Easter 2011

Two days before Easter we spent outside sprucing up our backyard. The day started out warm with full sun but by the end of the afternoon it became overcast and started sprinkling. We completed the yard work and I decided that it'd be the perfect time to take our children's Easter photos (because the clouds help diffuse the sun and create a soft light on the subject) but by the time I finished getting the kids dressed it started to rain. These were taken around 4 pm, in the center of our yard (no shade), in approx. 15 min, with a little sprinkle of rain...

I just love the hair piece I made that mathches my daughters outfit and how the browns work so well with her coloring!

I had actually forgotten about these photos until today... thankfully I got them on the blog before next Easter :)

My Lilacs

I L-O-V-E my lilac bushes!! Every year I can count on them to be full of beautiful/ fragrant flowers just in time for Easter! We have 2 bushes that we planted in our back yard over 7 years ago and I have used them as a backdrop for many, many of my children's pictures! But this time I wanted to photograph just the flowers and left the kids out... well, actually, that's not so true... you'll see later on in this post what I'm talking about.

Anyways, I had a good reason for photographing the flowers. I wanted to make my Easter cards with a photo of them. That was my idea anyways... but sometimes my crazy crafty mind gets away with me and I end up with something different than my first thoughts. This was one such time... what I ended up with was this...

That I turned into this little project... (I gave 8 of them to my dear friends today)

I printed it out and glued it to a piece of foam board. Here's a side view to show how I wrapped the edges for a more finished look.

So to back track a little... I want to show some of the pictures I took of the lilac bushes and some of the edits I made... and yes I used ACTIONS again!

This is the original photo used for my project...

and here's the edited version... I added a action called "Sun Kissed"

The following are the pictures I didn't use for this project but probably will end up using somehow!

Original...

Edited with an action called "Velvet Truffle"...

Original...

Edited with an action called "Simply Vintage"...

Original...

Edited with "Sun Kissed" action (same used in project above)...

Original...

Edited with action called "Sunny Pop"...

My son Ryley came outside to ask me a question... little did he know he'd be sorry for doing that! Don't bother momma when she's got her camera in her hands... you'll get shot (he, he)!

He started out with a nice big smile...

but quickly grew tired of smiling for me so he could go back to what he wanted!

and threw up his arms in complaint!

I encourage you to stop, smell and photograph a little of God's beauty like I did this week... you never know what you could end up with!

Better late than never...

I have been behind for a long time at posting pictures here on my blog. I have some from back in October, November & December 2010 that I never put up on here... so to play catch up here's some from December...

My beautiful children's Christmas pictures...

Daina, 9 years old

Ryley, 6 years old

Brayden, 3 years old

Rigan, 16 mo. old (you can see tears in all his pictures... I could have removed them but I wanted the memories to be real!)

And I had to add the out-takes... my kids were really uncooperative... tired and not wanting their photos taken!

Wishing you a belated Merry Christmas!

MOPS Santa House

I'm part of a mothers group called MOPS which stands for Mother's of Preschoolers. It's an International group that has thousands of charter groups all over the world. I've been blessed to serve on the leadership team for the past 5 yrs now. Every year we run into the obstacle of fundraising... we have a host church that pays for our childcare (which is a huge blessing!) but we need money outside of the dues to pay for any leadership training and scholarships. MOPS saying is "No mom left behind", which means that we reach out to all mothers, regardless of background etc... we also don't want the dues to be a reason a mom doesn't attend so the scholarships are there for that. Check out MOPS website at http://www.mops.org/
Any hoo, one of our new leaders, Niki, had an awesome idea to host a Santa's workshop (so to speak)... where kids could come and sit on Santa's lap, tell him what they want and get a picture taken with him (this was my job) and then go on to make a couple crafts and enjoy cookies and cocoa. It was an awesome weekend! We did fairly well with the fundraising part with very little advertising but even more importantly we spread the word about MOPS to many moms within our community. Also, being the photographer, I was there to watch each and every child light up when they saw Santa! What a blessing it was!!
Also, I need to mention that Niki hosted this event at her beautiful Victorian house, built in 1900-something, that she and her husband are restoring to it's natural beauty. I just have to let it out... I'm JEALOUS! Ok I feel better now... so on to the photos...

 I LOVE this one... I didn't realize it at the time but Santa's eyes are closed... a beautiful moment!

This little boys mom asked Santa if he'd be willing to take this picture... of course he was more than willing to participate too!!!

This one was made to look "old" for a reason... I had a rough time with my flash... it ate up the batteries like crazy... I had to keep re-shooting cause they were WAY too dark... this one I liked though and thought maybe I could salvage it in someway... I think it's not bad for a photo that was un-usable!

This little girl and her baby sister were way to precious! She cut out pictures of the things she wanted and glued them into a card for Santa... I love how all 3 of them are looking at the pictures!

I saw Niki kissing Santa Claus... which by-the-way "Santa" was Niki's husband... he was an awesome Santa!!! 

Of course I had to throw in my kids too... this is our oldest... Daina

Our 2nd... Ryley

and our 4th... Rigan. Just like many other babies... he cried!

 #3 would not go near Santa... in fact he tried to coax him over with a candy cane but wouldn't get close enough to take it from him!

There's always room on Santa's lap...  

 

This one was a miss-fire... I pressed the button too fast... and this is what I got! I love it... for next years "workshop" we're using this one to advertise... saying "Santa wants YOU!"

And this was just a few of us MOPS leaders who helped during the event.

We have dreams of this fundraiser becoming a HUGE event within our community for many, many years to come! Thanks to Niki and Santa (Vince) without them, their house, and their dedication to serving the Lord through MOPS this event wouldn't have been possible!