happy birthday amy!

You get totally ripped off having your birthday on Christmas, but I remembered you! Happy Birthday to my friend that I love to laugh with, that tells the best (albeit longest) stories and is always the last one to call it a night. Hope you have a great birthday and a good Holiday too!

belly pics

I want to be a really good photographer. Of course, I want this to happen on its own. I want to be naturally good at it...yeah, pretty sure that is not going to happen. Now that my kids are older, I've let myself spend more time with my camera. I'm on a mission to find new subjects that will let me take up their time in hopes that they'll get one or two decent pictures out of it, and I'll get some good practice. I hope Jamie and Kevin find something they are happy with after today's shoot. It wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be. It was fun! I learned a lot, and I'm so appreciative of their time. (And thanks Joe for building the backdrop for me!)

How cute are they?!?

Less than a month to go!

Some peoples say it's cheesy, but we just had to do the heart...I like it :)

By the way if you need pictures taken of yourself or your kids, give me a call...I still need A LOT of practice!

let's find a Christmas tree!

About 12 or so years ago I had the brilliant idea that we should cut our own Christmas tree. Not go pay to cut a nice tree, but a good ole fashion Charlie Brown tree. We live on 13 acres, how hard can it be to find a decent tree? Let me tell you, it's hard. It's really hard. After the fiasco last year (the thing was so spindly it actually fell over), I said enough. Of course this meant breaking the "tradition" that I somehow created. The kids were sad. And I was a little sad too. I grew to like those hikes and snowmobile rides through the woods. Even if they resulted in a not even close to perfect tree.

After I convinced the kids that getting all the ornaments on the tree without it toppling over was a good thing, we decided we would go buy one from our church this year. Then we had an idea, tree farm? Gabe shouts, "Yes! Everybody wins!"

And everyone did win! A nice hike on a gorgeous day through stands of way closer to perfect Christmas trees. We have a tree with more than 5 branches! Life is good.