Thursday, December 10, 2009

cupcake camper

We started a new family tradition recently... We decided that if we have money left in our dave food budget at the end of the month, we will treat our family out to lunch after church on the last Sunday of every month! Last month we went to Qdoba! (YUM!)

Outside of the shopping area was this hilarious "Cupcake Camper" selling gourmet cupcakes! Sam loved the huge spinning cupcake and she was SO excited to get an overpriced yet delicious cupcake to take home!!! (And one for us too of course!)

Strawberry for mommy & daddy and chocolate with peanut butter and reeces cups for Sammi!

She couldn't wait to get home to eat it!

And she finished every last bite!!!

I don't know if we'll get anymore cupcake camper cupcakes in the future, but I definitely hope we keep our tradition of eating out! What fun!!!!

thanksgiving


We had a wonderful, long Thanksgiving weekend!

We did lots of baking for Thanksgiving this year, including making these cookies! We LOVE making these EASY cookies! We just take the premixed stuff...

Do a little dance..

Dump it into mini muffin pans, and stick a chocolate piece (a kiss or reeces) in each one! And of course, EVERY time mom turns away for a split second, we sneak one into our mouth instead of a cookie!

Delicious!

On Thursday we went to dan's aunt & uncle's for a wonderful dinner with the entire Fort Wayne family! usually about 40-50 people come. While Natalie was playing with Great Grandma Brand....

Sammi has befriended all of the older girls, who are sooo sweet to her! They like dressing her up when she visits, and she looooooves the attention!

Lots of mingling...

Natalie enjoyed showing off her walking skills...

My FAVORITE part of thanksgiving... our family being together, in pajamas, with no work to go to and no schedule to follow!!!

We spent Saturday with my parents and brother and his wife. I made my first from-scratch cheesecake for the occasion, and it turned out fantastic, if I do say so myself! Looks a little crazy in this photo, but it was amazing.

At the Shermans' we colored...

We played games, ate, and relaxed!

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving Weekend! We are so thankful for having such wonderful families and enjoyed our time with them all so much!

playdate


Since the last daycare we took Sam to, she has not been the same. She's always been a little shy at first, but she gets so upset at the thought of us leaving her since the last daycare, that she makes herself sick at times. It makes it VERY hard to go places that require any kind of daycare or babysitting. I won't go into details, but I am upset that that "school" was a poor, poor choice. I hope she comes out of her shell. She still talks about how much she loved her "old school" (Primrose). For now, we'll just keep her with us and hope she grows out of this phase. Anyway!!! The point of mentioning that is that she was even upset when our friends, Becky, Bree and Kate came to OUR house to play! She sat on my lap most of the time and did not want to have her photo taken next to her friends! She did warm up a little toward the end, but we have a long way to go. 

On a sidenote, Becky and I were having our usual mom talk when the subject of discipline came up. I mentioned that time-outs are just pointless because Sam just sits and laughs or sings or observes everything going on around her and it's not a punishment for poor behavior. Becky tweaked my idea of time-outs by putting her "nose in the corner" instead, where she can't see what is going on around her. WOW!!!! I gotta tell you, IT WORKS!!! These days I just mention "Do you need to go put your nose in the corner?" and she shapes up right away!!!!


And for hitting or kicking her sister, no second chances. In the corner immediately. Following a 2-5 minute stay, she has to apologize and usually we require a hug too.

Natalie took her first nose dive into the fireplace! Happened to be at the same time Sam knocked our entire Christmas tree over! Awesome. {Sarcasm} At least the tree had just been put up and not even the lights were all working yet! Notice her poor little nose... :(

She has become quite fun these days though, playing peek-a-boo all the time! This is her way of hiding.... :)

She laughs hysterically when you "find" her!!! She is quickly becoming known for her huge smile!
Becky, can't wait for another playdate! Hopefully Sam will do better each time! And thanks for the advice!!!! It's perfect!!!!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

natalie walks


Natalie had taken a few steps at home before leaving for Fort Wayne, but she would always fall on her third step if she got that far. What a difference a week makes!!! Well, I guess I really have my hands full now! Watch out, world!!!! This 10 month old is ready for you!!!! You better get ready for her!!!! :)

we {heart} dave ramsey

This is Dave. 

Every Sunday evening we go to this church down the street from where we live...

to watch him do things like this....

so we can learn things like this:

(We watch him on DVD then have a group support discussion... Dave's not actually there.) I love Dave Ramsey. His lessons are brilliant, loving, fulfilling, inspiring, motivating, energizing, and full of education and hope. He has certainly changed our life. He teaches about how much you really pay when you use a credit card, even if you pay it off every month. About the benefits of taking out a 15 year mortgage. About how much $50 a month will be worth when you're 65 if you start setting it aside now. About taxes. Insurance. Health. Disability. Life. Teaching your children about money. And he makes it SOOO easy to understand.

I will forever be grateful to Dave Ramsey for his life lessons, and I will forever be grateful to the people who are supporting our journey to become completely debt-free (medical bills, cars, house.... everything). Our parents have given so much to help us raise and take care of our children as we have cut daycare out of our budget temporarily. My parents take the girls at least once a week and Dan's parents take them anywhere from a long weekend to a week every month so that we can build our business and therefore take care of our family. 

This entire week our girls have been in Fort Wayne with their Grandma and Grandpa Brand. This has given Dan and me many many hours of uninterrupted work time, which we are so appreciative of. We do miss our girls so much when they are gone, but we enjoy the fact that they have a real relationship with their wonderful grandparents and we generally keep so freakin' busy when they are gone that we almost (ALMOST!) don't have a chance to miss them!

Last month when the girls went to Fort Wayne we started our week with a wedding and Baby and Toddler Expo! We set up this booth Friday, worked the wedding Saturday while my dear friend Sarah A worked our booth for us, then Sunday Dan worked the show while I was in bed sick all day (boo). 

This week we started with a garage sale and then 9 back-to-back family sessions the following day with several of our favorite clients! That was so much fun!!! Busy, busy! This garage sale was offered by our Dave Ramsey class to the students as a way to sell some stuff and become closer to getting out of debt. Thanks SO much to my parents for helping me sort, price, and sell $183 of stuff! Dan worked several photo sessions that day and I could not have done the sale without them! Since Joe and Lisa are doing the class too, we snagged booths next to each other. 

This is how Lisa spent time in their booth:

This is how Joe spent time in their booth:

(Love you guys.) :) I'm so glad I did the garage sale. It was nice to get some cash, but I also learned that all of the work that goes into a garage sale is really not usually worth the effort. It was my first {and last} garage sale. If I had worked at our studio that day we would have come out ahead. Next time it's Goodwill for me! :) (And maybe ONE more sale to sell all of our kids stuff once we know we're done and they've all outgrown all their gear.) :)

We did two very fun things this week in the midst of work. We purchased this awesome swingset for the back yard with gift money we were given to pick one out last year! Thanks so much, Grandma and Grandpa Brand! I am SOOO excited to set it up next spring! (Well, I'm excited to watch our dads set it up!)

And, we went to dinner and a movie, thanks so much to my dear friend JoAnn for treating us as a birthday gift!!! 
Of course, you can't see A Christmas Carol without your 3-D glasses!!!! 
The movie was incredible (absolutely NOT suited for children), but wonderful. The week was exhausting and productive, and I am ecstatic to get my girls back tomorrow. I can't wait to squeeze them and see how much they've changed in a short week!!!! 

I'm off to bed! Oh geez, it's after 1am. Goodnight!!! 

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

kkg friends eating pizza


I was a Kappa at Purdue, which was a huge house, but I wasn't a girl who made a million friends there... I made just a few really awesome friends & have stayed really close to them for about 10 years now! Jill is a dear friend of mine and she and her husband, Shaun, brought their little girl, Alexa, to Indy for a photo session from Cincinnati last weekend! (Look for that on the professional blog soon!) After the shoot we met up with another kkg friend, Jenn, and had pizza together!

Thanks to my parents for watching the girls during the session! We picked them up to have lunch with us & obviously Sammi couldn't go out in public without her tutu! I mean, that would almost be like going naked!

Alexa and Natalie were born 8 days apart! Alexa was ready to be best buds immediately, but Natalie was a little more hesitant at first. :) They'll be great friends, I'm sure!

Love this cutie!!! She is a SWEETHEART!!!!
Jill, thanks SO MUCH for coming in to spend time with us & get your photos done! We had so much fun seeing you and already can't wait to do it again! Next time, I'll come to Cincy! :) I love you so much and I feel so blessed to have you in my life!!!!! Jenn, I'm so glad I got to see you!!!! We seriously need to get together more often, considering we work about 5 minutes from each other!!!!!! Can't wait to see you again!!!!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

samantha and natalie

I am SO excited to share these photos!!!!!

I met Dan at the park on Wednesday after his last session with the girls, a stroller full of clothes and hats, and bags full of snacks, milk, and candy (bribes)! Considering sessions of our own children are usually the most difficult ones we do (near impossible), we were both delighted with how the girls got along and behaved! Dan is keeping the rest a secret from me until I see them on the big screen at the studio this weekend and I'm so excited!!! I can't wait to complete our house with big canvases of some of these images. Thank you so much, Dan ! I love you so much and I'm so grateful to have these photos of our girls forever!!!!!