The Painting Place

today, one of paige's friends had a birthday party at the painting place. i've heard a lot of great things about this place as well as seen a lot of neat items created there. after actually visiting......this place is fantastic!!!

the specialty at the painting place is creating unique and special items such as ceramic plates, platters, cookie jars, signs and so much more by painting these items and making them special. they have some of the THE cutest things.

paige's friend, kelcie, wanted to have a stuff your own animal/critter party. each child picked out their own animal and stuffed it. they made personal bags for their animals too. they even put a star inside of their stuffed animal after making a wish and giving the star a kiss for extra luck. i thought that idea was SOOO neat! they personalized little t-shirts for each of their new stuffed friends. paige, of course, created her very own stuffed horse and named him billy boy.









everyone with their new stuffed friends....













below are a couple of bonus shot from the day.....

i'm not a huge fan of selective coloring, but hey...what the heck.

Brrrrr.....COLD!

man....has it been cold! single digits on the thermometer has been a common thing around here.

i'm so glad it's FRIDAY and the weekend is here!

since it's hibernation weather outside i'm digging deep into the "old" picture bank and see what i can come up with.

the pictures below are pictures i took early in my photography of paige.







i love this shot below!

The Lake House

there are lots of movies that when they came out i wanted to see them and for whatever reason i never got around to it. i'm talking about movies over the last couple of years. one of these movies is The Lake House. this is such a great movie!! i saw it for the first time probably a couple of weeks ago and i've seen it now probably a handful of times.....and i'm NOT one to watch something over and over. one time is usually enough for me.



i love a good romance.....and this is a great one! anything with sandra bullock or keanu reeves usually won't disappoint.

go check it out if you're like me and wait a couple of years to watch a movie!

Terry and May

preparing to shoot my first portrait session was very nerve-racking......but working with an amazing couple like terry and may settled my nerves quickly.

after the shoot, i was excited to load the pictures and get to work. one by one, i fell in love.

that evening, i picked up the phone with shacking hands and dialed their number. i was so nervous for them to view the pictures......i had a fear that my love for the pictures wouldn't pass on to the ones that mattered the most.........but i was proven wrong.

terry and may....THANK YOU for the opportunity to create these images for you.....images i hope you can love and cherish forever. this is what it's all about and i can't wait to do it again.

I Must Brag!

paige announced this evening that she won her class spelling bee today!!!!

i'm so proud of her! paige LOVES spelling....reading and writing.....all of this is right up her alley, so i really wasn't surprised when she told us this great news!

GO PAIGE!!!!!!

Under the Weather

today paige was under the weather so we had a day full of resting and doctoring. it looks as though this evening she is feeling much better....so i think we'll be off to school and work in the morning.

as much as i hate for anyone to be sick it's nice to have a day like this during the week. even sometimes when i feel under the weather it's nice to slow down a bit.







and just a bonus shot of ms. bugle.

It's Monday!

sometimes it's so hard to decide on a title....so i'm keeping it simple....it's monday!!!

like i said yesterday was a fantastic day! paige had a friend over for a couple of hours in the afternoon and then last night we were invited to a chili supper with some friends. it all made for a great day!

paige loves having friends over and they have so much fun together. i snuck up to her room and grabbed a few shots of them. paige can be such a ham!

Day of Rest and The Nikon D40x

today is Sunday....a day of rest....and i'm taking full advantage of it! i love a laid back day with no plans. just quality family and friend time....eating....and a little house work.

last night i visited a friend. she received a Nikon D40x for Christmas and she asked me if would stop by and give her a a session of New DSLR 101. she's planning to take a few classes but needed a little jump start so that when she takes her class she'll be prepared to really understand what's being thrown at her. I've been there done that and hindsight taught me that having a bit of knowledge before hand allows you to take better advantage of money spent on a class.

this was the fist time for me to really hold a D40x in my hands and operate one. this camera seems to be a DSLR created for the person just getting started with a DSLR. it offered a little extra information when going through all the available options on the camera which i thought was great for the beginner. i started out with a Nikon D70 and then a D70s and this is a great camera as well. thankfully i was a sponge ready to be filled with as much knowledge as possible starting out (and still am). this really helped me to start out with the D70. the D40x would have been nice to start out with...most definitely. it's very easy to operate, simple and very straight forward (IMO). no matter what camera you start with you just can't go wrong as long as you are willing to invest in learning and soaking up information.

obviously i made that switch from Nikon to Canon simply because of the 5D. i decided to make the switch before i got too investing in Nikon equipment......but i can by no means put down the Nikon.....both are fantastic cameras!

and this review is coming at ya from Alysia Lawrence Photography!
hahaha......i couldn't resist!

here is another picture that was part of an older post that got deleted and wanted to place it back on here......







Happy Sunday!!!!!!!

Totally Fun

check out this scarf action!!





i'm not exactly sure what happened to her right arm in this picture!


Totally fun stuff!!!

Happy Friday!

Happy 2008

i just wanted to stop by for a moment and say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

may your 2008 be a very happy....successful....and blessed year!