Alisa Groves Photography |Blog| » My life

Elf on the Shelf

Alisa — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:32:03 +0000

There is a tradition starting up for a whole swack of families this year. If you haven’t heard about it, visit Elf on the Shelf and see what all the fuss is about. I first read about these elves a couple of years ago – but it’s now catching on huge around here. We got our own elf a few days ago. After my son stopped questioning why it didn’t have pointy ears like a proper elf, the kids decided on his name. Pickles. The next morning, we found him munching on one. I wasn’t sure if my 7 (almost 8) year old daughter would really believe that Pickles was Santa’s magical scout and would report back to him at the North Pole every single night. I mean, c’mon. She’s smarter than that, isn’t she? Nope. She bought in. And so did my 5 year old son (although I wish he was more threatened by Pickles’ ability to report bad behaviour). Every morning, I can hear my daughter sneak downstairs to find him – and then I hear her giggling. Well worth the 5 minutes I spend at the end of the night deciding what to do with that elf. There are loads of ideas to be found on the internet – but if you get stuck, look in your kids’ toys and you’ll come up with something. I found a Barbie coffee mug in our playroom and voila – Pickles made us coffee the next morning (thanks to auto brew on the trusty Cuisinart ;)

On Facebook this morning, I saw a link to a blog post about the Elf craze, more specifically “Over Achieving Elf on the Shelf Mommies”, and man, it’s a funny read. Thought I would share it here, in case you need a good laugh today ;)

Hallway Display

Alisa — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:18:37 +0000

Two years. That’s how long we’ve lived in this house, and that’s how long this wall was empty!! It bothered me every time I walked down our front hall. I had a vision for it, though. I wanted to have a gallery of framed prints of our family. I LOVE those gallery wall displays you always see in magazines, where everything looks perfectly hung and measured, and it all fits together like a puzzle… but I had no idea where to begin with this particular wall, which has awkwardly placed light switches and a thermostat control. Any layout that I imagined, they were in the way. Drove. Me. Nuts. But with some new amazing family photos to work with (see my next post on the blog), I was determined to get SOMETHING done with that wall! I learned a couple of things in the process. First – if you’re going to use a photo ledge, make sure the frames aren’t too top heavy. I had some prints made and had them all framed to put on that ledge but realized they would probably end up conking one of the kids on the head the first time they trampled down the hall. So I put a much lighter canvas there for now (which has been leaning on the floor in my office, unhung, since I ordered it a year ago. OMG – how bad is that!). The second thing I learned – GET YOUR IMAGES ON THE WALL, or the mantle, or anywhere else you have in mind, just get them UP. I have a couple of canvas displays in our home that I love, so it’s not like all our walls are bare (which would be pathetic for a photographer’s own home, right? ;) but this one wall was a challenge that I procrastinated on. I absolutely love this hallway now. It makes our home so much more inviting AND the great thing is that I WILL add to/rearrange this display with more framed prints as the years go on (the shelf will probably be replaced with hung frames). It’s not perfect, but I got a start on it… finally!

p.s. That 12×18 canvas that sat forever in my office? It’s a photo I took of my daughter skateboarding last summer – she has a very confident, “I’m so cool” look on her face (and my son running behind her). It’s one of my favourites of her because it’s such a true, “life is good” expression on her face. I’m ashamed that I let it sit unseen for so long. I’m glad to have it out where I can see her confident grin every day ;)

Better late than never!

Alisa — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:04:33 +0000

I know it’s a day AFTER Halloween, but hey – I’ve been busy and I’m just happy that I actually took photos of my kids in their costumes! My CUTE little nephew joined them. He’s the one with the giant blue eyes ;) I hope everyone had a super fun Halloween!!!

Summer Begins

Alisa — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:21:36 +0000

For five years in a row, we’ve kicked off the summer with a trip out to Kelowna. June just wouldn’t be the same without a week at our usual spot! It’s seriously like stepping back in time. Retro cabins, free range kids, roasting marshmallows every night, NO INTERNET! But it just might be the last summer these cabins will be open. We’ll have to wait and see… and cross our fingers that this place will be around for another year! We go with several other families that we know (there were 7 this year) and it is always such a great time. Lots of memories are made every year. The kids have sooo much fun together, and the adults get to relax and enjoy each other’s company. And wine ;)

This year, I actually managed to get a group shot of the kids AND the adults! My 7 year old daughter took the adults photo so that I could actually be in it (thanks, B!). The kids photo is extra special, though. They’ve all got their “Bouch Challenge” medals around their necks. The Challenge was the brainchild of a couple of the dads. The kids had to jump off the end of the doc and swim to the floating doc and back again (easier said than done for a little kid in really cold water). Some of the smaller kids had an abbreviated version ;) The medal was a HUGE hit. They were all so proud of it. If we’re there next year, there’s big talk about expanding the Bouch Challenge to several different events. The kids better start training.

So summer has officially started for us! And it’s going to be a great one :) I hope yours is too!

Cousins – Edmonton Child Photographer

Alisa — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:14:56 +0000

My nephew was in town for Easter! He’s already 4 months old, but he had yet to meet his big cousins (my own two kids). It was so cute to watch them “play” with Nicholas. I am so glad that I took a few minutes to do a mini photo session with them all together. These will be images that they’ll look at years from now and say “Holy smokes, look how cute you were back then, cuz! What happened?” LOL.

His Cape – Edmonton Children’s Photographer

Alisa — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:59:38 +0000

Every 4 year old boy should have a cape. It instantly turns them into a superhero. My son can do pretty much anything in his cape and not get into trouble – because he looks so cute running away with that cape flowing behind him. This afternoon, he wanted to be a superhero with markers. Normally I would be a tad upset with him for colouring all over himself, but he was wearing the cape. So I took pictures instead ;) Then he found the iPod and the markers were history…

Then his sister got home from school and added her artistic touch:

The Laundry Can Wait…

Alisa — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:43:52 +0000

This morning I had two things on my “to do list” that I had been putting off for a couple of days. The laundry, and a self portrait assignment for a photography group that I’m part of. I started off with the laundry… and noticed a great backlighting possibility for a shot. I set up the camera, and called Coen over. He noticed the camera right away and started giggling, just happy to be a part of whatever it was I was attempting to do.

My son is 4 years old. He’s home with me during the day (except for preschool, of course) and there are lots of times I take that for granted. He’s going to grow up as fast as his sister seemed to do, and be in school full time. I’ll be home alone (okay, not alone since my husband works from home as well, but he’s in the basement office and only comes up a handful of times a day). Sure, I’ll be able to get a lot more work done during the day than I do now, I’ll be able to take on more photo sessions, and hopefully become a super-organized-wonder-mom-of-two-with-a-crazy-clean-house…. but now is my time to just enjoy Coen being around me (and wanting to be around me!). For now, I’ll keep my routine of editing in the evenings and doing sessions on weekends, I’ll have a less organized house than I would prefer, and I’ll put off doing laundry for a moment so I can hang with the cutest little guy I know…

I’m One Proud Aunt!

Alisa — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:00:37 +0000

… and an even prouder sister. My big sister became a mom for the first time on December 4th. She’s always been a super fantastic Aunt to my own two kids, but seeing her with her own little boy really made my heart happy. I was in Ottawa last week to meet the adorable little Nicholas. And I took many, many photos, of course. I am so excited and thrilled for my sister and her husband. They are going to be amazing parents to this little guy. And I can’t wait to see him again!

Happy Halloween! Disney Style :)

Alisa — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 23:50:52 +0000

We were in Disneyland last week having the absolute best time. I will be sharing more photos from our trip – when I’ve caught up on my client galleries ;) But I realized about 20 minutes ago that I should totally post some photos of Disneyland all dressed up for Halloween. Now to get my kids dressed up for Halloween!!! I hope everyone has a safe and happy one!

All of these photos (except for one) were taken with the Nikon P7000 point & shoot. It was nice to be free of my big heavy camera for most of the week!

Moms – What would you tell yourself?

Alisa — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:08:03 +0000

I saw this video on YouTube today and wanted to share it with my blog followers (I’m sure most of you are moms!). It’s a great reminder of everything we’ve all learned about being a mom – and what we wish we knew from the beginning! So if you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, what would it be? There’s lots of things I would want to say …