been a busy few weeks here – mostly getting cooper settled in his new school, recovering from all the holiday chaos – and the crazy number of snow day.   Getting new things ready for the photography side of  life!  and boy do I have some new cool things .. new printing lab – LOVING, new canvas company LOVING, new album company LOVING, new jewelry supplier coming, mini sessions later this month, I’ve been doing some private photography lessons – which – are SO much fun!  I’ve had a lot of interest in those – without even advertising, so I’m planning a class in April – more to come on that soon…AND awesome SENIOR stuff coming soon!  (for high school seniors – my poor husband was confused).  Oh.. and.. studio lighting – for those times when we just need to use studio lights!  I’ve taken over yet another room here at the house and am having so much fun!

I can’t believe how much my business grew last year – thanks to all my awesome clients!  I enjoy it soooo much!  Last year, I limited the number of sessions I took to about 6 a month (Oct, Nov – many more than that).  With my kids as small as they are and as much as I love being able to be part of their lives, I will continue this policy.   Those on my newborn plans get first selection of dates, but I will do my best to fit everyone in!  There will be mini sessions again in October specifically for Christmas Cards.   Just this week, I’ve booked 10 sessions for the Fall – love it!  I can’t imagine how much the kids are going to have changed from last Fall!!!

now for some pictures – please excuse the quality – taken with a $99 nikon coolpix point and shoot!  lots of red-eye!!!

Cooper went to his first sleep over!!! his friend Collin (and little brother Connor) invited him over for the night.. a HUGE step for me!

love those kids!  they had a great time – so glad to have such great friends!

then.. last monday night we took the kids SKIING to Wolf.. ALL THREE of them!!!   We got on the slopes at 8pm – bedtime back at home.. the kids did awesome.. tom and i had sooo much fun watching them figure it out and get braver and braver!  emily mostly watched and then would stand on our skis and ski with tom or me.  abby is really good!  cooper likes to fall a lot.

abby – em in the back – always has her eyes on me!

look at them!!!

daddy and emily – note coop eating some snow in the background

so all was fine – until about 9:20.  Cooper started getting really tired.. time for a break.. tom went to hand little emily to me (we were stopped) and I didn’t have a good hold on her – to the ground she went – i grabbed her foot, but her head already hit the hard snow… so.. to Ski Patrol we went – thanks to Matthew for cleaning her head and taking care of us!  she was a bit goofy for a few minutes..

but the hot cocoa helped!  we had sooo much fun.. emily has a heck of a boo boo on her head..

we got home LATE on Monday night.. well, the next day was Dr. Seuss day for Cooper.. well, at 6:49am, I remembered that Coop needed to dress up as a Dr. Seuss character.. he needed to leave the house at 7:30 – lunches were not packed, kids still asleep..  in a bit of a panic, I thought – he can be a Sneetch (you know, with the star upon thars.. ).. pretty simple, even i can cut out a star!!!  from his very high loft bed, his sleeeeepy voice came down, “mom, i really want to be Cat in the hat”.. oh.. um.. well, um.. “we don’t have time Cooper”.. “sniff, sniff.. okaaaaaay”.. he says.. well, of course I HAD to figure this out.. it’s not great, not close to great, but this 6 year old boy thought I was pretty awesome!!!

i think that catches us all back up..