brand spankin new (almost)

both SOOC (straight out of camera) shots

My camera did a good number on me a few weeks back. I was at a family photo session (luckily with a friend...hopefully still a friend...haven't heard from her since...eeeeekkk!!!) and it wouldn't work. I couldn't get it do do ANYthing. I was/am still SO embarrassed. I couldn't get the lens off. I couldn't take a photo. The screen was dark. It was a mess. Knowing I have a wedding to shoot next weekend, I sent it in as fast as I could crossing my fingers it'd make it home in record time. Thankfully, she made it home in just over 3 weeks and is like brand new. I'm so impressed with Nikon's service and how quick they are! Of course right away I had to go outside and play with it. Now I need to catch up on the 52 of 2013 photos :)

23/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Peyton: fists of love from Meg.
Lia: animal lover.
Austyn: always reading or writing.
Tayt: boy.
Nash: learning how to pray.
Drew: learning how to potty.
Meg: crawl. pose. repeat.

(these are all taken with my phone)

I apologize this is so late. It's garden season. My camera was gone. And now back. So I'll have lots more good ones soon of all the kids. *sigh* Right now my bed is calling me. I'm pooped! We're definitely enjoying the warm weather. And I guess I won't complain too much about the occasional rain showers. They won't stop me. Mowed through them today. Until someone damaged the mower. I won't say who or how. Oops. Until tomorrow... :)

19/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Peyton: confused.
Lia: always silly.
Austyn: always smiling.
Tayt: pretending to be an old man.
Nash: super excited about rocks.
Drew: pretty, pretty princess.
Meg: everything in the mouth.

I apologize this week is extremely late. I could blame it on my camera breaking, butttt it wasn't done before my camera broke like it should have been. My 20/52 will be from Mother's Day... and that I'll blame on the camera breaking ;)

random daily goodies

Our last couple weeks and weekends have been quite busy. Mostly just random things here and there but I've been way behind on blogging. And cleaning. And almost everything else... I guess that's just life. Here are a few photos off my camera. Just complete randoms. But I thought you'd enjoy... so... enjoy :)

Lia helped watch Meg during a family shoot last weekend

for whatever reason, this blows my mind... brothers... with babies. MIND BLOWN.

I watched the boys and prepared for a senior photo shoot. They were very willing to be my subjects :)

and then Nash had to do the same as Luke...

I promise I'll be back with something more interesting very soon. I have some 1 month photos of Meg that need to be posted before she turns 2 months... how is that HAPPENING!!! as I'm hearing her scream from the other room... back again another time :)

(almost) daily photos

I've been doing pretty good about taking photos every day. I missed 8 days in January...not in succession...that's okay for a start. I know I can do better. Things aren't very exciting around here daily so bear with me on these :)

January 22, 2012

January 24, 2012

Drew *loves* water... LOVES!

January 25, 2012

Duke also utilizing the meat box :)

January 27, 2012

family movie night...beasty Drew!

Some of the missing dates are daily Smith fashion and some other posts to come. Come back soon!

(almost) daily photos

In a very minor effort to learn how to use my camera, I sorta kinda made a "goal" to use it every day. Here's where those resolutions come in to play. Here is also where the goals-need-to-be-written comes in to play. It hasn't happened. I've done pretty good but not every day. Regardless, here are some of the photos from my attempt thus far.

Note: We will not be short on photos of Drew. Oops. :)

January 5, 2012

January 6, 2012

 January 9, 2012

 January 10, 2012

 (moon shots are a learning process that obviously, I haven't mastered yet. but the moon was beautiful. not in this photo)  ;)

 January 11, 2012

 January 13, 2012

 January 17, 2012

ouch... missed 6 days so far this month. writing this goal down. immediately!

(some dates have their own post...soon) :)

belated resolutions 2012

Seems as though I'm a little ahead of my usual self in 2012. Posting my New Year's resolutions 3 days earlier than last year. Who am I? ;)

After a whole year 9 days of serious pondering, I *think* I've come up with some reasonable goals/resolutions yet again for this year. Again... I'm not sure any of these will be "accomplished," but I'm sure going to try... again.

First... I'm rereading last year's goals... this may or may not be the first time I've looked at them since actually writing them... mayyyy not...

1.  Be a better me.
This probably didn't happen...
2.  Organize and schedule. Everything.
Being honest... this has only gotten mildly better.
3.  Read.
Okay... who wrote these goals. Is this a joke? TWO books a month. I'll admit... that was a lofty goal. No books to TWO books a month. That was a joke... rewriting *that* one! BUT... just for the record, I read 5 or 6 books last year... and I say 5 or 6 because there's a certain 5 year old in this house who learned to delete notes on my phone and wiped clean all my notes. and then I cried. a lot. sore subject. ANY way... these are the books I remember/wrote down... 1) It Sucked and then I Cried by Heather Armstrong; 2) Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey (this is my next read yet again this year... determined... again); 3) Dare to Discipline by Dr. James Dobson; 4) Population: 485 - Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry; and 5) I can't remember...
4.  Exercise.
Well... this didn't happen. I lost almost 40 lbs in the last year. Okay, okay... that may not count since it was all baby weight but come on! I tried. Fine... I didn't try. I nursed. Cheater. Yes, I know! :) We're done nursing. and this is reallllllly hard on me. I'll not go there. *sigh* anywayyyyy, I can't promise exercise will be on 2012 goals/resolutions list.

MOVING ON....

As with everything I want to do, I have tons and TONS of ideas running through my head. So many things I want to do. So many things I feel I need to do. What gets done is usually only what I like to do. I think that in and of itself should be a goal. Do things that not only need to get done, but that I do not want to do. If I did that and only that, my frig would be clean. Nevermind. I take that back. Here are my REAL goals/resolutions for 2012 ;)

side note... while listening to podcast Episode 11 - Decision Making, I learned a few things about setting goals... definitely worth a listen when you have an extra 46 minutes but in short, goals need to be 1) specific, 2) measurable, 3) yours, 4) have a time limit, and 5) in writing.

* learn to use my camera
* organize my home and life MORE
* read daily
* be more involved in the kids' school(s), church, and community
* stop picking, cussing, and yelling

I'm not going into tooooo much detail on all of these because I have to sit down and set some "measurements" and be more specific regarding each of them.

OH... the best one of all, forgot...

* learn football

completely inspired necessary while in this house. and something Dave is *really* going to appreciate. who doesn't want to talk football with their wife!?! yeah... I laughed here too... ha!

All in all, I'm feeling very motivated. Casey, we may no longer be friends. Watchyermouth! ;)  At the moment, my house is clean, laundry is waiting to be folded, supper is on the counter waiting to be prepared, Nash is hopefully somewhere in clean/dry BIG BOY UNDERWEAR, Drew is sleeping in her crib... peacefully... and I'm going to think of something else to get ahead on... this may all sound too good to be true, indeed... keeping my fingers crossed and praying 2012 is more productive than 2011 :)

a day late, a year earned!

I know this comes a few (fourrrr) days late but I still needed to post because she means a lot to me. I've unintentionally (& intentionally) learned a lot from my mom and turns out... I'm very thankful for that! Almost daily I find myself repeating something I know I've heard her say only to think... I remember when my mom said that to me. Darn it! I'm not sure why we ever think "I don't want to sound like my mom/dad/parents," but I couldn't think of any one else I'd rather be like. All that being said... I hope you had a wonderful 54th birthday Mom!

I love you!

one of our similarities... we're usually behind the camera... point: take more photos of Mom!

estate finds

A few weeks ago there was an estate sale right across the road from us. Naturally, Casey and I went to check it out because it was calling my name allllll week. Found me some gems. And I'm completely convinced more estate sales need to be dominated next summer...or whenever possible!

I think I spent $24.50 for *all* of these goodies... tiny wood kid chair, old wooden bat, vintage camera for my collection, and a medicine bag in sketchy condition.