The many faces of my children

Lately, I take an average of 500 pictures a week around here. Yikes. It's a lot, I know. Almost every day I pull out my camera and mess around with the settings and take pictures. Most of them never make it out of the camera onto the computer. In all my recent playing, I've noticed a couple of things about the way my kids take pictures.

Carter does not know how to do a natural smile. He is usually pulling some kind of silly or weird face unless I really beg him to do a "normal" smile. And his normal smile is completely fake and forced.

Addie will not look at me if I have the camera in my hand. No joke. I either have to catch her unaware or I get no pictures of her. It doesn't matter how silly the face or noise I make or how many times I call her name, she refuses to look at the camera.

Caught unaware, hence, no smile:I seriously love the way she is looking at M in this picture: Then there is Makenna. I promise I don't love her more than my other kidlets, but I swear there are no bad pictures of this girl. As I go through and delete, I almost always keep my pictures of her. Sigh. She is photogenic AND loves to pose for the camera. So someday, when I look back and wonder why there are a disproportionate number of pictures of Makenna, I will remember why!

I also have A LOT of pictures of Allen. He rolls his eyes a lot but is a really good sport about it. I always tell him that he is my only stationary subject so he naturally gets a lot of pictures taken.And seriously, this pictures sums up this post perfectly:

See what I mean?

Mother's Day

Mother's day was great this year. Allen really went above and beyond and I so appreciated it. The kids fixed me a yummy breakfast, I got homemade cards and roses and a camera bag (even though I insisted on no gifts since I just got my camera). I didn't lift a finger all day - dreamy. Allen even made my favorite dinner - cafe rio pork salads. YUM!

I really, really wanted to get some pictures of me and the kids so we took a few minutes before we left for church to take some pics. I posted them on my facebook account so this is mostly for the benefit of the grandparents!

I am truly so grateful to be a mother to these three wonderful people. It is a big and sometimes scary job, but it is all I've ever wanted to be. They have enriched and blessed my life in a way I never could have imagined. I've learned some tough lessons in there too but they have all been worth it.

Of course I can't post about Mother's Day without acknowledging my own angel mother! I was so blessed to be raised by an amazing, intelligent, strong, opinionated, charitable, selfless woman. I am grateful for her every single day of my life. I owe all that I am to her! My MIL is a pretty great woman herself and raised some amazing children and blesses all of our lives! Allen's mom even sent a Mother's Day card to my mom to thank her for raising me. Isn't that the sweetest thing? We all cried over it. Thank you Mom Frost!

Hope you had a great day too!

{A couple other things on my mind not relating to MD: Several of you have asked my feelings on project 365 and if I'll do it again and the answer is YES!!! I already love reading through previous weeks and I think it will be true treasure for my family. I don't know that I'll do it in this exact format next year (and subsequent years) but I think the journaling is a HUGE part of what makes it so special so I definitely plan to do that in future years as well.

Also, LOVE x a million my new camera. I ended up with the Nikon D90. The above pictures are SOOC (straight out of the camera), no editing at all! Amazing. Taken with a 50mm/1.4 lens. That means nothing to me at this point except that it takes great photos. I'm pretty much shooting in auto at this point but will have lots of time to play once we are settled in NM.}

Calling all Photographer Friends!!

I could squeal with delight. Really.

I am finally, finally, finally taking the plunge and getting a DSLR!! This has been a long time coming and I'm even surprising myself that I'm choosing an electronic device over stuff for my house. But I've had the photography itch for a long time and am finally going to scratch it.

So.. this is where you all come in. I am so lucky to have many friends who are AMAZING photographers! I'm trying to finalize my decision but want to know what equipment and lenses you all use/recommend. For now I need a good multi purpose lens (since I can only afford one at the moment). I'm also doing the Nikon/Canon debate but will say that I am leaning toward the Nikon D90 (the one with HD video capability).

So please, please give me all your advice and tips!

And please forgive that I haven't commented on a single blog in about 2 weeks. I'm in deep with a crazy project right now -- stay tuned -- all will be revealed very soon.

{PS- I just realized this is my 500th post!! Holy cow. I think we should celebrate! But I'll have to think on that one for a bit!}