The pajama Queen and her BIG brother.

My eyes were met with the most annoying of sites yesterday morning as I got out of bed before the sun. SNOW! A lot of it too! Sixteen inches was not what I wanted to see piled on the road and in my driveway blocking our exit. We needed to get to Utica to babysit the nephew and niece for the day, so mom could go to the hospital. Ahhh, the joys of upstate NY weather! We were finally able to get out 2 hours or so late thanks to a nice neighbor who plowed the roads. It was starting to look as if the regular plows had the day off. Once we got to the kids, we spent the day playing games, watching movies, and all three kids ran in circles till everyone was dizzy. As a surprise and get well present for mom we made cards, and did some pictures to help her get better fast. Kyle was very into making his card but not so much into the pictures. We did a few amongst his room filled with legos, and everything spider man and blue. Ali was more into pictures, but would only wear her pajamas. I can't say I blame her they looked very comfortable! After pictures were done it was back to spongebob square pants oppereation, and then PIZZA. If you've never had Utica pizza, you've never had Pizza, so yummy! Mom and Dad came home soon after, and the kids were excited to show them their cards.  We then packed up to leave and headed home in, you guessed it, SNOW! Although, a fun day of bonding with the kids was worth the hassle!

Sweet baby blues....................

I am always amazed at the amount of unexpected treasures life has in store for us. My biggest one as of late is Noah. Yes I knew I would someday be a Mom, but no one can possibly prepare for the journey of parenthood. It is an extraordinary experience in itself and I am finding being a first time mom is probly one of the most rewarding, yet scariest things I have ever done! So we are now at 15 1/2 months. I LOOOOVE the toddler phase. It's all been great, but let me tell you this kid is so much fun! Sometimes I like to just sit unnoticed and watch him discover his world. He is absolutely amazing! Now I know I am sooo partial and head over heels for him, but he has got the biggest, bluest, blue eyes I have ever seen! And yes, he is sick of me photographing him! But hey he is my favorite photographic subject, and he is the reason I started all this in the first place (with a little prompting from a family member :}), so he will have to deal! The downside to the toddler phase, he never sits still. I found this gorgeous hand knitted blanket that had been passed along to me from a sister in-law. I thought WOW this would be so good for pictures. I had everything all set up ready to go by my front window, and don't ya know somebody had different ideas about what we would be doing instead! I must have tried a million different toys! Anyways I was able to get o few, and like I said before I am partial but Noah and his BLUES are BEAUTIFUL!

The airbrush experiment.

Over the course of the past year I have been trying to devote more of my time for growth both in photography and Photoshop. Photoshop for me has been extremely challenging. Not only is it a complex program, but finding the time to drill the steps into my head in how to master things is usually trumped by mommyhood. I know every mom out there knows exactly what I am talking about! So, I was able to spare a few minutes to learn an airbrushing technique which is something I have been wanting to learn how to do for a long time! So as you can imagine this is exciting for me! It will take some tweaking on my part as I get better at doing it but I wanted to share my first attempt with you! So don't forget to let me know what you think. I am excited about applying this to future pictures!

Meet Lucas, a little boy I had the pleasure of working with right before Christmas!
First the before, and then after airbrushing.

North Central AG

Over the last couple of weeks I had the opportunity to take pictures with a friend, at North Central Assembly of God. We have been attending there for the last 3 years and we love it! I so enjoyed my time of being able to take candid shots of our church family. I covered our Sunday morning services and ministries, and found kids church to be a blast! Our kids and children workers are so awesome! Of course I loved taking pictures of everything, but I have to say the little ones were one of my highlights! It was great being able to contribute pics for the the new website. To check out North Central's website and to see more pictures by myself and Aletha Stickel, visit http://www.ncagc.org. If by any chance your looking for a church family, come visit us on Sunday morning!