Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Sibling Love ~ A Photo Shoot ~

These adorable kids belong to a good friend of mine who took me up on my mini-session offer to do "school" photos.  She homeschools them so they don't get that traditional school picture, which is really not a bad thing...they are awful and they charge an arm and a leg for them!  I have so much admiration for families that homeschool and all of the hard work they put into their children's education.  And they are doing a great job because these kids are so sweet, smart, fun, and full of energy.  I like how much these kids like each other.  You can tell they really like playing together and are great friends.  They kinda remind me of my kids the way the little brother really looks up to his big sister...it's so sweet.  This little girl has the most amazing blue eyes, just like her mom, who I've known forever and I've always thought has the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.  I had so much fun capturing their cute personalities.  Here are my favorites from their shoot.

My absolute favorite.  Love this.

See what I mean about the amazing blue eyes?!  I love her expression in this picture.

Speaking of amazing eyes, this boy has some gorgeous ones too.  I love the light brown or would you call them hazel?  They are so unique and they capture the light so well.

My second favorite.  It took a lot of work to get this shot!

I love that she let them pick out their own outfits for this shoot.  I would never be that brave...but they did a great job!


I also did photos of them in their sports uniforms.  I love how this shows their personalities!  And I think it's great that their mom, the tomboy, has a little cheerleader...I was a cheerleader and I have to give her a hard time about it.  

I had such a great time with them and I hope we can make it a yearly event!  

Friday, September 24, 2010

Photo Friday ~ 38 ~

This week was actually a good week for personal photos.  I took a bunch.  Our son is obsessed with golf in case you didn't know, so he often begs for us to go to the driving range, or putt-putt, or the putting green.  He's quite the little social planner actually.  He'll just announce in the morning that, "When daddy gets home I wanna go to the driving range." or any other number of random things he feels like doing (going to the park, etc.).  Luckily, we're a pretty easy going family so most of the time it works out.  Our other outing this week involved my quest to see the 'super harvest moon' that only happens every 20 years and happened the other night when the moon was closest to the earth so it was supposed to look super huge.  But the clouds completely obscured it for us so we weren't able to see the moonrise that we wanted to see.  The clouds to the west were gone though so we did get to see a pretty sunset.  We went driving out to some farmland in anticipation of the moonrise so that we could get an unobstructed view and we live surprisingly close to some amazingly beautiful countryside.  Here's my photos from this week and they couldn't be more different, but here you go.

My little golfer.  That's his "I'm trying not to smile" face.

My other little golfer.  She is in serious need of some longer clubs.  I need to get on Craigslist!

I'd just like to thank my son for being a left handed golfer and making collages like this look perfect.  

I snapped this right before we left and it was past sundown and getting pretty dark out.  But I still like it and I'm surprised it turned out this good with no flash.

I love this.  Makes me want to live in the country.

I don't know what these flowers (weeds?) are called, but I love them.  They are my favorite.  They are so intricate.  And I love the sun just setting in the middle.

My pretty baby.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Fashion Forward

I've made a decision regarding my blog.  I'm going to stop obsessively editing each and every photo that I post on here.  A lot of my time is spent making sure that my photos look perfect and professional before I post them, and let's face it, sometimes I just take snapshots and they don't need to look perfect.  Some photos I take are not for professional purposes and they are just for me and my family and therefore, why am I spending valuable time editing them that I could be spending with my kids or my husband, or working on actual photo shoots?   Some photos are just for fun and I'm taking all of the fun out of them by making them something else for me to perfect.  Enough.  So, this post and other non-photo related posts are no longer going to be edited except for maybe cropping since that takes like 1 second.  Okay, I'm done with my little rant to myself.  On to more exciting things...

So, my kids had some friends over the other night.  We watched them while their parents went out to dinner for a date night.  These kids are so much fun and they are a big sister, little brother duo who remind me so much of my kids, just as an older version.  They all play great together and this night was no exception.  The girls always have to play dress up, but this time they came downstairs in full character telling me that they were supermodels. And of course, the brother had to participate, albeit in a totally boyish way, by playing the part of the rockstar.  Awesome.


I love all the accessories.  And her super serious model face.  She is so cute!

Staying inside was very short lived.  Supermodels need space to strut their stuff you know, so we headed outside so they'd have more room.  Their poses crack me up.  I literally can't look at these photos without laughing.  My daughter's outfit is hilarious!

What on earth is my daughter doing with her hands?  It's like some sort of vogue thing.  I love it.

Oh yeah, they had to pretend to be photographers too so they took turns using the camera.  I can't remember  who took which ones except this one was taken by my friend's daughter because they were posing like that for a while and really liked this picture.  I love his face!

The whole crew.  My son wasn't really participating, he was just running around being his crazy self.

I think she really has some supermodel potential here!  Her dad would not want to hear that.

I love that she's rockin silly bands on her headband and a giant bow that I found left in a shopping cart.  And she has food on her face to top it all off.  It's a great look for her!

The rockstar.  I love this kid.  He wrote my daughter a letter and mailed it to her after they played that night.  Here's what it said, "Hello (my daughter's name).  You and (my son's name) are the best guys.  I will see you in a few years and I love you.  From (his name)."  On the back it said, "And you should like lemonheads."  He's awesome.  I'm saving it just in case they ever end up dating in the future.  You never know...

He finally had to get in on the photo shoot right at the end.  Here's his rockstar pose.  Cutie.

I love it when my kids do stuff to crack me up.  And even better when I capture it with my camera.  I was laughing so hard the entire time and I was trying not to show it because they were so serious about the whole thing.  Oh, and at some point the girls decided that they were princess supermodels.  I overheard them saying, "Supermodels don't run, they walk."  And they made up princess supermodel names.  I think they were Alyssa (that just so happens to be my daughter's kindergarten teacher's name) and Madeline.  Very princess supermodely, don't cha think?

Monday, September 20, 2010

Blessed ~ A Photo Shoot ~

I always hear grandmas bragging on their grandkids and talking about how being a grandma is even better than being a mom.  I obviously don't have first hand knowledge of this, but I'm assuming it's true.  I mean, you get to spoil the kids rotten, get all their sweet hugs and kisses, and then give them back when they start to get annoying.  Sounds pretty awesome to me!  I did a photo shoot last week for some friends who wanted to give their mom a picture of all her grandkids for her birthday gift.  What a nice idea.  She has some beautiful grandkids too.  They are truly blessed and they have another one on the way!  I had such a fun time on this shoot, not only because the moms of these kids and I go way back, but because I had the opportunity to shoot some older kids which I don't often get to do.  Sometimes people go crazy getting pics of their kids when they are little, and they forget during the sort of awkward years that kids go through and then suddenly you've got Senior portraits and toddler pictures and nothing in between.  But older kids, especially girls, love it and I think it's awesome that this family does photos every year.  Oh, and by the way, there is nothing awkward about the girls in this family...I only wish I had looked that good in 8th grade.  Braces and a bad perm, anyone?  Here are my favorites from their shoot.

All of the grandkids.  I love the little ones checking each other out.

I pretty much love everything about this picture.  Love the wind blowing her hair.  Perfection.

Seriously, she's this beautiful and confident in junior high?  Her mom better watch out.

This little boy is the cutest and I love that he is just all boy, especially after this family having all girls for so many years.  He's showing me how old he is here.  Or he could just be saying 'peace out'.

The newest addition to the family due to a recent, secret, surprise marriage!  I still can't believe they kept that a secret...  What a sweet smile she has!  I think she's gonna be an awesome big sister to their next big surprise since they aren't finding out what they're having.


I love teenagers.  It's fun trying to capture their uniqueness.



I love this.  Did I mention that they're twins?!  No fighting over who's the pretty one though, they are both so gorgeous!

What a blessing to have such beautiful, sweet grandkids.  I can only hope to be as blessed myself someday.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Photo Friday ~ 37 ~

All of the photos for this week were taken last night in about 10 minutes before I ran out to curriculum night at my daughter's school.  I knew I didn't have any personal photos from this week besides the ones I took of my son on his first day at school and I already posted those, so I wanted to get something to post.  Wow, even though I was in a big hurry and had no patience with my kids while taking them (I usually just follow them around while they do their thing, but I had no time for that) these are some of my favorite photos I've taken of them in a while.  The light was perfect...I'll have to remember it was about quarter til 7 when I took these...seems like I've lost track of what time the sun sets these days with the changing of the seasons.

My sweet girl.  I love her soft smile in this picture.  And I was pretty sure that she had broken her nose the other day after a dramatic collision with the little girl I babysit.  It happened because they were running to the bus since we were late and it was early and then she was crying so hard and her nose started bleeding that she couldn't get on the bus.  Cue drama here about the fact that the bus driver and the kids on the bus saw her crying...she was so embarrassed, which is exactly how I was as a kid.  And then after she calmed down and we iced it (it was very swollen) I couldn't drive her to school because I didn't have enough car seats for all the kids.  A good friend came over to pick up some pictures I'd taken for her and she was going to stay with the kids so I could take her to school, but I decided to keep her home because I was convinced it was broken and I wanted to keep an eye it.  But this pic is from 2 days later, and I think she looks great!  So, I guess it wasn't broken after all.  I'm still convinced that at some point she is going to disfigure her face and I'll have to pay for plastic surgery.  She just keeps getting hurt on her face!

I love the light hitting the one side of her face in this one.  And that you can see her jawline because of the way her head is tilted.  My girl can totally work her angles!  I swear she could model in her future if she ever wanted to...luckily she's never asked so I don't have to go there yet.


I love, love, love this pic of my boy.  I can't ever seem to get a profile shot of him that I like, but this one is perfect.  I love how the sunlight is hitting his eyelashes and the background is so soft and his hair is so cute and messy.


She can totally rock the serious face.  I look terrible when I try to pose with a serious face...it's just so not me, and I end up looking pissed off...but she pulls it off somehow and I love that.


Oh my gosh, this just makes me laugh.  He looks like he has a halo in the pic on the left and then he looks totally evil on the right.  I actually don't like the pic on the right, but my husband loves it.  He just looks so mean!  I much prefer the angelic face.


Fall is coming, I can feel it.  I'm not quite as sad as I was before.  The gorgeous evenings are easing me into it.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

It's Official

I've died.  My baby has gone off to preschool and I have no babies left at home.  What a weird feeling to be defined as a mother of babies and suddenly my whole definition of myself has changed.  I have kids now.  And when people ask me what I do I say I'm a photographer, where I used to say I'm a mom.  Funny how your perspective on yourself changes.  I still think of myself as a mother and wife first to be honest...I just say I'm a photographer because I feel like I always have to be marketing myself now.  But my heart is in being a mom.  I have to switch my focus to mothering big kids now, even though I really adore babies and toddlers, but that stage of my life is over, which is happy and sad all at the same time.  Sad because I miss their squishy little bodies and the funny, cute things they do and say as toddlers, but exciting because we have so much more freedom now to go and do things and explore and learn.  Each stage is more fun than the last it seems.  And now my baby is a preschooler.  He did so great at school.  I knew he would do fine, but he did even better than I expected.  He listened and participated, even when they did a little song with motions, and he usually hates that type of thing.  He let them take his picture (usually he only wants me to do that) and he stayed in line (for the most part) when they were walking in the hall.  He and the little girl I babysit are in the same class and they were holding hands in the hallway.  It was so cute!  And he has to take a special snack because of his peanut allergy and he is being so grown up and mature about it and not complaining at all.  I'm so proud of my little boy!  Here are some pictures of his first day at school.



This is outside of the school.  He loves that little "bridge" behind him.  It's just a covering over a storm drain, but he loves to stand there and throw rocks down the drain.

Inside his classroom.  He thought that little path looked like hopscotch so he kept hopping all along it.

Coloring.  I've never seem him so studious in his life.  He colored the whole paper very carefully instead of his normal scribbling.  He was concentrating on holding his marker the right way too.

I have a picture of my daughter just like this.  He looks so sweet here!

Singing a song during circle time.  There are a lot of girls in his class!  Just five boys so I hope he makes a few  little friends since it seems he always stuck with girls.  All of the kids were so cute.

I'm so proud of my baby boy.  I hope he did as well today without me there!  We'll see when I go pick him up.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Birthday Boy

My baby is four now.  Why does four seem so much older than three?  When he was three it seemed okay to still treat him a little like my baby, after all, it isn't that much older than two.  But four?  He's suddenly not such a baby anymore.  Even when I look at him now, he just looks like a kid.  He no longer has the toddler chubbiness.  You can start to see where his little muscles are defining.  He's just so tall and when I hold up pants in his size, I'm like, these are huge, they aren't little toddler clothes anymore!  But he's still and always will be my baby.  I used to wonder about those moms who would baby their youngest and think, geez, that's crazy, but now I get it.  And I'm sure he'll be rotten someday, but right now, at this moment, I couldn't care less.  I just want to hold onto this last little bit of babyness as long as I can.  I sneak in as many cuddles as I can, and tickles, and kisses.  And if he ever wants to sit in my lap, you better believe I'll let him sit there as long as he wants.  And carry him?  I sometimes wish he weren't so independent so I could still carry him around a little more.  Not too much though, dang he's heavy!  This boy has stolen my heart in ways I couldn't even fathom four years ago.  I was scared to death of what to do with a boy when I was pregnant.  All I knew up to that point was my sweet girly girl, and boys, well, they are kinda wild.  And dirty.  And smelly.  And full of energy.  And until you have one of your own you will never understand how much you can love wild.  And dirty.  And smelly.  And fully of energy.  And all things boy.   My baby.  Growing up.  And taking my heart along for the ride.  I love him.

I snapped these before anyone arrived for his party.  I love the one below with him showing me his four fingers.  And his dimple.  And his messy hair.  I love that boy.  He wanted a train cake and he wanted it to have sprinkles.  Definitely not my best looking cake, but he loved it.  And it was yummy.

Here he is showing off his new Steelers jersey.

Only my son gets this excited about a bag of golf balls for his birthday present.  Did I mention how much I adore this baby boy?

His new train.  The only toy he asked for and he loves it.

I kept telling him all day that he was four now, but he kept insisting that he wouldn't be four until after he blew out the candles at his party.

It's official now.

That face.  I love that face.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet little boy.  Mommy loves you more than words can say.

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