365/365: Woohoo!!!

I made it! And I think I'm a little crazy for signing myself up for another year. But mostly in a good way. I have learned so much this year and doing this project has been beneficial to me both personally as a way of documenting our (my family's) lives and as a photographer.

The photo above shows my new display area in a corner near the kitchen. I purchased the magnetic boards at Ikea, I've made a commitment to print out my favorite images once a month (instead of the 200+ I just did... oops) and when the new month's prints arrive in the mail I will pull the old ones down and slip them into the new albums that arrived today. Woohoo for organization! I love looking at the pictures. Many of them were taken for the 365 and I would probably not have captured them if I hadn't needed to "get a shot" for the day.

I feel like I need to have some kind of wrap up... a where I started, what I've learned and where I want to go from here, kind of thing. As the boys are about to wake up from their naps any minute, that will be a perfect way to start the New Year tomorrow!

364/365: Macro!!

We had frost this morning (kind of a rare occurrence!) and because frost is as close as I'm probably going to get to snow this winter, I had to get out there and try to capture it. I was out in the backyard in my bathrobe and slippers, with bare legs poking out, but when I decided to head to the front yard I did put some pants and a sweatshirt on. The neighbors probably couldn't have handled my winter-white-skinned awesomeness!

363/365: One Last Tree Picture

Isaac is going to be so sad when the tree disappears. I'm hoping to have "Christmas" torn down and put away within the next few days.

A new pair of shoes! Woohoo :)

362/365: Behind me, No Really, Behind me!!

My Mom wanted a picture of the boys with "Noni and Papa." However, Papa and Bobo had to leave for the airport in 5 minutes, the boys were still eating lunch and it was raining and gray outside. So, speed-light and Christmas tree background it was. I asked Dada and Bobo to get the boys attention behind me... but, as you can tell, that wasn't exactly how things transpired.

Lots of scheming today on how I can raise the rest of the funds I need to upgrade to full-frame.

Anyone wanna buy 2 40+ yard rolls of bamboo fleece??? :)

361/365: Grass Valley

We took a little afternoon trip up to Grass Valley today. While we were there we found a fun toy store and Isaac and my brother ("Bobo") had a fun time at the Thomas table. What a cute little town Grass Valley is, and overflowing with awesome walls, doors and hidden away corners for taking pictures. I need to find myself a willing model and head back up there!

360/365: 360!!!

5 more days!

Above is my feeble attempt at spicing up the high chair shot that I have been posting entirely too many of in the past few months. It's just too easy to snap a shot of him next to the big window and call it a day.

I think a resolution for my new 365 (yup, I'm gonna keep it going) will be no high chair shots allowed :)

359/365: Merry Christmas!

I made Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls. Mmm. A bit of work, but worth it!

Grayden finally got his attempt at pulling down the tree...

...and we had a wonderful dinner of ham, prime rib, brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes. Yum! It was deemed "infinite points day" by the family members that are following Weight Watchers... ha!

358/365: Traditions

On Christmas Eve we have clam chowder by candlelight, take a drive to look at Christmas lights and read The Polar Express. Usually we go to church as well, but we decided to keep our coughing and sniffling to ourselves this year :)

357/365: Warmin' Up the Christmas PJs

You know, you have to get more than one wear out of them! Plus, it just doesn't seem as cool to put them on him after the holiday.

356/365: Reading Time

Isaac is soaking up all the extra attention he has available while my family is in town. He and Noni cuddled on the couch to read a book.

355/365: Little Hands

I love his little hands.

You can see that he is currently a nail biter, despite all my attempts to curb the habit.

You can pick up on his slight impatience with my insistence on "one more picture."

His little fingers have lost most of their babyish pudge and are slimming out and becoming more coordinated by the day.

Sweet little man.

354/365: Gingerbread Tree

Dada was sad that he didn't get to participate in the Gingerbread house building (he was away on a work trip) and so now we have a tree to go with our house :) Isaac was thrilled to have another chance to decorate with "ornaments."

I was amazed he didn't try to eat any of the candy either time we decorated.

If we had been using chocolate I'm sure he would have scarfed about half of it :)

353/365: Powerless

Can you tell what is wrong with the above picture? Yep, the time should be displayed. It wasn't. Our power was out for 7 hours starting at 3:30 in the afternoon.

However, I'm very thankful for gas stoves that can be lit by hand and gas powered water heaters that allow for candelit baths.

352/365: Advent Chocolate!

B bought an Advent calendar for Isaac at World Market. We have been having a great time every afternoon after quiet/nap-time discussing what the date for the day looks like in numbers and guessing what shape the chocolate piece is going to be. Almost every afternoon Isaac comes downstairs after his quiet time and the first thing out of his mouth is "Oh! I forgot my Advent chocolate!"

Hehe... I don't think he really forgot :)

351/365: Snot CAN be handy

Just in case you need someplace to store cheerios for later...

350/365: Sick

This is the face of a sick little guy. I think you can kind of see it in his eyes. You'd be able to see it under his nose, but I had just wiped it (for the millionth time since 7am. It was about 9am.) Both boys have a nasty cold and cough that has been the most mucous-prolific illness I have seen in awhile. I'm doing pretty well at heading it off myself, but my throat is a little sore. It's making the rounds, I hear.

I used to be scared of any blown highlights... but now I kind of like to blow backgrounds on purpose :)

349/365: Christmas Cards

I was part of the Simply Color sale hold up, but I finally got my cards, wrote the letter, addressed, stamped and licked (eww) all of the envelopes and decided to take them to the post office at 6pm, just so that I could check something completely off of my list. Woohoo!

348/365: Gingerbread House

Isaac and I completed our first Gingerbread House today. This wasn't a tradition in my family growing up, but I thought it would be fun for us to try. There is technique involved in constructing a house out of gingerbread! It was fun though and we just may have to make it a tradition by doing it again next year.

347/365: Starburst Fail

I was attempting to get the starburst effect on the tree. Big fat fail! I'll have to read up on settings a little more closely and try again.

346/365: 9 Months Old

Hmm... I seem to have a thing for B&W's lately. Back in January, I remember saying that one of my goals for the year was to learn how to do a "correct" conversion. I went through a Florabella phase (still love the actions... just don't use them very often) and now that I'm an almost exclusively LR processor I do my own conversions. I feel like I made pretty good progress this year in learning how to do a conversion that I'm proud to claim. Still more to learn, but I'm not nearly as intimidated by B&W processing as I was back in January.

How can Grayden be 9 months old? His first year is flying by. A picture session in a crib is a great way to contain a speedy crawler :)

345/365: Foggy Sunrise

We've been having a lot of foggy mornings recently, but not usually with the sun visible through the mist.

344/365: December Day at the Park

When it is 64 degrees in December, you don't skip a chance to go to the park!

(The cute picture in which Grayden has his finger in his mouth? Yah, he's poking at the bark chunk he stuffed in there. It took photographer Mom a minute to realize what he was doing.)

CIUAN: I Learned...

This week I am learning just how much I love this little guy. This is pretty honest, but if I was a betting type, I'd bet that because I feel this way.... there are others who do too :)

When my babies are first born, I love them, but it takes awhile before I get to that "overcome with how special, precious, unique and awesome" they are, stage. Right now I'm falling in love with Grayden so completely. Moments where he isn't doing anything particularly special, but he'll turn and catch me watching him and then smile that little half smile... babies are such a blessing. The trust and love that my boys have for me is something that I could never earn.

I love you little guys!

Lots of great tips over at Click It Up a Notch!

343/365: No Mama!

Isaac was throwing a fit while I took this picture. I mean a. fit.

Thankfully, I figured out that he was just needing a little one on one time.

Several games of hide and seek fixed everything.

342/365: Kirby Fun

I had my first (and last!) Kirby salesperson experience today. I was actually vacuuming and heard the dogs barking. When I answered the door this sweet young girl begged me to let her demo a "cleaning service." I said "No thanks" she said "please? I only have to do a couple more of these tonight and then I can go home." "Ok..."

She comes back with two guys and several large boxes. I said "Uh... what company did you say you were with???" She and one of the guys left. The other stayed behind and proceeded to demonstrate for an hour and a half inspite of the fact that I said upfront "I will not be purchasing. I WILL NOT!"

The boys ended up eating leftovers and I didn't get to eat until after I gave them a bath and put them to bed.

Kirby was not my friend today. :)

341/365: Tuesday Me

I wanted to do a self-portrait that utilized the pretty afternoon light and Christmas tree bokeh :) Self portraits have become much easier throughout the year. Woohoo 365! I feel like I need some kind of conclusion to this project, but I can't come up with what I want to do. Something to think about...

340/365: One Shoe On and One Shoe Off

Grayden's Christmas stocking came in the mail today. Pottery Barn stopped selling the one that B, Isaac and I have so we found a pretty close match. I told B this is another reason we need a third child. If they (the 3rd child) have a slightly different stocking too it will look like we meant for it to be that way!

339/365: Decorating Complete!

...but now comes the completion of Christmas shopping, all the wrapping, baking, cooking...

I Heart Faces: Self- Portrait

This one is almost a year old! That means that this 365 is almost completed. Wow! Check out some more self portraits at I Heart Faces:

338/365: Christmas Party

Santa flew in on the plane behind Isaac.

We arrived just in time to dash all the way across the taxiway to get to the hangar before the plane taxied in. I parked on the wrong side of the taxiway... if you've never been on foot near Air Force hangars/ taxiways, you can't quite picture how wide of an expanse that is. Needless to say, it is large. Picture 500+ people standing in front of a huge hangar watching for Santa's plane and me carrying a baby, being drug along by a preschooler having arrived on the wrong side then hiking all the way across where Santa is expected to appear. Oh well... at least my friends knew we had arrived :)

We waited in line to be given gifts. The amount of toys they had was amazing! Each child got 2 presents. Isaac received a firetruck and a Playdough set and Grayden got a bath boat and pretend cell phone. After waiting for an hour, Grayden was done, so we stopped and had Isaac's face painted (he chose a candy cane) and then hiked back to the car.

Thankfully, Isaac didn't notice the bouncy castle and wasn't devastated that I suggested we skip talking with Santa :)

337/365: I Love Bath-time

Especially because B gives the boys their bath :)

Do you see that 8th little tooth coming through on the bottom? Yah... that one kept us up from 10:30 until 12:30 last night. Fun!

Tomorrow is the OSU vs. U of O civil war game. We have a little family "rivalry" going on. B insisted on this picture. Sorry Beavers fans!

Don't mind my messy masking.... I edit on my laptop with the track pad!

336/365: Garland

This is fake, and the route we usually take for Christmas garland.

This is real and smells so good! We decided that instead of purchasing many artificial garlands for the railing (which we might not be able to use in the next house we live in) that we'd try fresh garland this year. I purchased it on Costco.com and it came from the forests of Oregon. However, it shipped from Oregon to Kentucky and then back to us in California via 2nd day air (good thing I didn't have to pay for shipping!) I think it might have been more expedient just to stick it on a truck for the 10 hour drive.

335/365: Dramatic Light Love

I love, love, love a good dramatic light opportunity.

Grayden loves to pull up on the oven.

It works out well for both of us.

334/365: Cheesy Cornball

B tells Isaac sometimes that he's "cheesy" or "a cornball." Every once in awhile Isaac will answer "yes, I'm a cheesy cornball!"

He actually happily looked straight at the camera and smiled today! I told him "don't you dare smile!" and of course, he did :)

Round Two of Christmas pics went much, much better!