Monster Jam - January 2009

We, once again, went to Monster Jam at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN. Nick was even home to go to the show this January! It was a lot of fun and I'm sure we'll be going again next year.



There were a lot of extras, like trailer racing




And ATV Freestyle




This truck, King Kong, flipped almost right away




Nick's favorite - Gravedigger


Up tomorrow - babysitting Kalyn.

Hopefully, my posts are going to be pretty frequent this week. I still have to get the babysitting pictures and Hot Air Affair pictures up... plus a couple things from this week. They'll all be up before I announce my very exciting news that might have a big effect on my posts here (maybe).

Merry Christmas.... in March?!?

The promised Christmas photos... and I even have a little while (a week and a half!) to post pictures from the other 4 events.




Alonzo opening his new Wii





Nick - I can't believe how old he is!





Daddy & Baby (my brother-in-law & nephew)



At Paul's aunt & uncle's - a performance by his cousins



All (or at least most!) of Paul's extended family playing Christmas Carol Bingo


Up next... Monster Jam! (by the end of the month, I promise)

Broken Promises

Remember when I said I'd post again? Well, I didn't quite break that promise... but I'm pretty sure I said soon and I'm pretty sure I didn't fulfill that promise. Plus, I didn't post pictures from Christmas, or the Hot Air Affair, or anything else I said I'd post pictures from.

I have an excuse. My house has turned into an assembly line of DVDs. DVDs of my mother-in-law's musical. No, she's not in a musical, she directs it! She is a music teacher and this is her 18th year of directing an elementary musical. They did they Lion King this year. It's amazing and I videotape it every year. Then we sell the DVDs! It's a lot of work, but so much fun. This year I took portraits before the show (portraits are here, but you need the password and I'm not gonna give it to you here! hahaha) which doubled the work but quadrupled the fun. Anyway, here's about 1/20th of the DVDs we've made so far...

Aren't they fun and colorful? I also spent a fun-filled Saturday preparing for friends to come over so that Paul could play video games all night. Of course, he insisted on puppy chow.

It does not look anywhere near as delicious as it tastes. :c)

Well, I promise (for real this time) to post some pictures from the last 3 months. By the end of the week. The end of the month, I mean. That will give me plenty of time! Plus, I'm doing something really fun at the end of the month, and I'll hopefully have plenty of stories to tell. Plus photos to post. Although those probably won't get up on here until... mid-August.

New Design

Wow! I missed all of January?!? How did that happen?

Well, despite the fact that I haven't posted here since mid-December, I will be (trying to) get back in the habit. I have a lot of photos to get up on here - from Christmas, Monster Jam, babysitting, the Hot Air Affair... and possibly some other things as well! I guess I have an excuse - I've been busy. I really didn't think I had been, until I looked at that list.

Well, the real purpose of this post - I redesigned my website. It isn't completely different, but I've added some things and I'll be continuing to add more. The navigation bar has moved - it's at the bottom on the homepage & top right on the rest of the pages. There are two areas with galleries; one has only weddings & portraits and the other has all of my other pictures. Also, there is a link on the homepage to receive updates by email. If you subscribe, you will receive one email with all of my photos, but after that you will only get emails if I upload new pictures. What a great way to keep up with the pictures I have online! :c)

I will soon be adding a couple pages with pricing and services. I haven't had a chance to create those yet, so keep your eyes open! Smugmug has partnered with a new professional lab, Bay Photo. The prints are slightly more expensive, but they are better quality & are color corrected by hand at the lab. All of my galleries are now set to provide these professional prints. If you are really not interested in the extra quality, let me know - I can always switch it back.

Well, I think those are all the major updates. I promise to post again soon, and include pictures!

The Bigma and the Packer game

So, Paul "accidentally" bought tickets to the Green Bay Packer game against the Carolina Panthers. I couldn't really blame him, because he got them for face value. The game was at Lambeau on November 30, so it was a little cold, and the Panthers won, but it was still a lot of fun! I rented the "Bigma" (Sigma 50-500) to use and brought a monopod. They let me in to the stadium, but we had some security guys keeping a close eye on us during warm ups! Anyway, here are some of the photos I ended up with.



Rodgers, getting ready to run a play



Jennings' touchdown at the other end of the field



Not the best picture, but a great catch!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

That's really all I had to say.

Halloween "babysitting"

Why hello again! I'm surprised that I'm already posting again - it hasn't even been a whole month this time!

Everything is so busy but also so not busy at the same time. I feel like I'm going crazy with work & meetings & of course football on the weekends, but I still have some time just to be at home, relaxing or editing photos or reading... Fortunately, I've had some photos to edit & I have some fun and exciting shoots coming up. Unfortunately, the Packers are having a very intense (and typically not good) season. I hated seeing them lose to the Vikings today!

On Halloween, Paul & I babysat one of our nephews, Kalyn. He's seven months old & crawling all over the place! He also pulls himself up on furniture. Trudy (Kalyn's mom) & I kind of turned this babysitting weekend into a photo shoot. She sent a few outfits & I just left my light set up in our computer room. It was pretty fun for me, but I don't think Kalyn felt the same way!








Hopefully someday soon I'll be able to get some photos of our other nephews! I've also been waiting for Paul to consent to me taking a Christmas picture for us to send out... On that note, I now have greeting cards available on my site!