Jennifer Woodbury

Have You Heard? We Have a Bit of Snow

I feel like all I have been talking about lately is snow. But really, that is all anyone is talking about around here. It has been the snowiest January on record, and since the day after Christmas we have had the following:

• 6 significant winter storms (3 of which brought 18+ inches of snow)
• 70 total inches of snowfall
• 4 snow days, 2 early dismissals, and one late start (Ella has not had a full week of school since before Christmas)

That mountain of snow that was in our front yard a couple of weeks ago? It's significantly larger now. There is literally nowhere to put it all. On Friday I couldn't help but laugh as I watched the local school kids walking home from school. I could barely see their heads above all the snow piled up on either side of the sidewalk. People who have lived here their entire lives say they have never seen anything like it. We can't seem to go more than five days or so without snowfall, so it's to be expected that another "significant" winter storm is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.

Winter is definitely doing things in style this year.

In honor of all the snow, here is a quick tip for shooting snow photos if you have a camera that allows you to set a custom white balance. It's a method I've been using for a few years. Take a picture of a fresh patch of snow (make sure the snow fills the entire frame), then set your custom white balance using that photo. If you aren't sure how to set custom white balance on your particular camera model, there are plenty of how to videos out there so just do a search. It's a really quick and easy way to get more accurate color in your snow photos. And I should know...I've had more than enough opportunities to practice.

How do you get great photos in the snow?

Confessions from (Not Quite) 1200 Square Feet

I have a few things I need to get off my chest:

1) Ella, who will turn six in April, is still sleeping in a toddler bed. She tells me she doesn't even want a bigger bed until her feet touch the end, and that helps ease my conscience over this fact. Also, it makes me thankful that she is a petite girl.

2) Lucy is still sleeping in my bedroom. Every night with adrenaline pumping, Matt and I try to sneak into our room to go to bed without waking her up. If we hear a floorboard squeak, we freeze. If we hear a tiny set of legs start thumping or a grunt come from the vicinity of the Pack 'n Play, we know our mission has failed. I would say we are successful only about 50% of the time. And we wonder why Lucy isn't sleeping through the night yet?

3) When we have visitors come to stay with us, they are forced to sleep on an air mattress in the basement surrounded by a pink kitchen set and various baby doll paraphernalia.

The bottom line? We have clearly outgrown our little cape.

When we bought this house I liked it. But over the past four years (can you believe Ella looked like this when we moved in?) I've truly fallen in love with it. We've painted, re-sided, renovated the kitchen and basement, and installed a new garage door, swing set, and water heater. I've brought two new babies home to this house, and sent my firstborn off to kindergarten from it. I love our backyard sledding hill. I love the built-in bookshelves in the bedrooms. I love being only a two minute walk away from Ella's elementary school.

I keep trying to figure out how we can comfortably fit our entire family of five in this house. But then when I am in our one and only miniature-sized full bathroom giving Lucy a bath, and Matt brings the girls in to brush their teeth before bed, and I realize how shockingly we resemble a bunch of clowns all trying to cram into a clown car, I think that perhaps it really is time to move on.

And so today our house officially goes on the market. I think I am finally ready to find a new home to love.

(But will somebody please tell me how I am supposed to say goodbye to the white picket fence?)

P.S. If you haven't already seen the link on my sidebar, you can find my new 2011 Photo a Day blog here.

2011: The Year of Story

Remember when I used to be a scrapbooker? I was even on the cover of a magazine once. This was back in the day when I only had one child who took regular naps, and I was guaranteed a few quiet hours all to myself each day. You can pretty much trace the decline of my scrapbooking to Ella giving up her nap and Claire being born (the two events were fairly simultaneous).

Although I may not be creating layouts anymore, and for the very first time ever I didn't even design my own Christmas card this year, I still feel like a scrapbooker at heart. I maintain close friendships with many people I met through this hobby, and I still follow the blogs of several well-known scrapbookers (like Cathy, Ali & Becky). People may think scrapbooking is just about cutting and pasting photos on a page, whether it be with paper or digitally on the computer, but what it's really about for me is telling stories.

I have followed Ali Edwards' "One Little Word" concept for the past few years, but have never chosen a word for myself. This year, the word story seemed to force itself upon me. I felt the word creeping in as I chose memory books for each of my parents for Christmas. I also heard the word in the back of my head as I decided to start taking a photo every day again in 2011 (here are links to my previous photo a day projects: 2008 & 2009). For me this process isn't so much about the daily photos themselves, although I cherish them, but mostly about using those photos as a vehicle to tell the everyday stories that make up our lives. I've been thinking a lot about this word on other levels too. I'm interested to see where it takes me in the coming year.

I haven't decided how I'm going to share my daily photos online this year, whether it be through the Photo a Day blog that I used in 2009 or some other method, but I do know that in addition to an online photo album I want something tangible as well. Something that my girls can sit with, look at, and possibly even contribute to themselves. I have had the best intentions of somehow printing out all of the photos and captions that I have stored up on my hard drive from 2008 and 2009, but it hasn't happened. So this year I am planning to use Becky Higgins' Project Life kit so that my own family can actually benefit from this process as well.

Here I go, diving headfirst into a year of story.

The 29 Pictures of Christmas

(The first 3 pictures of Christmas: SANTA VISITS)

I took Claire and Lucy to see Santa one Friday morning while Ella was in school. Lucy was mesmerized by Santa. This picture of the two of them staring at each other is probably my favorite Santa photo ever. Claire wasn't in this first photo because it took some coaxing to get her anywhere near the big guy in the red suit. She eventually agreed to just stand in front of him, but as you can see she still wasn't thrilled.

That's right, for the third year in a row I have a photo of a petrified Claire with Santa. Does it make me a mean mom that I cherish this collection of photos (here are links to the last two years: 2008 & 2009) and can't wait to see what next year brings?

Ella was upset when she learned that she'd been left out of the Santa visiting festivities, so the next day we trekked out and found him again at a local store. Later Ella asked me if he had driven his sleigh to the store, and if so why wasn't it in the parking lot? As you can see, Claire finally warmed up enough to sit on Santa's lap (but still no smile).

(The next 2 pictures of Christmas: ELLA'S CLASS PARTY)

Ella's teacher wanted to make graham cracker "gingerbread" houses for the class party. As class mom I volunteered to help, then sort of took over the whole project. I spent painstaking hours (okay, maybe just one hour) cutting graham crackers into the proper shape for the front and back of each house. At the party I had a panic attack when I saw the kids in the class shellacking each piece of their house with icing. I wasn't counting on such heavy icing usage and thought we were going to run out. Then the houses started falling apart because the kids had piled the roofs with so much candy. In the end though we had plenty of icing, the houses were all standing, and the kids had a good time. Phew.

(The next 6 photos of Christmas: CHRISTMAS EVE IN NEW JERSEY)

For the second year in a row (and fourth time in total counting two years when we lived in California) we spent Christmas Eve with Matt's brother Thomas and his family. We stuffed ourselves silly with a delicious feast and then had the traditional Christmas Eve program. With seven cousins running around (or sitting around, in Lucy's case), it was impossible not to have a good time.

(The next 2 photos of Christmas: CHRISTMAS EVE NIGHT AT HOME)

Left: The Christmas tree after Santa's arrival. Right: The girls leave milk and cookies out for Santa before heading to bed.

(The next 7 photos of Christmas: CHRISTMAS MORNING)

Left: On the stairs before going to see if Santa came. Middle: (Audible gasp.) "Olivia! My favorite!" Right: Ella, almost lost in a sea of Christmas chaos.

Who would have thought that Lucy would be the first child awake on Christmas morning? Ella and Claire slept in until almost 7:30. When Ella finally woke up we heard her shout "Claire! It's Christmas! Time to get out of bed!" So fun. A few more Christmas morning shots:

(The next 2 photos of Christmas: A BLIZZARD)

The day after Christmas we had a bona fide blizzard that dumped almost two feet of snow on us. Once again, the snow brought out Ella and Claire's true personalities. Ella started crying when Matt suggested he tackle the first round of shoveling on his own. Of course, Ella could not be stopped and went right out with him with a beach shovel in hand. Claire thought she wanted to come out too until she took one look at the snow pants Matt was holding in his hand and turned on her heel to go back to playing in the nice, warm house. She did eventually make a cameo outside for a short round of sledding in the backyard.

(The next 3 photos of Christmas: GINGERBREAD HOUSES)

Left: My house. Middle: Ella's house (with Mom as first assistant & icing specialist). Right: Claire's house (with Dad as design coach and icing specialist).

(The last 4 photos of Christmas: A FESTIVE NEW YORK CITY)

Top Left: Claire, Matt and my mom in front of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Top Right: Lucy asleep outside Magnolia Bakery. Bottom Right: Ella and my mom in Grand Central Station after their trek in from the suburbs. Bottom Left: Radio City Music Hall.

Last year during the week between Christmas and New Year's, Matt and I spent a night in the city while my mom stayed at home with Ella and Claire. We decided to make it a tradition and do the same thing again this year with Lucy, aka "Baby Who Won't Take Bottle," along as a very chubby and adorable third wheel. The next day, my mom brought the girls into the city on the train to meet us. One of Ella & Claire's favorite activities is packing for trips. It doesn't matter if the journey is long or short, real or imagined. Staying true to form, the girls spent a great deal of time making sure they had backpacks filled with appropriate provisions for their journey on Metro North. Because who doesn't need stuffed animals, books, cars, and a police walkie talkie on a trip into the city?

And that, in a fairly large nutshell, is our Christmas. Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep this post to only 29 words, but it's something to aspire to for next year. I hope all of your holidays were wonderful. And now onto 2011...