sessions, session, and more sessions

Okay, time to catch up on my real sessions, not that the turtle session wasn't just lovely:)

I'll start out first w/one of the Kieser family pics, and then also the huge Meister family from the 4th out in Norris, IL. 96 people on an antique fire truck, not that you can see the fire truck!


Then we move onto Taylor's senior session. Taylor came out to my house on the 7th and right before she got there it was pouring down rain. I thought for sure we were going to have to cancel. They pulled up and it stopped raining and we decided to give it a try. We had perfect weather for her entire hour session and then as they left it began pouring again....what timing! Taylor has some awesome sense of style and we put my new backdrops to use. So much fun!




On Friday it was off to Lake Thunderbird for Cassie & Jon's engagement session and Jori's Senior pics. Cassie and Jori are cousins and I just happened to already be scheduled to take Jori's pics at her family's vacation home when Cassie called to tell me that she is engaged and also leaving to be a missionary in Mexico for a year. Of course it just seemed like perfect timing again to just ask if she'd like to get her engagement pictures out at her aunt's home on Lake Thunderbird while I was there for her cousin's session and it worked out perfectly!
Between Jori's amazing blue eyes and Cassie & Jon's obvious love for eachother it was just one of those days when I love my job. What an honor to be chosen to capture such beauty!






On Saturday Chad and Julie brought out Livie for some fun pictures. This little girl is a redhead w/out the attitude. She's just adorable when she wrinkles her nose up when she smiles. She had the most fun eating my flowers!




Saturday night we had a birthday party for Luke. I can't believe my baby's 10! Check out his amazing twist jump off the diving board...what form!




Monday I had an awesome senior session for Ana at the Bluegrass Stables, which is on my list to edit today so no pics of that yet and then I've got Caleb, who's one year old, coming over tonight for a session so I'm not quite caught up but I'm getting there!

ugliest subject EVER!!!!

Okay, so maybe my husband is a teeny bit redneck...I admit it. I guess the fact that his mamma is from West Virginia would qualify him as such, and that we sometimes sit out on our porch swing and he always has a shotgun within reach may prove it.

We'll be sitting on the swing in the middle of a nice conversation and he'll jump up, grab his gun and shoot some unfortunate critter that happens to swim by in the lake. Most of the time it's a water snake, or the hated muskrat, but Friday it was a snapper he's been seeing and missing for the past couple of weeks.

For years we haven't seen any snappers in the lake because he had pretty much wiped them out but Friday a huge one swam by and he took a shot at it, and it sunk. He was pretty sure he hit it and sure enough, Sunday morning we are just sitting down on the swing and he looks down at our beach and this monster had washed up.

Pretty disgusting isn't it? I'm just glad it's dead and out of the lake, however, I am not so glad that it is now in my freezer to preserve it for the taxidermist....so gross!

maybe i spoke too soon....

Evidently my new computer doesn't care for my older programs (some of which are about a whole year old)! So after many wasted hours and lots of frustration, I've given up and called Phil (my computer guy, who's also my nephew).

I've got tons of pics that need edited so if you've had a sitting in the past week w/me and are getting antsy to see your proofs, just hold on for a few more days. Phil's coming over tonight, so all my troubles should be over. He's a computer miracle worker!

As soon as I get things up and running we'll start cranking on the editing and get everything posted....soon, hopefully!

bye bye laptop!

My new computer came in today. I actually have numbers that work! Pretty exciting!! Caleb helped to get me all set up although I still have some programs to re-install. I'm looking forward to some super fast editing on this one.

This past Saturday I was out in my studio to take Seth's 3 month pics. This was my first time meeting Seth! I took his big brother, Trip's 3 month pics 2 years ago. Time does fly doesn't it? This is one of the things I love about this job is to watch my client's families expand and meet each new member. Seth was all smiles, even if his big bro wasn't to excited to hold him:)


Last week, while it was still in the 90's my sister and I made a run out to Middle Grove to photograph some of the Horsemeister's horses. These horses look like a wild herd except that some of them would run right up to us and check out our cameras! I gotta admit I was a little nervous to take 2 cameras and 2 very expensive lenses into this huge herd of horses but thankfully everything is still in one piece. The horses were really beautiful, and even though it was HOT, a few of them still put on a show for us.




Tomorrow I'm doing yet another fabulous Herman House in East Peoria and the on Friday morning we are heading out to Norris to camp for the 4th of July weekend!!!!! I can't wait! Of course in the middle of all of this on Saturday morning I need to run into Dunlap to take the Kieser's Family pic and then back out to Norris because, get this, my family of 96 wants to try to get everyone together at 2:00 for a family pic on my brother's vintage fire truck (he says he bought it just for me to use as a backdrop:). Yikes! 96!!!! Should be interesting:)

chicago

Just a few pics from our weekend. I brought my daughters point n shoot.....ugh. I don't care how what kind you buy, they will never compare to an EOS...EVER. So frustrating to try to take pics w/a camera that can't figure out a focus point, however, it doesn't weigh a ton and I didn't have to carry around a huge camera bag downtown so I guess that's the trade off.

I wanted to post a pic of our VBS fourth grade class but forgot it's not on my laptop. Speaking of my laptop, for some reason about half of my number buttons have stopped working. I pretty sure it's time for a new computer, (PS... Phil, I may need some help here:).


Also got Addison's pics posted on my website and Shauntel's wedding pics are now posted, (I would hit the explanation mark, however, it's on the number one button and that's one of them that doesn't work). I love computers....NOT.

The big "REVEAL"!

I know you've all just been waiting and waiting to see our bathroom remodel. After much blood, sweat, & tears...(drum roll) HERE IT IS!






I'm actually pretty embarrassed to post the before pics...so awful! However, you can't see all the work we did w/out posting what it used to look like.

We are thrilled w/how it turned out and Jess and I have deemed it the "GIRLS" bathroom at our house. After pulling up the toilet and seeing the state of the subfloor I've decided that any boy who wants to use it can SIT DOWN!!!! (I've never understood who told them they should be standing up to begin with)

I was trying really hard to stay under $1000 but it came down to knowing that I will NOT be remodeling this room anytime soon so I did go a tiny bit over budget and got what I really wanted. I think we are in the $1200 range but if my tile goes on sale in the next 30 days I can get the sale price at Home Depot so I may end up w/in the budget after all.

So besides killing ourselves getting this remodel done we've been teaching fourth grade VBS at our church every night and I've had a few sittings here and there.

Trying to stay on top of it all has been a challenge and I'm ready to have my house back together. (I've been living w/a toilet laying on it's side in my bedroom for over a week and that was getting pretty old)

For Father's Day I'm taking my hubby to the windy city for a much needed break...w/out the kids....best Father's Day ever:)

random happenings

Last week I got to photograph another fabulous Herman House. I'm in the process of training Jess to do some simple editing for me because she loves to mess around w/photoshop and she started those for me but then had to leave for Tennessee for a week so maybe when she get's back she'll be able to finish them. She already has a pretty good eye for what looks good and I've seen some of the stuff she's done when she's just playing around w/some of her pics so I'm confident that she will be great at it!

I've got Shauntel's wedding pics sorted and shipped off to Jen to edit...that's a relief to get those going. Our goal is to get the pics all edited w/in 30 days of the wedding so sometimes we have to really hussle.

On Friday Logan had 3 friends over for an all day, and all night, and all the next day party. Between paintball wars, swimming, rope swinging, & video games they had to be worn out by Saturday night... I know I was! As the last boy was leaving Logan looks up at me and says "mom, they want to do it all again in July!"

Saturday's shoot got rained out so we've had to reschedule for this next Saturday...hoping for NO RAIN....I know it's a lot to ask!

On Sunday Caleb & Jess had to leave for Tennesse on a mission trip and had to be up EARLY...they went to bed so late that they overslept and their team leader had to call them to wake them up. I know a good mom would have gotten them up and fed them a nice breakfast but 3:30 a.m. is too early...even for a good mom right?

In the mean time my husband and I got really ambitious and decided to remodel our upstairs bathroom. Everything in it was 15 years old including the paint and the ugly picture on the wall (that I didn't even like back then:). The shopping was done yesterday and the gutting began today. I took some "before" pics and when it's all done I'll post them along w/the "after" pics. Most husbands have problems w/their wives going over budget w/stuff but I'm just the opposite. I love a challenge, so I told David I will NOT spend over $1000 to do this job (I know, I'm cheap!) and so far we're right on track...providing nothing unforseen happens...