bare white

bare white

12.23.2011

Happy Birthday Jesus!

The most amazing Tree Farm in Michigan - Mott's Tree Farm - was visited by little ole' us over Thanksgiving! 
This is a favorite place of mine and I LOVE going there. I just love this time of year - family, friends, yummy food and celebrating our Saviour's birth. 

Can you see why - just feels like a home!
My brother and his sweet girl friend Ginger - we were looking for a tree for his house!
 my and my man...who refuses to smile just to drive me crazy

 The Gang in front of THE tree
 Tank being a great helper to the guys - he carried the heavy end of course 











Kobo decorating our tree at home 
bitty decides to stand and walk when nobody is looking...sweet, stubborn girl!



12.13.2011

bitty turns 1 - 10-15-10

As Christmas is approaching like a bullet train, I thought I better post some of our fall! 

This was Bitty's Birthday weekend - Mimi & Pop came to visit from Michigan and we knew where we wanted to take them. This fall we found these beautiful trails by our house and have taken many hikes there.  We are actually anxiously awaiting the snow so we can go for a snow hike too. 
But this particular weekend was a gorgeous, crisp, colorful fall weekend - perfect for celebrating somebody turning ONE!

 Mimi happened to bring some hiking necessities...like binoculars! They were a HIT!


The sweet & spicy  birthday girl! Crusty nose, crumby mouth & all

A race to the top

Tank running all the way up

even Bitty loved it! weeeee!

 a RARE moment, a quick moment!

wasps nest! so incredible seeing the intricate details...mim tried tell the kids a bear knocked it out of the tree...I have since been trying to tell them bears don't live in Illinois...thanks Mimi! For some reason though, Mimi is NEVER wrong!

Another Fun find!

Sweet Tank talked pop into this

He almost fell asleep!

My mom and Bitty 




I cannot believe she is one! Oh where oh where did this time go?!? I am so thankful for every moment of her life - Thank you Lord for this sweet girl!

Bobo  thought it was SO cool he was on a bobcat!! 

Arae enjoying her famous stare!

Finally - he gave up the ghost! Love this boy!

10.27.2011

Thursdays : thought you might wanna know about this....

So I thought I would start a "thursdays : thought you might wanna know about this..." post
I love checking out fellow Mamma blogs for good ideas on books, toys, gifts, crafts, h.s. curriculum, family outings etc.etc. And I thought it would be a good idea to share some of those and give you some of our own.

So here we go :

I have been trying to think of what I wanted to do first (I have so many cool things I want to share that I have come across lately).

In the spirit of fall I thought I'd start with this : (these aren't ours...just wanted you to get the idea) We just did a couple with face, the rest were plain pumpkins so I can use them through Thanksgiving. I added a little brown tissue paper too and then went over it with the orange to give is a "pumpkin" look.

We actually got this idea from one of the girls in Arae's CC class - during their presentations they had to present a "How-to" in front of everyone and this was hers. We loved it so much we did it the next day.


Decoupague pumpkin Lanterns

These were so fun to make and look adorable in our window. We did majority of Pumpkins because I am not really into halloween, but Arae and Kobo each wanted to do a mummy too, so I said okay :)
We put the non-flame tea lights in them and they are all (we did 7) in our window in our kitchen. They really are cute! The kids LOVE looking at them at night.
In fact, Arae has a few girls over right now and they are doing a couple for them to take home.


One more thing I wanted to share :




I found these cds and videos a little bit ago and the kids love them. We are really into audio cds right instead of tv....well trying at least.  I really like about audio cds is that they can listen to them while playing or coloring or whatever else.  And what I love about THESE is there is always a point to the story and they talk a lot about character traits. I highly recommend them!

So there you go - a couple little things we love over here at the Whitehouse!

10.26.2011

Long time no post

I had so many good intentions to post during this fall, but LIFE has happened in full force.
School started, Wedding season insanity has and is happening, and then, of course,  like every momma - a lot of this, that and the other.
But I am trying to get back into the grove of blog posting once again  - so I thought I would do a fall recap instead of a bunch of posts to try and catch up - I am gonna do it with one fell swoop.

We started school the end of August and it is going great! We are homeschooling again, but this year is quite a bit different than last year. Not only am I homeschooling another child this year, but we are doing something called Classical Conversations and LOVE it! I needed something different than last year - something to keep me on track especially having two little students, but also something that would help my work load & photography.  Did I say I LOVE CC (classical conversations)? I LOVE it! My kids LOVE it and it is going so well. Don't get me wrong - it is a challenge and we definitely have some rough days, but it is a good challenge and my two little students are just little sponges - (even Tank is learning)

We have done some pretty great field trips too!
This one was to Tanner's Orchard! (We had to miss out on the Rader Family Farms Field Trip because of sickness, but have spent lots of time there this fall too.

Arae and Bitty

Tank and Kobo - my typical boys!

I will be doing a Homeschool Post soon on all of our curriculum now that we are well underway - I wanted to wait to see what we love, like and those "not -  so - much" things. So that is coming soon.

Someone asked me about how my husband and I met - that will come one of these days too. Since I think my last post dealt with 9/11 - I mentioned without it, I may not have met my hubby - so I will be working on that.

Wedding Season - AHHH! I love being a photographer and I feel it is a gift from God in so many ways (I will bore you those details for now), but this fall has been insane. Not only shooting weddings, but all of the portrait work, commercial work, newborn session etc.  I have an amazing husband who finds me time by helping out a ton around the house and with kiddos at night.  So some how I am staying on top of things and clients are waiting too terribly long.  Right now I am editing 2 weddings, 2 engagement sessions, & a boat load of portrait work - that will change to 3 weddings in a couple of days - I know, you don't feel bad for me, it is my own choosing. God some how has gifted me a few extra hours a day I think :)

My baby Sis had her baby - sweet Collyns Marie made her appearance this fall - here are a few pictures of this precious one...My girls and I had a little road trip to go visit her when she was 5 days old! I cherish that time there - kinda cool to have been able to do that since she was there with my when I had my first.
 My older brother and his wife also had TWINS (#5 and #6)  - I am sad to say I don't have any pictures of these two adorable bundles - but that will change over Thanksgiving and then I will have lots!! Layla and Annalise made their appearance just about a week before Collyns. All babies and Mommas are doing fabulously well!

Charlie & Collyns

"I have daddy wrapped around my finger!!"


My sweet baby turned 1...really truly - I had her a year ago and I cannot believe it. When you are pregnant it feels like time is standing still, then when that little one arrives it is like someone pushes fast forward.  I will post her 1 year pics once I get around to taking them.
Until then...here is one moments after she made her appearance. ohhh - what an amazing day this was!



Lastly, I had to post a few from a Styled Shoot I did last week with some amazing ladies here in IL - It was a dream of mine for some time and we did it!







Until next time! Blessings