Home Sweet Home

This week's project theme is Home Sweet Home. I take pictures of my kids inside of my house all the time, so I wanted to branch out a bit. We live in a beautiful old Civil War/Victorian town - Carthage, Missouri - that has one amazing location after another. Of course, my personal favorite spot is Red Oak II. The kids and I go out there all the time just to walk around. I took my camera this time, with no actual plans. My favorite building at Red Oak is the church. I love the colors, the smell, the overall feel of the place. I think maybe it reminds me of churches I attended when I was a small kid with mismatched, uncomfortable wooden pews, creaky floors, and dust floating everywhere. My photo submission for the week:  

Home Sweet Home

I have a few other photos I took while we were there. This was probably my second favorite:

The next two shots are actually used for examples. I get asked quite often how I get my kids to pose so well. And to that I usually start snorting and laughing. I'll often take 100 shots of my three just to get ONE sorta-kinda-maybe-okay-possibly usable shot. I really should post the outtakes more often. In the above picture it looks like Cole is lovingly snuggling his little brother - in reality he basically has him in a headlock or Ozzie would be a half mile away at this point. Cole is a true professional in every sense of the word. The boy EARNS his treats (yes, I'm known briber)! He will keep the dog and a two year old both in posed headlocks while still looking right in the camera with a winning smile. The next two photos aren't anything spectacular. I wouldn't hang them up or anything...but they'll give you an idea of how insane working with three children can be. The first, they are looking sweet and loving (truth is, Paige and Cole sort of have Ozzie smooshed between them so he can't move). And then in the next split second - of which I have NO IDEA what happened...boom! Pretty sure Ozzie and the pup both screamed, "SQUIRREL!" and took off. Notice Cole does.not.break.character. We went home after this. :)

SQUIRREL!