Down by the lake

In September, our family spent an hour at the nearby lake, taking in the sights. Granted, the lake isn't anything spectacular, in fact when we first moved to South Dakota we kind of snorted at people calling it a lake. You know, since we used to live an hour from huge Bear Lake.
Nevertheless, we had a lovely evening as the kids looked for snail shells (or "snake shells" as Eli called them), River ate a few flowers, and we all watched the sunset over the water. What a nice evening!

Eli the four-year-old

At the end of September..so only a month late.. we took Eli's four-year-old pictures. We found a cool fall tree by the side of the road and we had some fun! Of course, the light was weird and kind of dark, so they didn't turn out quite like I pictured.
For instance, in this first group of pictures, I thought I'd print the middle left picture, but his face is weird in color once I lightened it a bit. That bottom right one is perfectly framed, but he is standing a little silly. But that's Eli for you!

A.


































We took a few sitting ones, and it was hard to get Eli to look at the camera. But the top left picture is pretty cute!

B.























Then we walked down the road to see what we could see. Mostly because River was getting fussy and Eli was getting bored. We found a cool little area with trees and water! Eli was still having a hard time watching the camera, but he did better at holding still because we cold hear an animal. It turned out to be a rabbit in the underbrush, but Eli was sure it was a koala. He even stood really still in hopes that the koala might come out behind him and be in his picture. I wish I could've got a smiling one here.

 C. I like the bottom right and the top left. The bottom left just makes me laugh. Hehe.























 Finally we went a little further down the road to the local lake and took a few pictures there. Eli is such a ham. I love is silly smile (bottom left) and his "smoulder" on the bottom right. Cute boy.
D.

 




















E. these were also taken near the lake...we took a lot more, but he had the hardest time looking at me and/or smiling when he was supposed to. That's four years old I guess. I don't like this tree one as much just because the grass is trimmed, but he's smiling cute.

Feel free to click on the pictures to see them larger.  Which is your favorite?

Another birthday, another photo

We finally took this guy's photos about a month after his birthday. We found a beautiful friend's yard that had varous nice places to take photos, and we went when the lighting was beautiful! Unfortunately, this is a six year old boy, and they didn't exactly pose perfectly, and it was a little frustrating, but I think we got a few good ones!
One cool think I in this yard was the barrels for honey. I know it's become cliche, but I really wanted to try a few pictures with the barrel background. There are a few that might work here, though the light was a little harsh in some of them:

A
I love his serious face; I just wish the light wasn't reflecting right on his face.

B
I was playing around with textures in a couple of these.

In this last group, this is more the angle I was picturing, but the light is a little weird on his hair. I can't decide if I like it bright, or faded.
C



















This property also has an excellent white fence! Jonah smiled cute for several of these, though the best smiles have that dumb road in the background. Oh well.

D
The bottom right most looks like Jonah.

E
I think the top left has the best composition; I wish they were all like that. But his face is cute in all of them!
























F
I really love both of these. I just wish they were vertical to fit on my wall better, haha.




 We saw some nice places around our friend's young fruit trees. It was soooo pretty, and I was dying because Jonah just would not smile normal. Silly kid!

G
I like the angle of the bottom left, and the overall picture on the bottom right, but I just wish he was smiling more sincerely.

 H.
 In a couple of these he's smiling pretty cute. The light was getting dimmer at this point so I hope they will print well.




































In the end, Jonah was getting bored, so we tried to grab a couple more pictures before it got too dark. None were too great but it was still fun. If he was smiling in this top left one, I would love it! The rainbow in it is so fun.

I.

J
I wish I had noticed this fence earlier, but at this point the light was too yellow.



















And to top off the day, all the kids chased rabbits around the yard. Yep, the whole town is overrun wit them! In the evenings, you can see them in the street, andwe see them in our yard too! What a pretty day.

6months baby

Six months is one of my favorite baby ages. It's when they suddenly can do everything.

 





















They roll around the floor, they're starting to sit by themselves, and they babble all the time. I remember when I took Elora's six month pictures, they were the first pictures of her that I was really excited about: she was so cute!

I do regret now that I never bought her hair bows and didn't dress her in a bunch of cute dresses for her photos. Luckily, I have another girl to make up for this travesty...mwaahahaha. We have a bunch of beautiful clover and alfalfa growing around our area this year, more than I've ever seen. I've been waiting for River to be able to sit up so I could get some pictures before it all gets cut down!

The other night, we were able to go out at the perfect time of day and take pictures of River, with Elora helping so she didn't fall down. At least not more than six or seven times. It's going to be impossible to pick favorites, but it's a good problem to have! Please click to see the photos bigger.

We were able to capture quite a few expressions:

A.























I laugh every time I see the surprised face at the top left, and the "talking" face at the top right. I adore the fingers in the mouth, and she is so pretty at the bottom right! I can't decide if I want one of these, or one of the smiling ones in group B. She's so happy!

B.

I love all these smiles. In the top right she's like, "Hey Girlfriend!"

There are lots of fun photos of her enjoying the flowers and being thoughtful...

C.

D.  left or right?


































 And others with some cool sun flares as well. I love those. In "E" I like the bottom right best, she looks like a doll.

E.























Whichever pictures we end up hanging, there's no doubt she's one cute girl!

F.

Wouldn't you agree?
G.