O KitchenAid....O KitchenAid

So I jumped the gun and bought an early Christmas gift for myself. I've been wanting one of these for a while. Made a batch of chocolate chip cookies earlier today. A word of warning....if you put in the flour and then jack the mixer up to medium, you will have a cloud of flour in your kitchen! Never had that problem with the hand mixer. Next I may try a batch of divinity.

**UPDATE - Tried the divinity - Crashed and burned! It had the consistancy of spackle when I was through with it. Funny think is, we ate it anyway. But at least today's fudge turned out better. :)

O Christmas Tree...O Christmas Tree

I give you the Hackney family Christmas tree. I thought about getting a real tree this year, but we're going to be going home for Christmas a little earlier than usual this year. So the artificial tree will have to do. You will also notice that there are no packages under it. Still working on shopping! I also don't have any decorations outside yet. Maybe some lights on the porch and bushes.

Aaron came home sick from school today with a stomach ache. I forgot my cell phone at home and the school had to call Dusty. He was up in Carmel taking a class and had to leave early to get Aaron, then he had to go into work at 7PM to fix a problem. It's been a long day. Aaron was feeling fine by this evening, so I'm sure he'll be back to school tomorrow.

Home Stretch!

One more day and I'll be into my self-imposed photo break! I really like taking portraits for people, but I need a break. :) Tomorrow (actually later today, I just noticed that it was after midnight) I'll place the last photo print order before Christmas. Then I need to get going on shopping. I haven't got a whole lot done in that area. I also need to get the cards in the mail and look up some good Christmas cookie recipes. We had 5-6 inches of snow fall on Wednesday and Thursday and it is about gone. Just been a lot of rain this weekend. Saturday and Sunday evening was our church's Christmas dinner theater. I took family photos to help raise money for the youth group's Mexico mission trip next year. This is our choir all decked out for the dinner theater. I know they put a lot of work into their costumes and they all looked great!

Just to make you smile

Here's one of my favorite subjects again. Allison always makes the sweetest little photo. She's just a ray of sunshine. I was supposed to take some baby photos today, but Rachel woke up saying that her stomach hurt and all she wants to do is cuddle. So we moved the photos to Saturday. Maybe I can get caught up on my housework and Christmas decorating. I'm pathetically behind.

This week brought to you by...CAFFEINE

That's right....caffeine! I think it's what is going to get me through this week. Diet Dr. Pepper, coffee, whatever works. Tonight turned into 3 family Christmas shoots. I set all the equipment up at our church and just had everyone come to me. It was a lot easier that way. My friend Lisa and her family were first up. When Lisa got there I asked her if she wanted something somewhat formal looking or casual. "Oh", she said, "we are definately casual. You haven't seen Julio yet." In walked her husband, Julio with a red T-shirt that looked like a Santa outfit and it said, "Does this shirt make me look fat?" Never in a hundred years would I have thought she would have got him to wear that!! For those of you who know Julio, imagine his voice and accent. For those who don't, try to imagine a Mexican accent. Julio said, "I look like a sausage." It was too funny!

Christmas Rush - Part 2

More....more...more photos! I've got at least 2 more shoots on Tuesday. If I can keep up with the edits then I should be home free by the 10th! :) I couldn't resist playing around with some I took tonight of a family in our church. I've discovered that every kid likes to jump around!

The Christmas Rush

I'm in the midst of the last minute flurry of photos before Christmas. I'm going to try to wrap them up by December 10th. Last night I took my friend Christina and her family. Her daughter Avalyn is one of the hardest little kids to get a smile out of. At one point she bent over and her brother Garrison dropped his head and Gary & Christina looked down at them. I had to laugh when I looked at the photo, because it was almost as if they were all praying to be done with the photos. The kids were getting tired of me by this point. :)