Crabby Mom Buster

To say I was crabby would have been an understatement. Seriously, I felt like I was going to burst. 

And then there was this noise coming up the stairs to my office. My husband was at work, my son was napping, I was working at my desk. That left my little Bella to be the loud monster on the stairs. 

She was grunting and stepping heavy as she came in my door. When I looked up at her I burst into laughter. She is so cute! Apparently she was hungry, as she somehow got the jar of crackers off the kitchen counter and upstairs for me to open for her. 

I must say that there are two things I so love about this. First, she grabbed the healthy TLC crackers. Second, she also grabbed a plate to put the crackers on. That's my girl.

We both laughed and laughed and of course I took photos. We ate lunch then went outside to play in the snow. 

Thank you, Miss Bella, for breaking my crabbiness. You are wonderful and I love you! 

A Kid's Life Photography Website

It makes me chuckle.

I am guilty. And I bet you are too. Have not all of us parents uttered the words, "Smile and you can have a treat when we are done!" or "Hey! Stop making faces now. We need a nice picture for grandma and grandpa!" Yup, I have and I am not too proud of it either.

And sometimes I still do it. It is just part of being a parent.

But then there are moments where we let the kids make the faces. When we give them permission to be themselves and let loose and make the craziest face they can think of. 

During my shoots, I always let the kids have their time. Let them go crazy and give me some funny faces. And then we all laugh.

Every time I see these images I chuckle. And their parents chuckle. And the kids chuckle.

I thought you might like to see a few of the most recent funny faces - one of them even ended up being on this year's Christmas card!

A Kid's Life Photography Website

Happy New Year!

I am full of good intentions. This year I intended to organize my kitchen cupboards. To make muffins with my daughter. To go for a family walk every night after dinner. And of course to send out Christmas cards. Well, I got a little busy doing everyone else's cards and didn't quite get to my own. So, my friends and family got New Years cards this year (hey, better late than never!).

I thought I would share them here in my blog too. Happy new year to you!! 

Text on Back:

They say that life goes by quickly, one moment you go from changing their 

diapers to their first day of school to driving them to college. That we should treasure our moments now when they are young, when we have dance parties in the living room and storytime on the couch and snuggle time before bed. Moments when Bella spontaneously looks up at you smiling and says, “I love you”, and when Abe gives a big hug with his arms and legs wrapped around you, the smell of his skin so sweet. 

Yes, we were blessed this year with many treasured moments. We have wonderfully happy and healthy kids. We enjoy our time together. We have amazing friends and families. We love our home. We take little adventures. 

We laugh. We love. We dance. 

We wish many blessings for you and yours in 2009. May you have many treasured moments. 

To laugh. To love. To dance. 

Luke, Jessie, Bella (2), and Abe (1)

A Kid's Life Photography Website

Laugh! It's the Best Medicine

A few blogs ago I casually admitted that I read Reader's Digest. At that time, I wanted to add all the young, hip and cool things about me to balance this admission off.  To let people know that you don't just have to be on social security and have given up eating popcorn for fear of what it will do to your teeth to enjoy this publication. But that was not the time.

This morning I was reading Reader's Digest and laughed out loud at some of the funny bits in their "Laugh! It's the Best Medicine" section. 

As we can all use a good laugh now and then I thought that I would share some of the funniness with you. And perhaps after you too get a few laughs you will not think less of my coolness factor for subscribing...

The Zen of Sarcasm:

1. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt or a flat tire.

2. Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

3. Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, you're a mile away - and you have the shoes.

A Kid's Life Photography Website

Secrets...

We all know about secrets. There are good ones and bad ones (and probably really bad ones). And, of course, Christmas is the time of year for good secrets. Time for sneaky photo shoots and surprise photo gifts (yes, I relate everything to photography - or Oprah - but that is another post). 

Anyway, there were many a time when I wanted to post a cute Christmas card I did for someone or an image that I knew would be part of a gift, but in many cases my friends' and clients' families read my blog and I did not want to be the one to ruin any good Christmas secrets.

So as I find the time now I might sneak in a Christmas image or two that got left behind in the "Christmas Secret: Do Not Post" bin. 

A couple images of little Miss Freya fell into that bin and I wanted to be sure to post them because she is so sweet (not to mention my future daughter-in-law - see previous post here).

A Kid's Life Photography Website

The baker's kids have no doughnuts.

The baker's kids have no doughnuts. Or is it the teacher's kids can't spell? Or something about kids not having any shoes. Anyway, it's some quote my dad always says meaning that when you do something professionally, you don't come home and do it too.

And it has happened to me. Well, not completely as I can't really ever seem to put the camera down, but I have given up formal photo shoots with my kids. That is until recently. I wanted to experiment with color backgrounds, and who better to practice on then my own children?

The plan always sounds good. We head up to my dad's place and set up a studio and the kids act perfect and I get shots that bring a tear to my eyes. Ah yes. A girl can dream, can't she?

Well, needless to say it did not go as I had dreamed but I must admit that a few of these shots touch my heart...

A Kid's Life Photography Website