day 16: photo challenge

I don't know if either of these count as a long exposure... but this is what I have....

... it has been a long day... Cori has not been feeling well and this was the first time we got outside today... thank goodness my mom is here!!!!

day 15: photo challenge

A silhouette:


Cori on the lookout for Grandma Michelle!!!!!

We have a few more friends joining us... hopefully I can post where to find them later!

day 14: photo challenge

Eyes
I have always loved my eyes; both their shape and their color... but I really love Cori's eyes. I think she has my eye shape and color, but she has her daddy's eye lashes... they are long and full and they make me a little jealous.
So they should be the picture perfect eyes for this challenge. However, today... she wouldn't look at me... then she wasn't looking where she was going... and so we have tear filled eyes....

... and a bloody nose (her first! She fell onto her shopping cart)

... and since we were in the bathroom cleaning up the bloody nose... we also needed band aids for our scrapped knees even though they were not bleeding!
(we could write a book... If you give Cori a band aid)

day 13: photo challenge

I spy with my little eye... me with 13 things... so we can go to the pool!

from left to right
a hippo, a cup of water, car seat, burp cloth, pacifier, wedding ring still on, keys, pool rings, my towel, Cori's towel, pink pool bag with my nursing cover, and a hat for Addi!
... there was way more on me at the time, but we had little time to perfect this picture before getting to the pool on time!
Pretty sure Cori is saying "You ready to go Mom?"

day 12: photo challenge

A picture of the sunset.... 

JUST KIDDING!!!
(this photograph was not taken in Nebraska... try the Florida Keys almost exactly 6 years ago on our honeymoon... and yes we have been married 6 1/2 years, that is what happens when you get married in November!)

Here are my real pictures of the sunset tonight... not as beautiful as Florida!! And not as beautiful if I had maybe taken these out in the country.  Being in town just gets in the way sometimes!! Especially since I felt like a HUGE dork walking along 25th Street trying to take a half way decent picture!

day 11: photo challenge

Something blue... made me think of weddings... I coordinated a wedding at church on Saturday, but didn't take my camera!
Blue is one of my favorite colors. We live in a blue house, I have lots of blue clothes, and blue jeans. I have even painted three rooms in our house blue... including the girls bedroom. When I was pregnant with Cori I feared they had gotten the ultrasound wrong and she would end up being a boy... so I tried to make her bedroom a little more neutral than ultra girly... plus with only two bedrooms any future siblings would have to share a room with her. If I had know we would have another girl... I probably would have still painted it blue, after all my bedroom at my parents house is blue!
But my pictures today is of the butterflies that hang in the girls room... orange, green, yellow, purple, pink, and of course blue!
This is the view from Cori's pillow:

(the pink one is higher up, so the fan makes it move a little more)

day 10: photo challenge

I have a lot of great memories from my childhood... however most of them remain as snapshots in my head.
The smell of my great grandpa's pipe and the step stool of great grandma's on the Anderson side.
The crocheted blankets my great grandma Grace used to make that I would stick my toes in one end and pull up to my chin with my hands.
My brown teddy bear who's name was Cricket.
My grandparents house in Columbus with it's huge two story porch and strawberry patch.
And then there was great grandpa and grandma Campbell's house with all the white cats, the doll in the bathroom that hide the toilet paper, grandpa's desk where he kept the chocolate candies, and of course the porch swing!

This is our porch swing.  I thought about driving by the old 420 house and trying to take a picture, but that could be kinda creepy.  I don't think grandma Aletha ever had pillows on her porch swing but I do remember being there with her.  It was one of the reasons that I fell in love with our house and our porch swing.

Maybe this will be one of Cori's childhood memories to reflect on someday.  I swung on this swing after she was born and she still enjoys and asks to swing all the time!

day 9: photo challenge

Someone you love.... does this really imply one person?
I don't know who wrote the original list... but how am I suppose to narrow it down to one... when I love so many people in my life?

Like my family... wonderful husband, two beautiful girls, and even a silly dog.
Not to mention my parents, brother, and the rest of my very extended family.
So to you all... I do LOVE you all! I am blessed by you all!!

But if this challenge is really suppose to be someONE I love... I choose my husband.
Our Pastor said in premarital that we choose to love the person we marry.  That we have to make that choice all the time.  Because there will be days when we don't feel like loving.  But in the end we made a commitment... to love, to cherish, to respect.

I choose to love my husband for many reasons... a few being:
for how he provides,
for how he leads,
for the example he sets,
for how he loves our girls,
and
for how he loves me!

day 8: photo challenge

The challenge for today... a bad habit. Well it looks like I don't have any pictures to share because I don't have any bad habits.
...
WHAT? You don't believe me? Okay good... but I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't even bite my nails...


... however I have a really bad habit of not putting the laundry away.
It gets washed.
It gets folded.
But then...
it sits there...
in the laundry basket,
on the church pew,
on the dresser,
on Addi's changing table,
or worse...
at the foot of our bed!!

Maybe this should be my summer resolution :)

day 7: photo challenge

Today's challenge... simply... fruit.

Which if you know me very well, fruit hasn't been high on my list of prefered foods. I like fruit but I am more a meat and potatoes kind of girl. That has changed since having Cori, especially once she started eating solids! She informed me the other day that "I love apples ever" which I take means she has loved apples forever.

Here she is pretending to wash her apple in her new kitchen that daddy made for her.

until tomorrow :)

day 6 and day 5: photo challenge

I am behind... I know... but... I did takemy pictures on the right days, well sort of! Apparently I have a problem reading or a problem with my eye sight... I wrote all the challenges down on my kitchen calendar so I wouldn't have to look online every morning before trying to take pictures... but I switched my days around.

Day 6 (taken on Day 5) is a picture of Adalynn from a "low angle" as she tries to crawl over my legs as we were all playing in the living room.

Day 5 (taken on Day 6) is a picture of Cordelia from a "high angle" as she plays with my mom's old Barbies at my grandparents house in Lincoln. When we get to Nana and Papa's Cori knows exactly what she wants... the Barbies from the basement, Nana or Grandma Michelle to play with her on the floor, and jelly beans from the kitchen!!

One more post by nights end and I will be all caught up!

day 4: photo challenge

The challenge today was to take a picture of something green. Since this is summer my immediate thoughts went to all the green found out my door. Here is my picture for today:

Can you tell what it is? I have taken this picture from a bird's eye view and then zoomed in... any guesses? Maybe I will wait until tomorrow to tell you! Just kidding... it is corn. I'm sure you knew! Maybe the bigger question is can you believe I am growing corn?

Growing corn in my container garden no less! We live in town and although we do have a great yard I am a little indecisive about where to plant a garden. So these containers are doing the trick. I have already enjoyed some radishes (Randy and Cori not so much) and look:

I have a few strawberries ready for the picking!! My corn looks like it should be knee high by the 4th of July and I have blooms on my tomato plants. So maybe this city girl will have some "harvest" photos in a few months!!

And here is a little more green... Addi wasn't so sure, I think it was still a little wet from last nights rain!!

Well... until tomorrow!!

day 3: photo challenge

Today's challenge was to take a picture of the clouds. In my head I had envisioned my favorite Georgia O'Keeffe painting that hangs in the Chicago Art Museum it shows nothing but a bright blue sky and rows and rows of white fluffy clouds.

But today... well the sky didn't look that way. This morning there were rain clouds which lead to a down pour and was followed by clear skies... not a cloud to be seen for miles! But thankfully the clouds returned this evening!!

This was taken looking east from outside our house.

While this one was taken looking west, over the house.

This was they type of cloud I was hoping to see hundreds of... ones that Cori and I could point to and say it looks like a fish or dog or car... but we only saw this cloud... and at 8pm at night Cori was tired and not in the mood for playing a game.

So what do you see?

Tomorrow's challenge: something green!

day 2: photo challenge

So here is what I was planning to wear today.... since after all I was suppose to take a picture of "what you wore"... it wasn't anything too fancy: jeans, green tank, and a brown tank.

You can see the detail in the brown tank much better in this photo.... what you can't see is that this tank has hidden pockets! And who doesn't love those!!

We were all set to go to the park for lunch and then onto the pool until a did a double check in the mirror and here is what I saw:

So the beautiful brown tank came off :(

It was replaced by a brown tee... which I tried to take a picture of... but after all we had a lunch date at the park and my one attempt at a picture failed!

But tomorrow is another day... to take a picture of the clouds... So if it isn't raining Cori and I will go hunting for animals in the clouds!!

day1: 30 day photo challenge

A 30 day photography challenge sounds like a lot of fun until you learn day one is a self portrait..ughh. But since I encouraged my girlfriends to start this (yes you have me to blame)...well... I'd better suck it up and take a picture. So here you have it: baby in one arm, while the other sleeps so I figured I'd better not set Addi down for fear that she would make too much noise and wake Cori!!

Since this isn't Glamor Shots I didn't go through the trouble of dolling myself all up... I am loving the fact that it is summer... which means pony tail and no makeup! I think the last day of the challenge is another self portrait... maybe by then I'll feel like looking my best :)

Now the artist in me thinks of a self portrait not just as a picture of my face but a picture of who I am... so I will include this picture:

When I see this picture I see: a baby on one hip, my wedding ring, my newly painted pink fingernails, and my funky koi fish shirt... which says I am: a mommy, a wife, a girly girl, and an artist... now if only Cori didn't take her little Bible to bed I would have stuck that in my pocket to show that I am a child of God.

A few months after Cori was born we splurged on a really nice camera... more than just a point and shot... however that is how I have been using it. So I am hoping that through this challenge I can try to take some better photographs... step away from the point and shoot and learn how to use manual and a few other settings to get the best pictures I possibly can!

Let me know if you want in on the challenge!! I would love to see your photographs too!!! You can also check out a few of my friends who are doing this challenge with me... see their posts on the right side: kim, chelsea, and danielle