The first attempt

**Warning, many pictures of Miriam to follow**

I have been pretty bad with taking pictures of Miriam since she turned 1 in July. We've been busy, I've been sick, and I just haven't had the camera nearby when it's needed most. So, I've challenged myself this month to really get movin' and get some shots, since it is the beginning of fall, and she celebrates a month day (TOMORROW!).  We are heading to the mountains next weekend, so I have held off on the pumpkin shots until then. Today, with it being so windy, we headed to the back yard to see how good we could get.
Well, we didn't get good at all for a few reasons:
1 - Miriam is obsessed, I mean OBSESSED with dogs.  Each morning when we get her from her crib, she's standing up pointing to the window or the lamb piggy bank, "woofing."  Whenever she sees the lady who cares for her in the afternoons, she "woofs" at her too.  When you ask her "Where's Lily(the dog at the sitters)?" She gets a concerned look on her face and holds out her hands, like "I don't know, where?"  All that means, that when we head outside, she immediately woofs. We have dogs on both sides of us, but one dog, "Jazzy Girl", in particular is rather large and barkey 24/7!  As soon as we got into the back yard, the dog went crazy - and totally took away Miriam's focus (as if she had any to begin with....). Then, as it calmed down, our other neighbors let out their cute dog (who doesn't bark at all and Miriam is totally intrigued by her, but she's totally afraid of her). So, between the two dogs, it was impossible to get her to look at the camera, much less smile.  All she wanted to do was "woof" the whole time.
2 - Our backyard is infested with mosquitoes. I thought it wouldn't be that bad today since it was cooler, but we were wrong. We all got bitten and annoyed by them.
3 - Miriam is still figuring out nature (leaves, twigs, and grass) and still allergic to most of it. So between her playing in the ground, sneezing, and wiping her nose, we had very little time to snap photos.

With that said, what follows is a picture story of our photo shoot. They may not be super cute, but they're hilarious.

I'm safe here if the dogs come after me...

perhaps the best shot?

"Okay mom, I'll pose for you - how does this look?"

I'm not so sure about this, guys...

Really, how many more of these are you going to take?

ooh ooh ooh, there's Bella!

"But where's Lily?"

"what's that over there?"

"Jazzy, be quiet!!"