The Race . . .

Happy Anonymous Gift Day :)

OK so it's not REALLY "happy anonymous gift day" . . . but we're having a happy day AND we received an anonymous gift today. :) I have my suspicions who sent this . . . but I don't know for sure and I probably won't ever. Thank you to whoever you are. :) This outfit is designed and made by a very talented friend of mine, Shannon of Blooming Lily Designs. I'll dig around to see if she has a website or blog, but if you want contact info I will find it for you! She does an AMAZING job with these customs and we're the proud owners of a small collection. :) Here's Ella from today, modeling her gift outfit - THANK YOU WHOEVER YOU ARE!!




Wondering WHAT ON EARTH mommy's doing laying on the ground :)


Saying "I love you daddy!" to no one in particular (well of course to DADDY but he's not actually there) :)

Foot "thing"

OK - I admit it - I have a thing for feet. No not THAT kind of thing! But I just LOVE taking pictures of feet. And it's not just cute baby feet - it's everyone's feet. :) I love how you can look at a picture of feet and almost FEEL the smile . . . feel what they're feeling - and, if nothing else, you want to just reach in and pinch them because they're so darn chubby and cute!!

We had lunch with our Auntie Sara Sunday after church - and it was a BEAUTIFUL day - perfect for a picnic and some chalk fun. Thank you to her for having us there and here are some picture from our afternoon. (I did not take them all - I will give credit where credit is due!!) :)

Taken by Daddy (edited by me) . . . and he called their names and this is how they stood - still laughing from chasing each other around the corner. Micah loves his sister - see his hands on her arms - he's (almost always) so gentle with her. ;)

Taken by Auntie Sara (edited by me) . . . This is SUCH a wonderful capture! I love the look on his face. :)

OK here are the ones I took - all feet . . . wierd, I know. :)

Have a wonderful day! :)

Sick again, wasting time . . .

. . . by revisiting pictures from last year. :) I'm a on a little retro kick at the moment - so you'll have to excuse the fact that EVERY picture I post is not necessarily "right" by normal people's standards. :) I assure you, I purposefully changed colors & all to give strange color casts, all in an attempt to not be ordinary. . . . I'm always doing the same old things, so today I'll be retro, perhaps tomorrow it'll be something completely different. :D Let's keep it a surprise, shall we??



So these are pictures from last year, at Disney - although it COULD be from today - the weather is very much the same today as it was 5 months ago. Lucky us, huh?? (Heather I acknowledged that for YOU because I am very thankful to have lovely weather outside 99% of the time!!) :) The kids are sick (again) and once again I cannot put them in nursery at church, and so I am here at home with them while they run around coughing and spreading their germs in OUR house, and Matthew is enjoying fellowship with our friends. :) I'm glad he's able to be out - last week he had two wisdom teeth extracted and finally today he's seeming like himself again. The last of the anethesia has worn off, the pain medicine is out of him, and he's even *sort of* smiling again (it is painful still) . . . so it's good he can be out and about among the living at least!

Enough chatter - here are the pics - enjoy or ignore, your choice. :D

A little blurb about a friend!

I wanted to spread a little news about a friend & what I think is SUCH an adorable idea! This is Alisa and she designs and makes "Button Bottom Cases" which I have to say is so cool! If you happen to be near her in Texas, you can find her designs at some of the local boutiques (more information on her blog at http://www.acbabycouture.blogspot.com/). I wanted to draw your attention to one PARTICULAR design - ELLA!! :) So if you can't decide which design you want for yourself, may I suggest you consider the Ella design? (Seen at left) Anyways - CHECK HER OUT! She's one of the sweetest people I know and she makes an awesome product. :)

Revisiting some favorites -

We've got a cold front coming through today and it brought a bunch of storms through last night. We're sorta stuck inside since the rain coverage for today is around 70% - my luck, as SOON as we're all dressed and walking out the door to go to the park, the skies will open and it'll be a bit of a waste. SO, instead, we're having a nice quiet day indoors. (Let me just say - it had BETTER rain . . . because other than the wierd clouds it's nice out there today! We don't usually waste good days around here sitting inside!)

I thought that (since nothing exciting is happening around here) I'd revisit some of my favorite images from the last few months. :) There may be a couple repeats, I'm not sure . . . but I love 'em enough to see them again!

Here's Micah playing in the leaves when we were in Tennessee a few months ago - what fun we had!


This is a SWEET little boy I photographed several months ago - I LOVE this picture - he's pointing to the moon and saying "luna" which is "moon" in Spanish. :)


Here is one of my bestest friends' little baby boy. He's 6 months old now and a LOT bigger than this - but I love this picture of him in his daddy's hands.


Can you believe the eyes on this sweet little girl? She had just finished with her birthday cake and was surprisingly calm for having eaten all that sugar!


Lastly, this will probably remain one of my all-time favorites . . . her toes tell the story all on their own. She has more energy than any 2 year old I have EVER met - and this includes my own children! I was lucky to have her sit still for even 2 seconds to get this shot!


OK that's it - sorry so many, but I have too many favorites to just pick one or two. :)

Day of Maternity: ANTICIPATE

Yesterday I had the oppertunity to hang out with about 25 local photographers, all very much like myself. The REALLY cool part is that 6 of them were pregnant and we used the time together to "shoot" them . . . over and over and over. ;) haha!

It's been really great to get to know these ladies (and men!) and it's really interesting to watch all of them, see how they photograph, how they speak to their "client" . . . and to see their finished image at the end. I'm lucky enough to have a good number of these photographers in my own backyard, and some of us even plan to get together and let the kids play at the park. We'll probably "shoot" the kids together . . . it's dangerous hanging out with photographers!

Here are some pictures from the day - these are my pictures, my "version" of yesterday. :) To start it off right, the AMAZING Alisa:





A little more "urban-ish"




This girl, Denise, is the sweetest - and she has 2 wonderful sisters who remind me SO MUCH of my 3 sisters and me . . . Makes me VERY homesick to have them all here . . .









And lastly, aren't these shoes COOL?? (This is the shoe of Kaitlyn, an INCREDIBLY talented 16 year old photographer . . . sitting up on a 6 foot wall!)

Some changes.

I've had to delete a few pictures from here (my blog) and I'm making my flickr account almost completely friends & family - which means you can't view any pictures I have made private unless I've given you permission to view them. So sorry, but I've found some pictures of Micah on a disturbing website and so I'm pulling the pictures they used and am going to keep them pretty "boring" on here. (and private on flickr)

Sorry - just wanted to let you know. There are all kinds of crazies out there and the more boring I am, the more privacy I'll have.

Getting Very CLOSE . . .

This is all for today - just something I threw together so this mama can see her progress - ALMOST at the end!! :)

Guess what we've been doing . . .

Lovely Day

It's in the 80's today . . . and it's February 2nd. HOT. At least it's also gorgeous outside - lots of sun, blue skies, pretty clouds. A perfect day for an art festival, no? Apparently that's what thousands of other people thought too. :) We should've gotten a clue when it took us almost 30 minutes to find & get a place to park - $5. From what I hear, short people (me) should have been feeling really good compared to the tall people (hubby). All I could see as we walked through the throngs of people was the backs of those in front of me . . . squeezing through. HE could see JUST HOW MANY people we had to wade through - a lot. :)

We would have LOVED to slowly wander through the exhibits - the few that we saw were so pretty & interesting . . . but the heat, people, & my whiny son made us give up early. So rather than look at art, we got lost instead. :)

Took the wrong shuttle bus to the OTHER side of town, took it back (got to see the lake though - PRETTY!), and then we decided to walk the few blocks left to where we'd parked (rather than wait for the correct shuttle bus to arrive. (OH - and by the way. I never EVER want to hear of any kid complaining about riding the bus again! We rode school buses - the shuttles - and they have AIR CONDITIONING! Seat belts...SUSPENSION even!! I didn't feel my teeth rattle in my head once . . . and my tall hubby didn't bump his head on the roof - they're taller!! So no more whining - ya hear??)

So we walked to the car - and all in all, it was a lovely day. Wasn't short - took us all morning and most of the afternoon - but it was beautiful out and we spent it with friends & family....so who am I to complain? :) Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure . . .







Ella wanted to hold hands with me on the ride there . . .



Some of our wanderings . . .



More wanderings, and a different post process on the picture. This is what it FELT like - a nice warm spring day :)