I hope that ya’ll had a fantastic holiday! We hosted our first Christmas in our first home with our family and had a wonderful time! My hubby made an awesome meal and we did a lot of work to the house so it finally felt like a HOME. Between it being our first Christmas in our first house, finally having my Dad here with us, and things coming together to make our house really feel like a home, it truly was the best Christmas ever. What made it even more special was that my 6 year old daughter Jaedyn told me a couple of weeks ago, before there was ever a gift under the tree, that it was already the best Christmas ever! That girl knows what Christmas is all about!

Santa was here!

Okay, yeah, I stayed up ridiculously late Christmas Eve photographing my tree. I expected that Jaedyn would sleep at least a little bit late since we got home so late from CT on Christmas Eve but I was sadly mistaken. It’s a good thing she got up early though because I thought it would be a fabulous idea to wrap all of the clothing I got her separately so that she’d have more fun opening tons of gifts…

Since I was already shooting at very long exposures, I decided to play a little more…

Christmas Morning!

What kid doesn’t love hot chocolate? And a S’mores bonus?! Sweetness squared.

Dad opening some warm fleece pants - he just moved here from Florida so the theme for him (and always me too!) was keeping warm!

I just LOVE the look on Jaedyn’s face here… I would swear she’s saying “Oh no you didn’t! Just what the hell do you think you’re doing with MY blanket on?!”

Yes, we were all VERY tired.

Now that’s one happy puppy!

My adorable nephew Nolan in the hiking backpack carrier we gave him for Christmas.

Uncle Sean giving Nolan a test drive…

Jaedyn’s big gift from Mom and Dad this year was guitar lessons. My baby wants to be a rock star so badly it hurts and she absolutely loves her Ukulele that my Mom bought her a few years ago so we felt it was very fitting. Since we want to be sure she likes it and that we’re getting the correct size for her, we are waiting until she tries a lesson or two until we buy her a guitar, but one of our guests brought his! Lorelie is my brother-in-law’s mom, though we know one another through other avenues as well since baking and decorating wedding cakes is one of her many talents! She gave Jaedyn a coin belt (worn in belly dancing) for Christmas and her husband Scott brought his guitar and kept Jaedyn glowing with excitement all day. Jaedyn and Scott sat down and she wrote songs for Scott to play while he taught her a few things and let her strum the guitar a bit too. She had the most awesome time and we all enjoyed listening to the two of them play and sing.

Lorelie and Nolan cuddling and listening to the musical talents of Jaedyn Thomes and Scott Carvey.

“No, Scott. You missed a chord. See? Right here…”

Happy holidays! I hope that you all were able to enjoy a wonderful day with your loved ones!

Catching up on some long overdue blog posts is my New Year’s resolution!

The last few months have brought some great blessings and difficult trials in my life and it feels like I’ve been caught in an avalanche. Many of you know that I have struggled with my own health issues and it is a never ending, constant battle for me. I have intracranial hypertention which is a rare condition with no cure. Basically I have too much spinal fluid trapped in my head and it compresses my brain, optic nerve and ears and causes me a lot of constant pain and other fun issues. I’ve had several surgeries to help but it doesn’t completely fix the problem. My last surgery (a shunt in my brain) was almost two years ago and the past 6 months or so my symptoms were increasing with a vengeance so I was on the hunt to figure out why. After some aggravation, tests and seeing 3 of my doctors, they did finally manage to help my symptoms with medication enough that I can deal with it again.

Just as I started to get some relief, my Dad finally moved in with us from Florida. He is a Type I brittle diabetic (meaning that he is insulin dependent and his blood sugars and incredibly unstable) and a double amputee. I had been asking him to move here for months as I was desperately worried about him (he was constantly in the hospital). I am an only child and I am very close with my Dad so it was extremely difficult for me to be so far away, knowing that he wasn’t doing well and I couldn’t do anything to help. Just 3 short days after he got here he was admitted to the hospital for a severe bone infection and was there for almost 2 weeks. Since then we’ve been dealing with daily trips to the hospital for continuing IV antibiotic therapy and what feels like constant doctor’s visits. I am so incredibly thankful to have him here, knowing that he is getting the best care we can afford and the fact that my daughter, husband and I are able to spend time with him every day is such a blessing. I am so much less stressed now that I actually really know what is going on with him and can do something about it.

The last several months have certainly brought their challenges but I will prevail, as I always do. I truly believe that which does not kill us only makes us stronger. A couple of weeks ago I was pushing myself way too hard to juggle everything and I ran myself down, caught my daughter’s cold and then got very sick. I got a reality check that I am not in fact super woman. I can’t afford to let that happen again - I have too many people depending on me!

All of this to say, I appreciate your patience (and thoughts and prayers too!) during these tough times and while it may take me a bit longer to respond to e-mails and phone calls, I will still be working and still accepting bookings, I will just be a little slower to respond for a little bit. Family is always priority one and they really need me right now - if I run myself down I won’t be any help to anyone!

I hope that, especially during this holiday season, each of you thinks about the real heart of this message - family first. It is so easy to get caught up in work, errands and life in general and take the things that really matter for granted. Please don’t make that mistake. Seize this moment. Yes, this one, right now. Step away from the computer and spend some quality time with your loved ones. I’ve been so busy with everything else that I’ve neglected my amazingly supportive husband the most… I’m taking this opportunity to go and curl up next to him.