I am barely coherent after the wild birthday celebrating last night. We went to Josephine St for dinner, and then sang crazy Irish songs around a piano at Durty Nelly's on the Riverwalk. For a while it was standing room only because of the big game. The game that was so big that we met people who had chartered a plane to fly down for it. Naturally, I had no idea about it because I'm always ten steps behind on the sports news. And when they sang that M-I-C song (for the hundreth time) I could not resist yelling K-E-Y. Anyway, go Tigers! Or Sooners! It's all the same to me.  :)

If you're looking for something to do this weekend (and you're not from Missouri or Oklahoma), go to Boerne. We went last weekend after Melody's post about it. It was fun. FREEZING COLD and fun.

Taken with the p/s, and some of them are pretty noisy due to the low light and my stubborn resistance to flash.

This one doesn't show Boerne, but I love her down-tilted lashes.

Just the day before I had told Chance that you can only put little marshmallows in hot chocolate, and that a big one would be silly. He would like to introduce this as Article number one and evidence that his mother makes it all up as she goes.

The best part of the night was when they sprayed the street down with soap, I mean snow.

Okay, it's not Winnipeg, but it was a very cool little snow globe moment. :0)

Emily wasn't having it when we tried to put her on his lap, so here is OUR picture with Santa Junior. I think he was all of sixteen. Either that or Father Christmas has been hitting the botox pretty hard. 

The light was really pretty in the backyard a few weeks ago, so I made Jason go outside and pose up some mean moves for me. "Give me pensive....now menacing". He acts like I'm bugging him, but I know he is secretly waiting to try out for the male version of America's Next Top (Thirty-FIVE-Year-Old) Model. That's right. Thirty five. It's so hard to believe that I met you when you were NINETEEN. I wouldn't change a single year. Happy birthday Dig. I hope you have fun...(even though this photo makes you look like you're pretty pissed off something.  :0) 

*you can read Paul's birthday wishes here. He's a HOOT. WOOT.

Last night was so fun! Fourseasons OBGYN, hosted a very cool little party at their office. I did headshots in one of the exam rooms, and wonderful Neely worked her booty off doing botox injections and make-overs. They have a very comprehensive cosmetics department, and they are really fun to work with. Plus any doctor who turns their reception desk into an after-hours bar, is the doctor for me.

Speaking of which, meet Dr. Nancy Finney and her husband Robb. She is the other half of the Fourseasons practice, (with Dr. Feinstein). I did their family portraits a couple of weeks ago. Everyone was so laid back. It made for good shots and a good time.

What struck me most about their family is how each child has such a unique personality. Dr. Finney had them all choose their own outfits, which they felt represented them. Very cool.

Here is Clark The Future Heartbreaker. Um...I see many phones ringing off the hook in the near future. 

Miss Caroline who melts you with her honesty. When I first got there, she was the one to answer the door. I asked her if she was ready to take pictures, and she answered that she was "a little nervous". It was so impressed by her candor, and with her ability to articulate what she was feeling. Plus it had NEVER occurred to me in all these years that children get nervous about taking photos too. I was really  grateful for that insight. Then 5 minutes into it, she was completely over it. She can tell you stories about anything, and is just a delight. The rat on the other hand, freaked me out. Yep, I know I'm a wimp.

And Mr. Cole. We made a special trip over to this tree so he could show me his "art", not to be mistaken for string wrapped around branches. I love kids. They know what's up.

Thank you Robb and Nancy for a fun shoot! Your family is amazing.

Okay, I know I'm a professional photographer and all. And I know that is supposed to inherently make me into a techie and a gadget-lover. But the truth is that I am your Granny. The one who doesn't use the automatic can opener because the old rusty hand-held works just fine. Once I get used to something, God help you if you try to tell me about the latest and greatest tool of the century. You will be so excited about this feature and that feature. And then you will notice my expressionless face. And you'll talk a little louder. But your words will be bouncing off my glazed-over eyes. And you will get so frustrated that your head will start spinning and smoke will fill the room and you will explode into pieces. For instance, up until now (please don't be a hater) I was doing all of my work on my laptop. I've had this Turbo Mega Giga Moosehead Monster Memory RAM-anater computer upstairs for oh, a year. And Jason (Mr. Automation-tron) would always BEG me to go upstairs and "use it" "use it" "use it". He would go on and on about the joys and wonders of the Upstairs Computer. How much he loved it, and wanted to marry it. And as soon as he was done with his love song, I would commence to complaining about how much my wrist hurt. UNTIL. He showed me THIS LITTLE FEATURE. Look really closely at the top right of the screen. Yes people. That would be a mini TV screen. And yes, look a little closer. THAT would be (don't hate) The Housewives of Orange County. That I'm watching. WHILE I'm working. While I'm watching. While I'm working. SEE Jason? You just need to learn how to speak my language. 

And I'm sure I will never go downstairs again.

Spent last night holding a warm wash cloth over little ears. Found out that it takes EXACTLY FIFTEEN MINUTES for a warm cloth to cool down. EXACTLY the same amount of time as it takes to doze off. So it was like a bullhorn of pain going off each and every time you reach the REM state. I did it for 3 hours. Up and down. Up and down. Until I couldn't take it and asked Jason to take a shift. Then Mr. Smartie Pants went and got the heating pad to put over the warm wash cloth and they went to sleep.

For the record, WHAT DO YOU DO for an ear ache? I mean, after the benadryl, and the drops...I think out of all the flu symptoms, ear aches are when I feel most helpless.

So needless to say it was another S-L-O-W moving morning. Lateness and more lateness. But my coffee is kicking in and I have a zillion things on the agenda. A billion photos to post (maybe later). A fun shoot tomorrow at a little hot mama party. And parties galore this weekend. Plus lots of new ideas swirling around for two thousand EIGHT. I can't believe it!