dinner {a friday funny}

I'm getting dinner ready. Adin, my five year old says, "Mom, so we just all use these big straws with dinner? We just suck it all up?" Having no idea what he was talking about, I turned around to see this....



GROSS.

Family Time {A Lifestyle Session}

It was a icy and cold Saturday morning this past weekend, but I was kindly invited into a beautiful and cozy home for some family time. You may recognize this family from other shoots on the blog and website, as they are faithful supporters of ours, and good friends too.

Their littlest girl just turned 1 in December, and with the hustle and bustle of life we didn't exactly hit her one year mark. This family has been through a lot lately. The dad, Michael, went through a life altering accident as he fell from a ladder a few months back. He suffered major damage to his body, but he proved his strength went much more beyond flesh and bones...With prayer, help from family and friends, and therapy, he is doing much better. It made me so happy to see them all together and happy, once more.

So, within a hour and a half we baked a cake, started a fire together, played with toys, went out to play in the snow, came in and got a snack, and then snuggled together in bed to watch a movie...well, at least they did...and I was there to document it. :) Thanks you guys!























These last two photos are two of my favorites from the session. They are a little artsy, but I know this family, and they tend to like my artsy stuff. :) This one just about melts my heart...


...and this moment between Mama and daughter...I love it.

Mornings in our Home

Here's a little glimpse of my day to day in the studio3z home :)
Brett and I home school our kids. We love being able to see them everyday, and get endless amounts of hugs and kisses. The truly glamorous side is you get to have school in your PJ's. Now who wouldn't love that!?

The other day we were having this very beautiful and ooohhhhhhh so rare moment of...do you hear it?....SILENCE. I was in heaven. I decided to run and get my camera to capture the three little brains, hard at work at my kitchen table.

My five year old was working on sentence structure. He is having a hard time grasping the concept of "spaces" in between words. I noticed that he came up with his own little system of putting DASHES-BETWEEN-HIS-WORDS, so he made sure he left enough space. :) I told him,"Lets practice making the dashes invisible, and only Mr. Invisible Man can see them!" He didn't seem impressed, AND-CONTINUED-WRITING.






Then he got tired of a camera in his face :) What's new.



My sweet little girl working on her fractions. Math is her favorite subject..besides ART of course!





And my little 3 yr. old guy...playing Mr. Shy.

Politics on the BRAIN {a friday funny}

I couldn't sleep last night. I was tossing and turning and just as I was drifting off to sleep about 12:30 or so, Brett screams out from his deep sleep, "HOPE FOR AMERICA!"

I then stated rather loudly, "WHAT?? You have GOT to be kidding me." Then I rolled over and went to sleep.

If you know Brett, you know his passion for the politics of this world. It has him a bit extra consumed lately.

The funny thing is, part of why I couldn't sleep was because I was thinking about a photo shoot I have coming up that has me all excited....

To each his own.

:)

Did you see it?

Well, if you didn't get a chance to head out last night to witness the total lunar eclipse, here are some pictures of what happened. Last night here in Cincinnati, the eclipse began around 8:30 or so, and continued until the Earth completely blocked the suns light from reflecting off of the moon, and then slowly recessed back, which began around 10:50 I believe. Brett and I braved the single digit weather to get out and get some cool shots. The eclipse caused the moon to look an orangy-red color, which was just beautiful. This will be the last TOTAL lunar eclipse until December 21st, 2010.

This kind of stuff makes me oh so happy, being able to view the handiwork of God, right before our eyes.

The Music Man {Mini-Session}

Brett and I had a great time Sunday evening spending time with our dear friend Mitch Matthew to celebrate his birthday. Mitch is the owner of a Columbus based company called Fermata Music, providing live music for weddings and special events in the Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati areas. Mitch himself is an amazing trumpet player and singer, not to mention the sweetest friend anyone could ask for.

We were talking Sunday, and I asked him if I could feature him on the blog sometime. We discussed doing a session and an interview to put on here to introduce himself to brides to be in the Cincinnati area. While we are planning a full shoot next month, we went ahead and did a little mini-shoot around midnight on Sunday. Brett and I were having so much fun, but then all of the sudden I announced that my inspiration was gone...I was about ready to fall asleep on the floor. :)

Good times...Good times.

You can visit Fermata Music online at www.fermata-music.com or you can find him on The Knot.

Mans {a friday funny}

My 8 yr. old daughter: "Mama, why was your friend Jack burping so much. That was gross. He just kept burping all day. Yuck."

Me: "I guess he had to burp..."

My 5 yr. old son: "That's what mans DO."

[My daughter and I look over at him.]

My 5 yr. old son: You ladies don't like it, but that's what mans do." [Ever so confident expression on his face.]

Must be my lucky day.

Lunchtime. Brett walks in wide eyed, his face a bit blushed, and modestly proclaimed me as the luckiest wife around. "Not many husbands spend over $1300 on their wife for Valentine's Day," he said with all the 80 yr. old man humor he could muster. I just laughed at him, because we don't really do the Valentine's Day thing, and I knew what was in the bag.

You see, today my husband bought a lens. Not just any lens, but the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 (wedding dream lens), which is a Canon "L" series lens (that said in a very pretentious voice). We have been wanting this lens for quite a while, and when a friend offered to sell it to us, we went for it.

Really..I don't need any gift to realize I am the most lucky, more like "blessed" gal around. This I know. I have God, the most wonderful husband, and the 4 precious gifts that continue to give back to me everyday, my babies. Having my dream job is pretty cool too.

Gabriel said he wanted to check out this new lens since it basically is the same size as him...so here are his thoughts below.

"Looks a little plain...what's all the fuss about?"


"Hey, bring that thing a little closer..."


"Yeah. Tastes alright."

Swedish Meatballs, HERE WE COME.

If you know me well you know I have been crazy about IKEA opening here in Cincinnati. I have been following the rumors that started about 2 years ago, and waiting, ever so patiently for this day to come. When we finally saw the press release in August of 2006 that they were coming somewhere in Cincinnati, we were H-A-P-P-Y. (We being myself, my sister, a few close friends, and THOUSANDS of Ohioians...Don't include Brett in that WE..he thinks I have gone off the deep end, and he's a little scared.) Then, when they announced that it would be 10 minutes from my house, (the news lady actually said that) BONUS!

You see, I was one, like MANY, MANY others, that took the long trek to get to the nearest store and stock up about once a year. I would grab a friend, (usually a sister or 2) and we would head to the IKEA near Chicago (which by the way is the BEST around). Now why would I drive all that way to visit one single store?? Well, just go have a little visit, plan on it taking a while.

So, for the past months we have been driving by and watching the growth and progress being made to the big,beautiful, royal blue and yellow building, as my kids all scream in unison, "Hi IKEA!"

It opens in 1 month. SEE YOU THERE :)

3 pals. {a just-for-fun session}

This is a session that I was unable to post from the Fall because we were so busy, and I never got a chance to get it up on the blog. But I love these photos so I thought now would be a great time to share them with you all. We did this session on one of those abnormally WARM days, when my son and daughter were out playing with one of their best pals. This "session" was about 10 minutes long, but I really liked some of the photos. You may recall having seen some on the website...(Or in the banner above!)

Family.

I thought this was just about the cutest...little drawings of our family, done by my little artistic daughter. I love how we all have our winter gear on...I don't, however, love how I look pregnant. Not cool Priya! I know you want a sister but that's just not cool.

Fun in the City {A Lifestlye Session}

***WARNING!!! THIS POST CONTAIN MANY, MANY, PHOTOS. TOOO MANY MOMENTS I WANTED TO SHARE, I JUST COULDN'T DECIDE***

What a family. What fun we had. Seriously, what fun WE had. We decided on an urban setting for this family's lifestyle session. This family is fun, cool, and contemporary, so something different was in order. Did I mention we had fun?

Ok, so without further ado, let me introduce you to this family.


Here's Mom and Dad...they are cute.


They have 4 wonderful children.


Here's how they got them...


And another that resembles an old movie scene, I just couldn't pass up...


This is what the kids think of all this grossness...


These are the 4 children. First there was Olivia.


Then Austin came along...


Then there is Emma...


And last, but not least, little Ethan.





The wonders of a big family...





YEAAAA for big families!!


Oh yeah, did I mention they like Starbucks??


Well at least the Dad does...A-L-O-T. (I feel ya.)


Thanks you guys for a great time! Brett and I had SOOO much fun with you all. Thank you for your patience on waiting for the blog. (I heard you precious little kids were checking it often :)

Can't wait to do this again sometime...maybe take over Kings Island next? Woo-Hoo!!!