Christmas!

This was probably the most photographed Christmas ever! Between my and my sister in-law's new camera, we definitely weren't lacking in photos! I don't have her pics yet, but I got some nice ones :) With some of my christmas money, I bought myself a Nikpn SB-400 flash (you can use it as a bounce flash to illuminate the room without that "flash" look in low light) and LOVE it!!! Actually, I tried to order it online, and they said it was backordered and talked me into a really not so great flash, and I was so disappointed, and then Paul somehow found it and picked it up on Christmas eve for me as a surprise! How sweet! It was such a great surprise-I was so excited! So here are some of the best pics from Christmas:

Here is Camden's gingerbread house-he made this pretty much by himself:

We made sugar cookies and gingerbread men on Christmas eve. We invited Parker's aide and her son over to join in the festivities. All the boys also made hand cookies-which were a tradition growing up-Parker really liked his :)

And then came Christmas morning! Camden was very excited to find a Razor sparks DX scooter from Santa in front of the tree! This scooter has light up wheels and you can make it spark-very cool. He was also very excited to fly the remote control plane he got from his Grandmommy and Granddaddy. Parker enjoyed many new books and a few toys, but especially liked the foam sword from Santa in his stocking.


Christmas afternoon, we headed to Winston-Salem for a family Christmas dinner. Katie had the brilliant idea of having an ugly Christmas sweater party for some rockin' family pictures.

and....HAPPY HOLLIDAYS FROM THE HAINESES FAMILY's:


(I can thank my awesome faces and poses to practicing with my sisters)
Besides awesome pictures, we had a really good Christmas dinner. Katie and I made a buche de noel for desert using Francois Payard's recipe. This all came from an episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay." So I can thank my brother Scot for this idea...but although it took 2 days to make, it really was quite exquisite.

We even roasted chestnuts to try:

But, of course, the most fun was spending time with family. Grandma was in heaven with all her grandsons:

It was a really fun Christmas all around. I missed my family, but will hopefully see them soon! For more pictures, I'll be uploading them to facebook later tonight! Hope you all had a merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Christmas is in the air, and we are abundant in photos!

Ah, Christmas is coming! The kids went and saw Santa-Camden was trying to decide if it was one of Santa's elves dressed up or just a guy in a suit (since the real Santa is much to busy right now...) Parker smiled and was excited this year-I think he finally has the hang of the big guy :) Here is the pic:


Writing a letter to Santa:
Our tree:
Camden's homemade snowflake:
Also, for my birthday, I got a new camera! Oh what fun! It is a digital SLR and I have been a little snap happy lately-but the pictures are just so amazing! Here I thought I was just a bad photographer, only to discover that I'm a immediately a lot better with this handy new device! However, this plus photoshop has equaled a pretty messy house and an unfinished "to do" list! I'm having a lot of fun figuring out the different modes and how to manually focus and stuff like that.

Here are some of my faves so far:

My first shot with my new camera-this is Parker sitting right next to me in the kitchen:

Smiling is so boring:

Here's a pic of Camden right after school (which turned out great with the camera!):

Photoshopped:

Some outdoor shots taken by my SIL Steph when she was playing with my camera-the detail and focus are so amazing!

Halloween!

I never posted any halloween pics on my blog! So, here we go with halloween 2009: Camden always knows what he wants to be in August, and he has never changes his mind! So, after all the GI Joe hype, it was Snake Eyes all the way! Parker wore the hat he got from the GI that had served in Iraq and I threw on some "desert colored" clothing. They were very cute (Even though we called Camden's costume his "please hit me with your car" costume since he was black from head to toe!)

We went to a really fun halloween party with lots of friends a week before, and had a neighborhood party the day of. On Halloween evening, we did the trick-or-treating thing around the neighborhood. We all went out, figuring that Parker wouldn't last long, but quickly found out that Parker LOVED trick-or-treating! Since most of the homes have stairs up to the front door, I would just wheel Parker up to the bottom of the steps-and Parker would make sure and let them know he was there! He loved holding his bucket and holding it out for candy. He also liked feeling all of the candy wrappers. Of course, Camden didn't mind the extra candy :) The weather was fantastic, so it made for a really nice evening!

here are some pics:

A boy and his shoes!

This is why we had to go buy new shoes:

So, big deal, right? Except that this was already his second pair of shoes this school year! So, now we are on our third pair of shoes! I don't know if you can tell, but his toe is sticking out of that shoe on the left. Craziness. At least his feet are a bit bigger each time-they've grown a half a size each time we've had to replace the shoes.

However, it was my luck that when I went to Payless, that it was the same day as the big Oprah deal where you got 50% off your entire order! So, first, I picked up a pair of shoes for Camden, and then found him some new church shoes...and then I decided that I just couldn't pass up the great opportunity and picked up just a few things for myself ;) Who can turn down shoes, purses and scarves that are on clearance AND 50% off? So, this time, I won't complain too much about shopping for my ever growing (and destructive) child! Someone told me that they start growing out of their clothes before they're destroyed when they stop having recess! Until then, I guess I'll get used to multiple shopping trips during the year for new shoes and pants.

Fun with photoshop

I came across a tutorial on making your pictures more "modern" and discovered that I can make pics taken on my little point and shoot camera look pretty cool! Here's the first one I did:

Before:
I was going for an artistic angle (although it was a bit too much...). I LOVE this tree in front of our house and bribed the boys with a long leaf collecting walk if they would humor me and let me take some Fall pictures!

After:


I blurred the surrounding areas and then supersaturated the picture to bring out the fall colors. Then I cropped to get the angle I was looking for. I think they turned out pretty neat!

I took a bunch of Fall pics, which are posted on facebook. I'll post some of my favorites soon. It is so pretty out here!!!

Paul's surprise office makeover

For those of you not on facebook....

So, Paul went out of town this past weekend for a leadership conference in Atlanta. I decided to go all HGTV on his office and give it a much needed makeover. This is an early Christmas present-so 1 gift down :) It doesn't get a lot of natural light, and is just kind of dingy and drab. He also didn't have a lot of drawer/cabinet space. He uses the room to work out in as well, so there is an exercise portion to this small room. Sooo...a coat of paint, 2 new light fixtures, a new rug, filing cabinet, shelving, wall decorations, and a brand new flat screen TV turned this room from...

DRAB to...


FAB!


Or, from shabby to chic! Here are some more angles of the room:



Thank you to my mother in-law and my sister in-law, Stephanie for the contributions to this project!

Now, question, how come I can do a complete room makeover in a day and a half, yet there are projects around my house that would literally take 15 minutes that I've been putting off for 2 years?

Trackout fun

We have had a really fun time during our October trackout. We have spent a lot of time with our friends, the Lukowskis, since Michael is one of Camden's bestest friends ;) We have taken a day trip to the beach, gone hiking, enjoyed a fun day at Hill Ridge farms, and still plan to hit up a museum or 2, possibly another beach trip and lots of fun with friends! Camden is going to have fun flying out to see his grandma next week-I don't know what more a little boy could want? Here are some of my favorite pics:

Camden's 2nd grade pic

This year, I ordered the CD instead of the pictures-we'll see how that goes :) It turned out really nice-what a cutie! I'm lucky that he has only lost his bottom 2 teeth so far, so he still has that cute smile ;) But the top 2 are loose, so next year will be a very diferent picture!

Funny story-the morning of picture day, I didn't like anything that he had in his closet (the one shirt I liked, he wore last year) So I actually took him to Target and we picked out a shirt, and then I took him to school. Great planning, huh?

The beginning of Fall

Alas, summer is on its way out, and the fall is ushering in. Luckily, fall here is really enjoyable!

So, out with "oh no's with the hose!" (This is a fun activity where Paul takes the boys on a "ride" around the house that always ends up with them getting all wet from the hose)



And in with soccer:


Camden is really excited that they have goalies this year and took a turn during one of the quarters.

On another note, Camden came down today dressed like this:

He is really excited to hear President Obama speak to him. We'll see if it really works and he whines less when it is homework time... ;) I think that it would be a neat tradition for the current president to address the children at the beginning of each school year. It's such a positive message to let the kids know that we all care about them!

6 year old Parkerman

OK, I'm a few days late...but Parker is now 6! Wow, how about that! We know better then to make a cake, so we got ice cream for his birthday. His Aunt Stephanie was able to come over, and we just had some ice cream and played with his new present-a bean bag throw game. I'll admit, when I bought this months ago, I didn't realize how big it was! oops!! I had envisioned something that he could play from his wheelchair in the living room-but I think it's more of an outside toy ;) That didn't stop us from playing though! We really enjoyed throwing the beanbags off of the balcony into the nets-and Parker found it very amusing as well :) So, our usual low key birthday! We will be making a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord for his birthday in a few weeks (I hadn't booked it because I didn't know how he would be feeling with his legs, so it will be a bit belated ;)