Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

Day 56 of my 365 Photo Journal SNOW DAY!!! As exciting as that is, it's been pretty warm, so it's more like a slush day. But that doesn't stop the kids from being out of their minds excited and running outside to play in the snow. 😂 Poor Olive wasn't taken outside to experience the wonders of the sopping wet, muddy yard and instead stared out the window longingly with Sadie. 💕

Day 55 of my 365 Photo Journal I didn't actually take any pictures this day (yesterday), but made up for it today with lots and lots! Marme and I baked a couple of different kinds of cookies today and Ollie "helped". :) This photo of Ollie being her ornery little self gets honorable mention. 😆

Day 54 of my 365 Photo Journal Caught these two lovebirds snuggled up on the couch together, climbed onto a chair, took their photo, and they had no idea!  Dad shot this blurry photo of me, Ben, and all the kids and I just loved how natural and "us" it is. :)

Day 53 of my 365 Photo Journal Okay. I'm getting a little obsessed with this kitty. We went with the name Murphy (Murph for short), much to the kid's disappointment. But hey, we gave them a cat so...we get to pick the name! He's just really sweet and soft and well behaved. I'm loving it so far (a whole two days in 😅).  Speaking of loving things... I'm also loving having my family here! Marme, despite my efforts to get her to slow down and relax, keeps the kitchen clean and organized, loves and spends time with my kiddos, and is just my favorite person to sit and talk to. Dad busies himself with projects around the house and also loves my kiddos and shows it! Evie helped me with a bunch of little things today that I've been dying to get done and Whitley is never afraid to get right in there when she sees a need that she is able to fill. It's a true blessing to have people in my life who are willing to drive all the way out here and love on me and my family. 

Day 52 of my 365 Photo Journal We welcomed a new kitten to our family today! He is adorable and playful and smart. We don't know what his name is yet: either Mittens, or Murphy, or Strawberry.  Also, we had a beautiful Thanksgiving with a few of our family members - Marme, Dad, Evie, and Whitley, and of course, the six of us! It was a really nice day with lots and lots of really good food and drinks and love. This year, I'm just SO thankful for so much in my life. I think that COVID has brought into sharp relief just how blessed me and my immediate family are. Ben works from home, making the same amount of money and eliminating his commute time and costs. In addition, he is able to help around the house almost all day long now. What a lucky wife I am! On top of that, the kids are wonderful, thoughtful, sweet, obedient kids. We have EVERYTHING we need and nearly everything we want. We have so very, very many family members and friends who love us and support us, check in with us...

Day 51 of my 365 Photo Journal My parents are here, and with them came their pup, Sadie! The kids count the minutes until my parents visit whenever they hear they're coming, and Sadie is just the cherry on top. They all love her to pieces. Ollie doesn't have much experience with animals, but she's getting the hang of being gentle and giving kisses. 😍

Day 50 of my 365 Photo Journal Clemi got shown up in her own back yard today! She loves climbing this tree, but has never dared go beyond the lower branches. We had our friends, the Heckmans, over for quick, socially distanced visit and those boys opened up a whole new world of tree-climbing opportunities to her. I'm kind of hoping she just sticks to the lower branches!

Day 49 of my 365 Photo Journal I finally finished up Olive's Halloween picture! See that adorable, sassy little ladybug??

Day 48 of my 365 Photo Journal We hung at home today (hahaha that's what we do EVERY DAY!) and Ben got the kids in the hot tub. They always love it when they get to go in there, but I...don't love "relaxing" in the hot tub with the kids. It's just not relaxing! Honestly, it can be easier to have one parent in and one out to take care of getting the littler ones out without being all wet themselves. I'm rambling. 😅

Day 47 of my 365 Photo Journal I got to take pictures of my good friend Brittany's family today! This is the first time I've really taken pictures of anyone other than my own family members, so it was an interesting experience. I see lots of areas that I need to work on, if I want to continue taking pictures of other people. Family photos are an entirely different situation than snapping pictures of my kids while they play. Thankfully, I think I managed to get plenty of nice pictures of the Torellis today (in the rain!) and while this one isn't one of the best, I like it a lot. Anna is actually crying here, although you can't really see it, and I have to hand it to dad for keeping maintaining that smile, even while she screamed and reached for mama. They're such an adorable little family and Anna is a heartbreaker with her deep blue eyes and thoughtful expressions. 

Day 46 of my 365 Photo Journal I so look forward to looking through my pictures and choosing the one that I'll post that day. It's a little bit of "me" time in my life...something that I get very little of. This morning, I took some photos for Ollie's Halloween picture that I'm planning (hopefully can post within the next couple of days!), but I also got some cute ones of her attempting to ride a tricycle and her and Clemi drawing with chalk. I was actually super irritated to be outside today. It's a perfect day for it, but it just wasn't in my plans and I got stuck doing it because of Olive's whining and crying while Ben was in a meeting. Thankfully, I still got my Bible reading in and sent a few text to friends while I was out there, along with kissing boo-boos and wandering around the block. Also, a fun drop-in from Benny. Looks like today is a two photo day! The one below is being posted to social media, but I wanted to keep a record here anywa...

Day 45 of my 365 Photo Journal You'd think she has no toys, the way she jumps onto my computer the second I step away. She was so guilty looking this time that I had to snap a picture (haha her expression clearly changed by the time I got my camera, turned it on, checked exposure, and took a picture!). She's razzing at me here and quickly scrambled away...until I turned my back again. When I got back to my computer, I had to delete an email draft, close the computer settings that had been opened, and erase a bunch of text from a work document. She's wild, and uncontrollable, and as much as I want her to chill out, I also like her just the way she is. She evokes the whole range of emotions from me throughout nearly every day! Thankful for her independent little spirit. 

Day 44 of my 365 Photo Journal This is the first black and white photo I've worked on, but I think it turned out nice! Lots of inside time lately, as the weather is getting colder and we're quarantining again. Ollie is starting to get used to it, but there's been a lot more crying and whining than usual. We have a couple of warmer days ahead and I'm looking forward to getting her outside!

Day 43 of my 365 Photo Journal I'm taking a ride in a keelboat, with Jonas as captain. We were attacked by many terrifying creatures along the way, but he got me to the dock safely, thanks to his trusty pole. (And thanks to Tristan Strong Destroys the World for the keelboat knowledge!)

Day 42 of my 365 Photo Journal Today begins our pretty strict quarantine we'll hold until after Evie and Whitley leave, after Thanksgiving. Really, the only change we're making is we're not sending the kids to school. Our few face to face encounters we have with friends or church people are always socially distanced and safe. Anyway, all of that to say that my kids have been home. All day. And I'm kind of feeling like I'd rather get COVID than have them here. 😂😂😂   I mostly worked around the house and for my transcribing job, but I made some time to build LEGO sets with Ruby, which both of us always love. But, um...can I just mention that I realize this is not a good picture? First of all, RUBY. This was the best picture I took out of a dozen. 😐 Secondly, I envisioned this light, airy, beautiful photo of my adorable daughter playing. That's not how this looks. 😅 Anyway, practice is practice. And four-year-old subjects are four-year-old subjects. 

Day 41 of my 365 Photo Journal Again, no photography today. 😞 BUT, I have this adorable picture of Olive, stuffing her face with Pain au Chocolat at La Chatelaine the other day, which totally deserves a place in my blog. 😍 Also, finally starting to use the emojis instead of typing them out! Crazy how much I depend on emojis to convey my emotions now. Once upon a time, they didn't exist...

Day 40 of my 365 Photo Journal We worked in the basement ALL day today, in the ongoing efforts towards finishing the room that flooded in July. We've made tons of progress! But I didn't make any time to take pictures today. SO... I am going to post this finally finished photo of Ruby as the Room on the Broom witch! She was so excited about her Halloween costume this year, as this is currently her favorite book that she wants to read over, and over, and over again. I thought it would be the perfect photo shoot for her! Three Halloween photo shoots down, one to go! The resolution for the book was pretty bad, but I still think it's good enough for this little project. PLUS, I managed to fumble through Photoshop all on my own! Thanks to Brit's tutorial the other night, I am understanding a lot more about layers and masks and all that good stuff. Lots of mistakes and still very time consuming to do little things, but I did a lot better than I was doing last week. Progress! H...

Day 39 of my 365 Photo Journal I took a few nice photos today, but I chose this one because isn't this just so real life? Not that all the pictures I take aren't real, because they are. But this one really just exemplifies what daily life with four young kids is like. YouTube on the tv and a disaster in the family room. It's not so bad, really. I know, I know. It's a mess and I should take care of it, but to me, it's proof of a happy, busy, playing day. It can be overwhelming some days, but other days, I look at it and see a joyful household, full of laughter, imagination, and reckless abandon (at least when it comes to cleanliness). I'm just so thankful for this big, warm home, these crazy kiddos, and all of the things that they love to play with. <3

Day 38 of my 365 Photo Journal I took this photo a while ago (as I mentioned in a previous post), but just COULD NOT figure out the Photoshop stuff that I needed to do to get the image I was hoping to get. Brittany T. to the rescue! She was up for an evening Zoom, thankfully, and was happy to help. She is a wizard with Photoshop and absolutely blew me away with her mad skillz! I'm super duper happy with the way this picture turned out. Just look at this creepy vampire! 

Day 37 of my 365 Photo Journal We actually had a terrible time at the playground this morning (the two big kids were super excited, but the two littler ones cried half the time) and this photo was like 1/4 of what I expected it to be! haha You can't win them all! I've seen a few of the photographers I follow post pictures of their kids walking kind of far away on a hill or something and they're always SO adorable. But MY KIDS. MY FREAKING KIDS. They are NOT doing any of that. I place them all, walk away, look back and...they're moving everywhere! Anyway, this is the best I could get. And I still always love having all four of them in one frame. 

Day  36 of my 365 Photo Journal I had hopes of getting the kids out of the house this morning, but ended up lacking the energy to get them all dressed and ready, so it was a pretty slow day at home. 80 degrees today! But we got out and did our raking/leaf blowing so that we wouldn't be the disgrace of the block. :D Also, our state had 6,508 cases of COVID today, which is 6x higher than we were having on a typical day towards the beginning of this pandemic. Things are getting out of control and a little scary. Praying that we can see the other side of this soon.

Day 35 of my 365 Photo Journal Girl gang! Kylienne and I have been getting these two together once a week for a couple of months now. They don't exactly play together yet, but they seem to enjoy hanging out!

Day 34 of my 365 Photo Journal Dinner time! Pretty slow Sunday at the Boettcher home, but unseasonably warm weather, so lots of outside time. <3

Day 33 of my 365 Photo Journal It was a big day! The candidate we were rooting for is now our President elect and I'm hopeful for some changes in our country under his administration. We have been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been blatantly ignored by our current leadership (can we call it that, really?), we have seen countless overt acts of racism and other hate crimes over the last four years, which have been encouraged by the horrible man who is supposed to be caring for this country, and issues with climate change are only getting more evident as the years go on (another thing that the nearly former president has decided to ignore for some reason - probably because he is a self-interested businessman and not someone who actually cares about leading this country or its people towards betterment...honestly, it feels like he's trying to drive us as far apart as possible). Anyway, enough for the commentary. I thought it would be good to have this as a record to...

Day 32 of my 365 Photo Journal Queen Elsa in her castle! 

Day 31 of my 365 Photo Journal I had two separate photo "shoots" today. The kids and I went for a walk at Kiwanis Riverway Park in Dublin, which was really fun and perfect for some awesome pictures. But I also did Clemi's vampire shoot this evening, which was also a lot of fun. I am still working on Clem's editing though, because I'm so so terrible at using Photoshop and there are a couple of things I was hoping to do to make it spookier. So hopefully I can post that one within the week! Maybe once I get someone to show me how to do what I'm hoping for. :D

Day 30 of my 365 Photo Journal So...here is Jonas's Halloween costume photo. Man, I'm pretty terrible at Photoshop. :D But I managed to put this together! I think it's hilarious. 

Day 29 of my 365 Photo Journal This girl.  We spend a lot of time outside nowadays. It seems to be the only way to keep her happy...other than the Wiggles (quickly being replaced by The Wheels on the Bus) on Ben's phone. :D I wasn't thrilled to be outside this time. Dinner prep was supposed to be happening, but Ollie doesn't care what's supposed to be happening. HOWEVER, I ended up feeling thankful, because this was the first time I've ever had the opportunity to take photos during the golden hour. I'm not sure I was doing it right LOL, but I got to play around a lot and little Ollie didn't mind being my test subject at all. I know the position of the sun on this photo is a bit awkward, but believe it or not, this was the best combination of sun positioning and Ollie positioning that I got...out of almost 100 photos! And I loved those sun rays. Definitely my favorite part of this picture.  Also, today is the presidential election: Trump vs. Biden. Just notin...

Day 28 of my 365 Photo Journal I forgot to take a photo today! :( I didn't even realize it until last night when it was time for me to work on my journal. Luckily, I shot this adorable gem on Sunday and I think it will fit here perfectly. These three little princesses just melt my heart sometimes. 

  Day 27 of my 365 Photo Journal Happy first snow of the season! The kids were SO excited when it started to snow this afternoon. They spent hours out there throughout the rest of the day, only giving up when the sun went down. In this house, Christmas starts November 1st, so the snow was a fitting start to the happiest season of the year. :)

Day 26 of my 365 Photo Journal HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Since we trick or treat on a different day than Halloween most years in Ohio, I often feel that Halloween is over before the day even comes! This year we're pretty much done celebrating it. Decorations are coming down and IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!! Anyway, just a typical day at home.  I took some photos of my girl's bath tonight, which may feel inappropriate to some people, but since this is my personal blog...I'll post it anyway. I think it's adorable that they all still bathe together, knowing that it won't last much longer. Clemi is almost 7 now and she's going to prefer the privacy of a shower alone over a bath with her sisters before too long.