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Saturday, January 25, 2014

365 Project Week 4

Another week! Goes by crazy fast, but I'm feeling a little more confident now that I've made it almost a month. The first picture is a little bit of a cheat since I didn't take it, but it was a busy day with my student recital! So I'm giving myself a break there. Our friends came to play on Monday, and I snapped the adorable picture of that cutie with the big blue eyes! A student gave me the kit to grow the flower in the next picture. I'm hoping to try my hand at a few more flower shots while it looks so amazing. I got a picture in music class, too, although Holden doesn't look so excited about that triangle. And the last one I absolutely love!! I've been on manual mode more and more, and was just trying to take some and mess with my settings while the boys played with trains on the floor. I got several I liked, and it was fun to try different settings to see what happened, but that one was way too cute not to use! :) If you have any tips on macro photography, let me know! I'd love to do some super close ups of the boys, eyelashes or hands, etc, and don't really know how to go about it. So it was a good week overall, but definitely hoping it warms up any time soon so I can get a few more outside again! (Or I could just be brave, bundle up and go on a nature walk, camera in tow...we'll see.)









Saturday, January 18, 2014

365 Project Week 3

Made it to week three! Feeling a little better about myself this week. I tried to take some more creative shots this week, and I'm trying to cut myself a break if every day doesn't have a stunning picture. I teach violin and viola lessons, and my studio recital is coming up. Since my students were practicing in the recital hall, I tried to take a few creative ones of bow speed and changing around the focus. (But man, is the lighting tricky on stage! Definitely something I will have to practice more as the year goes on.) We played out in the melting snow to cure some cabin fever earlier this week, and now by the end of the week it's snowing again! I love the last one of our dog, Lanore. Snow always looks awesome on her coat! :)








Sunday, January 12, 2014

Little Colts Fans


We have some cute Luck jerseys that we should have worn more this season! So I was determined to get some pictures of the boys in them before the season was over (which I think this game ended up being the last one...) The boys were being so cute, but I was not great with my camera! I had problems with the light and they all turned out a little fuzzy. But still too cute not to share. I realize now that I should have picked up some toys and closed the drapes, etc, but planning ahead for pictures is not my strong suit. Getting them in the jerseys was the main plan! Henry was showing me his "pout face" and trying not to laugh! The last two are the same but I was playing around with the text on the pictures (wanted to upload to Facebook during the game and could never get it to work!)  The season's over, but hope the jerseys still fit in the fall! :) Go, Colts!








Saturday, January 11, 2014

365 Project Week 2

My second week of pictures every day, and I'm already struggling! It's harder than I thought already, which means I have a long way to go! It seems like I'll take several pictures I love one day and not be able to choose my favorite, and then other days I'll look back and say, "That's all I took? None of those are good!" But so far I haven't missed a day. I know I could do a lot more with playing with my camera settings and getting creative, but that's what the whole year is for!! :)
 
I'm also struggling with my confidence. I really am a beginner, and especially don't know anything about Photoshop or editing my photos. I linked my blog up to a 365 project and checked out all the ones around mine. And it seems like EVERY other person's blog and pictures are better than mine!! So I'm trying to just not worry and compare at this point, and hopefully just be really proud of the progress I make throughout the year. It definitely is fun to see other people's projects though, and I hope to have a nice little blog "community" of friends at the end of the year, too!  
 
This week we had a TON of snow and freezing cold. So Sunday is a dual picture, since how could I resist having one of each boy out helping daddy shovel?? Too cute. I also tried to get a picture of snow on the branches outside, and I experimented with my first silhouette of a pregnant friend. And the last one isn't great quality, but SO cute that Holden came up behind Henry and was giving him a hug! Moms love that stuff. :) Wish me luck next week and thanks for reading!
 








Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Snowpocalypse 2014

We had a huge snowstorm in early January. It snowed a ton on the 5th, and then was super cold the day after. On Sunday the 5th, it wasn't so cold, so we were able to go outside and play/shovel a little. The boys got snow shovels for Christmas, and they've gotten a lot of use! Alex does an amazing job keeping our driveway clear all the time, so it was pretty cute to see the boys out there with him (and I think they actually did move a little snow around). 
A lot of people lost power that day as well, and the temperatures were dropping fast. Our friends Laura and Jacob lost power, and didn't want to stay at their house with their baby, Cecelia, in the cold and dark. So the boys and Cece had their first sleepover! It was kind of fun having them there, even though it was a bad situation! We have a futon and they had a pack 'n play for Cece, so it worked out fine. They came over in the evening, so the kids all went to bed pretty soon, then we just got to hang out and play Wii. Alex made muffins in the morning, and we watched some kids TV. The power had come back on, so they were anxious to get back home, but I got a few cute pictures of the kids playing together in the morning and of Cece hanging out!

We didn't leave the house the rest of the day! Alex had the day off of work, and our neighbors Ashley and Brad were home as well, so they came over during the boys' nap and we played cards. It felt very much like a holiday! Too cold to go out so we just hung out in our house. I'm glad we got to see so many friends, though, otherwise I think we would have gone a little crazy. :) I didn't go to work on Tuesday, either, but Alex did go in that day. With the freezing cold (below zero) temps and the non-melting snow, most of my teacher friends didn't work all week! It was crazy to think schoolkids got an extra WEEK of winter break. Ashley and I made a trip out to Target later in the week, and the roads were still icy and pretty bad. 

So that was our "Snowpocalypse" as they called it! I tried to take some pictures of all the crazy snow in our yard. (That is our Christmas tree on our deck, Alex just moved it outside when we took the ornaments off.) Last winter was so mild, and this one is shaping up to be massive amounts of snow! 















Monday, January 6, 2014

365 Project Week 1

One of my goals this year is to improve my photography. I've had a few friends try this project in the past, and decided it'd be a good year for me to try it, as well! Basically, I take a photo every day this year. I've read that putting parameters on the project make it tougher on yourself, so I'm keeping it open! It doesn't have to be a picture of the boys, though most will, and even a phone picture can count. I'm excited to challenge myself to pick up the camera every day. I know I will enjoy looking back and seeing details from our year that I would have forgotten. I want to work on shooting more on manual mode, but I'm definitely not worried about that at this point, hopefully it's something I can improve on as I go! I hope to force myself to get creative too, since I won't want to have too many of the same ideas. I'm going to create a list of things I know I want to shoot so I have something to help me when I get bored or stumped. Please feel free to leave a comment or any encouragement/advice! I'm hoping to find some other bloggers trying this and learn from them as well.

I decided a one-weekly post would be easier than blogging every day, so here is the first "week" (even though it was just four days long!


Watching Daddy leave for his run
Dinos!
Snoozing after play date fun
Play-Doh fun

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Winter Break Fun

We've tried our best to have some fun inside lately! Alex had some days off, and we had enough snow and cold to keep us inside. I surprised myself by letting the boys get crafty! I don't usually like getting paint and stuff like that out, since it's a mess and they usually do it for 10 minutes. But they got a stamp set for Christmas, so I let them use that one afternoon. It went well! Coloring is always fun, and they got some Play-doh toys from a friend. It's nice that as they're getting older and a little more mature, we can start doing more of these crafty activities and they can handle following directions. 

We also took a family trip to the Children's Museum! I forced Alex to go with us...I think it was his first time there since we've had the membership! I really love the Jolly Days exhibit, but it was definitely a crowded, crazy day to go. (I think we went New Year's Eve in the morning.) But they love the kitchen and baking area, and Henry loves to brush the reindeer, so it was worth it! They even got to play in the ice castle area and go down the slide. (It was sooo many kids I don't know how kids don't get hurt on the slide! Henry and Holden are kinda slow about it, and the older kids would just push around them and go down!)


My mom gave Lanore some toys she had at her house, so Henry and Holden enjoyed taking all of those away from her...sigh. It's hard for them to be as active as they want inside our house! But they love to run around the table and couch, and it's a bonus if someone or Lanore chases after them. We're also building our dinosaur collection, so I loved these shots of Henry playing with some in his room. So wish us luck that we don't go too crazy indoors this winter! It's only January and we have a long way to go! We need to get back to the Children's Museum soon! (Side note: I remember going to the zoo at the end of January last year because it was so mild out...I can hope that happens again!!!)






Teamwork! It lasted for about 5 seconds...



"I think you got it wrong, Lanore. These are really for us."