Addison's glasses, Day 1

The mailman dropped Addison's new glasses off yesterday and we talked about our strategy to get her to wear them. Addison doesn't like to wear hats or anything on her head so we figured this was going to be a tough task. I decided to run to Barnes & Noble late last night to pick her up some new books. Addison loves looking at books so our plan was to sit down with her when she woke up, put her glasses on, and read all her new books. Well somehow the TV ended up on first so we put her glasses on and Alicia held her while they watched TV. Addison actually left them on for a few minutes and you could tell she is able to see better with them on. She of course took them off after bit but she didn't totally fight it like we thought. Then we sat down to read her new books and she started to leave them on longer and longer. I could tell that she realizes "I CAN SEE". She wore them off and on throughout the day and for longer and longer periods of time. I was expecting a complete disaster but so far so good, stay tuned.

Here she is reading one of her new books.

Deboe Baby #3

Deboe baby #3! This is a picture from Alicia's ultrasound yesterday that I snapped of the screen from our 12 week appointment. This was from my iPhone so please excuse the outstanding quality but I was too lazy to scan the prints. This little one was bouncing all around like a jumping bean and how cute is that profile? We never got perfect profiles of the girls because the were so squished together in there. Baby #3 should be arriving in the beginning of September or possibly the last week of August. We are so excited to have another little one and that the girls will have a baby brother or sister to gang up on and beat up. Good times ahead!

It actually stopped raining

Alicia was at a baby shower all day so it was just me and my girls hanging out, trapped in the house watching it rain. We had the World Match Play on TV where Tiger Woods won 8 and 7, big surprise. He's good at golf. As exciting as it was watching Tiger destroy the junior varsity of the PGA Tour we were so excited when the rain finally stopped. I took the girls to a park so they could splash in the puddles and run around in the wet sand. The funniest thing was the slides all had water pooled up on the bottoms and the girls just slid right through it and just laughed like crazy. They were so soaked but could care less.

Addison needed to hold my hand to get to the top of the slides and just generally navigating up and over things. Even on small curbs and banks, she'll reach up to grab my hand. We thought she was just scared but now we realize she just cant see well. I'm so excited for her new glasses to get here next week.

Morgan on the other hand could climb Mount Everest if we let her. She's a climber.

And she loves her slides.

This is Addison's scrunchy face. Notice the scraped chin. That's from last time at the park where she was climbing and fell.

Addison loves her slides too, she just needs a little help getting to the top of them.

These are the ones

Okay sorry for all the pictures and no information. We noticed that one of Addison's eyes was a little crossed a few months ago and it's slowly gotten worse. We took the girls to the eye doctor this morning to see what was going on. Both Morgan and Addison are far sighted but Addison is very much so. This is causing her to have a hard time focusing on things that are near and that's made one of her eyes turn in a bit. The Dr. said she will need to wear glasses to correct this and that she will probably need them until she's in her teens. We need to keep an eye on Morgan as she could have the same problem but for now the Dr. is going to wait and see.

The last few posts are pictures from my phone of our trip this morning to pick out Addison’s new glasses. The frames are rubber and we went with the squareish bright pink ones. The light pink came in a close second.

This actually explains a lot of things we've been seeing from Addie. She has been having a hard time climbing things and seems to get very frustrated at times. I think these are all because she is having a hard time focusing on close things.

Even with her new glasses she is still tied with Morgan for the cutest kid in the whole world. I love my Addison so much!

Or these

Not these

Tub Time Collection

I always love delivering prints to my clients and especially wall prints that I know are going to look so great on their walls and really add to their homes. I always wish to myself that I had these great images captured of my kids and our little family so I could decorate our walls with these awesome prints. But sometimes being a photographer doesn't work the way you think it might with your own kids. I've heard it called "photographers kids syndrome". Basically I can capture some great, real, and fun moments of other people"s kids, but of my own, no way Jose. Despite all that, my goal over these next few months is to have some beautiful large prints and maybe a gallery wrapped canvas or two ordered to decorate our home with. The start of this project has begun in the bathroom. I had these shots of the girls from a few months ago and I thought they would look great hanging in the bathroom. This is a 10x10 and a 11x14 both with large white borders mounted and framed without glass. That's right, no glass. Take the glass out of your frames with mounted prints. They look so much better without all that glare from the glass and mounted prints always have a protective coating sprayed on them so there is no need for the glass anyway. One room down, only about 6 more to go.




I'm so excited at how much better our newly decorated bathroom looks that I decided to offer some quick sessions to my clients just so they could get some fun bathroom shots for hanging in their own bathrooms. Little kids and babies always have so much fun in the tub so what better time to have a quick mini session than tub time? I"m calling this my "Tub Time Collection". This is a great way to get some fun and timeless images for your bathroom walls.

Tub Time Collection: $225

The Tub Time Collection includes the following:
-30 minute session during tub time
-10 to15 images to choose from in an online gallery
- 1 10x10 mounted print
- 1 11x14 mounted print

*Frames are not included and additional prints are available at the regular a la carte pricing.

I don't know how long I'll offer these sessions so please contact me to schedule your Tub Time Collection session as soon as possible.

Real images, not from my iPhone

So, even though the iPhone's camera is perfect in every way, I've actually decided not to sell all my camera gear and replace it with my iPhone. I can't put my finger on it but my iPhone just doesn't seem to take as nice of pictures as my regular camera. Oh well. It would be fun though to show up at a shoot and just start snapping away with my iPhone. It would make my proofing go way faster that's for sure. I could just post all the shots onto my blog while I'm driving home.

Here are a few "real" shots from my day at the park with the girls. I actually used my "real camera" and everything. Morgan got attacked by Addison this morning hence the big ole bite mark on her face and then she decided to eat a bunch of sand. Addison wouldn't leave her hat on for longer than .05 seconds and getting a shot of them together would require the planets and stars to be aligned properly, and clearly that wasn't today. It's not always pretty, but it's real, and to me that's what makes the best images.

Iphone update from the tub

Tub time. This is so fun.

iPhone blogging

How cool is this? The best part about my new iPhone is that I can take
really bad pictures and update my blog anytime I want. Even on the go!

Here's a shot of my girls playing in the backyard.

I survived the frozen north of Minnesota

I had the most amazing weekend in Minnesota at a workshop hosted by the awesome Mark Stein of Mark Stein Fashion-Style Photography. I wanted to post this yesterday but I needed a day to thaw out from the -16 degree temperatures I was in all weekend. That's not a typo by the way, it was minus 16 degrees below zero. Mark is one of the best senior photographers in the country and he and his beautiful wife Stacey were gracious enough to host me and a bunch of other photographers from around the country at their amazing studio in downtown St. Cloud. Mark shared so much with everyone and it was so fun to see how other photographers work with similar subjects and lighting conditions. It was fun working with the senior models Mark brought in but I also got the opportunity to have a quick session with Mark, Stacey and their daughter Olivia who is just the cutest thing. The best part of it all though was just hanging out with some great photographers and now I can say some great friends!


Mark's studio

Here is Mark in action doing his thing

I have a feeling you are going to know who Emily is one day

Tim was super cool all day

Mariah was so much fun and so sweet


We actually had a baby to photograph as well. This is Miss Kate.


Kate with her Mom Shannon of Candid Moments photos


The fabulous Alisha G. Robertson from AGR Photography


Our hosts, Mark and Stacey Stein


Mark, Stacey and sweet Miss Olivia


It was hard to do but I actually got a shot of Olivia not smiling.


Heres a shot of the whole crew (© Mark/Stacey Stein)

Top, left to right
Ali Hohn, Kelly Bennett, Mark Stein, Kristin Franke, Alicia Thiede, Natalie B., Martha Bravo
Bottom, left to right
Me!, Shannon Steffens, Alisha G. Robertson, Jodi Friedman, Faith Essary, Carolyn Jones, Kristie Kulik

Sicky Poo

Fun times in the D house. This is Morgan and she's not feeling so hot. I've never seen her with such a sad look on her face so I had to grab my camera. This was while she was in the tub which is usually one of the highlights of her day so you know my poor baby is miserable. She's starting to get better though so I hope she's okay for the big game tomorrow. Go Patriots!