Santa surprised everyone and stopped in the studio…  (Brady wasn’t thrilled with the surprise)

I wish we could of got Brady in with Santa.  Heck, Brandon wouldn’t even sit on Santa’s lap and Brandon knows Santa really good.  Brady does make a cute Santa though, so that makes up for it.

Before Samantha picked a name we had to make gingerbread cookies…

After we made cookies I put Samantha to work…

The winner is Shawn Reeder.  I was thrilled she pulled his name, Samantha was let’s say not as thrilled.  She was mad she couldn’t pick her grandma Debbie.  I told her grandma already had a calendar and I think I told her Sponge Bob was on and then she forgot all about Shawn Reeder. 

Shawn is an awesome photographer out in California.  I thought it was soo cool he even commented on my blog because I totally stalk his blog.  When my kids are old enough to go out to Yosemite I am gonna hire Shawn to photograph us on vacation.  I went out there several years ago with some friends and can’t wait to take Bob and the kids there.  Make sure you check out his site.  Shawn Reeder

Here are a couple of my favorite photos from his blog…

Shawn- I will have a calendar in the mail for ya in a few days.  And huge thanks to everyone that participated, it was awesome to see all the comments.

Brrrr!  It was a cold morning for pictures.  By the time I got Mark and Debbie’s family done it had warmed up alittle but it was still only about 30 degrees out.  I was worried about the kids being cold but they didn’t complain at all.  And as you can see the kids did awesome for me.  I didn’t have to bug them to smile or look at me, I think I yelled at Matt the most to give me a smile then I did the kids.  Thanks for the wonderful time!  Oh and tell Copper the dog I said hi.

This is one of my favorite family photos ever.

The girls…

the guys…

I have known Mark and Debbie for several years.  They have an awesome family.  I remember being at a graduation party they were at with all the kids and thought it was amazing how well behaved everyone was.  I wish I could get my two kids to act that good in public.  Anyways… We had fun on our shoot despite the 25 degree temps. 

I have to add this to the post… My mother-in-law’s favorite place to shop…

Bailey’s Discount Center

I will be working this afternoon and then of course taking off Thursday and also Friday.  Friday morning I will be dancing to the song below with the kiddos for sure!  It is the Goetz Family theme song.  Brandon always asks to hear the WoWoooo song.  It Rocks!!!  I am waiting for Bob to get sick of it, we listen to it alllll the time.  Sugarland - All I Want To Do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSyeto050ZU

Then on Friday we are heading to Hensler’s Nursery to get our tree.  I just love that place.   Hopefully we can meet up with Jackie who will be in town from Houston.  Jackie-Do you think you can manage to snap a family photo of us while we were there (nothing like putting her on the spot huh!) Wish me luck getting some great pictures of the kids.  (ummm, I still haven’t made my christmas cards yet, so fingers crossed I will get some useable shots)

Saturday I will be shooting all day.  I still have one session left for 4:00.  If you have to have a weekend time slot of pictures before Christmas you really need to grab that spot, I don’t think I am going to have any more time slots for weekends after that.  I do have several evenings left the first couple weeks of December but please don’t wait.  I usually get a ton of calls right after Thanksgiving.

First things started off great…

Then things got alittle goofy… (I can’t stop smiling, this photo makes me laugh, Eric, only you can pull off a hat like that) Oh and Sara, I think I know were Maddisson got her cheesy smiles from.  LOL 

And then Cole decided he was tired and that was the end of it…

Last night was hilarious.  I still laugh when I think about it.  I think if we had taped the session it could possibly be on America’s Funnies Home videos.  Of course as I am laughing Sara says that it isn’t funny, but really it was.  Cole is two, need I say anymore.  He did great at first, better then any other two year olds, then he just decided he was done with pictures.  But then when I was shooting just Maddison by herself he decided he would sit right by her.  Oh how I love my job.  Thanks crazy gang for the fun.  And after the session I went to the OD/Washington Twp game to see the girls kick butt on the court.  It was such a fun game to watch, I should of dragged Sara’s gang to the game with me.  Go Bobcats!! 

Changing things, gonna post pictures first and talk later…

I told the kids to go pile up on their dad…hmmm well you shouldn’t say that to kids that listen really good unless you mean it.  (sorry Ernie that is what you get for raising kids such good kids)

I learned from my mistake with dad and then told the kids to take a nice photo with mom. (see I told you they listen)

This was one of my favorite family sessions ever.  The kids were amazing!  I think their parents threatened them with no Christmas presents or something, because kids just aren’t that good on their own.  Another reason this was a fave session is I got to see Cindy.  I just love her.   She was one of my nurses when I had my kids.  And for those of you that know me, know I spent alot of time in and out of the hospital with my pregnacies.   Luckily I had awesome people like Cindy taking care of me.(Cindy is even in Samantha’s baby book!)  Anyways, Cindy has one of the best personalities and her kids are just like her.  Thanks you guys for such a fun evening.  Next time you have to come back when we can shoot outside and aren’t stuck in the studio.  I hope you guys have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I almost forgot to post my favorite picture….

When Shelley emailed me about pictures, she mentioned dogs, but really I didn’t realize there would be 5 dogs total.  Although we did take some seperately and really only ended up taking a couple with everyone together, although I don’t think I got too many with all dogs in it, one of Shandee’s dogs kept running off.  So on the blog dog wise, Bella Rae, Koko, and Miley are on the only ones making online apperances.  Ellie Ma and Elmer Roy just didn’t perform as well, I have alot of butt shots of them.  LOL  (aren’t their names so darn cute!!)

Before I post pictures I have to mention that Shandee was one of my first seniors and she was one of my first weddings.  (I actually told Shandee and her mom no at first because I wasn’t doing weddings back then, but she talked me into it and I am glad she did).  Thanks guys for always being so nice to work with, just makes my job so much easier, and makes me enjoy what I do.  And now here are some of my favorites.  (I LOVE the ones in the snow!!!)

Did this one in sepia because their mom has lots of bw and sepia in her house….

I just love how little Bella Rae is looking at me in this next shot…

I LOVE this next picture of you guys…

First off, huge thanks for traveling all the way from Fort Wayne to have me photograph these little ones.   Before I post pictures gotta tell ya about Carter… for those of you that know Carter you will chuckle.  He walked into the studio and said something like this.  “You’re not going to take my picture!”  But of course it didn’t take long and then he was my best buddy. (and it didn’t hurt that I gave him a toy and some stickers, and it didn’t hurt that I talked about basketball to him).   Here are a few of my faves…

Don’t worry I got good pictures of the girls by themselves too, but thought everyone would get a kick out of Carter.  Make sure you tell him I said thanks for being so much fun and I am glad he likes me now.

For now, check them out here….

2008 Holiday Cards  (I just realized the cards towards the end don’t enlarge when you click on them, I will work to fix this on Tuesdays… sorry, I had trouble uploading this but thought it went thru)

I have more to post in a couple days, the ones towards the end on page three are the newer ones.  When you order just select the announcement cards and then put in the notes which card you want and what text you want on it, along with what image or images.  Keep in mind I may change slightly from what you selected to make image and text fit.

This was so much fun!  Photos speak for themselves….

**Christmas cards and the capability to order them will be done by this weekend!!!  (sorry I am so slow)

http://www.hpj.com/lifestyles/bookorders/product.cfm?CatName=Calendars

Here is a link for the calendar.  Sorry guys, I didn’t think to post it before because really I didn’t think people would be interested in purchasing it other then my family.  It really is an awesome calendar and I am not just saying that because one of my photos is in it.  It contains photos from TX, KS, OK, all over.  Kinda crazy that there is a photo from Knox, IN in there when you think about it.

And just because I want to add a photo to this post here is another image I captured that day (Jan 1st 2008)…

I am gonna head out today to do some more shooting of him!