Story of a Photo

We've slightly launched our business. Ali 'n M Photography. Ali is me, M is Mandy. Both passionate about photography for a long time. Guilty of snapping an obnoxious amount of pics. A side gig has been our goal for years. Bare with us as we get to business.

Website coming up in 2015, but you've seen a few sneak peaks. (Message me if you want quick holiday pics). Here are several more of my family in the golden light on the last full day we were able to snuggle and kiss our fourteen year old Labrador, Finn. I snagged him as a puppy from my photography professor in college. This is a tribute to him. Thank you M, whom Finn adored; we needed some laughter and play that day.

leaf play

the joy of nature

stuffing face

Finny, we wouldn't have found you if I hadn't pursued my love for photography. Thank you to my professor, Ali, for giving us so much joy in our awesome Finnegan (his lab dad was ironically named Finnegan too). Ali had two black labs that accidentally bred and 9 pups needed good homes. How do you choose from so many cute puppies? The one that runs to you, licks your face and loves you unconditionally of course. I believe in signs. Pretty certain I was meant to take pictures and we were meant to have Finnegan.

And now that I start pursuing my passion a bit, our Finn has gone. We miss you gentle giant. Thank you for giving us so much love! You were family.

To Mandy and I, photography is capturing the joy, love of life and family in it. It should be fun! Let your kids play, be yourselves. The best photos are the candid moments. Life.

   cheers

Kid Space

Want to amp up our playroom and make it more fun. This rug is in there now which is my inspiration. Walls are cream, floor is dark grey carpet (basement berber). Plan mode...kids will love the teepee, pillows and bean bag...

Rug (have)
Shelves (have)
Teepee (I think this would make a fun xmas gift)
Sherpa (xmas!)
Ikat Pillow
Floor pillows
Turquoise pouf
Black pouf (similar one)
wire baskets (have similar ones)
Colorful art 
Owl art
Print (will make)

And I'd love to hang their paintings and drawings all over the place! Little artists make me smile.

      cheers

TBT

My high school squeeze. Wow, 17 years (off and on and off and on again) and counting.

This guy went on a fishing/camping excursion off the grid. Too long no talk. MISS YOU! Get home! Still can't do without him. (Yes honey, I admit it!) 

  cheers

PreK

Rory is the oldest in her class. She was more than ready for preschool. I was too. Though, why is school so overwhelming? I now think of which friends she'll make, what social media she'll get involved with and how many silly mistakes she may make growing up. Bad kid influences, drugs, alcohol, peer pressure, homework, grades... I'm a mess. Maybe that's why I broke out in hives the other day? Wish my littles would stay tiny forever and we could move into a bubble and see the "world" together. Oh, but that's not how I lived so let her be. She's got a sparkle in her eye. She'll be ok. I have faith she will make the right choices. Be good little one, be good!

  cheers

and so on...

Life gets busy. What's happening? Roan turned 1 last week! My sweet baby boy is already a year old...that flew! We had a busy one year with him! Moved towns, changed jobs, new house, he is a trooper. It was a tough year, I am still catching up on sleep. :) BUT he was SO worth it! He's a happy little dude.

This week...got a new rug!!! LOVE! Piece by piece, I will eventually get this house the way I envision it. Dining room needs some more love, but for now the rug helps brighten up this room!

April will be here before we know it! Bring on some color and spring, PLEASE! We are ready for the sunshine!

   cheers

Easter Weekend

Hope you all had a great holiday. Despite my 'touch of the flu' or whatever I had, it was a really nice weekend. We went to a community hunt, met the bunny (Rory was terrified of course), soaked up some sun, bubbles, decorated eggs, candy, brunch, naps, had some family time, friend time and my husband and I even had a little Anniversary date. And now that I think of it, I should be celebrating my one year blogging Ani. Though, I've slacked off quite a bit lately. Nursing takes up a lot of time people. Little Ro is still a snuggle bug too. Excessive cuddling going on and we had a little 'staycation' the last two weeks.


Some of the fun from the weekend...

Balloon crown from church

Easter morning at our home

Loving on Nana & Poppy

   ...my little bunnies

     cheers

Cat is outta the bag!

Secret exposed! Let's see how many of my friends and family actually read this silly blog.  I just can't wait any longer. Have to spill it! Cute attempt of sharing news at several videos below. Good enough. Not the best display from iPhone, but you'll get the message....(may have to adjust volume a bit)

Rory's bday party. As you can hear, Nana was quite surprised.

Rory seems to think it's a girl! If only I can convince my husband to find out the sex...I'm longing to "plan" this time around. I may just have to find out myself, but how on earth do I keep that a secret?  ;) We are very excited. Now we just have to figure out where we are going to put the lil' bean when it arrives in March. Uh oh, our bungalow may need some more work.

   
   cheers

Fair Bound

I was excited to share our visit to the Indiana State Fair Friday evening, but after the tragic accident Saturday it's so hard to blabber about our good time. Thoughts of peace go out to the families that lost loved ones and to all that were injured. Klint has a student in the hospital. The teenager will never be the same. Let's hope he gets to go home soon, along with all the others that are still in danger. It was a horrific event that seemed impossible. We were home, several blocks away and the wind was nasty. I'm telling you, I don't think anyone was prepared for it. We were concerned our trees would fall. Our neighborhood was scared for a split second. No sirens went off, so we waited just like everyone else. I cannot imagine what those people were going through at that moment. Our power was out for hours, so we stuck to our phones for information. Facebook is how we heard of the event.

Having worked on stages with my brother at one point in my life put this close to home. I was concerned not only for fans, but for all those crew members too. We have lots of friends that are still in the industry. It takes all day if not longer to prepare for a show. Workers are not careless; I would say that that stage was put up properly...it's their job, hard work that consumes most of their lives. They are grieving too and probably feel so helpless. Indiana weather is not predictable. Ever. We heard and saw it first hand. One minute the radar was clear, the next we thought a tornado was coming. What was supposed to be a fun night turned into total chaos. So sad.

I feel very lucky that our trip to The State Fair was a safe one. Pigs, horses, sheep, goats, cows, lemonade, gyros, ice-cream and games. I will try to remember the fair that way and will never forget the families and friends that were affected this weekend by their trip. Mommy even won a fish for Rory. (Well, two fish, but one left us an hour after we got home). Nemo (#2) is flapping away in a vase in Rory's room. She was so happy and kept saying, "I won, I won!!" And mommy was feeling pretty good too. I NEVER WIN A THING. Needless to say, I didn't think I would win a fish! I used to play that game as a kid...I thought it was hard?! We have a good memory of our trip. Hopefully our Nemo sticks around. When I see him I think of all those happy people before the storm, anxiously awaiting a good show.


Lemonade



Ice-cream at the barn!

Calling a sheep. Rory was scared of all of the animals.




So proud of her fish

 

A weekend to remember

    cheers

Happy Birthday Rory

My girl is 2. Wow! Time flies. We had a blast celebrating with family this past weekend. Another lil' party tonight. The big hit from her toy loot: a mini shopping cart. Rory loves to go shopping like her mama. It's super cute! Her baby sits in the cart of course. Baby goes everywhere.

A few pics of the fun day we had at Nana & Poppy's house: Cake, popcorn, candy, cousins, princess, balloons, presents, princess on her throne, baby trying to steal crown...

    .... and then we try to fly away with all the leftover balloons in our new back packpack. Successful party for our pretty little princess!  xoxo baby girl

      cheers

Heavy Hearts

I was going to gush more about our wonderful FL vacation today, but I would like to contribute this post to the wonderful friends/family we spent it with instead. Our dear newlywed friends/cousins lost a great man yesterday. We cannot even believe it ourselves. The community has been genuinely touched by John's compassion and he will be so missed. He was an amazing person that brought so much joy to life. We were blessed to have spent time with your beautiful family on such a special occasion last month. Our hearts go out to you during this difficult time.

A sweet trip of much love and laughter will be remembered forever...
So deeply sorry for your loss. Love to you all. Please call if you need anything. Thinking of you.

Love, us

We're Baaaack

Well, Klint and I made it home, but Rory is still vacationing with Grandparents. However, too much swimming gave her a bit of an ear infection; my little water bug. :( She's resting up for the holiday weekend. We had fun! fun! fun!!! Congrats to the beautiful couple! Our third destination wedding in one year! Will post pics later when I have the energy. For now, I'm so tired and only want to think about going back here...



Caliza Pool





Alys & Rosemary Beaches=heaven on earth! We will def go back!

    cheers

Wknd Recap

What did we do all weekend? Spent loads of time in the car. We visit family often, but this weekend was crazy. Drove back and forth to each of our parents and then to Indy and back to parents and back to Indy... We had good quality family time though and fit in a few parties and showers and such.

Had a tiny bit of time for pool and friends too. Check out these watermelon cuties! What could be more fun?

I think my little chunky monkey had a blast!

   cheers