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I hope everyone had a wonderful fourth of July!! Here in our neck of the woods, we had an amazing weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect – very warm, very sunny, no humidity.  PERFECT.  And we got to enjoy a bit of everything – fireworks, lots of poolside fun, campfires, camping out in the backyard, a day at the beach, an afternoon with lots of family and just a whole lotta fun!!!! I am sad to see it end.

Lots more posts coming this week with recent sessions and some pics from our recent vacation. Until next time!!!!!

I am a bit crazy right now, but I wanted to give a quick peak about my recent activities.  I was honored to attend an amazing workshop hosted by Amy Wenzel!  I have been interested in attending a workshop for a while now, and when I heard that Amy would be conducting one in May,  I signed up as fast as I could! 

Amy is an extremely talented child and senior photographer.  Her photos are absolute art.  And to have an opportunity to learn from one of the best, was incredible.  I got so many ideas on everything related to a building a successful custom photography business – from everything that goes in to creating beautiful images, to all the nitty gritty business aspects. 

Since I was gone most of the week, I am still trying to get things back under control here at the homestead.  But I just had to share at least one photo of one of the beautiful models Amy brought in for us!!!!

Just stunning!!!!!

More soon!!!!!

Well, here we are!  It is May and we only have a few weeks before the kids (and hubby) are done with school for the year and ready for some summer vacation!

Things here are going pretty well.  I love this photo, down along the woods at the back of our yard.   You can see Christina and Caroline are fairly happy, but Kallie is a bit upset that she hasn’t had her turn to use the camera remote yet, and Eric refuses to sit on the table because one of the legs is broken. 

So what is new?  Well about 2 hrs after we took this photo, my dear Christina (who had not been herself most of the day) came down with stomach flu!  I felt so bad, because I didn’t really think she was that sick.  She was complaining of being tired and started crying after school for no reason, but then she started playing with her sister and seemed fine, no fever.  Until her dinner came back up right before bed.  Geez I feel like a bad mom.  I guess she had a very good reason for not wanting to eat dinner!  Now I will just hope and pray that this bug doesn’t start spreading through the family!

And why am I SOOOOOO worried?  Well I am scheduled to leave town on Monday for my first photography workshop!!  I am going to spend a couple days with the amazing Amy Wenzel!!  I am so thrilled.  I can’t wait to meet Amy, I can’t wait to meet the other photographers, and I will just cry if this stomach bug ends my plans!!!  So I will wash my hands a lot, eat well and just hope for the best.  Not much more I can do I guess!!

Christina has been doing well (before tonight!).  She and her sister Kallie spend hours just literally running around outside.  No wonder they are two skinny minnies, they just don’t stop all. day. long.  One thing thing that has helped is that I have been stricter in limiting TV hours. Christina gets only 1/2 hr a day, and it is amazing how much happier and how much more fun the kids have when they don’t rely on TV or video games to entertain them.   They create the most amazing games and play for hours.  I wish I would have done this long time ago!

Kallie is still just a happy camper.  She really is (other than in this photo) such a happy kid.  And she is so creative.  My MIL asked me what Kallie needs for her upcoming 5th birthday.  My answer?  NOTHING.  Her favorite toys consist of:  Christina’s swimming ribbons (she pretends they are mermaids), the air filled packing from the photos I get delivered (again, they are mermaids (long explanation)), Daddy’s old belt (it is a snake), Daddy’s turkey decoy (it is, well, a turkey) and a bungee cord (I am not sure what this is, but the two ends talk to each other).  Now these ”toys” are not being used because she lacks for toys.  We have billions of Barbies and Barbie homes and Barbie cars and Barbie accessories.  We have littlest pet shop, Fisher Price little people, Playmobil and more.  And she will occasionally play with her real toys.  But the belt, ribbon and turkey decoy, for some unknown reason, are just much more fun.  I do remember, when I was a little one, standing by the pantry, playing with the cans of food, having them talk to themselves.  I don’t remember exactly what I was doing or saying, but I clearly remember playing there quite often.  So maybe she takes after me a bit!

Caroline is doing well.  She has a back brace now in addition to her braces for her feet.  She doesn’t like it, and cries a bit when she sees it coming, but she tolerates it OK.  She is sitting up on her own much more now (when she doesn’t have the brace on).  She pushes up, sits at a 90 degree angle and looks around for a while until she lets herself fall back down.  That is a big deal for a little girl who was supposed to be just a “vegetable”.  Caroline hasn’t been sick, hasn’t had any seizures, has just been happy and healthy!  (KNOCK ON WOOD!)

Eric is in the midst of turkey season.  I hate turkey season.  He is up before dawn and home again soon after we all wake up.  So he isn’t gone a lot, but he often is snoozing by mid afternoon on the weekend and the evenings are a bit boring when he is ready to crash at 9 p.m.  I will be happy when he gets back to sleeping normal hours. 

Well, I think that is it, this 19th day of May 2010.  

Until next time!

I love natural light. I prefer only to work with natural light. But I have raised my white flag and finally gave in. I started using a speedlight.

I have come to accept that during the depths of winter, my little world doesn’t have much “natural light”. So, when absolutely necessary, I will try to recreate “natural light” as much as possible.

Today as my girls were playing in their room, I grabbed my camera and my light and started playing. Even though the light is not as nice as natural light, I did find that I was able to capture some very nice shots. And I definitely appreciate the increased flexibility being able to create light offers me.

Even though we all may be getting a bit sick of this white stuff, you do have to admit it can create some pretty incredible scenery every once in a while!

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