Join Us

For those of you who don't know Pat is a painter...and an amazing one! He recently was accepted to ORANJE, a huge art exhibit and music "experience" in Indianapolis. I'm so excited for Pat and ready for more people in Indy to see his talent!

It's Saturday, September 20 from 8pm-2am. Yes I said AM...we will be keeping Zane with Grandma C that night! It's also 21 and over...so if you need a date night come on out!

If you are interested in attending please let me know! We can by group tickets for $15 instead of the $20 you would have to pay to get into the door. Just shoot me an email  if you want us to add you to the ticket list.

Here's a couple of Pat's paintings...

Randomness & Sept./Oct. Sessions

Here's my lil dude checking out the elephants at the zoo. The two baby elephants were playing and pushing each other into the water. He thought this was an absolute riot!

On another note...I've got just a few session times left for September and October! So if you're wanting portraits or senior photos taken contact me soon!!! We have been completely floored by the amount of interest we've had...you guys ROCK!

And a completely random note...can someone tell me where in the world the construction is that is going on at our house at about 12:30 am every single night? It's been going on for awhile! Maybe I am completely oblivious of something that is near our house but at about that time every night I can hear the banging of what sounds like a dump truck tipping and the beeping noise of a truck backing up. I only hear it if I'm up but seriously...where is it coming from? Maybe I'm going crazy with my lack of sleep recently!

We're headed to a conference tonight and are super pumped about meeting tons of Indy area photographers. Hope to see a bunch of you there!

More senior photos coming soon...

Senior: Katie

Katie and I headed to the State Fair to take some of her senior photos. We had so much fun walking around and trying to find cool spots to take some photos. Katie was a little nervous, after all she was standing in front of a ton of people while I took her photo! But she did fab-u-lous! Just check out these photos!

Katie is another girl from my Senior High group and I love her so much! She was a freshman when I started volunteering so I've seen her grow into the confident, beautiful senior she is today! Katie...thank you so much for being so inspiring!

Here's Katie...

I LOVE these next two shots!!!

How absolutely beautiful is Katie?!!! Seriously!

I love this too!

Katie and I were goofing around here and it ended up to be a pretty sweet shot.

Of course we had to take a photo in front of the carousal!

BEAUTIFUL!!!

My favorite...laughing shots!

And here's a oh so cute dress!

We decided to split some food while we were there. After eating some fried cheese (which we both decided was nasty) I headed to get something I kept hearing about. Everyone told me I had to try the fried cheesecake. Now I love cheesecake so I thought sure! Katie wouldn't touch it but decided she'd watch me try it. Smart girl! It was so wrong and nasty! We ate the ice cream! And my stomach when I got home...I thought I was going to throw up so I headed to bed early!

While walking back to the car Katie and I got a bit lost! Oops! But we stumbled upon this area that had all these tractors. So while we were lost why not take some photos!?

This shot is so cool of Katie walking. I don't know why I like it so much...just something about it!

We kept thinking we were going to get yelled at as some farmer guys kept walking by. But instead they were super nice and just said hi as they passed.

Katie and I decided she needed some casual shots too so we headed out the next day to grab some at a local park.

Chalk this one up as a favorite too!

Thank you so much Katie for letting me take your photos! You're awesome girl!!!

Stopped

There have been several moments since being a mom that have made my smile bigger than I could have ever imagined. And there have been moments that make me look at things in a completely different way, seeing them in the eyes of a child, and enjoying them in a simpler manner than before.

Zane had his first trip to the zoo this weekend (long overdue!) and there's so much I want to show but will save some for later. We walked into the dolphin dome and he was so excited. No, he didn't see the dolphins at first, instead he noticed the patterns the water was making on the floor and chased them around. He ran right up to strangers and smiled and then would run back to touch the glass. We kept trying to point out the dolphins but he was too taken by the water reflections.

Then all of a sudden one dolphin swam right over the top of us and there he was, stopped dead in his tracks. I guess something can slow him down! Pat and I just stood dead in our tracks and watched him. Those big brown eyes just waiting to see the dolphin again make me melt.

Check out some other simple and beautiful shots over at Mother May I this week.

Zane - 18 Months

STATS: Weight: 22 pounds

Height: 32 1/2 inches

Zane,

Oh what a few months does to a toddler’s vocabulary and personality! You have grown into a boy who wants to be totally independent at one moment and sit in our laps the next.

Your interest in cars and trucks has grown to an all out love and obsession. It’s so strange because we don’t feel like we fostered this love that much and yet you picked right up on it. We had one car in our house before and now Grandma C can’t resist picking up a car or truck in the store every time she passes one. So your collection seems to be growing!

We sit outside on the back deck a lot to watch everything drive by from tractors to dump trucks to motorcycles and you love every single one of them! When we drive now I’ll hear you say truck you’ll be pointing. You love to read books with trucks too and will sit forever flipping the pages back and forth.

You love your baths and could stay in there for hours playing. We let you stay in for a pretty long time because you have so much fun and you come out all prunny. You hate this! You try to touch your fingers together and cry at the feeling…sorry bud that’s what happens when you’re in the tub that long!

Your vocabulary seems to expand everyday. As Daddy was reading with you one day he showed you a tow truck and you repeated it! We stopped everything to see if you would say it again and you did, over and over. You know have a vocab of truck, tow truck, fire truck (see a trend?), trac (for tractor), shoes, shorts, teddy, door (more like oor), down and of course Momma and Daddy. Although recently when I ask you to say Momma you look straight at me with the ornery look and say Dada or Daddy as proud as can be. Nice honey!

You still use sign language, especially to tell us birds are flying overhead!

You have become a little helper around the house. I guess it’s all in how you define helper though. Once I have folded the laundry you start to grab one piece of clothing at a time and place it back into the laundry basket. You run around with the clothing so proud and then dump it into the basket like you really are helping out so much. You do the same with the dishwasher and will hand me a couple of utensils before deciding you’d rather take a clean spoon and bang it on the floor!

You walk around our house and look for shoes, not your own, rather Daddy or I’s to try on. You’ve been in Daddy’s sandals, my sandals and my dress shoes. You look good in them all!

We’ve been reading to you since you were born but all of a sudden you love reading! It is one of the coolest changes you have had except that the books seem to be the same over and over again. I believe Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb, Llama Llama Red Pajama and the firefly book (before you ripped it!) are the ones of choice. Of course your construction vehicle book is in the mix too. You run up to us with the book and hand it to us and wait to be placed in our lap as we read it to you. If we’re both home you like to have one of us read it, get down and take it to the next one of us to read it again. It cracks us up! Then you’ll get down and go sit and look at the book by yourself. It’s like you’re trying to figure out how we just came up with a story and are trying to figure out the secret behind it. 

You also have taken a liking to a book we have that has no pictures at all. We have two copies of it because the leadership team is reading it for Senior High. One of the copies has turned into yours. You grabbed it the other day and sat with it in a chair for 30 minutes flipping the pages! I tried to read some to you and you just grabbed it back and continued looking. I so want to know what you’re thinking as you’re looking at it!

Sadly we have only been able to be up at the lake a couple of times this summer. With gas prices this summer it would cost us $120 just to drive up there and back for the weekend. So the times we have been up there we’ve tried to really enjoy and you love it! You aren’t a fan of your life jacket for about the first 5 minutes until you understand it means that you get to go on the boat. It moves, on water!, and creates wind like a fan…seriously could it be any better suited for you? Plus you get to sit with Grandma and Grandpa L so how much better could it get? 

This photo has so many unwanted shadows but the look on your face is priceless! "Please Momma, can I get on the boat without this thing?!"

Almost daily your Daddy or I look at each other and ask where our baby went. You are turning into such a little boy with bruises, cuts and bumps constantly. You love to wrestle and have left Momma in tears several times as you accidentally nailed your head to mine. And when that’s happened you stop and look at me so concerned as I tell you to be gentle. You try to fit in with the big boys and like to play their games like corn hole and ladder golf. You get so excited when bigger kids are around and chase after them to watch their every move.

Another sign of being a big boy was us changing your bedtime routine to read a bed in Momma and Daddy’s bed. I was sad that we weren’t reading to you in your chair that I rocked you to sleep but it was time to take it out of your room so you had more room to smash trucks together. Plus you can climb up into that chair now so we’ll keep it in the family room where I can see you attempting to stand on it! You love the new routine and location change for bedtime and get to play a little too before night night calls.

You still enjoy hearing Momma and Daddy say stinky feet and making all kinds of dramatic noises!

Double check this rocking matching outfit!

Regardless of how small you might be on the growth charts  (and who needs those anyways!) you are not afraid at all of anything (except the dark). And let me tell you that 12 percentile boy can still throw a mean tantrum! 

Who knows what you’ll be up to these next few months! We don’t know if we’ll be able to keep up with you but we’re trying to take in each change and laugh through the drama of the tantrums.

We love you sweetpea!

Love,
Momma (has changed from Mommy since Zane calls me Momma) and Daddy