My kiddos

Alright. For all of you that complain that I never take pictures of my own kids, this should satisfy you. I have already expressed my frustrations with capturing "I will run-away every time I see a camera Christian" & "As soon as the camera emerges I will immediately begin acting unnatural Jamie". I figured out that if I take 10x's more pictures than I would a normal child, I can get about 3 good shots of each. Ugh!

Last Saturday we decided to go for a little trip around the thumb before Sean started work on Monday. First we headed to Port Huron where I decided that I could most definitely live there (give me one winter there with blowing snow and cold winds coming off of the bay and my indecisive self would most likely have a different opinion). We tooled around the farmers market for a while and then we were able to witness a "mock rescue" by the Coast Guard. I loved being by the water with all of the sights and sounds. We then went to another park to have lunch, stopped by a lighthouse (the kids were much more amused by the playground that was on the premises), went swimming at Port Cresent & eventually ended up at Pizza Hut in Caro. We had soooo much fun! Thanks mom & dad!

So I was shopping for cute little accessories to go along with the camera when I ran across these adorable camera straps. I think the day that I purchase my D60, I will also purchase one of these straps in celebration! They're so me :)
http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_430xN.35100306.jpg

Trashin' the Dress cont.

Trashin'

Laura's Trashin' the Dress

This had to be the most fun ever! It didn't take much convincing Laura to go along with my wacky idea and that is one of the many reasons that I love her! Betheen, please don't kill me for not having you come, but it was between downpours and the mosquitoes were out in full force. Anyway, Laura is some amazing work of genetics because she of course looked beautiful, but even looked gorgeous when having all of her blood sucked out of her body. We won't talk about how I looked like a cave woman that just came out of a year-long hibernation. Laura said that I had better give her a huge thank you; so here it is.

Laura,
You are an amazing model and an even more amazing sister. I thank you from the depths of my heart. Of course, you can thank me too for being the most amazing naturally gifted photographer ever too. Just kidding...
Love,
Your amazing naturally gifted sister.

Well, I hope that you enjoy. I'm including some of my favorite shots of the day. Please feel free to critique.

Country Girl at Heart

My best friend's mom (who has known me for 11 years) asked me to come out and take some pictures of her farm. She wanted some artistic looking photos of the equipment etc, so that she could hang them in the new addition of her house. I of course was already excited to do it, but imagine my good-fortune when I pulled in and saw that Benjamin was there too! Now I got baby pictures too! And what a great baby to photograph! So sweet, so smiley... But the best is when the tractor came out of the barn - it was like baby crack! Ben is definitely all boy. A big thank you goes out to Teresa, Jeanie & Dallas (who was very reluctant to let me take some photos of him in his work pants). I love you all!

Happy Birthday Jameson!

Today was Jamie's 5th birthday. Where did those last 5 years go? We had a blast together. We let her pick out whatever she wanted to do for the day. But first we surprised her with a trip to Krispy Kreme for breakfast. Then she said that she wanted to go to the park, so we went to the nice park in Flushing and then sauntered down to the irish store (I would like to pretend it was for Jamie's benefit, but I'll have to be honest and say that it was more for me). Once we got home, she decided that we all needed to take a dip in the pool. No objections here! The water was perfect! Bible School is tonight, so we had dinner early and heading out in a bit. I really enjoyed today. I had decided before I even got into bed last night that I was not going to lift a finger or be distracted by anything on this Jamie day. I wasn't either. I think I should do that more often because it kept my focus on my kids and having fun with them. My cup truly runneth over.

My Photo Shoot w/ Tyanna

I had another photo shoot today. This time with my beautiful sister-in-law. She was very patient with me - I tend to take a little time learning how to pose people seeing as I'm new at this. I think that they turned out great and it was a wonderful learning experience for me. I tried different things and figured a little bit of what works and what doesn't. I almost canceled the shoot because they called for all day thunderstorms, but luckily there was no such thing. A huge thanks to Tyanna for being such a great subject for me :)