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You guys sure know how to ROCK THE VOTE!
Almost 200 comments! Holy cow!
Just had to pop on here (as I'm RUNNING around getting ready for Florida today like a MAD WOMAN) to tell you there is the SAME contest running over at Fresh Art and we'd love your vote there too!
AND we just posted this sneak peek today so if voting ONE MORE TIME seems like too much work... at least pop over there and leave these parents of the SLEEPIEST newborn around some comment love! And to tempt you here are some of my favs...
Can't you hear him? MIZ....ZOU!
ALSO... just FYI... today is the LAST day to get our 75% off session fee at Fresh Art! So send all your prego friends out way!!!
VOTING ENDS TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT FOR BOTH CONTESTS!!!
Ok people. Here we go. This will be a new monthly tradition I think!
THE RULES:
1. you may only vote ONCE.
2. Anonymous votes DO NOT COUNT and will be deleted!
3. You may spread the word however you like to get votes on your photo!
4. Winners announced SATURDAY morning
5. TO VOTE: leave a comment with the number corresponding to the photo you want to vote for and WHY you are voting for them!
6. EMAILS do not count as votes... ONLY comments!
HERE WE GO!
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
AND WHAT DO YOU WIN???
A 5x7 proof book of ALL the images from your session!!! Valued at $150!
GO! VOTE! GOOOOOO! YOU HAVE TWO DAYS NOW! GO!!!
Trying to catch up and work ahead and finish laundry and start packing and run errands and entertain the kids while Chris is at soccer all week has made for a little less blogging this week and a lot less sleep! But the end is near... we leave Sunday morning!
And FYI (I will mention it again!)... there is NO internet where we are staying! I will TRY to get to a cafe of some kind to check emails at least but blogging might take a break for the week!
Today we had an hour before Chris had to be back at soccer so we walked across the street to the park...
Can you see them? SO tiny in this BIG world! :)
My focus was totally off in this last one, the fence is all that's in focus but WHATEVER right? My girls and my guys all in one photo... that's all that matters!
Working on some fun blog posts over at Fresh Art so check over there in the next few days!
Florida is BOOKED and Chicago is CLOSE so please email me ASAP if you're interested in Labor Day Weekend!
Now on to the other blog... as if I need MORE excuses to blog! HA!
I grew up with that phrase. It was my dad's motto for so many things in life. Although I'm not sure he ever used it when talking about printing photos... but I am from now on!
Why?
Because look at these:
Donna sent me these images of her two 24x30 prints (printed on stand-out mount) in her dining room and bedroom and I LOVE how they look!
I think most people think an 8x10 is LARGE. But man oh man it is TINY!
These are just SO awesome!
Thanks for sharing Donna!!!
If I ever hold a workshop for other photographers it might be to teach them how to grow their blogs.
Not that I'm planning on holding a workshop, ever, or that I even really know anything about growing a blog. Ok, so obviously that idea is stupid. Except that for some reason my blog keeps growing and through my blog I have "met" some of the most amazing people out there. And I want everyone to have the network of support that I have b/c it is awesome. I mean, aside from one MEAN commenter, my days are full of fun and supportive emails. Which makes even a crappy day so much better! Who wouldn't want that right?
I guess I'm just really passionate about blogging. For a ton of reasons, that I won't go into here RIGHT NOW in case I do ever decide to hold that workshop. Or just b/c it's getting late and I'm being LAZY.
Anyway, one such INCREDIBLE person I've met in blogland is Jamie. I honestly can't remember if I found her via Janel's blog or if she found ME via Janel but I'm pretty sure Janel was the link! Am I right Jamie?
ANYWAY. Jamie and her house full of boys is a couple of hours east of St. Louis over in Illinois and although they were ready and willing to travel here to ME I thought a mini road trip adventure sounded like a lot more fun! So we met in the middle, kind of, in OKAWVILLE, IL.
Yeah.
Okawville. The W is silent if that helps. :)
So at the last minute Chris and I got a sitter so he could come with me and we drove over to Okawville together to scout locations for the session.
Can I just say that unless you want a LOT of photos in CORN there isn't a whole lot in Okawville? Not that I was surprised I guess!
So although Chris almost died of embarrassment I drove up to a farm house with a great red barn and asked the sweet elderly man living there if I could photograph a family in his yard. Let's just say that explaining what I meant took me a WHILE and even after I brought Jamie's family there and sat them by the barn and let the boys jump on this man's trampoline I'm still not sure he understood WHY I was there!
HA! I love adventures and meeting RANDOM people and having FUN with my clients and blog friends!
I'm not sure what she bribed her kids with but her three BOYS were SO good! They listened to me and did what I asked and were totally into getting their photos taken!
Letting them run around, jump on a trampoline and play mini golf might have helped my cause a bit... HA!
Not sure what it is about freckles but I could eat this kid alive he's so cute! And he's old enough that if he heard me say that I'm sure he would die of embarrassment! Maybe him and Chris could start a club!
So cute. Their anniversary is coming up and she wanted a cute photo of just the two of them... and even though they're not both looking at the camera, this was my favorite b/c they are totally laughing at their kids! Love that!
And then Jamie wanted a photo of US. First, she is only the second person to ask me to take a photo with them I think and it truly makes me happy that someone would WANT that! HOWEVER. No make-up. Lots of sweat (I actually apologized to her in that moment b/c I knew I probably smelled bad!). FRIZZY hair. Holy hell my hair was a ball of frizz! But, at the end of the day THAT IS ME. Nearly 100% of the time so whatever! And I LOVE that we're both laughing here! Totally going up in my office next to the painting she made for me!
Thanks Jamie+FAMILY! You guys were SO great and I was so happy to finally meet you! The rest of your photos are coming soon!
(Read Jamie's blog HERE!)
(Visit her ETSY shop HERE!)
Chris and I hit our fifth anniversary in September and in the last few months I have seen a massive change in our marriage.
I'm not sure if it's b/c five years to share so intimately with another person is long enough to finally truly hit a stride or if the fact that this is the longest I've gone without shocking him at the announcement of another baby has helped or what, but we're doing really good.
Not that we were doing really bad. We bicker and argue and have blow out fights like I think most couples do occasionally, but recently we are finally figuring this whole marriage thing out it seems.
Today. For example.
I am tired. Truly, if there were a photo to sum up how I'm feeling today it would be this:
I want to lean on someone that loves me unconditionally and just be tired. LEAN ON THEM. Like Parker is doing here with my mom.
I had a twin session yesterday morning for Fresh Art (more to come on that HERE), got a sneak peek done during the time I should have eaten lunch, got a last minute sitter so Chris could come with me to my evening session that was an hour away in Illinois (sneak peek coming SOON!) and when we got home at 8:45pm, just as I was about to eat my first real meal of the day, I got a call from NILMDTS to rush to Children's Hospital.
When I got home at 2:45am and FELL into bed after one of the harder sessions I've been a part of I was exhausted.
But I went to sleep knowing that Chris would take care of the kids in the morning and let me sleep. Which he did. He even took the girls out to get a few donuts for us so the house was quiet. He let me shower and get dressed in peace. We had friends stop by at 10:30am (the twin's moms) and we had a great time catching up and chatting with them. And holding the babies. Oh those sweet babies.
I made lunch for the kids while Chris got some computer work done and then he came in and took over so I could go get some work done. He cleaned up the kitchen and got the kids in bed while I worked.
Our day was chugging along fairly seamlessly when my friend called and mentioned all the soccer the boys had this week.
HUH?
I knew they had soccer 4 mornings this week. I had forgotten (b/c Chris DID give me a schedule a while back) that it was in fact FIVE mornings and TWO nights. Couple that with FOUR sessions for me, a WEDDING, TWO sessions I'm behind on and packing/getting ready to leave for Florida in a week from TODAY and...
I LOST IT.
I started telling him how much I hate soccer and how little he gets paid and yaddah yaddah yaddah. Same old stupid argument.
EXCEPT.
Except that two years ago Chris would have gotten defensive and I would have been on a rampage and we would have ended up screaming at each other. And in the end nothing would have been changed or been figured out or worked on.
BUT TODAY.
But today was different. Today, as I went from being angry about soccer to all the things we have to do this week to prepare for Florida to all the things I'm worried about on the trip to all the things I'm worried about in general Chris was able to stop me. Without making me feel stupid or overly emotional or LIKE A HORMONAL WOMAN (working on stopping nursing has sent my hormones into a tailspin recently).
And I was able to calm down enough to stop, look at him and say, "I'm sorry, I am just really really tired I think."
And from that second on I sat there, looking at him, knowing that I had married the man God created for me.
He knew that I was just tired. He knew that I had a crazy busy day yesterday coupled with an extremely late night working that was over-the-top emotional and I was just done. But rather than point out the obvious (which would have just egged my anger in the moment) he listened and stayed calm and helped me see that in fact, the world was not falling down around me, I was JUST TIRED.
It was amazing and just a few years ago today would have ended very differently.
Marriage can be so hard. It is hard getting to know someone so deeply. It's not all candle light and roses. In fact, at least in our life, it is very rarely candle light and roses.
Marriage, for us, is letting the other person sleep in no matter how much you don't want to get up at 5:30am. It's allowing the other person to follow and realize their passion. It's encouraging the other person to follow and realize their passion while overlooking how that directly effects yourself. It's accepting the fact that I don't cook and not making fun of me for it anymore. It's being on the exact same page when it comes to disciplining our children. It's making it to as many soccer games as I can with three kids and a camera in tow during the crabbiest time of day during the busiest time of year for me. It's knowing that when he's quiet he's not mad, just quiet.
It's laughing harder with someone than I've ever laughed before. And doing it on a regular basis.
I rarely talk about our marriage here b/c MARRIAGE IS HARD. And I don't want to only talk about the fun+good times b/c that's not the whole truth. AND my husband is a teacher so I would never rant about the bad times b/c who knows which student might come across my blog.
BUT. I'm talking about it today b/c TODAY I was so grateful that I married Chris. And it made me realize that the first years of marriage might just be the hardest (of course three kids and a million other major stressers don't help those first years) ever. And I want to remember that. I want to remember screaming late at night in the kitchen. WHY? Because it makes me appreciate days like today even more. It makes me take comfort in the fact that someone loves me so completely.
AND I want a record of me saying that THIS IS A JOURNEY for my kids someday. Marriage does not end at the alter, it begins. And it is a LONG ROAD. But it never stops. You just keep truckin along. And I want my kids to know that. TO KNOW THAT. That you don't give up during the bad times b/c right around the corner are the best times of your life.
Bailey, Parker and Grayson... to your future selves... the best decision I ever made was to marry your dad.
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