365:31

With two kid's birthdays and Christmas all within a couple months of each other, our house gets overrun with toys.  Time to put away the baby toys and find places for the new toys. 

365:30

A mama's best friends.

365:29

My dinging room is a challenging room for natural light.  It is darker due to the porch overhang and the paint color on the walls.  A brighter day allowed for some funny faces and no need to use the flash.

365:28

Someone posted a picture similar to thing on Facebook and inspired me to give it a try as this is a game we play often.  Not entirely how I pictured it in my head, but recording the memory was my goal.  I may have to revisit this one on a day when I have my husband at home to keep her sister away from my camera.  Trying to take a picture with someone who likes to move balancing on you feet and having a one year old try to grab your camera is difficult!

Just because she LOVES her toothbrush.

365:27

 A second day of celebrating the birthday girl and this time we were in a windowless room, so no avoiding the flash.  On my list of things to learn this year is how to bounce my flash to avoid funny flash shadows.  I still love this picture because she was so happy during the happy birthday song and sang right along with us.  Little sister sized her cupcake up and down before diving in with both hands!

365:26

 

Read a great post on CM that made me feel better about these next couple posts of pictures.  Remembering to capture memories, not just get the perfect shot.  Today is my big girl's birthday and while I tried to get a perfect shot of her, I failed miserably.  No staying still or looking in my direction, but I did capture these wonderful memories of a new toy from Grandma and Grandpa and getting her toes polished for the first time by her aunt.

365:25

 One of our favorite people arrived today, although you would never know by the look at her face.  Eye contact, staying still for a picture, even just looking in my general direction are a challenge these days.  A snow picture too, just because we finally have a mentionable amount! 

365:24

Snow fog is really cool and we came across some on the way to the store this morning!  I'm never sure how to edit landscape, especially something like this, so these are SOOC with the exception of the last one which I just converted to B&W.

365:23

I love that they are starting to play together, although it doesn't last long yet and usually ends with one grabbing something from the other, or pushing or hitting.  We finally had some rays of sunshine outside our windows today and the snow really reflected a lot of light, which was nice. 

Waiting for Grandma started about 2 hours before she was due to arrive, but it allowed me to play around with reflection.  Unfortunately, the little one didn't stay still long enough to really get a good shot of her.  This was the best I got, but I don't like the perspective on it.  These days, she sees the camera at her level and makes a run towards it, so this will have to do.

365:22

A little post-Christmas, snowy day fun thanks to the clearance section at Target.  Sure kept her occupied, until she realized that she could eat the decorations and frosting on this gingerbread house.  Then, it was all over - those are finger trails in the last image.

365:21

I played around with perspective this morning and loved these two of my girl's lashes.

365:20

 

Finally some snow and promises of more to come!  

365:19

Today we said goodbye to someone near and dear to us.  I don't have much in the way of pictures and I don't really like this one on many levels.  The composition is uncomfortable, to gray grass in conflict with the bright flowers, but it perhaps reflects my feelings of the day.  I did no touch up on this, it is SOOC.

365:18

We have had such a funny winter with little snow, cold then warm then cold again.  The lake has frozen over again, but when I went out this afternoon, there was a spot were a spring had bubbled thru, making for some cool textures and ice.

365:17

A project complete and just how I pictured it in my head!

 

I want to remember this look forever.  One eye peaking from behind too long hair that I can't bring myself to cut because it will make her look older.

365:16

 We finally had a sunny day!  Even those these are overexposed, I just love her expressions.  I've gotten used to having to shoot wide open just to get enough natural light with this dark winter that on this sunny day, I struggled with adjusting my settings.  Many overexposed, then underexposed and finally what I feel is just right on the last one.

365:15

Lots of tiny candies + teal blue frosting = lots of fun for two little girls.  Plus, I had the chance to catch up with a friend.

365:14

  
Today, I am having a hard time deciding whether I like the B&W conversion or the color better on each of these pictures. 

I think my kids are getting used to my camera being pulled out each day because my oldest asked for me to take her picture by the tower she built all by herself.  Of course, when the computer came out she was also more than happy to sit still so I could take her picture.

365:13

A busy day and no great inspiration with rain, rain, rain outside my window.  I guess that would have been something to take a picture of.  Sleeping child, inspiration from a follow photographer friend.

365:12

What an odd day we had here today, sunny and in the 50's in the middle of January.  We took advantage of the nice weather and pulled to bikes back out and even got some bubbles out.  Then, back to winter activities with ice skating in the evening.  First time for the oldest and she rocked it.

   I had a really hard time getting my exposure right under fluorescent lights, with so much white, yikes!  That is something to work on.  The first picture the ice looks so gray, while in this one it is white, but the white looks unnatural. 

365:11

  I've seen this type of picture a lot lately, so I thought I would try my hand at it.  Other than completely messing up my settings in the middle of many, many attempts, I'm really happy with the outcome.  My subjects were more than happy to sit for this one.

Much happier once she had the phone to herself.