This is what happens when you try to take a decent photo for a thank you card to grandparents. These adorable Pottery Barn chairs were gifts to our three for Christmas and new covers for Valentine’s day - anyway - wouldn’t it be cute to take a photo of all of them in their chairs? It would be. If it worked. Oh well. It was worth a try - and what better addition to snapshot week?

Here they are, totally out of birth order, not smiling nicely, and most certainly not sitting in their perfect little chairs.

No, the snow day itself wasn’t sad, the fact that we literally had only one this year was sad. Here are the girls with their snow girl…you have to know that any 5 and 7 year old girl will refuse to make a snowMAN. Why make a snowman when you can make a snow girl or a snow princess? And staying strong with the theme of this week - point and shoot.

Here they are with their typical expression any time they KNOW the camera is aimed at them.

Today’s post is just a sweet candid moment I stumbled upon between Steve and Drew. Again, not a pro photo - taken with my point and shoot. That’s what this weeks blog post theme is - point and shoot. Just so long as I’m shootin’! This photo really doesn’t need a lot of blah blah from me. It’s just a photo that I love - taken about a week ago.

I’m on a roll for getting some family photos online. I do have some client work to post as well - but I have this folder full of our winter break fun, a day at the park last weekend, and we can’t forget Zoey’s big day at the regional spelling bee. So, hang tight. Let me just get this folder cleared out and then next week I’ll update everyone with some client images. My goal this week is to post once a day. I know it’s Tuesday, but yesterday was a holiday which threw me. We spent an entire day just the five of us, hanging out at the park. I didn’t clean. I didn’t retouch even one photo. It was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed the park, a trip to the dentist (okay, maybe that part wasn’t so much fun), a picnic, and a little family hike. Great fun. I’ll post some of those pictures later this week.

Now, back to LAST week. Zoey qualified for the regional spelling bee (which she wanted no part of) but we figured she should give it a try. It was an honor for her to be asked to participate, and we figured it’d be good for her confidence to at least try. The words were reeeally hard and I think 13 of the 16 contestants in her division were out with the first word, including Zoey. Congrats to those who kept on spelling, those were some tough words and everyone did a great job!

So… a little more background to the following pictures. Zoey has been asking to get her ears pierced since she was five. Steve and I thought that eight would be an decent age and had planned on doing that for her eighth birthday. Well, the spelling bee came up, along with having to have a cavity filled, and two teeth extracted, all in the same week. She also has been doing a GREAT job with our little reward program where she earns points for good behavior. With such a big week, and such bravery and courage on her part, we wanted to do something for her - and she really wanted her ears pierced. So, that’s just what we did. Our little girl is starting to look all grown up! Below are some pictures of her spelling bee and ear piercing adventure which we all went on, including the grandparents. I’m sure the Nomad guy thought we were nuts - with our entire family and a camera to capture the whole experience. If you are in central Oregon and need any piercing done, go to Nomad. It’s on the corner of 8th and Greenwood. He was great with Zoey and the place is SO clean and sterile. It was a very good experience and Zoey didn’t even wince when he pierced her ears.

And one funny note, as to the title of this post. The people at the spelling bee spelled Zoey’s name wrong on her certificate of participation. Ha! I really didn’t care, but it was way too funny not to take note.

These were all taken with my cheapy point and shoot, so they are not the quality I typically post - these are just for fun.

After the spelling bee - proudly holding her Zoe certificate of participation, and relieved to be done with the whole ordeal: (Sorry about the funky coloring on this picture - ugh, point and shoots are frustrating!)

Before getting her ears pierced, one last look at herself:

Look at that brave girl - needle through the ear and not even a whimper:

One ear down:

And there she is - all pierced and ready to take on the world: