Charlie Chaplin in downtown Colorado Springs

If you know me at all you know that I LOVE setting up fun Halloween photo shoots for my kids. I let their costume choices guide me when choosing locations and any additional props. I look forward to it all year long and begin planning their shoots the moment they select their costumes. (You can see the previous years shoots here, here, here, and here.) This year my son started to learn about Charlie Chaplin. He became mildly obsessed, reading every biography he could get his hands on and watching more than a dozen of Chaplin's silent movies. One of his favorite characters that Chaplin played is 'The Tramp.' And that's the costume my boy chose this year. We spent months putting the costume together, searching through thrift shops and antique stores for the just right pieces. I knew right away that I wanted to take Ryver's photos in downtown Colorado Springs and that I wanted this to be the first photo shoot that I ever edited entirely in black and white. It just happened to be a crazy windy day for this shoot - but we just used it to our advantage by capturing him chasing his hat the many times it blew off his head. We had SO. MUCH. FUN. I hope you enjoy!

 

New earrings for my girl.

My almost 5 year old daughter wanted to have her ears pierced. She had been thinking about it for more than a year. We always told her that she could do it when she asked - age wasn't as important to us as knowing that she really wanted it. I wanted to make sure that we found the cleanest, safest, least painful way to do it. That's why we went a local tattoo and piercing shop. I'll list my reasons for making this choice at the end of this blog in case you're curious. For everyone else - pictures!!

Big thank you to Crystal who was so patient and sweet to my daughter and my niece!

She made this process as quick and painless as possible. 

I really liked the shop that I chose. Because my daughter is so young they had her come in for a consultation the day before. They wanted her to know what to expect, meet her piercer, see where it'd be done and give her a chance to ask any questions. Then they sent her home to sleep on it. They promised to get her in the next day if she still wanted to have it done. I just love the consideration they showed to my girl. 

If you are looking for a place to have your daughters ears pierced in Colorado Springs I highly suggest you call Crystal at Pens & Needles. 

Alright, now here are my reasons why I decided not to go somewhere in the mall and have Kaia's ears pierced with a piercing gun. 

1. More and more we are finding out the dangers of using piercing guns.

They can't be properly sterilized which can lead to infection. Yuck.

2. I wanted a trained piercer. Someone that has done this for a long time and has a lot of hands on experience. 

3. I wanted it to be as painless as possible. Research has shown that not only are needles a more sterile way to go but they are much less painful then guns which force blunt tip earrings through your lobes.

4. I wanted somewhere clean. Tattoo shops are held to a much higher standard then a store in the mall.

There are a bunch more reasons that I chose to go where I went but I think it's most important to do your own research and choose for yourself. Here's a link to get you started: 

Where Should I Have My Daughters Ears Pierced?

A day in this life - March 9, 2017

For the third year in a row I photographed a day in our life. Just a regular, ordinary, busy, exhausting and crazy fun day. I love to look back on our past documented days (here you can see 2015 and 2016) and see how things have changed. Every year so far has come with massive changes for our family. In 2015 we had only two kids, in 2016 we had added Kelsie to our family and were enjoying life in San Diego. Now here we are in 2017 – Kelsie is almost 2 years old and we are now living in Colorado. In the first home Eric and I bought (13 years ago!) and Eric is no longer in the Navy. 

So many things have changed in the last year that I have had a hard time keeping up. 

I can only imagine what next year will look like.

As usual, spending an entire day with a camera in hand while trying to parent, teach, cook, clean and generally keep the chaos that comes with three kids down to a minimum is exhausting. But as always I feel like it is so worth it in the end. I sincerely recommend that every family do this once a year. It’s incredible to see how things change. And it’s such a gift to be able to look at, remember and to one day share with my children.

Here is a day in our life – Thursday, March 9, 2017.