Whitmill Family Photos- AKA My Brother :)

My sister in law Tasha asked me to take some photos of her family while we were all in San Francisco. Admidst Brittnee throwing up the entire day, we did manage to get some shots done. I just wish we would've had more time, but my poor Britt needed to get home. And it was her birthday and Tasha's. Happy Birthday poor girl!!

Tasha, I know I was just going to let you edit these yourself cause I didn't have any more CD's, but I couldn't help myself. Kenley is GORGEOUS and well, so are you and Aaron. These photos couldn't help but turn out cute! I almost wish they were mine so I could frame them:)
























Thanks for asking me to take them! Love to you all!!

Photgraphy Challenge Day Four

I fully admit it. I took off all last week from this challenge. Granted it was the holidays and we were busy trying to have a good one, despite the puke fest that went on. So sorry to my brother and his family. But at least we got a trip to San Francisco in and Thanksgiving Dinner enjoyed before it ALL came back up again. Love you guys for coming out though!!!

Today's challenge is to take a picture of something green.

Green....

Hmmm...

It's in the middle of winter, what in the world is green? My lawn? But who wants to see that.

Then it hit me. It's Christmastime!! I have green things in my house! Our tree has gone up sans the decorations because I am still working on them. I'm trying to do a "brown paper packages" kind of tree and am making a lot of the ornaments, so it's pretty bare except for the lights. But here's the interesting thing. I kind of like it. Just bare bones Mr. Christmas tree.



You are going to have to tilt your head to view this photo. Yep that's right. Go for it!

This next picture is me kicking my feet up "pool side." Minus the pool of course, but it never gets old sitting with some hot chocolate, looking at your Christmas tree. As much as I love summer, this holiday time comes in first place.



Elf on a Shelf has come this year. The kids have named him Squirt. Teaghan just deferred to the other three children to come up with a name. Apparently she's not in the festive mood yet:) Side story though.... After Zak found out that Squirt comes in the middle of the night and they would have to find him in the morning, he wigged out. Apparently he didn't want the Elf to come into his room and scare him.
So he slept in Andon's bed last night. I'm not sure why I think them sleeping together is so dang cute, but it is.



These next pictures are of a small tree sitting on my island.





Bulbs in a vase...





My HOPE blocks. This might not have been the best idea, but I have them on my kitchen table. The only problem is that when we eat I have to take them down and I think that may get a bit annoying, but when we're not eating... It's cute:)





Early Merry Christmas to you all!!

Photography Challenge Day Three

Day Three.

Is it only Day Three?

It's going to be a looong 30 days I think. :)

As I type this my boys are out back in the rain, kicking a soccer ball, yelling, grunting....just boy stuff that I will NEVER understand. But whatever, cause they're loving it:)

So day three is Clouds. And boy am I glad I snapped some pictures an hour ago. As we were leaving Target it started to rain and is one big gray cloud cover now. Whew! Glad I took along my camera at the last minute.

So I'm sitting here wondering when inspiration is going to strike. Sitting and waiting....sitting and waiting....thinking about the pizza I have to preorder for Andon's soccer party tonight....hoping the boys don't maim each other before said party...all the stuff that needs to be done between now and Thanksgiving... but no inspiration about clouds is forthcoming. It's just not coming. So I guess I will just have to leave you with some photos of some OK clouds. And that's just going to have to be ok. However, at the bottom of this post you can click on a link that will take you to another cloud post I did a couple of years ago. Have I been blogging that long????





It's suddenly gotten very quiet which usually means something bad for me. So ta ta till tomorrow!!

Click here for the "other cloud post."

Photography Challenge Day Two

Day Two of the Challenge: Take a picture of what you wore today.

I was tempted to go buy an outfit. Just for this post. I would wear it again of course! Sheesh. I'm not wasteful:)

The Hubbs didn't think that was a very good idea. Even if I was just kidding. Mostly. Remember, I am married to an accountant.

:)

But there has to be SOMETHING good in my closet. After all, this blog does get printed and just for the sake of my future self, I'd like to do it with the least amount of embarrassment as possible. So I've been thinking all morning of what to wear. I mean, there has to be SOME thought that goes into it, right? So the question bears answering, "Do I post what I WISH I wore all the time, or what I ACTUALLY wear every day?"

Secretly, in my head, I will always be 18. I looked pretty good at 18. Not bragging AT ALL, it's just the youthful exuberance of THINKING that one looks good. :) I sometimes long for that exuberance, that utter confidence, that shameless parading of trendy clothing that now gets laughed at by my children and never ceases to stop amusing them as they look through my year books/scrapbooks. It's the "I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU WORE THAT!" or the "What were you thinking! Bwahahaha!!" (I swear I had flashbacks when my siblings and I laughed hysterically at our parents and their yearbooks.) If you really want to eat humble pie...have children. But at the time, when I was wearing belts through my belt loops and tucking in everything, and perming my hair no less, I knew I looked good. But even if I didn't, in my youthful denial, I still THOUGHT so. :)

Now because I do actually have a latent, sometimes unclaimed, vain side to my personality, this next picture is me wearing what I would wear if I had somewhere to go. A girls night out, a nice dinner with the hubbs, a party.... oh who am I kidding. I've gone to the movies in slippers before! So this picture is me wishing my kids saw me more dressed like this.

Warning: I did shamelessly edit these, cause let's face it,
a: I love to edit
b. when do I ever take pictures of myself?
c. they just looked better. Remember, this is for my future self that I do not want to embarrass. :D

You'll have to piece this outfit together. I tried to get my shoes in the photo but those ones turned out blurry. And still you can't see the shoes!







Alas, this outfit is just not conducive to sitting on the couch, watching movies, and eating Andes Mint Cookies while the kids are in school. NOT!! Okay...sometimes:)

And by the way, NEVER stand straight on facing the camera. It always makes your hips look bigger. I swear the camera does weird things to your body, cause there are so many times when I see a picture of myself and think, "that doesn't look like that in the mirror!! Does my butt look like that normally?!?" Like in yesterday's post, I swear that my arms DO NOT look that big in real life.

Time to up the weights I think.

So here is what I actually wore today. Though I like to dress up, and I try to find any excuse for doing so, most of the time I am all about comfort. I especially love yoga pants cause you can't feel that extra 10 pounds like you can in jeans cause, (whispering) "jeans aren't all that forgiving!"





Phew! Day two complete.

Photography Challenge Day One

Honesty.

One should really be honest on one's own blog. Really. If one can't be honest on one's own blog, then... well... I don't know. It's just not good. :)

So here's some honesty for you. I almost forgot to post about Day One. I mean, it is DAY ONE. DAY ONE and I'm already forgetting. Ah well. What's new in my life. And in all honesty (see, there's that word again) I should really be a spokesman, or is it "spokesGIRL" for Gingko Beloba. Don't they advertise that if you use it, your memory improves? Well bring it on Gingka Beloba makers! Let's prove your theory with a year's worth of tablets! (cause I really don't want to pay for them. Honestly.)

So Day One of the challenge says to take a picture of oneself. This actually works out really well for me since I've been wanting to update my Facebook profile. I am no longer a blonde. I am back to being red. And yes. I really do love it. So this post actually kills two birds with one stone.

Whoever coined that phrase should really have not coined it. It's awful! And I keep using it all the time!! It's like when you find out that the fun childhood game we all played, "Ring around the Rosies" is really just a song about some sort of plague. Really!?! Is this what people did back then without TV or radio? They invented songs about deadly illnesses, babies falling from the trees (you know that one right?) Honestly!!

I digress.

I found it a bit difficult to take a photo of me. Here's one of my first attempts. Not to bad. Kind of boring, but at least it's in focus. And the lighting is not half bad. It was just me staring at the camera to see if I had it in the right position. And by the way, I refused to give in to my burning desire to edit. These are strictly SOOC. That's keeping it real right?



Oops. Too blown out. But not horrible.



These next two I actually would've liked, but they're not in focus. So frustrating when you can't see what you're doing! :)




Success! In focus! Woop woop! That's my front entryway in case anyone was wondering. Or if no one is reading this....weeelllll.... oh well.



I decided to resort to my bathroom. The lighting is just better. Of course I had to remove all the clutter off the counters first...and the towel hanging on the wall behind me. That would be a horrible backdrop! Which reminds me, I think it's still sitting on the floor where I flung it. I'd leave myself a mental note to pick it up, but we know that's not going to work.









I DEFINITELY won't show you my "come hither faces" as I would not dare publicly humiliate myself like that, but mostly because I couldn't see them either. They were much too blurry. But just for my own sake, I don't think I'll be giving Doug them anymore. :D





And there you have it. It was actually rather fun. And I may be looking forward to Day Two. Maybe. :)

30 day Photography Challenge

Because I love Pinterest so much, and because I know I get sucked into it like nobody's business, I usually try to get on there between the time when Brittnee leaves for school, and the boys get up. It's usually about 45 minute. That's enough time right? That's enough time to completely distract myself with all the things I'll never get around to doing? :)

Well, as it happens, I came across a pin of interest. (Ha! Hence the name Pinterest. Yep, I just put that together. Just now. :)) It is a 30 day photography challenge. FOR MYSELF. And since this blog is supposed to be a BIT about me, I decided I would try it. I cannnot say I will be blogging every day, as I have tried that before and it just doesn't happen so I will make myself no high expectations. However, I will say that I will FINISH it, and hopefully post every day. And I might change a few of the "to do" things. Cause I can, and I just might:)

There.

Now I've said it. And now I have to do it.

So here's the challenge.

Source: Uploaded by user via Kristin on Pinterest

I have to say that I am super excited about this! See you tomorrow!

Hastleton Family

When Jennifer asked me to take some pictures of her kids I was super excited! Totally loved hanging with her boys, and the girls... well they're just too darn cute. Elliott's eyes are the most amazing blue color...and Nathan, that kid is just so photogenic. I think I must have snapped a good 50 pictures of just him!....Grant is the best big brother and did everything I told him to, even when he thought I was crazy when I asked him to lay down on the gravel...Charlotte is at the best age. Not only is she super cute, but at this age, they fidget and move and that makes for the BEST photos! This is why I prefer to photo toddlers. So Jen, here's your sneak peak. I hope you like them!!

Heiney Family

I just got a chance to photo the cutest, completely photogenic family! Every picture Keith and Mattie looked amazing. They just kept smiling no matter what the boys were doing, and really, they just look so good on camera. And their kids... those are some seriously cute boys! I had so much fun with Brandon and Dillion. As I was looking through the raw photos for the first time after the shoot, I came up on one of Dillion's that just made my heart beat a little bit faster. I'll let you know which one it is, but you might be able to guess:) Thanks Mattie for asking me to do them! I had such a good time!






This next picture is the one that made me say, "Awwwww!"