These photographs are from a shoot I did with my nieces and nephew :) They are just adorable. I kind of pride myself in the fact that I am available to travel to a home and bring my equipment with me...set up in a area with sufficient lighting and just shoot away! I think it makes it a little easier on the families sometimes when I can come to them.

Zachary

Family

Michael

Mom and Dad

For the past two years now I have had the opportunity of photographing a family whom I love! I always have so much fun and I have known the boys since the oldest was just shy of 2 years old. Oh how time flys! I always love when I get ideas from the families that I am photographing because I like to let them know that I desire to take their pictures where they want! Mom picked a great place here in town. Campbells Nursery of all places! It was a great choice! After this we all hopped into our vehicles and headed out of town a few miles to a beautiful wheat field. I was really pleased with the overall outcome of the photographs!

I can't believe its been January since I last posted! My husband and I invested in a laptop so hopefully this will help me in the area of posting on my blog. Its kind of nice to be afforded the privilege of sitting at the kitchen table typing while my husband is mowing the lawn dinner is in the oven and our daughter Bella is throughly enjoying Baby Einstien! These two darling kids were a blast this last Saturday druing our photo shoot! More to come later... Really :)

Today has been quiet and not a whole lot has gone on. One thing that did go on was a little photo session of my sweet Bella. I truly had tears in my eyes as I looked at the completed photos. Gods children are beautiful in every way and understanding that she is not really mine but his is a daily battle of living with an open hand instead of a closed one. I would love to close my hand around my sweet daughter grip tightly and never let go. Do you see her eyes, her soft hair her red lips and ivory skin......oh she is just so kissable. I was given some advice from a very kind group of ladies at a baby shower before I had Bella and one in particular has always stuck out to me....."shower your children with 1,000 kisses each day"......so easy to do when you have a sweet precious gift from God.

Day dos of the challenge.............praise your husband for his willingness to serve others.......for example if he is a handy man and if your budget allows buy him a new small tool and attach a bow let him know how much you appreciate all he does around the house for you and others. For me it will be a new bag of gummies (candy) my husband loves any kind of gummy candy! Verse that comes with today....... ...."through love serve one another." Gal 5:13b

i am so excited because my sistrt is willing to baby sist tonight so that my husband Andrew and I can have a dinner date  :)

Thigs I like today:

- Kissing Bella

- Rea;izing over again that God is in control and not me.

-Eating fresh veggies for lunch (peas, onion and potatoes)

Find joy in something today! I did when i read my daily walk for the day ( not the whole thing I confess). I really loves this quote "God gives us the ingredients for our daily bread, but he expects us to do the baking." This was in reference to taking responsibility for those wonderful blessings God has given us even if sometimes they may bring us grief.

For a while now I have wanted to blog regularly, but as you can see that has not been the case. I always felt like blogging had to be about something important, fun, creative, interesting and so on.  I have been searching for a while now trying to find that one thing to blog about and I have decided that I will just give up my fantasy of having the BEST blog and just go with what I know. What I know is what happens every day in my life, what I know is God sent his son to die for me and I wake up every morning with hope because of him, what I know is my life would not be what it is if it weren't for God living inside me and what I know is I am going to blog about life....my life. Which brings us to my first "real" post as in not just a picture here and there with a few sentences below it.

I have taken this 30 day challenge and if you want to join me thats great! I would love it :) The challenge is this. A 30-day husband encouragement challenge for wives. Ok now I was very excited to take this challenge and then I started it. Now its not that I am no longer excited I am just realizing how difficult this may be! Here is what the challenge centers itself on..... "for the next 30 days: *you cant say anything negative about your husband....to your husband...or to anyone else, about your husband. Instead...*say something that you admire or appreciate about your husband...to your husband...and to someone else, about your husband!"

WOW! believe it or not that is hard. I feel horrible confessing this, but personally I am prone to pick and nag and the first thing our of my mouth is sometimes not encouraging. To get yourself started on this challenge tell your hubby that you are thankful that out of all the women he could have chosen from he chose YOU, not just anyone but you! I found the verse that came along with day one very encouraging. "The heart of her husband safely trusts her, so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life." Proverbs 31:11-12 I enjoy looking at other translations of verses and this version from the Message I really like " Her husband trusts her without reserve, and never has reason to regret it. Never spiteful, she treats him generously all her life long." 

So are you up for the challenge?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This morning at bible study a woman shared about God and how the only thing he talks about saving is all our tears. I found that so comforting that out of everything he could save he saves our tears and counts them at precious. He does not save our actions or our words he saves our TEARS. Now I am sure he has a really big jar for all of mine actually you better make that a bathtub or even a small lake :-)

Last night I cheated.....I am on a strict diet and I cheated......I would have to say it was pretty much worth it! This is what I cheated on.

From none other than.....

On a healthier note today for lunch I sauteed an onion, but not just any onion a sweet vidalia onion....mmmmmmm

- Slice the onion according to your very own likings (I like to slice them into rings) place a pan on the stove and slowly heat some oil maybe a Tbs or so. Then place your onions in the pan add a little salt (this will help to cook the onion a bit faster plus it adds great flavor) and cook for 10-15 minutes on medium heat. Be sure to stir often. Then enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am in the process of weaning my almost 10 month old Bella to a cup. It is hard :( I do but at the same time don't want to stop breastfeeding. It has been such a challenge but a joy at the same time. It has become very special. We are slowly weaning and have just taken out one mommy feed for a cup feed. The good news is she is doing great with the cup!

A little side note to other mommies. I have tried many cups....MANY and this is the only one she does not just think is a toy. I know another mommy whose son will only use this cup too. 

Baby Bella 4/2/2010...11:59 AM...8 lbs 14 oz...21 inches long