I Heart Faces: Raise Your Hands

This weeks photo challenge over at I Heart Faces instantly reminded me of a song I used to sing with my kids when they were in the very early stages of toddler-hood  and could not stop hitting one another. It went like this...

My hands are for helping
My hands are for holding
My hands are for clapping
when I hear a happy song

My hands are for caring,
My hands are for sharing

My hands are for raising
My hands are for kindness,
not doing harm

I control my hands
'cause they're a part of me
I have absolute control of the body parts on me

My hands are for helping,
My hands are for holding
My hands are for kindness
not doing harm

This photo I took below says to me just how much a child uses their hands to communicate. This little guy was only 7 months old but seemed to be using his hands to reassure his four legged friend, who was a little unsure of the camera. It was so amazing to me, the bond between these brothers at such a young age and how, without words, they still understood and loved one another. Makes me swoon! 

Love, 

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,

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, 

I Heart Faces; People's Choice - May

I took this photo on Mother's Day this year, while looking at my daughter and feeling oh so blessed to be her mother.  It wasn't until I was editing the photo later that I had a flash forward of what she will be like as a mother to her own children someday. 

She sat in this chair in our hallway and cared for her stuffed turtle after our puppy put a hole into it's soft pelt. My sweet little girl bandaged up her baby and sang to it quietly after kissing it's wounds. Maybe all of us girls and women are born with the nurturing instinct, but I know my baby will be a great Mother someday. I also know that I am so beyond grateful to have her as my daughter.

So, this is my best face of May. My baby, caring for her baby. :) 

Go see more best faces of May over at I Heart Faces.

Love,

I Heart Faces: Motherhood

Mother's Day yesterday was a reminder of how blessed I am to have my 2 little monkeys and am able to celebrate the day my own special way. After a day of relaxation, I got a call around 10:30 pm letting me know that my dear sister-in-law had just delivered my niece. What a wonderful mothers day gift that is!

After speaking with my sister-in-law on the phone this morning, I could hear the utter exhaustion in her voice as she explained to me that she had only had an hour of sleep that night.  Apparently, she just couldn't stop looking at her little creation even when the baby slept. I get that! I find myself fumbling into my 5 and 6 year old's rooms, during the middle of the night, often just to catch a sneak peak at them sleeping softly. I am not sure that will ever change. As a mother, you are constantly thinking of someone other than yourself and sleep just isn't the same again. 

Have you ever seen that glow of a new mother, sleep deprived and all? The light that has come on in their eyes. They are so full of love and pride and joy! This photo captures that glow of a new mother, which is the topic at I Heart Faces this week; Motherhood.  By next weekend, I hope I will have gotten the chance to capture the glow of my sweet sister with my new niece wrapped in her arms too.

Love, 

 

I Heart Faces: Soft and Sweet

Soft and sweet is the challenge this week at I Heart Faces. In my eyes, this photo encompasses it all with this 4 month old little boy and his doting mother. Makes me wish for another. Okay scratch that last part written in my moment of weakness. :)

HEAVY my heart is, heavy to carry,
Full of soft foldings, of downy enwrapments--
And the outer fold of all is love,
And the next soft fold is love,
And the next, finer and softer, is love again;
And were they unwound before the eyes
More folds and more folds and more folds would unroll
Of love--always love,
And, quite at the last,
Deep in the nest, in the soft-packed nest,
One last fold, turned back, would disclose
You, little heart of my heart,
Laid there so warm, so soft, so soft,
Not knowing where you lie, nor how softly,
Nor why your nest is so soft,
Nor how your nest is so warm.
You, little heart of my heart,
You lie in my heart,
Warm, safe and soft as this body of yours,
This dear kissed body of yours that lies
Here in my arms and sucks the strength from my breast,
The strength you will break my heart with one of these days.

-Edith Nesbit 

Love, 

Winner Winner! ( i won't say chicken dinner)

I won! Okay 9th place, but I am still in the top ten this week! Ahh, finally, after about 4 months of entering every single week, I am in the top ten (engaging pat-on-the-back machine)! Thank you Miss Casey and please go check out the AMAZING entries and winners from the pet challenge this week at I Heart Faces.

Give yourself a pat on the back too. Its fun and rewarding!

Love,

I Heart Faces: Pets

After a busy day of pulling the covers off tennis balls and digging new holes in the yard, Miss Casey Jane is apparently all tuckered out. No energy left even to come give mama some kisses when I bent down to take her picture, as she snuggled in her igloo. Oh Miss Casey, you are 9 years old now, when will these puppy behaviors go away? You are lucky that those eyes have a direct link to my soul!  I love my labs!

Go check out the rest of the Pet photos at I Heart Faces for this weeks challenge.   If you are anything like me, your heart will melt about 50 times over! 

 Love, 

Photograhy and more photography....

I have been MIA for a while. This I know. It started last Monday with my birthday which was also a day of sickness for me. I was home, in bed, trying to contain my not sick children, while feeling nasty and sorry for myself. My sweet husband left work early to make me some soup and bring me some Daisies (my favorite) and a get well card. He said he could not find a birthday card that would double as a get well card (go figure?) so he did his best.  Isn't he sweet?

By Wednesday I peeled myself off the couch to go take photos of trucks. Yep, trucks. Can't get more cool than that, right?  

I was NOT very excited about spending a whole part of my day trying to get a truck to smile but, I took the challenge. It ended up to be something of a learning experience and I put on my creative cap and used the elements. I think if you were into trucks, these pics might give you some form of a woody (that's technical term for, I think they will like them. :)). Not to sound over confident.

Over the weekend I had two sets of family photos, both were nothing short of a joy and included very small children, which is always a highlight of my day and thankfully they DO smile! Well, some of them only make silly faces while pooping that might allow one to think it is a smile when they view the photo after the fact. :)

Cute right? I love photography but, I still run across challenges every single day that I can not figure out myself. Nothing pains me more than seeing the photo I am about to capture in my mind and having it look SO not the way I planned on the computer. It hurts, its frustrating, and when this happens I usually have nobody I can call to say, WTH did I do wrong?  So far, my photography has been trial and error. Aside, from my college film photography classes, I have had nobody to teach me how to manipulate this very expensive digital camera. So FINALLY, I took a class/workshop this weekend. Boy, did I need to be out shooting with someone who lives and breaths this stuff to be able to ask questions on the fly. Thank you to the very smart and talented Lisa Richmond for the priceless experience!

The only problem is that I quickly discovered that I need about an extra $10,000 to purchase the new camera body and about 2 new lenses in order to have everything I need to take the photos I want to take. BUMMER! 

Anyone want to donate to my starving photographer fund?

 Stay tuned tomorrow for a little something I am working on to spruce up my back yard patio. I'll bet you just can't stand the suspense, right? !  I will give you a hint... I have blue fingers!

Love,

I Heart Faces: Sun Flare

Ever since she was just a tiny little thing, my Mouse has curled up on my bed in the morning to watch cartoons. Once she is up there she will wiggle around to find that one little patch of sun on the bed to rest her head in. She takes after her mommy, as I often find myself in search of that one little glorious spot of warm sun too.

The challenge at I Heart Faces this week is Sun Flare. Such a fun challenge with so many neat entries to go check out! Here is my entry.  Just looking at this photo makes me feel that sun wash over me like a blanket, even on this dreary and rainy day here in California.

Love,

I Heart Faces; Best Face Photo in February 2011

A few weeks back here in California we had snow, and a lot of it! News reports said it even snowed in San Francisco. Well, let's just say, I got my kids all worked up about how it was going to snow at our house. They went to bed on a Thursday night expecting that Friday morning would be a winter wonderland in our otherwise rainy backyard. They were so devastated when the snow just didn't come to our house. So, the hubby and I told them that as soon as Saturday hit, we would go find the snow ourselves. And so we did. We went with 2 sets of friends and their children.  We packed lunches, built a snow fort and spent hours jetting down the hillside about 45minutes from our home in our newly purchased sleds.

I took this photo of my husband and my 4 year old son making one of their first trips down in the fresh snow. My poor little guy was so bundled up, thanks to his over concerned mother, that he could barley see where he was going but, he was full of thrill none-the-less!

This week the photo challenge at I Heart Faces is Best Face Photo in February. This photo was definitely my best face photo. Don't you think their faces say it all?

Love,

I Heart Faces: Anything But A Face

The photo challenge of the week at I Heart Faces this week is Anything But A Faces which, means I don't have to have a face in the picture this week. I could do anything head, shoulders, knees and toes! I had ideas.  I truly pondered this one. I am on 5 weeks of entries with no wins or mentions so I wanted to get something good. There are usually around 800 entries at the end of a contest and there are some GREAT photographers out there. With that said, I had ideas of photographing my daughter painting her toenails which, is always somewhat of a comical treat! But, then as usual, I toted my camera around with me and was struck by a special moment that I snapped a picture of.

Roughly 13 years ago, while in college, I met a young lady who ended up to become a constant and lifelong friend. After we graduated from school we moved apart for work and got married and had children and about 3 years ago now, she moved back to my neck of the woods. We had talked on average of 2 times a day the entire time we lived apart so we didn't skip a beat when her family moved up my way. Our children have become great friends and we often have play dates and get togethers with the family. Her children even call me Auntie! Nothing warms my heart more than to see my children light up when they get to see their best buddies after being apart for a few days.

Today when I arrived to pick my daughter up from school with my sweet surrogate niece in tow, this was what took place. They yelled out each-others names and ran for a warm embrace. I love it and it reminds me of how special our friends are in life and how lucky we are to have them! Thanks to a friendship made 13 years ago, a new one has bloomed!

Special Hugs!

Love,

I Heart Faces: Red

Today over at I Heart Faces the photo challenge is the subject red. This weeks topic is in honor of Go Red For Women.  This is a very important cause for me since I have a history of heart disease within the women of my family. I recently was also diagnosed with the beginnings of a hereditary form of heart disease. It is my goal to stay active, stay strong, and carry on. For this photo challenge I wanted to use a somewhat artistic photo of a women more my age and show the beauty of  our age and gender! I love it!  Go check out the rest of the entries at iheartfaces.com.

Love, 

{I Heart Faces:} Weekly Photo Challenge: Hearts

This weeks photo challenge over at I Heart Faces is "Hearts"!  I included my little loves in this photo since I heart them and they heart each-other.:) Ahh, I love this coming holiday because it gives me a reason to get all silly and sappy and its okay because its February!

Happy Valentines day!

Love,

I Heart Faces: Best Face Photo in January 2011

 

The photo challenge of the week over at I Heart Faces is called Best Face Photo in January 2011. Meet "Sissy", my best friends sweet little girl. On the day of this photo, just a couple weeks ago, she was having her 4th birthday party. It was a Toy Story themed event and while she was all decked out in her best Woody attire she just could not resist getting a beautiful unicorn painted on her face by a very talented face painter at the party. This photo was taken just after she caught a glimpse of herself in a hand held mirror. You can tell by the way her eyes shine just how proud she was of the creation! Happy Monday and please go check out the rest of the entries over at I Heart Faces. 

Love,