Dentist.

I have to go to the dentist tomorrow. If I don't have something to show him from his "calm & peaceful" session, I'm gonna be busted! Ok - not really but I snagged this one 'cause it made me feel warm and fuzzy.

More to come later, but I promised his wife not to show her any for at least a month - she needs her memory to be numbed a bit - the experience was a bit over the top :)

My newest hairstyle.

I have searched and searched and searched - looked through EVERY short hairstyle online. Well I only had to travel to Henderson, NV to find it. If I had only known that my niece would be sporting the EXACT style that I was looking for I could have saved myself countless hours of online perusing. I'll be taking this picture with me to my next hair appointment :)

The "FRESH" pixie...more to come of little Laurie - I promise :)

Watson Lake Family Photographer - Prescott, AZ

Oh the last of the beautiful green summery days...
Their littlest one had THE most sweet precious lips EVER!! And their oldest one (2 yrs old to be exact) LOVED to run everywhere! Every now and then he'd run in front of my camera and I'd get a snap :) Thank heavens for the ducks at the lake!

Green Pears.

I figured my Grandmother could use a little pick-me-up right about now. So, rather than write a beautiful sympathy card - (believe me Gma - it would have been oh so beautiful)... I prefer to send a little praise down memory lane. I know that my family will see this picture and have waves of jealousy and envy torment their minds and souls - perhaps even cause physical torture. You see GREEN PEARS are a highly coveted item within the Hansen family. It is said that they have "magical healing" powers. I know this because they are the chicken soup for the wounded soul in our family. She had an arsenal of jars in her (now refurbished) basement. As we grew older we would go down and load our bags with the green jars filled with sweet gold.

WHAT? You've never had GREEN pears? You didn't have a grandfather with a magical GREEN thumb - who grew such a bountiful harvest that they could live off of it during the winter? (I realize I may just have stumbled on some connection there - I'll have to revisit that one later ;) You didn't have a wonderful grandmother who would spend hours upon hours (I know - I've helped before) snapping beans, canning salsa, peaches, pears, apricots etc...etc...etc...?? Who, when coerced by little grandchildren, would even make apricot and peach leather...and APRICOT SYRUP!! (the true liquid gold - candy of the Gods).

If you didn't have this - I feel sorry for you. Truly. You were jipped.

Grandma's Green Pears were magical - just ask all the Hansen family that are currently hopping in the cars trying to be the first one to arrive at my house to steal my 2 jars.

Don't bother - they'll be gone before you get here :)

*Confession time - they aren't from Grandma - my friend was canning pears and I told her about the magical pears, so she said she'd try it out - lucky for me I was watching her child so she felt compelled to unload 2 of them on me*

Indy - 4th Grade.

Any mother of boys will understand why I feel that this is noteworthy.
Indy was nominated by his teacher to receive the monthly "Character Counts" Award at his school (Laina received one last year - on pajama day :) I think his teacher has a crush on him. This is great with me - she has nothing but wonderful things to say about him (I will insert them here before I publish my book for the year - don't want anyone gagging :). I asked her to email me what she had the principal read about him, so that I could tape it up to the wall by my computer - seriously. She looked at me and asked, "isn't he over-the-top incredible always??"

Blank stare by me.

It's okay that he ended the day locked in his room (WHAT?? don't your children's rooms lock from the OUTSIDE?? :) I eventually let him out - and we finished the day having a family display of "who could do the best push-ups" :)

We're very greatful for this kid. We love him so much and are happy that he's our INDYboy.

**To answer the inevitable questions - YES. I did know he would go onstage looking like that when he left the house that morning. We pick our battles around here.

Yes. The shirt is too big, but it was a gift from his father on his return from the Alaskan Frontier (more on that later). The back of it reads, "The beatings will continue until moral improves." And yes - he walked up on stage with his back facing everyone so they could read it.
That's how we roll around here...

Wall Gallery Ideas

Today's wall gallery is brought to you by ME (and my blue/green obsession :)
As the saying goes, "the shoemaker's kids go shoeless...."
It only took me 9months to get my OWN pictures on the wall (yet another argument against offering digital images on a CD - they NEVER get hung let alone printed!).

I'll admit to scrutinizing EVERY single centimeter of the images when I took them out of the box. I was a bit overly critical - holding a 16x20 up to my nose - as if every person that walked through my house would do the same??!! I finally had to give myself the talk that I give to all my clients. JUST HANG THE PICTURES ON THE WALL! Walk away. Check it out over the next week - I'm willing to bet that by the end of the week - you'll be in love with the images you ordered. No more nit-picking tiny things that don't matter.
Does the image make you smile? Does it bring joy? Does it capture your life at that time and bring back vivid memories?? As human beings we can be way too hard on ourselves. Enjoy the success of having finished a photo session from the beginning stage of planning to the end stage of hanging your gallery on the wall.

I cut out pieces of paper that were the finished size of my prints. I taped them to the wall. I moved them around and re-hung them differently. Notice the end gallery is a bit different - too bad I have no idea why!! :)

I chose to do gallery wrapped canvases so that I could put a bit more color and design into my room. I love the finished result!

And, if Matt gets his way - someday there will be the words from the Naval Boys Academy in Carlsbad, CA (the one we threaten Indy with we he tries to give us attitude!)

Heat Wave.

I saw that Arizona (Phoenix in particular - and I'm sure Yuma too) will be experiencing a heat wave the next few days. I was reminded of this particular session that I did a month ago in Phoenix.
Yes. We were hot....really really hot. I even stepped into their pool during part of the shoot and there was no temperature difference between the water and outside :) BUT - they smiled and played and had a grand ol' time - then afterwards went inside and quickly passed out.
(And yes - I was completely obsessed with their beautiful daughter - is it obvious? Maybe because she sat/stood so perfectly still - and neither one of us had to have any reason to sweat any more :)