It's sunny in Florida...

and snowing in Great Falls....according to my dashboard. Don't hate me...BUT I'm having a great time :)

See????

I promise to give you some more pictures soon...but it's about 4:20am now (Florida time)and my caffeine from the Waffle House is wearing off...Mmmmm...Texas CheeseSteak Melt!

Thanks to my sis for braving the big scary camera to take my picture...the only other pic I have of myself from my trip before this was my ugly feet...taken by...none other than me. So, thanks Whitty!!!

The adventure begins

I will be getting up at 4 in the morning...traveling by air with my two kiddos to sunny Florida.  It has been many moons since I have seen the sun for consecutive days.  I'm so excited to have the break from the weather here in Montana.  To all my sweet blog readers...I will be taking the laptop, so there will be no excuse for me to not fill you in on all the gooey details of my trip :)  I hope to post some fun stuff soon!!!  And because posts are always better with pictures...here's my other son showcased with his amazing Grandpa.  We are sad that we couldn't spend more time with them (Dave's parents), but I'm thankful that Dave and his dad will have some good quality Father/Son time :)

The giddy mob...

We were there for one purpose...and one purpose only.  I have been calling my sister numerous times reminding her of this momentous occasion.  As I pulled into the parking lot at midnight giddy swarms of girls AND men clenched onto their new found treasure.  I briskly walked through the sliding doors not to look TOO excited...oh what the heck!!!  I basically ran in panic that there were no more left!  And there they were...in all their awkwardness,  two "How may I help You?" blue vests crouched down trying to lift the glorious display of newly shrink-wrapped  cases.  You could already see cardboard in the back of the display from all the folks who ventured before me to take their precious copies (by mere minutes)...That's right...it was the release of Twilight at midnight and I snatched a 2 disc special edition before my luck would set in and a huge mob take every last one before my eyes.  As  I wait in the long line, I have never felt closer to a larger group of strangers.  In everone's hands was the blue and silver title.  The anticipation of watching was in the air.  I knew that they would be up till 2am (3am if they watched all the special features) and we shared this common ground...We loved Twilight and we were die hard fans enough to stay up to get it.  

I happen to like nice vampires...Now if you would excuse me...I have a date now with some Extra Butter popcorn and Edward Cullen. :)

Too fast

My mouth gaped open as I stared at this image...my baby...looks like a little boy.  I guess that's what happens right?  All the months when I wished his "stages" would be over...I was exhausted from popping out 2 kids within 14 months...my life for 3 years looked like the following:  nursing, poo, cut up soft carrots and lunch meat really tiny, poo, burping, poo, mashing food, poo and more poo...all the women would tell me, "Enjoy it because they grow up too fast."  Uhhh...yeah.  I get it now!  Even though I was tired of the baby deals turned into toddler trials, I can truly say that I did enjoy it as best I could.  I love my little boys....I would never change a thing and these pictures just sum it up for me:  They do grow really fast.

Parker a year ago:

Parker in all his little boy glory now:

"I need more cowbell!!!"

Now replace the word "cowbell" with "red chair."  

I can't get enough of it...especially when you have these precious ones sitting on it.  My dear friend Katie is moving to England and it was one of her desires to do a session with her munchkins at a special spot before she left.  SO...we packed everyone up and had a fun time this morning.  Cory did pretty good until the wind chill hit.  They were troopers!  

So here's a tease...more to come...

With some AliBlicious funk added ;)

Here's an in-a-nutshell "cowbell" skit for your entertainment (in case you haven't seen it...pure genious!)

In hopes for spring...and wings...

Welp, right now it's a beautiful and sunny 36 degrees.  Only a slight wind.  This weather has me confused because only 2 days ago it was -3 or something like that.  Oh well, Florida awaits me soon!  That's right!  I am taking a trip to sunny Florida to visit the folks and do a few sessions.  How exiting to get my name out there :)  I also hope to make a pit stop in Georgia..woohoo!  The kids can't wait to see Omi and Papaw again.  

In hopes of spring, about a couple weeks ago I let the kids make some caterpillars.  They are so stinkin' cute!  As I thought more about the caterpillar I was/am amazed at the metamorphic changes that happen in a cocoon.  Gooey and claustrophobic, I feel like I am in a cocoon and that I have changed and am being changed not only in my photography but also as a wife...a mother....and as a person.  It's been painful these last few months but I am learning and am SO excited for what awaits me ahead!  I may inevitably be a "pupa" waiting for my wings, but I do know this...As long as I learn from my mistakes, keep a humble heart and have joy in the process of my growth, I'll be alright :)

M.I.P.

Stands for "Missing in Painting."  I have been motivated.  And my husband knows when I'm motivated, there's NO stopping me and I think of nothing else.  So I was tired of looking at the cabbage patch land called my living room and dining room and decided it was time to pick out the right colors...I had a purple gray in the dining room and a bright green in the living room.  Like I said...veggie mania.  This house deserved some richness for cryin' out loud.  So, I had my best friend help me pick out the colors and I am so glad we went with what we did!  3 days of non-stop (apart from feeding children, husband and animals) painting!  My husband doesn't do any painting because I'm pretty picky about how I like to paint...so to save our marriage, he just lets me do it all.  The trim was a cream color and I painted all of it stark white...I really didn't like that part.  But now my back spasms have subsided and I have a cozier area...I LOVE IT!!!  Oh yea, I also had swatched a different green on my walls about a YEAR ago!  How embarrassing...So here's what it looked like before (I just have random images to show you...didn't to cool before pictures):

Here is the dining room at Parker's 3rd birthday...complete with messy shelves...I can't believe I'm showing this to you...

And the living room with splotches...this is during a small group last year...Mr. Matt of  Fourth Avenue Studios wanted to figure out how this audible Star Wars card worked.  Being the sound guy he is, we let 'em rip it out to see...ends up it used the card paper as a speaker so we had fun using different things as speakers...like, our heads:

And here's after:

And one of my favorite finds recently:

Next is Dave's part...crown moulding for the rooms.  Can't wait!!!