Thursday, July 30, 2009

Wedding Party Craziness and Savi's Butterfly!


So, at Kelly's Korner this week, we are supposed to post up photos of our wedding party and flowers. Once again, since this is more themed for the girls, I'll post my wife's pics first. However, I did manage to scrounge up some of my photos of my groomsmen!

Brittany's maid of honor was her younger (and only) sister, Marissa. The rest of her bridesmaids were close friends she grew up with all the way through high school.


Brittany's flowers were Gerbera Daisies, her favorite!


All ready for Brittany's big day!

Marissa helping Brittany out. This is one of my favorite pics. Hmmm...I wonder why?


Almost there! On the way down! No turning back, baby!

My groomsmen giving me a hand. I have two younger brothers, Bryan and Chris. Bryan is 1 1/2 years younger than I am and Chris is 5 1/2 years younger. Bryan is helping me with my jacket.

The rest of my groomsmen were my cousins, except for one who was a friend. He originally was an usher, but my best friend got a job transfer last minute that prevented him from being at the wedding, so Travis was kind enough to fill in for him!

From left to right: Bryan (bro), cousin Joey, cousin Kyle, me, cousin Lee, Chris (bro), Travis


Waiting for my wife-to-be!

My groomsman actually timed the ceremony from the moment Brittany came up to when the pastor pronounced us man and wife. 7 minutes! I won't lie, both Brittany and I wanted a short ceremony. No fluff, just the sweet, intimate vows, joining us for eternity. It was perfect!

And as an added tidbit, since then, two of my groomsmen have since been married. My cousins Lee and Kyle, who are brothers, could not beat our 7 minute time! (Yes, we timed them as well.)


The whole party, including ushers, ring bearer, and flower girl!

Just to get a little Savi in here too, here she is playing with one of the many, many butterflies in the house. This one happens to have been real, but we have many, many others throughout our house. Brit loves her butterflies :)


And below we have Savi 'reading' Lady and the Tramp!


Hope everyone has a good day, and make sure to head over to Kelly's Korner for more wedding party and flower photos!

How to enter a space between pictures and text using HTML

Here's a quick tip on how to add additional line spaces between text and pictures using html code.

Lets say you have a photo that has text underneath, but no matter what you do, you cannot create a gap between the two by just pressing enter. Try using the <br/> tag.

Example:


Brittany











Now we want to add the <br/> html code to put a space between 'Brittany' and the image.

Here is the code:

Text -><span style="font-size:180%;"
><span style="font-weight: bold;">Brittany</span></span>
Image -><a
> Brittany's Image.jpg (shortened this code for cosmetic purposes)</a>

Adding the
<br/> tag:

Text -><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Brittany</span></span>
Insert
<br/> tag here -> <br/>
Image -><a> Brittany's Image.jpg (shortened this code for cosmetic purposes)</a>

So now it looks like:

<span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Brittany</span></span>
<br/>
<a> Brittany's Image.jpg (shortened this code for cosmetic purposes)</a>

Final Product:

Brittany












Easy fix with a long explanation ;)

Monday, July 27, 2009

Teething Monday!

Guess who just cut a new tooth! That's right! Savi cut her THIRD tooth today! Pretty big deal for us, because it's been months since she cut her first two teeth, the bottom fronts. One of the upper front teeth cut a couple days ago. Brit noticed it first, so we're very excited!
We are pointing to everything now!

Peek-a-boo!

I was called into work today, but due to lack of babysitter options, I had to tell them I couldn't make it. Such is the life when you stay at home with your little ones! We've had a pretty good morning, eating a breakfast of oatmeal and apples, then spaghetti for lunch, with a real banana as dessert.

We already took a 2-hour nap this morning, and it looks as if she's going to be down for another long one. Maybe it's the unrelenting rain and thunderstorms here. Going to be a very relaxing day today, I can feel it.

She found the kitty!

We can sit down from a standing position!

Before I close up this post, head over to http://mycharmingkids.net and say some prayers for Stellan. He is in an ongoing state of SVT, and it's a constant battle forced upon his tiny little body.

Today, MckMama posted that they called in all family and friends. I work in a Neonatal ICU, so when you call for all family to come to the hospital, that's never a good sign. Usually there's a fear that it's time for good-bye. I cannot even imagine what that feels like. If Savi went through anything like that, it would tear my heart apart.

So, head over and say a prayer for little Stellan. It looks like he's headed off to Boston. I'm assuming to the Children's hospital there, which happens to be Harvard Medical School's primary pediatric teaching hospital...so if that's the hospital, then it's cutting edge.

Happy Monday!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

A Visit to my Parent's Property

My parents just recently bought some acreage about 30 miles north of us. It's a beautiful piece of land with giant oaks and a very dense, but trail engraved wooded area. The air smells fresh with a hint of cedar, which also are scattered densely on the property. There is a spring-fed stock pond full of perch and catfish. It's beautiful.

Yesterday, Brittany and I went out with Savi because Brit had not seen the property yet. My parents were already out there working, clearing some trees and brush . We stayed for about an hour, but because it was a blistering heat, we couldn't stay as long as we would have liked.

Before we left, I was able to climb one of the oak trees, which we are guessing is anywhere from 60 to 70 years old. I also got to test out the new riding lawn mower, which is an absolute need since they will be mowing about 2.5 acres of grassy area.

You'll notice a lot of dirt because they have already had the land cleared for where their house will be. They also had a guy come and clear off a bunch of the land, getting rid of tons of brush and undergrowth, as well as several larger trees that are going to be in the way of building.

While Brittany, Savi, and I were outside exploring, my dad pointed us to some blackberry bushes they found, which I took the opportunity to eat! Fresh blackberries are so sweet! Doesn't get any better than that.

We also managed to find some miniature donkeys in the neighboring property. They were very friendly! One of them hee-hawed at me quite a bit, but it wasn't anything other than wanting attention. Savi was scared though, so while I brought her back, Brittany went up to them and was able to pet them!

Here are some pictures of Savi and Mommy waiting for daddy to get back in the car!

And here are my parents, the proud property owners. I'm sure they would both want me to state that they had already been out there working for several hours, and it was HOT@!


TODAY, I went out again to the property with my dad and brother to clear some more area out. It was my first time to actually go out there and work, not just visit. Using a chainsaw for the first time, I helped cut down trees and underbrush that was choking up areas that needed clearing.

It was a lot of work, but we managed to get most of what we wanted done. After about 5 hours of work, I cam back home sweaty, covered in dirt, and completely exhausted. That is where you find me now, about 20 minutes after my much needed shower, typing this post.

Looking forward to going out there to help out some more!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

How to Center Images and Text in Blogger

Here is a quick and easy way to center those pesky images and text in your blogger blog. It is a simple piece of html code. In your post or widget box, click the Edit Html tab that is just to the left of the compose tab. There, find your conent you wish to center and add the center html code before and after the iage or text. Make sure the last 'center' has a '/' before it.

<center>text or image here</center>

Using the center html code will then center the desired image or text in blogger.

Easy!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Wedding Dress and Dominoes

Today brings us a couple topics to write about. First, Kelly's Corner has everyone putting up their wedding dress pictures. Only one problem. I didn't wear a wedding dress, I wore a tux. So, I'll be putting up pictures of my wife's wedding dress. I know she is participating in this as well, so if you see both our sites with similar pictures...that's why!

What I loved about my wife's dress was how elegant and classy it was. Sheer and smooth from head to toe, I don't think she could have worn a prettier dress. Of course, I'll be honest...I wasn't looking at her dress too much during the ceremony. I was too awe struck looking into my wife's eyes realizing I was going to have her heart for the rest of my life. Only until the reception did I actually notice how stunning the dress was!

I like seeing her cute little toes in this one!

Caught!

And we're off!

That was the greatest day of my life. Our little Savi being born is pretty much side by side, though.

Today, Savi and I did alot of playing. Where as Tuesday we were walking and crawling a lot, today we were working on placing objects into containers, catching and rolling balls, and saying different words.

Here's our little one's vocabulary thus far:
  • Da-da or Da-dee - Daddy/Dada
  • Ma-Ma or Ba-ba - Mama
  • Duh - Duck
  • Yeeeee! - Yay!
  • Uh-ah - Uh oh
  • Heeeee! - Hi
There might be more but we just haven't discovered them yet :D

After a great day with my baby girl, sis-in-law watched Savi for us while we went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I saw it on a pre-screening, but I wanted to see it again with Brit. At the end, I asked her if that wasn't just the best move ever! She replied, 'It was good, but Devil Wears Prada was better'. Go figure.

Hope everyone is having a good week. Feel free to check out my most recent posts:

How to Make Money Blogging
Smile Happy
9 Month Photos!


She grabbed the camera! Look at me daddy!

We like our dominoes.

The toy collection...part of it.

More dominoe fascination

Early morning sunlight!

Right before we ate the dominoe.

What I can do with this fist...

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

How to Make Money Blogging

Ever wanted to make money with a blog? I have been blogging for over two years now, and for the first year I didn't even realize it was possible to earn money this way. Now, two years later, it has become a nice little side income for my wife and I.

It all started with our very first blog, which I made to document our journey through my wife's pregnancy. Over that time, my wife took over the blog and I started my own 'daddy' blog. At that point, I started doing some research to see if I could monetize my blog in any way. With a little homework done, I realized it was very possible for me to make a little blog income to help out with some of our finances.

The most important aspect of all of this was that to make money with my blog, I had to enjoy writing, and create content that people enjoyed reading. If no one is interested in what I have to say, then they will be off my blog as soon as they started reading it.

Keeping that rule in mind, here is how to make money blogging:

1. Create a Blog

First, you have to create a blog. If you have already done this, or currently have an active blog, you are one step ahead! Blogger is one popular blog platform (which I am using for this site), and is free to use with a whole slew of features to customize the look and feel of your blog. Another option is Wordpress, though the customization is more limited.

Blogger and Wordpress are the two I would recommend to start out with, as both are free and fairly simple to use.

Blogger requires you to have a Google account, and that is very easy to start as well. Simply go to http://www.google.com/ and click the Sign In link at the top right of the page. From there you can opt to create a new google account. Once this is done, head on over to http://www.blogger.com/ to create a blog.

2. Blog Advertising

So the question is, how exactly do you earn money from a blog? Simply put, you place advertising on your site. There are two types of advertising I will focus on that are usually the top choice of bloggers when starting out.

The first is Cost Per Click (CPC) advertisements, which means that when a person clicks on an ad on your blog, you get paid! These can vary from $.05 to $60.00 per click! Google's Adsense is probably the most well-know and best option for CPC advertisements, but there are others as well.

The second is Affiliate advertising. Affiliate advertising is promoting a product on your website and receiving a percentage of the sale if the sale comes from your website referral. Ebay and Amazon are two such companies that offer this type of program. For example, let's say you have a blog about parenting. You include Amazon's Affilaite widget (a graphical display of their products) that shows three parenting books you would recommend. If one of your readers clicks on the link to one of the books and purchases it, you get a percentage of the sale!

Here are the current methods of advertising I am using, ranked in how much blog money each brings in:

  1. Adsense - Using Text and Image CPC ads, this is my number one money earner, accounting for nearly 80% of my overall blog income.

  2. Chitika - Another advertising company that focuses on search engine traffic. It is CPC based, and only displays its ads if visitors come to my site from a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo.

  3. Ebay Partners - I use a widget showing certain products pertaining to my blog. Not much income here, but it still trickles in.

  4. Amazon Affiliates - Also uses a widget to display products. The option I have set is to display objects pertaining to a certain subject, but there are other options as well, including a widget to display specific products you recommend.
3. Adsense

Adsense is the titan of CPC advertisements. Google is a multi-billion dollar company, with huge chunks of revenue coming from companies looking to take advantage of their extrememly vast web of networking across the world.

Signing up for adsense is free, so it costs you absolutely nothing to become a partner. So, if your blog platform costs nothing, and Adsense costs nothing, then any income from blogging is 100% profit!

To make money with a blog, you will want to place these Adsense ads on your site. Doing so will require you to choose from a variety of CPC ad types, including:

  • Text - Displays a contextual ad with a decscription and link.

  • Text and Image - Will rotate between contextual and image ads in the same slot. This happens per page load, so it will randomly display one of the two types of ads each time a person visits or refreshes your blog page.

  • Link Units - Link units are usually one or two-words that are relevant to the content of your blog page, and when clicked on, take the reader to a group of advertisements also closely related to your content. WHen they click on any of those ads, you make money.

When you have the ad type you want, you will have to put it on your site by placing the html code somewhere in your blog's layout. This might take a little bit of research if you are not familiar with how to insert html code, but it's very simple on blogger.

  1. click on the 'Layout' tab
  2. click on the 'Add a Gadget'
  3. Select HTML
  4. Copy and paste the Adsense HTML code into the entry area
  5. click 'Save'

And you're done!

Now that Adsense is up and running on your blog, why is it displaying the ads it's showing? Adsense is designed to cue in on keywords of your blog posts. It will automatically hone in on certain words or phrases and find respective ads to match your content. This is so that people interested in your blog topic might also be interested in the ads, thus creating a higher possibility for them to click on them.

So now, all you have to do is keep writing and Adsense will do the rest of the work for you!

Content

So, now that Adsense is up and running, you want to generate the most income online from your blog, right? Well, this fact is the heart and soul of any success story about blogging for money. Content is online gold. What a blogger writes about must be genuine and useful, helpful, or entertaining to his or her audience.

Writing about something the blogger is passionate about, or has a strong knowledge of only enhances the overall quality of the blog. Now, I cannot tell you what to write about, but for me, I started writing about my family. After I was comfortable with that, I branched out into writing about health, fitness, nutrition, parenthood, being a father, and most recently one of my hobbies and information on my profession.

After finding what you are passionate about, you then need to continue posting. Most blogs do not start generating consistent traffic until 6 months to 1 year after they are started. It is at this point you may start seeing increases in blog income.

Don't be discouraged if your blog doesn't start making money immediately. Keep writing and building your blog. Work on attracting readers. If you already have a large reader audience, and are thinking about implementing ads to your site, you're already ahead of the curve.

If you're into blogging just for the money, chances are you will burn out from discouragement, or write poor content and lose readers. Make sure your writing is something you are passionate about, and eventually the income will follow.

Attracting Readers

Family and friends will more than likely be your first blog readers. But how do you expand on that? Try posting in blog fairs allowing you to list or link a post you have written that others can visit.

You will get other bloggers coming to your site this way, as well as other readers who enojy blog surfing. When someone comments on your blog, visit theirs and comment on what they have written about as well. This community building can rapidly help you expand your readership.

Also try and visit other blogs in these blog fairs. Comment on what you read and they will more than likely return the favor as well.

Success

Using your blog to make money online is easy and the tools are right at your fingertips. Start with Adsense and configure it to what works best for your blog. While I'm not making groundbreaking income, I am making enough on the side that my wife and I have a little extra cash to spend here and there, which helps out.

It is nice to know something we are so passionate about is also helping bring us in more ways than one. Good luck to everyone out there, and I hope this helps!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Smile Happy

The minute Savi woke up this morning, she was all smiles. And her beaming little face never stopped until she went down for the night. I love days like today.

I discovered two new tricks she had up her sleeve today, as well. First, my baby girl can now point. She points to just about every thing she can, and even was running around in her walker, hand raised and finger pointed high, as if to say "I'm number one!"

She also just started saying her 'ssssss' sounds really well. It actually evolved into something that sounded like 'shet'. The first time I heard it, I think my jaw dropped. I'm hoping the 'word' fades away, but you never know. This isn't something Brit and I say, so it's just her own little vocabulary. We'll see how it goes.

Here are some more pics from our early adventure into the backyard!