Portraits: Sarah

     I have a small group of girls that I teach on Wednesday evenings at our church. We recently had a photo shoot with the girls and everyone enjoyed it. My favorite time was letting the girls see what we'd captured during the shoot. They were so excited and told their opinions about each picture - which ones they liked, which ones they didn't and why. It was so fun.
     This is Sarah - she is grand-daughter to members in our church. We've known her family for a long while now. Her cousin Abby is just 6 months older and the two of them together is just hilarious. Besides teaching them at church, I also see them every week for piano lessons. Sarah loves to laugh & has a good sense of humor. She was a great model for these pictures.

Camp 2013

Getting settled at our house continues - slowly but surely. We spent two days last week shopping for furniture & were somewhat successful. We still need more (plus the cabinets in our bathroom & kitchen finished) so alot of our stuff is just sitting around. I spent a good amount of time this week preparing a slideshow from Camp in order to show it at church on Sunday morning, so I decided to post it here. Only I can't get it to load - it's probably too big a file. I'll try again later as I'd love for you to see it. So, since I can't get it to load, I'll do the next best thing and post pictures :)

Camp was great - I was counselor for the girls and I enjoyed every minute. This was our first year doing camp, so we naturally tried to keep it somewhat small. I had 6 girls - all of them great. The first night we went out for a walk & to take some pictures. (once again I'm having problems with blogger - I can only get one picture to go large - all the others stay small. Any suggestions? I'm really tired of this!)

 

After lessons the next day we went to a camel farm - everyone enjoyed it. The girls actually kissed a camel (gross!) and said it was the highlight of their week.

Besides camels, there were miniature donkeys, miniature horses, llamas, and alpacas.

That evening we took more pictures (a fun way to pass the time & the girls really seemed to enjoy it) And, we actually got a little more sleep than the first night. ;)

We held camp on the farm of one of our church members. The girls slept in the loft of their barn (fully finished inside) and the boys had the house. It was so peaceful there. And the tractors made for good pictures.

 

The last day of camp was Independence Day and we had lots planned.  After morning lessons we took a "hayless" ride out to a field on the farm. In this field are the remains of a dugout that the family lived in back in the 1890's when they first homesteaded their farm. It was so neat. Being the 4th, we took along flags & poppers and our driver made sure we had a wild ride. :)

Here Abby sits atop the dugout that her ancestors lived in.

 

Everyone joined in on croquet games

 



We went bowling in the afternoon

 

 

After bowling in the afternoon, we headed back to the church for an Independence Day Parade. It was small, but great fun.

Sitting around waiting for Parade time

On the float

Amelia decorated her bike to ride in the parade

More croquet

After the parade we had a cookout & fireworks. It was a great ending to a great week.

 We had lessons every morning & services every evening. We also had craft time, object lessons, singing & went swimming each day. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures during these times! We'll have to do better next year.  All in all, we really enjoyed it, and can't wait to do it again.

An Exciting Week

We finally made it - we slept in our new house last night! We've been moving all day today & getting settled. We also ran a family camp this past week. Camp ran Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. We had such a great time! More to come on that later on...... and lots of pictures! I am so backlogged with blog posts it's ridiculous. But, except for three birthdays, my month looks fairly open. Unless something unexpected pops up - which it frequently does. So, no promises - but rather a wish to post a lot some this month. :o)

We're almost there!

     The day has almost arrived - moving day! We've spent a LOT of time working on our house in the past two weeks - well, month really - and it's getting very close. (Thus the reason for my very sparce postings here.) The bedrooms are done. The big closet is done except for one thing. The hall is pretty much done. The living room is done. The laundry room is done. All that remains is to get sinks in the bathroom (plus a few other details) and get the kitchen finished. We have cabinets, but no doors on them or countertops. No sink or appliances either. The dining area however, is finished.
     Yesterday we had the carpet laid - and since it was my birthday too, I figured it was a great present! That was one of the last major things to get done. We are hoping to start moving stuff in this week and once we have a sink somewhere, we'll move in fully. I really can hardly believe the time for moving is here already. We ran into so many problems along the way that would set us back on our timetable. But it did get done!

Here's my room - just love it!

     In the picture above, my room looks so small.  Sure, it is somewhat small, but not nearly as small as this picture makes it look. I've been looking at some photos for inspiration on how I want to decorate. What do you think?

 

Can't wait to start decorating!

Justin & Caitlan's Wedding Day

Finally - pictures from a recent wedding! (and again, blogger is having sizing & caption issues, so these are all small pictures.) It was beautiful - held at the Round Barn in Pond Creek. And although they'd planned an outdoor ceremony, the weather turned so cold & blustery it had to be moved inside! No matter, it looked good indoors too. We started with the bride & her mom preparing for the day.

I met Caitlan at the Bridal Fair this past February. We met up for coffee & to discuss details a little later in March. We chatted forever and really hit it off. I knew working with her & her family was going to be fun. When she was ready, we headed outside for the Bridal shoot. This couple had no attendants so that gave me plenty of time for focusing on these individuals. We got so many good shots - Caitlan, you're a natural!

This is one of my all-time favorites. just.perfect.

After half freezing the bride (it was in the 40's that day, and very blustery!), we took her inside to thaw out. :))  Then it was time for the groom. Justin is quiet & reserved - most of the time. I did see a funny, outgoing side of him come out later that day. He's also very rustic - likes farming. This location was perfect for him.

After both outdoor sessions, I took Justin upstairs and then went for Caitlan so we could photograph their first look. This one was great - I love both of these, but especially the one of Caitlan coming upstairs. Justin was fighting tears - so sweet.

Then it was on to the couple's shoot, and they were sooo great. It was, in reality, another exercise in trying not to freeze, but these guys really toughed it out. I was wearing a coat, all bundled up and I still got cold! And the results are stunning. You'd never know by their faces that it was so chilly!

The ceremony was sweet & simple. The decorations were stunning - mostly done by Caitlan's mom and her many Aunts. (There were a lot of them - can't even remember how many. Lots of Uncles too.) I'm pretty sure her mom did all the flowers. She had buckets full of all different kinds of flowers downstairs and she'd whip up a bouquet just like that. When I left later that night, she gave me one to take home. So beautiful. I enjoyed those flowers for the next two weeks.

 

(A big thanks to my second photographers Megan and Hogan. Megan did all the still life pictures you see here, plus some of the couple. Hogan helped run the photo booth - those pictures will be coming soon.)