Oh boy, today is sure a tough day for this mommy! This morning I sent my first-born to her first day of first grade. I’m not really sure how I ended up at this day so quick. Aren’t your babies supposed to stay your babies forever? I keep telling Autumn to stop growing, but she won’t listen to me. It’s not fair!

Well, since I had to face this day no matter what, I made Autumn let me take pictures of her. She was not too happy about the whole “early morning” thing, but she humored me and gave me some poses. This first one she was kind of giving me the “fake princess model” pose. She doesn’t really ever do this unless I’m taking pictures of her. Crazy kid!

Then she decided to take off and run around the yard a few times. I’m thinking the sugar from the fruit smoothie she had for breakfast just started to kick in.

Then, of course, comes the “seriously mom, aren’t you done yet” look. I get this a lot. It’s also the “mom, you don’t know anything” look. I get that a lot too. Shouldn’t I have a few more years before the teenager attitude starts? Honestly, I think Autumn was born a teenager. She’s had the attitude since day one!

Wow, it’s been a little while since I’ve done a photo for I Heart Faces! I got to thinking and I remembered this photo from when Autumn was about 2 years old. I had pulled her hair up after I shampoo’d it and she saw herself in the mirror. She was surprised and not in a good way! She couldn’t talk yet, but I could see what she was thinking in her eyes… “Mom, what in the heck did you do to me???” I thought it would be perfect for this week’s theme!

Head on over to I Heart Faces for some more fun “Surprise” photos!

I edited this with the “Monteverde” texture from the Old World Collection at Love That Shot. I’ll be posting a tutorial on how I did this black and white conversion in the next couple of weeks. It was super easy to do!

I have this lovely bloggy friend. Her name is Puna and we “met” each other a little over a year ago. She has such a lovely family and I’ve gotten to know them a bit over the last year through Puna’s fun blog posts. She takes gorgeous photos and I’m so glad we found each other!

Puna has a fun contest going on over at her blog this weekend, Hello Love – Family and she’s giving away a 16×20 canvas from Hello Canvas! All you need to do is enter a photo that best  best illustrates “Hello Love – Family” to you.

So here is my entry. These are my two sweet girls. They can get on each other’s nerves like crazy. They can fight like little wild animals. They can get each other in trouble and take immense pleasure in doing so. But, they love each other so much. They love to rough-house with each other and wrestle. They love to make each other pictures with love written all over them. They are best friends. They are sisters. This is an ultimate love that, if you care for it, will last forever.

This is me and my sister, Misti. We are best friends and I’m so lucky to have her. I want my girls to have this kind of relationship with each other when they grow up. (This photo isn’t for the contest…I just wanted to share. )

Oh my! It’s Sweet Shot Tuesday again! These past few weeks have blown by and I can’t believe it’s the last day of school for my baby girl! She is so sad school is ending (she’s a kindergartner if you’re wondering if she’s nuts!). I snapped these photos yesterday after realizing I never did get an “official” kindergarten picture of her! Summer popped in too, and I couldn’t help getting a few snaps of her too!

My little girl is growing up. How did this happen and how can I stop it?

Seriously, how? This little one is growing too fast too!

Ah, but at least they love each other… some of the time.

I love this girl! She just turned four years old last week and, thank heavens, she will still take naps! Most of the time she will fall asleep, but sometimes I find her playing quietly. The rule is she has to stay in her room and take a “rest.” I usually get her out when it’s time to pick up Autumn from school.

On this particular day, this is what I find when I go in to wake her up. Some days she make me want to tear my hair out, other times she can be so super sweet I can barely stand it!

This is my sweet shot for the week. Check out others at Sweet Shot Tuesday!

(These are for my other 365 project… yes, I’m insane and I’m doing TWO Project 365′s! One is for my photography and the other is just for my girls and their daily lives. These are for my girls’ project today… day 50! I’ve actually made it 50 days without missing any pictures! I love to look back and remember the little tidbits of their lives!)

So, Autumn brings me a pair of pajama bottoms this morning and tells tells me to cut off the legs because they have holes in the knees. I cut them off and tell her to throw the scraps away. She pauses for a minute, then tells me she wants to make a dress for her Calm-Down Bear! So I cut some holes in the sides for sleeves and put the scrap on her care bear. She then tells me to make one for Summer’s Calm-Down Bear too! So the two Calm-Down Bears have matching dresses! Aren’t they so cute! So, do you want me to make you a dress now? I’m available…

On both photos, I used my newly released Photo Veils from the Simplicity Collection! They are so fast and easy to use! I whipped these two photos out in less than a minute! Check them out… you will love them!!

Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? They found Autumn’s light desk and used it for a light to read books at bedtime! Summer is “reading” the story to Autumn.

This is what I get when I try to take a picture of Summer! Nearly every. single. time. She was pretty mad at me today when I was caught taking pictures of her!

Summer wanted to take some pictures like mommy, so I handed her my brownie! She loves it! And I couldn’t help getting a little shot of her piggie-tails! They’re so cute!

Dang! I love this girl! I can’t think of anything else to say but that!