my blessings

GRATITUDE

unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

GRATITUDE

makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

~Melody Beattie~

Parent teacher conferences today. For us, that meant a day without school! It took a bit of bribing to coax them into a trip to one of my favorite parks for a few photos. All of them, especially the boys, moaned and pecked and harassed one another the entire way there. Out of about 150 pictures, I think Sophie looked towards the camera once. O.K. maybe twice. Nathan managed a few tricks. Like throwing her into the air from a kneeling position. He doesn't have big guns for nothin' people. Those strong muscles come in handy in situations like these. Continuous shooting mode and fast shutter speed for me. And we managed. A few :)
Some of the pictures are darker than I would have liked. But I hoping once I learn a little about post processing, I can fix these up .
The only one who will hold still long enough for me to figure out my spot metering. She's always happy to pose for a few pictures. Although, I don't think she realized I was taking her picture here. I absolutely LOVE the colors!
Here's a good goofy face courtesy of Miss Mei. This is what almost all of the pictures looked like.

This picture makes me laugh so hard. I didn't tell them to hold hands. But they did. Sorta. If you look closely, Jessie and Nate have Christian and Michael by the arms. Basically pulling them down the way. As fast as possible. To end the misery :) This one is good for a chuckle too. Notice Jessie's scowl directed towards Nate. He is oblivious that anything is wrong. Sophie's just a chill'in. Finally. With her favorite person, Nate. And of course the "boys" are just about on the verge of hysteria. So, so typical...

Was it worth a few burgers and fries at McDonalds? I think so.

I love the quote at the top of this post.

But just so y'all know.

I'm still waiting on that chaos to order and confusion to clarity part.

I'm just sayin :)