Behind on Blogging - AGAIN!

I really thought it would get easier for me to get blog posts up - I really did! I guess I completely underestimated how truly busy I was about to get. This post will be my feeble attempt at playing quick catch up and then I will try my best to post up images from the many things I have been doing in the last couple of months. I will take this time to apologize to all my family who have given me a hard time about not posting updated images of the kids and to all my clients who have asked me when I'm going to blog again.

As I think back, I realize I have had an amazing couple of months. Here is a sampling of what I have been doing with all that time:

• An awesome Lifestyle Maternity session
• A really cool Anniversary "present"
• A wonderful wedding
• A dinner dance for Ron's law school
• A spectacular Lifestyle e-session
• The most amazing trip to Disney World - ever

Since I refuse to blog and not include any images, I'm putting in a couple of the kids from when we snuck into the not-quite-open-yet new playground at RJ's school.

Wedding - Christy and Jim!

I can't stress enough how wonderful this wedding was! Everyone was so nice and really took to us like we were part of their circle of friends.

Christy and Jim got married a couple weeks ago (they just got back from their honeymoon a few days ago!) in sunny, but COLD Portsmouth, NH. The ceremony and reception were indoors in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Harborside Hotel. It was so pretty out that day, but very cold and windy. So we all opted to stay indoors for all the images. Which worked out well, since the Sherton has a great grand staircase that just made for great formals.

Congratulations, again, Christy and Jim and thanks SOOOOOOOOOOOO much for letting us share your day with you!

So, without further ado, I'm embedding a slideshow here on my blog so you can see some of my favorite images from the day. Just click on the Play button in the middle to start it.

New Canon!

I've been wanting a point and shoot camera for a while now. I seem to find myself at different occasions wanting my camera, but not wanting to bring my whole DSLR kit everywhere. For example, we are leaving for Disney in 55 days (or so I've been told!) and I really want to be able to get some images of the kids at the parks, but I REALLY don't want to have all my gear with me.

So I think I finally have the answer! Today we bought a Canon Powershot Digital Elph. This thing is soooooo cute. And at 7.1 megapixels, it's got some good-sized files. Plus, it fits in my pocket!!!!

We just bought it today, so I haven't had too much time to play with it, but it seems pretty good. It can actually capture these cute little videos, too. I mean, I can't compete with MGM or anything, but I can capture videos and share them with family who can't see the kids everyday.

I took the following image with it set on fully automatic. I take this time to also introduce our new living room set up....we moved the couches and added in a huge white bookcase. I love it!!
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Notice RJ hamming it up for the new camera?!

The auto flash went off - I'm not crazy about that, but I'll read the manual and figure out how to get a little more control over it.

Now, I'm not sure if this will work, but I'm going to try to post a 12 second video of the kids fooling around for the camera. They are sooo cute!

We have our first little league baseball practice tomorrow (weather permitting), so I think I'll bring it with me and test it out some more.

Until then, have a great night!

Portsmouth Fun!

Portsmouth, NH is just a wonderful place! It's so cute! We arrived at Sheraton Harborside on Friday around 3, checked in, and took a tour of the hotel to get an idea of where everything was going to take place on Saturday.

While in our travels we were fortunate to run into Lee, the Catering Manager for the event. She is wonderful! She took the time to show us around and give us the timeline of the events and show us the different places where everything was taking place. I honestly can't say enough good things about her - she's so sweet!!

By this time it was dinner time, so we found our way over to Cafe Mirabelle - a quaint French restaurant. Since it had snowed earlier that day and it was still extremely cold out, the restaurant was very empty. So we were able to get a seat in the upper level window, overlooking Portsmouth. It was wonderful! The food was fantastic and the staff was great. I was so glad Ron took the time to research area restaurants and found this, or we never would have had the chance to try it out. We will definitely go back!

We went back to the hotel and had a couple drinks in the lounge - it was nice. Of course, I had my camera with me and played around with a few things. Here are a couple, starting with Ron on the phone (behind my very tasty martini):


With this next one, I was trying for long exposure out the window to capture the lights and boats in the water outside the hotel. It came out kind of cool....

The wedding coverage didn't start until 3 on Saturday, so we got up early, ate breakfast at the hotel and took a walk around the area. When we came around the corner, we found this great church:

This image is actually a composite of two images I took. When we went out, I had only brought my 50mm lens and it was not wide enough to get the whole church, even from across the street. Adobe's CS3 does a great job pulling the images together - it's really cool!

Then we turned to our right and saw this scene down the street - it's just sooooo New England-y isn't it?!

As you look closer at the image, though, this pink sign stuck out like a sore thumb from behind the flag pole!!! Notice anything interesting?! My maiden name is Gregoire (which isn't extremely common) so it was really cool to see!!

As you can see from the outfits of the people on the street, it was FREEZING cold out, with a wind chill that I swear felt like 12 degrees. So we didn't spend too much time outside! We grabbed a bite to eat at the Portsmouth Brewery. Since we were working, we didn't have a beer, but they had like 20 of them on the blackboard. The food was really good.

Well, that's about it, leading up to the wedding. I will blog with images from the wedding in the next day or two once I've had a chance to go through them all. I will say, it was a great wedding and I am so glad Christy and Jim chose us to share their day with them and their family/friends.

More to come soon!

Free Photoshop Online??!!

A couple of days ago I read about Photshop Express from Dane Sander's blog (he's GREAT!); then today I read a post about it from Gary Fong, so I decided I needed to check it out.

This site is AMAZING! it allows you to import your images from your computer, or from various sites - including Facebook and Picasa (two I use). THEN you can touch the images up through various very user-friendly tools. Right online! For free!

Adobe has really done something great here. I really like their products and this is yet another great one.

Google Apps

While I'm talking about cool technology, I've also spent a bunch of time in Google's world and they really have created a TON of cool applications. I've been using their reader for a while now and I love it. If you check multiple blogs to see when /if they've been updated, the reader is a great tool. Just copy and paste the URL into the Add subcriptions box and it will track them for you. It's so wonderful, I think I've added WAY too many!!! But I can easily bypass those I don't want to read.

Upcoming Wedding!

Ok, I'm done promoting the fun technology I've found lately....I'm off to pack for a very exciting wedding in Portsmouth, NH!!! We leave later today and have the wedding tomorrow. I'm sooooooo excited. This couple is great and we are going to have a BLAST! Plus it gives us a chance to check out some other venues up in NH that we also have weddings at this year.

The Kids and Karate

I haven't done a karate post in a while, so here it goes!





<--and of course, I HAD to start with this one....I think the image just speaks for itself!!

This past Saturday the kids graduated to their next belts in karate. A couple months ago, RJ graduated through the ranks on the Ranger side - which is what they call the little kids (generally under 6 or 7) and moved to the Young Adult side of the studio. He loves the new moves he's learning - and the best part? He gets to learn how to use the 'weapons'!! Every two months, they learn how to use the new tool. It's really great watching him progress through the moves.

Maddy is doing really well, too. She loves karate! She has so much energy and really puts it to good use in class. She is one little girl you won't want to mess with!

Here they are getting their belts. First, Maddy-Belle (as she likes to be called!). As she was getting her belt, you can see what RJ was doing! It surprises me how silly they STILL get even though my camera is in their face all the time. They are soooo cute!! Notice the complete lack of front teeth on RJ - he's just starting to get the bottom ones in to replace those that he lost last January.

And here is RJ getting his belt:

Whenever I post about the kids, I like to try to get an even number of images per child, so I don't appear as if I'm favoring. For all the moms out there (including my own!), I'm sure you know what I mean!!! So I include this last one, simply because I think it is cool. And I assure you, both of my children are in it!

Since Ron couldn't come, I asked Maddy to take a picture of RJ with my cell phone so we could send it to him. The blig blur on the right is Maddy's cute piggy tail and RJ is one of the small figures in focus on the phone!

Have a great day, everyone!!!

More from the Swearing In

I promised more images from Ron's swearing in ceremony the other night, and I'm actually going through with that promise! I am still so very proud of Ron and I know he will do a great job. I also want to take this time to thank everyone for all the kind words. We've received so many emails and blog comments from people sending along their congratulations. Without the support of friends and family like you, I'm not sure we could do everything we're trying to do right now.

On to the images! The first one was taken by my father-in-law before we left the house. I'm not loving that angle for me, but it is nice to have a family photo. I think I need to set up a better one someday soon.

This next one was taken by none other than Miss Maddy-Belle. For a 4 (almost 5!) year old, she's pretty good! I take that back, I think she composes better than some adults I know. I think I see a future for her in the business!

Last, but certainly not least, this is Ron taking his oath just after I pinned the badge on him. I love the flag in the background. The man you see is one of the selectmen in the town.