October,

Here's to you.

Here's to the heady aroma of the frost-kissed apples,

the wild-as-the wind smell of hickory nuts and

the nostalgic whiff of that first wood smoke.

-Ken Weber

Eli is 1!

Okay, so I'm a little late...a year and a month. Where did the time go? Although I believe the third time is a charm. I really feel like I'm spending oodles of quality time with him and capturing tons of moments of him and the kids. We're completely enjoying this big ray of sunshine that has come into our hearts.

I took a few shots of him this morning partly for his benefit and part for mine. I bought these new hats and had to try one out (the others are adorable but for newborns so you'll have to wait to see those). My family immediately identified him as an elf and Cory even wanted to know if I could make the colors red & green for Christmas pictures. Poor kid, he's really going to hate me when he gets older. People will tell stories when he's a teenager of seeing him in the cutest little elf hat while in his "birthday suit". But, hey that's the only disadvantage I can think of for having a photographer for a mother. When they grow up they probably won't leave their kids alone with me. Ah, so is life. Besides you think they're cute right? I've got years before the repercussions start!

Outlook on life

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.

-Ralph Emerson

Fall days

What makes these fall days so poignant

is my keen sense

that each one is a gift,

maybe the last before winter storms blow in.

-Claire Dole

Kristen

Sign me up for Facebook's Anonymous! I have forgotten my blog and turned into a Facebook junkie! I've had these pictures ready to post for a week and have them on FB but have forgotten about my bloggers! So sorry, it won't happen again!

Meet Kristen, another beautiful cousin of mine! We had so much fun shooting her pictures and even stopped for a little breakfast...and lunch! More difficult than picking out her final pictures was getting her jersyes and sports paraphernalia situated for a picture! It was worth it though, what an accomplishment! Now begins the fun part of editing and adding textures! I've included a before and after so you can see which one you like for yourself! Thanks so much for choosing me to do your senior portraits Kristen, sorry it took me so long to get these up! Can't wait to post more!

A beautiful family

I'm so blessed by the wonderful people I meet. The Bissell's found me through a coworker of my husbands and I was lucky enough to photograph them in what seemed to be the perfect setting. Their children were little angels! While feeding the ducks and just playing with their children I think we captured some of my favorite images of all time! At our sessions end Skylar, their little girl, just about brought me to tears when she held out her arms to me to be held and wrapped them up and laid her head on my chest. What a gift from God! Thank you for this amazing chance to meet your family and help preserve this special time in your family's life.

Tuesdays & Thursdays = No TV

While growing up I dreaded when my mom wanted to "try something new".

"Now girls," she'd say (I do have an older brother but he was married by the time I remember chores coming around), "we're going to try something different. On Mondays and Wednesdays it will be Michelle's turn to do the dishes and Tuesdays and Thursdays will be April's turn to make dinner." "Ugh...can't we just go on like we are?", we'd say. "We come home from school, do our homework and then watch tv?" Of course looking back she was teaching us new things, we were gaining bits of responsiblity and never realizing she was preparing us for life.

I had one of those "let's try something new" moments the other day and I could see my dread, from all those years ago, in their faces. "We're going to try something new," I said, "there is just too much tv watching and video game playing going on so, Tuesdays and Thursdays we're not going to do either of those things and instead we're going to play together."

Gabe says, "All day? All day there's no tv or video games? What about Leapsters? They're learning games, can we do those?" Now Tressa pipes in, "Does the Wii count too? Cuz' some of the games you jump around and stuff and you get stronger, it's good exercise ya' know mom." I am trying hard not to laugh at their attempts to hold onto their normalcy.

"No," I said, "no Wii, no Leapsters."

So, after a few grumblings, a few more pleading questions and some disgusted looks we "agree" it will be a good thing. The next morning I awake with Gabe over my head, "Today's Tuesday right mom, so I can't play the Xbox right?" "Yes, Gabe that's right." "Right, that's what I thought." he says.

The day begins kind of rough with "I'm bored" and "there's nothing to do" and any suggestions made by me are quickly dismissed. So, I went upstairs and started bringing toys down and soon they quickly saw toys "they hadn't even ever seen before" and the make-believe playing began which brought back so many memories of when I was a kid. "Let's take these outside," Tressa says, " and it can be like a treasure hunt!" Gabe's not so sure that's a good idea so she pours it on thick with her syrupy sweet voice and tells him how exciting it will be and he could be the leader and they'd find all kinds of jewels and the pirates would be after them..."Oh yeah! I'll go get my sword and I can chop the bad guys head off!" Gabe says, totally into it now. Amazing, I think. What a great idea. Suddenly I felt how my mother must have felt when we were kids. I felt so proud, not of myself but of her. She didn't have to spend time with us but she did, she didn't have to let us leave our gigantic cardboard house in the middle of the living room but she did, she didn't have to take the time to instill in us the things she did ~ but she did. And now I am passing on those things to my kids and someday I will see them passing them on to theirs. And that won't be so far away. They're changing so fast now and the opportunity is right now, not tomorrow or not even "in a minute". I want my kids to be proud of me when they see themselves instilling good things into their children.

So go call your mother and tell her how much she means to you and go spend some quality time with the people you love.