Sisters

I have so many more pictures I want to share...but I'll start with just these two. :) Mostly because I want to give a HUGE amount of love to Kiona who owns LuckyAccessories on Etsy....check here out HERE!

We contacted her just a few days before Christmas after we found her beautiful necklaces on Etsy....we asked her if there was ANY way to have at least one of them before the 28th of December....and she surprised us by having all four necklaces to us on Christmas Eve. :) They are SO beautiful, so perfect for us. Four peas in a pod....and we proudly will wear them, remembering each other as we do.

Sarah leaves Tuesday . . . I can't believe that 6 months have gone by so quickly. Sadly Joanna and Lydia leave just one week after she does, they are both going back to Chicago for college. I'm excited for all three of them - but kinda sad for me. :) I've enjoyed having them around - more than I can ever say - and while I know that we are going to spend eternity together someday....my heart still longs for us to spend EVERY DAY here on earth together too. But, God has other plans for each of us -and I'd so much rather they be doing what He's led them to do, rather than ignore that to hang out with me. ;) (Well, MOST days I'd rather them be obedient to him...)

Thank you so much to Kiona - all for of us LOVE our necklaces, we are so happy to have found you! I hope others will see your beautiful jewelry and be able to use them for themselves!

Merry {early!} Christmas

It's been a hectic last few days around here - I'm sure everybody else who is reading this is thinking, "yeah, well who's haven't been busy??" :) Today was a nice - slower - day....now we are going to watch a movie together as a family, get dressed and then go enjoy Christmas Eve with Matthew's family. Tomorrow will be an EARLY morning I'm sure - the kid can't stand not being able to open the presents that are under the tree! - and then a yummy breakfast just for Mathew. :) He picked out some special bacon to go along with his Pillsbury cinnamon rolls....the breakfast of champions! (At least on Christmas day it is!)

My sister Sarah and I have been trying to make time to do pictures of the kids together before she and her family leave (I'm not even going ot go there because I'm so sad about it that it literally paralyzes me to think about it)....and we did the pictures yesterday. :) It was strange - as the mom of the people being photographed I was FREAKING out - wanting to sternly instruct them to smile and QUIT being so wierd....but the photographer in me was trying to chill the "other me" out and let the kids just play and be themselves. I'm sad to say the neurotic side of me won for the most part - but hey, they're young, I bought them an ice cream as a "thank you" and they've already forgotten me spazzing out on them. ;)

So Merry Christmas to our mom - and to ourselves! ha! - and here's a little slideshow of the kids together. :) OH - and to start it off right, a few of little O...she is SO funny! OK and then a couple of the cousins all together. :)

Thanksgiving Madness (A little late...)

We had a rather "mad" thanksgiving this year...well, it was so much fun - but crazy. :) My dad's side of the family (The Meisel's) all were able to come for the week of Thanksgiving and we spent many hours together, laughing, catching up, watching the babies....in general it was an awesome time but we managed to wear out Grandpa and Grandma pretty good. :)

I'm going to do specific blogs on the babies - I managed to get some time with my cousins and their little girls! - and hopefully during Christmas I'll get some time with my other cousin and their little boy. He was a busy dude on Thanksgiving day and wore himself out prematurely. ;) Anyway - I'll blog about the kiddos later...for now, I thought I'd just share "the whole clan" and make grandma's day while I'm at it. ;)

Oh - and the first family picture we took would have been awesome except for the amount of flare that completely obliterates my cousin's (and their families!) faces....so we re-did it, in the dark - but hey, it worked and we DID manage to get us all, even if it looks slightly ghetto. It's all my fault, I'll take the blame....

The Grandkids & Their Kids...



Here's the ghetto version....but I still like it. :) It's our family, and that's what matters!

Hurricane Ella

So if anyone has ever followed my photography blog, they've read about Ella. About how everything about her is brute force. Everywhere she goes, everything she does, is like watching a bull in a china shop. Seriously...the child does NOT know the meaning of the word "careful." And it's not because she's naughty or anything, she just does everything at 100% (maybe more) and putting that much energy into every movement (and trying to contain it) is probably about as easy as containing a huricane.

She is now sporting a nice purpley-yellow eye. It was a black eye....but now it's even prettier. :) Last week I put the stocking up - they hang from those metal hook things - the ones that look like bookends but hang over the edge of a mantel or shelf. You know the ones. :) Well, I was VERY explicit when I told the kids what would happen to them if they pulled them down - no, not only what I was going to them (haha) but also what could happen to them if they got hurt from it. I mentioned getting knocked outk, bashed in the head, breaking your nose, smashing a toe...I forgot to include trying to blind yourself.

yes, Ella almost blinded herself. :) I heard a scream (nothing abnormal though so I ignored it) and then there was some crying. (Again, nothing out of the ordinary...I usually wait for the crying party to come find me before I decide if it is serious or not.) Micah came running out shouting "Ella did it! Not me!" : haha - that kid....he cracks me up. I asked him what she did and he said she plled on the stocking, and it had fallen down. I asked him why she was crying and he said it was probably because she knew she was in trouble since she'd busted the table. He hadn't stayed around long enough to see what had REALLY happened though.

A few seconds later, Ella shows up at my elbow, crying. I, not lookig at her, say, "Ella . . . what happened honey?" She tells me she pulled on the stocking. And that she's sorry. I turn to look at her and guess what I find?? A blood-covered Ella. Yes, the left side of her faceher face, from her eye down is dripping in blood. The front of her shirt? Covered in blood. Her left hand? Bright red, dripping everywhere. The left sleeve is soaked in blood up to her forearm....Where is it all coming from? I couldn't tell.

I sort of gasped and said - OH MY GOODNESS! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!? - and that's when she realized her hand was bleeding...apparently she hadn't realized it before?? Wierd. :) So Ella starts hyperventilating and shrieking something about how she's BLEEEEEEEDING and I pick her up and run for the kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for stopping to hug and calm them down but the girl was dripping blood all over my carpet! :)

After a minute or two of gently wiping blood off of her with a warm washcloth (and searching for a massive open wound) I find a small gash under her eye and a TINY spot on her hand. HOW ON EARTH that managed to produce so much blood, I'll never know. After a spiderman bandaid was applied to her hand (Spiderman heals all hurts in our house currently) and another spiderman bandaid was put under her eye (it didn' DO anything, but it did look AWESOME) we sat down to snuggle and relieve the tragedy. Yes, she'd pulled on the stocking and yes, it had come down and hit her in the face JUST below her eye and then again on her hand. It hit AGAIN on the wood below hard enough to take out a good chunk of wood off the table - which means it HAD to have hit her face & hand pretty hard. Poor kid.

Oh - and the funniest part? I was trying to calm her down and so I said, "Ella...do you know whatyou're going to ge??" She probably thought I was going to give her some sort of present or something...so she sniffed up a lot of snot and said hopefully, "What mama?" I said very happily, "A black eye!" That resulted in even MORE shrieking and tears - she didn't know what a black eye was but she was pretty sure she didn't want any part of it.

I'll share some pictures of poor banged up Ella a little later....

My Christmas Present

Originally uploaded by erikajessop

I am SO so so so excited to share this.....an incredibly talented artist by the name of Erika Jessop just emailed me to let me know that the painting she has done for me is finished! For AGES I've wanted to commission Erika to do a painting for us but just have put it off......first I wanted to wait until Olivia was born, then until she was a little bigger...and then I thought - well, what am I waiting for, REALLY?? It's not like I can't ask her to do ANOTHER amazing piece of artwork for us in a year or two....the kids will have changed, their interestes will be different....it's going to be awesome. :) I can just see my future - the WALL of "Erika Jessop" paintings, capturing my kiddos as they grow....how cool would THAT be??

So she has this amazing gift - God has truly blessed her with her talent.....I sent her some pictures, described my kids (of course, this was their MOTHER describing them - and their mother is ME! - so the descriptions were loooong and involved) but from just those two things she has captured the essence, the sweetness, the beauty, the love.....she has perfectly depicted my three children. :)

Micah, the future rocketeer - he wants to grow up and design and build satellites and fly rockets - then after he does that he's going to be a monster truck driver. :)

Ella, the super princess....she really does think she's some sort of princess super-hero :) I think that she's eve wearing a purple "cape" in the painting which would be about right - ha! ;)

Olivia, with her sweet little smile and she is, of course, playing with her feet. Her happy little toes that are always attached, wherever she goes. :) Ella's castle is off in the distance....and I love how Erika used the colors of the kids that they love the best. Micah's wearing a green helmet - his favorite color. :) Also, a coincidence - is the fire in his rocket, which Micah is JUST NOW really getting into! :) Ella is wearing LOT of pink and purple - plus th crown. :) And Olivia is wearing my favorite on her - pink and blue... a little purple. :)

Oh I love this picture more than I can say and I haven't even seen it in real life yet. :) THANK YOU Erika.......your artwork has surpassed my expectations and they were pretty high. ;) I now know EXACTLY how all of the other people feel when they see their paintings of their kids....and it's a great feeling. :) I LOVE IT! Oh - and to see more of Erika's amazing work, click on the picture - you can find her contact information there as well!

The B Family {Family Portrait Photographer}

I'm finally getting around to blogging some more of the families that I've had the pleasure of photographing this year. This particular family happens to be extra special to me because they are dear friends of ours. Sadly, life is busy and we don't see them nearly as often as we'd like.

They have two ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS little girls - who have THE prettiest eyes E.V.E.R. (As a photoshop disclaimer, I did NOTHING to their eyes in these pictures - that is just how pretty they are, just the way God made 'em!) :) I can't think of anything clever to say besides how much I love these guys....so I'll just share the pictures now. :)

Silly Noel...she just cracks me UP!

The Kiddos....Olivia's 7 (ish) months old

I LOVE it when she smiles - REALLY smiles. You lose all of her eyes, she's scrunched them up so much. And then she sniffs (and snorts) her laugh through her nose - really fast, in/out, in/out, in/out. It is SO. FUNNY.

The V Family {Florida Family Photography}

I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing the V family just last week (oh yeah, I'm on a roll with my editing...not nearly as behind as I feared i would be by now!!) The weather had turned COLD just that day so we had to keep the kids moving a bit in order to stave off the blue lips. ;)

Allison did an awesome job of coordinating their outfits - I love it when people are really into their session and the things they can do to make them even MORE special! Putting some thought into your outfits (not matchy-matchy but whatever suits your style!) and even special toys or places - all of these can enhance your session making the final pictures even better.

Mark & Allison, thanks for hanging out with me and having me take your family pictures! I loved meeting you and the kids and had a great time -- I hope you love every single picture!

Cookies & A Wedding {Central Florida Wedding Photography}

Good Morning. :) I discovered something about myself yesterday and finally answered a questions I've been dying to get to the bottom of. Why don't my cookies turn out right? Now don't get me wrong - they don't turn out BAD, but they're never quite RIGHT either. They taste great but the texture is off and they are either too flat or they don't hold together and they end up as cookie "crumbles".

Want to know why? Because I don't follow the recipe. Yesterday I made some cookies for my sister, Sarah, while I was at her house. Turns out if you actually READ and FOLLOW the recipe, they turn out GREAT. Just like they're supposed to. That means you don't throw "all" the wet stuff together and cream them - you just cream the butter, sugars & vanilla. THEN you add the eggs in, one at a time, beating well. Makes a HUGE difference. Did you know that?!?

So this brings me to what I learned about myself. :) Rather than stopping to read directions, follow directions....learn the "right" (and usually easier) way to do things, I just keep on doing it the way I've always done it - or always seen it done. KNOWING that it doesn't turn out "quite right" - maybe not wrong but dang it took me forever to get there! - rather than taking the time to figure out how to do it the RIGHT way. Funny, eh? So I guess that makes me lazy. :)

(I'm even too lazy to write my own name most of the time - family and friends just get an "E" - which is rather confusing. In fact, with our thank you cards and all, they just an "M,E,m,e,o" :) haha!)

What's a post without a picture?? This is the LOVELY Leslie and handsome Kyle - they were married about a month ago and I'm finally getting to blogging them. I'll have more in the coming days. It was a gorgeous day - the most perfect light - and a sweet ceremony. :)