Halloween, Halloween, Trick or Treat

Our Costumes Can't Be Beat! I've had that silly Dora the Explorer song stuck in my head for 3 weeks now. I've also had Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kats stuck to my thighs and buttocks for the past 3 weeks as well. I was anxious for Halloween to get here so we could get rid of the candy in our house. Right. I think it multiplied times 40 billion.

Noah had a fun Halloween this year. He was a pirate and loved his sword that lit up and made sword noises (ka-chingggg). Ella was a ladybug and did much better than I thought she would with the ladybug antennae I found on the internet. I don't think I got any pictures with the antennae, but there's still time ☺

Mishap Monday

I've decided that Mondays are just bound for disaster. Last Monday I got stung by the bee and found out I'm apparently allergic. Today I was walking down the stairs carrying Ella and a full can of open pop. Can you guess where this is going? Yep, my foot slipped out in front of me and Ella and I went sliding down the stairs on my back and my pop went FLYING all over us, the stairs, the wall, and the floor below. Nice. LUCKILY, Ella did not get hurt. She was upset that she got pop on her, though. 12 hours later I feel like I fell off a building and got run over by a truck. I think I bruised every inch of my back and backside. I managed to go to the gym tonight for kickboxing. I then attemped to do the 15 minute abdominal class afterwards. I laid down on the mat for about 30 seconds and then got up and left because my back hurt so bad. I wasn't too upset about that... I HATE doing abs.

PPBP Part 2

I had a second round of my portfolio-building portrait party today for my friends who couldn't make the first one. There were two families with 6 kids total. They are all BEAUTIFUL children, so it was very fun. I could tell that I had learned from a couple of my mistakes I made the first time around, but I still made a fair share this time. I just have to keep practicing!!

Tomorrow is an exciting day for Noah. He gets to wear his pirate costume to Sunday school, and then we are going trick-or-treating at the zoo. Hopefully the weather is nice, it was a gorgeous day today.

Act Now! This unbelievable price won't last long!!!

Okay, so I'm just practicing my marketing and advertising campaigns. This photography business business is a lot of work! Not only am I reponsible for the actual photo taking, I also am required to do my own marketing, advertising, bookkeeping, etc. I guess that's true with any home business. Plus, I sleep in the same bed with a good accountant, so I think I may have some help in that area.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining! I'm actually loving every minute and am so excited with how fast things are moving. I had my first baby shoot last week-end, and it went really well! I have gotten some new potential clients from that and can't believe how much business I have gotten from just word of mouth. I told Seth the other day that this adventure in my life is consuming every moment of my life. I think about pictures, websites, price lists, online viewing galleries, photo shoot locations, ideas for pictures, etc, etc CONSTANTLY! If I spent this much time and energy on my real job, I would be the best darn School Psychologist the world ever knew.

The mom of the baby I just photographed asked if I would eventually do the photography thing full time and quit my "real" job, but I don't think I will. I do love my School Psychology job, especially since it's only 3 days a week. I still have lots of time with my kiddos, and I feel like what I do makes a difference in the world, or at least in some child's life in small town Iowa. Lord knows I'm not in it for the money! I also really enjoy my photography because it is very non-stressful. If I had to rely on it as a source of income, I'm afraid it would not be as enjoyable to me.

In other news, Noah seems to doing much better with the medicine he's currently on. His babysitter even commented today that it must be helping because he is back to being the sweet, loving Noah that we know and love. Which makes me wonder how he was acting at her house before. Hmmmm..

Ella is being her usual sassy, ornery self. Her new obsession is climbing on our kitchen chairs, which would maybe be okay if she was more than a foot and a half tall. She gets her tummy pulled up but then gets stuck with her feet sticking straight out behind her. She gets so mad because she's high-centered on the chair and she starts shrieking and screaming. She eventually gets down because she can't get up, and then she screams at the chair and tries to push it over. She is usually unsuccessful and only ends up pushing the chair across the room. This frustrates her even more, and then she just screams and hits her head on the chair. Then she rubs her head and cries and looks to Mommy to console her, but Mommy is usually too busy trying to hide the fact that she is laughing. Oh, Ella.

Just Another Manic Monday

Today was a crazy day! Again. Noah had preschool, then we had an errand to run, then lunch, then naps. Unfortunately, both kids decided that napping wasn't on their agendas. I made them stay in their beds until 3:00, though, and then we headed to the park. It was a beautiful day, and we were having a fun time until I got stung by a bee! It stung me on the side of my neck and it HURT! I could tell the stinger was still in there, and I felt like I was going to throw up. The last time I got stung by a bee I was about 8 years old and I passed out. I was really afraid I was going to do that again. I managed to get the kids home and I called Seth to come home from work. I felt like such a baby to have such a fit over a bee sting, but my right side of my face was numb and swollen, my right ear hurt really bad, and my right arm was really numb and sore. Seth got the stinger out, put baking soda on it, and gave me some Benadryl. That was about 5 hours ago and it still hurts like crazy, my ear still hurts, and my face feels numb. Yikes! I'm just glad it got me and not one of the kids.

Yesterday was a much more fun day. We went with Grandpa Donnie and Grandma Jolene to the Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City. We walked around on the trails, had a picnic lunch, and ate caramel apples. It was a beautiful day yesterday, too, and Noah and Ella had a fun time walking around and picking up leaves and nuts.

Finished!!

I'm finally finished working on the pictures from last week-end. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Well, with the exception of my own children's. They are such stinkers!


I have my baby shoot on Saturday, and I just set up my first paying job for November 2nd. I can't believe how quickly things are moving. So exciting!!

Look at Ella's face..... it's like she's saying "okay, we're doing good- look at mommy's face, it's turning red, she's starting to get exasperated......"

Dogs, Ragweed, Mold, and Divas, Oh My!

Noah had his allergy testing today. We found out that he is allergic to dogs, ragweed, and mold. So, there are a few preventative things we can do, but mainly we just need to treat his allergy symptoms the best we can. Luckily we don't have any pets besides Dorothy, a Beta fish with amazing longevity for a Beta fish- going on almost a year now! I'm a little sad that this is something he will have to suffer from, but I am glad we know now why he has been sick basically from birth. Poor buddy.

October 15th is a big deadline for Seth at work. He has been working a lot the past two weeks, staying late and working week-ends. Last night he came home at 8:00 to put Noah to bed and eat dinner, and then went back into work until 3 am. Then got up at 6:00 to go in again. Yikes!

All of this has not been lost on Noah. He has an art easel that we keep in the storage room of our basement where Ella can't get to it. The past two days, Noah has been going down there to draw and calling it his "art studio". He talks about how he has to go to work in his art studio, and if I make him come up for a meal, that I am making him late for work. He also talks about his co-workers in the studio. There's Steve, Sam, and Sam Sam. Steve has been making beautiful artworks to hang on the walls to decorate their studio. Sam Sam had a "challenge challenge" (what is with the double talk?) tonight so that Noah had to go to work because Sam Sam was going to be choosing which pictures were the best for the challenge. Noah told us that he doesn't have any time to play because there is so much work to do in the studio. I could tell that Seth felt bad that Noah has been noticing how much he's been working lately.

I was talking to my friend Molly tonight on the phone. She just had a baby 7 weeks ago, and her sweet little girl is going to be a ladybug for Halloween like Ella. We've been talking about how we should get the two of them together and take pictures of the two little ladybugs. I told her about how I tried Ella's costume on her today and took her outside to try and take her picture but she was NOT having it! She got upset and ended up throwing chairs down. We decided that she is a diva, which goes along nicely with her bully and drama queen titles