Cheesy smile: Day 187/365

We attended a birthday party with the kids and my son managed to find the birthday boy's chair and climbed in it. He seemed rather proud of himself as evidenced by his cheesy smile.

New flowers: Day 186/365

My husband and I have slowly started to rip up and replace the landscaping in our front yard. We finally picked out some new flowers for one side of the house and I can't wait to see what they look like over the next few years.

On the pontoon: Day 185/365

We went out on my in-laws' pontoon boat for Independence Day. It was not the nicest of weather days, but we managed to get a little time on the water before the storms snuck up.

A smile despite the unhappiness: Day 184/365

My mom asked me to go on an errand with her so the kids had to tag along with me. My son is in the "not liking to be confined stage" so he was not thrilled about being stuck in his stroller. So, I took him for a walk while my mom was doing paperwork and managed to get this smile out of him.

New cup and halfway there: Day 183/365

My son loves to drink from straws so I bought him a new sippy cup with a straw and he loves it.

Amazingly, we are halfway through the year now so I am halfway through this 365 project. It has turned out to be tougher than I thought but it really has forced me to work on my photography. There are still many days I don't touch my DSLR and I have forced myself to accept that it is ok. Photography is not about the camera you shoot with, but what is captured with the camera instead. So, my cell phone and point and shoot work perfectly fine when I want to capture something quickly or just don't feel like lugging the DSLR around. I have worked on composition and some on exposure, even with my cell phone. I've learned I don't like letting any camera choosing the settings for me, even if I don't really feel like taking a picture. People think I'm crazy when I try to set the exposure on my cell phone instead of just snapping away, but I like having that control on my photo, even if its only setting what area of the photo I want to expose for. I am hoping to branch out of the children pictures the next few months and maybe take more of the world around me. So, I hope to be able to share some new things for the 2nd half of the year. 

Princess time: Day 182/365

My daughter received a princess jewelry game from her aunt as her flower girl gift and she was so excited to open it up and play. I joined in on the fun so of course we had to model our jewelry.

Resting time: Day 181/365

We were all exhausted after the busy wedding weekend so we were bums around the house Sunday afternoon. I caught this cute shot of my husband and kids hanging out together on the couch.