Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

 I had this idea for a post to announce the giveaway winner and I was also going to include pictures from our evening of pumpkin carving.Kidd-O loved it and I got some really great shots! Mr. Clean, however, is not so great at the carving thing and we agreed to outsource the job to someone else next year. At this point I would show you some pictures from the evening, but I can't. I'm fairly certain I deleted them from my memory card before I got the chance to upload them. So, Pumpkin Carving 2012 will be only a memory...boo.

So, on to the Giveaway Winner!

....Drum roll please.....

Comment #20 Jennifer S.

 (Jennifer, Tiny Prints will send your discount code directly to your email.)

Thanks everyone for stopping by to enter!

I hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Halloween! I will be back later in the week with a special Halloween post with some pictures to share....hopefully!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like....A GIVEAWAY!!!!

Yeah, I know it's not even Halloween yet, but people are thinking about Christmas. I know they are! Do you know how I know? I have 30 family photo shoots in the next 29 days that prove that Christmas is on their minds. They want these pictures done so that they can order and send out their Christmas cards. Am I right or am I right? 

 And oh how I LOVE Christmas cards. I love sending them, but I love receiving them even more! I pretty much skip to the mailbox every day of December because I'm so excited to see what's inside. I love seeing the cards people carefully chose and seeing how much their families have grown from the previous year. And as a photographer, last year added a whole new realm of Christmas awesomeness because my work was on most of my friends and family's cards! Last year I received so many different cards and the ones that were my favorite just happened to be from Tiny Prints. They have so many different options for styles and budgets and I knew that I wanted to use them this year and I'm hoping that you will check them out and use them too! Check out their Christmas Cards selection for 2012 as well as other SPECIAL OFFERS they have on their website right now.

Now on to the GIVEAWAY!

Tiny Prints has offered one of you darling readers a $50 discount code off of you entire order (it doesn't include shipping and can't be combined with other offers)! I will use random.org to choose a winner! The giveaway ends on October 29, 2012 at 1:00 pm Eastern time.  Entries made after that time will not be counted.  

How to Enter:

 Entry 1 (required): If you are not a blog follower, go ahead and do it! I won't bite! THEN, leave a comment on this blog post letting me know what your favorite Christmas tradition is or what you are looking forward to most about Christmastime. Please leave your email address if I don't already have it so that I can contact you if you win.

Entry 2 (optional): Click the Christmas card link above and tell me in a separate comment which Tiny Prints design you'd love to choose if you win! 

  *Winner will be chosen on 10/29/12 at 1:00 pm.  Tiny Prints will email the code directly to the winner.

 *This post is sponsored by Tiny Prints, but the opinions are from yours truly.

Good Luck to you all!! I am so excited to read all of your comments. I'd love to hear some new tradition ideas and which designs you like best because I'm having a heck of a time deciding which one is my MOST favorite!

Pumpkins and Such....

 So after my last post I decided to seize the day, and make the most of my last "free" weekend. I have over 30 families to shoot within the next 32 days, so this past Saturday was my last taste of relaxation until we hit the road for a trip to The Happiest Place on Earth. 

I'm a lover of Spring and Summer and I loath the Winter, so I really have a love/hate relationship with Fall. There is so much to love about it, but I always feel like Fall is just leading me on the way my middle school crush did. It's all nice to look at and very dreamy with it's enticing smells and amazingly gorgeous wardrobe of colors, but in the end, it's gonna move on and leave you hangin' out in the cold, dark abyss that is called Winter

But whether we're talking about teenage crushes or seasons, I've come to the conclusion that I would rather have that Fall...or that certain middle school crush, than nothing at all. So bring it on Fall, with all your cute clothes, yummy foods and festive activities. I know you'll leave me faster than a hot knife through butter, but it's all good while it lasts.

So here are a few pictures from our week...

 Enjoy this beautiful Fall while you can!Go. Paint a pumpkin or something. Break out those cute boots and delicious recipes. Enjoy!

Patience....

As a kid.... and as teen....and heck, even now as a grown-up woman, I'm told frequently that I need to have more patience. I'm a quick-fix, results-now kinda girl. When I'm fed up with my hair, I want a haircut within the next 24 hours, no questions asked. I don't like waiting for my nails to dry, which is why I ALWAYS smudge one. But I'm learning. I'm learning that patience is pretty important. Ya know? "Love is patient"? And there is a certain little 2 year old who reminds me that "love is patient" every.day.of.my.life. And not in a bad way, but in the "it might take 15 years to climb up some stairs, but it's ok baby, I've got the time to watch you conquer those things" kind of way.

The past couple of weeks I have girded myself with Job-like patience, preparing myself for the worst when it came to potty training. I expected that my house would turn into a litter box, that I would be changing clothes every 2 minutes and then when all was said and done, my child would be going to college still wearing diapers. However, I'm happy to report that all of my prepping and pre-potty-training training paid off, because brother's got this thang down! Only a couple of accidents the whole week and my house didn't take much of a hit at all, which Mr. Clean has been most pleased with. 

 So with all of that extra patience left over from Potty Training, I was able to parlay that into other areas of my life. Like when I had The Meltdown of 2012 last week. I realized that it's now Fall, I have a million things I wanted Kidd-O to experience and then I was slapped with the reality that, not only do we not have the money to do any of these things, but I slap don't have the time to do any of it either. 

 You see, as a mom, we want to provide our kids with everything we had (or didn't have) as a kids. And when you can't do something, it's heartbreaking. It is for me anyway. I am so in tune to the fact that my little boy is only a little boy once and I want to make the most of it. I want him to look back on his childhood the way that I look back on mine: with fondness and gratitude. And yes, I am aware that he is only 2 and he may not remember all my efforts (and Lord help him if he has my husband memory), but by golly, I know I will! So, my heart broke just a little when I realized that we wouldn't be able to take him to the State Fair this year. I wanted it and I wanted it BAD! And it was only after a few tears were shed that I was smacked with a dose of reality. I realized A) It's really not the end of the world if I can't do everything. B) There is always next year and C) I will, Lord willing, have a couple more kids that I get to create memories for too. It was with those little nuggets of reality and lessons in patience that I was able to take a huge sigh of relief. And maybe I can't afford a trip to the fair, but this momma is gonna make the most of it even if it's to stand in line to get a hug from some person dressed as broccoli, 

 stopping to talk to homeless lady's bird,

  or stopping to get a free ice cream cone

 or just playing "make believe" around the house.

It's all good here. 

Have a great week!!!!