Ying Yang...

ok, so- i made a new friend today.... and would have loved to take her home with me though i think her big sisters and maybe mom and dad and boots the cat may have had something to say about that... but we had fun... they even had some new baby kittens.... so sweet!

Reading Railroad

so, these super cute girls are one of my sister's classmates kids- we had a ball hanging out at their grandpa's farm and going creekin.... (is that really even a phrase or just what we used to say?) anyway there were loads and loads of rocks to skip- i think it was the same creek that we used to walk, bike, 4 wheel down to and hang for hours.... oh memories.

I just called to say....

so, i got to see my cousin and photograph her little boy and nephew who were born just days apart- oh my, were they so cute- i can only imagine how much fun..... or trouble.... that they will enjoy as they grow up! :) who knows maybe they'll even dress up and perform crazy plays at family events and pray nobody finds the tapes 15 years later.... hmmmm......

Barn raising...

ok, so there was this old barn that my dad said his grandpa or great grandpa helped to build. it had wooden pegs for nails and inscriptions dating back to like 1890 or something. anyway, it used to be on a farm a few miles away where one of my cousins now lives, but a few years ago they divided it into pieces and moved it down the road, ducking under telephone wires, dodging bridges, etc... to my parents home...which is quite the story in itself... so the goal of the shoot was to get some photo's of my cousin's children around the barn since it was them that lived there.... i don't know if they could be any cuter....

Pretty in Pink...

so, i got to walk down memory lane again when i went up to bern and took pictures of these girls. They were so sweet and DEFINITELY had been photographed before as they were posing up a storm, it was hysterical. When we left we had fresh flowers and all... so sweet!

Let's skate...

so i picked up my niece alexa and we went and photographed one of her classmates little sister... who was so cute and so, so happy! It was a big night for alexa as i learned it was her big 5th grade skate party.... she was a bit nervous when she realized that she might not have a ride there- but she did make it and even got asked to couple skate...oh my, what's next?

Has it really been 10 years?

so we met up at the new bern park to let the kids play before our class reunion.... so fun- our class has some pretty cute kids if i must say so myself! :) We had just over half of us show up - 8 out of 14.... talk about a trip down memory lane...a good time was had by all! :)

Uno Numero

so i got to photograph my cousin's kids yesterday and i can't believe how grown up they are...... in driver's ed, baseball, swimming... - and so beautiful! I had a ball though i think their mom thought i was a bit off my rocker with all the crazy places we went to photograph... :) here's a few of the ones we got.

9-5

so, my niece just took a babysitting class and is amped up for her first gig - she thought business cards would be a super idea so we decided to have some fun with it. Her sister decided to join in and start their unofficial official babysitting club - looks like i came at the right time - shouldn't have any trouble finding a sitter while I'm here, huh? :)

Milk & Cookies...

ok... so after 7 hours, 4 potty stops, and constant "Tom & Jerry" cartoons, we finally made it back to kansas... whew... I had rented a second camera and lens from a reputable online company based out of florida. When I received it, it was missing the battery and a memory card, so i called and left a message to see if they could overnight it- "Brian" said the best he could do was a tuesday delivery beings that monday was Memorial Day. I said that will have to do and i will just work something else out for the shoots scheduled in the meantime- he called me back and said... "You'll never believe this, but i am going to personally deliver it to you." ....WHAT?.... evidently, he was from the kansas city office and was heading to Baileyville where his wife was from for Memorial Day.... what are the odds?..... customer service like that definitely merits fresh baked cookies... hmmmmmmmm!

Let's Celebrate...

so i had a request to design a gift certificate for a family that just had their first baby and grand baby.... how fun is that. I was kind of excited how it turned out so i thought i would share with the rest of the class - (a little advice my mom once said)

...just dandy

though we may be up about a hundred plus dandelions next year, the kids were having such a great time being outside - what a beautiful day.... Jaden's been asking everyday "how many weeks till we go to kansas mom?" he's been having this obsession with spitting on the ground ...oh the odd things boys pick up from their dad's- he would experiment everywhere- in the house, in the toilet, out the window, into the wind so it came back all over me ...lovely, ...so i told him, "jaden, you only spit on the grass- but not at school, why don't you save up and wait till we're out at Uncle Victor's farm." ....so he's on a mission now!

the Land of Cheese...

so we headed up to Wisconsin this past weekend to visit my brother and his girls. It was a monumental occasion being our first family trip with "Elsie" the van. We managed to make ground breaking time turning a 5 1/2 hour trip into 7 hours... oh my... but all the same we had a great....great time. Ryan's become quite the gourmet cook- goodness- every meal was fantabulous and looked like it should be in a magazine. We went to the Greenbay Blizzards game friday night which was a riot- especially since it was beyond past the kids bedtimes- wow talk about bouncing off the walls...and then on saturday Kayla and I had some spa time getting pedicures while Ryan and Jeff took the kids to the Home Depot and built memory boxes- Jaden was so proud of his- it's now the home to one of his 8 webkins - "Furry", "Berry", "Bully", "Turtley"....need I go on? Quite the creative names, don't you think?