Smile!

You know, there is simply no greater joy, other than mothering, than photography for me right now.  I love all things picture related and simply love catching moments on "film."  Lily Grace is of course one of the most enjoyable subjects to photograph, but getting her to stay still and smile all in one exposure is somewhat impossible.  Catching the movement is not the problem, I have a special camera for that, its the smiling.  It is so hard to convince a smile instead of a blank stare.  Lately I have been trying to teach her to smile by being silly and making a big smiley face then saying "can you do that Lily?"  Well, here is what "smile" in Lily's mind means.

Yeah, I know its cute.  Fact is....she's cute.  She was all about "smiling" today so I had the camera snapping each moment I could.  She is such a doll and so busy.  When she is not trying on any pair of shoes she can find (today, Daddy's were on the agenda), she is reading, talking, singing, or being "Siddy, Yiddy."  Yes, that is how Silly Lily sounds coming from the mouth of babes.

We have started the process of trying to catch some good family photos for this year's many photo needs.  On our way up the mountain last weekend, we stopped at a few places to snap some great photos of us.  With the temperatures so cold over the weekend, many of the trees up at altitude were snow covered and just beautiful.

We stopped along the section of road that was burned by the Lower North Fork Fire and snapped some amazing shots.  The trees are black and leaf less, but the white snow creates this beautifully breathtaking landscape.  It really was astounding.  Bob and I thought that the burned trees were actually more beautiful than the healthy trees.  There was just something about the stark contrast between the black trees, white snow and blue cloudless sky that drew you in.  Thank goodness pictures are free because we took a ton of them.

Being in the mountains suits all of us Longmires well and brings out some of the best smiles we have.  I couldn't help but take a few moments and capture some of the ways our world smiles around us too.  It's the simple things that always remind me even in the dark times we face, life is beautiful.