Happy Birthday Baby....

It seems so unreal to me that my "baby" just turned THREE! How is that possible. He is growing up so fast... and no, Lisa, this doesn't mean there's gonna be another! Max is all boy - he fights, he kicks, he growls, he screams, he races, he jumps and then he cuddles and kisses. And he is so big. Here are a few of the pictures I took of him to commemorate his third birthday.







Happy Birthday Max!! Mommy Loves You!

Busy Busy Busy....

Tis the season for.... well, booked weekends and exhausting engagements. For the next three weeks we have three graduation parties, one housewarming, one birthday and little time for anything else! No wonder summer always seems too short.

Two of the graduations are my cousins. I had the pleasure of creating my cousin, Wally's graduation invitations. This was supposed to be a quick first draft to get out to his friends for the last day of school. He and his family (and I) like it so well, we printed it out on the "good" paper and sent them out the rest of the invitees. Not too shabby for a first draft!



I am also working diligently on a DVD scrapbook for his party. I will upload that for viewing once it is completed. It's a challenge to make something that you know should tug at the heartstings of the parents yet still be tough enough not to humiliate the poor guy in front of his friends. Should be interesting!

A More Fitting Salute....

We had the opportunity on Tuesday to retake some shots of the car. Fox 42 news is doing a segment on Devin's story (airing Monday May 11, 9pm) and they decided to film the segment front of the tank by the old Legion in Millard. The setting was perfect so we decided to get a few shots and replace the image on the magazine cover with a more appropriate image.

Salute to a Soldier

A friend and coworker of Jeff's found out recently that he will be deployed in the fall. He will be going to Afghanistan and will be there for quite some time. Devin and his wife have had a 1969 Coronet Super Bee for nearly 10 years, yet, haven't found the time and money to make their dream come true. A group of his friends got together and "stole" his car to overhaul it for him. They had several people contribute time and money to the effort and the result was incredible. The car turned out fantastic, inside and out, front to back, it is amazing! After an extremely long two weeks (for the build team and Devin), the car was revealed to Devin on Saturday night. Here are a few shots of the car.







Along with the reveal of the car, I decided to create Devin a custom magazine cover featuring his Super Bee. I took the cover picture about 4:30 on Saturday afternoon when the car was finally complete. The reveal was scheduled for about 6pm so you can imagine panic trying to get everything complete!

Lucky Number Seven

The latest addition to our family arrived late last week. This makes a total of seven grandchildren on my side of the family... thus the title: Lucky Number Seven. My younger brother and his wife welcomed a handsome little boy, Zackary. Here are a few snapshots from the hospital, I am hoping to get to their house one day this weekend and take some more "professional" type photos. I haven't had the chance to experiment with newborn photos and I'm ready for my chance. Poor Zackary... he's my little guinea pig!







This weekend I also have the opportunity to go along with a professional friend of mine to take newborn photos. I have really gotten addicted to photography and wish I was better... what better opportunity than to be able to shadow a professional and maybe learn some tricks of the trade!

A Couple New Projects

Here are two of my recent projects. The first is my daughter, Lucy's fourth birthday invitation. Typically, in my family, we just pick up the phone and call with the date and time of the party. Keep it easy. Keep it simple. Unfortunately, with my creative side, I usually try to make my kids' invitations. I fear the day I run out of time and have to settle for the phone call! Jeff always says I make things too hard on myself, but I enjoy creating things so to me, it's worth every minute of it!




Here is the invitation for my sister-in-law, Tricia's, baby shower. This is probably one of the cutest things I have done in a while. She wanted a book shower, if you're not familiar with the concept, it's simple: instead of attaching a card to the gift, each guest is asked to sign a greeting in a book to help start a library for the baby-to-be. I opted to go with the book theme and created a book style invitation. I used the "Golden Books" as a guide for the binding and the top logo. I created the stork in a race car which matches the bedding set they chose for baby Zack. Inside were four pages, each with a different piece of information: who the shower was for and who was hosting; date, time and place; explanation of the book shower concept and finally, where the parents were registered. It was a pretty big hit! I'm excited at how well it turned out despite a small printing issue....

Lucy is turning FOUR!

I took her 4-Year pictures the other day. DISASTER! Holy cow! I am going to have to accept the fact that either, A. I am lacking the talent of photography or B. I am lacking the discipline of my children (what the hell, maybe both!). Either way, of the 50 shots I took, I got a total of four that actually look decent. Lucy apparently only has one "pose" mastered and anytime I tried to get her to do something different, it just wouldn't work! Ha!









I would be interested in hearing what everyone thinks of these pictures. Any suggestions or ideas.... or just your thoughts!

Clyde and the Car Tappers

We went to Springfield, MO for the New Year to visit family and celebrate birthdays. We discovered ourselves a little treasure while we were there and if you are in the neighborhood I highly recommend it. My niece, McKenna, and I have a standing "date" to go back the next time we're in Springfield. Here are a few of the best pictures I got in our two hour tour of the Wild Animal Safari.
Keep in mind a few things.

1. These animals are actually this close to us, my camera doesn't have super zoom.



2. Emu's do bite when you feed them. I don't know if they have teeth but I will tell you Emu bites do NOT tickle.



3. They do not have goats at this park... we like to refer to them as "car tappers". If you don't feed them fast enough, they will tap your car with their horns or hoofs to let you know.





Finally.... Meet Clyde.

4. When they tell you to watch for Clyde going after your food. He really will. He was eating food off the FLOOR of the car - we had half a camel IN THE CAR! I tried to hide the bag of food under my leg - - I didn't give him credit but Clyde was smarter than me and went after that too. He got a little nibble on my thigh!



Though, rude as he was, Clyde *made* the trip, who ever thought you could feed a camel in the middle of Missouri?

Slacker!

I have to apologize to my faithful readers, and thank them for sticking around as I have slacked off this past month! I know you still check on me because I have been told to "get on it, woman!" So here I am, I'm back and I will tell you, I have several updates for you in the coming weeks. I have everything from photographs to projects and I know you will enjoy them. Right now I will share with you a combination of both.

Every year for the past three years, I have put together calendars for our families for the holiday. Every year everyone anxiously awaits the calendars and every year they love them more than the last (that's what they tell me anyway!). I joked with my side this year as it keeps getting harder. We are up to SIX grandkids on my side with number SEVEN coming in March! Pretty soon each kid is going to get his or her own month in the annual calendar! Here are four of the months I have chosen to share.

Happy Birthday Dad!

One of the best gifts I gave this year was my dad's birthday gift. Jeff came up with the idea of ordering him a "custom" cover featuring his car on a magazine. It was a great idea, however, the custom covers you create through online companies are less than "custom".... well, not what I was imagining anyway! I decided I would create my own cover which could include multiple images, several headlines and more. It turned out amazing.... better than I could have hoped for. I got quite a reaction from my dad, in addition to alot of requests for copies. I have definately added a new piece of work to my portfolio!