Sweet Baby Snuggles

This post is all about sharing the 3-part photo shoot with my niece, Gracelyn. I was lucky enough to be able to stay at my sisters' house when we went to Atlanta for Imaging, USA, and able to squeeze in some photos of little Gracelyn while I was there. So, of course, I have to share!

This was probably my favorite of the session:

Gracelyn had just woken up from her nap, and the window light was just lovely!

We got a few more in the lovely light, as Beth got her dressed and changed:

Then I went out and looked for the light  and best areas to photograph while Mama fed baby-"big brother" Hoss was my model:

We were able to get a precious few photos outside of Mom, Dad, and baby together:

 She was more interested in Hoss than me, though!

We only stayed outside for a very short time, as it was getting cold and dark very quickly. We came back in, I set the boppy pillow and a soft blanket up on the dining room table , turned her until I could see the light in her eyes, and put daddy to work making her giggle:

Mommy took her soon after, and I captured them by the tree:

She was starting to get a bit fussy at this point, so I stopped trying to photograph her, and just held her so her mama could eat.

I did get a few more of her the morning we left, and a couple of them are my favorite-this first one especially!

I love this expression!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, January Challenge #3

Challenge #3: Get your stamp on with repeat, I say repeat stamping!  Check out these examples:

Hero Arts Video

Mama Elephant Reindeer Games

Furry Tales Crafts

I started thinking after looking at the samples, and although I hadn't included any stamps in my January kit,I did have the Shimelle stamps in my December Daily kit, and I had been wanting to use the lightbulb stamp like this anyway, so I was "off to the races", so to speak. I stamped around the edges of a 4x6 card making sure to take the stamp off the edges for a more realistic look, added a gold embossed wood veneer, and used a ruler to draw lines for my journaling. Here is the card I made:

And this is what it looks like in the spread:

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll join us in the challenge at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog!

2015...Part Three

Sorry for taking a couple of days break from this - I had the first two posts prescheduled, thought I would get the third one done, and I never did...so, let's just jump back in!
August meant back to school:

One in high school, three in middle school!

I always love trips to the farmer's market around harvest time:

We stopped at an awesome pizza place afterwards:

Football season started back up:

We took the kids to Shiloh National Park (I love taking little trips like these and making history come to life for our kids!)

My hubby and I put in some work updating our front porch (this is the before, as we were just getting started):

We painted the shutters:

 (we them from a faded rose red to a rich navy blue)

The twins went to their first middle school dance:

 I got to chaperone, so I got pictures inside:

This is the porch mostly finished-still on our agenda to paint the floor and redo the mailbox...

The bigs got glasses:

September meant 8th grade recognition night for Evan and the other football players/band members/cheerleaders:

 More fundraising for the eighth grade trip:

And we gave our mailbox a makeover:

Time for fall decor, because it's my favorite:

October brought fall break, which meant 4H camp for these two:

And Evan turned 14-with donuts instead of cake:

We decided it was time to paint the porch- but we hated the color after we put it on (Renovation Realities!) Way too orange!

 So. We started over with gray:

 Here's how it looked when we finished:

 Caitlin wanted burgundy hair, so we went for it. It took 3 boxes of dye, and two dye sessions:

Basketball started up for the twins:

The twins decided to stay home and pass out candy (and torture the cat a bit...but it is cute!):

They also carved pumpkins:

And made cupcakes:

In November, we went to Jocelyn's Baby "Sprinkle":

And we shared a wonderful Thanksgiving with family (and way too much food):

And in December,

We had more basketball:

We put up lights and decorations:

Both inside and out:

Did some more fundraising:

Our elf, Snowflake, came back for a visit:

We had an amazing English Christmas dinner; Prime Rib, roasted green beans and shallots, yorkshire pudding, butter, garlic, and shallot roasted potatoes. Mmmm.

 This Christmas break, I had a great time with the kids! Cecilia made awesome pancakes:

I worked on some past December Daily albums:

We made gingerbread cookies:

And we played board games. My favorite was Scattergories!

And, that wraps up 2015! Onward to 2016!