I think I will join them. :)

Brody went to bed early tonight and Don followed shortly after. At 8:30 tonight I was the only one awake. I could have gone to bed and considering I am pretty pooped out you would have thought that would have been my choice but instead I stayed up and went through the family camp pictures and posted on my blog. I mean sleep is important yes but how often do I get almost 2 hours of complete silence and an opportunity to do WHATEVER I want... sleep can wait... for a little while. BUT NOW I am off to join them. It's 10pm and I am hitting the sack. good night. 

BECAUSE I CAN!

I need to do this more often!!

You would think that I would have pictures of Brodes with food all over his face. I honestly had never taken a picture like that until he had his birthday cake! Well I did last week... I need to give him so more messy food and have fun with it. :) Here ya go... hope you feel like you were there.

" I am never going camping again!"

These words were uttered out of my mouth Saturday morning over and over again. I was super crabby!! Last week was a little tough. I had two nights where I was up till about 3 am. One of them being Thursday night. Long story. Regardless I went into our weekend of camping already tired. Friday I was tired but excited to go camping and couldn't wait to see the rest of my family on Saturday. We were going camping with my family just for Saturday and Sunday. Don and I decided to go a day early and my sister Roxy joined us. When we got there Friday night everything went smooth getting camp set up. It was the kind of place where the camp sites are pretty wide open. It's not private. I prefer the private sites but this was ok. Anyway, we sat by the fire chatted and eventually headed to bed and this is when all HECK broke loose. I was already exhausted. Well Brody decided to keep us up till about 1 maybe later. I can't really be certain but when six am rolled around  and the dog was running all over the tent and the baby was crying I felt like I was going to loose it. :) I am very emotional but when I am tired I am emotional and irrational. This is a lethal combination. Anyone know what I am talking about?? Well let's just say that I was going off all morning. It's hard to be in a four person tent with a baby, a dog, and all of your belongings. The reality is Don insisted I went back to sleep. So I did. I woke up still tired but a little less crabby. We took Brody into town so he could fall asleep in the car and then Don and I went and got breakfast and sat by the lake. Later on the rest of the clan rolled in and slowly and surely the crabbies went away. Last night was fun. We all hung out by the fire and played the game "I Never". I really enjoy getting together with my family outside of just holidays. I really ended up having a good time and am looking forward to camping again. I didn't expect to say that ever again Saturday morning but it's amazing what sleep can do for your perspective. Saturday night the dog slept with Roxy because she had a nice big tent to herself and we decided one of us would stay with Brody until he fell asleep and then go to bed after. It worked much better. Needless to say we are tent shopping because Rox won't always be around and we need more room for all of us. Here are some fun pictures of our trip. :) 

AND MY HEART MELTED!!

I picked Brody up at the Y daycare today and there was a mom picking up her little girl in front of me. We all ended up on the elevator together. I am letting Brody walk as much as possible, therefore we skipped the stairs. So anyway all of us are sort of walking down the hall together and the next thing I know this little girl and Brody are walking together holding hands!! It was sooooooo cute!! I couldn't handle it. She let go of his hand and then he reached out and grabbed her hand again they walked a little farther together and then they ran off at the same time in different directions. Anyway, they walked about half the length of the hallway together holding hands.... watch out Maddie.... there's a new girl in town!!! ;) 

PS... The other mom had a son who was a little older. He was probably 8-9 and he got so excited. He looks at his mom and says "Mom maybe they will date when they get older!!" Hahaha... kids are so cute. 

The Fine Art of Family - Review

I have always admired lockets. I think it's the sentimental part of me that likes the idea of having a picture of my loved ones so close to me. I am not certain how I came across the website The Fine Art of Family, I think I might have been googling lockets. They have the most beautiful lockets I have ever seen. I requested to do a review and was so excited when they sent me a packet. I had no idea that they did so much more then lockets but that there is a cool story behind the business. 

The Fine Art of Family was started by Monica Rich Kosann. The website is beautiful and it's the first thing I noticed. The photography on their site captures your eye right away. Monica Kosann is a brilliant family photographer. Her photographs are stunning. Her love for photography started when she was 17. It was her love for photographs that inspired her idea to create heirlooms to hold the beautiful pictures that she captures. Clearly this story strikes a cord with me personally because I have the same love of photography and I appreciate greatly creating beautiful heirlooms to store your precious memories. 

The Fine Art of Family is so much more then just lockets. They have beautiful jewely ranging from lockets, long necklaces, & charm bracelets. However, Monica Kosann is very creative and there are even more products. I love the image cases that are inspired by old cigarette cases, they also sell frames, & jewelry boxes. I would love to add one of these accessories as an heirloom for my children someday. I encourage you to take a look at this beautiful collection at The Fine Art of Family and also at Monica Rich Kosann's inspiring photography portfolio.

Hello!

So why don't I just start this post with a mommy moment. I went to my blog and logged in. It's been a little while since I posted and I wanted to aim to get something up today. Well I got the post written, pictures uploaded and I went to view my blog and to my surprise I was looking at my JR Photography blog. Seriously!! It would have been a little embarrassing to have my personal post on my business account. Good thing there are delete buttons. 

Anyway, here is the brief version. I had another wedding last weekend. You can see some of the pictures here. It was a fun wedding and a fun day. My sister is amazing. She has been assisting me with all my weddings and I don't know what I ever did before she helped me. She is such a blessing. Not to mention she lives close by and decided to spend the rest of the day with us. It was really fun. I love having her around. :) Brody loves it too. He adores Rara!! :) Brody has discovered daddy's hat and this was the game that we played with auntie when she was visiting. We put the hat on his head and he would run around with it over his eyes and run into things or trip and think it was funny. He is starting to play with and discover mommy and daddy's stuff... hats, shoes, etc. Good times. 

Here are some pictures of our day with Roxy. 

we work very hard at weddings, really we do.

Here's looking at you kid!

Can you see me now?

how about now?

OH... ELLO!!! (This is how Brody says hello!)

The rest of the weekend I worked. I finished editing Amity's wedding pictures. 900 pictures. Now I just have to add the pictures that Melissa took. I hope Amity and Darin will have enough pictures!! 

JR Photography Logo

I would like to design a photography logo. Here are three to start with. The one with the blue background I really designed to use as the background for a website with the logo meant to be small and in a corner. I love the blue because I think that it reminds me of the ocean which I perceive as being relaxing. I could imagine that blue on business cards as well but want the logo to stand alone by itself without the background. Mainly I chose white because I think it's more about the design of the letters and colors then anything.  Let me know which one you like the best. :) THANKS!!

If you have any ideas or suggested changes let me know. I tend to like simplicity. :)

How is my old friend??

We all have those friends who were the best thing ever when you were  7, 13, 17, 23.... you loose touch, grow apart... who knows what happened. I had a friend who was a friend to me when many others were very mean. I went through a lot in school because of certain family dynamics. She embraced me and my family when others did not. We lost touch somewhere around late high school. I have often wondered about her. We got into some deep trouble together. :( BUT I for one learned my lesson. With myspace, facebook and whatever else is out there it's possible to find old friends. Well I actually found her sister. I was so excited!! She responded to me right away, knew who I was and knew that I was curious to know how my friend was doing!! Well she hasn't written back to me since, has not said anything to me about her sister and it leaves me wondering How is my old friend?? :(

My wonderful busy life.

Clearly I have cut down how much I have been blogging lately. About two & 1/2 weeks ago I had a wedding. Then I had company as I have already shared, then another wedding, this weekend a wedding, the weekend after family camping, then a family reunion, and then another wedding. Lots of picture editing going on at my house. My sister keeps calling me and very naturally asks me so what are you doing... "editing pictures." I told her that she should call me with the intro... "I know you're editing pictures so I am just not going to ask what you are doing but if you are doing something else and you want to tell me go ahead otherwise the reason I was calling was because...." However, I told her that if she had such a long intro I might just hangup... I am just kidding I would never do that. So anyway... I just wanted to catch you all up a bit. Last weekend was amazing, fun, happy, sad, exhausting, etc. My girlfriend got married and the wedding was beautiful. I have some pictures on my photography blog if you want to check them out but I will also post some here. I also have some pictures from Melody's visit. Lots of stuff that I am behind on. :) Other then busy life is good. Still exercising regularly. Don and I went four miles last night for a walk/run and I feel like an 80 year old woman today. I need to change what I eat. :( I would love any recipes that you would want to share that you consider healthy!!! Lay it on me... we are not vegetarians so no tofu recipes. I am gonna run. Just an update with pictures. Stay tuned because I might actually blog again in another week or so... 

(SO I CLEARLY PUT UP A LOT OF PICTURES!! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED!! DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE THERE??)