Clark is going to be 3 very soon!

Peek-a-boo

For his birthday – Clark’s Mom and Dad are giving him a new baby!  Lucky little guy!

Lots of good things happening for the C family!  :)

“Oh Hi!  Ya, my eyes are amazing…no big deal.”

Emma and Wiggles.

So, since I pay for this blog I decided to use it more often.  Especially when I get super excited about something and just photos on facebook won’t do a story justice.

I have been going my whole life not knowing about the bird known as the killdeer until tonight…

Let me set the stage:  I was helping out in the concession stand at a track meet.  A nice girl from Harborcreek was being scared silly by this little bird as she walked up to our stand.

Just then, my husband said, “Oh that bird must be a Killdeer.  You see, they lay their eggs in a graveled area, then when they feel threatened they make a scene, then they run to a different area and pretend that they are hurt in order to distract whatever is threatening their nest!”

WHAT?  I have know my husband since I was 11 years old and he is just now telling me this piece of mind blowing information? Where in his brain was he hiding this?  Was it behind the endless list of song lyrics and the dates that albums were released?

Anyway, back to my story!

I went to investigate with some nice people from Harborcreek.  A boy who must have some type of super hero egg spotting ability found the eggs in the gravel.  What a great camoflauge for these eggs! I sure as heck couldn’t see them.

Instantly we all became concerned with the well being of these little precious eggs, so we found a cone and placed it near the nest.

You are welcome Mrs. Killdeer.

I have a video of the mama trying to act like she was injured as a ploy to get us away from the nest.

I was truly amazed by all of this.  I feel like it is my civic duty to let everyone I know about this clever little creature.  So there ya go.

I woke up this rainy morning and thought, what a great morning to fold the two baskets of laundry that are waiting for me in the mud room.  I dragged my sleepy self into the laundry room to find this:

Well, the clothes WERE clean!  Just an aside, you see how her eyes are almost closed?  That is her guilty look.  I think she thinks that if she can’t see me – I can’t see her.

As I got closer, she didn’t jump up.  She seemed to bury down a little – as if to hide something.

I forced her out of the basket that contained my once clean clothes.

AHA!!!

I knew it!  She got into Austin’s Easter Candy.  Now, don’t worry.  She doesn’t eat these things.  She just carries odd packages of candy around with her.  One time she carried a mini snickers bar for 3 days.  She never ate it or opened it.  Just carried it.

She carried it onto the porch, set it down and stared at it lovingly.

Casey kept her distance, not wanting to get growled at but she couldn’t help but lick her lips thinking how tasty those chocolate peeps would be.

Buffy noticed that her peeps were being eyed up.

Not a chance, Casey.

Now, I need to go do laundry.

Charlie’s Second Birthday is soon approaching!

Look how cute his Curios Charlie T-Shirt is!

When you bring your kids to get their photo taken, this isn’t funny.  But I bet it will be hilarious in about 15 years.

We have been so spoiled by warm weather – that today’s session with the temperature with a balmy 36 degrees was a bit of a rude awakening.  But this couple was so much fun to be with that it wasn’t that bad!
 A good way to scare a groom is this:

“Hey Katie, how long do these engagement sessions usually last?”  -

“Oh about 4 hours.”

He just looked at me.   hahahahha

I am pretty sure he was wondering how to politely tell me that I was out of my mind.

Apparently there is some March Madness thing that needs watching.  I haven’t checked my bracket in a while….I might just have to do that right now.

Thanks to J + J for braving the cold and coming out to the West County today!

This year was our second annual Bunny Days at the studio. I can’t begin to express how much I love doing this. My face literally hurts after we are done, because we have laughed and smiled so much.

I knew that in the photography business, it is a little controversial to use live animals as props. I am an animal lover and knew that if I did this, it would mean that I had to do it right. So I enlisted the help of my friend Stacy, who loves and cares for animals better than anyone I know.

We are careful that Stacey stays right next to the kids – so that she can monitor them and if they aren’t handling the animals well, then we take them away, (nicely) then move on.

I NEED TO ADD THAT STACEY LOVED AND CARED FOR A PET DUCK FOR FIVE YEARS.  HIS NAME WAS BILL.

However, during a session, this little guy grabbed the duckie and tossed it. Stacey was right next to him and caught him and he was fine. I posted this on facebook and people of course, knowing that we weren’t CONDONING this behavior and knowing that the duckie WAS FINE and had faith in us that we removed the ducks and chicks from his reach so that he wouldn’t do it again, loved this.

Well, not everyone loved it. It was reposted by many people and soon I was getting nasty messages from people who I don’t know. (You will have that with the world wide web I suppose.)

I get it! I really do. People love animals. I love animals. I never thought it would get the response that it did. My feelings were hurt. But these people don’t know me, they don’t know my girl Stacey and how we were making sure that the animals didn’t get hurt. They just saw a duck being mishandled.

So, as I was processing this whole situation, I went through my 5 steps of feeling bad.
1. Sadness
2. Confusion
3. Denial.
4. Anger (for about half a minute.)
5. Humor

I posted this. This seemed to make people more angry. I was just trying to be funny.

BUT THE DUCK IS OK!! He is ok because we gave the little boy a duck that he couldn’t hurt.

Of course on my sneak-peeks I didn’t post photos with Stacey in them but she was nearby at all times. SEE?

I want to thank everyone who came to our defense. My goal in life is to avoid conflict. I am not going to respond to anyone’s scathing remarks or accusations. We know how the animals were treated. Our clients know. The animals know.  To those who are making the remarks that we were mistreating them.  Let’s call it a draw – I am not going to convince you that we did a good job, and you aren’t going to convince me that I wasn’t.

I started thinking about a picture that I saw somewhere and then I recalled this photo I found of my aunt when I was going through my Grandmothers photos.

I think this is pretty darned funny too.  My aunt didn’t grow up to be a serial killer and the cat lead a healthy happy life.

This year was our second annual Bunny Days at the studio. I can’t begin to express how much I love doing this. My face literally hurts after we are done, because we have laughed and smiled so much.

I knew that in the photography business, it is a little controversial to use live animals as props. I am an animal lover and knew that if I did this, it would mean that I had to do it right. So I enlisted the help of my friend Stacy, who loves and cares for animals better than anyone I know.

We are careful that Stacey stays right next to the kids – so that she can monitor them and if they aren’t handling the animals well, then we take them away, (nicely) then move on.

However, during a session, this little guy grabbed the duckie and tossed it. Stacey was right next to him and caught him and he was fine. I posted this on facebook and people of course, knowing that we weren’t CONDONING this behavior and knowing that the duckie WAS FINE and had faith in us that we removed the ducks and chicks from his reach so that he wouldn’t do it again, loved this.

Well, not everyone loved it. It was reposted by many people and soon I was getting nasty messages from people who I don’t know. (You will have that with the world wide web I suppose.)

I get it! I really do. People love animals. I love animals. I never thought it would get the response that it did. My feelings were hurt. But these people don’t know me, they don’t know my girl Stacey and how we were making sure that the animals didn’t get hurt. They just saw a duck being mishandled.

So, as I was processing this whole situation, I went through my 5 steps of feeling bad.
1. Sadness
2. Confusion
3. Denial.
4. Anger (for about half a minute.)
5. Humor

I posted this. This seemed to make people more angry. I was just trying to be funny.

BUT THE DUCK IS OK!! He is ok because we gave the little boy a duck that he couldn’t hurt.

Of course on my sneak-peeks I didn’t post photos with Stacey in them but she was nearby at all times. SEE?

I want to thank everyone who came to our defense. My goal in life is to avoid conflict. I am not going to respond to anyone’s scathing remarks or accusations. We know how the animals were treated. Our clients know. The animals know.  To those who are making the remarks that we were mistreating them.  Let’s call it a draw – I am not going to convince you that we did a good job, and you aren’t going to convince me that I wasn’t.

EDITED TO ADD: STACEY LOVED AND CARED FOR A DUCK AS A PET FOR 5 YEARS!!!  So she is the last person to allow duckie abuse.

This video of her feeding Bill – that was his name – is so sweet!

I started thinking about a picture that I saw somewhere and then I recalled this photo I found of my aunt when I was going through my Grandmothers photos.

I think this is pretty darned funny too.  My aunt didn’t grow up to be a serial killer and the cat lead a healthy happy life.