a mom and her camera

Merry Crocing Christmas!

Sweet Kelsey is sitting next to me right now at my parents house where we are spending the day in front of their fire with all four children running around and in laps of various aunts, uncles and grandparents... it's a great great day. So anyway, Miss Kelsey, next to me, just picked the winner by randomly picking a number b/c I could not for the life of me figure out the random generator. Am I an idiot? Probably.

So she picked...

are you ready?

NUMBER TWELVE!  MIRIAM!

Here's her comment:

Wow! ONE wish? I have many, as I'm sure everyone else does. In the realm of intangibles, I wish for a long lifetime here on earth with my sweet family. I wish to watch my children grow to be happy, healthy, and whole, and to die as an old woman who can look back at her life with no regrets. Now, on to the tangibles...I hope Santa brings me a new laptop because mine is about give up and I just cant make it a day without reading all my girls blogs!
Loves me some crocs too...and wish my boys could put on their tennis shoes by themselves...sigh. ;-)

So did you all read the comments? Oh my gosh. If I could actually be a wish granter I would. I would cure the illness and give the jobs and stretch time and everything. There are one or two wishes I could possibly work on... so keep your eyes open for a few granted wishes this winter!

And Miriam! Are you SO excited??? Miriam is a sweet blog friend (read her blog HERE) with three young kids like me, only reversed... two boys and then her baby girl! So are you going to get pink or blue
ones? Just email me your address and I will forward it on to Crocs, Inc!

Thanks for participating in the first ever SPONSORED giveaway here! So fun huh? And if anyone wants to get some ad time for their business by hosting another giveaway just let me know! We love free stuff! :)

Now I'm going back to my amazingly relaxed day with my family... truly relaxed and loving life!

Oh, and GO BUY SOME CROCS!

oh friday night.

I love Friday nights and I'm not even sure why b/c they all are the same. Pizza, a movie and my laptop. Chris usually goes to bed early b/c he's exhausted from the week or he goes out to some kind of soccer event, like tonight, and I'm working feverishly to catch up from the week of kids. So it's not exciting, by any means, but I still love it.

It also means I get to sleep a bit longer b/c C will wake up with the kids in the morning and it usually means I have a shoot at some point, maybe two, and get to meet or reunite with great families! I guess it is the welcome wave to Saturday and I love Saturdays.

SO here I sit, waiting patiently for Grayson to stop crying and my pizza+soda to arrive. The girls are sleeping and Chris is gone.

And I'm FINALLY going to start the Handmade Christmas posts coming!

So without further ado...

Handmade Christmas Project #1:  Puzzle Decor

We lose puzzle pieces as often as we lose socks and it drives me crazy. I'm constantly searching high and low for a piece and usually end up throwing the puzzle away only to find the darn piece the next day! That's when I got this idea... to take the old puzzle and make something cute with it!

THIS GIFT IS FOR SAM... so Abbie, if you want to be surprised stop reading!

This was a fairly cheap alphabet puzzle that I got at the second hand store when Bailey was a baby. All I did was gently pull the top wood layer off the bottom layer... I had to work it really slowly so it wouldn't snap! Then all I did was glue pieces of scrapbook paper to the back and hot glue a ribbon to hang it with! SO EASY! AND CHEAP!

One thing I would have done differently should I do it again... I would paint the frame white first to cover up the puzzle brand in the bottom left corner. Hopefully Samantha won't mind!

It literally took me all of 30 minutes to complete and I think it turned out pretty cute!

You could do this with any puzzle but I love the alphabet... I want to do one for the playroom next... maybe I'll finish it before Christmas!

AND, if you want a cute handmade gift but don't have the time or energy to do it yourself... consider having the sweetest young college student make a handmade bracelet for you!

ABBIE, JESSICA, ANGIE M, TERRI and MOM STOP READING RIGHT NOW or you will RUIN part of your CHRISTMAS!!!

Our sweet friend Kelsey is making these bracelets for $5 each! And she will ship ANYWHERE! Just shoot me an email with how many you want, your address and the size (child, adult, etc.) and she will get one done asap!

Isn't that so stinkin cute? Oh my gosh! I got one for myself, one for my sister, two for my friends, my MIL and mom and one for each of my girls! Perfect for the little ladies in your life!

OR, in the spirit of giving, feel free to rip off the idea and do it yourself to save the $5! :)

You all have T-4.5 hours until the Croc giveaway is CLOSED so make sure you comment and try to win!

Oh pizza, the baby is sleeping now (only 5 trips to plug him with the paci while writing this!) and I need my mnt. dew fix... hurry pizza man, hurry!

And to leave you tonight... a few shots from today of my sweet and chunky baby boy!

Fat baby, post bath, love it!

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?

When the girls were little (as if they are so big right now) and we were doing the whole "cry it out" thing Chris always wanted to just turn the monitors off. He said that if we couldn't hear them crying then they weren't really crying. Nice idea huh?

Well, on the night we decided to let Gray cry himself to sleep, after over a week of 4+ hours trying to walk+rock+nurse+cuddle him to sleep (and my work suffering intensely and my sleep suffering even more), we found out just what happens when the monitors are off.

First, before I tell you the answer, I have to tell you how HORRIBLE it is being on the same floor as your baby who's learning to put himself to sleep. UGH! With the girls we would turn the monitors DOWN so we could hear them crying but could also drown it out during the inbetween times. Grayson's bedroom is attached to ours which is on the first floor. So for about an hour we just listened to him scream. And for me, knowing all he wanted was me, it was brutal. But right at the hour mark when we were going to give up, he fell asleep. On his own. In his crib. It broke my heart a lot more than it did with the girls but now I'm pretty proud of him. Way to go little man.

And now. What happens when the monitors get turned off (unknowingly)?

THREE hours after bedtime you turn the tv off, the house gets quiet for a moment and you hear it. Muffled and far away screams. You wonder what that noise is, is it Gray? No. OMG. It's a girl. Upstairs. Screaming. And then you run up the stairs two at a time b/c the screams sound so awful and you are already working the time out in your head, wondering if this screaming has been going on for the entire three hours. And then you open their door to a smell that can only be three hour old poop. You go to the crib to find your barely two year old in just a diaper, half asleep and screaming. She is shaking from the cold, obviously poopy and totally freaked out. That's when you look to the floor and see two pairs of jammies in a lump, turn your head around and see your three year old naked too, sound asleep in her bed.

I've never grabbed a kid up so fast, changed a diaper and put jammies on that fast in my entire life! Then I grabbed her blankies, wrapped her still shaking body up and rocked her until she fell back to sleep.

You have no idea the guilt I'm feeling right now. Seeing her laying there just shaking and crying. Cold, poopy and exhausted. OMG it was awful.  So freaking awful.

A word to the wise... double check the monitors when your kids go to bed!

*****************************************

Great comments coming for the Croc giveaway! So great! So great in fact, there is NO way I can pick one! How do you choose between cancer and finding a job? Or health and happiness? So it's back to the good old random generator to chose for me! Keep the comments coming though, you have 24 more hours! AND... if you LINK that post to your blog, come back and comment to let me know, you will be entering yourself TWICE! Double the chances to win! So fun!

I heart Crocs, don't you?

What mom doesn't love Crocs? I mean seriously. We have numerous pairs from the cute pink maryjanes to the blue solid clog style to the basic kind you can decorate. Parker still tries to wear them everyday even though it's freezing b/c they're the only shoes she can put on by herself. WE LOVE CROCS.

And I bet you do too!

So to start my favorite day of the week off right I'm doing a GIVE AWAY!

Oh yes, you heard that right! A wonderful person straight from Crocs, Inc. contacted me about sending me two pairs of Kids Mammouth Crocs for the girls to try! We chatted and decided that a give away would be fun too! And b/c I know we're going to love the new Crocs I'm going to do the giveaway today rather than wait until we get ours!

SO today I am giving away a pair of THESE:

Are you dying? In whatever size you need! Don't they look cozy? I might have to get a pair for myself HERE or maybe THESE too!

SO. What can I make you do to earn these awesome shoes? Hmmm.

Leave a comment ON THIS POST telling me your Christmas wish. Are you wishing for your favorite perfume? A day at the spa? A handmade gift from your kids? More time? World peace? What are you wishing for?  And if you can guess why today is my favorite day of the week I'll throw in a special treat of my own! A little Jodified holiday decoration I'm making this year!

And I'm not doing a random generator or anything... this is my blog and so I'm hand picking the winner! I won't play favorites, I'm going to pick the wish that I wish I could grant. SO be honest people! Who knows, maybe there's someone out there that could grant your wish that's reading this!

Are you SO excited??? NEW CROCS! For FREE! Gotta love Crocs! Thanks Stephanie at Crocs who contacted me about this giveaway!

Oh yes. Thursday is looking GOOD!

PS... COMMENTS WILL BE CLOSED FRIDAY AT MIDNIGHT and the WINNER will be posted Saturday!

young and in love.

Hey there!

Working feverishly tonight on a video for the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, a project I've had for a month and is due tomorrow. Nothing like the last minute. Nothing like an all-nighter to get it all done. Nothing like volunteer work.

But in search of a much needed break I decided to finally post Janel and Adam's sneak peek! Enjoy some photos full of LOVE... looking at cute couples like this always makes me want to go wake up C and make him cuddle me! 

We met Adam at Laclede's Landing, yet another new place for me to shoot and I loved it! Great alleys, buildings and streets and I love the Arch in the background!
I am in love with the cobble stone streets!
Adam was so incredibly sweet with Janel and I'm so glad I caught moments like this!
Do you love that I made them write their wedding date on the dirty window? :) Janel's hands were SO dirty after that!
A quick shot with Janel, her mom and her sister!
They live apart right now (about 4 hours I think)  so when they're together they are so excited to be with one another! It was one of the first shoots I didn't have to say things like, "get closer"! I practically had to pull them apart! LOL!
The light was fading SO fast! But we got a few last shots...
This photo was taken with a 1600 ISO b/c it was literally dark when I took this and so it's super grainy but I love it anyway! The heart was their idea and it turned out so cute!

Thanks you guys! Good luck with the rest of your wedding plans and have an amazing time on your cruise! I hope to hear from you when there's a baby in that belly! :)

I've never taken photos of the Arch before but I took a million during this shoot. I love it. The shape, the lines, the color. Oh my goodness! I never knew how beautiful it was!

So tomorrow I have a Hand Made Christmas gift to share, maybe two. I also have a recipe idea to run past you all soon. And to get the ball rolling I want to share our favorite hot chocolate recipe with everyone!

It is seriously SO good! It makes a TON so make sure you have a giant bowl to mix it in before you start... I got halfway done this year, forgetting how much it makes, and had to run to my parents to borrow a bigger bowl! Anyway, it's great!

AND now it's time to get back to work. Tomorrow is going to be a long day with the zero sleep it looks like I'll be getting tonight. *Sigh*

Out of order.

I try to do things in order... remembering who had what first so the girls don't fight all the time, editing my shoots in the right order and posting images in the right order. I also try to do what I promise, like posting Janel and Adam's engagement photos today since I said I was going to do them yesterday. But then life happens and it all gets out of whack. I have a fussy baby all night so I don't finish the engagement sneak peeks like I'd hoped, I don't answer emails timely sometimes, I get behind on some edits, etc.

Anyway, life happened yesterday in the form of one little girl's birthday and rather than work all day we did art projects and visited with their great grandparents and went out to dinner. It was a great day but work got shoved to the back burner and there it still sits, just waiting for the house to be quiet with sleeping babies giving me time to work. Hopefully that will happen this afternoon but I won't get my hopes up b/c it didn't happen yesterday. Did I mention that my parents are out of town all week? Great for them (happy anniversary today mom+dad!) but it means I'm with the kids more than usual.

ANYWAY! I have clients all over town waiting on me and I want to say a BIG FAT thank you for being so patient! I have NOT forgotten about you, you just hired a mom with three young kids and I'm working as fast as possible!

So in the theme of being out of order, I want to share some photos from last month when we went to the All Saints Episcopal Church Consecration. All Saints is the church my dad's company built this year and we couldn't be more proud of him! Enjoy some photos (this is mainly for family+friends that are dying to see his church)!

We left the big girls with GoGo and Bubba that day and the babies came (the church is about an hour away)... doesn't Gray look cute in his sweater vest?

I love capturing moments like this! THIS is what this job is all about for me!

I love this shot of The Bishop!

 I love this one of Sam! OMGosh! Look at those eyes!

Sam was being SO loud and this was Abbie's solution!

My parents invited some friends and family to come and in the photo above it's my dad and his Aunt Betty... I love her and it makes me so happy I caught her on film!

I took photos throughout the entire build and as a gift my parents had me create a book documenting the year... my dad presented it at the Consecration.

Look at how proud my dad looks as Sam is getting blessed by the Bishop!

We're all so proud of my dad, it's amazing to be the builder of a church. To put the walls up around a space that is devoted to worshiping the Lord, such a privilege.  

And to get a tad bit back on track I'm working feverishly on edits+design work today. Grayson just fell asleep and I have 40 minutes before I have to get Bailey. Can you edit an entire shoot in 40 minutes? I haven't yet but there's always a first time for everything right?

Hope your Wednesday is a good one!

TERRIBLY wonderful twos.

Happy Birthday to Parker! Two years old! This stands to be a great year for you little girl! We love you!

Technically these photos are awful, but you have no idea how hard it was to get them this good! :)

Big day today as we do all things Parker centered! I will let you know how that goes!

***Janel... the engagement ones will be up as soon as I get a child-free moment today... and everyone else that's waiting on me... I am working as fast as possible...

"You're the best photographer ever!"

Said by a very happy bride on Sunday b/c I brought good weather to her shoot! It had nothing to do with my actual skills as a photog mind you, but I'm going to pretend like it did!

Yesterday I had the extreme pleasure of photographing a gorgeous bride down by the Arch, a spot I've been dying to shoot at and MAN did it live up to my expectations! The best part of this particular bride is that she found me by just reading my blog... gotta love blogs!

Janel and Adam have the sweetest story... they met online at eHarmony and fell instantly in love. Or at least pretty much instantly! You'll have to hop over to their blog HERE to read their whole story. Anyway, they are having a destination wedding and aren't having professional photos taken on their special day (which is on a CRUISE in paradise!) so instead they hired me to do bridal photos of Janel in her dress and then also some engagement shots. It was so much fun! I had a few different spots I wanted to hit so Janel's mom came along to watch+drive and her sister met up with us too. We did her bridals and then while she changed in a restaurant bathroom down on Laclede's Landing, Adam hightailed it down there to meet us before we lost the sun completely.

I'm doing two posts tonight for their sneak peeks b/c Adam is banished from my blog (not that he was a loyal reader anyway I bet!) until the wedding so he doesn't see her in her dress... but she can bring up just the individual post of the two of them to show him those photos! I'm even burning them two disks so he never has a chance to see her!

So first is the beautiful Janel... open to whatever crazy shot I proposed and willing to literally walk through mud to make me happy! :) HA!

So that heart totally said "Christine" before my little bit of photoshop magic! Don't worry Janel, there is a plain heart on your disk too! I just thought this was too funny!

Oh wait, I mean, I'm totally cool and brought spray paint with us and did that myself! :)

*and notice above her in black paint, it says "Merry Christmas"! How perfect!

One of my absolute favorite photos to date. I love this.

Can you believe the tourists cleared out so I could take this photo? And without me even asking!

This photo is incredibly grainy and really one I should have trashed, but I just love it anyway! Don't print this one too large Janel! :)

Her sweet sister had these awesome glasses on and Janel was all about them! I love that I made it into this shot! :)  Didn't she ROCK these?
I love this arrow! Hello Bride!

And what you don't see is that staring at Janel to my direct right while taking this photo was a man in a homeless camp! Oh yes, I made her go to some sketchy places (we were safe! don't worry!)! But check out the next photo and you'll understand why I love going off the beaten path!

I just love that in b/w!
So random! We both loved that sculpture! Anyone know where we were???

See? I told you I made her walk through mud! Luckily she had on yoga pants and tennis shoes the whole time! Bet you couldn't tell could you? :)

So give her some love (all bride want to hear how gorgeous they are!)... and I'll be back later with their engagement sneak peek!

Thanks again Janel, you were awesome!

yo yo yoga

Bailey goes to preschool three days a week and once a week (I think) they have yoga class. Last week one of the directors told my mom, who was picking her up for me, that Bailey is the best in her class at yoga b/c she follows the directions so well. This made me incredibly proud considering I've always dreamed of being good at yoga... I'm incredibly flexible (even throughout my pregnancies I could get in crazy positions to photograph people) and think I would love it. My only attempt at yoga however, was when I was pregnant with Bailey and bought a yoga for pregnancy DVD. After getting everything it said I needed I sat and watched the DVD without moving a muscle. Total waste.

But now I can live vicariously through my little girl! Thanks Bails!

In the midst of her demonstrating her yoga Parker came over for an impromptu hug... LOVE this photo!

We take our hugs seriously in the Allen family! SQUEEZE!

So it's Monday. And it's gray out. And cold. And pretty windy. But the girls are safe and sound at GoGo's (my MIL) house and Grayson is finally napping so the house is quiet. Dishes are done, toys are picked up and the floors are about to be attacked by me and my new mop. I've been to Target with coupons in hand for some items, dropped off things at Once Upon A Child, picked up a really cute white wool coat from Gap at OUAC and am planning a grocery store trip once the little man wakes up. I'm thinking chicken enchilladas are on the menu for tonight b/c last week they were SO good (I have the chicken recipe to share here soon)! Or maybe soup and good bread. It's kind of a hot soup day. We'll see. Yesterday I had an amazing shoot with a beautiful bride! Gorgeous in fact! Will be back later with her sneak peek!

Stay warm!

If my husband had a blog,

he would first mention how late he got to sleep today, which was 8:45am, because the girls went to their grandparents house. Then he might mention our "date" last night. And in mentioning our date, which was dinner with the kids and his parents (really good food! thanks B+T!) and then going to my parents empty house to sit by the fire to be romantic but save money, he would have to tell you that in line at Oberweis for a shake I actually said, "sometimes I just wish I could order a large shake. I mean, I want a bucket of chocolate shake right now!"  Then he would assuredly mention that between Oberweis and my parent's house I asked him to go to QuickTrip so I could get pretzels and a Mnt Dew also. Or maybe he'd mention that not only did I go into QT in my slippers but that I had spilled shake down the front of me. Or, you know, he might just risk death and go ahead and call me a fat ass!

We were laughing so hard last night at my multiple food stops but if I was going to have a night, or an hour and a half b/c Gray screamed the entire time and literally giggled when I came home and rescued him, away from our kids I wanted all my favorites with me! But it was funny! And we kept saying how if we were dating I would never have admitted how much food+drink I wanted! Especially after eating a really good Italian dinner, which I wouldn't have finished if we were just dating as to not look like a fat girl. Sometimes I really love being married!