Meredith (my little monster)

I think Little Miss Meredith has hit her terrible 2's early.  At least I'm praying that's what this is anyway.  She's almost 2 going on 13.  Fits are unbelievable and typically include throwing stuff.  But she's so cute, and she's my youngest, so it doesn't bother me nearly as much as it probably would have if Anna or Wallace would have done the same things.  They gave us fantastic 2's and terrible 3's.  Maybe she's hitting it early because I haven't brought home a new baby on her.  She's also an avid climber.  She scales just about everything in the house.  I frequently find her playing in the kitchen sink (like standing in it and grabbing dishes) or dancing on the dining room table.  

Homegirl is a mess.  So, tonight when she lost it over apparently nothing, it wasn't too surprising.  I took her to a different room to calm her down without distractions and after singing one song to her she calmed down and then she saw Wallace's tractor and left me for it.  

I haven't pulled the camera out in a couple of weeks, and she was in a decent mood, so I got some of pics of her just doing her thing.  Meredith has spent many days in a diaper.  She's my third....why bother dressing her.   ;)  I'm just kidding...she's usually at least got a shirt on.  Or maybe pants.  But rarely both unless we are going out in public.  :)  And we had spaghetti for dinner, so there's still some on her face.  

Gettin' Down with Mother Goose!

This evening Anna had a program up at school.  Her first evening program.  It was pretty cute.  The kinders and 1st graders put on the performance.  It was basically 6 songs, but they had some choreographed dancing!  I was impressed.  It wasn't anything too challenging, but there were like 100 kids up there, and they did pretty good!

I don't know how she snagged this front row spot, but she was loving it!

She's so sassy.

Her little group did a new rendition of Jack Be Nimble...again on the front row!  Lucky me!

There was a part where she had to "dance" with a boy.  He didn't look too sure about it.  ;)  Anna told me about this part yesterday when I asked her what they were going to be singing for us.  She was all "Don't tell Dad....but I dance with a boy!"

There was a lot of jumping too, but when you don't capture their feet they just look kind of up tight and not so much like they are jumping. .

Anyway.  The program was adorable.  So glad we hired a sitter so we could enjoy it and take pictures without chasing Meredith all over the cafeteria/auditorium.  

Flash Work

Well, after the random success I had with the direct flash when the kids were playing with smoke balls, I decided to try to recreate that today.  Josh was working on cleaning out the garage, and so I figured we should all be outside with him anyway.  He ended up putting me to work, so my picture time was cut short.  Oh well.  I think the sun was a little too high anyway. 

This was the only really good one that I kept in color.  I don't know.  I'm slightly annoyed by the shadows from her fingers on her neck.  But other than that, if I'd tried this without flash I'd of needed to move to the other side of her to get a picture.  

You might be wondering why she has a pen in her mouth.  Well, Anna's an interesting bird.  For no reason whatsoever, she decided to bring a pen and paper, and of all things, a hamper to write on.  She proceeded to ask me what all of my favorite things were one subject at a time and wrote them down.   But I had to spell them out for her.  "What's your favorite animal?" "What's your favorite thing to do?"  "What's your favorite flower?"  

Until I took my little 4-week photography class a couple of years ago, I didn't realize that the shutter speed on the camera maxes out at 1/250 when you have your flash on.  I don't really understand this.  It creates issues when you're trying to use it as fill flash on a bright day because you can't get much of a bokeh.  I've noticed I have my aperture way up around f/9 when I'm using it outside.  I'm sort of a f/1.8 kind of girl. I love a blurry background and foreground.  So, I decided to see what happens if I put it on f/1.8 and 1/250.  As expected, it was all blown out.  So, I calmed it down in Lightroom and converted it to B&W.  I guess maybe I need a filter.  I have been anti-filter so far.  I don't really know why though. 

I ended up converting nearly all of my keepers to black and white this time.  I think the flash looks kind of interesting in B&W.

Ha!  I know this isn't the most flattering pic of Anna, but it cracked me up.  She looks so grungy and tough.  And she was posing for me.  She makes funny faces and does stuff like this now a days for the camera.

Shadows...blah.  Maybe I should just stay farther away.  

He was farther away here...can't really see any shadows!  Wallace likes to give me a lot of this side lately. 

Valentine's

Last year I saw this super cute idea on Pinterest for Valentine's, and I've pretty much decided this might just be what I do every year.  It's so easy!...as long as Meredith doesn't grab half of them when you step away for a second and rip them apart.  "/  Homegirl must have been jealous or something.  

Anna's got this down.  As I was putting them all together tonight she even helped me thread the tootsie roll pops into a few of them!

I was surprised Wallace's turned out as good as they did!  It was quite the process getting him to pose.  There were a bunch of outtakes.  

Holding your arms up can get tough.

I'll just caption how the how the photo shoot went down with what I was saying to him...

"Bud!  Bud!  Look up.  Bud!"  ...me making silly noises....

"no son...hold your arm out!"  "Can you hear me?"

"Okay...not in front of your face!"

"no no.  Not behind your back."

"no Bud...other arm."

"Smile son!"

"*sigh*"

:)  I'm pleased. He came up with this 2 arm thing all on his own!  He was feeling extra generous. 

Smoke Balls and Fill Flash

So, we're still working our way through our New Years fire works.  Today Anna set off the remainder of the smoke balls.  She did it all by herself.  Lit the matches and everything.  So, I took pictures!  

Haha!  She was trying to walk toward me over some pokey grass.  And she was dressed a bit crazy. It's Saturday...completely appropriate to still be in your pajama top at five in the afternoon.

The littles were funny.  They'd run away as soon as she got a match lit, but then they come running right back once the smoke started coming out of the balls.

About half way through the smoke balls I decided to try some direct flash.  I was sitting pretty far away and figured it was worth a shot since the sun was behind the kids.  I'd say about 30 percent of the shots looked to me like they had obvious flash (which is super annoying to me), but the rest looked fabulous!

Eeeeek!  I've been trying to figure this out FOREVER!  Fantastic lighting even in a back-lit scenario...  

I still get pretty excited when all 3 kids are together in a picture...even if it's not really the most composed shot.

This one cracks me up.  Wallace is all mid stride.

It ended up being super smokey.  And smoke ball smoke really smells more like sulfur than anything.

Haha!  She was so grossed out.

Well... All we have left are the crappy sparklers, and I just might throw them away since the kids don't even like to hold them...as they are basically torches and not very sparkly.