All by myself...

At the grand old age of 2 (almost 3) we are hearing more and more "I want to do it all by myself" from Mallory.  She recently began dressing herself including wanting to pick out her own outfits!  Yes, it takes ten times longer but she's so proud of herself when she accomplishes it that it's for sure worth it in the end! 

Tripod fun...

Attempting to get some photos using my new tripod!  Having fun experimenting with it, I've seen some pretty amazing things done with tripods.....still learning but hope to get better...just another piece of my photography journey!

Stay tuned for some macro work with my tipod!!  Oh what fun that will be.....bet you can't wait!! ;)

Day in the life 5-17-11

My friend Tiffany recently challenged us on her blog  http://www.peanutblossom.com/  to participate in A Day In The Life photo project.  The rules were simple pick one day during the week (weekends aren't really represenative of normalcy) to document your daily life through photos. The idea being try to capture your every day seemingly mundane events, no birthday parties, special trips, milestones etc.. just the day to day routine you go through.  Being a part of many photography forums and following many mom blogs I've seen this done many times before and always wanted to try it!

Thanks Tiffany for the inspiration!

Here are a few photos of our day and here's a link to the entire completed project-  My Day In The Life Project 

If you haven't tried this yet I strongly encourage you to give it a go.....I think it will be really neat to look back on it in years to come.  Tiffany has more info on ideas and how to get started on it her blog so be sure to check it out if you're interested! 

The Sweetest Days...

I'm not sure if it was something I was born with or if it was acquired along the way but I've always had a knack for recognizing the "good ole days" while they were occurring, for really savoring the times in my life that I knew were ever so fleeting, that I knew wouldn't last. When I was 10 years old playing "Ghost in the Graveyard", when I was participating in high school musicals, when I was having the time of my life in college, when I was in my 20's living in the city, the dating days between my husband and I, each and every one of those times I remember thinking "I really need to savor this and cherish these days for it's not always going to be this way."

Now that I have my own young family, these same sentiments often ring through my head yet again.
I know these are the sweetest days, perhaps of my life and there's something even more sweeter about recognizing that!

We only get them for a little while. All too soon these moments will be stolen away....replaced by homework projects, school activities, friends they'd rather be with....

So nights when we can walk to the park as a family, play in our backyard, and all read a goodnight story together...these are nights I will wholeheartedly embrace because before we know it they will be just a sweet memory.

"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again." ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

Mother's Day

All day long in the back of my head I kept thinking I really want a picture of me and my girls on Mother's Day.  I didn't want it to be a posed photo session just a candid little picture. 

As the day drew closer to an end and we were losing precious sunlight I summoned Tony to take some shots of us.  We were all dishevelled and the girls were messy from the day's events but I still wanted my picture.

The next series of photos tells the story of what happened in this quest for a mommy and her girls photo! 

It didn't turn out excatly as planned: the photos are grainy, noone is looking at the camera at the same time, and we had an unexpected visitor who wanted to be in the picture complicating things even more!  Regardless of all that Tony did a great job at capturing the genuine moments and really these are the photos I'm certain we'll love and laugh at in years to come!