Okay so I wanted to do something awesome for all you wonderful readers! Thank you so much for coming over to my newly designed blog at this new address (and for updating your links)! I am so excited about this new adventure, as I’m sure you can tell 🙂 So what am I giving away?
Well first up it’s a family photo shoot and $300 worth of products (prints, canvases or digital negatives). For a total value of $450 (yes, really!).

The details. The shoot is for a family of 6 or less, I can accommodate more but it will be an additional charge. I serve the mid-Willamette Valley, travel 60 miles from zip code 97308 is included. The prizes are in the form of a gift certificate (which will expire January 31st, 2012). If you would like a friend or relative to enter for you so you get another chance, that’s fine (one comment per person/household please!), I’d love more people to check out the new blog! To be entered in this giveaway just comment and include GIVEAWAY #1.
Of course I couldn’t forget all my wonderful readers who don’t live near me!
The second giveaway is for the first ever Life in Color scrapbook kit (hehehe). Valued at… um, wait, my husband reads this blog. Let’s just say it has lots of awesome stuff in it.

Want a few detail shots of that goodness?


I’ll ship this kit anywhere, so yes my readers in Canada, Germany, and anywhere else can enter too! Just leave a comment with GIVEAWAY #2 in the comments section below.
To repeat: To enter the photo shoot giveaway leave a comment with GIVEAWAY #1. For the scrapbook kit leave a comment with GIVEAWAY #2, and if you want to be entered in both just leave ONE comment with both GIVEAWAY #1 and GIVEAWAY #2 on it (I’m sorry but if your comment doesn’t include either one of those you will not be entered). That’s one comment per person/household. You don’t need to tweet, blog, facebook (ooh but I do have a page now) or anything else. But if you WANT to that is awesome, I’d love to spread the word about my blog!
The giveaways are open until Wednesday, February 2nd, and winners will be chosen randomly and announced here Thursday, February 3rd. If the winner(s) can’t be reached by February 8th a new winner will be chosen. If any questions pop up I’ll edit the post and answer them here instead of the comments section.
-
-
When Ceara was here for Christmas (yay!!!!) I was able to shoot her family.

I know there are people I talk about over and over on the blog that you really don’t know, and Ceara is one of them. Ceara and I grew up together and really became close in middle school when she befriended me even though at her sleep over birthday party I hid in her room reading baby-sitter club books while the other guests watched a scary movie (I think it was Aracnophobia, but we can’t really remember). We were on dance team together, sang silly songs (mostly Madonna) together very loudly in the car and obsessed about movie stars (her = George Clooney, me = David Duchovny) through high school. She went to U of O, I went to Oregon State (supposed enemies, but I’m not very into that rivalry). The main bummer about that was the distance. We talked at least once a week and her parents would come get me at my dorm when they went down to watch her perform (she was a music major and has an amazing voice). Then she went and met this hot guy who she fell in love with and MOVED ACROSS THE COUNTRY (is this not acrossed the country? Have I been saying this wrong my whole life?).
So I visited her in Arkansas where she got married, and in Vermont where she lives now. I’ve been there three times, twice with Tuesday. Vermont is very pretty, but too far away. This was never more clear than the family shoot. Her darling boy (here 8 months) has changed so much from the little cute lump from when I visited last time.




I set this shot up and her husband held down the shutter and hoped for the best. I think he took like 20 shots in 2 minutes, hehehe.
Love this woman and her family. I’m so glad we got these photos. The only time I could shoot them was on Christmas eve morning because her husband is an athletic trainer and had to work up until the holiday, and leave right after. I walked into her dad’s home not knowing what to expect (like most shoots!). But I’m not afraid to move furniture and open doors to get some light (like I did here). I don’t mind a little noise (if it was film you’d call it grain). I prefer it actually to smooth weird processed looking skin. The shot you see when my blogs header starts up (if you haven’t clicked over to the actual site from reader or an RSS the header is a slideshow, check it out) is her baby when he first woke up from a nap. Ceara was snuggling him and it was so sweet, so glad I brought my camera in to capture it.
So, how do you think you say her name? Trust me, she’s heard it all!13 comments on Your guess on pronunciation in the comments section -
So we took Tuesday to Disneyland for her second birthday….

Yes, yes, we took an almost two year old to the “greatest place on earth.” Now I know right up front that not everyone is a huge Disney fan, that’s totally fine because honestly I’m not that into Disney myself. Tuesday doesn’t watch any TV or movies at all*, so we were not going to show her all the characters. People did wonder why take her then. Well I didn’t watch much TV when I was young myself, and we went to Disneyland for vacations and I just remember it being an AWESOME vacation place. I know how much she likes to watch people and knew she would have fun just doing that if nothing else. We got a bit of flack at the decision to take such a young kid and I was worried that it would be super over stimulating for her. As a precaution we decided to stay right on the property so that if we needed to we could go back to the hotel easily. So how did it work out?
Whatever you think of Disney they sure know families, and kids especially. The last time I went to Disneyland was on my honeymoon and it was like we were at a totally different park this time with a kid. I passed by all the little boat rides, the play areas, the slower things when I was there just with Bj, but this time that was mostly what we did. As an added bonus we had two sets of grandparents, two uncles and an aunt to keep Tuesday entertained (and allow Bj and I to go on some fast rides—hello space mountain!). I love family vacations and I hadn’t been on a big one in so long. It was three days of fun and family.
Staying in park was so cool. Between the hotel, downtown Disney, California Adventure, and Disneyland (my mom and step-dad got us park hopper passes) we never left the magical little bubble. It was weird to go on a long walk all the way around Disney the last day and see the “real world” just outside it. Tuesday did so well and had so much fun running everywhere and pointing out the train, or any roller coaster that looked like a train. Talk about heaven for our train obsessed girl. She’d point to one and insist mama or papa go on it so she could watch! It was a lot of work to keep up with her and I only brought my camera into the park for an hour one day, on her “birthday”. So most of these photos are from relatives (thanks!).


(trying out my blogs gallery function, I think you’ll have to pop out of reader to use it, not sure. Hmm, not liking the slideshow so much, I’ll have to mess around with it some more, sorry it’s so huge, I have no idea why!). So have you been to Disney with or without a kid? What did you think? Have you ever been on a birthday? Because Tuesday was treated like a super star (I’m sure the cape helped). She met princesses and loved them, even though she had no clue who they were besides pretty dressed up ladies giving her hugs. The one thing she did not like? Any character with a fake head! Ha!

*A couple days before we left Tuesday and I both got sick, she was puking and I was drowning in the sorrow of a terrible cold. I popped in two Disney movies: Toy Story 3 (Tuesday speak: “the guy show”) and Monsters, Inc (“the Monkey show”) since we could both barely move. I can’t believe how quickly she knew these characters and pointed them out in Disneyland. Man they suck your kids in quick, watch out!
recent posts
helpful info
archives
2 page layouts 8.5×11 layouts 12×12 layouts Alaska birthday birthday party brads canning Carmen Chloe crew girls dining room DIY elimination communication fair fall food front yard hair Halloween iPhone misting Montessori newborn nighttime night time oregon oregon coast oregon state fair organization painting painting with kids party portland punches ribbon salem Sciarrino scrapbooking sewing on scrapbooking Silhouette sleep toddler Tuesday tulips







