~The “Experience”~

Most holidays, my sister and I put ourselves through the “experience.”

The “experience” of getting a shot of all of the cousins together.

Sounds like a wonderful idea.  Until you actually try to get 10 kiddos to all smile and pose at the same time.

That experience just ain’t gonna be a fun one.

We usually get a couple of cousins who are completely disinterested in even trying to make Aunt Angie and Aunt Drew’s cameras happy:



And then there are those cousins who are overly-laughing in a hysterical fashion at all of the weird faces Uncle Mark is making behind Aunt Angie’s back…because Uncle Mark is so dang funny you know!!



There will be an older cousin who is trying to keep a hold of the baby cousin before she takes off for only God knows where:



And an older cousin who is trying to move into a new position that her aunt told her to move to…but then the aunt snaps the photo before she even has two free seconds to get into the new position:



Throw in another older cousin who has steadfastly held the same pose for the last 10 minutes, but just happens to look at Aunt Drew’s camera when his mom is really the one who needs him to look at her:



And finally!  There is one cousin who actually is looking at the camera without looking cheesy or posed.  One!



But whoops!  We can't forget about this ornery cousin…what can even be said about him?



Oh my.  I’m not even sure where to go with that one.


Combine them all together to get…one big messy slew of cousins.  And blurry cousins.




Why, the whole experience is just a photographer's dream come true!!

At least these two photographers can thank the good Lord above that the “experience” is now over and done with.

At least until the next big holiday…

~Photo Challenge: We Heart Tooshies!~

On Day One of our I Heart Faces Photography Workshop in Dallas was spent shooting different child “models” (ie. children of Amy’s friends) who had stopped by to visit with us that morning.

We had a bride scheduled to arrive in the afternoon with Amy Karp, but wouldn’t you know it?  A real bride showed up right when I was shooting photos of the adorable little girl in this photo.




I absolutely love the way little girls become so enthralled with weddings…and especially with the beautiful bride.

This photo captured that fascination perfectly.  And it’s my entry into the I Heart Faces “We ♥ Tooshies” photo challenge!










**As a co-founder of I Heart Faces I am ineligible to win the photo contests.  I just like to play along because it’s so dang fun...and because it has been a tremendous way to challenge myself to continually improve on my photography journey and to become more creative in the way I view life through my lens.**

~On With The Dance!~

In my opinion, yesterday’s photos were just as cute as all get out.  First Graders.  Without teeth.  Square Dancing.  That’s just cuteness galore!

Today’s post is just going to be hysterically funny.

Last week we sat through no less than five…FIVE!…parent-teacher conferences just for our fifth grader, Will.  He’s a “big kid” now and gets to rotate to different teachers for each class.

{Sitting through five conferences for just one child is definitely not the hysterically funny part of this post.}

Each and every teacher we talked to mentioned how well Will was doing, what a joy he was to have in class, how they couldn’t believe how shy he was at the beginning of the year, but that they were glad that he was starting to come out of his shell.

And that’s the truth about Will at school.  Now at home?  Whole different story.  At home he's the Mr. I’m-Going-To-Bug-The-Snot-Out-Of-My-Siblings-Until-Mom-Wants-To-Rip-Her-Hair-Out boy!

I’m really glad that he is a great boy at school though.

After the square dancing part of the evening was over, an announcement was made that any and all students were welcome to join the phys ed teacher out on the gym floor to participate in line dancing together.

Bill and I looked at each other like yeah right…I think we can head for home now because there is no way in heck that any of our kids are going to do that.

Right until about two seconds later when Will came running up to us to say “AWESOME!!!  That’s so cool!!!  I am so going to line dance!!”


Say what?!

But boy howdy…did the boy ever dance!




Here are the friends that Will convinced to cut a rug with him:

Boy #3 (on the right) is thinking “This is fun!”  Will (in the middle) is thinking“Woo-hoo!!” and Boy #1 (on the left) is thinking “Why do I let my friends talk me into doing these things?!”




All three boys stayed out there the entire time and did they ever get jiggy with it…




They busted a move…




They got their groove on…





{You'll have to excuse me.  I was raised in non-dancing Baptist schools and I can’t think of any other slang phrases to use for “dancing.”}





Let’s just put it this way…the boy could have given Elaine, with her famous dance on Seinfeld, a run for her money.








It was absolutely, completely and hysterically funny.







Especially when I looked over and saw one of Will’s teachers sitting in the front row just shaking her head in disbelief.  And then I got to watch her whip out her video camera to get “evidence” to show the other teachers that Will Arthur was a scrawny little fraud...the boy wasn’t shy at all! 






That’s my boy…




The Dancing Machine!

~Yee-Haw!!~

For some reason our school system has a tradition every year that the First Grade kiddos have to learn how to square dance in PE…and then they put on a big show for their parents sometime in the fall.



I’m not real sure why they have this tradition.  It’s not like anyone out here ever square dances…ever!  I have never heard of an Ohio square dance in all the years I’ve lived here.

I’m sure that learning to square dance does help a lot with coordination and learning to follow directions and a million other things that teachers need to help our kids learn each year though.  And it’s fun!  That has to count for something.

Last week when I was in Dallas, I (of course!) forgot to buy gifts for the kids until I was in the airport.  That means they each got an incredibly overpriced “Texas” t-shirt as their gift from me.  When Wyatt came home saying “I have to dress up like a cowboy tonight!” there was no talking him out of wearing that t-shirt.  He, like me, believes that there should be cowboys all over the place when your plane touches down in Texas.  I was sorely disappointed when I realized that there are almost no cowboys to be found in Dallas.  I’m not going to tell Wyatt about that and break his little heart.

So, I got home from Dallas (after the nightmarish, neverending flight home) and then the next day took off to go through four parent-teacher conferences and then to watch Wyatt at his Square Dancing Event.



Now, I know absolutely nothing about square dancing but I can tell you this…watching a bunch of “cowboy” and “cowgirl” First Graders square dance is just about the cutest thing ever!

And they are very serious about it.



You get to see do-si-do’s:





And “recognizing your corner”:





And “twirling your partner around”:



{I could quite possibly have put all of those terms with the wrong photos though, so please just let me live in my blissful ignorance if I’m wrong about that.}




And then the blasted PE teacher announced that she “was going to provide an opportunity for the parents to square dance with their children as well.”

After a heated, whispered conversation with the hubby…guess where I ended up?!





“Thankfully” the hubby grabbed my camera and took no less than 27 shots of me square dancing with Wyatt, Will and Weslea.





God bless him…





The PE teacher redeemed herself though by providing a second opportunity for the parents to dance with their children.





Paybacks are so much fun!





No, seriously.  Paybacks really are amazing things.





It’d be difficult to find something much cuter than this little “Texan” toothless wonder cowboy on his square dancing night!





Can I hear a “Yeeeeee-Haaaaawwww”?!

~Photo Challenge: “Sun Flare”~

I have to preface this week’s I ♥ Faces entry by saying…I am the worst sun flare photographer in the whole entire world.  I am envious of photographers who have sun flare all figured it out…and I’m really wishing that I had an insanely awesome photo to show off that had that beautiful “star burst” of sun somewhere in it.

But alas, I don’t.  I scoured through my photos tonight trying to find one that would work and ended up with this photo from our vacation to Lake Michigan this past summer.



You have to look close, but there is a glare thingy from the sun…and there are kind of some faces.  I have no idea how I ended up with said glare thingy in this particular photo, but I sure was glad to see it there.

This is one week that I am really, really thankful that the Guest Photographer Judge (who just happens to be BECKER!!!) will not be seeing my photo.  ;)  (As co-founder of I ♥ Faces, I am not eligible to win any of the photo challenges and am entering just for the fun of it.)

P.S.  Sunsets on Lake Michigan really are that spectacular.  What an incredible sight that was!

~Who Are You Again?~

This is Christal from the blog A Moose, A Bear and A Ladybug.  Isn’t she a cutie?



(Photo taken by my sister, Andrea.)


Christal was the cause of one of the biggest fits of laughter I’ve ever been a part of in my life.

On our last night of the I Heart Faces workshop, a bunch of us went on a Photowalk through downtown Dallas together and ended up eating at an authentic BBQ restaurant (yum!)

By this time, we had spent a lot of hours together and everyone knew everyone else very well.  We were comfortable, relaxed, starving and ready to sit down and socialize a bit.

Time passed, conversation continued to flow, laughter was abounding and I was turned to my right talking to Amanda when all of the sudden I heard a roar of laughter from the other end of the table.

Enquiring minds wanted to know…what the heck was going on down there?

It ends up that while she had her phone out, Rebeckah from Life with Kaishon (whom we had all called “Becky” the entire weekend) had sent Christal a Facebook friend request.  A little while later Christal took her phone out and was checking her emails and noticed she had a friend request from a "Rebeckah Leatherman Adams".

After a few seconds of looking at her phone, Christal turned to the girl sitting next to her on her left (Melissa) and whispered “Is there a Rebeckah in our group?  I don’t think I know this person.”

Melissa looked at her in disbelief and said “Um, yeah…she’s the person sitting right over there.  You know, in that seat RIGHT NEXT TO YOU.”

At which time Christal slowly turned to her right to look at Becky and decided that she’d like to dig a hole to bury her head in.

If we thought we were relaxed before, it was nothing after that little event.  Becky (with her awesome New Jersey/Philadelphia accent) was on a roll and we got to sit back and enjoy the view.  LOL!!

Here's a teeny-tiny peek at how our evening went (which basically means that you are just going to see a bunch of ladies laughing like goofballs...)




Untitled from I Heart Faces on Vimeo.

By the end of the night we were all referring to Becky as “Who are you again??  I think I might know you, but I don’t really think I do!” and as “Oh yeah, you’re the girl with the well-known blog called Life With Kevin!”

Christal was actually lucky though.  She had almost turned to BECKY to ask her if she knew who this "Rebeckah Leatherman Adams" person was.  Now that one...she would have never lived it down.  LOL!

~The Bravery Of Rebeckah~

When you are surrounded by a bunch of excited photographer ladies for a long weekend, there are surely going to be a ton of funny stories to share.  I’m going to try to write about them on my blog so that I won’t forget them with this “mommy brain” that I’ve been blessed with.

Rebeckah from Life With Kaishon is one of the sweetest internet people that I have ever met.  I love her writings, the way her photography has improved so much over the past year, her amazing support of I Heart Faces and the super sweet comments she leaves not only my blog, but on the blogs of hundreds of other people as well.

During the workshop, I learned that while Rebeckah doesn’t particularly care to have her own self show up in photos…she is definitely not afraid to ask anyone else to do anything.  Not even strangers!

Oh how I wish I had a little bit of her bravery inside of me.  :)

All weekend long, Rebeckah approached strangers to have their photo taken.  Each and every one of them said “yes!” and each and every one of them seemed honored to have been asked.  She did this so much during the weekend that we began teasing her that she should start a new business.  Amy even made her this special business card to use:



During our Photowalk through downtown Dallas on Saturday evening, she saw a cutie-pie couple walking towards our group and she immediately approached them to ask if they would mind if she took their photo for them.  They said that would be fine and then proceeded to spend the next half hour of their lives listening to a bunch of crazy photographers ask them to do different poses for them.

(All of the following photos were taken and edited by my sister, Drew.)



After they had done some “couple poses” for us awhile, Rebeckah asked them if they would please kiss each other so that we could capture that moment for them…and they needed to kiss for a looooooooong time to give us enough time to get our shot in. 

The guy looked at her for a second and then very seriously said… “But, she’s my sister!”



Oh yeah, he knew how to work his audience! He had us all busting a gut for the next 10 minutes..chortling about how he had gotten us with the “sister” comment.

He cracked us up again when he asked us to get a shot of all of the photographers photographing them…



It seems he wanted absolute proof to show off to his family and friends that he and his girlfriend had indeed been stalked by the paparazzi in downtown Dallas.

Oh Rebeckah…you are my photographer hero!

Stay tuned for another fun “Rebeckah Story” tomorrow.  :)

~Photo Challenge: “Autumn Beauty”~

Let me first say that the I Heart Faces workshop in Dallas was absolutely amazing!  I’m sure I’ll be writing more about that throughout the coming week.

Then let me say that the flight to Dallas…and the one back home…weren’t even slightly amazing at all.  Not one bit! 

On the way to Dallas I missed my second flight because my first flight was running late.  On the way back home to Ohio…well, let’s just put it this way:  Drew and I still aren’t home.  We are sitting in a hotel room in Atlanta getting ready to go to bed for approximately five hours before we have to get back up to catch our next flight home. Urghhhh.

So, I have access to exactly zero of my fall photos.  Due to that, I’m going to choose this photo for my “Autumn Beauty” entry:



This little cutie was one of our models for the all-day shooting session we had at the Dallas Arboretum on Friday. 

And now I’m off to bed!  :)

~The I Heart Faces Book~

Oh my word, it's here!!

Way, way back in July, Blurb sponsored a  Book Contest for us over at I ♥ Faces.  We are so very excited that the book is finally done!!

And I just have to give Amy a huge shout-out for the incredible amount of work she put into making this book into a masterpiece.  She literally spent hours upon hours upon hours organizing the photos, contacting the winners, making sure all the information was correct and making this book as amazing as it could possibly be.  It is beautiful!!

Seeing all the photos together just gives me chills...it's amazing!

Amy and I both want to thank everyone who entered a photo and especially those of you whose photos made the book and have been very patiently waiting:-)

We hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do!

Be sure to visit I ♥ Faces for even more info about our book!  Would you mind helping us spread the word?  We'd be so grateful for any tweets, posts or facebook messages you can send out for us.  :)

I am getting ready to fly out to Dallas today to help Amy finish all the last minute details for our upcoming photography workshop this weekend.  I'm so excited to be able to hang out with Amy again and to meet a bunch of fun ladies who are fans of our site.  Blurb is one of the sponsors helping to make our Photography workshop in Dallas a GREAT event and I can't thank them enough for supporting our website in the way that they have!

~Little Brothers Are Buttheads~

On October 31st, we (along with 95% of the rest of America) went trick-or-treating.



Now, before we went trick-or-treating, I had a busy morning….working on the computer, editing several sessions, getting the kid’s costumes ready, cleaning up the house a bit, helping Will and Bill get ready to leave for the Ohio State game they were going to go to…  All you moms know how it is on days like that.  It was busy!

My youngest brother and his wife (Jon & Kathy) were coming into town to go trick-or-treating with us and then to go to a Halloween party at their friend’s house.  I had a photo session scheduled with one of my friends so Jon and Kathy very kindly offered to babysit my kids so that the kiddos wouldn’t have to sit through a session with me.



Since I was running late, I just took a quick shower, slapped on a bit of make-up and was out the door with my wild, crazy, curly hair in all it’s "glory"…instead of being nicely straightened like I usually would wear it.

I met my friend to take photos of her son.  He is a football player and she had obtained permission for us to go onto the field to take some photos of him in his uniform.  Since we live in Ohio, it is probably needless for me to say that it was a wet, cold, windy day.  That’s just a given when it’s October in Ohio.



I got back to my mom’s house (where the kids were with Jon and Kathy), got the kids ready as fast as I could, took photos of them all and listened to Jon pester me about my costume.  Or, in my case, my non-costume.

What costume was I going to wear?  None.  Why not?  Because I’m not.  But why?  I’m. Not. Wearing. One.



Obviously, Jon had a costume to wear.

Apparently he thought I should be wearing one too.

He finally shut up about it until this very frazzled mama was packing all of her little goblins into the van.  That’s when he piped up and said “I got it!  You did dress up in a costume!  You’re going as…..Hermione!”

You know Hermione, right?  I’m not talking about the pretty Hermione from the latest Harry Potter movies.  Oh no.  Mr. Stinker Pants was referring to the frizzy-haired, awkward Hermione we all saw in the very first Harry Potter movie.

As I gave him the evilest eye I could muster and while Kathy exclaimed “Jon!  That was not very nice!”, he just took off to his car with a huge grin on his face.

And I think that makes it very fair for me to announce that LITTLE BROTHERS ARE BUTTHEADS.