I ♥ Faces -- "All Boy"

The theme of the month for I Heart Faces is "All Boy".

Well. For any of you familiar with my family and this blog, you'll know I have a lot more "girl" to show off than "boy." I have five sisters. I have three daughters. For several years, my sisters were all having daughters. Before my husband and I found out we were expecting our fourth child, the tally of my parents' biological grandchildren stood at: Girls - 11; Boys - 1. (Two adorable little boys had also recently been added to the family through adoption. We needed them. ;-) )

Then suddenly, the boy population exploded. My sister, sister-in-law, and I all found out we were expecting around the same time, and -- what are the chances?! -- we were ALL having boys.

We are enjoying all these little rambunctious cuties that have been added to the family in recent years, but of course, I am loving having my own little monkey most of all. At 8 months old, he is constantly on the move... usually stuffing anything he can find in his mouth (except for the things I want him to eat, of course). He is about half sweet, affectionate little charmer, and half crazy, curious little explorer. One of my favorite things to do with him is to get down on my hands and knees and crawl toward him (as he crawls toward me) until we ram foreheads in the middle, and then he gives me a sloppy, wet "kiss." Often during this little ritual (and quite often at other times, too), he screws up his face into this ornery little sneer and snuffles excitedly through his nose.

And this, of course, is what you see here. :-)

www.mirrorsoflifephoto.com

Yep. He's all boy. :-) (Though I feel it's only fair to point out that my oldest daughter used to make this exact same face. He reminds me of her in a lot of ways. They are a cute little bunch of stinkers.)

Love my little man. ♥

Check out more "All Boy" photos at www.iheartfaces.com!

I ♥ Faces -- "Purple"

The theme of the month for I Heart Faces is "Purple".

You know how, as a parent, you're always after that picture where your kids are sitting all nicely cuddled up next to each other and smiling just perfectly? Well, that's what I was originally trying for on the day I got this...

www.mirrorsoflifephoto.com

Not quite what I was going for, but you know what? I like it even better. :-)

The editing on this photo is a bit of a stylistic departure for me, but it seemed to fit the picture and theme. What do you think?

Check out more beautiful "Purple" photos at www.iheartfaces.com!

I ♥ Faces -- Best Face of 2013 Challenge

This month is the Best Face of 2013 Challenge at I ♥ Faces! I had a tough choice between several different photos this year (both family and clients), but in the end, I decided to go with this photo of my sweet little boy. I took this a few weeks ago while my kids and I were out enjoying an unusually warm December day. My little buddy was getting sleepy, but he was stubbornly staying awake and kept staring at me with those beautiful, sleepy eyes... I had to get a picture, and now I just can't stop staring at it! I'm biased, I know, but could he be any more adorable? ;-)

(See more of my work at www.mirrorsoflifephoto.com)

Check out more beautiful "Best Face" photos at www.iheartfaces.com!

I ♥ Faces -- "Shadows"

The theme of the month for I Heart Faces is "Shadows". Although I could say a lot about this photo, I'm going to keep it short and sweet this time, so without further ado...

www.mirrorsoflifephoto.com

Check out more beautiful "Shadows" photos at www.iheartfaces.com!

I ♥ Faces -- "Jump"

So, I haven't participated in the iheartfaces.com challenges for a few months, but I wanted to give it another go this month! The theme this time is "Jump."

So, I originally set out to get a picture of all three of my girls jumping on the bed. I went up to my room to take some test pictures, and my 3-year-old decided to tag along with me. I used her as my model for a while to test my settings and try to get set up for the rest of them. Funny, once I got the other girls in the room and tried to stage the jumping, nothing seemed to be working right... but one of the pictures I got of just my youngest struck me as unique and ended up inspiring the photo below.

http://www.mirrorsoflifephoto.com/

This is somewhat outside of my usual editing style, but it was a bit out of my usual shooting style, too, so... What can I say? Everyone's gotta experiment and grow at some point. And in any case, my daughter sure had fun jumping on the bed for a while! :-)

Check out more "Jump" photos at I Heart Faces!

I ♥ Faces -- "Play"

This month's theme at iheartfaces.com is "Play." I was planning to take a new photo for this challenge, but then the thought struck me that I already had the perfect one I wanted to enter...

http://www.mirrorsoflifephoto.com/

I took this photo at the end of a large family shoot last fall. This little girl was a sweetheart for the extended family pictures, but after that she had decided she was done smiling for the day. But when her (very smart) aunt brought out a bottle of bubbles, the smiles and giggles returned in an instant, and she enjoyed a nice little session of chasing after bubbles with her cousins. Such an adorable little girl, and so glad I was able to be there to capture her happiness while she played!

Check out more "Play" photos at I Heart Faces!

I ♥ Faces -- "Wind"

Wow, it's been a while! Good to be back for another photo challenge. :-)

This month's theme at iheartfaces.com is "Wind." It was a gorgeous day out today... warm and sunny, with a refreshing breeze blowing through every now and again. Not too much in the way of actual wind, I'd say, but enough to cool the air when the sun started to feel a bit hot... or, as can be seen here, enough to stir my girls' hair to cool their necks and make for a pretty, whimsical effect.

http://www.mirrorsoflifephoto.com/

Love my girls to pieces... and they truly adore each other as well!

I ♥ Faces -- "Orange"

Wow, it's been a while since I've been here! In case you hadn't figured it out already, I was not able to keep up with my Project 366... I kept taking pictures for quite a while, intending to take at least 7 pictures per week (though maybe not every day) and catch up on posting. I did pretty good with my picture taking for a few months, but eventually I decided I was so far behind on my posting that it was not going to happen. Oh well. I learned a lot in those first few months of making myself pick up the camera every day, and for that I am grateful! So I'd say my Project 366 accomplished my main goal (of challenging myself to grow as a photographer) after all. :-)

But anyway, the reason I've returned is to participate once again in the I Heart Faces challenge for this month. I've also been meaning to participate in these more often, but let's just say... the last several months have been crazy. But here I am back again... we'll see how it goes!

 

The theme for this month is "orange." I chose this picture, taken of a friend and her daughter on a little day trip we took to the beach this summer. The two lovely ladies are wearing orange, but what I loved so much about this picture was the golden-orange sunlight filtering through in the background. I was SO thrilled with the lighting and how the colors turned out in this picture! Not to mention, my subjects just happened to be both beautiful and adorable. :-)

To see more "Orange" photos or to enter your own, go to iheartfaces.com!

I ♥ Faces -- "All Boy"

 

This month's theme at iheartfaces.com is "All Boy." Since I currently have three little girls (and my husband is fairly camera-shy), I don't have a lot of home-grown material for this challenge. I have had the opportunity of taking pictures for several families with little boys, however, and always have a lot of fun with it! I particularly loved this picture of this precocious little boy playing with his dog. This little guy was getting a pretty tired of posing by the end of the photo shoot, but when we turned him loose to play with the dog, his boyish playfulness and personality came gushing right out. Love that I was able to capture it here! :-)

Check out all the other great guy photos at iheartfaces.com this week!

I ♥ Faces -- "Hey Girl!"

This month's theme at iheartfaces.com is "Hey Girl!" featuring photos of women and girls. This photo is one of my favorites from a recent session with a young lady from my church. I was SO thrilled with how her photos turned out... I think my practice over the winter months is paying off! Check out all the other beautiful ladies on I ♥ Faces this week!

Project 366 -- Day 86

March 26th.

Little Miss P showing off a random rock. (I guess she thought it was cool.)

Project 366 -- Day 85

March 25th.

Classic whiny Sweet Pea.

(This may just be one of my favorite pictures of all time.)

Project 366 -- Day 84

March 24th.

Sweet Pea trying out a new trick: checking herself out in the mirror.

Project 366 -- Day 83

March 23rd.

The girlies with our faithful mother's helper / babysitter.

Project 366 -- Day 82

March 22nd.

What to do when you've forgotten to take your picture for the day, and you have your computer handy, but your camera is downstairs?

This.

No one said these had to be super professional pictures every day, right? :-P

Project 366 -- Day 81

March 21st.

Bradford pear blooms.

I'm beginning to think all this pollen just might be worth the beauty that comes with it. (I doubt I would be so generous as an allergy sufferer, though.)

Project 366 -- Day 80

March 20th.

Allergies, anyone?

Spring came early this year, along with LOADS of pollen. This is what I wiped off the slide this afternoon... even though it rained this morning!! And of course the slide was covered again an hour later. Thank goodness it doesn't seem to bother me too much.

Project 366 -- Day 79

March 19th.

Despite what a tomboy she is most of the time, Little Miss P really is quite a beautiful little girl, I think.

Project 366 -- Day 78

March 18th.

This is called... the "I need a random picture for my blog" picture. i.e., I walked around the house trying to find something to take a picture of. And I settled on this floral arrangement that hangs above my bed. And I took an off-center picture of it. Why? Because I felt like it. And it looked kind of cool.

So... am I crazy, or is that actually kind of cool?

Project 366 -- Day 77

March 17th.

 

Smiles from Sweet Pea