Welcome to my living room.  No toys were cleaned up in anticipation of this post.  In fact, there are a pair of socks lying on the floor visible in this photo (dirty socks).  This is how I roll.

This quaint Melissa & Doug dollhouse was just sold to us by our neighbors & friends Anna & Kate.  Anna is cleaning out some of her toys & her mom Laura offered this dollhouse to us first.  She also told me that Brooke plays with it constantly whenever she visits Anna’s room.  We do have a dollhouse already, 2 in fact, but one is Emma’s and the other is what the girls call a “baby” toy.  It was Emma’s first dollhouse given to her by my mom on her birthday – the Fisher Price Little People series.  Ever since then we’ve been collecting a slew of Little People until it got too unbearable.  They were like a bunch of breeding rabbits, showing up everywhere!  The kids have loved them, but I told them if they want to buy this dollhouse, they needed to sell some of their old toys to make room for the new one.  They agreed.  Some things have sold (enough to clear out some clutter) & they’ve been playing with this doll house non-stop since Laura brought it over.  So, thank you Laura, my dear friend, for thinking of us.  We love its simplicity & the imagination it brings forth.  Emma & Brooke are in dollhouse heaven!

Here’s to recycling your toys!

And to get this shot – in case you care – I put my camera on the dining room floor and put the ISO at 400, the aperture at f/4.0 and the shutter speed at 0.6 sec.  I wanted to see if I could get enough light, no grain, & enough in focus without using my flash.  My makeshift tripod of the dining room floor seemed to work well!

Photos I’ve been looking at:  Homeshade Photography.  Tasha Pool was introduced to me by my friend Heather (her website, not her in person).  I’ve loved looking at all her work, following her numerous hilarious status updates on Facebook, and just enjoying her real, vibrant, & colorful photos.  She’s even shared with me a little bit about how she does petti parties for little girls & mini-sessions for various other holidays.  They are kind of like Tupperware parties with the hostess inviting friends over for little photo sessions of their kids & the hostess receives credits for the more guests she invites. It’s ingenious!  And this girl cranks out the photos – and they are by no means mediocre.  She is fabulous!

Well, that’s my talk for today.  Just wanted to give a little shout out to my wonderful family, friends, and clients who’ve pushed my Ethiopia fundraising all the way up to $500 so far!  (Corinne, Jimmy, Ashley, the Rode’s, Kelly, Aunt Gail)  And the total cost of the trip got reduced to $2,500 so I am on my way!  If you’d like to help me get all the way there, visit my online donation page.  I’ll also be mailing out support letters & prayer cards, so let me know if you want one too.  I covet your prayers!  Thanks so much!

Now for those of you who read the title of this post and thought we might be teaching our children to shoot guns, that would probably be for my brother’s blog, not mine.  Although I was raised around guns in the wild state of Oklahoma, I don’t know how to shoot that kind of device…just a camera, and the occasional water gun.

I decided to take some photos for just the fun and love of it (thanks for the reminder Tasra) and decided my girls were good subjects.

When I was at Target (when am I ever NOT at Target) I saw these really cute Paul Frank rain coats & umbrellas.  Unfortunately they were only toddler size so they just fit Brooke.  Emma, in her short four years, has stretched up to the big girl’s size 5/6!  So we got the raincoat & umbrella for Brooke, but what kind of mother would I be if I left Emma out!  I scoured the Internet for raincoats with matching umbrellas for-ev-er!  Every thing was super cute, but super expensive! (for my taste)  I finally found the Melissa & Doug Sunny Patch Mollie & Bollie polka dot lady bug pattern.  It fit Emma perfectly – size & personality!  She loves walking around with her umbrella folded up like a “walking stick,” posing, tapping, and just looking cute.  Brooke isn’t quite as in to the fashion aspect of her ensemble, but it keeps her dry.

As I was taking photos of the girls, they asked to use the camera too.  So, I finally said, “Sure!”  And as you’ll see below, they did a pretty good job.  Enjoy my kids playing “rain” in their wet weather gear…and no, it wasn’t raining.  We were just practicing for a day like today.

Under her umbrella-ella-ella-ella

Brooke took this one of Emma.  Look at that bokeh!  She just needs better framing.

Emma took this one of Brooke!

I took this one!  Aren’t you equally as proud of me too?

Another Emma shot.  I see where she gets her inability to smile correctly…ugh!

Another Emma shot – looking good girl!

And our tree stump + timer took this one.  Not bad either!

Oh, and I purposely left of the “logo” so grandparents can swipe these, like they usually do.  You know who you are Amaw, Grandpa, Gigi, Pop Pop, Papa, & Nanny!