52 Week Photo Project

Last year I thought it would be fun to participate in a 52 week photo challenge. {A 52 week photo challenge is when you take a picture and post it on your blog every week. There is usually a theme for each week's post} The only problem was that I didn't stick with it. Which I regret because the pictures I did take I loved. So this year I am recruiting my friends, family, acquaintances and anyone else who wants to participate to join with me. You can all hold me accountable and I you. Why should you participate?

1. If you are like me you take fewer and fewer pictures of your kids, family and everyday life and want to change that.
2. If you are like me you have become a terrible blogger and where my blog is my family journal that means I am also a terrible journal keeper so taking pictures and posting them every week will help us accomplish two goals at once.
3. You want to improve your photography no matter what kind of camera you use and the key to being a better photographer is PRACTICE!
4. It will just be fun and you will have a treasure of photos after the 52 weeks.

I have put together a 52 week schedule (bottom of this post) and I am setting up a weekly post on my business blog where you will be able to post a link to your blog post each week. This way we can all see what everyone is doing and hopefully this will help keep us motivated. Here are a few more details that will hopefully answer any questions you might have:

• Do I need a fancy DSLR camera to participate?  -  Of course not! You can use any camera you want - iphone, point and shoot, DSLR etc. I don't care what you use just make sure it is your own work. 
• Do I need to stick to the weekly themes or prompts? No.  I have put together a schedule with weekly themes that are merely suggestions and to help get the creative juices flowing. You are welcome to pick your own topic or just post a favorite picture from the week. The point is to document your life and what is most important to you. Having a topic or theme will hopefully add variety and encourage creativity.
• Be Creative! Not only with the topic or theme for the week but also how you take the picture. Consider shooting from different angles - high, low, close up or even far away. Ask yourself "How would I normally take this picture?" and then try shooting from a different position.
• I will have a weekly Friday post sharing my photo and you will be able to add a direct link to your blog post with your weekly photo. I would ask that you link back to my blog post from your post so that others who want to see what we are doing or join in the fun can.
• You can post on your own blog whenever you want but as far as the linky submissions form it will be available Friday through Thursday. If you miss a week don't give up and just start again on the next week.
• I encourage you to check out other people's posts and share some comment love and words of encouragement.
• I reserve the right to delete any submitted entry from my blog post that I find offensive. I doubt I will actually have to do this but you never know. We live in a crazy world.

We will start the first week of January with your first post scheduled for Friday January 4, 2013 and the theme is "52 steps from your front door." 

To be clear on the dates here is an example of week 1. Ideally you will take your picture between Sunday December 30th and Friday January 4th. Post your picture on your blog on Friday, January 4th and then add your link and thumbnail to the blog post on my blog. If you don't get your picture taken and posted on Friday, January 4th don't despair. You have until Thursday, January 10th to link your post for week 1. Clear as mud?

If you would like to participate or if you have any questions please  leave a comment on this 52 week blog post.  I am excited to hear who will be joining me on this journey.

Story Time

  I will never receive the Mother of the Year award and on most days I feel like all my interaction with my kids is me asking, begging, demanding that they get their homework done, clean up there stuff, clear their plate, do their choirs, go to bed and the list goes on and on. But every once in awhile there is a few minutes where I find myself cuddled with my kids and enjoying a moment bliss where all that required stuff can wait.

Mikele's Birthday

Happy Birthday to my butterfly Mikele!!! I have been reading this parenting book that talks about a child's energy type. Mikele is definitely a type 2 child (type 2 in the book). She is all about fun! She is constantly coming up with new ideas and is full of energy. For her birthday she wanted to take pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to her school class and then to her tumbling class.  At tumbling they had her wear a big sombrero. Now where most people would have hated to be the center of attention and wear a big hat, Mikele ate it all up and loved every moment! For her birthday dinner she couldn't decide if she wanted home made mac and cheese or meatloaf. So she had the ingenious idea to just have BOTH! It actually wasn't bad together.

 I have no idea what she is doing. I rarely do. I think it was something they were doing at tumbling. You will have to ask her.

 PRESENT TIME! She is so particular when she opens gifts and cards. She has to do it in a certain order and yes she opens and reads every word on every card. 

 Mikele had seen this clock when she was shopping with me one day. She was very excited to get it for her birthday. It is sparkly just like her!

 She loves to be sparkly and dressed up! The only problem with her new outfit is that she is to darn cute! Funny story about Mikele: We were taking plates to the neighbors the other night. She had been home sick that day and hadn't changed out of her pj's. I told her she had to get dressed if she was going to go with us to deliver the plates. She came up dressed in her black leggings and her new sweater dress that she bought with her birthday money (very dressy outfit). She just casually declared "I just threw something on."  She loves to be trendy and dressed up.

 The big gift! If you read the "Santa" post you know that Mikele had two things on her wish list. One of which was a new ipod. Well she figured out that she was getting it because of the shape and size of the present. I am glad she wasn't disappointed. 

 Mikele wanted brownies instead of cake. I was fine with that. After making such a big dinner with two entrees I was good with an easy dessert. She is making her wish before she blows out the candles.

Santa!

We stopped in to say hi to Santa and place our Christmas requests! Allie is a total believer! Whenever she tells me "no" and won't obey I just remind her that Santa doesn't bring presents to naughty little girls who don't obey and she quickly appologizes and obeys. LOVE IT! Allie asked for an American Girl doll.

Kassie is a believer as well. She is the one who keeps track of how many days until Christmas. I get a daily update on how many days if you include today and if you are not including today. That girl cracks me up! She had a nice little chat with Santa. She also asked for an American Girl Doll.

Another believer! (as far as I know). Mikele was really torn about what to ask Santa for. She wants two things - a new ipod (her's is old enough that it doesn't play all the new games that Brock and Kassie can play) and an American Girl doll.  She was concerned about what to ask Santa for because it depended on if she got one of the item on her list for her birthday. We suggested that she explain the situation to Santa and then he could follow up on what she got for her birthday and could consider getting her the other item.

 Non believer! I am sad to say that this is the first year that Brock has known the truth. That said he was a good sport and had a nice little chat with Santa. He is requesting a lego robot that you can write a program for and then the robot does it.

The group shot! The first year with all 4 kids and no parents because no one is afraid of Santa.

Kassie's Ballet Recital

Kassie had her Sugar Plum performance the beginning of December. She LOVES ballet and was so excited to perform for her family. Her class was performing the clown dance from the Nutcracker. They were so stinking adorable. We started early in the afternoon with a dress rehearsal. Honestly it went TERRIBLE!! We went back upstairs and practices a few more times. To be fair the half the girls are in one class and the other half are actually in another class with a different teacher so they had only practiced together once before. Immediately after the rehearsal the first of two performances began. The performances ran back to back. The girls nailed both performances! They were fabulous! I was so proud of the whole group. Kassie can hardly wait for January and the next semester of ballet to begin. She will be auditioning for Cinderella in February. We will keep you posted.

Waiting for our turn to perform. Goofy clowns!

Kassie and her instructor Kaitlyn

Waiting for our turn to go on stage. (I was a parent volunteer so I was able to document the whole event) 

The cute performance. Kassie is the youngest in her class. All the other girls are 7-8 years old.

 The big finish! 

Kassie finished the dance by coming back on stage giving a big wave and cartwheeling off. 

Kassie's Birthday Part 2

I better get Kassie's birthday posts finished before I have another birthday to post about! It was Kassie's year to have a friend birthday party. She decided to have a Barbie Musketeer Academy party. We had 3 Academy Classes including: Knife Throwing (dart throwing at a balloon board), Sword Practice (hitting the pinata) and Stealth Training (Red light green light 1,2,3). 

After the games the girls enjoyed chocolate cake and sherbet ice cream. Kassie thinks it is funny to give crazy faces when I take her picture. What a nut! After cake and ice cream she opened presents and every present was AMAZING!! Don't believe me check out her facial expressions! Well she had a great party and she is an even better kid. We Love you Kassie!