Project 365: Day 14

Three-for-one: Emme's new haircut.

Picture #1 I was sitting further away from her, and she was sidelit from the window.  Would have worked better if I had turned 45 degrees and put her in front of me.

Picture #2 Her face is better lit overall, but I should have used a slower shutter speed to lighten it up (was already at a 1.8 aperature).

Picture #3 Could also use a higher exposure, but overall I think the best lit, face-wise.

I really like her new cut.  She hasn't had bangs since she was two years old, and with the amount of hair she had then, you could hardly call it bangs.  She's the kind of girl that doesn't brush her hair or care if it is hanging all stringy in her face, so she should wear this style well!

Project 365: Day 9

  

Juliet and her grandmother sharing a moment.

Well, I'm a few days behind because of being on vacation.  Some parts of it were really good and quite fun, and if you are reading this and we visited you on our vacation, we had a great time with you :-)  Some parts of the trip, unfortunately, were not so good.  Even heartbreaking at times, but, what are you gonna do, you know?  We mourn the loss of some relationships, and yet out of loss, our marriage and family become stronger.  There is always, always a silver lining.

Project 365: Day 4

 

Braided Agave and Honey Oat Bread.  I am dying to adjust the white balance on this photo, but the bread still looks yummy...I think I want more...

Project 365: Day 3

Sir Ralph C. A. T., III, Esquire, basks in the glow of our Christmas tree lights.  I'll probably come back and look at this one lots because it is so cozy-looking.  He got an LED pointer and a hand-puppet brush-type thing in his stocking, and is now feeling like the royalty he always knew he was.

Project 365: Day 2

Photo of my "baby" brother, with my nephew's mom holding Juliet in the background.  I like this one because it really says 50 mm f1.8 to me!

New Year: Project 365: Day 1

My Project 365 goal this year is to practice getting correct exposure and color in-camera.  Fair warning, all photos will be SOOC and not edited at all...I have a feeling it won't all be pretty.  But I hope to get better at this, gaining time in post process and saving the editing for capturing certain photo styles desired by individual clients.

Day 1: A Christmas ornament my parents have had since before I was even around.  Or somewhere around there.  There is something incredibly comforting about your parents' Christmas tree, right?

This has been one of the best Christmases ever.  We are taking our time celebrating and will even be celebrating past Epiphany (January 6) this year.  I have a feeling Monday, January 10 is going to hit like a ton of bricks, but I'm trying to enjoy it until then. 

Along the same lines, I recently postulated to my husband a really super-simple solution to what seems to be a growing dilemma about "Christmas" and who seems to own the word/holiday/season.  Some Christians resent the commercializing and secularizing of our second most important holiday of the year.  And then the commercializ-ers and seculariz-ers resent mention of the word "Jesus" when trying to celebrate their holiday dedicated to Peace, Love, and Joy.  For the sake of brevity, I'm leaving out those who celebrate other holidays which just so happen to also coincide with the winter solstice; "Happy Chanukah", "Happy Kwanzaa", "Merry (or whatever) Saturnalia" don't really have any other connotations, unlike the seemingly innocent "Merry Christmas". 

So here's my solution: Everyone who wants to "keep Christ in Christmas" just needs to give the word away.  There's no getting it back, and frankly, the trees, the santas, the lights, the gifts, the reindeer, the hustle and bustle and energy...are really fun and will always be associated with "Christmas".  And now instead, when wishing to refer to the holiday based on Luke 2:1-20 we need merely to wish each other a "Blessed Nativity".  There ya go--two holidays in one and think how much less confusing for the children ;-)

Feet!

Juliet and Her Grandpa

Faces of Max

Mr. Max is just three months shy of turning three. I'm not really sure where those three years went, but man, is his personality just bursting out of the little dude now! I'm always being demanded to "take pitcher Macky, Mom!" and this face is what usually results:

He absolutely adores spending time with other boys, as he gets enough girliness in each day to last a lifetime.

Here we are, trying something new.

The little stinker likes to run away when I call him. Such was the case right before this photo, and he stops for a split second for me to snap it.

Aaand, this is how we know Max is tired. The classic rub-the-hand-on-the-ear pose.

More Faces of Juliet

Faces of Juliet

She is a very expressive baby, just like her sister Emme.

Here she is, one month old already!

2009 Recap: December

No pictures taken in November. None! I'm not sure that has happened in years. Oh well. To round out and round up my recap of the year, here's a little picture story. My creativity got thrown out the window recently so I forgot how the story was going to go. Anyone want to make up words to the story? If you come up with something really funny I'll send you something.








Happy New Year's Eve, Merry Blue Moon, Good Riddance 2009, and Welcome 2010!

2009 Recap: October

Building a leaf fort in the back yard. I'm sensing a 2009 "fort" theme... We even have had multiple forts inside the house this year.






Hannah singing in the church choir.

2009 Recap: September

On Emme's birthday we hung out in LaCrosse, WI, for really no reason other than there's a Chuck E Cheese. On the way home we stopped at the Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe. It's just beautiful up there, but we arrived 15 minutes before it closed and it was pouring rain :-( Every time we go there, something messes up and we can't ever see the whole thing.





I had never seen this statue of Mary with lost unborn children, though, and through the rain it was quite poignant.

2009 Recap: August

My nephew on the slip 'n slide. Doesn't this just scream summer? August was a beautiful month! Of course I was sick for most of it and it passed in a blur (pregnant again, you know), but the weather was nice anyway.






This is Max in the tub, which is where I scooped him up and landed him after I found him behind a chair eating marshmallow cream out of the jar with his fists. I really don't even know why I had marshmallow cream in the house, since that's more of a Christmasy-baking-type purchase around here. I'm also going to maintain that I have no idea how an open jar of marshmallow cream could have landed right next to my favorite chair in the living room when I just happened to have gotten up for a minute to "use the facilities". I think I'll blame this on the kids as long as I live...

2009 Recap: July

Our group got together in July to watch the town festival parade at one of the member's houses. This is Killer. She does have a real name. It's an old lady name and I know what it is even though nobody is supposed to. She prefers to be referred to as Killer.






This is Father John from our CL group. He is from Sudan and has an interesting yet heartbreaking story of his past.






Emme and her BFF waiting anxiously for the parade to begin.

2009 Recap: June

All three kids worked diligently on a massive card for their dad's birthday. It was made on the back of a Hy-Vee paper bag just for him. Notice the sprawl of art supplies on the school room floor; when they get into a project they really get into a project.





This fort was made entirely of leftover metal tomato stakes, an ugly sheet, and duct tape and lasted pretty much the whole rest of the summer. I will say one thing about these kids, I do admire their creativity and ingenuity! I'm also thinking that on this 10-degree wind chill day in December, I am coveting the very green-ness of our yard...






Speaking of creativity and inginuity...ahem...Max thought he'd turn sand into food. Yummy.

2009 Recap: May

In May we traveled to the west side of the state for my aunt and uncle's 40th anniversary celebration. However, we spent a good deal of the day taking all the kids to the park to get them out of the adults' hair. I was mostly entertained by my husband and my brother making fools of themselves on all the playground equipment.




This picture looks more scandalous than the real situation, which was Max made a new friend named Anika when our good college friends came to visit, and they gave each other a quick kiss. Next time, though, I'll need to specify on the cheek. :-)

2009 Recap: April

We actually had a pretty warm April up here, and the fun was all about getting outside. I swear, I think we went to one zoo or another about every week at first. These first two pictures are both taken at separate zoo trips.





This monstrosity is Conrad's first attempt at a cold frame for the garden plants. It actually works quite well and is made from scrap wood and an old crank window. Our kids and neighbor kids nearly killed the contraption a few times over the summer, but it still lives and is ready to be used again in a few short months. Hopefully short months, anyway.





We have a large marshy wasteland-type area behind our house, and since when we moved in to our house in October 2008 it was nearly winter, the girls couldn't wait to get out and explore it this spring.

2009 Recap: March

Flowers from a dear friend after my D&C. Aaaand, that's about it for March. Photos from April more than made up for the lack of ones in March.