The Family Room {Home Edition}

Do you have a room in your house that's a special room? A room where kids can play and be wild and school can be done and family members can enjoy each other? A room that's houses the TV and the wii and also functions as the prayer room and mud room? Well we do and it's called our Family Room.

Taken with Dad's iphone in July:

Max wins the family game night trophy.

August 2011:

Earlier this week:
This next picture is my entry for {A Photo} Challenge:

I didn't know that Joey would round the corner and start running towards me, which explains why he's out of focus, but I still find this so cute!

Yesterday:

Toys are typically strewn across the family room floor :)

I let Benny use my camera to take a picture of me. It was supposed to focus on me, but I like how it turned out!

Don't know what this face is for!

I love our family room.

~Mary Kate

Dear Family,

I hope you know just how much I love you. 

I love the good times and the bad.

I love the craziness the goofiness and the adventurous parts of our life. 

I love the sweet moments, the beautiful memories, our prayer times and our dinners together.

And I wouldn't trade you for any family in the world :)

Cecilia, 

I love your sweet side and your adventurous spirit. 

I know we can drive each other crazy but I hope you know what you mean to me.
I love all the games we've played together and the memories we've made.
I can't believe you've started high school.
Are you really turning 14 this year?


John Paul,

My crazy, sweet, food-obsessed, strong-headed, not-so-little little brother.
You've grown up a lot this year and I'm proud of you.
Thanks for taking over the imagination department and making up games for your four younger siblings.
I love the fact that you're an 11 year old boy how knows how to cook dinner, fold laundry, change a diaper, put a baby to sleep, and have lots of boyish fun with your younger brothers.


Max,

You are so very sweet and loving.
You are growing up so fast, but you're still a cute little kid :)
You're the youngest of the oldest and the oldest of the youngest!
I love playing games with you and making crafts together.
Mr. Almost 9 year old, don't grow up to fast, okay?


Rosie,

Thanks for being my model for lots of photo shoots.
Despite being sandwiched between four boys, you are the most girly girl I know.
I'm so proud of the beautiful garden your growing in your heart for Jesus.
I love the fact that you desire to dress modestly.
You are becoming such a good student Miss 6 year old.


Benny,

Why is this one of my favorite pictures of you? Because you are so stinkin' cute!
You make the most hilarious faces and comments.
I love cuddling with you and reading to you.
You've been full of surprises since the moment you decided to enter this world on August 14th 2007 and have a 12 day hospital stay as a little preemie. It sure was hard to have to wait 12 whole days to get to hold you.


Joey,

Hello Mr. Youngest! You have turned from a baby to a little boy this year!
You've just begun to get vocal (although you still don't really say anything).
You are contstantly trying to catch up with your older siblings.
We think you may be the first left-handed member of our family, but maybe not
I love your pouty face, it is the best pouty face ever!

You are all so cute, sweet and wonderful!
Love
Your big sister, Mary Kate

Today

~
Today I figured out how to get an awesome white background.

Today I played with my little brother.

~

Today I sat with my mom and planned my vintage themed 16th birthday party.

Today I went to Mass.

~

Today I went outside and used the overcast lighting for the perfect pictures.

Today I saw my dear friend Jess.

 ~

Today I forgot about my piles of Math and relaxed.

Today I watched Veggie Tales.

~

Today I washed my uniform and packed my backpack.

~

Today was a good day. 

Thank You Jesus for today!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Linking up the third photo with:                            

and linking up the last photo with: 

And for anyone who is curious as to why I took a break from allowing comments read this post: Changes

~Mary Kate

Photo Story

Today the photo I'm sharing is not my best photo by far (actually it's a pretty bad photo), but it does have a story so I'm linking up with:

Last night as I was cleaning my desk before bed I found this surprise waiting for my on my curtains:

Now, for those of you who live where there are much bigger and scarier spiders, don't laugh. This thing almost killed me! We get these spiders in our basement (and sadly my bedroom is in the basement) and they are the biggest spiders we have. Of course I must kill the horrible beast. However in my photo obsessed head, I decide to get my camera and take a picture of it first. And then I spend about five minutes decided how to get rid of it. In the end I used an index card box to trap it and then I disposed of it. (I'm sorry if any of you are against spider killing, but when it's in my bedroom...)

And since this photo will totally ruin my photography reputation if seen alone, I must add one of my actually good photos:

And then to further prove what I can do, I'm linking up with Macro Friday:

It's not my most recent photo, but I just recently edited it:

~Mary Kate

Randomness

Hey guys! I know I've been MIA lately but with all my school work my free time is limited. I've sort of taken a small break from photography, I think I took 5 pictures this whole past week and a half. But that's okay. Sometimes it's good to have breaks.

Theme: Focus 

Macro of the frayed edges of a rose pillow I made.

 

Theme: That You Are Proud Of

I went out after a storm and saw the puddles of water on our deck and the loved the green reflection, I love the way it turned out.

 I know for both of the challenges they ask you to blog hop around and comment on others and I do try and comment on other blogs, however for those of you that don't know, I disabled the comments on my blog a little while ago. I did this because I needed to step away and put my focus more on my relationships and faith life rather than photography and this blog. (You can read more about it here: Changes).
Thanks for visiting!
~Mary Kate

I've been loving...

Beautiful light...

A clean family room and books...

My SAT prep book (it's so helpful!)...

My YouCat that came...

Silly, cute little brothers with amazing light for the perfect pictures...

my personal favorite. :) shows his wacky personality (he's 4)

Beautiful eyes...

Can you see our chimney reflected in his eye?

At some point in the next few weeks I will be renting a 50mm lens and then taking 1 year old portraits of my cousin and 1 year anniversary portraits for the same couple I did last year for their engagement portraits. (All for free, for gifts and for my portfolio and practice).
~Mary Kate

Only a Week Late

I completely missed this past week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday deadline, although I did get all five photos. So I wanted to share them even though I couldn't link up.


Stairs

I used one from my archives, taken a year ago at  Ocean City NJ

Macro

My new lovely pink stapler :)

Clouds 

The beautiful clouds that were over the Chesapeake Bay.

Abstract

Originally this photo was an up close of the end of my new book. I thought I would edit it to make it look more abstract and I like how it turned out.

Smile

Can you see the smiley face?

 ~Mary Kate