Trust me, after flying with two little ones (who did amazing!), realizing our hotel was a little underwhelming, and enduring WalMart in the ghetto, we were wiped.

We got up early the next day and headed out for our first adventure – Legoland.  My kids aren’t really into the Lego craze, but it looked pretty cool online, so off we went!

We rode rides together, Monkey rode her first ‘big-girl’ ride, I picked Albert Einsteins nose, Monkey performed in a skit and we met Legoman.  All in all, a good day!

However, I have to admit, if the tickets had cost much more, I’d recommend people skip it.  That being said, for all of your CO peeps, it’s about the price of Elitches, and much, much better.

Happy Vacation!

Monkey just kicked off her soccer season (ha!) so I’m hoping to get a new zoom lens so I can catch her in action.  Since I tend to capture faces and itty bitty parts more than big pictures, I haven’t had a real need for it on the business side. I’m still in love with my prime and wide angle lenses on that front.

That being said, I’ve got my eye on this beauty, so we’ve had our noses to the grindstone with relation to our debt snowball and all things Damn Ramsey.  The good news is, the light at the end of that tunnel is no longer a train.

I’ve started getting calls to shadow for NILMDS.  Of the three requests I saw, I wasn’t able to shadow for a variety of reasons, but the Denver coordinator has me on her radar to go next time so that’s good.  I’m confident in Gods perfect timing for me to dig into that endeavor.

Once soccer is all finished up, we are going to start swim lessons.  I have a voucher to use at Starfish, that I purchased back in September for both Caterpillar and Monkey.  Yet another reason why that lens would come in oh-so-handy.

Since school will be out by then, we are also looking at starting Monkey’s violin lessons.  She’s pretty excited already, and I’d love to start them sooner, but I am one of those moms that refuses to spend all of my time in the car, only conversing with my kids as we go from one place to the next.

I know.  I’m mean that way.

Besides, we have a garden to prep and a backyard to plan!  I think I forgot to mention this before, but one of Daddy’s clients wants a second website completed.  He’s in the concrete business, so they are working out a trade of some kind.  Which means a concrete patio and backyard landscaping for us!  Whoop-woop!

Don’t you just love a good trade?  Bartering has quickly become one of my favorite things to do.  I’ve found in this economy, people are willing to work, but may not have the cash up front to pay for something they want (like photographs or websites).  So why not trade services like we did for Monkey’s new bed?

{Don’t mind the mess}

I love bartering!

I suppose since spring has sprung, I should squeeze in some spring cleaning.  What fun is that?  Actually, I do need to clean out Monkey’s old room and put the kids outgrown clothes in the basement.  What kind of projects do you do in the spring?

Well, as much as I’d love to sit here and chat with you guys all day, we are heading to the planetarium. I was able to snag a voucher a few months ago giving us $20 in credit for $8 out of pocket.  I looked today and the voucher will cover our whole family’s admission to a show.  So excited! After that, we’re heading to some of our favorite friends house for dinner and I’m bringing along my cameras.  We are going to take all of our kiddos out at sunset and play around and capture some of that gorgeous twilight, while our men stay back and grill us up some dinner.  Can’t wait!

Have an awesome day ~ and those of you in Colorado who can get out there and enjoy the sun, do it!  It’s going to be beautiful today!

Now is that time!

From now, until noon on January 24, 2011, all large prints are 30% off!  Here’s how the math works out:

As you may remember, I believe if you are going to spend the money to hire a professional photographer to produce pictures you love, go BIG with the prints.  And with this sale, you can afford it!

The prices do not include any mounts … so if you have your heart set on stand out mounted prints, stay tuned … they’ll be coming up soon!

Not to mention the awesome timing, with it being the holidays and all.  Santa can certainly use a bonus this year.  Isn’t it awesome how God always provides in His perfect timing?

Speaking of holidays … how come I had never heard of Elf on The Shelf before?

This little guy (Ralph) has Monkey acting like a saint, and all he does is stare at her!  It’s awesome.  Tonight he made his first actual appearance (they had been exchanging notes and gifts), and I am hoping he doesn’t get into too much trouble tonight.  I think he should quietly go hang out in the bathroom.  Perhaps he can figure out why it takes over an hour to do four things that need to be done each morning.  What four things you ask?  Oh, time consuming things like: pee, brush teeth, get dressed, comb hair.

I know.

I ask a lot of my five year old in the morning.

Anyway, I hate to run, but I have an auction expiring that I want to watch.  Be good, boys and girls – Ralph is watching!

xoxo

A

Speaking of questions : I have received several emails and phone calls about today’s Sweet Deal, and here are some of the common questions and answers:

Can I book a session for holiday cards?

I am currently booking for December and cannot guarantee they will be ready in time for mailing. However, your voucher is good for a year if you wanted to plan on using it for next years holiday photos!

Can I purchase additional edited images?

YES! If you know up front you are going to need more images, I recommend applying your $199 credit towards another package.

If we do The Nibble package and you fall in love with more than 10 images, you can purchase the rights to additional images for $30 per 5 images.

Where will the sessions be completed?

That is totally up to you! I recommend an outdoor location that your family enjoys. So if you have little ones, pick a spot where there are things to do! Keep in mind the location isn’t nearly as important as those giggles!

Can I purchase more than one package?

YES! You can purchase multiple packages to give as gifts, or use for your family events throughout the year.

What will my print credit get me?

Take a look at our print pricing guide.

Can I use the images to make my own prints?

YES! That’s what they are for! The images I release to you will be the full sized images so you can easily use them for social networking, printing or blogging!

Keep the questions coming in to Angie@moresugarthanspice.com

We had been trying to get the tickets we’d ordered since we arrived, but they were having some sort of computer issues all week, so finally it was decided the best bet was to arrive an hour early. Not ideal with two little ones, but what can ya do?

After standing in line for the boat, along with everyone else who was told to come early for their tickets, Disney realized the natives were getting restless, and got a second boat to relieve some of the flow.

Once we got over to the campsite, it was more long lines, as they were doing everything manually. Our tickets were printed about two minutes before show time, and by the time we got inside, the only available seats were towards the back. We were so bummed since we’d booked this six months ago! Daddy ended up mentioning our frustration and they sent over a manager to talk to me. I explained part of the reason we came early is due to my allergy. (They have been preparing my GF food to order), and the chef went over my options and the manager explained where we were sitting was actually going to be awesome, as the white square in front of us is where a character will come dance all night.

The characters came out and did a center stage show that we mostly missed, but the Goofy (Caterpillar’s fave) came over to our little square, and danced alone with Monkey for at least thirty seconds before the other families caught on and moved in. The pictures are awesome, and I’ll add them as soon as I have actual Internet instead of my iPhone 3G.

Today’s weather was quite warm again, much to my Hashi flare ups dismay. My face swelled up so much it was hard to see. I had called my endo yesterday, hoping they’d just call something in, but they said it sounded so much like Lupus, they’d want to run tests before prescribing.

Totally understandable, but I was still totally bumming. I poked into a fist aid station today to see what, if anything, they could do. They put me on a free shuttle to the Urgent Care Center, where the doc came in, spent 3.2 seconds verifying it wasn’t an allergic reaction, and wrote me a script for Predisone and sent me on my way.

Ahhh. Finally some relief from the reaction that just about BBQ’d the fun out of our trip! One eye is almost back to normal, but within hours, it just felt so much better.

We are heading to the time share tomorrow morning, and I am really looking forward to the kids being in their own rooms! I’m hoping I’ll get to merge from mom mode, to wife and vacation mode very quickly now that the forecast includes some cooler temps, and a little less BBQ.

First of all, knowing that the soda I just bought for $3.00 doesn’t include a refill is a bit of a shell shock, but the biggest difference is the magic is once again alive!

Tonight, we enjoyed Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Character Meal. We had purchased a Cinderella dress as a surprise for Monkey, and while in the park today we had her face painted to include a princess crown. When we came back to the room, we gave her the dress and from the moment she slipped it on, she WAS Cinderella.

On the way over to the dinner, everyone was complimenting her on her dress, makeup, and hair, and you know she didn’t break character once. She neatly folded her hands on her lap, and any time someone spoke to her, she started her very softly spoken reply with an eyelash bat. It was hilarious!!

As far as our little prince, let’s just say he’s been a bit less than charming. He did pretty good on the plane, especially since he had to sit on our laps (!) after getting up at 4am. However, I think he’s a but like his mama when it comes to handling (more like NOT handling) the sun.

Today was hot. I think it’s the hottest day forecasted for our trip, so we had quite a few melt downs on Caterpillars end, and my face has had some sort of rash since before we left, so we are a sight to see.

That being said, we have surrounded ourselves with a million other people with small children, so we are in good company.

All in all, it’s been so fun, and it’s really only day one! Off to figure out how to avoid paying $10 for 24 hours of Wi-Fi so I can include some pictures…

xoxo

A

Once you’ve done all that you can to correct {Oops! Now What?!} photos, it is time to prep them for printing.  If you followed my advice and only cropped to standard sizes, this process should be fairly simple and straightforward.

Online Print Ordering

Many websites such as Mpix.com and Shutterfly offer user friendly options for ordering prints online.  Simply upload your chosen images to their gallery, select the size in which you’d like each image to be printed, select paper grade and finish, and Voila! In about two weeks your beautiful images arrive to your doorstep.  I personally have used both companies, and I thought Mpix had better paper and print quality, but that’s just my $.02 and I’m pretty sure with that, I’d have change coming.

Local Store Prints

Not comfortable doing all of that online?  No problem.  Simply burn your images to a disk, grab your memory/CF card or use a thumb drive and take them to your favorite photo developing store.  If the images are simply for scrapbooking and the paper and image quality isn’t super important, inexpensive prints can be completed at most department and grocery stores.  Simply drop off your disk and they will take care of the rest – many times in less than an hour!

Fun and Different

Consider ordering something other than standard prints to show off all of your hard work.  Options include stand-outs, canvas prints, holiday cards, and more!  These can take your snapshots and turn them into stunning pieces of wall art.  If you aren’t comfortable choosing and ordering these online, contact a local photographer or camera store for assistance.  Any professional should be happy to assist you in any way they can, and may even place the order with your images.  Keep in mind, their time and contacts won’t be free, but when you have your new artwork in hand, it will be worth every penny.

Didn’t Your Mama Teach You To Share?

If you want to share your images with friends and families, Facebook can be a simple way to get those images out to the masses, however I do not recommend you place the images there if your intent is for the receiving party to print the images.  The reason is Facebook compresses your images (reduces the file size) to help with the speed and usability of the website.

Online galleries such as FlickrPro was designed specifically for sharing photographs, therefore you can easily upload your beautiful full-size images.  Then, Grandma Sue and Auntie Betty can view your account, download and print those images without a care in the world.  Pretty neat, huh?

Printing Your Own Photos

There are many choices on the market in the consumer photo printer line.  The bottom line is if you don’t want to spend a ton of money up front, over the life of the printer you may be spending the pennies you saved on replacement ink cartridges and paper specific to your printer.

With basic prints becoming so affordable, I’m not convinced a photo printer is necessity in a standard household.  But, hey, if that’s your thing, no judgment from my end.

If you already own a photo printer, be sure your computer is calibrated to the printer.  There is a calibration process I highly recommend you complete prior to printing images, and it will help to ensure what you see on the screen is what you get out of the printer.   Also, use the recommended inks and papers in the printer, as it will yield much better results.

If there is anything you take away from this article, I hope it’s that you see how easy and important sharing your photos is to your friends and loved ones.  After all of the time you’ve invested to Go From Mom, To Moment Master, the fruits of your labor should not be kept a secret!  So, get out there – it’s time to share your {Pretty Prints}!

If you missed any of the Going From Mom, To Moment Master series, every article is located in the photography archives on www.moresugarthanspice.com.

I had to start over three times because it was twisted, but once I got that all figured out (or got lucky!), it was so simple to just do a knit stitch around and around and the hat was formed!  I used a pattern for the decreases (loosely).  I have to say, I was reasonably happy with the way it turned out considering it was my very first knit in the round, and only my second knitting project ever!  However, I did think the yarn wasn’t as soft as I’d hoped, and I am not 100% confident the thing won’t fall apart at some point this season. LOL!

I am looking forward to saving us gobs of money on accessories that I can now make myself … and when I think about having something useful I can donate I get a little too excited.

Here are some pictures, and feel free to give any advice you may have about knitting in the round – or just knitting in general!

xoxo

A

For those of you who haven’t heard, the first article in the Going From Mom, To Moment Master series was featured on Mamapedia Voices!

For those of you all who have been with me long before I’d ever even heard of Mamapedia, thank you for always coming back and leaving me comments.  You know I love you to the moon and back for making the blogosphere such a friendly place.

((hugs))

A