A new lens...

...is the prize!

Jodi, over at MCPActions Blog is hosting a giveaway this week! Woohoo!
To enter, click the link & follow her instructions there.

This would be an awesome win!!!

Happy 4th {My Life}

Hopefully everyone had a great 4th of July holiday. I know we did. We kept it pretty low-key, neither of us are really the crowd of people type.
We started our morning with pancakes & just hung out for a while. In the afternoon, we took a drive down to check out a campground, with the intention of staying there for a picnic lunch, but meanwhile, both girls were sound asleep in the car. Taking advantage of peaceful naptime, we drove back into town to a local park and had our picnic there.

...our first family picnic...

...sleepy girl, just waking up from her nap...

...the little water bug...

...after trying to get herself a drink from the overly tall fountain...

After lunch I did a little mini-session with my kids, since I've been hearing complaints that there are no photos of Gracie girl, gracing the walls of relatives homes. Their bows were my mid-morning project. They are so fun to make, and the girls are adorable in them.

..."Buggie" 2 years -- Baby Gracie almost 5 months...

...Twinkly Toes (I'm pretty sure my hubby thinks I'm crazy!)...

That evening we took my hubby's grandma to ice cream and to the local fireworks show.

...and again this year, we sat with a light directly in front of our view...!

Riding Bikes & Haircuts {My Life}

Life our my house is full of toddler mischeif and baby crys, so it is never dull. It seems, now more than ever, that time is moving so quickly. Baby is already going to be 5, yes 5 months old..AGH! Anna is quickly approaching 2 1/2.

Gracie has learned to roll over, and over, and over, and over, along with attempting to scoot. She's eating baby food and cereal now, then spitting 1/2 of it back out. She's our little spitter, I can't remember a handful of times when Anna spit up, and a handful of times when Gracie hasn't!

...she gets quite ticked off to get stuck...

Anna has learned to ride her big girl bike, she's rather quick on the tricycle too, but the bike...woohoo. Last night was her first adventure off the back patio. We took her around the block and she made it the whole way all by herself, without crashing once.

...starting off...

...about 1/2 a street into her ride...

...we did have to stop 1/2 way through for a water & photo break...

After her bike ride, we dropped daddy off at home and us girls walked down to visit FumFum & Bill'd, which is short for Grandma & Bill. Anna & Bill had a water fight, we played on the swings then walked home. It was muggy and getting cloudy. I loved the contrasting colors of these clouds, it was so beautiful.

About 15 minutes after we got to our house, these little clouds got a whole lot darker, and caused a bit of a light show. We've had more lightening this year than I can remember having in a while.

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The other adventure of our day was Anna's first solo haircut. AHHH! On Wednesday night I trimmed her bangs and gave daddy's hair a buzz. Well little miss independant thought she'd take care of her hair all by herself!

...Little Miss, getting her lip-stick on before heading to town for a few things yesterday morning...

...& the Little Miss, after 'Hair a-la Anna'...

So thankful it was just her bangs, no telling what she would have accomplished in a few more minutes.... Ahhh, life with an adventurous, curious, independant toddler...

July 2009 {Specials}

--All regular session will book in July for $65!! A savings of $10!

--Seniors!!! Book your Senior Session Collection during the month of July & receive a Grad Session in the spring.

It's a Slumber Party -- {My Life}

This weekend we had a slumber party. A sweet little girl slumber party. We painted toenails, played in the pool & sprinkler, made ice cream, watched movies, argued, bossed each other around, fought over toys, didn't take naps, stayed up too late & had lots of fun. There were a few tears, but mostly laughter.

...the Soak-in-ator...

...water fight at Uncle B's house...

...these girls are all about getting soaked...

...popcorn with pretzels, M&M's, peanuts & marshmellows...

...but of course, 2 & 4 year old little girls, prefer the M&M's...

...we painted toenails by the light of the blue screen, before our movie...

...sleepily we stayed up...

...and finally at bed time, daddy was sleeping before the girls!...

We woke up today for round two, and at 1020pm, the girls are still somewhat awake. They are in their slumber party bed watching the Little Mermaid. We had our homemade, Vanilla Chocolate Cherry Crunch ice cream, played in the sprinkler then warm baths. They are definately ready for bed and Mommy's ready for a break. :-) It will be a long day tomorrow...

Mommy to Be -- {Maternity Session}

Today I had the privledge of shoot Mrs B & family. She's such a beautiful, glowing, soon to be Mommy of 2.

Here are a few of my favorites from today.

...Miss M already loves her baby brother...

...baby E, snug as a bug in there, patiently waiting to make his debut...

...l.o.v.e...

Thank you all for letting me come photograph your memories while you await new baby E. Can't wait to meet him. Enjoy your last month of pregnancy. ~hugs~

...toddlers are such curious little human beings...

Summer Vacation--Oregon Coast

Instead of taking long vacations in the summer, we do weekend trips. Mostly we go camping, drag the trailer around, go fishing, and always have lots of fun.

For Father's day weekend we went to Brookings, Oregon. Normally when we go to the coast we get a motel, but I convinced my hubby to do something different this time. We went camping, tent camping, with our little ones. An adventure!

...It was Gracie's very first Ocean adventure, and the first time Anna could actually run & enjoy herself and the sand....

...Saturday morning Anna & Daddy caught a caterpillar. They let it crawl on them, from their head...to their toes. ...

...We went to a park, and drove around for a little sight seeing. Richie drove water truck in Brookings for about a month during the Biscuit Fire, so he had been to the top of this ridge before, but I hadn't. He had hoped it was a bit clearer up there, but it was just as it was the rest of the weekend, cloudy....

...Anna made 'friends' with some seagulls..

...Daddy & his girls waiting for the waves to wash up...

...Me & my girlies, posing for Daddy...

...Anna LOVED playing in the sand...throwing it, squishing it, running in it, making it muddy, it didn't matter, it was dirt, & she was happy...

...Then it was time to come home, right after this, I asked her to show me a pretty smile, wouldn't do it, so I said, "Smile for Fum-Fum" (Grandma), she did, quickly, then told me "No, I Supemodel" ---boy do I have my hands FULL!!!

Happy Birthday Wishes & Some Fun

My Granny was my best friend.

I spent every summer at her & Pa's home growing up & would visit as often as I could. One summer we decided to go for a picnic at the creek, as we were crossing, the rock slipped, and Granny fell in. At a resturant once, I wanted to pour the ketchup onto my own plate...opps it went into Grannys snow white hair! We would go to 'town' on Thursdays, because that was when all the sales & Senior days were & I always got to ride in the front seat.

I can remember, I would be be ready to come home, get on my way, and change my mind by the time I got home, the next day, my Pa would make the hour drive and pick me back up. He would be there no matter the weather. Granny taught me so many things; cooking (add a few drops of yellow food coloring to chicken 'n' dumplins), crochet (I was pretty proficient at the Granny Square), Sorry!, Rummy & Yathzee (we played often) and so much more.
She was such a strong, independant, loving woman. We had a very special relationship and I miss her oh so much.
Today would have been my Granny's 78th birthday, so Happy Birthday, hope they're throwing you one heck of a party up there in heaven. Love You Always!

One of the things I did countless times at Granny's was crafts. And I love doing crafts with my girls. Usually for every occasion. Father's day is this Sunday so we spent our morning creating a special gift for Daddy.

...We needed paint & glitter...

...we opted for blues, green, & yellow this year...

...Anna gets to do it all by herself...

..while Grace just lays on the floor and watches....

She did get to get in on the painting action though, we needed her footprints. As I painted her precious little tooties, she laughed and laughed. And another milestone... after today she'll be doing a lot more than just laying there. She's now rolling over from her back to her tummy.

Enjoy your weekend... I'll post the finshed products on Sunday evening/nite, since we'll be at the Southern Oregon Coast for the weekend. Yay! for Vacation!

Mommy & Me Session--Lovely Young Women

Yesterday evening, despite the pouring rain, I had an outdoors session with some of my favorite people. Not only are they all beautiful on the outside, their hearts are bigger than anything comparable.

Although we had to get creative with where we went, patience won, and we got some really great shots. Love ya girls!

We started out indoors, after moving the dining room table & chairs...

...then ventured out to the barn, in the pouring rain...

...the rain let up a bit and we managed to get under a tree, too bad we couldn't see more of the rainbow down the valley...

...but we headed down to the pasture anyways...

...and back to the truck, possibly for a new ad...

...we had some daylight left, for a little bit of fun...

...and when we're almost done, got some yummy evening light...

...the end...

It was so great to be able to shoot something besides my own children, who don't really follow instruction too well. ~hugs~

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Delimia of the day: Vista 64-bit...anyone reading this know how to get Elements to work with this...I've been working at it for...oh...12+ hours, installing, uninstalling, reinstalling, reading, searching....and I'm at my wits end... :( Other than that issue so far....I'm liking the new machine. It's about 10x faster than the other, but if I'm not going to be able to edit...then it was pretty much an upgrade for nothing.

--Product Spotlight--Storyboards

I thought it would be a good idea to showcase 1 product that I offer. Every 2nd Thursday of the month I will post a new item to spotlight. Each month there will also be a special offer that relates to the Product of the Month, the deal will be located somewhere in the post.

To kick off this Product Spotlight: This month is all about storyboards.

Storyboards come in a variety of sizes, and make great gifts.

What better way to showcase your baby's tiny features or your childs growth & discovery...

Storyboards make great keepsakes for all those someone specials we have in life.

Keep your desk unclutterd at work...or hang on a refridgerator.

From today, June 11th, through July 9th, 2009 receive a compliemtary "Desktop Story" when you purchase a regular sized Storyboard.