Christmas Bokeh

I love Christmas. I love photography. I love DIY.

I put them together last night for some DIY Christmas Bokeh Photography Fun! (Say that ten times fast!)

Go from this...

 To this...

To this!...

I think I need to go to my Mother-in-law's house to take pictures of her red lights on her Christmas tree. Wouldn't that be lovely?

The best thing is... You can do this on any camera! All you need is a little know how (and possibly an old postcard with a little heart cut-out of the middle... no need to buy a fancy attachment).

See Here.

P.S. Someone finally cut a tooth! As I put Clara down to bed tonight she really wanted to chew on my hand. After a few bites of soft gums I could feel something sharp and pointy. That was it! I hope the rest of her teeth come that easy. I love my baby. :)

Such a Willing Model

I wanted pictures of Clara in her Santa dress to send with our Christmas cards....

Yeah, this is one of the better ones. Hahaha! Can you just see the resentment in her eyes?

My Favorite First!

The life of a child is full of so many firsts... First cry, first smile, first laugh, first roll, first solid foods, first toothl, first crawl, and the list goes on and on! As parents, we celebrate those little things like our kid has just won the olympics. Well, tonight Clara has just accomplished the biggest first of her 7 month old life.

Drum roll... What did she do that is so amazing?...

My baby just fell asleep. After being put in her crib awake. On her own. No bottle. No hand on her back. (Here's the gold medal...) Without Crying!

I am so giddy I want to jump for joy and dance a jig and shout from the rooftops!... Or... Instead I think I will publish this post and go to bed.

Mmmmm.... Goodnight blogland. :)

Yes, she often sleeps with her bottom in the air!

Photos to Fight Cancer!

My friend's little one-year-old boy was just diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, a form of childhood eye cancer. He is such a good, happy, handsome little boy and he tries to give Clara kisses when she is at church.

I will be doing a fundraiser over the next few weeks, so if you are in Southern Idaho and want to help out by getting your picture taken, please let me know! They have also set up a donation account in Logan Tingey's name at US bank. Every little bit helps!

 Look at that cute little guy! Please keep him and his family in your prayers!

Sleep

Clara is such a night owl! She is a good sleeper (she can go 9+ hours without waking), but she has never gone to bed before 10:00. She also has never gone to sleep at night without eating, nor has she ever slept in her crib without being transferred there already asleep. Lately for some reason, she wakes up anytime we move her there. Maybe she is just getting too big now.

We have decided that for her sake (& mine!) she needed to learn to fall asleep on her own. This has been a difficult task for us. The plan has been to complete the night time routine, then put her in her crib full and awake. We stay by her crib comforting her with gentle touches, stories, or singing but we don't pick her up. The past four nights have been filled with loud crying lasting over an hour until she is finally exhausted to the point of sleep. Tonight, however, I put her in her crib and she didn't immediately start to cry. She never worked herself up to hard crying, only soft, mild sobs for a little while. She fell asleep within 30 minutes. This gives me hope... We shall see what the next few nights hold.

If this works, the next task will be 9:00 bed time! Ha!

Mischief

It's like someone flipped a switch and Clara is all of the sudden into EVERYTHING!

I put her down for a nap and found her like this when I went in to check on her...

I think it's time to move the mattress down a notch!

This is random, but I love babies in little hoodies! I thought this one was cute... I'm not sure who it came from, but I'm so grateful for hand-me-downs!

Check out those cheeks!

She's finding lots of new places to explore...

And learning lots of new tricks (we were going for rides in the laundry basket  -the Leavitt version of those motorized kid Jeeps- and when I went to get the camera she stood up all by herself!)... 

But she still needs to figure out how to get back down.

My Little Sister is Married!

~Tara & Kolby~

November 6th, 2010

It was a beautiful, warm, fall day for a wedding! It was perfect!

I don't know why, but I love this picture. Maybe because it's so real. Haha...

Quality Entertainment

101st Post!

Happy Halloween from the Peters! 

We had a Toy Story theme going... Dennis was Woody, I was Bo-peep and Clara was our little Sheep. I love home-made costumes. I hope Clara loves them when she gets older!

 She practiced saying "Ba ba ba" all week...

 Clara and her loyal sheep dog, Ambrosius.

 We made her costume (the night before halloween) out of three sweaters I found for 25 cents each at the second-hand store. It was my first experience sewing clothing without a pattern. I used a pair of pj's as a guide. The best thing was I didn't have to finish any edges because it was made from knit and fleece! The black was taken from the ribbed sleve and bottom edges of the sweater. The pink was fleece and I just "appliqued" it on with a zigzag stitch, and her hat was the neck of the turtleneck tied with a scrap (No sew hat! Dennis is a genious.) The back is just fastened with hook & eye closures. Oh, Dennis also came up with the idea of a detachable tail so that she didn't have to sit on it in the car seat.

I bought extra sweaters to try and refashion for Clara this winter.... We will see if I ever get around to making them! And then it takes even more effort to post about them! Hahaha.

P.S. I finally saw Toy Story 3 today... It was pretty cute! The first is still my favorite though. :)

My Sister is Getting Married!

My little sister is getting married! I am so proud of her and her fiance. He's been a part of the family since before I even met Dennis. Now he's going to be stuck with us forever! Ha! He was in my wedding pictures after all. If that doesn't seal the deal then I guess a ring will!

Tara was nice enough to let me take some of her bridal pictures. Yes, she's the one that got all the good looks in the family.

If you would like to see more feel free to visit my new photography blog.

She's a maniac, maniac....

I love the 80's.

What a wonderful decade of music and fashion...

 Like seriously, I wish I grew up in the 80's so that I could wear crazy stuff and be cool. I just can't pull it off in this decade... But Clara can!!!

 And stretch!

Technically, this onesie came from the 90's... But close enough, right? 

When I Have Grown a Foot or Two

Clara has an aunt that is serving an LDS mission in California (Spanish speaking- Wahoo!). Here are some pictures we took to send to her.

I had to add this picture just to show how determined she is... She'll get on her hands and knees and rock, go back to her tummy and reach, and usually she'll end up moving away from whatever she's trying to get to. I think she'll figure it out sooner than later though, and then we're in trouble!

Conference Drive

This past weekend was the semi-annual General Conference of the LDS Church. It is always one of my favorite weekends of the year. We listened on the radio and met up with Dennis' family for a picnic between sessions. On the way home we drove the long way through the mountains and listened to the beautiful inspiring words of our prophet and other leaders.

I also got to do some "drive by shootings" with my new camera. I love it.

I like old stuff. And sheep apparantly. Can you find the black sheep? I love the color of rust.

While driving we encountered quite the rain storm, which made for some fun pictures when the sun finally peeked through the clouds.

Double rainbow!

At the picnic we had a little photoshoot to show off Kati's birthday sweater. She got it from her missionary in Chile.
And beautiful cousin Sharlene... She gets cuter every day! I love the smile on the right. :)

Clara holding Sharlene's hand... Or doing a wrestling move...
Family pictures... Thanks Kati!

Free!

Remember how I love FREE stuff? Well, I've got some goodies to show off from some blog giveaways this past month or two... I can never say I don't win anything, because I won LOTS of stuff!

First, I love the blog My Creative Stirrings, and not just because they gave me lots of adorable free stuff. They have cute date ideas, recipes and crafts a plenty. Love it! First, Through their blog I won a giveaway from Hobby Nobby for a family decal. I have finally done something with it (at least part of it). I was to pick out an image for each of my family members including a pet. Dennis-cowboy, Me-cheerleader, Clara-baby. They were nice enough to let me count a cow as a pet. Most people don't eat their "pets..." Anywho, it made for a cute project to go in Dennis' Winchester themed bathroom. I think I'm going to paint the frame and use rope instead of muslin... I just didn't want to wait any longer to hang it up.

AND THEN, in another giveaway from My Creative Stirrings, I won a gift cirtificate to use in their shop... Goodies galore! It was hard to choose, but this is what I ended up with:

A baby changing mat, some halloween magnets (they just posted some tutorials) and some flower clips for Clara.

Here's Clara modeling the mat. We love it. It's twice as big as the one we were using before.

We also won a $40 CSN stores gift cirtificate from Made by Heidi. I decided to buy a Hamilton Beach 6 Cup Food Processor to make baby food for Clara. I didn't know this, but It also slices, dices, and can grate a block of cheese in a matter of seconds! How did we ever live without a food processor before?! Did you know grated cheese actually freezes quite well? I just buy a big block and grate up 2/3 of it, put it in a ziplock baggie with a dash of flour (to keep it from sticking to itself) and throw it in the freezer. Use it in baking or thaw it in the fridge. Works like a charm!

And Last, but most definately not least, I won a pillowcase for Clara's room from the beautiful blog Handy Pants. I just found her blog when she was doing the giveaway and it is simply lovely. I love her style and I want to read some of the books she's reviewed. Thank you for the adorable pillow case! I am sure Clara will love it when she graduates to her "big girl" bed!

Thank you everyone for the FREE swag. You are all wonderful. I was so giddy opening each of the packages. Just ask my husband. TOTALLY made my day, many times!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!