Well, I am no Shelley Rankin.....

but I'm getting some practice in!!! Now all I need is a few private lessons from Shelley and I will be all set!! (Yeah right...I need a heck of a lot more work than that!!).



Here are some pics from a shoot I did last night with my cousin's 10 1/2 month old baby, Hayden.

a few pics during the break from the rain yesterday....

House Progress....

Right now boring things are happening like paperwork for the building permit, lawyer stuff, etc. Jamie and I went to the land yesterday to decide where we will put the house and garage, so I took some photos of the land to share!

10 Random things right now...

Trying to force myself to write a semi-decent blog post!

(1) Overly addicted to Facebook, it is taking over my life!! Big time. I love how social it is! And so easy to use as well, so this blog has been taking a back seat....which is sad because my stats have also dropped too!! I know people are reading, but no one is leaving comments, hint hint!!!

(2) Our tentative date for house arrival is the week of August 20th!! Talk about awesome!! We are so excited!!!

(3) Still can't believe that my big brother & his girlfriend are going to have a baby!!!!!!!! I can't wait to add another Niece or Nephew under my belt!! Already have a niece, nephew and great-nephew!! I have a feeling that they will be having a boy......maybe it is because I want to have a girl, lol.

(4) Obsessed with taking photos lately as you probably have already noticed! Trying to learn more about my camera, etc. I have been getting lots of good comments as well. Already lined up two engagement shoots, a couple shoot, baby shoot and a kiddo shoot. Pretty cool stuff!! I get to learn more and take pics and they get free pictures! I think it is a sweet deal! Jana is also coming home in July!! We are also going to do a photo extravaganza!! It's going to be insane!!

(5) It's raining out at the moment, which sucks. I know we 'need' rain, but man I'm pissed when it comes!! Come on sunny days!!

(6) Chandra is coming home in three, count them, three days!! SO freakin' cool. I have not seen her since September (when she came home for the wedding) and it has been too damn long. I hate how her and Jana live so far away, so I get postively giddy when they come to visit!! I am going to take pictures of her and her fiance while they are home!! Three more days people!!!!!!!

(7) Jamie is working late tonight...and by late I don't mean like two hours late....I mean like 16 hours late, lol. He has to rebuild something tonight....only started after supper and it takes about 8 hours...then to see if it will work once it is put back together. Poor guy. He is really working his butt off to make some extra cash for shitty things for the house like lawyer fees!! UGH!! On the bright side he will get tomorrow off with pay and Friday is his bi-monthly "Happy Friday", so long weekend for him!

(8) I ate bad pretty much all week this week, except for the salads and fruit I have been eating at work. And I haven't been walking...but you know what?? I don't care!! Frig it! LOL! I will start over next week!

(9) Today is two months until our house arrival and only one month away from the new Harry Potter book! The final book! Holy crap I can't wait! I am reading book #6 right now to get ready for the last one. I know it's a little childish, but I love the HP series.

(10) I have been having crappy mornings the last couple of weeks so I have been trying to force myself to go to bed early. Speaking of which, it's now 10:30 pm, so I should really hit the sack!! Good night!!

I'm going to be an AUNTIE!!!!

My brother and his girlfriend Jessica broke the news today that they are EXPECTING!!!!!!!!!!

We are all very, very EXCITED for the happy couple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Down at Jacquet River park....

Some pics from the beach today....

Gracelyn Rose...

Well, I am no photographer, but I just had to get out there and get some portraits of my cousin Gracelyn last night!! Isn't she adorable??

Options!!!!

Options, Options, and more Options!!

We have been having fun and also struggling with all of the options for the house!

Here are some of the changes/options we have done so far....

Vinyl siding/roofing: I posted a picture of our siding/roofing color. In a perfect world we were going to get dark grey siding, but it was 1700$ more!! So we went with the medium grey siding (which was our first choice before we saw the darker stuff).

Flooring: The company is providing the bathroom & entrance flooring. We are going with ceramic in the entrance (we haven't picked that out yet). And in the bathroom we are going with vinyl. I know ceramic or stone is nicer, but Jamie wanted vinyl so it's not so cold, and if we get sick of it, it's easy to change!! The rest of the house (including the kitchen) will have hardwood flooring. We purchased this ourselves from our BIL who buys/sells exotic wood. He had some flooring made with Birds Eye Maple, so we are going with that...it's beautiful!!

Kitchen Cabinets: We upgraded from the standard birch cabinets. We are getting Maple cabinets in a shaker door style, with a raised corner cabinet that has a glass door and a light inside.

Other Kitchen upgrades: It will be microwave ready over the stove so we can put in a microwave/range hood combo. We also are getting a pantry with pull out shelves. Another thing we did was change the layout of the kitchen to allow us to put in a angle kitchen island with a step up bar (that is large enough to put four bar stools). Instead of having a patio door leading outside from the dining room we are putting in a garden door.

Bathroom: We upgraded to have a corner tub and seperate corner shower. As well we are putting in a tall bathroom cabinet besides our vanity for more storage. We are also doing a shaker style door in the bathroom with a scarlet wood finish. Because we are putting in a lighter colored floor, we wanted darker cabinets.

Hardware/fixtures: We upgraded from the standard brass/gold to pewter in a satin finish. This goes for all of the hinges, handles, knobs and fixtures.

Basement entrance: The original plan was to have an open plan leading into the basement. A railing for safety and then the stairs with a door at the bottom of the stairs. We changed it to have a wall built and the door being upstairs leading down into the basement rather than at the bottom of the basement. Does that make sense?? I didn't like the look of having a railing going along one side of the living room. This wall now gives us a space to put up pictures/etc, which is nice because the house is so open , there is not a long of wall space.

The house will have a full basement which was a MUST for us! It's going to be nice to have all of that extra space.

Our two door detached garage will have a 16" door, two windows and a side door.

Yesterday when we went to order the house we were given a fan deck of paint colors so we can pick out all of our interior colors. Also we were given a book full of countertop samples so we can pick out our countertops for the kitchen and bathroom.

The choice are overwhelming, but it is also very exciting!

We did it!!

We ordered the house yesterday!!! Here of some pics of Jamie and I the night before.....

Are we crazy or what??

Yes, we had our down payment in cash....in our house....all this time!!!!!

Instead of being smart and just putting our money into a saving account, we have just been taking it out of the bank machine on pay day and stashing it away.

Not smart considering someone could have broken into our apartment or it could have burned down, etc!!

We did plan on going to the bank and changing it over to larger bills, but Jamie worked 70 hours last week, so that didn't happen.

Oh well, the big picture here is that we ordered the house!!

Holy Crapola!! We are so excited!!

Now that we ordered it, the countdown is on!! In a three months will we have our house!!

Now that we just put down our big down payment it's onto saving more money for the other cost....appliances, lawyer, water/sewage hook up, power/phone hook up, etc.