When I look back on my childhood, besides my family, the people that had the biggest influence on me were my friends.  Friends make you laugh.  Friends understand you.  Friends… they’re always there, through the good and the bad.

My kids have some really awesome friends.  And so this is the story of them.  The story of the kids that make my kids better people.   My daughter’s best friend just happens to be the sister of my son’s best friend.  And guess what?  Their parents are pretty awesome too.  It’s just a huge gigantic friend jackpot!

We had them over for the entire day this week.  They got here right after breakfast and stayed until right before dinner.  What a day!

This pretty much sums up the day:

The kids were pretty excited.  Where to start?  All kid visitors always want to start in the kids’ secret room–a crawl space, converted into a fun area for the kids.  Adults have to crawl in.  I painted some of the walls with chalkboard paint, which makes for fun times.  This particular day the kids were not allowed to look at what was being drawn on the wall behind them until we were done drawing.  Ha!

But no playdate is complete without playing in their rooms.

And no playdate is complete without a fun new art project.  This one was extra fun.  My friend had shared this idea with me and the kids were eager to try it out: handprint snowmen on ornaments.

Step one: paint hand with white acrylic paint.

Step two: hold an ornament and carefully place your fingers along the sides of it:

Step three: let it dry while you play Twister.

Yes.  Really.  If you want your snowman ornament to turn out right, you must go play Twister.  I know it seems weird.  But it’s true.

I can hear their giggles.  I love how well they play together.  I actually get a little emotional looking at all of these.  Friends rock.

We wanted to be sure that the paint was dry.  So they had to play a little more.

All this waiting for paint to dry can make you crosseyed.Is it time???  Yes.  It’s time for Step four: draw the faces on the snowmen.

Aren’t they cute?  I  think we’re going to have to do this again.  I see grandparent gifts here, don’t you?

And now, time to go outside.

I MADE them take a nice picture.  Well, I TRIED to get them to take nice pictures. 

I love how much they love each other!

And I have a little something to tell you.  I know some cool kids.

Cool girls….

Cool boys….

Cool kids….

Hope you enjoyed this episode of Life Stories as much as I enjoyed shooting it.

And if you don’t know it, well, you’re in for a surprise.  Click on this link right HERE, to see another amazing photographer, Leah Jent.  She’s participating in this big ol’ circle of Life Stories.  You can see her amazing pictures, and she’ll link you to another amazing photographer.  If you keep on going through the circle, you’ll find your way right back here.  I’m doing this all year.  If you missed my last Life Story, you can see it right here.

Hope to see you back here really soon!

And I love new Facebook fans!  Feel free to like my Facebook page! …

Prepare yourself for an overshare.  I love this family.  I photographed them last year and was so happy that they came back to me again this year.  The mom says she is committed to getting professional pictures every year, and really, that pretty much makes me squeal with glee inside my little noggin, because they’re a beautiful family, and the little boy, well, take a look for yourself.

He’s a stunner. Check out his two different colored eyes.  Can you say “WOW!”?

Some of my favorites from the day.  There’s nothing quite like Daddy Love.And there’s nothing quite like Mommy Love either. So many favorites!

Thanks so much for looking!  And thank you C, S and C for giving me the opportunity to watch your family grow.  I look forward to next year!

You can follow me on Facebook!  I love new fans.  …

Ever see a photographer who starts out with a 365 day project, or even a 52 week project and never finishes? Yeah, me too.  Well, I recently joined a group of a few other busy photographers who decided to commit to a 12 month project! Wish us luck!

The best part is that it will be totally candid, lifestyle shots of each of our own families/lives.  This is a challenge for us to capture our every day worlds and hopefully make us and everyone aware that our “ordinary” is actually “extraordinary.”  We’re calling the series “The Story of ________” and we’ll each be filling in our own blanks. At the end of this post is a link to another photographer who participated and she’ll be linking to someone else. It’s a whole big circle of stories in pictures. Click through and enjoy!

I decided to start with our annual trip to Joan’s Farm and Pumpkin Patch in Livermore, CA. We have gone here almost every year since we first discovered it, and it’s always so much fun.  This was a huge challenge for me, as these were shot in full sun in the middle of the day.  Photographers know what a challenge light can be at this time of day, so I did my best to just go for it, and enjoy capturing my family just doing what they do.

One of the things that the kids love about this place is all the cool trees.

This cracked me up watching my daughter try to make it up the tree.  When I saw that little hand make it’s way up the branch, I knew she was on her way!

Three years ago, I took a picture of my daughter on this tree, and this year I tried to recreate it.  It’s strange how much these images make me feel.  Proud for the wonderful person my daughter is becoming, and sad for the fact that three years flew by so quickly.  I am so very happy that I have this gift of photography to capture my children at this moment in time.

Time is so fleeting.

But while we loved playing in the trees, we were here for the pumpkins!  He loved seeing how strong he was!   haha!  I love that little man.

Some of my favorite shots of the day.  I stole borrowed my dad’s fisheye.  This lens is a lot of fun.  Cracks me up that you can see my finger on the pumpkin in the second shot.

And dang oh man, do I ever love these ones.

Leaving the farm!  We’ll be back next year!

And no trip to Livermore would be complete without a trip to In-N-Out Burgers!  Love that place!

Well, this was fun for me!  I hope you enjoyed it too.

Next up is Arna Photography by Rachel.  Enjoy!  And come back next month for a whole new story!…