Happy Birthday Jeffrey!

We had a fun weekend.  We started Saturday morning by seeing Ice Age 2:  The Meltdown.  For MONTHS Jacob has been asking to see it and we've been constantly watching the first one for weeks.  We were all excited to go see it and we weren't disappointed.  Really cute movie with some really funny parts. 

We're all fans of Scrat and he had lots of screen time this time around. 

Saturday evening we celebrated Jeff's birthday.  Jacob took over as photographer for the evening and got some interesting shots.

Happy Birthday Jeff! 

You're almost caught up to me, I think next year you'll probably pass me in age!      

We're baaaacckk!

Yesterday afternoon we got back from a wonderful and relaxing mini-break from Lake Tahoe.  No email, no Internet, no Tivo, and not even much photography, believe it or not....my head is clear and now ready to begin regular life again. 

The main agenda was kids activities, snow, reading, food, and fun.   I think we covered all of the above quite well!

Click here for photo album

A Beautiful Day!

Today turned out to be a beautiful day so the kids and I decided to spend a few hours out of doors this afternoon.  We headed out to feed the ducks and quickly went through a loaf of bread.  Not sure who was more insistent, the ducks or the kids asking for more slices.  We then headed to Grandma's for a little visit and then over to walk the trail.  So looking forward to more beautiful Spring weather.

Check here for some more photos from today.

However....I now need to go pack to head back into Winter!  We're heading to Lake Tahoe for the week.  According to the forecast it's going to snow and dip into the low 20's at night. 

What I've Learned Today

1.  Hire a professional to do a portrait sitting of your own kids.

2.  Ella needs a hair cut.  Again. 

3.  Jacob could stand to use one too.

4.  Jacob is quite a model when the camera comes out.  And he's in the mood.

5.  Don't fuss with Ella's hair, clothing, shoes, etc. too much.  Especially when she's not in the mood.

I really like it

I just read on another blog a 'new' term I really like.  It's called being a Life Artist...kind of a combo of all things photography, scrapbooking, memory keeping, story telling all rolled into one.  It could be done on paper, on the computer, canvas or my favorite, all of the above, depending on my mood!  Something a little...I don't know...classier sounding maybe?....then just a scrapbooker or just a photographer, etc.  I think that's what I want to be! 

Capture Life. Create Art.

Wish I could say I came up with it, but it's all her...  Ali

Can you find your house?

I read about the coolest website in our local paper yesterday.  It's called Google Earth and you can find it here Google Earth.  Once at the website you download the free Google Earth tool and you can then fly over the earth and zoom down for a closer look.  For whatever reason the resolution is horrible in my local area but everywhere else I've checked it looks great.  I've zoomed in on just about everyone I know's neighborhood, so whether I've been to your house before or not, I now know what it looks like from above!  We've sightseed from Santa Cruz,CA, to South Park, PA, to Mount Dora, Florida and everywhere in between!

What's really neat is to go to National Monuments and well known places.  The White House and the Eiffel Tower are just a couple that were really neat. 

Check it out! 

Just playing around...

Lighting is kinda screwy but I love my models! 

New Site Unveiled!

For those of you that check this blog regularly you'll notice some major changes to the look and feel.  I've been thinking about really customizing it and spent the last couple of hours tweaking and changing..this will be an ever evolving project I'm sure, as I'm never quite satisfied! 

One major new change is I now have a Photo of the Day link where I will post a new photo daily.  (Click the photo to the right!)  This is mainly for my benefit to encourage me to practice my photography skills but also a photo diary of sorts.  It will  usually be a new photo taken that day but occasionally I will post an older photo for fun.  I love looking back at old photos, especially of the kids...they change so darn quick!

I encourage you to post comments on here.  You never know what can happen...prizes just may be involved!  Gotta keep life interesting, you know! 

So sweet, so fun!

A friend recently had a baby and after meeting her daughter, I just knew I had to do a photo shoot with her.  Now keep in mind, I have never done a photo shoot for anyone other than my own kids before, but I just had to do it!  I have been wanting to learn more about the particulars of photography; proper lighting, f-stops, shutter speed, all that good stuff...so what better way than to learn by doing.  I did learn a lot and I learned even more about Photoshop.  Very complex program with a very high learning curve but I'm slowing catching on and quickly filling a notebook with notes.  For the past year I have been acquiring equipment and collecting books so it's about time I get serious about learning!  I am now completely immersed in the world of photography and Photoshop.

Here is the link to a few of the 100+ photos I took of an adorable little girl Newborn photo shoot

Freaky little toy!!

My friend Karen gave me the coolest little toy for my birthday last month.  We are all still mesmerized by it.  It's called the 20Q and it's this little round electronic ball that you play 20 questions with...the freaky thing is, that no matter how random of an item you pick and how basic the questions it asks are, the darn thing guesses what you're thinking 95%+ of the time!  Aaron is constantly threatening to throw it out the window...it's got to be possessed or at the very least have a little camera inside.  LOL! 

I just found that the 20Q has it's own website where you can play it.  Check it out here!  20Q

Birthday Party

This morning we went to a birthday party for a playgroup friend who turned 2.  The kids had a blast playing together and enjoying some yummy cupcakes.  Check out the photos here... Birthday Party pics

Where's the snow?

Jacob got all excited when he saw the snow start to fall this afternoon.  He immediately ran to his room to put on his snow gear.  It was coming down good for a little while and looked like we might have a very interesting afternoon.  However, by the time he got all dressed there wasn't really anything left!

More fun with Photo Booth

I could waste hours playing with this program.
 

American Idol, who knew?

So I have never seen any of the previous American Idols before, just never thought I'd be interested.  I love music and different artists, but the thought of watching a bunch of wanna be's just never intrigued me.  This year I couldn't ignore the hype, it didn't seem to be going away so I decided to check it out after what, 5 seasons now?  Now I can honestly say I'm hooked!  It is so entertaining to me.  Aaron has gotten into it as well.  Even the kids seem to be into it at times.  Had I known what a big committment it was, maybe I would have refrained...3 nights a week!  But it is good entertainment and something to look forward to at the end of a long weekday.  I'm not sure how it's been in previous seasons but the guys are so much better than the girls.  I have my top picks (which coincidentally is pretty much Aaron's favorites too).  Our very favorite is Chris Daughtery...
He has been excellent every time and really gets into his performance. 

But we also like Bucky 

And Taylor Hicks 

We both like Elliot as well...he's got a great voice but just doesn't seem to have the right look or performing ability...

Aaron also likes Ace Young.  Of the girls, I like Mandisa and Paris and Aaron likes Kelli Pickler.  I just never knew this show could be so entertaining!  They just might even get me to start voting.  Go Chris!! 

Road Trip to Chico

Wednesday we took a day trip to Chico.  We rarely head that way and we really need to go more often.  It's a very interesting town and has so many places to explore.  We found a really neat playground in Bidwell Park that was great fun for the kids.  Aaron and the kids bought me a new telephoto lens for my camera and I had fun trying it out here.  Bidwell Park Photos

Birthday Fun!

Ella and I have had an incredible last few days...we both celebrated our birthdays and had a great time.  Thank you to everyone who shared in the celebrations with us both near and far. 

We started the festivities Monday morning with a 'Little Artists Party' with our playgroup, everyone had a wonderful time creating works of art and enjoying a magic show by the Great Aarondini.  The birthday celebrations concluded Tuesday evening when I went out to dinner with a group of my best girlfriends...to my favorite cuisine, Chinese.  Nothing better than making the fun last! 

Thank you everyone and here's a link to 'some'  (OK, a lot!) of pictures ... Ella and Lisa Birthday Photos

Science Projects

So yesterday I got a fun delivery.  I got the box of science goodies I ordered from Steve Spangler Science.  Really fun stuff and the kids and I are having a blast playing with everything.  The rocket balloons are incredible fun, highly recommend!  There was one issue with an item though...I ordered the fog blaster and after filling it with the fog fluid, putting in new batteries, and turning it on it began to have a funny smell.  It started making the fog rings (which were really cool by the way!) and then about a minuter later I hear a 'pop' and the filament inside catches fire!  OK, that's probably not supposed to happen, right?  This morning I call the company and the woman who answered was incredibly nice and apologetic.  She wanted to know did I want a new one, a refund, or what.  The kids were loving it for the minute it was working so I asked for a new one to be sent out.  She said she'd have Steve look at the one that caught fire and keep in touch with me on the safety of these things.  Overall I'm really impressed with this company and am kinda sorry I didn't chose to become a science teacher!  So many fun things out there to teach kids about science. 

I hope we don't have the same problem with the new one, but this is obviously a parental supervision only product! 

How cool to have goals?

I'm spending the day going through my office organizing and purging and came across the beginning of a list I made 12/31/02 titled, "Goals in Life List."   I just had to share it!

• To pay off the Durango - DONE, we no longer own it either!


• To ride with the dolphins - still working on this one


• To run a race longer than 2 miles - DONE, as of last November!


• To have another baby - DONE, have you all met Ella?


• To create a web-page - DONE, I think this qualifies!


• To travel cross country - PARTIALLY DONE, I don't think this one will ever be completed because there is so much to see


• Own a piece of jewelry from Tiffany's - DONE, 2 actually...thank you Aaron!

Wow, I'm pretty proud to say that I was able to accomplish most of these in only a few years but really this list is pretty pathetic!  I think it's time to work on a new list of life goals.  More with meaning and a real purpose.

I also came across this quote I love....
"Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art." --Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Beautiful Day for the Park

Click here for some more pictures of our day in the park

80's night...Like Totally Rad!

Saturday we had our monthly Dinner Club night and it was like so totally rad!  Everything 80's all night long, what could be better?  So much fun, but I just can't get over the fact for the most part we all ACTUALLY dressed that way!  And from the sounds of it, it's coming back in fashion....NOOOOOO! 

Check out our awesome pics.... 80's Dinner Club

I LOVE THIS COMMERICIAL!

I recently saw a link to this European commercial on another blog and think it is so cool.  Jacob loves it too and is constantly asking me to play it for him.  If you explore the site you can also see video clips of how they did it.  The song is really cool too....'Heartbeats' by Jose Gonzalez. 

Check it out here!!  Bouncy Balls

Just testing some stuff...

I've seen other people add video and sound to their blogs, I just wondered if I could too. 

If this works, here's a short video of Rob doing David Bowie's, "Let's Dance" in Australia the other night.  (shh..now!  Just happened to have it handy...I'll post video of the kids if it works later!)
Download RobThomas_15th_feb_081.MOV

Now here's some audio....
Download 02_long_day.wma

If you care to, give it a try and give me some feedback on whether it worked, took a long time to load, etc....
feel free!  You can either email me or post in the comments section.
Thanks!

EDITED:  Ok, now I see when it posts, it shows a link to download the video and audio.  My next trick will be to format it so that you get a button right from the page to view and listen.  Wish me luck!  :-)

Fun with Photo Booth

Yeah, sometimes we've lost our minds! 

Nifty Trick!

I was just playing around with my computer and found this cool feature I didn't know it had.  It's called Grab Screen and it takes a snapshot of the computer screen.  Just thought it was cool!  Here's what my screen looks like right now....

Can I just say I love my Mac?

Totally cool website for kids (and adults too!)

I'm always on the lookout for fun projects for the kids and I to do together.  The days are VERY, VERY long without some kind of activity!  Being housebound by a sprained ankle is maddening for me.  Yesterday I took advantage of Aaron being home and we took a trip to Toys R Us to look for art supplies and Play Doh for the kids...very sad, our Toys R Us is closing down and everything is at major discounts, unfortunately they didn't have much of anything left.  I thought I'd check online for some ideas and found this great website of educational projects (and some not so educational!) for the kids.  Steve Spangler Science Projects 

Now I just need to narrow down my choices.  So far I think we're going to go for the Smoke Ring Launcher and Instant Snow!

Just for fun!!

Happy Birthday to Rob Thomas today!!  Hehehe!!!

My Evening Views

Fun New Discovery

I recently discovered a really interesting and fun website.  It's called Pandora.  What it is is a group of music lovers and musicians who studied thousands of songs, broke them down into melody, harmony, lyrics, arrangement, etc. and created something called the Music Genome Project.  You can then go to the website and type in a favorite artist or song and a playlist will be created for you based on other artists and song similars to ones you love.  You can then have that playing in the background and best of all, it's free!  Through this site I've been introduced to some artists I never would have found otherwise. 

Check it out!
Lisa

How sweet is he?

So funny!

Check out this funny Back to the Future mash up with Brokeback Mountain.  I thought it was very clever and hilarious!  Brokeback to the Future

Just had to share

The Real Reason the Steeler's won the Superbowl....

Look how cute their cheerleader is!

Jacob even got into it a little bit...

Tuesday Adventures, gone wrong....VERY wrong....

My new weekly date with the kids is to take them to Open Gym at one of the local gymnastics places in town.  They love going and it's usually a struggle to get them to leave when it's all over.  T
his last Tuesday was no exception.  We had a wonderful time playing on the trampolines, foam pit, balls, scooters, etc., until I decided to get a little too tricky on the trampoline.  By the end of the day I had these....

Yep, I now have a badly sprained right ankle and pretty much have to stay off it for the next week.  It's gonna be fun.   

Here's a link to some of the photos I took while things were still happy.  Click here for photos

Funny Story

So yesterday we were in the car; me, Jacob, Ella and our friend Bryan. Jacob is telling Bryan stories about scary aliens (Aaron and Uncle Jeff have been watching alien movies with the kids---probably not a good idea!), anyhow Bryan couldn't understand what Jacob was talking about because of the way Jacob pronounces 'alien.' I told him briefly what I thought Jacob was trying to say, he said, "Oh OK, I thought he was talking about Aaron." Which Jacob then replies, "No Aaron is my Daddy. He's not scary, he's a good guy!" It was really cute how serious he was about it!

Playgroup Tour of the new fire station

For playgroup today we got to tour the new fire station 8.  It was my first time there too and boy is it nice!  Those firefighters are living pretty darn good, too bad Aaron didn't get to transfer there.  He's stuck back in the year 1970 for a bit longer!  All the kids had a great time sliding down the pole and playing on the various engines.  Even though Jacob see's fire engines all the time, he seemed the most excited of any of them!  Every time I looked up he was running by excitedly or jumping up and down.  He was probably most excited to share the fire station with all of his friends. 

CLICK TO VIEW PHOTOS

Ski Day!

Saturday we went up to Mount Shasta Ski Park with our friends, Alicia, Michelle, and Aaron.  We had an incredibly fun time despite the snow and cold.   After a day of skiing and snowboarding, we headed into the town of Mt Shasta for some dinner.  We made it out of town, but barely!  Looked like if we waited too long we might be snowed in....not that that would have been a bad thing! 

I just spent some time making a little video showing off our photos and video taken during the day. I recently made the switch to Apple and there is a really cool movie making program called "iMovie"  It's so much fun to make little home movies and really spruce them up.  Please check it out and feel free to comment!  (Be patient, it may take a few minutes to load)
Skiing video

Watch for Jacob and Ella in the Winter Olympics!!

We had an incredibly fun day today! We took the kids up to Mt Shasta Ski Park for the day. We rented some skis for Jacob and wanted to see if he still liked it before we get him some lessons. Now, I'm going to brag because this is my webpage after all....he's a pro! The only times he would fall was when I had to tackle him because he was going too fast! He absolutely loved it and kept saying he wants to go up the lift to the big mountain. Since I'm not much of ski instructor, we're going to get him lessons next week...he's got the staying upright and going downhill perfect, now we should probably work on the turning and stopping! Ella was really upset she didn't get to do it, so we put Jacob's boots and skis on her. She loved it too! If you click through the photos I posted really fast you can see her actually skiing down the hill.

So who knows, you just might see them both in future Winter Olympics!

Just back from Vegas Baby!!!

Aaron and I just got back in from a great trip to Las Vegas to see Matchbox Twenty! The show and the trip were both incredible!! We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel which is a totally fun place and we really didn't even need to leave the property. Figured we could blow just as much money there as on the strip, so why bother?!

Since the last time we had flown on a plane was 2 days before 9/11/01, we weren't used to all the hoops you have to jump through to get on a plane nowadays. It seems Mr. Aaron Lee also has the same name as a person on the "Do Not Fly List"!! We had to wait even a little longer than usual but fortunately he was cleared to fly. I was starting to wonder...hmm...do I really know who Aaron is? LOL!!

While in Vegas, we got hooked on video blackjack but managed to keep our heads while playing so ended up winning back what we lost on the slots and came out even. Would have preferred to come back richer but still works for me! I figured out a system now, so I'm all ready to go back for some more gambling. I don't think Aaron's going to let me for awhile though. I just know my plan will work!

As for the Matchbox show, it was beyond incredible. We got early entry so we were maybe 10 feet from the stage. Had I known that some of those fans were going to run like rabid maniacs the second the door opened we probably could have gotten front row but I was too stunned watching them! Our spot was perfectly fine though and we had plenty of room to move and groove. They played a little over 2 hours and gave an incredible performance.

The next day we were able to sleep in a bit and opted to take our time and head to the airport early for our 1:05pm flight back to Sacramento. Little did we know that pretty much all flights were delayed due to bad weather in the East. We ended up having to "hang-out" in the airport for about 6 hours with a huge crowd of disgruntled travelers. We did make some new friends though, Kyle Cook, the lead guitarist for Matchbox 20 and his wife were heading home the same time! After a long, long leisurely lunch, a nap, a couple of magazines and a newspaper, we were on our way home. Awesome trip and we look forward to the next one. So when do you think a child is old enough to attend a rock show?

Check the photo album on the right to check out our pictures!

I also managed to take some video with my digital camera and put together a little clip show of about 5 songs if you'd like to check it out here.... (copy and paste the link) http://homepage.mac.com/lisaski/iMovieTheater2.html

Whew...Christmas is finally over!

....though there is a bit of sadness, Christmas is finally over! We had an incredible time these past few days visiting with family and friends. Aaron did work Christmas Day but we managed to see him for about an hour when him and the other guys stopped by my Mom's house with the engine for dessert. Of course they had to abruptly leave when they got a call of a fire! Such as the life of a fireman....

I hope everyone had a wonderful and joyous holiday!!

Check the photo album for some of our Christmas pictures!

or copy and paste...http://lisaski.typepad.com/photos/christmas_2005/index.html

Busy time of year...

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas and enjoying all that that brings...panic attacks in Target, obnoxious lines at the post office, jeans that seem to have gotten tighter, disappearing money in the bank...you know that kind of thing....  Just thought I'd share a picture that I love....  Merry Christmas....

Playgroup Christmas Party

We hosted this year's Playgroup Christmas Party Monday morning.  It was a beautiful day so the kids were able to play outside as well....it's a good thing because we had a houseful, close to 40 moms and kids!  We enjoyed an enormous and delicious spread of goodies and then decorated sugar cookies and enjoyed hot cocoa.  Click for Christmas Party Photos

Our weekend on the coast

We headed to McKinleyville this past weekend to go to a Christmas Party/Going Away Party at Aaron's brother's house Saturday night.  We also visited the zoo in Eureka...it's a really cute zoo that has some great monkey exhibits.  Bill the Chimp is over 50 years old!  Sunday afternoon we celebrated Grandma Lee's birthday with cake and presents.  Click for Coast pictures