Author: mrsbarnes

Portraits

Ok So I’m still an amateur to say the least but these are not half bad. I really wish there was a class on how to pose subjects for portraits. My photo teacher just said look at other photographer’s work. I need a little more guidance than that! I’m excited that Saddleback is going all digital next year with their photography so I may look into taking more classes to learn about color and composition. ( I did use Photoshop to help my pictures pop)

Jillian Candid portrait

Jillian Candid portrait

Olivia Posed portrait

Olivia Posed portrait

Five Years

Today Adrian and I celebrated our five year anniversary. I am so lucky to be married to Adrian; he is such an amazing person! Being high school sweethearts it’s been fun growing up together discovering all that life has to offer. Our feelings for each other have never once faltered in the ten years we’ve been together. Now our family is growing and is great seeing how well Adrian fits into the father roll.

We celebrated by going to a yummy sushi place in Del Mar. If you are ever in the area check it out, Tabu Sushi. We love the Rudy Roll and the Salsa Roll.

Vibram

So Adrian was inspired by the book Born to Run and several of our close friends. On Sunday he purchased a pair of Vibram Five Fingers shoes. He likes them so far 🙂

Putting them to the test

Bonfire!

Friday night was Jillian and Olivia’s first beach Bonfire!! We were celebrating our friend’s daughter’s 16th birthday. Jillian had a lot of fun because there was a little girl there who was about 3 years old. She also had a blast when my mom brought out the bubbles. I think that digging in the sand with Adrian was her favorite part of the night! Olivia slept through it all as usual 🙂

When the fire began Jillian was in awe. I was paranoid that she would get too close because she was so interested in the fire. We sat for a long time just watching it burn. She was not thrilled when we had to leave.

Jillian and Me sitting by the fire. Look how weird the smoke makes our faces appear.

Funny picture of Uncle Sam

So cute!

Jillian was sharing with Olivia this morning! Haha it is so cute to watch Jillian from a distance. She is such a wonderful little person!

Hello Wednesday

I’ve been having fun this week with my camera! On Saturday Adrian and I took the girls to the park. I needed some motion pictures for my Saddleback photo class. I am in love with the picture of Adrian jumping over Jillian!

Jump with Jillian

With all of the construction going on we took the opportunity to repaint Jillian and Olivia’s room. We turned it into a room fit for a princess. HAHA. I’m not one for too much pink but I LOVE how it turned out. I used my Cricut and vinyl  sticker paper to create the wording on the wall. Jillian loves playing in her room now!

Jillian and Olivia's room

Last night we went to our favorite dessert place, Yogurtland! Jillian loves sharing with Adrian. Sadly she likes it so much that Adrian has to eat fast so that she doesn’t eat too much. Next visit we’re going to get Jillian her own cup, with a restricted portion 🙂

Mmmm

Last night Adrian got really sick! Poor thing was throwing up all night.  He stayed home to rest today but I did drag him out of bed to join us at music class. It didn’t help his headache, Oops!

Here’s a funny picture of Olivia. I think there may be something wrong with her tongue.  I’m going to bring it up with the Dr. at her next checkup.

Silly Baby

My new camera lens arrived today and I am super excited to try it out tomorrow! My photo teacher says that it is best for portraits. I’m hoping to get some great shots of the girls with this lens!  Whoo more pictures to come! yo

Easter 2010

Our Family

Yesterday was Olivia’s first Easter! She slept through most of it J Jillian enjoyed it a lot this year. On Saturday we decorated eggs. I read in a magazine about using a wire whisk for dying eggs. It was an amazing tip! Jillian was able to color the eggs with little help from me and not once did the egg drop! We talked about the colors and I think she has blue down for sure! After the eggs dried she decorated them with Sesame Street stickers. The left over stickers ended up on the dog. Haha!

Decorating Eggs

Decorating Eggs

Decorating Eggs

Decorating Eggs

Decorating eggs

Decorating eggs

Decorating eggs

Decorating eggs

Decorating eggs

Jillian's eggs

Egg Hunt

Jillian had a good time collecting eggs!! I got her eggs from Target this year. They were prefilled with Sesame Street characters and Fisherprice Little People. She had a blast playing with them after the hunt.  I also hid candy filled eggs for Sam. I put out 43 eggs and only 39 were found. Haha I’m sure they’ll show up eventually.

Jillian Easter Egg Hunting

Jillian Easter Egg Hunting

Hunting for eggs

Hunting for eggs

Jillian Easter Egg Hunting

Jillian Easter Egg Hunting

playing with eggs

Playing with eggs

Easter at the Park

We spent this Easter at the park with Adrian’s family. It was Grandma Esther’s 80th birthday celebration as well. Grandma Esther is a fan of Vegas slot machines so I made a slot machine cake for her!

Grandma Esther

Grandma Esther

Slot Machine Cake

Slot Machine Cake

Easter CakeEaster Cake

The Whole Gang

The Whole Gang

There was an egg toss this year which was fun to watch. It took quite a while for people to start getting out. Then there was egg everywhere!

egg toss

Egg Toss

Jillian is our little cookie monster! She found where the cookies were located and I think by the end of the day she had gotten her hands on four cookies.

cookie monster

cookie monster

If you were in California or Arizona you probably felt the 7.2 earthquake we had in the afternoon. I was sitting down on the ground and felt the movement. It made me dizzy. I think that I like being outside during an earthquake much better than being inside a building! There was no sense of urgency, we just sat feeling the movement of the plates beneath us.

Since we were in the area yesterday we stopped and visited my Uncle Joe and family. Jillian made a friend while we were there. His name was Clyde and he was 6 months younger. They were sharing Easter eggs and talking about who knows what, haha. Jillian threw a fit while we were there because she desperately wanted to go into the swimming pool. At least we know that she won’t be scared of swimming in the summer!

Here are some cute pics from yesterday.

Baby Olivia

Baby Olivia

Adrian and Olivia

Adrian and Olivia

cute jillian

Cute Jillian

Overall we had a wonderful Easter! I hope yours was great too!

Well I did it!

I just sent in my application for a masters in Instructional Design and Technology at CSUF! I’m really excited about the possibility of continuing my education!!!

Flower Cake

I attempted my first rolled fondant cake this week. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Although I did need a little help from Adrian. I was having a hard time initially rolling out the fondant. Over all I think it turned out pretty well for being an amateur.  It also was very tasty. I think that next time I’ll need to use better frosting to go under the fondant, the one I made with this cake wasn’t great.

Fondant Flower Cake

Fondant Flower Cake

My Photo Class Adventure

My photo classes have begun and I’m so excited!!!

My online photo class through Jessica Sprague started us off with shutter speeds. Here is my first assignment. I got the shutter speeds correct, but my composition and camera shake need lots of work!!  I need to work on looking at the photo opportunity and filling the frame. My first picture would have been better as a vertical shot, with Jillian and the bubbles filling the entire frame. My second picture shows my camera shake! haha I thought I was showing motion but I wasn’t really. For this picture to be a success the background needed to be sharp as well. I’ll be practicing this a little more!

fast and slow shutter assignment

This picture below is an example of my panning practice. I still need a lot of work!

Here is some practice with my telephoto lens 🙂

I can’t wait to show you more as I get better!