everyday life. I heart faces photo challenge

I had just picked up my 5 year old from kindergarten. He wanted to play Minecraft on my phone (like always!) while he waited for his food to cool before eating it. The dog waited patiently for either food or attention:) Visit the site to see more fun entries! http://www.iheartfaces.com/2015/03/heart-faces-photo-challenge-everyday-life/

I heart faces "Friends"

I haven't stopped by this blog in ages! Life just sucks you in sometimes...but I'll be back. Soon. I mean it. Here is my entry for the most recent i heart faces challenge. I love this pic of these 3 girls. The blonde is my sweet niece, Maddie. The other two are her good friends that she started preschool with 15 years ago. They graduated high school this spring and I had fun taking some shots of them. Read more at http://www.iheartfaces.com/how-it-works/grab-a-button/#JMyHXtFfwCid91tF.99

Forty what???

It just hit me the other day. One day I was a Mom of young kids in my 30's and all of a sudden. Boom. I'm 41. I know, I know. It's not old really. You see, I remember my parents being this age and well, it doesn't seem like it was all that long ago. Also? I swear to you I am going through menopause. You know when I started to feel different? 41 and a half. On the dot. My family can attest to my craziness. I have been so irritable. Which can only be topped by what I can only assume are hot flashes. Oh, the hot flashes! If I could rip my sweat soaked head off, I would. If I could peel my skin off, I would. Oh yeah, how could I forget the incredible lack of energy? It is downright depressing sometimes. I still have 3 young children to raise, how on earth am I going to manage it? Then again, it has been a crazy year for us. Leaving Seattle to move to Omaha. Then, exactly one year later, packing up the brood and heading back to the Pacific NW. I'm not going to lie. I haven't exercised in about 7 months and my diet has been pretty deplorable. I'm guessing that 75% of what ails me can be cured by exercise. So I'm going to pull out my yoga pants and tennis shoes (who am I kidding? I've been wearing them all year, just not to work out in) and get back into shape. It can't hurt, right? In other news, we are counting down the days (less then a week!!) until school starts. Another new school for the kids. We are all full of a bit of anxiety. But excited too. Starting school means routine and friends (for me and the kids!). The kids have been lonely. I don't know what is with this street where we live. There are no people. I mean, there are people, but where are they? We haven't really met a soul here and I'm longing to feel like a part of something again. I know the kids share this feeling. I am glad we decided to rent for the year so we can be sure that our next house is our forever house. I'm pretty sure we cannot survive many more moves! If we really like the school we will make a commitment to find a home within the boundaries of the school. This might be tough, but I really don't want our kids to have to move schools again. However, we really want to love where we live. I am really going to make an effort to turn this blog into something better, document my love of photography and share a little of my life. I know I love to read blogs. All kinds of blogs. So I figure somebody else out there, might just be interested in reading mine.

In the distance

The theme is "in the distance" for the I heart faces challenge. Just happened to take this and thought it fit the theme!

PLAY ON

What I love most about this image of my daughter is how she somehow looks like a superhero. Riding off to save the world on her pink bicycle. The wind in her hair, confident, brave. Technically there are things I could change about the image. But I wouldn't want to if I could:) Theme for i heart faces this month is "PLAY"

Mony

Love how my 7 year old is learning. Love to walk into her bedroom to see something like this.

I heart Faces~ Orange

The theme of the contest is orange and because I didn't have time to specifically take a photo that involved the color, I found this one from my recent shoot with my kids. Love it so much for 2 reasons. 1. Evelyn is soaring. 2. Macky in the background looking so adorable.

Home is...

It has been 125 days since we left Seattle. We have survived extreme heat, 3 first days of school, 2 birthdays, our 9 year anniversary, in laws visiting, a family member with an extreme personal crisis, hours of Victorious, Hannah Montana, My Little Ponies and Mighty Machines. We have also experienced hours of playtime with cousins, Monte starting a new job, Me being a Girl Scout co-leader, volunteering at school, gaining 15 pounds, joining the YMCA to try to fight those 15 pounds, new episodes of The Walking Dead, and Trick or Treating, mid-west style. There is so much more to tell and I wish I had chronicled it all on the blog, but it was just so overwhelming. Now? I think this is home. I know this is home because it's where these guys live.

Boy!

The challenge at i heart faces this month is "All Boy". This shot of Mac surrounded by his "traffic" just sums up boyhood to me. Enjoy.

i heart faces

I haven't blogged in quite sometime. In fact, after I got to a staggering day 9 in my 365 project, I must have fallen off the face of the earth or something. Anyway, just popping in because I want to enter the i heart faces challenge. The theme is "Hey Girl". I have many, many pics of my girls. However, I keep falling in love with this image of Mac shyly giving flowers to Feliz, our Thai au pair. I did this photo shoot for her because after 2 1/2 years, she is leaving next week:(

Day 9

Walked in to the kitchen to find all 3 kids having "coffee" this evening.

Day 8

Caught the girls while out riding with the neighbors. Wow, this is pushing me to really photograph things I wouldn't normally pull out the camera for...

day 7

Yes, I did take this on the right day, but am just now getting around to blogging it. This is turning out to be more challenging than I thought. This pic was taken poorly with a flash and I tried to salvage it, but the edit is strange, I'm aware:) I do like the image of my little girl freshly bathed and pj'd.

Day 6

Run Mac, Run!

Day 5

Day 4

No explanation necessary. Although I do believe there is still a lot of work to do here...

Day 3 (actually taken on day 3, although posting a day late)

So it still counts, right? The important thing is taking the photo each day, not exactly the posting of it. And I did have to climb 2 flights of stairs to get my camera and take a photo when I remembered around 5 when it was already dark and I knew I wouldn't get my best photo. I found this book Charlotte wrote at school and thought this needed to be documented. My little girl learning to write! Big accomplishment!!!
Translated "She slammed the door." I was thrilled that I looked at it and could understand what she was trying to write. This was a whole book titled "The Biggest Valentine."

Day 2

I love to see a child who enjoys reading a good book! I bet you didn't think I'd make it through day 2:)

Day 1

What a perfect way to start the new year. I do not often follow through with things, but I am going to attempt this 365 project. It's fitting to start the project with my 3 favorite kids, walking together in a beautifully unposed fashion. I LOVE how they (can sometimes) love each other:)

Pet Face

We don't actually have a pet, but this shot always makes me laugh. It's just priceless. We were visiting family in Montana who live on a ranch and there are animals everywhere. Mac is an animal lover and was dying to get his hands on this kitten. You can see the love was not mutual. Every time I see this, I can't help but laugh out loud.