Month in Photos - October

1. 3 cousins. 2. Halloween fun - made from crescent rolls. 3. Madelyn and Mummy playing Hi Ho! Cherry-O. 4. Decadent halloween s'mores. 5. Drawing pictures in the kitchen. 6. Outside pumpkin light. 7. Mason peering down at me. 8. Another cousin sighting. 9. Mason and baby Isabella. [who told me later, he connected with her] 10. Madelyn and Isabella [she so badly wants to be a big sister]. 11. Our front step full of pumpkins. 12. Little Red Riding Hood and Pirate Mason.

Month in Photos - August & September 2011

1. First day of school. 2. Madelyn's name tag and shoes at school. 3. Watching the Cochrane Labour Day Parade 4. Playing in the backyard, oblivious to any one else. 5. My expecting niece and her husband. 6. The kids with Pluto. 7. Madelyn's first ever face paint 8. Family photo at Disney California Adventure 9. Signs I made to get the kids picked to be a part of the Jedi Training Program at Disneyland. [They worked!] 10. Two little kids dead tired at the end of the busy day. [They looked like this most nights] 11. Mason and Barry, on our first Disney ride, It's a Small World. 12. Spooky decor outside the Haunted Mansion.

1. My mantra. 2. Little Miss riding her bike without training wheels. 3. Mason at the end of the day of his Tour de Calgary bike camp. 4. Birthday Boy Baba, and the kids. 5. Bench at Nose Hill. 6. Family Self-Portrait at Johnston's Canyon in Banff. 7. Madelyn getting splashed with ice cold mountain lake water in Kananaskis. 8. What the floor looked like under our seats at our first Viper's Baseball game. 9. Little wind-blown girl. 10. Mason on the slip 'n slide in the backyard. 11. Barry and the kids in the canoe at Kananaskis.

Month in Photos Catch Up

My intention this year, was to keep up to date [at least monthly] with my favourite photos from each month. Rebecca Cooper offered her handy-dandy templates here. I realized, that I have completed a few of the previous months layouts, but for some reason they didn't get posted on my blog. I find it hard to narrow it down to a just a few pictures, and then when I look at the favourite pictures, most of them I have already posted individually on my blog. In any case, I'm half way through the year, so I might as well keep going!

Here they are:

1. Daddy helping Mason with his slap shot. 2. Madelyn and I celebrating Gigi's 94th Birthday. 3. Madelyn loving Gigi's wiggly arm skin. 4. Reading this book to me, actually reading it! 5. Trip to the zoo to see that new baby giraffe. 6. Our little gymnast. 7. Silly Bandz boy [they were Star Wars, he was in heaven] 8. Little girl, cleaning up the batter. 9. Mace racing his Cub Car. 10. Mason helping shovel snow off the back deck. 11. Looking the part of a hockey player. 12. I crocheted a cup cozy.

1. Miss Maddy G turns 6. 2. Glasses for Mad's party. 3. Birthday cake. 4. A little charm of Chip or Dale [Madelyn's favourite] though I can never remember who's who. 5. Our shadow family. 6. Mason playing his home made flute. [Many thanks to Baba that helped Mason make it] 7. Me and my kids on Mother's Day. 8. Blooming crocus on Nose Hill. 9. The paper cranes, hanging in the atrium at school. This was a grade 3 initiative to raise money to help the Tsunami victims of Japan. 10. The kids up at Nose Hill. 11. Madelyn with curls in her hair, she requested this 'do' on her birthday.

1. Little bug girl, note the pink nail polish. 2. A rainy day fort. 3. Lego man head sugar cookies I made for Mason's birthday party. 4. Mason totally lost in the 1st Percy Jackson novel. 5. Ama & Baba and the kids, downtown after Madelyn's dance recital. 6. Barry and the kids on Father's Day. 7. Getting a surprise birthday smooch from his adoring sister. 8. Birthday Donut Cake! This was a huge hit, because he doesn't really like cake all that much [whose kid is he?] 9. He's 9. 10. Macy and his Momma. 11. Two very excited little people on the last day of school.

1. Jeff and Lisa, newly married. 2. The happy couple [their outdoor wedding was SO beautiful] 3. Mason at the lake, devouring the 2nd Percy Jackson novel. 4. Barry and I, all dressed up fancy for the wedding. 5. Our family picture at the lake. Chris got to come and spend a few days with us this year. 6. The little diva sunning herself. 7. Mason playing in the sand [and yes he knows his shirt is on backwards and he doesn't care] 8. A picture of me out in the boat... 9. Macy and Ama on the river. 10. Maddy and Baba on the river. 11. Yes, she has a milk moustache, but I love this picture anyway.

Favourite April Photos

I got this collage ready, and then forgot to post it. Here are my favourite April photos:

1. Madelyn and her Chip 'n Dale Silly Bandz. 2. Ladybug Mason, always so quick to smile for Mum. 3. Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake, Mmmmmm..... 4. Happy Birthday to me, my new Jo Totes camera bag. 5. The middle of April... When is enough, enough? 6. Earth Day cookies. 7. Reading together at Grandma's. 8. Mason's Easter Egg. 9. A walk to the park together. 10. Trying out her new Silly Straw. 11. Bunting for birthday cake. 12. Reading on the couch.

February Favourites

1. Mason humoring me. He's tired of always seeing my camera. 2. Gigi buns [my Grandma's recipe for buns, the kids love them, and they taste just like Gigi's] 3. My kids and their stuffies.
4. Wedding rings, LOVE this picture so much. 5. We've been dressing up like a princess a lot lately. It's such fun. 6. Barry fixing the cord on our kettle. We got it as a wedding present, I couldn't just toss it!! [update** the kettle has been repaired, and the way I see it, good for another 12 1/2 years] 7. Another favourite photo of the month. Barry and I. 8. Madelyn's artwork on the wall at school. It's a chalk picture of her and her brother. 9. Skit at Cubs. He totally loves the skits, and on the right hand side of the picture, his sister is taking it all in. 10. Close up of a Christmas decoration my Mum has. LOVE the detail in her veil. 11. Hubsy sweet talking me... 12. We've been bundled up like this for so long now... So tired of the extreme cold temps.

Gearing up for the month of LOVE...

I've signed up for this freebie... The joy of love.I think this one starts tomorrow on February 1st. I have done a couple of on-line classes through Willette, one being the 'finding the joy' class. I think she'd be horribly disappointed to know that I went through my January pictures, and I show up in them ONCE... Obviously I didn't learn a thing. I had to quickly do a mirror picture, to round off the month... So there's 2 of me for January.

I thought a neat challenge I could give myself would be "Self Portrait Sunday...." But based on the fact that 5 Sunday's have gone by, and I have NOT taken a single self portrait, I think I can forget about that... Who knows... Perhaps it's not too late? After last years, 365 days challenge, I hate to corral myself into HAVING to do things on certain days... Seriously, it was a very full year... There was a LOT of guilt associated with NOT having my camera at my side, at all times.

Having said that, I am very drawn to the idea of Wordless Wednesdays... Having nothing to say, just let a picture do all the talking. We'll see... Seriously, I think I over did it last year...

I recently sent some pictures to Persnickety to be printed. They should arrive within the next couple of weeks. The quality is outstanding. I highly recommend them. Worth the shipping cost indeed [and it still ends up being cheaper than Costco] Any way, in that shipment is my last few pages for my 365 album for 2010... I'm so excited to look at it completely finished.

It is my intention to group and post my favourite monthly pictures. I'm using the template provided by Rebecca Cooper, you can find it here... It looks so crisp and clean. Love looking at all my favs at the very same time... LOVE taking pictures!

Who can believe that January is already behind us?