Since you've been gone!

Back in May, my friends and I got tickets to go see Kelly Clarkson. She was supposed to come in July and then for some reason she postponed it. So, last weekend we finally got to go. It was really nice to get together with these girls again. I've lived with all three of them til they all decided that husbands were more fun to live with then me :o( So, I've always been the type of girl to carry my camera with me. I have my point and shoot with me everywhere I go. You just never know what your gonna need to capture at any given time. So as we're getting out of the car to catch the train and someone asks who's bringing a camera I gladly volunteer mine. Yep, you all see where this one's going. So we get to the concert and we get to our seats and we say, "Ok let's get a picture!" I grab my camera hand it to the kind man behind us who's taking our picture for us when he then hands it back informing me, my batteries are dead. I wanted to die. I felt horrible! Why did I have to volunteer?? Why hadn't I checked before I left my house? Why don't I carry a spare battery for emergencies like this? Why don't I carry a spare camera for peats sake to avoid such catastrophes! Why, why, WHY?? Who goes to see Kelly Clarkson and doesn't even have a picture to prove it?? We couldn't even get a picture with the four of us and we never seem to get one of us all. So, I went on a hunt. I creeped on every single person around us with a canon camera and even once found someone but her camera took actual batteries and those just would not do. So, then I spotted a girl in front of us with an elph herself. Excitement started to build. So, after explaining to her my stupidity she agreed to switch batteries to help us out. And behold our one and only picture.

VICTORY!

I hate my smile though because it's so huge but I was so excited we were getting at least one picture! The concert was a blast by the way. We had amazing seats and I had forgotten how much I love rocking out to a good Kelly Clarkson song. I was impressed by my memory skills on remembering every word to her  songs. It was a great night. I love these girls!

ps Last weekend I also painted my house with my roomate Tess. It was quite the adventure but in the end it definitely paid off because our house is so cute. I'll post some pics soon.

Texting!

Wahoo I'm having fun. Too much I think. I stated the other day photoshop is my new addiction. It's up there in competition with chocolate these days. It already took over tv and to be honest that was no competition. Except I tried to edit and watch Vampire Diaries last night and tv won. Well Stephen and Damon won. Man, I love that show though. Puts silly Edward and Bella to shame! I'm not even that excited to see New Moon. I doubt I'll even go see it in the theater. I'm just waiting to hear what everyone says about it cuz Twilight was just sad. My friend Ashley and I just laughed through the entire thing! I love the books though it's Kristen Stewart's continuous eye blinking that I'm not so fond of.
Speaking of Ashley here's some updated pics with her cute lil family with some texts! (textures) I can't decide if I like it or if I prefer the originals. Help please?

Here's a random shot of some flowers in banff that show textures a bit more. I think I like em.

So I talk to people like your out there somewhere....Is anybody out there?? Leave me some love everyonce in a while just so I don't feel like I'm blogging to my imaginary friends :o)

Knock knock,

I have acquired a bunch of silly sayings over the past 3 years since I started teaching piano. I always laugh at myself after cuz I think i'm funny and they just look at me like I'm the biggest wierdo. Teaching has definately loosened me up around kids. I've learned that if I can make piano fun for them then maybe it'll make lessons that much less of a chore to get through. I think it's worked for the most part but there are those few students who are always too cool for my jokes. But i've been brushing up on my material and I think I'll crack em soon. I'm always looking for good knock knock jokes though so please, do share if ya got some good ones up your sleeve. 

So onto photography, I've been downloading a whole bunch of textures and I plan on experimenting with them over the next couple of days so I'll post and you can tell me what you like and don't like. Sounds like fun huh? And because every post it better with a picture here's a recent edit of adorable Spencer.

Those eyes! I'm pretty sure they have permanent catchlights in them. It wasn't very hard to capture them at all.

Ps. Thanks again Skoien family! I have an absolute blast! Honestly the funnest Saturday I'd had in a long time.

Peek a BOO!

OK here's some more! Enjoy!!

I love the look Spencers giving Kate here. So sweet. I also love the look Hakon's giving Kate here also. haha

Spencer's not really a sitter. He prefers to stand actually. So this is the only one of the pictures we could get of him against the tree. Well this is the only picture of him looking.

The grass around him was just much more interesting then looking at me :o)

i love my friends!

I love my friends and their adorable families. Katelyn and I have been friends since we were in diapers and now she's got a little one in diapers herself. I got the chance to take pictures of her cute lil family which was a blast. They were troopers through the bitter cold and I hope their happy with what pictures we got. Here's a sneak peak as I'm off to a fireside. More tomorrow I promise!

Love ya kate!

You may think I did some edits to these peoples eyes?? ya nope. I think Hakon and Katelyn are in for a slew of beautiful blue eyed beauties like adorable Spencer. I just love this picture!! Every time I look at it spencers smile just melts my heart. You can tell he's got two parents who just love and adore him!!

ADORRRRRABLE!!

mom for a day

I give props to moms all over the world. You deserve a million naps and all the cheesecake you can eat. I was mom to 4 little ones for not even 24 hrs and at the end? Boy I was tired. It was a constant chase but so fun cuz I got the chance to know my nieces and nephew better.

So within an hour what do I do? Propose the idea to go to the park and maybe take some pictures in the process. I have to say the kiddos were great and plugged through the cold. I had to bribe them to get them to leave even though I know they had to be freezing.

A lot of fun though and yay I get to take pictures :o)

May I add some people are just born to have their pictures taken. My niece is one of them. Behold, her entire story board of pictures. She was more excited about me taking her picture then playing and I was more then happy to oblige!

our price was not right

So day one in Vegas we went to the Live price is right show. It was a lot of fun but a lot of anxiety too. I had a headache by the end of the show. Unfortunately none of us got called up to contestants row and yes I was very annoyed when one girl got called up and had never even seen the show before! What are ya doing there then?! Yes, just a little bitter.

Ya I dunno why I'm disco-ing in this picture.

Yes, please put me right in between the stick thin Barker Beauties! It'll do wonders for my confidence.

Just to update we were the only ones in the whole theater with home made shirts. Yep, were cool like that. I even stayed up til 12:30 the night before we flew out making them. It was definitely worth it.

vivaahhh las vegas!

And my 6 day weekend has now come to a close. Back to the real world, life of me attempting to get to work on time, practice my piano, teaching the little ones about C position and steps and skips on the staff, back to reality opps there goes gravity! This past Wednesday I went to vegas with my two sisters. It was a blast. A tiring blast but soo fun none the less. We stayed at Caesars Palace which was HUGE! I couldn't believe the size of this thing, we had a shopping mall bigger then chinook mall IN our hotel. Loved it. So you think since we were in Vegas we'd oh I dunno gamble a bit? Nope. Just shopped our guts out! It was again a blast! I'll post my purchases soon. Oh, and ps I love anthropology. It's a new found love and I'm sure we're to have a great and glorious relationship.

I'm also happy to report we DID gamble for about 20 minutes but in those 20 minutes I won $65 buckaroos! haha my only regret? I had gambled more. It probably would of helped the dent I made in my bank account for all the time spent at the mall :o)

This picture was day one... we were a bit of gambling novices and didn't know anything we were doing but we had fun doing it!

L is for LAS. V is for VEGAS!

Yes a blurry photo, there was horrible lighting in our hotel room but I just needed to document my best spent $20 bucks. At the end of day two my feet were seriously hurting from allll the shopping so I bought Pam dinner in exchange for a 20 minute foot massage. Best spent 20 bucks no doubt!