We loved this submission from Sarah and Burton Richardson. Sarah wrote, “As soon as we decided to try to get pregnant, my husband got this idea for a time lapse video. He’d never seen it done with video footage, only with photo montages. Every week, I stood in the same spot at our martial arts dojo and did my little twirl up to 2 days prior to giving birth. The very last twirl was done when our baby was one week old. We are very pleased with the result and trust this could inspire some of your readers to do the same. My child is now almost 3 and I do cherish this video.”

So cool. 

Equipment: Sony digital camera

Equipment: Canon 5DM11 & 50mm f/1.4 lens

Today’s video winner is someone near and dear to me. Gina Zeidler of Minneapolis is a professional photographer that tagged along with Natalie Norton, who photographed our family last year. She was sneaky enough to get some video while Natalie was shooting and then made the most darling little video that I will treasure forever – and we actually shared the video with friends and family last year in lieu of printed Christmas cards for a change of pace (so liberating to do one less project actually).

Hello, lucky us. Natalie and Gina both documenting our family for a couple hours? Dreamy. And more importantly, these are 2 rare gems in the world. Giant hearts. Insanely talented. Devoted to doing good in the world. I love them.

So back to the video … Gina made this little number of Miss Emily Ley just being with her sweet baby. And what’s even more fun is that I’ve become familiar with Emily through social media and totally dig what she does and how she has built her brand (I love her little video on the home page). So I apologize in advance … but if you didn’t already know these gals, you now have 2 photographers that you’ll want to photograph your family and you’ll have a whole collection of planners, stationery, and accessories that you’ll want to buy.  ; )

This is called Sleep Baby. A minute and a half of pure preciousness. I know this comes during a time when so many of us have heavy hearts about the sweet children whose lives ended tragically last weekend in Newtown, CT. May this be motivation to get more video footage of our children … with our children.

Equipment used: Canon 5D Mark II and 35MM lens.

Eliu Hernandez of Broomfield, Colorado entered our video contest with this comment: “My sister, Eliza, is a Project Lifer and suggested, insisted, I enter your contest.” We’re glad he did! To create this proposal video for the love of his life, Eliu took more than 800 photos over 10 hours on a weekend. He used 4 boxes of crayons, a dollar bill, and a bunch of change. He also used a lump of coal that he borrowed from her dad a year and a half ago (an idea marinating in his head for a while) and a broken salad dressing bottle. It added up to a 2.5-minute video, a very sore neck and back, and a feeling of complete satisfaction for Eliu.

In Eliu’s own words on Nov. 22: I’ve enjoyed making stop-motion videos for a while now and I’ve been playing with this idea in my head for several months. I had a man-cation last week as my girlfriend was away on vacation for a few days. I showed it to her yesterday. It made her cry right about the time I got a bit of dust in my eye. She said ‘yes’ and we’re now celebrating with family for Thanksgiving weekend.

Equipment: Sony point and shoot camera & iMovie

Oh my stars. Kris Murray. Does this name ring a bell? She was one of our unforgettable video contest winners last year and if she ever decides to NOT enter, I’ll head to Alberta, Canada and go knocking on her door. If you missed last year’s video, catch it here. Pure awesomeness in documenting the everyday.

Kris seriously needs to be my next door neighbor. I don’t know her personally, but I love her. I love how she documents. I love how you can tell she loves her role as a wife and mother without trying to paint it as some rosy journey. In her own words:

As soon as I heard this song by Go Fish Guys, I could just imagine my life as a music video to the song and wanted to get started on it so bad! But, I am a procrastinator and only seem to be motivated by urgency. So, I kept putting it off and onto the back burner ONLY until I read about the 12 Videos of Christmas contest. BOOM! Urgency! Instantly motivated. And I got ‘er done! I love a good contest, but I also need a kick in the pants when it comes to making sure I take time to document my BLESSED, beautiful life!