he loves sports he loves photography

what better birthday outing than to take his family to the annenberg space for photography?! when it's your birthday, you get to pick what you want to do, what you want to eat, everything. he was in heaven! (all of these were taken with my phone, as i didn't know if you could take real cameras into the exhibit)

she was pretty impressed with the girly sports 🙂 the kids had so much fun with these interactive photo tables. so awesome, i want one in my home! and we were all very impressed with jordan and his hands!
we were blown away by the images and the videos they displayed. even i, the non sports enthusiast, was impressed. the day ended with birthday cupcakes and a birthday laker win. a very happy birthday to daddy! we love you!

December 7, 2009 10

before we eat

at chris' aunt's house, we stop by the nearby stables for a visit with the horses. els went thru a horse phase a few years back. first thanksgiving. second thanksgiving. and last year's didn't seem to get posted. this year, i only had my phone with me when we stopped, so here's horses and fam via iphone.

that's my crazy clan 🙂 especially the crazy little one wearing her italian sundress in late november. more pics to come later! (real camera ones) ha!

i participated in a cute DIY holiday class at 2peas, check it out here. i cannot believe it's december 1 tomorrow. i better get organized!

November 30, 2009 4

day off

our first 3 day weekend of the school year called for a day at the beach. i told els i loved this pic of her and she said, my bangs are too long. lol.

we are having this battle with the bangs. we tried to grow them out but i got frustrated because she wouldn't put them up, so we cut them but halfway through cutting we decided she had too much bangs so we should let that other part grow out and she could just have smaller bangs. well now she has 2 sets of bangs. confusing. the level of each 4 is according to their birth order. K- goes completely swimming. C- goes almost as far. C2- just at the shore. E- just at the sand. ha, love it. tomorrow is meet and greet for els' preschool. i am so excited for her! she is just a little social butterfly, i know she's going to love it!

September 9, 2009 8

seems like so long ago

but it's only been 2 weeks since we got back. i think it's the weather change that makes it seem so drastic. i look at the clothes we are wearing in the pictures and it just seems like forever ago since we wore winter clothes! a few glimpses that caught my eye the other day while browsing thru our enormous file of pictures. i l o v e this one. the kids at a maze with chris, in the rain. you can see the raindrops in the picture!
also love these so much.
one at merrick's- with our auntie jo who took very good care of our massive crew. she fed us yummy dinners and our first kangaroo. she also took a family photo of us right after but for some reason it got lost along the way. im so sad! 😦one of her tasty meals 🙂
we fell in love with fitzroy and came back to do one of our family shoots there. you can see that one on the jac blog, click here.

kira said it was the best hot chocolate ever:
we thought the flat whites were especially delish.
sorta family pic, without moi.
luna park:

chris' dad who graciously had us over for many night and days, trekking our big family to his beautiful home in the mountains as well.

at the cabin, chris and caleb went on a fun gnome hunt in the village:

these guys geared up to go skiing/snowboarding as i stayed back with the little two.

a night of scrabble. NO KIDDING. caleb drew all of these letters. seriously!!!!! driving back to the city, through areas where the fires had passed.

st kilda, this shot is wrong with the water being crooked. but who cares. look at els' little hand gripping chris' jacket and caleb's little face watching in horror or amazement 🙂

sea glass in aus…that i later found in my bag once we got back to the US

maling road. love this area. chris' mom grew up around the corner. favorite little spot. found dr pepper there for 3.75 a can. i missed it but just couldn't stomach that price! we didn't get to see any koalas in the wild this time, we sure looked but didn't find any. the kids one request was to see some. 🙂 these are at healsville sanctuary. special treat, a bunch of active koalas and a little baby on it's mothers back. sweetest thing! and up close with a kangaroo…. they even got to pet it.

time with cousins.
we think their icy poles are better than our otter pops!

we were fortunate to have some really beautiful days of weather while there, kira was saying she wished she packed her flipflops and cam wished he packed shorts! but it was still chilly for me!

long chats with donna and snuggles with baby max.she housed us as well… both families together = 12. such good times. we are so grateful and will always remember it. thank goodness for ichat 🙂
and one more. though it's blurry, such a good memory. girls performing for us. learning a routine and practicing till it's time to perform. (i used to do this with my cousins, so i love seeing kira do it as well) 🙂

chris will have some of his film shots posted at the jacshoot blog sometime today.

as my air condition is blaring beside me, i think of our family so far away snuggled in their winter coats….missing them lots and wishing they weren't so far.

August 7, 2009 7

we made it

to australia! we've had 2 chilly days here but are enjoying the company of family and the beauty of the land 🙂 we're off to the snowy mountains tomorrow! crazy to think that our summer has turned into winter!

July 2, 2009 13

celebrating friends

the other day i got together with my friend brooke as we do every week. we usually just let the girls play while we scrap. but this time, we had another visitor, kelly, with us.. so we decided to head outside. so glad we did! i love these pics of the girls! they play so well together– elsie's first real friend 🙂 besides her siblings 🙂

i'm so happy to have a scrap friend nearby, one with a daughter who my daughter loves is a total bonus 🙂 one that shares the same obsession with me, is happy to have our girls wreak havoc while we make pages and one that enjoys treats as much as i do! 🙂 so thankfuL!
happy wednesday! two more days of school left. today we woke up ten minutes before the kids had to be at school. 🙂 it's already summer in our heads… hello sleeping in, we've missed you 🙂 yay!

June 17, 2009 19

hi

thanks for the sweet comments on my last post. 🙂 the kids and i took a walk yesterday. the weather has been lovely, a little chilly in the morning but warming up nicely in the afternoon. hoping it doesn't get too much hotter! it's nice when elsie requests a stroller walk, and actually stays in the stroller! it's always hard to have to maneuver the stroller while carrying her!
the boys have had major bike fever lately!
not real big on the action bike shots over here, but i did get one with my iphone once i put the big camera back in the house 🙂 gives me the goosebumps watching them ride like this! those who have asked about my iphone pics– no apps were used.. just brought into photoshop and lightened if needed- here's proof that my phone does take sucky pics as well :)
school is out in 2 weeks. kira turns 14 in a few days. slumber party will take place. not much slumber will be happening as they will be talking about the end of year dance and graduation. i cannot believe she will be graduating! another sappy post about her coming up in a few days probably 🙂

June 2, 2009 12

santa monica via iphone

pics from a quick morning trip to santa monica with my iphone.
my favorite from the bunch.
we have been on the go this week, enjoying our australian family's company. we have a wedding smack in the middle of memorial weekend so we will be relaxing on monday for sure! hope you have a great weekend!

May 22, 2009 12

sunday outing

i had heard so many great things about the LA festival of books that when we had a free sunday yesterday, the kids and i were excited to go! well, 3 of the 4. if you follow me on twitter, you'd know that our teenage daughter was not thrilled about having to go. she did not win though, and i dragged her along 🙂 here she is stopping at the philippine literature booth, flipping through a filipino cookbook.

after that i was instructed no more photos of her, so i let her have that battle :)

the sun and waiting is not always a favorite of miss elsie's. a big brother to entertain her though, oh yes please! (click to view any photos larger)

this one melts me! guiding her through the brightness!

the festival was at UCLA and we were just happy to walk the beautiful campus.

and so after a decent amount of sun and walking we left. we didn't stay long enough for one of my favorite chefs to go on stage and at the time i was okay with it, but now i'm rather bummed!

we stopped at a 7/11 for slurpees, where i brewed a great plan of bribery! kids, if i get you slurpees, i want to stop at this grassy field for pics for a little bit. ok mom :)

they were not very cooperative and my slurpee bribery failed. although i brought out one more bribery of a fruit by the foot and i was most pleased with the results 🙂

happy monday, people!

April 27, 2009 8

such a slacker!

i don't have any easter photos but i do have photos from a little trip to hollywood a few weeks ago! we went to the popular 'pink's' hot dog stand for the first time. after waiting in line for about an hour, we devoured the best chili dogs!

after the loooonnnng wait!

then a quick trip to a few stores nearby. this makes me laugh soooo much!

ha, so my life…

that's it! we've been busy with shoots and editing and getting ready for our class at reflections! there are still some seats, we'd love to see you! 🙂 they even have a blog going on– some fun eye candy there! and also trying to get things in order for our australia trip. last week we conquered passports for the munchkins!

April 13, 2009 6