in case you're dying to know...

I did survive the last weekend and WE WON the vball tournament!

Pretty exciting:)

So now the big church lunch is over, the game behind me and nothing to stress over...except Christmas. Just kidding, I'm not really even stressed.

The first of our 3 parties start tomorrow at the Old School Center...where my studio is, which is pretty convenient since I've got 3 sessions scheduled there starting @ 3:30 tomorrow:)

My goal is to be done by 6 so I can enjoy the Meister party. We spent Thankgiving tearing a roof off of our rental house so I did not get to enjoy that day and play vball w/the Meisters so I'm excited to go!

Gotta make a dessert and bring a salad topping and maybe some crackers and cheese but no real cooking/baking. A certain really smart person suggested we just order pizza & have a salad bar instead of us all trying to cook stuff and get it there so it should be a piece of cake.........ok the smart person may have been me:)

Then Saturday is our Christmas, we'll get up and open gifts then I'll make a big breakfast and spend the day relaxing. That night Grandma Meister and 2 of my sisters will come over for supper and maybe play some games.

On Sunday it's stockings then off to church then over to the Sauder's for their Christmas.

This morning there was a frost covering the fields so after walking I grabbed my macro lens and shot a few pics.








God's decorations put mine to shame!

Christmas checklist

Sessions done..........check.
Orders placed..........check.
files backed up........check.
shopping done..........check. (thanks to ebay and walmart.com)
Christmas cards done..check. (even though I used old pics...i know, it's terrible and i'm ashamed of myself but they were from THIS year so that's not too bad)
presents wrapped........nope. They are currently piled in a corner in my office w/a blanket over them. (if any of my kids still believed in Santa they should be getting suspicious by now:)
Over all I'm feeling pretty organized, for the most part.

I ended up running out of cards so if you didn't get one I'm very sorry, just no time to order more. Anyway this is what I sent out....
front:

and back:


This was very last minute because when you've got boys they are just not wild about getting cleaned up and hair cut and taking family pics so this was the best I could come up with but I've had sooo many people come up to me and say they thought it was hilarious. Personally I'm thinking it's a great add for Photoshop:)

The last big thing on my list is that we are in charge of serving lunch at our church this sunday for about 400 people. I've got 63 dozen doughnuts ordered, 900 slices of ham and cheese, 4 gallons of sweet pickles, 10lbs of clementines, and lots and lots of Christmas cookies. After that I have my big volley ball tournament that same night, we are currently in first place......I know we're not supposed to wish any of our days away but I think I may be relieved when this weekend is over!

Fall Sessions

Fall is just plain BUSY! For photographers...really busy. For moms/photographers..CRAZY BUSY. Between senior sessions, and family pics, and a couple of weddings, I'm just trying my best to stay on top of it all. Also throw in the fact that 2 of my kids have birthdays in October, & I'll be lucky to survive the month! So if I forget to call you back...or am late getting your pics uploaded...or mess up an order, at least you know why...I've probably lost my mind and am desperately looking for it...and as soon as I find it, I'll get back to you:))

Anyway, here are my last 2 weeks....
















Now hopefully you can understand why I say CRAZY BUSY.

Rain=Rescheduling

Had a beautiful week last week w/some beautiful fall sessions...and now rain. Rescheduled yesterday's session for next Monday, rescheduled today's session for next Tuesday, tomorrow's session has been moved to next Thursday which means next week IT BETTER NOT RAIN. I can double up on sessions next week, but there is NO way I can manage tripling (is that even a word?) up sessions the week after that.

So for the rest of this week (especially Friday when I do the students from Lighthouse Academy) and all of next...pray that it only rains at night, after dark, when outdoor sessions are NOT scheduled!

Here's some shots from the weekend sessions....

how cute are these?!!

I don't really have time to blog but just wanted to post a few pics from a couple of sessions last week...





cute huh??!!

Logan's summer project

You know how most boys might build a clubhouse over the summer?

Well Logan decided to build an entire paintball field. Below where our house sits is a beautiful meadow that is usally full of wildflowers and grasses. Last year I even put in a few ornamental grasses and had plans to build a split rail fence to use for family sessions. Wouldn't you know it, that's where he decided to put this paintball field. He started w/a few pallets that his brother brought home and then between him and his cousins.....well, this is what our meadow currently looks like...



If you look closely you can even spot a car bumber in there...


what's a paintball field w/out a "sniper tree"?




He worked so hard dragging stuff home and nailing it together...


they look at everything that's discarded as a potential "shield"



Here's a "turned over jeep"..


So now all the boys his age are wanting to come over for paintball parties. For now I guess I'll give up on holding sessions in the meadow, unless you've got a senior boy that loves paintball...then I've got the perfect backdrop:)

Paige & Princess & Keli

Had so much fun w/Paige and her pony "Princess". I must say that I was a little worried about a session involving a 4 year old AND a pony. I mean, lots of times it's a challenge to just get a 4 year old to cooperate at all much less bringing a pony along. But check out these pics...






I met up w/Keli in downtown Peoria for her senior session. Seniors are so much fun to work with...especially when they've got such great style:)

photography from a different point of view.

No, i wasn't on a really tall hill taking these...cause in IL we pretty much don't have those.

I was in a four seater plane w/the window open and 2 cameras strapped over my neck leaning out the window.

Herman Brother's pond management hired me to take these pics. This is a huge farm in Cuba, IL that's being completely reworked. From what I understand, the plan is to somehow connect a few of the lakes and make a great big lake. I think these are the "before" pics and at a later date we'll do some "after". These people are pretty serious about hunting and fishing.

I've been in little planes plenty of times but never with the window open and $8,000 worth of equipment hanging around my neck....that was "interesting".

I will say that I was thankful for dramamine & good strong camera straps, as it was a little bumpy up there! The pics turned out awesome in spite of the bumps thanks to a super fast shutter speed.

Monday is not the only day of the week!

Every Monday I'm hit w/an overwhelming list of things that need to be done both professionally and personally. Usually it's a bunch of uploading, sorting, & editing from the weekend sessions. The weekends are also when a lot of orders get put in because that's when clients find time to get that done so there are lots of orders to process, package and mail out. Besides the normal Monday work that comes w/having 5 kids & their friends in and out all weekend...like mountains of laundry and no food in the house.

So on Monday morning I hit the ground running and tend to get a little overwhelmed and sometimes I forget that it's okay if I don't get the whole list done...there's always Tuesday, and even Wednesday if things get too crazy.

The problem is that I'm just not good at procrastinating...which would normally be considered a good thing but I think I might have a tendency to take it to the extreme and that probably drives my husband and kids a little crazy:) Also, the times when I am forced to put a few things off because of kids schedules or other commitments, those things usually come back to haunt me, big time. For instance I've got 2 big jobs that need some major organizing to be completed and I knew I was going to need a few days of uninterrupted computer time so I've been trying to put it off till the kids get into school full time. So this past Tuesday night I spent a bunch of time getting ready for the next day...the most wonderful day of the year (for parents) putting names on their stuff and packing up their bookbags w/all their new supplies, lacing up the new tennis shoes and BAM...phone call...teacher's strike...ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!! So here we are the following Monday w/the normal huge list and those 2 big jobs still not done and still no school....and THAT'S why putting things off doesn't work for me!

So anyway, it's Monday & I don't think "blogging" was even on my list but I'm feeling kind of guilty about not finding the time to catch up so I'll try to post a few pics from the last few sessions....besides, if I don't get it all done there is still TUESDAY!

This first pic is of our neighbors.


Stacy...


Rachel...


The Wagenbachs...


Michelle...


My newest little great niece, Emma...


And last but not least the Muellers...this was the 3rd largest group pic that I've done...I think they numbered around 80 people.


And here is where I would post the pic of my cute kids on their first day of school...except that hasn't happened yet...needless to say, they are loving it!

Lots of pics

This past week I've had lots of sessions which means lots of pics:)

Hannah came out for her senior session. This is my first senior that has brought a violin...beautiful!



Then my sister's family came over for some pics for their prayer card. They are missionaries in Haiti so every year I update their pics and design a card for them. This year we decided to make it look like they were in Haiti so my banana trees came in handy...finally.



Jessica rode w/me out to Lake Thunderbird for Janessa's senior pics....



On the way home we saw this field full of sunflowers & since Jess was w/me I stopped and took a few there.




I had 3 Noah Herman houses to do on Wednesday...I already wrote about that wonderful day.

Jessica & Bryant came out for their engagement session and brought "Daisy". Love this dog's droopy face:)




On Saturday Kinga and I were off to shoot Cassie & Jon's wedding. We decided that since they're getting married at Grace in Peoria we could just run down the road to my sister's house and use their lake & dock for some fun shots. We didn't realize that part of the dock had some supports that were broken. Thankfully they held while we got the shots, but in my mind I kept picturing 1/2 the wedding party dripping wet for the ceremony...actually because it was a million degrees out...they were pretty close to that anyway. You can't tell it in these pics though. They were a fun group and as long as I kept them hydrated & gave them baby wipes they were up for anything:)




It was a beautiful wedding but I don't think I've ever been so HOT in my life! Kinga and I were sweating rivers, but the pics turned out so amazing so that's all that matters right?