Celebrity Status?

It is official.  We are celebrities!  No, really we are.  Well, I guess you are if you call getting your mug in the Commercial Appeal being a celebrity.  The article I mentioned a few weeks back came out this past Sunday.  Laura and I wish that they’d have used a few different pictures than they did, but we can’t complain. 

This weekend was a lot of fun.  It was good to spend some quality time with the family.  And, we got some good rest.  I really needed some rest.  This past Wednesday night I was a Kroger from midnight until about 3:45 a.m. shooting a video short for SoulMate Live.  We had a great time shooting it, but man, that can throw a wrench in a sleep cycle.  It took until Saturday to recover.

In other news, Haley girl slipped and fell down on Wednesday.  She hurt her foot and couldn’t walk on it.  We got nervous and took her to the doctor on Thursday.  They took x-rays, but didn’t see anything wrong.  They thought it was a sprain.  She wouldn’t walk on it at all.  When we did stand her up, she collapsed in pain. 

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, after her nap, she woke up and said, “Daddy, want to walk.”  She took a few wobbly steps and looked up at me.  I clapped for her, scooped her up and told her we needed to go show Mommy.  She’s starting to get around on it a little bit, but we can tell she is still in some pain. 

I Love You!

I wanted to take a quick minute to say thank you to my super awesome wife.  She’s the most unbelievable mother.  The way she works with Haley and Trey is truly amazing.  In addition to spending time with the kids teaching them, taking them all over town (zoo, movies, pool) and taking care of them, she also keeps the house clean and has food on the table whenever I’m around.  And, quite tasty food I might add.

She doesn’t just take care of the kids and keep me in clean clothes.  She challenges me to become a better person.  I have more fun hanging out with her than with anyone else in the world.  And easy on the eyes…that’s an understatement.

I thank God for giving her to me and thank her for being who she is. 

Wonderful Weather

Man, time seems to fly.  Not just the weekends, but the weeks as well.  It seems like I’m heading to work on Monday, blink and it is Friday, blink again and Monday is back.  If time flies when you’re having fun, I must be having a blast.

I managed to get a nice bike ride in on Saturday morning.  40 miles.  Not THAT significant, but a good first step towards being able to do 150 in October. 

We really enjoyed the weather this weekend.  Seems odd to say it was nice because “the high was only 90” but that was the case.  It was actually a little cool at night.

We managed to get in a tasty meal at Vinegar Jim’s with some friends on Saturday night and had a good time listening to live music on the square after dinner.  We finished up the night with a card game at our house.

Sunday was a jam-packed day.  Church in the AM.  I had to forego my ritual afternoon nap to build some shelves in a closet for Laura upstairs.  We needed to ‘de-clutter’ one of the closets and shelves on one end did the trick.  That was followed by doing the yard work.

Laura’s parents came over for dinner.  Laura fixed fettuccini alfredo with grilled chicken (from scratch).  Dinner was followed by hanging out in the back yard and eating ice cream.  We LOVE ice cream.  I think Haley loves it more than us. 

So, Monday morning again.  Back to work.  Maybe I’ll blink right now and see if I can change the day to Friday.

Loving the Softboxes

Well, I’m having a great time with the new softboxes that I purchased this week.  I also got a boom stand which lets me easily add a hair light.  Before, I was reflecting light off the ceiling for a hair light, which was pretty difficult.  For those that aren’t familiar with the term, a hairlight is a light above the subject that reflects off the hair.  It is good for giving definition and depth to the top of the head and it helps a ton with separation from the background.  You can see in last photo below in this post what a picture looks like without a hair light.  The top of Laura’s hair blends in with the background.

Hopefully, I will get to keep my models for a little while.  Laura and Haley both seem to enjoy looking at the pictures after they’ve been edited, but neither seem to enjoy actually taking them.  I guess they do it because they love me.  

Nothing really happening in our lives this week other than the usual.  I’ve got a bike ride planned for tomorrow morning.  Need to start getting in shape for the MS 150.  It isn’t until October, but it will be here before I know it!

Fun Weekend!

We had a great weekend!  It was fairly busy, but we got a lot accomplished.  We have a friend who writes a column for the Commercial Appeal that features a home and gives some details around the family that lives there.  Our house is going to be featured soon and the photographer was scheduled to arrive on Saturday at 10:30 in the morning.  So, you can guess how we spent a good part of Friday night.  We’ll post a link when the story goes to print.

Saturday morning started pretty early for me.  I managed to get in a bike ride, which was nice.  I’m trying to get back in the groove of doing some exercise.  The bike ride seemed like the logical choice since it is a part of the triathlon I’ll be doing in early August.  Not to mention, I need to get my legs ready for the MS 150 that is coming in October. 

After the photos were made on Saturday, Laura and Trey went to a baby shower.  Haley and I took off for the pool at Wellworx.  I’m not sure if Haley really enjoys the pool as much as she does moving from one pool to the next.  It didn’t matter which of the 5 pools we were in, she always wanted to be in a different one.  She’s got names for them all.  Baby pool, outside pool, warm pool, cold pool and bubble pool.  The bubble pool is the hot tub.  It is cute to watch her play.  I’d like to put her in swimming lessons soon.  I dunk her under some, but I want her to keep trusting me.  Something just feels wrong about dunking your child underwater. 

Saturday night was laid back.  I cooked chicken and shrimp fajitas and we relaxed…in a clean house! 

Today we went to church and took a nap.  I had another meeting at church at 6.  Laura, Haley and Trey went to the Daugherty’s for a pool party.  I met them there afterwards.  And here we are…another weekend done.  Time really flies when you are having fun.

I’m getting some new studio lights next week so I went on and set up the studio to prepare for the arrival of the lights.  I’m pretty excited.  We’ve been teaching Haley how to show emotions in her face.  I’ll leave you with “happy” and “surprised”.  You guess which is which!

4th of July

What a blessing it is to live in a country that brave men and women fought and died for.  Freedom isn’t free and I hope to never take it for granted.  This great country gives me the freedom to raise my family how I choose, to worship where I choose and to work where I choose.  We have the freedom to say, think and do as we please.  In times where there is a lot of finger pointing going on in the political arena, it is good to look to our freedom to keep things in perspective.

While this country is “free”, we must be diligent in keeping it “free”.  We can’t give up the fight.  We can’t stand by idly as our freedom is removed…one tiny piece at a time.  Every tiny freedom that is taken away makes that fight those put up before us in vain.

This 4th of July was a blast.  About a week ago, we went to watch fireworks at Bellevue for the Starlight Spectacular.  Haley seemed to like them, but she was REALLY tired.  They started later than we were expecting.

The actual day of the 4th was jam packed for us.  We started the morning with a children’s parade in the neighborhood.  It was pretty cute to see a hundred kids on bicycles, tricycles, scooters and in wagons parading through the subdivision.  After the parade, we came back home and straightened up the house for a cookout we were hosting.

We had a few couples over, grilled out burgers and dogs and just enjoyed each other’s company.  We had a blast.  As it started to get dark, we moseyed down by the lake to watch the fireworks.  Laura thinks fireworks are romantic.  I (like most guys) think fireworks are cool.  I managed to get a few pictures of them, but knew I should spend the bulk of the show watching them with Laura.  I guess you can say that I’ve learned from my 4th of July mistakes in the past!

Happy Birthday Seth!

Last weekend we went to Brandon for Seth (our Nephew’s) birthday.  We had a great time.  It has been a couple of months since we went to Brandon so it was nice to see everyone.  While we were there we had a photoshoot with the Gaglianos and also managed to squeeze in a quick session with the Murphys. 

We had a great time in Brandon, but the trip seemed short…as always.  I wish we lived closer.