Miscellany Flix
2010 Mish Mash
Posted on January 9, 2012
Some quick photos of the family from over the holidays. We attempted to get out and do this three times … each time failed, this was the only time we actually got anything recorded (the other times ended with tears for various reasons or sleeping babies before I even got the camera out). This third time it was freezing, blustery and as you can see in some of the images, snowing/raining! Processed with my Paint the Moon actions.
One of my favorite shots of my baby girl over Christmas. 
When she wears this outfit I just can’t resist yelling, “She’s so fluffy, I’m gonna die!!!!!” 
I know it’s ridiculously furry. I’m not sure what it is about having baby girls that gives me the irresistible urge to dress them like baby animals.
You can see the snow and rain coming down around us … it was blustery, freezing and wet! We had planned on doing a whole family session, but settled for a few *very* quick shots before getting drenched (and ruining my camera gear). And, yes, I look like my head is not attached (or I have no neck??) and am missing a hand that’s pulled up inside my sweater.
And we are off and running back to the dry, warm car!!
If you love to take photos … whether you are a professional photographer or a mommy who loves taking photos of your family – or if you have kids who would love to start taking their own photos and want to learn about photography – you should take a look at the new Let’s Do 52 Project up on my business blog. It’s basically taking a photo a week according to the theme … and this year I’ve started one (with Adeline’s suggestions and help) just for the kids!! It’s called Let’s Do 52 – Kids Click Too! The ages involved so far have ranged from three years old to about twelve, and it’s so fun seeing the world through their young, artistic mind’s eye. Hop on over and take a look if you’re interested in joining us!
For the kids …
And for us big folks …
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Posted on December 31, 2011
We did our traditional trip to Sunriver for Christmas this year. Here are some of the highlights from the week …
Christmas morning in our jammies … check out Miss Eliza’s bed head!
The day before Christmas Eve our Elf on the Shelf, Matilda, got into my make-up bag … she left a note that explained her and Adeline’s baby were having a beauty day and encouraged me and Addie to do the same.
Then, on the morning of Christmas Eve we woke to find Matilda played a little trick on us all as we slept. Again she got into my make-up, but this time managed to draw kitty cat faces on all of us as we were sleeping soundly in bed (or was that Rudolph faces with the little red nose??). I’m just amazed that she was able to do it to both girls without waking them … I have a feeling it was very tricky and that she had to reapply the baby’s make-up at least 20 times due to rolling over and rubbing faces with chubby hands (just guessing, you know – and my apologies on behalf of Matilda to the housekeepers at the lodge who had to wash the make-up covered sheets!). Keeping a straight face as Addie opened her eyes to see us all sleeping next to her with kitty cat faces was quite difficult.
For those who wanted to know how our goodbyes to Matilda went … disastrously, leaving me feeling like a horrible mommy … you can read about it here.
This one was super out of focus due to my crawling on the ground at a low shutter speed with entirely too little sleep – but it was so cute I had to post anyway.
Now, on Christmas Eve my little Adeline explained that Christmas and all the happiness and love of the day doesn’t last long enough and we should do a two day holiday instead. She told us on Christmas Eve that not only did she want to keep celebrating for two days, but she wanted to save half of her gifts for the second day. What?! Who stole my sweet, but impatient child who usually cannot contain herself when their is a surprise waiting?? We all agreed it was a lovely idea – and officially started our new annual Second Christmas in the Manning family this year (and, yes, I know all of you who celebrate Boxing Day are lucky enough to already enjoy this tradition).
Now the remarkable part of this story is that on Christmas night as we snuggled to sleep she whispered to me that “Second Christmas Day” is a gift from her to me … she overheard me saying to my husband on Christmas Eve how I was kind of sad it was almost over. In an effort to make it last longer for me she decided it would be her “Christmas Eve” gift to me since mommy seems to get the fewest presents in the family and I didn’t pick a gift to open on Christmas Eve (I actually like it this way and don’t really dig getting lots of “things” … I’d rather just enjoy my little clan and our time together than worry about material gifts). It’s amazing that these little precious people in our lives teach us so much about love and what is really important in life.
Now this next one is not a technically perfect photo, but a perfect capture of the girls’ personalities at that moment. LOL!! Let me narrate …
Adeline, “Sit still. Grrrrrrr!!! I don’t want to do this!!”
Eliza, “Let.Me.Go!! Heeelllpp!! I don’t want to do this!!”
3 seconds flat before my little models were set free. 
And I have lots more Christmas and holiday photos and stories to share … as well as some amazingly fun rock star birthday photos, but it’s going to have to wait until next week because I’m tuckered out and am ready to join Miss Addie and Eliza here next to me in sweet slumber.
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Posted on December 13, 2011
I’ll have to come back later to really write something about our little addition to Christmas traditions … but I wanted to share a few photos from Matilda’s adventures right away. Addie is having so much fun with her (as am I, as you can see … I might be having just as much fun)!!
If you enjoy my little, rambling blog, and have a second (literally), I would so appreciate it if you could pretty please click the banner below to vote for me (and thank you so much if you do!) … each click you make is your vote – heck, you can even vote every day, LOL!
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Posted on November 21, 2011
I love these images because that amazing (and seemingly never exhausted) energy that Addie exudes 24/7 is captured just perfectly. Miss Eliza was freezing her tushie off – that’s why she looks like she’s doing the robot walking towards me (the sand on her hand was bugging her as was the ice cold wind). We were there for maybe 20 minutes since it was so dang cold, but Adeline went totally bonker dancing and twirling and falling down over and over again … and then went on a roller coaster up on the pier.
Warning: Technical stuff from the business blog … don’t read unless you’re interested in the photography side of things.
For those interested in the technical aspects of the images, here’s a little more information. I know these are far from technically perfect … she was spinning, dancing and running so darn fast (the beach and sunshine can create that kind of giddiness in my girls in an instant), and so combining that with the fact that much of the time I was crouching down with my baby girl in one arm and balancing the camera in the other hand – I ended up chopping feet off and not nailing the focus every time. The color cast was all natural as the sky was absolutely glowing with a kaleidoscope of colors in pink, orange and yellow. I decided to just enhance that in post processing with some actions from Picture Perfect (Paint on Color Pops Richer), Wonderland (for PSE users it would be in Fresh Wonderland) and some new actions I’m working hard on.
But I don’t care about any of that because these photos capture the pure essence of my little girl’s spirit … she is wild, free and happy to no end. And I even captured a few of the more serious moments as well (you can see she can almost snarl in her seriousness when she’s so inclined). Little baby Eliza was freezing her little bum off, and therefore, was in my arms for most of the photos I took. I just sat down in the sand with her and snapped Adeline as she twirled. Shot with the Nikon 85mm 1.4G. The settings ranged from ISO 200, f1.4, 1/500 to 1/2000 second, depending on which direction my camera was pointing in (the sun was very bright even as it was setting). I use spot metering (on their faces) and Single Point AF where I choose my own focus point.
I hope you enjoy these and are able to go capture a little of that childhood happiness for yourself today – no matter how old you are!
If you enjoy my little, rambling blog, and have a second (literally), I would so appreciate it if you could pretty please click the banner below to vote for me (and thank you so much if you do!) … each click you make is your vote – heck, you can even vote every day, LOL!
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Posted on November 19, 2011
I feel bad about not having blogged much lately, but I’ve been so busy and I’m really trying to make every moment count with these precious girls. I’ve felt almost panicked lately when the days end and I look at their beautiful. sleeping faces. I regret every second that I wasn’t totally present with them … I want a “re-do” for the minutes I was doing something like cleaning or some other task that could have waited while I soak up all these wonderful moments of their childhood. The precious, fleeting baby-ness of Miss Eliza and Adeline’s constant learning and looking more and more like a young lady every day. Really, why can’t these years slow down … why can’t us mommies enjoy these moments longer than the time we are allowed before our babies get big?
As Scott talks to me about needing to invest in our retirement plan and other plans for the future I always tell him *these* are the best years of our lives right NOW. I’m so aware of how fast they are growing and it’s so bitter sweet that I almost feel like I am not able to shake a feeling of sadness because I just want to stop time every day. Is that weird?? I do have a rule that I never tell my babes “Just a minute …” or “Not right now …” Well, unless someone is needing help opening string cheese while I’m going potty – LOL! Sometimes it’s difficult when you have a million things to do and the world is racing by you, and it’s the reason why I only get about three hours of sleep at night … because I try to do most of my work while they are sleeping). But the most precious gift these girlies could get from us is mine and Scott’s undivided attention, time to play, time to learn with us – just US. And there is nothing else in this world that is more important to me than giving them just that. I have been getting much less work done lately because while I hold and nurse a sleeping Eliza I usually work on the computer … but I can’t bear to not just stare at her, kiss her cheek, listen to the little sighing sounds she makes in her dreams – just REVEL in this precious girl, the weight of her little body curled in my arms … okay, must free up this hand too so I can focus only on her …
After nursing to sleep at Starbucks – bundled up for a walk with the clan downtown (iPhone shot).
Drawing with big sissy … look at that look of concentration!
Really crappy shot from the built-in web camera on my MacBook – and I LOVE it … this is us in all our just woke up in bed glory. Except Scott – he hates waking up and will do so only when absolutely necessary.
I have noticed looking over the year’s past images that they are all beautiful, are all full of wonderful moments captured and are all missing one important part of our family … ME. Miss Addie even asked me the other day why I’m not in any of our family photos. So, whether it be by crappy web camera shot of us together in bed in the morning or iPhone at the grocery store or actually jumping into our family session photos and dragging the tripod along with me (and, yes, that means probably having to put make-up on) I’m going to make sure that these precious girls have photo albums full of precious family memories that include their mommy. I happen to adore looking back at my childhood snapshots … don’t give a hoot how “perfect” anyone looked, in fact the goofier my family looked the more memories that flood back.
When my baby brother died a few years ago I desperately sought out every image that he was in, copied and cataloged them and was bitterly disappointed to find that we had so few. When the police showed up at my doorstep that horrible morning, I crumpled to the floor and then immediately ran to grab the first photo I could find of my baby brother, Brett. I needed that connection, to see his smiling face again. For two years I carried around a dogeared travel album that contained the very few precious photos I had of him and I together. I know each one by heart and would sit staring at them with tears streaming down my face, talking to Brett.
Then after being diagnosed with POTS several years ago I went through the same panic and heartbreak. I was being faced with the possibility that I would never again be the kind of mommy Addie had always loved and known … the one who jumps on the bed with her every night, plays chase and throws her in the air at the park, the one who takes care of her no matter what. My POTS landed me in bed and unable to do anything for an entire summer. I had to sit by and watch Addie cry that mommy couldn’t play at the park or go for family walks. I could barely stand up and was forced to crawl to the restroom since my heart soared to 180 bpm simply from standing up and I was passing out constantly. I remember so clearly lying there and gathering my photos of me and Addie together. I still have that collection in Lightroom as a reminder … and it was such a tiny number of photos it broke my heart to pieces. I had thousands upon thousands of Adeline by herself or with Scott but only a small handful that I was in there with them.
I’m determined to make sure my girls have not only a slew of memories to look through (and vow to actually have them all printed in albums as keepsakes instead of sitting on my hard drive), but I want to be sure that I’m in them as well. I don’t want them to end up searching through our photos (should something happen to me, knock on wood) desperately looking for the rare photo of the mommy they remember. And will they care if I feel like I’m out of shape or don’t have make-up on or what have you … absolutely not. I want to tell all of you mommies who read this blog to do the same thing – jump in there with your family photos and with your kiddos and be IN the memories captured!
My poor bug … she was so sick a few weeks ago! I finally got her to sleep early that morning with her resting against me like this so the projectile vomiting wouldn’t land on us anymore (she doesn’t understand if I hold her away from me when she’s feeling so awful, so I’ve just been snuggling her through it all and am now completely soaked with baby vomit – but at least it’s all just mama’s milk). It was a routine of nurse, sleep, puke, nurse, puke, scream and cry, nurse, puke. At least it passed through the family quickly and hit the girls befor me so I was able to take good care of them without having the pukies myself. 
It’s heart breaking seeing my little June and Addie so sad and sick. Another crummy shot with the web cam on my computer (it comes in handy since it always seems to be near me, especially when the girls are asleep).
And a few “regular” shots … from our vacation in Malibu. We just returned last night … it was fun but totally exhausting and was my birthday on Thursday. Which means pretty much nothing to me, LOL. I don’t do “me” days and could care less about doing fancy dinners out and stuff, so we decided to take the girls to somewhere I never thought we’d go. More on that later.
If you enjoy my little, rambling blog, and have a second (literally), I would so appreciate it if you could pretty please click the banner below to vote for me (and thank you so much if you do!) … each click you make is your vote – heck, you can even vote every day, LOL!
