Emma Under the Tree

Here is my submission for an example of a "sparkle" picture for a photo challenge I am doing. Emma under the tree, I'm sad Christmas is over!

30 DPC: Day 7

Topic: I was inspired

This picture inspires me to get more creative in my photography. I am trying to keep my camera on manual more often than automatic so that I can experiment with different light & generally give more mood and atmosphere to my photographs. I hate the way a flash washes everything out. I was reading some tips on how to take better low light photography without a flash, and a good piece of advise I got was if it's too dark to get a good shot, just put your camera down and enjoy the moment. To me that means that sometimes a photograph just isn't meant to capture what will be captured by your memory instead. While I love photography because you are able to capture a moment in time, you are never fully able to capture the memory because there is so much more to a memory than a visual image. So I need to learn to put down my camera every once in a while and just enjoy the moment.

30 DPC: Days 5 & 6

Yesterday was a rough day for Emma...and me. Poor little baby was constipated all day and would scream a horrible scream every time she tried to poop. If it wouldn't be so painfully embarrassing for her, I would post a picture of her face while trying to poop. It's really sad, but I feel bad for laughing at the same time. I mean the poor girl was in so. much. pain but, she was pooping. Pooping is always funny, right?

Anyway, that, along with the great time I spent with my cousin yesterday cooking chili and baking cookies, are the reasons why I was not able to get my pictures in for the 30 Day Photo Challenge. I will include them both today.

Day 5: Birthday- share a birthday picture, yours or someone you love.

Ok, I will show a birthday picture of two people I love, my hubby & my nephew. Their birthdays are 10 days & 29 years apart, but we celebrated them on the same day before we moved to Minnesota. They are so cute together, Brady loves his uncle B. I believe this picture shows how much fun they have together.

Day 6: Friends- this could be your friends or a picture of your children with their friends.

How about both? Here is a photo of me and my two girlfriends with their baby girls. The three of us all had babies within about a month. It was so cool to be able to go through my first pregnancy with a couple of my good friends who were also going through their first pregnancies. And we all had girls, how fun! I think they're all going to be friends for life, even if we don't live nearby.

30 DPC: Day 4

Topic: Winter Wonderland- show a picture that reflects Winter

I love how all the bare trees and the blues in the water & sky make this picture seem very cold.

30 DPC: Day 3

Topic: Still laughing...a moment you're still laughing about.

I hate roller coasters. They just freak me out. But a couple years ago, Brandon and I went to Disney World with his parents. The rides are super tame, but I am still a big wimp. This ride, tame as it is, freaked me out because there are these really sharp curves where your car spins around at the same time you're rounding the corner and I kept yelling "I'm too heavy for this ride, it's going to launch us off the ride!". Haha, we still talk about this today, how unbelievably crazy I was on this super chill Disney World ride. I was convinced that my weight (of course it would be my fault alone, never mind there were 3 other people in the car with me) would catapult us off the tracks. 

Suffice it to say, we're still alive. Disney engineers for the win.

30 DPC: Day 2

Day 2: I love you

I love these two. They are my life. I took this picture at my sisters wedding, a beautiful fall day this October. I love this picture because Emma totally looks like her dad, and she is just so comfortable hanging out in his arms. She is such a daddy's girl, and I am ok with it. There is nothing better than seeing Brandon with her.

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 1

As we head into 2012, I thought a 30 day photo challenge would be a fun way to reflect on this past year. It would force encourage me to take more pictures with my wonderful new camera as well as blog more. I used to write a lot, but once I learned how to type suddenly writing became really hard and I would get hand cramps so I didn't like journaling very much anymore. Sad, but true. (Side note, I also gave up the piano in first grade because I didn't like how my back would hurt when I was constantly told to sit up straight. Also sad, but true). So I found a challenge on the blog Ramblings and Photos and decided to give it a whirl. 

So without further ado, here begins day one: Me. The topic: What are you most proud of in 2011?

I post this photo, not because it's the best photo of me, but because it best represents what I am most proud of in 2011. I took this picture just three days before Emma was born, fully expecting to have another two weeks to relax and enjoy my maternity leave. I am proud of my pregnancy. I started out overweight, but ended up not gaining a whole lot so I was quickly down to my pre-pregnancy weight. While that is still heavier than I should be, at least I'm making it easier on myself to just lose weight and not baby weight on top of it. I felt like I took really good care of myself during my pregnancy making sure to eat right (of course there were some cheats, I was pregnant for goodness sake!) & exercise regularly. Because of this I feel as though I had a relatively easy pregnancy, and at the end of it all I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl after a mere 7 hours in labor. So, being pregnant and giving birth are what I am most proud of in 2011.