Pictures and Personal catch-up

Want to see what my girls were up to yesterday?

See on my new blog: emilylargephotography.com/blog

Want some simple tips to make your photos better?

See on my new blog: emilylargephotography.com/blog

Want to . . .  just kidding.  :-)  Here are some personal updates, though.

After 3 days of Vacation Bible School, we are tired and easing into the home stretch.  It's been a wonderful year with 175 campers, 60ish teen counselors, and lots of moms working off their rears.  It's been a blessing to many and we thankful for the smooth scheduling and safety of the children.

I'm keeping more than busy with photo shoots.  Alex is keeping more than busy with funerals, births, preaching, VBS, and a new rector who will be called shortly.  Eloise is keeping busy with her VBS friends, sprinkler play, and Delia is the queen of the nursery this week.

We're tired, and I'm busy, and I'm going to watch some Yo Gabba Gabba with Eloise.

My Girls

These are my girls!  I'm a proud mama.

Happy Belated Alex

I'm weeks late in saying Happy Birthday to my sweet husband.  All your ladies love you!

We didn't celebrate much, but we did have a fantastic night tonight.  We went to the Mumford and Sons concert, loved the energy and music, and made it home in time to watch the final minutes of the Mavericks win.  Completely awesome.

Vacation Bible School is coming up--175 children with us all week at church.  Our whole family will be involved.  Pray that it's a blessing to all who come and participate.

We have a new purple sprinkler and a big box of popsicles and that is what we do most of the time these days.  Cordelia calls Eloise "Wee-Weese" and it's adorable.  Eloise even will call herself "Wee-Weese" from time to time.  Cordelia calls herself "Ya."  It melts me.

I'm switching my blog time to emilylargephotography.com now.  I just don't have enough time for both these days, as you can tell.  This post is completely disjointed, but isn't that photo great?  Happy Birthday Alex.  We all love you!

This Blog

I'm not sure what my future holds as a personal blogger.  All the time I used to devote to our beloved Large Story is now being spent on my new photography venture.  I'm booking sessions, editing photos, adding and editing my website, ordering business cards, looking into tax requirements, etc.  It's taking all my free time.

My once over photographed children are now under photographed.  I didn't even post a Happy Birthday post to Alex.  And I haven't even looked at all our RV photos yet.  Instead I'm oohing and awing over this beautiful family with 5 children from Tuesday night and the little newborn I met in the hospital on Wednesday morning.  I'm slacking on the personal blog front and that's just the way it's going to be for now.

I'm pleased as punch with my creative venture and as soon as I complete my new photo blog I hope you'll follow me there as well.  But don't worry, Mom, the Large Story will remain, it'll just move more slowly.

And now I will tell you how important it is to know how to use the self timer on your camera.  It's very important.  And, eating smores on an RV trip is crucial.  There's no right way to eat them, just do it.  Every night.

Will we go RVing again?  Absolutely.  We loved it.  We were gone for 4 days, 3 nights and that was a wonderful amount of time.  I should have brought a broom though.  We never used the potty in the RV.  I wish I had been more organized.  We loved Topsail Beach and can't wait to get to the beach again soon.  Raleigh is an awesome city but seeing Aunt Molly was even better.

Do we recommend it?  Yes.

Next up: Beach photos and Eloise's recital.  So cute!

An RV art show

We are home from a quick RV trip to see my sister in NC.

It was awesome.  

There's not more to say than that.  We loved the adventure of driving out of the crowded city in a tacky Cruise USA RV, the nature and beauty that the campsite offered, the flexibility, the coziness.  Alex said he felt thousands of miles away from the office.  We've come home refreshed.

I have lots of details to fill you in on--our beach day and Eloise's ballet recital in particular.  But I can't get to everything tonight because we have a house guest.  My close from the big D is here and that time is precious.

So I'll post a few photos from the art exhibit we experience.  It's a luminary created by "Architect of Air."  So very cool.  If you have a chance, go visit your sister in Raleigh and then go to this art show.

These photos are unedited so that you can get the full effect of what we were feeling.  Look at the photos, imagine the natural colors from the sun, the cool air against our skin, and then play some groovy music in your mind. That is how it felt.

Today

Surprise, girls!  The school inspector didn't think the trampoline was such a good idea, so guess who gets to enjoy it now?  There are some great perks to having your dad be the pastor.  A free trampoline (score!) and a leftover church lasagna (double score!) in one night?!  Thank you very much, we love it.

Here we are at 7:30am this morning, jumping and playing on the back deck in blissful 50 degree weather while Alex and I sip our warm coffee.  I love Spring time.  

And I hope they never get tired of our new tramp.  (And never stop wearing all pink.)

The fairytale day came to a screeching halt for Eloise.  Cordelia had to go to the doctor and get 2 shots.  It hurt her but it hurt Eloise even more.  The sweet girl's empathy is enormous.  Stage crying will be a cinch for this little lady.  I know her spot in Les Miserables is sealed.

But home we came from the doctor.  We made a pitstop in the front yard.  Picked some dandelions.  Watered our new bushes (thank you to our neighbor who gave us 4 of his azaleas) and our vegetable garden (tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, basil, and "fairy flowers").

And then through the house to the back porch to jump some more.  

Thank you Mr. Preschool Inspector man!

Garden

All Natural

All natural photography is refreshing.  My friend Emily of Willa J. Photography wrote a nice post just about this, read it here.  She's a great photographer living just north of Pittsburgh.  If you need some family portraits, Christmas cards, wedding photography, etc, check her out.

Here are some of my all natural photography today.  It's freeing to put forward a photo that is full of emotion, full of a moment, and full of imperfections.

I'm also going to use this opportunity to teach about aperture.  If you can, shoot on manual, always.  It brings so much creativity to photography.  If you shoot with a very low aperture (f/1.4) it opens up your lens and light comes streaming in and you get all kinds of blur going on (bokeh--is that how you spell that word?)  A very small part of the photo is in focus and the rest out of focus.  (click on it to see it better)

And this photo shows it perfectly.  All natural.  

It is also all natural childhood.

Easter Monday

Happy Easter Monday!

We had a joyous day yesterday full of many Alleluias, many eggs, many friends, many chocolates, and many fun.  Alex has today off so I told Eloise that today we were just going to "chill."  She looked at me like that was the worst possible news she could hear at that moment.  

Eloise was really cute yesterday as she tried to understand the Easter egg/bunny concepts.  We had several egg hunts and at each one she asked, "Can I take the eggs home with me?" Aww... and when we  opened the door to go to church, there was a beautiful gift pack on our doorstep from our neighbor.  It was signed "the Easter bunny."  We were all surprised, but Eloise didn't care as much about the gifts as she did the bunny.  "But Mom, what color is the Easter bunny?"  Her mind was working overtime with all the concepts (and her body was working overtime to keep up with all the sweets!).

Cordelia found a few eggs too.  She was one proud little girl when she put them in her basket.  

A quick story told by Bishop Salmon yesterday... He was at a mall and a little child is crying because he's been separated from his mom and is scared.  He and another lady come to help the boy.  The woman says "Don't worry sweetheart, we will look and find her."  Bishop Salmon says, "Son, we will stay here because your mom is looking for you."  And there's a major difference in that.   The mom is desperate to find her son and is no doubt searching high and low for him.  The boy needs to know that.  Same thing with us.  We don't have to chase after God to find him.  He is coming to find us.  He has come to find us.  And that's a great thing about our God.

Happy Easter Monday.  I hope you have a chill day, too.

Life this week

It's Spring break and we're having a solid week.  I'm having to sneak downstairs early this morning to write this, though.  That means I'm busy parenting.  Me + Girls = All Week Long.  And when the girls are playing during the day, I can't open the computer for long.  They come running....Eloise wants to type letters and spell words and Cordelia wants to destroy the keyboard, like any healthy 17 month old.

We are declaring this spring and summer the seasons of the bike.  The girls love the bike trailer, so Alex and I suit up and take the girls for a ride.  The only challenge is finding a route that is not too hilly (we're still biking wimps) or dangerous (I hate traffic in my car, definitely not braving it on my bike.)  I think our route to Dunkin Donuts is working out well for us.  :-)

It's Holy Week.  And we are preparing to celebrate the death (Good Friday) and resurrection (Easter) of Jesus.  This is the most important time of year for the church because this is what it's all about.  Jesus died for us.  For 3 days.  Then we rose again.  It is also a very full week and weekend for Alex.

So, to occupy my time in the evenings, I've started a photography blogsite trial.  Wow.  It is fun, tricky to learn, and full of choices.  But seeing my images full screen on a fading slideshow is pumpin' me up.  I'm eager to start my business but there is also still a lot to do before I can.  So I'm plugging away.  This week I hope to accomplish the following towards that goal-- buy a new computer screen, improve at another practice session, and open a business bank account.  I'm working hard but having fun and praying that I'm doing the right thing.

Here are 3 more from my last session.  I'm loving these sisters' eyes.

And one more.  Our favorite "woof woof" friend.  Cordelia hearts animals.  We are destined to get one in the future, and when we do, I want a Puggle.  Pug+Beagle=Puggle.

I took some shots of "woof woof" real fast one afternoon.  Uploaded them, edited my 4 favorite and emailed them to my neighbor.  They loved them.  My heart swelled.  Sharing beautiful images of a loved one is such a blessing to the receiver and the giver.  And that's why I'm enjoying my photography internship so much.

Yuck

Was your 1 year old playing with the toilet plunger? 

Because mine wasn't! 

That's disgusting.

Daddy, Daughter

There are few things cuter than a daddy playing dollies with his daughter.  We did a lot of this today.  

Forecast: 55 and raining all day.  Lots of indoor play!

Photos from tonight

What a sweetie.

This is a short post because I'm off to bed.  Another week ends.  A sunny weekend ahead.   A photo shoot with a special family and spending lots of time with this little sweetie.  

As I write this, Alex is taking photos.  So I'm not going to bed as early as I thought.  

Let's take a look at what he has done.  Do we see a potential second shooter in the future?  

I don't know about potential, but what I do see is that Cordelia smiles a lot like me.  We use our entire face in a smile.  Is it still alright if I think she is the cutest toddler ever?

Well, she is.

Good night.

this week in photos