jodified

Hello Tuesday.

I'm in the mood to be crazy today.  

Pondering my options and thinking either The Magic House or The Science Center sounds good. Both are free and both are fun and both might just kill me since I'll be by myself with all three kids but it's just that kind of day. I want to let the kids run and play and explore and enjoy LIFE and this weather and their world. 

Or by 9am I might call it quits and think riding bikes in the back yard is a big enough adventure for me! 

Just another in a long line of fuzzy self-portraits… this one is Parker licking me. Love it. I see an entire fuzzy album in my future! 

Last week my friend Becky invited me along with her sister and their girls to go walking at Powder Valley Nature Reserve (I am not linking today b/c I am rushed and lazy so if you are curious about any of these places you'll have to google them!)… Becky I need to get you this pic of Mandy and Karlee! 

  And I love this one b/c Parker held Mandy's hand most of the time since the hills were steep and I had Gray in the stroller… she doesn't usually warm up to people so fast!

  The FUNNIEST part was when Parker had to go potty and I stopped to figure out my options. When I couldn't figure out how to get out of the woods fast enough for her to not have an accident I stopped and asked Becky what she would do… and without barely blinking she had P's pants down and was letting her pee pee next to the trail!

OMG I was laughing so hard! THAT is friendship people! Forget digging a BIFF (Bathroom In Forest Floor), we just pee anywhere! HA! I chose NOT to post the photo that actually showed her little peepee's but it was FUNNY! 

And at the end of the walk we all sat and had snacks. The girls found this little guy and were facinated by him…  

It was a fun day and a good adventure and great for tiring out a bunch of little girls and one baby boy b/c MAN did my kids nap that day! 

AND NOW YOU KNOW why I want to do something crazy fun today again! GOOD NAPS! HA! 

Last thing this morning I want to share a photo that a blog reader + future client (right E? HA!) sent me yesterday… 

She was on vacation in PARADISE and actually thought about me! So in the spirit of my blog she took this photo and I AM IN LOVE WITH IT! Thanks for thinking of me and for taking such a RAD photo Elizabeth! 

And I'm out. I have little people begging for breakfast and whining at my feet. (Does anyone else want to claw their ears out from the whining of their children before 8am? Man oh man!) Then I'm going to pop in the shower so I look decent for our adventure today! I will NOT be taking the big heavy camera b/c the thought of juggling that PLUS my 3 kids makes me sweat. But I'll let you know how it goes!  

Alright people! Elizabeth is right! GO! 

Yep.

Today is the day people.  

Catch ya on Monday! WOOT! 

Oh man. Unplugged sucked a big one today!

 
Since I had pre-written my blog post I didn't even turn the computer on this morning, which meant that my calendar wasn't emailed to me which meant that my brain froze and I missed a family session this morning.   When we got back at noon from our location scouting adventure (for the catalog shoot) I saw I missed a call from a client, heard the message and panicked! I felt awful. So I broke the Unplug rules and called her back. Luckily we rescheduled for this afternoon, but I felt so so so bad!

All that tells me is that checking email is an every day necessity!  

Anyway, once I had broken the rules I decided to break the rest and worked through naps, which was good b/c I had three session this weekend and wanted to get some sneak peeks up! 

So we will have another GO at being UNPLUGGED later this week! Hopefully I won't fail twice!  

And since I got some work done today here are THREE sneak peeks in one big fat LOSER post. I hate losing. Especially something that I invented the rules for! SO frustrating! 

First up is the Goeliner family… with two sweet sweet boys!
 

  That face totally cracked me up!

Thanks Goeliner family! Your boys couldn't be cuter or more well-behaved!

Next up… last night I hung out with a couple getting married in August at our church and I'm shooting the wedding the night before we leave for Florida! It was fun to hang out with older kids since I'm usually with children 3 and under!  

Chris and Sally love their motorcycles and so we took a few on the HOG. I'm so cool! Anyway, this is my new favorite photo I think! I just love their faces in that little mirror! 

Thanks Chris and Sally! And girls! I had a blast! 

Last but not least was my missed session this morning that we fit in earlier tonight! Little Libby was SO cute! Oh man! AND Jen wanted me to pick an ultra urban location… i LOVE a client that is willing to go ANYWHERE! I will explain more later! HA! 

Their last name is Joy… LOVE it. 

Jen was so excited to see a sneak peek! I hope you like them Jen! Thanks for being flexible and forgiving today! I really appreciate your understanding! 

Totally random, but yesterday on my way home from the second session I get a desperate call that our good friend's, the Miller's, had their daughter going off to prom and a camera with no batteries! I happened to be in the neighborhood so I ran over and took a few photos for them.  

The ONLY reason I want to share one here is to ask you this… did you EVER look this good in high school? Because no one I knew did!
 

So anyway. It really was a great weekend even though today didn't go as planned. Not as originally planned when I booked the Joy session and not as planned when I screwed up and wanted to Unplug!  

Oh well. That
9;s life. 

No matter what day I finally Unplug, I WILL be blogging about it on June 1st and hope lots of you join me! 

Until tomorrow… 

I am a sucker for hand and feet photos.
 

Baby feet especially.  

But it's hands, that to me, tell the story.  

I have long fingers. Chris calls them my "witch hands" but I have always gotten compliments on my long fingers. It is one of those random things I actually take pride in. I pray my girls have my hands once their toddler chub falls away. I have strong nails like my dad's mom and will always remember the day he told me that. I am in love with my wedding and engagement rings and the story behind them. I wear a ring on my right hand that came from my grandma and was slipped on my finger one day at church and as I looked questioningly at my mom, she simply said, "it doesn't fit me anymore and I want you to have it." It hasn't come off since. I have callouses on my hands that have never gone away from my lacrosse days. Part of me hopes they never go away. My hands have held babies and people I will never forget. They have done work I am incredibly proud of and work i wish I could take back. They have helped others and hurt others. They have been raised in worship and crossed in anger and hidden crying eyes.  

They are my hands. And they tell a story. And they hold stories untold. 

Hands are the reason I am head over heels in love with this photo… 

 
It was taken by my friend Emily of Emily Southerland Photography.

When Grayson turns one next month it will mean so many things for me, but one of the biggest is the fact that I have nursed for one year. We'll keep going, so it's not like it's for only a year, but I made it a year when the longest either girl nursed was 6 weeks. And I have LOVED our time nursing. Loved it. Love it. And I want to remember this sweet time for the rest of my life. But I don't need a photo of his mouth on my breast to remember.  

This is exactly what I needed. His hand in my hair b/c this is what he does every single time he eats. And although the older he's gotten the more forceful, at times, it becomes, I still love it. Hair tugs and all.  

This photo tells a story. The story of us. Me and Grayson. My little bubba.  

Oh man I love this photo! 

I take a lot of photos of my kids.

Doesn't everyone?

How many are you in?

I went back through the last two months and guess how many I am in. Guess.

ZERO.

Oh man. It was a wake-up call. So was this post HERE.

And I am going to remedy this situation as fast as possible. Just try to get me to take your photo without me stretching my arm out as far as it can go and breaking my wrist so it can bend enough to get a shot of ME with YOU. Whoever YOU are. Because I don't even care. My kids, my husband, my parents, my friends, my clients. I am going to start putting myself in more photos b/c it is SAD that for the last two months there is not one captured memory of me and my kids. Sad.

This is what got me from that post:

1. In five years you will look five years older….you WILL look young in the pictures you take today!

2. Ten years ago I thought I was fat. Oh my goodness….I should have taken pictures THEN.

3. Your children look at you all day long. THEY know what you look like. They won’t care how you look in the picture.

I really don’t like how I look in pictures. It pains me. I still
want to look like I did when I was 25 years old. And really I’m shocked
that I don’t.

But seriously. My children love me just the way I am. Chins and all.

Consider this your call to action!

The beginning of a long series of images that will look like this…

The settings are wrong for the light we were in, the focus is off, the crop is funky, the editing was fast but I LOVE THEM. I might just frame these.

I love them.

My kids can look back and know that in May of 2009 their mom LOVED them.

And I hadn't showered or put on make-up or brushed my hair or gotten out of my pjs yet for these.

I love it. Snap out of it and GET IN THE PICTURE!

Today.

—————–

In other big boy news… yesterday I went in to get Grayson from his nap and he was SITTING UP in his crib. Until this week he has been pretty much a sit and stay put kind of kid. But all of a sudden he is scooting and crawling and pulling up and rolling around like he has ants in his pants. He can't sit still. It's been 11 long months of not moving and he's making up for it!

So today, when I went up after morning nap I brought my camera just in case he was sitting up again…

See him waving? Can't get any cuter!

He will be one year old in a month. I can't believe I have almost survived a year! My life is going to seem so simple!

And I WILL NOT mention that he has slept through the night for two weeks straight. I will not. Because the chance of jinxing myself terrifies me!

Love this kid.

—————–

Rocking and Rolling on all the JUNK that needs to get done around here. Watching a very dark storm gather outside my window. Praying for long naps so I can wrap up some work AND take a shower.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

I read a LOT of photography blogs. Like. A LOT. Some I love more than others and some make me want to save my pennies to travel all around the country to have our family seen through that photographer's eyes. And it is those photographer's who always make me wonder what a session with them is like.

How do they get the kids to look their way? How do they get people to look so natural or pose so well? What time do they go out to get that light and how did they find the seemingly perfect location?

Really, if we had pennies to save I would be saving them to meet some of these amazing talents with my kids in hand and Chris grumbling behind me!

And not that I am a huge talent but I thought that if I wondered those things about other photographers that maybe people wondered that about me.

Which leads me to this post today!

But I will get to it in just a second….

FIRST, a few things!

1. I am BEYOND excited that THIS photographer just launched her new design website! Check it out!

2. I chatted with this sweet lady the other night before her first NILMDTS session, she's based in CA, and I think I helped convince her to start a blog! I LOVE seeing people start blogs b/c obviously, I am a BIG blog proponent! See her first post HERE!

3. I got this email from the dad of the twins… you know… these little guys…

Don't recognize this image? Well that is b/c their dad, Andy, and I had a covert operation going on the last couple of weeks! I got their session done and emailed HIM the gallery password before HER. Then he chose an image to print as a 20×30 canvas gallery wrap (the image above) and so before I sent HER the password I yanked this photo out of the gallery so she wouldn't see it until MOTHER'S DAY when Andy surprised her with this HUGE canvas!

He was so excited about it all he ALSO ordered a 16×24 canvas of this photo:

Oh man they looked awesome! I've never seen a canvas as big as the 20×30!

Here is the email he sent me this morning…

Jodie,

Andy

SO FUN! Thanks Andy! And Happy Mother's Day Maureen!

——————-

Meet Janel:

(I'm being lazy and rather then dig around in my old external hard drive I just yanked these photos off of Janel's blog!)

You can read about her FUN life HERE on her blog! Or visit her NEW business blog HERE! Or her ETSY show HERE!

My
mom, my sister and I met Jodie at a local pub where we hopped in the
car and literally drove around downtown and jumped out of the car to
shoot each pic at each perfect location.  (Jodie had driven around
downtown a few days before to scout out the most amazing artistic
locations).  Her "eye" had found the most beautiful locations hidden
within the downtown area.  The best way that I could describe the
locations are as "diamonds in the rough," literally  We would walk
down an alley and find a homeless encamptement full of beautiful mosaic
walls and recycled sculptures.  It was soooo me!

Did I mention that Adam had NO IDEA that we were doing the bridal shoot!  It was going to be a secret surprise for him

Thanks Janel!!! I have other client stories to share soon!

It's Monday, let's ROCK THIS DAY!