397 images of awesomeness

That's how many pictures we have to choose from.

A year and a half ago we went to this cute photography studio franchise to have some pictures taken. Amanda was our photographer. She's super cool.  We had cheerios there for our live-in raccoon/human garbage disposal named Sydney, and Amanda told us she and her family like to eat fried Cheerios.  SUPER cool! What other kind of person would think to fry a Cheerio?

She took some mighty amazing photos and they are proudly displayed in our house.

That photography franchise is no more.  But Amanda and I have been developing a great friendship. I really like her.  And she and Jessica, who also used to work at the studio, are now taking pictures as a team in various locations, as well as pretty much wherever you want.

Here is a picture of Amanda and Jessica, taken by Elisabeth, who by the way has decided she wants to be a photographer just like them.

(Amanda will probably kill me for posting this picture. I'm sorry!)

Last weekend we were lucky enough to have Amanda take our pictures again with Jessica as her lovely assistant, at a beautiful forest preserve. It was 9am, and it.was.frigid.  But a beautiful day nonetheless!  Although we were cold, we had an awesome time! Amanda has a way of making reluctant to smile children actually smile. She has a way of making me smile too. I was so blissfully happy to be having our pictures taken by her. She really is awesome. And is an awesome person that I am lucky enough to know.

Here are all 397 photos. They're all there, unedited. Because who would expect someone to edit 397 photos? Not I!  Unedited as they may be, they are still so great.  Later on Amanda will edit the photos that we choose.

I'd love to hear what YOUR favorites are! I plan on hanging a good handful of them together in this room.

Click here to view these pictures larger

If you want Amanda to deliver the same kind of awesomeness for you, let me know and I'll hook you up. ;D


PS - I know I said you wouldn't hear from me for a while, but I couldn't wait to share this with you! Now...Seacrest, OUT.

They Did the Mash

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Happy and Crazy October

I am so swamped with work and have had little down time lately. Seems October is following August's lead.  In August the end of the month rewarded us with the start of Kindergarten. At the end of October we will be rewarded with Halloween tricks and treats, but before that we'll have an even better treat when we celebrate my Grandpa Marvin's 99th birthday!

I am guessing that I won't be doing too much blogging in the next week or two while the craziness continues, so I'll just leave you with this picture. Much like this one, this picture makes me so happy.  For some reason I breathe a little easier when I look at it.

I have some great photos to share. I just need to get through about one bazillion deadlines and then I'll be able to do that!

A couple of Picassos.

We have the most beautiful bird houses hanging in our backyard. They were made and painted by our two young Picassos, and I wouldn't change a thing about them. The colors are beautiful, and the paint has been happily placed in just the right spot.

If all of life could be like our painted bird houses, I would be one happy camper!

I've heard a lot lately about finding your calling in life. Following your passion.

These kiddos are my calling, that's for sure.

Priorities

Elisabeth got a piece of mail today. (I suppose it came yesterday, but we're a bit slow some days.)

It was an invitation to the SPA!

We read the back of the invitation to Elisabeth:

Cassidy is turning 6 and would like you to come to her spa to celebrate her birthday!

You are scheduled from: 2:00 - 4:00 on Sunday November 1, 2009

Please confirm your appointment with Cassidy's assistant,

Jody (AKA mom) by October 27, 2009

Can't wait to see you there!!

Her first kindergarten friend birthday party!

We expressed our excitement about Elisabeth's pending day at the spa and expected her to do the same.

Instead, we heard this as soon as we read the date on the invite:

"Oh, NO! That's the same day as Crystal Kingdom! I won't be able to go!"

Crystal Kingdom is a new Dora special that Nick Jr. has been advertising like crazy, which according to Elisabeth, will be airing on November 1st. Apparently the advertising is working.

Thank God for a DVR!

Broad spectrum

We headed to the apple orchard this past weekend.

We aren't huge apple eaters in our house, so it only makes sense for us to go pick an entire basket of apples, right?  cough cough. Oh. Right.

Well, we do like caramel and apple cider. Maybe we can stick with that!

We had a fantastic time at the apple orchard. I am so lucky to have a husband that gave up his football Sunday. (So lucky too that the Packers weren't on that afternoon.)

I noticed that over the course of the day a fairly broad spectrum of emotions were displayed within all of our activities.

Of course there was some sisterly love...

Some comfort in Daddy's arms...

Some fear...

.

Some curiosity...

Some evil laughter by the mom (okay, me) who didn't tell Elisabeth that even though she wasn't standing up like we asked her too she was still making for a cute picture...

Some baby eyelashes...

What's that? Not an emotion?

Hmmm, I thought it was.

There was pure bliss...

There was courage and the desire to reach as high as Daddy can...

And there was sheer goofiness...

There was strength and the desire to hold the basket of heavy apples like the grown-ups do...

(hey, they were three heavy apples.)

There was joy in biting into a crisp apple off the apple tree...

And then taking one bite out of each of the apples in the basket...

There was much teamwork displayed...

There was free-spirited dancing...

There was some reaching for the sky...

...and then some realizing that sometimes the distance between you and the sky is fine as-is...

There was the pleasure of discovering we took a halfway decent family picture...

There was (plain old cuteness and) exploring the pumpkin patch...

There was love...

There was the courage to make a new friend...

There was frustration in the grownups who discovered the orchard doesn't take credit cards and there was creative play while we waited for Mark to come back from the car with the checkbook...

There was irritation with the momarazzi...

And there was pride.

Thou shalt not not eat ice cream

As a special treat, we went to Dairy Queen tonight to pick up their new Pumpkin Pie blizzard. (As well as a Tagalongs Blizzard and an M&M's Blizzard. YUM!)

What was an even bigger treat though was hearing this from the backseat as we waited in line at the drive-thru:

"Woah, GUYS! Don't those look like the Ten Commandments?"

Why yes, Elisabeth, they do indeed look like the Ten Commandments tablets. We're glad to know Sunday School lessons are sticking with you! God and your parents are proud of you.

This is love.

I was going to post a bunch of pictures from our trip to the apple orchard, but then I came across these:

And while the rest of the apple orchard pictures are good and I still plan on sharing them, this trio of pictures stopped me in my tracks and instantly warmed my heart.

They are images of pure love. A fleeting moment between a little girl and her daddy.  A moment that, even if Sydney is too young to remember, will be remembered by her daddy. And by me!  It's these moments that make up for all of the other awfully hectic and crazed moments we experience during the week.

This is love.