Happy New Year

hard to believe another year has gone by. i know that sounds redundant but seriously, where does the time go?

our christmas was wonderful. my parents were here for 2 weeks. we celebrated laurens' birthday, christmas and new years together. i really miss being with our families during the holidays (or anytime for that matter) but to have my mom and dad here was a blessing. the girls had a great time with papa and nana.

so today is the 2nd day back from holiday break and the girls already have a day off. guess it started to rain in the middle of the night and with the temps dropping it turned into an ice rink on the roads. so we're home baking cookies...gee, just what we need after the holidays! ha ha

i was fortunate to have a few photo shoots over the holiday break as well. here are a few shots from them...both families were so much fun to work with. great personalities and so easy going.

i like black and white! :)

haven't made any new years resolutions yet but have lots of things that i would like to work on or accomplish! i turn 40 this year! yikes. i remember when i was little and 40 seemed soooo old! i don't feel old and i hope i don't look old. so i'm thinking i'll "embrace" 40 and make it a great year to remember, rather than dwell on the number! i have far too many things to be greatful and thankful for!

Wednesday...

poppin' in to say hi. haven't talked with many but hope Thanksgiving was nice. we had a good time in wisconsin. the girls reconnected with their cousins and had a blast. as for me, seeing my dog Fargo was my highlight (sorry guys, no offense! it was great seeing you too :) i miss him. but i know it would be challenging to have him here. anyway...

trying to get ready for the holidays. lots going on. with lauren's b-day being so close to x-mas it makes it even more hectic. i'm hoping this year will be her last "big" b-day party. we're having it at "incredible pizza" w/ 13 girls. they have go carts, mini golf, tons of games and the pizza buffet etc.... should be fun!

my dad & mom are coming dec. 19th. so i'm trying to prepare for that.... planning a class party for lauren's class, a cookie exchange, a couple more photo shoots, an ornament exchange, swim lessons, a rams football game, dinner w/ friends and so on and so forth! i'm so glad i decided to put up our holiday decorations before Thanksgiving...everyone thought i was crazy but what relief not having to deal with that as well! i did managed to get our x-mas cards ordered! check that off the list! i always have ideas and things i want to do and create for the holidays but the days just fly by! it's only the first week in december and i'm feeling defeated already! uhg.

here are a few photos from a shoot i did a few weeks ago.

i know....cute kids, right! i think i had maybe one or two shots that didn't turn out. closed eyes or looking away...other than that they were all amazing!

and a few more from another shoot...ya, more cuteness! poor "D" wasn't diggin' the camera! unlike his sister who "ate it up!"

Catching up...

just a quick update...and some photos to share. thanks again auntie kim and aunt shari, grandma donna, nana & papa for the halloween goodies for the girls!
they get a kick out of getting packages in the mail. they loved everything! here they are dressed up for the big night. lauren was madam dracula and kati was mini mouse.



we had a fun halloween night. we started a tradition last year with some neighbors to get together in a driveway with food, beer and a fire pit. the dads stayed back while the moms took the kids around the neighborhood. it was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect!


i had a couple of photo shoots over the weekend. these are just a few photos from one shoot. this is a friend/neighbor and her little girl. she was a lot of fun to shoot. very serious personality. but man she's cute!

oh, and here is my new car! it's a volkswagon passat cc. 2009. such a fun car to drive. the color is called light brown...not a real good pict. as far as showing you the color. we've never really been big car people but it's always fun to get a new one.

and just because this picture cracks me up! we took the girls to the pumpkin patch a week or so ago. they fed the goats and little horses. i don't know if they had fed them yet or not but the look this little guy is giving kati is too funny.


have a good week!

4 months later.....

i'm pretty sure i have lost all fellow followers by now. ha ha even family members gave up on my ability to keep my blog updated. life just seems to keep us busy and i guess the last thing to go by the way side, is my blog. so to try and catch you up to date...

* busy summer.... lots of activities and family trips. we traveled back to nd for my grandmas funeral. (sigh) had the girls involved in vbs (3 of them). swimming lessons, a cooking class and gymnastics. we also managed to throw in a family wk. end getaway to a tree house... nestled in the tree tops along a river. (very fun wk. end) and then for me there was the 1st of many golf lessons to come. terry bought me a pair of clubs a few months back but i have only taken one lesson but really enjoyed it. school started in august and just 2 weeks later we took our family vacation to san diego for 7 days! what an amazing place! we just celebrated our 10 yr. anniversary last week. can't believe it's been 10 years already. we can actually celebrate a 20 year milestone, as we dated for 10 years prior to getting married! so in a nutshell that was our summer and now we're here. almost october! i've had a few photo shoots with some neighborhood friends (their children) and have a few more lined up so i figured i had better update my blog with a few new photos. looks like i need to clean up my blog too.....i haven't designed for a scrapbook co. for a year now.....need to get those links off, huh. i haven't created a single page in almost a year as well. i have so many photos to go through it seems so daunting at this point. so anyway, check back soon and maybe i'll have a new post! :)

here are some favorite photos from our trip to San Diego:

LaJolla! so pretty!

lauren is feeding the seal...see the fish?








i updated my flikr photo box to the right also. i added some of the photos from my recent shoots.

I'm Still Alive.....

hellooooo! i'm sure anyone who was keeping up with my blog has probably lost all hope that i would ever come back! ha ha it's hard to believe my last post was feb. 1st. i think i had/have lost interest in blogging although i do still check in on a few blogger friends. i thought i'd post anyway and see if anyone is still out there....
all is going ok here. the girls are still keeping me busy. kati will be done with preschool in just 2 weeks and lauren goes until the first week of june. they had 5 snow days this winter so i guess they'll have to make those up. with school starting up again in august the summer is going to seem awfully short!
terry and i took a little trip in april. we flew grandma down to watch the girls for a week. we went to scottsdale. it was a crazy trip but fun. i have a girlfriend in gilbert who i hadn't seen in almost 10 years. it was so much fun seeing her and catching up on old times. it was as if we hadn't lost those 10 years. neither of us had changed all that much!
i haven't taken many photos lately either. so i can't even share those with you. i still haven't gotten back into scrapbooking. i still lack interest. i think if i were to go to a store that had all the new papers and embellishments i would probably be tempted.... right now our basement is in shambles so if i had interest i couldn't scrap anyway. we're having several can lights and outlets put it. our basement is unfinished and we really don't need the extra space so we've decided to do a "rough finish". just so it is more comfortable down there for the girls to play and do crafts. we're painting the cement walls, adding some carpet (nothing too fancy) and spraying the ceiling. we've also framed around the furnace and we'll hang a flat screen by our workout area and call it good.
terry is doing fine. busy with work and finishing up his classes for his mba. he took finals this week. he said it was tough but i can't imagine him getting anything but and A in both classes.
so that's pretty much it. i really need to take some photos of the girls and post them. hopefully on mothers day we can do that!
have a great weekend and happy mothers day!

OVER DUE!

wow, it's been a long time since i've posted! life has just kept us pretty busy. the last thing i think of is posting on my blog. i think the novelty of it is wearing off and i have less and less to ramble about.

life is good. we're all doing fine. the girls are very busy. lauren is in gymnastics, soccer, volleyball and girl scouts and kati is now in gymnastics also and will start swimming lessons next week. (she isn't as excited about this as i had hoped! i won't be able to swim with her so she is a bit scared but i'm sure she'll do just fine) the girls had a snow day today. we got about 8" of snow last night. of course terry is out of town. never fails. so i was out shoveling by 6:30, my third time shoveling mind you! but i figure it's a good workout, so what the heck. this is only the 2nd snow fall we've had so i can't complain and i'm sure the snow will be gone within a few days!

so this is about the extent of it. nothing new and exciting to report...hopefully it won't take me weeks to post again and maybe i'll have something to chat about and more pictures to share.

have a great wk. end.

Holiday/Vacation photos....

hi there! we're finally back. what a busy but fun holiday for us. our trip back to north dakota/minnesota/wisconsin was just over 2 weeks long (which is way too long, we found out!) but there is nothing like being with family during the holidays. we spent a lot of time eating, sledding, opening gifts and eating some more! even though 2 weeks seemed like a long time it actually went by pretty fast. it was a great trip and thanks again for those of you who put up with us invading your homes and keeping us fed! we're very blessed and greatful to have the families we do!
happy new year!

Just checking in...

so december is flying by as usual! i had to force myself to take a photo of the girls in front of the christmas tree (again) because i was just not organized enough to think of something else. so after about 25 shots i finally got this one...hopefully i can get my holiday cards done before we head out on vacation!

with that quickly approaching as well, i really need to get my ducks in a row. we are almost done with our shopping and i have done some baking... so things would appear to be in order. :) i love this time of year but i can't help but think it's almost over! i was in a store the other day and they were condensing the christmas items and breaking out the valentines stuff. i am really looking forward to spending time with family before the holidays. just to relax and enjoy the season, and even some snow! (it's raining here!) yuck!

i went to a candle light advent the other night at the church that we've been attending. it was just for women and each person who was hosting a table was to decorate the table. my friend was actually hosting the table but i did the decorating. i wish now that i had taken photos of our table. i never really think much of the things i do and think why bother with a photo. but it was actually pretty unique compared to the rest of the tables. quick description....i had taken tree branches and spray painted them white (wanted to spray with adhesive and sprinkle with glitter...just never got that far). i had 3 glass hurricanes (all 3 different sizes, the tallest being about 18" tall) i had the branches coming out of 2 of the hurricanes and silver ornaments in the other. from the branches i had silver snowflakes hanging. i had 8 smaller glass votives with glitter in them along with candles. they sat on top of white glittery snowflakes. and a few silver ornaments laying around. each place setting had a silver charger and a dessert plate that was frosty in color but had snowflake shapes all over them that weren't frosty. i made little napkin rings out of resin snowflakes (clear and about 3" in diameter). i strung ribbon though the holes and attached a metal rim tag that was handwritten and said, "joy", "love", "peace" or "hope". and also attached was a silver bell. probably pretty hard to imagine it all but it was pretty darn cute, if i do say so myself. :) ha ha

i took a few photos of kati the other day. she wanted to get dressed up so i thought i would jump at the chance to take some "pretty" pictures of her. (not necessarily her personality but she thought she was a "snow princess". ) the expression on her face cracks me up!

anyway, if you don't hear from me again until after the holidays...merry christmas everyone and a happy new year to all! with much love.....

Holiday Shoot Etc...

hi! thought i'd take a break from baking cookies and post a quick note. i took some holiday photos for someone last sunday...how cute is this little play house! it couldn't have been more appropriate for the photos! i posted quite a few. i had them in a slide show but the slide made all of the photos blurry so this is a lengthy post. but the shoot was a blast and the kids (2 sisters, a cousin and a dog) were so much fun. very cooperative, they didn't get mad at me when i kept taking photos, they smiled nice. i didn't get "that's enough pictures mom, put the camera down now!" it was just nice. (only a few of the photos are edited w/ some color changes so far etc. )
not much else is new. we're getting ready to head home for the holidays. looking forward to that! we have a girl watching our house and kitty for us, so i feel ok about leaving. we're almost done buying gifts. just have a few left for our girls.
anyway, i had better finish my cookies and get kati out of the tub. she wasn't feeling well last night, ended up getting sick on my living room carpet! oh, i can't wait for the day that she can actually hit the inside of the bucket! so i spent the rest of the evening cleaning my carpet and cleaning up my messy kitchen from trying to bake cookies. fun times! (and yes, i stopped baking cookies after this event took place and i washed my hands. ha ha)