As I finish my wedding class . . .

We are revamping our wedding packages and I am finishing up my online wedding class so I have weddings on the brain. Paul Gero has been a great help during my class and I hope to someday soon meet him and thank him personally! I look forward to learning more and more as we increase our wedding business. This is a photo that I've been tweaking some from a wedding last summer - isn't she adorable?
It rained all day here so the boys and I did fun games and some read some new books for their home school lessons. We did sneak outside to feed the dog, chickens and pick up the yard before we get some snow again. It was warm but wet. The boys played stick hockey and then got me to play some soccer until we all fell down in the mud:) On Thursday we are scheduled to get some things started on remodeling our granary - exciting!
Doug was working from home today and that is always something we love. We can't wait until it is everyday but we try to be patient. All in God's perfect timing!
--Best to everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving

Aren't they adorable? We did a cake cutting sequence for a class I am taking and our models did such a nice job. And I liked the photo of Josiah on the swing and did a little tweaking for another assignment. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Josiah is always a good sport to get his photo taken.

Take a break

It's good to take a break every now and then, to regroup and refocus. I was flipping through some photos of this summer and found some of our neighborhood get-together. I thought I would share some moments:Our host and hostess (Jeff & Nona) taking a break. This was awesome guys!


A nice portrait by Doug of Nona in front of one of their John Deere's.

It was a regular old fashioned party, with music, hayrides, children's games and a sack race. Awesome fun! Josiah caught a bubble & Marcus was trying out the sack race.

Our New Little Girl (Dog)

I was talking with my friend Heather in Missouri and she told me she hadn't seen any photos of our puppy Cocoa. So here she is:
She's quite a sweetheart - a little crazy sometimes but aren't we all. She's grown some since these photos from a few weeks ago . Loves to play catch, chew everything in site and bring in "gifts (aka junk from the yard, broken sticks, garden debris)" to her little den on the porch. A good little dog:).

Winter Wonderland

It's official - the snow season has begun. We got about 3 inches - enough to top the evergreen trees with a pretty frosting and cover the dingy grass and other plants. Of course we wish we had gotten a few more outdoor projects done before it came but I'm glad it's here. It's the March snows that I curse:). Josiah went out for a bit to throw snowballs at his dad.

Building Frustration

Up until lately, we have done almost exclusive "on location" photography with our preference being outdoors but . . . the need for an indoor studio is here. We have been using our semi-fixed up (very semi) granary for indoor shoots but as the cold weather creeps in it has been a challenge to keep it warm for our photo sessions - so we have been planning to build a studio on our farm. We thought maybe by now we would be further along but here it is November and we still don't have a site excavated. BUT, we are getting closer. I think we have settled on removing an old shed in need of massive repairs and building a post and beam structure on its site, with in-floor radiant heating and a loft for photos and an office space. We would essentially double the space we have now and it might actually have real sheet rocked walls (as opposed to what we currently have). The picture in my head of the studio looks great, now to put that vision into brick and mortar (or wood and concrete). We'll keep you posted on the progress. I'm hoping to get a dumpster for the demo tomorrow in here so it's starting . . .

It's Late . . .

I am a certified night owl, which would be great if I lived in a tree looking for mice to eat. But, instead I'm a mom with three busy boys who will no doubt be up somewhere around the 6:30 am time zone. Part of the problem is the only time I can get real computer work done is to begin about 8:30 pm - after they are all happily tucked in their beds.

Anyway, working on my photo class (a documentary wedding class) I feel a little like a greenhorn - which means the instructor is a good one. He has managed to move me out of my comfort zone on every assignment - definitely there is lots for me to learn. Here's a few practice photos from the "experimenting with flash" section.

Later--A

So now I have a blog

I suppose it's about time I got a blog - I mean, doesn't everyone have one by now? Life's been busy here, with taking photos and finishing up the garden work. At then end of October we celebrated my grandfather's 80th birthday with a surprise party. Here's the first moments of surprise! More later!
--A