Day 287: Pretend sleepers

Maile and her parents came over for dinner so her mom could take family photos of us (which considering she was dealing with two non-cooperating toddlers, I really like how they turned out…I need to get her permission to post them). 

I’ve realized that I seem to have lost my interest in photography lately.  I feel so far behind, the I’m just taking photos just to have one for the day.  I haven’t cared much about my lighting, composition or settings.  It’s frustrating knowing that I can take better photos than these…I hope I will find time to get back to enjoying it again.

My office is so close to being done.  This is the leather bench under the window and I was bouncing my flash off of one of my white book cases.  The room still has a terrible color cast, but I love the bright melon/salmon color.  So pretty!  The kids were fake sleeping on the bench…I love their fake snoring the most.

They wanted to look out the window, although I think Charlotte saw it as her chance to grab the Handy Manny car.

Being little spider-kids.

Day 286: Day at the park

I am trying to squeeze in as many park days as I can before the weather changes.  The toughest thing about shooting outdoors for me since we are back in Colorado, has been the changing weather every few minutes.  It can go from sunny to overcast, or rainy in no time at all.  This makes it much more difficult for me to keep up with my settings.  I would switch to Av mode, but I often end up with underexposed photos.  I should probably learn how to do exposure lock.

This isn’t a great photo of Scout, but her lazy sitting cracks me up.  I wish I hadn’t cut off her paws with the brick wall.

Cooper was picking flowers for me.  The storm clouds were amazing.  The truck in the background is distracting and the photo is a little hot, but otherwise I really like the perspective.

Then he had to put the flowers in his pocket.  I wish I had moved away from him a bit since my 50mm put me a little close to him.

Playing on the teeter-totter. 

I loved the background here with the fall colors.  Charlotte didn’t want to cooperate though.

They loved this little cage thing.  I love Cooper’s little pig nose.     

Day 282, 283, 284, 285: Missed days??

I don’t have any pictures from these days, but I didn’t think I missed this many!  If I come across any photos, I’ll be sure to post them.

Day 281, Part 3: Choosing costumes

This year was quite easy to choose costumes.  We took them to the store to pick out what they wanted.  They both fell in love with race car suits!

Last year wasn’t quite as easy with two opinionated toddlers and a control freak for a mom.  Here were last year’s pictures:

Tinkerbell?  Are kidding me??  What's with all this tulle?  This costume is KILLING me!!  (Almost all of these were taken with a point and shoot, or with my old Pentax before I knew how to use my camera.)

Peter Pan?  It's so bad I can't even wear my diaper any more!  ::streaks through the house:: 

Pink puffy monster?  No, no, no!

Dragon?  Get me outta here!

Rennissance girl?  Buzz Lightyear?  How many times to I have to say no??  

Dumbo?  What are you doing to me?!!?  I don't look cute, I look ridiculous.

And the ones we tried but didn't take a picture of:  ballerina and Woody and both of those were no's. 

What they ended up being, a rockstar and a skeleton:

Day 281, Part 2: Tantrum over the sink

Cooper was ‘helping’ do the dishes.

I asked him to get down and put the chair back.

Which caused him to melt down into a tantrum.

Day 281, Part 1: Skateboarding

McDonald’s gave out mini skateboards.  The kids actually tried to skateboard on them.  So cute!

Day 280: Learning to spell

My husband was trying to teach the kids how to spell their names.  I’m thinking I should take over this job in the future!

Day 279: Meeting Charlotte’s baby sister

We finally got to introduce Charlotte to her baby sister, Baby L.  We are excited that we will get to be a part of her life and that Charlotte will remain connected to at least one of her birth siblings.  I have to say 2 month olds are very difficult to ‘pose’ and take photos of!  

And Charlotte was a little tired and cranky, so we let her play with a flashlight and attempted to get photos.  This was the only one that really came out since I was still trying to get all my settings right and she kept moving (and Cooper kept trying to stand by Baby L’s head).

Day 278: On a business trip

Last day of business trip.

Day 277: On a business trip

Day 2 of the business trip.

Day 276: On a business trip

Didn’t worry about trying to take photos while I was gone.

Day 275: Entire tube of diaper cream

Cooper decided to empty an entire tube of diaper cream all over my office while I was out of town on a business trip.  My husband wanted to make sure I knew and captured it in photos.  (This is still my unfinished room…it’s getting closer.)

Day 274: Peek – a – boo in black and white

These photos didn’t turn out the way I wanted, but I love their expressions.  I’m still figuring out my black and white style, so these are just for fun.  I am amazed how different a photo can feel depending on the post processing.  I’ll have to practice more with black and white when the photo is good quality to start with.

 

Day 273: Last days of summer

Now that we are living back in Colorado I’m realizing that the kids won’t get to play outside year round.  Since it was fairly warm outside, I decided to let them play in the water.  (Remember that I am still posting about a month behind, so these were at the end of September.)

Who knew ziplock bags and water could be such fun?

Charlotte de cided to douse Cooper.

Who was none too happy about it.

Until I reminded him that he had a bag full of water that he could dump on her.  Turns out she loves it!

Scout even had to lay out and enjoy the sunshine with us. I can’t quit figure out how to truly get her to stay while I move back and then get her to look at me.  I say ‘stay’, then when I call her name to have her look at the camera, she comes close to me and I chop her paws off.

Then Charlotte wanted a close up while I was laying on the ground shooting Scout.  I love these photos.  Still my little Tarzan baby. 

Then they decided it was time to get warm.