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?

A day in the life of a mom w/teenagers

Yesterday I was loading up my gear, getting ready to leave for 3 Noah Herman House sessions and noticed that my GPS was not in my car, asked Jess "I might have left it in Caleb's car", the car that's not out in the drive. So I go to text and call Caleb...no reponse (b/c when you're 18 you don't get up before 11:30 unless you have to be at work) & I also realize that someone has unplugged my phone charger to plug in their mp3 player...cause that's more important. Running out of time, don't want to be late so run back in the house, mapquest the 3 houses, grab the papers from the printer and run for the car. Jump in, start it and notice that I'm out of gas (cause teenagers like to drive...ALOT). Thinking maybe I can still pick up the GPS out of Caleb's car when I get to the gas station (if he's working today, which I still don't know b/c he hasn't answered my text) and now realizing that no matter what, I'm going to be late for my first session...& I hate being late.

Get to the gas station...no caleb, no caleb's car, no GPS. As I'm getting gas, I finally get a text from Caleb, he's home....& his car is at my sister's...cause that's a good place to keep it......where mom would never think to look.

Mapquest gets me to my first house about 8 minutes late...I hate being late. Done w/that one and in the car heading to the second one I realize that mapquest has decided to take me the LONG way around to Princeville and tell me that I've arrived at my destination when I was at least 6 miles from it....I'm lost, and my phone battery is reading 20% but the important thing to remember here is that somebody has a fully charged mp3 player today. Call the home owner to apologize that I'm running late...20 minutes late...I hate being late.

Get done w/that house and am supposed to be heading to Brimfield....mapquest says take a left on 150...only when I come to a main road that looks like it possibly could be 150 there are no road signs....so I take a left and end up in Dunlap....I am obviously directionally challenged and SOOOO NEED MY GPS! So I use the last of my phone battery to call the 3rd home owner and ask for directions...and apologize for being late....18 minutes late....and I hate being late!

When I finally get home that night, and start to place orders, answer emails and get ready to listen to our church sermon online I realize that my computer speakers are gone, so off I go to find them (upstairs in Logan's room)....& just then my older boy's friends start trooping in w/huge amplifiers for band practice....even if I had my speakers I couldn't have heard anything anyway w/the floor shaking and all.

After it finally quiets down and the house smells of pizza...they load up their stuff to go spend the night somewhere else...which is probably not smart because 2 out of 3 have to work in the morning...but it's quiet here so even though I don't like it, I did enjoy the peace.

Today I'm heading to Lake Thunderbird for a senior session....I have my phone charging...and I HAVE MY GPS....hopefully things will be better.

The only thing I have to say about yesterday is "aren't they cute at this age?"

a few pics from july 4th

This first one is proof that Diane is SOOO not the favorite aunt:)





We spent july 4th weekend camping at Norris Lake. The problem w/these kind of weekends is there is NO time to relax...we play HARD and come home TIRED!

On Sunday afernoon I snuck in a family session for my niece. They are in the process of adopting a little boy so she had to update her family pics. These are some awfully cute kids:)