Imagination....

I love Samantha's Imagination.  Today she was very interested in playing with her games.  We went from playing UNO Moo to Go Fish to Candyland to finally one of her new games Zingo.  When I was setting up the game she went and got her two stuffed friends - TinkerBear and Blueberry - and told me that they were going to play too.  She was so adorable - she had a conversation with each of them explaining them the game and then she sat one on either side of her and gave them each a game board.  We then proceeded to play the game for about a half hour with both Blueberry and TinkerBear each winning at least one game.

From left to right - Blueberry (dressed as a skeleton for Halloween), Samantha and TinkerBear (dressed as a Pirate for Halloween)

Beauty...

 This is my wish for you:

Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life. 

By: Theodore Roethke

The gorgeous Sunset was at Sunset Beach, Cape May NJ.

It was a cloudy/rainy day and right around dusk the clouds dispersed so we headed over to Sunset Beach to see if we could catch the sunset.

Samantha Noel.....

I don't know who was more excited to get a package from the UPS man the other day - me or Samantha.  I had ordered new props from www.WhiskerWorks.com and I had shown them to Samantha and she was so excited about them....not sure she really got what they did but she said they were "cool".  When the box was left on our front porch Samantha needed to open it immediately and play with them.

 I have also trained her well as we were opening the box she said to me "Shhh...we won't tell Daddy we got a box today" - that's my girl...we spend Daddy's money all the time but don't tell him about it :)

We even cornered the dog and got a picture with a mustache on him

(not the best picture but it was all we could get in the moment)

Mr Kellen.....

So....Kellen is the cutest bald baby ever...(so I'm a little biased as I'm his Aunt)

Kellen was also full of drool today and I guess everyday....see the action below of it all

(I am my mother after all and document everything)

Picture is a tad blurry you get the action shot of the drool :)

Now I know the above picture isn't the most attractive picture of Kellen but he was making the funniest faces and I just happened to capture this one.  I love the fact that his blue eyes are so big and his little chubby cheeks - you just want to squeeze them.

Thanks Kellen for being a good sport the other day and letting me get some pictures of you.

Love - Aunt Emi

First Day Of School....

Miss Samantha started Pre-K (4 year old class) this year at our towns public school.  The morning of her first day she was so excited to be going that she cuoldn't stop moving and bouncing around the house - she was full of so much energy.  When it was time to leave she didn't want to pose for any pictures for me but after some convincing I was able to get some pictures of her in the adorable outfit I bought her.

"How about like this Ma?" said Samantha

And finally the childs smirk as I am trying to get her in the car

Shonk/Cooper Photoshoot - From the perspective of a 4 year old....

My 4 year old daughter tagged along to this past weekends photo shoot since her Daddy had worked the night before and needed some sleep.  I brought along my small point and shoot camera with me so that she could be my assistant and take pictures from behind the scenes.  She was also in charge of trying to make the girls giggle and smile.  Here are some of the pictures she took....my future photographer...

Self Portrait of My Future Photographer

(she loves taking pictures of herself - sometimes she comes out looking funny like this)

This is where Clara wasn't cooperating and was more interested in her feet

then looking at the camera - everyone was trying to make her look up

Catching Grampy off guard holding his grandson

Very creative with the angle :)

Meet The Shonk/Cooper Family....

Thankfully the weather held out for us on Sunday and everyone headed over to Thompson Park in Jamesburg for a Family Photo Session....

The Entire Shonk/Cooper Family

The Grandparents with all of their Grandkids

The Cooper Girls with Grammy and Grampy

Miss Clara wasn't cooperating in Grampy's arms - she was more interested in getting her feet then looking at the camera.

The Cooper Family

The Cooper Family

The Cooper Girls

The Shonk Family

Miss Anna was so adorable here laughing at her cousin

Hurricane Irene - Our Weekend Adventure (August 27th & 28th 2011)

Here are some pictures from Hurricane Irene.  We spent the weekend camped out at my in-laws house because we lost power around 12:30am Saturday night.  In between the rain I grabbed my daughter and the dog..packed them into the car and headed over to the in-laws 3 blocks away who still had power.

By 4:30am I was finally able to fall asleep and was woken every 15 min or so by the firetrucks pulling in and out of the firehouse (which is right across the street from the in-laws house).  Needless to say I didn't sleep much Saturday night.

In the morning after it stopped raining we ventured out of the house to see what the damage looked like around town.  At this point the flooding hadn't really started yet - the only way out of town was Rte 287.

This is what the Queens Bridge looked like around 11am on Sunday 8/28

This is the Queens Bridge about 2 hours later

The Queens Bridge around 4pm on Sunday 8/28

At this point the only way out of town was taking Elizabeth Ave to Amwell

and hoping that whichever way you needed to go wasn't flooded also

Do you think it was windy out?  This picture cracks me up.

The girls standing on Main St

The poor house on the right was completely surrounded by water :(

GIVEAWAY RESULTS.....

Thanks to everyone who participated in the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software Giveaway. 

The lucky winner of a copy of the software goes to Angela in Kendall Park, NJ (results were chosen from www.random.org).  Angela - send me an email at EmilieTomaroPhoto@yahoo.com and I will give you instructions for downloading the software.