enjoying the process » loving the journey, not just the destination

My monitor died this weekend & I had to replace it with a loaner until my REAL monitor is fixed. This one is not calibrated properly & so all of my photos are WAY too bright & I know the color is off. So, sorry if my photos look strange- or maybe your monitor isn’t calibrated properly & my photos look perfectly normal 🙂  Anywho (said in a really high pitched, kinda sing-songy voice)… February was a VERY busy month for us. 4 of my close friends had babies in February! I had 4 baby showers (1 more to come next weekend:), 2 birthday parties- one for my own child, my best friend’s birthday, park playdates, Valentine’s Day, James went away for an entire weekend to golf, my niece turned 16!, our VERY large tax appointment that I had to prepare for, my mother-in-law’s birthday, 3 design projects and 1 photo shoot (which was cancelled).  Not to mention home-schooling and just being pregnant. I’m tired!  I’m not complainng, just listing.. mostly so I’ll have it for journaling in my scrapbook. 
All that to say- I’m taking the month of March off!  We had no plans on Saturday or Sunday & I’m looking at my calendar right now & we have no plans for today either! Hip Hip Hooray!  So today my plan is.. to catch up on laundry, have school time with the kids (a long lesson today), take some pictures outside, play with the kids A LOT, do my February layout for my scrapbook, tag & organize my photos for February and make dinner… go to bed at 8:30pm.  We’ll see if that really happens. 🙂 Oh… I wanted to share just a few photos of the babies born this month … Enjoy.

How many ladies do you think fit into my kitchen Friday night?  Well, a lot. This wasn’t even everyone- Brenda is so loved! And look at all those babies!  It’s not easy being last in line…only a few more days left for me! Until next time….e.

Well. I have THE BEST friends in the entire world! Thursday evening I was showered with the most amazing baby shower. They made my favorite foods, favorite desserts, they decorated with my favorite colors & the place was filled with so many people that I treasure. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect baby shower… especially for my 4TH BABY! I felt a little silly at first, but the girls said, "we’re having a shower because we want to- you can show up if you want! ;)"

And… thanks to eveyone’s generosity- we had enough money to purchase our stroller/ carseat travel system and a new crib!  We spent a lot of Saturday setting up the room for baby (yet to be named).

more pictures to come. This is the cutest baby room we’ve had so far! Even cuter than Kennedy’s and she’s a girl!  :0  Have a happy Sunday everyone.

I was going back through some old photos today and I found these:

So here are a few observations:  1. Since I’ve started my photography as a business, I don’t take nearly enough photos of the "everyday."  snapshots, really. I’m so concerned about getting the perfect exposure, finding the perfect light, making sure the compostion is just right… that I think I’ve forgotten to just take pictures!  In fact, a lot of times I won’t even break out my camera because I know the light is bad and there’s no way I’m using my flash!  I need to stop that. i need to take more photos of the "Big Picture"  2.  I don’t include enough of my surroundings in my photos anymore. Because I am a portrait photographer, I like to blur out the background or fill the frame with the subject’s face. This is perfect for portraits, but I need to step back when I’m photographing our everyday lives- so I can see what we were doing, what our decor was like, what we were reading, how things have changed since the photo was taken.  Just a few thoughts. Notes to myself.

I know, I know… he’s been 5 for a week and a half, but I’m just now gettting to his 5 year photo shoot. He was somewhat willing… thankfully I was able to get this beauty. He has the most amazing skin. A beautiful olive color all year long and always soft and smooth. I wish I had that! He’s my funny, moody, sensitive to others (sometimes), loves to cuddle, all about being "fair", question everything, sweetest voice you’ve ever heard, scared of a lot, but not afraid to try new things, big-boy reader, can throw a spiral (football) farther and more accurately than any other 5 year old boy I know, sensitive to the things of the Lord, prays for everyone and everything, looks up to his big brother, takes care of (and sometimes teases) his little sister, will be the BEST big brother to our new little boy….. I could go on and on. He is such a sweet boy. We love you so much, Canyon. We’re so thankful God gave you to us.