I am so very

lazy. That is the only excuse I can give to my lack of posts. February is almost done and I haven't posted once.

Well....that and half of my day is spent feeling very sick. Let me just say that evenings are not my friend. Mornings are great. Afternoons are okay except I start feeling a little tired. Evenings I do not feel well at all. So, most of my consuming of food is done prior to 5pm. Plus I feel totally exhausted. Almost like I have run a marathon. Although I have never run a marathon so I'm not sure how that feels, I guess.

One more month of this and hopefully it will get better. I don't remember being this affected by my previous pregnancies, but I'm not good at remembering those kinds of things anyways. You try to forget those things. Otherwise, every woman would have only one child and stop there.

Names. That's going to be tough. We have been through all the possible boys names. If it was a girl, it would be a little easier. But I'm sure it's a boy. At least that is what I'm telling myself so there is no disappointment. Not that I would be if it's a boy, but there is always that little bit of hope. We'll find out in May sometime......that is so long away!

So my eldest, Ethan, is doing great in school. Homeschooling, that is. He colored a picture out of a coloring book today. It had some words typed along the bottom. Words that we haven't even gone over at all. Just to give you an idea where we are at, we just introduced the long vowel A today. So far they've only learned short vowel sounds. So I asked Ethan to read what was written on the bottom of his paper. I gave him one help when he first started and then he proceeded to read the entire thing. Now, I know I'm pregnant and very hormonal, but I couldn't help but tear up and cry just a little. Ethan, of course, looked at me like 'Why in the world are you crying?'. But I didn't care. That is definitely one of the best feelings EVER! To teach them day in and day out and wonder how you are doing and then to see them apply it on their own. Wow.

We have Ethan and Noah's birthday parties this weekend. And I still have a lot of work to do on the house. Cleaning. I love having everyone over, though, because it actually forces me to do my house work :)

A 7 and 2 year old. Next year in 2009, we will have Cole and the next one's birthday together. They will be 6 and 1 years old. Time goes by in a flash, doesn't it?

No pictures as of yet. Although I am working on a session from a couple of weeks ago.
Thanks for checkin' in.

Blurb

Well, hellooooooo! Sorry I haven't updated in quite some time. I know I have kept you hundreds of desperate readers hanging in the lurch.(ha ha) It was pretty busy with Christmas and being around family. I should post some of those pictures, but I don't even have them on my computer yet (shocking confession #1). But at least I got last year's Christmas pictures on my computer. I just haven't done anything with them yet (shocking confession #2). I'm much better with other peoples' pictures than my own.
I want to give a plug to a great website I found. If you are looking to make a book- photo, poem, or cookbook, blurb.com is the place to go. They have great prices and better choice of layouts and options. Just a little FYI.
These are pictures of a senior I did a while back but never posted. He has quite the personality and was a little difficult to shoot, but very fun. Thanks for checkin' in.

Done with a Senior

Well, I planned on being done with all my work before traveling to Iowa for Thanksgiving, but that didn't happen. I have been hard at work, especially today. And I have finally finished one Senior of the two I have left. She is a good friend of mine and it was awesome to work with her. She has quite the creative side and we had a lot of fun experimenting. It was hard narrowing down which ones to edit and include.
Iowa was a fun and relaxing trip. We stay at a Girl Scout lodge out in the woods (the ideal scary movie setting). My husbands parents and siblings all stay too. We get to see a lot of family that we usually only see 1-2 times a year. We stay up too late, play games, watch movies, and eat a lot of food. We actually have to come back from vacation and recuperate from all the late nights and activities.
This year we decided to try our hand at the day after Thanksgiving day sales. WHAT A MISTAKE! Well, not really, but I don't plan on doing it again anytime soon (unless there is a really really good deal ;))
We didn't even go to bed because we had to drive an hour to get to a big city that had the stores we wanted to shop at. We went extra early because my brother-in-law wanted to try for a laptop at Best Buy. YEAH RIGHT! We got there about 3 hours before they opened (5am), and the line went around the side of the building and into the parking lot. We asked the people in front what time they got in line- 10am on Thanksgiving Day!!!!!! Sorry, but not worth it to miss out on Thanksgiving all together!
We had a ton of fun, though. We made up a lovely song on our way to the stores and we all got some really good deals. The slap-happy levels were very high. Everything was funny! Quite an experience!
Hopefully will be posting more often, I'll try anyways!

Delayed Halloween debut

I know, it's a little late. But here is our Halloween pictures. We shopped for pumpkins at a cute little place on our way home from visiting Shelly and Rob (in Auburn Hills). Even though the lights were on, no one was manning the register. So we just left our money in an envelope on the table.

The boys wore the same costumes as last year, with the exception of Noah. He grew too much to wear the froggy costume again. He absolutely loved the tiger costume, and was making roaring sounds.

I have two Senior photo sessions left to edit. I am on a mission to get them both done this week. We'll see!

The cloud is lifting

I still have work left to do, but it's a whole lot less than a week ago. I still have two seniors that I have to work on. I got a new laptop and it makes work a whole lot easier. I can take work with me where ever I go. At first it was a little bit of a distraction- a new toy to play with. But know it's awesome!

I had been so busy, school was put on the back burner. We missed a few days last week, but picked right back up this week. I shouldn't be busy like that for awhile. Actually, I've had conflicting thoughts about whether I ever want to be that busy again! I absolutely love photography and love what I can do for people. But I spend a lot of time editing pictures and working on sessions. A lot of busy time not spent with my family. I love what I do, but I'm not sure I want to be as busy as I am.

That said, here is a collection from a few sessions from the Detroit area.

Last wedding

Well, I am finally done with the last wedding that I had to work on. I have not completed all of my work, by any means, but I am at least a little closer to the finish line. Then I will have time for non-work related things (like posting Halloween pics ;)). But for now- here is Kelli and Adrian. Her and her family are practically part of our family and it was a joy to be able to be part of their day.

Done with another wedding.

So, it is absolutely pouring outside and I am loving it. It was hailing for a little while. There are tornado warnings in Lansing and Indiana. It's awesome! Ethan had another soccer game tonight, and unfortunately they didn't win. He wasn't as aggressive as he usually is. I think he was tired. No....I know he was tired considering the fact that he is curled up in the chair in the living room at 9:10pm - sleeping! I wish they would win just one of the last two games he has. They've only won one so far.

This wedding is of my brother-in-law and his new wife. I was in the wedding so couldn't take the pics of the ceremony, but did the before and after. I will be making a hard cover bound book for them for a wedding present, which will come a little later. I am now on to the next wedding and then some senior pics. Thanks for looking!