The Hilliard Quote of the Day - 2009

Back in 2009 I decided to create a whole new blogged called The Hilliard Quote of the Day.  I have no idea why I thought I would keep up with two blogs!  So, for posterity's sake, here are the entries from that blog, written between 8/09 and 11/09.

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"Mama, look Teah's iPod"

~Carter, while watching Teah listen to music. You know his vocabulary is really increasing when he uses the word "iPod" :)

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"Oh no, Carter doesn't have his underwear on AND he's running with ice cream!"

~Teah 4 yrs old

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Carter points to his juice in the fridge and I say, "Yep, that's Carter's juice."

Carter points at an Oberon (beer) in the fridge and says, "Da Da".

Yep, that's Daddy's juice :)

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"Mommy, Why are you so old?" ~ Teah

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"Mama on couch too" ~Carter's first four-word sentence

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I love listening to little kids try to find the words to describe something - they're so creative!

"I played on the monkey bars that look like half of a soccer ball."
~Teah, talking about what she did at preschool today

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"Mommy, Carter is drawing on the carpet." ~Teah

These are words I never want to hear again!

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"Mommy, I can see the whole world from here!"

~Teah, said while on the carousel

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"Carter, why are you naked?"

~Patti, said to Carter after going up to check on why he wasn't asleep yet

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Teah: Mommy, I don't want to work.

Me: It's OK, Teah, you don't have to work for a long time. Not until you're a grown-up.

Teah: I don't want to work when I'm a grown-up. Daddy can work and pay for my things.

Me: Why don't you want to work?

Teah: Because it's hard and I don't like to do hard things.

Wise words.  Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Daddy won't be OK with that plan!

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"It feels like there are little balls on my skin Mom"

-Teah, describing her goosebumps

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"Guess what rhymes with kitchen? Bitchin!"
~Teah, oblivious to the fact that the word "bitchen" means something

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After finishing trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, I asked Teah if she wanted to trick-or-treat some more in another neighborhood. She said, "No. I have plenty of candy is my basket. Let's go home."

Tonight we had this conversation:

Teah: "Mom, next year I don't want to go trick-or-treating. I want to stay at home and hand out candy with Nana."

Me: "But Teah, if you don't go trick-or-treating, you won't get any candy for yourself"

Teah: "That's OK. I'll have plenty of candy leftover from this year."

Teah thinks the half of a plastic pumpkin worth of candy that she got is more than it actually is :)

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Comment from 2013:  Teah did actually enjoying handing out candy for many years with Nana instead of continuing to get more candy.  RIP Nana.

Exploring Photography

Here is a blog post I wrote in July of 2010.  I am publishing it here so that I can link to it on my photography page.  A few years later and I look at this picture and see the difference between the bokeh on this lens (the very reasonably priced Canon 50mm 1.8 vs. my new Canon 50mm 1.4).  How time flies when you're having fun!

Here's the original post:

As I sit here trying to recall when exactly my love of photography began, I can remember myself daydreaming in college about taking the introductory photography course. I was never able to afford the equipment or supplies, but I would sit in math class and look out the window and think of a good angle for a picture. We're about to attend our 10 year college reunion, so it's been a long time coming. Scrappy, my first dog, was my first test subject. He would patiently sit through my ridiculous posing and snapping pictures with my point and shoot. Of course, my children have been my inspiration since they were born and have been subjected to their fair share of posing and smiling for the camera. A friend of mine, Becky Anderson, recently started her own photography business and looking at her photos has made me look at my own pictures in a whole different light and strive to achieve something better (check out her blog at http://www.beckyandersonphotography.com). I do not consider myself a great writer and always find it difficult to put my thoughts into words. As I was looking at another remarkable photographers website, Heidi Hope - http://www.heidihope.com,a quote on her site really hit home for me, "When I am happiest, there is this insatiable urge inside me to snap a photo. To make something intangible, permanent. To preserve that joy forever, so that I may have it to adore any time my soul needs a smile."

Well, I finally was able to buy myself a digital SLR camera a few months back and have recently started reading up on the different aspects of digital

photography and the functionality of my camera. After playing with the manual settings for a few days, I think I am making some progress. Right now I am experimenting with what photographers refer to as "bokeh", meaning fuzzy or out of focus. It is used to refer to the effect of shallow depth of field that creates a pleasing blur of color behind the subject. I have always loved the types of images where the subject is in sharp focus and the background is blurred. So, here are a few pictures that I took this evening of Teah. I have a long way to go in my learning, but I think this is a pretty good start.

The Neighborhood Cat

Here's another old post from 2010.  We were living in our rental house and had just moved back to Michigan.  I couldn't help but post it because it reminds me of how cute and little Carter was when he was 3.


















Recently there has been a cat wandering around our house during the day. She was wearing a collar with a tag, so I called the phone number just in case she was lost. It turns out that she lives a few streets away and likes to roam the neighborhood during the day. The kids love cats and with Robert's allergies we'll never be able to have one, so it's kind of nice to have a visitor to play with.

Carter Update from 2009

So, I am going through my blog posts that were listed as drafts and doing some cleanup - mostly deleting posts that were never completed from back in the day.  This one was from 2009 was was titled Carter Update.  It had one sentence: Carter is 2 years and almost 5 months old now and finally speaking!

I guess I meant to write a full update and never finished?  Who knows.  Anyway, I'm smiling now remembering how long it took Carter to talk.  I'll post any more gems that I find.

Headbanz!

One day early in December, I came out from working on Christmas cards to find this :)  If you haven't played Headbanz, you should!  The person wearing the card can't see it and they have to ask the other person questions to try to figure out what they are.  Also, I have an amazing husband who is a wonderful father.  Love, love, love this pic.

Foolin' Around

The kids and I enjoyed some silly photo taking for a few days.  It all started when we decided to play around with photo booth on my computer in the office.  

Aliens!

Chipmunks!

Headless Carter!

Love :)

Zombies!

And a two headed ninja!

After that we then discovered some fun apps on my phone.  All three of us had a great time playing around and taking silly pictures.  I may have enjoyed it more than the kids.

The kids thought this one was hilarious

Carter body, Teah head




Chipmunk Carter


Carter decided this was his zombie picture


He was pretending to sleep, but cute nonetheless

School pics

Here are Carter's school pictures from 1st grade.  We aren't buying any so these are just the proofs.  This is what Carter considers his best smile.

Breakfast with Santa

Every year Robert's group puts on a breakfast with Santa for all of the partners and their employees.  This year was at the Fieldstone Grill; very conveniently located only a few minutes from our house.  It's a great opportunity.  Always fun to catch up and there were 170 people this year!

At 6 1/2 and almost 9 years old, both of my kids still believe in Santa Claus.  That morning the kids both sat down to write their lists.  Carter was decisive - writing only two things: Lego Star Wars and a lizard starter kit.  Yes, he wants a pet lizard, a leopard gecko most likely.  Heck, with a dog, three rats, and one hamster, why not add a lizard to the mix?! ;)  Teah wrote a list, but after much consideration decided to just ask Santa to surprise her.

Gone are the days when they were young and scared of Santa.  Now they both just hop right on up and tell him what he needs to know.  These innocent days are fleeting I'm sure, so I'm enjoying every minute of it!  Here are a few pictures from the event.  One of my favorite details are the kids name tags, which they wrote themselves.  Teah has been very happy to learn cursive this year in 3rd grade.

Let's Go Redwings!

Last weekend we went on the annual trip with Robert's group to the Redwings game.  We hop on a bus with good colleagues and friends from Kalamazoo with some cans of beer and a box of wine to share and head over to The Joe in Detroit (for you non-michiganders it's about a 2 1/2 hr. road trip).  It was a great time.  I love love love the feel of a live hockey game.  It's the chill in the air, the smell of the ice, and the sounds - oh the sounds.  The sounds of the sticks on the ice and the puck being hit and the glass being pounded.  The excitement in the arena is usually palpable.  We were in a box with food and drinks, but also with seats that opened up to the rest of the stadium.  It's a great opportunity that the group offers for sure!  This year we were happy to invite Robert's parents to come along with us as it was his Dad's 60th birthday.  Happy Birthday Tom!

 

The game wasn't a great one, but at least the score was close at the end, so there was still that excitement of pulling the goalie and hoping for a last minute goal.  Alas, the Wings lost, but fun was had by all.

Our Thanksgiving Trip

I already posted about our dramatic sledding adventures during our trip to NY over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Here's the rest.

There was a drive through Canada.

 

A hotel stay with a mountain of bubbles in the hot tub (?!) and a fun indoor pool.  We were able to take advantage of those two of the mornings before we headed over to Bob and Linda's house.

There was breakfast in the hotel (kids in jammies) - sometimes by the fire


Good conversation and GREAT food.  I should've taken pictures of the great food.  Linda is an amazing cook and hostess and we not only had a huge Thanksgiving feast, but a huge feast every night including homemade meatballs and smoked ribs, chicken, and pork.  Delicious!


There were DOGS!



We brought with us our annual tradition of frosting Turkey cookies (shaped like hands).  Since I forgot the hand shaped cookie cutter, we had to do it the old fashioned way by tracing the kids hands and cutting them out with a knife.  The amount of effort that took meant we had lots of other shapes this year as well!






There was sleeping on the floor with Pandy and playing the iPad during downtime.


Many things I didn't take pictures of - like mall shopping at midnight on Black Friday, playing in the snow, and a trip to the local game store.  Much FUN was had!

And on the way home there was a beautiful sunset.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

At almost 6 1/2 years old Carter lost both of his front teeth.  Here is the first one down on December 4th.

He lost the first one in the afternoon at school and didn't tell anyone!  He just put it in his backpack and went about his day.  His teacher didn't even know he had lost it at school.  I think he was a bit unsure of what to do and didn't want all of the attention.  When I picked him up that day and noticed his tooth was missing he had a crying jag in the van on the way home, so I think he was feeling a bit strange about the whole ordeal of losing the tooth at school.

Not long and that second tooth was barely hanging in there...



























With the help of a friend bumping into him approximately 32 seconds into indoor recess yesterday (December 12th) the second one was out!  This occasion called for the big camera.

And now we have a TOOTHLESS GRIN!!  I love it.

He likes to stick his tongue through the hole :)

Let me add that I had to bribe him to let me take this picture.  One good picture for an hours playtime on the iPod.  He got the better end of the deal, but it's a great picture, so maybe not.  Thanks Robert for the tickling.  His real smile is soooo much better than his fake one.

Also, for the record Teah lost her front teeth at 6 1/2 years old as well.  It was the summer after Kindergarten for her and Carter is halfway through 1st grade.

Sledding...

... It's all fun and games until someone hits a fence.

We'll get to that in a minute.

We're off visiting Robert's Aunt and Uncle on the West side of New York for the Thanksgiving holiday this year.  We were excited to wake up to somewhere near 8" of snow on Wednesday.  So, we took the kids to the high school to go sledding!

Here is photographic evidence of the great time we were having.

Robert even built a ramp

But then...

Teah got a face full of snow

She recovered quickly

Then of course Mom was down at the bottom taking pictures with Dad supervising up top.  Dad likes to let the kids make their own bad decisions - like sledding dangerously close to the chain link fence.  Of course, Carter insisted on this.  We didn't expect that he wouldn't jump off the sled or even put his hands up, but instead get flung face first into the fence!  It was quite dramatic, but when all was said and done he has a few scrapes and bruises.  Robert and my Dad both said, "Yeah, but you should see the fence."  Boys *sigh*.  Here's what his face looked like a few hours afterward:

And here it is this morning.