I ♥ Faces -- "Oh So Silly!"

These are my sisters. They are both pretty darn silly, but the one on the left in this picture is particularly a crack-up sometimes. Here she is doing what she does best: making my other sister laugh. (I had a few crazier pictures from this shoot, but I didn't want to embarrass them too much! ;-))

Check all the silly photos at iheartfaces.com this week!

Project 366 -- Day 24

January 24th.

Sweet Pea is working on identifying body parts these days... Here she is saying "Head!" as she shows me where hers is.

Project 366 -- Day 23

January 23rd.

Freshly bathed and chillin' out with a little TV before bed time.

Project 366 -- Day 22

January 22nd.

Aaaand you wanna know where I got this crown? Yep, you guessed it! (If you've been reading the past several posts in the order they were posted, that is.) I thought the title on the crown was appropriate considering her nickname on this blog...

Project 366 -- Day 21

January 21st.

Why yes, I do take pictures horizontally on occasion. :-p I also got the girls some Easter dresses at the consignment sale... Ain't they perty? (Paying $6 for each wasn't too bad, either...)

Project 366 -- Day 20

January 20th.

And here is one that was taken on the right day...

The big girls were having a blast with this little tea party. I love how Little Miss P is so into it. :-)

Project 366 -- Day 19

January 19th. (Photo actually taken on the 20th.)

And then there was that one day where I completely forgot to take a picture...

I knew it was bound to happen sometime, but I'd hoped I would have at least gotten out of January first. *sigh* Perhaps a look at my schedule for this week could explain a few things..

Monday: Hubby goes out of town. The Little Miss pukes all over the floor first thing in the morning and lays around the rest of the day. Sweet Pea is acts extra crabby all day.

Tuesday: (wee hours of the morning) Sweet Pea throws up in her bed and then all over the bathroom floor as Mommy rushes her to the toilet. Sweet Pea and Mommy go back to bed. Everyone seems to be stable all morning, so around noon, Mommy decides to take a risk and take the kids with her to the giant consignment sale (mentioned in Day 18) to drop off a few items for sale... with strict instructions for the children not to touch ANYTHING. All goes well... except for Mommy getting a little lost on the way home. Princess acts a little crabby and sick that evening, but manages to keep her food and drink down.

Wednesday: Mommy straightens up the house in preparation for Daddy's return. As soon as Daddy gets home, Mommy escapes back to the consignment sale and spends over 3 hrs shopping (on an empty stomach I might add... all the puking kind of destroyed my appetite for a few days).

Thursday: Like the crazy woman she is, Mommy decides to bring the girls with her to the sale and spend another 2-3 hours shopping. The girls are fortunately very well-behaved (other than LMP getting lost at one point, but she is found fairly quickly). Mommy gathers everyone up, drives home, feeds everyone lunch, puts all the girls to bed, then collapses into bed herself for a couple of hours. She wakes up feeling feverish and still exhausted. After puttering around for a short while and making sure that everyone gets dinner, Mommy leaves the girls with Daddy and heads back to bed.

Friday: Mommy realizes first thing in the morning that she forgot to take any pictures the previous day. Oops. Well, now you know why.

So, although it pains me to have missed a day, I am offering a replacement from the following day. Fortunately, I really liked this picture. So it's all good.

Project 366 -- Day 18

January 18th.



This week found me at a HUGE local consignment sale, where I picked up quite a few gently used clothes and toys for my girls. I brought the girls with me on Tuesday to drop off a few things to sell, telling them that we could NOT buy anything that day, but that I would come back the next day to get them something, and they could make a request for me to try to find.

Princess's request: a purse.
Little Miss P's request: a pink barn. (???)

The purse I found easily enough, and I even found a nearly matching one for the Little Miss. But, as I suspected, I was not able to locate a pink barn. Fortunately, I did locate a pink school bus. Little Miss P got a normal-colored school bus for Christmas a couple years ago, and she has been obsessed with school buses ever since. Princess got a normal-colored airplane on this occasion as well, and she has been almost as enthralled by it as LMP is with her school bus.

So, the pink duplicates of their favorite toys saved the day. They were quite happy. And I was quite happy that I got all four of these items for under $10 total!

Project 366 -- Day 17

January 17th.

And then there was the day when I forgot to take any pictures until I was webcam-ing with my out-of-town husband... So a screen shot had to suffice. (The hubby was not being very cooperative.)

I ♥ Faces -- "By the Book"

This picture may not make much sense at first glance. I mean, where is the "book" mentioned in the theme, anyway? Well, take a closer look. There it is in the center of the picture, on my girls' laps. I was trying to get a cute picture of them looking at a book together. Instead, they used the book as a platform on which to play with their plastic animals. Why on earth a lion, a miniature zebra, and a giant octopus are playing together, I will never know... But they were playing right along, having a whole long conversation between their animals, right there on top of that book! (I thought it was pretty cute.)

You may also notice that DD#1 on the left has her arm in a makeshift sling. She tweaked her wrist a little during some rough play with Daddy the previous night, but with the fuss she put up about it, you would have thought it was broken or at least badly sprained! So I wrapped it up and put it in this little sling, and thankfully this activity with her little sister kept her mind off the gruesome pain for a little while. (It magically got healed when Daddy decided to play with her again that night, though... Hmmm...)

Check out lots more great "by the book" photos at iheartfaces.com!

Project 366 -- Day 16

January 16th.

Someone is not feeling too well today. :-(

Project 366 -- Day 15

January 15th.

Sweet Pea enjoying turning through the pages of a new book. (Thanks, Grandma & Grandpa!)

Project 366 -- Day 14

January 14th.

Sweet Pea pondering over one of her favorite snacks.

Project 366 -- Day 13

January 13th.

My two older girls and I were reading the book "Olivia" on this day and came to a page where Olivia is pictured trying on about 20 different clothing combinations. I asked the girls which ones were their favorites. Princess picked the picture of Olivia in the fanciest dress. Little Miss Personality's two favorites were of Olivia wearing nothing but shoes, and nothing but a hat. I should have known.

LMP in her usual attire: nothing but a Pull-Up.

Project 366 -- Day 12

January 12th.

New artificial flowers on my kitchen table to chase away the winter blues.

I ♥ Faces -- "Family Fun"

January 11th.

One of my favorite family pictures I've taken thus far is this one from my very first session after I'd opened up for business. :-) Check out lots more great family photos at iheartfaces.com!

Project 366 -- Day 11

It was a rather dreary day out there today...

Project 366 -- Day 10

January 10th.

Little Miss Personality at about 10:30pm on this night... Sleep? Who needs sleep?

The quality of this picture isn't the greatest, but it was the best I could do in a dark room with only a slightly cracked-open door and a light-up toy for light sources, which I chose over blinding her with the camera flash. ;-)

Project 366 -- Day 9

January 9th.

Block towers (built by Little Miss Personality and Princess).

Project 366 -- Day 8

January 8th.

Princess getting a reading lesson from Daddy.

I ♥ Faces -- Best Face Photo from 2011

2011 was a great year for firmly establishing a significant place for photography in my life. I got my first DSLR, my first prime lens, opened a little photography business, and learned a TON! (I had a ton to learn, so it was good I started learning it!) I had the opportunity to photograph quite a few families and got so many beautiful faces into my camera that I had a very difficult time narrowing it down to my top choice for the year. But of course, nothing pulls at my heart strings like my own babies, so I kept coming back to a few photos of my three little cuties. In the end, I had to go with this one of my two oldest.

Yes, they really do love each other and give each other spontaneous hugs like this! When we go for walks, one will get several paces ahead of the other, then turn back, and they will call each other's names as they go running into each other's arms. Of course they have their moments of arguing and bickering with one another, but overall they are total sweethearts, and it shows.

Head over to iheartfaces.com for many more awesome entries!

Project 366 -- Day 7

January 7th.

Pizza night... yum. :-)

Project 366 -- Day 6

January 6th.

A daily ritual: the two older girls coming to talk to Sweet Pea in her bed just after she wakes up from her nap, before Mommy comes up to get her.

Project 366 -- Day 5

January 5th.

Another day when the higher-tech camera did not make an appearance... Sweet Pea had doctors' appointments all day for check-ups after a major surgery just over a year ago. With all the other supplies we had to bring along for the day, I didn't have room for the nice camera, but I grabbed my little point-and-shoot. Even so, this picture would have been a lot better quality if I hadn't accidentally left it on video mode... Doh! Oh well. :-)

Sweet Pea with her main surgeon

Project 366 -- Day 4

January 4th.

Does your four-year-old girl admire herself in the mirror? Mine has recently developed an obsession with this. And dressing up in princess dresses. And fancy shoes, and jewelry. And don't forget the tiara.

Now you know why I am calling her "Princess."

Heaven help us when this girl grows into a teenager.

Project 366 -- Day 3

January 3rd.

And then of course there will be the days like today, when I can't decide which picture to post because I took too many that were too cute. *sigh* I'll have to post more from this series tomorrow in a separate post.

Playing group peek-a-boo, naturally.

Project 366 -- Day 2

January 2nd.

And then of course there will be the days that I forget to take a decent picture... It just so happens that this happened for me on Day 2. Phooey.

I was just about to resign myself to the fact that my 365-6 days would have to begin on January 3rd instead of the 1st, when I remembered that I took a video of the girls yesterday evening. So, I'm settling for a still shot stolen from one of the videos and edited as well as possible.

Looking past the quality, it is still a pretty cute shot of my Sweet Pea... She was showing off how she can now count to ten (with a little help with "six" and "seven"), giving me a very enthusiastic, "Nine!"

Project 366 -- Day 1

January 1st.

I have been hearing about the Project 365 idea for several years... That is, to post a photo taken each day of the year, the goal being (naturally) to document everyday life, as well as challenging myself to practice my photography at least once every day. When I first heard about it, I thought it sounded like a goal too lofty for me to achieve, but I think perhaps the year has come when I may be able to manage it. Here's hoping anyway.

Of course, I would pick the one year out of four when there are not actually 365 days in the year. Oh well. So I guess this will be calling this "Project 366." Just so we're all clear on that. :-p

My first picture was taken after church on New Year's Day. I had meant to get this picture on Christmas Eve, but my oldest was sick, so we ended up staying home from church that day. I think this probably worked out better anyway.

L-R:
Daughter #3, who will henceforth be known on this blog as "Sweet Pea."
Me
The Hubby
Daughter #2, who will be known as "Little Miss Personality" (or "LMP").
Daughter #1, who will be known as "Princess."

And of course, I am going to post things late from days previous (as I am doing right now)... But the pictures will (hopefully) all be from the correct dates, so it won't be cheating that much, right? Right.

...On with the show.

I ♥ Faces -- Silly Holiday Photos

This week, I ♥ Faces (iheartfaces.com) is having another just-for-fun photo challenge featuring silly holiday photos. I had two from this holiday season that I thought fit the bill...

#1: Nine out of twelve of my parents' grandchildren,
blowing out the advent candles together on Christmas evening...

(Picture taken almost entirely by the light of the Christmas tree, hence the graininess.)

...and #2: This picture of one of my brothers with my youngest daughter,
who was apparently NOT happy about having her picture taken at this particular moment.


Reminds one of the Greek comedy / tragedy theater masks, no?


(Not my photo... no entry in challenge!)