Baby William made his debut via c-section last Friday the 12th at 8:43 am.  Whooooo Hooooo!  He was a hearty 8lbs 12oz and 20in, outweighing his big Bro Bruce by over 1 lb!!!  He is absolutely perfect and I cant wait to share more pics of him, but here’s one for now…

Lovin their Grami!

I JUST decided to open the file of {2,000+} photos that I snapped in South Dakota this summer -as if I have time for THAT right now!  but I couldn’t help it, I haven’t even really looked at these yet – BOO!  So I came across this one at a nearby lake and just had to laugh!!!  Hope everyone is having a great kick-off to the holiday season.  Fa la la la la la…….

I just LOVE this boy, and a couple days a week while the big ones are at esceula, I get to spend Bruuuuce time at home for a couple hours and it’s the BEST!  He is so content and manages to bring my blood pressure down a notch during the crazy season {which is in full blown all systems GO!}  I will have my face buried in my computer or camera for the next several weeks, but when I do come up for air it’s sooooo great to see this…

and of course that little fro just makes me giggle!  Back to work…

So a couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to join a few photog friends of mine on a very fun and creative maternity shoot put together by the fab Sarah Goodman for a maternity shoot of another fab photographer and prego Bridgette Marie.  So it was a fabulous morning, nice and cool, light was gorgeous {early morning light is to die for!} and our subject was stunning!  Everything was going great , until…

So yes, I fell!  Not just a little, but pretty hard!  I kinda laughed it off at the time as I gradually turned a shade to match my shirt, but when I got home, I realized I had a bruise the size of California on my tukis!  If it weren’t covering my whole A*$#! I would have posted a pic, but that would have been borderline x-rated and nobody wants to see that:)  Anyway, I have always wanted to know what I look like when I shoot ~ well, there ya go!   My booty and my pride have recovered enough now to show off the finished product and I really do love them!  Bridgette was absolutely beautiful and Sarah’s idea was excellent!  Thanks for having me along, I hope my comic genius livened up the morning a little!

And yeah, I know… It’s so not fair to look this good pregnant!

Oh,  and a big thanks to Jill and Cindy for capturing my fall:)

This is the road view from the farm where my mama grew up.  You’d never know she was a farm girl if you met her now ~ she’s QUITE the city slicker these days.  I luv you mama:)

Some of my best memories of being in South Dakota visiting as a kid was going to the public pool.  Something about it reminds me of the movie The Sandlot ~ I couldn’t wait to take my kids there and I think they are going to remember this too!

This is my cousin’s boy, he is quite the diving extraordinaire.  A dang good cannon-baller too!

Halle hesitated going down a huge water slide for  - oh, about… a half a second, then

After swimming, we went to the Kree Mee to get an ice cream cone.  Contrary to this face, he was REALLY excited!

Cole had never really seen kitties and he was VERY interested…

not for long though:)

The view from my Auntie’s porch at about 9:45pm ~  I feel like I’m in Alaska for cripes sakes!!!  The sunsets are BEAUTIFUL here!

South Dakota has got to be one of the most beautiful landscapes in North America.  I cannot wait to share some of the scenery here.  Makes me wanna pack up and leave the triple digit heat of AZ.  My kiddos are having a great time meeting their cousins.  Just some of our fun.

Just arriving at the Fargo airport

How beautiful is this?  it was a few hour drive from Fargo to a small town in South Dakota that my folks grew up in.  This is a gas station along the way – yes, I said gas station.  They don’t look like this in AZ!

Meet my newest cousin “L”  She is 10 weeks old and this is me holding her – I couldn’t wait to take a pic, so this is a self picture.  Not too bad, in focus anyway:)

Exploring the farm

Uncle was showing us how the cottonwood trees make “snow”

More cousins

Uncle Randy also made the kids a rope swing – they LOVED it!!!

Bruce swatting the mosquitos – they LOVE him, surprised?

So of course it’s been ages since my last post and I keep telling myself, “self, this will be the week I start posting every week”.  I literally have DOZENS of sessions to post and sadly I was looking through my BIG file of photos I’d like to post, but haven’t quite gotten to yet, and just realized it’s been OVER ONE YEAR for a couple of them!!!!  WHAT?!?!?  That is unacceptable!  I’m fired!  And the really sad part is that I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it, but this past weekend I just took one of my newborn baby clients ONE YEAR photos.  Akkkkk!

Having said that, I have given myself 20 lashings and a few hail Mary’s for my sins and I am ready to get going on 1 of what will probably end up as a 3-4 part MONSTER blog post.  Now I would love to write about each of these sessions because they are all so different and fun and ALL of my clients have truly been DA BEST, but really you just want to see the pics right?  Well here goes…

Oh, and sorry about all the watermarking at the bottom.

And last but not least, a post would not be complete without one of my little sweethearts would it?  Here is my most recent FAVE of BIG Bruce – who just turned ONE by the way!  But that’s a whole other post… maybe part 5 to this posting saga.

I can not get enough of this boy!