Another year gone by

Hi, all. I know I've not posted for a bit, but I've been BUSY! We had Daisy's birthday party on her birthday (the 5th), and it was a great success. She got lots of pretty clothes and plenty of toys that have kept her absolutely fascinated ever since. She's growing so fast - I can't believe it's been a year since I had her! She took about 6 steps last night which is the most she's ever walked at once. To be honest I had expected her to walk sooner since Morgan walked at 10 months, but she's likely my last baby, so I'm happy to keep her small as long as I can!

My photography business has picked up some. I had a newborn shoot last Tuesday and a couple's one year anniversary shoot on Saturday, and I have my first paid wedding this Friday. I'll also be doing a friend's family pictures on Saturday, but I don't expect to get paid for that one.

Sunday was my birthday. Much to my surprise, Nick arranged a birthday party for me! This was a pretty big deal for me, because I haven't had a birthday party since I was seven. My younger brother's birthday is the day before mine, so it was a struggle for my parents just to pay for gifts for two, let alone throw a double party! Anyway, let me backtrack just a minute:

My photo shoot for Saturday was originally scheduled for last Monday, the 11th. I called the girl a few days beforehand to confirm and she said that she needed to postpone it 5 days. Okay, no big deal, we had no plans as far as I knew, and Nick was off and could watch the kids. Fast forward a few days and I'm telling Nick all this for the second time and it suddenly sinks in for him what I'm saying.

"THIS Saturday? You have a photo shoot THIS Saturday?" It turned out that he had been on the phone all day with family and friends and our local fruit and berry farm making arrangements for us to have a picnic/party there on Saturday. My actual birthday was Sunday, but they were having some kind of festival that day. I had mentioned wanting to go apple picking sometime a few days earlier, so he was trying to factor that in. Once I knew what was happening, we talked it over and decided to just do a cookout at the lake instead.

We have a favorite spot we like to go to in the state park around the lake. It's this big stone gazebo with picnic tables, grills, restrooms, and a huge outdoor fireplace. We decided to get there early because it's first come, first serve, and this spot is hugely popular. Nick bought everything we needed for breakfast and lunch, and we got there at 9 AM. Nick makes this amazing breakfast scramble with hash browns, eggs, cheddar cheese, onions, peppers, bacon, and sausage. You slather a tortilla with sour cream then spread the filling on top, roll it up into a burrito and have the best breakfast ever! He usually only makes it when we go camping, but I really love it, and it was soooo good on a crisp fall morning!

I got to take some really neat pictures of a very brave deer that wandered through and let Morgan and I follow it for a rather long time. I also got some neat shots of some fishermen on the weir dam and a kayaker on the lake. Around noon family and friends started showing up, and we had hot dogs, chips, chili, potato salad, etc for lunch, followed by birthday cake and ice cream. My in-laws bought me a microwave (ours went completely dead a couple of days earlier), my mom and dad gave me a journal and some money (actually the money was a couple of weeks ago, but it ended up going for bills - boo!), my brother and sister-in-law got me a Target gift card (yay!), and Nick's sister and her husband got me some Thanksgiving dishes. I also got a card in the mail from Nick's other sister today with a $25 Visa gift card that I took to Bath and Body Works and went crazy with. Funny thing about that - it was a Vanilla Visa card. I'd never heard of them before, but it made me smile. Oh, and the photo shoot that day wasn't until the late afternoon, so it didn't get in the way after all!

Anyway, there was no birthday spanking, although it was discussed and put on the schedule for sometime this week. I may be jinxing myself by posting that, but here's hoping. Anyway, that's what I've been up to - how about you guys?