{The Mustard Weeds Are Here}

My most favorite thing ever to photograph, cute girlies in the Mustard Weeds!  They seemed to have made an early appearance this year so we went out on a beautiful afternoon last weekend and played, the girls in the weeds and the moms with our cameras!  I've been experimenting with shooting into the sun, liked how some of these turned out but anxious to get back out there and keep playing! 

 My Favorite

 

What I've Learned {Day 5}

#snapshotsofagoodlife

What I've Learned {Day 4}

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What I've Learned {Day 3}

#snapshotsofagoodlife.com

What I've Learned {Day 2}

What I've Learned {Day 1}

so many things, but for now I will leave it at this ~

check out www.snapshotsofagoodlife.com.  Registration for the January 2013 Photographers Workshop begin on October 15th.  If you want to learn about your camera, lighting, focus, ISO, aperture, shutter speed and make some new friends along the way, check out this class.  You will not be disappointed.

Nothing short of {Amazing}

It was a normal Friday afternoon and I was checking emails when I got home from work, there was an email from my favorite photographer, the email was titled "3 Things".  I can't remember what the first 2 things were, but the 3rd one made me jump up and down, squeal and do a little happy dance.  The 3rd thing on the list was about a "Hometown Workshop" she was putting on in September, and there were only 9 spots available! I responded to her email without a second thought, without running it by my husband, without knowing if I had anyone to help with my kids!!  Can I just tell you how happy I was that I read my emails that afternoon when I did, otherwise I would have missed out on one of the best experiences of my life!

I have stalked  followed  Karen's blog for quite a few years.  It was one of those blogs that I book marked as soon as I found it and spent hours reading back and check daily.  Her stories and photography drew me in. She documents her life through her blog the way I want to but never do, she writes about the good and the bad, the funny and not so funny things that life throws our way.  She is real, she is honest, and what you see is what you get with her.  After following her blog, when I did finally get to meet her in person a few years ago at a 1-day Photography Workshop, it felt like I had known her for years.  In January 2011 I finally was able to audit in her online Photographers Workshop and I learned so so much!  Karen puts 110% into everything she does, her on-line class is completely worth the investment in your time and money. 

I'm pretty sure I made my family crazy between July and September,  I was so excited for this workshop!  I was so excited to hang out with Karen, meet in person a few friends from the online workshop, get away for a little me time.  These 5 days were everything I could have imagined and more.  It is so hard to put into words the instant bond that was felt between 12 women who didn't know each other before we arrived at the beautiful historical Hanna House, but had the love for photography and Karen that clearly bound us together.

And one of the nicest surprises was when Karen's "acquaintance" arrived to drive us to our shooting location.  I thought it was an interesting choice of words and I also thought it was interesting the group was  the 4 of us from the 2011 class, we joked we were being voted out of the Hanna House!  Imagine our surprise (especially Lisa's!!!) when Jules, from our 2011 class, showed up. Soooooo much fun!

Our days were full of learning, shooting, eating, more learning, more shooting, more eating, and in between tons of laughter and even some tears.  I told someone as I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt how amazed I was that there could be such an extreme range of emotions in such a short amount of time, clearly we didn't do well staying between a 4 and a 7 girls!!!

As the family photographer there are not many photos of me, (I even had to ask Steph if she had a cute photo of me for one of my class assignments!) mostly I like being on the other side of the camera, so that works out ok.  And if I do hand off my camera I usually don't like the results of the photos, so I just stay behind the lens.  This workshop made all of us come out of our comfort zone, and be the subject instead of the photographer.  It was quite interesting have 3 or 4 lenses pointed at you all at once!  I haven't seen many of the photos of myself as they are on my friends cameras, but I did get this one and am happy to have a pretty photo of myself.

I feel blessed to have been a part of one of the first Hometown Workshops.  I have made 12 new wonderful friends and we are already working on a plan for yearly reunions! 

Karen, I hope you realize that it is because of you and your love of photography and your willingness to give so much of yourself to your students, that we have all walked away from this workshop changed.  God is using you in an awesome way in everything you do, don't forget that!!!  I know it was difficult and I know it took you away from your beautiful family and I feel so happy to have been on the receiving end of Gods blessings. Thank you . . . for or taking a chance, for sacrificing your time and family, for all of your creative goodness, for sharing all of your photography knowledge so willingly with us, for sharing your family with us!  It was soooooo worth it, completely amazing . . . and I sure didn't walk away wishing I had spent the money on a new lens!

{Mustard Flowers}

I can't believe that I didn't blog these!  My sister was here at the end of March, just in time for my favorite time of year . . . the Mustard flowers are blooming!

This was our third photo shoot with the girls and I do think it is getting a little bit easier since the first time, man did I get a work out in 2009, Meghan was 5, Cayden was 4 and Aida 2 1/2.  In 2010, they all definitely had their own ideas and I ran around after them like a crazy Mom & Titi and after all that I wasn't thrilled with the way the photos came out.  I can't believe how much they all have changed and grown up so much.  Hoping we are still doing this until they are married!

Needless to say I was so happy that I found a perfect field filled with yellow flowers!

 

The girls play a game that they are picking Wedding Flowers, I at least got them to WALK and pick their flowers this year instead of running away from the camera as fast as they can, which is what is usually happening!  Once they collect a handful they stand together and we throw them up in the air, it's pretty darn cute!

The sun went away very quickly that afternoon and Mom & Gina were freezing!  I on the other hand was not!  I was very pleased with the photos this year, I think my new lens might have helped a little too!

Stuff

I've somehow managed to miss another entire month of blogging, , sheeesh, I started out so good! We are getting ready for spring break over here, although the rain has finally decided to appear so I'm hoping it's not a rainy spring break. I'm taking some days off and we are excited that our Oregon cousins are also going to be here visiting, so I'm really hoping for some more mustard flower photo shoots and mom wants some photos of the girls in her old Mexican dance outfit ~


Meghan brought home her progress report last week. She is doing very well in 2nd Grade, but I have to say it was the last sentence in the comments left by her teacher that cracked me up! She said "I would like Meghan to work on being more organized and clean at her desk." Have I not been saying that for, uummmm, forever?!


We are working on ways that she can keep herself a little more organized, I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

And today was picture day, again . . . you know how I just love those school pictures that I feel completely obligated to buy! Anyway, since Meghan and I couldn't agree on what to do with her hair, we asked Kaitlyn to come over and do it for her, she is just so much better at it than I am! She looked so cute . . .


Well, off to figure out how to work my new pressure cooker! I figure it goes perfectly with my love of mason jars.

School Pictures {Flashback 2011}

School pictures. Never really happy with them, I would prefer to just do my own, but for some reason I can not let a year go by without purchasing them!

Trevor - 9th Grade

Trevor's Football Photo

Meghan 2nd Grade