[Personal] Shasta is four and he is hilarious.

Our sweet, silly Shasta is FOUR!  If you have had the pleasure of meeting him, especially in the last year or two, you know how special he is.  He has said a LOT of hilarious, cute, and inappropriate things this past year and to celebrate this wonderful boy I’m sharing a few gems with you.  You’re welcome.

A few more:

S: What’s that mommy?

Me: It’s a tampon.

S: For the mommy boo boo?

Me: Yes.

S: It’s not a cookie?

Me: No, it’s not a cookie.

Thank you mom. You’re so helpful.

Can you be the hurt lady and I’ll be the sad doctor?

Me: I’m sorry for being in a bad mood.  I’m just in a funk and I need to snap out of it.

Shasta: Is it an uptown funk?

I used to play with it a lot when I was a kid. 

I’m not happy because I’m sad. 

This hexagon has a lot of mass. 

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I can hardly wait to hear what he’ll say as a four year old.  Thank you Shasta for helping me to become a better person, for being yourself, and for making me smile every day.  You are a blessing to everyone you meet!

Thank you for my birthday party, Mom!

Project 365: December 1-17

We’re almost there… almost at the end of this year and the completion of this project.  It’s pretty hard to believe.  Here are my shots from the first half of this month.

This is our street! The brown apartment on the left is where we live, upstairs.

One of my favourite cafés in the neighbourhood, “Simples e Natural”

Mangoes are my favourite fruit. I eat one almost every day.

I know these flowers as “frangipani”, but here they are called “jasmine”

At a beach in a neighbourhood called Santo Antonio.

Monkeys at the park. We had some food we were tempting them with! Shasta was so excited about it although when they eventually took his apple he stood there and cried, “Myyyy a-pullll!”

One day we decided to skip Shasta’s afternoon nap, but apparently he needed one after all.

Aren’t the pink and yellow ones so pretty? They smell so good too.

Gata

After the rain

Oh the chubbiness!

eight weeks old

we let Shasta buy a treat at the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Sebastian e Vovó

Shasta is being such a good big brother. He loves to hug and kiss him. Sometimes he brings him toys to “play” with. It’s so cute.

There are some super cute photos and videos on my instagram feed as well so be sure to check them out.  I took one last night of Sebastian smiling.  Baby smiles are pretty much the cutest things ever.  He’s becoming much more responsive now which is so fun.

Until next time!  Merry Christmas!

Project 365: November

November went by in the blink of an eye.  I brought out my camera again and had a lot of fun experimenting with my different lenses.  There are quite a few pictures of the park by our apartment.  We go there so often, it’s basically like a backyard!  We also made it to Lagoa a couple of times to swim and enjoy the sunshine, and I love the memories captured there.  Also you’ll see a couple REALLY cute ones of Sebastian.  As our friend Renato put it, now he has a face!  He’s really getting some personality.  Enjoy, friends, I’m sending you love and warmth!!  I am not missing the cold, not one little bit. 🙂

Forts are fun!

oh how I love newborns!

take me, Daddy!

hold on!!

You will see many shots from the park near our house that we visit once or twice a day!

Our first visitor!! My friend Heather Elliott from Ontario. We had a wonderful two days together!

our kitchen. it’s small, but I love it – its size helps me to keep it clean and organized! You can’t let the dishes pile up when there’s nowhere to put them! 🙂

these little guys are all over the park. This shot was taken with my Tamron 16-300mm. Later on you’ll see the difference between this lens and my 85mm.

Walking trail. I take Sebastian on this trail in the stroller daily, it takes about 15 minutes to walk around.

Shasta likes to help 🙂

I think these plants are so neat!

I love this photo…. and I love it when Shasta sleeps… 🙂

My other sleeping child

Shasta really likes throwing his toys out the window. We are trying to discourage this… his smile says “I’m about to do something bad”

yellow bird right outside the window. 85mm

at the park

little monkey: macaquinho

the fruit here is so wonderful, and so cheap! we have a market that we go to every wednesday and saturday.

after a bath 🙂

someone had chocolate milk… 🙂

here are the monkeys on a different day with the 85mm lens. looks so much better.

such interesting plants and flowers grow right on the trees….

my little chubby man!! He’s getting so cute!

smiles!!!

Off to Rio Vermelho for the day to visit our friends the Cate family! Here is Lily and her cat!

the youngest Cate, Melody. Such a cutie.

another day at Lagoa… the water was so calm this day. It was amazing.

AMAZING I say!

The church we attend, run by the Cate family!

our front door

Project 365: October

Hello dear people!  I know it has been an eon since I last posted, and this is due to the lack of internet in our apartment for the last month!  We just got it set up yesterday so now I have some catching up to do.  As I mentioned a while ago, for my Project 365 in October I used the iPod to take photos, just as a bit of a break from my camera.  Using the iPod was a different kind of challenge and I really enjoyed it.  I followed the Photo a Day prompts from Fat Mum Slim, and this month’s theme was neat, using the letters of the alphabet and a few numbers.  So here’s what happened in October… (click on pictures to enter gallery)

A is for Almonds

B is for Belly

C is for Cute

D is for Driver

E is for Eat

F is for Feather

G is for Graffiti

H is for Hammock

H is for Hill

I is for Island

J is for Jam

J is for Jam

J is for Joy

K is for Key

L is for Lime

M is for M&Ms

N is for Nine Months

N is for New Apartment

O is for Orchid

P is for Pancakes

Q is for Quiet

R is for Reading

S is for Sword

T is for Trail

T is for Tired

T is for Treat

U is for Underwear

V is for Vroom

W is for Welcome

X is for Xcellent Dad

Nuni and his Dad, Eugênio

Y is for Yummy hospital food

Z is for Zzzzz

One

Two

Three

Five

Shasta and Vovó hangin’ in the hammock

1 week old

251 – 258/365 – First Two Weeks in Brazil

Hello everyone.  It’s been a good two first weeks settling in here – not without its challenges, but overall we are very blessed and happy.  I have been somewhat horrible at pulling out my camera – I think it’s because back in Canada, I felt safe bringing it everywhere with me.  Now I have to be more careful where I take it, so I have been using my iPod a little bit more – of course the quality isn’t as good, but it is pretty handy.  We’ve been to the playground a lot – Shasta always says to us, “Want to go to the pa-layground.”  He is so funny, he is talking up a storm and making me laugh all day.  Another cute thing he does is say “O-kaaay?” at the end of his statements, for example: “I gonna go downstairs, oookaaaay?” or “I wanna watch Thomas, ooookaaaay?”  We all think it is hilarious.  I’ll have to get it on video one of these days.  He’s still speaking English… he loves to shout “Helloo!” to people as they walk past our house, and tell them about his trucks and cars.  He’s learning some Portuguese though I think.  This morning he crawled into our bed and after telling me he wanted a bunny(it was random to me too), he went to Nuni and said, “Bom dia Daddy!”  He is in such an adorable phase of life right now.  Here are a few snapshots…

I didn’t know mangoes grew this big! I eat one per day, I love them so much!

My belly is growing!! I’m almost at 9 months. So ready to have this baby!

at a friend’s cafe

I found this picture of Nuni at his Grandma’s house, and I fell in love again!

at a beach/playground across the bridge

He loves this merry-go-round thing

along Beira-Mar

200 – 204/365

Hey everyone!  Here’s some pics from the last few days!

From the shoot on Sunday. This little guy loved to smile!  85mm

From the Reams’ shoot – loved these Indian Paintbrushes!  85mm

my little goofball. He’s really into putting sticky notes on his head

I dressed him up a bit to go to a friends’ house for dinner. I love this hat so much… I’m so glad he was happy to wear it!  50mm

He loves playing in the sink.  50mm

197 – 199/365

Hey everyone!  A couple photos from the last few days.  I had something scary happen this morning at Shasta’s birthday party. I had snapped a couple of pictures of him admiring his cake(below) and then when we started singing happy birthday and whatnot, I switched to a different lens, and then my camera stopped auto-focusing!  I tried everything I could, made sure it was on auto-focus mode, tried different lenses… nothing worked.  I was so frustrated.  When I got home I googled the problem and tried a couple of things to no avail.  When I looked again I found that someone had suggested to clean the inside of the camera.  I have a little camera duster brush so I used that, and I blew inside the body a few times – and it did the trick!  Phew.  Although I was annoyed I missed some good shots of Shasta blowing out his candle, I was thankful that 1) I got a pic of him beforehand and 2) this didn’t happen during my photo shoot I had tonight!  And now I know what to do if it happens again.  So, sadly these are the only in-focus pictures I have from this morning.  We had fun eating cake and splashing around in the lake.  It was short and sweet and I think we all had a fun time.

85mm

Tamron 16-300mm

oooooh!! Tamron 16-300mm

I’m so proud of my cake. I found the idea on Pinterest. How I love that website…

189 – 195/365

Here’s my catch-up from Project 365!  A couple will be repeats from Ryleigh’s shoot and Atlin.  My favourite is from today, the self-portrait I took in the backyard.  Yes, I had a treat in my hand.  It took me about 10 tries to get that shot, but it was worth it.

I’ve been keeping all of my Project 365 photos organized on one page.  To see the pics month by month you can click on “Project 365” at the top of the blog below the main picture.

our little patio

future mechanic no doubt

Fireweed in our backyard

I wonder how big this baby will be…

175 – 178/365

He found some stickers. Also he likes to wear his helmet inside. I have no objections to that!

He really wanted to bring his yellow car along.

Ma Lu

Can’t wait for this to bloom…

Tonight’s photo shoot with Barbara’s family

164 – 168/365

Hello all!  This has been one busy week.  I’m getting ready for photographing a wedding on Saturday, which I’m really excited about.  This is my last week of teaching music lessons, second last week of teaching at school, and tonight is my last Zumba class in Watson Lake!  AND I am doing things here and there to get ready for our big move to Brazil in August.  It is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate over a few years.  I’ve been purging like crazy and it feels so good!

I rented two new lenses for the upcoming wedding – my first time renting lenses, and it has been a great experience so far.  I ordered from Lens Rentals Canada, an online company based in Ontario.  I received the first one(Nikkor 24-70mm) a week before I had ordered it, which is so amazing since stuff usually takes a bit longer to reach us up here in the Yukon.  Then I ordered an 85mm and that came in just 4 or 5 days as well.  So I’ve been trying to practice with them as much as possible.  Last night I photographed a lovely lady named Kaitlyn in this little meadow across the street and it was magical.  I am usually trying to keep up with a moving subject(Shasta) so to have someone actually sit still was a very nice change.

Anyways, on to the pictures!

First bit of practice with 85mm

85mm

85mm

85mm

85mm

(24-70mm)

Farmer’s Market on Saturday (24-70mm)

24-70mm

24-70mm

Cool light shining through the fuzzies around 10pm (85mm)