catching up ...

This past week ...

• I worked. 
• Celebrated my husband's Birthday. I made him cupcakes too. He loves cupcakes. 
• Julianna got Daddy a cute card for his Birthday. 
• I had to put Brian's birthday dinner on hold since I wasn't feeling great. 
• Attempted to take some fall pictures at the park but not enough foliage yet for bright orange/red colors. 
• Watched the NY Giants dominate the San Fran Forty-Niners. 
• Watched the Yankees dissolve into nothing. Countdown to spring training has begun already. 
• Decided I am so entirely sick of hearing about politics that I really do not go on Facebook anymore because I am sick of everyone's views. 
• Bought crafts from Michaels to make colored turkeys, a foam gingerbread house, turkey ornaments, and holiday coloring books. It will be Julianna's first time with craft glue. Oh boy. I'm in the mood already for the holidays! 
• Getting ready to celebrate Baby Benny's first birthday.  
• Decided I need to buy Julianna some pom-poms and a white turtleneck for her Halloween costume - A NY Giants Cheerleader! 
• Figured out how to do a cool (& easy!) haze on my photos courtesy of this tutorial at Polished Picture. 
• Found this great blog on motherhood, photography & life called "Love & live out loud" 
• Re-discovered my love for hot cocoa. 
• Squirrels ate 2 of our pumpkins on the front porch, and we narrowly rescued the 3rd from being destroyed by bringing it indoors. We need to seriously carve this bad boy! Julianna saw the squirrels demolishing the pumpkins and kept saying "Skirls eat pumtins mama!!" 
• The last of my outdoor plants kicked the bucket with the frost we finally got. 
• Decided we have enough dried herbs from our garden to last until 2015. 
• Loving the new Law & Order SVU District Attorney. 
• Watched the 2nd episode of "Chicago Fire" and not loving it like I thought I would. Kind of boring. 

Here are some pictures from the park. There wasn't the bright & colorful foliage like I was hoping for yet. I think we'll try to go back in a week or so to capture some orange & red colors. I also used some haze techniques that I learned recently. I'll post a tutorial on this with my own added tips soon enough! 

Julianna was trying to pose her beloved Giraffe on the rock for his photo shoot. 

She loves picking this flower and wanting to give it to mama!

I love my girl's smile! 

It was sooo hard to get her to stand or sit by the rock to get a few pictures. She wouldn't stand still for 2 seconds. 

Twirling .... Twirling.... Twirling .... 

And of course a quick stop at the playground to go down the slide a few times.