Early Birds

The  only  good thing I can think  of about  my girls consistently waking  up at 6am is that some days we are able to sneak in early morning photoshoots---like today :-)

Now  if only  I could think of a way to occupy the remaining 12 hours of the day! Daddy needs to come home from his  fishing trip very soon!

(And again, heads up that  I  experimented with different edits on these, so they aren't consistent. I couldn't decide which edits  I liked best :-P)

Overall I'm really  happy with these from this morning. I think if  I had a photographer watermark to put on them they'd pass as semi-pro, maybe?

Happy Friday everyone!

Love this thing!

Still loving my new camera lens haha. The girls were with  grandma today so here are some pics I took last  night  and this morning. I still  need more practice nailing the  focus with this  lens, and also making sure I don't get too much background blur, but I'm having fun practicing :-)

(The sun was shining  in through  the patio door so that's why we have the bright side lighting in a lot of these!)

She  was rolling around  on this bouncey ball....

Then she rolled  right onto  her  face and  bit  her lip!

This  picture is  out of focus, but it's  the only  one of them both from last night...

And then these photos are from this morning before going  to Grandmas...

I love this  one :-)

This  is my favorite from today :-)

My new lens came!

How perfect---my  new camera lens (that I mentioned wanting to get last week  I believe) came today, which just happens to be the day that I'm watching our friend Finn, so I of course had  to try out the lens with my cute subjects! :-)  I've only  used the lens for about 30 minutes so far, so I am still getting used to it. But  so far it's exactly what I was wanting! It does sooooo much better taking pictures  indoors without a flash, and I'm loving all the background blur I can get <3

Here are a few of my favs from today's trial run!

This is probably my favorite of the whole day---check out Finn's pouty lip (after Raya stole his bouncey ball lol) ....too cute!  (Don't worry, I made her give it back)

I'd tried a lot of different edits for all these photos, so excuse the  inconsistency :-P

Raya wasn't in the mood for photos, so I only have this one of her bouncing on the ball :-)

PO'd that  his shoe came off! haha

And then these are some indoor ones...

Expect lots more photos this week  I'm sure! :-)

Little artist

Sorry you guys---I'm waaaay behind on reading my favorite blogs and I feel bad! However Lee is gone on a (way too long) fishing trip so I'm holding  down the fort ...and I'm also still dealing with weird medical/muscle/nerve issues---my sore back has turned  into a stiff neck, numb fingers and toes, etc (oh boy) ....so I'm going in for an appt.Thursday and will likely have an MRI to check  my spine. Fingers  crossed it's an easy fix!


In other news, am I the only  parent who lives  in fear of her  child  bringing home "art" from preschool? Here is a recent conversation Raya and I had:

Raya: Mama, I made you some art today!
Me: Thank you!
Raya: Here  it is....isn't it so beautiful?!
Me: Yeeeessss, "it" is! I love the colors, they are so pretty.....thank you!
Raya: Do you know what  it  is?
Me: Ummmmm, I  think so, but I want  *you* to tell me!
Raya: It's a purple elephant eating blueberries Mama, see?!


That  was totally going to be my first guess :-P

And lastly, a few "what they wore" pics  from the last few days ;-)

Raya was determined that Brielle *would* pose for the  picture haha (This was a 'Daddy dressed me' day ;-)  ...and before Daddy gets too much credit, he dressed Brielle  in the onesie and gray leggings...alone. I couldn't take it and had  to add the skirt to halfway make her presentable lol

We had  a couple really chilly days

Went shopping with Grandma Donna on Memorial  Day----Gymboree cherries (they chose their own shoes ;-)

And today, Gymboree hippo dress and Hanna Andersson striped playdress set

Hope you all have a happy "hump day" tomorrow!