Day 15: Kiss

Despite his look in this picture, he really was a willing participant.

Could she BE wearing any more clothes?

6 shirts. Just what you need when it's expected to get to 72 degrees today.

I couldn't help but think of this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q--6wtCPHg8

It wouldn't let me embed.

Ketchup

Day 13 - Routine

Day 14 - Wedding rings

This assignment scared me. I am not really good on close up shots, so I kind of threw in the towel and had Thomas hold them for me. It's not really a detail shot, but at least I did it.

Love it.

"Powerful candids are by definition revealing. They give us hints about inner workings but leave room for imagination about who the subject is and how they are motivated."

-Robert McNeely, White House Photographer

Day 12: Physicality - Eyes

Valentines Day Cards

This is Thomas' first Valentines day in school. I have been a tad too excited about it. I found this idea on Design Mom. I caution you against reading her blog. She recently moved to France and is going to spend the next year there with her family. She is making the move sound so easy - like even WE could do it.

I may or may not have spent an hour yesterday searching for Physical Therapy jobs in Paris.

Day 11: Dreams

Ever since I started today's assignment I can't get the Cranberries song, "Dreams" out of my head. If it's stuck in your head now too, your welcome.

Dreams. We all have them. Mine tend to be a tad off the wall. The most recent one I can remember stared me and Cloris Leachman. Then there was another one with me, Matthew Perry, My husband, and a baby in a beach house. Like I said, they're off the wall.

Can I please have eyelashes like this? It's always the boys who get the thick, luscious lashes!

Every night Thomas says his prayers before bed. Each time he asks Heavenly Father to help him have "happy happy happy happy dreams." Sometimes he pauses after the phrase and throws an extra happy in there just to cover all bases. He is so worried about having scary dreams. It breaks my heart that he is afraid of dreams, but I know he'll grow out of it.

Clara dreams. I know she does because she talks in her sleep. I know she talks in her sleep because she makes her way into our bedroom every single night. It's a tricky situation. She is so quite and gets into position between the two of us with out making a peep. If one of us wakes up in the middle of the night, they are responsible for taking her back to her room. But it's really pointless. She always makes her way back in. Every time I get frustrated I try and tell my self that it won't last forever and I will miss waking up with her cuddled next to me when she is older.

To see all the other submissions at Willette, click here.

Day 10: Space

Today's assignment is all about a favorite space. For Clara that would be anywhere she can get wet. She loves water. Every time we drive by the public pool she asks if we can go. I tell her that it's too cold and she tell me, "It's okay, I'll just shiver like this." Then she shows me how she is perfectly capable of shivering. Since we are experiencing bitterly cold temperatures in the mid 60's, she has to make do with the tub.

There's nothing better than a clean set of raisin feet.

Or baby-doll feet - because baby must do everything Clara does.

(My favorite part of this picture is her chipped nail polish.)

Day 9: Passions and Hobbies

Clara's Passions: Pink, Princesses and Playing with make-up

That pretty much sums up her life.

Today we were looking for her shoes. Like every other day we were having a hard time finding them. She said, "Don't worry, I'll just use my magic wand to find them."

Don't you hate it when you are getting your picture taken and your crown starts falling off your head?

However, after it has fallen, it's nice to know you can use the reflection to check your lipstick.

She said she needed more.

Day 8 - Gift of the heart

Question: Do you know how hard it is to get a beauty shot of a waffle iron?

One of my favorite gifts of the heart from Steve has been this waffle iron.

Before Steve and I had kids we traveled. A lot. Both of us would often come home on a Friday night and decide that we wanted to get out of town. We were DINKS (that's double income no kids) - we could, so we would. We would drive down to the beach and spend the weekends walking on the sand, eating seafood on the pier and searching antique stores for vintage cookie jars. It was great.

Being the big dorks that we are, we always enjoyed a good hotel breakfast. Before we would check into a hotel we would search the breakfast room to see if they had a waffle iron. If they did we would stay. If they didn't we would high tail it out of there and check the hotel down the street. This was back in the early 2000's, hotel waffle irons weren't as common as they are today.

Fast forward a few years. Our impromptu traveling had become a thing of the past. We were now a family of 3 and we were down to one income. One morning I came downstairs to find this fancy waffle maker on the counter. It wasn't a special occasion. My awesome husband bought it for me because he loves me and thought I would enjoy it.

And I have.

Day 7: Generations

My mom is a great sport. I called her at 8:30 this morning and told her Clara and I were coming over to get a picture. When we got there she yelled out her back door, "I thought you weren't coming until 9:30!" She was just getting into the bath tub. I told her she was fine and she could take her time. Clara had other plans. She went busting in on Grandma in the tub while I stood in the kitchen laughing. I wish I would have gotten a picture, that would have been a great photo for the assignment! Instead I had Clara sit on Grandma's lap when she was fully clothed. Even though I am sure a picture of Grandma cowering behind a towel would have been priceless, this one will have to do for now.

Day 6 - Who they love.

I really wish I would have gotten the kids to pose together for this assignment because they love each other more than words can express. But I waited too long. I waited until after 1 pm church. After sitting reverently for 3 hours the kids were in no mood to listen to instructions and pose for a picture. I finally got Thomas let me take a picture with his Dog. Truth is he loves dogs. He is currently obsessed with them. For Christmas all he wanted was a stuffed dog, so Santa found this huge one. His room is covered in dog pictures, he sleeps with this monstrosity and 5 other small dogs and he spent his birthday money from Aunt Leah on another dog. I'm really hoping the obsession ends soon. He is running out of space in his bed.

Day 5 - What you love to hate about them

When I first read this assignment I knew there was only one thing I could post about. The tooth.

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When Thomas was 22 months old he broke his front tooth. This wasn't a cute little chip that could be overlooked, it was a huge C-shaped chip out of the left corner of his right tooth. It left a point on the bottom that I thought for sure would puncture his lip before we had the chance to repair it.

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There is a lot of debate as to how his tooth actually broke. Both things happened within minutes of each other. It could either by my fault or Steve's fault - or a combination of the two. Thomas was sitting on the edge of our kitchen table next to Steve. For some reason he fell off the table - with a perfectly capable adult sitting right next to him! About 10 minutes after he had calmed down he was playing with my large exercise ball. For some reason, as I walked by I kicked it. I did not realize the moment I kicked the ball was the same moment my darling, perfect son decided to do a face plant into the ball. Me kicking the ball + Him doing a face plant into the ball = A face first fall onto the wood floor. I scooped him up and held him. I felt so bad. When he finally calmed down he looked at me and smiled. At that moment I about lost my lunch. I am abnormally squeamish about broken teeth.

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He had the tooth fixed the next morning and all was well with the world once again. Then the temporary fell off about 6 months later leaving him with the same C-shaped chip. We saw a dentist once again and they said they could place a cap over the tooth. They said it would look great. For some reason I believed them. I will never forget the morning that Steve brought him home from the dentist. I was laying on the couch trying to talk myself out of morning sickness. Thomas came walking over to me with a smile on his face so he could show me the new tooth. He had this fluorescent white billboard with a silver back as a replacement for his tooth. It looked awful. I had a really hard time getting use to it. I HATED it.

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That was 3 1/2 years ago. Since then it has blended in. You can still tell that it is a fake tooth, but he works it. I have gotten use to it - it's a part of him that I love. It's part of his smile, and what's not to love about his smile? I know the life of the tooth is coming to an end. He is 6, the prime age for losing teeth. It's going to be a sad day when that little thing falls out.

Day 4 - What they wear

This project has been so much fun. Granted we are only on the 4th day, but each assignment is so easy to work with. Today's assignment was What They Wear. One of the things I have been focusing on a lot is catch lights. For those of you who don't dabble in photography, a catch light is light reflection in your subjects eyes. When I attended the Blue Lily GoPro Workshop in November it was one of the first things they emphasised. A good catch light = an interesting photo.

Anyway...back to the assignment.

What they wear. My kids wear clothes. 33% of the time they are clean, 33% I know they are dirty, but I know they will pass and 34% of the time I'm not sure. Laundry is an issue here. This pictures was easy to set up.

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1. Go to any room - I picked the room with the best light for the time of day.

2. Dump out laundry basket that is guaranteed to be overflowing.

3. Let kids play in clothes.

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Clara loves a big pile of clothes to snuggle in. It doesn't matter if they are clean or dirty. Many times I have found her curled up in our dry cleaning basket playing her leapster. Other times I have yelled firmly told her to stop messing around in the clean laundry piled all over the couches. If there is a big pile of clothes she will gravitate towards it.

Joy of Love

One of the blogs I read recently posted about an online photo class. I clicked on the link and was thrilled to find out it was free. Hot digity!!! Ever day during the month of February, Willette sends a photo assignment to complete. I have not had the chance to post, so I am posting 3 days worth of assignments.

The idea of the class is to take a picture of someone or something you love everyday. Each day they assign a theme. Follow the theme, take the picture - pretty easy (Jenn D - do it). The pictures do not have to be the same person or the same thing everyday, it can be various things. There is still time to sign up. Click here to play along.

Assignment Day 3: Show how they have changed.

There are few things in life as sad as baby shoes. Don't get me wrong, baby shoes are adorable and so much fun when babies are around. But babies grow up. Then 6 years later you pull the baby shoes out of your secret drawer and you cry. The first question that always comes to my mind is "How did they ever fit into these?"

Assignment Day 2: What they look like.

I don't know how many people stop me and comment on the color of my kids' hair. When I have one of them, it happens. When I have both of them together, I can't walk into a store without some cute little old lady stopping to talk to me and tell me about her grandbaby who has red hair, but not "that" color red. Then the questions start, "Who has red hair in your family?" I've learned not to say, "My husband had red hair" because someone once thought he must be dead because I used the word had. When I say had I say it meaning that he was a red-head up until his late 20's, then it started to morph into something else - more of a brown. Now that he has entered his 40's, it's beginning to morph into another color - I think it looks pretty hot.

For this picture I wanted the sun to be shining directly on Thomas' hair so that it would accentuate the color. I often think it looks like I've crushed up a bunch of pennies and rubbed them all over his head.

Assignment Day 1: What they do.

I think I have already established that this is what Clara does every time I pull out the camera to get a picture of her. So when I read the assignment and saw that I was to shoot a picture of what they do - I let her do her thing. No bribing involved.