Snapshots of Christmas Eve

Santa Switch

December is here and one of the things our high school kids look forward to is the Winter Formal a.k.a. the Santa Switch dance.  Girls ask the boys, they pay for the dinner and the dance tickets.  Everyone looks forward to getting all dressed up and having a wonderful evening.
Here are some photos of my boys with their dates and their group of friends.

Evan with Ashley

 Colton with Alex

 Logan with Markie

Bo with Lauren

The Guys

They call themselves "The Bros"

I had this image made into a 16x20 poster for Evans wall.

The Beauties

These are little collages that I made for each of the kids.  

I made the border on the photos match the girls dress.  I hope they like them!

This is a shot of the boys making fun of Logan.  

Earlier in the day he got elbowed in the face at his basketball game.  

He has a black eye and a cut on his cheek.  

Group Photo

(Carlos' date had a basketball game and she met him at the dance)

Merry Christmas!!

Might Just Be the Worlds BEST Potato Soup!

As many of you know, I don't like to cook.  But I am a mom of three growing boys, two of whom are teen-agers so I cook.  Every week night, I cook. I love easy recipes.  I love the dump and go kind of recipes.  (You know, open a bunch of this and that, dump it in a pot and it makes a delicious easy meal)
I hate to tend a stove, an oven, a boiling pot!  I'd rather clean up a mess than cook a meal.  All this being said leads me to the reason I write this post.  I found an AWESOME recipe for Loaded Baked Potato Soup.  It's easy.  It's delicious!  It's comfort food!  You can make it in a crockpot or on the stove top.

Here is the recipe:

LOADED BAKED POTATO SOUP

16 oz bag frozen cubed potatoes

2   3 oz jars of real bacon pieces

8 oz cream cheese, softened

12 oz sour cream

16 oz milk

12 oz chicken broth

6-8 green onions, chopped

Salt

Pepper

Colby-Jack cheese, shredded

Bread Boule (optional)

In a large pot or crockpot add potatoes, a 3 oz jar of bacon pieces, softened cream cheese, sour cream, milk, chicken broth, 3/4 of chopped green onions, salt and pepper to taste.

Cook on low heat, stirring often for approximately 1 hour in large pot (2-3 hours if using crockpot).

Serve hot in bowl or bread boule topped with green onions, bacon pieces and shredded cheese.

Enjoy!!!

serves about 6 people, so make a double batch if you want leftovers or have hungry teen-aged boys!

My New Office Space

When we moved into this house 3 years ago I set the formal living room aside to be used as my portrait studio.  It has served me well over the years, but I have outgrown it and no longer shoot in there.  It has become a room to house the collection of props I pick up here and there and am very tired of it looking like a storage room.

 2008

2009

 2010

2010

Over this past weekend Dennis built some shelves for me in my prop closet.

I moved the rest of my "stuff" in there to make room for a new desk and turn the "studio" into an office.

I found this cute little desk at WalMart and assembled it in no time.

I had the perfect little bench prop to use for clients to sit on.

I have a real chair that I picked up at a garage sale for $2, but it is in refurbish mode right now and not ready for the office just yet.  So until then I am sitting on another prop, a cute little leopard seat.  

Soon it will retire to the prop closet as well.

 So here is a peek of the office as you look in from the entry way.

 This is a view of it looking down from the stairs

 I moved the buffet across the room again.

Beside it is an old farm house window that I hope to hang on the wall and use as a way to display photos.

 Love this big red chair.  It belonged to my friend Stephanie's grandmother.  Stephanie used to sit in it as a little girl when she visited her grandmother.  Her family blessed me with it last year to use as a prop.

In the chair, check out my new camera bag!

 My photo wall.  Photos of my clients.

We just added the shelf and I'm starting to fill it with old cameras.

The camera on the right is my first SLR film camera.

  Just another view of the buffet.  This is where I store all of my business paperwork and such.

Feels great to have an office.

I feel like this is just the bones of it.

I really need some help jazzing it up with some decorations.

Decorating is not my calling.

Anyway, wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving.

Be blessed!

Happy Birthday Logan!!

15 years ago today you came into our life, an adorable bouncing baby boy with big blue eyes and cute little dimples!

Today you are handsome and strong.  You've grown into a great young man.  You still have those beautiful blue eyes and cute dimples too!!

We wish you a wonderful, happy birthday filled with blessings.

We love you!

Mom and Dad

Evan and Isaiah

and Tigger

Variety is the Spice of Life

My poor little blog is so neglected these days.  I have to say that I am a wee bit busy.  I have good intentions.  I take the pictures, write the posts in my head, but they just don't get done.
Anyway, this post is sort of a catching up post.  I'll show you  a little bit of what's going on, however, some topics I have many pictures to share, so I will make full blog posts later, I hope.

Fall is in Southern Indiana!

I love fall.  Last week seemed to be our peak week.

I took a photo of my favorite tree in my back yard.  This is the view of it from my kitchen window.

Pumpkin Time!!!  I bought 3 pumpkins and Dennis surprised me with 2 more. 

I love pumpkins on the front porch!

I have been shooting high school football for the past 2 months.  Logan's freshmen season is now over, BUT, he was called up to the varsity to participate with them throughout their sectional games.

Anyway, I've been shooting about 500 photos each week and narrowing them down to about 300, editing them and posting them online for the Castle High School website. 

This is Logan on the sidelines at his first Varsity game last Friday night.

  

1st Sectional Victory!

Isaiah's been practicing 3 days a week and playing a game 1 night a week.

I love this photo of him running through the parent tunnel after a winning game.

We've been trying to do some end of season work to the house.

We have been cleaning our windows, removing old, dried out weather stripping and installing new.

We stained our driveway and our deck.

Here's the deck.  Sorry, no driveway photo.

 work in progress photo..... (it is done now and looks great!)

I was asked to photograph all of the children's ministries at our church.

The images will be used at a slide show during our fall Nut Night carnival as well as new website, marketing  and media materials.

I got this nifty little hope chest at a garage sale.

It's quite ugly.  Pink paint that covers old 1980's paint splatters.

I plan to strip it and paint it black with a cherry wood top.

Work in progress....... (yep, that's all the farther I got)

I also got an old chair and a set of 3 leather trunks.

I have to recover the chair seat, the trunks are fine the way they are.

Back to School Photos.

I took Evan and Isaiah's at an old bridge a few weeks ago.  Logan was not with us.

I took Logan's last week when I took our family Christmas card photos.

Now I love Logan's location and wish I would have taken the other two boys pictures out there too.

Oh well.

Speaking of family pictures,

Here is one that I love.

We took several.

I was the second shooter for a wedding a few weeks ago.

Look how beautiful this church is (the bride and groom are sitting on the platform on the right)

I've also taken a few senior pictures,

I will take more senior pictures tomorrow.

I have taken a few family pictures for clients.

I have two more families to shoot on my books.

I have been hired to shoot the Fresh Grounded Faith womens conference at our church 

the first weekend of November.

I've also been hired to shoot a salon staff for a billboard.  How cool is that!

We recently saw Casting Crowns in concert (awesome!)

I'm going to Indy this weekend to see my favorite, Jeremy Camp in concert.

So squeeze school, church, kids, husband, friends and life in this mix and you can see how busy I've been!

Thanks for checking in.

I hope to post more soon.