Beautiful Blue Eyed Boys...and Mom & Dad, too!

If you can be overwhelmed by cuteness, consider me overwhelmed. These boys have amazing blue eyes (like their mama) and were so cute that I kept giggling. Mom and Dad were awfully cute together too--such a happy family!

Taking Dress Up To The Next Level

I have this love of face painting. Since I quit dyeing my kids on the inside, why not dye the outside? (read this post
for that to make sense). Anyway, I seriously enjoy this fun activity thanks to a face painting step-by-step book that my daughter bought with her own money, as she likes to remind me (thanks, Poulie!). This book is published by Klutz, comes with paint and is available at Michael's or Klutz.com. We have hours of fun painting the neighbors, ourselves and each other.

There is one drawback: paint ends up all over my walls, towels, clothing, etc. It's washable and non-toxic so I don't mind as long as we facepaint in moderation (aka: I hide the book frequently). Since we usually paint superhero masks around the eyes, I was thrilled to do something different, a tiger. Here is my animal-loving child:

I am thinking of offering my face painting services at birthday parties. Just kidding. Call me.

Downtown with Ashlyn

The definition for sweet simply must be Ashlyn. Her brown eyes capture me every time I look at these photos, and her facial expressions cause me to laugh out loud. What a pleasure she was to work with, and a quick learner, too! Every time we approached a wall, she ran over and stood against it, ready to have her picture taken. I think we would be best friends if only I never took her sucker away. (note to self: save suckers for the very end of a session!)

Overheard in the Orchard

Said the Robin to the Sparrow:
"I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so."

Said the Sparrow to the Robin:
"Friend I think that it must be
That they have no Heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me."

--Elizabeth Cheney

Senior Contact Cards

I am so excited to offer these contact cards for seniors. The fantastic designer, and my friend, Stephanie Morvant created these--the colors are fully customizable to match your photo. These are a great way to pass out your phone number, email address, whatever you would like to communicate to your friends--especially before you head off to college!

Front:



Back:

2008 Christmas Card Selections

A big thank you to the designers at the PIF blog who contributed these fantastic card templates!


("Christmas Blessings")

Disturbing Dye Discovery

I try to be health conscious. Aware. I am truly interested in nutrition and feel a major responsibility to feed my kids well and educate them on healthy food choices. But sometimes, no matter how much you read and learn, a much bigger impact is made when you make little discoveries on your own.

Here's my story: I made cupcakes for my daughter's 7th birthday...they looked like this, only her batch had white cake:


I decided to make the frosting myself because I couldn't even pronounce the ingredients on the store bought can, and that always makes me slightly uncomfortable. My recipe made so much frosting that I ended up being able to frost two batches of cupcakes (that's 48!). So, that tells you what a HUGE batch I was working with. The frosting was a creamy white color, and I wanted to spice it up...so I dug around and found this in my cabinet:



I had a brilliant idea: squirt some red icing into the frosting! I had my suspicions that it wouldn't take much icing to achieve the pale pink color that I was going for. So I started small. This small:



And that's all it took to dye a huge batch of frosting pink. And that's when I realized that while I was letting my kids lick the icing can--I was literally dyeing their insides RED. With Red Dye #40!

There are controversial reports over Red #40, and my intent is not to discuss that here, but to encourage moms, dads...everyone to question things like dye, sugar, and chemicals such as aspartame even though they are FDA approved. I have started to think for myself on some of these nutritional issues and I no longer believe that something is safe just because it's for sale at the grocery store. The more I learn, the more I realize that I want to know just exactly what goes into my body, as well as the bodies of the little ones that God has entrusted to me.

Here is a photo of my son, begging me to stop dying his insides:



Ah, who am I kidding? He couldn't care less about dye or chemicals or refined sugar. He just didn't want his picture taken. But I care...I am responsible for what I feed that sweet "boy who brings me flowers."



Thank you for reading my blog! If you would like to share some tidbits of wisdom about children's nutrition, I welcome your comments. If you don't want to share tidbits of wisdom, but would like to say "hi," then I welcome your comments as well!

May Wedding Finally Blogged!

My favorite part of being a photographer, hands down: building relationships. You may recognize this beautiful couple from their engagement session several posts ago. Well, here we have the wedding...and what fun it was to see the culmination of months of planning. I still remember the first time I spoke with Jenna over the phone, and how I liked her instantly. Sadly, this couple has moved out of state but somehow I know that we will maintain a relationship. Here are some well overdue photos from their special day that took place back in May. And because I am a detail-type-of-girl, we will begin my my favorite detail:



It was really, really hot outside...this was such a nice touch!
Here is the close up:



Allow me to set the stage:






The sweet ceremony that just missed a downpour:
(note: another wedding party was not so lucky...they were rained out!)






Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Warren:







The Dinner Reception--I must say, the food was fantastic. I was thrilled to be invited to eat with the family. I was thrilled to be treated like family!









Wishing the Warren family much happiness! You are missed!