4/52

“A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week in 2015“

 Sophie wanted her horse tucked in to her jacket to stay warm “just like Pickles” (the cat in one of her favorite books, The Fire Cat). 

3/52

“A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week in 2015“

Fifteen minutes outside a day? Check. We didn’t do much, but at least we got out. The year after Sophie was born I (naturally) had nothing but parenting on my mind. I made an Amazon wish list with hardly anything on it but parenting books. I wasn’t expecting anyone to actually buy anything off it, but Jake surprised me with about 20 (mostly) parenting books. One of them was:  Fifteen Minutes Outside: 365 Ways to Get Out of the House and Connect with Your Kids. I’ve been flipping through it sporatically since then and even though I haven’t read it all the way through it’s an excellent resource and a great concept – really just to get your family outside, every day for at the very least 15 minutes, even on cold days, rainy days, and days you don’t feel like you have the time. Some of the activities are a little too old for Sophie at two and a half, but within a year or so I don’t think there will be much she can’t do from the book. When she has learned to read I can imagine her pulling the book off the shelf and picking an activity herself for us to do. For now, I will be picking the ones that I think she will like the best. It’s cold, muddy and wet and a tad bit stinky in our yard right now, but unless the temperature drops down in to the teens or below, my goal is (at least) fifteen minutes outside a day, every day this week. My other goal this week is shooting at least a few pictures in manual setting every single day. I am all about setting unrealistic goals for myself. Yoga every single day? Oh yeah..I’ll totally do that..even though I haven’t done it once in months. I’m trying to break this habit so I can get that sweet satisfaction of actually checking something off a list and acheiving a goal I set for myself.

2/52

“A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week in 2015“

Brushing the snow off of her slide on the snowiest day of winter so far. It took a whole day of convincing to get her to come outside with me but once she finally did she didn’t want to go back in until dark.

1/52

“A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week in 2015“

It was unseasonably warm for January 1st in Iowa this year. After running in circles, spinning and twirling around me for ten minutes, enjoying every second of the crisp wintery air but not allowing me to get a single picture that wasn’t a blur she was cold and ready to go inside. A promise of hot chocolate if she would wear her crown for just a few pictures kept her still for a minute.

It’s been kind of a rough start to the year with all three members of our family getting the flu on the same day. Even on the yucky, grey, never left the house and hardly opened the blinds sick days Sophie has kept us smiling, laughing and “awww-ing” at all the sweet and hilarious things she says and does.

I am excited to participate for the first time in the 52 week project created by the lovely and inspiring Jodi @Practicing Simplicity this year. I’m generally terrible at keeping up with photo projects (I am already behind, this post is days later than I meant it to be!) but I am hoping that the reward of a beautiful photo book of Sophie’s whole year will keep me motivated to stick with this one the way through. It is only once a week, so it should be totally do-able. Wish me luck!