Aloha!

Okay, time to get back to work.
You'd think that once it turns green and summer comes around, it would be the time where we relax and slow down and actually get some work done since there's no school and such. Shah. No. I feel sort of like someone took everything that I am and threw it up in the air and while it feels great to fly around for a while, I'm starting to realize that I'm not at all organized into one neat little spot and nothing is getting done. Oh well. Just ride the wave, baby.
Got back from an AMAZING vacation with my mom and brother and sister to Hawaii for almost two weeks.

I am glad to be back home with my hubby-dub and beautiful little munchkins, I missed them at every corner while I was there, but I did enjoy myself. And I did tan my legs, but it doesn't really count because it was only from halfway down my shin to my ankles because I spent an afternoon kayaking with capri's on and didn't put sunscreen there. Okay, so "tanning" isn't exactly the right word for what happened considering I'm still peeling from it almost two weeks later, but at least I have some color on my legs, even if I can't wear anything higher than my shins because I look like I'm wearing some weird pinkish-brown socks.
Before I left I had a rackem-rollem week with three photo shoots in a few days time plus getting myself ready to go and trying to get the house (and fridge) in order for my stallion husband who was the best man in the world for pushing me out the door and instructing me to enjoy myself while I was gone (he was also smart enough not to tell me that my oldest, Chloe, cried on the way home from dropping me off with my mom in Denver because she was going to miss me so much, I think I would have told him to come back and get me right then and there). I'm just gonna do a little sneak peak here and am committing myself to actually blogging about these shoots later. I'm pretty sure that I still have shots from like last fall I never got up here in full, but I will try my best to keep up with my blog this summer!

And now that we are nearing the peak of the tallest part of the here-comes-summer roller coaster, we can begin our exhilarating descent....

All Boy

I had a really hard time deciding which shot from this shoot I did for my son's fourth birthday to submit, there were so many of them that knocked my off my socks. This was the first official "shoot" I've ever done with Linus and I was worried about how he was going to respond to me being in his face all the time. Usually all the photos I get of him are him goofy shots with manic smiles and faces and he's never very serious. He was excited to get all dressed up and go, though, and did a fantastic job! There are a few old passenger train cars behind the railroad tracks in a city near where we live and I've concocting this shoot for ages. Anyway, he is my boy, and he encompasses the gender with reckless abandon. You go boy.

Check out all the other boys at I Heart Faces this week! I love doing this so, I'm glad that they switched it to only once a month now, gives me more time to prepare and soak in all the other entries I get to peruse!

Hey Girl

This is Odell. She will be turning two in August. She is our third born.
She almost didn't make it here. When I was 14 weeks pregnant with her, I woke up one morning with really painful cramps. Within the next couple of hours I started bleeding heavily (this pregnancy was after a scary miscarriage where I had to go to the hospital because I was bleeding so bad)- my husband was at work so my mother in law drove me to the doctor's office. During the ultrasound I saw a healthy, rapidly beating heart and a perfect little baby on the screen and I fell in love. Then my doctor told me that I had a large blood clot in my uterus, my cervix had shrunk to 2 cm and that I was probably going to miscarry within the week. That was heart-wrenching for me, especially because she was just fine on the ultrasound, there was nothing wrong with her, she was perfect, but there was nothing they could do.
Well the week passed. And then another week. And then another week, and although my cervix was on a roller-coaster, lengthening and then shrinking, then lengthening and shrinking again, she just kept being the perfect little baby that she was and refused to leave. With lots of prayer and lots of rest, God let us keep this beautiful baby girl. In fact she made it to 38 weeks, full term, and has been just an angel since then.
Well, sort of. I just found her with one of our unzipped and halfway unstuffed couch pillows. We love her anyway.
So to Odell, I say, "Hey Girl. Thanks for being here and making me the luckiest Momma in the world."
Hey YOU. Go look at some more beautiful girl entries this week at I Heart Faces!! Celebrate all those girlies in your life (and don't forget your MOMMA! Only a few days left- have you checked out the Vintage Pearl yet? Get some great ideas over there!)
...(PS, I'm not sponsoring them, I just really like their stuff...)

Scarf Winner!

SOOOO, life of a college student wife, my husband has our laptop with him at school, which means I don't have the "snippet" tool to prove to you that I randomly chose the winner on random.org, you're just going to have to take my word for it.
Of my seven lovely entries, number seven won! Thanks to the beautiful Lisa who I had the privilege to work with at school, this is what she had to say about Spring:

I think my favorite thing about Spring has recently changed. Since having my son, the whole world has changed. I always enjoyed spring, but now, watching him see the world through those beautiful innocent eyes-the bugs, the birds, Dad mowing the lawn, are all AMAZING things to him. Well, that is what Spring should feel like to ALL of us!

So true, I love how excited my kids get when the grass starts turning green and the tulips sprout up in Grandma's garden.
 Enjoy the sunshine, everyone. AND, I think it's safe to announce now, that I will be going on an actual vacation in a few short weeks to Hawaii. While my gut sinks and I get all clammy when I think about being away from my family for almost two weeks....uuuuuuuhhhhhhggggg...., I am looking forward to taking some beautiful pictures and trying to tan my legs. Wish me luck.

Exploring a little/ Scarf Giveaway!!!

First of all, I love this tree in Spring. All the freakishly big crab-apples it drops all over our yard in the fall are worth these beautiful flowers in the Spring. I know everyone else in my family would love to either chop this thing down or freeze it before it buds, but I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!!
Second of all, gettin' my craft on lately. Here and there. I'm still utterly confused as to where the time goes at the end of the day, but once in a while I'm able to do some things that don't involve...well, whatever it is that I do all day. Like this upcycled beauty:

 Sorry, I had to be my own model today. I took the upcycled scarf idea and just added a few things, like a snap and my most favoritist material of all time....

You KNOW, the item I just LOVE more than anything else in the world....
.....

YARN, it's YARN that I love. 

So here is another one I made that I'm going to GIVE AWAY!!!

One lucky blogger will get this tee shirt scarf by JUST COMMENTING BELOW and telling me your favorite thing about Spring! One comment per person, and I'll end this giveaway lets say, Monday night at midnight.
Tell your friends! :-) And have a wonderful weekend!

Undeniable Love

Happy Easter everyone!
I have no excuses for my absence from this blog. Oh wait, actually I have three of them, and I've discovered exactly what it means to be a stay-at-home mom to the fullest. You don't really get the whole experience until you survive the winter months...but I'm happy to say we survived. And Spring is here to stay!! Enjoying the warm sun and greenery sprouting all around.

Working on a lot of things, one of them being this little treasure. She was amazingly patient and precious through the whole shoot! And I was sweating like a dog. I know, gross. I only share those particular details with you because you are my friends, and you know...like to keep it real.

Eat lots of cadburry eggs!!
Or don't. Just eat one. Lots of them would feel not good after a while.

Happily Ever After

 

Now, I don't advertise myself as a wedding photographer. As much as I love the magic that happens on a wedding day, my husband keeps reminding me of the times I've attempted it and come home at the end of the day completely discouraged and ready to give up photography all together. Oh yeah. STRESS CITY. However, I am known to help out on an occasional family wedding, which I enjoy. Much less pressure. I'm finishing up this wonderful couple this week, my gorgeous, sweetest girl in the world sister-in-law and her new lucky man. The day they got married couldn't have been more perfect for December. Here's just a sneak. Don't they look happy? Ah...sometimes I wish I could plan my wedding all over again just so I could get happy pictures like this of Craig and I. Craig might agree to it if we get another wedding cake in the mix. :-) 

Happy Tuesday, y'all.