Nayanna Arts

A while ago too apparently! I don,t seem to be getting my blog mails lately, gotta take note of that

The very talented Alana McClure has tagged me! Yep, I still play tag LOL

The rules are as follows:

RULES:

1. Link the person who tagged you

2. Mention the rules on your blog

3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours

4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them & leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they have been tagged.

Now what to list….

1. Well for my part, I’m FRENCH Canadien

2. I LOVE Chocolate, I can eat dried Cocoa (hides face in shame)

3. I HAVE to, HAVE to check the corners of my bedroom for spiders before I close the light, else I have to turn ‘em back on to check!

4. I love the smell of my youngest hair and can be seen smelling it often

5. I’m a BIG Sci-Fi fan, I don’t dress up or anything, but I don’t think that’s too weird (for others) either

6. I’ve never lived in any one place longer than 6 years, that’s my record so far.

Andrea Burns

Kim Prochazka

Sarah Petrie

Sindea Horste

Kimberly Smith

Cynthia Lynn

And how can I not post a couple of my precious girls, right?

We’ve been apple picking this year

World, meet Sienna, a wonderfully laid back little girl with personality She doesn’t have much choice being the little sister to a very active and confident big sister She was a great combination of awake and asleep and Mom and Dad we’re a pleasure as before (remember the Bitton Family?) It was a blast and I had WAY too much fun and too much to choose from :)I can’t wait for them to see their images tomorrow morning, for now, we’ll all have to make due with this sneak peek

Presenting a new addition, Mr. Edmond Trottier He was a character, let me tell you. Very “awake” for a 7 day old! I got there and he was sound asleep and after too much chatting and nursing, he woke up completely when we decided to start. Oh well, not all babies are meant for that asleep look. I DID get a few, but you’ll have to wait Here’s a little sneak peek:

I had the IMMENSE pleasure to go photograph the international fireworks competition last night, starts at 10pm and lasts all of a half hour, but WOW, what a half hour! This morning though, my undereye bags have bags of their own But it was SO worth it! I met up (through meet-up groups lol) with Montreal’s Shutterbug Group and met 4-5 other members and had a blast. They we’re each so fun to chat with and I got some new tips and pointers to jazz up my shooting and I hope they each came away with something too I would have loved to photograph the people around me, but we we’re too far for the fireworks to illuminate the people enough, well, for my current lenses anyway, they kept hunting for focus… oh well, still got a lot of amazing shots and would you believe they we’re all handheld?! Well, I won’t post the badly shaky ones… well, maybe one! lol

Old Port Fountain

Camera shake that WORKS ;)

Love the colors

The show you can see when you are ON site

Green burst reflection

Twin hearts

This is what Id call my clearest image of the night :D

The moon and its reflection on the Saint-Laurence

The Old Port Clock Tower we were shooting from

The line up to get out of the parking lot we walked through, CRAZY!

Thus why I took the Metro to and from ;)

I had the great opportunity to photograph this wonderful family, I felt so much at home at some point I told little Laurie I was going outside, but said “mommy’s going outside”!! She reminds me SO much of my own little toddler! They we’re adorable and that little princess of theirs was just so precious I wanted to keep her But don’t take MY word for it…

The first two we’re taken on the 23rd. We had a picnic at the
park… funny story… sort of, Gabrielle woke up so late from her nap (3
hour nap! holy tired chica, no?) so I was a bit confused as to the time, and
I THOUGHT it was 4pm (as I glanced on our stylish un-numbered wall clock)
and said, SURE, let’s go o the park. As they we’re getting their shoes and
hats on I happen to glimpse the micro-waves time and see 4:50pm… uh, oops!
As I was starting to tell them both we wouldn,t be going to the park, I saw
Evelyne’s face just fall… she’s been sick lately and we haven’t been out
to take advantage of the nice weather as much as she would like So,
trying to think quickly, I announced we would be having a picnic They
we’re both ecstatic (Evy rilling up Gaby of course, who probably had no idea
what was going on aside from knowing we we’re headed to the park! lol)

The next two need a bit more back story We had a garage sale this past
weekend. Aside from selling all the big things and a few smaller items, we
we’re left with mostly all of the baby clothes we had there. SO, Yannick put
them all in these oversized green garbage bags so we can dump them at the
“clothing bin” up the street for needful families. Ahem, Evy had OTHER
ideas… So they have been both DRAGGING the 4 bags all over the house, at
some point using them as bean bags! LOL I find that the first photo looks
like a bunched of whales got beached onto our dinning room/Play room floor!
They we’re both sliding from them at one point, I do have the video, I’ll
add it in a few.

Finally, we also had a visitor come to play as we we’re havign supper. Evy
exclaimed there was a cat in the tree and, although it IS possible, in three
years, I,ve never seen a cat be that enthusiast about the squirrels and
birds to go up and CLIMB any trees around here. Lo and behold, it wasn’t a
cat at all! I got closer and tried getting some shots of him with the P&S.
Which explain the sucky pics! lol Heck, the flash even went off adding
nothing to it’s quality There was literally no time to go downstairs get
my other camera as our friend would have left. He wasn’t very shy either. At
one point, I decided he didn’t look fearful enough and went back to the
patio. He then went on his way…

That as all the excitement we had for Saint-Jean Baptiste day. No fireworks
for us Actually, no beer either, someone drank the last two to “be sleepy
early” sunday night… A 3am flight out of the city WAS a good excuse
though! lol

Yep, we did it, we tired her out! One minute she’s eating her carrots
straight from table to mouth (look ma! no hands!!) and the other she’s sound
asleep! Funny girl! That’s what you get for going to bed late and still
being up with the birds

Just a little blurb to say how truly thankful I am for the men in my life.

Happy father’s day Dude! You are so thoughtful and gentle, I love how you look out for me when I’m not looking where I step, how you want to spend all this time with my girls and not miss out on their little firsts Yes, you can give them something wickedly sweet for Halloween’s this year I know they will adore you to no end and will always cherish those moments that you take to show them how to feed the hens or how to get their hands dirty to do something themselves

Happy father’s day Ronald! I’m so grateful to have a fantastic father-in-law who loves to photograph his grandchildren as much and keep all those little moments alive with them. I love that you are so open to art, music, gardening and always willing to come pitch in to help us get stuff done around our house. Your help is always very appreciated

And last but not least, Happy WONDERFUL Father’s day to my darling husband, who truly is a super-dad. For as much as you are far from us for work, you are doubly here to help and care for us the women in your life. We miss you so very much when you are away because we love you so very much. You are always so caring and willing to do more than your share if only to lighten the burden of my days and get in some extra brownie points Your daughters love you and they really do respect you, especially when they are testing your limits; they do so BECAUSE they love you and BECAUSE they respect you so. Their eyes light up at the mention of your return from work at the end of the day, they can hardly stand themselves when I say you are 5 minutes away from home We love you so much you could never truly know… Happy Fathers day.

It’s that time of year, end of the school year… lots of graduations, parties, etc…

As it is, Evelyne was in preschool for the first time this year (actually, she still has three days left, Monday, Wednesday and some sort of theater party Thursday). She’s graduating, but at the same time not… see, I started her in preschool this year because I KNOW she needed the outside interaction. She needed to see other kids and although there are a lot of home based daycares around here, I knew that with a new little one, we’d not get out much,e specially during the winter months. SO, last year we enrolled her in preschool (it’s just a couple blocks away from home) and she’s about to finish her first year. Now that said, she’s also born in October and the way the schools are set up around here, the age cut-off falls at the end of September… meaning, she’ll start school when she’s 5… and will turn 6 the following month. Some parents would want to have a derogation (right word) done and get their kids in a year early, but not me. I think being the eldest/tallest will actually boost her self confidence, not that’s it’s “low” now, but she’s a very shy and introvert little girl when she’s not home. When she IS home, it’s a whole other story. She’s quite the extrovert let me tell you… Long story short, although she’s “graduating”, she’s not. She’ll stay with her favorite teacher another year and most of her little friends will iekly move on to the older class. That said, quite a few others are younger even than she, so she won’t be the only one taking Miss Nathalie’s class again next year. So I’m not entirely worried

On another front, both girls had swim lessons with the red cross this spring and although Gabrielle did fantastically, she’s still a baby and the first class they offer, although Gaby was old enough to take it, she’s not quite ready to move on to the other level Evelyne on the other hand is VERY much afraid of water. It’s THE reason we got her in to take this swim lessons. She’s got panic type fears with a few different things, notably, bugs, high spaces and water. A few other things might be added to that short list, but we’re working hard on getting her to NOT panic… SO, she obviously didn,t graduate her Salamander class this time around, one of the pre-requisite is that they learn to paddle 5 seconds on their own… the girl will not let go of whomever is holding her a second. She can probably physically do it, but she’s too panic stricken for it to count, KWIM? In any case, this summer we plan to go swimming at the closest community pool and she’s looking forward to me teaching her to swim Gotta give kudos to a library book we rented for that one

Finally, my little brother (who am I kidding, he’s at LEAST 6 inches taller than I am! HA!) graduated College as well this month. I had the privilege of attending his graduation last week and I must say, I was SO proud Here are a couple of the pics, the rest can be found here on facebook

So you get an idea, I’m a tad shorter than my dad, but taller than my mom Doesn’t my bro look like a fun guy? I sure think so

Congrats bro!

It was a joy to photograph this beautiful family yesterday morning, if only the weather had cooperated a bit more, it had my mind racing all weekend! Hopefully it didn’t make me come across too green, although I still am I guess. They we’re great sports and we’re quite willing to just be themselves while I made due with the variable lighting the very somber dark skies we had that day.

Just a sneak peek for them and you all, sort of anonymous really

Sweet Naya & belly baby!

Edit: Can’t help myself, a couple more Enjoy!