365 day 4 halloween

TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!!!
Rohan was SO excited over halloween. He is one of the funniest kids... you know the ones grab the candy (and by that I mean grab as much as he can) yell thank you over his shoulder, and run asking which house is next. Not even waiting for the rest of our posse!!!
This year costumes did not work out as planned. So after my sister showed me some good finds at Wallyworld off we went. Where Rohan decided to be just like his cuz and get the same costume. The bad spiderman. VERY excited he got to wear a mask. I had a pile of ones for Kade - but really. The girl would rather be naked that anything lol. Asking her to dress up is painful! She picked the Tinkerbell costume (which we have had the new Tink movie for about a week, and she never says she likes. Of course once she has the costume on she tells daddy who was watching Treehouse with Ro - no Daddy I don't like this show put on Tinkerbell!!!! Maybe she is getting girly!)
So the kids got bathed and got into their costumes (with Kade complaining she wanted to be Spiderman lol). Rohan bolts downstairs to scare Daddy. I hear BWAHAHAHAHA from Ro and Daddy pretending to yelp in surprise. To which Rohan says no, seriously daddy it really is just ME under the costume!!!!! SO CUTE.
We went out with my sister and her family just up and down the block. Kade would not let ANYONE hold her candy bag and dragged it on the ground behind here lol. She is scarred from the night....... there was a man handing out candy at the end of the street sitting on the steps with a scary mask on. Right until the moment she fell asleep from then on all we heard all night was 'why did that man scare me' 'that man scared me mom/dad' 'why' 'why didn't he take the mask off' 'why did the man have a mask' SERIOUSLY. All night. and we had to answer her every time. I couldn't even get through a book with her, and she wanted to sleep with Ro lol. HOW CUTE.

THE END.

Such a lady!

The boys doing their thing!

cold weather, combined family outdoor fun!

The wait is OVER!!!!!
Now - Imagine this..... 2 brothers, their wives, and their combined 8 kids!!!!!! Made for a very fun and interesting shoot :) Especially as 2 of them were still little bitty cutie babies.
These parents rock the world of parenting. We hung out in the cold for a couple of hours. Jackets on, warm up, jackets off, snap a couple, jackets on again. They were hardcore. And their kids - AMAZING. For all of the young kids that were there, and facing the task of getting their pictures taken, one word sums them up - AMAZING. All in all there was a ton of fun to be had - I just wish it had been warmer! Thanks you guys for braving the cold with me, and for not actually touching all the deer that were around. I am a little freaked of wild animals being THAT close to me.... even if they were only deer!

Hope you enjoy!!!!

A couple of my very fav shots!!!! totally crushin on the flare!

So cool.... desperately wishing for more of a zoom lens. Love this!

hmmmm bribery anyone????????????

Now that's a handful of kids!!!! and look how cute they all are!

365 day 3

Today was a crazy but totally fun day in my house :) My sister - apparently a genius ;) suggested that we start doing a kids swap. So she looks after my kids one day a week and I look after hers another day. So we each get ONE WHOLE DAY a week to ourselves!!!!!!!! To a SAHM - you all know that is like GOLD. What did I do with my day this week? Steam cleaned the carpets. I know I know you are ALL totally jealous over my glamorous and exciting life. But I tell you I haven't been that happy in a while! My carpets look brand new! And considering they are about 10 or 11 years old, we have two kids and two dogs - that in itself is a major WAHOOOO moment!!!
Anyways... she dropped off her kiddos this am (and I AM consumed with jealousy that my nephew is awesome at his potty training as he is younger than Kade lol). Our kids usually play really nicely so I had been looking forward to this. I also looked forward to hangin with my nephews... they are so cool!!!
A friend also dropped off something VERY special for a very fun photoshoot Monday (so stay tuned) with her 2 kids so we had a very fun noisy household.
I decided to get the kids out of the house this pm. 4 kids 4 and under and 2 dogs definately caused some crazy moments... but I think everyone had fun and it was nice to get out!
and yes I KNOW there are limb chops in here... but hey I was watching 4 kids and holding one dog on a leash lol. I'm glad I got the ones I did!
Some of the edits are not my usual..... I am trying out some fun solid color fill layers to get a tad hazy, creamy look. So it is on purpose!

Here's the proof!

couple of pokey weirdos.... they kept laying on the cement and laughing while the other 2 ran ahead!!!

He had to jump off EVERYTHING he saw!

This was what happened today when I was in the shower.... she makeupd herself. Later I found she also did a matching makeup job on her baby!

she wanted to stay there all day!

new backdrop - family style!

I got a nice suprise in the mail today!! A supersize beautiful backdrop!!! It is gorgeous... I am in love with it. Can't wait to use it on some willing peeps! It is DEFINATELY big enough for a family wahooooo!!! I bribed my kids, and even that wasn't working! I also have recently gotten into studio lighting - so these were with my bees. I am totally enjoying them! The backdrop does look different with lights on it - Grandma's on the post below was all natural light!

So here are some of the first shots :)

365 day2

OK so here we are day 2 and I have 2 kids that DO NOT want to cooperate! I had this whole plan in mind.... but Rohan was not so cooperative. And Kade well... she was herself. IN TRUE FORM today. 2 year olds are ridiculous. She was already back in pj's by 3pm because that is when I was ready to put her back to bed!!!!!

Here are a few.... and this is 'the bad' today. Didn't have a reflector up - so the light was a bit harsh on one side. But oh well.... I still did it according to my rules!

Rohan's latest fixation. Daddy's ipod touch. the reason we need something like this in kid version but really awesome quality. If you know of something please let me know! He loves playing all the kid apps on it :)

he was really ready for this to be over a few clicks in!

And this lovely lady is Grandma. She came in for the day and let me run out and mail some stuff and get a couple groceries. Love her! This picture was taken at ISO 2500. I am in love with my camera!!!!!!! Noise? really...... where?????

365 blog challenge (my style) day1

So I have to decided to to one blog entry per day of my life for 365 days :) And yes - this has been done many times before, and not exactly the way I am doing it!!!!
My rules - one blog post per day of my life - the good the bad and the ugly. In addition to my regular posts. Tryin to keep it simple, keep it real, have fun and learn! It was suggested to me by a friend to journal my kids lives - cause really they are pretty funny :) They do some pretty crazy things for being so young - and I have great 'while I was in the shower my kids.........' stories lol. I also am doing it to focus on improving my camera skills. To those who have asked - I shoot in manual. ALWAYS. So all these pics (as well as my others) are in manual. I haven't totally decided which metering mode I heart the most, so right now they are center weighted, but that may change. So hopefully I will manage to get some pics of my kids actually edited (cause I have a million sitting around unedited and undeveloped), some stories to keep for them, and improve my skills all at once :)

So for now...... I am focusing on doing these posts with my 50mm 1.4. And shooting wide open..... ok sometimes they won't be totally wide - but never over 2.8 (which is my fav app on this lens). I think these were around 1.8.

The reason they won't always be totally wide? I love CRISP focus. And I haven't mastered that at 1.4. Especially on my usual subjects - my 2 and 4 year old (gasp is he really 4!!!!!!). They are pretty active and HATE having their pics taken, so I have learned to be pretty quick!

These pics are out on our street. We just got back from Halloween costume shopping and I let the kids have some playtime out there - on their current fav toys. Rohan is a speed demon on that scooter.... we have a slight hill for a driveway so he scoots down it then turns the corner and keeps rollin down our slightly hilly street lol. Kade is a little more cautious. She like to go fast (she thinks) then FREAKS out and plants her feet, almost causing wipeout after wipeout. Pretty funny :)

As I write this post at 9:30 both my children are up watching me. Apparently hunger and can't sleep. Never a dull moment!

They really play together super nice.... Kade here is actually pushing Ro into the street and he started crying about 3 seconds after this pic. totally TYPICAL.

And this is about as much as Kade wants to participate in pics ...... EVER.

When I was a kid we had a tree with these things... I have no clue what it is actually called..... we used to call it the helicopter tree :) Those little things spin around when you drop them to the ground.

And really.....my day is never complete without one of these :) And I am currently out of coffee, so I finally got me some when we were out shopping! LOVE my coffee!

a new adventure with an awesome family!

It happened. My very first completely cancelled outdoor shoot because it was JUST too cold. So we opted to give it a go indoors. Now this family was so awesome, I can't even begin to describe.
I have never tried a family shot indoors, I didn't have a backdrop big enough, and didn't have anything to pose them on. But they were willing, so we gave it a go. It was such a great experience, and these kids were incredibly cute :)
Thanks so much for the chance to give it a whirl - enjoy!!!!!

sweet Miss R and co

She's THREE!!!!!! Time sure does fly. My friend T and I headed out to the park on seriously the last nice day outside. It may have been windy - but it was worth it, because the very next day winter arrived. We also took some indoor shots - all for little Miss R who just turned 3!!! She is just the sweetest little girl - Happy Birthday Rachel!!!! Of course since her big sis and lil bro were there - we got a couple of them too ;)

This one just makes me LAUGH!

Really.... she was having a good time - she just wanted to be the one TAKING the pics, and Ro had the camera they were using while I made her pose lol.

It took a few minutes to get into dancing with the skirt on - but after a few she was HOOKED! So cute!

Look at him! He's WALKING!!!!!!

I love that wobbly just starting out walk :)