ohmiheck!

If you have not seen the movie "Ghost Town"  you need to get to the theatre tonight and get yourself into one of those comfy theatre seats. I laughed so hard so many times in this movie that I thought sure I might have to lean over to Mike and tell him I needed some new bloomers. 

This is about a guy who dies for a little while and then starts having ghosts follow him around.  This is not even close to the same genre as "Sixth Sense".  What follows is hilarious and in the end meaningful without being over the top.  Yes, it may be a little formulaic...but who cares?!?

You have to see this movie!

laugh. LIFE.

 

Jessica had her baby!

 

I recieved this text message and was so excited to hear about the birth of little Miss Julia!  She was born in the middle of the night at 3:22am.  She's beautiful and healthy at 7lbs. 3 oz.  And I, like you, am dying to see some pictures!

I so wish I could have been there for the birth but I'm waiting for all of the wonderful details.

Jessica has been a wonderful addition to the Davina Studios team and I'm thrilled to have found her.  I have been so grateful for her sweetness with everyone who contacts the studio, her attention to detail, and her ability to coordinate all of us and help keep us working as a team. She's great at working in an artist's space and knows the importance of having a system for everything that happens.  She's great at keeping things organized and has had so many great ideas that have helped the studio to be a better place to work.  She's been a gift and I'm so grateful for her.

Obviously, Jessica will be out of the studio for the next few weeks.  I'll be trying to keep up with her email box...thanks for your patience on that... :)

Make sure to welcome Julia into the world!

Best wishes and congratulations to you Jessica, Caleb, and Julia!  Julia is blessed to have you both as parents...

 

 

new. LIFE.

real. boy. life.

Last night Emmett had a huge dissappointment...the first loss during a season with his football team.  All of the boys were very sad and all of them knew that they could play better but for some reason just couldn't seem to get their head and their hearts on the same page.  It could have been that the game was a last minute make up for bad weather or it could have been the Goliath boys that were on the other team that would make any mom wonder if her son would come out on the other side of the game or if they will be making another trip to the hospital.  

No matter what the reason was for the performance of their game there really, truly are more important things than winning a game.  

After all of the kids were in bed last night I laid in bed reading "Boys Should Be Boys"  by Meg Meeker.  (If you don't have this book and you have boys you NEED this book!).  Because I was desperate for some help on the matter, of what to say to Emmett after such a devastating game, I knew I had to read before falling off to sleep.  I had started to read from the first page a few weeks ago but hadn't picked it back up since then.  I checked the index for football and disappointment but  didn't find what I needed.  I decided to look at the table of contents and was thrilled to see a chapter called "10 things you need to know to raise a boy".  Yay!. My favorite thing:  LISTS.  And a top 10 list to boot. 

That top 10 list was just what I needed to read.  Emmett is a very sweet boy.  He tries hard, likes to do everything well, he tries to be patient, and he watches out for his sisters (even if he does know how to tease them in just the right way).  He expects a lot of himself and gets pretty bugged when he performs below his own expectations.  He is extremely smart and

is an excellent friend. 

One of the things on the top 10 list is: Raise Him From The Inside Out.  When I read this tip it was the exact help I was looking for.   "He knows that good grades are better than bad, that scoring a touchdown is better than fumbling the ball, that hitting the high note is better than missing it.  But he needs to know what you think of him as a person.  Do you like what you see beneath the stuff he does--his character, the deeper parts of who he is?"

So...this morning as he sat at the counter with his sisters eating his breakfast before catching the bus that comes wayyy to early at 6:50am I told him about the deeper parts of him, about the stuff that really makes me proud of him, the stuff that matters.  I love to see him help his team make a touchdown but what I love seeing even more is that he's nice to the boys on the team that are having a tough time, that he watches out for and protects his sisters, that he loves to learn and works hard to understand things and to help others understand without making them feel less than.  I love that he loves God and that he wants to be good.  I love that the core of him is sweet, understanding, giving and at the same time all boy, exploring, discovering, and making forts out in the woods.

And even though last night out on that field it was an extremely disappointing night and he felt like crying... I'm happy that he held it in but that when he got home he felt safe enough to share his disappointment and loss and sadness. (Another great point that this book makes is that boys have the 'boy code' that you don't cry in front of your peers.  And that's an okay code.  It teaches boys self-control and self-mastery.  However, they need to feel safe enough once they get home to be able to spill that emotion and know that they can talk about whatever sadness they feel.  Reading this last night at midnight and realizing that I have an incredible husband who went in and talked to Emmett in his room and let him feel all the sadness that he was feeling on the field was a gift to me.  I was filled with love and gratitude for being blessed with a man who is a special bit of grace as a dad to our kids.)

Emmett is an amazing boy, full of life, emotion, giving, running, jumping, exploring, reading, learning, and love.  I'm so glad that he is in my life, that he's made it more full, more wonderful, and more real than it ever would have been with out him.

**I made sure that Emmett was okay with this post before I published it.**

boy. LIFE.

artist.

Sterling is an oil painter that had a space near my studio when I was in Utah.  We had been talking for ages about getting his shoot scheduled and when he found out I was moving it decided it was time.  We did a quick shoot at his home with his wife, Barbara. 

Sterling has been so good to me.  He has been extremely generous to me and Gracie adores him.  He's one of the artists that always made Gracie feel like such a big girl.  Every day she would check to see if he was in his studio and if he was she would go down to chat with him and usually come back with some beautiful piece of artwork she'd done with pastels or markers on cool watercolor paper. 

Sterling and Barbara's home is filled with a lifetime of memories and art and sweet beauty.  I'm so glad I got to spend a little time with them before I left...

sweet. LIFE.

Pictage. PartnerCon.

I look forward every year to September because I get to see photographer friends that I've not seen in quite a while.  I'm also blessed to have the opportunity to get to speak again this year.  I love the opportunity to teach and this year it's going to be extra fun because I'm speaking with Millie Holloman.  

Over the last couple of years we've made the jump from doing everything ourselves to hiring help so that we can have a life outside of drowning in our businesses.  We've jumped through that terrifying ring of fire...wondering if we could really afford it, made mistakes and lived to tell about them, and also more fully gotten ontp paths that are leading us where we want to go.  We both have different destinations and visions for our businesses but we have fundamental ideas that work for both of us even though one of us is planning to staya small boutique and one of us is hoping to have a large number of studio photographers.

If you weren't planning on going to PartnerCon jump on a plane and come see us.  The Pictage Conference is a photographer convention with more of a workshop feel.  It's small so you actually meet people, become friends with them, and then share hotel costs with them at the bigger shows or attend cool workshops together.  The very first Pictage PartnerCon is where I met Millie and we've been friends ever since.  We've talked each other through fun times, mistakes, figuring out html, business decisions, and encouraged each other through business and personal circumstances.

Register Here.  (you need to be a pictage member to register)

Don't miss out on friendship or a great learning experience!  If you can't make it this year plan for next year's Partnercon.  Hope to see a lot of you there.  If you're attending tell me in the comments!

fun. LIFE.