12 Month Photo Project- November

Getting out my camera, to capture the boys, each month.

Carter. 

Nobody loves helping Daddy out in the snow more than this kid! All he wants for Christmas is a snowblower.

Everett, who loves my hat and chocolate donuts. 

Finn, up to something! I keep meaning to start of book of "Finn sayings" because this kid has me cracking up all day long with his words of wisdom and observations. 

Colin, who continues to be happy as a clam in Kindergarten. What a wonderful thing!

Owen, just waking up from his nap. This kid. At 18 months, he is feisty, flexible, up for anything, loving and full of opinions! I guess as number five, you gotta be able to speak up!

12 Month Photo Project- September

Finny. I know I posted this same picture in the previous post but I don't care. I love this picture of him. He's so sweet. And shoeless. 

Everett, having a ball picking apples!

Owen. This is a picture taken with my craptastic, shattered i phone. But I like it because it's so Owen, right now. We'll have a morning adventure with the trips and on the way home, he just can't help it, he always falls asleep. 

Colin, loving life and obsessed with wanting to build a tree house in the back yard. He talks about it all the time and occasionally will take a piece of wood and start hammering it into the trunk of his chosen tree. Today, Chris and Colin looked at options on the computer, you know, to get a sense of what he's thinking for this treehouse. As a side note, this is the one he said was most closely aligned to his vision:

Yeah, I'm turning this one over to Chris. 

and this.... this is such a Carter look. I found a few pictures on my phone and one on my big camera of this same face. In this picture, he's at the ready! Ready to help Colin build that treehouse. 

12 Month Photo Project- August

Getting out my camera to capture the boys, each month

(For this month, I chose pictures that I took of the boys while on vacation last week.)

Everett, enjoying the waves

Carter, our blue eyed happy boy

Finn. This is *such* a Finn look. 

Owen, who may have enjoyed vacation the most out of everyone! He seriously blossomed on vacation this year.

Colin, who in three days, will head to Kindergarten. 

12 Month Photo Project- July

Oops- I skipped June. And this month, I barely had my camera out! But I did take a few pictures earlier this week and here they are. No editing, I'm just throwing them up here before August arrives. How is it already August?!

Chris had just finished work and the boys wanted us to turn on the sprinklers in the front yard. Since running through the sprinklers pretty much counts as a bath (right?!), we were all over the idea.

Colin

Everett, cute even when pouting

Finley

Carter

Owen

12 Month Photo Project- May

Getting out my camera to capture the boys, each month.

 I'm not trying to do this in any sort of edited, picture perfect way... in case that's not self evident! haha. I don't have that level of skill.... nor the time to fancily edit. Plus, my boys are almost always dirty and I'm cool with that. My goal is to try and capture a piece of who they are and what they're enjoying during this moment of their childhood.

(These pictures were taken on the afternoon of May 19) 

Colin:



This is Colin's last week of preschool. Then we'll have all summer together before he heads off to full day kindergarten!! I'm excited to have him home everyday, although grateful for the wonderful preschool experience he's had. We'll miss Mrs. Sauer! Although I see so much of Chris in him, he will always have my eyes. :)


Carter:



I chose this picture of Carter because you can see his shoes. He thinks his "running shoes" are the bees knees and wears them every chance he gets. He also loves to run. Yesterday at the gym he ran lap after lap around the track, without getting tired, while the other boys were far less interested. Like with Colin, I see SO much of Chris in Carter.... except now that I'm seeing this love of running emerge, I think to myself, "Maybe parts of me are in there". (As a kid I loved running too. I'd run every chance I got. Anywhere, anytime.)


Everett:



This is such an Everett pose. I was getting my camera out and he thought it was hilarious to run in front of it to block my view. I'd say, "What are you doing?!" all dramatically and he'd laugh his great big Everett laugh. Over and over.


Finn:



This is where you'll find Finn most afternoons. Driving in HIS car. It's not really his.... but it is. Everyone seems to respect that he's laid claim to that car. He drives lots of places, like to work and the grocery store and the gas station. He's also never far from his froggy backpack. See it there in the trunk? ;)

Owen:




Colin was the first of our boys to ride in this blue car and now Owen enjoys it so much! He has spent a lot of time in this blue car over the past month! I cannot believe that he's going to be one year old in a week. Seriously, I'm in denial! I wonder when he'll grow some hair.....

12 Month Photo Project: April

Getting out my camera to capture the boys, each month. 
(These pictures were taken on the morning of April 15)

Carter, who didn't want to slow down for a photo today. That's okay because there is something about this picture that captures his spirit perfectly to me.

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Everett, who always climbs up on the kitchen stool to watch me cook and/or prepare lunches. Also, lately he has been calling me "Mom". I have NO clue where this came from and I'm not sure how I feel about it! It sounds a little strange to hear your 3 year old calling out, "Hey Mom!"

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Finn. While taking this picture, he tells me that he is building a bathroom. Coincidentally, Chris is smack in the middle of a bathroom renovation upstairs :-)

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Colin, who is showing quite an interest in photography lately. If I get my camera, then he goes to get his. He even keeps his camera in my camera case which I only noticed when I felt something in the side pocket.

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Owen, who right after this picture, tore this puzzle apart! Yup, he's in that stage.

March

12 month photo project: March

Have you heard of The 52 Project? I feel inspired by other parents who are taking a photo of their children every week. I think it's really neat. I'd love to do this but I'm not sure I'd be able to keep up weekly photos, so I've decided to try for once a month! 

My goal is to take a picture once a month, of each of my boys. Hopefully the photos will capture something unique and special about them. 

But here's the deal, I'm not going to do much, if any, editing to the photos because I just feel like I don't have time for anything these days. My initial goal is just to get out my camera once a month, move around the house with it, and capture my boys. I'm excited to look back on these over the next year and see how the boys change! So here we go, March:

Colin, LOVES his new shop vac. He begs me for stuff to vacuum with it. Even vacuuming out our disgusting mini van didn't deter him. I can't wait to remind him of this when he's a teenager and this vacuum is but a distant memory to him.

Carter, with those blue eyes. Carter asks "Why?" or often it sounds more like, "Whyyyyyyyyyy?" after almost anything someone says. It cracks us up and sometimes by the end of the day, drives us nuts. He really does want to know the why behind everything though! Hmmm, maybe a budding scientist like his grandpa? Although Carter himself says, "Me shy", he has made huge strides, attending swim lessons without any tears and also going to the kids area of the gym so I can exercise. 

Finn. This is such a Finn face right now. Mid laugh, and/or about to say something hilarious. The other night in the bathtub, he was staring off and so I asked him what he was thinking about. "Bout how Jesus loves me since I was born." Oh, okay, typical bath time thoughts. Yesterday, I asked the boys what meal we should make Daddy for his birthday. When I got blank stares, I followed up by asking them to think about what food Daddy really likes. Suddenly a light bulb seemed to go off in Finn's head. "I know! Let's make him salt!"

Everett, has been very attached to his bag lately. In it, he carries the things that are important to him, like play-doh, a notepad, a pencil, his luvies and occasionally he'll sneak in a snack too. Last night, after it was lights out and time for sleep, I thought I saw motion by Everett's bed. Upon closer inspection, there he was sitting up, peeling and eating an orange that he'd stored in his bag. You never know when you'll get hungry I suppose.

Owen, is motoring around and pulling to stand every chance he gets. He's one of the guys and he knows it! Always wanting to be where the action is at, this one.