a little recovery

FOUR boxes of tissues, a mop and a trash can disinfected and drying on the porch, a few extra loads of laundry, and a lot of cleaning and spraying and disinfecting....
We're all finally starting to recover from our holiday illnesses. I can't remember us ever being this sick at the same time.

Our meds.

twas the night before christmas....

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is actually Christmas Eve. We spent a few hours with Nathan's family enjoying all of their traditions. We open our matching pajamas and take a group picture. Then we drink egg nog out of Nathan's great-grandma's jelly and oat glasses (at least I think that's what they are.) One of my favorite traditions though is opening a big box from Nathan's Aunt Dru. This year's theme was "The Night Before Christmas". We each got to unwrap a few small gifts from the box. I love this even more than the kids do I think!

This is my favorite glass.



After our own Christmas morning activities, we headed back over to Nathan's mom's for Christmas brunch, and.........
Jacob climbed a tree. He was stuck about 20 ft. up. If you look closely, you'll notice the expression on his face.

Stone was helping me feel the full drama of the situation. He told me that if that was him up there, his mom would be freaking out, not grabbing her camera! But Nathan had the rescue under control.



Now we're recovering from all the traveling between our house and my mom's and his moms and our big adventures. The kids and I are pretty sick. Nathan is on vacation so he's taking good care of us. Also, we got a Wii for Christmas so we've been distracted from our pain by Guitar Hero. Merry Christmas!!!!!!

7 years....

We celebrated our 7 year anniversary last weekend. Thanks to Nathan's sister Denise, we had a lovely weekend at Big Cedar. It was wonderful! On Saturday though, I thought we were going to relive our wedding day with a terrible winter storm. But just as quick as it started, it stopped.
Nathan took these lovely Branson pictures of us braving the storm....




This was the view from our room.


On Sunday, we met Denise and Rob for brunch at Devil's Pool where we enjoyed every breakfast food imaginable...and unlimited mimosas.
Rob snapped this picture of us. I wish I had dressed up as nice as I had on Saturday, but this was "I'm-cold-and-already-married-Kim".

Thanks Rob and Denise for a great weekend!

bellies.

I'm working on a new gallery for the website dedicated to maternity.
Here's a preview of mostly just the bellies....and they mostly belong to Rachel.
If you or someone you know need maternity pictures, I will give $25 off the normal session fee in January to help fill this section.












so photogenic

Last weekend, we caught a break in the freezing rain, and the Tarps braved the cold for some pictures. This winter sky makes for some great lighting. (And it helps that these kids are super photogenic.) I think Haley and Ashlyn are going to teach their little brother Hudson how to pose any day now!










Tarp family, thanks for freezing your tails off with me!

Emily and her Dad.

This is Emily and her Dad, Darrell. We lucked out before all of this rain started and had a great afternoon shoot.
Darrell kept Emily laughing the whole time which made my job pretty easy.
Isn't she lovely!? ...and those eyelashes!!!!!!







Thanks Darrell and Emily for letting me take your pictures!

They grow up so fast...

Jacob's class was featured in his schools weekly round-up where they performed the song (and dance) "Frosty the Snowman".
His big scene came when he had to put the hat on Frosty "there must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found, for when they placed it on his head...." cue Jacob. I loved it. I cheered like he was on Broadway. He's growing up so fast. The other day when he had a friend over, he called him "dude" almost the entire time. He also insists on calling Nathan and me "Mom and Dad" instead of mommy and daddy.....it's the end of an era!
And yesterday, on our way home from the store, he asked "Mom, are you and Daddy ever going to break up?" Such an innocent question. I assured him that I loved Dad very much, and it would be really hard to break up with him because I thought he was pretty smart and handsome. Jacob said, "well, if I was a girl, I wouldn't break up with him. He's really good at playing the X-box."




And Emma. What am I going to do with her?! She's been coming up with things from who knows where. The other day, Nathan and Jacob were wrestling, and Emma jumped off the coffee table onto the doggie pile and said, "don't make me do this!" She's 4 people!!!! Well, she would correct me, 4 1/2!

(she had just eaten some cinnamon rolls)

BFF

I didn't used to be a big fan of Myspace or Facebook, but they have really grown on me. I've found friends from school who I probably wouldn't have seen until my 10 year reunion if it hadn't been for these networking sites.
Beth is one of those friends. In fact, Beth was one of my first best friends. In First Grade, her phone number was the first friend's who I'd ever memorized. (I still remember it!)
It was so nice to meet up with Beth a couple of weekends ago on a freezing cold Saturday morning. We went to a friend's farm and I followed little Blake around while he explored. He's adorable!









I love photoshop and use it on almost every picture I feel is worth keeping. I've heard it's like the icing on a cupcake, and I totally agree. I love this photoshop old school action which adds a lot of distortion and texture. It's one of my favorites, but I try to use it sparingly. I love the way Blake was standing in this. It reminded me of an old picture, hence the old schooliness!

Beth, thanks for sharing Blake with me and freezing our tails off for a bit!

Finally, a blog post!

It's been a while since I've posted. It seems like I'm finally getting into a good routine and workflow.
It's time to share these beautiful girls!
I had so much fun, and I'm hoping we get to take some more very soon.









Thanks Denise and Rob for sharing these beautiful girls with me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for, and I'll post some pictures of my family soon, but for today, here's a beautiful family full of red heads.
This is one of my best friends, Dana and her family. We talk on the phone almost every day. If we talk under 36 minutes, I know it must be a busy day. Sometimes I don't know how she does it with all her boys. My favorite thing I've ever heard her say to her boys while we were on the phone was, "NO...Don't ride on the cat!" She's really such a great and inspiring mom. She spends so much of her time making sure they're happy and balanced, and I think it shows.
They're such a beautiful and fun family.

Here's Benjamin. (Doesn't he look so "Blue Steel" here?!)




And this is Tyler, he's so cute and has a great sense of humor! (Grady is equally cute. He didn't get a solo moment in this series, but don't worry, I'll be sure to capture one of his beautiful smiles next time.)









Thanks Burns family for all your love and support, and for letting me take your family photos. I love you!
Happy Thanksgiving!

marshmallows

This is another one of my beautiful sister-in-laws, Carolyn and her family. They came all the way from Hawaii for a visit and to celebrate the holidays with Nathan's huge family. Before we had the big Thanksgiving get-together, we used Diana's colorful yard and then headed to the park in Fayetteville for some family pictures. Carolyn is such a great mom. When all else failed, she pulled the classic, "I have a marshmallow in my pocket..." it made Rumi smile, and it made my job much easier. When he realized the marshmallows were actually at home and not in her pocket....well, we all just had a juice box instead. I had so much fun chasing Rumi around. This family is so gorgeous!











Thank you Carolyn, Darren, and especially Rumi for letting me take your pictures!