Editing Heaven! :)

unedited picture of Berlin yesterday. Her hair was SO static-fied! Hilarious!!!

I am blissful this morning! I finally got my editing program back, yay lightroom!!! I'm now editing the pictures from the last month or so that have just been sitting on my computer or on random cards. I also have about 37 full touch-ups to do for a portrait order so I've gotta get going on those.

I've entered a contest. Something I just don't do because...um, I hate losing. Anyway, I entered a contest to go to Louisiana for a day and work under the tutoring of a really great photographer (her blog is on my blog list---Moore Blog.). So my contest entering had to be something that I would do...like the "what would you do for a klondyke bar?" thing. So I may have to wear granny panties and a tutu, with my belly painted with the workshop name, while walking around downtown royal oak taking opinion polls from strangers. The good thing is Kate would be taking my picture for proof, so she'd share in my humiliation...but that would be an experience I'd remember. I can be a silly idiot for 10 minutes.

Randomly declaring.

Yeah, I'm being totally random but I'm really feeling the child photography lately. I'm having a hard time getting into the wedding thing right now. It may be pregnancy, but I just can't wait for my baby sessions coming up. I'm really just excited to start more portraits.

Posting Purchases.

So here are pictures of my new covers for my super awesome ShootSac. I got my shootsac last year. This is a lens bag but not just any lens bag, a stylish and comfortable one! Before, i was using these cute little insulated lunch bags. They were cute and they held my stuff but they were harder to get into and didn't protect my lenses like this does. My only issue with the bag was that the shoulder strap killed my neck, I'd have red marks the following day even from carrying 30lbs of lenses and batteries in it. BUT, they finally came out with the shoulder pad at christmas time. I just got it and it makes a big difference...it barely feels like I'm carrying my stuff now. Anyway, shootsac sent me a birthday offer of buy 1 get 1 of the new covers. And since my old one was looking a bit shabby... Happy Birthday ME!
Also below is a picture of our sofa that was delivered today. Comfy. Berlin is telling people that it is nice and brown. Although her first comment was "cool!!". It doesn't go with our previous gray curtains...but I'll get to that later. I've gotta get to JoAnn's sometime without the kids so I can actually choose a fabric to make them out of.
Man, I can't wait for James to be home!

New cover in Raspberry. For my fun feeling days.

Bright and suede. wonderful!

New cover in Lively. For my natural feeling days.
Cotton and cool. oh yeah.

our new sofa and our not so new berlin. :) I'm a little tired...

Elijah turns ONE! part 1.

Our little Elijah turned one year old yesterday! Most of the day was a pretty normal day...mainly because Eli is sick. Poor kid on his birthday :( But he had lots of naps during the day and was alert for a while once James came home from Kalamazoo. YAY, he made it home! He left again this morning but will be back tomorrow night. Anyway, we had cheese ravioli and garlic bread for dinner and then cookies and cream ice cream for dessert. We opened presents before he was too tired and he was very participatory, which was nice. He was excited to be allowed to rip paper! He got 2 of his 3 presents yesterday. Berlin wanted him to have a dinosaur but I couldn't find any young child friendly dinosaurs that made noise (her requirement :))...so she picked out an Elmo remote controller, which Eli is insisting is a phone. He seemed to enjoy our singing to him...the look on his face was adorable! Anyway, here was our mini celebration. More to come after Sunday's family birthday party!

p.s. these are not edited for boogers... sorry. a bit on the lazy side. :)

Look daddy!
Woo, ripping paper is so fun!

:)

Berlin helping him open his gift.

Berlin showing him how to sit on his monster chair.

Eli's version of sitting.

Waiting patiently for his new toy.

Talking on his new "phone"

All the ones I was looking at the camera, I had my mouth open. My little punkins!

Eli & Daddy

Ice Cream! YAY

He learned that from me. lol.

Digging in.

I thought this was a funny picture. His face goofy but determined.

Baby #3. 9 week U/S.

I've finally gotten to scanning the ultrasound picture. It isn't much to look at yet since this is only at 9 weeks. I'm now just shy of 15 weeks. I'm a little happier now that I don't feel like I look just fat in the belly, I feel like I look more pregnant now. The search has been on for some comfortable and fitting maternity pants. I tried on some really nice looking gray pants at target, but they were too long and looked HUGE in the butt. The next size down was horribly short. So I ended up going with some jeans, but returned them because they were way high maintenance. Turned out they were indigo dyed and I couldn't wear them if I would sit on light colored fabrics (which my car is light gray) and I'd have to wash them 3-4 times in cold water separate from other items until the dye ran out. No thanks. So I've been living in some yoga pants. Which is one huge plus to not working right now.

Elijah is now officially ONE! I have some pictures from last night's mini celebration that I'll post in a little while. The little acrobat is keeping me running! For example: this morning he decided to pull James' lunch cooler out of the cabinet and push it up to the cupboards, then stand on it to try and get the things off the counter. THEN, tonight while I was cleaning up his room, he went to Berlin's room...pulled her Sit and Spin toy over to her nightstand, climbed on top of it and climbed onto the nightstand to see out the window. I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I walked back to Berlin's room! And he is only 1! You friends of mine that have babies Eli's age and are bummed they aren't walking.... you take that back! :)

In other news of babies, my dad and his wife Angie are pregnant. They announced it to the whole family now...so I'm pretty sure it is fine to put it here. She is due on September 3rd, so only a few weeks behind me. She is carrying one child. She was pregnant with 2, but the second is not going to carry to full term as it is being absorbed. They are excited. So I'm going to have a new baby brother or sister. And Berlin, Eli, and Baby 3 will have a new aunt or uncle!

9 week

3D at 9 weeks. Top is head, you can see the arm buds.

The dark parts in the head are the eye sockets.

They should do away with Valentine's Day. Just make it Amanda's b'day weekend holiday.

James and I ordered our shower curtain this weekend. We found it at Crate and Barrel and of course, since we like it, it was out of stock. We were discussing this phenomenon that we seem to run into weekly and came up with 2 conclusions. Either we are really boring and like the same thing that everyone does....or there is such a lack of cool things out there that are in a reasonable budget that when there finally is something cool, everyone buys it. It would be really convenient to A.) have lots of money and B.) have someone at my beckon call to make me whatever I dream up.

Thank you Bob and Judy for watching the kids this weekend! We were able to go out and celebrate my birthday. We did have several plans for the celebrating but I ended up being sick and so they changed, but it was still fun. And nice to have a break and sleep!

Another purchase of the weekend, a sofa!! YAY! Our current sofa and loveseat are trashed from a combination of just being cotton twill, sun exposure, dog eating grease accident all over one cushion, misc. bottle spills, a vaseline accident (which is pretty hard to get off), AND stains from actually cleaning it because apparently the upholstery cleaner works great as long as you have it perfectly even coverage and have no water lines. Anyway, I'll post pictures when it gets here on Thursday!

I might post a lot in the next few days. I'm a little bored. Sick and my darn sciatica has decided to make a presence again...so I'm not doing much. And kind of avoiding doing some actual work that I'm supposed to do because I just don't feel like it. Plus, James is again out of town. This time for a few days. He is worried he won't be home for Eli's first birthday. SO, I'm really hoping he will. For my own sanity even. I'm glad he is still working but this out of town thing has been weekly and is hard. Especially since we never really spent more than 2 nights away from each other in our whole married life.

For photography: I'm getting these super cute things! YAY for etsy! I'm hoping though that some of my really talented friends and family will be able to make me more. :)

Isn't this set adorable! I love the gray because it can be gender neutral.

Color is called Ocean Tide. I like it! I have 2 baby boys to photograph soon.

I just LOVE this! I can have it custom colors. So I'm getting the one you see and I'm also doing I think...a gray hat with green and pink flower.


Not sure if I'm getting this one since I'm getting the gray one...still debating. It seems a little vanilla to me. And as you know, I'm not a vanilla person.

How fun is this hat!? I need to find some boy hats too.

Happy Birthday to ME!

I'm sitting here enjoying a wonderful piece from my gift basket that my mom and sister made for me. Yum, Kit Kat.... This picture doesn't do it justice! This thing is packed with chocolate! Not only the candy bars but my fave truffles too! And beverages to enjoy, blackberry Izze. As well as a starbucks card. So I'm set for the next month or so (it would be longer but I'm sure that James is going to do some damage...as he has already eaten quite a bit off it).

Thanks Mom and Chrissy!

Each piece of candy is individually put on a stick and arranged in this basket. It took them over 3 hours!

PS: Also, my mom is a rockstar for doing this because it had to be torture! She has been on the strictest diet known to MAN for months. Just ask me what she can have...and the answer will likely be NO.

Thank you to Cody for having a cool new blog page! I used the same place she did to try and jazz up my page. Now I just need a new header that matches. :)