Category Archives: Project 365

Little Mama in Action

I am pretty worn out, so this will be quick. We had a long day. Well, I had a long night first. Gus wouldn’t go to sleep, then my dogs kept barking. It’s very rare that they start into a fit of barking in the middle of the night, and it happened twice last night!

While the kids went up to their beds tonight, I finished up the last of some dishes. By the time I got upstairs, this is what I saw:

Asleep already.
IMG_9894

Me: Who tucked him in?
Reed: Lena.

That girl loves her brother.

Reed also really wanted me to take his photo and he posed in this lovely straight-up-the-nose shot.
IMG_9897

Sledding

We were all going a bit stir crazy. Reed and Lena started school again today, but none of us, dogs included, had spent much time outside recently. Something had to happen.

So, we went sledding. Someplace where the dogs could run around.
2014-01-07_0009
2014-01-07_0002

I have one child who LOVES sledding.
2014-01-07_0006

One child who approaches it cautiously, but does enjoy it.
2014-01-07_0008

And one child who thinks spending any length of time in snow is totally horrible.
2014-01-07_0007

We did (mostly) have a good time and someone was glad to be towed back to the car.
2014-01-07_0003

2014-01-07_0010

Seven

It wasn’t Pinterest worthy. It won’t win me any supermom awards. But, it was 7-year-old-PERFECT.

Admiring gifts from grandparents.
2014-01-06_0006

We had a taco bar. Everyone was pleased. Reed’s taco was HUGE.
2014-01-06_0001

And of course, there was cake. He was so happy– everyone singing, candles, cake and his birthday.
2014-01-06_0005

2014-01-06_0002

He tried to take a HUGE bite of cake and this happened…
2014-01-06_0003

But, littlest brother still takes the cake for messiest cake eater.
2014-01-06_0004

Happy Birthday, Reed! It’s hard to believe that he has been home for four birthdays now.
P1060011

Self Portraits with the Littles

I took some self portraits with my younger two today.

With Lena, I am totally silly and we just goofed off. If you see us looking off to the right, that’s because we had the computer set up to show what the camera was taking a picture of, and it’s hard not to look at it!
2014-01-04_0005

2014-01-04_0006

I had fun with Lena, and I really love this one that I captured with Gus, who has been super cuddly lately.

2014-01-04_0004

So, why didn’t I do this with Reed? Well, he was off celebrating his birthday a bit early at Legoland with Aaron.

He had a great time!
2014-01-04_0002

2014-01-04_0001

Forced Creativity

One of the best parts about doing a Photo 365 so far is the forced creativity. There are so many days when I would not pick up my camera, out of laziness, lack of time, lack of inspiration or lack of light. But, committing to do it reminds me that I must find a few minutes every day to shoot something.

I’ve been hanging out by my back window, hoping to catch some cardinals. Today, I saw several!
2014-01-03_0001
Female on the left, male on the right. Someone, my mom I think, told me when I was very young that the male birds are almost always the more colorful, interesting ones.

I made two different kinds of soup for dinner. Ham and Potato Soup and Creamy Broccoli Chowder. I can’t give you a personal review of the Ham and Potato, but the Broccoli is so, so good. Andrei told me that it was new to him and very good. Lena, Gus and I all had seconds. Aaron told me he liked it better than the Ham and Potato. Oh, but it looks unpleasantly greenish brown when done, so Reed won’t touch it.

Back to the subject of photography, I had a huge pot of soup on the table and Gus discovered his reflection. He was very entertained.
2014-01-03_0002

Now. Star trails. I posted about my star fails a few weeks ago, and I’ve been meaning to try it ever since. But, the truth is that I have to be feeling pretty dedicated to want to spend AT LEAST a half hour out in the dark to take these. So, I copped out. I mean, I decided to see what I could come up with in my backyard, where I could retreat to the warmth of the house.
2014-01-03_0003

 

I’m pretty pleased.