Signs of Spring!

We've had such beautiful sunshine this past week that all the flowering bulbs are starting to come up and I saw it ... the first blossoms on the trees!  I couldn't wait to go out and capture a few pictures! 

Hopefully Spring is on it's way!

Blogger Etiquette

Wow, I stumbled across this fun site called Sneaky Momma Blog Design and it was very enlightening!  I encourage you to check it out, but be warned, it may keep you there for awhile, there is so much interesting information. 


I learned that I am still very naive when it comes to blogging and have a lot to learn when it comes to making my blog more user friendly.  The post I want to share here is about Blog Etiquette which is written by "Momma Blog's" friend Jenners.  It is written in a very light-hearted and funny way but has great blogging advice.  Apparently I am doing quite a few of these things with my blog that can be a turn off to viewers ... sorry, like I said, I'm naive!  A few of them, I'm still working on to change, like how long it takes for my blog to load, and a header picture that's too large, which I don't know yet how to fix.  Hopefully soon I will learn how to make a cute header with a collage of pictures, and have a more neutral background, which should help.  (My good friend, Heidi has very nicely offered to show me how, but that would require me to get my rear in gear to de-clutter my computer room so she can show me how on my own computer!)  I definitely have my work cut out for me. 


Anyways, on to sharing the post... it is very funny, take from it what you will.  I found it interesting.

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It took me forever to figure out how to make my blog user friendly. It's something I'm still working on. For example, I've found that I can attract more readers by eliminating slow-loading widgets on my blog. I've also found that I can add things (links to other bloggers, for example) that make my blog a fun place to be.



The following post was written by a great blogging friend of mine named Jenners. It is chock full of light-hearted blogger etiquette advice. It is hands down the best post I've ever read dealing with this sensitive subject. As you read, you will probably see something that you can do differently to increase your readership. You may even cringe a little as you discover that some of the things that you have on your blog may be undesirable to others. I know I did. :)


Take from it what you will. Of course, there's no right or wrong thing to do when it comes to your OWN blog. Every blog is unique, which is what makes the blogging world such a great place to hang out. I wish I would have had access to the information in the following story when I started blogging, which is why I wanted to share it with you. Perhaps I would have done some things a little bit differently. :)


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Goldilocks and the Three Bloggers

by Jenners

Once upon a time, a lovely young girl named Goldilocks was playing happily on the Internet while her little baby slept peacefully nearby. (Yes, she had a baby. She had struggled to put the baby to bed last night but now the wee babe was sleeping peacefully. This is a literary device called foreshadowing. The sleeping babe will come into play soon.) She was frolicking around on the nice safe haven that is Facebook -- completing quizzes, sending Easter Peeps to her peeps and struggling to understand what to put in the new empty box. After all, the prompt "Goldilocks Is..." had recently disappeared -- leaving her unsure of what to write. (Goldilocks wasn't a very bright or creative girl; she needed that prompt.)



As she was playing around, she accidentally clicked on a link that led her to a strange world -- the Land of Blog. "We're not in Facebook anymore," Goldilocks thought to herself (confusingly mixing up her story references). "All these pages look so different." But Goldilocks was intrigued...she wanted to see more.



She clicked on a little sign that said "Next Blog." Suddenly, a loud noise assaulted her ears. It was music playing loudly. Goldilocks didn't know where the music was coming from -- and the loud music woke up the wee babe. "Waaahhh....waaaahhhh," cried the babe. "What the flippin' [heck]?" thought Goldilocks, panicking. "What is happening?" She frantically clicked on "Next Blog" and the music blissfully stopped. "Oh my," thought Goldilocks. "I sure don't like that. The music scared the [heck] out of me and woke up my sleeping baby. I sure don't want to visit that blog again!"



The new blog she had clicked to was much more peaceful...but it was taking an awfully long time to load. Goldilocks kept waiting...and waiting...and waiting...and then she lost interest and clicked "Next Blog."



The third blog was just right. No music was playing and the page loaded in under 5 seconds. "Wow," thought Goldilocks, "this blogger must have checked their blog loading speed at Pingdom and used some handy blog optimization tips found at MintBlogger. It loaded in just 3.9 seconds!"



Goldilocks decided to check out this fast-loading blog that didn't have music playing. She looked at the first post. But it was really hard to read. "This teeny tiny black type on a dark red background is really hard to read!," she thought. "I'm getting a headache." She clicked "Next Blog."



The next blog had posts that were in an easy-to-read font size and had dark text on a light background (the easiest on the eyes). But the post was long and and centered and hardly any paragraph breaks. Goldilocks soon lost patience. "Long blocks of centered type with little or no white space sure is hard to read," she thought. "I just don't think I can read anymore of this!" She clicked "Next Blog."



The third blog was just right. The font size was readable, the dark text on a light background was readable, the text was left justified (just like in books!), and there were lots of paragraph breaks to give her eyes a rest. "This is wonderful," thought Goldilocks. "Even though this post is long, the blogger obviously tried to make reading it as easy as possible by making some smart choices about type size, font, white space, text justification and page background! Plus the writing is so darn funny that I want to read the whole post!"



Goldilocks read to the end of the post and saw there was a place where she could leave a comment. "Oh," thought Goldilocks (whose nickname was Goldie, which is much shorter and easier to type ... so let's just call her Goldie from now on) "I want to tell this blogger how much I loved this post. I think I will leave a comment." She clicked on the comment link and a box popped up. Goldie happily typed her witty and erudite comment and hit the submit button. A strange word appeared. "Nichscieslgheelsdl?" thought Goldie. "What the heck does that mean? And why are the letters so twirly and hard to read? Apparently I have to type this strange word before I can submit my comment. Screw it. I'm moving on." So she clicked on "Next Blog."



The next blog also had a great post so Goldie decided to leave another comment. She was excited to see what her comment would look like when published. After all, this is part of the fun of leaving comments. But even though she didn't have to enter a pesky, nonsensical twisted up word, her comment didn't appear. "What the heck?" thought Goldie. "Where is it?" She finally noticed that the comment had to be approved by the blog owner. "Oh," thought Goldie, disappointed. She clicked on "Next Blog."



The next blog also had a great post that Goldie wanted to comment on. Hesitantly, she clicked on the comment button. Would she have to jump through hoops to let this blogger know what she thought? Would she get to see her comment appear on the post? She held her breath and clicked "Submit." No crazy words appeared and the comment appeared instantly on the post with all the other comments! This blog was just right.



"Awesome," thought Goldie. "This made it easy for me to leave a comment and have a bit of fun on this blog. I wonder if those other bloggers know that the crazy word verification thing is just to prevent spam from appearing on a blog and isn't really necessary. In fact, many blogs don't use it and they don't get spam!!! Plus, you could always turn it back on if you did develop a spam problem. And I wonder if the blogger with the comment moderation uses it so they don't miss any comments? Don't they know that they can have all their comments sent directly to their e-mail so they won't miss a single comment (even if someone leaves a comment on a very old post)? Plus, this way they can easily reply to their visitors via e-mail if needed. All they need to do is go to this easy tutorial or this one to find out how to set it up!"



Goldie sure was enjoying her visit in the Land of Blog. She decided to stay awhile and quickly amassed a huge blogroll that she tried to visit every day. The first blogger she liked had great stuff but seemed to post about five times a day. "I just can't keep up with all these posts," thought Goldie. "Although the blogger may want me to read all of the posts, I just can't do it. It is too much."



The second blogger that Goldie liked had some wonderful posts but then didn't post again for two weeks. Goldie had forgotten about the blog by the time the next post came around.



The third blogger posted once a day for 3 or 4 days during the week. "This is just right," thought Goldie. "The posts come often enough that I can form a relationship with this blogger but not so often that I can't easily keep up with the posts."



Eventually, Goldilocks created her own blog -- a blog that didn't play music, loaded in under 5 seconds, used a readable type size, used dark text on a light background, left-justified the type, had paragraph breaks on longer posts, did not use word verification or comment moderation, and had posts just 3 to 4 times a week. She was also sure to be a good hostess and visit the blogs of any new visitors and she tried to respond to comments via e-mail if possible. She also tried to visit the blogs of regular readers as much as she was able to let them know how much she appreciated their visits. All in all, Goldilocks had fun blogging and she lived happily ever after in the Land of Blog. The End

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That's classic, I loved it! 
 
(On another note, Sneaky Momma has another post about the importance of re-sizing your pictures, and adding a watermark to protect your images which totally freaked me out!  I just need to figure out how to do it - I know my pictures are way too big when I upload them through blogger.  If any of you have more hints on this, do share, and check out her post on this here!)
 

Heart Attack!

I'm loving this idea from Shawni, so we had to do it too last night for FHE! 

 

If you haven't seen her blog yet, check it out! I have always loved hearing Richard and Linda Eyre speak at Education week and own numerous of their books!  So this is their daughter, and everytime I read her blog, I feel so inspired and grateful to be a mom.  She is very beautiful and talented and has a gift for finding and capturing (through gorgeous pictures) the joy in every day!  You'll have to check it out!

I'll post pics soon, of our newly attacked kitchen!!
(I guess that means I'll have to clean it first :)

Lots of craft makin around here this week!

Maddie could play with glitter glue, paint and sparkles all day!!

Basketball Weekends

Tyler's weekends are filled with this:

(Excuse the blurry pictures and bad lighting, but I love capturing the expressions that show his determination this year!)

I was so happy to be able to get this shot with him right in the action.

This relatively shy and passive boy is really gettin into the game!

 

He scored his first shot this season!

 

 

A shot after the game! 

It was a close game but they won by 4 points!

 

Way to go Tyler!

 

Battle wounds from getting jabbed in the cheek during practice last week!

He was asked all week, "who gave you the shiner?" and he said, "my dad!" (ha, ha)

(What does that mean anyway?  I'm realizing I must be getting old as a mom to not know all the current slang!)

Wishful Thinking Photography

This week my good friend, Heidi at Wishful Thinking Photography launched her official business!  No more "wishful thinking" for her.  To start off, she is having a grand opening giveaway with a free 45 minute session, or a free 8 x 10 print!  She did such a fabulous job with Maddie and Tyler that I thought I'd give her a shout out on my blog.  Go over to her site to check out the giveaway.  Most of my friends here in the WA area know about it, but for those in my family that are in UT, you may even be able to get her whenever she's in town visiting her family.  If you do go to her site, leave her a comment to be entered in the giveaway.  I also get entered for it, and if I win, I will give this photo shoot to one of you, so go check it out! 

I know I've posted some of these already, but here are some of my favorites again from her photoshoot with Tyler and with Maddie:

Love that look she's giving him!

This is my favorite!

Telling her that she better behave so we can get some good pics, :)!

Love the candid shots.

Thanks again Heidi! I love all of them and know that things will go well for you in your new endeavor!

Happy Groundhogs Day!

I think he saw his shadow, what do you think?

(Okay, I know it's a few days late, but they were taken on groundhogs day :)

She was so excited to try out her groundhog when she got home from school.

This is a combination she picked out all by herself and wanted me to take a picture.  I wish I could pull something off like this!

Have a great weekend!

Breakfast in Bed

I woke up this morning with a terrible headache, extremely exhausted, and feeling really BLAH, when the kids came in and surprised me with this!!  It was so cute, with the breakfast tray, that I didn't even remember we still owned (thought I had given it to Goodwill), and the added touches of flowers and a cute folded napkin (compliments of Maddie).  Wow!!

You know sometimes when you've just had a week, or in this case, a weekend, and just want to take a break somewhere and sleep for a very long time, just because, with no one around?  I know that sounds selfish, but we all need it at times!  Well how could I feel that way when my kids do this (while dad was at meetings at church)? 

All on their own - brown banana and all!

It was so sweet and reminded me that even though there may be hard days, or the kids might drive us "cah-razy" at times, they can do the sweetest things and really warm your heart! 

I'm so grateful for them and the things they teach me as a mother.