Photo Shoot with Ruby ♥

Ruby was taking a bath the other night and it seemed like the perfect time for a photo shoot.  We had a little breakdown at the beginning of bath time ~ Ruby was a little sensitive to auntie's comment :) but she recovered very quickly.

I am so in love with this little girl ~ so sweet...xoxo

p.s. very excited to take pictures of ALL of the kids over Christmas!

Girls' Weekend

We (my sisters, mom, & I) decided to have a girls' weekend in Bismarck.  I had high hopes of taking lots of fun pictures, but I ended up slacking quite a bit.  Anyways, below is what I have to show for our weekend. 

In order to help pass the time a little bit on our drive, I snapped some pictures.  Sarah was gripping the wheel (see the picture below) and the picture above shows how clear the roads were :)  Sometimes, they were a little worse than that...but just a little. 

I took this one out of my window while driving on the highway...I like the colors.

 

Having lunch at Pancheros...yummmm



Amy packed some snacks for our night at the motel.  We thought this was the funniest thing...hahaha...but for some reason, it's not quite as funny looking back at the pictures :)  It still makes 

me smile though...

The pictures don't do our weekend justice...we had so much fun together...even laughed until we cried :)  I love you all so much.  I hope we can do it again soon!

Caribou Coffee ♥

What do you stay awake for?

Before leaving for our girls' weekend, we made a pit stop at Caribou Coffee.  My favorite part about Caribou is the coffee cup that holds the coffee ~ the sayings on it can brighten anyone's day.  Below are some examples:

* Be the first to enter and the last to leave the dance floor.

*Lighten up.

*Indulge in chocolate therapy.

*Dare to adventure.

*Life is short.  Stay awake for it.

*Marshmallows have no nutritional value, and that's okay.

*You'll only be your current age once.

*Only look back if it makes you smile.

*Sing out loud.

*Dance in the rain.

*Be the first to apologize.

*Be the ruler of your own life.

*Spin the globe and pack your bags (**I want to be more like this)

*Life's too short for grudges.

*Make time for silly.

*Laugh so hard you cry.

*Dance to your own rhythm.

*Smile first, ask questions later.

*Listen first, talk second.

*Compliment a stranger.

*Take all of your vacation days.

*Do it for life, not profit.

*Follow your heart.

*Start right now.

*Make today special.

I love ♥ these sayings and think we should all live our lives a little more like what it says on the coffee cup.

♪ We Were Walking Downtown ♫

Trying out some things with Lightroom...took these pictures when we went downtown to see Santa :)

BEYOND Excited

 I have great news ~ my book came in the mail that will teach me how to actually use all of the features of my camera!  I am so excited - this book is going to be my holiday break reading material.  I also purchased Lightroom which I am even more excited to use.  Lightroom is going to be a great editing and organizing tool for me and I cannot wait to start experimenting :) 

1st Edition ~ Favorite Photographs

These are two of my favorite pictures I have taken so far ~ the light from the window hitting the back of Oliver's hair really adds to the picture. 

 

Let it Snow*

I still need a lot of practice with outdoor photos and I don't have much experience with shooting anything other than people, so I decided to take a picture from our patio.  I am loving the snow...I was actually hoping for more...I love snow days.

Morning Art Project :)

 Having breakfast before the exciting art project...posing for a quick picture for his auntie.

 The art supplies ~ this was my first attempt at trying to be creative...I think it turned out alright :)

 I think he may have enjoyed using the supplies to play the drums, moreso than using them to make his turkey.

 Artists in action - stood on the chair for this picture to try and get a different angle.

 Practicing blurring of the background again...Oliver is such a trooper with my picture taking, it doesn't seem to bother him at all.

 I LOVE this picture ~ Oliver was being told by his Mommy to stop pulling the tape out, this picture is of him looking at her while he proceeded to continue pulling...I thought it was entertaining.

 The finished products...

 Oliver doesn't like pretzels, so he was sharing them with me...I like the angle of this picture...and the color.

Getting every last crumb...I may or may not have instructed him to do this.

Experimental Photo Shoot

Amelia and Oliver telling secrets and trying to keep them from me...little did they know, I could hear every little naughty word they were saying to each other :)

They were so good at making each other giggle...I loved it.

Love.

Relaxing and watching a movie...tired each other out from all of the laughing.

Ruby ♥ (of course ~ all smiles)

Attempting to play a board game...
 Oliver = sitting on the board
Ruby = eating the game pieces
Amelia = watching TV 
Needless to say, the game playing did not go so well.

Ruby doing her usual hair pulling as Oliver watches the action.

Oliver LOVES to play guitar...with anything that even resembles a guitar.

I like this picture - was experimenting with having the background out of focus.

How could I not try to capture Ruby's red hair?

Amelia, Oliver, and Ruby were wonderful for me to practice my photography skills on ~ almost always all smiles.  Definitely still experimenting with my new camera and still have SO much to learn...for my first practice session, I just used a basic setting, but can't wait to get more creative :)