It's November!

BLOG! I've been neglecting you again. Goodness gracious! It's been two months. How shameful. :/

What have I been up to? Well, in the past two months, any spare ounce of time has been going into scrambling to keep up with the house, taking care of the kids and working on photography. This photography thing has been a surprise blessing! About six months ago I started taking pictures of Carley and some of my friend's kiddos for portfolios, and then BAM! I was asked what my sitting fee would be. Hmmm..... So, I got a website, set some prices and started shooting! I've never studied photography. Never thought this would be something for me. However, once I got a nice camera and started doing some editing, I slowly realized it was a good fit! I have always been picky about my kids' pictures and I've always loved editing. So- here I am! It's been amazing! I have been busier than I ever imagined and this gives me a wonderful outlet to be creative. I am definitely still growing. I'm not perfect. I'm still learning my camera and learning editing. I will have some shoots that are PERFECT and the images I imagined come to life, and I have some shoots that are frustrating (on my end) and I send the images out, apologize and hope the clients like them. *ugh* It's certainly a process! Who knows where this will go. For now, I am absolutely loving this experience and meeting so many wonderful families! It is a business that keeps my on my toes and super busy. I have to say though...it's all God. He surprises us sometimes with things we never planned for. I am so grateful, and I know this opportunity found me when I wasn't even looking!

I know I'm going to forget some other updates from the past few months. ???

Carley and Graham got a new cousin last month! Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Trent had beautiful baby Austyn in October. She is precious. Her big brothers are taking good care of her and we are so excited to see all of them in a week!

In October we also had an amazing weekend away with some friends at a gorgeous cabin in Blue Ridge. We took the kiddos and met our friends Laura and Chad, and Soren and Vanessa there. There were bonfires, board games, late night chats, college football games, and lots of exploring. It was just what we needed. I love cabin life. I swear I need to have a semi-cabin setting for my home someday. Maybe retirement? There is nothing quite like it!

Also since my last update, Carley has had some exciting news. She now has an agent! :) The agent is Atlanta based and specializes in representing children. They do some commercials and some print modeling. Very exciting! It doesn't cost anything to have an agent, so it's a great situation. If she gets calls to do any work, there's money we can put away for college! She loves being in front of people and has been in front of my camera quite a bit- so she's really comfortable with it. We will see- we could go a year and not get any calls, and that's ok! But for now it's kind of fun for someone else to see something special in your kiddo and think others may see it too. We don't plan on pursuing some crazy child star lifestyle, it's very low key. But, nevertheless, we are excited! It just sounds so funny to say, "My kid has an agent." We're fancy now. :)

Carley is also doing SO well in school! Great remarks from her teacher. Her reading is taking off, which is exciting to watch! She has a hunger for learning, which I hope never fades. She wants to learn and gets excited about it! She's still in gymnastics and dance and loving them both.

Graham is still a mess. I always say that with love. That's just what he is! He is loving, he is sweet, he is a hard core snuggler. He is also experimenting with defiance, being a stinker and seeing what sort of mischief he can get away with if no one is watching. Then when he's caught- his eyes literally twinkle while he grins. See?! A mess! That's what he is! He is so stinkin' cute- sometimes I want to keep him this way. When he talks it's so sweet to hear. He loves his sister and loves to play with her and copy what she does. Most of the time she has patience for him and loves playing the role of "caretaker" or "mom". :) He is coming down off of his obsession with Truman the Tiger. It was a very serious obsession that I considered a 12-step program for.

Speaking of Truman, that's another fun trip we too- to Columbia for the Homecoming parade. It was amazing. Everything it was supposed to be! Graham wore his tiger costume and got a lot of attention at the parade. He got to meet "BeBe" (this is what he calls Truman) and it was probably the biggest moment in his whole life. Haha! We got to hang out with my MO family and friends for a weekend visit, and then headed back south. :)

Halloween was good. The kiddos had fun dressing up. We always go to our friends, Eric and Cheri's house and trick or treat in their neighborhood. We did this the first year we were here and have done it since! Carley was acting a little strange that night, which the next day revealed that she had strep. That was no fun. :/ She was a Southern Belle. She didn't even know what that was, but she specifically requested "a big dress, gloves, a hat and a fan" so I told her, "that's a Southern Belle," and she said "sure!" Pretty much as long as it came with her requirements, she would go with it! Graham was surprisingly picky about his costume- he wanted to be Truman, but not just any Truman. He went through the costumes with me and picked a specific tiger costume.

We decorated for Christmas yesterday, which is one of my very very favorite days of the whole year. I LOVE decorating for Christmas and I love the way a Christmas house feels. Georgia doesn't feel very Christmassy yet, but I have faith!

Ok...I think that's long enough for my two month catch up post. I need to get in the habit of much smaller, simpler posts. No one wants to read novels. I hope my blogging gets more frequent. It just always gets "re-listed". :/

Time to go and edit some photos and create Christmas cards! Happy Monday, all!