My Beautiful Little Cousins

My mom's side of the family all came down for New Year's Day to celebrate a late Christmas.  It was really rainy here, which melted all the snow  and made the temperatures pretty mild.  My cousin had booked a session with me for some extended family photos back in Novemeber, but she wasn't able to work around all of her family's schedule to make it work so we postponed.  Since that session didn't happen, I thought I would at least try to get some quick shots while the kids were all here.  The rain was a bit of a challenge, but in the end I  just opened one of the garage doors and had the kids stand inside to keep dry (I was soaked of course, but thank goodness for waterproof camera covers!).  I managed to get a few nice ones of all four of my little cousins   See if you can pick out the siblings (I'll give you a hint:  there is a boy and a girl in each family).

Good genes, eh?

Christmas 2010

Well, the holiday season is (finally) over.  The official tally is: 4 family events, 2 get-togethers with friends and 3 work parties.  I am actually a bit relieved to just get back to the grind!  I loved spending time with my girls and my family and friends, but I think we all need to get back into a routine.  The late nights are catching up with us.  Here are a few snapshots of what we did during the holidays:

2011, here I come!

The Castle of Nightmares

My daughter Brielle received a cardboard princess castle from her favourite cousin for Christmas this year.  The box said "Some Assembly Required".  Understatement of the year.  It took me about an hour and a half to assemble the sections and connect them, including one break to curse a blue streak. 

As I marvelled at my engineering prowess, my daughter said " Are you going to do the stickers now?".  Stickers?  I then took notice of the tiny shapes, each one numbered, that covered every area of the cursed castle!  I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and stickering commenced. 

The children silently drifted away, leaving me alone with my nemesis: tiny, shiny stickers.  550 stickers to be exact.  Three hours later, I let loose a cry of triumph and stood back to admire my work.  Some stickers were crooked, some not even remotely over their designated square, but, it was finished.

I finished the castle last Monday. No one has played with it yet.

P.S.  Please excuse the poor image quality.  I had developed a bit of a palsy by the end of stickering that caused my hands to shake even more than could be helped by image stabilization!

My December

What a crazy and busy time it has been in the Blake household this year.  We have been going to parades, shopping, enjoying the arrival of Nan and Pop from Newfoundland and mostly just battling multiple viruses.  Is it just me or does it seem like the viruses are running more rampant than usual this year? Anyway, thought I would share a few images of our December goings-on, just for something to do!

So from top left, clockwise:

  1. Brielle and her friend Ethan playing in the snow.  I don't think there is anything better to do on a nice winter's day.
  2. My children forced my hubby to don one of their hats...so of course I snapped a quick picture to hold for further blackmail! As you can see, there was much giggling.
  3. My youngest, Emery, who clearly enjoyed every ounce of her free hot chocolate at the Santa Clause Parade.
  4. Our tree this year is a little sparse, since there seems to be an entire box of decorations that have gone missing...
  5. My oldest, Brielle, got this fantastic shiner when she tripped over my feet and face-planted as she was trying to chase her sister to "wrestle".  Ahhh, karma.
  6. The lovely craft I made with my girls.  It was accomplished with only two major meltdowns; one for me and one for Brielle.

And one last picture before I go.  Here are my girls playing in one of the best toys ever: the cardboard box.  We got a new TV and while my husband got it set up, there were no little hands "helping" because they were playing in the box.  Win-win!

Declan in the Snow

Firstly I should say: this was not supposed to be a portrait session.  The mother of this sweet little man is an acquaintance of mine, who happens to be a very talented jewellery designer and artisan.  I offered to try to get some updated product shots of her pieces for her website, since I like to try all kinds of photography, just to see what tickles my fancy.  Wow, that is a really dated expression...I need to get more "with the times"!  But I digress.  So, when I arrived at my friend's house to photograph the jewellery, my buddy Declan was there too.  I knew that in the end, I would just have to get some shots of him, he is so darn cute.  I learned so much about how hard it is to be a  five-year-old while he sat and ate his lunch with me as I worked.  Once the bologna was comsumed and the jewellery photographed, we headed out the back door for a quick session in the very wet snow (when I say quick, I literally mean five minutes...you know how hard it is for boys to sit still!).

Dexter and Dodge and their Humans

So, I thought that while I was still frozen from my last session, I might as well sneak in another before I thawed completely.  This lovely young couple had invited me to take some shots of them with their two very high energy pups.  Dexter, the golden retriever in only 2 years old and Dodge, the Shepherd mix, is about 6 months old.  So needless to say, there was enough boundless energy to keep us all busy!  I have known Stephanie and Greg for a few years, since I am close friends with Stephanie's mom, and I was more than happy to take on the challenge of getting them a nice "family" photo!  Here a couple from our absolutely freezeing, short-as-possible session!

Ben and Jess

Brrrrrrr.  I am still warming up after this session!  It was the kind of shoot where everyone's nose is running by the end.  Anyway, it was just a quick mini-session for my brother and his lovely girlfriend.  Our whole family had gathered to celebrate an early Christmas, since my aunt is off to Australia during the festive season (so jealous).  We managed to sneak away for a few minutes and snap some shots.  Jess has been bugging Ben to get some nice photos of them together (my brother has a tendency to stick out his tongue in every picture), so I agreed to do a quick session, even though it meant watching my brother make out (eww).  Here's a sneak peek at a few of my faves from the session.

Jen and Family

I have know Jen for about ten years.  She is a wonderful friend whose door was always open. In fact, there were so many people coming and going we used to joke that it was the community center!  I have watched her children grow from babies and toddlers into preteens and teens, and it makes me feel really old!  Anyway, Jen asked me to take some photos of her family and I was really excited to get to the session.  On my way to their home in Dundas, it was snowing like crazy and I wasn't sure we would be able to take any photos, but the skies cleared (a bit) and we braved the cold to get some fun family photos! 

Bribery Works!

My girls have a love/hate relationship with my camera.  I understand that it must get a little annoying to have me constantly begging to get photos, but hey, I'm a mom, annoying them is in my job description! I managed to coerce them into their new Christmas outfits and head out for a mini-session one evening in a nearby conservation area.  I admit, there was definitely some bribery going on, but if it gets results, is is wrong?  LOL

Here are a few of the shots I managed to get.  I am just glad they cooperated and I actually have something to send to my in-laws.