Merry Christmas!

I can't believe I only took 10 photos.  Geez.   And I call myself a photographer.  LOL  Christmas has come and gone and yes, we still have some more family celebrating to do, but our family Christmas is over.  It was so great!  And relaxing, too.  Here's photos of the stash.  The girl's really made a killing off Santa this year.  :)

This little guy showed up on the tree.  Kalyn had an ornament exchange party to go to several weeks ago and fell in love with him.  I went back to Target and bought him and hid him on the tree.  Very cute.

I thought it would be cool to take photos of the SWAG these girls collected.  So many different things on this couch.  Would make a good "I see it" book page.  You know?

My butt is so sore from this thing!  But it's so addicting!  And scary too, when you first step on.  You do a BMI and it weighs you and just WOW!  Needless to say, I think my butt will see alot of this thing in the next few weeks.  I have to lose some weight.  

I thought this was a great teenager shot.  Her new iTouch along with a make up brush and her braces!  LOL

I wonder how many trash bags this will take?

This was fun to open!  My dad wrapped shot glasses up with $50 bills rolled up inside! Now those are shots I'd take any time.  LOL

Merry Christmas everyone!

the BEST game of her life!

I was bummed Friday when I went to a cheerleading party with Summer.  NOT that I didn't enjoy the party, I did.  It was a fun time for the girls.  BUT I missed a basketball game.  And I LOVE basketball!  

This weekend Kalyn's team at Cooper was in a tournament in Lubbock with some great area teams.  We were expecting to do well, but hey, it's hard against 4A and 5a teams like Canyon and Amarillo.  They lost to Amarillo Sandies which is coached by a Slaton girl, Huddleston.  So, Saturday they were teamed against Coronado.  

The game was neck and neck, always within a few points and in the 4th quarter, we were behind by 1 with 38 seconds left when Kalyn turned over the ball (which hardly ever happens, I swear!) and they scored 2 points.  She was devastated!  The game continued until a time out was called and Coach Wren called the girls over and in his passionate way insisted that Tayla get the screen to set Kalyn up for a chance at 3 points.  WOW!  What pressure.  I was photographing and they gym was so loud as Coronado parents and Cooper parents were on their feet SCREAMING!  

The ball was thrown in, the play was ran, and right as the buzzer went off, Kalyn got off her three pointer...

NOTHING BUT NET BABY!

She made the 3 point shot @ the buzzer to tie up the game!  They won in OT and took 3rd place!  WOO HOO!

We were so proud and excited and EXHAUSTED!  I was asked several times if I got the shot.  NO.  I couldn't look.  I held my breath and just watched the net.  Holy MOLY!  What a game!

You can view all the photos HERE on Cooper Pirates Website.  

the 3rd Annual Christmas Party

I look forward to this every year.  It's Julie and Heath's Annual Christmas Party.  And we attended last night.  So much fun to see these people every year.  Some, I only see at this party.  LOL  Wedding photogs work weekends, so we don't get the chance to socialize with regulars.  We socialize with new folks every work weekend.  LOL  

Of course I ate too much, drank too much and said too much, but I still enjoyed myself and had a great time.  I didn't take too many photos, and every year I say I will take more.  Maybe next year?

Me and Gayla

Me and Julie
Me, Julie and Cindy (Garett's girlfriend I had been dying to meet!  Very pretty skin and a total sweetheart.)  :)

No, Devin did not take this photo.  Another guy did.  I need camera remote next time, huh?  LOL

Julie and Heath trying to get us to leave.  We stayed way too late.  I'm sure one year we will be left off the guest list because of this bad habit of ours.  Geez...  I'm going to work on that.  yeah...

um...right.

Heather, The Big Chief and Page

Me and Shelley

Gayla and Janet

Doug and Marinda

an exhausted, not a creature was stirring, McGehee!  LOL

for Laura + Jason

cool things

I'm such a visual person.

duh, huh?

So tonight I spent some time getting organized while images were uploading to my new client galleries and I put my weddings for 2009 on  my wall.  Now many of you know we are building a house and are expected to move soon.  I say soon, but it will more than likely be in February/March of 2009.  Once I got my "wedding cards" up on the wall, I realized I'll be moving while photographing 3 weddings almost back to back, all out of town.    

I'm smiling as I type this, because I'm sure my husband will think it's my way of "getting out of the dirty work".  LOL  Last move I was nursing a 6 month old and just couldn't help much.  How do I know?  Just how?

I don't like to hard sale couples at all for choosing me as their photographer.  I rarely make phone calls to clients that are "sitting on the fence" and just know somehow that "higher forces" will handle my schedule much better than me.  If it's right, it's right.

But I'm loving my little cards and every day when I sit down at my computer to "start my day", I will think of all my couples for 2009 and think happy thoughts.  Your images will be edited in my new home.  Surely some slap happy light magic will filter through the BIG shiny windows onto your beautiful images.  :)  

How's that for the hard sale.  LOL

If you would like to book me for you 2009 wedding, CLICK HERE.  You can check my availability HERE.

Hey, Julie...

Remember when I would send emails with the subject, "a little chuckle"?  Well, here's a cute one.

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum.. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree

toni

We had a birthday party tonight.  A surprise Birthday Party.  And the birthday girl doesn't like surprises.  Which made it so cool to be there.  LOL

Toni turns 25 this Saturday, for like the 5th time in a row.  But we had her party tonight.   Toni is one of my dearest friends and I'm so glad we got to be a part of this.  You know how you have lots of good friends and only a few "dearest friends"?   We are both photographers and we spend much of our relationship online chatting.  We LOVED Picasa's Hello and then they stopped it.  Darn.  Now that I have REAL internet, we spend much of our editing time video chatting to stay awake.  

Happy Birthday, Miss Toni and I'll catch you online later.  

Love,

Kristin

and this is what happens when a photographer hands her husband her camera to take a photo.  

darn