12 on the 12th!

Ah the big one 12/12/12!  E is six months old today!  Meanwhile, this is what we were up to:

1. B writing directions to Santa instructing him that his wishlist is on his door. (This is one of three copies he has written so far..) 

2.  M playing on the iPad while Ms. Heather took E's six month photos.

3. Daddy and E snuggling (we have one of these every month, right?)

4. Me cooking dinner - Mole Taquitos - now with more vegetables! (I added a yellow pepper, tomato and two green onions, sauted well to the normal recipe).

5. B playing with the iPad.

6. E having his dinner with Daddy - he tried out some chicken today too, tentatively ok with it.

7. M playing by herself in our room while I made dinner.

8.  The first wrapped gifts of the year. These are gifts B picked out for us at the Holiday Store at his school.

9. M getting ready for bed...very slowly.

10.  The list Santa was being directed to.  He always hangs his various notes with Washi tape and I've invited him to help himself to whatever he likes.  I think it is humorous that this particular tape reads "its the little things" and is adhering a rather long list of not entirely little present requests...

11.  B showing off his new Angry Bird Star Wars PJs and a silly grin.

12.  E, post bath!

Ten on Tuesday

 

1.  This guy is having a tough week, as is our entire family.  Brent's dad, Bill suffered a stroke on Sunday evening.  He is OK, but experiencing some muscle weakness and blood pressure problems.  He remains in the hospital and surrounded by people that love him and are preparing to help with the steps back to strength.  He is in good spirits.  Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated. 

 

2.  As you likely know my husband and I met via Alpha Phi Omega (APO), a co-ed community service fraternity, while at OU.  Many of our friends joined as well and we spent hundreds of hours in college doing community service  We are trying to pass that tradition on to our own kids.  This weekend, the Wainrights hosted a party to collect and pact boxes for Operation Christmas Child.  The kids helped sort, make capes, and write little notes to the ten recipients and now we'll get to track where our boxes end up.  We also snacked, played, talked, and had a wonderful time!

 

3.  This guy is not feeling so hot.  He has a little cold and is having trouble breathing and sleeping.  Thus we are all having trouble sleeping.  We took him to the Doctor and confirmed he doesn't have an ear infection  he is just miserable. 

 

4.  M and I went to Ashtyn's pony party this weekend and had a grand time. M was a little nervous of all the strangers and to my great surprise was scared to ride the actual ponies in attendance.  She did eat a HUGE number of carrot sticks though and enjoyed playing and helping with the presents.

 

5.  Soccer Season is over.  We will miss our Dragonfly buddies and look forward to playing in the spring. I think we will miss the Tigers a bit less and do not anticipate M playing again any time soon.  B is now back to happily to swimming and M is taking dance once a week. 

 

6.  Last week, Brent and I went to the installation of the new OSSM President - Frank Y. H. Wang, Ph.D.  Meanwhile, the kids stayed home with Grammie and Granddaddy doing fun things like building this LEGO Mater.  I am so glad for all the time they get with their Grandparents.

 

7.  So, with the stroke and sickness here I completely missed our 12 on the 12th and E's 5 month post and pictures.  They will happen sometime this week, maybe when there is less snot on his nose every minute.  Able took some pictures for me so we'll see what we can cobble together.  More to come on our cutie.

8. This Thursday evening there is a GW Alumni Event at Put a Cork in it Winery in OKC. I plan to attend and if there are any local alums you can find more information here.  There will be events like this all over the country so if you aren't in OK you can likely find one near you as well on the calender here. 

9.  For those following the story of my sister's little family.  I wanted to let you know that they had an in utero ECHO done this week on the new little baby they are expecting in February and it looked good!  Hooray for happy news in a tough week.

10.  You may recall that for the last two years Beef Wellington has become our family's Thanksgiving Tradition after my Grandfather found a recipe in the Wall Street Journal.  This Sunday at 5:30, I will be teaching a class at Savory Spice Shop in OKC that will teach participants how to make this delicious and fancy dish.  The class costs $20 paid in advance and is limited to 20 participants.  We will be working off our family's adapted version of the original Wall Street Journal recipe, using Savory Spice products and sharing a taste of our family's new tradition.  If you'd like to join in, they are doing sign ups at the shop (4400 N. Western Ave. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73118) or you can sign up by phone during business hours 405-525-9119 or via email to okc@savoryspiceshop.com.  Of course you can also contact me, my Mom, or brother to sign up. 

I hope to see some of you this weekend and pray that all your families have a safe and healthy week and holiday season. 

12 on the 12th

1.  It was day three of fall break.  B got to stay home alone with me so he had lots of iPhone and Wii game time while I worked -- something about a new dragon game on my phone?

2. E is four months old! 

3.  We did more clothes sorting for E -- Oh, My, Goodness! My sister has a HUGE collection of baby boy clothes.  I "thought" we'd gotten all of the appropriately sized clothes out of this bin, surely, but no, the whole bin is his size.  It is pretty fun, free, shopping when we get tired of his current rotation of clothes.

4 & 5 - M & B took turns trying to give each other little piggy back rides around the house on a drizzly afternoon.

6 - M & B played with F & P for an hour or two again today.  This is becoming our evening ritual, and great fun. (The picture is zoomed out because I have this sense that our new neighborhood friends might find a telephoto a little creepy?)

7.  I went for my mile run after a week of walking on my shin splints.  It felt great.  I promptly iced my shins and M played doctor covering me in kisses, blankets, pillows, and pats.  

8 & 9.  E & Brent had some play time - and sis joined in too.

10 - some puzzle time for B.  You can't see E, but he on a mat in the floor nearby trying really hard to roll over.

11. - Our babysitter sent E home in this Halloween onsie that used to belong to her son. (Because we don't already have enough clothes?)

12.  M helped Daddy give baby E a bath.  Shortly after this she couldn't resist jumping in herself.

And that is our 12 on the 12th for October!  Did you join in? If so, I'd love to see it!

12 on the 12th

1.  E's 3 Month photo at home - I'll post his professional ones from Heather soon.  The sneaks look amazing!

2.  E and I took Savory Spice samples around to several places today.  This box currently lives in my truck and my car smells awesome.

3. This is what we do in the afternoons - the Angie Debo pick up line...

4. See how patiently she is waiting?? Nope.

5. See how patiently I'm waiting?? Nope -- we're still working on our timing strategy.

6. Granddaddy dropped by for some LEGO block fun.

7. I cannot get enough of E's smile.  Sometimes we just smile at each other for 20 minutes--- #1 thing I'll miss when maternity leave is over next week.

8.  M getting the mail and telling me about the Disney envelope.

9. E and Daddy Smiling at each other.

10.  E snuggling with Granddaddy.

11.  B doing his math work.

12. Grandma B reading bedtime stories with M and B after a long day at the Spice Shop.

I sort of forgot to start taking pictures until about 3pm or so, which makes the day a little out of balance, but we rebounded nicely and I think I might have taken more pictures today than all month long!

12 on the 12th: August

Welcome to 12 on the 12th - Here is a quick look at today!

1. Fun with big floor puzzles

2. A quick round of the treasure hunt game.

3. Happy 2 month birthday to E!

4. M wanted her picture taken too in her new night gown.

5. A final back to school trip to Target before OSSM starts tomorrow.

6. Me & E 

7. Brent dressed up for Convocation.

8.  Swimming at Great-Granddaddy's house with Granddaddy

9. Followed by pizza at Hideaway.

10.  Then LEGO block building time with Grammie and Granddaddy.

11.  iPad time with Daddy (this one is out of order and happened in the morning).

12. Almost catching a grin from our little guy.

It was a busy, very long day with Brent gone most of the day.  We did have lots of fun with the Grandparents and Great-Grandparents though.  I am so glad they were able to share in our day!

12 on the 12th: Collage Tutorial

Sunday is the 12th and again time for our monthly 12 photos on the 12th of the month.  I have been sharing mine as a collage and some of you have asked about how I make them.  Below is a short tutorial.  That said, many others online just share them one at a time on their instagram or facebooks feeds so a collage is definitely not required to play along.  If you do play along, please share with me as I'd love to see your "day".

My process: I begin by having the downloadable version of Picasa on my computer. (It is available here)

1. During the day, I take a photos of a variety of things.  I usually end up with maybe 25ish usable photos, some of which are repeats.  Some months I take all or most of them on my phone and other months on my "big" camera.  
2. Regardless of how I take them, at the end of the day I load them onto my laptop.  
• For pictures on my camera, I import them into Picasa by inserting my SD card into my computer.  I then open Picasa, select the "import" button at the top of the screen, select the drive and photos I want to add, and at the bottom of the screen select which folder Iwant them saved to.  I choose to save my photos by month so this month's will go into my "August 2012" folder.  
• For pictures taken on a phone: If you are trying to move pictures from your phone to your computer you can email them to yourself.  Then download the image and save them to the folder you instead of the "importing" step.  Alternatively, you can plug your phone into your computer and look for the "drive" just as you would if you were importing off of an SD card or directly from a regular camera.
3. Then, I sort through and start selecting which ones to include in my collage.  When viewing a photo I want to include I push ctrl+h to add the photo to the "tray".  If I change my mind, I can left click the thumbnail image in the trail and select "remove".
4. Once I have 12 photos selected, I select "create" from the top tool bar.  A menu drops down and I then select "picture collage."
5. This will bring up a few options that can be altered to your individual preference.  For this particular project I tend to select "grid" from the top of the settings tab.  This results in a block of 12 equally sized photos. The next choice down the column is "grid spacing".  I like a little white or black between my photos so I slide the bar slightly to the right.
6. When I am satisfied with the options, I select "create collage".  Picasa will save it to its "collage" folder by default.  
7. To upload the collage, you need to know where it is saved on your computer.  To find out, left click on the the collage image and select "locate on disk".  This will give you the path location to help find it when you upload to facebook, twitter, or your blog.

I have heard that the Picasa collage process does not work well on Macs.  Here is a site that has some alternate collage tools for those using other types of computers: http://maketecheasier.com/5-free-tools-to-create-collages-from-your-pictures/2010/02/23

I hope this is helpful and look forward to seeing your pictures!

12 on the 12th!

In addition to it being E's one month celebration today, it was also 12 on the 12th so you get a look at what the rest of us were up to and more of the day overall.  It is going to be an interesting phenomenon to have his month updates and 12 on the 12th coinciding for this year.  I may merge them at some point, but for today, here you go!

1. B playing games on Daddy's computer as our house struggled to wake up this morning.

2. E & M playing in the nursery.

3. Uncle Able dropped by twice today before heading to STL to visit my sister.

4. E & Mama at just about 1:18 as his first month ended.

5. M and my phone.

6. E chillin' with his bear buddy

7.  This big box arrived with diapers and formula and was a big hit.  Here B is cutting holes in it to make a castle like he saw on Caillou.

8.  These are his drawings - see particularly one of me and one of me holding E.  This was a big deal and really sweet to me as B rarely draws and I've never known him to draw people before so I was very touched.

9.  Here they are both drawing their made up stories like Pinky Dinky Do does-- LOVED the imaginary stories too.  As always big cardboard boxes are awesome.  Luckily, one this size will arrive each month so we should be set!

10. Peter, Bethany, and Ashtyn brought us dinner and hang out for awhile.  This is our attempt at getting a kids picture with a little help from Brent.

11.  Daddy & E finishing up bathtime.

12.  E's very cute froggy feet in PJs that are being work for the last time.

Happy 12th of July - I'd love to see your collages/pictures if you joined in the fun today.  If you didn't, think about trying it next month as I find it fun, fascinating, and better with friends!

May 12 on the 12th

This month the 12th was a very busy Saturday for us.  The very short version is below and not really in chronological order:

1) B and the Dragonflies lining up for the start of the soccer game

2) Practice before the game with Daddy and Dragonfly friends

3) Helping Grandma open her early Mother's Day present.  (A honey bee inspired tea set).  Grandma leaves for her big Ireland voyage today so we celebrated a bit early.

4)  Showing Grandma the scrapbook pages they had made earlier in the day and her home made Mother's Day card.

5) Celebrating Starbucks Frappuccino Happy Hour with me for Mother's Day.

6) Granddaddy on the sidelines of the soccer game--- definitely the happiest of our troupe this particular soccer day.

7)  I got t o make a scrapbook page for the first time this week.  It came together so quickly with the May Studio Calico kit and chronicles  part of our trip to Chrissie's mom's cabin last spring.

8)  Daddy & M on the sidelines at the soccer game.

9) Brent, M, and me relaxing in the afternoon.  My costochondritis was pretty bad yesterday so I rested a lot while they cleaned.  This picture was taken by our budding photog lil' B.

10)  M's outfit evolved through day day as she kept adding hats, necklaces and accessories.  Here she is with her bro and Daddy napping in the background.

11)  Grandma took a picture of the whole crew just before Brent and I left for an OSSM Evening celebrating Dr. Manning's retirement.  M had changed again into a cinderella/catwoman combo.  

12)  Uncle Able & Grandma watched the kids in the evening. This included some fun bike riding fun outside that sadly ended when B got stung by a wasp!

Busy, fun, day complete with all sorts of adventures!

April 12 on the 12th

I could have sworn all day I had way too many pictures, but again ended up with just the right amount that were good for including.  It is fascinating.

In any case, on with the story from upper left moving right and down:

1. Lady M woke up a bit early today and thus B didn't quite get his morning video game time.  They compromised and watched Wonder Pets while I took a shower.
2. After Wonder Pets, it was time to play with our collection of random Star Wars figures in their room. B has a system, but M doesn't quite "get" it (or perhaps doesn't care).  In any case, he carefully explains Star Wars spacecraft and figures to us both.
3. Time for School!  Here is B with his two besties.  There is a bit less of B in today's collage as he was at a play date with his buddy Preston all afternoon and into the evening.  They loved it and much video game time was had by all. 
4. Our new minivan, waiting as I picked up M from school and gave B one more hug pre-playdate.
5. Iris - from this morning's post. 
6. Once I discovered that B was going on an outing, I reserved M and I a time for tea at Inspirations Tea Room.  She was such a big girl in a fancy place.  We were the only ones there so a bit more freedom.  Fascinatingly, she gave me all the extra silverware and seemed confused about the 2 forks concept.  She also did an amazing job sharing her plate of treats with me and trying every bit!
7. She had the "Prince Charming" plate and I had fruit and scones.  She opted for pink lemonade in her tea pot rather than real tea, which I thought was just perfect.   The banana nut scones with lemon curd were definitely the tastiest part. 
8. Me and baby brother in the mirror at Inspirations Tea Room mirror. 
9. Obviously after a fancy tea you need dessert (we could have had some there, but she was getting restless). We drove over to cupcakes to GoGo and had just a bit more sugar :)
10. Back at home, we did our yoga together and waited for Daddy (Surprisingly, or not, no pictures of maternity yoga time).  When he arrived and had played a bit, he made egg sandwiches for himself and M (I had a smoothie). They were both excited to try the new toaster that had arrived earlier.  (Our last one had been a wedding present and basically completely stopped working.  In fairness, it was nearly 11 years old!)
11. Book time!  B returned to the scene for bath and books and just a few minutes with Daddy before Brent had to go back to work and the kids hand to go to bed. 
12. My sweet sleepy B.  This seemed like the perfect way to end the day!

How was your day?   

Iris

Iris are a big tradition for the women of the Dotter/Melton family.  (I am, for reference purposes, Dr. Dotter's daughter's daughter).  I can remember my Great-Grandmother, Grandmother, Mom, and Aunt's houses surrounded by Iris and the sent of them wafting through the houses as a few that were too heavy for the stalks or too pretty to miss during the day came inside.  

My Aunt, Mom, and Grandpa Dotter now curate the family collection.  This weekend at the farm, I watched them wander my Mom's gardens noting which colors she had, which ones they wanted in their own yards, and which ones they would bring to her to add to her gardens in the fall.  As usual, I am fairly sure my Aunt Ann managed to leave with a few roots of something in her bag before returning to PA, even though it isn't time to dig up the Iris yet.  

As each of my cousins and I have grown up and moved out on our own there has come a time when we are given our own Iris for our own yards.  Not everyone is to that stage yet, but many of us are.  Usually, my Mom or Aunt Ann will arrive with some when we have our own home and are somewhat settled.  I've seen my Aunt carry many a bag of Iris from my Grandparents' garden onto an airplane to add to her own collection or that of her daughters.  Some Iris are usually left as we each migrate on to the next home, but sometimes they come too.  

Only when I arrived back in Oklahoma in 2008 did I really feel like I was ready for my share of the family Iris legacy.  My Mom brought just a few bulbs for my front garden here.  Now, four years later, the flowering stalks are nearly 5 feet tall and bursting with white blooms.  This week is full of stormy weather in Oklahoma so a few have bent over and had to come inside.  Now my house, inside and out, smells like Iris too, just like all those other women that raised and nurtured me.  I hope my children learn to recognize this smell too and associate it with family and our love for each other. 

Now my own beds are growing full of bulbs that threaten to take over and it is almost time for me to share some of mine back to the family gardens or to a friend that would like some.  I love that this little bit of my family is spread across the country from coast to coast with us and into the homes and lives of our children and friends.  May your spring be blessed with family, fragrant flowers, and love, just like mine is.

(NOTE:  Let me know in the fall if you want some Iris as I'll be separating mine then.  Also, it is the 12th so this is one picture from my 12 on the 12th series that should post later today. Want to join in the fun? Pick up your phone or camera and click away, then share with us later today or later this week.  I'd love to see what you capture!)

March 2012 - 12 on the 12th

The concept, as mentioned in the earlier post today, is very simple.  People are challenged to take 12 pictures on the 12th of the month all through 2012.  (Obviously, I'm joining this a bit late, but think it sounds fun in any case).

I elected to only use my iPhone, more specifically the Instagram app with the x-pro II filter for all my pictures this month for a consistent look.  In the evening, I downloaded them to my computer via Extragram, but could have just emailed them to myself instead.  Then, once they were in Picasa, I selected my 12 favorite and clicked the "collage" button.  I shuffled the selection a bit and quickly had the below collage.*

These are not in chronological order, so my apologies if that's bothersome. I did try to make sure we were all in the pictures and that there was at least some variety.  Admittedly, most are from the backyard this time, but that was where it felt like life was happening today.

(L to R and Top to Bottom)
1.  Working - double monitors  and blackberry are a must!

2. We did some garden prep this afternoon.

3. Watching Wonder Pets with a special snack tray while I took a late afternoon call for work.

4.  B and I played Frisbee in the yard--- gorgeous day!

5. Dining al fresco in the evening

6.  This is the hall by M's classroom with the bags lined up for pick-up time.

7. B took this picture of me on the porch.

8. Siblings cleaning up the fireballs before we turned on the sprinklers.

9. B gathering his things after a day at Pre-K

10.  M "doing tricks" on the tiny trike she brought outside.

11.  The kids playing in the sprinkler with each other and their water guns.

12.  Layout in progress on my desk this afternoon with the March SC kit.

Nothing too tricky and definitely not our entire day, but I kind of like the snapshot of randomness of today.  One day projects are a better fit for me than the weekly, monthly or year long options.  I felt like I took a lot of pictures today, but then when it was time to gather them up, I only had a few more than 12, which surprised me, but it worked out fine in any case.  I think I'll try this again in April.  Want to join me?


Update:  I'm linking this back to Dear Lizzy's Daily Dozen which is a gathering place for others doing this project as well.

**This was all using the free downloaded version of Picasa.  If you are using a different photo management tool try googling for its collage feature.  I don't think iPhoto has a clear collage tool inherently, but some quick googling turned up several different collage apps for the Mac (ranging from $5-$25???). I also saw this interesting tip, but haven't tested it as my laptop is not an Apple product.