just give me a sign

I wish I had a better memory. In college, I remember studying many different photographers, and one couple in paticular confused me. They would photograph water-towers around the country. There were a ton of rules they followed (always shot in black and white, always had to be an overcast day, the water tower had to take up 2/3s of the picture... ect) At the time, I thought it was the weirdest, most boring thing ever to photograph. And yet, I borrowed one of their books from the library, and looked at every single image.

So why do I tell that story... there's a church right by my house - I drive by it every day. It has one of those signs in front, and they change the message pretty frequently. My husband and I look forward to yelling out the message when it changes. The other day when I was out driving, I passed a different church, with a similar message board. It got me thinking about how I love reading those messages. And I thought about photographing the signs... which got me thinking of the couple and their water-towers.

So I'm going to give it a shot. Be prepared for church signs people. I haven't decided if I'll have a bunch of rules yet... I just wanted to take the picture and get the ball rolling.

a pirate says "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"

Every year, I buy a zoo pass. We don't go too terribly often, but we're guarenteed to go twice a year.. and according to their propaganda (and math,) thats enough times to go for the pass to pay for itself. We always go to see the Holiday Lights, and we always go to Boo at the Zoo.

I'm one of those weird moms that loves to make their children match. I think it stems from my hatred of being matched to my sister growing up... but dang-it if its not cute as heck. This year, Olivia is a pirate. She'll proudly tell you exactly what a pirate says if you ask her. She spent the entire zoo trip running, so I don't have the best of photos of her costume just yet. But she had so much fun.

In an effort for matching, we had Claire go as a parrot. Apparently, there's a shortage of parrot costumes in the market right now. But lucky for me, Parents magazine had an article on how to make a no-sew one (its essentially a poncho and a tail) I sewed mine, just because I know how destructive my children are (yes even the little one.) She was pretty dang cute.

And because I can't leave him out - my nephew Aiden was just adorable in his Tyrone costume!

a night cap with RJ

I work with miss Rhonda at my "real" job, and she told me she hadn't taken family photos since her kids were teenie tiny. Of course I jumped at the chance to take them for her. We fought with the sun pretty much the whole session... sundown apparently happens pretty quickly in October in Ohio - who knew! Overall I'm pleased with how they turned out.

Hoover Dam

I had a session with Rhonda this past Sunday at Hoover Dam. I used to go to the dam a lot as a kid, and ate lunch there every day my senior year in high school. It was just a place I enjoyed going to. I was shocked at how low the water was. The dam was low even when I was in high school, but never this low. Once upon a time, there was water pretty much from that street to the other side, so that there was just a tiny strip of land showing.

While walking across what used to be under water, this groundhog sauntered his way in front of me. Kind of freaked me out, really

And someone was feeding the geese while I was taking test shots. I love how the seagulls swarm in to steal bread.

Little M turned one!

Miss Maisley is my husbands cousins daughter (...a friends sisters aunts cousin who knows a guy...) She's almost two months older than my youngest daughter, and quite a cutie! I just went to the party to have fun, but managed to take a couple pictures of Maisley with her cake. She was quite dainty - that last picture is about as messy as she got. Wish my girls were that neat!!

Going to the farm

Last year, some time in October, the family went to Circle S Farms, and we loved it so much we decided to make it a tradition. Its a great farm with tons of pumpkins, animals, and a barn full of hay.

Last year Olivia was only to the 2 and 1/2 foot mark on the pumpkin.

Just like last year, Olivia found the roosters that were roaming around the farm. This year, though, the roosters actually flew to get out of her way. She's gotten quite a bit faster!

The wind storms pretty severely damaged the sunflower crop, which was a little sad. The corn husk maze still makes me nervious, so even though we could see across the sunflowers, we went for that maze instead.

My favorite shot of the day was at the very end, and I didn't even take it. I had complained to my husband earlier in the week that I had zero pictures of me nursing our youngest. I have quite a few of Olivia and I that I had taken by myself, but I'd just hadn't had the opportunity to do that with Claire. When we got back to our car at the end of the trip, I had a quiet moment with Claire before leaving, and my husband was sweet enough to capture it for me. <3

and the littlest gets sick

I have posts to make - many in fact - full of beautiful photos to share. But my littlest got sick. We've actually been terribly fortunate in my family to not have had to deal with too many sicknesses. But high fevers and screaming has run rampant through my house this week. Poor baby! I promise to post more soon. Here's the doll.