flat.

kansas scenery in march.

oh, my flatness.

photographing kids.

every year i try to do photos of the kids for their

birthday invites.

aiden's b-day is the first week of may,

invitations take a bit of time to print,

then you add in the mailing time...

and you get photos in march. :)

i really hate march.

nothing has bloomed yet.

trees are dead.

grass is gross.

the only thing we have is water.

unfortunately, it looks gross 365 days of the year.

i decided to take him down to the keeper of the plains bridge

and shoot there.

this is what i got.

i always shoot him with his sunglasses on(well, not always cause i LOVE his pretty eyes, but when it's sunny i do.) today was a terrible photo day for him.  we rushed after dinner to get down to the bridge during sunset.  the kid's face was super dried out and i forgot to re-apply lotion this afternoon, he'd just eaten dinner and had food on his teeth, and had food on his collar.  all that added to the fact that he couldn't find his sunglasses in the truck, killed my photo mood.  we were there a whole 2.5 minutes and i said, "that's it.  let's go home".

of course that was hardly a crowd pleaser.  we'd been talking about going down to "captain hook's bridge" all day.


so to make it up to them, despite how i felt physically, we stopped by sedgwick co. park for a while.

this is the joy a photographer who tries to capture kids has to look forward to.

one likes the camera.  one has adhd.

no matter where you go, there is always something they feel is more important to be looking at.

four eyes never want to look directly at your camera.

oh, and let's not forget the hair.  there's always hair blowing, especially in kansas.

for me, there's always that blasted boy.  he stuck his tongue out at me!  haha.

so i rolled with it. 

"show each other your silly faces."

"emily, show your brother your face."

"okay now, aiden, show your sister your face."

that's my favorite photo of the day.

all of those were shot in a 3 minute time frame.

i don't mess around when it comes to photographing my kids.

especially at the park, since all they wanna do is go play!

photographer lesson of the day:

acting ridiculous is the only thing that ever saves

photo shoots. 

remember that.

it may just save your sanity.

the swing photos aren't really crisp and clear(at least not on super zoom in lightroom), but i loved them too much not to include them.  looking at them is actually making me feel peaceful.
well, that and the fact that i have 'sleeping at last' playing in my ears.  they really calm my nerves. :)

know what else calms my nerves??  sleeping kids. 

ahhhhhhh.

thank you dear playground for wearing them out. :)

first awards ceremony.

this morning i was up and out of the house by 6:15am. 

that in itself was a miracle. 

however, i had a very important place to be.

on base.

today was his drill day,

but more importantly his awards ceremony.

he was awarded junior sailor of the year for the area reserves.

this is the first time that i've been to

a military ceremony of any kind,

so it was a big moment for me.

i was able to spend the morning with him,

tagging along as he went from office to office to have things signed off on for his next trip,

short sit down conversations with different chiefs,

as well as getting his evals signed.

i stood a lot today. :)

it was well worth it, though.

congrats, babe!

sneak peek: camden

pause.

so here it is.

my formal "i'm taking a break" post.

i'm going to be on pause for...

a while.

when i started taking photos,

i did so working around my husband's

work schedule.

he was off friday's.

he worked one weekend a month.

i had the routine down.

2011 has decided that the routine is boring.

it needs to spice things up.

okay, okay...

actually, this is why i'm on a break.

it would seem that the mister doesn't like his already

busy work schedule and wants to add more to it.

well, fine.

we'll let him.

for me, however, that means i need to put

things on hold for a bit.

due to a schedule that moves back and forth,

violently,

i'm not as free as i'd like to be.

i'm sure there'll be an ocassional miracle

and i'll get out of the house

to do a photo or two,

but i'm not in the position to promise anything this year.

i am intent on making an out-of-town trip

for a certain senior girl,

but that's as far as the plans go.

in the meantime,

i'll be at home catching this.

after 'while, crocodile.

another whyte house.

i did a short (maybe 10 minutes--it was cold!! )

shoot for my brother-in-law's family while

they were home for Christmas this week.

we weren't able to do photos over thanksgiving, so we took new year's shots. :)

i don't want to give them all away til after

she's sent out her cards,

but i'll share this one.

ja was viewing them on his laptop yesterday

while i was sitting next to him. :)

last day of school. in 2010, that is.

yesterday was emily's last day of school this year,

so justin, aiden and i met up with our friends,

dina and porter, for some starbucks.

this is porter.

he's my favorite little man ever.

he's 2 and does not talk.

perfection.

he's the shy, silent type.  so precious.