Happy Halloween!

This afternoon Sarah and I carved a pumpkin together. Well, I carved and she played with the seeds and stringy stuff. She's been obsessed with pumpkins the last few weeks and seems to be able to spot them wherever we are. I'm sure it's going to be a little sad for here when all the pumpkins "disappear" after Halloween.

Picking Grapes

Yesterday we went to the vineyard in the late afternoon to pick some grapes with friends. The vines are beautiful at the moment, shades of green, yellow and red. The kids enjoyed picking and eating.

Picking grapes was pretty serious business for the kids.

I took some Pictures

I wasn't sure what to post today, so I thought I would just post some pics that I took on the weekend. Meet our lovely life group! I think I mentioned earlier that I was in need of family pics to use on my Christmas card designs, and not the kind where a family is sitting in front of a Christmas tree or on the couch, etc. Anyways, here are a few of my favourites. I was really happy with how the pics turned out, especially since these were my 2nd, 3rd and 4th photo shoots. I'm not trying to become a photographer, I just need photos for my cards that I have the rights to. If this means that I do a little photography on the side, that could be fun. I enjoy it; I loved the learning experience as well. I'm totally a beginner and there's tons of photographers out there, so who knows.

Little Calvin

Just playing around outside. The last couple of days have been really warm and windy. Today Calvin had a bit of a fever as well as his runny nose that just doesn't seem to go away. So he was a little on the cranky side all day, so much fun. It was also my morning to help out in Sarah's nursery school class. It was nice to be able to see what she does while she's at "school." She seemed happy to have me there, just didn't know what to think of the other kids that wanted to sit on my lap and get my attention.

The rest of the day just seemed to pass by. Nap time wasn't nearly long enough for Calvin today but Sarah slept for 4.5 hours, yikes. I've been madly editing photos, redoing cards, posting cards, filling orders. So many wedding thank you cards these past couple of days! David's actually come home at around 5 the last couple of days as well, so it's been nice to have him home more.

Calvin's First Birthday Party

Calvin is One!!

Today we celebrated Calvin's first birthday! Can't believe our little guy is a year already; time sure does go by fast! He is such a joy! I took these pics at Ball's Falls a couple of weeks ago. Such a little man!

The trip is Booked!

We've really been feeling the need for a trip to look forward to. It's a lot harder to travel with little ones, but we're determined to go on adventures and see new places even with little kids.
Well, we just booked a 7 day February cruise out of Miami going to the Bahamas, St. Thomas, San Juan Puerto Rico and Grand Turk. These are all beautiful places with amazing beaches! We are so... EXCITED!! My mom, Michael, Rebecca and Anna will all be joining us as well, should be a ton of fun!

Don't these pics make you want to go too??

Little Reindeer

My mom was dressing up Calvin in his little reindeer costume while she was out. So cute!

My evenings these days...

With Christmas just over a couple of months away, I have been busy working on Christmas cards these days. I slowly started in July and am now working hard tweaking, replacing photos and adding the last of the new designs. I feel like I have really found my own style through the year as well as better ways of doing things. I also have a much bigger font selection (I LOVE fonts), patterns, etc to work with. Therefore, I have taken at least half of last years designs off my website. In the end I expect to have close to 100 Christmas card designs posted. Crazy! This is something that I enjoy and love to do. It's also been great to have something to work on while David has been working REALLY long hours at the winery.

I have shyed away from photography. I do cards not take pictures. Don't get me wrong, I love taking photos of our kids and the places we visit. I have a professsional level Canon DSLR but am still learning how to use it well. This whole past year I have felt like I have had lots of design ideas but not much in the way of photos to work with. Great photos help make card designs great. I can create a beautiful design, but with bad photos the card will only look ok.

Sadly, the lack of great photos has been what's delayed me getting my 2010 Christmas card designs posted. Therefore I decided to face my fears, pick up my camera and look for some willing volunteers to be my subjects. Since we don't know many people here, I asked for help from our church care group. Here's a few photos from my first photo session attempt. I know I have a long way to go, but I was happy with the results for my first time. The photos don't need to be the most amazing ever, just clean, simple and beautiful. I like simple, candid photos that look like they could have actually happened in real life. After the rest saw the pics, I now have four more beautiful families lined up for my practice. Thanks so much Whyte family!! Now I just have to find times within the next couple of weeks to make this all happen.



I'm starting to get pretty curious what Christmas will be like for me (business wise). My sister in law will be coming out for December to spend time with us and help with the kids for the first couple of weeks, which will be wonderful! I'm expecting some super crazy days and REALLY long hours. This is all awesome in so many ways but I'm sure it will also be very difficult at times as well. Who knows? Any guesses how many Christmas orders I'll get?? I've already had two! Also had a couple of orders from Australia this past week. I'm currently creating wedding invitations for a bride in Hawaii. Four fundraisers lined up (one is in Ohio). Pretty exciting!! So thankful for such a supportive husband in all this!

Visiting Balls Falls

On Thanksgiving Sunday we went to Balls Falls with my mom. There was an arts and crafts fair on the grounds as well as things to do and see.