Picture a Day

So I was rummaging around in one if those cupboards that rarely ever gets opened and I came across this super old school cook book. I sat down with Joel and we had a good laugh at some of the suggestions they give for preparing a meal for your husband.

It suggested setting your table and begin preparing your dinner/dessert right after you finish doing the breakfast dishes. Also keep in mind the shape and colour of the food you are preparing, you want to create interest on your dinner plate.

I wonder if my kids would be better eaters if I had complimentary shapes and colours.

Here's the book. Its copyright date is 1964. Thanks mom!




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Night on the town!

So the last Saturday of every November we attend joel's work Christmas party. It's always at the Hollyburn Golf and Country Club in West Vancouver. Truthfully I usually dread it. It's a long drive, a late night, and I am always so cold! Anyway, tonight is different. We dropped the kids off at my parents at noon and spent the afternoon shopping! We are also staying the night at the Pinnacle Hotel on the Quay. It's the perfect little getaway this tome of year!
I found these fabulous shoes today while shopping and had to get them. They are so comfy!



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Hello snow!

I love snow days!

Okay, I should clarify. I love a snow day here and there. Days of being stranded at home because of the snow is no fun at all. But yesterday was a great day! So beautiful! Here are a couple of the kids. Now back to the rain...

Two today!

Oh snowy night...


Dinner for the kids and I, pizza bagels.


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Snow and such

A picture a day is really hard! I do actually take a lot of pictures, almost everyday. It's the dowloading and the uploading and the re-sizing etc. that is rather time consuming. So you may just keep getting stuck with iPhone pics. Anyway, today I was going through some family pictures and found this cutie of Connor playing in our teeny tiny bit of snow.




It sure has been chilly these past few days, and I've been really trying hard to catch up on my running that I missed last week due to being sick. Today I ran a lovely 8km in Bradner in very sub zero temperatures. I have 6 weeks left to run 62 more miles to make it to my 500 mile goal.

One last bit of random information... did you know that if you put Vicks Vapo rub on the bottom of your feet and then put on a pair of socks right before bed you won't cough at night? I know, crazy huh? I was told to try it and since I've been taking a super strong cough medicine with codeine every night for the past 4 nights I would try it. So last night the vapo rub went on. I won't say I didn't cough, but considering I wasn't taking the strong stuff, I think it did work pretty well!

much love
Larajane

A snowy drive

This was actually taken a couple of days ago, but thought it was still appropriate since we still have cold temps and a bit of snow.



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Picture a day

Beautiful boots at Zara. So sad they didn't have my size.



My wonderful shopping sidekick.


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6 years ago today

It was a day much like today. Cool, windy and a little rain.
Connor was 4 months old and Elissa was 2 and a half.
We moved into our house. This house. This house that we love.

I remember coming up to Auguston in the spring of 1998 with Joel. All that was here were the 4 show homes and presentation centre. We toured the homes and thought how wonderful it would be to live here one day. We were just engaged and had plans of moving across the country, so the thought of actually living here was nothing more than a far off dream.

As the years went by we lived in many different places. Neither of us ever thought we would end up back in our home town of Abbotsford, but we did. Just after Connor was born we listed our townhouse for sale and began planning the house we were to build... in Auguston. As we poured over house plans and looked into he cost of upgrades, we began feeling overwhelmed and thought that perhaps we weren't going to be able to pull this off. We actually put an offer on a house here that quickly fell through. As were driving that night we saw a realtor putting up a sign for a house on the park. Immediately we knew that this would be a perfect location and made an appointment to go through the house that night.

The house was less than a year old and right from the entrance we fell in love with it. It was perfect. We moved in a month and a half later and here we are today. I feel so blessed to be where we are.

Here are the kids when we first moved in.

Sick Day

My view today. Lots of reading, knitting, and sleeping.



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Toothpaste

Okay, a friend of mine is doing a picture a day challenge. I thought it would be fun and now that I have this handy dandy little iPhone I can easily take pictures everywhere and anywhere. So here is our crazy cat taking a break from catching mice.



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iPhoned

I did it. I got an iPhone.

I have battled with this for so long. I'll give you some history.

Back in 1995 when I first learned to drive, my wonderful parents gave me a cell phone. As you may recall, cell phones back then weren't the cute little things they are today. They were huge, heavy, and the battery never seemed to last more than two hours. So for someone who was emerging out of the the early 90's grunge era and was not a girly girl who ever carried a purse, this was quite the burden. There were also a couple of other downsides to having a cell phone in 1995. First, my mom expected to be able to get a hold of me whenever, wherever. This kind of cramped my style. The other downside... NONE of my friends had a cell! I couldn't call them, text them, facebook them... nothing! So really, it felt like not much more than a tracking device for my parents. Which, now that I am a parent, I'm beginning to see was not such a bad idea.

Okay, so I grew up, got married, and have kids. In this time I had a little flip phone that I rarely used, it was really for emergencies only. Well, I somehow misplaced that phone and decided I didn't need one. So years went by where I didn't have a phone, all was good. Or was it? 3 years ago, my business was taking off and I felt like I needed to separate my business life and home life a bit. So I bought a cell phone. This was going to be my business phone. I had business cards printed with my new number as well as adding ti to my website. Well, things didn't go quite as planned. I was getting calls all the time. Usually at rather inopportune times, such as unloading groceries onto the conveyor belt at Safeway with a screaming toddler. Trying to set up a shoot was not going to happen.

So, the "business" phone was nixed.

At this time people all around me were getting the these fun Blackberry's and iPhone's. They were checking Facebook, twittering, e-mailing, downloading the "coolest" app and playing games.

I was not going to be one of them. Nope. I was not going to let this tiny piece of technology rule my life.

It was until a recent trip that I discovered how practical these phones are. We were lost and had an iPhone. It guided us back to where we needed to be. We wanted to go to Trader Joe's, where was the closest one? I feel like a grande pumpkin spice latte, how many calories does that have? All of a sudden, the world was at my fingertips. These aren't so bad after all.

It's been three years since I first picked up my "business phone." It wasn't working so well and my plan said I could get a new phone. I went in thinking about picking up the iPhone 3, since it would cost me next to nothing and my plan would only change by a few dollars each month. Well, the iPhone 4 was sitting there and the upgrade wasn't much more. So I did.

I do enjoy being able to pick up e-mails when I have been out all day, and the texting is way easier! The little camera on it is pretty sweet as well. I like being able to snap pics whenever.

much love
larajane

J snapped this one of me and C. with the iPhone

A missed opportunity

Today as I was driving home from a shoot in Langley, I decided to stop at a Starbucks and grab a coffee for Joel and I. I went to the one with the drive through, but noticed the line had about 8 cars in it. So I decided to park and go inside.
As I was walking in, there was a guy sitting by himself at a table outside. I didn't think anything of it until he asked me for some spare change for a coffee. I have to admit, I was a little surprised to hear him ask me that. I know, what a bubble I live in right? It's really more that he didn't look like a homeless man who needed change. As I mumbled sorry and kept walking I thought to myself "how horrible of me to stereotype people like this." Here is an opportunity for me to show God's love and I walked right by. So I opened up my change section of my wallet and began emptying it out into my hand. I didn't have enough for a coffee, but I would give him what I had as I left.
So I ordered and waited for our drinks.
As I was getting ready to walk out and give to this man, a women carrying two drinks stepped in front of me. As she pushed open the door, she walked over to the man and gave him a large cup of coffee.
Wow. Why hadn't I thought of that?
I felt a wave of sadness come over me. Sad for this man, but also sad that i I had missed an opportunity to bless someone.
I need to go into every day with my eyes open and expecting God to give me opportunities to share His love.

Enjoy your weekend,
Much love,
Larajane



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So blessed

Today I ran. I ran 8k in the glorious sun, through the vibrant trees and upon many a beautiul leaf. We are in November and I was able to enjoy this run in nothing more than a tank top and yoga pants.

The air wasn't crisp, it was warm. Wonderfully warm! When I walked out of the house this morning with the kid's to go to school, the sun was just coming up over the mountain. It literally took my breath away. The haze, the leaves, and the light filtering through was incredible.

How blessed I feel to be able to wake up and see this out my front door. And then to have a body that is healthy enough to run in this beauty.

Recently I have been shooting so many wonderful families. But sometimes I feel like I lose my creativeness. I rarely take my camera out and just shoot for me. When I begin to feel this way, it always helps me to look back on past years and see what I was doing. I did just that this morning and found this shot of my dear girl in 2007.