Busy Living

I tired without any success to get an appointment for my son, and ended up taking his 8 month pictures myself. I have no regrets. They turn out so cute! It cannot be easier. I simply wait for the right time, when he is rested and has a full tummy. I also make sure the lighting is agreeable. I took these pics during the day, but in the shade. It was overcast.

Here is proof that I am taking pictures of life as it happens. This is my daughter literally pulling out her second loose tooth.

I have had the chance to get all caught up on ordering my pictures. Lately, I wait until Snapfish has a sale (this time it was free shipping) and make it my goal to order all my photos by that date. It is so easy to let your pictures sit on the computer or on your memory card forever. I need to motivate myself to get the pictures printed and sales work for me!

I feel so far behind in my scrapbooking. I know that I need to focus on my kids right now since they won't be little forever, but lets face it. I have a limited memory store. The reason I remember so much about my little girl's baby years is because I have it written down. I don't want to scrapbook these pictures years from now, I want to scrap them now! I am scrapbooking February for my daughter, am caught up on my son's professional album where I proudly displayed the photos I took the last 2 months on his "monthday", and I haven't looked at his online album in awhile, but I'm probably only a few months behind. You don't understand how much it kills me to not be caught up!

I bought some cool plastic-drawers-on-wheels and organized my scrapbooking supplies. I have my own desk, and now I have my wheeled drawer thing that scoots in under it, very organized! Yet somehow, I feel like I don't have enough room on my desk to scrap comfortably. So I still need to fix that. It isn't conducive to scrapping.

Beach Days

When going on a vacation, I often have a mental list of shots that I want to get. Pictures of my daughter's footprints in the sand, Her hands with the surf in the background,

My son playing on the beach for the very first time,

the ocean in the sunset ( and I am really into shooting pictures of people's backs right now),

and my little girl's face the second she sees the ocean when we first get to the beach.

Especially on vacation, I like to get candid shots as well as posed. I like candids because they show life. I also like not having to make my kids stop what they are doing and look at the camera. I don't want to pause that moment unnaturally, I want to capture it happening! When I show my photos, there are probably about 150 that you'll see. But I have taken so many more. I usually take at least 2 of the same shot, sometimes more if I can. Some cameras have settings that will automatically take more than one shot. I'm going to play with mine and have it set to do that.

TIP! At the beach, we made sure to have a shade umbrella everyday. My camera was in a gallon ziplock bag, in a pocket of the backpack (we leave it in the same pocket so that it's quick to get to) under the shade umbrella. It's hard to keep sand and moisture out of your camera, so be sure to have it out as little as possible. If sand gets on the zoom lense, carefully wipe it off. I took several tissues to the beach for cleaning my glasses, camera and my little boy's runny nose (not all with the same tissue)! I usually went through 4 tissues a day.

I took some shots in the surf, making sure the camera band was around my wrist and that I kept the camera high enough to stay out of the water.

I know that I had mentioned taking my scrapbooking supplies on vacation to get some scrapping done at night, but I ended up not doing that. It was a lot to travel with, and by the end of the day, I could barely stay awake long enough to jot down the day's events. Also, we took my husband's truck and I don't trust that my supplies would stay completely dry in the back, if it rained.

We had a nice, relaxing vacation. I was able to get most of the shots I wanted, and really made an effort this trip to read less and play with my kiddos more. The more years we go to Ocean City, the more treasures we find! With going to the beach every day but one, (the day we go outlet shopping) eating at all of our favorite restaurants, playing at the world's greatest park, walking the boardwalk and the marsh boardwalk, playing at the coolest putt putt course we know of, and driving through Assateague to see the horses, we are tired at the end of the day!

Scrap Happy!