A Walk in the Woods

On one of the last perfect fall days of the year, we ventured outside to attempt some family pictures. My brother, our photographer for the day, came down to hang out and try to capture my brood.

The sun was warm, the air was crisp  and we had the area to ourselves.  And the pictures...well... we got a few great ones!

But, my favorite photos are the out takes. The kids in their natural state.

While those photos did not make our annual Christmas card, I smile every time I see them.

 A large hill is much too tempting. The boys were bribed to get "just a few more shots" than they could run down the hill, getting the wiggles out.

Corralling 3 kids, getting them to smile AND look in the same direction is not for the faint of heart.

But being silly? Not a problem.

Uncle Joel, the photographer, had to take his turn chasing Macy.

Don't mind that baby, photobombing our photo, running with her shoe in hand.

Sometimes you need to have Puppy join the family photos. Or you will not have a Christmas card picture.

This picture sums it all up.

  Jack is asking about the creek off the left. Colin is done with pictures, pouting on the ground. I have the "mom" pose with my hands on my hips. Ryan is explaining something and Macy is grinning, flirting with my brother.

What do you like best, the out takes or posed pictures?

30 Day Photo Challenge ~ Day 6-10

Day 6~ Childhood Memory

This one was a little harder than I thought. I could not thing of anything that would be fun to photograph. When Jack was getting his haircut in our friend's back room, I thought of my great grandpa. He was a barber by trade. When we were little, my brother, sister and I would go into his back room, with his old-school barber chair and get a hair cut. We would also get some sort of candy or sucker afterwards, just like Jack did.

Day 7 ~ Something New

 Blazing Rays dress~ Anthropologie

Teana heels~ Target

Nordstom Rack necklace and BR bracelet

This dress was one of my favorite finds from my shopping trip while in MN. I was in the Anthropologie in Maple Grove, and I found a this little dress shoved in the back of sale room. I have not seen anything like this and to my surprise, it was my size and $19.90! It originally was $158, and someone had returned it the day before. The sales associate was surprised it even lasted till the next afternoon.  It is a tad bit big, but nothing that I was willing to pass up!  In fact, I like this dress so much that I wore it to work and to church! Add a little jean jacket and it is is church and office appropriate. I love a good deal!


Day 8~ Technology

At first I was thinking about my mac laptop, or my camera or my android cell phone for the technology photo. Than I watched my little 3 yr old turn on the television (with permission...this time), turn on the wii, sit down and navigate to the netflix and than select a Thomas the Train episode. All by himself. That is a very technical 3 year old, if you ask me! He also dressed himself...but was not as successful with that :)




Day 9~ Faceless Self Portrait

I wanted to do something dramatic and artsy...but I didn't. Because most of my time is spent wrestling these little men. This picture was taken on Sunday, when both Jack and Colin decided to cover me with their stuffed animals and random blankets. I was in an animal tent, obviously.



Day 10 ~ What I Made

These guys are my proudest accomplishments. I made these guys and they are wonderful and amazing and beautiful. I could have photographed a meal I made, or a piece of furniture that I redid, but really, that is not important. I carried these guys for 9 months, I fed these guys from my own body, I held and cradled and rocked these guys into a sleepy delirium. While I was not alone in the making of these sweet babies, I will claim them as my own.

30 Day Photography Challenge

Debra is hosting a 30 day photo challenge. I had seen this challenge before on Andrea's photo blog, but never got around to doing it. I love the idea of challenging myself to take more pictures. I love photography, but do not do it enough. I want to learn so much more and explore it's endless possibilities. I tend to get intimidated by really good photographers, but just need to point and shoot.

So here it is, a 30 day photo challenge. I know it is in the middle of the month. So I am going to make my own rules, being that it is my own blog and stuff. I am going to post the challenge photos once a week. I will post 5-6 photos at a time. I would ideally like to post daily, but the reality probably would not happen. We have two old lady computers and sometimes the one where I store and edit the photos decides not to work. So, once a week it is. We will start with the first 5 and work our way through.

Want in? Let me know and we can all link up and browse some inspiring photos. Don't have a fancy camera? Who cares. Just point, shoot and have fun. Who knows what we will learn in the process.

Happy clicking!