Eeeze!

What do you do when your daughter climbs up on a stool that's sitting on your backdrops and says "eeeze"? You take a picture of course.

This is the FIRST time she's ever willingly taken a picture on a backdrop. All the other ones have been a fight. Maybe she IS like her brother and has a little model burried deep in there.

Memorial Day 2008

Well, it's the official kickoff to summer. And more importantly, it's the prefect day to remember those who have gone before us ... especially those who have served their country.

We spent the day at home for the most part. We walked with a neighbor up to the "parade" in town that consisted of the color guard, boy scouts and the high school band and went to the little ceremony in the cemetary. It wasn't what we'd really planned on doing today but I'm rather glad we went. It's a great thing to teach the kiddos about and something we all need a reminder about.

After we left there Riley commented that he'd like to bring a flower to Grandpa Jim's grave ... and asked what his favorite color was. So we stopped and got a red carnation for Grandpa Jim and stopped for a visit. Paige blew kisses to him as we left.

The rest of the day was spent at home. Grandma Karen and Great Aunt Gayle came for an early dinner of citrus grilled pork, some salad and grilled corn ... followed by some mint brownies and ice cream. YUM!

And as I leave you for this post ... a picture to make you smile. This was as we were getting our shoes on to go to the parade.

No, we haven't forgotten Princess Paige

It seems all my posts lately have been about Riley so I figured it was time to dedicate one to Miss Paige.

Let's see ... updates on her ... she's "talking" up a storm. She now says snack, shoe, hummmm, water and Riley (ryrie). Oh, and how could I forget her newest word ... MINE! Yes, we've entered that stage. :)

Like I'd said earlier in the spring, she loves being outside. She especially enjoys swinging, going down the slide, pushing around the kid snow shovel (strange), having mom or dad walk up and down the sidewalk pulling her in the wagon or sitting in her stroller.

A couple of nights ago we made Raspberry sorbet in our ice cream maker. She wanted to watch what was going on so I put her up on the counter and she sat there watching the mixer go around and around and around.




























Getting right in there ...




























And this is the look I got when I told her to back up ... "What mom?" *insert big grin here* "I'm innocent." *flash the eyelashes* Yeah, she has this down pat. The poor boys in her future ... they'll never know what hit them! Speaking of which ... she was flirting with a grandpa type man last night at McDonalds ... and when the man's grand-daughter came back to sit with him (she'd been at the play place) ... Paige gave them all the "stink-eye". She didn't like that someother girl was moving in. Ha ha.

And incase you're wondering ... THIS is what she was watching ... .YUM!

No training wheels it is!

Yes, Theresa was right ... there are no training wheels on! I don't even remember why we took them off one night ... but the little stinker took off down half the block on his first try. After a couple tumbles, he CRIED to have the training wheels back on. So Ryan put them back on. And the next night it started all over ... taking them off, going well for a few tries and then crying to have them back on. We were kind of mean parents though ... we told him they weren't going back on ... so the bike sat in the garage for almost a week.

Last night, with a bribe of McDonalds if he rode up and down the sidewalk twice, he took off again and is now going from our house, past the neighbors to the corner. I'd say it's a good 300 feet. Twice up and down the sidewalk turned into about ten times before we took a walk to McD's for dinner ... and then he was back at it after we got home. He's loving it. It's to the point that Ryan just holds his bike while Riley starts to peddle. Won't be much longer at all!

Thankfully our neighbor, Pat, and his wife are in San Diego as Riley and his bike visited their landscaping and bushes a few times. :) Though, I have a feeling that Riley will run over there to tell him when they return anyways.

Five (imaginary) dollars to the first person who can tell me ...

... what event we're celebrating in this picture!!

Since I've been asked ....

As some of you may remember me going on and on about lately, I had my first wedding this past weekend where I was the "second shooter". Let me just say, I had a BLAST! I think in part it was so much fun because of Krystal. She is an amazing photographer who is a hoot to work with! I can really see how her brides would feel like they're working with a friend.

I realized a few things at this wedding. I have to give myself credit for the things I DO know about photography. I have to give myself credit for having a good enough "eye" to see shots. There were a few times that Krystal and I were standing next to one another chatting and something would catch our eye. And while I was happy that I was noticing some of those small things too, Krystal's has amazing composition on the detail shots compared to mine.

I also realized that there's a lot I need to learn. Ha ha. Looking at all my shots, I can see now where I should have changed settings, moved my flash a bit ... stuff like that. It's all stuff I KNOW, but I've never had to do it so fast that I couldn't think about it ... if that makes sense. Working with studio lights, my settings don't change. I'm not too worried about it at this point. As long as I know the information I can always work on my speed of putting it to use.

Funny thing though ... I felt myself wanting to jump into wedding coordinator mode a few times. Ha ha. As they were lining up to go into the church I wanted to jump over there and make sure I gave all the last minute instructions like no gum, don't lock your knees, don't hold your flowers so high ... my normal spheel. As they were doing the receiving line I wanted to go get the brides flowers so that she wouldn't have to be hugging people with them. I literally had to step back a few times throughout the day. I am glad that I've had that wedding coordinator experience though because I felt like I had a pretty good idea for the flow of the first part of the day.

I asked Krystal if I could share some of the images I took ... and she has been gracious enough to let me use everything I shot. So here are a couple that I've had time to process a bit ...






























































































There you have it ... just a quick sampling. If anyone is looking for a wedding photographer, PLEASE look into Krystal Muellenberg. She's out of a little town east of LaCrosse but I know she'll travel to where your wedding is. She has a very laid back style that captures the details of the day instead of hours and hours of formal shots. You truely get a feel for the whole day and not just tons of shots with people looking uncomfortable.

Introducing .... the Graduating Class of 2008 ...

... well, graduating from Preschool I at least. :)

Today was Riley's last day of preschool for the year. Both mom and dad went along with to collect all the things he'd spent the year working on. I must admit ... it was a little bitter sweet ... even though I didn't get to spend much time in the classroom I've kind of grown attached to some of his classmates and it'll be strange to have a different set of kids for next year (some are switching days or are in another class).

The kids sang their "Bear Hunt" song (which is pretty cute) and got their graduation certificates, then had the all important snack time before we played for a little while and headed out.

Instead of giving a traditional teacher gift, we opted to give a box of fruit snacks to Mrs. S and Mrs. Stellner. They both have a little thing for fruit snacks (which is a common snack that's brought by the kids when it's their snack day) ... and Mrs. S commented at one time that there's never enough in the small bag ... so we got them each their own box. :) Hopefully they'll each get a chuckle when they unwrap them. :)

Each student also got a CD with a little movie on it of the school year as well as some other pictures. Here's a few of Riley ...

Mrs. S (left) and Mrs. Stellner (right) dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 for the halloween party.

















Riley with Grandma Karen on Grandparents Day.

My Big Helpers!!

As I posted about this past weekend, I've gotten a variety of new photography things recently. I was most excited about some new seamless paper backgrounds. Last night the kid's had a bath and were actually clean so I took advantage of it and we did a couple of mini shoots. I'll fully admit to playing favorites as you'll see ... it's just that Riley understands bribery much more than Paige does. :) I'm not 100% happy with Paige's pictures because I need to work out a few color cast issues ... but they're still cute.

Enjoy!

Park Day for School!

I had the joy of taking some time off work yesterday and going to the park with Riley's preschool class. Boy are they a class full of energy!! I seriously don't know how his teachers do it!


I was anxious to see how Riley would react to mom around all of his friends. I walked in his classroom about a half hour after class started and was greeted with a big hug from Riley as well as a high five from Mr. Isaac. I had to smile ... because within 5 minutes of being there I was pulled into the book area by a little girl and was reading a book to a group of about 5. I was in the middle of a sentence when suddenly they all jumped up and started putting things away. Riley infomed me that the clean-up song was on and it was time to pick up toys. I told Mrs. S that I need a copy of that CD because BOY did those kids do quick work of those toys!


We headed off to the park ... and on the way I got to hold hands with Riley and Isaac ... which kind of surprised me ... being in front of their friends and all. We got to the park and swang for a little while and just got to run off some energy in general. I'm so impressed with how well Mrs. S and Mrs. Stellner do with those kids. All the kids have so much respect for them and the two of them have so much patience with the kids. I don't think we could have asked for better teachers!


One thing I thought was interesting was Riley really didn't like anyone else playing with HIS mom. I was chasing a few of the other boys around (including Riley) and he kept asking me to play with HIM. He didn't like sharing. But finally Riley and I teamed up and he too was the tickle monster and chased the other boys along with me. :)


So all in all we had a great morning. By the time I came back to work I had a pocket full of dandilions. I took 50 pictures of his class while we were there and plan on uploading and sharing them with the other parents. I won't post any pictures of the other kids ... but here are a couple of Riley.

I'm in love ...

So I got some new photography stuff today ... new backgrounds and such. I think I'm in love with this little boy.