Day 26: Photo 366

Bedtime cuddles are the best!

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 2500, 1/80 sec, f/2.2}
I feel like I could've made this photo way more "moody/interesting" had I taken the time to focus on my lighting, but instead I just snapped a quick photo before bed while I had the chance with my sweet Selah... and I think that's ok! :)

Day 25: Photo 366

Whirley-Pop kettle corn, introduced to us a few years ago by our dear friends Kim & Ken... still a favorite around here! :)

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 1000, 1/200 sec, f/1.8}

Day 24: Photo 366

My husband Josh loves to bake late at night... he's at the gym right now, but I have a feeling something still may get baked before bed. ;) One of his talents with his baking hobby is his ability to create amazing gluten-free, dairy-free recipes! I love being his taste-tester. Someone's gotta do the dirty work, right?

I'm sure I've shared here before that Josh started a gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate chip cookie company last summer called Jude's Foods. It all started when Josh took a batch of his tasty cookies to a family event and family said, "These cookies are good! You should share them with the world." So he set out to do it. :)

Last October Jude's Foods hit the store shelves at all 11 New Seasons Market grocery stores. I just love New Seasons, don't you?!

Josh has a day job and loves his M-F career, so this is an on-the-side adventure! I won't lie, it's been crazy at times with us working all sorts of crazy hours, but we love to be able to share these cookies with anyone interested! I'm really proud of Josh and the hard work he's put into this little start up! He's planning to soon hire his first employee so that he can focus more on business growth.

Here's a quick snap of one of MANY trays taken out of the ovens. Jude's Foods Cookies are baked in a gluten free, dairy free commercial kitchen. www.eatjudesfoods.com

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 1600, 1/160 sec, f/2}

Day 23: Photo 366

I came across this photo today and couldn't help but dream of summer heat! So I decided to post it instead of my usual stuff. This photo is from a vacation we took with friends to the Caribbean Islands before having kids (as you can see I was 5 months pregnant with Jude in this photo! Dec 2005)

Josh and I are in the process of planning our 10 year anniversary trip for this summer and I have to say, it's really hard for me to imagine being away from the kids for a few days! Every place we look at staying I say, "Oh, the kids would love that! Can we take them?" But at the same time I am very excited to get away with the love of my life and have some time to be just us!

{If you're having trouble finding me in this photo, I'm that white thing that blends in with the sand! ;) }

Day 22: Photo 366

I definitely procrastinated today in my posting! I'm sneaking this in minutes before midnight. :) I snapped this today while Selah was playing in her little chipmunk world. :) She was sitting in the hallway sunlight. I love this girl.

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 70-200mm f/.28L IS II lens, ISO 250, 1/800 sec, f/2.8, focal length: 115mm}

Day 21: Photo 366

Wait, isn't this a photography blog? Why, yes it is! But it's January, which is the month of the year I usually take off. So instead of photo sessions, I'm meeting with brides for coffee and taking time to recharge, and posting crazy-exciting stuff like this on my blog! ;) But honestly, I do get a little excited over stuff like this!...

My photo for today is the ingredients in the home cleaner we make, that I love! My step-mom Janet, (hate that term because it makes people think of the Cinderella step-mom, which Janet would be the opposite of!) taught me how to make all-purpose cleaner a few years ago, and I've been using this recipe since. It's great!

So, buy yourself a spray bottle (I got mine from the dollar tree and bought a few for different spots in the house). Then this is all you put into it:
1/4 cup vinegar
1-2 drops of liquid dish soap
1 drop pure essential peppermint oil (This is optional. I added it to make mine smell yummy! You could add any scent you love!)
Then fill the bottle to the top with water.
Screw on the sprayer-lid and shake it up a bit to mix all the ingredients and you're done! (One helpful hint is to write the recipe on the spray bottle with permanent marker so that the next time you make it you don't have to go looking for the recipe.)

It makes my counter tops nice and shiny and works great on windows too.

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 70-200mm f/.28L IS II lens, ISO 1000, 1/60 sec, f/2.8, focal length: 120mm}

Day 20: Photo 366

I'm actually learning a bit about myself through this daily photo project! Two specific things stand out:
1. When given the option to photograph anything every day, I pretty much always choose people... and my kids are always handy which is why you see them most! :)
2. I like to get close. I noticed that I rarely am snapping a whole space, but then again I'm mostly just shooting around my house since it's winter... so maybe I'm just avoiding photographing a messy room. ;) But I've also noticed that when I only get to post one shot, I want it to tell a bit of a story if it can, hence the tighter framing.

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 640, 1/200 sec, f/1.8}

Day 19: Photo 366

I had a crazy busy day! So I'm posting a shot from the pictures I took of Isaac yesterday. :)

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 70-200mm f/.28L IS II lens, ISO 200, 1/250 sec, f/2.8, focal length: 90mm}

Day 18: Photo 366

My friend Sheri's son, Isaac, just celebrated his 4th birthday, and I got to snap a few photos of him today. Isn't he SO cute?! (You may recognize him from my past blog posts.)
I've always liked this photo/info idea, that I got from Pinterest, so I thought it would be a fun way to tell you a little bit about this amazing guy. I love his Superman tatoo! :)

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 70-200mm f/.28L IS II lens, ISO 1000, 1/320 sec, f/2.8, focal length: 75mm, window to my right.}

Day 17: Photo 366

Selah loves to draw. Anywhere.

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 100, 1/2500 sec, f/2}

Day 16: Photo 366

Benjamin took his first stroll on the beach today. He's been to the beach a few times, but not since he's been walking. He seemed pretty excited when we first put him down, until he walked down a little slope and took a face dive straight into the sand, and had sand in his teeth. Then he proceeded to eat the sand on his fingers, much to my horror. :)
Here's our happy little guys with a sandy mouth.

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 100, 1/1600 sec, f/2}

My Dad snapped this photo of me when I was photographing Benjamin, so I thought I'd include it in today's post just for fun. :)

Day 15: Photo 366

Jude, our little photographer, took this photo of me yesterday while playing a little Angry Birds.

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 800, 1/60 sec, f/2.5}

Day 14: Photo 366

Shared interest. :)

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 70-200mm f/2.8L lens, ISO 1250, 1/40 sec, f/2.8, focal length: 75mm}

Day 13: Photo 366

Earlier this evening as it was getting dark I saw the shadows of a tree's branches on our door's window panes (created by the back lighting of a street light). I thought it was really pretty, but as I photographed it I liked the look of it blurred better than in focus.

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 70-200mm f/2.8L lens, ISO 1600, 1/60 sec, f/2.8, focal length: 200mm}

Day 12: Photo 366

I got to spend lots of one-on-one time with Jude today. A quick shot of us goofing off before heading out the door to an appointment. :) Love this boy.

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 1000, 1/50 sec, f/2.2, a little fill flash bounced off the ceiling.}

Day 11: Photo 366

I had a great weekend, meeting with couples in love to talk about wedding photography! If you know anyone newly engaged or who is looking for a wedding photographer, please pass my name along. I'd love to meet your friends and family!

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 500, 1/60 sec, f/1.2, a little fill flash bounced off the ceiling.}

Day 10: Photo 366

We had snow for about 2 minutes today. It looked really pretty coming down. I snapped a quick shot of Selah trying really hard to catch a snowflake on her tongue. :) I love kids.
{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 100, 1/60 sec, f/1.8}

Day 9: Photo 366

I'm really enjoying the Blurb Books I ordered. I have another one on the way, to complete our time-line and have us caught up through 2011. I ordered the proline paper, and it looks great. It's fun to have our family related blog posts all in one place, like being able to read a book about our family life. I think our kids will really enjoy them when they're older. :)

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 100, 1/20 sec, f/1.8, and a little bit of flash bounced off chair on my left, because I forgot to shoot these while there was daylight. Speaking of... I feel like I'm kind of a bad Photo 366'er because I often forget to take a picture before there's any daylight left!}

Day 8: Photo 366

Life changes quickly! I've been lost in the world of Blurb Books right now (thanks to my friend Amber!), making books from all of my personal/family blog posts dating back to 2006-ish, and I've been coming across old photos of the kids on external hard drives. Boy do these sweet photos bring up a lot of good emotions/memories! I just came across this little snap shot of Selah playing in our blueberry pot from 2009 and it melted my heart. She's changed SO much. I'll post a shot tomorrow of my first Blurb book that came in the mail.

Day 7: Photo 366

Thoughtful.

That's how I'd describe my husband Josh. Every so often he will surprise me with something thoughtful when I'm not expecting it. Whether it's picking me up a bag of my favorite popcorn, or cleaning the kitchen after I've fallen asleep on the couch... :) I love being thought of. It makes me feel loved! And it goes both ways doesn't it? Our husbands want to be thought of too! They need to know we think the world of them! Go love on your husband today - surprise him with some thoughtfulness!

Recently Josh gave me this sweet little necklace. (Your first thought may be, "put a bird on it". :) But I've been thinking about a verse I love a lot lately... it could be translated down to a child's simple song lyrics: "God cares and He's always there, He's got his eye upon the sparrow..."

Something so simple and sweet makes me feel thought of, loved and cared for. I love my husband.

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 100, 1/125 sec, f/1.8}

Day 6: Photo 366

This morning there was a patch of sunlight on the floor and I decided to sit there. It was warm. :) It totally reminded me of being a kid. Did you ever do that? Find those warm spots of sun in your home and just hang out there until it moved? Ah, it always feels so nice. Especially in January in Oregon! :)
Look closely enough and you can see a little steam coming from my tea.
{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 100, 1/2500 sec, f/2. Used timer.}

Day 5: Photo 366

I have a lot of good memories associated with apples.
They make me think of late summer/early fall in my grandparent's orchard.
They take me back to a hot summer when we worked one day on a little cabin my parents owned and us kids were sitting outside on a log, eating slices of apple.
They make me think of school. In 5th grade we made mobiles of our favorite things and what did I put in my mobile? An apple of course.
I ate a ton of them growing up. My dad would pick up a bag of granny smiths from the grocery store and about 2 days later would say, "Hey, where did all the apples go? I just bought a big bag!"
Our son Jude's favorite thing to eat is an apple.
A photographer friend of mine sent me a gift card to Potterybarn last summer and as I wandered in there one day I saw this cute clay pot full of apples. It had my name on it. :)

I was originally only going to post the photo on the right, but when I was taking this photo today Benjamin came over and took great interest in what I was doing and the lighting was so pretty, so I cheated. ;)
{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 200, 1/160 sec, f/1.4. Light source: entry way window.}

Day 4: Photo 366

{Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 200, 1/100 sec, f/1.8, window to my left, used a tiny bit of flash bounced off the white mantel above the chair.}

Day 3: Photo 366

Benjamin has this hammer toy that he just loves. He lines up the balls and slams them all down. It's pretty funny to watch in action! I originally posted a smiling photo of him but changed my mind and wanted to post this serious shot instead, just because it's so different and it kind of cracks me up. {Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 320, 1/200 sec, f/1.8, with a tiny bit of flash bounced off the chair on my left.}

Day 2: Photo 366

I showed Selah the photo I posted yesterday on my blog and Jude said, "Hey, where's the picture of me, Mom?" So today's post is for my Jude bug! {Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 200, 1/100 sec, f/2, with a tiny bit of flash bounced off the ceiling.} p.s. My friend Marisa informed me that this is a leap year! I'll have to make sure that Feb. 29th's photo is 4x cooler than any other photo I take! :)

Day 1: Photo 365

Not gonna lie... today I thought to myself mid-day, "what have I done?! I have 3 kids, why did I think I could take a picture and post it every day?" But tonight I snapped some pics at bath time and realized I'll be thankful when this is over to have these photos! And I'm going to use this to also practice shooting in areas I'd like growth in. So this will be fun! ...I have a feeling you're going to be seeing a lot more of my kids than usual here on this blog! I love this girl! :) {Shot with Canon 5D MarkII, 50mm f/1.2L lens, ISO 800, 1/160 sec, f/2, with a tiny bit of flash bounced off the wall to my right.}

Photo 365..

Well, I think I'm going to do it! I've always wanted to do a Photo 365 (meaning posting one photo a day for a year) but I've never had the guts to commit to it! It really is a commitment! But I think I'm going to take the plunge this year! I'll officially start it tomorrow, which will technically make it a Photo 360 to finish it at the end of 2012. But until then, I'll post one shot from today that doesn't technically count toward it... its from a post over on our family's blog today. I know, I know, I've been holding out on you. I do have a personal, family blog. I've always wanted to keep everything here on this blog for simiplicity sake, but I keep hearing about these cool books that you can have made from your blog! And my kids are growing up quickly, and I thought it would be a neat thing to do, to write and post photos about our daily life, to share with family and then to be able to have it all made into a book! So, if you come here for the pictures, then just keep coming here. But if you want to read my crazy ramblings of other stuff, you're welcome to visit {here} too. :) This below is from my post over at our family blog today:

Selah's been making me laugh lately. She says things that I think she must've only heard once somewhere. Today she was saying loudly in the kitchen, and with great enthusiasm, "Release the power of technology!" Where did that come from?! Haha! She just loves to talk, talk, talk! I've been taking some videos of her in the morning time lately, when she's the most chatty. :) I'll have to share one soon.

Today the sun is shining and it's blue skies and I LOVE it!! It's still very cold, but it's sunny, and the sound of lawn mowers running this morning got me really excited for summer!

Selah and Jude wanted to go outside and play hopscotch and dig in the dirt. So they put on their coats and grabbed the bag of chalk. I didn't want Selah's coat to get all dirty so I grabbed a long sleeve shirt of mine and put it over her. She thought it was pretty funny and she thought it looked like a dress, so she grabbed some shoes to match. :)

Happy Thursday!