Laundromat Fun!!!

Laundromat Fun!!!

I took Olivia and her friend, Angela out yesterday for a fun little photo shoot.

These two were working it!  

I didn't have to do anything but shoot away.  

I wanted these to feel vintage and more "film" like than digital, so I did some crazy editing on these. 

I'm on the hunt for some new photo props and fun places to do more 

"stylized" shoots in the near future.

This was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

from our family to yours!

Backing up.. (Birthdays)

Backing up and blogging Jeff, mine and Lucy's birthdays.

Big Daddy had his birthday back in July.

I have no idea how I missed not posting these, but here they are.  

I try to get Jeff's photos every year with the kids.

 Then there was my birthday in October.

Ugh.. another year older!

These are all iphone pics. 

 I had a VERY special birthday...

I celebrated with Bon Jovi and my friend, Cathy.

It was so fun!

Then the end of October we celebrated Lucy's Birthday!

She turned the BIG 10.

Double digits!

 This was waiting for her when she arrived home from school. 

 I LOVE that she LOVES a party dress.

She was twirling away here.

We celebrated with Lucy's sweet friend, Hannah. 

Thankful

Thankful

This Thanksgiving we have SO much to be thankful for.

2013 has been a whirlwind of a year for us and as it's starting to wind down, I'm starting to reflect on all the craziness and blessings of the year.

I need to take time to organize all my thoughts and write a post about it. 

We spent this Thanksgiving again at our friends cabin in the woods.

There is no better place to celebrate than this beautiful place.

These are some of the photos I took the day after Thanksgiving as we hiked up the hillside.

The fog cover was incredible!

I'm thankful for the "eye" I have developed over the past few years.

I now look at everything differently... 

I look for the unique beauty in all things and try to capture it with my camera.

I love taking photos of roads or paths.. anything that symbolizes "journey" 

Journey is what it's all about...

I will let these photos speak for themselves!  

What I've been doing...

If you've followed my blog for any length of time you know that I love to blog

and keep track of our family moments, outings, etc.

This is my scrapbook and I try to keep up, but lately I have been learning, practicing and perfecting 

my photography skills.

I'm in not one, but two Photoshop classes and I have been editing photos every day.

Every. Single. Day.

I love it and I have to admit, I'm half obsessed with it. 

I hated it for a long time, now I'm really enjoying it.

Editing has become the fun part... Finally!

So, here's just quick preview of a fun photo shoot I had this past weekend with Olivia.

I had to bribe her with Starbucks.  :)

I edited these with a richer/darker edit than I usually do.  

I'm trying to find my style, my vision. 

I have to say I'm loving the feel of these.

I also thought the crazy vintage skirt added a fun and unexpected element.

My next task is our Christmas card photo shoot.

I'm still playing around with some ideas and locations.

Stay tuned...

Triplets!

Triplets!

Last weekend I attended a photography workshop in PA.

We had some gorgeous models to photograph.

Here's just a sampling of the 7 year old triplets we photographed in the apple orchard. 

The lighting was perfect

and these giggly girls were amazing.

I plan to blog about my workshop later. 

It was fabulous!

Summer...

I'm back to blog world after a bloggy break.

It was nice to just enjoy our summer and not worry about keeping up this blog. 

We had several visitors, family from Kansas City and friends from Denver.

The first part of summer I was crazy busy driving kids to tutoring, Chinese school and drivers ed. 

The last month of summer break we did nothing but play!

It was super fun.  I didn't have my big camera out much, I just captured some fun moments with my phone.  

I've become a big fan of Instagram.  

You can find me at twoandlu.

 We had one rainy day... 

I captured this of Lucy, she loves to dance in the rain.

I love and admire her zest for life.  

 We went to Greenbluff to pick peaches, not once, but twice.

I made peach cobbler, peach crisp and peach smoothies.  

We are a family that loves peaches.

 We witnessed some amazing sunsets.  

Our new rental is close the river and we went out walking or biking just about every night.

 We have been hanging out with Grammy daily.

We LOVE having her here.

I cannot tell you what a blessing it is having her close by.

 We spent a weekend at a friends lake cabin. 

I woke up early to capture this amazing sunrise.

We paddle boarded, skied and saw a moose.  

The moose was a highlight for Jack.

 My mom and I bought matching crusier bikes in different colors.

We have been out biking a few times per week.

It's really fun.

People always smile when they see us on the trail.

The basket and bell makes it complete. 

 Here's the 1st day of school pic.

Jeff made me this huge chalkboard and it's hanging in our dining area. 

We have been having fun with it.

This is my favorite photo taken this summer with my phone.

Capturing amazing light is what fuels my photography passion.

I hope to post some of my latest work on here soon.

I'm in the process of learning some new editing software and it's both fun and a challenge. 

Goodbye summer!  

Cherry Picking

We went cherry picking today!

I love visiting our local orchards for fresh produce.

I love summer!

Jack and Lucy were like monkeys up in the trees.

The orchard said, "no kids on ladders," my kids took that as, climb the trees. HA!

 I said, "strike a pose".... this is what I got!  Crazy kids!

I'm ready to go again next month for fresh peaches!

Flags, Friends and the 4th!

We had a great 4th of July weekend!

Our dear friends, the Elledges are here visiting from Denver.

The Elledges are old neighbors and they come out every year.

Joan's parents have a lake house at Loon Lake.

 A fun little patriotic photo shoot. 

 Jack and Matthew flipping off the floating dock.

 Lauren and Olivia... they have been friends since they were in diapers.

 Lauren made this yummy jello dessert. 

 These two have so much fun together!

 Gorgeous view from the deck of the cabin.

I decided to have a little fun..

I set up my tripod and took these fun shots of the kids playing with their sparklers.

Next year I'm going to work on capturing the sparkler movement and having my subject in focus. :)