The Sweet Life

It’s 8:54 on Friday, November 30.

I just emailed my last holiday slideshow. On time.

Every order for holiday cards that was received by our first deadline has been printed, packaged, and is either here waiting to be picked up or has already been taken home.

We are waiting for 2 more shipments to arrive with remakes of certain prints, and 1 massive card order to arrive late next week (How much do you think 2,150 Christmas Cards weigh? Feel free to hazard a guess-We recently found out and it’s a *heavy* package…I need to bake cookies for our postman when that puppy arrives!).

All this to say. WE ARE CAUGHT UP!

I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall…this season has been *way* too organized. Where are my sleepless nights? When do I wake up in a panic mumbling something about cards and computers and cameras? I sort of miss my dream about showing up at a session naked (okay, not really)…

I owe it all to The Girls. Mindy and Debbie have been amazing at keeping us organized, focused, and covering all of our bases. Thanks ladies!

As of tomorrow, things will slow drastically. I have two sessions next week, one the week after, and then have time to enjoy the holidays and my family.

I feel sort of aimless tonight…I should be designing one of the fine art books that is waiting for me in a HUGE MASSIVE STACK. Or our Sugar holiday cards. Or even updating the site.

But for now…I’m going to curl up on the couch with last night’s episode of Grey’s, some leftover Halloween candyI just found (score!), and enjoy the Christmas tree lights while listening to the silence of sleeping children.

PS) If you haven’t heard of this little Elf…I credit him for convincing my two to stay in their beds tonight. I *heart* him!

I hope everyone had a wonderful, family-filled Thanksgiving!

We had a little change of plans here…we had tickets to fly “home” (El Paso) to visit the cousins and see old friends, but my grandfather was admitted to the hospital, then sent home, and the doctors said there was nothing more they could do.

In order to enjoy as much time with him as we can, we canceled our trip and brought Thanksgiving to my grandparents’ house. My grandfather never woke up, but we offered a loving diversion for my sweet Granny (for whom Sugar is named), surrounding her with family and good food…which is what Thanksgiving is all about.

While there I saw my little cousin Katie (she lives with my grandparents), who I haven’t seen in about a year. Let me just say right now…that in our family we have what we call ‘the awkward stage’. Teeth are usually encased in braces, glasses are thick and unattractive, and hair is unruly and never brushed. When I saw Katie over Thanksgiving it was with the instant realization that her awkward stage was OVER.

People, she is 14!


She is such a breath of fresh air, completely unaffected by so many things. She has no cell phone, no internet, and no email (I’m not sure how to show her these photos-I guess the old fashioned way!). She is just a beautiful girl, inside and out. Our grandfather must be so proud.

Our Thanksgiving was filled with family and love, laughter and tears.

I hope yours was equally wonderful.

Maggie had her two year session over the weekend, and I’m just now blogging about it, because, well, because her Mom did a fabu job of blogging it for me!

There was lots of talk beforehand about the potty-training-vs.-photo shoot-dilemma. Do they take a potty? Use pull-ups? Stop for breaks? I loved all of the comments on Jenny’s blog and yes, by all means, keep on keepin’ on…I have a few kids under my belt, one who is currently on the tail end (pun not intended) of PT’ing as well, and I know all about consistency.

But…in the photography world…sometimes it’s not the best idea to have to stop halfway through for a potty training break. Potties mess with your mojo.

I’m just sayin’.

After Miss Maggie refused to “try” before we started, I had a good chuckle as Jenny slapped a diaper back on her so we could get started without the fear of an accident.

Jenny chuckled back when Maggie refused to look at me or play the ‘Stop!’ game (fyi-she doesn’t stop, LOL).

We both ate our words of wisdom, but the results: Sugarlicious!