San Diego Family Photographer- Katrinaelizabeth Photography

So one of my very favorite, and very inspiring photographers… Tara Whitney, threw down the gauntlet last month.  She challenged the readers of her blog to join her in a project, to photograph your family- once a month for 12 months!  When I saw the challenge, I was happy to take up the challenge.

I have to admit that this picture was taken in some of the last light of the day back in mid-February!  I told myself that I would try to do our monthly family photo on the first weekend of each month… to have a schedule, but that somehow didn’t happen.  We only have Wesley at our house every other weekend during the school year, and I really wanted him to be in our family photos… so my window for taking these monthly pics, is really narrowed down to about 4 days a month.  But we did it!

Notice that Campbelle is already in her favorite “Hello Kitty” pjs for the night. It was feeling a bit like winter, the evening that I shot these images, so I was able to convice the family to stand still for a whopping 3 images… taken with my timer, while my camera was propped up on the tailgate of my husbands F-150 truck!  I just knew that if the wind happened to blow to hard, that my camera would fall crashing to the ground!  Thank goodness, it was a relatively calm evening.

So here we are!  Campbelle is 4, turning 5 in April.  Wesley is a total pre-teen at 12, and little Rylie is 2.5 and getting ohhh so sassy these days.  Notice the growing belly.  I am now 26 weeks along with my third pregnancy.  I am much larger this time around.  I actually had to purpose to buy maternity clothes last weekend, because I have out grown almost all of my normal pants.  I do have a few pairs of sweats and draw string pants that still fit… but they are too casual for work.  My biggest frustration is that I feel so ding dang tired most days.  I suppose the fact that I am working full time, coming home to 2 kids under 5, and pregnant… may have something to do with it!

I also, haven’t been sleeping very well since my father’s passing.  I wake in the middle of the night… something disturbs me!  Mike is snoring (which he swears he doesn’t do), or the baby starts to wiggle, or I struggle to roll over… but whatever it is that wakes me, my mind won’t rest to let me doze back to sleep.  I rehash conversations, I think about what I would want to say to my father if I had a chance to have one more conversation!  I have also been visited by my brother, who passed away about 10 years ago, in some of these semi-asleep dreams.  With Eric around, I don’t feel quite so alone in this grief.  Then at some point I do eventually fall back into a solid sleep.  The other night, I actually took note of the time, and I was in and out of sleep for about 2 hours, from 2-4 am.

Either way!  I’m exhausted.  I need a vacation!  I want a BIG glass of wine!!  Why is it that we always want what we can’t have??