Merry Christmas!

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Way Too Long...

.... since I updated this thing. It's not that we've been bored... Things have been crazy around here as usual, but the holidays are of course making things even nuttier. I still haven't reached my slow time of the year. Hopefully soon... No matter what, we have scheduled a vacation for the first full week in January. We're getting away just the three of us (maybe four if we decide to take Spike). I'm very much looking forward to it. I'll give you all the details after we return. For now, here are some photos and explanations. I can't include all that I have, but I'll try to show you all just a piece of everything that's occurred.

We had a wonderful visit from our friend Chris, and her kids Rayanne, Ryley, and Rheaunna. It had been way too long since we got together, and I hope we don't wait a year until the next time. We just played games and hung out all night. Relaxing and fun! Rayanne decorated Shawna with some mega blocks. Beautiful, huh??

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Remember a few months ago when I said my birds were leaving the nest? Well since then they had another set of babies, and even still they are living on the porch. I know all the babies are grown, but I think they've found a safe haven under our roof, which is fine with me.

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When my cousin Trish, her husband Jacob, and daughter Dakota came for Thanksgiving, we decided to take the girls out in the snow. They haven't had much in Memphis, and Harlie was always too little last year during our big snows. The girls couldn't move too well in all the layers of clothing (kind of like the movie "A Christmas Story") but I think they liked the snow as best they could at this point in their lives. As you can see in the above photo, Spike LOVES jumping to catch snowballs.

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The girls didn't pose too well for their photo together... neither one of them likes to sit still for more than a few seconds, and of course they couldn't make their few seconds match up! The bottom photo is Trishy and Dakota. They look alike, don't they???

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Just some of the Christmas photos I've taken of her. I have some in one more outfit that I need to process. I'll probably post them after the holiday. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I plan to spend as much time with my family as I possibly can.

Love you guys!

Some Updates....

Hi there. I'm writing to give an update from Harlie's doctor appointment, and really just to show some new photos, because I know that's what you all come here looking for. And that's really what it's all about for me as well. Anyway, I took the nugget for her one year appointment last week (and waited an hour before seeing the nurse - so frustrating). This is what we came up with:

Height: 29.5 inches (63%)

Weight: 24lb 11oz (93%)

Head: 18.03 inches (71%)

I'm not at all surprised by her weight, considering the way the girl eats. She has yet to turn down a new food. Makes meal time easy for me!

I'll give some info with the pictures. Love you guys!

Here she is eating her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and drinking her "muice" (milk and a touch of orange juice). We have found that the "muice" combo is the only way to get her to drink regular milk. She has this unnatural orange juice obsession, and Mike came up with the idea of mixing the two. It's like an orange julius without the frosty sugary goodness.

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This costume was way too small, so she just wore it long enough for me to take a few photos. Then it went straight to the "I hope someone can eventually wear this on their child" box.

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This is the costume she wore to a Halloween party. That cheesy grin is the one we see 100 times a day. So sweet. Spike is so tolerant!

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My handsome little boy

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Last friday Mike and I both had off in the afternoon/evening. It was a beautiful day out, so we all played in the leaves. It was so so nice to just hang out as a family. It makes me happy just looking at the photos and remembering that day.

Happy Harlie-Ween 2008!

Yesterday was Harlie's first birthday, and our second Harlie-Ween. We had a birthday party with our most immediate family and a few good friends. There were about 30 of us here. Thank goodness the weather was decent and we opened up the sun room. If we couldn't have done that, I'm not sure we'd all have fit in this house! Harlie had a blast, of course. She loves being the center of attention. She got some great gifts, and now she has some big-girl toys to play with! She was so sick and tired of the same old things that were really meant for babies.


She's walking now - she took a few steps a week ago and has been progressing over the past week. She still crawls a lot of places if she wants to get there quickly, but she's getting pretty good on her feet.

I decided she wasn't allowed to have the bottle or formula anymore, so yesterday I took them both away from her. She's doing quite well! Anyway, I don't think I have much time before I need to get her up from her nap (not that she's slept through any of it) so I'll post the photos now. Enjoy!

My mom worked so hard on these - I think they turned out beautifully!

I went a little overboard on the decorating!

Even Spike dressed up for the occasion.

I'm not sure if you can tell what's going on in this photo, but Harlie was sharing her cake with her big brother. This is a normal occurrence in this house.

They crashed at the end of the night on her new couch. My two babies!

October's a Blur...

This month has been just flying by, and I don't know what we've really accomplished. Mike and I are now done with weddings for the season. Just a straggler in December and one in February. On the way to our last wedding on Saturday, Mike said the day was bittersweet, because we were done with busy Saturdays, but we will soon be short on cash. I said the day was just plain sweet, because I'm so ready for a break. I am finishing up seniors, and I know I'll have one here and two there, but my busy time is coming to an end. Maybe now I can finally catch up on my work. I'm really behind this year - thank goodness for understanding customers. Anyway, we've been using a babysitter seven days a week, so I don't have many photos to share of good times shared, but I do have a few shots of my angel. I'll post some more after her birthday next week. Yes, her one year birthday is just days away. Crazy!

I Can't Wait Any Longer!

Okay, so I took these ADORABLE photos of Harlie the other week, and I was trying to wait to post any of them until a lot closer to her birthday, but I can't stand it anymore. She's so cute, and you all just have to see her. So here are three of my favorites. Enjoy!

Just Me

Hi again guys. I'm sitting here working on some senior pictures, and I always need something to do while a series of photos is opening up, so I decided to do a little posting. I found this on a digi-scrapper's blog, and I decided to have a go at it myself. I'd love to read any of yours as well!

I AM … a Christian, a mother, a wife, a goofball
I WANT… to look like Drew Barrymore
I HAVE … a baby girl (Harlie), and three baby boys (Spike the dog, Spooky the cat, Cassius the cat)
I KEEP … way too many "memories" that take up space in my house
I WISH I COULD … walk without tripping over my own two feet
I HATE … talking on the phone
I FEAR … scary things that I just know are there when the lights go out
I HEAR … every noise the baby and the dog make at night
I DON’T THINK … I would ever want to be anyone else
I REGRET … the time I can't spend with my family and friends because of work
I LOVE … my family and friends - with all my heart
I AM NOT … lazy..... or coordinated
I DANCE … to make the baby laugh
I SING … to make myself laugh
I NEVER … go a day without laughing
I RARELY … sleep well
I CRY ... at sappy commercials
I AM NOT ALWAYS … as patient as I would like to be
I HATE THAT … there are people in the world that don't know true love
I’M CONFUSED ABOUT … many things
I NEED … to learn to relax
I SHOULD … clean my room more often
I HOPE ... that Harlie loves me as much as I love my mom

September So Far

Hi everyone!

September is going by so quickly! We just did our third wedding of the month - two more to go. I thought I'd get some of our recent photos up for you to see. My workload is still so heavy that I was up working until 3:00AM and I'm still nowhere near the end. But that's what it's like to be a photographer in the fall!

We had some family photos taken by a sweet friend of mine who is also in the photo business (Heidi Lushko), and I couldn't wait for you all to see them. She's so good!

Not much else to report - we don't have time for social lives this time of year. Mike and I celebrate our 4th anniversary this Thursday. I sort of forgot it was coming and scheduled a senior that day - we'll have to settle for an hour or two on the couch together before bed. Good enough for me, though!

Enjoy the photos, guys!

By the way, I just spent all this time describing the photos, and blogger deleted my text when I published. So you all can probably figure things out on your own. I will tell you that the birds in the last photo are the last set of babies that my sparrows had this year. They always nest on our porch, and I look forward to their return in the spring.

We're Still Here!

Hi guys. I wanted to do another quick post to give you a bit of an update. Nothing out of the ordinary (at least not for us) has been happening. I'm right in the middle of seniors/wedding season, and I'm totally swamped like I usually am this time of year. We have a wedding every Saturday this month, and one on a Sunday, and then three of the four Saturdays in October. After that, we'll have our break and I'll have more time to chat.

Mike has started his student teaching and he likes it so far. Only a few months to go and he graduates! Yesterday he told me he might want to walk in graduation, which was something he wasn't going to do before. I'm hoping he does. I'm so proud of him!

Harlie is growing growing growing and she's so close to walking. I'm not pushing the issue, because she's hard enough to chase around now. But it is kind of exciting to see her hit all of these milestones. We went to the county fair the other day and she loved all of the animals - especially the roosters.

I'll try to get some more photos up, but I'm sure we'll have new ones that I find more exciting by the time I get to write again. The scrap page above is a template by MandaGirl and the papers are all from Summer's limeade kit. Both of these girls have amazing freebies on their blogs if any of you are getting into the digi-scrapping.

That's all for now. Hope you all are having as good a life as I am!