Keep your head up!

When you spend every waking moment with children and most hours with more then 6 under the age of 4 sometimes it feels like you are drowning and you can't keep your head up. But because of some amazing friends God has placed in my life I can keep my head up and keep going. And maybe even let my hair down.

Making friends has never been something I'm great at. I have had more friends then not that I get really close to and then have a falling out with, move away from or loose contact with. I have a handful of very sweet friends I have been blessed with in my adult life and I consider them a GREAT blessing to me.

 When we moved back to North Platte my greatest sadness leaving Kearney was the good support system we had gained and the wonderful young wives group I had formed. I had true friends for really the first time in my life and I was leaving.......Then God gave me Chasity! What a sweet sweet friend she is! She was my first friend in North Platte and really, almost all my friendships I have formed since, have had some kind of connection with her. She has been known to talk me down from the ledge of insanity (ok maybe she didn't get there in time), share recipes for dinner, tricks of the trade for daycare, a shoulder to cry on when life is rough and really just someone I can let my hair down with. I'm talking rolling on the ground laughing, pulling hair out crying, raw feelings exposed and prayer kind of friendship. It's good stuff. It's God stuff. It's Fun stuff!

In Proverbs 18:24 it says: A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

She is one of these friends. She is my sister, my support, my companion.

Because she has 4 kids and I have 2 and we both work 7:30-5:30 five days a week time together is sweet and precious and usually happens after 8pm.

It had been about 3 months since her sweet baby girl was born and about the same amount of time since we got together, so we declared a Girls night. It was calendar official and everything!

Two mamas and a mini van just singing our hearts out, letting our hair down.....

in the rain......

headed straight for......

yep! Applebee's!!! That's where you would go isn't it? Well, really we went to the hospital to visit our other sweet friend who is having a baby, hopefully not real soon and helped name the baby (because we are awesome like that) and THEN we went to bee's to the apples and got......

water????? no no no it's girls night!

much better! Got to be crazy and get a Lemonade right?!

The drinks where fun,

The food was good, but the fellowship was sweet! We laughed so hard we cried, talked heart to heart and sister to sister, then reality hit.....

It's almost 11 and a.) the hubby's haven't called to check up and b.) we are both still awake past 10! Time to finish up!

And go back to the real world where theres a baby on the hip and crackers on the floor. Because of good friends like Chas, crazy nights in a mini van and Andy Grammer Singing keep your head up, I think I can start over tomorrow refreshed and ready to go!

What do you do to keep your head up? And who with?

Passion

So my passion for photography really took off when I had my first child. I had been exposed to photography for awhile (my first job was as an assistant for a photographer) but never got serious until about 2 years ago.

Here is my first attempt at a photo shoot.....it took most of the day and 100's of pictures to get these shots

My small business has really been a blessing from the Lord and I can't say how many times I have wondered in amazement at how he has provided. Right now I am drowning in paperwork and marketing plans (not why I do what I do) but God just keeps allowing me to connect to people through capturing their lives. It has exploded in business in the last 6 months, so much so  that I have had to turn away people or book out a month in advance!

One of my blogging friends calls herself a "momarazzi" check her out at somethingreal she is very funny! I don't think I'm quite a momarazzi because I usually don't have my camera with me for candids unless I planned to capture a moment. But I am PASSIONATE about photography. I LOVE LOVE LOVE waisting hours looking at other peoples work, thinking up new poses, talking about photography or creating a prop to use. It is an outlet for me.

If you haven't picked up on it yet or not, I am kind of a craft lover. If I get to use my creative side and make something I'm all for it, even building our 450 sq. ft. deck has been fun for me. Although when I made the comment that building the deck was like sewing a blanket I did get a strange look from my husband.

I also have a passion for children, their sweet smiles, bubbly energy, and joy for life is so liberating to be around. Learning about how to pose a newborn has been fun with several fails but I'm are getting there!

So my philosophy on photography is ask questions! I am more then happy to share what I know and how I did it because I know that is how I learned. I want to share my photography with others because I get so much joy from it and want others to feel the same!
Here are a few of the sites I waist time on and I'm pretty sure you will too:-)

Clickin' moms Really fun and has lots of sponsor site I like too

mcp actions I like their Facebook page too, they give short informational blips on techniques

Hope everyone has a wonderful day! And go out and take some pictures!