Here’s our Project 365 life in pictures from September 16th through October 6th. Enjoy!

September 16th: Jacob playing another tackle football game. I really love watching him play!

September 17th: Leah eating breakfast her own way.. on the floor with the only dog we have. (more…)

It’s time for another post of getting caught up on my Project 365 pictures! For some reason this is probably my least favorite group of photos from the year. Several of the pictures within this group are some of my very favorites, but as I was going through the pictures I realized I was getting lazy and just taking pictures to take pictures. (Notice all the flower shots, for example). I’m going to work extra hard in this next few weeks to purposefully take pictures… to get out, look around, seek out photos versus just taking whatever is around me. Either way, without further adieu, here’s our life currently in pictures!

(Above) August 26th:This is how we do serious lounging in our house. Princess dresses, totally messed up hair, food in our mouth, and glued to something either on TV or the phone. Leah does it quite well, as you see!

August 27th: I went shopping and came home with 2 soft, beautiful, lacy shirts. Can I tell you how happy I am that this kind of clothes is currently in fashion?

August 28th: Sunflowers

August 29th: This is called keeping it real… I had a huge deadline day, which means I cooked and photographed 9 recipes. This is what my kitchen looks like when I fail to clean up between recipes because I’m in such a big hurry to get things done while the light is still good. I looked back and couldn’t even believe what a huge disaster it was. Yikes!

August 30th: You know your kids love you when they’ll go out in a winter coat and gloves in 103 degree weather to help you with a shoot for a winter issue. Thank you, Kelly!

August 31st: Remember Shannon and the Summer House Concert? Kelly was quite smitten (with very good reason!)

September 1st: More flowers.

September 2nd: Yes, we are in the “love our princess dress and not brush our hair” stage of 3.

September 3rd: Yes, even more flowers!

September 4th: Leah had her very first day of preschool today. This is her dancing out in the yard celebrating after she was done. She informed me then that she was not going back and “one day of school was plenty”.

September 5th: This is what you might look like if you ran all the way home from school in the heat so you could hurry up and share with your parents that you were chosen as the “Student of the Day” at school! Way to go, Ella!

September 6th: Two of my favorite things… rain showers and coffee.

September 7th: My friend Jenny invited Leah and I to join her and her daughter on a trip to Pryde’s of Old Westport (an amazing kitchen store in KC with a homemade pie bakery inside). The girls were thrilled to get to eat pie and cookies for lunch!

September 8th:Probably one of my favorite pictures, ever… Kelly and I took some yellow balloons out and just had some fun at the park with them!

September 9th: It was the Red Faced Runners 5K Race weekend! Look at what Cassie and Alli surprised me with before my run. Such sweet friends!

September 10th: I fell in love with this clock at the Blog KC event at the beautiful store, Raised in Cotton. In fact, the more I look at this picture, the more this clock is calling out to me. I’m going to give Carol a call tomorrow to see if they still have it because I think I need it!

September 11th: She was napping and I couldn’t get over how big her not so baby feet are getting anymore.

September 12th: Watching the annual Mill Valley High School Homecoming Parade

September 13th: Have you seen the new Curiosity Shoppe at Target yet? They have the cutest things. I loved this cup for my morning #shotofcoffee. Just had to pick it up!

September 14th: This was a very difficult week. One of my longest and dearest friends from high school lost her husband to leukemia. He was diagnosed on Thursday and passed away after a reaction to a chemo treatment on Sunday… only a few days later. They have 5 young kids together. I stopped to take this picture on my way back from going home for the funeral. Lots and lots of tears were shed.

September 15th: I had the pleasure of taking pictures of some beautiful ladies and handsome guys for homecoming tonight. I loved these shoes… and longingly remembered when my svelte self could fit into shoes like that and not kill myself!

Well friends, that’s it for now! Remember you can follow along on Instagram for more pictures as well as Facebook and Twitter!

I hope you remember to stop and snap some pictures of your life. Have a great week!

July 1st: Crabby girl

I know I know… I’m horrible at keeping up with Project 365. Normally it’s this time of year that I stop uploading and sharing and give up. I never quit taking photos every day but if you’ll look at my past few years attempts, this is the time when I usually get so behind at uploading that I just quit The pictures stay on my computer and no one ever sees them.

Not this year. Nope… This year I’m going to bore you all to tears while I get caught up on my photos from July and most of August. Then, I have no vacations or out of town trips planned that should throw me off from uploading for awhile! Thanks for hanging in there! Here we go… (more…)

Today is the first day of July and my mind is blown away that we are already at this point in 2012. One of my favorite things about doing these Project 365 posts is taking a moment to re-live, through pictures, the events that happened in our life.

These past two weeks were pretty uneventful, but there are little moments I want to remember that I probably wouldn’t have had I not captured them on my camera. I’m so thankful I’m doing these posts as I know how much I treasure being able to look back in time and re-live the memories. Thank you for being there to take a peek as well. I do appreciate your comments and feedback!

OK…. now on to the pictures from week 25 & 26 of June! (more…)

(Photo taken by my super talented photographer friend, Jenn!)

First, I have to apologize… this is an extremely photo laden post. I haven’t neglected to take pictures over the past month, but I have neglected to upload them to Dine & Dish. Thank you to all of you who have emailed me, telling me how you’ve missed my pictures. It’s nice to know you care about these! A special thanks to my big brother, Mike, for calling and giving me the nudge to get them up here. So, this very long, very long, very long post is for you, Mike! Love you!

Remember to join me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for all the moments in between!

(I’m also so glad to have Totally Rad Lab photoshop editing plugin on my side. Editing these pics didn’t take nearly as long as it should have thanks to my fave editing tool!) OK… now on to the pictures!

(more…)

We’re half way through May, already, and I have 2 weeks of Project 365 photos to share with you since I didn’t post last week. We had a week of celebrations, outside fun and for me, magazine deadlines galore. I tried to take out my DSLR as much as possible, but some days had to rely on my iPhone for pictures. Here is our week 18 & 19 of 2012 in photos.

Sunday, April 29: – When I flew home from New York my luggage decided to take a detour to Nashville. I was feeling very lucky when it decided to return home, finally, the next evening! (Taken with my iPhone)

Monday, April 30th: I started this book on the flight back from NYC. I ended up finishing it today (5-13) and will tell you about it soon!

Tuesday, May 1st: The 1st day of May was exactly as it should be… a gorgeous day of outside play. Here, Ella is showing me her super talented hula hoop skills.

Wednesday, May 2nd: Sometimes my favorite food pictures are the accidental ones… the ones after I start cleaning up from a shoot. That’s what happened when I made homemade pita bread and started cleaning up. I turned around and just really liked the light on the crumpled up parchment paper.

Thursday, May 3rd: Just a quick picture of the girls before the older two went off to school for the day.

Friday, May 4th: I had an extremely challenging afternoon with Leah and was trying to get out of the house to run some errands. The problem was, she did not want to put on clothes. After an hour long struggle, I went back upstairs to grab her dress. When I came back downstairs, this is what I found. Needless to say, the errands didn’t get finished that day. (Taken with my iPhone)

Saturday, May 5th: I took Jacob and Kelly out to see if we could capture the Super Moon tonight.We went to Shawnee Mission Park and joined several other people, all around, doing the same thing!

Sunday, May 6th: For the Picture Black & White class with Tracey Clark – shapes.

Monday, May 7th: It rained all day today. This evening, the reflection of the sunset on the street outside our house caught my eye.

Tuesday, May 8th: Ella got to be my model this week for Yum Food & Fun for Kids Magazine. This is one of the outtakes from that photo shoot.

Wednesday, May 9th: One of my favorite breakfasts… coffee and fruit with yogurt.

Thursday, May 10th: Took all four kids to the dentist today. I have serious dentist anxiety so hate even being there, but they did such a great job! No fear at all.

Friday, May 11th: Leah turned 3 today! I still can’t believe that my baby is three. She was very excited!

Saturday, May 12th: Today was my 20 year high school reunion! The current principal gave us a tour of the high school, which has changed so much. This is the hallway of my recurring dreams – one where I forget my locker combination and cannot get my locker open all year. The other is that I walk this hall every day and don’t realize until the last day of school that I never went to Algebra or Geometry class. (Taken with my iPhone)

That’s it for weeks 18 & 19! I hope you all have had a great start to May. Thanks for stopping by.

Week 15 of 2012 went by incredibly fast! Here are a few photo highlights from our week.

Sunday, April 8: You may recall that Leah was a crab on Easter Sunday. Our friends have a boy who is a year younger than Leah. Watching them play together was like watching an old married couple bicker and argue. They were quite the match to be made!

Monday, April 9th: Taken with my iPhone, some pretty lilacs from our lilac bush!

Tuesday, April 10th: Someone once told me that they worried when they saw a child still sparkling clean at the end of the day. They feared the child didn’t get to explore and play that day like a child should. Anyone who has that rationale can come see my kids at the end of each day, especially their feet. If dirty feet at the end of each day is a sign of a fun day, then my kids seem to be doing just fine!

Wednesday, April 11th: My dear friend Sandie came over today to do a fun photo shoot for a project she’s working on. I love watching other photographers work… Sandie is a pro and a class act. It was a fun time!

Thursday, April 12: This big, comfy chair in my office was calling to me all day for a nap. (Confession… I finally gave in for a 20 minute snooze!)

Friday, April 13: Today I picked up my packed and race bib for my first 5K tomorrow. I also snagged up a new pair of Notes to Self socks, hoping that the message would soak in! Feeling very sore and tired from my workout yesterday and nervous about running the 5K off of the treadmill. We shall see! (I now know I successfully completed the 5K! Will share more about it later in the week. In a word, it was fantastic and my socks worked!) Taken with my iPhone.

Saturday, April 14: The Daddy Daughter Dance was tonight at school. It’s such a special night for the girls and Nick, but poor Leah is not old enough to go. She did pretty well with the fact last night, but did insist on taking some cell phone pics to commemorate the evening (in her swimsuit, of all things).

That’s it for this week! I hope you’ll share some good things that happened to you last week. Have a great one!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a happy Easter holiday. You’ll have to excuse this weeks Project 365 photos… I am sharing a little more than one picture a day, particularly on Friday, which was egg decorating day. I also was quite iPhone snappy happy this week (especially the first couple days). For iPhone pictures outside of what are posted here, make sure to follow me on Instagram.

Speaking of Instagram, did you know they recently launched an app for the Droid market? Yay! I’ve enjoyed following those of you who recently joined Instagram because of this! If you are new to Instagram, let’s connect there too. I can be found there through this link.

Now, on to the pictures from this week!

Sunday, April 1st: With the onset of spring my girls are finding “wish” flowers every where we go. I get to make lots and lots of wishes everyday now because of this. Taken with my iPhone.

Monday, April 2nd: Monday afternoons are kind of crazy for us, but we always have about 1 hour in between activities. This week, Ella, Leah and I decided to take a drive through the country and came across this sweet horse. Taken with my iPhone.

Tuesday, April 3rd:  Today I truly discovered the much needed head clearing power of a good run. (This was the last iPhone pic for the week.)

Wednesday, April 4: Huge roll of butcher paper, a large tub of crayons and one happy and busy 2 year old!

Thursday, April 5:  A friend of mine stopped by with a late afternoon, and much needed cup of coffee. You’ve got to love friends who sense what you need!

Friday, April 6th: Time to dye the Easter eggs! Jacob wasn’t there for most of the time and Kelly was at a friends for a sleep over, but the younger two girls and I certainly got into the action on our own and had a great time!

Saturday, April 7th: When you are goofy and you know it… Ella and Leah have a new form of entertainment that cracks them up. They keep taking pictures on Nick’s iPad and distorting them with some app (photobooth, or something).

That’s it for this week! Tell me, what everyday moments did you capture this week?

Happy April, friends! We had gorgeous weather in Kansas City this past week, which meant lots of time outside and lots of shutter button clicking. In addition to pictures from our week, I also have martini recipe you will want to try out this spring. Make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom for that goodness.

In addition, my friend Sylvie and I are both hosting Kelly Moore camera bag giveaways on Monday. If you are looking for a beautiful bag to carry your camera gear in and more, make sure to check back here for details on the giveaways!

Now, for our week in pictures.

Sunday, March 25th: Kelly had pictures and practice for her upcoming First Communion today. I took a ton of pictures at the church with my DSLR but I think this moment captured with my iPhone when I was curling her hair is still my favorite.

Monday, March 26th: School picture day. Since I don’t usually buy school portraits in the Spring, I always take a few snapshots of the kids all spiffed up before school.

Tuesday, March 27th: We had one of those great spring thunderstorms today. It was a perfect day to stay inside with a cup of coffee and a good book. Too bad I had too much work to do to live out my dream for the day, but it was still a great day!

Wednesday, March 28th: Since the weather has turned so nice, we are back to walking to school most days, which means Leah gets to piddle along and fraternize with her favorite neighborhood dogs. Taken with my iPhone.

Thursday, March 29th: I was one of the parent volunteers on the Kindergarten field trip to Kaleidoscope today. If you are from KC and have never taken your kids to Hallmark’s Kaleidoscope (near Crown Center area) you must do it soon! The best part of Kaleidoscope is that it is FREE! So much fun and entertainment in one place and a price that can’t be beat.

Friday, March 30th: Spring weather has just started and Leah’s poor knees and elbows are already so scuffed up from falling onto the pavement. It is going to be a very long and band-aid filled season!

Saturday, March 31st: If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that we hosted happy hour with our neighbor friends Friday evening. I used Pinnacle’s Cake Flavored Vodka for the first time and made Creme Cake Martinis (one of many tempting recipes from their site). Oh my goodness… these were so good. To make the martini you take 2 oz Cake Flavored Vodka, 1 oz Creme de Cocoa and 1 ounce heavy whipping cream. Shake over ice and strain into sugar or sprinkle filled glasses. Be forewarned… these go down way to easily!

That’s it for this week. Thanks for stopping by and make sure to come back on Monday for the camera bag giveaway! Have a great week!

It was kind of a lame week for me in pictures. For some reason I had a really hard time slowing down and taking pictures this week. I still did it though, and even though these pictures aren’t as technically “on” as other pictures I’ve done have been, they each have special meaning and memories behind them. I guess I need to remember that’s really what Project 365 is all about!

Sunday, March 4: I almost forgot to take a Project 365 picture today. When I came home from running errands, I found this all too common scene going on in our house. Anytime Nick lays down, he has at least one kid climbing and jumping on him!

Monday, March 5th: The girls and I headed out for Shamrock Shakes at McDonald’s while the boys enjoyed a night out at Tanner’s. Taken with my iPhone.

Tuesday, March 6th: The day was almost at an end, and again, I realized I hadn’t taken my Project 365 picture. At just about that time, I looked over and noticed this gorgeous, golden stream of light coming in through my office window. The answer to my “what will my project 365 picture be today” question was answered!

Wednesday, March 7th: Leah and I made homemade garlic pasta for lunch today. I love that even though she is almost 3, she still has those pudgy little baby hands. (Check out my Guest Post on Once a Month Mom for the pasta recipe!)

Thursday, March 8th: After school, the kids and I head out on our 2 day trek to Mission, Texas to visit my parents for spring break! Taken with my iPhone.

Friday, March 9th: Morning of our spring break adventure, day 2. What was supposed to be a 11 hour drive today ended up being a 15 hour drive, thanks to the rainy weather all throughout Texas! It was a very, very long day but I am so proud of what great travelers my kids are. Taken with my iPhone.

March 10, 2011: If you ask my kids what one of their favorite things to do in Texas at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, riding on the golf cart through their retirement community is top of the list! Taken with my iPhone.

That’s it for this week. Hopefully next week you’ll see lots of pictures of sun and palm trees as we finish our spring break in Texas! Remember, you can always follow along on Instagram!