My Princess... Menomonie WI Child Photographer

Haley and I took advantage of beautiful evening and did a mini photo shoot. I haven't done a shoot with her since last summer and it was beyond time. The light was amazing that night. I think I might need more wall space in my house because I'm not sure I can choose just one to print. I had hoped to get both Kids out but Reid wanted nothing to do with it that night so he went off with Dad. I have to get one in soon before he starts loosing his baby teeth (never a good smile with missing a teeth!)

When I look at these images all the sassy attitude fly's right out the window. If only...

LIVE, LOVE, LIFE...
LC

Finally new PICS of the KIDS!

I finally took an evening and took my kiddo's out for a photo shoot. Reid was due for his 5 year pics and I hadn't done anything in so long, I had to stop painting my walls and just do it and I am so glad I did. They were in such a good mood and gave me priceless images! You just never know what you will get with a 5 year old and 2 year old. (I can't believe Reid's 5!)

If only those smiles and hugs were around all the time... I guess you can't be happy all day every day!

My life wouldn't be complete without these two little hearts in my life. Every day is different but the one thing that stays the same is their Love for me and my love for them!

LIVE, LIFE, LOVE...
LC

Our New HOME!

Well I finally got a chance to post some pics of our new home! We are still painting and have many more updates to be done with in the next few months... Which include new hard wood bamboo floors throughout the Kitchen, Dinning rm, Living rm and Hall way! I just got done purchasing items for our play room and my office for additional storage and can't wait to get it all in place and get rid of more boxes! Apparently we have a lot of stuff...

 The kitchen view when you enter from the garage!

 Kitchen view from the dining room.

 Living room

 3/4 Bath off the laundry room and kitchen

 Main Full Bath by the 3 bedrooms on the main floor.. We plan to create a second entrance from our master closet into the bath.

 Haley's room

 Reid's room

 Basement view from the stairs. First room will be the play room.

Family room



Other side of the family room. We also have two rooms and half Bath in the basement that finished. One will be our guest room and the other will be my office.

This is obviously pics from prior to moving in. Since I've taken these pics we have painted the Kitchen, Living room, All three bedrooms up stairs, hall way 3/4bath and Family room and playroom. I still have the two rooms in the basement, laundry room and the remaining baths to paint, then I can put my paint brush away! I can't wait for it all to be complete but I have to keep reminding my self that it all can't happen right away and that it takes time and money (thats the key word!)

More to come as we make the updates.

LIVE, LOVE, LIFE...
LC

Life without Internet!

Well we are now in our new house however without Internet! It's a strange thing to think about not having internet in the year of 2012. We found out that AT&T does not support high speed in our area and won't let other companies in to provide it! Beyond frustration!

So at this point I'm reviewing all other options and have to rely on my iPhone in the mean time!

So bare with me! I plan on posting pics from my recent Senior session last weekend ( they are so fun) when I go to my Mom and Dads this coming week. Stay tuned!

For fun a pic of my fav. New outdoor space!


LIVE, LIFE, LOVE!!!
LC

Why!

Why is that everything opts to hit at once? For example it's the week we move into our house and my daughter decides that it's time to potty train! Kids really do plan their own schedule! I will post more pics of the house soon once I can find it under all the boxes!

LIVE, LOVE, LIFE...

LC

CHANGES!!! On the Home Front....

Well you may have noticed that I have been a bit absent from my blog that past few months. Well we have had a very busy feb. and march this year that we hadn't really planned for. Some of you may know that we had listed our home on the MLS last year however opted to remove our home right around Christmas and had plans to re list it in the spring. Well about a few weeks after we pulled our home from the market we received an offer and we accepted it. So needless to say we spent the months of feb and march cleaning, packing, purging (lots of it) and searching for a new home. We also had to take on the replacement of one of the basement walls (I should say my husband and others tackled it). And we closed on March 30th!

While searching for a new home we came up short and couldn't find one to close on and move in at the same time we closed on our new house. We ended up choosing a short term lease at a 2 bedroom apartment. We went from a 5 bedroom home to a 2 bedroom home and one stall garage. Thanks to family and friends we packed everything we didn't need for simple living in the apartment and moved it all into a storage shed. We've been living in the apartment for 2 weeks and the kids are loving the park a block from our apartment (life saver for Tom and I!) We hope to find a new home and close by early July being our lease is up at the end of July.

This isn't the first time we've done this however at least this time we aren't living in a apartment and remodeling a home, at least not yet!

I attached some of our pics from our last days at our old house. (Sorry for the quality IPhone pics)

 I told the kids to go say good buy to their rooms for the last time and took a pic of each one of them. So far the seem to be adjusting fairly well! Thank goodness....

 (Gotta love a 2 year old expression! And I thought she was getting better in front of the camera!)

Stay tuned to some information regarding Spring Mini Shoots in Marshfield WI, I will be posting dates soon.

LIVE, LOVE, LIFE... And a new home!!!
LC

Chad & Kim E-Session: Menomonie/Eau Claire Engagment Session Photographer

Well I must say I am very excited to finally get the chance to post this images. Not only because I had a great time taking these pics but also because this is my little sister Kimberly (yep can't call you Kim yet, you'll always be Kimberly to me!) She's been waiting for this day for a while to (never thought she was planner until the talk of marriage entered her mind) she has been wanting to plan her fairytale wedding forever with the man of her dreams and its all a reality now!

Kim and Chad came to visit us last weekend and we took advantage of the great weather and children sleeping and enjoyed some fun back drops in my very own back yard! Im so excited to have a new brother-in-law, P.S. Chad you were a jem to work with and such a good sport! Can't wait for the spring/summer e-session! Enjoy these great images, I will post more from the session in a month or so as we are keep some a surprise for save the date cards!

 Chad didn't like this one so much wasn't a fan of the sign! So it wont be used for their Save the dates but I love it!

Hope your enjoying the warm weather if you live in MN/WI! Just wish I had healthy kids to go out and enjoy it.

LIVE, LOVE, LIFE...
LC

My Most recent projects...

So as you all know I'm trying to get my house in order (organized that is!) We've had some weekends at home which is rare for us and Ive been taking advantage and getting to some places in my house that I haven't put any attention to. As I stated in my last post I have a big list of to do's for 2012 and one of them was attacking my walk in closet in my office (it has not been a walk in closet for months). Well I finally took a day and attacked full force.

Some of you maybe wondering if this Blog is a photography blog or a personal blog these days, well don't worry its still a Photography blog its just this time of year is a slow time but I have projects coming up and hope to post some Photo session images soon. I've been inspired by a variety of DIY'ers in Blog land (inspired lets really call it obsessed). One of my two favorites are:

 These ladies amaze me with there wonderful organize homes that aren't just organized but pretty all at the same time. Although I would love to be a stay at home mom to be able to do this stuff every day I can at least get great inspiration from them. There are a ton of Blogs out there that have great inspiration. One of my non favorite places is PINTREST... Ever heard of it, if you haven't your missing out. My Husband now just roles his eyes when he asks me what I'm looking at online or on my IPhone and when I respond "PINTREST" I just get the role. I love that I can pin every thing I love online and have one place to go and see it all. Instead of saying, "what was the name of that web page where I saw that idea or that recipe". I JUST LOVE IT. If you'd like to see what I've been pinning or follow me click below!



Ok so back to what I have been up to...

The dreaded walk in closet. (disclosure... do not hold these images against me as I used my IPhone to take them, I was to lazy to get my DSLR out....)

Before:

(I realized as I started to remove things that I forgot to take a true before pic, but I think you can see how crazy this space got)

 During:

 I decided to separate all of things in my closet by categories, above is everything for wrapping gifts and cards.

 Gifts (I quickly realized that I had a ton of gifts that I have yet to use for people, I find deals and I buy it thinking I will have some one to give it to in the future however I continue to stash and forget and just buy new items when I need a gift).

 Camera boxes, frames and electronic items...

 To the left, craft projects.

All Cleaned out and a clear slate:

 I had bought the below stacked shelving for our hall closet however my measurements were way off, but I am so thankful because it works so much better in this closet, and boy did I need it.

 AFTER:

 All of my props for Photography where either on the floor or outside of my closet before, now they are all in the closet on the shelves or at the bottom of the shelves, I'm loving it.

 I used baskets to hold the my baby gifts in one and the other I used for older kid gifts, now there is no reason I can't tell what gifts I have and don't. Know I just need some kids to give it to.

After I organize a space I just sit back and soak it in, that night I just kept looking at it and would sigh with relief. My kids want to play in it and I quickly respond "OUT, we don't play in here". I know, I'm a mean Mom but all that hard work would be destroyed in 2 seconds. The one thing I did realize is that I am not allowing myself to buy any more craft projects until I complete those that I have bought and have yet to even start or finish.

Well I hope that I inspire you to attack a space that you have been putting off like I did.

LIVE, LOVE, LIFE...
LC

Week 1 of 2012.... Attack of the Closet!

How has your 2012 been so far, mine not to bad! I started working through my list of home organization. Last week I attacked my odly shapped closet, that has been a dump all closet since we moved in 3 years ago. When I say oddly I mean odd, its shaped like a triangle and we never could figure out how to use it. I had one plan for it and as I created the shelving for it I realized it was much larger then the closet so that option was out the door. So then I went to option 2, a different shelving solution (smaller). My plan was to use this closet as a place to store my baking supplies and equipment. The vision for this closet isn't complete as Tom has decided to attempt to build built in shelves, which was the plan all along. So I guess im not holding my breath but hope it happens....

So here is what it looked liked the past 3 years!

If you look at the bottom of the pile, guess what is there... yep thats right light bulbs and some how they were put there when we moved in and stuff just piled on top. Not sure how but they were just fine after I moved the pile off of them. Crazy!

Ok so here is the after:

Can you hear the birds singing....

I don't have a full pull back pic of the closet because its not complete yet. The shelving is awsome and I love that it holds all of my baking stuff and equipment. The great thing is that I can pull the drawers out and take them to the kitchen when I need the items in them. So heres to keeping this closet organized. I can't wait for the built in shelves now if I could just get Tom to build them.

Heres to organizing. Today im on PTO and plan to attack my neglegted office. I cleaned up the surfaces last weekend but now I need to organize and purge. My walk in closet has been a dumping ground and you can barley get two feet into it, so I plan to attack! Stay tuned for pics on that project. Its amazing how you feel knowing your house is clean and organize... So far loving 2012.

LC

Happy 2012... Menomonie WI Family Photographer

 I can't believe its 2012 already and 5 days in already... The new year has already gotten away from me. I hope everyone had a great holiday season, I know ours was great and busy all the same time. I've been meaning to post our Christmas Card but of course didn't get that done as I had hoped so better late then never. (This is a long post so hopefully you have some to read through and see what I have planned for 2012!)

So as 2011 came to an end, I started to think about what I wanted to accomplish in 2012... Wow has my list gotten very large if I were to categorize it you'd find task under the following...

Organization - One of the largest sections on my list everything to organizing the house, my computer, my life, meals etc. I feel like my life has gotten out of control and needs a makeover big time and this is one area that I feel will be a great way to make my life easier in every aspect.

Personal Photo Projects - As most of you know I love to scrapbook but have found that I've been neglecting these projects and of course I'm now very behind not only with my kids but also doing fun personal projects. I so want to create a family Cookbook that will have all our fav. recipes so that it will make my life easier when choosing meals to make.

Professional Photography- Oh how this list is large as well, I have so many different photo shoot ideas that I'd like to try, I also want to to get my kids out more often and try new locations locally! I also want to find and do a photography workshop sometime this year, not sure which one there are so many great ones but this year is the year!

Personal Development- I have physical and mental goals for myself that I need to find a way to accomplish and maintain (weight loss, workout schedules, mental health etc!) I also want to do more with my family, I don't feel like my kids have experienced enough at this young age and I'm feeling as if were missing out on these precious opportunities with them. I'm hoping for mini weekend vacations, swimming, sports activities, arts and crafts, festivals etc.

So now that I have said all of this out loud and feel like I have now committed to this I need to follow through, which is always the hard part for me. Do you know how many craft projects I have bought all of the supplies for and have yet to actually make, or started but haven't finished. Its how I do everything and enough is enough. I'm sure I'm not the only one in the world that has this issue but I can't take it any more its taking over my world and I'm taking it back.

With that being said, this means I will be appearing here on a more weekly basis, I think a blog is a great place to think out loud and share my feelings, struggles, achievements and every thing in between and lots more photography to. I had struggled with what to do with my blog as its also my web page for photography. Do I  keep it just professional or do I include personal items as well. Well I guess I have made up my mind, especially with this post, wow was in the mood to write and poor myself out to the world.

Welcome to my new 2012, I hope you join me here as much as you can because I can't wait to see what all I can cross off my list and experience this year!
Thanks!
LC

Family Pics... Marshfield WI Family Photographer

In July we got together with my husbands family to celebrate the Marriage of my sister-in-law and her Husband (who where married Dec. 2010, click here for images from that day!). We took this opportunity to update some of my sister-in-laws family pics. Here is the some of the images I captured from that day.

Enjoy...

 More images from that day to come!
LIVE, LOVE, LIFE...
LC