Hobbies

Yesterday's topic for my photography workshop was "Hobbies".  Come on people, my subject is 9 months old.  Unless eating, drooling, sleeping, pooping, or babbling could be considered a hobby, I didn't have much to work with.  Then I spotted him on the floor last night, doing something he loves. 

Plus, I realized he shares a birthday with Mark Zuckerberg (founder of facebook).

Enough said.

Generations

Recently we celebrated Leyton's great-grandma's 80th birthdays.  We are very blessed to still have both of Todd's grandmas in the area, and a part of Leyton's life.  They both turned 80 within weeks of each other, and it was a beautiful chance for me to reflect on the beauty of life, and lessons learned that make our elders so wise. 

There is so much I want Leyton to remember about them, and unfortunately most of those memories will come from what we tell him. 

So here it goes...

 This is the face of aged beauty.  Of years spent loving people, sometimes until it hurts, and smiling along the way. These wrinkles are the result of tears of joy and tears of sadness, worrying about her children, and trying to be everything to everyone.  These eyes view the world with a peace that God is in control of every situation.  If everyone viewed the world like she does, it would be a much better place.

This heart is filled with love for "her babies".  She took her role as grandma seriously, which rubbed off on your Mamaw.  Your dad has fond memories of he and your aunt Jodie riding their bikes over the bridge and just down the street to spend the night with their grandma.  They would wake up to the smell of fresh sausage and the most delicious fried potatoes they have ever tasted. She never missed a graduation or birthday, and was a regular at volleyball games, basketball games and baseball tournaments.  She was one of their biggest fans! To this day, we don't visit her without immediately having to hand you over so she can love on you. 

 This is the hug of a strong woman.  A woman who saw her dear husband and loving father to their two daughters leave this world much too soon. Many years later she faced loss again, learning to navigate life on her own.  I wasn't around during this time, but I'm confident that she mourned with grace, probably helping others before dealing with her own grief. She took comfort in the words from the huge Bible that sits on her dresser, a reminder that the "Big Man Upstairs" knows what she needs each day.

I will probably spend my entire life trying to make mashed potatoes like Grandma Kelly's, and honestly, I have no expectations of being successful. I'm convinced there is an extra ingredient of love I just can't match.

So, Grandma and Great-Grandma's, we love you, and appreciate both the seen and unseen things you have done to bring us to this point, and make us who we are.

And if Heaven forbid, this should be the last birthday we celebrate together, we can look back at a beautiful afternoon of laughter, playing some serious cards, and lots of hugs and kisses.

....but I have a feeling there will be many more!

Joy of Love Day 6-WHO THEY LOVE!

So I'm a little behind in getting Day 6's workshop pics up.  Geez it only took me 6 days to get behind...I am in trouble. 

Day 6-Who They Love

Let's face it, who does my kid not love?  I mean, sometimes it makes me sad that he doesn't want me all of the time.  He would probably let Frankenstein hold him if need be.  He is such a chill baby, as long as he is fed, not sleepy, and not "riding dirty" as I like to say.

So, to give myself a little encouragement :) I thought I'd show him loving on me! haha...



Okay, so I'm actually loving on him.  You get the point!




I love those wet kisses...



Photo courtesy of Jenny Eckel Photography!



I love being his mommy.  I know that someday he will not kiss me, or even want to sit near me in public, but I'm not going to think about those times.  Right now I treasure everyday, every smile, and every cuddle I can.

Joy of Love-Day 5-LOVE TO HATE!

Today's topic for the "Joy of Love" photography workshop is "Love to Hate".  Honestly, I had a hard time trying to figure out what I was going to shoot because there's nothing about anyone that I love that I really love to hate.  Now I know you're probably thinking, "yeah right" but I honestly can't think of anything that bothers me.  Then tonight on the drive home from hanging out with family, I figured out what it was....

Day 5: Love to Hate





I love to hate that my baby has red hair.

  

Everyone says "wow, it looks like he has red hair" to which I reply "yeah" disappointingly.  I try to act like it's a terrible thing that his fuzz is more than peach, when in fact, I'm pretty sure it's the cutest thing ever.  So what that he will be slathered in sunscreen for the rest of his life. Heck, I might even resort to embarrassing him with zinc oxide.

I couldn't imagine him not being a "ginger" (as he has been so fondly referred).  His little red eyebrows are virtually invisible, and his eyes turn pink when he gets tired.  His hair will turn brown someday, and when it does, I will miss these nights in the bathtub when his golden red hair shines in the light while he splashes around.

Red hair, brown hair, black hair, or no hair.....he is perfect, and he is ours. :)

Joy of Love-Day 3 and Day 4

While I would love to blog everyday, I'm sure some of you can attest that I would quickly be headed for divorce court.  By the time I get the baby and get home from work, it's after 5. Then it's make dinner, eat, and bathtime or play and then bedtime for him.  Then it's time for Todd and I to discuss the day, and maintain the communication necessary for us to grow as a couple and as parents.  That leaves me with NO time to do much else.  Oh well.

All that to say, I'm going to be combining some days in my photography workshop journey.  Day 3 was "Now and Then".  Now since Leyton was born, most people have said "oh he looks just like Todd."  Come on, people, can't a girl get some love?  I mean, I'm the one who did the work to get him into this world, right?  The truth is, they're right.  He looks like his daddy, and I'm okay with that since I think his daddy is one sharp looking guy!  I thought for today's project I'd do a side by side comparison of baby pictures.  Trying to get Leyton to stop crawling to take a picture these days is another story, but I managed to snap one.  Here they are...what do you think?

Day 3-Now and Then



Leyton-2011



Todd-1979





I'm a pretty lucky gal, that's for sure.  Two cute men in my life.  Photography wise (this is a photography workshop, after all) I am working on using depth of field to add leading lines in my pictures. Just having purchased a new lens (the 50mm 1.4) I feel like sometimes my depth of field is too small, and I only have a nose in focus, or one eye. I have to remember that just because I can open up that much, doesn't mean I have to.

 I must add a little humor though, because I can't resist.  In trying to find a baby picture of Todd, I stumbled upon a book that Todd's Aunt Marjory gave the family.  It included almost every school picture from childhood, as well as a few from his high school graduation party.  Apparently it lost a letter in transit, which I'm sure sums up most husbands (according to their wives) in America!



Todd didn't see the humor in it as much as I did, but I think I was a bit slap happy. 

Day 4-What they Wear

Since I have about an hour of daylight to work with, I captured my day 4 project's pictures this morning before I headed in to the office.  Leyton has several "little man" outfits.  I think I may have overcompensated a bit for not having a girl.  I wanted to capture the things I loved dressing him in before they were retired to Hand-Me-Down Heaven. 

Who can resist those little shoes?  These are the little things that I hope to capture with each child.  When he has huge, smelly, basketball playing, man-feet, I want to remember when I played "Shoo-Wee" with him to make him giggle....the sweetest sound I might have ever heard. 

I'm looking forward to this weekend's assignments, and hopefully having some more time to dedicate to working with my camera manual.  Also, working on a post about Grandma Kelly's 80th birthday!



The Alpha Blog...Joy of Love

And so it begins. Blogging. Not because I think that anyone even cares that much to read about our lives everyday, or that I feel I am inspiring, eloquent writer whose words move people.  I mainly decided to start blogging because I want Leyton (you'll hear alot about him) to have some documentation of his childhood. I was the third child, and I give my mom some serious credit for sticking with the baby book thing. Leyton is 8 months old and I have all of 3 pages of his baby book completed. Ridiculous, I know, but life gets ahead of you. Which leads me to now. 

Life has been a whirlwind since his birth.  I blinked and we were home from the hospital.  I blinked again (which is what sleep felt like some nights) and he was three months old.  You get the picture.  I already miss my baby. He doesn't even want me to rock him to sleep anymore.  The only way I have to document the life and times of our crazy man is with pictures.  That is the other reason I have decided to start a blog.

When we were talking about having kids, I mentioned that I wanted a "good" camera.  Now I had no idea what that camera was at the time, but after many nights of google searching and reading photography blogs I found what I thought I would need.  Todd made me promise that if I took all of Leyton's pictures with our camera that we could get one.  From there I was hooked.  I wanted to know more and more about how to capture each smile, each laugh and each glance.  I became addicted to photography blogs, then blogs about crafts, etc.  If only I had the time to do everything I want to. 

One of the ways I'm trying to grow as a photographer is by participating in workshops.  The first one is called "Joy of Love", and it's great for me because it teaches me more about documenting those I love.  Each day of the month of February we are challenged to shoot a certain aspect of our subjects.  Here are the first two days and what I caught of my boys...

Day 1: WHAT THEY DO

              I love to watch him play with his toys. This one is mommy's favorite: a piano!

Leyton also loves eating his socks.

Day 2: HOW THEY LOOK

These are just a few of the many faces that make us smile, and remind us to be thankful each day that we have been blessed with a happy healthy baby. 

I must say, I thought originally I would be participating in this workshop to see each day's lesson's and stalk everyone else's pictures, all the while feeling that mine weren't good enough to share. If I'm ever going to grow as a photographer or just a mommy with a camera, I have to be vulnerable to sharing my work, good or bad, and letting people help me.  If you've stumbled upon this blog because of the Joy of Love, PLEASE share some helpful comments!! 

Oh yeah, and some help on how to get the URL on here would be great!