What to Remember When Taking Pictures on Christmas Morning

As I was going through my camera after Christmas last year, I had to chuckle as I tried to find those perfect shots of our perfect Christmas.

This is what I found instead and decided to share with you so you will remember when you are trying to get those perfect shots on Christmas morning what really qualifies as a perfect photo.

You can forget about being in a photo yourself. Unless you can sign your name to each photo taken, there will be no proof that you were even there for Christmas. (And if there was a picture, it is pretty safe to say you deleted it before anyone had a chance to see it.)

Your subjects will move right when you snap the photo.

When you try to get pictures of the kids playing with their new toys, they will most likely be playing with the toys their siblings received.

Not everyone will cooperate with you. Okay, let's be realistic- no one will cooperate! And some photos may come out dark.

Hair will most likely still be messy from their night of dreaming about Christmas morning.

When you ask them to look at you, they will probably break out into some awkward pose you have never seen before. This is probably due to their extreme excitement.

But.... those aren't really the shots you will want to remember for years to come anyway.

The poses you will want to take are the ones when no one is looking at the camera because they are snuggling and so involved in the special Christmas movie that comes after all the gifts have been opened.

The photos of a happy child playing next to his exhausted father.

The smiles of gratitude for a day that went above expectations.

The sparkle of eyes that are truly experiencing Christmas and all of its thrill for the first time.

The way your child clings to his daddy because for some glorious reason, that he doesn't understand, Daddy didn't have to go to work today.

Your husband and son playing with each other and interacting with each other the way only fathers and sons can.

Because, after all, Christmas isn't about the presents under the tree. It is about relationships. The relationship that God wants to have with us, so He sent His Son Jesus as a Baby that first Christmas so long ago.

Wordless Wednesday | Little Brother

Wordless Wednesday | Free Spirit

Have you heard of Wordless Wednesday?

Wordless Wednesday is a day when the only post is a photo.

No words.

Well today there are words but that's besides the point.....

If a caption comes to mind or if something strikes you about the photo, feel free to comment.

A Sentimental Look Back at 2013

As you have realized by now, I love putting our lives to music.

Our typical daily routine.
Our summer.
Our weekend vacation to Georgia.

So it is only fitting that I share a sentimental recap of our year- 2013.

The music is by Jonsi from the soundtrack of "We Bought a Zoo." 

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Merry Christmas

I'll be taking the rest of the week off, but from our family to yours, we want to wish you a merry Christmas!

 

Happy Thanksgiving

We are taking today and Thanksgiving off. So I wanted to take a moment to let you know how thankful I am for each of you. Thank you for taking the time each day to visit with me. It means so much to us, and especially me.

Lord willing, I will be back on Friday with a review on the children's book Where Do Belly Buttons Come From?: The Nonhistorical Truth by Dr. Jeffery Warren Scott.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Our Time Away

This past weekend we had the joy of leaving town for a couple of days, and going to Georgia to visit a junior high/high school youth group friend of mine and her sweet family. It was such a wonderful time for us as a family.

I have put together a Smilebox of our time away. I have timed it so that everything should fall within the time frame of the accompanying song, which means that the pictures may change while you are reading the captions. You can pause the slideshow and go through it manually if you prefer.

As for the phrase "word of the year" that you will read in the caption of the last photo, here are a couple of examples of what that is referring to (this post, this post, and this post.)

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Our Summer | The Best Yet

Today is the last Friday before school starts for us, and I must say

this has been our best summer to date!

Both Addie and Ian were big enough for us to get out and really do things this year. Quite a few of the things pictured, we were able to do multiple times throughout the summer- library time, crafts at Michael's, visits to the pool, summer movie series, as well as the things that we did at home (we have almost used up our Playdoh supply!). 

Let me add that we didn't spend much this summer either. We do not own a pool, but we know many people who do, and we were invited to swim at their homes or communities. The library classes were free, Michael's art classes were $2 for each 2 hour class (we did 5), the summer movies were either free or $1 per person depending on which theater we went to, VBS was free, and Busch Gardens was free since we purchased passes at the beginning of the year and I bring our own snacks and drinks. The activities at home were mostly free since I already had many of the supplies on hand. Netflix and Disney Jr. supplied many of our at home movies.

I hope you enjoy this Smilebox of our summer as much as we enjoyed living it.

Tomorrow (I know! A Saturday post!), I'll be giving you a list of the fun books we have read so far in the month of August.

The song is "Good to Be Alive" by Jason Gray.

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Collect: The Photo Journal App

I have discovered a wonderful (free!) app for my phone (iPhone 4). It is called Collect and it is ideal for someone (like me) who loves taking pictures and wants a way to record the memories we make as a family without the clutter and pressure of scrapbooking. This is even perfect for parents of a newborn (wink, wink to my sister and brother-in-law) to capture the subtle changes that babies go through over a one year period without the pressure of keeping up with a baby book.

Each day, I am given an alert to remind me to add a picture from my day to the calendar. Even if I forget to add my photo one day, I can go back and add photos when I have the time. After a photo is added, there is an area to write down a caption for the photo. 

I already love how the calendar looks and we are only half way through the month. Can you imagine what a whole year will look like?

 

Good Morning

A good morning generally makes for a good day on the home front.

Today's post is a photo montage of what a typical day in our home looks like. By typical I mean that nothing is happening to change the normal sequence of events (visitors, leaving the house, Awana, errands, grocery shopping).

These photos were taken over the course of a week with at least one being pulled from the archives. Contrary to popular belief, my camera is not always at the ready. Under each photo is a recap of what you are seeing. I have the photos timed to finish when the music ends, but if you feel it is going too fast to read my caption, you can hit the pause button and move through the photos manually.

The music playing is by Mandisa. It is the Capital Kings Remix of her song "Good Morning" featuring Toby Mac.

Have a Good Morning!

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The Shirts

For Christmas my dad got the kids a pair of shirts. Addie's is a Dora the Explorer one that says "Big Sister", and Ian's is a Go, Diego Go shirt that says "Little Brother."

 

I thought it would be a great idea to get a picture of the kids together wearing their shirts.

 

However, during the "working out" of this idea, I was reminded that boys and girls are so very different from each other.... and that is a good thing. In fact, I love these pictures because they remind me of how much I laughed that night trying to take a photo.

 

Can you tell from the collage below who was ready to cooperate and who had too many ants in his pants? There is a reason some of the pictures are blurry.

 

 

In his defense, he really did try to help out in the last picture :)

 

I then decided to get a picture of Addie by herself, since she really did want to take pictures.

 

 

And then I found one picture where I could see the front of Ian's shirt (even though he is still moving in the picture) and put it next to one of Addie's pictures. Not what I wanted, but it's going to have to work for now.

 

 

And there you have it! The difference between boys and girls!

Snowman Day

We had our first annual Snowman Day on Friday. It was such a fun day, and Addie was so sad to go to sleep that evening. In fact, she woke up in the late evening, whimpering that she missed Snowman Day.

Here is a glimpse into our day.

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Christmas | 2004-2012

After putting this post together, all I can say is WOW! Nine Christmases together. Brian looks so young in our first picture and my hair was so long! My favorite part was seeing the additions to our family and how those additions changed over the years- it is so much easier to see the change in children rather than adults.

 

Most of these are our Christmas photos from each year. Our photo for 2009 was only of Addie so I just found a family photo of all of us around that time of the year. Last year, I did not send out Christmas cards- you know, new baby and all :)

 

Field Trip

We had a great time yesterday at a local farm. We enjoyed a corn maze, playing on hay bales, taking a hayride, and pumpkins. Checked three things off of my fall "to do with the kids" list!

Enjoy!

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Fun Times

Yesterday we went on an adventure.

 

To the Florida Aquarium!

 

We had a great time and there is definitely more to this story......

 

......but for today (because I am about to fall asleep sitting here)

 

Here is this picture that is my favorite from the day.

 

Tomorrow's post will be on Childwise. 

Ian's Birthday Party in Photos

Enjoy this Smilebox of Ian's birthday party. We certainly had a wonderful evening.

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A Bit of Our Week

Bud got his first haircut with clippers. Grandma was our barber this time. And of course, Ian was so good about getting his hair cut.

For Father's Day, Brian requested Cracker Barrel for lunch/dinner. And because it was Father's Day, he got his wish.

Bud and me at Cracker Barrel.

He is such a good Daddy.

VBS ends today. Originally our class size was not to exceed 11.... I have had 13 of the most wonderful 4 year olds on earth and 3 of the best helpers. We have had a blast running, playing games, singing songs, painting, glueing, coloring, listening to Bible accounts, eating snacks, and taking a million potty breaks.... and I am ready for a nice long nap! I'm sure Brian is looking forward to me being awake once the kids go to sleep in the evenings. As it is, I've been falling asleep around 9:30 every night on the couch.  But it has been a good week!