Happy Halloween!

We hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween! Get your bellies full of lots of yummy candy (especially since we can't)!!! Plain ol' dog food for us...

Love,

Lola the Ladybug and Kosmo the Lobster

P.S.

My photography website is officially UP!!! (in case you're not friends with me on Facebook and didn't already know....)

www.junebug-photos.com

Check it out :D

don't miss the new post below ;)

Perspective.

Why hello there, little blog!

my girl sleeps with her legs straight up in the air and it makes me giggle. especially when she's totally under the covers and it looks like there's a huge creature just standing in the middle of the bed, under the covers.

I had a good day today... and a good week, really, for that matter. But today was good. I got to see my brothers, my aunt, and my grandma... not often that that happens all in the same day... on a random weekday for that matter. Unfortunately, the circumstances were less than ideal - I traveled up north for my brothers' grandfather's funeral (remember, we're 1/2 sibs so he wasn't my grandpa, but he was always really nice to me and was a stand-in grandpa to me on trips I went on with my bro's side of the fam).

Nothin' like a funeral to make you realize what's really important in life... to put things in perspective, ya know? Which is why I decided to go to the funeral in the first place. My brothers would have totally understood had I not gone, after all it was an hour long drive there and back, he wasn't really my family.... a phone call saying I'm sorry for your loss and I'm praying for you would have been good enough... but how much more does being there mean?

I want to be a more deliberate person, I am trying to be. A more deliberate sister, friend, girlfriend, daughter, niece, grand-daughter. I want to go out of my way to let people know I care, not just assume they know. So whether that means sending out random handwritten notes, a text that says Hey I'm thinking about you, or driving two hours round trip to pay my condolences and be a shoulder for my brothers to cry on, I want to do it. Because you never know when you may no longer have the opportunity and a simple phone call may not seem good enough anymore.

So I had lunch with my aunt Kathy (Dad's sister) afterwards and we decided this needs to happen way more often. North Vernon is not that far away. I love going up to North Vernon because it is such a small town and everyone still remembers my Daddy. I get a lot of This is Ron's daughter when I'm there... which doesn't happen here at home. But since NV is so small and he was well known up there, that's how they know me. And I like it. It makes me feel like he's still acknowledged and not totally forgotten, even nearly 11 years later. And I like that.

On my way outta town I stopped by my grandma's house (mom's mom). I needed to be home by a certain time to make another appointment, but I decided that I was there NOW and who cares if I'm a little late? Family is more important anyway, right? Anyway, she apparently just leaves her front door wide open so I just walked on in and scared the poo out of her. Goodtimes:) She cracks me up and informed me that Santa's supposed to be bringing her a computer for Christmas and then she'll be on Facebook. Sure can't wait for that day. Her statuses are sure to be hilarious.

So anyway. All that to say.... today I am thankful. I am blessed with a great family and I am trying not to take any of them for granted. I know that soon life will get busy again and our planned monthly lunch dates will be hard to keep, phone calls will be cut to texts, and letters will be traded for Facebook wall posts... but I am trying and that's all you can really do :)

We have a fun weekend planned and I can't wait.

Just in case you were wondering...

...what studying and trying to do homework is like with two Boston Terriers....





Now you know.

It's not the most productive environment ever, but at least it's entertaining.

sorta.

here's to the freakin' weekend.

sorry, i have that song stuck in my head.

whattup homies?

hope you all had a fabulous weekend because i sure did. it was nothing crazy, just a nice time at home with my little family. it was kind of the perfect stay-at-home fall weekend. we enjoyed... a little exercising (josh ran 18 miles, i did....not run at all ((perfect, you know, since i -- maybe -- have a half marathon next weekend and all)), spin & weights class for me, thanks), lots of time in sweats, saturday afternoon naps, a date night, hot chocolate, etc... wins all around. we also tossed around the idea of painting the living room/kitchen (!!!) it makes me super excited to think about it. but i will share more about that if/when it happens.

so anyway. the weekend. it consisted of...

apple eating.

which, as you know, is a big event around here nowadays to the boston terriers.

don't go hatin' on my baby girl thinking she's the only apple-begger... take a look at the bigger picture.

oh yeah, there's two of 'em. vultures.

hot chocolate.

peanut butter & marshmallow style.

stinky dogs got a bath.

and they are already stinky again. amazing how fast that happens.

tv show marathons in pajamas with popcorn.

where is lola's other eye?

does anybody else watch that show? josh started watching season 1 last week... i made fun of him because i am totally anti-zombie or vampire anything. but i couldn't escape it and now we're on season 2 and i kind of actually like it. weird.

date night.

my joshie poo is getting scruffy facial hair and i likes it

pried ourselves away from the zombies long enough to enjoy a nice dinner together at olive garden.

brother time.

my bro was in town for the weekend and stopped by on his way home. of course he could not be in town and not stop by to see his favorite niece and nephew! besides, lola bear is almost a year old (!!!) and she had yet to meet her uncle eric.

location scouting.

i should know by now that any time we leave the house and josh has a camera, that i should look cute. but apparently i have not learned this lesson yet. if i had known i was going to be photographed, i would have tried to look half way decent....or at least put on some make-up :-/

we did some location scouting from some upcoming shoots this weekend which doubled as a little outing for the bostons. we went to a state park that was pretty vacant, which meant that for the most part, the kids got to run leash-free. talk about best day of their lives!

what did you do this weekend? hope it was wonderful! :-D

date night!

happening now :)

Shirt: Free People

Jeans: J.Crew

Boots: Steve Madden

Necklace: Jennifer Lopez (Kohls)

Photography & Fall Stuff

Last night Josh and I were hanging out in our little basement studio. He was teaching me how to use the lights for when I take studio portraits.

Oh, he was also eating an apple.

Not relevant, you say? Oh, but it is.

A couple weeks ago, Josh gave Lola and Kosmo a bite of his apple (Kosmo wasn't interested until Lola started going crazy for it --my girl knows a good thing when she sees it -- then he was all about it too) and now they think they're entitled to all the apples in this house. Seriously, take one bite of an apple and this happens:

They are like little vultures. It's pretty hilarious.

Anyways. So I learned all about lighting and f-stops and whatnot last night. Which involves a lot more math (with fractions!) than I thought was involved in photography.

B was such a thrilled willing model for me to practice on.

Luckily, I caught on pretty fast. I think B was even surprised at how not-dumb I was. However, if I don't use it I'll lose it, so book some in-studio shoots so I can retain my newfound knowledge ;)

I took some photos of my friend Shelly's kiddos this morning! We were planning to do it outside, but the weather here currently is YUCKO. Cold, windy, and rainy are not optimal shooting conditions, especially with babies. So inside it was and we still had a good time!

It is actually more difficult than you think to get 4 kiddos to all look at you (or at least in the same direction) AND smile at the SAME TIME. But we got some pretty cute shots! Thanks for bringing the kids over, Shelly!

***********************************************************************************

I took a better picture of my scarecrows the other day. (I was bored)

I just think they're super cute. Josh does too even if he won't admit it ;)

My mum also got me a mom...... wait, that's not right.

Either way, I love it too. It adds a pop of color to the porch. :)

I love fall. :D

It's inside too.

Okay, so the picture of us on the beach isn't really fall-like, but I ordered a new picture for that frame and it should be here soon! :)

Well......I hate to cut this short. I know y'all were super interested in all my random fall home decor. But ugh... I gotta get ready for class.

Enjoy your Thursday!

Happenings from lately.

So, this past weekend we took our annual trip to Huber's to pick out some pumpkins. As usual, we had a smashing (pumpkins) good time. just kidding, we didn't smash any pumpkins. We went with Heather and Ryan and Brittany and Chris. We all picked out the perfect pumpkin and then enjoyed a nice lunch in their big lawn with some live music and a couple pitchers of Sangria :)





I kind of wanted a giant white one but that greatly limited my selection and all the white ones seemed to be lop-sided so we settled for a cute little orange one.

It was super windy (as evidenced above) and a little chillier than I expected, but at least it wasn't 80 degrees like it was last year..

After lunch (which took a ridonkulously long time to get), we ended the afternoon with some pumpkin ice cream. It was HEAVEN!

So anywho.

Besides some fun fall activities like pumpkin picking and drinking apple cider, I've mostly just been doing lots and lots of school work!! But we're already HALF way through the semester... crazy. I can't believe it's October 18th. Seriously, where does the time go?!?!!

Oh yeah!

I said I have been working on a new project.... and that project is...

I have been trying to devote more time to my little photography "endeavor" and just see where it takes me! I truly love doing it and I'm at a place right now where I have a little more time to do so, so we'll see! Who knows if I will ever be able to do it full time, right now I'm just enjoying learning & growing as a photographer and blessing others by preserving little moments in their lives! I made that logo all by myself and I have to say I am pretty proud of it! :D I'm working on the website still, but feel free to "LIKE" us on Facebook to follow along with the latest shoots, news, and specials! If you're local and you LIKE us in October, you'll get 10% off your first session fee as long as it's completed in 2011. If you're not local, feel free to join as well-- I'd love the support! :D

I did an engagement shoot with my brother and his fiance on Friday. Did I mention my brother got engaged?? Well, he did! and I'm so super excited for him!!! Jenn is awesome and I can't wait til she's my sis-in-law!!!! Here are a few of my favorites from our shoot!

okay, so I had a lot of favorites. I can't help it if my Adam and Jenn are gorgeous (I mean, duh Adam is related to me after all...;)) and should be models. You can check the rest of them out on the Facebook page!

I have a few more shoots coming up in the next few weeks and hopefully the website will be up soon! :)

So that's that.

Other than all that....

hmmm..

oh! I signed up for a half marathon on October 29th. or 30th. can't remember. And yes, perhaps I am crazy but I had a free entry and it sounded fun so I figured why not?? But it's supposed to rain/snow and be cold, and if so I'm not going to do it. just saying. Mostly because I ran 8 miles Sunday...was goin' for 10... and was dying after 6. If Josh wasn't running too I would have called him to come get me. It was sad :( So I'm going back to the Dr next week to see if he can fix me AGAIN and hopefully I can push through.... I'm going to yoga today (for the first time in forever!) and plan to start going at least once a week (the gym only offers it twice/wk) and I think that will really help!!! hope so at least! Wish me luck.

I think that's about everything!

HaPpY TuEsDaY!