49/365 - Just Lay Back & Float!

One of the good friends I have made here in Dayton teaches ISR (Infant Swimming Resource). ISR is a program designed to teach young children how to survive in the water - it relies on teaching the children to float on their back, and then if old enough, to roll to their stomach and swim. They repeat this sequence until they are rescued or they reach the edge of the body or water they fell into. Angela has taught both Miss A & Miss M over the past year and we recently reenrolled both girls for refreshers before our move.

Miss A has always been a strong floater - Angela always says she has a textbook float and I think she would probably float all day if we let her! This week however she has surprised us - she has figured out that she needs to move both arms and both legs to really swim through the water. She now loves the water!



Because of Miss M's age when I initially enrolled her in ISR in the fall, Angela just taught M how to float. We decided to see if Miss M will show any signs of a short swim now because she is so strong & determined in other things. Much to our surprise, Miss M is moving her legs and doing everything she can to figure out the swim!

34/365 - Home Bound

We had another housebound day today here - six additional inches of snow fell during the day today with another four forecasted for overnight & through tomorrow! Because Los didn't have class today, I had the opportunity to really enjoy the snowstorm by getting out and taking photos. I think this was the first time I've really experienced the true quiet of a snow storm - the quiet that comes before everyone is out shoveling driveways and before children are screaming and throwing snowballs. Before now I was always one of the people either rushing out to get to work or one of the children sleeping in and enjoying the snow day! Snow seems to put a damper on every sound and creates a beautiful canvas against which to photograph bare trees. Now if only the snow wouldn't risk damage to my camera!!!

Here are just a few images from today. More will follow later in the week when I have a chance to edit them all!





One final comment on this last series of photos: After our last snow storm a few weeks ago, some neighbors built a larger than life Snowman, complete with arms made of ducting & a finished with a top hat, placed prominently on the edge of the main road into our housing development. In the Snowman's hand was this American Flag. For the past 2 weeks as the snow has been melting, the flag kept being stuck back into what was left of the snowman, until all that was left was one small block of snow. I wish I had photographed the Snowman, but I'm hopeful those same neighbors might feel inspired to recreate what they did before. After-all, the flag is still flying there!

I'm in business!

I was finally able to find some time to devote to getting my business website up & running. As a result, I decide I should probably order some business cards to help promote my business!

As a mother of a 2 year old, usually "Moo" is the answer I get to what sound a cow makes, but Moo is also a great printing company! The best part of ordering from Moo is the flexibility you can get with the images on your cards. You can use as many different images as you would like. I settled on 6 different images for the front of my cards, and then did a custom design for the information side. They even come in a great holder!








So if you need business cards (or greeting cards, postcards, stickers, etc) check out http://www.moo.com. Oh, and don't forget to check out my new site for EKC Photography!

Halloween Revisited

Although both Los & I swore that Halloween would not be as last minute as it was last year (got Miss A's costume the night before Halloween!), it didn't quite work out that way! It did end up being rather last minute, but between a good friend loaning us an adorable costume for Miss M and making a quick trip to Target to find something for Miss A, we ended up with 2 very cute costumed girls!





Since Miss A is now 2 we decided that we would take her trick-or-treating just around our circle of about 12 homes. She understood that she was supposed to knock on the door and say "Treat Please!" - unfortunately she now thinks that works all of the time!



Even though they only went to a handful of houses, she still ended up with a pumpkin full of treats!

Little Toes

Today I had the opportunity to photograph teeny-tiny Baby I who was born only 10 short days ago! I couldn't wait to edit some of the photos from the session, so I thought I would post a sneak peak for her Mom & Dad to see! :)

Summer Fun

We spent a lot of time during June traveling across the country from Boston to Texas. Not only did we cover A LOT of miles in the car, we got to see many family & friends and the girls had a blast! I'm still working on editing photos from our trips, but here are just a few.

Anna had to wear her hat for most of our time in Texas due to the intense heat & strong texas sun! The high temp on the saturday was 105, to be followed by a "cool snap" of only 95 on sunday!


This was actually taken here in Dayton during a promotion party for 2 guys in Carlos's squadron. Maya spent most of the afternoon relaxing on her new blanket.


And finally, I grabbed this photo during one of the only 2 sunny days in Boston when Anna was able to play in the paddling pool that my mum picked up for her. Anna had a blast in the water... now if only that would translate to a regular pool!

Cox Arboretum in May

One of the great things about living in Dayton is the accessibility of many parks. One of my favorites is the Cox Arboretum because you can find so many different plants and wildlife on the grounds. Not to mention it's just a beautiful place to take a walk. Here are just a few photos from our visit there on Memorial Day.

Weekend Visitors

This weekend we were fortunate enough to have friends come visit us here in Dayton. As we've found out in the Air Force, you make friends all over the country and then get to enjoy catching up when you can make it back to the same city again. We decided to take a walk down out the Cox Arboretum and show them a little bit of Dayton.

Yesterday & Today

Yesterday, a good friend & I took our kids to one of the local metroparks in Dayton. My plan was to take some photos of the children (4 under the age of 2.5!) while enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having! Well, Miss A really didn't want much to do with the camera, while Mr. J had enough energy for all of us and kept me moving! I'm still editing photos from the day, but I had to work on these 2 first.

It's amazing how a rock can fascinate children!




And since Miss M ended up spending the whole morning in the stroller, I decided to take some photos of her in one of her many summer dresses today and as usual she was all smiles!

A New Creation

Last weekend we hosted a bbq for our friends here in Dayton, so I decided to try out a new cupcake idea.  Carlos loves lemon cake - especially when filled with lemon curd - but since the 2 of us usually can't (or maybe shouldn't is a better term) eat a whole cake, I wanted to try to make it into a cupcake.  

Here's what I came up with - Lemon cake, filled with lemon curd, and topped with vanilla buttercream.  

Spring Tulips

This past saturday I had the chance to join in on a photography shoot at the Wegerzyn Gardens here in Dayton.  I really enjoyed having a little time to photograph some flowers and wildlife and just enjoy the peacefulness of the garden.  These are just a few shots I took that day: