Our Summer Vacation....

(Remembering our vacation last summer to Jellystone Park,

a fantastic place for a family vacay!)

Welcome to the Jellystone Park!

We met Boo Boo and Yogi,

and made new friends.

There were tons of fun activities and things to do.

Daddy caught fish

And Seth caught everything else.

We had lots of wild weather leaving us without power a couple of times.

And lots of time for Mommy to play with pictures. :)

We had so much fun that we plan to go back this summer!



(I'm so glad that one of this week's writing prompts from Mama Kat was to "Remember Summer".  I had intended on blogging about our trip back in August, and this gave me the perfect excuse.)

 

If You Love IG, You MUST Watch!

My friend, George (gnicholson3 on IG), is one of the authors of IG Style Guide.  This morning he posted a hilarious video from YouTube.  Having been an IG fan for over a year now, I can relate to so many of those situations.  Even if you don't have Instagram, I think you may still find it worth a couple minutes to watch. 

Enjoy!

and now I'm off to catch up on my feed. ;)

four

Really?  Why does time seem to speed by? I don't ever remember time passing by this quickly when I was a teen or even in my 20's.  But now as a mom, the years pass in the blink of an eye.

And four years ago, I looked like this on the eve of giving birth to my second son.

On Saturday, we celebrated my middle son's fourth birthday.  He stole my heart that day he was born with a head full of dark hair and that sweet baby smell. 

He was such an easy baby and a great sleeper.  He was (and still is) a great little cuddler who loves to snuggle close.  

We found out I was pregnant in 2007 on the 4th of July.  He has definitlely been the little firework of our family. 

He is our little entertainer, always full of jokes and songs.  His imagination and creativity would be hard to match. 

Watching him grow has been such a blessing. (But secretly, I'm wishing he could stay little.)

 He could probably get away with murder with that sweet smile and big brown eyes.

Happy Birthday, Sessie B!

I love you more than I could have ever imagined.

(And if you've ever wondered how to decorate a cake using fondant, visit my food blog. I wrote a post on how to make homemade fondant.) :)

A Late Winter Day at the Zoo

Today the boys and I packed up and headed to the zoo for an afternoon full of fun. They are always up for a zoo adventure, and I couldn't wait to try out my camera.  :)

(Entering this picture in Shoot. Edit. Submit.)

Practice makes perfect, right? :)

all my boys

One of the best things about living out by the lake is getting to enjoy spectacular sunsets (as I'm sure you can tell by looking at my IG feed.) I am also a huge fan of silhouettes.

This photo was taken a couple of months ago of my husband and three sons.  Now, I just need to get a tripod so that I can make it into a picture. Ha!

(This is my first time entering a photo challenge hosted by The Paper Mama.)

***UPDATE***

I was so excited to wake up today and see that my picture was second place!  Yay!

Visit The Paper Mama for a new challenge, black and white!

What's A Wannabe Photographer To Do?

I mentioned a few posts back about my growing love of photography.  It's funny, all the time I would have spent reading books for book club (or time that should be spent scrubbing toilets, washing dishes, folding laundry) has been taken over by devouring my camera manual or searching out photography information online. 

As my comfort behind the lens increases, I really have seen an improvement in my images.  And if I can brag a little, I got another Class Standout Award from my online photography group hosted by Little Fashion Diary for this picture of a nail!  Yay!

Anyway, I am considering taking up this hobby of mine as a way to earn money.  I love taking pictures of nature and still life, and I feel those are my strong subjects.  Obviously I love taking pictures of my boys, too.  Although, I can only shoot pictures of my boys a handful of times before they begin to scowl and run away.  So, I am always up for some willing subjects. 

My camera goes with me to all school events, and I try to take shots of the kids using all my limited growing know-how.  Recently, I've been lucky enough to have a friend let me take pictures of her daughter's birthday party.  One of my dear friends even allowed me to take some practice shots of her sweet two week old little boy. 

Imagine my excitement when another friend offered up her soon to be born twin girls for a photo shoot!!! I've been doing research every chance I get about positioning, props, and other little tricks of the trade for newborn shoots.  My husband has been so encouraging and even built me one of those DIY photography backdrop stands out of PVC pipe you see all over Pinterest. 

Really wanting to test out all my new equipment, props, and of course to practice my shooting and editing, I did what any wannabe photog would do.  I enlisted the help of my sons' Cabbage Patch Kids.

Meet Salvatore and Dominic.  :) 

They were so happy to participate in my photo shoot, and couldn't have been better subjects.  Well, they could have posed better on their tummies and had arms that would fold across their bodies. 

It was pretty funny to see me trying to force those little stuffed dolls into positions they were not going to get into.  I know there are things I need to improve on, but I have to start somewhere, right? :)