Embracing the Camera

Oh life is BUSY!! I know everybody says that but it really is. I mean I actually am busy and don't have time to sit and download pictures off the camera let alone convert from RAW to jpeg. Which means no time for editing really.  Thank goodness for SD cards full of 32 gb worth of space. I have not even had time to edit the sunflower pictures I took two weeks ago. Regardless we are making memories!

 

 

 

It is Thursday though so that means it is another Embrace The Camera day over with Emily at The Anderson Crew.


I have worked more than normal this past week. I was filling in at the diaper store plus had probably my favorite photo session to date. I love all for different reasons but this one was just so fun. It was a gender reveal party. The parents did not even know the gender so I got to capture their reactions. I am still working on that session. Thank the Lord Ari is averaging 8-10 hours of sleep at night so I am getting decent sleep!

 

 

I worked last Friday and Saturday. Ari gets to come to work with me. Many thanks to my wonderful boss who understands and allowing us to have our kids at work. Eli and Lilliana went to Aunt Tonis on friday and were home on Saturday. I came home after work and was getting ready to go to my photo session. Eli asked when I had to leave them next. So I told him I was going to take pictures then. He was so upset. He thought I was making him go and he was going to have to get pictures again. OH I love him. Then I explained what I was doing. He got all upset again. He said, "NO!! You said we could go swimming in Aunt Toni's pool!" I asked him when I said that knowing we had talked briefly in the car wednesday night if was warm this weekend we could go. I had hoped Anthony wouldn't take them without me as I wanted to swim since I had not been able to much this year and wanted to take pictures of Ari's first swim. I explained to Eli that Sunday is when we had talked about going. He was really upset but understood. So I hurried off to my session. Then came home and we ate. At that point Anthony and I looked at each other and knew we were both thinking a swimming trip was a good idea. It was a hot day. The kids had a lot of energy and Anthony and I could relax some. So away we went. There were lots of pictures taken and lots of fun had but for now this is the one and only picture I have downloaded in over a week of personal photos.



 

Don't mind the marker on Eli's face. It is what happens when Daddy gets left with all three for the first time! Eli and Lilliana were coloring and well Eli decided war paint was a better idea.

 

Project Baby Weight loss that started last week is still in full swing. I lost 3 lbs. last week! It feels good. One pound at a time. Regardless of my weight or how I feel about myself it is important I am taking photos of me and with my kids! Do the same for yourself and your family. Get out and Embrace the Camera.

 

 

I will be getting caught up this weekend. Exciting things happening next week with the first day of school for Eli. I will post more on our homeschooling area and many more things!

Sunflowers

It is Thursday so another day of  Embracing the Camera over at The Anderson Crew.

Well I am tired but caught up. I sat down to edit pictures from the sunflowers and was hurrying through edits and not thrilled about the edits. I really was just trying to hurry and get them done. I don't ever want to do that with my photography so I stopped and decided so I could get my blog post done I would do a couple and post them. They really are SOOC or straight out of camera which is fine for a change. It is actually rather nice I am not editing them. I still have more to do but thought I would post a sneak peak of them.

Friday night we set off with a cranky baby. I was tired. It had been a long day. I didn't grab my camera bag since I was not taking clients photos. I just grabbed my camera and went. I did try to look presentable by putting something other than sweats on.

The night before we had looked at the sunflowers.  It rained that night though so they actually looked worse than the day before. I think had I gotten there a week earlier they would have been at their peak and not losing petals. So we drive around and I find the perfect spot of course right next to somebody's house. I ask Anthony to ask them if we can use his yard. Thankfully they said yes. We get the kids piled out and head over to the fields. I get my camera ready, set white balance, etc. Do a test shot of the light and see the lovely little error message. Ugh I realize I took out the memory card last minute. Just wonderful! So I try not to panic and beg Anthony to drive the ten minutes each way to get it. All the while Ari is crying, the kids are slowly losing interest, and I am begging them not to wreck anything. We survived and Anthony thankfully go the card in record time. By the time we get to th the pictures Lilliana was over it. Ari screamed. Eli did great though. I still got some cute ones though.  At the end I took one with all of them and look a hot mess from running around taking photos and being on little sleep.

 This photo was also my wake up call for losing weight. Granted I just had a baby it is happening! Thankfully everyday this week I have excercised a good amount and feel good. This is what Embrace the Camera is about though. Regardless of the fact that I feel huge and just not cute at all it doesn't matter. My kids will appreciate this photo in the future. It is good motivation though. Hopefully I can get the rest of the sunflower pictures edited soon. Today I am off for my postpartum massage. Then begins the marathon of work, photo sessions, mom, and wife for the weekend. Get out and Embrace your Camera!

Weekend Success

Life has been incredibly busy. We of course are always busy! Now I am busy though. Instead of it just being the kids I now am too. I am feeling good and able to get out. Honestly this is the first time since probably May that things are not caught up in the house. I have been taking the time at night that I normally do a good pick up and clean to excercise. I need to lose weight. It is a priority. So Eli and I have been taking a bike ride every night or I have been running. That has also meant pictures pile up, clothes pile up, dishes pile up, and well everything else. We will get it though. I just have to cut out a few things and if it takes me a week to get pictures downloaded or laundry is not done everyday oh well.



Eli has loved taking a bike ride every night. I also found a great yardsale find and got a trailer to pull the kids behind me if Anthony is not home so we can still go. I also learned I can Instagram while riding a bike. Nice I know.

This weekend was a success for pictures. Thursday we drove by the sunflower fields. They were about done it seemed. They peaked early this year. The weather I think made them small and just not the usual. So I planned to take the kids Friday and do pictures. They are still not edited but more on those tomorrow.

We needed to get some house debris to the landfill this weekend so Anthony worked on that almost all of Saturday. I hung out with the kids until they went to Grandma's house. Ari and I took a good nap after he crashed on the floor.

Saturday night we once again made a point to go take Eli's pictures. Many thanks to my wonderful husband that I drag around to do these things. I needed him to go to hold Ari since I am nursing him. We decided to pick a place where there was a playground so they could play after. We had a nice picnic and then took Eli's pictures and then the kids played.

The kids personalities are just coming alive. Lilliana became extra divafied this weekend. I don't know what has hit her but man oh man are we in trouble. She is communicating so much more and there is denying she is a girl with drama qualities!

Ari is becoming more interactive. He smiles, coos, and gigges at us. He also is rolling more than I would like. He did it for the first time two Fridays ago at almost 6 weeks. I was waiting to see if it was a fluke. Sadly he has done it twice since going from back to tummy and tummy to back. He is a lot like Eli in this way.

As I get everything caught up for the week before my crazy busy weekend starts I remembered I needed to start getting Ari ready to take a bottle. I will be gone at one point everyday from Thurs. until Saturday. I need to leave him a couple hours each day so it was time to start. I was never able to get the other kids to take bottles much so I deteremined it is happening this time. I pumped and let Eli and Lilliana feed him his first bottle. Eli loved it and so did Lilliana although she was not very good at it.

All it was a good successful weekend other than the mess it left behind in the house. Thankfully I have a day to get caught up before work, photo session, and just being mom and wife starts. Happy Hump Day!

My Big Boy

This weekend I finally did what I have been meaning to do for about a month now. I got Eli's photos done. I am pretty happy with how they turned out. He was not thrilled with it. Some of the light was really bad but we made it work. I also had half of them done and photoshop decided to stop working. I had not written down the order of edits I had done as I was messing around so not as consistant as I would have liked but it was fun playing while it lasted.

It is hard to believe this boy is 3 and a half! I don't know where the time has gone. As I edited his pictures I was reminded once again how silly, smart, fun, and amazing he is. His big eyes with his amazing long eyelashes get me every time! He will break many of girl's hearts with those eyeslashes I think.

Since I could not decide whether I liked black and white or color with his pictures you get both for a lot of the shots. Enjoy.......



I asked him one place where he would like to take his picture, and he said in front of the big barn. He ran as fast as he could to it and posed himself. He insisted it be big and behind him. Not my favorite but he wanted it so he got it.

I promised him if he took nice ones he could have fun. I wanted all the kids to have a picture of a "newspaper style" hat. So he got one. This one was made out of real newspaper complete with Olympics coverage and who better than the men's swim team. He loved it though. It fell in halfway so did not survive but now we have pictures of each kid wearing one.  

More on our weekend tomorrow.