Halloween 2009

I still find it hard to believe that there are six of us.
But there are. And on Halloween, there were four very happy children, even though one didn't even get to eat candy.





Aren't they simply adorable? They take a lot of my energy to keep up with. But it's all worth it. They make me smile - and laugh, and feel like I'm a kid again. Halloween was a fun evening, with chilly but dry weather, candy, and fallen leaves.




















Life is passing by too quickly. Gwen will be six this month, and I will have a birthday too. My animals are aging - Brandi is 27 and this afternoon almost didn't get back up after getting down to roll in the grass. My heart was pounding out of my chest, and I was sure I would lose her on a sunny and otherwise mild autumn afternoon.
Roc the diabetic dog is doing well, but as the days pass, his time is running out. Being large, and being diabetic, shortens his life span.
I'm not ready for it to end for the animals, I'm not ready for the kids to grow up.
But giving Lex a bath tonight, while I held Callie, it felt for a moment like I was raising Hunter and Gwen all over again. Like Hunter was two, instead of seven.
And I thanked God for giving me my children. All four of them :D

Five months

I have so many more pictures to share - once I get time to edit them :)
Five months old today.
My sweet little girl, who doesn't want to sleep. I don't know what I ever did without my Miss Callie girl . . .

Worth It

We went to the pumpkin patch - well, sort of a pumpkin patch. And it was worth it to get this one shot



Lex wants NOTHING to do with the camera - so this is one of the shots I got of him




And then Miss Callie in the tub, since she slept through the pumpkin patch



Well, off to do some laundry. I WILL get a picture with all four kiddos in it for a Christmas card. It just might not be before Christmas :D

Guess who is sitting?

A bit young, not even five months yet, but she can sit for short periods of time all by herself. My strong little girl.



Another, better (flashless) photo of my little girl



I'm not sure of the quality of these photos - I'm editing on a new laptop and have decided I need to buy an external monitor solely for photo editing. The laptop screen just doesn't cut it.


I have millions of photos of all of the kids - tons that I would like to share. But one visit to my photography blog and you can see just how busy I've been (with other people's photos!) Once I'm done with my current sessions to date, I'm taking a breather from it for a while. Not that I want to, but I need to. It would be nice to walk through the house without stumbling on everything in my path. Plus, I need to get started on holiday preparation, such as photo cards for my own family. But first, I need a good picture to PUT on the cards.

Everyone here is doing great - the kids are gearing up for halloween. Hunter is Incredible Hulk, Gwen is Tinkerbell, Lex is a lion (and oh so cute!) while Miss Callie is a simple pumpkin. I just hope it doesn't rain and we get to have a great night trick-or-treating.

Well, I'm off to bed for about an hour of sleep before Miss Callie and her ear infection wake me up.
One of these days I'll get some real sleep - for several nights in a row. And I'm sure the world will be so much clearer after that.

So hard

Life is tough right now. I have too many responsibilities, too many dreams. I'm not sure which one will come out ahead in the end. Probably the responsibilities, or in other words, my day job. Miss Callie stopped sleeping well a while ago, and it is tough to rationalize anything on a brain that is sleep deprived. I go to bed after 11:00 and I'm up several times before getting up at 5:30 for good.
But at least Kevin is home, even though that home is cluttered and not fit for company.
In any case, I caught the moon tonight. Check out the craters!!




And yesterday found us at the Apple Works, though I failed to get a decent photo of all four together. I"ll try again later in the fall, and bribe the kids with candy or cookies :)




I wasn't meant to crunch numbers. I wasn't meant to give presentations. I know that with everything that is within me. But for now, I need to help pay the bills, and that is the only way I can do that reliably. In the meantime, I'll hold onto my dreams, and try to get some sleep :)

Four Months

These were taken to showcase the bow on her head for the etsy shop - but I had to share what a doll she looked like in this dress :) It's a dress Gwen wore at 9 months of age. I'll have to dig out one of those pics to compare with!! And I threw in some higher contrast tutu shots for fun :) I DO have shots of the other kids to share - I'll go through them later this week. I hope. I still have editing of *other* sessions to do, and I have two more sessions this weekend . . .

I forgot

I forgot what it's like to slow down.
Tonight it was just me and the little one - so when the crew left I took Callie for a walk. We smiled at the new baby bull down the street, took in the bright yellow wildflowers, the birds, and the geese eating in the neighbor's yard.
Then we came inside and I gave her a bath - while she laughed and squealed. Then placed her sweet-smelling almost naked baby tush in her crib so I could take some pictures.
It was getting dark, her room faces east, and I was glad for my 50mm f1.8 lens.
I forgot how much I love that lens.








Usually, when I put her on her back, she rolls to her belly.



I put her on her back again, and she finally found her feet. And then do you know what she did with her feet??? I captured the first time with my camera.
So cool.














And then she decided to eat her hand, and after nursing her, she was fast asleep. Before the crew got home, loud as can be. And you know what? They didn't wake her up.






I love remembering little things that I have forgotten in the daily rush of life. The joy on my children's faces - the love on my husband's. The devotion of my dogs, and the sweetness of my horses.
I need to remember more often.