Last month we did some pretty fun stuff with Walcott Imaging – we had a free photo shoot day with outdoor lifestyle shots of kids, families, and couples.

Lisa spent the entire day on a 20 minute rotating schedule of photo-shoots. The photo’s of the day turned out wonderful.

I spent the day keeping my kids out of other people’s photos and getting them ready for their own 20 minutes of “fame”, and I took behind the scenes photos of what Lisa does.

Here’s Lisa’s write up about the day. (Including some of the photos she took)

And they’re doing it AGAIN in July!!!

If you’re interested in having your photos taken please email Lisa Walcott directly.

**Hey guess what! I get paid to write. This is a disclaimer stating that to you so that no one gets confused. This website is my job.**

Our baby boy turned two on May 5th.

It was a big day for him. Lots of frosting and presents.

It was a big day for the whole family, really.

We celebrated the joyfulness he fills us with every single day …

And how incredibly in love with life he is, he’s made us and he continues to be as his own little two year old self.

It was a very low key celebration with just Grandpa’s and Grandma’s, a few aunts and uncles. It’s not really our “thing” to make a huge deal out of birthdays outside of our own family of four. We like to celebrate each other in a big way, without fanfare or 17 primary colored toys.

Because celebrating life isn’t about getting, it’s about giving.

And he gives us so much.

Being the baby of our family is fun, I think. My daughter and I like to cater to him but we also like to treat him like a big boy – because that’s what he prefers. She said to me yesterday, driving around in the car, that she can’t wait to be a Mommy! Hearing something like that from your own child is a pretty big compliment – because their frame of reference of mothering is you. It’s me.

I get pretty paranoid about screwing them up. Am I telling them I love them enough? Am I smothering? Am I strict enough where it counts? Do I establish boundaries well enough? It’s always about being enough and doing enough and accomplishing it all when really they see me being me. Just me.

Short comings, pitfalls in my own character, crabby and sad. They see it all. Of all the people in my life – my kids know me, my heart, the best. We’re with one another every single day, all day. But she chooses to see the happy, well adjusted person I try to be. She chooses to see me for me.

And she said she wants that, too.

Happy birthday to our little guy, to our special girl and to our family of four. We just might be doing this right – and we’re loving every single minute.

I haven’t wanted to write about this one yet. Haven’t been able to form the words. Understand my feelings. Digest the events of the day.

April 24th, 2010.

One of the very biggest life list items came to fruition. I thought, when I wrote that line item, I was foreseeing a grandchild’s birth in my future. That I’d have years and years to ponder the deepest gratitude for this one coming true.

It’s weird how things happen.

This is a baby boy.

This baby boy is my nephew.

His name was Judah at birth.

He was given up for adoption.

There is reverence in these memories because of the raw emotion involved in being present to see a mother, a mom like me, give birth and then say good bye.

To hear his cry and watch his chest rise with life, to hold and touch and smell and smile at your son. At my nephew. To capture in those moments with him in my arms the beginning of a story I’ll forever save for just him, if he ever wants to hear it.

He is beautiful. How amazing is the God I believe in, to create this wonder inside of someone with a heart heavy enough and big enough to know that giving him to someone with empty arms is the best thing for him?

There will forever be a bond between 3 women in my family that will never go beyond our hearts … and will always reach farther than our hands.

June 15, 2010 Life Style Photo Sessions FREE

Last year I paired up with Walcott Imaging to host (virtually I suppose) a Photo Party. How about we do that again?

This year’s date is June 15 – a Tuesday. You can schedule a free 20 min photo session between 9 am and 6 pm.

We’ll be scheduling folks on the half hour but the session itself will only be 20 min.

Kids playing, moving, posing, smiling. Feel free to be creative with outfits and props. This is a great opportunity to get your senior photos done for next year, engagement photos, kids portraits. Only, and lets be honest here, lets not do so many poses, ok? Let’s be ourselves. Let’s have some fun. Let’s play in the dirt and giggle.

A Life Style shoot is just that … a window into the moments of your lives that you don’t usually capture.

Bring your dog! Or your chicken! Need an updated photo of your parents? THIS IS A GOOD IDEA.

The possibilities are endless, really. So … email me to schedule your time slot and we’ll get ready to rumble.

Personally, I’ll be scheduling a time slot for my kids and we have a whole box of play clothes I’ll be bringing for props (that you may use too!) … and have you seen this hat? Yes. More of that.

A few more details:

• The photoshoot will be outdoors, location: 1106 Ardmore St Holland, Mi
• There will be a handful of props and “costumes” available but you’re welcome to bring your own as well.
• We’re EXCITED! You are too? Oh good. That’s just what we hoped for.

PRICING:

• $100 for the digital rights (regularly $150),
• $35 for a single digital image (regularly $45)
• 20% off of print orders. These deals are good for one week after the session.

Wow. I just had a whirlwind weekend where Gleek Retreat really happened.

For a quick look you can see some photos. I’ll write more in depth about everything over the next couple of weeks and scatter them here and there.

I was on a panel on Sunday about how to incorporate other forms of media into your blog and this was my introduction:

(it’s a 5 min video, warning)

And then after everyone went home Stacey and I cleaned up and I headed home to see my favorite small people.

And wow. They make me happy.

It’s good to be home.

I said I would post today and I have 43 minutes to make good on my word.

Hi.

Tomorrow will be controlled by nothing but a list of things to do, of expectations, of excitement. It’ll be fueled by coffee and sheer adrenaline. I’ll be working harder because I know my kids are waiting for me, because I know people are depending on me, because I respect and enjoy the company of my partner in this crime of blogging conferences.

Then Saturday will be here, before I even know it and then will come crashing down on me. Months of work and millions of emails later – we’ll be done.

And I’ll pick myself back up, excited for tomorrow. A little quieter for a while after all that talking, blogging, tweeting … all that planning. A little less for a little more.

I’m so excited.

I’m so nervous.

I’m so ready.

It’s a beautiful rainy day here in Holland and my dutch dancing this morning was canceled, no matter that I was already dressed and walking to find my group.

I have a list of things to be doing right now because both of my kids are sleeping but I can’t quiet my mind and my hands want nothing to do with busy work.

So I’ll just catch up here *smiles*, you don’t mind, do you?

May has been a full month. Full as in fulfilling, full as in robust and full as in overflowing.

I submitted to a magazine and was asked to write, which I did. I’m pretty sure I’ll be in the next issue but I haven’t heard the final yes or no, although maybe I did and I’m trying not to jinx it. It is on my life list to be a published writer for magazines, so … holding my breath.

This is the month when Gleek Retreat is happening and behind the scenes I am BUSY getting things wrapped up (sponsors) and planned (swag bags, details, etc) for the event. I am tired in the best way possible, but I’m also anxious. Ready to see some faces.

Last weekend the hubs and I went to DETROIT! to see some friends and also a Tigers Game, a first for me. It was a wonderful little hiatus.

In one of my recent lists of lovely I linked to this and we tried them … delicious fun, folks. But don’t really eat them. It’s just wonder and awe in bubbles … a snake of bubbles. Perfect post naptime pick me up, to see something floating above you, made from your breath – this beautiful string of little soapy rainbows.

And then giggles. Lots and lots of giggles. Filling the air, filling me up, preparing me for a celebration. The one where he turns two.

The one where she watches and celebrates him anew.

She made us a family and he made us complete.

Happy birthday, us. We did it!

It’s a busy time of year around these parts. Tulip Time is a festival I’m in love with and it begins in just a week. ONE WEEK. I’m also a Dutch Dancer so I get to be around the action almost all week. I love it. LOVE IT.

I have an undying love for this festival which is odd because most “locals” just hate it. The town becomes a mass of hungry ants looking for somewhere to sit. Parking and one way streets become pedestrian piles and no one pays attention to the signs. It can be very frustrating if you’re a type A person who just NEEDS TO GET TO TOWN. Because you cannot.

But I love it nonetheless. In spite of it’s lack of crowd control, in spite of the grease and the parades and the traffic. I love it.

Not only is it Tulip Time week, it’s also my son’s second birthday next Wednesday and I’m a little nuts about birthdays. My kids’ any way, or maybe just their cakes.

I have a whimsical earthy idea for his birthday this year, but it’s smack dab in the middle of Tulip Time, as well as in the middle of a week, in the month that is the conference I am planning while we’re selling our house.

Yea, I’m a lunatic.

I’d love to do an outdoor party under globe lights but I don’t think I’ll have my act together to pull it off this year. He’ll only be two, so his party isn’t a big deal to him yet. I could take him to the beach with a new truck and he’d think he was in heaven. Which, IDEA!

Last week I went shopping for something to wear to an event for a political evening.

How about I tell you how that went?

Here I am all gussied up to go and have a great time.

Accessories and everything! I did freak out right before we left because 1) Aaron was late and I was sure that we were going to be the last people to walk in to this thing, and I had no idea how to wrap my head around being that couple while I was wearing those shoes and 2) The hair.

I did not figure out the hair, but it served it’s purpose of sitting my head and not having any cowlicks, so I’m fine with it and we were not that couple so I could quiet my head about the shoes. Although, I did not. I very much did not shut up about those shoes. The shoes that I bought and wore with way too many toes to fit into them.

At one point in the evening everyone went to the lawn so that Rick could speak to us about his plans for Michigan’s future, he could campaign while we listened near the water, it was lovely, but I noticed that every woman who was standing either took off their heels or played footsie with the sidewalk as they tried to relieve the pressure from that evil-form of a shoe.

I tried to last longer in them, thinking I could stand in one spot all night and wince inwardly as someone came to shake my hand or introduce themselves. I was really awkward for a while, lesson learned.

Because where I decided to park myself was a good 15 feet away from where everyone was congregating and meeting each other.

By the bar.

Oh the fun! It was a very fun evening, we met some really nice people and stayed til they were cleaning things up then went back into Holland for dinner with friends. All in all a good first cocktail event for me to try out some shoes and a dress.

And Rick is pretty cool, too.

Last week we ate out way too much. Adjusting to the new diet of gluten free allergen laden children has proved to be tiresome. So there are nights, too many lately, where I say – Um … remember when we didn’t have to think about gluten or modified corn starch? Remember those awesomely lazy nights where I could feed my entire family from the SAME store? and the SAME brand of food. That was awesome.

Any way, we just go out now and look the other way while the children eat something that may or may not be allowed within their allergies. Mostly it is because we’re still being parents and trying, but sometimes it’s not and man, that feels good. So one of those nights … we came home late after eating out again and we were telling the kids that when we got home there was going to be no “show me this!” “read me that” tonight since we’re awful parents and out past your bedtimes when there’s school tomorrow.

Then she saw a star and wished up on it. (I meant to say it like that by the way.)

It was: I wish I could ride a horse … a REAL one.

I love how simple their dreams are right now, anything is attainable to them. No mountain too high.

This is a dream I can help make come true so I asked Facebook for some suggestions. I got a number for someone who owns horses and then a friend said she herself had a horse and would Jessica like a ride in the pasture?

Yup. Yes she would.

It was fabulous.

The best part? On the way home she yells up to me from the back seat, MOM! MOM! MY DREAM - IT CAME TRUE!!!!

Why yes, yes it did. Now make another one, and this one … make it Bigger!