Photo shoot, a sort of surprise, family time and that reno

I think this will be the only shot of me this time around and considering this batch of pictures spans four weeks it is kinda sad. I should really pass over the camera every once in a while or at least step in front of a mirror.

So, it has been a while. Again. I know.

And yes I totally have an excuse. I am soooo tired.

Why?

Well.....this kinda crazy and unplanned and surprising thing happened.

We found out I am pregnant again. 8 weeks along now. Still the early iffy stages.

I know crazy. Kaitlyn and Ethan are 12 month apart and then there is three years and then there is Hudson. Now the next one is due in the summer and should be about 14 months from Hudson. I am now rather ill feeling and tired. Everything stinks!! Seriously grossly!

Anyway, that is my excuse for now. So on with the last month. Kinda late but we did get out and enjoy some festive stuff like a horse draw wagon ride and hot chocolate and then there was this little stable scene that you could get dressed up and get you photo taken in. Kinda silly but Kaitlyn was quite excited so I obliged.

And after our shot I got one of her with a friend. Much better!

And then I did my first photo shoot that was not of my own children. I am not a photographer. I tool around and I take a lot of pictures and would love to get more education than the roughly 5 hours that I have gotten but I am not the real deal.

However I have a friend who is and she invited me to come and shoot them. They would set up and all I had to do was shoot.

It was interesting. I realize now how much actually goes into a shoot with a pro, they actually check hair wisps and shadows and poses and I am sure a whack load of other stuff.

I just took pictures.

Thank goodness they are an adorable family!

Here are a few from that day.

They are fun and forgiving, I love that! And then she took the RAW files and edited them herself (I don't have those ones) and they look way better. When I saw one of them I didn't even recognize it as the shot I had taken! She has some mad editing skills!

And what a cool experience for me, wooooo.....

And now on with some Christmas photos.

It was a beautiful and very cold day, perfect conditions for sun dogs.

And ah, I got a new lens for Christmas. Look at the crispness!

Cheese cake made by my sister in law, she rocks them out!

Back to the lens. Sorry.

The focus, and color, mmmm.

I am liking this lens, really really liking it!

My sister and Hudson. Love.

Desert, this one made by my sister.

My brother loves his wife's baking.

Another brother who eats it all up too.

Emily. Cookie brain girl.

At six months Hudson started the hands and knees rock though he has only gone backwards so far.

After Christmas we ventured out to meet a relatives new (3 months and nearly the same size as Hudson!) baby.

Levi.

(Not his parents here, grandparents)

I am sooo saving this one!

With his mom and dad. Adorable.

Hudson.

Such a flirt.

Sweet friends.

Christmas at the Ledge.

Taylor. (a friends little one) His eyes are amazing and lashes, ahhhh!

Ethan getting a ride from his bud Hayden.

A rare moment where they are actually playing together and not scaring or not sharing.

I hope there are a lot more moments like this one.

I love this girl. She is so creative and whimsical. Not the gentler of my children but I am fine with this. She is endlessly entertaining and thoughtful.

Oh, I didn't mention something. We were also all sick over Christmas. It started with the kids Dave and I got colds the week before Christmas and kept them right over the holidays.

By new years we were all feeling back to normal-ish and then Hudson suddenly got sick.

New years day Daves dad and stepmom were coming to visit and from early that morning he had developed a bit of a cough and a fever and just seemed to go downhill from there.

By the time Daves parents came in the early afternoon Hudsons breathing was off and he was choke coughing. I bundled him up and left for the clinic.

They were all closed for the holiday and I ended up at the hospital. Joy.

The lineup started at the door and took 20-30 minutes just to get to the triage nurse. The waiting room was full, extremely full and that scared me.

However Hudson seemed to know when to cough and not breath right and they rushed us right in and got him hooked up on steroids to open his airways. His fever had spiked to 40 while there too and so they treated that and gave him an atibiotic.

Poor child he was overloaded with the drugs, though it did make him happy.

The first drugs of any kind to ever enter his little body.

We ended up spending the night, getting blood work done and x-rays. But by the next day the cough was broken up and they let us go.

He is still on the mend a week later now but very much back to his normal self.

Sometimes I am really thankful for modern medicine and the wonderful staff at the General.

I will not say a word about that other hospital in town though, remember that time I did?

Ya.

And that kind of sums up what I have been up to lately, well minus this crazy spiritual ride I have been on but I cannot even explain that roller coaster right now, I don't every really understand what is going on there.

We'll just leave that.

And then there is this other project that Dave has been working on.

Our cottage reno. The reno that is supposed to turn the cottage into our new house.

He has gutted it. Created temporary support walls while he makes the bulkheads and beams and posts (or something like that, this is not my area) to open up the space and give us a panoramic lake view. Eventually.

And you know how renos go. Especially when they involve old places with two additions already done to em. There are a lot of interesting snags.

Like multiple layers of carpets and lino and carpet and pots in the walls and hidden windows and doors and stucco and cement under half the floors on top of the subfloors and then goofy sloping floors and, ya, I am sure there is more but Dave is out there not I.

Why didn't we just demo and build?

Oh ya, cause we live on a cable guy and artist income. Riiiight.

We are 'those' folks. And yes it should be very interesting and quirky once it is done.

I am so excited about that!

Can't you just see all the potential!!

I am giddy!