capturing the moments

About a month ago, I took the kids to a local park to try and catch some sweet moments of them together. It was gorgeous outside and there were so many beautiful colors of leaves! I like to try to get some "outside" pics of each of the kids when they've turned another year and then hang them in our entryway year after year...

{someday I need to get more frames as they get older,
so I don't have to swap the pictures out year after year}

Normally I have a friend take them or I pay for them to be taken, but this year I decided to try and get a couple of them using my own novice photography skills. As many of my friends say...all you need is one! I got a couple of good ones of Austin as his official "4 year" picture and some of the kids together, so I was pleased!

And then we headed to the playground...

And called it a night...

There's always one (or two) in the bunch...

yes, he really is that cool

I just couldn't resist sharing this picture of Austin at 8 months old (he is now 19 months!). This week's theme at i {heart} faces (a fun photography blog) is hats! So, I searched for one of my favorite pictures of my little blue-eyed boy. Go check out all the other great photos by clicking the button above.

I love this little man!

i {heart} faces...going green!

I've seen i {heart} faces a few times on Amanda's blog...she's shared some very neat pictures she's taken, and I thought I would play along this week! I {heart} faces is a fun photography blog that "focuses on the art of capturing faces and their various emotions". Last I checked there were 290 entries for this week's GREEN theme, so this picture might get lost amongst all of the amazing photos, but I thought I would share it anyway.

I was having fun taking some pictures of the kids this morning in their St. Patty's Day clothes. Austin wasn't cooperating too much, but I managed to snap this one of him. I love how this picture shows off my little boy's big blue eyes! (Somebody obviously needs a haircut!)


Go take a look at all of the other green inspired photos at i {heart} faces and play along! Deadline for this week's entries is TODAY!

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The following pictures I'm not going to be entering into i {heart} faces, but I just thought it would be fun to share some more of this morning's photo shoot. I probably could do a lot of creative stuff with "photoshop", but I've got other projects on the brain, so I'll just share them "as is". Happy St. Patty's Day!!

the best one I could get of the two of them together...seriously.

God's creativity

Enough said.

and then I tried photography

Another one of my creative ventures was to start taking photos and work on possibly getting REALLY good at it for use in the future as some sort of business opportunity. When I was in high school I used to use the kids I babysat for and set up shots like I was working for a photography studio. I even entered into a contest one year with a shot of my three favorite girls, but nothing came up of it but a roll (yes, remember film?) of cute pics.

I received a very nice camera for my birthday in February 2006 (a couple months before I had Mikayla) and was able to play around with it for awhile, mostly taking pictures of flowers and nature. Then my "muse" came along (sweet baby Mikayla) and I said forget it to the nature and began trying to capture the moments of my little one. And, yes, I would dress her up in different outfits to take a variety of shots just for fun. Although I've come to the conclusion that I don't think I am at all talented in this area, I do enjoy trying to capture the sweet faces of my two babes and occasionally a glimpse of God's masterpieces. It's all for fun though and probably always will be. I think I'll leave the real talent in this area up to others, like my friend Annie.

It doesn't hurt to share a few photos that I tried to capture through the lens of my camera...