wedding pictures!

Our first anniversary is coming up in a couple weeks [June 26], and we got a call from our photographer last week to come in and pick up our CD of the negatives.  Like many other wedding photographers, he releases the copywright to us for our 1st anniversary, so we were excited to hear that we were able to get them a few weeks early.  We also figured we'd better go in and order some prints-- it has been a year, after all!  Good thing we can use being in Finland as the excuse for that one.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures captured by our photographer [Pierre] on our big day:

adoreable pic of J with our
nephew/ring bearer

what a handsome looking bunch!

still so in love with my dress!

they were so excited to get their flowers! ♥

another creative shot in the basement of the church

our adoreable nieces/flower girls

exiting the church into a sea-full of bubbles :)

meeting J at the altar ♥

getting some lovin' from my new hubby
while surrounded by all of our loved ones
doesn't get much better than this! ♥

my beautiful best friends/
bridesmaids

the 'jumping' pictures are one of Pierre's specialties

we finally got some air by take #4... :)

a beautiful day for pictures by the lake

the bike Pierre 'borrowed'
from the liquor store
random moments = lovely pictures

me and my fellow hockey-playing bridesmaids

can't beat this one ♥

J and his groomsmen

beer truck picture... another result of
Pierre's spontaneous creativity!

most delicious raspberry cake ever! ♥



our cute little centerpieces turned into this....



should have known this would happen with a
bunch of hockey players! haha



dancing with my sweet nieces/flower girls

personalized hockey puck favors
[J's ring & my engagement ring]

first dance ♥

 Looking back through all of our pictures has made me fall in love with them all over again.  Our photographer, Pierre, and his assistant Sarah, did an amazingly wonderful job that exceeded all of our expectations.  I'd highly recommend his work to anyone looking for a highly talented photographer... check out his website or facebook page no need to be in the area, I do believe he is willing to travel :)

what's going on

Thought I'd write a quick post to update on what's going on in the C & J household/world this week.

* J's last 2 games of the regular season are this week... Today & Thursday.  The team is currently in 6th place, and need to stay there to be guaranteed a playoff spot.  They play the top 2 teams in the league this week (including Mrs K's hubby tonight :) )  so it will be no easy task. 
Here's how it works: Should they end up anywhere from 7th-10th place, they will play a 3 game mini-series with one other team to determine which will move on to the playoffs with the Top 8 teams.  If they can (*fingers crossed*) stay in 6th (or higher!)  they will get a little break during this "qualifying round".

* Today is my last day "alone" for the regular season while J is away for the game.  Mixed feelings about that one! ;) 

* We're still brainstorming ideas and plans for our end-of-the-season trip.  It's just so hard to narrow anything down!  But I'm sure no matter what we decide, it will be wonderful. 

* I plan to start packing some of our stuff up and sorting out what needs to come home with us for the summer and what can stay here until next season.  It's crazy to think how soon the end of the season has come... but hopefully we still have several more weeks left! :)

* The weather in Helsinki is finally warming up a bit.  We're hanging right in the 30's F.  Not bad considering less than 2 weeks ago it was -20 F! 

* I'm working on plans for my future S.I.L's Bridal Shower in June.  Can't wait to make all of the creative ideas in my head a reality... I just looooove being a hostess! :)

* Also in the works are a couple new blog posts (of various topics) and hopefully a new blog design!  Be sure to come back and check them out :)

* Continuing expanding my photography skills!  It is quickly becoming a cherished hobby of mine.

* And last, but not least... keeping up with our shows!  The Bachelor, American Idol, NCIS: Los Angeles, Glee, Kourney & Kim, Teen Mom... etc.  Wow, am I a reality tv w*ore or what?  I guess I just throw them in along with all of the National Geographic, Viasat Explorer, Hockey & other sports programs J makes me watch, for good measure :)

Hope everyone is having a great start to their week!  Soon it will be SPRING!!

 

new camera... woo hoo!

We've been in need of a new camera around here for a while now.  The plan was to wait until we got home for the summer since everything is much cheaper there than it is in Finland.  But... we caved and got one here.  Between some frustrating camera experiences lately (the Winter Classic, Stockholm trip... among others) and the fact that not getting it until we got home meant that we wouldn't have a good camera to use for our EuroTrip, we decided that it was worth the little bit extra that we'd spend on it here.  Plus we know it will be a great investment for the future, with all of the traveling we will be doing and for when we have children :)

We had a fairly good idea of what we wanted (a Nikon) and have several friends who have various cameras in the Nikon SLR series... so we price shopped around a couple places and bought one the same day.  The same place that had it on sale also had it with the dual-lens set, which is almost always cheaper than buying the 2nd lens separate.  The biggest challenge was asking questions about it- most sales people do speak English, some better than others... but aren't always ready and willing to explain the whole camera and it's features to us (understandable... I don't exactly have my Finnish camera terms down either!)  But, we got really lucky, and the guy we asked to help us was from the UK.  SCORE!  We picked his brain for a while and ended up taking home the Nikon D3100.  The manual, on the other hand... is in Finnish.  Thank goodness for the PDF file on the website (what would we do without technology these days... seriously?!)

After taking many pointless pictures around the apartment, of the dog, the half dead flowers on the table.... I decided to take it to the game Thursday night to give 'er a try and test my skills.  I can't tell you how much fun I had taking all of the pictures and editing them on the computer.  Looks like I may have found another new hobby!! :)

Here are some of the pictures I took.  I'm pretty proud of how my first sets came out considering I barely knew how to turn the thing on 5 days ago! ;)




Helsinki Cathedral




Senate Square in Helsinki




A row of colorful apartments on a street in Helsinki




View of the sun setting over the Baltic Sea
along the Helsinki coastline




Our precious pooch, Maddie




The hubs at work




Who knew I was a sports photographer?




Lots of cool action shots




#2 in your program, #1 in my heart <3