Apparently I'm supposed to be blogging everyday....

Yeah right, I've been lucky to find time to check my email this week. The weather is cooperating and I have been all about my outdoor sessions these last few days. It feels good to be out running around here.

Tristen is 2 so of course he needed to come out and get some pics on his tractor and then I had Emily come out for her senior pics on Saturday. Then I got to go to Morton to take newborn pics of my new great nephew Asher at the beginning of the week, and yesterday Madeline, also 2, brought out her mom and dad and we had fun picking more dandelions and going for a walk. When we were all done I asked her if she had fun and she smiles up at me and says "Yup"....what a riot!!!

Now today I get to go take MORE newborn pics but this time of my new great niece Irelyn in Peoria. I'm so excited to finally meet her!

Then tomorrow my sister and I are taking 9 teenagers down to Greenville IL for Agapefest for the weekend....so that about covers my week.

And THAT'S why I don't have time to blog everday:)

Hope you all had a blessed week!

Thankyou Jesus!

Guess who got a new washer? ME! My very first NEW washer, and it works! It doesn't sound like it's going to blow up when it spins...pretty cool huh?

I had a thought though, of how it was like my world was crashing down when I had a broken washer...I mean, I've got 5 kids! I was really feeling sorry for myself, and then I started thinking about the mom's in Haiti and all those other 3rd world countries. They put their family's laundry in a basket and carry it on their heads and walk sometimes long distances to the nearest stream and then scrub their clothes on a rock.

Here I am living on a lake and the thought didn't even enter my head of how grateful those mom's would be just to live so close to water so they wouldn't have to walk so far to wash their clothes...and here I was all upset that I didn't have an automatic washer for a couple of days. We are soooo spoiled here in America. Everyone is talking about how tough things may get here in this country, but I don't think it will ever compare to how these women have been living and are still living.

It made me so thankful to sit down in my basement on my carpeted floor and fold my clean clothes (something I don't usually feel very thankful for).

We are blessed....thankyou Jesus.

relearning to juggle

The juggling act is in full swing here, between sittings, kids, life, etc. The thing is...I kind of got spoiled by the slower pace over the winter and it's not like 1 ball at a time, it's like 5-6 balls at a time and trying to keep them all in the air is quite the trick!

I am enjoying the individual sessions though. I got to take Alaina's pics this past week and she was an absolute angel. Just such a sweet little girl. Then I did my first NHS house of the year. Just the kitchen but really cool. Loved the window under the counters. I've got sessions Friday and Saturday of this week too.

My washer has officially died, not good w/5 kids. This is a washer that our wonderful neighbors gave us in exchange for 2 kittens...a funny story. Anyway so here we are w/no washer and no kittens to trade! I guess we'll be going to the real store tonight and picking out a new washer and paying w/real money.

Oh and I had the super bright idea of having a garage sale tomorrow at my nephew's house in Morton. 440 Delwood for anyone who'd care to come out and buy my stuff:)

I have some backdrops that I was tempted to bring to the sale but decided against it. I'm not sure what to do w/the drops I no longer use. They are 10x20 and taking up space in my storage room at my studio. I guess I need to have a photographers garage sale too! Anyone who is interested in these should contact me and let me know. I paid about $75-100 each for them but really would be happy to get $40 each.

I'm uploading the last of the Wisconsin horsefair on the site today. What these people can get their horses to do is really amazing. If you get a chance to check out the album under "online ordering" I think you'll see what I mean.

Madison, WI

We arrived safely at the horsefair about 9:45 a.m. this morning. Yes, I did let Jess drive for a little over an hour and she did pretty well. She had to go through a toll booth so that was exciting.

The vaulting team did really well in their performance and we also got to see some of the other performers. I took some pictures just for the fun of it and posted them on my site under online ordering.

I'm always thankful everytime these kids get through a performance w/no injuries. One more to go tomorrow and then back home we go.

One of my favorites from today is little Moses being lifted super high w/the American flag in the background....super cute!

of to wisconsin

Tomorrow Caleb, Jess, & I need to be up and off to Wisconsin by 5:00 a.m. for a vaulting show. Driving 10 hours in 2 days is not something I've been looking forward to at all. However, when Jess offered to do some of the driving suddenly me driving the 10 hours seemed to be no too bad. Having to sit in the passenger seat while a 15 year old is driving is way worse! Don't get me wrong, she's actually a pretty good driver but I just can't seem to relax while any of my kids are driving! I am at all times ready to grab the wheel to put us back on the road or trying to stomp on a brake that doesn't exist on my side...stressful!

Hopefully we get there w/out incident and the vaulters have a safe performance and if all goes well we should be back in town by Saturday night. Jessica & Caleb both have things going on here at home that they want to be back for. Sometimes these guys just wear me out!

so cute!

Yesterday Dillon came out for her 9 month session. She brought her big brother and sister out and we had quite an adventure. They got to hold baby ducks and we went on a hike, picked lots of dandelions and even a toad!

Dillon wasn't too sure she was liking the wet grass but did great once she got used to it.

tis the season

found these while walking down to get my mail.

getting organized

We spent the week getting organized here. David on the outside stuff and me w/my schedules. Outside we mulched all the landscaping and fertilized the lawn and Saturday David mowed so it's looking pretty nice out here. He also got our storage sheds organized.

I've gotten the new list of NHS Builders homes that I've begun scheduling. Last year I think I photographed about 30 new homes for them. It's a pretty neat job to get to go into these amazing homes and take pictures of them. One of them had an actual STREAM running through it! So cool. They had gotten way behind on getting pics for their portfolio so it was a huge undertaking to get all of them done but this spring they are already handing me a list so it shouldn't be quite so overwhelming.

I've also started scheduling sessions for outside around the lake...YAY! I'm so ready to shoot outside again. The studio is great when it's raining or cold or for little ones but after a while it just starts to feel kind of repetitive.

Tomorrow I've got a couple of sessions at the lake and then more on Thursday and then off to Madison WI Friday & Saturday for vaulting performances for 2 of my kids. My oldest just informed me that we will be keeping some teenage boys on Saturday night too so it will be a fun/busy week. Oh, and my washer is making some pretty scary sounds...like it's getting ready to launch...probably not good.

Saturday afternoon we got our little boat out and I took Jess and Logan w/their poles back into the ravines to fish. They caught dinner. We've got some nice sized crappie in the lake and my nephew told me to measure one next time they caught one. This one was 13 inches....not bad! (Nate, if you put these on your blog you'd better mention that Jess is only 15!)

If you're facing a crazy busy week like this one it's good to remember this verse:
Be still and know that I am God

He's got it all under control:)

Back to real life

Today Easter break is officially over. The kids are up and eating their breakfast and dreading going back. Logan just said he can't wait for summer. Only about 6 weeks left of school then they're home w/me all day long:) Actually I love it. Summer out here is so much fun. Way better than ice/snow/mud.

We spent most of yesterday just unpacking and getting organized and did some yard work because it was beautiful out. Oh yeah, and we got our Christmas lights down...finally!

Today I have about 60 kids orders in that need to be finished up and ready to be delivered to Headstart on Thursday. I've got pics from Gulf Shores that I need to get uploaded and edited. While we were there I took a wide angle lens w/me and got some new pics of my mom's condo for the rental agency's website. The ones they have on there now are not very good.

We also are going to be getting a load of mulch sometime today so I get to grab the kubota and sneak outside for some more work if it's nice out. I would always choose to work outside if it's possible. I just don't like being inside! I need to figure out a way to edit and fold laundry outside:)

I'm reading in John right now and I love these verses so I'll just type them out for anyone who needs encouragement.

John 14:1-4 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

Just about everyone believes in God, but so many times his son isn't mentioned when people talk about God. But Jesus says, you believe in God believe also in me because he's got a pretty important role. He came, showed us how to live and love, willingly let himself be nailed to a cross for wrongs that he didn't do, to pay for wrongs WE did, and then rose again and now he's up in heaven getting ready for us!

In this verse Jesus was saying goodbye to those he loved because he knew he was going to be put to death, and I know they didn't fully understand why he was leaving them all alone in this dark world. I'm sure they felt pretty abandoned at that time, but the verses about him going to prepare a place for us and that he's coming back for us encourage me so much today. I'm so looking forward to seeing him face to face!

Happy Easter

Just wanted to to wish you all a happy easter and remind you that Jesus isn't still on the cross, or in the tomb....HE'S RISEN and one day we're gonna see the clouds roll back and we're gonna see him coming back for us!


This picture was taken by one of my nieces of Jess out by our house and it just reminds me of what it will be like on the day Jesus returns to this earth.

Almost over

ugghh! I hate the end of vacation...it's the worst! What really is frustrating is that I've spend the last 2 days dreading it....what a waste!

Yesterday David and I went out and tried fishing off the beach but there has been nothing biting here for weeks. One thing that was really interesting though was that about 100 or so sea birds were out over the water all flying around this one area and there was a pod of dolphins there too. There must have been a big school of bait fish because about 15-20 birds would all of a sudden dive all at once. I'd never seen them do that before.

We played some 3 on 3 vball and then in the afternoon we walked all the way to the pier and then some of us jogged back...I won't mention who (me and Caleb). I didn't know if I could still do it...it's been so long but it really wasn't that hard.

Last night we had our traditional sea food dinner only the kids never caught any fish so it ended up a surf & turf dinner w/sirloins, shrimp, & crawfish.

This morning I got up and went out to take some pics of the sun coming up. Like a big ball of fire coming right out of the sea. God is so cool that He can do that. I brought my camera back to David, who was still in bed and told him I brought him the sunrise. It's almost the same seeing it on my camera screen...but not as sandy and cold or as big and beautiful.

We just got a call from my sis Karin and they are just pulling into town after driving all night. I told them to get over here for vball but they want to take a nap off all things! They said they'd be over later and then we might get some pizza tonight.

I'm putting up a pic of the birds diving and a couple that I took of Caleb and Jess last night right before the sun went down. That's my favorite time of day to take pics here because the light is amazing, especially on Jessica's hair, it looks like flames. Again, isn't God cool that He can do that? Jess had gotten this green dress at goodwill last fall for $7 and we thought it'd be fun to do some seaside pics w/it, I got lots of really neat ones but I'm only gonna post a few.