Posted on October 27, 2010
Today Mad and I made Halloween puppets and drew art on the chalkboard wall. She has been dressing up more days than not lately – who says costumes have to be saved for only one day of the year anyway??? I made her this pumpkin tutu 2 years ago and it has been worn to tattered pieces but she still loves it. I have re-glued those green flowers too many times to count!
Posted on October 27, 2010
Just one from last night’s session!
We ended up with a trip to the ER after Madelyn fell and cut her chin last night so this is all I have for now. We were lucky to have glue (vs. stiches) and everyone is doing well (just very tired).
Posted on October 26, 2010
A very special collage for baby O.
Mom wanted a collage series for baby’s room that included several pics (including a few with each of her 3 big brothers). I love how this tells a story and includes both maternity and newborn images together.
This collage is a perfect way to enjoy sweet memories everyday!
I think I just may have to do this very same thing for our little one next month. I guess I better get busy with some ‘bump’ pictures!
p.s. see more from this maternity session here.
Posted on October 20, 2010
This session was all about the kiddos! We had tons of fun with a chalkboard wall, favorite books, bouncy balls, and jumbo sized letters.
Just a few for mom…more to come soon!
BTW I give HUGE thanks to my mother-in-law for taking on the painting project for this chalkboard wall. So grateful for the help! I am so lucky…
Posted on October 17, 2010
Just wanted to say Horray! for the beautiful day!
68 degress and cloudy: perfect.
After the long summer, we are all so thankful for cool weather. Today we spent every minute possible in the backyard — playing and working on projects.
At the end of the day (just as we were losing light), I took Madelyn across the street for her first tennis lesson. She loved hitting balls against the boards and running all over the court to retrieve them. So fun to watch her excitement about a new sport!
I’m happy to teach her a few things about tennis, as she is just learning how to swing the racket…but my husband is going to have to step in here and be the coach. He is a really good player and it’s totally his game. #1 singles in HS!
p.s. I ‘played’ tennis in HS too…but I was really bad (I stayed on the team because my best friends were players and it was something fun to do after school). Then, somehow I ended up on the tennis team during my freshman year at college. I played doubles with my roommate/bestie, Shelly. I’m not sure what motivated us to join the team…other than a great spring break trip for tournaments. The memories always make me laugh!
Posted on October 11, 2010
As promised, here are my 10 pics on 10/10/10.
I am so glad 10/10 fell on a Sunday so that I was able to take on this challenge over the weekend. We had a relaxing day around the house and photo assignments were easy to keep up with. I set the timer on my phone and took a picture every hour. It’s fun to see how the day unfolded for us. I am actually quite impressed by all that we did because I tend to feel like nothing gets accomplished on weekends…but this hour-by-hour digest proves that tasks were accomplished and fun was had.
one note: Tony was working all day so no appearances from him until the last hour.
8 am: wake up sleeping beauty.
Yes, she really did sleep in this mask. Seriously. She found it while we were shopping last week and now wears it every night. I am actually very happy that I let her talk me into buying it because it makes bedtime sooo easy (she gets excited to wear her beauty mask and has little argument about going to sleep). Also, it keeps her sleeping in the morning a little longer because she does not wake up with the sunlight coming in her window. Love it! Best $4 ever spent.
By the way – how cute is she first thing in the morning? She does not take after her mother, that’s for sure! This ‘first photo of the day’ actually turned into a mini shoot because I couldn’t stop taking pictures. Nothing like a photo session first thing in the morning! Thankfully, she woke up in a good mood (thanks to the beauty mask) and was more than happy to let me take pics. I was beyond pleased with her cooperation and decided to spoil both of the girls with pink donuts for breakfast. What a great start to the day for all of us!
p.s. Pink donuts are the ultimate treat around our house. There is a favorite family story about pink donuts that I will save for another post.
p.p.s Pink donuts are easy to find this time of year thanks to breast cancer awareness month. Buy pink!
9 am: fresh out of the bath and getting ready for sunday school
Sad face because I made her get out of the bathtub. She wanted to play with her Barbie boat for hours upon hours.
This pic was taken a little earlier than 9…more like 8:30…but we had to get ready and on our way to church/sunday school by 9. I wasn’t about to take my huge camera into church, so this is my 2nd photo of the day.
10 am: Handwriting 101
11 am: lemonade and sandwiches
The girls think that adding lemon slices to their lemonade is the coolest thing ever.
Another mini photo shoot commenced with this photo-of-the-hour. Once again, I could not stop with just one frame. My subjects were happy and willing to take pictures. This is not always easy…so when it happens, you roll with it. It’s a very lucky day to get kiddos in a cooperative mood for pictures. Today I have the magic touch!
OK, truth be told: I can’t take all the credit for happy kids. The beautiful weather had everything to do with it. Perfect day! It was 80 degrees throughout the morning. It did warm up a little more later in the day….but it was still much better than the oven temperatures we’ve been surviving all summer. In the last week we have been outside for walks, bike rides, picnics, pool fun, and games. Oh, and picture-taking too.
12 pm: laundry
Great to be outside for awhile but it was short-lived because the mid-day sun was just a little too warm. Time to get busy with laundry and chores anyway.
1 pm: organization project in baby’s room
2 pm: still working on baby’s room…washing and folding onsies and newborn clothes
3 pm: supervise 2 year old with color crayons
This girl has gotten into soooo much trouble with her crayolas! I now have to fully supervise her for the full duration of color time and make sure that all crayons and markers are put away in a top secret location.
4 pm: in the pool? yes, because summer just won’t let go…
This picture was not technically taken today but I’m throwing it in here because I was in the pool refreshing my over-heated pregnant body when 4 o’clock came around and was loving the water so much that I did not want to mess with my camera. I made up for it by doing an extra picture at 6.
Photo taken by hubby last month. XO
5 pm: 1st dinner
These days I have been eating 2-3 ‘dinners’ because my stomach can only manage so much food at a time. Baby is taking up a lot of room so I eat small amounts throughout the day. Huge thanks to hubby for the delicious chicken salad! He made this yesterday and tonight we are eating the leftovers.
6 pm: Tony is home from work. The rough-housing begins. Total chaos!
Such a great challenge! I set out to take a single picture on-the-hour today and ended up doing several mini photo shoots throughout the day (it’s hard to stop at just one picture). By the end of the day I had taken hundreds of pictures. Such a productive task! Now the challenge lies in organizing and editing all the favorites (I am always behind when it comes to this task). Photog friends…any advice on speeding up your workflow???
Keeping it real: this was a better day than most and the pictures reveal more of an ideal day than an everyday. We rarely take the time to picnic outside with fresh lemonade – that was all in celebration of long-awaited 80 degree weather. 10/10/10 turned out to be one of those rare ‘perfect’ days and I’m glad that I was on task to document this one. It is more fun to keep the memories of an afternoon in the swimming pool and a yummy dinner salad than messy bedrooms and dirty dishes.
Now I’ll have to challenge myself to do this on a more typical day in order to capture the messiness of everyday. Next month may be an interesting time to do this as we transition to life with THREE kids. I think I’ll give it a whirl….but I’m not so sure I’ll be willing to share the pictures. We’ll see about that. We have a tendency to let messes overtake our world (we have small children and that’s just how it goes).
Posted on October 9, 2010
Tomorrow is 10/10/10!
Here’s the plan: take 10 pictures…every hour on the hour. Set the timer for each hour. Stop for a minute and take a picture of what you see around you…capture the little details of what is going on in your world.
Have fun!
Posted on October 6, 2010
A new canvas for the girls’ room! 37 x 27 inches (large prints are amazing). Sent to print today…can’t wait to see it!
Update – a few pics of the canvas printed…
Posted on October 2, 2010
Will you please help me? I am searching out the very best recipes for a special cookbook!
My college roommates (the Palace girls) are planning a recipe exchange for the holidays and we are all asked to share our favorite recipes. These girls deserve the best and I want to contribute fabulous ideas…but there’s one problem. The truth is that I am no better at cooking than I was in college (scary).
I am especially motivated to come up with some great dishes because this is something I really need to work on (cookbook project or not). With another baby on the way, I really need to improve upon my kitchen skills ASAP.
My current dinner rotation leaves much to be desired. Here’s the list of my usual ‘recipes’:
- Spaghetti with ground beef and tomato sauce
- Goulash (which I rarely make because we never have the right ingredients on hand)
- Eggo waffles. Add anything that can be found: peanut butter, cream cheese, syrup, fruit, or whatever.
- Chicken nuggets
- Steam veggies. Pour on some chicken and Cream of Mushroom soup. Done.
- Tator Tot hotdish
- Taco/Fajita MESS (ground beef, chicken, or steak strips)
- Purchase any type of meat and tell hubby it’s a perfect night for grilling (this is what we do 90% of the time all summer).
- Melt cheese over anything and call it good (this is my #1 go-to dish).
My hubby says that these don’t really count as recipes. What????
So, as you can see….I need your help!
Please email me your #1 favorite recipe.
If it looks easy enough, we will test it out.
If we love it, I will post it on the blog (always nice to share a good thing). AND…you just may be gifted a photo session or holiday card discount.
p.s. Bonus points awarded if it’s healthy and/or easy!
Posted on October 1, 2010
As promised…pics from the strawberry picnic I shot with Krista Campbell (see previous post). The images posted here are a combination of our work. It is SO fun to shoot with another photographer and collaborate efforts!
I loved every minute.
Thank you, Krista! XO