project life 2014

Ok, so let's talk Project Life.


What is Project Life, you ask? Basically, the amazing Becky Higgins has created a simple system for scrapbooking your photos. (You can read all about it here on her website.) For the past 4 years I have taken the photo-a-day approach. And I have loved it. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was able to capture and record soooooo many moments and memories through my daily photography that would otherwise have been missed. Our yearly scrapbooks are a treasure, and not something that I'm about to give up anytime soon!



For 2014, I will be simplifying things a bit. See, for me, after 4 years of trying to take a picture every single day (and pretty much succeeding!) there was an element of guilt and stress attached to it, too. That may sound weird, I mean it's just taking pictures. But obviously there were some days that I missed and sometimes trying to find something different to photograph everyday was hard. In my Type A head, I really tried my best to have all my pictures in the exact right order, etc, etc, etc...so the process became a bit too much WORK than I wanted it to be. (Hence how I gave up on posting my 2013 pictures after only a few months. *sniff*)



So for this year, here's the deal: I'm going to continue taking pictures of my kids and our life on a *somewhat* daily basis. Sometimes I'll use my real camera, and on most occasions I'll probably be using my camera phone (wink). No stress. No worries. No expectations. Just snapping photos when I feel like something is photo-worthy. My hope is that I'll continue to capture our everyday moments, but I'm not going to worry about attaching a specific day or number to each picture. THEN, at the end of every month I'll post a photo collage right here on the blog of a handful of our pictures. Sometimes I might share only 3 or 4 photos and sometimes maybe I'll share 20! Some months I may only share photos from one specific day or event, and sometimes I'll share tidbits of everything. I'm not going to set a specific standard that I have to meet every month, because then to me, that will eventually equal STRESS. Heehee. I just don't want any rules! I really want this year's approach to be simple and satisfying, while still capturing our daily life. :)



When it comes to putting all of our photos from the year into my project life album, I'm simply going to print all the pictures I want to include in the album, divide them into months, and pop them in the album. Done and done. I'm not going to worry about having a certain number of pictures/month...just whatever pictures I like from that month will be good enough for me! Whew...did all that make sense?? Heehee.



With all that being said, here is my January collage. All these perfectly imperfect photos were taken with my iPhone, which is just fine by me. Of course I way prefer pictures taken with my actual camera, but like I always say...any picture is better than no picture!



So here we go....1 month down, 11 more to go! (Thank you to Rebecca Cooper for this handy collage template!)

1. Miss KK having fun at playschool 2. Payton and Crewie playing on the computer 3. Gabby swimming for FHE 4. My chubby boy fast asleep in his Buzz Lightyear jammies 5. The 4 kids celebrating New Years 6. Cuddles 7. The Terry cousins celebrating Winter's birthday 8. The Littles just chillin' one afternoon 9. Skating with Payton 10. Green smoothie yumminess 11. Mommy and her babies

And just for fun...here are the links to my past photo-a-day blogs:


2010 Photo a Day Blog
2011 Photo a Day Blog
2012 Photo a Day Blog
2013 Photo a Day Blog

happy love day!

 

 Happy Valentine's Day!



I made the cutest Valentine's book of my kids this year and thought I would share...I am anxiosuly awaiting this book in the mail, I cannot wait to see how it turned out! I made the effort to take Valentine's pictures of the kids, and like many of the pictures I take of them, they end up sitting on my computer and no one sees them...so I took about an hour one night and put this together. I just love these 4 so much! Oh, they are crazy, busy and....well, crazy...but they are MINE and I love 'em all.



I hope everyone has a wonderful day with their sweeties. Graham and I have decided this year not to worry about gifts and stuff for eachother...we love each other all the time, so we're good! I'm glad we're keepin' it simple. Thanks for stopping by!



xoxox

here we go again!

Well, we're back at it again!

We're already a month into 2013 and my new photo-a-day blog is finally up and running.

I have to admit, I wasn't sure if I was going to do this again this year. While I'm in the habit of taking pictures (almost) everyday, I found that I got behind in posting my photos last year and that got me discouraged. As I decided to get all caught up on my photos from last year, I quickly realized how precious all these memories and photos are. I'm not able to scrapbook the way I used to, and I absolutely LOVE getting all of our everyday photos into a cute album at the end of the year...it is so amazing to see our whole year from start to finish like that! AND...posting the photos on my photo-a-day blog helps me stay committed to this project, as well as it gives my family and friends a little peek into our everyday life as well. So....it's a win-win situation. :)

I kind of have to admit though, while any photo of my children is precious to me personally, I feel like my photos are so boring! We've a had a very cold and dreary January so most of my photos are inside of my boring house (wink). So I need to commit to getting a bit more creative with my photo ideas. It's good for me as a photographer to challenge myself, and also just to make things a tad more interesting to look at. But...at the end of the day, my motto really is, any kind of photo is better than no photo at all!

So there ya go...2013, here we come!

the simple things...

A "simple thing" from this past week.


This is Kherington. She is 3 years old.


She loves red lipstick. LOVES it.


I often find her rummaging through my make-up drawer in search of the pretty stuff that makes her lips "so beautiful".


I try to hide it but it never works.


She always finds it.


xoxoxox

and that's a wrap!

Well, I have no idea how, but I somehow managed to get TOTALLY caught up on my photo a day pictures for 2012. And I am so glad I did! Keeping up with this is a big commitment and not always easy...but in the end it is always SO worth it so see all of those everyday memories in one place.

My family loves this.

This is the third year that I've committed to taking a photo every day. (and yes...sometimes I cheat and skip a day...wink!) It is for sure a habit now and something that I think I just HAVE to continue on with for 2013. Graham and I have decided that the memories are just way too precious and like I said, as a family, we LOVE looking through all of our pictures from the year. I'll admit, near the end of the year, there are probably too many instagrams and camera-phone pictures, but I will happily take those pictures over no pictures at all.

I am so excited to get these all printed and into my 2012 Project Life album...that is the FUN part! I will share pictures of that when I am all done.

For now, go ahead and caught up on what we crazy Audenart's have been up to for the past 6 months (yikes! I really was behind!) and stayed tuned for our twenty-thirteen photo a day pictures!

Payton's Baptism...

Well, Happy New Year! It is so hard to believe that it is 2013 and yet another year has passed by...where does the time go? We had a wonderful Christmas this year, I just love the time with all my kids at home just hanging out and being together. This year was even more special because Payton was baptized just a few days after Christmas. It was such a wonderful day! Back in August before school started, we went out and took some special pictures of her in her baptism dress...I am so glad we did! This little girl just shines inside and out and we are so blessed to have her in our family. She is full of so much sweetness and spunk and we just couldn't live without her. I am so proud of the decision she made to get baptized...she is such a good example to her little sisters and brother! xoxoxo

For those of you who aren't of my faith, you may wonder why children aren't baptized until the age of 8...you can read a short and simple explanation here, but basically we are taught that by the age of 8 children can understand the difference between right and wrong. Payton was very lucky to have her daddy baptize and confirm her as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. :)

It was a very emotional and wonderful day, and in the days leading up to her baptism and after, we've been able to have many special talks and moments with her. As the cliche goes, I just can't believe that she is already 8 years old and has reached this very special milestone in her little life! I hope she always remembers how happy she felt on this day. :)

After her baptism we had our families over for dinner and dessert, and we showed this little slideshow that we put together for Payton...it still makes me tear up watching it, heehee! We love our girl, Happy 8th Birthday, Payton and Congratulations!!! xoxox

new photography blog!!!

I know, I know....where the heck have I been? Life has sure proven to be crazy busy and full! For anyone who still checks this blog out now and then...I'm still alive! Just very busy with my kiddos and all that life brings. I need to do a proper update soon...but for the time being, I wanted to pop in and share my all new photography blog! I am so so excited about it...so much work went into this and it's always a little bit scary to put yourself out there, but what the heck! Here we go.



So please go and check it out at www.taliaaudenart.com!!!

think...

Since I haven't blogged in so long I figured I needed to post something...and since I took all these cute pictures of Payton in her musical theatre costume yesterday, I thought "perfect!" So here ya go!

Payton has looooved dancing this year. I think she really caught the bug after her first competition and she started to see what this was all about....being on stage is so much more than just being in the classroom setting, and she loves it! Part of me still can't believe that I have a daughter old enough to be in the dance world, and so many memories have come flooding back to me in the past few months as she's been performing. It's been fun and I'm proud of her and for the time being she's loving it, so that's all that matters, right? (Oh, and just a sidenote...for this number, they are kids in detention. She loved acting out her part and was so cute onstage!) Things have been so so busy this past month...I've found myself getting back to taking pictures again, and then we've been busy with dance competitions, rehearsals and everything else that comes at this time of year. Out little Crewie turned 1 almost 2 weeks ago, and yes, I still need to blog about that!! I wish I could keep up with it all! I am at that point that I am just so ready for the fun and relaxtion of summer...it'll be nice to have no schedule and just hang out and play. Only 1 more month, right??? (hee hee)