The heart holds so much love and life! Our word for the Camera Club for February was Heart .
Romance… and Parenting
So this week on with.in the word is Romance. With Valentines day this week, yes quite fitting. However Im the type of girl who wants Real.Life.Romance.Every.Day!
What is romance for me?
Love. Marriage. Being An Amazing Father To Our Children. Best Friends. Working As A Team. Little Things. Cooking. Cleaning. Respect. Fun. Holding Hands. Kissing. Hugging. Touching My Face. Massages. Music. Amazingly Hard Working. Talent. Dedication. Creative. Responsible.
Ramance for me is a combination of everyday things that we can do for each other to show we care. Of course the best part of romance is when we have time away from the kids to be completely alone. However just because we have the kids around does not have to take any romance out of the time. I want our kids to see we are in love and that we show appreciation to each other.
The kids. With that comes the parenting. The hardest “job” ever, yet the most rewarding for sure! Today proved to be challenging, very actually and it makes me no less a mom to admit this. The best part is how we handled it as a team once hub’s got home. Of course we all have off days, today proved to be one of our son’s which then affects mom. Our babes is one reason I am no longer looking to expand my photography business yet I am motivating myself to capture more of our own memories. Something both our kids enjoy is looking at and talking about our family photograph’s.
Well that and music lol…
Ah the joys of parenting. But if you can still keep the romance alive even after a crazy day and evening… we’ll make it! Together as a team!
This is the year of growth for me and for our family, lots more changes, but the one constant is the love we all share as a family! As parents and lovers.
Canvas Portraits
A client of mine ordered their own Canvas Portraits so I made myself make a decision and choose what would be our first family portrait on Canvas… I knew I wanted to go HUGE so I wanted it to be right… It is SO right! Hub’s got home tonight and once we got the kids and fur-kid outside to play he went to work hanging the portrait!
(yes the surround sound wires are hanging up around the speakers… remember the puppy my previous post showcased… yes I think that explains?! haha)
Above shows the 24×36″ I got for above our couch… I got it BIG and really its not AS big as I thought it was going to be lol but its awesome. The next size down are two 11×14″ portraits. The perfect size if you want to hang them together or they aren’t going to be hung as a statement piece above one large pice of furniture. I adore my clients two images! The smallest is an 8×12″ portrait of the beach at my grama’s cottage. Love it there. I printed it this size as she keeps it on her desk at home – my reasoning for this piece of art so she can always have the beach and water to enjoy! <3
Growth
This little man… its hard to see the difference in him when I see him everyday, however looking back at his puppy photos I did of him. My gosh the growth… 7 months old and our family, we couldn’t picture our family without him! Yes continued from … Life happens…
Life happens
Its hard to believe that its already the middle of February. We’ve recently just registered our youngest for Kindergarten this fall and our oldest will be venturing into the primary grades!
Valentines Day for us is much like any other day, but of course as he does every year, my hubby sends me flowers. The one time a year I get them and truly do appreciate them as Ive never been much of a flowers type girl. Im the type who enjoys my hosta’s in the garden that come back every year or a nice green leafy plant indoors that can thrive even if I forget to water it ;) We all arrived home and our kids were tired. Parenting doesn’t stop when romance “should” happen. We still enjoyed a relaxing evening together after getting the kids to bed. Thats what matters.
Sitting on the couch last night, much as we do every night after getting the kids to bed, me, hubby and our puppy, I looked at Beck and thought to myself my gosh you have grown AGAIN! Much like seeing the kids everday of our life I never really notice just how much they are growing until I look back in photos – or their clothes don’t fit anymore :P.
Tomorrow is a day which holds two memories, it would have been my dad’s best friends birthday (who was also like a 2nd father to me and my siblings) and it also would have been my granpa’s birthday. It feels like yesterday we had to say good bye to them. Yet its been quite a few years already.
This past weekend we had game nights with the kids, the littlest game on Friday and the oldest game on Saturday, they loved it. It was so, I dont even know how to describe it. We have obviously done alot as a family but with our kids at the ages they are we have never really had a “game night” where all 4 of us sit down and play and entire game start to end – let alone two nights in a row. It was amazing, these little people we have been living with and raising have SUCH amazing personalities, character, smarts, love, appreciation, fun – they are SO much fun and hilarious. We obviously dont have to have “game night” to laugh, these kids make us laugh SO much its awesome the things that come out of their mouths. Even when they know they are hitting our last nerve they look up and say, I love you… yes we turn to mush.
Some photo love of our game nights! We had a blast!
Its these little moments that I will always look back and smile seeing these photos and remember the fun we had, how much we laughed and the complete sillyness!
Capture your own family fun moments… because Life… it happens… and quick!
Happy Valentines Day My Love <3
A photo from our wedding day with a saying which was read by Aunt Patti. Hubby was just telling me how he loves sayings, quotes etc and their meaning and how awesome it would be for them to be on a photo which also holds a lot of meaning!
This is his Valentines Day present :)
Love you baby!
Although I don’t need a “special day” to say how much I care… thats what everyday is for!
Week 1 – “Story” & Growth
I am loving this weekly word. Its really given me the motivation to get posting and sharing my art of photography. Especially my family memories! My story is on going, much like many or all of ours. One word that I was thinking of this past week was growth. I thought all week of how I would photograph this “word” to describe my story. However growth to me is surrounded by my family and we are always growing – the kids and dog literally and us as a family and me as an individual.
So…my story, the title for 2012 is “Growth – By Pamela McLellan-Zmija”.
Growth within myself, as a woman, a wife, mother, photographer and also as a daughter, granddaughter, neice, sister, aunt, and friend. I have always been a very strong willed, independent woman. I am quite happy and proud to have entered 2012 feeling not only strong willed and independent but also happier. Happier within myself with my health which contributes largely to my overall happiness. I am content, again a lot has to do with my health, but also in the move we made as a family last year to our new home. A home that fits “us” perfectly.
Putting all the stresses and difficult times behind us in the many previous years we’ve had through various situations and growing back together as a couple, as parents and as a family. Letting these difficult times be stepping stones to the growth I, and we can achieve together.
This “story” topic couldn’t have come at a better time, as throughout January I, myself and husband as a couple and our family of 4 have already been experiencing amazing growth together. The kids were no longer worried about mommy being tired or sore, which happened a lot, mommy and daddy were able to work so much better as a team and enjoy time together and as a family having fun. Its been a great month (actually couple of months since my surgery).
This photo below perfectly represents “growth” for me in a lot of ways. I took this Saturday night while hub’s and I were relaxing on the couch and as typical once we get our babes to bed, the pup joins us for cuddles on the couch. He has grown so much since we got him in September.
We grow everyday. On Friday our son’s report card came home and although he did quite well, the subjects he excelled in are exactly what hubby and I excelled in when we were in school. It was a proud moment of “growth” for us!
Life Happens and it happens for a reason, some reasons are not clear to us at the time, some we may regret deeply and even those we grow from. Life will always give us stress, test our patience, make us want to scream and prove very difficult when health is involved. However thinking positive and always remembering how much I have to be thankful for will make it all worth it. The good times and the bad.
2012 is truly my year of growth… and love <3
This week’s word is Romance… I am excited! Although Ive already shared romantic photos from when Hubby and I were in Niagara Falls for our mini-moon vacation, I’m excited to capture more which hold “romantic” meaning for me ;) PG 13 of course!
A Woman Like You-Lee Brice
One of hubby’s favourite songs. While I was blogging he joined me in the office and played this song. So I took a few moments and came up with this to remember this song. Word by word he said its so true to his heart. Its a great song and so worth remembering!
Pike Lake celebrates 50 years!
I was honored to have been asked to photograph not only Pike Lake for their company photos (all their employees and the family who operates the business) but I also had the opportunity to photograph the golf course (see my post Pike Lake 50 Years). I was very fortunate to not only photograph their anniversary party, I and my family attended as guests.
Having a busy fall (one family of which being one of the owners of Pike Lake – thank you I cannot wait to receive your Canvases you ordered and deliver them!) I am now taking the time to share the celebrations!
I am very thankful for their great appreciation for Photography and enjoyment of my work! You can view all the photos as a slide show.
Pike Lake 50th Anniversary Celebration Slide Show
They let balloons go in honor and memory of Irv.
If you are interested in golfing at Pike Lake they have some great packages for Golfing and Meals :) Check out their website and tell them Pam sent you!
Parents power + love
I can always count on my kids on days I am feeling down and even on days where I feel on top of the world.
Everything about them is real, honest and innocent. With power and love comes patience. They push, I open my heart, they pull I laugh. They push harder mama has a time out while daddy takes over for 15.
While sitting back tonight during my own self-given 15 min time out in our living room while watching the babes interact with their daddy in the dining room/kitchen… My heart was full of love.
Those minutes that the stress was beginning to take over, yet I continued to stay calm (for their sake and mine) I knew I would be getting home and hubby would be arriving shortly after us. Tag team em! Ha
Its the power of a parent to know when to take that time alone, to tell the other you need some space (and wine) to let you clear you head and come back for the next round.
An evening that could have been taken, could have been ruined if I had given in to the kids power – yes we all know they hold their own power – however that would not have been fun, I had a blast with my family. Life happens. Shit happens. Its how you handle it that makes the difference. :)
