Aubrey's Imagination

^"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." ~Albert Einstein

She wears a orange and pink tutu over her pants and on top her head rests a plastic purple crown encrusted with several shiny gems. In the morning it is the first thing she puts on and at night they are the last to come off. She is my daughter... my imaginative angel... my Princess Aubs.

For the past 5 days or so, Aubrey has been wearing a crown and tutu all day long and anywhere we go. Walking down the isle at the grocery store, people see her and smile. She holds her head up high so proud of her tutu and crown. Aubrey's imagination has been on a high lately and I'm loving watching it shine. She definately inspires me to think outside the box.

^After she got dressed and put her tutu and crown on this morning, I took her downstairs for a couple quick shots. I'm almost thinking about starting a photo project centered around her and her new Princess every day theme.

Health kick in 3, 2... 1 1/2...

The hardest part about losing weight isn't the decision to lose weight or the two weeks after you already started dieting and working out. It is the initial changing of the diet and getting on the treadmill. The body and mind are resistant to this change in everyday life. This is usually the time when I fail - the after the decision to lose weight and before the two weeks is up.

I came to a realization last night that I think is going to change things for me and get me in the right mindset. Nicole and I watched Perfect Couples on tv (great show). The middle-aged man got dressed in work out clothes, turned on some groovy music, and went down to the weightbench and treadmill where he found a magazine that distracted him from his goal. 5 minutes later he is sitting on the weightbench reading the magazine and eating chips. This was hilarious and sad for me as I have been in this position before. This along with coming up behind my wife last night to hug her and finding I'm hugging a lot less of her; this was the final bit of my realization that I need.... no, I want to get past the two week hurdle.

Nicole has lost over 50lbs since having our second child and all she has done is adjust her portion size and the type of food she puts in her belly. I am so proud of her for this weight loss! Now it is my turn. And I'm going to hold myself accountable by sharing my journey with all of you.

My goal is to lose 20 lbs. My plan to do this is portion control, cutting down the sugar, and doing some exercise a few days a week. Wedding season is fast approaching and I need to be ready. Expect to see updates on my progress every Wednesday here on the bLog. I'm not sure if I am ready to take 'fat' pictures of myself and share them, but I'm sure I'll share a photo of some kind to go along with the updates.

^Eventually, maybe, I can look like I did as a teenager in this retro picture of me in the early 90's. Yup, that is me standing back there - and I had that figure for most of my 20's.

Random Point'n'Shoot action

^Sophisticated Fun...

It is blue and silver, light and portable; and unless it is daylight or you use a flash, the picture comes out shakey or blurry - and we love it! Inside our diaper bag or sitting deep in a pocket, you will find our canon powershot point'n'shoot camera we take with us everywhere. The poloroid-style images which are produced from how we use the camera are some of our personal family favorites.

Here is a collection of some random shots taken with our trusty blue wonder. Some are taken by us, others by our 2 yr old Aubrey who is becoming quiet the photog of her own...

Remember Bert & Michele's Maternity session from yesterday? Here is a small sampling of Aubrey's viewpoint:
^We had turned the flash off the camera so it wouldn't distract or interfere w/the session - hence the shakey look. You can't deny though that Aubs has great eye for composition!

^I think if we gave aubs a camera that could shoot in low-light, then a lot of these shots could be used in our the final selection!

^This was our Sunday trip to the Children's Museum downtown madison - the place we will be having professional family shots done by Mr. Sam Hassas who will be coming up from California.

^The children's museum just speaks sophisticated fun!

^Random Aubrey shots

^Sisters! i HEART the one of Aubrey & Ella holding hands in the top-right corner. Makes me smile ear to ear.

Bert & Michele: Maternity Session

^One of these two is pregnant.

Bert (short for Robert) lived across the street from me when growing up in the small town of La Crosse, WI. We have always had that friendship where we can pick up any conversation like it was yesterday when in reality years have gone by when we last spoke. Growing up we used to play kickball in one of our yards, walk down to K-Mart to get the latest GI Joe toy, or have pull-up competitions where the winner got a quarter from his dad. These days we have bills, house payments, and starting families.

Nicole and I last saw Bert & Michele at their wedding a couple years ago. To our surprise and joy, we discovered they were pregnant with their first child late last year and wanted us to take some maternity photos. We happily loaded up Aubs & Ella and made the trek to Eau Claire for a visit. As always, talking with each of them was like no time had passed. We also had tons of fun taking photos - especially with Aubs who assisted me.

Bert & Michele - Thank you both for your hospitality and great food (bert has mad-cooking skillz). Enjoy some sneak peeks....

^You could tell by the amount of gifts from their recent baby shower that the child is going to be loved by not only mom & dad, but all family and friends. Bert and I 'cleaned' by moving the boxes to the other wall so we could do some crib shots.

^That is a Happy Bear (inside joke).

^Can you guess when she is due?

^Bert & Michele are definately going to be awesome parents.

^Bert being a comedian at heart is 'realizing' she is pregnant for the first time.

I would like to throw out a HUGE thank you to my beautiful and wonderful assistant who also happened to be my daughter - Aubrey! She took our Canon Powershot point-in-shoot and covered a lot of the setups also in a serious and professional manner - which caused Bert & Michele to crack up histarically.

^Aubrey getting the close-ups : )

Stuff in our heads

The following is a list of thoughts which have been cycling through our heads the past few weeks:

1) Our goal this year is to start writing a blog post every M-F starting next week.

2) Ella (our 5 mo old) is now eating baby food for the first time!

3) Aubs (our almost 3 yr old) has doo doo'd in the potty twice now - YAY!

4) We will be trying out a new vendor for our dvd's which has eco-friendly printing/labels soon.

5) Nicole is almost done with her most recent wedding album design.

6) Our house got covered in lotsa snow this week.

7) We have a list of new toys we wish to purchase this year.

8) Currently pondering redoing our site (again) & blog to a completely different format.

9) Doing a maternity shoot tomorrow for one of my best buds from childhood.

10) On February 5th, my gorgeous, incredibly funny and highly talented wife Nicole will turn one more year younger. My birthday is at the end of the month. Our presents to each other is taking the family to Vegas for the WPPI (photography) convention. Whoo hoo!

and now for the pic of the day. One of these lenses is not what it seems:

Snowpocolipse - 2011

^Don't adjust your screen, that really is the color of our house. : )

Snowpocolipse 2011 hit most of the midwest the last couple days. We were lucky as we were only on the northern edge of it. Our small town only received about 15 inches with snowdrifts several feet high thanks to the strong winds. Chicago and places more south of us received close to two feet with high winds.

Most of Madison was shut down , which meant we had a snow day and time to take some snapshots...

^This is about all I shoveled - just to show how high the drifts were. Nicole did the rest with the help of our neighbor and their snowblower.

^We do have a sidewalk here... somewhere.

^Nicole working away with a little help from our daughter Aubs.

Nichole & Aaron: ESession

"Stop licking the slimy stick." - Aaron
"Your button is poking my eye out." - Nichole.

It was a chilly Saturday morning. Only 15 degree's outside, which was still 30 degree's warmer than the day before. I pulled up to their car and could tell they were ready to go.

Nichole & Aaron met in High School. Having just finished college, they are headed north this summer to get married in Canada, eh. Then it is back to Wisconsin for a huge reception which we will be photographing.

Thanks you two for being such great sports in the chilly winter wonderland! Fun was had. You can tell by checking out the sneak peeks:

^Taken just after they tossed snow up in the air, which is the whiteness you see behind them.

^Notice the amount of snow quickly disappear from his hands compared to hers.

^Yes, we either sat on ice or icy rocks literally in the water.

^"Cheesy" picture request in front of their old High School. : )

Little Star

Normally Mike is the one who writes up the blogs, but since there hasn't been one in a while (life has gotten busy, sorry!) I've decided to write one :O)

When I put Aubrey to bed is one of my favorite times of the entire day. Not just because it's alone time for Mike and I, but because I get to have that one-on-one moment with Aubrey. We take turns singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to each other a few times before it's hugs and kisses and night, night. The way Aubrey's head sways back and forth, looking at me, smiling, as I sing so off key is priceless. In her mind, I'm sure I'm the greatest singer on Earth, next to Beyonce and those Single Ladies. But I mind you, I am not ;o) I decided to capture Aubrey singing "Twinkle" to her baby as she was rocking her yesterday. But I didn't get to my phone until she was at the end of her song... She did sing another verse for your viewing pleasure! Grab your tickets, buckets of popcorn, and beverages and enjoy the show :O)

(shot with my blackberry, sorry the quality isn't that great)

Stay tuned for more 5th Street Photography images coming soon! We have an engagement session this Saturday :O)

Wedding Planner & Guide Special!

Rae: Child session

^Rae, meet everyone. Everyone, meet Rae.

Rae is a super-happy and smiley 6 month old. Especially for not having napped yet before I came over. She worked the camera while pulling apart her pearl necklaces, petting her dog Jake, and having several wardrobe changes. Here are a few sneak peeks from this mornings shoot...

^Seriously, adorable!

^We re-created an image from her older sister that was taken 3 years ago using the same clothes and rug! It's truly uncanny how similar the both look :O)

^puppy lovin.

Thanks for having us out! Rae is an absolute doll :O)