Verbally Challenged

THANKS for all of the great comments and email on the fish photo. It was a really fun one to do! And just because some of you asked, I am going to put the questions together and do a Q&A in the next couple of days. In the meantime, if you have more questions just let me know and I’ll add them to the list! I’ve never done a Q&A so it’ll be cool!

And here are a couple of pages that I completed over the past week:

We’re off for some family fun! More later!

That’s where we’ve been.

More later!

How about I start out today with a photo that’s not of my kids. These are the projects that I did for It Kit Studio using the February kit. It’s a totally cool black and white themed kit with the most excellent pops of color. AND there is watercolor paper in there and some of the KI memories lace paper – something that I wanted since spying it at the trade show (online since I didn’t go).

This one of my family – we don’t have many photos of us together. I really do need to work on that:

And then one of my baby girl from our one year portrait session. These types of photos are really tough for me to scrap but something just clicked.

And then who says that Valentine’s are for kids only? I made some Valentine style brag cards:

And now I can’t resist.

This is her favorite way to pass the time right now – pardon the photo quality.

More later!

I said that we were ready for snow – not that we wanted snow. Geesh. Enough already!

I tried making the best of it and took Adeline out for a few minutes – bundled up in another super cute winter outfit that was all homemade (just not by me). My goal was to photograph the snow as white – hence challenging my white balance skills. And I figured that I step it up a notch with the white outfit and try to not blow out the detail.

This is what I ended up with:

The composition is not all there and I clipped her foot but the color ended up ok. Mission accomplished.

The snow may leave now.

Are you tired of photos yet? See, that’s the “problem” with my new found photography obsession. I read daily. I play daily. I need to see results (good or bad)…daily. I’m sure that in the near future the kids will start throwing cars and crackers at me when I pick up the camera and I’ll have to use Nate, or the cat as my subject. They’ll work – I’m not picky.

I’ve been wanting to get a picture of Addy in this coat for some time. I bought it back in the fall after falling in love with the little pink polka dots and furry trim. It’s too big on her but so stinkin’ cute! The hood comes to a little point – someday it’ll fit perfectly. For now, I can’t really put her in it without looking like Ralphie’s little brother from “A Christmas Story.” Her arms stick straight out to the side and she can’t turn her head without getting an eye full of furry trim. And forget about stuffing her into a car seat – that’s just plain mean.

More later.

Let’s call today a visual post because…well…I’m watching a movie right now and have already asked WAY too many questions about the movie. It annoys Nate, rightly so.

I’m still addicted to my camera – learning, applying everything that I read.

So here’s one of my boy in his skater shirt:

And one of my gal:

And while I was shooting my gal, Liam flopped onto the floor in the dining room declaring that he didn’t want to take anymore photos (because the few I shot in the hood were plenty…apparently):

I can’t decide if I like color better?

That’s all for now! I’m off to pay attention!

I love it when a Wednesday rolls around and I’m still sane. I’m not stressed, annoyed, crabby…it feels good. I think that a large portion of it has to do with the weather. The past two days were in the 60′s – and for where I live, that’s crazy. But I’ll take it – even with the thawed out muddy ground and dirty dog paws.

Liam had his first full day back at school on Monday so it was just Addy and I – going out was a necessity. So off we went to a local nature center and walked the trails (well I walked). It was so peaceful and man is she a good listener! We made a few stops along the way and obviously I took my camera.

She was happy sitting wherever I put her – touching everything that she could get her hands on. She was learning about nature – love that.

And then after school when Addy was napping, Liam and I went outside and walked around our property (with my trusty camera in hand).

And because Tuesday was just as nice (if not better), I asked my sister if I could come and walk around her property (she lives on a farm) and photograph her kiddos. Thankfully she agreed.

This one was taken at 1:00, full sun.

Fresh warm air, good company and practice with a camera. No wonder I’m happy.

I’m writing today’s post so that I won’t forget Liam’s quirky little speech patterns. There are just some things that he says that make me smile, and I don’t want to correct because it’s so darned cute. Like these two phrases:

While looking for the match to a sock:
“I bet he’s looking for she”

Or carrying ten balls:
“This is too many for I to carry”

It makes me smile – I don’t want to forget.

Another thing that makes me smile is this photo:

I took it last month when we were at the tree farm looking for our Christmas tree.

December was a crazy busy month. And with all of the craziness I realized that forgot to share some of the projects that I did last month for It Kit Studio using the Play it Forward Kit.

The kit included a small accordion mini-album. And because I’ve been going back through my Liam photos to compare them with Addy I decided to do a photo comparison project. The photo that I used on the cover I absolutely LOVE. It reminds me so much of Addy and I just love that.

The accordion concept made me go with a timeline.

And I accidentally switched the 2 and 3 year old photos – bad mom!

And then teacher gifts. I’m big on gift cards – practicality. So I asked Liam to write thank you messages to his teachers, photographed him and created this tag. One side has the photo and the other a ribbon pocket to hold the gift card. Simple simple.

And then I created my 2008 calendar. I have a weakness for calendars – LOVE creating them.

Now I’m playing with the newest kit and I can tell you – it’s really cool. Stay tuned!

And just because I was playing this afternoon with the camera – Addy singing and taking care of her little babY:

And I brought out the fish eye for this one…just for fun. Liam liked seeing the close-up photos of himself and I figure whatever gets him excited about being the subject is GREAT! But right now I’ll share this one…nevermind the castle off to the right in the living room and bird cage off to the left.

More later!

Today could not have been anymore different than I had expected. And actually, it turned out to be a good thing.

This morning I woke up to a few inches of snow on the ground…and for Liam…a school delay. So the first day back from Christmas break (during which it didn’t snow once), it’s delayed. And I don’t really like delays because I remember how they were in school. The teachers are frazzled, the kids are confused – it’s just not a good way to start a first day back. So I declared it jammy day. Plus, I had to reschedule a doctors appointment for Miss Adeline – wasn’t making that one at 9am.

So I went from what should have been a busy rushed morning to a jammy day…so much better. And instead of school, appointments, cleaning and whatever else I would have done today – I played games, watched “Alice in Wonderland,” built a car, watched Liam cut the entire alphabet out of paper (WITH decorative scissors at times), napped (not me, the kiddos), chased a one year old and took some photos. There were some other things thrown in there like lunch, laundry (not folding but playing in the “need to be folded” piles) and computer time – but you get the idea.

While it’s a well known fact that I do not like the snow (unless it’s before Christmas and freshly fallen), or the cold, or winter for that matter – I do like a sunny day post snowfall because the light is AMAZING. So I took advantage today and had some fun with the kiddos. Besides, I needed to get Adeline’s one year photos done eventually…at least before she turned two.

So humor me and enjoy more photos of the kid-lets:

My little dude being goofy and he’d tell you “everybody loves a Liam”:

My girl looking all of one:

And a birthday pose – I tried getthing the mouse head out of her hand – she wasn’t having it: