Miles Is 4

Miles,

You turned 4. Despite my best efforts to keep you 3, you've gone and grown, and turned 4. You're such a cool kid, and as I look forward to what four may bring, I have to look back at three and remember the things I don't want to forget.

When you were three and someone asked you how old you were, you held up three fingers. Not the normal three fingers that most everyone else holds up. You would extend your index finger, your middle finger and your pinky with your ring finger held down by your thumb. Yup, number three was with your pinky, not the ring finger. It was super cool. I think I'll hold up those three fingers for the number three from now on.

When you were three, you sucked your thumb. Not that I believe you'll never have sucked your thumb at four, because I'm sure some of the times that I'll find you hiding under your "me" you may be doing just that. But, I'll miss that you sucked it while sitting on the couch early in the morning or before bed or when you're just plain exhausted at the end of a long day and you would curl up in your "me" and pass out, sucking your thumb. Sucking your thumb meant you were small, little, too little to be a "big boy". But, now that you're 4 and you've given that up, I guess I have to come to grips with that fact. You really are a "big boy".

When you were three, you called "gloves", "glubs". It's the best. You haven't given that one up yet but I can't imagine it's going to last too much longer with your big brother always asking, "why does Miles say "glubs" instead of gloves"?!" just after you say it. Every time.

When you were three, you were totally into super hero's. I don't think that's changing anytime soon. I'm not sure when you'll grow out of that, if ever. You love to dress up as Spider Man, Iron Man, Batman, Superman. You would love to be The Hulk but we don't have one of those costumes. I guess I could paint you green one day. You would probably love that. You love to battle with swords and lightsabers. Battling in any form is another one of your favorite things to do.

When you were three, you LOVED Hot Wheels cars. We have a ton of cars, you can't seem to have too many. You just love them. All of them. You know which one's are yours, which one's are your brother's. When we were in Michigan you even knew which one's were Nana's and Papa's. You have heats between the cars on your 4-lane raceway. We race cars on the driveway and in the great room. You love to race them on tracks. I think I could safely say that cars are your favorite toy.

When you were three, you would stroke my face and say "mama, mama". You would pet me and tell me that you love me. I asked you the other day if when you were four, you were going to stop doing that. You told me that you would never stop. That you would do it until you were 100. I hope that's true.

You are one of the most patient people I know. Even at this young age. You can sit and wait for hours if needed. It's pretty amazing. You're content to hang out with me, no matter where I am. Watching your brother practice Tae Kwon Do, hanging out while I buy a new phone, working in Mason's classroom. You just hang out. You don't cause trouble, you don't complain, you don't whine that you want to go home. Well, every once in a while you do that but it's usually when you're either not feeling well or really tired. I hope that's not just a quality of three but something you carry with you all of your life.

At three you loved music, to wrestle and your "me". You loved being outside, riding your tricycle and playing soccer. You loved reading books, playing cars and watching movies, taking showers, having your face painted and getting filthy when camping. You had your first day of school. You went water skiing for the first time and went sailing with daddy. You wanted to be a Treasure Hunter when you grow up. You, at three, was awesome. Oh, and you love to say "awesome." So, as sad as I am to let go of three and all of the cool things that we experienced together, I'm excited to see what four is all about.

I love you Miles. And as you tell me, I love you all the way to God's head, and back again.

Here are some of my favorite shots that daddy and I took of you over the last year.

Friday Inspiration - Yvette Hawkins

I love books. Everything about them. How they contain so much information in such a little space. How someone can basically share large parts of their mind and imagination through such a small vessel. I love small, itty bitty tiny books. I love large, thick substantial books. I love books filled only with words that can transport you to other worlds and I love books filled only with images that do the same.

Did I say that I love books? I DO!

Almost more than books, I love art made with books. I used to have a journal that was made from an old book. The cover was salvaged and mounted on thick board and then spiral bound around lined pages just for me to fill. I had it for some time before I even used it. I do that. I buy journals to write in before my old ones are even half full. I'm a sucker for a good journal cover. That's the truth.

But, back to art made from books. I think what I like so much is that no matter what the art piece, that has been made from the pages of a book, I know that there is a deeper level to the art. There are the words on the page. Sometimes it's random. The artist just put the pieces together independent of what the words say, mean. Other times it's completely purposeful. They've picked that exact book, those exact pages, those exact words, to emphasize their piece.

I stumbled across this artist the other day and if you could guess, she creates art from books. I was looking through Etsy, one of my favorite online marketplaces of ALL time, to gather ideas for wall art. (Valentine's Day is coming and I needed a little inspiration.) I found a piece that Yvette Hawkins had for sale and had to visit her website. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Not only does she make small individual pieces but she makes huge installations. That's where my heart sings. I LOVE the big pieces. The one's that fill a room, gallery space or storefront window.

I definitely gathered some inspiration and now I think I need to visit a used book store for some materials!

Friday Inspiration - Harbin Ice Festival in China

Matt just sent a link to this photograph from the Harbin Ice Festival and I think it's AMAZING. So amazing that I had to immediately google the festival to find more images to view.

I happily stumbled across a blog, "lifeisreallybeautiful", that had some great photo's that may be from the original Reuter's article or not, I can't quite tell.

The city is located just below Siberia and is COLD. Temperatures average -2°. This year temperatures have dropped to -34°. Oh my gosh cold!! The festival just opened a couple of days ago on the 5th and will run for one month. I think I could suffer through the cold to add this to my list of "must see" places in my lifetime. I think. The lights in the ice are just spectacular. Matt, are you up for it?

The blog also linked to a video from Youtube that I have to share. The link was for the first video and is from a few years ago, but it gets the point across. It's a fast pace look at the entire festival. I got a little motion sickness 2/3's of the way through but I think I saw a woman standing near a sculpture with a deer on a leash. Yes, a deer. The second video is from this year. Not quite as exciting but current!

Enjoy and Happy Friday!

Rylee

I seem to find the camera in my hand a lot these days. Not that I'm not designing albums. I am. In fact I'm WAY overdue in posting any of the albums I've designed over this past year. (I will be rectifying that soon!) But, for now, having the camera in my hand is what I've needed.

While in Michigan we were finally able to meet our newest member of the family. Rylee. She's Paul and Liz's first baby girl and oh, is she cute! She officially makes cousin number 12 in the long list of boys and girls of the Reoch clan. In fact, she had the chance to keep the scales even if she had been a boy, 6 and 6. No luck, now we're at 5 and 7 but wouldn't have it any other way.

Thankfully I was able to find a quiet moment on the morning of the first day that Paul and Liz arrived, before everyone else found their way to the house, to take some photo's. We never did have another chance so now I just have to wait until the next time we see her.

Here are my three favorites from the shoot.

Sounds From The Ice

I'm sure at least some of you can relate when I say I have a ton to do to wrap up 2010 before I can jump full swing into 2011. There are photo's to edit, blogs to post, albums to share. Bookkeeping to stay on top of, software to update, phone calls to make.

There seems to be this feeling of unrest that I have as I start the new year. Not a bad feeling, but one that is stirring inside of me. A feeling of wanting to complete things. All of the things that I have placed on my list.

I'll start slow and hopefully build up some momentum as the days/weeks go by. For now, I'm settling back in to life after being away for 10 days. We spent the Christmas holiday in Michigan with Matt's family. I have photo's and stories to share that maybe, hopefully, will make it from etherial thoughts to concrete words on a page.

While sorting through the myriad of things there are to do upon being back, I wanted to post one photo. Matt's parents live on a lake and to my delight it was frozen thick enough to walk/skate across for most of our visit. I had been on the frozen lake once before a few years ago but there was something different about it this time. It was more beautiful for some reason. I had never really stood on a frozen lake before. Just being, enjoying the beauty of it. Then, while being quiet and taking it all in, the sounds began. The sounds of the ice cracking in places and the water below the ice. The water made the most incredible haunting sound I have ever heard. It was as if there was a laser battle happening underneath my feet. It was sci-fi and beautiful and unlike any other sound I've ever heard. I could have stood there on that lake and listened to it for hours.


Happy New Year everyone. May 2011 bring you everything you desire.

Here is a small recording of the "sounds from the ice" while Mason took a walk across the lake.

Right In My Own Frontyard

I have had the conversation more than once. With more than one mom and more than one dad. The conversation about not having any photographs of their entire family together.

I can relate to this.

So often we're out, enjoying ourselves as a family and taking pictures. There are the one's of the boys, the one's of Matt and the boys and the one's of the boys and me. Rarely, if ever, do we ask a stranger to take our picture. I do recall doing that on our last camping trip. The one to Sequoia National Park. We hiked up to an incredible waterfall. Once we were at the falls, we actually slid down the rock face with the boys to plunge ourselves into the ice cold water at the base of the falls. The group of people camping next to us happened to be there as well and we asked them to take our picture with their camera in hopes that they would email it to us someday. I'm sure they had every intention to do so, but, life gets busy and we've still never seen that photograph.

So, the only way that I know to have a family portrait taken, is to schedule it with a photographer! We did go out with the Sossaman's for a "photo shoot" one day not too long ago where we took pictures of their family and they took pictures of ours. They are the only recent photographs of the four of us we have and I love seeing all of us together. A snippet of time captured on film.

Now that it's the "Holiday Season" it seems like that little alarm is going off in most peoples minds. The alarm that says they want to send out a holiday card with a photograph of their family. For some, maybe most, this is the one time of year they send out a picture to let the people they love and their extended families see how they've changed and how the children have grown.

Well, last week, one of our close friends asked if I would take their family portrait. She had the alarm going off. Monica lives across the street with her husband and three kids. They're from Ireland and well, they're just awesome. All of them. After I was talking to her about the shoot, what they might wear or where it might be, I walked out her front door to cross the street to go home. At that moment, I saw our neighborhood, our street in a different light. I saw it as the perfect scene for their pictures.

The leaves are beautiful. Yellow and red. The weather has been perfect and overcast and gray and best of all it was right there. In our front yard!

They were so easy to photograph. Monica dressed all of them in blue which against the golden yellow of Fall was amazing. I just love how their personalities shined through, and I have to say that I loved the location. Not only was it beautiful but I had to walk about 20 steps to get there.

Here they are, in all of their glory...The Feely's

Wearable Foods - Yeonju Sung

Once again my husband has shared an incredible artist. He just sent a link to the work of Yeonju Sung. Born in Seoul in 1986 these creations definitely challenge reality.

Reading the bio and artist statement, it is clear that the entire process is a study in reality. Yeonju talks about how photography is truly the element of her work. That her pieces have decomposed by the time a photographic print is made. How the photograph tests reality for people because it gives the viewer a false sense that the piece is still in existence.

I absolutely love this body of work. Here are my two favorites. I hope you visit her site to see the rest of the collection HERE.

Enjoy!

BUBBLE GUM #2

EGGPLANT