November! It's Almost Christmas!!!

Hannah and Nathaniel participated in the Junior Robotics League. This is new to us and very exciting! Both of the kids were on different teams, and over a 3 month period, they built unique and fully functional robots from scratch. These robots were designed to travel around a track and peform certian tasks with balls in a certian amount of time. All cumulated in a one day competition - team against team. The kids did great and we were so proud! Read more about the league here.

So our church had thier annual Ugly Dress Party - it was so much fun! The girls did such a great job coordinating it. And I won first place! I was crowned Mrs. Ugly Dress 2009!!!

Kaela was honored to be the featured artist at the November Gospel Jam. She did a spectacular job and was very well recieved. We are so proud! We will get videos up online to view on her website as soon as I figure out how to edit them!

Hannah took an acting class through Cotierie theater at the gamber center. It was so much fun for her and really helped her get in touch with her self.

Faith competed at the Talent show semi finals at the Center for God Family and Country. Faith placed and will be in the Finals in January in the 12 and under catagory!

Kaela (middle below, with Marissa on left and Jordyne on the right) went to her first dance! Seventh grade - whew! When did THAT happen!!!? She looked incredible and we were so proud.

So you have probably already seen the compilaton picture of the five kids jumping, but here are the individuals of each of them I shot for the christmas card - how fun shooting these!!!

So Faith is in sixth grade - her last year in grade school - (tear tear cry cry) and she helped out at the annual spegetti dinner. She is soooo cute in her chef hat!!!

October - Okay so busy doesnt even scratch the surface!

Kaela and Faith Both participated in the Heart of America Talent Contest. Singing at The Center for Family God and Country has been such a wonderful experience over the last year and a half. It has given both of them such wondeful experience and training in stage presence and preparation. Here is a picture of the whole group that night. Faith and Kaela did terriffic!! Kaela got second place overall and will go on to the finals in January! Everyone kept talking about Faith - "who was that girl that sang God Bless America?" they kept saying. We were both so proud. Faith will be able to compete again in a few weeks to qualify for finals.

The girls were also given an opportunity to sing at Independence Center Mall, in front of Dillards. People went nuts! They were stopping and really enjoying it! Kaela really has a talent with the song writing and guitar, and people recognize that. Faith, on the other hand, has the stage presence that is out of this world!!! That is her thing. It wouldnt matter what she sang, people would stop and listen because of the way she sings it!

Mommy made a barter deal (what else is new?) with Berrygood Video to shoot a music video of Kaela. It's not something they have done before, but they are incredibly talented, and for videos, there is noone else I would ever use. Here are some shots daddy took of her while she was getting her video done. I was doing a bunch of other shoots that day, so Jordan (main video guy) got some promo stuff for me and Greg. (he has been getting clips from us at weddings and such for a while now to build a promo video)

One of the shoots I had was of a horse (Jessie) - she was a kind and wonderful soul and we were so blessed to photograph her. Her owners were gracious enough to let Jordan get some video of her and Jessie. I snuck in a few shots of her while Jordan was shooting.

Jordan was busting his but taking video - see miss Carrie soon-to-be-berry? Jordans fiance was really working too!

Jamie, my fabulous assistant who really can quite honestly do anything, is pregnant! I am so thrilled for her. I shot a few quick shots of her and her hubby Kevin for a shower announcement she was making.

SOCCER!!!! Faith is on the LSSA (lees summit soccer association ) league this year. This is the real thing, outdoor, full size ball. She really did well. She has been working on her dedication - its hard to go every week, two or three times, rain, cold...... well we are proud of her - she is figuring it out!!!

Notice the shirt!!!! Abundant Moments is the sponsor! what an honor!

The foliage is soooo pretty!
Here is a shot of greg that Jordan took when we were shooting. Look how much weight he has lost! Greg has lost almost 30 pounds since January, and I have lost 25.

Cool picture of a leaf that Greg shot.

My class and I were practicing using flash outside at dusk and I got this great picture of Sarah.

Here is my buddy Garfield - not loving pictures!

Nathaniel and his best buddy - Wubbie! Still kicking!

September - WHEW!!! Busy!

September was a fun and exciting month. I needed an assistant for a shoot I was doing in Florida (see my business blog for pictures and details), so I brought kaela. There is this INCREDIBLE second hand store down in Orlando area that sells name brand clothes for teens- Abercrombie, Victoria secret pink, American Eagle.... well you get it. Anyway, most of the prices are awesome, so I try to bring each kid down once a year for shopping. I gave kaela a $200 credit to the store if she would pay for her plane ticket - well, she earned the whole $178 before we left! So, one day (after shopping) we headed to the beach to celebrate (we did work too - i promise! ) - here is Kaela on the beach. We made a big poster of these pictures and put it on her wall.

Kaela had an opportunity to sing open mic at the Nehemiah Fest.
It was such a great opportunity. She was very well recieved (as always) and she hopes to sing as an invited guest next year!

So in my continuing quest to photograph the moon, I finally realized that because it is so much brighter than the surrounding area, its even harder than photographing a lit light bulb. The only way to really do it is to photograph it and the surroundings separately. See the following reject. :(

Bed and Breakfast

Super Splash