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Day Three Hundred Thirty-Five.

Mr. Liam was quite a snuggler this morning. We hung out in the sunshine for awhile (he isn't terribly jaundiced though). This was before I unwrapped him to hang out in just his diaper (which he really loved!)

And then tonight, Owen and Daddy hung out by the Christmas tree and read from one of our new Christmas story books. Owen has been such a sweet heart and big helper, he loves Liam (sometimes a little too much), he gets so worried if Liam cries at all and loves to bring him blankies...melts my heart!

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Day Three Hundred Thirty- four.

Lots of snuggling going on here.

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Day Three Hundred Thirty-Three.

I'm a little behind in posts, for good reason I guess!

We welcomed peanut four on Monday after a rough five days in and out of labor. I'll slowly be catching up but I have to admit, I'm thrilled to have a willing model again! Though the big brothers and sister are loving holding and kissing on baby Liam so that's been fun to capture too :)

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day three hundred twenty-eight.



Tried to walk a baby out, with no success.

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Day Three Hundred Twenty-Seven.

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Day Three Hundred Twenty-Six.

Owen fell asleep reading (after apparently tearing the cover off of his favorite book) tonight. Sweet boy :)

Today was a long day. Kinda thought it might be the day of peanut four's arrival there for awhile this morning...but no, still here! Still pregnant!

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Day Three Hundred Twenty-Five.

Bathtime is a happy time for all. Especially Owen who is half-fish apparently. But tonight it was good for me, I'm just so tired and exhausted I was ready for the day to be over!

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Day Three Hundred Twenty-four.

Ellie's best "boy" friend had his birthday play date today. She doesn't know he's moving in a week or so either :( I just don't have the heart to tell her until she has to know. They are so cute together, and she wanted to make him a "birthday list". She was too shy to tell him what it said, but from what I gathered hearing her talk on the way to his house- it was something along the lines of, "Dear Brody, thanks for inviting me to your party, we love cupcakes, hugs and kisses and love, Ellie."

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Day Three Hundred Twenty-Three.

He caught four bessy bugs today, came tapping on the door with his hands full saying, "Mama! Look what I found! Can you take a picture??" He loved showing me that if he gently blew in their faces that they would hiss back at him. I just can't get enough of his gentle spirit. :)

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Day Three Hundred Twenty-Two.

Didn't really shoot this for the workshop since today's kind of an "off" day. But Ellie girl fell asleep before dinner and was just peaceful amidst all the other chaos in the house, so I had to grab a few shots of her wrapped up in her blankie (and just her blankie because we are back in that annoying strip your clothes off the second we are inside the house!) Can't decide if I like color (and all it's soft pink tones, or black and white which is usually what I prefer).

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Day Three Hundred Twenty-One.

Dramatic Light Found. Poor lonely (naked) little tree in front of our house always looks pretty cool illuminated by the street lights.

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Day Three Hundred Twenty.

He worked on this lego castle all afternoon, but didn't get it done till after it was already dark, so when he asked me to take a picture of it, I just decided to work with the low light for the workshop. 

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Day Three Hundred Nineteen.

Not perfect for the workshop assignment, since the light isn't quite dramatic enough in regards to shadows and contrast between light and dark. But I liked it anyways for picture of the day.

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Day Three Hundred Eighteen.

Dramatic light found example for today. It's not as dramatic as it was, but I'm not quite used to the changing light so I missed my window of opportunity in this spot today. He was a good sport, it only took one piece of candy to bribe him into sitting here nicely ;)

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Day Three Hundred Seventeen.

This week's workshop assignments focus on dramatic lighting. Thanks for playing along Gromit :) 

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Day Three Hundred Sixteen.

I waddled my way through my last pre-deployment session tonight. And now I'm officially on leave from all photographer duties other than shooting just my kids, especially that tiny little peanut four who is welcome to arrive whenever it wants to!!  This family was super sweet so it was a good ending for me!

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Day Three Hundred Fifteen.

The big guys went camping tonight at Nana's and after I walked them out (and Gavin gave me repeated hugs and kisses), I couldn't help but notice all the gorgeous leaves and grasses in the gorgeous sunset light.

(Already stopping to show daddy deer tracks).

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Day Three Hundred Fourteen.

We had quite the day- Poor G hit his head really hard while playing in the playground at CFA today, A friend was in there with him while I got Owen cleaned up before heading in. She said Ellie came running down saying Gavin was hurt, but she didn't hear him crying- so she wasn't worried till he slid down the slide all woozy and with a GIANT goose egg on his head. She brought him to me, and he definitely wasn't all there. He eventually told me that he stood up in the tunnel and hit his head, and after a ton of ice and resting (against his wishes ;) ) the bump went down and he was fine. He's been fine since then but to keep him occupied (and awake so I could watch him) I bought him the new Star Wars Angry Birds game...it worked, he was riveted all afternoon.  I got a little practice for the workshop but I have to say this week was challenging and I feel super discouraged with what I got, I'm ready to just shoot for me tomorrow!

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Day Three Hundred Thirteen.

Tried to enjoy some of the last bits of sunshine this afternoon- they picked drawing with chalk and I tried hard to find golden triangle compositions. I love seeing all three of them together, imagining what the next few days/weeks are going to bring with the new baby (should it ever choose to make it's arrival!) Even though it is crazy 95% of the time, I love it. Love seeing them love each other and can't wait to add another little person to the mix!

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Day Three Hundred and Twelve.

She surprised me and was a social butterfly this afternoon while I "worked" with some fantastically talented local photographers on a fabulous project...sneak peek of it below and I'll be sure to share when it's all finalized and ready to be revealed!!

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Day Three Hundred Eleven.

And with the golden spiral composition guide overlay...

I wanted to sneak in and take pictures of him for the workshop, but he woke up the moment I picked up my camera to shoot. He was at least sweet about it, and when I gave up and tucked him back in, he was adorable- blowing me kisses and whispering "I love you" back to me (well, his best impression of "I love you").  So the picture isn't stellar but, my creativity is just about tapped out. I feel like I'm just barely keeping my head up above the waves on so many levels right now...phew, just keep swimming! just keep swimming!

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Day Three Hundred Ten.

Today was a whirlwind. So much cleaning and organizing and putting things in their place. I didn't realize until it was 4:30 and almost dark that I hadn't picked up the camera at all today. Bad news for both this project and my workshop submission. So I braved the dark and low-light at bedtime and I think I actually got one that works with this week's assignment using golden spiral or golden triangle composition methods. I went with golden triangle. It's shown in the second picture. 

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Day Three Hundred and Nine.

Perfect fall afternoon. After a really long walk in the woods (mostly because I'm slow moving these days) we came back and played with Uncle Matt's super trusty and always popular trucks. Owen was a trooper, even though he asked for (and received) his nap at 9:30 this morning. Daylight Savings Time backfired for the 6th year in a row! I'll look at it as being an hour early for the only time in my life (for a week or two and then it will wear off and then we'll mix a newborn into things and I won't be on time again till 2014).

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Day Three Hundred and Eight.

Big day here... notice what's missing?

Someone is so proud to be riding his bike without training wheels now :)

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Day Three Hundred and Seven.

We got flu shots (or mist if you were Gavin and Ellie and lucky!) and then had a long painful trip to the commissary. Owen was incredibly ornery all morning, while waiting for shots, hysterical after the shot, and surly through the whole com trip. He threw food off the shelves if he got remotely close to the food, threw everything out of the cart at least once (what he could reach anyways). It was almost impossible to get away from this one well-meaning retiree who kept poking at Owen wondering why he was so grumpy and then I know she stared at me like I had two heads or something when I tried to discreetly pull out the big camera and capture the moment for all posterity.

 Since the subject only has to fill 25% of the frame and not fill a quadrant, I think this one can work for my workshop too. PTL because I am struggling to take photos for both this and the workshop right now! 

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Day Three Hundred and Six. (Sixty days to go!)

Beautiful sunset in a gorgeous field with one of my favorite friends and her gorgeous family. We snuck in a few family pictures before pizza and turning our kids loose to run out all their crazy energy. (So worth the insane heartburn for this picture below and the fact that my kids slept in this morning!!)