I have become obsessed with buying things on Amazon. With two young kids I rarely have time to get out and go shopping and I love the convenience of laying in my bed late at night, browsing Amazon, ordering something, and having it at my door two days later.
posted January 1, 2016
Today we had a great time decorating sugar cookies with some friends! It was messy, it was good sensory play, and it was yummy!
posted January 1, 2016
Kyle and Simon LOVE to read together. They read together all the time and it is so sweet.
posted January 1, 2016
I didn’t take any pictures with my “big camera” today but I did find this one on my cell phone so I will post it. Simon brought some cars up from the basement so I pulled out this activity rug, and he then went and got his trees from the basement and put the trees on the trees!
posted January 1, 2016
In September I started doing Tot School with Simon. I only made it a couple weeks before I got insanely busy with fall photography and getting ready for Betsy, but finally now I felt like my schedule had slowed down enough, and Simon was really needing more stimulation, so I got together with some friends and we made a plan for the upcoming weeks. This week was animals and I so enjoyed watching Simon as he learned some new animals!
posted January 1, 2016
I promise we don’t usually let Simon watch TV like this, haha. I came out of my bedroom early this Sunday morning and Simon had hoarded all his books and toys into his cardboard box and was watching Curious George.
posted January 1, 2016
This Saturday Betsy-girl went with me to two photoshoots. The first one was for the blogger I work for and I needed to be down on the floor taking photos so I took her out of the BabyBjorn and she snoozed away and sucked her a thumb (a new thing for her that she is doing more frequently).
posted January 1, 2016
What a fun day Simon had! We played outside which we rarely do, and we got out his vet clinic toys, which we regularly do, but for the first time he decided he would put on the whole vet costume I got on sale after Halloween!
posted January 1, 2016
So many of my photos are at the end of the day as I scramble to get a picture for the day. This evening Betsy was happy and alert doing some tummy time and Simon came out of the bath to find a freshly emptied Amazon box to play with.
posted January 1, 2016
A little peek into my sweet and wonderful life. My dear husband making dinner as he does 95% of the time, sweet Simon in his booster seat, and happy Betsy laying on the floor.
posted January 1, 2016
Some photos from Betsy’s weekly photoshoot. I love her many expressions. :)
posted January 1, 2016
I have been letting Simon read books up on my bed while I get ready in the morning and he loves it so far (usually he is not allowed up on the bed!). He has also been looking at this photo book with his baby photos and saying that the baby is “baby etsy.”
posted January 1, 2016
I read a blog post the other day with a bunch of “must have” items for putting together toddler activities and I ended up purchasing 5 items from the list. These water beads were one of them and this was the first time we used them, lots of fun! Oh, and the shower curtain liner was one of the items on the list too, put it under your activity and when you’re all done throw it in the washer!!
posted January 1, 2016
Another end of the day shot.
posted January 1, 2016
I missed the 21st, oh well!!! Here are a couple random pictures of my kiddos from the 22nd.
posted January 1, 2016
It was the end of the day and I hadn’t taken a photo yet so I did a few low-light portraits of Betsy with my 100mm macro lens.
posted January 1, 2016
I made Simon some bathtub paint and let him go to town one night. One of his favorite things to do was just move his brush from one color to the next. Also, I would love to offer mini-sessions like this in people’s homes!!!
posted January 1, 2016
My goal today was just to get a photo of the four grandkids together, not an easy task with Simon!
posted January 1, 2016
I got out the washable markers for the first time in a while and Simon was so funny opening them over his head.
posted January 1, 2016
I photographed a two-year-old’s birthday party and this was my favorite shot.
posted January 1, 2016
These are my lazy kids… :)
posted January 1, 2016
I finally got wireless triggers for my studio flash so I am not tethered to it! I waited until my sync cord was pretty much dead to make the switch to wireless and wish I had done it a lot sooner! Betsy was my relatively willing test subject once I got it set up late Wednesday night.
posted January 1, 2016
I only snapped a few pictures of Simon yesterday before leaving the house for a photoshoot (boudoir so I won’t be sharing those!!). Simon is so darn cute when he plays with his vintage Little People house.
posted January 1, 2016
I might get out and take some photos of Simon in the snow later, but I am going to go ahead and use this fun shot for my 365. This kiddo did this all by himself at a friends house today. He cracks me up!
posted January 1, 2016
Kyle is in FL for 2.5 weeks for work and we were able to hire a super sweet Amish girl named Martha to help out with the house and kids. Simon loves her and she is super good with him (and with Betsy!). Also Simon stuck all his letter magnets to his “tea pot” (a milk frothing pitcher from IKEA) and I thought it was hilarious, he’s so creative.
posted January 1, 2016
I took one photo today, so I am posting the one photo I took! Simon, in his super cute construction jammies, ready to read a book with mommy before bed.
posted January 1, 2016
I like the perspective of photos taken from above and decided to photograph both kids that way this morning. They didn’t turn out amazing, I like the Betsy picture better than the Simon one, but I will keep practicing this angle. Betsy is two months old today! She only woke up once last night, hurrah!
posted January 1, 2016
I got down on the floor with Betsy and snapped some photos today. I took about a dozen photos, I only liked one enough to post, and I only kept two. I am trying to be better about deleting the photos that don’t make the cut (blurry, bad expressions, bad composition, etc…) instead of just picking my favorites, flagging them, and never disposing of the bad ones. Because I haven’t been good about cleaning up I have a hard drive packed to the brim and a lot of it just needs to be deleted!!
posted January 1, 2016
Simon LOVES bath time. When daddy is home they have made it a morning routine to get ready together, Simon will watch Curious George on the iPad while Kyle showers and then when Kyle is out of the shower he draws Simon a bath and Simon plays in the tub while Kyle finishes getting ready. With Kyle gone for the next 2.5 weeks we will probably do bath time as part of the bedtime routine, that’s what we did tonight. These photos were taken within a split second of each other, his varying expressions crack me up!
posted January 1, 2016
These icicles have been taunting me every time I pull out of the driveway but I just never have time to get outside and photograph them with two little ones. Finally, I got home one day and transferred a sleeping Simon to his crib, kept a sleeping Betsy in her carseat, and grabbed my 35mm, 85mm, and 100mm macro lens and shot the icicles with all three of them. A fun little photography exercise!
posted January 1, 2016
Simon is in such a hilarious stage right now. He is learning to talk and has a handful of catch phrases such as “try it”, “try again”, “open doors”, “here ya go” and “woooow”. Also, toys are cool and all, but the best things to play with are not toys at all, or are borderline. This morning his toys were a balloon and a party clapper thing leftover from New Year’s Eve. When Kyle takes a shower Simon usually goes in with him and today when Kyle asked him if he wanted to shower he put his “toys” right outside the bathroom door, went in and shut the door.
posted January 1, 2016
I’ve never done a #mcm (man crush Monday) but if I did it would always be this guy. My sweet husband who goes above and beyond every single day for his family. I told him yesterday I wanted to photograph him cooking dinner and he didn’t even flinch. :)
posted January 1, 2016
Selfies… I’ve taken a lot of them in the past year. I think partially because I am thinner than I have been in recent years and like the way I look more, partially because it’s a great way to get a picture of me and my busy man Simon, and partially because as a mom I don’t always feel pretty so when I do documenting it feels good!!! I know some people hate selfies but I don’t, I actually really like seeing other people’s selfies! So for today’s 365 I took some selfies, something I never attempt with my big camera, and is much harder than it appears. I took 31 photos, haha. And I’m posting two of them. :)
posted January 1, 2016
My kiddos will OFTEN be my subjects for this challenge! My little man Simon has been playing with beads we got for our Toddler NYE party for the last two days. Today it was putting them on, then taking them off and putting them in his pitcher, then pouring them into cups. And when they would get tangled losing his mind until I reminded him he could just ask mama for help. ;)
posted January 1, 2016
I started my photography business a few years ago and feel like this past year was amazing for me as far as learning and growing and it has really given me the desire to continue learning and growing and pushing myself so one of the things I want to do this year is a Project 365. My goal with it is to not give myself any stress or guilt, as a mother of two young ones I don’t need to add any of that to my life, but I do want to challenge myself to pick up the camera every day, to learn light better, to learn composition better, and to grow creatively.
posted January 1, 2016