{my new eyes!}

For those of you who wear glasses; getting new ones is like picking out a pair of really expensive jeans.  You know the ones that cost $115, fit like a glove, and then proceed to stay on the rack because you can't bring yourself to buy them.  Yeah, buying new glasses is like that, except you get to pick them out, try them on, and take them HOME!  Well, new flash everyone!  I've completed no. 69 on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days!

 I had visited my eye doctor, which had been two years, but I'm at that place in my life where my eyes aren't changing every six months.  Plus, I had been pregnant with April when my last appointment came due, and you're eyes can give a false reading when you're pregnant!  Why?  Well here is your answer!  Anyway, I had gone and the eye doctor said I really didn't need to change my script or my glasses, but I kept squinting and my lenses looked really scratched.  So, I decided to head down to Spring Hill where my best friends mom is a specialist in the glasses department and I knew she ordered really cool frames!  I like chunky plastic ones, and my eye doctor literally had squat.  I think about 10 frames was all I had to choose from.  I knew I wanted something trendy, hip, and something that said, "hey are those the really expensive jeans?"  I also knew that I wanted some prescription sun glasses, which I'd never owned, so why not splurge and buy two pair of $115 jeans?  Well, lets just say several more hundreds of dollars later (and after a huge discount since it was my best friends mom) I came home with a pair of chunky, chic red pair of glasses, and a brown pair with a aqua color blue inside framed sunglasses.  See for yourselves and tell me what you think!

By the way, it was really hard to shoot with NO glasses on!  I'm am really blind, I felt like I was taking the picture all wrong!!

{A Fresh Look}

The other morning I had a dilemma!  I had too many baby socks and shoes in the top drawer of April's dresser, so I decided I should take care of this problem....

One thing led to another and this mommy decided to rearrange the entire room and add a small table for diapering needs!  What time did I decide to do this?  Well, nap time of course!  (All over socks!)

These next photos are the ones that were taken right before she was born and what her room basically still looked like!

Here is April's new room layout, and I (and the hubby) love it!  

April likes it too!  She was playing in her room this morning with her girl scout cookie in hand of course!  The pink pig in the chair is also her favorite animal!  She will cabbage on to any pig, but this one she nuzzles!  Too cute!

Even though she still needs a few things in her room, smiles AND cries are always present.

{Diaper's 4 Sale}

April has since grown out of these cloth diapers and are now up for grabs.  They are posted on craig's list too, but if anyone here would like to purchase them or know someone who does, please let me know!  I'm selling them for $20.  They were barley used and are size small, and are in very good condition.  Little staining, but it IS a diaper!  They are Bum Genius all in one I think is what they're called.  They retail for about $15 each brand new.

Let the selling begin as I go through all the baby stuff!  Wish me LUCK!!

Elizabeth & Nick {fall of 2010}

After many months, I've finally sat down and edited some post wedding pictures taken at a PUG meeting this fall.

Elizabeth & Nick were a wonderful and natural couple to work with.  They were recently married in August.  Original wedding photographs were taken by a friend Heather, with Shutter Happy Studios.  They were so willing to let us borrow them for an evening of fun to practice our wedding shooting!

We headed down to the West Bottoms in Kansas City, and had a blast!  (Plus what bride doesn't love putting on her wedding gown again?!)   It was a small group of us that participated, so it really made for a great learning experience!

As we were getting ready to cross the railroad tracks a train decided that it was going to pass, so we took pictures to pass the time, and I think they turned out spectacular!

One of my favorites!

I love how Nick picks up her dress for her when she was walking around!  Such a gentleman.  

I can never get enough of the Bottoms in KC.  It's just captivating, and you always find interesting things for each and every shoot.

The night ended with some night shooting, which was a first for me, and while I only got a few good shots from it I still learned so much with the help of Heather.  

 After the shoot we headed back into downtown where some of us met up to have dinner at a restaurant in the city.  It was cool to eat burgers on the roof of the restaurant and watch the storm coming in from the north.  Thanks to Elizabeth, Nick and Heather for bringing us all together to shoot, capture memories, and enjoy one another's company!

101 in 1001 days

This blog entry is thanks to Melissa Jill, a wedding photographer in Phoenix, Az.  I've recently become in ahhh of her work, personality, and her love for the industry!  She has started a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days!  While she doesn't complete everything on the list it gives her a great thing to strive for.

I've decided that I should have a goal too!  Some things personal, professional, fun, serious and just all of the above! Did you know that people who create goals in a list make 9 times more money than those who don't?  They also accomplish 9 times more.  Hey, that 9 times sounds pretty good to me!  I've got lots to get done in this house!

1. Go on a picnic with my husband and kids
2. Scrapbook once a month for 6 months. (I'd like more!)
3. Climb a 14,000 ft mountain
4. Have 3-4 photo shoots a month in 2011
5. Get a photo published in a magazine
6. Make a romantic dinner for my husband
7. Book 5 weddings in 2011
8. Go on 5 geocaching hunts in 2011
9. Finish landscaping my out door studio in my backyard
10. Join a book club.
11. Read the Harry Potter series, I can't remember which book I'm on!
12. Buy my own reflector
13. Get hardwood floors on the main floor and in the master bedroom
14. Landscape the yard
15. Have a BBQ on our newly finished deck!
16. Invite a neighbor over for dinner
17. Buy someone else groceries
18. Take flowers to a friend/neighbor
19. Build a plan for Through My Eyes Foundation
20. Execute plan for Through My Eyes Foundation
21. Bring up a new Website, Blog, and Client Proof page
22. Take my family to South Dakota to see the "Great Mountain"
23. Get my bassoon out from under the stairs, dust it off and start playing again.  It has been 5 years :(
24. Take a trip to Washington D.C.
25. Go apple picking
26. Decide on an album company that I love!
27. Go to a movie with the girls
28. Travel to New York
29. See a broadway show  :) This just  makes me giggle!
30. Attend WPPI again.
31. Complete puzzels.  (completed  1.8.2011)
32. Have a game night with friends.
33. Get the baby clothes on some kind of website for sale!  (maybe the blog too!)
34. Go through the baby clothes in line above
35. Set up a craft area in our basement
36. Get up on a Saturday morning before everyone else to sip coffee outside and watch the sunrise
37. Get up early to watch a sunrise someplace super cool with hubby!
38. Put dvd's together for seniors and brides
39.  Have someone design dvd labels for portraits and brides
40. Revamp bridal collections
41. Go to a comedy club
42. Go to a Jazz club
43. See the Plaza lights come on Thanksgiving
44. Watch my oldest son get his black belt
45. Start piano lessons for our 2nd son
46. Go sledding with the kids
47. Take the kids on a nature hike somewhere that's not Kansas
48. Visit an art museum
49. Design an album for brides.
50. Learn about studio lighting--I'm a natural light photographer, and studio lights scare me!
51. Buy an iPad
52. Send Christmas cards to my clients
53. Adopt a family for Christmas
54. Help my mom to redecorate one room
55. Paint my half bath
56. Install cabinets in our daughters closet for toys.
57. Go to the luminary walk with my hubby
58. Play in piles of leaves with the kids
59. Purchase a video camera
60. Purchase equipment to do an indoor wedding
61. Hold a "make-up" session
62. Read 3 books about photography and write a review on the blog
63. Go white water rafting
64. Take the Amtrak train somewhere
65. Visit my college room mate in Chicago, but not in the winter!
66. Get Kirk Vocain to visit our local PUG (Photographers User Group)
67. Purchase a 50mm lens.
68. Purchase a Graphics Tablet
69. I've always wanted some prescription sun glasses--get them!  New glasses too! Completed (1.22.11)
70. Have a SPA day (maybe with a friend)
71. Encourage my hubby to take the MENSA test. ( I know he would pass!)
72. See cherry trees in the spring
73. Visit a light house in New England
74. Go in a hot air balloon
75. Spend a whole day in my p.j.'s playing the Wii with my kids
76. Put together a video of out Colorado family reunion trip from 2009 and give it to each of the family members. Then blog about it.
77. Shovel someone else's driveway
78. Design my studio space in put it into action
79. Have a dinner party with the girls
80. Get a good Bible study book about family and parenting
81. Finish sewing the p.j's for Sterling, that I started for Ethan 2 years ago!
82. Dye my hair, I've only done this once...it was drastic and I hated it
83. Go berry picking
84. Take a cake decorating class
85. Get into--Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation--tried once and didn't make it
86. Read my stack of growing magazines, so they can get out of the house!
87. Watch a friends kids while she gets a pedi, that I paid for!
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
101.

While every goal may not get met, and it might end up on the next list of 101 things to do.  I am now more encouraged to accomplish these goals and actually finish something for my self, others, my family, and my business.  I encourage you all to come up with your own list, even if you're not a list kind of person!  You'll be amazed how much you'll get done!  Let God guide me through this list and watch his work be done.  Extra spaces are for the changes the occur in my life.  Check back for updates on my list.

#31 out of 101

#31 on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days has been accomplished.  This list will be posted soon, it just not quite done, but I figured I'd better tell you all about it before it was forgotten about.   Today we held the birthday party for our son, Ethan, who turned 6 on the 5th of Jan.  Wow, I can't believe he's already 6!  Where did the time go??

We had some really good friends travel up from Wichita, who stay later than most everyone, but tonight most everyone stayed.  The men enjoyed playing the Wii with the kids, while the women gathered in the dinning room to put together some puzzles.  I normally like to do the 1,000 piece ones, but these were super cute in the store and I just couldn't resist to buy them.  300 pieces is all they were, but the Minnie Mouse one took a couple of hours to accomplish it was WAY more difficult than we thought it was going to me since the Mickey one only took about 45 min.  I thought they turned out great!  Maybe I'll put them together again soon and glue them. I've got three more to do that I've bought.  A Donald duck, Minnie and Mickey in france,  and a world's smallest puzzle.  The pieces are the size of a finger nail! I'm super excited for that one, but I think I'll wait until we don't have a kitten to bat them all around!

Some of my favorites!

Well, the Christmas season is over and I'm going to be packing up my holiday decorations this coming weekend.  (After a 6 year old's birthday party!) I thought before I would pack all these wonderful decorations away, I would share some of my favorite ones with you!

I love berry decorations and the cranberry color during the holiday and it clearly shows in my house!  I also love pine cones and rod iron decor.  Enjoy seeing my favorites.  They all have come from Target throughout the years!

I just love these new ornaments that I have bought for the Christmas tree next year!  I decided since I'm now 30 I would like my own ornaments instead of those that have been given to me from the poor college days!

And lastly, I made these really cute reindeer for my oldest son's Christmas party at school!  I just loved the idea that I got out of my scrapbook magazine!  Thanks to my husband who helped me make them because I didn't feel good and it was the night before the party!  We hope everyone had a great Christmas!