I Heart Faces: Let's hear it for the boys!;

This is one of my all time favorite photos of my boys. On a recent trip to the coast, and on a very windy day, my Dad (AKA "Papa"), my husband, and my son launched the kite. 

Okay, they tried really hard, had a few successful crash landings and one liftoff. It took them about an hour to assemble the very complicated spider-man kite and 30 minutes to wreck it. :) But, boy did they have a blast doing it. The wind whipped the kite on sharp upturns and even sharper crashes to the sand. My son ran around in circles, hooting and hollering with excitement. I sat in the sand and watched, snapped off some photos, and looked on as I thought about how lucky I am to have these very special men in my life.

I love them! Let's hear it for the boys, men, uncles, fathers, and Papas!

What a great challenge on the heels of Father's day! Hope you all had a great one. Check out the rest of the photos at I Heart Faces.

Love,

Finding photo creativity

I struggle often with finding my creative juices while taking photos.  I love to get cool new angels and poses that don't look posed. I want to have fun and make my clients happy although, there are times when I am just not feeling it.  

Sometimes I need a boost and they just don't have the kind I need at Jamba Juice. I recently discovered Pinterest. If you have not been there yet, well go! Find it, love it, make it your own. I just cant get enough!  Anyway I saw this cool pin about ways to keep creativity in your photos.

                                                                                        Source: divasanddreams.blogspot.com via Michele on Pinterest

I'm going to try to follow this... 

• I already cleaned up my workspace (#2) and now on to my house, which might take a little longer.
• I took a road trip this weekend and definitely documented (#23), more to come on that. 
• I  practice daily as my models/children can attest to (#29) 
• I turned on some crazy Pandora today (#5)
• I did an honest self portrait (#13). That was a big deal for me. I'm not usually in front of the camera, so it was a little awkward, which meant I just didn't look at the camera.  

What do you think?

I have to work on #17 but im also going to try to spell it right. :) I won't be doing # 28 because I don't cut and paste and that is what my blog is for anyway.  

Well,  off to do #6!  

Happy Monday! Now, go do something creative.

Love, 

I Heart Faces: Bright & Vivid

Someone told her there might be a bug in the weeds....

... and there was. Daddy spent the evening removing a tick. Poor Mouse, but I got a cool picture. :)

Go see the rest of the Bright and Vivid entries at I Heart Faces .

Love,

I Heart Faces: From a Distance

"From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace,
it's the voice of every man"

I love to watch my children play from a distance. When they don't see me, they are truly being themselves. From a distance there really is harmony!

The challenge this week at I Heart Faces is From A Distance, go check out the rest. 

Love, 

Summer survival week 1

We have survived one whole week of summer, so far. I am actually (don't let my husband hear this) enjoying this whole no TV thing. I have found that while I thought I used to have the TV on for the noise, I must have actually stopped to watch it occasionally, because I am getting more done now. Weird? 

We went to the gym 3 days last week, which proved to be a great way to get the kids out of the house for some activity in the childcare center, while mommy tries to remove some of the post lent (back to drinking milk) pounds I have put on. I got most of the Mount Everest pile of laundry done so at least now I can easily open the door to the laundry room, which is such a weight lift for me! We have been listening to more Pandora and I actually read a whole book in one week, which hasn't happened since the whole Twilight Saga. Nuf said!

The kids have been doing a lot more playing outdoors, even in the rain, since our summer weather seems to have forgotten to appear thus far. Mouse has been reading more books and they both have done a lot of art. They have discovered the board games that have been otherwise untouched for about a year. Sad, I know. I forgot how much I loved Candy Land as a kid. 

 We also did something fun that was new to me. We LISTENED to a book! I had mistakenly ordered the Junie B. Jones audio books instead of the real deal and so we listened. And we listened some more. And the kids and I killed about 2 hours, laying on the floor with our blankets, listening to the books. It was so nice and it will be a sure fire way to pass time in the rainy weather. 

They look enthused, huh!

Here is the best part,...wait for it! When I get these 2 unused AT&T cable boxes back to the cable company, I get a whole $300 back! Yippee! That should help pay for some form of extra curricular summer activities to help us get through. I'm thinking Piano lessons. Up until now, the piano's only purpose is serving as a time-out spot for children that have not stopped whining about the lack of TV and are otherwise getting into mischief!

If there was a pouting award...he might win!

 Today, we started a new adventure, which my Jedi and Mouse have been eagerly anticipating. The arrival of their cousin (we shall call him The Monkey).

The Monkey will be joining us for the whole week, every other week, the whole summer. I am thinking we will be embarking on many adventures together. Firstly, we had to lay down the rules for the summer, so that we can ensure the tattling will be kept to a minimum and mommy can remain pleasant and happy. Here goes...

And that pretty much sums up the rules...

 Now, for today we shall play happily and begin our 2 weeks of swim lessons. According to Mother Earth, today will mark the end of the rain for a while, at least I really really hope so...

Can you hear the church choir singing?

Love,