Pictures and a holiday update!

I am finally getting around to posting again!  It’s been a busy couple of weeks.  I was sick for a week after my last post with a horrible cold and didn’t feel like doing much of anything.  Then, the Sunday before Thanksgiving my cousin Taryn and her kids (Logan & Piper) came to visit and stayed the week.  We had such a wonderful time!  Taryn enjoyed a spa day with Whitney one day and another day I was able to do a photo session with the kids.  Ana Kate and I both enjoyed the week off of school, but wow….the first day back this week was tough!  We’re already looking forward to Christmas break.  ; )  I am just now setting up my Christmas tree, so that will keep me busy this week.
And on to photography……
First a few of the many faces of Ana Kate…..random from a recent session where I was attempting to get Christmas card photos.  We may have to try again, but here is a peek:
 
Also I want to share a couple of my favorites from a recent family session I did for my friends Mark & Rena (such a sweet family):

And last, but not least…..here are the photos of Logan & Piper….love them SO much! (And 1 of Taryn who hates having her picture made, but she’s so pretty!)
 
I will have more posts up this week, one of which will be about a really fun photo challenge!

Busy Saturday, Slow Sunday

  We had a busy Saturday and a very slow Sunday.  Saturday morning I took some family photos for some friends of mine.  The weather was perfect and I captured some great shots.  I’ll post some of them after I’ve edited their session.  We had a wedding to go to Saturday night and Ana Kate was SO excited.  She has never been to a wedding and she could not stop talking about it.  She couldn’t wait to see the bride walk down the aisle and for them to kiss.  (She’s obviously been watching too many princess movies).  She was very good at the wedding and sat still and was quiet (for the most part).  She did have a funny moment though.  I’m not sure it will sound nearly as funny as it actually was, but I’ll try to explain it.  Our friends Deric, Amanda, and Amelia were sitting beside us and Ana Kate kept sitting on Doug’s lap in order to be closer to Amelia.  At one point she moved off Doug’s lap to stand up in the aisle in front of us.  When she got up we heard a big poot (that’s the word we use for passing gas as I don’t like Ana Kate saying the other word).   At first I looked at Doug and then back at her and said, ‘Ana Kate!’ (obviously implying that we don’t do that in public, much less at a wedding during the ceremony…)  She turned around and I’m not sure why, (maybe we cause we were all looking at her) she smiled and gave us a big thumbs up!  I lost it, I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard while trying to be silent.  Just when I thought I could stop laughing I looked at Doug and he was shaking with laughter as well.  I couldn’t see anyone else from my spot, but Amanda told me later that she had tears from laughing so hard.  It really doesn’t sound that funny and maybe it was worse because we were supposed to be quiet, but oh my….we found it hilarious at that moment.  I wish I had a video of it to harass Ana Kate with when she’s older.  : )  So that was our entertainment for the evening.  I now wonder what the people sitting behind us were thinking.  Maybe they were laughing too?  Who knows…..
We went out to eat after the wedding and by the time we got home I started feeling terrible.  I think I caught Ana Kate’s cold and on top of that I also got a migraine.  So I went to bed and spent most of Sunday in bed.  I did take a few minutes to go outside and snap some pictures of Ana Kate playing in the leaves before it rained.  The fresh air made me feel slightly better, but I just couldn’t shake the migraine until late Sunday night.  So thankful to be feeling better today!
       

Beautiful Fall Weekend

We had a gorgeous fall weekend here and we enjoyed it!  My Dad surprised us with a weekend visit so we had a great time catching up with him.  Whitney also gave Ana Kate a badly needed haircut.  Rather than the usual ‘tiny’ trim we cut off about 3-4 inches and got rid of all the ‘scraggly’ ends.  It looks quite a bit shorter to me, but also much thicker.  Ana Kate is loving it because it’s much easier to brush now.  Saturday afternoon I took a few pictures of Ana Kate.  She wasn’t too into at first, but finally started posing.
  
The time change threw us off a bit on Sunday, but after relaxing all morning we did some shopping.  Late that afternoon we explored the trail near the Crystal Bridges museum and it was beautiful there.  Ana Kate had a wonderful time and actually asked me to take her picture.  She also made some new friends by the time we reached the end of our walk.  : )

We’ve been working on a couple of home projects that are almost completed.  I’ll be putting together a post of before/after photos soon!

It’s Been Awhile…

but we're still here. I don't even know quite where to begin. I almost can't believe I haven't posted in over a year.....a year! Yikes! We've celebrated holidays, birthdays, an anniversary. I had surgery in the spring and spent most of my summer recovering. And...most recently Ana Kate started Kindergarten and shortly after turned 5! I can't believe my baby girl is in Kindergarten....where did the past 4 years go?
So, first of all: Why has it been a year? Originally I think I was just burned out after doing the 365 project. I loved it and kind of hated it all at the same time. I love that I have every day of 2010 documented, and I love having the photos, but at the same time it completely burned me out on blogging and photography for a while. I haven't taken very many photos in the past couple of years. I also burned Ana Kate out. She started running from me every time I grabbed the camera. We are finally getting back to normal (as normal as it gets around here) and she likes having her picture made again, and I miss photography and blogging. I also really miss having our lives documented, so that we have it to look back on. So, here we go. Let's see if I can keep it up. : )
Just to update on what's been going on around here. I had a surgery in the spring (hysterectomy) to help with some issues that I'd been having and I also found out I have hypothyroidism the week I had surgery. So between some surgery complications and adjusting my thyroid meds I had a crazy summer. It was basically filled with doctor's appointments and trying to take it easy at home. I was finally feeling back to 'normal' by the end of July and I actually feel pretty good now which is amazing!
Towards the end of the summer I joined a summer bible study and some of ladies were asking me if Ana Kate was going to Kindergarten in the fall. I told them I wasn't really sure since she wasn't going to be 5 until the end of August, but I was encouraged to check into it. So, I did. Obviously she couldn't start public school because the cut-off here is August 1st. I hadn't really planned to send her to public school anyway though. I wanted to send her to private school, so we scheduled an interview and evaluation and before we knew it Ana Kate was enrolled in Kindergarten! I am so glad we did it. She loves school and has the most amazing teacher! We just had her parent teacher conferences today and she is on track and doing wonderful! I feel SO blessed that we found the right school for her. So, I'm sure I could say more, but I'll just add some pictures to complete the update. Oh....did I mention that Ana Kate got a puppy at some point in the last year? And we ended up with Whitney's puppy too. Not sure how that happened, but we now have two new dogs in the house. : )
Some pictures from last September 2011:

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Family Vacation from October 2011:

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Christmas Pictures of my girls:
 
 
Ana Kate enjoying the gulf coast in April and Whitney’s 21st birthday cake:

Ana Kate’s First Day of Kindergarten:
Happy before leaving home….

Not so sure at school, but she ended up having a great day!
 
Ana Kate and her new puppy:

I have the birthday pictures somewhere, but I can’t find them.  I will add them to this post when I figure out where they are.  Hope to update more often now that I’m back on track.  I got a new portrait lends (which I took these last two pictures with).  I love it so far and I’ll hopefully do a photography post on it soon!