08/8/11

30 Days of Little Man and Little Princess ~ Day 7

Today’s Prompt is Favorite Picture…

They really only have one picture they ask to look at all the time and it is on their wall. It is from the second time we met them and has Aaron and I, them and their foster parents in it. It is special to the whole family. I have never posted a picture of their foster parents on here before and I am not sure why except to say that I am always leery of posting pictures of people who have not said I can or cannot post the picture, maybe it is the lawyer in me that is coming out. I am going to post it today as I do not have the foster parents names due to a paperwork issue and am hoping that someone sees it and can tell me as they have been foster parents for years!

And just because I can I am including a couple of my favorite pictures of each of them that I have taken, if I included them all you would be here all day looking at pictures

08/1/11

August again?

Where does the year go? It is that time of year again. By the end of this week BlogHer will be in full swing, though I opted out of going this year for more reasons than I care to mention and as of today I have 9 days until I have preschoolers! Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday that they were tiny!

I realized last week while we were at their cousins’ house that they have come sooooo far! I was watching Little Princess imitate her cousin, who for the sake of this post will be Sweet Pea! I have to tell one very cute story…Sweet Pea, who is 5 and very tall, used to take dance and when she heard Little Princess will be in dance in the fall wanted to share her leotards and skirts that do not fit her any more with Little Princess! While Little Princess put on the pink one, because pink is her favorite color, Sweet Pea put on her recital outfit she never got to wear, to say they were both excited is an understatement. Sweet Pea had been “posing” for my camera all day and she was happy to oblige a few photos for me! I thought it would be fun to get a few pictures of them together and after Sweet Pea was done “posing” I asked Little Princess to stand with her for a few pictures. Little Princess immediately went to where Sweet Pea had been posing and struck the same pose or so she thought for her picture, needless to say the picture did not turn out as I was laughing so hard at what she had done! Talk about funny! (While I cannot share the pictures with Sweet Pea in them I can say that photographing them together with both of them looking at me is a challenge I have yet to master, but that is ok, I used this tutorial from Paint the Moon Photography to get a picture where it appears I captured that exact picture by combining two of the ones where each has a great look on their face! While that was some work for a snap shot, it was a great test run for what is to come this week!) I may not be able to share pictures of Sweet Pea but here is one of Little Princess in what she calls her “Pink Dress.”

Little Man was not to be left out! While he had NO interest in being in such a girly photo (thank God, I was trying to capture the girls having fun together), he and Sweet Pea’s brother (who is 2), who I will call Blue Eyes, were causing what can only be best described as havoc! Even with my camera most of my pictures of them together were very blurry mostly because due to the heat we were inside 90% of the day and in and area that had NO windows so my flash was absolutely required but also because they were off fast as lightening! When Little Man and Blue Eyes are together you can count on having to do some chasing as well as asking what is going on while you search for the two of them! Little Man is rarely all boy, but with Blue Eyes he is just that and I love to see him be like that! For his picture, he was getting ready for his turn at karaoke, Little Princess was handing him the mike!

Off to plan for all of our August traditions (1) the photographs in their birthday clothes I make at the park with their bestie ~ I have yet to print a single photograph from years past but maybe someday…more on that later! (2) their birthday party, this year some odd combination of Cars and Princess’ with an unusual amount of pink food (3) Their actual birthday ~ Aaron always takes that day off work and we do things 100% centered around them and what they want to do (4) write their birthday letters (I am too lazy to link them up but they are always published on August 10 if you want to see past ones!) and (5) a tradition that we are starting this year “back to school shopping”

Please someone tell me where all the time goes…

07/16/11

52 Weeks of Me ~ Week 2

I have to laugh as I try to incorporate this 52 weeks of me into my life along with my journey to find me and well what I want to do with my life, or not do.

3 years ago almost now when I started staying home with Little Man and Little Princess, it took me 6 months to not tell people “I’m an attorney” when they asked what I did for a living. As I progressed to “I stay home with my kids.” (Which gets the same interesting looks I am an attorney used to get me), I started out explaining that I have a law degree just that I choose to stay home with my children. Yes, it was a very long answer to the question, but I answered it! Now, I laugh as many of my new friends get quite the shock when after weeks of knowing me or sometimes even months, I say “I used to be a lawyer.” (sometimes as big as the shock some of my friends had when I went from attorney to SAHM)

About 3 months ago I started a list of 40 things I want to do before I turn 40 (just over 3 years away now), I am finding things on that list like try owning my own photography business for at least 6 months, open a boutique where I can sell the things I make that will not fit my children and get one piece of my writing published (the real stuff not the word dumps I put on here); I wonder if I will ever say “I am a lawyer” again, the reality is that I am still a lawyer and will always be a lawyer but it may be years before I put it to good use again or maybe never. I went to law school to prove I could do it, I practiced law in areas I hated to pay the bills, and now I am doing what I should have done in high school and college, trying to find something I love that I can also make money at, or hope to make money at! Don’t get me wrong, there were parts of being a lawyer I loved, like that rush of arguing my case before a judge and or jury or both or even better yet winning my case. And I loved mediation when I tried my hand at that briefly, I need to see if that is an option once the kids start school (provided I am not homeschooling).

I have learned though that what I make money doing does not define me, I define me. That said I do want to love what I do and have fun at it, even if it only pays for the kids activities!

Do you love what you do? What defines you?

03/18/11

Joy of Luck: Day 2

This month I decided that I was going to take the challenge offered by Willette and use it as an opportunity to improve my photography and see if I cannot become more adept at using my camera and amazing lens. I am going to try to do this class/project without using my children once as the subject for the homework even if they fit the type of homework assignment

Today’s prompt is:

St. Patrick’s Day is all about the wearin’ o’ the green these days! Green is all over the place today as we celebrate Saint Patrick and being Irish. You can also see green when you look out your window at the new buds forcing their way up.

There were photography tips as well as ways to try to photograph what may be the answer to the prompt! So I will add the pictures here and then the information for the photo and why I choose this as my answer to the prompt. Oh yeah and for the first time ever I am going to intentionally edit the photos before I put them here…I know no more straight out of the camera, I am running a risk!

My green photos:

Photo settings: indoor, on camera flash, f/5.6, 1/125th ss, ISO 200

Photo settings: indoor, on camera flash, f/5.6, 1/125th ss, ISO 200 (vivid color edit)

I have been dying to take this picture, except I wanted to do it as a rainbow. I am a sewer (more on that another day) and I love the way my thread looks when it is all together like a rainbow. I probably have 40 different shades of green and I thought you know what while I am taking green pictures this would work and be a lot of fun to set up. Set up was great! I got to use the creative aspects of me but the pictures are still not the pictures I hoped to take. I think I took almost 100 pictures trying to get the picture in my head, instead I gave up with one that I loved but was not what was in my head.

Today’s photography lesson, have an idea in your head but ALWAYS be willing to change it! That is kind of like parenting! I have to change that up all the time as well to keep the twins on their toes hehe I never thought I would learn the same lesson in photography as I did in parenting

03/17/11

Joy of Luck: Day 1

Today’s prompt is:

What inanimate object/thing/concept is something that you take for granted on a daily basis? What would someone who is not as fortunate as you are say about your “luck” to have such a thing in your life? Think about your blessings today – (don’t focus on people for this one…that will come later)…focus on opportunity/experience/something you have/do everyday that is an unforeseen blessing in your life.

The item or concept that I take for granted is:

My amazing husband/marriage

Photo settings: indoor, natural light, f/2.8, 1/20th ss, ISO 200

This picture is of two of our wedding pictures! I thought I would be able to take this picture easily but I was so wrong as the light in the room was on the glass and the wall was well unusual colors and the picture was not as easy as I thought it would be! Haha

That said, I do take the fact that I have a pretty good marriage and an amazing husband for granted all the time. When I was growing up I would have told you that would never happen for me but now 5 almost 6 years of marriage in I find that I take my husband for granted every day. Maybe I will work on that this year and start letting him know what it means that we work together as a team and really don’t argue all that much! We agree on many things and he is all about helping me and supporting me in everything I do even if that changes well almost daily! He is a great man and I am happy to be married to him and raise my children with him!

02/10/10

{41/365} Homebound

So today I realized that we have not left the house for almost two weeks, I guess being sick will do that to a mama and her babies. We were just trying to get better and we didn’t need snow to keep us in (though I have friends who are snowed in and not loving it). We have learned how to make our own fun! Little Man and Little Princess have learned how to play and think it is fun to play Ring Around the Rosie. We have been working on new words like Apple and teeth. We have learned all of our facial features (or at least Little Princess has) but be careful or she will poke your eyes out! She has been talking up a storm lately though I only catch about half of it! She an her brother are learning so much every day….it blows my mind! Maybe this weekend we will get out!

I totally forgot to take pictures of the babies today ~ sorry ~ so I took pictures of something that keeps me awake all day….oh how I love me my Throwback….

01/6/10

{6/365} This, That and the Kitchen Sink

Today is supposed to be about me an my weight loss journey so I can start with that…as of today it has gone NO WHERE. I have big plans but they always get put on hold or something happens where I am chasing the twins pretty much all day and well by the time I get to the end and have a few minutes to myself I have forgotten about the work out and worse yet have been chowing down on Christmas candy and ice cream with skittles pretty much every night. And so here is what I need from you all — some sort of beat down. Figuratively you can slap me upside the head and tell me that I need to do this not for me but for my family. And Elaine if you are still reading I want to join you for 300 days of wii fit…can I?

Second thing: Little Man woke up from his nap on the wrong side of the crib today and had a MASSIVE fit today. None of the usual ways to end it quickly worked…we tried time in, we tried time out and we even tried the sister distracting him trick and NOTHING worked. So I took a few pictures and a video — nothing was working any way. So you know…time out works 9 times out of 10. 8 times out of 10 the time out works before he has even been there for the two minutes he is supposed to be there – heck I cannot count the number of times just the threat of time out has worked. Today he woke up on the wrong side of the bed and NOTHING worked…and so that someday he cannot say I was making all this up here you go…a few pictures and a video (which was recorded with my d90):

And while her brother was kicking and screaming this is what Little Princess was doing:

Then when he finally was happy again (long after dinner and daddy arriving home) he was in full on rock star mode. Someone tell me how ONE child can go from an all out kicking screaming fit to the funniest, happiest, cutest little rock star EVER. Yes, Little Man is musical instrument obsessed! See for yourself:

And while he was rocking out she was playing with this (they were ready for bed so ignore her horrible hair):

And so you don’t think I forgot about the kitchen sink….for some reason our dishwasher just QUIT today. As in push the button ZERO happens, so now to figure out what the problem is.

01/4/10

{4/365} Playtime…

What girl does not love M-I-C-K-E-Y….and this girl is totally in love!

I think this is what he is trying to tell me “What do you mean this is NOT how I play with the balls mom?”

And right after this picture he gave me a look as if to say “Is this better?” (I wanted to tell him NO…but instead I just laughed at the 50 balls all over my living room!)

And I love this face and this sweater from Gram and Pop — even though I think the sweater will still fit next year. I don’t think they are ever going to grow

(I added this on the 5th — I am not sure why this post did not publish before but I am publishing it now…)

01/2/10

I love this boy…

And if you look close enough you can see dinner in his mouth (this picture was taken two hours after dinner):

01/1/10

I Love this girl….

I love this little girl! She rocks my world, so I am going to turn these pieces into something for her:

12/20/09

Santa Here We Come….

So I bit the bullet and took the twins to see Santa at the mall — I wanted to be able to take my own pictures but I had waited too long (starting next year we will have breakfast with Santa to support some firemen I know but I missed it this year). Because I was worried about how they would take to the big man in red I asked their Grandma and Grandpa H if they wanted to join us and of course they said YES! Santa’s hours at the mall started at noon today so we met at the mall early enough to have lunch BEFORE we stood in line.

Here we are prepping for the santa trip:

This is how the pictures started out…

Then we started to get this:

and this:

While Little Princess gave me this:

Then it was off to the mall…where I got these shots:

Then we finally got to see the big man in red – and they would not let me take a picture with my camera so I bought this one…

After seeing the big man in red, we went so Grandma could return a shirt at M*cy’s. The twins were bored and we needed a way to entertain them so the three way mirror next to the cash register was a great way along with mommy’s camera…the cashier was slower than dirt and there was a lady in front of Grandma so it took awhile. Anyway by the time Grandma was done I had taken quiet a few pictures but I stopped and we left. As we were leaving I heard the slowest cashier in the world calling someone to ask if it was ok if I took pictures of my own kids with my own camera in the store. They must have told her YES because she didn’t bother us again. Most of the pictures were not so good but a few are really cute! (And I wish I had a 3 way mirror at home they loved that thing!)

Finally we went to ride the train in another part of the mall and Little Man is train obsessed…so Grandma and Grandpa paid for them to ride the train:

And my absolute favorite picture of the day (note where his arm is):

12/19/09

Merry Christmas to Me

So it came…it finally came and I am over the moon! There were ordering issues and I almost was not able to get the lens but my AMAZING husband told me “order the lens” because he knew I would use it! I ended up with free overnight shipping for the whole shebang and I almost didn’t sleep last night because I was so excited that my d90 was almost here! I wanted this camera FOREVER (or at least it felt like it). Then it came…the poor ups guy met me at the door in my pjs with no bra on (me not the UPS guy) and a HUGE smile! I opened the box and actually squealed like a little girl! It took every ounce of self-control I had to not put the battery in and take as many pictures as the measly charge would allow. I was good and locked it into the charger and had Aaron plug it in (he stayed home just to see my face when it came I am SURE and I am pretty sure it was worth it!)! I then read the quick start guide and waited begging the charger to charge faster (it didn’t work). As soon as Aaron left for work I had the kids to JUST me so I didn’t get to take pictures or anything even if the battery had been charged. By the time I was able to check the battery it was charged and let me tell you it was love at first click…I took so many pictures today Little Man was still saying “cheeeeese” when he went to bed!

So before I show you pictures from today I want to say that my husband is AMAZING and I love him more than anything! He rocks and he let me open the gift today and even went out to find me a book I wanted about the camera (he said the store was more upset than him as they had to search the back for the book)! Six and a half years together – four and a half years married and I still love him as much as the day we were married! Thanks Aaron!

So now the pictures:

(not as sharp as I would like but LOVE the cheese smile!)

(she would stay next to the TV the WHOLE time this show is on if we didn’t make her move — Cars and Tinkerbell…what does this say about my daughter? hmm…..)

My Everyday Miracles

Where the miracles never cease and always come in pairs!!!

Tag Archives: photography