Theme Thursday - Laughter

* Laughing Buddha *

Ok, c'mon now.....When else was I supposed to post this shot? :o)

Keith and I had the chance to go out to the lunch a week or so ago without Ella. He took me to this hole in the wall Chinese restaurant, which are secretly always the best. We had the lunch buffet, all you can eat for like $6.00. The special thing about this place though, is that it is a sit down buffet.

I am pretty sure it is family owned, and for the life of me, I cant remember the name of this place.....Anyways, you sit at a table and the waitress(s) bring out one dish at a time in a big family style bowl with tongs and dishes out the food to anyone who wants it. Once they have served everyone that dish, they come out with the next dish and ask you if you want some of that.

At first, I was starving and they came and gave me one tiny skewer of chicken and a chicken wing. I looked at Keith and said, "Are you kidding me? I am starving!" He just shook his head and told me to be patient. Within a few minutes or so, my plate was full (heaping over, actually) with each delicious dish I chose to eat...sweet & sour chicken, noodles, fried rice... You know, all the good stuff. And IT WAS GOOD!

So towards the end of the meal, they came around with dessert. Which was a bowl of HUMONGOUS mini donuts. Who doesn't love mini donuts....at a full size donut size! I am wiping off the drool as I type. I was full. Happy and full. And I thought that was the best part of the meal, until I got out to the register to pay my $12.00 bill...which is a steal for an all you can eat Chinese buffet for two! Go to LeeAnn Chin and Keith and I could spend over $20.00 for a meal with appetizers and a drink (to share for that matter). At the register, they had this Buddha sitting there with a plethora of pennies flowing out of his lap. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. It was like "kindness floweth'ing over" (I have been known to make up words every once and a while).

Just think of all the people that dropped a penny in Buddha's lap! Do you think that it was the Buddha that made more people want to leave their change?

In any case, this "Laughing Buddha" is my contribution to this weeks Theme Thursday. Head on over to Stacy's at The Land of KA for more laughter!

Theme Thursday - My Two Loves

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express. ~Joseph Addison



For more Theme Thursday images, head over to Stacy's

Winter Wonder Land

I was tickled pink that Stacy made the theme for this week Winter Wonder Land. Being winter in Minnesota, I have a ton of pictures of Ella out in the snow. I recently bought a new hat so that when I take pictures of her, they don't all look the same!

I present to you.....Henry.

In this first shot, Ella was scolding Lulu for getting too close to Henry before he was completed. I just got a kick out of it. I wish you could see her arm and fingers pointing at her telling her to "STAY AWAY!!"









I am not a snow person by any means, but I cant help to be delighted every time Ella is in the snow. The childhood joy she feels when playing in the snow is so infectious....Enough that I actually took her outside myself yesterday. 30 degrees was feeling like a heat wave!

Happy Thursday everyone!

For more Theme Thursday images, head over to The Land of KA.

Theme Thursday - Holiday Memories

I can always remember Christmas morning. The anticipation and excitement of not being able to go to sleep and of waking up and seeing all of the presents in the living room. They didn't just go under the tree either. It seemed the presents overflowed throughout the room. My special present that I got was a stereo. Every couple of years or so, my parents would upgrade me from the last one I got. I started out with a record player, then got a boom box, then got a table top stereo until I finally got what seemed like the granddaddy of all stereos. It had its own cabinet, 4 component pieces and it was beautiful. As a matter of fact, I still have the stereo which now sits out in my garage. We use it in the summer time while playing outside.

My parents were very good to my brother and I. I don't know how they did it. Actually, my mom just told me the other day that she never bought anything for Christmas that she could not pay off in January. What a concept! Too bad, I don't know how to manage that....

I am so thankful that Ella is so close to my parents. She is their Angel. Their Princess. Their wonderful look at life again through new eyes. Grandparents are the best. And I know that they will give her just as many wonderful memories that they gave me as a child.

I posted a photo the other day of Ella and her Amu.

Here's Ella and her Eppe




For more Theme Thursday Holiday Memories, head over to Stacy's!

Theme Thursday - Thankful

Everyday I try to be thankful for a different thing. I have said before that I have never noticed nature as much as I have this year. Whether it was because of my new camera or through Ella's eyes....I notice everyday how beautiful nature is. It snowed the other day but was gone by the afternoon. Never the less, Ella wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. So we did.

Innocence, hope, beauty, creativity, imagination.....I am thankful to see all of that in my daughter.

To have a house to keep us warm and safe....to have two steady paychecks coming in....Love.....to have found love. To be so close to my parents. To have my health. To have gas prices drop everyday. To be able to need nothing (even if there is a list of things I want). ;P

To just be. Sometimes I am happy to just be me.




To see what others are thankful for, head on over to Stacy's.

Theme Thursday - Home

With winter already at our front steps (we woke up to an inch of snow on the ground), I have been practicing my photography indoors. Thank goodness for windows! That's all I have to say. Although it is still a tricky recipe for me, trying to figure out the shutter and aperture, I am starting to get more comfortable with my manual skills.

This is Ella and I at home. My content little girl....quiet (very rare)...watching some toons....and allowing me to photograph her beautiful little face.







For more Theme Thursday shots, head over to The Land of K.A.

Theme Thursday - Creativity

Stacy, over at The Land of KA challenged us this week to be creative and while Ella was painting pumpkins (which will come in another post), I was so taken with the paint palette she was smearing around. Every time she scooped up a gob of paint, a new formation took place, new colors were created and a new inspiration came about.


For more creativity this week, venture over to The Land of KA.

Feeding the Animals and Planting Trees

Our crab apple tree in our backyard became the sole food source for all animals in the forest the other day. Ella was picking all of the berries off of the tree in order to replenish multiple dragons, lions and critters. As we walked around the yard, she told me where each animal was and we dropped a few berries in their place.

After she fed the animals, she planted acorns in the dirt. The best part about this was that the next day, Ella went to the place in our yard where she planted the acorns and miraculously, there were trees that had grown 5 feet tall! Can you believe it? Me either. They had been there forever, but in her imaginative little mind....they weren't there the day before. ;0)









To see more Theme Thursday shots, head over to Stacy's.

Theme Thursday - Fall

For more Theme Thursday images, head over to Stacy's

My Hand At Sunflare

After seeing Stacy's tutorial on sunflares, I thought I would give it a try. I love the tutorials everyone does because it gives me confidence to go out and try it myself. Step by steps make it sound so easy!

It had been raining here for a few days and there was no sun....until this morning. Ella told me to come look at the sunrise and it was so beautiful. We live down a hill from a school and every morning when the sun comes up, it comes from the school and drapes down our road into our yard. With the shadows from the trees, it is very dramatic and a wonderful sight to wake up to.





Coincidentally, this weeks Theme Thursday at Stacy's is sunshine. Head on over to see some more great shots!

Rules #48 and #49 For Enhancing Photographs

Rule #48 - Do not use a laptop and do not assume that they look as good on your computer as they do on someone else's.

Rule #49 - Do not try to process pictures as well as someone who has a Dslr, when you only have a little 4 mp digital P&S.

I went over to my parents house today. Ever since Ella was born I have taken many pictures and always emailed them to my Dad so he could print them out and share them with my mom. They have books of pictures of their only grandchild at their house. The last week or so, I mentioned in my blog that I was playing around with Christina's standard processing. Since working from home over the last year, I use my laptop for most everything. Surfing the web, playing with pictures....and oh ya, working. When I looked at the pictures I had sent him the last week of Ella, I couldnt believe how different they looked on his monitor. My Dad games online, so he has a wonderful 21" flat widescreen monitor.

My Dad did photography as a hobby when I was little. I imagine that is what sparked my interest as I grew up. I was kinda embarrassed at how they looked on his monitor after playing around in photoshop with the pictures of my precious Ella. Not at all how they looked like on my laptop!

In saying that, instead of following a certain way step by step, I have gone back to my way of processing photos, with some slight alterations from some wonderful things I learned from Christina's photographs. Isnt that what it's all about anyways? Taking what you have learned and adding them with your style....

So tell me, with the best criticism you've got....How do they look on your end?

Which brings me to what I want. CAN YOU GUESS? You got it. A Dslr. I am looking at the Nikon D80 or the Canon EOS XSi (450D)






Ella was trying to take a picture of me....

View more "Theme Thursday's" at Stacy's The Land of K.A.

Sprinkler Fun - Theme Thursday

This is my first Theme Thursday post. Since Ella and I enjoyed the weather outside today, I thought it was perfect for the "childhood" theme this week. I was spraying the water hose on Ella and told her to dance. This is what she came up with. She also wanted to drink out of the hose like our dog Lulu....Something I am sure we all did as kids!