New Years Resolution -- Check

My resolution for 2010 was to get picture of my kids on my wall, and it finally is done. It only took me to, oh, about November to do it, but hey, who's counting?

So here goes:















I had to get pictures done fast, Brayden's braces come off next month, and Keeley's two front teeth will start growing in soon. Two mile markers I wanted to capture for both of them.

So here is what made these pictures so exciting. While we were down on the greenbelt (yeah, right, they can call it that, I guess) taking pictures, I was doing my best to not be yelling at kids to settle down and not get dirty, etc.

Craig had ran up to the car because I forgot something, we had just finished up 1 set of family pictures, and I was taking Caitlin's pictures. The other three yahoos were running around being psycho and I was ignoring them, focusing on Caitlin, when I heard screaming behind me. I turn around to find Brayden yelling and rolling on the ground holding his head.

Turns out he had been chasing Keeley when she ran under a tree. Brayden didn't realize that a 6 year old might be able to fit places he couldn't, and tried to follow her, smashing his head into a broken off limb. Blood and stitches followed.

Well, I wasn't going to pass up finishing our family pictures since everyone was dressed and the girls hair was done, so after the dr. stitched up the boy, we went back and finished. Some fancy photoshopping to take out the blood (notice the gel look on the left side of his head...nah thats matted blood, not gel), and there ya go...Family Pictures.

I got a new camera!

It's here! I got my new camera! Caitlin is my lucky guinea pig, and this is one of the first shots I got of her with it. I love, love, love it. She turned 10 in February and I really want to take her out to do some pictures, and actually get them printed and put on my wall. That is my goal for this year, to get some pictures of my kids on the wall. Good pictures. Great pictures. Pictures that make my heart sing. Okay, so I'll probably have to settle for just getting pictures on the wall, but a girl can dream.

So please forgive this mommy who has her "mommy goggles" on and thinks my daughter is beautiful and this picture is pretty darn good. (Except for the crummy background, I'm working on it though.)

Now to find new victims...err subjects I mean.

Have a good day, and if you see some psycho lady making her kids stand in the cold wind while she tries to get just one more shot, its probably me so don't judge too harshly.

This thing called Life

School has started. My baby goes to kindergarten. She didn't even hesitate when I dropped her off the first day. Just like all the rest of them. Okay, so some parents would be thrilled if their kids went to class the first day without any drama, but I would have just liked one child, just one, to at least be a little clingy. I don't want them to cry and throw a fit, but maybe just need mom a little bit. Not to be. I'll just tell myself that I did something right in parenting to make such secure and well adjusted children. Yeah.

As if having the baby start school wasn't bad enough, Brayden started middle school. I'm not old enough for this! Well, maybe I am. Brayden seems to be really enjoying the change of pace, it's made him excited for school again. Caitlin is in 4th grade, and Aaron is in 1st.

For Labor Day weekend we went to Portland to my brother's wedding. It was a fast and furious trip, but well worth it to see Russel and Esther married.

Just to make this post a bit more interesting, here is a picture of my handsome boy Aaron.

Wildlife Photography

That title might be a bit misleading. No, its really misleading. I said that I'd upload some more pictures from our cemetery adventure, and here they are. Yeah, thats a squirrel. But he's really cute! And there were about 20 of them swarming us, and trying to eat my shoes. Obviously someone has made sure they are well fed and friendly. I seriously expected to get bit on the butt by one, and made Craig stand behind me while I got down on the ground to take pictures.

Now, if my brothers happen to read this, don't laugh. I know you guys get beautiful pictures of real wildlife like bald eagles, and elk, and deer, and cool crap like that, but hey! I live in the city and well, cities have lots of squirrels. So, thats what I photographed. And, I think the pictures turned out kinda neat.

So I'll be proud of my city squirrel photos, and everyone else can be proud of their awesome real wildlife photos. Just so you guys know, I'm learning and soon I'll be taking great photos of moose and elk and deer and buffalo and everything else too. After all, we spend weeks in Yellowstone so I'll have plenty of opportunities.

So my dear brothers, watch out, baby sister might pass you up.

I Love My Camera

It was finally a nice enough day today to get outside a bit. I convinced Craig that going to the cemetery would be a ton of fun and would have some cool things to take pictures of. Guess what? I was right! We left the kids home to fend for themselves (I love having a child old enough to babysit), and spent a few hours at the cemetery. We had a lot of fun, and saw some really neat graves and mausoleums, crypts, or whatever they are called (I'll never be rich enough or important enough to have one, so no reason to know the official term). And of course, got some great photos. Craig even took some photos of me that turned out decent, and I got a few of him as well. Here is my favorite of the day. I'll try to post a few more in the next few days.