The crazy picture lady
I know that one day I will hear the words, “mom, no more pictures!” but for now the twins can’t speak and my husband, one, doesn’t have a choice and two, is warming up to the whole staged picture idea because he understands how great the pictures can be if we just take a few minutes to make them happen.
I will completely admit that I am slightly obsessed with photos, and making sure that I get the pictures I want. I pretty much always have my phone on me or my Nikon, and I have been known to grab the first phone I see snap a photo with it and email myself the picture before the owner notices I’m using their phone, hehe. But I got my picture!
I spend a lot of time looking at different photographer websites for photo inspiration, Ashlee Rubach is one of my favorites, and various blogs that I find from pinterest, for tips and tricks. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to photo editing, there is an endless amount of photo manipulations that can be done to improve even the most beautiful photo, but for now I am so happy with how our first family beach pictures turned out, thanks to our friend Erez and his wonderful picture taking skills.
Erez took over a hundred pictures for this shoot. But with the tropical storm heading our way the wind on the beach was intense and the sand flying through the air was challenging to deal with. Here are some of the funny outtakes. My favorite being the bottom left picture, Jordan and Talia are looking so nicely at the camera while I am busy getting the hair out of my face and my husband is watching me ruin a great photo.
Digging in the Sand – More Beach Pictures!
Saturday morning, after a serious breakfast
We packed up our beach gear and headed for the sand. Three families with five kids between them brought to the beach three umbrellas (which blew away four times), three beach blankets, one cooler full of water and bottles, two strollers (one was a double wide), one baby pool, four buckets, five shovels, 16 different sunscreens, six hats, 10 diapers, one beach chair (which got used for all one two minutes) and three serious cameras.
Talia and Jordan loved every part of the beach. Keep in mind we were at the beach for about one and half hours.
The girls two piece rash guard and bikini bottoms came in handy for quick diaper changes. One pieces are super cute but for practicality two piece suits have my vote, for babies and myself!
Talia and Jordan discovered the taste of salt for the first time.
And they love it.
Talia loves watermelon
A lot.
Jordan loves to splash in the baby pool.
Talia loved to dig in the sand
Jordan preferred staying clean and sand free on the blanket with a super fun empty water bottle
Until Talia stole it.
The beach
We had such an amazing time over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. We took the girls and drove five hours to the South Carolina coast where we hung out for three days and played with babies and friends in a rented house on Hilton Head island. The girls are definitely water babies, they loved the beach, ocean and the pool. They loved our long walks on the sand, the Bob (our stroller) is amazing on the beach! We recapped our packing efforts on our way home and only forgot one thing, the disposable changing pads, and would only change one thing, bring a larger travel soap and lotion for the babies. Here are some of my favorites from our days at the beach.
Talia
Jordan
Talia
Jordan in Pink, Talia in Yellow
Jordan in Red, Talia in Grey
Talia left, Jordan right
Jordan on the left, Talia on the right
Jordan-left, Talia – center, Yasha – right
I’m excited
Enjoying the small things blog Source
I get to share with you the girls first trip to the beach this week. I think the beach is a special place, there is something so amazing and awe inspiring about the place where the land meets the sea. It’s so big and makes you feel so small and at the same time the very water you are standing in touches another beach, not unlike the one you are standing on, in another world, with different language and cultures and colors. The sound of the waves never gets old, the air from the ocean cleanses your body. I love the ocean because it was something special for just once or twice a year, my husband loves it because it was part of his childhood. I don’t know where the ocean will live in my girls lives, maybe it will be both a special destination and part of their child hood for sometime. Either way there is no doubt that year after year they too will love discovering if this beach makes for a good drip castles or body surfing or sea shell hunting.
On a side note, the lovely picture above is from a blog I discovered recently while perusing Pinterest. The photographer is a mom of two adorable girls who clearly love each other very much. The younger of the two has different abilities as a result of down syndrome. When I come across blogs from women who have children with various abilities that differ from the majority of kids their words always bring tears to my eyes. Not because I am sad for them, but because it is these parents who are able to verbalize so well all the wonderful small things that children are capable of, no mater what their abilities and how we, as adults, need to take a step back and slowdown to enjoy these fleeting moments in our lives of watching our children grow and change so quickly. It is these parents that teach me that the one thing my children need above a clean face, a bow in their hair, another toy is my love. A hug, a moment of my time to listen to what they have to say.
A good thing
We hope you have a fun weekend planned for this Memorial Day Weekend. This day holiday has become the unofficial start of summer, a reason to head to the water, drink and eat too much and spend time with family and friends, enjoy every moment of it but remember its true reason I remember and give thanks to the men and women who have served and protected our country and all the it stands for. I thank them and all the men and women who are still doing so.
Ball Pit!
My husband is now in the business of buying every toy he sees that looks fun for the girls, I can’t blame him though,everything we get them they love. And since they are home all day the need new things to play with so they don’t get bored. He got this baby pool not for swimming, but for this exact purpose and these colorful balls and walla it’s like their own miniature Mc Donalds play place! They are loving their new ball pit, this is only a third of the balls we have so as they get bigger we will add more. 
Video-a-thon
I try to take a lot of videos of the girls, with the iPhone it’s so easy to get the camera rolling its a shame not to. I defiantly did not take enough videos the first few months. Between the diaper changes, hour long feedings every three hours and trying to take care of my self there wasn’t much time or energy left for sitting down and filming, sleeping, crying or staring into nothing babies. If you are a new mom or expecting to be in the future make sure you enlist someone to film you doing the things you do a million times with your baby, playing on the floor, snuggling on the couch, changing a diaper, even breastfeeding. There is a way to film this while keeping the film G rated, for example from across the room or from behind you so you can only see you kissing babies head. I wish I had more video of me taking care of the girls in those first few weeks but there are years of movies to be made. I don’t always post the videos on the blog but lately I have been adding them to you tube. Here are some of my favorites from my youtube selection, but if you click on my YouTube user name you can see all my videos of the girls.
This is Talia practicing running, laying down.
Talia and Jordan play together
When the girls bump or scratch each other I don’t get too crazy about it, but when it come to eyes, there is no messing around.
There are a few more over on you tube, which one is your favorite?
I read somewhere that it’s good to say the date while filming a home movie because years from now those watching may not know where and when the Video was shot. I try to do this, but I hate the way I sound on camera, any one have any tips on how to like my recorded voice better?
