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?