Uncle Jim comes to visit.

We don't get to see my Coy relatives all that much. My cousins are in Florida and Colorado...and I miss them bunches! But we had a wonderful visit from my Uncle Jim a couple of weeks ago. I sure wish they'd leave that warm weather and come back to MI or at least visit more often! It was nice to see him.

Berlin being attacked with leaves from Uncle Roger's leaf blower.
Aunt Barb, I made her do something silly.

Why are we bending?

My mom, aunt barb, and uncle jim

picking on my mom :)

i can't even think of a caption for this one. too funny. :)

my silly family :) some of them....

Moon!

My attempts lately to get a cute baby butt shot isn't working. He never wants his back to me. But I managed to get this one. This will be one to show on his first date :)

Spontaneous Leaf Jumping.

How silly of me to forget about leaf jumping! A couple weeks ago, I decided to rake the leaves in my front yard. Really kind of pointless because the tree over the yard was still practically full of leaves waiting to destroy my effort. But, I was itching to do some manual labor I guess and started raking. Berlin was so excited and screamed out "YAY!!!" and took a running leap. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten about the fun of fall with jumping in giant piles of leaves. So when James got home, I couldn't help but run and grab my camera!

Look at that chubber face!

She stole daddy's hat.

A pretty good sized pile we had going there...

Fall times at home.

Fall is my favorite time of the year. I think it is the most beautiful because of the yellow gold and red leaves against the blue sky. Plus, I love t-shirt and jeans with the occasional sweater type weather. So, while waiting for James to get home one day we went outside playing with the leaves.

I just love this contrast!

Happy boy!

And apparently cars belong in mouths. This is his first boy toy from his Uncle Matt.

You don't see, but leaves also belong in mouths.

What?! i can't put it in my mouth?!

Well, then I'll turn and do it so you can't see!

Awe, I caught him.

Look at this BIG leaf, Mom!

This was actually an attempt by me to practice with my light. Um, not so easy with a 2 year old.

Too much jumping and rolling.

Standing!

Elijah stood by himself yesterday! He kept trying and got to about 10 seconds alone. He is getting so big! It makes me a little sad thinking about him walking....I hope he waits just a little longer.

Why can't I be addicted to celery?

Why, oh why, do I love hot chocolate so much? I wish I didn't have little addictions that were not so good for you. I want to just wake up in the morning and LOVE celery and vitamin rich blah blah blah. Instead, I wake to want a large, rather 2 large cups of coffee with cool whip and usually, I want a brownie or something of the like. There has to be a reason I'm so obsessed with chocolate. Anyway, I had done really good with my no junk food. Seriously, never done better...but I didn't lose anything so.... yeah, fell off that wagon. I wish it was easier like before I had Berlin.

I've had it with my Sigma lens. It does an okay job for now...but I can't wait to get a better quality wide lens. Here is my list of things that I want that are going to take a while to get....

* Canon 16-35 2.8L lens
* Canon 85 1.2L or 50 1.4L .... the latter is a little more doable at this point since it is like 1/4 the price.
* Canon 5D so that my wide lens can actually be wider.
* Some Canon macro lens that is like 100mm or longer. My macro is 50mm.
* Video card upgrade for the other computer so I can multi task like a crazy person even more!
* A studio space.... currently working on that! Yay!
* Need grids and softboxes for my new lights
* ANOTHER backup hard drive because mine is almost full. 500 GB already from this year!
* Think Tank rolling bag. ( yep, a story to go with this. I have been having back spasms since Saturday night. My leg and right hand keep going numb and I've been getting shooting pains in my head. Why? Because I carried about 75 lbs of equipment all at the same time because I was worried about leaving it alone in the reception hall. NOT doing that again.)
* Misc. studio furniture to use... couches, tapestry, etc. Found some awesome ones...

Anyway, I'm waiting on all this stuff until I have a good chunk of $ saved for it. So far I have a little over $2000 in my business account for it, but I want to make sure I choose wisely...so as I have been for the past few months....I'm thinking on what is priority. I'm thinking that the rolling bag would be a good investment :)

Okay, now back to editing....

Sisters have the most fun!

I just got some new lighting! I'm very excited about it. I got a DVD of a lighting workshop and learned some new techniques and so Chrissy came over so I could practice. I am getting the hang of it but practice makes perfect! Chrissy took some pictures of me too. I want a new bio page picture, but I'm not so good at looking serious but happy. I tend to look mad or just silly. Oh well. Chrissy looks awesome though!

Oh, and i took the white light movement pictures as a direct copy of the workshop.

Trying to make faces, i look like a crazy freak! But i like it. :)
This was a fun picture!
Eli was sad I wasn't taking pictures of him.
My cutie man!

Arkansas. Driving and day ONE.

We had a LOT of fun on our vacation. It was a long drive, 14 hours with the kids, but we made it with our sanity :). Our whole drive down was in pouring rain because of the hurricane but we had fun. We stopped in St. Louis before making the rest of the drive. Our first night at my dad's was nice. My grandma came over to visit us and the kids got introduced to their grandparents. Eli, of course, making a wonderful impression with his smiles. The first night it was really windy and stormed...we ended up losing power. So without power, dad went and got me some coffee (yay) and then we went out on the horses. Berlin loved Morning Star, which is Angie's horse. Geronimo is the horse Angie is riding in these pictures...and he sort of scared me because he had an ego. Also, the dogs were a treat for her since we don't have any. She particularly liked calling the horses to the pasture...she still imitates her papa Roger now, yelling out the window as if she is calling them home, "Horses!". Anyway, this is our trip down and the first day in Arkansas. More to come of the rest of our trip.

Oh no, the pictures are starting already!


Sustenance.
Twizzlers. Makes mouths happy.
And Berlin's mouth happy too!
Rain and more rain. :(

Keeping himself occupied.
Berlin watching a movie.
Can't go 14 hours with no music!
What we do in hotel beds.
Waiting for dinner...

Good morning buddy!
Day two. i look like a hippie.
Rocky surroundings. Way better than fields...all through Illinios. Boring!
Arkansas roads. Into the Ozarks.

My dad and Berlin...taking her for a ride to see the cows.

It started pouring. So, she was singing in the rain.
Berlin, MorningStar, and Angie.

Berlin was happy!
I'm excited.
Me, Angie, Berlin.

James reluctantly sitting on the horse.
Oh, home on the range.

Angie and Geronimo.

He doesn't look so bad on the horse. :)
Dad reading to Berlin out of a book from his childhood.
While Angie made dinner, we watched the hummingbirds.
Goodnight!
Night Great Grandma Shirley!