Practice, practice

To practice for this:

 Which was tons of fun, I will say!

Decided on this night that being on this side of the camera is a whole lot more fun...and less sweaty.  Why does having my pictures made make me perspire profusely?  I don't get nervous, I just think it's a work out!  I'll go back to my standby of blaming my 4 kids for this...if they would cooperate & sit still & SMILE dad-gum-it, I don't think I would sweat.  Anyway, this precious family made taking pictures a breeze!

But, back to where I started...to practice for this, Keri & I took the kids to the park for me to get some ideas (& have her help with suggesting backdrops).  Since we have a *few* kids, plus I had a couple extra on me that day, I had some "willing" photo subjects.  They were a hoot!

And then there were some more serious ones...

I love freckles...especially on this sweet little boy!  They fit him like a favorite shirt...

Hard to believe this beautiful young lady was once three years old...and had an idea that it would be fun to make my then-toddler (Macy) into a clown...with permanent markers.  I still chuckle when I think about that...I remember her mom sending me an email, and her scrubbing with everything gentle she could think of to remove it...and then me having to act "stern" so that Camryn wouldn't think it was a good idea!  So funny!

Babies grow into toddlers, and toddlers turn into this...in the blink of an eye.  I pray that these beautiful girls (both inside and out!) will be forever close as I am close to their mommas-our children need good, Godly influences in their lives, surround them with them whenever you can!

Jokingly, we have "ADHD weather" around here...it changes so quickly, but we are blessed with 4 completely different seasons.  You might experience several "seasons" in one day, but variety is the name of the game & I can't imagine living somewhere where you had boring 75 degree weather every single day!

This scene was completely different last Friday, when we got our first (early!) BIG snow of the season.  Wow, did it snow-big, huge, catch-them-on-your-tongue flakes that followed a downpour.  It was wet, people...and because it came so early & was so heavy, it unfortunately broke major branches on beautiful trees that are hard to come by in these parts.

We woke to several inches that day with it still falling heavily.  Lily opened the front door, took one look & said, "Ohhh, my gosh, MOMMA!  I think I want to play in THAT!"  I love toddlers.