a mom and her camera

I've always liked Halloween, but now that I'm a mom I love it. Picking out the costumes, trick or treating, carving pumpkins, it's all a new experience in the eyes of your kids so it just makes it that much more exciting and fun! We've been getting ready for Halloween for weeks now... we bought the costumes (photos tonight), we decorated the house, etc. Last week we went on the Kirkwood Halloween Walk where they can go trick or treating to all the businesses and although it rained most of the night we had a great time (I have photos from that I need to post too)!

Last night we finally carved our pumpkins!

Something I did last night for my parents... it glows when the candle is lit.

I also covered this little pumpkin with toile tissue paper... it turned out looking nothing like toile but has a creepy look to it so it works! Last night was pumpkin night!

We're off to trick or treat at my Grandmother's nursing home and then to my parents for dinner tonight and more trick or treating! Of course the candy is really for Daddy! HIS favorite part of this holiday!

Have a great one!

back in the saddle

This week was a waste work-wise. With everything going on in my head, everytime I sat down at the computer to work my mind went blank and I would just want to go lie down. So every night I basically watched tv or went to bed early!

BUT, today was different. I had a great day down in Farmington with my mom, her bff Pat and Bailey. We shot some photos for Kuhn Construction but mostly just ate a great lunch and shopped! SO fun. Also had a great photo shoot and got an album up at Jodified Designs.

Beachy Family go check it out!

So I'm back. Taking life one day at a time and enjoying each one the best I know how. Taking in the moments and trying not to worry too much about the future... why worry about what I can't change? {ABBIE TAKE NOTES} So today was a good day and tomorrow will be a good day and the day after that and the day after that. Life is good. I have a  loving husband, beautiful girls and I'm blessed with a little person growing in my belly! What can get better than that?

This week I'm going to kick it in gear and catch up on editing photos, so if you have a shoot you're waiting to see, hang in there! It's coming! Off to bed so I can do it all again tomorrow!

thank you

Before I post some new photos, some new jodified albums, and other random things, I want to say thank you to everyone for the love and support this week.

The comments on our announcement have meant more than you could ever know. We've heard not one negative thing about this unexpected blessing and that just eases my mind so much. To know that we have so many people praying for us and supporting us is unbelievable. And I think Chris is getting more used to the idea as he mentioned that he hopes it's a boy today and we talked briefly about boy names!

So thank you  thank you and keep the comments coming!  They have been amazing!

God's sense of humor

Have you heard that phrase before?  I've used it quite a few times to describe events in my life, but nothing really completely fit that until now.

Are you ready for this?

*And before I go on, if you are a family member or close friend and are hearing about this first on my blog, I apologize, we've been busy processing instead of calling people.

Here we go!

{you can click the image to enlarge}

Yep! That's right. Pregnant AGAIN!

And yes we know how this happens, and yes we were taking precautions to make this NOT happen, and yes I am still pregnant. God just thinks it's funny to see me knocked up.

So anyway, if I seem distant, or am not returning emails/calls right away please give me some processing room. This news needs processing.

Three under three.

Holy crap.

So, I've mentioned before that bloggers like LOVE comments, and if there has ever been a time when I need encouraging comments the time is NOW. But please don't leave any "you guys are idiots" comments, b/c that's really not what I need right now. Just nice, "you can totally do this" comments would be lovely.

Are you off the ground from where you fell off your chair and still with me?

Good.

Now I'm taking my pregnant self and going to bed. Because Lord knows I need sleep!

oh to cough.

SO Bailey is STILL sick, although had a little more color to her face and a voice that was a tiny bit louder today. I took her to the doctor again this morning b/c of her deep cough and wheezing. She has the croupe (sp?) and is fairly miserable. They put her on steroids to help take the swelling away from her vocal chords and the coughing is just now starting... all weekend she was pretty much mute and the infection was all in her throat. Now that it's breaking up she's going to have a horrific cough for a few weeks. Lovely. Try keeping a one year old away from her hacking sister all day! Tonight the poor thing coughed so hard in bed she threw up everywhere, which means Teds is now in the washing machine taking a bath... she was NOT happy.

Watching your little ones so sick is the hardest thing and terribly exhausting. Again, if you are waiting for your photos, please bear with me. I think I'm just calling it a night so I can survive tomorrow.

A new Creating Keepsakes came in the mail (thanks mom!) so i have fun reading for bed! Oh to lay down...

kelsey

If you don't normally go over to Jodified Designs to check out the latest photo shoot, head over there tonight! I just finished Kelsey's senior photos and she is SO beautiful! Seriously! She reads this blog so leave a comment telling her how gorgeous she is!

On to the next one...

paper towels.

I think I mentioned that Wednesday Bailey came home from school crabby and ended up with a fever that night. Well that fever escalated into the most sever chest cold she's ever had. She will barely talk her throat hurts so badly and she cries every time she coughs.  This, on top of Parker trying to sleep through the night led to a very VERY long week. Add to that six photo shoots, KCCI designs, other projects, keeping up with the house, etc... I'm a very tired lady. However, my gracious parents agreed to take the girls for the weekend so C and I could catch up on work and most importantly SLEEP.  So my sick little girl has been pampered by Grandma for two days with visits by Mommy and Daddy. Trust me, she's more spoiled with time there than here. They come home at 7am tomorrow and although the time (and SLEEP) has been nice, I can't wait to cuddle on the couch with Bailey and play on the floor with Parker!

I did get two shoots edited today so go check them out HERE... so proud of myself for that!

Kelsey, Tracy (my neighbor), Beachy and Anderson you are all on deck for editing! Thanks for being patient as this has been one hell of a week!

Friday morning while Bailey laid on the couch and watched her new favorite movie (the first full-length one she's seen), Finding Nemo, I was quickly trying to clean the house and walked into the kitchen to find THIS:

 

Parker found the paper towels, dragged them off the chair and proceeded to have a grand old time! I was laughing so hard that Bailey got off the couch to see what was going on. The sweet thing had the biggest smile and you could tell she was trying so hard not to laugh and make her throat hurt even more! Parker gets into EVERYTHING! Bailey was not a super adverturous baby, so Parker is making up for it!

Two shoots tomorrow and one sick little puppy coming home. I have lots of art projects lined up that I will try to remember to photograph b/c I need to share some great kid craft ideas on here! Have a great Sunday!

personal day.

Chris came home tonight and said that he wants to plan to take a personal day soon. It got me thinking how nice it would be to take a personal day myself! Do moms ever get personal days? When they can just call, say they're not coming in and roll over to fall back to sleep!  How amazing would that be?

I mean seriously?

Today would have been my choice of a personal day b/c nothing went as planned. I was/am so tired I could barely function, and normally I do fairly well on no sleep. So Parker stayed in jammies all day and basically so did I (although I did manage to fit a shower in) and just doing normal chores was hard. Bailey came home from school very crabby, the girls napped at opposite times (so no free time for me), Parker was a nightmare b/c she's exhausted, Bailey ended up with 102 degree fever tonight, and the list goes on. It was just ONE. OF. THOSE. DAYS.

Thank goodness for Private Practice, pretzels, the Mnt Dew Chris went to get me and this computer (or my third child as C calls it). So although I'm tired still, the house is cleaned up, laundry put away and I am sitting here editing photos happy as a clam.

Ok, commercial is over!

trying

I am trying my hardest to feel motivated today and not just want to crawl into my bed and sleep all day! It's rainy and cool which are two of my favorite combinations, except when suddenly you can't go on a walk or the park or the yard and your cranky kids are cooped up all day! Luckily Bails had school this morning so it was just a bored Parker I had here. Anyway, I did manage to finish Matthew's album over HERE so go check it out!

Off to get Parker out of bed (she's crying) so Bailey can take a nap, going to start working on the Crews edits, need to post my new Christmas card designs, finish laundry, figure out dinner, and on and on and on.

Would LOVE some of your favorite crock pot recipes! I'm obsessed right now so please share!

leaving on a happy note.

I thought that if I write something tonight BEFORE bed, that it might send some good mojo into the atmosphere and help the sleep situation around here, leaving me no time to write at 3am!

So I had a photo shoot tonight and I NEVER do this, but I'm going to post a photo or two BEFORE popping them into Photoshop. And I'm doing this b/c these shots are just so perfectly Kelsey! My pseudo little sister, SENIOR in high school, cheerleader, baby-sitter, and all around amazing girl I've had the pleasure of watching grow into a beautiful woman. She's oh so a cheerleader! Can you tell?

Aren't those awesome? I love it!

There are so many links I want to share and things I've found while blog hopping all night the last two nights, so if I'm up tonight again I will have time to share them! Good stuff out there. Check out my favorite blog links... you'll love them too. ALSO, last night I got 4 more Christmas card designs done and will share those. Am working on revamping this oh so boring banner too.  Maybe I actually NEED that 3am work time! In preparation of a long night, but hoping I'm wrong, I'm heading to bed EARLY. 9pm. So if you are waiting on something from me, please be patient and understand I'm just tired. I'm working steadily on getting through the last few session edits. Thanks for understanding and good night!