Feeling Grumpy

I've been craving Nutella sandwiches lately. I love wheat bread, but the Nutella sandwiches need to be on white bread, best if it's Potato bread. They taste a bit like a frosted donut sandwich. I think Ashlee is a new fan of Nutella.

I wish I had something fun to look forward to today. Instead I've got work and later I'm digging out a plant and replanting it. I've got a bill to drop off across town. I'm going to help Sarah with her room. Woohoo, the anticipation is making me feel a bit giddy........ Wow, where did the sarcasm come from? I am feeling a little bit grumpy. Darn.

I'm going to kick the bad attitude. There's no room for negativity in a Saturday. Maybe Mom will watch Buddy and I get get to the creek with Sarah.

Ruby Tuesday - Ruby Ashlee

Happy Ruby Tuesday!

Today I have my niece, Ashlee, at her birthday party. She is a little shy and had a hard time getting going with the presents. Didn't bother me, it's her day, after all. Here she sits on the lap of her pretty Mommy, Shawna.

Doesn't she have the sweetest profile? Her little nose and you can't really tell from this shot, although if you've read my blog before you might have seen another shot, her eyes have this little tilt upward at the outer corner. It's like when she was created, the creator said, oh she's cute, but if we tweak this (little nose) and we tweak that (up-tilted eyes), she will be truly stunning. And so she is!

After the party, she came over to our place and spent the night. She's a fun sleepover guest. She always leaves me beautiful works of art.

If you'd like to take part in Ruby Tuesday, then please click here.

Amelia On the Prowl

Amelia on the prowl..... I love this picture of her with her little tongue sticking out. We are all so crazy about her. Today, I heard Bay greet her with, "Hello, Lovely Lady," which cracked me up because that's what I call her.

I said, "We sure are a family of nicknamers." I used to have a ton for the kids, but now it's down to the following:
Max - Handsome Man (well, okay Max still has a lot of them. I call him Sweet Baby a lot, Handsome Prince, Honey-bunny)
Bailey - Sweets, Beautiful
Greg - Honey (and it's funny because if I call anyone else "honey" he says, "What?" He's used to his nickname already)
Sarah - Cookie, Sarie, Sugar, Sug

My niece, Ashlee, came over for a sleepover last night. We celebrated her birthday earlier in the day, so it was an honor to have her over - she picked us over new toys. She spent a lot of the time she was here doing art. She is very creative. I need to scan some of her artwork to share.

Well, I have to cut this one short. It's the tale end of Sunday evening and I've still got stuff to do.

Sunday with the Yorks - My First Family Portrait Session

I had the opportunity today.....err, well yesterday, as it's in the very early hours of Monday, to do a family portrait session with my brother's beautiful family. I had so much fun. I was nervous, as this was my first official job, but as soon as I got behind the camera, my nerves just went away.

My brother's kids are gorgeous. Here is my favorite shot of the day, so far - I'm only 1/4 of the way through the editing. This is Brad Jr. Look at those eyelashes - the sun caught them here. This is Brad and his lovely wife, Shawna. Shawna is the one who asked me to do the photos. There was a funny moment here where Shawna was saying, "Lets try one like this....... " and then she made a comment that I so wish I had caught on my brother's face. Dagnabit! I do think that the way they are looking at each other here, well it's very loving. They were high school sweethearts, too.

My youngest nephew is Hayden. His older sister, Ashlee, and his older brother, Brad, are constantly loving on that boy. Hugging him, kissing him, it's all about the little brother. I love to see close sibling relationships like that. My brother is almost 13 years younger than I am, so I was this way with him. He was the best baby - sweet and cuddily. I need to find a photo of him........ I'll get back to you with that. He was the best surprise of my childhood.

Heres's a taste of the devilish charm I saw today. These two crack me up. I was showing Sarah the photos and she laughed so hard, making up commentary as we went through all the photos.

Here they are all together in their backyard. The kids love this yard - they have so much room to run about. What do you think of the boy's matching outfits? Those hats, so darn cute. I have a lot more that I will share later in the week. I had so much fun shooting these guys. I hope that they had fun, too.

Love Thursday - Sarah and Ashlee

This morning I woke up and I remembered that I got this one the other day: It's my daughter and my niece cuddling after a swim. The girls had a slumber party and this was the morning after.