What a wacko April.  School was canceled due to a snow storm just a few weeks ago while this past weekend mother nature finally graced us with some nice spring weather.  THEN yesterday we had temperatures of 27 degrees!  Ummm… that would be equal to temperatures of a hot summer day!  Hello mother nature?  What’s up?  Hey, I’m not complaining… really!  I for one have had just about enough winter to last me a life time.  But wow… this would seem to be a unique ride into the spring season wouldn’t ya say?

Today, the weather seemed to be more reminiscent of a typical April spring day, with temperatures around 15 degrees and a good blustery breeze.

I know my kids are more then ecstatic to see spring.  While we await our new garage door to be installed the kids are left to lug their bikes, chalk, skipping ropes and toys out the side door of the garage.  Once the new door is installed it will typically stay open the entire summer days as the kids like to play within it’s confines and I feel better knowing they have a place to escape the heat of the sun and cool off.

MJ has been having fun with a cool skipping machine she got for Christmas.  It has a bar that holds a skipping rope and with the help of 3 double D batteries, swings the rope in a circle, close to the ground allowing the child to jump over it as it comes around ( sorry, forgot to take a picture).  Can I just say, as a mother, this is a fantastic invention!  Why?  Because if you are a female and skipped rope when you were young, you know how many countless hours, YOU, as a young girl, could spend skipping with your friends.  As a mother who’s tolerance for playing incensed games of skipping, hop scotch and other popular childhood games, lasts only so long… this is an amazing invention.  I can sit, take photos, surf the web, prepare lunch for the kids, all the while, this machine turns the skipping rope, around and around, allowing my daughter repetitive hours of jumping fun!  Who says inventions and technology is a bad thing!!

It’s not to say she always forgoes the traditional skipping rituals of actually swinging the rope herself.  She very much enjoys skipping on her own and is just now learning to coordinate her arms and legs to achieve a successful "skip" of the rope.  I believe she is a natural.  See!

Ummm….actually I believe she missed this particular jump!  Woops.

And her on her bike.  She rode a two wheeler all last year after just turning 4.  It would seem she has no fear.

And no… not everything she owns is pink! (click on for larger view)

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I just had to share a few more from these sessions.  Love that I can work the entire family into the session! 

  Don’t you love his little hat.  I adore hats on newborns!

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I am very excited about having just ordered (earlier today) a new 5D digital SLR.  I presently use the 20D which is great and I love Canon for their cutting edge technology not to mention incredible images in low light situations using high iso’s.  I have wanted this camera since it came out over a year ago and Canon just came out with a rebate on it that I didn’t want to pass up.

Something I found one reviewer wrote. 

"The Canon 5D is a 12.8 Megapixel DSLR with a full-frame 35mm sensor priced at around $3,000. It joins the 16 Megapixel Canon 1Ds MKII as only the second full-frame DSLR currently available.

Till now, full frame cameras have been large, bulky and heavy. In the case of the Canon 1Ds and 1Ds MKII they are built like the proverbial brick outhouse, but when you carry one of these around all day you know it. Because of their size these are also not the most discrete cameras to shoot with. They shout "pro", which in many situations isn’t that desirable.

Pick up the 5D though, and until you put it up to your eye you might be tempted to think that it’s simply a 20D with a slightly overactive thyroid. It might as easily be a typical consumer DSLR. So if impressing your photo buddies with the size of your tool (sorry about that) is what you have in mind, then the 5D will disappoint. But if you want to shoot discreetly, and with a camera that won’t strain the wrist after a half hour, then the 5D will definitely attract your attention."

For me it isn’t about size, it is about quality and manageability.  I have always thought the larger cameras were way to heavy for me and I couldn’t imagine toting them around all day and not regret it.  I love that this camera is smaller, light weight but still full frame 35mm with plenty of megapixels.  I know it will serve me well when it comes to shooting a wedding for an entire day.  My 20D will now act as my backup and will allow me to have a lense on each camera and not have to change those out during a shoot.  Digital photography is amazing and will only continue to get better and better. 

I will hopefully be able to post images taken with this new machine as early as next week.  I was just too excited not to share. 

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I swear that with each child I brought into this world, I instantly grew another heart.  Or, at least that is the way it felt.  I remember asking a good friend while pregnant with my second child "how will I possibly find the room to love this child since I love my first soooo much?".  She reassured me that my feelings were normal and that she herself had felt the exact same way.  she said "as mothers, we all have the same feeling of doubt inside."  Telling me it was normal to question our ability to love so much.  She then told me what happens, and she was right!

She said… "Shelley, it just happens.  You will find the room inside yourself.  It is there.  God put it inside you and it will feel as if you instantly grow a new heart when that baby is born.  As many hearts as you need, he gave you!".  And she was right.  Instantly when I held my daughter I simply grew a new heart for her.  It was like a miracle.  From God, to me.  So natural.  It is amazing what we are capable of as humans.  The love we have inside us.  The ability to care for our young and instantly know we would die for them if we were faced with that choice. 

And when I see that love inside each of my clients.  Each one so in love with their new life that they have just brought into this world, it instantly transports me back to my own delivery.  To the time I first held my children.  The awe I felt at having created them.  Not to mention the overwhelming feeling of responsibility that I now realized I had in this world.  What I was meant to do and be all my life.  A mother to this little being. 

My job is amazing.  I get to share this experience with my clients.  To hold their little newborns.  To see trust in their eyes when then hand them to me to swaddle, hold and lull back to sleep.  I wish I had a million dollars!  Because I would do this job for free in a heartbeat.

My most recent clients.  Anderson and Connor.  Two beautiful young men who have a lifetime of happiness to look forward to.  Amazing parents you both have!

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