Life As It Is.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Strangers in our midst.

Does anyone know these strangers living in my house? Where did they come from? They vaguely resemble the babies I brought home from the hospital all those years ago. They look an awful lot like me, too.

 

 

Delighting in the small things.

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas shopping. I hate the actual shopping part of it, but I really enjoy giving gifts to our loved ones. My goal for this weekend was to get as much of my Christmas shopping done as possible. I got the bulk of it done, so I'm going to call it successful. I was able to do a lot of it online last night, and then tonight, Sadie and I went out and did most of the rest. She was a great helper and I was thankful for her company. I thanked her for her help with a hot chocolate from Starbucks on our way home. That was my favorite part of the night...driving down main street (Washington Blvd. but it somehow feels more wonderful to call it main street), sipping our hot drinks, watching the screaming wind blow the snow across the road in front of us, peering into the beautifully-dressed windows, and loving the twinkling lights on all the trees. It was one of those moments where you take a deep breath and just appreciate the solace of the moment, just a mom and daughter delighting in some of the small joys of the season.

Finished.

I finished my first round of P90x! I'll start another round on Monday, but I'm planning on mixing it up a little bit this time around....add in some running and spinning, and maybe a few other things. Seth and I are giving ourselves a spinbike for Christmas, so we went to the bike shop tonight to make our final decision. We'll pick it up on Tuesday! I ran yesterday for the first time since I started P90X, and felt great during my run, but apparently I hurt something in my upper thigh/hip area. I limped my way through three sessions, but by last night, I was ready to amputate my leg! A good night's sleep helped and it feels much better this morning. It was an interesting lesson though.

It feels like there is a lot on my plate right now. I'm very much enjoying the holiday rush at the studio, and at the same time, definitely grateful that it isn't like this all year long. I've been going non-stop with photoshoots, editing & retouching, designing Christmas cards, sales appointments, uploading orders. Now if I could just fit in a session with my girls so I could get my own Christmas cards done! I photographed a little girl this afternoon whose mom had done her hair up so cute....made me realize how truly pathetic I am when it comes to hairstyling!

I'm taking the next couple hours to get as much online Christmas shopping done as possible. I already did a lot of the girls' shopping and UPS delivered it in a large, heavy brown box. It is torturing Sadie because she just knows there are perfectly wonderful unread books waiting to be cracked. It makes me laugh to watch her walk past the box time and time again, just itching to rip into it! :)

The babies in our circle of friends have been coming in by the truckload. I photographed another one yesterday and today I was able to slip out of the studio for a while to go to a baby shower for another. It makes me miss those times cuddling, smelling, loving on a newborn. And at the same time, I'm grateful for the stage our kids are at now. There are some days I wish I could rewind to those days before we had screwed anything up and do things over again better, differently. Usually I just wish that on the hard days though.

Alrighty, that is enough useless rambling for now. Must go now and get the heating pad out because this cold snowy day has me chilled to the bone!

Thanksgiving weekend has passed.

My day off today went by far too quickly. Church. Got a Christmas tree. Got the tree set up and decorated. Frisbee golf. Then we got some last details worked out on the new computer so that I can be truly productive on it. Frisbee golf was a trade for computer techie help from Seth. He said if I'd go frisbee golfing, he would help me get the last few few kinks worked out. Things go so much faster when he helps me, so I was glad to make the trade.

We had a great Thanksgiving at my brother's home with all my family. Ate lots....turkey, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes were my downfalls. I just might be able to live on those three things.

Seth got to spend his days off on kid-duty this weekend because I had a busy weekend. Lot of freezing my fingers off since I had late afternoon location sessions. Wind blew so hard on Friday that it kept blowing the light stand over and eventually snapped it.

Saturday, Seth took the girls and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the day. We had grand plans of meeting up after my sessions last night and getting our tree, but the kids were tuckered out from playing with grandma and I was tuckered out from my day (several deer tried to crash our photoshoot!), so we put it off.

So that is what we've been up to. Five days of P90X left!!

Taking Chance.

Seth and I watched a movie this evening called, "Taking Chance", based on a true story. I don't know if you've heard of it, or seen it...it is about a Marine Corp Colonel who escorts the body of a fallen marine home to his family. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. The tears fell from the beginning of the film right through to the credits. It is almost painful to watch because of the emotion, but it is so good. I had a headache at the end (the headache could have originally stemmed from entertaining lots of young kids in sessions today, or from the afternoon at the fun park for Avery's birthday, but I'm pretty sure it was from trying to hold it together while watching the movie!).

It is Saturday night and there's nothing on tv, so drive to your local redbox and rent Taking Chance.

Number two turns six.

When I was pregnant with Sadie, her in utero name was "Isosceles". What can I say, I'm married to an engineering nerd. When I became pregnant with Avery, her in utero name was "number two". Okay, so "number two" actually stuck around after we discovered she was a girl and chose her name.

It is hard for me to believe, but "number two" actually turned six years old yesterday! My baby is six!! It is no wonder that my gray hairs are growing exponentially in recent weeks.

Avery told me yesterday that six feels different than five. When I asked her why, she said, "I don't know. I just feel older."

Avery has enjoyed her birthday festivities, and thankfully she is very easy to please. I think we've officially decided that November is a hard time to have a birthday if you are a kid. It is a bit cold outside to really enjoy an outdoor activity. It is delightfully flu season, so any indoor place is caked in germiness. 

Yesterday I took Sadie and Avery to a little cakery for cupcakes. I told Avery she could choose whatever she wanted and she chose the most grown-up looking pastry item in the case....puff pastry with apples, walnuts, raisins, and caramel sauce. Sadie chose the same thing and they both loved it.

Avery chose to invite a few girls to go to Toad's today for some games and cupcakes. Just something low-key. Josh and Ana came along (we missed a few other friends who weren't able to make it...we only invited four to keep it small, but only one ended up being able to make it). The kids enjoyed lots of skee ball, air hockey, rides on the merry-go-round, etc.

Tomorrow we will be meeting up with all the family for lunch at Roosters so we can celebrate with grandmas, grandpas, uncles and aunts. My little girl is growing up.

Thankfulness.

As we were driving in the car yesterday, we were talking about Thanksgiving and sharing what we're thankful for. Sadie's list included books, the library, her sister....those were the top three, I believe. Avery rambled off quite a list of things she was thankful for, and then she said, "Know what I'm not thankful for? Robbers."

Our family has much to be thankful for. But I think Avery's bible verse for the week sums it up pretty well....

"The Lord's blessing is our greatest wealth." Proverbs 10:22

Grapeshooter.

I walked into the room to see several grapes in various places across the hardwood floor, some smashed, some still whole.

Me: "Why are there grapes all over the floor?"

(I should know better than to ask these types of questions).

Avery (pointing to a lego contraption resembling a catapult): "We were pretending that we made a grapeshooter."

Seth, this is your doing. I must go mop up sticky grape juice from the floor.

Recent couples photo session.

I always enjoy photographing couples...couples sessions are so easy and relaxed. This couple was definitely that way. We first met up at the nature center (this was several weeks ago when we still had all those beautiful yellow leaves on the trees). I had such a good time talking with Brooke and getting to know her and Dan. Brooke and I share some things in common (like our love for pumpkin spice lattes!). I always consider it a blessing to meet new clients who so quickly become friends...that is a definite benefit of this "job".

 

(Unfortunately, Maddox the dog found the nearby pond and went for a little swim, thus ruining his beautifully brushed hairdo. He was still as cute as could be though.)

This last image was taken at the farm that Dan inherited from his father. I absolutely love when a family has something special to them that we can incorporate into their portraits. Those special things can really make the photograph even more of a memento. This tractor was a unique and meaningful piece that made the session much more personal and significant.

Thanks, Dan and Brooke, for a great afternoon!