The week leading up to Christmas was pretty great. I made gluten free gingerbread so the kids could make houses and invite their friends to come make some too. Thursday, when all the house making was planned, there was a huge snowstorm (white Christmas!!) so the party was pushed back to Friday… and not as many kids could come. Zach couldn’t let the pieces go to waste, so there is a huge house sitting on our table waiting to be decorated with the candy we keep pilfering from the bowl. Will it ever happen? Who knows. The gingerbread is pretty tasty, but is much better with the frosting. I’m hoping, for my sake, that the candy and frosting make it on to the house.
The kid sized houses:

Ezra’s

and India’s.

While trying to photograph these, I discovered my main camera body is not working. The shutter fires (maybe) and the mirror flips up (I can hear that), but there is no detail in the file created. Probably the shutter isn’t firing or there’s something terribly wrong with the sensor. These are taken with my back-up body. Man, I sure hope this is a quick and easy fix.

Anyway, this year’s favorite gifts are pictured below. Mostly the home made ones. I’m a little biased towards them.

Zed kept asking for Zombie Underwear… whatever that is. So the older kids and I made some for him. Freezer paper fabric painting sure does come in handy. He wears these over his diapers for now, since he still refuses to sit on the toilet. Why or why is he so difficult?

Harry Potter has also been popular in our house this year. Zed kept asking for a black HP wand, since the one we have is light brown and not HP. So he got his wand and a pair of glasses that hopefully won’t break as easily as the more “real” ones. He had no idea how cool a hat and scarf could be until his Grandma made and sent them to him. He is a true Hogwarts student now… or USC fan.

While living in Australia for a month and watching a large amount of tv, mostly Ben 10, Ezra grew quite fond of the show. So India and I worked on this Omnitrix for him. I saw a few online that boasted holograms and moving parts. All things buit to break and disappoint. So I thought we should make one and make it simple. So that’s what we did. If this thing breaks, I can fix it.

India loves legos, so that was her favorite gift this year. Ezra and I had planned to make her a friendship bracelet kit, but she received a pretty cool clipboard from her teacher at church (with a skier on it). Instead we just got her floss and scissors. Kind of a cop-out, but all these home made gifts were being made at the last minute.

The last photo is of the kids opening their gifts from Aunt Teri. While in Australia we visited the Chinese Garden where the kids dressed up in traditional Chinese clothes. They loved it. So Avatar, especially with the staff. Since then they’ve asked for Chinese dress-ups. While looking online for something to purchase Teri called to ask what she could get the kids. I told her what I was working on and she offered to make them for me! So cool!! The kids love them and have been wearing them around the house. All except for Zed. He must be convinced that his is a cool color. What 2 year old is picky about clothes?? Mine! Maybe I’ll get all of them to wear them and take a photo. Also, maybe I’ll put up one of the shots from the Chinese Garden that inspired all this.

It’s the end of the year and I’m rummaging through all my images. I found this one tuck away in the March file and I think it’s pretty special.
This time of year, this year especially, we’ve been feeling homesick. Oh, probably not homesick. Just missing family. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a full house on Christmas? In my mind at least, having lots of family in my house seems pretty dreamy. Now I’m actually thinking about that and I don’t know where everyone would sleep. See, they just need to live nearby. You hear that?? You all need to LIVE NEARBY!

What can I even say about such a sweet little thing?

After taking the ferry to Manly Beach, we walked from there to Shelly Beach. I guess that was where, if we didn’t have 3 kids in tow, we could have hiked a nice trail through some of Sydney’s urban bush. As it was, the half mile was enough for our children. Here are some pics from that day:

The coolest thing we saw (in my opinion) was this ocean side pool. I guess these are made so people can swim laps without fear of sharks. I don’t know, that’s just a guess. I loved the colors and only wish there wasn’t any wind… and that I had a wider lens (curse you 50mm!).

This is Shelly Beach which had many… you guessed it… shells. Not anything too exotic, just a lot of tiny muscle shells. Muscles cover all the rocks throughout the harbor.

So while in Australia Zach’s brother, Noah, came for a visit. He stayed with us our second week in Sydney. To his surprise, I was still going to sleep around 7:30pm. He thought I was crazy, but it took me about a week and a half to become accustomed to the time zone. While in Oz, we traveled on the famous Manly Ferry. It took us from Circular Quay (pronounced “key”) to the harbor side of Manly Beach. While changing from ferry to ferry at Circular Quay we saw some Aborigines dancing and playing a didgeridoo.

Then Noah decided to get in on the action. He began to dance too.

He tried to get the crowed into it (see Ezra there?), but they all thought he was a crazy American…

Ok, so November is upon us. “Can’t escape November.”- The Office

I have been asked by the few folks I have photographed this season what I do for Christmas card orders. Well, typically I am told which images a client would like for the card and I create something unique.

I’ve been doing a bit of research and I saw a “newspaper” used for a family newsletter. I found a site with a list of the best newspaper design and got inspired to create this:

I’d like to see what could be done for a folded cards’ interior pages (this example is for a 5×7 flat card). What do you think? Are there any designs out there you would like to see offered by Stacie Smith Photography?

Below is what I have uploaded to the card ordering section of all photo galleries to help you choose your favorite card design. You may also have me design something completely custom. Just choose your images and card size and I’ll run with it, showing you proofs each step of the way.

The kids had some great ideas of what they wanted to be for Halloween. India wanted to be a cyborg dragon, Ezra a mummy and Zed Spiderman, then a ghost, then a zombie… and Zach swears that he has never seen me without face makeup on any Halloween (oh, except last year). Ha!

We had a great night terrorizing the neighborhood as politely as we could and only got yelled at once. Some guy who insisted that when anyone’s porch light is off that means “Do not disturb”. Too bad his interior lights were on and he was sitting in the front room, where we could see him. His costume of a grumpy neighbor was a hit. We all felt he kept in character the entire time he yelled at us.

Otherwise it was a banner year, with lots of kids (more than 5) coming to the door. I gave out skin stickers (aka tattoos) skull bracelets, witch fingers, and mustache glasses which were a big hit with Ezra. He loves that there are some left over for him to play with.

Update: I can only claim responsibility for Medusa’s braids. Her mom came up with the rest!

Taken this morning. I had to dress up for “read aloud” day. It is so worth it to see the kids’ reactions. Ha!

Now I’m wondering if I can get through the day without taking it off. The lashes are off… maybe I can get a free burrito bowl at Chipoltle.

The kids’ costume photos to come later.

and they all fit in our new minivan. I guess it’s good for something.

More to share another day. I am currently swimming in Halloween crazy. See you all again soon… unless I’m eaten by a baby zombie.

These two, I am happy to say, will be married in June. Mr. C was India’s teacher for two years so she is excited for me to photograph their wedding. I don’t photograph weddings often enough and I miss feeling the love each couple shares with everyone on their day. Thanks so much for entrusting me with your special day. I think Erin will make a beautiful bride and Mike will be all smiles.

Our arrival in Australia was filled with trying to stay awake until night fall. Once off the plane, we followed the polite Asian guy holding the “Smith” sign. I’ve always wanted to arrive in an airport with a driver there to greet me. We loaded the car then set off in this huge Mercedes Benz van, which would never be seen in the US, driving on the opposite side of the road. We saw glimpses of the city, but we were mostly driving under it through a series of tunnels. Once at the apartment (which would be our September home) we unpacked a bit, checked out the view and balconies then ate lunch of sorts (oatmeal from the thermos anyone?), dressed for church and headed out the door.

The view from the balcony, what we saw most days in the apartment if in the dining room, otherwise we saw the apartment building next to us.

We could see the Sydney skyline if we leaned over the balcony.

The view from inside the apartment.

On our walk to church we were a bit unfamiliar with which way to look while crossing the streets and it was steep, down hill then up! We passed a playground with an impossibly long slide down one of the hills and of course the kids had to go down it once with the promise of returning. I never did get a photo of that slide. Sorry.

We made it to church and enjoyed listening to talks in English! How nice. Although I must say I didn’t pay too close attention, since I hadn’t really slept in the last 24 hours. Ugh. We did meet a guy who had lived many places in the United States and even once lived in Fulerton, CA in the mid ’90′s. When I mentioned I was there often in ’93/’94 he said “Oh for the music scene?” I was shocked. I didn’t expect to find someone familiar with my High School haunts in Sydney, Australia. He knew about No Doubt and Sublime and was curious to know the other bands I liked back then. Off the top, and in my zombie state, I couldn’t think of any other bands. We ended up having a lovely dinner (later in our stay) at their house where I rattled off a few other names, if only for the novelty of hearing a few no-name band names. Suburban Rhythm, One Eye Open, Wash, Supernova. Supernova is actually still around and were on one of the first Yo Gabba Gabba shows, which was created and produced by a couple guys from The Aquabats, another band (Mormon even) from Utah and Cali which were popular at that time.

That first week we spent getting familiar with our surroundings. We returned to the park with the long slide that first day (which was boring for India), then set off on the bus to Balmoral Beach (“The bus stop is on the right side of the street.” “Uh, ok, I think I know which side that is.” Turned out he meant the correct side of the street. Ugh). There is a photograph right where we would sit at Balmoral Beach at this blog page, scroll down to the Balmoral Beach heading. There was a little bridge to an “island” where there are remnants of the old shark net. We learned later that we liked to be on the side of the island which had no shark net. It was amazing, people swimming the length of the beach (even without the net), back and forth, in wetsuits, swim caps and goggles (the water was freezing). Every day we would go, we saw the same man smoke his cigarette, change into his budgie smugglers (slang for Speedo), then swim a length of the beach. Swimming really is the national sport. I have never seen anyone swim like this in California. Maybe it’s because I avoided the beaches in the harbors and bays. Who knows? Sorry again, no photos at the beach we visited the most. We’ll just have to return some day.

One of those days in that first week we took the train to Circular Quay (pronounced Circular key) to see the Opera House up close. I also wanted to walk through the Botanic Gardens. To accomplish this I told Ezra he could look for snails. Well, once he started looking I got nervous about his getting bitten by some strange spider. The day was gray and a bit cold and Ezra was in a state, luckily Zed was asleep. We started to search for some lunch. We were right downtown, which looked like a tropical Boston, with signs of old building along with several modern skyscrapers. The tropical was seen in the foliage, palm trees and ferns in the parks through the city. We found a modern food court at the bottom of a skyscraper with several places to choose from. Japanese chicken teriyaki for India and a meat pie for Ez, you know, cuz it’s what Harry Potter eats. That was the day we decided to see what wheat would do to him. Three days later we found out. Screaming gas pains that came and went for about 2.5 days. Needless to say, he had wheat for those three days only.

Circular Quay with the Harbor Bridge and a Manley Ferry coming to dock behind the kids. Zed zonked out soon after this. If you look right of the Ferry you’ll see Luna Park, an amusement park on the harbor.

Opera House. That’s as close as we got, that day. This photo is a terrible mix of two images. Don’t judge me.

Royal Botanic Garden. Ezra was done soon after this.

To be continued….

This one’s destined for the yearbook. Good choice M.

This shot I think is my favorite from the day. This is so her and she’s wearing her fave, everyday jacket. So glad she brought that along.

A preview from yesterday’s shoot:

I’ve had some time to look through and process a few of my favorites from Saturday’s shoot.  They are all so great, it was hard to choose just a few.

We had fun today.  More to come!

The first thing India said when she entered her rehearsal was “This dress is from France.”  This was said to her teacher, who is male.  I thought “Why is she telling him that?  She tells everyone everything!”  But once we were sitting for the performance and her teacher announced that each of the 4 or 5 classes learned songs written by French composers, I understood why she shared that information.  This dress was purchased online after seeing this exact dress on Design Mom… with her daughter wearing her hair in a similar fashion too.  It was just too cute, and too inexpensive, to pass up.  Who knew it would be so appropriate for India’s cello concert.

Then there was pizza.  We had a great time and enjoyed the performance very much.

These were taken while we waited for India’s cello performance.  The boys were dressed nicely and the sky was threatening rain.  What better time to photograph?  You do know when a storm comes it brings along with it some of the most beautiful clouds.  I always love the contrast between a dark, stormy sky and the warm sunlight near the horizon that often filters through.  We get that sort of beautiful light often in Denver.  I didn’t take advantage of the stormy sky this day, but the light was perfectly soft and bright, making the boys faces open and bright.

Do you remember spending hours making friendship bracelets?  I sure do.  My friend Heather suggested we give this as a birthday gift.  We have a few more to make and give, but I’ll show the one we made along with the directions we copied from Design Mom.  India is very excited to make these herself.  We just need more floss, since we gave it all away!

I would suggest not gluing the paper under the clip of the board.  It was tough letting it dry without getting glued down.  Heather sewed a simple pouch to hold the floss, scissors and instruction paper, which India and I made together.

As stated before, the instructions were taken from Design Mom, but we didn’t include the last few steps… We were in a hurry and finishing this up minutes before the party.  There may have been yelling heard from the street.  “Hold the thread like THIS, I can’t see it well enough!”  Not one of my best moments.  Apologies were made to the poor girl.

My two kiddos back in school.  The middle child in Kindergarten.  Wow, what a difference my days are.  Now I must keep my littlest occupied and running around so he’s wiped out enough to sleep at night (I haven’t been successful with this yet).  Oh and Ezra is battling a bad attitude.  Every day he thinks he’s had no fun.  It’s especially pronounced now that school is here.  I try to convince him we did have fun, that is makes everyone sad when he complains about what we all enjoyed, that he needs to enjoy the time we have with kids even if they aren’t our best friends.  I hope this is helping him and that he can iron out the kinks of his moodiness.

Summer is over.  At least in the Smith house.  We are headed back to school and the kids are so excited.  Well.  India is so excited.  Ezra isn’t jumping up and down to start kindergarten.  He’s not quite sure what to expect.  We’ll see… wish us luck!

Zed.  He loved the water and sand.  Every once in awhile he’d get knocked over by a tiny wave (if you could call it that), but would just need a hug then back in the water.

Me in my new swimsuit.  I’ve been asked twice if this suit is a dress.  Ha!

Tige trying out the skim board.  Those things are tough and I always feel like I’m going to loose it.  Not for me, I’ll stick with a boogie board.  But the lack of waves made for a pretty uneventful day.  I guess that is a good thing.  The kids were a bit disappointed, but in the end I think this was much easier for the parents and little ones.

A smile from this boy… amazing.

Sand in hair.

The most picturesque beach shower.  Zach being a clown for the kids.

All our many finds, minus the live crab who lived in the tub for about 2 hours.

At the pool, Zed trying to eat this thing.  I ended up finishing it up for him.

The boys in the pool.  Ez always gets so cold.  At least his lips aren’t purple.

On the beach at Fort Story, just north of Virginia Beach.  Lightning storm approaching.  Crabs scurrying.

The boys and I went for a walk at sunset.  The adventure finally ended when the crabs became just a whisper across the sand… and my exposures went too far under.  Enjoy the digital grain!

Here are some of my favorite images from last week’s shoot.  There are more that I love, but these rise to the top.

We began at the newer farm house, if you are familiar with the Littleton Historic Museum.  Technically we weren’t allowed to photograph near the buildings, but we were quick and only got shooed out of one space.  Even so, we were rewarded with this gorgeous image:

The school house was extra special and since it is off the beaten path, there weren’t any visitors disturbed by our presence.

The field with the sheep!  I guess I didn’t choose one with the sheep in the shot.  Oh well, you can check it out in the online gallery.

How can I catch up?  It has been months since I have posted anything about our summer.  I still have the images from India’s birthday and party that haven’t made it up.  Not to mention the kids’ last day of school.  Ugh.  Well, here’s the “best of” photographs from the summer months:

India’s birthday party at the Adam’s Mystery Playhouse.  The kids really enjoyed the show.  I highly recommend this type of a party.  We only invited 5 kids which made it very affordable.

On the right is India’s passport photo.  The kids got passports in anticipation of our trip to Sydney, Australia in September.

From the top right: Ezra and his pals on the last day of school.  India at the Childrens Museum.  We visited a few times thanks to Ken who worked there just before moving to San Fran.  The boys got hair cuts, there is Zed in a fire truck getting his cut.  Ezra showing off his do while eating a taco at Chipoltle.  Zed posing for the camera, almost a Spock thing going.  Zed helping Anson retro fit the bathroom vanity which I stripped and varnished myself, thank you very much.  Thanks to my dad’s input.  The tile Anson put together for the hall bath.  I must find the before shots for this bathroom.  Anyone who has been to our house knows it is a night and day transformation.

Ezra demonstrating the robot dance for the camera, after a week at hip hop camp.  India in her costume after performing her skit she made up with friends in the theater camp.

Grandma and Grandpa Smith’s weekend visit was a blast.  Too bad it was so short!

ok, now I just need to post some shots from our 4th of July trip to Virginia and I’ll be caught up!

Yesterday we spent some time at the Littleton Historic Museum, an old historic farm.  The kids explored with a very fun friend, whom they wish to spend more time with.  It’s true Emma, Ezra asked several times why we don’t see you more often.  I photographed Megan while the kids played.  We were all doing our favorite things.  Here’s a little preview:

There is much more to come…