Ella's Special Day

Yesterday was Ella's special day. We really haven't spent any time alone with her since Lily was born, so we left Lily with her grammy and took Ella out for the day. We went to the library first to pick out some books. She was really excited to do that until she spotted the toys that were there and then it was left up to mommy and daddy to pick out the books. After the library we went out for supper at a big girl restaurant (ie. NOT McDonalds) and then headed to the Santa Claus parade. Luckily we were smart enough to take a couple of chairs along with us because it was a very cold, slightly rainy hour-and-a-half long parade. Ella loved every single minute of it. She got to have treats, stay up late, and was very excited to see every single character in the parade, including Santa. Sadly, I didn't get any photos of her at the parade because of the rain, but I promise that she loved it. After the parade we did a bit of shopping and then Ella passed out on the way home. We all had a really great day.

Since I didn't get any photos on our outing, I'll post a couple of Ella working on her letter to Santa to take to the parade. She was very excited that daddy was going to help her write it. She called him her "big helper buddy".

Here she is with daddy writing her letter.Working very hard to draw Santa a beautiful picture.

This is her finished letter. She couldn't decide on exactly what to ask for, so she just asked for surprised. Four to be exact. Oh, and she was kind enough to ask for three surprises for her little sister too :)Check out this E that she wrote all by herself! I was very proud of her, since I have never taught her how to do this. She has been able to recognize the letters in her name for a while now, but I was surprised to see that she could put her "E" on paper all by herself. Proud mommy moment!Oh, and check back tomorrow when I will {hopefully} have a few photos ready from our semi-failed Christmas photo shoot today. Let's just say that my kids may never ever look at the camera at the same time!

Changes

I can't believe how much my girls change on a daily basis. Ella is constantly cracking me up with her funny comments and actions and Lily is growing so fast and even laughed out loud for the first time yesterday. That was really shocking to me, since Ella didn't really laugh out loud until she was about seven months old. But Lily definitely laughed yesterday, out loud, three times. It was the cutest thing ever. I have been trying ever since to get her to do it again and do you think I can? Absolutely not. I think the only reason she laughed in the first place was to get me to act crazy for the next few months trying to get her to do it again.

Lily is also finally big enough for her exersaucer, which she loves for a few minutes at a time. And, of course, Christmas is coming and Ella is getting sooooo excited. She likes to flip through flyers and point out everything that "Ho Ho" should bring her. She is very excited about the Christmas decorations, including the stockings that she thinks should go on her feet, though I haven't been able to catch that with the camera yet. She liked Christmas last year, but I think this year is even bigger and better for her.

I'm working on translating some of these changes into photos, but since my kiddos don't always cooperate with me, I only have a few for today.

Ella as Santa EeyoreLily's first time in the exersaucer

My little beauty, starting to look so much older

Lily is 3 Months Old!

Wow, time is flying by! I can't believe that Lily is 3 months old already and getting so big. It is so fun to watch her discovering new things everyday. I tried to do a 3 month photoshoot with her on Friday, but it didn't go so well. I'm going to try to do some more tomorrow. I'd like to get outside for some more natural shots, but it is supposed to rain all week long so that may not happen. For now I will leave you with a couple of shots that I did manage to get on Friday. I usually don't like babies in headbands, but I've recently developed a liking for them as a photo prop. I wouldn't take her out like this on a daily basis, but I think it made for a pretty cute photo.

Play Date with Hailey and Carter

Today was a very busy day! We spent most of the day visiting with Hailey and Carter and had lots of fun. Ella and Hailey are finally at a point where they actually play together, interacting, and not just playing side by side. It was really cute to watch them chasing each other around and playing dress up. I guess it won't be too long until Carter and Lily are joining in the fun too. I can't believe how fast time is going! I only had a few minutes to edit a few shots tonight, so here's a little peek into our playdate today.
Carter and Hailey snuggling in the rocking chair. Carter just hanging out. Lily has discovered that she can get her fist in her mouth and she now does it all the time. Carter was practicing standing up...this shot was right before he fell over. Ella was pretty proud of her princess costume that she put together all by herself.And finally, Lily and Carter, hanging out together.

Changing the Blog

As I mentioned the other day, I feel the need to have two separate blogs now - one for my family photos and one for my other photo shoots. I also decided to change my title from photo of the day because, let's face it, I am really bad at posting photos every day. I am doing pretty well at taking the photos, but by the time I get the kids in bed I rarely have the energy to sit down, edit the photos, and post them before I crash. Then I feel really bad and guilty because I didn't post my photo of the day. So to take some of the pressure off of myself and so that I don't have people wondering where my daily posts are, I am just going to blog when I have the time. It will be bits and pieces of our lives, hopefully at least a few times a week and maybe more. So just to confuse everyone, our family blog is at this new address (where you are now): www.themckinleyfamilyblog.blogspot.com and my other photo shoots will be blogged at www.meganmckinleyphotography.blogspot.com. How is that for confusion? If you're still reading this, thanks for following me!

Studio Style Shoot

Today I was supposed to have a lovely outdoor fall shoot, but the weather didn't want to cooperate with us so I had my first ever studio-style shoot (with someone other than my own kids). Victoria and Owen were great little models for me and let me move them and pose them and take lots of photos, even though Owen was more interested in playing like any normal three-year-old would be. Despite my nervousness, I did manage to get some good shots and I hope the Becks will be pleased with them. What I realized is that studio-style shooting is way more difficult than outdoor shooting - well, at least for me. I think that if I had an actual studio with proper lights and proper backdrops it would be much easier and probably a lot of fun, but my makeshift studio really provided me with some challenges. Nonetheless, I am pretty happy with how the shots turned out and I hope that the Becks will be too. Take a peek!

I Think I Need Another Blog

Just to cause everyone some confusion, I think I may be moving my photo of the day blog to another address so I can use this address for my other photo shoots. I'd like to try to keep my family blog separate from my "professional" blog and I think that moving this one to another address may be the best way to do so. But, since I don't have two separate blogs as of yet, I will be posting a couple of preview photos from today's shoots here for tonight.

I did shoots for two different families today - the Shannahans and the Mullins. The Shannahans were my first shoot this morning and I had a great time. This was my first official shoot for people that I didn't really know, so I was more than a little nervous, but Megan and Steven made me feel really comfortable. They were really easy to photograph and their son, Jacob, was incredibly cute. Just so you can see how cute he (and the whole family) is, here are a couple of the shots that I have edited so far.

I then spent a bit of time this afternoon at the Mullins, taking some photos of Hayley and Kyle. These two cuties were full of energy and they even came up with a lot of their own ideas about what poses would look good. They let me take a ton of photos of them and even laid down on the wet grass and leaves when needed. They were so much fun and I am loving how their photos are looking so far. Here's their little preview:

Gotta Love the Dollar Store!

I LOVE the dollar store. I buy a lot of things there. I have to admit that when they starting carrying items that cost more than a dollar, I was kind of ticked off. I liked being able to just pick up whatever I wanted and know that it was dollar. And I liked the fact that you could take your kids in, tell them to pick out whatever they wanted, and it would never cost more than a dollar. I know, I know, two dollars isn't much more, but that's not the point. I am now at a point, however, where I am beginning to enjoy the extra items that they are carrying. I'm still ticked off that some of the same old things that used to be a dollar are now more, but I do enjoy that I can get some "bigger" things there for a much cheaper price than I would pay elsewhere. A perfect example of this? Santa suits! They are carrying children's santa suits for $2. I picked one up for Ella's dress up trunk, not expecting much, but it is REALLY cute and Ella really loved it. So yes, I do love the dollar store!
Here is my Ella trying out her suit (don't mind the pink socks):Isn't it totally cute? All for $2!

Fun with the Bumbo

Lily has been doing such a great job at holding her head up and supporting herself that we decided to dig out the bumbo tonight. I expected her to like it, since Ella always did, but she did not! This was her first reaction - I think it's fear:

Then it turned into outright screaming:

When we took Lily out of the bumbo, Ella immediately wanted to sit in it. Notice the look on Lily's face. I think even she knows that Ella is WAY too big for the bumbo.

The Joys of Potty Training

Ella is almost 29 months old and I HATE the fact that she isn't potty trained yet. She is such a smart kid, talks a blue streak, understands and remembers everything, but she just will not take the time out of her day to stop and use the potty. She just won't. When she was about 16 months old she would ask to sit on the potty and she did great. Now I can't even bribe her to sit there. We have special treats and potty prizes if she even tries the potty, and she knows about them and talks about them all the time, but still won't try. She'll tell me that she's too big and too old for diapers and that she should wear big girl panties, but she won't. It's very strange. I thought for sure that I could have her trained before Lily was born, but she just proved me wrong again. So we are going to be starting hard core potty training VERY soon. I cannot stand it that she is still in diapers and we need to do something about it. So, very fittingly, today's photo is of Ella, actually sitting on the potty for once, reading her books.

Another Beautiful Day

I missed the last two days of posts because I was away in Fredericton for Shawn's CMA graduation. Believe it or not, I didn't even take my camera with me, so I have no photos from the weekend. Luckily, today was another one of those beautiful, warm, sunny days where I just couldn't sit in the house all day, so the girls and I went out to play in the yard. It was a lot of fun and Ella surprised me, yet again, and actually stood still long enough for me to take some photos of her. I need to remember to enjoy these days while Lily can't go anywhere and Ella is being cooperative!
Here she is in all of her two-year-old glory.I caught her chewing on a "flower" and did I tell her to stop? No! I stopped to take a photo of it. Yes, that's right, this mom certainly has her priorities in order. I love how smug she looks in this one.

And here's my other little beauty, who LOVES to get out in the fresh air.

Snow? Really?

The girls and I had quite an uneventful day today, other than the tiny bit of wet snow that was flying through the air. Ella thought that it was quite exciting. She spent a lot of the day running from window to window, peeking out at the snow, and talking about how she was going to go out and play in it when daddy got home. When I tried to explain to her that it wasn't even sticking to the ground and she wouldn't be able to build a snowman today, she thought I was just being mean and got mad at me. She then laid on the floor and showed me how she was going to make a snowman, which looked suspiciously like a snow angel :) So we didn't get to play in the snow today, and I hope we won't get to for quite some time now, but I did manage to snap a quick shot of Ella watching the snow fall. I also grabbed a couple quick shots of the girls relaxing. I love how interested Lily is getting in everything and how she grins at the toys that hang on her chair.
I'm also pretty sure that I found a way to get Ella to let me take her photo. All I have to do is take a photo of Lily and Ella starts begging to have her photo taken too. Jealousy? Yes. But do I care? No! I'm just glad to have some photos of my girls. Ella insisted on having Care Bears in her photos again today, so here they are.

Care Bear Girlies

Ella has had a huge obsession with Care Bears lately. She loves the show, she loves the stuffies, she loves the books. If it has anything to do with Care Bears, she loves it. Today I dressed Lily in a little Care Bear outfit that actually used to be Ella's, so Ella thought that was pretty cool. She went to her bedroom to get her bears, so I thought it would be a good time to dig out the camera. Although Ella wasn't thrilled to let Lily have her photo taken with her Care Bear, she actually volunteered to have her photo taken with Lily. Usually I have to beg and plead with her to sit with Lily and she still won't, so that was a treat for me. Lily ended up looking terrified in the photos, but I am still happy just to have the two of them in the same shot.

And after I took a few photos of the two of them, Ella finally gave in and let Lily hold her Care Bear for a minute. Doesn't she look thrilled?

Lazy Rainy Day Today

Today the girls and I had a pretty lazy day. It was raining and cold outside, so Ella decided that it would be a good day to lay on the couch and read books. She could sit with her "I Spy" book all day, I think. After both the girls had a nap (at the same time!), I even let Ella watch "Woody and Buzz", which was a treat because she doesn't get to watch movies very often. Since our day was pretty low key, today's photos are just a couple of shots of my girlies lazing around.

My First Real Shoot

Lately I have had some people ask me if I would take some photos for them. At first I was extremely hesitant, but I know that I need the practice and I do want to start trying to build a portfolio, so I have accepted a few of those requests. Yesterday I had my first non-family shoot. It was an engagement session and I was extremely nervous, although I don't know if I was as nervous as my subjects, Melissa and Todd. I think we all worked through it together and I am hoping that they will be happy with the shots that we got. I only have a few edited right now, but have many more to come.

My Halloween Monsters

About a month ago I asked Ella what she wanted to be for Halloween this year. I thought that she would ask to be Elmo or Tigger or some other character that she knows, but to my surprise she askedd to be a scarecrow and she never once changed her mind. I thought her idea was great, so I went out to a second-hand store and bought some overalls and a couple of plaid shirts, picked up some yarn and put together her costume. I was pretty happy with how it came out and I think she thought it was okay too. She was pretty impressed with herself when we got her all dressed up and put her in front of the mirror. We took her over to her Grammy and Grampy's house to get a treat and play in the leaves. She happily showed them (and everyone else last night) her scarecrow stance. Lily got a pretty simple costume this year - a black cat. I thought she was pretty cute, but she didn't love it.