i'm baa-aaack!

When I started this blog, I was so great about updating regularly.  It was such a high priority in my life.  I was proud to show off our little family to our friends and family who don't get to see us daily.  After Halle was born, I tried my hardest to keep it up, but time just got away from me!  

I know, especially with 2 kids, that life isn't going to slow down any time soon!  In the midst of chasing our two girlies, Scott and I have decided to buy a new house!  The thought of packing up everything we own and moving it just a mere 1.9 miles make me cringe, but we are busting at the seams.  We've found the perfect house for us and are thrilled about this new adventure.  Of course our move will be very bittersweet!  More on moving and the new house to come!!

I am writing this post with the sincere intent of getting this blog back on my priority list!  We have had some really great times since I've been gone!  I'm going to hit the highlights to get caught up.

Here's a picture of the girls in their wagon one night last week.  We've sure been loving the weather!!

It feels good to be back!

i'm just in a funk

Do you ever get that way?  I'm just so uninspired right now!  I think it's because we're so crazy busy that when I do have time to finally sit down at the end of the night, I can't make myself do anything.  Literally.  Would you believe I haven't even touched my camera in TWO WEEKS??  Seriously...I'm in such a funk.  I did recently get an iPhone so I've been taking pics on my phone.  Just call me lazy. I'm slowly starting to come out of it though and I've even had thoughts this week like "I should really blog about this"...so maybe slowly but surely I'm coming back around.  Christmas just totally wears me out each year and I think it's just taken me longer this year to recoup.

I absolutely HATE having a big task hanging over me so I know I've got to get my booty in gear to catch up around here! I have lots of Christmas to blog about and then a few January things as well.

Please don't give up on me...

new digs

Well as you can see, I've given home sweet home a little makeover.  I'm not super HTML savvy so it's not much, but it's what I could figure out.

I've added different pages at the top now directly under the banner:

 about us, calendars, birthday invitations, family portraits, calendar girl, christmas cards, pumpkin patch pictures, for the love of labels and contact us.

I've also separated my blog roll into "daily reads" and "for inspiration".

I've also added a recipe list on the sidebar with links to all of the recipes on this blog in alphabetical order...it's called "whats been cookin'"

There are still a few more things I'd like to do but I'm going to have to figure out how to do them.  

So for now...

why is nothing easy??

Okay, so I've decided to make the switch to Typepad, but I'm having major difficulties getting Blogger to export all of my files.  I am seriously beyond frustrated right now and I just don't have the time to deal with it!  AHHHH!  I would pay someone good money to just do all of this silly stuff for me...I just want to be able to blog again!  Is that too much to ask for?  Please say a little prayer for me so I don't pull out the hair that's left in my head (post-baby)!

Hopefully I'll have good news soon...

new host?

Okay I've about had it with Blogger!  I have had more trouble uploading pictures in the past 2 months than I've ever had.  I am weeks behind on blogging just because I don't have the time to sit down and mess with trying to figure out the problem!  Every time I try to upload pictures, EVERY picture is horizontal.  I've talked to several people who have the same problem.  One friend said to try uploading to Picassa and then to Blogger, but that is an extra step that I just don't have time to take. Another friend recommended renaming the files and then uploading, but again, I simply don't have time for that.  What happened to the good ol' days when I could just upload multiple pictures at a time and they all showed up they way they were supposed to??

SO, I'm asking you guys...have you found any tricks that work?  I really am tempted to change hosts...does anyone have a recommendation?  Typepad?  Wordpress?

I am so frustrated and sad that I'm so far behind on blogging!  I have TONS of pictures ready to post, but I can't get them on here to save my life.

PLEASE HELP!!

still here!

Wow!  Has it really been a month since my last post?  What a month it's been...First my camera broke and then my computer! They are both under warranty with Best Buy so they had to be shipped off to be repaired. Trust me when I say that every single person on the Geek Squad knows me by name, face and Service Order Number. I have raised all kinds of hell at the store.  I finally left the store today with my comptuer in hand!!!!!!  BUT my camera is still being "assessed by an agent"...whatever that means.

To say that I've been lost without my computer and camera is a huge understatement!  We've had lots happening around here and I've really needed my camera. Liz has been such a dear friend and let me borrow hers for some of our milestone moments.  I've also had my mom's point and shoot and just last week I borrowed my mother-in-law's DSLR. 

Slowly I will get caught up blogging, but life isn't going to slow down any time soon for me to catch up, unfortunately.  On Thursday, Addison is getting her tonsils and adenoids removed and another set of ear tubes put in. Because of her asthma, they will keep her overnight in the hospital.  That should be fun!  The doctor says day 5 will be her worst. Great.  Anyone have any great tips for tonsils being removed from an almost three year old?

To top it all off, I go back to work next week.  Great timing, huh?  It will all work out, but in the meantime I'm sure I'll be a tad stressed.

Hang in there and please keep checking back for updates...hopefully we'll be back on track soon!  Thanks for the comments and emails of concern.  Not having a computer or camera really cut off my lifelines to the outside world. Thank goodness for iPads so I could atleast look at facebook and pinterest!

Hope to be blogging soon!

manual

So many of you have inquired about my camera lately...it's funny how that question comes in waves!  I posted about it HERE last May. I have a Canon Rebel XSi and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!

After Christmas, I decided that I really should learn how to shoot in Manual {aka M} instead of just in Automatic {aka the little green box}.  Through several photographers and classes, I am proud to say that I shoot in manual about 98% of the time now!! Honestly, I never thought I'd get here!  It was a slow process, to say the least, but I made it!  I had two main problems:  fear and time.

FEAR:  I was so afraid that I was going to "miss the moment" becaues I didn't have my camera on the right setting.  I just wanted to play it safe and keep it on Auto so I would be sure to get an okay picture of the moment...even though I really wanted a "money shot"!

TIME:  I didn't think I had the time to learn something new. 

So what did I do?  Well I got over my fear and I made photography a priority!  Sometimes you just have to tell yourself to get over it...and that's what I did!  I also comitted to blogging more, so I would make myself take more pictures.  Since there aren't big moments or events that happen everyday, it forced me to photograph small things throughout our daily life, whether it was what we had for dinner or the 100th time Addi wanted to blow bubbles...just our daily happenings.  I also made an effort to ask for help!  I talked to a photographer friend {who was SO helpful!!}, I enrolled in a few classes and I did research on a ton of blogs!  Between all three of those resources, I have learned so, so much!  No one explained it perfectly, but as I heard things repeated to me over and over and in different ways, I finally had my lightbulb moment!  It just clicked!  I am by no means an expert on this topic.  I think just like so many things, you can always learn something new and perfect your skills.  My husband practices and plays golf ALL THE TIME and now I practice and take pictures ALL THE TIME. 

My advice to you is if you are really interested in improving your images, then make it a priority!  The most important thing is to have fun with it!!! If you're not enjoying it, then what's the point?  Practice, practice, practice and then practice some more!  You'll be surprised how by just playing around with settings, you will learn so much!  I hope this helps inspire some of you to take the risk and swich over to the big M from the little green box!

blogger??

Is anyone else having trouble with Blogger??  I can't see any of my posts on the "edit post" page!  I have a few saved as drafts that I need to finish and the screen is blank!  Am I the only one??

how to make a custom blog header

So many of you have emailed and asked me how to make a custom blog header.  I've tried to respond as best I can, but without pictures sometimes it's hard.  I decided to just do a step-by-step guide here and hopefully it will answer many of your questions!  I'm sure there are several ways to do this and this may be the most complicated way, but it's all I know, so  here we go...

1. I use PowerPoint to create my headers.  I'm sure you can use other programs too, such as Photoshop, Microsoft Word, etc., but I think PowerPoint is pretty user-friendly so that's what I use.

Start a new project and go to the "Insert" menu then click on "Pictures".  Select the pictures that you want to use and then arrange them the way you want them to appear.  You will probalby have to resize them.  You can also do fancy stuff like change the borders, tilt, crop and so on.

2.  Next go back to "Insert" and choose "Text Box".  Draw your text box with your cursor and start typing.  You can use any font you want because you're going to make this into a JPEG so the computer doesn't have to recognize the font. The design below is actually 3 text boxes: 1.) home sweet home; 2.) there's just no place i'd rather be; 3.) the dots.  I made the dots by inserting them as a symbol.  You can do multiple boxes to create layers.

3.  Next select all of your pictures and text boxes by pressing Control A.  Go to the "Format" menu and then you'll see a sub-menu that says "Group".  Click it and on the pulldown menu select "Group".  This takes all of the picures and text boxes and locks them together.  If you mess up or want to change something, just go back to the "Group" menu and select "Ungroup".  Once you have everything grouped together, click on it to select the large grouping box and then press Control C (or right click and select "Copy").

4. Go to your start menu and under All Programs and Accessories, choose the program called Paint.  When that program opens there will be a blank white box.  Press Control V (or right click and select Paste).  Your new header should appear.  Now go to File and Save As.  Name the file and under the Save As Type, be sure to select JPEG.

5.  Now go to your blog and under Layout click on the "Edit" tab in the Header box.  Go to Image and select the new header that you have saved as a JPEG.  Be sure to select "Instead of title and description" and then click save.  You can preview before you save the layout.

6. YOU DID IT!!!!  It's that easy!!  I want to see your handy work so leave me a comment with a link to your blog or email me the link to your blog.  Can't wait to see what you create!!!  Comment or email me thehofmannfam@gmail.com if you have questions!

blog banner archives

One reason why I don't like changing my banner at the top of the blog is becaues I feel like they are lost forever!  I decided to make this post and everytime I make a new banner, I will post it here too.  That way, they will always be here.  I've come a long way, huh?

Spring 2009:

Summer & Fall 2009:

Christmas 2009:

Winter 2010:

 

Early Spring 2010:

Late Spring 2010:

Early Summer 2010:

August 2010:

blogger friends are the best!

Honestly, I cannot believe how many of you sweet blogger friends have commented and emailed me to see if we are okay!  I'm sure many of you have heard about the MASSIVE storms we had in the Oklahoma City and Norman area on Monday!  It's been all over the national news even!  We are fine and our house is still standing without a scratch or missing shingle!  The tornado that touched down in Norman was to the south and to the east of us.  I know many people were not as lucky as we were and my heart goes out to them!  The destruction is unimaginable! 

My friend Gina took this picture on ther way home!  Needless to say, she pulled over and did not continue down the road!!  Their house was fine, but they are still without power.

Thank you again for all of your concern! You guys are the BEST!!!!

and the winner is...

You guys are the best!! I had so much fun yesterday reading all of your sweet comments.  And I learned a lot of fun things about you in the process!  I'm  so glad that I said I would randomly choose the winner, because there is no way I could actually pick a favorite!! Each one of the entries meant so much to me...thank you for taking the time to comment!! 

This morning when I woke Addi up, I told her that I had a game for her to play.  I don't even think she knows what a "game" is, but she was really excited nonetheless.

All of the names in the bowl...

The lovely Addison Hofmann (aka Vana White!)  sporting her Earth Day t-shirt. 

"Addi, please pick the winner!"

"Drumb roll please......"

AJA!!!!!

And here's the big reveal!

I found this sign and knew it was meant to be! 

 I hope Aja can find just the perfect spot at her house for this new addition. 

It's sure to make her house feel like home sweet home!

And one last picture of Addi playing with the names. 

She thought that was a really fun game this morning!

Hope you all have a great day and thanks for helping us celebrate our anniversary yesterday!!

so what's the BIG deal?

I posted last week that today was a BIG day!  Many of you guessed and all of you guessed WRONG...

I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!!  

All of you made me laugh who sent me texts, messaged me on facebook and just picked up the phone and called me.  I love all of you dearly!

Today is a big day because 1 year ago today, home sweet home was established!  That's right, I've been bloggin' for a year now!  It was a slow start but I eventually got the hang of it.  Some of you have been reading since day one and others have found us along the way.  Whatever the case may be, I'd like to say thanks!  Thanks so much for caring about our family and for keeping up with our happenings!  Thanks so much for your sweet comments and for coming back each day to read more!

I'm doing my first ever giveaway today in honor of our Anniversary!  I know that I have a lot of readers who have never left a comment before, but today you are going to want to change that.  I can call a lot of you out by name even...Mom, Sherra, Eloise, Aja, Emily, Suzanne, Maegan, Christa and I could keep on going but won't.  You don't have to have a Google account to leave a comment.  You can leave the comment as an anonymous user, but be sure to tell me your name.

I'll close the comments tonight when I go to be (around 11pm) and randomly choose a winner tomorrow.  It isn't a huge giveaway, but it's just a little token to remind you of us.  Want another sneak peek?

Here's how to enter...leave a comment and tell me something about you that I don't already know, like...

• 
  
  How did you find home sweet home? ...OR...
• 
  
  What is it in your life that makes you feel home sweet home?

 Again, thanks for reading and I can't wait to read your comments!

BIG

Next Wednesday is a BIG day for us!! 

Stay tuned for details...

I might have a giveaway planned...

want a sneak peek?

pardon my mess

Please pardon my mess while I'm working on the blog.  I decided to give home sweet home a makeover last night.  I still have to play around with some of the settings so let's just say it's a work in progress.  So, what do you think?  Do you like this clean, simplified look better than the other one?  Scott is on the fence but is leaning toward liking the old, more colorful design better.  I'm currious to know what you think!

The pictures for my new header are from Addi's 1 year photos with Shannon Ho.  I know they are a little out dated, but they were just too beautiful not to use for a while.  Shannon graciously gave me permission to post them on my blog...thank you Shannon!  You'll remember from this post last November that Addi's eye was swollen in our retakes and she battled a nasty double ear infection in our first session.  Despite all of this, I'm still so in love with these images!  Shannon did such an amazing job!  Here are a few more:

safety first

****UPDATE****

I have had several comments and questions on how I did this. If you will leave your email address as a comment, I will email you the HTML script and step-by-step instructions. I will not publish your comment so your email address will not be made public.

****ORIGINAL POST****


In an effort to protect this sweet girl


I have now blocked anyone from printing pictures from the blog.
So sorry MiMi, LuLu and G-Ma Eloise! I just can't be too careful when it comes to protecting my precious Addi-girl!
If any readers would like me to email you any pictures, just leave your email address in the comment section. I won't publish your comment, so your email address will not be posted. Or, feel free to email me personally and I will send it your way!
Thanks for understanding! Also, thank you to my friend Candice for sharing with me out to make this happen!

please let us know you were here!

I've added a new Guestbook to the sidebar below (look for the cute owl). Scott and I really enjoy getting comments on the different posts and love seeing who all has visited our site. Please leave us a note...we'd love to hear from you! I've also changed some of the settings so anyone can leave a comment on posts now too. Let us know what you think!

i know, i know...

I have been the worst blogger ever!!! I do believe that August 2009 was the busiest month in my life to date! I've been vague in my blogs but basically I've hit the highlights. It really made me feel bad tonight when Scott asked if I was ever going to blog again - he said he missed reading my posts on his lunch hour. I thought that was funny because he knows everything that I blog about, but he said he really likes reading it and seeing the pictures. Babe...I'm back!

winner, winner, chicken dinner

I'm not sure where that saying came from, but I still use it! I don't know who lucky number 2000 was, but Scott and Melanie Moulton were 2006 and that's the closest I've heard so far. Congratulations you two...sorry I don't have a really awesome prize for you!

Who will it be???

Who will be the 2,000th person to view our blog??? Check the counter at the bottom and see how close you come. I'm not cool enough for a giveaway but I would like to know who hits lucky number 2,000!! Leave me comment if you get close:)