I'm an auntie ... again!

I hope Ryan's sister doesn't mind me doing this ... but I just have to post pictures of the newest member of the family. Meet Violet ... born Saturday, August 23 to proud parents, Tammy and Clint and big brother, Weston.

We traveled to meet her tonight and she's just an angel. She likes to sleep and eat ... and really, what girl wouldn't mind sleeping all the time and eating without worrying about your figure? I envy her.

So here she is ... Miss Violet Marie. (And I feel bad but I didn't get a good shot of Weston ... I didn't have an external flash on me because mine broke at a wedding last weekend ... and that little boy was non-stop action tonight so what I tried to get of him is blurry. The one below isn't the best technical photo but I think his expression is priceless. )

We're home ... and I'm seriously worried about the competition in my own house.

WARNING ... This will be a post of a bunch of small things put together. Now that I've gotten that out of the way ...

Cute Riley-ism for the day (before I forget) ... I started a candle in the house today. Apple something or other. I called Riley up from playing downstairs for dinner and as he's climbing on to the bar stool he says, "Mom?! Do you have a candle going?" So I say yes and show him where it is. His reply? "Thanks mom for making the house smell so fresh today! I think you're pretty nice for being so nice to me. It smells delightful!" Delightful? I have no idea where he got that one.

North Carolina
As many of you knew ... we were in North Carolina for a wedding of Ryan's cousin this past weekend. We couldn't have been blessed with a more perfect trip. Our flights were basically uneventful (thank heavens for Benadryl ... Paige slept half the way out there and the entire way back), the weather wasn't too hot and muggy, and we were able to spend time with family at a beautiful wedding!

I haven't had time to go through all my pictures yet as I've been working on sessions I had before we left, but I just HAVE to show one picture. My four year old son took the following picture ... and I'm scared ... I have some serious competition in the house now. I think this is my favorite picture of Paige and I to date.















He also got a steller one of the bride and groom who he practically stalked on the dance floor until he got the shot he was looking for. That's my boy! Ha ha.

This trip contained three firsts ... the first "first" was the it was Paige's first flight. The second "first" was when Ryan's uncle Jim took Riley fishing in the pond behind their house on Sunday. I think Riley enjoyed cutting the worms and baiting the hooks the most though. Monday was the day of the third "first" ... I went fishing for the first time ever at the same little pond. I didn't do too bad ... caught three little fish. Though, I would have let Riley bait my hooks for me if they weren't so darn sharp. :) I'm trying to think if Ryan had a "first" while we were down there (you know ... to make it a family thing) ... but the only one I can think of is that it may have been his first time driving a minivan. Ha ha.

Thankfully Ryan's cousin, Sara, has a 3 year old boy who attached himself to Riley and a 6 month old little girl that Paige ohh'ed and ahhh'ed over the whole time ... so neither of them were bored at all while we were there.

All in all it was a successful weekend ... and Lisa and Michael (the happy couple) are sailing around the seas right now on a cruise. Like I said, I'll post pictures after I get through some of my other duties.

Whoo hoo daddy!
The other news in the house ... I have to admit I'm rather ashamed that I didn't post anything earlier about. Two weeks ago, Daddy (aka ~ Ryan) basically finished his MBA program. Why the "basically"? He has ONE flipping class left next spring to complete. We're basically considering him done though ... so we celebrated with dinner and a movie while the kids stayed home with a babysitter.

It's been three long years of HARD work on his part. While we've all had to make sacrifices to accomodate his school schedule, HE was the one who had to sit in the office just about every night studying. We're not really sure what changes may/will come our way .. but for now we're just happy to have daddy back!

It's funny though ... tonight as I was getting Riley ready for bed I just kept thinking about how it's going to be such a busy weekend. I have a wedding in LaCrosse to second shoot again and Ryan has scho--- wait a minute ... there's NO school!!!! :) Guess it hasn't sunk in yet! :)

Okay ... I think I've rambled long enough ... and this photo book that needs to get done isn't going to finish itself. Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!!!

Our Princess ...

Well, she was called Princess Paige for the first year of her life
... she's just now dressing the part.

Where do we live again?

Good Neighbor Days

This was a few weeks ago but Ryan reminded me that I hadn't shared anything from Good Neighbor Days. It's a weekend celebration for our little town ... a parade and fireworks on Friday night followed by a carnival, car show, etc. It's a great time!

Friday night we had a small get together at our house. We walked up to the parade with my sister and her family, Ryan's sister and her family and our next door neighbors. For the size of our little town, I was quite impressed with it's size. Unfortunally for Riley and the other kids, our neighborhood is towards the end of the parade route, so they *only* got half of a gallon ziplock bag of candy each.

After the parade, we went back to our house where we started a fire, burnt some popcorn, discovered the yummy-ness of mixing some of the root beer keg with Bailey's Irish Cream (try it if you've never had it!), played giant Wii (it was projected against the outside of our house ... lifesize) and finally watched the fireworks overhead.

Saturday was an early morning as the jump house that a bunch of the neighborhood had gone together to rent was delivered at about 7:15. By 7:30 kids were already jumping. :) The best part though? We'd upgraded the size and now the adults could get in too. :)

We had a great day with our neighbors. We had the jump house, a couple swimming pools, a blow-up waterslide, lots of root beer for the kids and plenty of adult beverages for the others. The weather tried to cut into the yummy potluck dinner we had planned but we managed to finish just before it started to rain.

Another bonus to the day ... Steve, Charina, Grace and Jack ... old neighbors and GREAT friends of ours came to visit. Charina and I are making plans for Riley and Grace to marry someday ... so it was good that they could see each other again. (And the funniest part of the weekend? Grace told Riley that she loved him. Riley's reaction was one I've never seen from him before ... he was speechless and actually turned red. Ha ha)

I think every single kid went to bed pretty early that night. I know Riley was exhausted beyond belief. It was fun to watch all the kids run around because 6 years ago only about 2 or 3 of these kids were even born. Most of us moved into the neighborhood as newlyweds ... and that Saturday we had about 15 kids running around. We're a fertile group to say the least. :)

Picture time.

First of all, I have to show these two pictures. This is Grace and Paige last September when we went to stay with Steve and Charina one weekend.













And this one was the Sunday of Good Neighbor Days at a park. WOW ... how much little people change in 10 months!!





























And now ... the kid-fest Saturday ...

It's a big day!

I know I have a photography blog ... but this is just too close to my heart to not share here as well. As of last night, my official photography website went live. **eek** It's extremely stressful for me as it's totally putting myself out there in a way that almost makes me uncomfortable. But at the same time I feel like I'm at the stage of making this step forward.

Feel free to go take a look. Please let me know your thoughts ... it's not as polished as I'd like it ... but I think I could go on forever making changes to get it just *so*.

www.kristinknudson.com

Thanks for the support of so many of you!