, and really love how you can capture a whole memory in a frame. For my birthday this year Keith got me a SLR camera and a lens which is what I take the pictures on this blog with. I REALLY wanted another lens but they are pricey. The one I want is over a $1000.00 on some sites, although I have seen it for around $500.00 at the lowest. I can't quite spend that right now, and some of these lenses are too complicated for me to use --but I wouldn't get to play with them till I bought them...until this week. I found a website on Yelp.com where they rent lenses!! The site is http://www.borrowedlenses.com/ and it is wonderful. It is located in San Mateo, however they offer shipment to your house as well. For about $20 a week you can play with these lenses that would cost a small fortune to purchase. I rented a Canon Fish-eye 2.8 and a Macro Lens. The Fish-eye/wide angle is by far my favorite. I love it because it is fairly easy to use and the results are instant. The Macro Lens takes some practice, but does great detail shots. So as you can imagine all week I have been snapping photos of everything!! I still have another 4 days left...

Aside from picture taking it was another birthday week. Julie's birthday was Nov. 8th, and Ashlei my sister-in-law was Nov. 7th. We still need to celebrate Julie's although we gave her the gift and card we got her last weekend. For Ashlei we had a dinner at home for her and cooked her favorite meal. I made centerpieces that were pink because that is her favorite color, and we did pink cosmos to match the theme (once a party planner always one :)). Darrian napped through the whole thing and we enjoyed a very nice dinner at home. Ashlei at one point said this is better than a restaurant which made me happy. I love when you can transform your space to feel like something different and have a fun enjoyable experience. (yup sounds like VanDeCamp is coming back)...

Friday I went to take Darrian to see Grandma at work and for me to see some old co-workers of mine. It was nice seeing everyone although never really enough time to catch up.

Here are links to albums for pictures of the bday party and Darrian week seven :). I also downloaded Adobe to play with their albums and such so this is my first try. I can upload many more pictures in a faster form, and you don't have to sign up for anything to view them (that is for you Devyn). I am also going to put a few of my fav pictures on here just because..

Darrian Week Seven: The pictures are going to flip onto the screen and then you can flip through them after using the arrows at the top right.

http://tinyurl.com/2b3tft

Ashlei's 21st birthday dinner party: This one you scroll over the pictures at the bottom to get a better look.

http://tinyurl.com/2zs6md

Fish Eye Wide angle lens..

The Macro Lens..

Weekend in Review...

We had a good busy weekend. Friday Devyn came over in between appts. to see the baby, then after her hair appointment we met in Walnut Creek and went to get Pedicures. We went to The Nail Shop and I highly recommend it! So relaxing, and nice. After that we walked to a couple stores to shop. It was nice to catch up (not like we don't text message everyday :)) and hang out in person.

Saturday in the morning I went to get new tires on the car, the car washed, the bank, the store, and the bakery all before 12pm. I was very impressed with myself. Then I came home and Keith had gotten the baby ready, and the placed straightened up because Chris Julie and our two favorite girls were coming over. We went to Pixie Playland, the park to feed ducks, and then to a late lunch. I remember Pixie Playland being so much bigger when I was 4. Ivy wasn't so much into rides, but did like the cars. Malia is like her Dad with her no fear of roller coasters! When we went to see ducks Ivy stepped in a puddle and was not too happy about it, but by the time we got to the arcade at lunch she was ready to go again. Chris and the girls climbed trees, well really Chris did then lifted the girls up. Darrian slept through most of it, Keith wanted so bad for him to be big enough to go on rides... I told him he will be before he knows it.

Sunday I went to Emeryville with Ashlei and Darrian to go shopping, I got Darrian some outfits at Old Navy and then we had lunch and came home. I have learned a Mom's enemy is a red light! It is tourture, when Darrian starts to get fussy he will calm down if I start to go... if not then he gets worse.. it is enough to make me want to park the car in the intersection and jump in the back to make sure he is okay.. but I haven't (yet).

I was so tired after the weekend, still am. Didn't we get an extra hour somewhere...guess it doesn't count when you have to get up every three hours :)...








Chris teaching Ivy how to drive

The puddle aftermath.. and my two favorite guys..

Merry Go Round... and what big (little) sisters are for (we measured the girls and Ivy is a full two inches taller than Malia on the ride boards... and she is 18 months younger!)...








Chris on the roller coaster with Malia, Ivy learned so quick she is doing it on her own.. Malia seeing how long she can hold on..

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween came and left so fast this year. I had a doctor appointment that went well. My back has been bugging me but they said that can be expected with the three spinal tap tries I had. Other than that everything went really well, I have already lost most of the weight since it was mainly water from the preeclampsia.. but I started hiking to get the rest off of me. I love hiking in the hills near our house, Limeridge Open Space. It is so peaceful, and so calming... and a great workout.

After my Dr. Appt. I went to get some pictures developed and then headed home. Darrian had a couple halloween themed outfits and we put those on. We got candy, although this year no trick or treaters... I am going to give the candy to the kids across the street anyways so it isn't hanging out here.

Can't believe Thanksgiving is coming up!

Weekend update..

We had a good weekend this past weekend. Friday we stayed home and barbqued which was nice, the weather was really nice. Saturday Grandma came over and we went to the pumpkin patch with Darrian to get a pumpkin, and then to lunch. It was fun although Darrian slept through it all... however I am sure next year he will be running about and I can compare it to this year. Sunday we were lazy most of the morning, and then finally got up and got ready to go to lunch then shopping.

Here is Darrian with his "cool" sunglasses Daddy put on him...

His pumpkin patch picture, Keith said it is pretty pathetic haha.. but hey I had to get just one.

Here are my too cool guys on our way out to lunch.. Keith LOVES the fact that they have matching sunglasses!

How I like to spend my Day...


I am just discovering I have these...so I like to spend a long time trying to get them in my mouth!

I spend time on my tummy practicing how to raise my head up.. I am very good at this now.

Then I like to rest a bit because it takes alot of energy to work my neck muscles..





Time in my swing that Chris and Julie got him...
This is his "WOW, I never knew there were teddy bears up there!"
Long talks with Daddy...

Thinking about my next bottle!
Playing with the mat that Grandma got me...

I really like the pineapple guy, and often try to see if I can get him in my mouth!
so freaking cute!

Please take note of how much weight I am packing on since my newborn pictures which were at 2 weeks old!

What you don't see a lot of in this post is sleeping!! How could I with all these great toys and skills right. This keeps Mommy and Daddy on their toes and makes it hard for them to get things like phone calls and things done!