"Wedding Hangover"

Have you ever heard of a "wedding hangover"?

Not the alcohol kind, you party animals.

The oh-I-just spent-12-hours-photographing-a-couple's-wedding-day-and-carrying-around-half-my-weight-in-camera-equipment-and-crawling-around-on-the-ground-in-the-name-of-awesome-photos-and-now-I-need-to-sleep-for-3-days-straight-to-recover kind. I have one of those today.

Usually my wedding hangovers only last through Sunday, but this one seems to be lasting a bit longer. Maybe it's because I photographed 10 children in the 3 days before the wedding. Maybe it's because I shot photos at the Night of Worship for the release of the new Elevation Worship CD, God With Us, last night. Hmmm.

Even though I'm exhausted, I'd take on a "wedding hangover" any day of the week for the opportunity to feel as creative as I've felt in the past 5 days.

So...you'd better watch out! Not only do I have 2 photo shoots to catch you up on from last month, but I'll have 7 new ones to share with you as soon as I can sit down at the computer and edit them all without falling asleep on the keyboard...

God Bless America!

Happy 4th of July!

I'm in Columbia, SC shooting a wedding with Sean today but wanted to take a moment to share Sam and Toby's versions of "God Bless America" with you on this fabulously sunny, historic holiday :) Enjoy!

A Few Days "Off"

The Wallers left on a plane headed to Iowa for vacation this morning...and I've spent the last 3 hours editing photos for clients, listening to my Robbie Seay radio station on Pandora, drinking coffee, and eating homemade chocolate chip pancakes :)

When I found out I'd have today through Friday off from my full-time job, I thought it might be beneficial to invest a little more time into my part-time photography business. When I offered a few weekday morning and evening spots to some of my clients, they jumped all over the {very rare} opportunity and my schedule for this week filled up FAST. I'm so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with so many opportunities to do what I love. SO THANKFUL.

I have one family photo shoot this evening, one in the morning, one tomorrow evening, and three on Friday morning. To top it all off, Sean and I are shooting a wedding in Columbia, SC this weekend! If the next 4 days don't make me sick of photography, I don't know what will!

Now...I'm off to upload a batch of photos to my website, clean "man land" (our tv room/office space), and prepare a spot for the new computer my fabulously geeky husband custom built and bought for me from Newegg.com so we can stop battling over the one computer we both need to use so often. Ahem.

Off to work...

Grayson - 9 Months

I'm so far behind on blogging photos of clients it's not even funny. And what's even more not funny is that I have 6 photo shoots in the next 3 days...and that will put me even more behind.

But, hey. Business is booming...and I can't really complain about that!

I know you remember sweet Grayson from his 6-month photo shoot in April, right? Well...I took his 9-month photos a few weeks ago and, let me tell you, it was the easiest photo shoot I've done in the past 4 months. Seriously. The child never stopped smiling! We breezed through 3 outfit changes and 4 gigabytes of memory in less than 35 minutes. Simply amazing!

When Grayson's mom, Lindsay, e-mailed me last week to ask if I would photograph Grayson's first birthday party, I was so honored! Faithful clients really do start to feel like family after a while...and it's so nice to be invited to capture such a fun, sentimental, important moment in a child's life :)

Speaking of first birthdays, just wait until you see my next photo post about little miss Ashlyn. Just. You. Wait.

:)

Better-Than-Takeout Veggies

Ok.

I know I haven't posted many recipes lately...but that's because I haven't been baking much in the past few months. I've been making an honest effort to eat less junk and more, well, good stuff. Like fresh fruits and veggies (from our local farmer's market!). And homemade hummus. And rice & beans. And trail mix. And stuff like that.

I know, I know. That sounds like rabbit food, you say.

That might be true, but it makes my body feel oh, so good! You should try it sometime!

Here is the {super simple} recipe I created for lunch last week and have eaten almost a dozen times since then:

Better-Than-Takeout Veggies

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 handful of fresh green beans, ends snapped off
2 handfuls of fresh broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces
dash of black pepper
1 Tbsp. Ken's Lite Asian Sesame with Ginger & Soy salad dressing

Heat the oil to medium-high heat in a frying pan. Add the broccoli and saute for 3 minutes. Add the green beans and pepper and saute for another 2-3 minutes until the beans are cooked but still crisp. Remove the pan from the heat and add the salad dressing, making sure to coat all of the veggies. Pour into a bowl and enjoy!

I made these veggies again for lunch yesterday and threw in some fresh asparagus. Get creative and add your favorite veggies! Let me know what you think!

Hannah - 8 Months

Would you believe me if I told you that my favorite blue-eyed beauty recently moved to Kansas City, KS with her Mommy and Daddy?

Her Daddy got an AWESOME job there...

...and Hannah seems very happy about it, dontchathink?

One of the best things about moving to Kansas City is that Hannah will only be a short drive away from Nana (and Papa) in St. Louis!

One of the worst things about these beautiful ladies moving to Kansas City is that...well...they're all the way in Kansas City (instead of here with me!).

But, fear not, my favorite blue-eyed beauty! Aaron and I will see you, your Mommy, and your Daddy in less than 3 weeks when we fly to Kansas City to see you :) We're counting down the days!

The Food Chain

While Sam and I were outside playing with bubbles this afternoon, he spotted a bug trapped in a spider web.

"Oh no!" he said. "The nice bug is going to get eaten by the mean spider! Help him, Mrs. Allison! Heeeeeelp hiiiiiim!"

I saw enough bugs on the Appalachian Trail two weeks ago to last me a lifetime (and still have the bites to prove it). I was really okay with letting the pest be eaten by the spider. Since I had no intention of rescuing the bug from its inevitable fate, I seized the opportunity to teach Sam a little bit about the food chain.

"Have you ever heard of the food chain?" I asked Sam. "Yep," he replied. "Daddy taught me about it. It's a big chain of food."

Hmmm.

"Well..." I said. "The food chain is when, say, a spider eats a bug...and then a bird eats the spider...and so on. So now it's your turn. What animal eats birds?" I asked.

"A cat!" he exclaimed, happy to be understanding my little game.

"Right!" I said. "And what eats cats?"

"Hmmm...(tapping his chin with his pointer finger)...A DOG!" he said, proud of himself.

"Well..." I said, thinking about my cute, cuddly, orange tabby back at home.

"Wait!" he said. "Dogs don't eat cats. They just chase them!"

I liked that answer better.

"Ok, let's try another one," I prompted. "What animal eats grass?"

"A cow!" he said.

"And what eats cows?" I continued.

Sam had a genuinely confused look on his face...like he couldn't imagine what animal would eat a grass-eating, milk-giving, moo-ing cow.

"I don't know," he said.

"People eat cows," I said, unsure of whether I should have started this little "food chain" conversation.

"People eat cows?" Sam said in disbelief.

"Yep. You know those yummy hamburgers that Daddy makes on the grill? That's meat from a cow," I explained.

"Oh," he said solemnly. "Well, I guess that's the end of him, huh, Mrs. Allison?"

Hmmmm. Maybe I should have just saved the stupid bug...