Gratitude again

Last year I was doing a month of Gratitude in November. I think it lasted 5 days or something. I've been doing it on Facebook though this year and figured I might as well put them here too. So...so far.

1. I'm grateful for the sun coming through my bedroom window and warming up a spot on my bed on a cold day so Clara and I can snuggle in the warm spot and she can giggle at the dust particles in the sun.

2. Today I'm grateful that my kids' great Uncle made an extensive family history database online for their Alger ancestory. Made it really easy for Nathan to find out exactly how he's related to John Hancock and King Edward IV for his Ancestor homework.

3. is thankful for both my Grandpa's, Dave's dad and all the other men and women that have served out country. I always think of the Title of Liberty... "In memory of our God, our religion, our freedom, and our peace, our wives and our children"

4. today I'm grateful for sun flare. (photography thing). Sun flare makes me happy.

5. is grateful for music. Specifically, my mom for making me stick with the piano, jazz band and jazz combo which taught me about improv, Mr. Simon, my history of American Music teacher in college, my cousin, Brian, for giving me my first Harry Connick Jr CD and all my bishops who've kept me in music callings at church for the last 12 yrs so I'll keep practicing and don't let it get swept aside in the busyness of life. Also, Michael Buble, Harry Connick Jr, George Gershwin, Louis Armstrong, Chris Botti and so many other great musicians whose music soothes my soul.

And this wasn't a gratitude update, but it made me laugh and I want it recorded for posterity. lol. This was yesterday morning, I was in bed...

Clara just came in my room, yelled hot dog! and threw a package of hotdogs at my head. I think maybe she's hungry.

A time of change!

For the last several years I've used this blog as both my personal blog and my business blog. It's time to separate them, though. I've been making some business changes. New name, new logo, new website and...new blog. The website isn't up yet but the blog is and I wanted to announce it over here so the people that come here will know where to go for pictures and specials and such.

I am offering a special for November and December. My biggest package + a Christmas Card for half off. So only $250 and you get all the pictures from your shoot. You can see the details here.

And my Christmas Cards that I'm offering for this year can be found here. There are a lot of fun ones and I'm especially excited about them because I designed all of these myself. :)

I'll post again when my new website is up.

Meet Goofy Gus

He was grown in my Mom's garden.



He's ginormous.



My kids gutted him and Dave carved him and they popped the pieces out.



Clara did a lot of this...



We call him Goofy Gus.



Happy Halloween!

Halloween treats!

Gabe and I had some fun today. We've gotten goodies from the "Family Night Phantom" every monday this month and I wanted to do something fun when we went out to ding dong ditch people. So I thought to myself...who better than the queen of goodies? And I went to Bakerella's blog to find out how to make Cake Pops!

It was so fun that I think I'm going to do another batch for teachers and such on Thursday or Friday.



Scary ghosties. (I love the little guy in the upper left that's looking the wrong way). My edible pens that I bought did NOT work. Luckily I had some black gel frosting hanging around. It only worked for the ghosts though. The poor pumpkins had to be faceless.



I had Gabe dip apple bites into the leftover melted candy. (this whole project took several trips to several stores. I'm severely lacking in kitchen stuff...mostly because I rarely do things like this)



Happy kiddos!





Finished product. Got the little glass "bags" at the dollar tree.

These boots are made for walking!

Miss Clara got new boots and she loves them. It's just the cutest thing!



They totally helped her language skillz too. She was calling them "shwshwsh" (that's how she said shoes) for a while and then she went to "oosh" and now says "BOOTS" very clearly. lol.


I just adore that girl. Oh, she's in nursery now and a total star. No tears and she totally holds her own against the rougher kids.

no color. no fun.

We're having super schizo weather this fall and it's no fun for a photographer.

In case you were wondering.

It's bouncing between freezing and quite warm and it's freaking the trees out apparently. I have a weeping cherry outside the window by my favorite reading chair. In the spring it's pretty with pink flowers and in the fall it's pretty with yellow leaves. Except not this fall. This fall the green leaves are just shriveling up into icky brown and blackness and dying WITHOUT CHANGING COLOR.

I keep doing all these shoots and all the pretty fall colors are not there.

And I don't like it. Not one bit.

The naughty word discussion

*disclaimer* There will be mild swearing in this post.

The other day Aria was rhyming in a sing song voice. "mitchin, litchin, ditchin, bitchin, mitchen, litchin, ditchin, bitchin." So, I mentioned to her that bitch is not a nice word and people use it to be mean to other people and she probably shouldn't say it.

Fast forward to today. Nathan said "Mom, what does faggot mean?" Dave said it means a bundle of sticks and I said that sometimes people take normal words and twist the meaning so it becomes a bad word and that faggot is a mean name to call people.

I told him it was just like when Aria said bitch and that it actually means a female dog, but that people use it in a mean way now. Which then ensued this discussion between Nathan and Aria and I dissolved into laughter.

Aria: But I didn't say bitch, I said ditch!
Nathan: Nuh-uh, it sounded like you said bitch.
Aria: No Nathan, I didn't say bitch!

I could see this going on indefinitely, with bitch being said in every sentence out of my sweet kids mouths, so I stopped them at this point. Then I laughed.

Hehwo, hehwo!

Clara goes to primary with me every week because she's not old enough for nursery. She wonders around during sharing/singing time then comes to class with me. Apparently she picked up on the "Hello song" that we sing to visitors. One day she came home and put shoes on her hands and had them "singing" to each other. "hehwo, hehwo! Hehwo, hehwo!" She'll wonder around the house singing it randomly.

So I've been trying to catch it on video but she's a little stinker and when I point my phone at her she says "NO!"

But with Gabe's help I got a little in this one. Along with a couple "no's"