Dallon

One of my best friends had a baby boy and he is so stinkin cute!! He has the most gorgeous head of hair too!! Anyway, I had the honor of photographing him... He's 4 weeks old here:



I am lagging way behind on my Photo of the Days.. I have some, but I'm lacking in time to load them up! I mean I blink my eyes and the day is gone. Anyone else feel that way? So my stomach has been bothering me big time.. so much that I went to the doctor. An ultrasound late and I have a large gall stone... yuck! So on Friday I am meeting with the surgeon.. looks like surgery will be in my near future. Someone please tell me it's not that bad :)

Holy Cow..

I'm blogging again. That makes 3 days in a row! I'm doing the happy dance because my new shootsac arrived today:

Oh and that's my photo for the day as well. Now don't faint, but I actually worked out today as well.... can you believe it? I promised my counselor at Jenny Craig that I would go at least once, and I did. To be honest, it wasn't that bad. ( I say that now, wait until tomorrow!) I am going to try and go again either tomorrow night or Wednesday night after Bunko. I keep forgetting to tell about my happiest moment of the day.... I read that you should write it down every day so that you can look back and see them. Crappy days happen to everyone, but in those days you can still find at least one happy moment. Today mine was when Ellie was dancing at the end of the movie. She dances like she is the only one is the world and it is so funny! I love it.

What was your happiest moment of the day?

Wig shopping

So I went with my mother to pick up her wigs and it was quite the experience. I had NO idea how real those things looked.. or the many colors, cuts, etc... My mother picked out 2 wigs and I swear they look just like her real hair, even the same color. We actually had a fun time trying on the wigs, and managed to laugh quite a bit. Even Ellie tried one on too. I did also learn that I have a huge noggin! Every wig I put on basically made me look like a Q-tip. Seriously.. I looked horrible. I did manage to find this great wig that was actually a hat with some hair attached to it.. I mean could that be any better for waking up and running out on the spur of the moment to go get coffee, or whatever else you may need straight out of bed. Here is a pic of it... it was hard taking a pic of myself in the mirror. (This is straight out of the camera.. no touch ups!) It cost $120, so I decided not to get it. LOL

and here is were I look like a QT but with a red top:

And here's a look at just a few the place had to offer:

So I put the deposit down on my new Nikon D3 camera.... I can't wait for that to get in. I'm so excited!! I also bought an 85 mm 1.2 lens. It should be in next week. Everyone swears by that lens.. I'm sure it will be awesome. I can't wait to see what it does for my wedding shoots!

Today I took pictures of my friend Abby's little newborn girl Maddison. She is a huge sleep and sleeps through anything... but not today. Today she was awake and alert the whole time! Here are a couple of shots: (The second one she wasn't actually sleeping.. just closed her eyes for a sec, but I really like the photo it shows just how little she is)


So I've blogged 2 days in a row... wow. I'm really going to try and blog more. Anyway, back to work tomorrow.. have a great week!

Where to begin??

Let's start with Happy New Year! Wow it's 2008.. who can believe it? I swear it seems like people were just freaking out about the whole Y2K thing just yesterday.

On a very sad note, Jeff's mother passed away on December 16. She died way too early and I'm sure she will be missed greatly by her family.

Christmas was good, but always very hectic. We spent time with my family before everyone went out of town. Here is a little slide show of our dinner. Note: the blonde wig is my mothers.. we all had fun trying it on!


After Christmas, Jeff, Ellie and I headed out to San Jose/Morgan Hill to spend time with his family and to pick up a few things. Ellie actually did pretty well on the 12+ trip. As long as we had movies, all was good :) We stayed at his parent's house and all of us slept in a full bed. Ellie looked at her pack and play and immediately cried and said "NO".. needless to say I don't think I slept for the 3 nights we were there. We did have a great time, went to some fun place (Children's Museum and the San Juan Bautisto Mission) and we ate some wonderful food.. hello 10 lbs! On our way back we were driving through LA and we decided on a spur of the moment to check on hotel rooms to see if we could stay and go to Disneyland for New Years.. we got a room, got tickets and had a blast! Everything fell right into place. We decided to go that night, walked in and immediately had a great view of the xmas parade. Then we took the train over to New Orlean's Square and ate dinner at the Blue Bayou. It was yummy. Ellie wasn't too keen on the rides, but we had fun just walking around and shopping. The fireworks were awesome and the castle looked amazing. Here are some pics (straight off the camera)

Ellie riding the train again... just one of the many times! She loved it, but was still a little cautious and rode on dad's lap.

A small world, decorated for Christmas.. even the inside was great! For the first time that I can remember I had to wait in line for this ride.
My favorite part was seeing Sleeping Beauty's Castle all lit up.. isn't it beautiful??? Disneyland was insanely crowded for New Year's eve... it was actually sold out. The had to cancel the fireworks due to high winds, so I'm glad we had a chance to see them the night before.

Now we are back home and are slowly getting back into the swing of things. Our lights outside are down and now I need to take down our Christmas Tree. I always hate when the holidays end, but before we know it they will be back again!

Have a great year!!

What????

You Don't Know Much About Christmas

You only got 4/10 correct So you don't know all of the history and trivia of the holidays... As long as you remember to put out some cookies for Santa, you're still ahead of the game. Random Christmas fact: Only 21% of US households has a real Christmas tree each year.

How Much Do You Know About Christmas?

I can't believe I didn't get more than that!!!

Getting back to the swing of things

Things in my little world have been so completely crazy. I don't even know where to begin. My mother is doing well. She had her lumpectomy and actually ended up going back this week to get a little more taken out since her margins weren't clear. A couple of her lymph nodes ended up being positive so she will unfortunately have to go through Chemotherapy. I know chemotherapy is actually a good thing, I mean think if we didn't have it, but it's still not going to be any fun for her. She is a strong women and will do fine :) Plus she has a positive outlook on it. It's our little joke, but every time we talk about it, we joke and whisper "cancer", like some old lady would :) I guess you have to be there, but it makes me giggle just thinking about it.

On a very sad note, Jeff's mother is also very ill with cancer. We got a phone call the day after Thanksgiving that she was put in the hospital. Unfortunately the cancer has spread everywhere. Poor Jeff has been back and forth to California to see her. So please say some prayers.

On a brighter note, the photography stuff has been booming. Lot's of families got their pictures taken for the holidays! I will have to post some for everyone to see.

On the scrapping front... I'm a guest girl for Dani Mogstad this month!!! I was so excited to be asked. She has awesome designs and I have been a HUGE fan of her stuff since I first started in this fun hobby! I did actually manage to get 2 pages done... don't faint!! Both of these kits are available at Sweetshoppedesigns.com


We are getting new wood floors installed this week and our house is full of fumes from the sticky stuff they poored on the floor this morning. I'm getting a huge headache and hopefully they won't find me gasping for air in the morning... hee hee!
Ok everyone, if you read all of this you deserve a treat!!

Richard & Renee

So Richard and Renee planned a wedding in 2 weeks, and even though that seems like a small amount of time, everything went off without a hitch! The wedding was so much fun and who would expect less out of them. They wanted this event to be fun, casual and focus on the things they love the most... family and friends! Here is a little slide show if you want to take a look: CLICK HERE

I've been so busy lately! I have about 4 family shoots that I am editing, so more of those to come soon!

This week we are heading over to my family's restaurant for Thanksgiving. They close the place down for the day and we have full access :) This year we have to bring the stuffing and the green beans.. just thinking about that dinner makes me smile. LOL I LOVE stuffing!! What is your favorite Thanksgiving food item??

Breast Cancer

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer this last week. I am still a little in shock, so I haven't blogged too much about it. Please send her some good thoughts and say some prayers if you pray. So far things are looking good. She may only need a lumpectomy and radiation. She luckily had mammograms every year and it was caught that way. So if it's time... go get checked!!

Halloween Recap

So I almost forgot to mention what a great time we had on Halloween! Ellie was snow white and loved it! At first she was a little hesitant, but once she saw the candy, she quickly caught on. By the end of the night all I heard was "More doors!" Chris and Tiffany came over, along with Grandma & Grandpa to help celebrate. Little Macy made quite the cute sweet pea!

Here is a little slide show of our evening.

Pictures & TV!

Here is what I have been up to lately :) Sue is a friend of my mothers and her family was so much fun to shoot. We headed out to Vistancia and got some great photos! Could they seriously be any cuter?????

Let's talk TV! Heroes is on tonight! I really like that show.. keeps me on my toes every week and never goes in the direction I think it will. And what about Ghost Hunters! This season is awesome, except for the lame Halloween one.. 6 hours was a bit too much for me. We recorded it and I skipped around alot! I am looking forward to the reveal on Wednesday night. Grey's Anatomy.....ahhhh I still love that show. Not sure about George and Izzy still, but I'm staring to like them together. I just have to get past the whole brother/sister relationship they had before :) Ok so here is my line up for the week... seriously like I have any time to watch these!

Sunday-Desperate Housewives and sometimes Brothers & Sisters
Monday-Chuck, Heroes & Journeyman
Tuesday-
Wednesday-Private Practice, Bionic Woman, Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares (or whatever it's called) and Ghost Hunters (Thank goodness for DVR this night)
Thursday-The Office, My name is Earl, Grey's Anatomy
Friday- nothing really
Saturday- Saturday Night Live

Ok that's all I can think of at the moment... what is your favorite show???

Joshua & Jenny

Joshua and Jenny's wedding was so much fun to shoot! They just oozed with love and gittiness (is that a word??) The wedding was at Jenny's grandmother's house and it was beautiful. Their flowers were probably the prettiest I have seen and what a huge selection of different flowers! Here is a little sneak peak:

I also shot the most adorable family photos last weekend too.. I'll hopefully have those up for you all to see this weekend!!

Nothing much to report on the home front. Ellie is growing like a weed! She is so funny and makes me laugh every day. I was watching the author of the book, "Eat, sleep, and Pray" she said she keeps a journal were she notes her happiest moment of the day. I need to do that more often. Today my happiest moment was when I looked over and Ellie was singing at the top of her lungs to The Little Mermaid while holding her TWO Ariels and pretending they were singing too... *sigh, it makes my heart sing :)

Have a great week!!!

Bad Bad Blogger

Where have I been???? Seems like forever since I had an opportunity to blog! Las weekend was so much fun! I went to Savannah, GA for my friend Krista's wedding. Let me just say that I LOVE Savannah. That place is just way too cool. We stayed right on the river and had the best view of river street. I'm in love with Pralines too... yummy. We also went on a fun little ghost tour of Savannah. It was a little "cheesy" but I got to see some amazing old homes. Plus we even went to a house that TAPS investigated!!!! How cool is that! I took some pictures of the wedding:

Krista was a beautiful bride. Her dress was so pretty and just very classy. Here it is hanging up:



and then there was the first kiss:

Then on Sunday I went to Tybee Beach with my friend Lisa and her family. It was really hard to get some good pictures because the wind was blowing so hard. I swear the sand was piercing us in the legs and face. But I did manage to get a few I liked:



Next weekend I am shooting a wedding! I'm so excited about this. Ok off to get some stuff done! Have a great week!

Recovering from a...

very busy weekend. First of all, on Friday, I had the worst day possible. Anything that could go wrong did.. including me sliding across the tile in the hall at school. I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow I tripped and fell. I was so sore. I swear I pulled every muscle in my body. I jammed my right knee and wrist and then got a huge "burn" from the tile on my left arm. Thank goodness no one saw me. All the kids were at lunch and the halls were clear. I can't even imagine how that would have gone over with a hallway full of elementary school kids. I did have to take a muscle relaxer and that was wonderful. I can honestly say I understand how people get addicted to those things. I slept like a rock.

Friday night my family came over for Taco night and then on Saturday morning Ellie and I headed to a Piggies and Paws Party. They make cool art work out of your child's prints. I can't wait to see the final results. What a great idea.. then later in the day I had 2 photo shoots! Here are 2 pics from baby Karly. She is only 2 1/2 weeks old. She looked older because she weighed 8 lbs at birth. I just LOVE the way these turned out:


I then took pics of a 14 month old.. I'll share a few of those later :)
School has been good.. just busy. Seems like summer goes by so fast and it takes nothing to fall right back into the regular schedule. Even all the kids seem to right back into the swing of things. Next weekend is labor day... woohoo I'll have Monday off!! Ok.. off to get Ellie in the bath! Everyone have a great week!

My weekend

Life continues to be crazy! I haven't had any time to scrap and/or design... sigh. This week I plan on locking myself in my room each night and get some stuff done! :)

Friday night was date night for Jeff and I. My mom kept Ellie for us. It was fun.. we headed out and ran some errands, hit the mall and then went to this great restaurant called Taneko. It was Japanese food and it was delicious! First of all, they bring you this rock that is 600 degrees.. and you grill your meat on it. Very cool! All of it was very yummy, including the great bottle of wine!

Then yesterday I headed out for my friend Sara's wedding shower. The theme was "Breakfast at Tiffany's" It was so cute! We were supposed to get all "dolled" up and wear dresses, pearls, hats.. etc. Everyone looked great! Here are some photos:

The Yummy little cakes!

The center pieces.. notice what's playing in the back :)

Sara, Stephanie, & Stacey.. aren't they cute!!

After the shower I went and took some photos.. adorable little kids, I'll have to post some later. I'm off to take more photos tonight too :) Off for now!

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So things are much slower this week, although I'm working my little behind off!! Summer is officially over and now my cancels at work have slowed waaaaaay down. I actually saw all 8 kids yesterday and then today I saw 7 out of my 8. This is a good thing, but it definitely makes me tired when the day is done!

Tomorrow I'm off to the doctor to get an injection of cortisone into my left knee. Sounds fun huh??!! Actually, I'm glad they are doing it because I'm hoping to get a little relief in that knee. I'm sure my Baker's cyst is back and I really don't want it to pop again!

Check out this picture of Ellie running.. isn't it sweet?? I used Andi's lightroom preset: Rome. I love it!!


Ok off to watch Ghost Hunters :) I LOVE that show!!!

Crazy Week

This week has just flown by.. every night/day we had something going on. First of all, we started with play group, which was at my house one Monday and then my cousin Patty flew into town on Tuesday with her husband and girls, so we had lots of family time. On Tuesday we went over to my other cousin's house for dinner and swimming.. then we got caught in that huge rain storm!

Wednesday we went over to my Stepmother's house for dinner.. she made yummy lasagne (needless to say, diet is out the window still!) Then Thursday everyone headed over to our house for hamburgers and hotdogs. Then last night Ellie and I actually took it somewhat easy and then today it was over to my cousin's again for my 2nd cousin's 13th birthday! Phew... catch all that??? LOL

Anyway, I did snap lots of pics of my family! Here are the Coles:

The Kelly's:


Aren't they great looking families!!! It's been a fun week, but I'm pooped. Tonight I actually sat down on the couch for about an hour and read a magazine and watched some shark shows on discovery channel. It was nice to actually take a breather. I've had absolutely no mojo in the scrapping or designing area... scrapping gods, please touch me!!! LOL

Ok I'm rambling.... off to edit photos!

Tagged and Rain

I've been tagged :)

4 Jobs I've Had:
bartender
waitress
dog sitter
speech therapy assistant

4 Places I have lived:
Phoenix, AZ
Enid, OK
Lakewood, CO
Shawnee Mission, KS

4 Favorite T.V. Shows:
Grey's Anatomy
Ace of Cakes
Ghost Hunters
House

4 Favorite Foods:
shredded beef tacos
chips & salsa
chicken pesto pasta
pizza

4 Websites I frequent:
My Digital Muse
Digishoptalk
blogger
myspace

4 Places I'd Rather be Right Now:
shopping
at the movies
on the beach
at a spa

4 Movies I LOVE:
Pride &amp; Prejudice (A&E version)
Sense and Sensibility
Sleepless in Seatlle
Plains, Trains and Automobiles

Tagging:
Mish
Robin
Holly
Tiffany
Anyone else who wants to play!

Tonight it rained soooo hard! I was at my cousin's house and the kids were in the pool, when it just started to pour! We got everyone inside and then watched as my cousin's backyard almost flooded. Ellie and I hung out for an extra hour just so it would calm down. I haven't seen it rain like that in a very long time... crazy!!

A New Look and New Teams!

So I decided my blog had been ignored long enough! How do you like the new look??? So I'm officially on 2 new teams that I am so stinkin' excited about!!! They are....

Holly McCaig and Andie Smith

How cool is that??? I had such a blast with Holly in Chicago! I was so thrilled when she asked me to be on her team! Andie also sells at MDM and her stuff rocks! Not to mention she is just the coolest photographer too! If you get a chance check out their blogs!

So I edited a few pics from CHA. Here are a few from our little photo shoot! I just love the way these pics turned out! Check out the cool bright bar stools too!





and last but not least I actually got a page done! I used the free template off of the girl talk blog..and then my oldglory kit too:


Ok I think that's about it for now! Hasta!

Quick update

I made it back safe from CHA and have not been feeling too well ever since! I started feeling really really sick on the airplane. Thank goodness we got in 1/2 hour early, because my lunch was almost in the bag (TMI?) Anway, I just chalked it up to motion sickness.. well all day today I have felt so crummy then this evening I was so sick again.. and no I'm not pregnant. I did have to start my heavy duty medicine today, so maybe that is part of it too. Anyway I slept from 5-7 pm, then got up and ate some dinner. I feel about 80% better, but still not 100%. Yuck huh! I hate being sick.

I had a blast in Chicago. It was awesome hanging out with the girls and I miss them already. I had an awesome time taking pictures with Holly. She rocks! She gave me some amazing pointers that I know I will continue to use now at my shoots. I swear I'll post some pics very soon of our little photo shoot.

ok off to take a bath and too bed..

CHA!!

Greetings from the Windy City!!! We are having such a great time here in Chicago! I have met so many people from the digiworld.... it's crazy, but so cool to meet them in person. The show is amazing. Overwhelming and gave me so much inspiration! So much that I actually want to paper scrap (What?!) The show is HUGE! What I really like is seeing all of the amazing LOs people have done! I've been spending alot of time with Mish, Holly and Robin:


What happens in Chicago stays in Chicago.. but I will show you a small glimpse:

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that we had a wonderful trip to Disneyland & Sea World.. Ellie was a total trooper. I will definitely post pics of that when I get back to AZ.