The Art of Life

I am officially booked for the rest of 2010! We are expecting our third child in early December, and with homeschooling my 3rd grader and Kindergartner my plate is going to be very full this fall and into next year, with an infant. At this point I am not sure if I will be booking any sessions in 2011. In the meantime, if you are looking to have your family photographed, please contact me for referrals to one of the two awesome local photographers I trust. Thank you for understanding & for a great year so far! Blessings!

I posted these on my personal blog, but thought I’d share here as well, as my girls were just looking too darn sweet not to share with the world! Last weekend, the girls were in their annual dance recital. We went to a new studio this year & I must say, we were all very impressed with the quality of the performances! My oldest danced ballet to “Tiny Dancer” (Elton version) and my youngest tapped to “At the Hop”. They both had a blast & got to wear more makeup than they ever have before in their lives…which made them feel so special. We were so proud of how lovely & poised they looked up there Here are some pics from the recital…

I just wanted to give a quick update regarding business. As many of my readers know we are a homeschooling family…with crazy amounts of {great} stuff going on around here. I have always done my best to balance work with my kids at home with me 24/7…however, this year, with a 2nd grader & a pre-Ker, my level of work involvement will be substantially decreasing. I am so passionate about what I do and it is a huge release for me, so I cannot give it up completely (and my wonderful husband has already made arrangements for additional work to cover the loss of income), but my schedule for work is now very part-time. It has just become impossible to do it all…by the time the kids lessons are done, chickens fed, gardens tended, meals made & cleaned up, laundry, housework, errands, etc. its 10 at night and next to impossible to sit at the computer for hours and work like I used to. So, I just wanted to say that while I am still going to be taking sessions, it will be on a very limited basis. Also, since my office hours will be reduced, it may take me a little longer than usual to return calls…but I can assure you that for those clients I am working with I do give my all!

We had a wonderful summer & I truly enjoyed all the great sessions I was able to shoot this summer…some great friends were made in the process
We are back on the school routine now and waiting for all the activities to start back up.
life is good…

I am still here! Sorry for leaving my faithful visitors hanging for the last 4 months! After receiving a few “where are you?” emails I figured I better post something! Life has been completely busy since fall. I have taken a short hiatus from work and it was much needed. After Christmas my mother-in-law made such a miraculous recovery that she came home and since then has been faithfully involved in rehab and is back to her old self! What a wonderful blessing…we are so thankful to have her back!

At the end of February we began a huge remodeling project of our house, removing a main, weight-bearing wall, gutting our kitchen & replacing the floors in over half of our house. We did all we could ourselves and it was a tremendous amount of work and stress, but we are greatly enjoying the new kitchen and are so thankful to have done it!

We went from this (which we had already painted/removed cabinets & attempted to improve upon the very 1970 hideous kitchen we moved into 2 years ago):

to this:

We designed it ourselves, did all the painting and demo ourselves and we worked with some awesome people to get it finished. It was a LOT of work but I could not be happier…it feels like the entire flow of the house has changed and just finishing something that had felt unfinished for so long was like a weight lifted.

We have also added some new members of the homestead, six ladies and one gentleman:

My dear husband has been slaving away to get their coop build and last night they were finally able to leave our old aquarium and enter their coop! We are really looking forward to enjoying their eggs in a few months!

And…on the subject of adding more animals to our household…our 9 month old tiny girl cat had her own babies 2 nights ago and boy are they cute!

My girls turned 7 & 4 this spring and its hard to imagine how fast the time has gone by! They are growing up…sniff…sniff

[and no...I did not style her like this...she did this all herself...a day in the life of the homeschooled child ]

when did my baby sneak up and turn 4???

I have started slowly taking on more sessions so I have some upcoming sneak peeks and I also have some favorites from last fall to share…so little time to keep up with it all! I have managed to update some of my website galleries so check those out…you may find yourselves on there somewhere! I will try to post again soon…I have an almost endless arsenal of images to share! Just wanted to catch up and say…I am still here! and now once again scheduling sessions on a very limited basis.

I just want to wish everyone a wonderfully blessed & safe Thanksgiving! There is so much to be thankful for…and as an American I am overwhelmed with thanks and appreciation for what our forefathers went through and the sacrifices that have been made to provide us the freedoms we have today…freedoms that we need to protect & respect. I just love America…and I am thankful it is my home.

God Bless America & Happy Thanksgiving!

With all the stuff that’s been going on lately around here, I have gotten a bit behind in blogging & I have lots of sessions I have completely fallen in love with & want to share…but that will have until after the rush to get everything ordered and delivered before Christmas.

In the meantime, here is a song to share…one of my new favorite Christmas songs…the message is so perfect…

click here and then click on “Eternal Gifts”

For my sweet mother-in-law. She is undergoing a semi-emergency heart bypass and mitral valve replacement as I type. She has been sick for a few months and it turned out she had a blood infection & endocarditis, which has deteriorated her mitral valve and the replacement was set to be in 3-4 weeks to have enough time for the infection to be killed completely, but it became urgent to do the surgery immediately. She has been in the hospital for 3 weeks now, and was in the ICU for about a week, she is very weak and really needs prayers for strength right now…and a full recovery.

Given this, I may be hard to get a hold of over the next few days.

On another, similar note, due to family circumstances and other personal obligations, I am no longer able to accept any OPERATION:LOVE-REUNITED sessions at this time and until further notice. It seems as though I am the only photographer participating in the area and I am getting more calls than I can return at this time and I just cannot maintain my personal obligations and honor all these sessions. My sincerest aplologies…I wish there were more hours in the day! GOD BLESS everyone who serves this country…including their families…your sacrifice is truly appreciated here.

Just a quick note that I have had a really rough weekend and am not feeling well, so I will be taking a personal break for the next few days, resuming my work responsibilities again Thursday morning.  I should be able to catch up and stay on schedule, but please bear with me over the next week.  I will try to respond to all current emails tonight; the rest will have to wait until Thursday.  Thank you for your understanding.  Have a great week!

a song that has touched me many times.  I cry every time I listen to it; so simple, so beautiful.  Thanks to my friend Jolene for introducing me to it last year.  The song is “The Hand Song” by Nickel Creek.  I just wanted to share…

h

Happy 4th…I hope everyone has a safe and fun-filled 4th of July!  Lets celebrate our freedom & liberty…and not forget the sacrifices that have been made to give us that freedom!  God Bless America!

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” – Ronald Reagan

 and a HUGE Happy Birthday!!!! to my handsome nephew who is turning 8 this week!  He’s just so kind & smart & handsome & thoughtful…and is really an amazing kid…we love you Buddy