Fall Fun

Fall has always been my favorite time of year. I love the crisp cool air (all though fairly non-existent this Fall); I love fall colors, I love leaves, and I love all the fun activities to do in the fall. Here are pictures from some of the "Fall" things we have been up to:

Trunk or Treat is a carnival our church hosts every year. I love seeing all the cute costumes and Haylie gets sooo excited that people are giving her candy.

For Hallowen this year Haylie wanted to be...whatever Kiley wanted to be. Matching Care Bears they are.
The whole gang...

Raider joined in the fun with his Cowboy gear.

Apple Hill is a must-do for the Fall. Our playgroup went there last week and we were lucky enough to have Daddy and Raider tag along with us.

No Shame

I've never been afraid to ask for help. I don't mind one bit stopping for directions and admitting I am completely lost. I always raise my hand in class if I don't understand how to do the work (I know - I hate those kids!) And I certainly don't mind emailing a great photographer and asking for ways to get better either.

I was SO excited this past weekend when I met with an amazing photographer, Kristin Eldridge. I have been following her blog ever since our friend Melissa left a comment about some of the photographers she loves. A few weeks ago I saw that she was coming to the Bay Area for the weekend so I emailed her to see if I could book one of her session times for mentoring instead of photos. She agreed and we left last Saturday at 7 AM to meet her for one of her early morning slots (thank you to my family for tagging along with me - you are the best!). Kristin was SO gracious and so helpful, letting me drill her with questions for almost an hour. I had an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet FULL of questions and she answered every one of them. She really helped me with tips about dealing with difficult lighting, getting the right focus, shooting in RAW, good camera equipment and post processing. She even let me take some shots with her Canon 5D and her 24-70 mm lens. I was drooling!! She was the nicest person and I am so grateful for her time.

I just saw this post she did and I can't believe she even got some great pictures of the kids while she was showing me how to do things. Here is a quick shot I took of her. Hopefully she doesn't mind me posting. She was so great!

Only Boys Stand Up

I knew it would happen... After watching her friend Jack go potty by standing on her stool and aiming straight for the toilet, it was only a matter of time before Haylie tried the same thing. A few days ago she did just that and then Haylie and I were cleaning pee pee off the floor. Now, every time she goes potty she reminds me, "Only boys stand up. Girls don't stand up or they get pee pee all over." Yes they do! :)

Happy Dance

Everybody needs a Happy Dance...

Normally I join in but I thought I would spare everyone that level of excitement today. This particular Happy Dance was initiated by Haylie, as a result of James making it to the top of the stairs all by himself. Gotta celebrate the little things. :)

James - 9 months

We have been so busy lately I completely forgot about James turning 9 months old. I like to record how much he has changed and grown over the last month and this month he is up to all sorts of new things.

He got his first black eye...Poor guy! He loves to pull himself up on everything and sometimes he slips. This picture was taken several days after the black eye - I don't know why I didn't think to take a picture sooner.

He is eating real food now. He is a big fan of grabbing and shoving food into his mouth! And he LOVES to eat!!!
He is actually getting big enough to participate in playgroup. We went to Bounceopolis and James got to crawl around on the mat and play with his friend Emmitt. He even loved bouncing in the jump houses.

He is crawling all over the place now and his favorite thing is to go up the stairs. Whenever I set him down he heads straight for the stairs and he can make it all the way up by himself.

Monkey see, Monkey do

This week we got together with Eli Tyler for a little photo shoot. He has been dying to hang out with Haylie all week so it was perfect. He was so happy to see her so it made an easy time taking pictures. Plus, I have decided Haylie will be my new photography assistant. Anything we wanted Eli to do we asked Haylie to do and Eli followed. Grant and Jaime call Eli their "little monkey" so as I was posting this pictures I thought that was too cute - "Monkey see, Monkey do!" It was great! Here are my favorite pics of Eli and a little slideshow of some of the others:

I totally copied this idea from many other photographer blogs that I watch. I really love how they get the flare from the sun in the photo. It washed out my picture quite a bit so I still need to work on the technique but I love the effect. I told you I was a wanna-be :) Unfortunately I couldn't get any good shots with the soccer ball but I really liked this football one!

I was loving the black and white photos for this shoot.

Doesn't that just make you smile?

That's How I Roll

Haylie got her first set of wheels this week. A real bike, not like the low-rider plastic trike she had already; she got a real bike that has training wheels which can actually be removed. (It was a great deal too - I found it at the Thrift Store for $10. It is in great condition and very cute!)

When we saw the bikes at the store Haylie quickly jumped on them and began riding up and down the aisles, running over objects and people in her path. I had no idea she even knew how to push the pedals but watching her zip around the store she was shouting back to me, "Look Mom I'm going real fast." We decided we should take this dangerous activity outside so we took the bike home and Haylie enjoyed riding around on her new bike for at least 30 minutes (that's a long attention span for a 3-year old).

Our street goes downhill one direction so when she got home she was surprised at how REAL fast she actually went. I was running along side of her taking pictures (and trying to make sure she didn't fall of course) and when I got back and looked through the photos I noticed she had her tongue sticking out in all of them. Click on the photo below to enlarge it:

Watching her ride her big-girl bike is just another realization of how big she is getting. Today we were riding in the car and she was reminding me that she is 3 now . Then she said "And in 5 minutes I will be 5." Boy, doesn't it feel like that!

Her cute little "Chug-a-bug" bike.