April is cancer control month...

Below is the email I received from C and A's sister:

"April is cancer control month. Since we still have a few days left in it, will you please encourage your friends, co-workers, etc. to promote cancer awareness and help the cause to look for research to help in cancer prevention as well as cures? Attached is a photo I’ve uploaded on to my facebook page to generate awareness. It is the candle my siblings and I lit for my dad at last year’s relay for life. Would you please consider posting this as your Facebook pic or on any of your personal websites for a few days to help me promote this cause?

Thanks for any help you can give! Below is the blurb I placed on my profile.

April is cancer control month. Make sure to participate in your local Relay for Life or other benefit for survivors or those who've lost the battle. I'll be lighting a candle at the Relay for Life for my dad, Mark, who passed away from cancer on April 12, 2008."

This is the least I could do for you guys! Here's to kicking cancer's butt!

I will go ahead and put my own plug in too. Summer is almost here...don't forget to wear your sunscreen! Here's to kicking melanoma's butt!

Baby C...

It is so fun when we get to spend mornings with babies but don't have to worry about the overnight duty :) But from what baby C's mom tells us, her overnights are pretty sweet because he sleeps up to 10 hours!! No joke! How many mom's out there are just completely envious right now?!?!
Sweet little baby C is just 3 months old and I would LOVE to know what is going on in his little mind. I'm told that he is all smiles at 6 AM when he is enjoying some final crib time before the morning routine begins. Eric and I opted to throw caution to the wind and hold off on showing up for the shoot until 9 AM. I think that 9 AM must be his serious hour. :) The more serious he got, the more I laughed, I just couldn't help myself, that face was just too cute!

Here's baby C relaxing all cool in his crib complete with the super-duper adorable bedding his grandma made for him!

Baby C has a 9 year old sister who has a totally rocking bedroom. Like, we're talking the bedroom that all girls her age would die for! It it 110% decked out in High School Musical and Hannah Montana! When baby C needed a break, we were pumped because we got to spend some time with "G" in her rockin' room! And look what we captured! I think this is my new favorite!

And look who else calls this house home...Isn't she great?!?! She was so sweet and calm and just so darn lovable!

Thank you "A" family for inviting us to your home! We can't wait to get together with you later this summer for some family portraits!

Ummmmmm.....

something is just not right about this picture!
Punk's cast just fell off tonight....yes I said FELL OFF!!! Look at how sad his poor little leg looks. I think his leg just got so skinny and the cast got too big and off it came!! I made an emergency call to the vet and by the time they got back to us we had already come up with a ghetto split. We took the handles of 2 plastic knives, wrapped them up and then stabilized his leg with them and then wrapped some more...pretty good thinking huh? We were pretty proud of our ghetto splint after the doctor confirmed that it would work until morning! I was hoping to get through this week without going to the vet....shoot, I guess sometimes the best laid plans just don't pan out! :)

All in a days work...

I totally did not do a good job at explaining just HOW much fun we had with the "P" family....just how wild and crazy they were! How many times can you say that shooting bow and arrow, climbing a tree, playing baseball and swinging not only on a regular swing but ALSO on a tire swing were all part of a photo session?!?! Well, all that was accomplished while we were there...not even joking!

You're asking for proof? Here you go!

The "P" Family...

Check out the "P" family we captured this weekend! They came from Illinois and Wisconsin to NW Iowa, talk about quite the drive to come home to see their mom and dad! But oh so worth it, you should see the place they live...it is the picture perfect setting! You can see the rolling hills for miles, it is just gorgeous! We didn't get to experience the deer and turkey first hand, but we hear they come right up to the porch! Talk about being "one with nature"!
We had a great time exploring your house and never ending yard! Thank you for inviting us to spend the morning with you!


Want to know the other cool thing about this family? I've know them since the day I was born! That's right! You are looking at my mom's sister and her family!
Enjoy your sneak peak "P" family! It was so fun to see all of you again, it has been awhile!

Status-quo...

yep, that's right, we're staying at status quo and keeping with our once a day doctor visits! You got it, we found ourselves back at the vet today! Poor Punk is certainly not back to himself yet. We had QUITE the night last night...let's just say we ended up with a few loads of laundry in the middle of the night. And no, doing laundry in the middle of the night is not our standard operating procedure. :)

The doctor gave him a fluid shot so he looked like a hump back for a few hours. I don't know what it is about our dogs, but fluid shots seem to be the norm. Maddoxx has had it 2 or 3 times and it looks like Punk is ready to catch up! Come on, I know it's normal to have competition between siblings...but does it really have to revolve around doctor visits and fluid shots?!? I'm sure there's something better we could find...like the number of socks they can take out of the sock drawer in one night. That would be a MUCH better competition! I could totally deal with that!

So here's what one sick puppy looks like...he is soooo tired! Can you spot all four paws? (they are all there...don't forget the one in the pretty new red cast).

It has been one of those weeks!!

It all started on Saturday...
We drove back to NW Iowa for a whirlwind trip. I received an email a couple weeks prior to that from the development director at Gehlen, asking us and my brother to make a surprise trip home because they had a big surprise going to happen for mom at the annual Gehlen Ball. We obliged though we had no idea what to expect once we got there! It was kind of fun having to sneak around the building to try and stay in hiding knowing we could be "found out" by showing our face too much. After all, everyone knows everyone there!
Congrats mom on being the recipient of the "Spirit of Peter Gehlen Award"! You rock and totally deserve it!


We're rarely all together so it was short of a miracle that we all were able to get back for the surprise! We have to grab our family pics where we can!

And from there, the week has just gone down hill!! Good heavens, I'm ready to be out of this little phase!
Monday I ended up spending 3 hours in the doctor office...what test didn't they put me through!?!? And here's the kicker...I ALWAYS forget that I am allergic to bandaids. Monday was no exception. They drew blood and taped the gauze on. By 9PM that night I was ready to crawl out of my skin because it hurt so bad...yeah, my skin had started a really nice allergic reaction to the tape! So please, I'm asking you to help remind me...if you ever see me think about putting a bandaid on...stop me dead in my tracks! Why is it that I can never seem to remember myself?

OK, so onto Tuesday... I started the morning out by going to the funeral for C and A's dad. Our thoughts and prayers are with you C family! You guys are an amazingly strong family! It was an honor to be with you and capture everything on the happiest day of your life and I was glad to be able to be there as you honored your dad's life and raised him up with your beautiful voices and stories. What a tribute!

Tuesday was also the day for Punk's big surgery. You know, THE big surgery! The capstone of a young pups life. We thought he would have his surgery and be able to get his cast of all in one day. Negative! He made it through surgery with quite a bit of bruising. It was a little tougher fetching the jewels than originally anticipated. AND to top it all off, the broken bone has made very little, if any progress in the healing department! Shoot!!!


This x-ray was taken just yesterday...not much healing huh?

So that brings us to today, Wednesday. It started at 6AM when Eric came running in the bedroom yelling my name and holding Punk. Not a pleasant way to start hump day! I won't get into all the details, but I ended up bringing him back to the vet this morning and he has stress colitis on TOP of everything else. Poor Punk!

You thought Wednesday was over? Not so fast! There's more! Eric got home to find Punk in his crate with quite the mess on his hands. Again, I won't get into all the details...but let's just say, the bedding went straight to the trash, an attempt to clean it was not an option. He is one sick little guy and it breaks my heart to watch him feel so miserable. Send little Punk lots of love, he needs all he can get!

Please Thursday, I'm holding out lots of hope for you! I think if we can stay out of all doctor's offices, the human and pet kind alike we'll be a step ahead of where we are at today!

Say it Ain't So...

that is all I could think about...the song, Say it Ain't So by Weezer this moring when I woke up to find this:


SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!? Snow on April 12? This must be some sort of bad dream!

I will leave you with Weezer's, Say it Ain't So video:

P.S. I can sing most of this song, but I still have no idea what it's about! Not about snow, but I'm making it about snow today!

The winner is...

I'm going to keep you in suspense and you have to watch the video to see the winner! :)

To the winner: email me your address and size you want (M, L or XL)
We'll get it in the mail to you as soon as you email me! yay!!!

To everyone else...thanks for entering! It was fun to read all your comments! Don't be a stranger to commenting in the future! Who know's we just may have to do another contest! Hopefully next time our helpers will be a bit more helpful and I won't have to commentate as much!

Ode to my GPS...

Ode to my GPS

GPS…I LOVE you! No really, I LOVE you! Without you I would not be here writing this today,.

Kansas City, I don’t understand you! No really, I DO NOT understand you. Why do you have approx. 5 million highways that all come together as one and as soon as they come together, they go back apart. You have hwy 71, hwy 56, hwy 435, hwy 35 and highway 5,209,300,786….not kidding! Why so many highways? And why does Google and my GPS call hwy 71, Bruce R Watkins Dr when no sign tells me so…the signs only tell me hwy 71. How is a girl to find her way?

GPS, I LOVE you! Not only do I love that you talk to me and tell me to “keep right, keep right” but you also draw this pretty little map for me as I go along. You even have this witty sense of humor that made me laugh as my knuckles were turning white. I REALLY needed some fuel to keep me going, I know GPS, you didn’t realize this and when I went off your track you told me to “make u-turn immediately, make u-turn immediately”. I love your sense of humor. However, I think I would have laughed harder if you would have said, “whip-a-s?!**!” instead…but the u-turn worked out just fine. Thank you for the perfect comic relief I needed at just the right time.

Not to worry, Kansas City, I haven’t written you completely off my radar screen just yet. Kansas City, you do give me hope. You give me hope that spring is on the way. I love seeing some of the trees blossoming on the Plaza as well as the tulips starting to make their appearance! Kansas City, you give me hope…but could you please work on the road issue before I return?

Contest has closed!

That's right we're all under the same roof again and we just held our drawing...the winner will be announced as soon as we can get the video uploaded. Be prepared for a little comedy...let's just say it really didn't go exactly as planned. There's a bit more commentary from me than I had anticipated. :)

Free t-shirt anyone?!?!?

We're holding our first ever contest on the blog! It's about the easiest contest you will ever enter. Seriously...the easiest! What do you have to do you have to do you ask?

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post! Easy huh?

We will print all the comments and cut them apart and have the dogs help us pick the winner...hopefully on video! Maybe we'll throw them all over the floor and the first one that Punk steps on with his splint will win! So start commenting so we have enough to spread all over the floor! :)

Even if we've never met before and you're reading the blog, just say "hi" in the comments and you're entered to win one of our brand new t-shirts!

We are totally loving these shirts! We think they are quite funny and hope you do too! We hope they'll give everyone an idea of how much fun our sessions really are! Really fun...right?!?!? :)

This will be the last post until we pick the winner. Eric is in Michigan capturing footage for a documentary he is working on and will return late Sunday. I leave early Monday for Kansas City...so I'll be on a blog hiatus and will return to blogging with the winner once we're all under the same roof again! So check back for the next few days to see the competition you're up against until the winner is announced!

The splint...

Punk has had his new....GIGANTIC....splint on for a week already! After he got over the initial trauma of having this new big thing, he has adjusted to it. In fact, he acts like he doesn't even know it's there! He's doing everything he's not suppose to...cool huh?!?! Yikes! I'm really not sure how to keep him settled down. It's impossible....if you can't beat 'em, join 'em right? :)