Party like a Rock+Star

Every now and parents will call me up and say "We want something really different".

"How different??" is my first question.

Only one has said SURE!!! when I threw out "How 'bout we take your little kid down to Deep Ellum? We PROBABLY won't get mugged!"

But Denise and Christopher are cool like that. :) Denise, being a fellow artiste, can appreciate that sometimes we must go to great lengths for the sake of art.

After a tough year , the goal was to Party Like a RockStar for lil' Ethan's 2nd birthday...so we found us a rock, we found us some stars, and we partied with our pretzels and blankie in tow.

Ethan taking the RockStar term a bit literally


"Bumpin'" with Dad You know sometimes, you just gotta sneak a nap in when you can.

SHOUTOUT to my awesome buddy Jen for the location info!!!

Stay tuned because next time I'm proving to all of you that Deep Ellum is just peachy by taking my own kid out there with his drums and guitar for his very own rock star session!

Through the eyes of 1 yr old

Hi there, my name is Madison and I just turned one. My family photographer came out to watch me try on all my cute outfits and make my family laugh and giggle. Aren't I adorable?

Here is my whole family
They all adore me, and that is an understatement.
See? Look at those adoring faces
My favorite thing is to run and laugh and wave. See ya next time when I'm a year and a half!!

Shocked and Saddened

I just wanted to take a moment to send my love, support, and prayers out to the families and friends of the Harts, whom I did not have the pleasure to know personally but know of as being active, caring members of my church. Our church is an amazing one, full of caring and selfless people-and people like the Harts are the reason we love it so. My family is praying for all involved and I'd like to ask all my readers out there to take a moment to send thoughts and prayers as well.

The Hart family, including their 12 yr old daughter and two foster daughters, were killed in a senseless accident just blocks away from church on Sunday. Story here

It's hot outside, but these kids are cool.

I'm so hot (just spent 4 hours in 98 degree heat at a Roughriders game with my 3 kids plus a friend) that I can't come up with anything witty to say. Sorry Robin!! :)

Whatcha think, Mom???

Leah and Todd plus 4

I haven't been doing many sneak peeks here lately (see my previous post) but had to get one up for this special family. After all, it isn't everyday you are allowed to be part of a baby's birth, but a year ago I was so honored to do just that for the big arrival of twins Lucy and Mac! And now they are a year old and all over the place, chasing big sisters Sadie and Kelty around the house and determined to make the house the most exciting place on earth. I absolutely adore these guys and wouldn't make the trek out to E. Texas for just anyone!! :)

29 hours crammed into 24

I just blogged about this on my family blog but I thought some of you parents out there might relate to my lightbulb moment.

I was fretting about being constantly behind and constantly frantic and running everywhere, with no downtime whatsoever. So I decided to sit down and do a "time budget", like a money budget but with my God-given 24 hours per day.

This is what my current inventory looked like:

• Getting myself ready each morning-30 minutes (on a good day)
• Getting all three kids up, dressed, fed, hair and teeth brushed, in the car and out the door-60 minutes, again on a good day
• Eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2 snacks- 15+15+30+5+5=70 minutes
• Making lunch for the three kids-30 minutes
• Cleaning up, in general- 2 hours total
• Work- let's go with a low average of 6 hours
• Stopping to get Maddy milk and turn on Elmo-2 minutes x 10 a day= 20 minutes
• Stopping to answer a question for Gabby (like, "why does God make toilets?")- 1 minute x 50 a day= 50 minutes. I am not exxaggerating here whatsoever--life with a 5 yr old.
• Stopping to break up an argument- 1 minute x 15 a day= 15 minutes
• Running errands and/or driving to baseball practice/games= 1 hour (add 2 more hours for game day)
• laundry=45 minutes a day minimum
• Shower and wash/straighten hair-90 minutes on a straightening day, 45 if not
• workout=60-80 minutes
• take kids out on outing/play with kids= 2 hours minimum
• baths for kids, bedtime routine=60 minutes
• blogging/twittering= 15 minutes
• And while my husband works these crazy hours, add making dinner and doing dishes too=60 minutes.

OK at this point, I haven't slept yet and I'm up to 29 hours. No wonder it feels like there are never enough hours in the day...there literally aren't!

So now I'm evaluating my list to see what can be done about whittling down to a do-able 15-18 hours :)

The upside to creating this list? I don't feel so guilty now for not being able to get it all done!!!!!

Very Sad News

Unfortunately, the world has lost another great human being. My very first Emily Project family, the Freemans, lost Dad Bill yesterday on Father's Day. He fought a long and tough battle against cancer. Words cannot express the heartache I feel for his wife Cindy and his three young children, Rachel, Levi, and Chelsea.

A fund has been set up to help the family with the unimaginable expenses if you are able to make a contribution. Go to http://www.paypal.com/ and send donations to wfcarefund@mindspring.com or visit www.wfcarefund.com for more info.

Any words of condolence left here will be printed and passed onto Cindy and the kids. Please keep this family in your prayer!

Deanna

Happy Father's Day!!

I'm not a writer, so thank goodness a picture speaks a thousand words: here is my tribute to all you daddies out there. I hope you have a wonderful day with those who love and adore you!

Someone you need to know

My next sneak peek is for the person who made my house into a beautiful home. She is the most amazing interior designer and many of you who have been by have begged me for her name: here is Traci's website

This shot was Dad's idea and I love how it turned out! Very "album cover"-ish

Traci's three gorgeous kids


And the whole fam

Thanks Traci for doing such a fabulous job on my house!!!!

Serenity

A fellow blogger alerted me to a little one who needs our prayers and support, and anytime I read about something like this I feel totally helpless. I can't imagine what the family must be going through- Adria and Phil have 8 children, and little Serenity has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia . As you can imagine, they are suffering and would appreciate your prayers and support. Stop by and leave them some words of encouragment if you have a chance. The family is also financially strained from all of the medication, etc. Can you imagine your baby having a life threatening illness and having to get up and go to work everyday? Some friends are also collecting funds to ease that strain as well.

www.liftingupserenity.com/blog/

Falling Behind Again

I've had a few emails and phone calls from you guys and I'll be personally returning all of them but just wanted to update here

(I hope my husband's boss is reading this) *sticking my tongue out*
In case you haven't been following my Twitter over there in the corner, my husband's job has him working literally 18-20 hour days, including weekends, right now on a project for the past few weeks. I am basically a single mom right now trying to run my business and take care of three out-of-school kids, one of which has a nasty tummy bug and is sick on the couch at the moment. Without him here I have had virtually no time to work. My backup plan of using my sitter service is out since my son is sick, so I'm kind of a sitting duck at the moment.

My assistants have been wonderful and the only thing I'm really super behind on is proofing-about 9 clients behind at the moment. Orders that have been placed are still being processed and everything else is running according to schedule.

Thanks so much for all of your patience and support as I know that you guys out there can relate!!

Deanna

Wasn't Me!

So funny-we just got back from our weekend trip to San Antonio, and I was checking my blogs (they're like my newspapers). Saw this on Post Secret and just thought the pro photogs out there would get a kick out of it







Hey, at least one of them admitted it!!! :-)

Special Family

*picking my dignity up off the floor after that last post* No one saw it, right???!!!

I have a very special sneak peek to share with you guys. Many of you know that I have a close group of girlfriends here in DFW who also just happen to be children's photographers. Jen was one of the first photo-friends I made here in Dallas, when she first moved this way just a few years ago. She is one of the sweetest people I know, an amazing photographer, and an even better Mommy. I am proud to be her friend and am SO sad to say goodbye to her as she leaves DFW here in a few short weeks.

We photographers have to have each others backs--no one takes our pictures with our kids, and we want the same memories you guys do! So this session was in return for an INCREDIBLE one that Jen did of Maddy and I a while back.

So an extra big sneak peek for my buddy as a thank you for being my friend, and to many years of friendship to come--just not quite as convenient for margarita night :) Love you girl!!