PhotoJenic Photography [blog]

It was the perfect day.

We went to church as a family.

We ate lunch together.

We flew kites in the wind and appreciated our big backyard.

I laid in the hammock enjoying the breeze under our really tall tree.  Dawson snuggled with me while we swayed from the wind. I even dozed off for a bit, couldn’t help the movement lulling me to sleepyness.

We watched Dawson’s new movie together, The Bee Movie.

We ate a yummy dinner together that I actually prepared.

And then the boys enjoyed a treat before bed! 

Soon it will be a date with my DVR and my husband…it’s been awhile since we had some downtime watching tv!! 

I sure needed a perfect day!

The second oldest of 9 kids, my husband sure gained a lot of wonderful qualities of which some still amaze me! No doubt his parents did well instilling in him patience, compassion, faith and the desire to work hard in life. After a long day at the office himself, he got to Brennan’s baseball game and was the proudest Dad as he told me ( I had to leave early cuz the other kids were freezing) how our 6yr old threw the ball from 3rd plate all the way to 1st base right to the other player who then caught it. This stuff doesn’t really happen in 6yr old baseball…and that was after a few hits that Brennan had made too! Reuben played baseball and he’s a proud daddy watching his son excel in a sport he loves.

He got home to our ever so clean and tidy house with his super patient wife and uttered not a word of the conditions to which he saw! Instead he quickly changed from office work clothes to outside work clothes, managed a few kid tasks and went outside trying to finish digging a footing for our fence that’s being replaced. Once I’d gotten the kids in bed, he came inside and rocked that sweet baby girl to sleep DESPITE her tantrum throwing of her body fighting the idea of bedtime…it took awhile, but she finally slept in her Daddy’s arms. Once he had the footing complete and our new “make shift” fence put up to protect our yard overnight…I finally checked out sometime around 11:30pm…I was still pretty spent from a very draining day yesterday so I went to bed “early.”

This morning I went into the kitchen and there were all the stools on the counter, floor freshly swept, the counter was VISIBLE with everything put away and also freshly wiped down. The two sinkfuls of dishes? gone. The living room toys? picked up. The bathroom I locked for fear someone would see it’s horrible mess? clean. The other bathroom which had previously smelt of the 4 boys who’d been at my house…now smelled lemony. He definitely knows when my plate is full, my patience done, and he definitely knows how to help a stressed out wife have a better day…

And a better day it was…thanks my love!

( a pic of us from Vegas when he came out to my conference for Valentines.  Thanks Marnee for taking the picture…)

I
AM
BUSY…

I
AM
OVERWHELMED…

I
AM
STILL
HERE…

So…nothing like working like crazy to launch a new blog and then reducing blogging activity to a minimum! Life is crazy and I really hope to get back to regular blogging, but we have to get back to some normalcy around here, and I’m not sure when that’s going to happen! My nanny is leaving and I’m desperately working to replace her and to increase the work time I have while at the same time somehow finding some quality time for my kids and myself…all of these are MUCH MUCH needed!

Here’s a few of my day’s confessions, maybe telling you will help me to feel better…or at the very least help you to understand why I’m MIA lately!

#1…I have a love/hate relationship with my new blog…love EVERYTHING…EXCEPT for posting…it’s a BIG FAT PAIN and I lack patience to upload individual images like it wants me to…and I’m super annoyed I spent so much energy on a blog that at this point isn’t serving it’s purpose of making my life easier…and I’m too busy to deal with working on the kinks to hopefully improve it.
#2…We are in the process of putting up a safer pool fence and side gate…this means my house has extra people everyday and extra distractions and extra messes, it makes getting more done, extra hard.
#3…I’ve decided this is the week to break the baby from her last attachment…the binky (stupid of me I know…this is NOT the week, but we are 24hrs in people, can’t quit now). Since I started my day on a patience scale of ZERO, tonight I’m at a negative 10 and my pinch hitter is busy! Tonight as she cries and refuses to be rocked or sang to or any of it…I put her in her bed and let her cry, and I have nothing left in me to give to a fit throwing, back arching child to put to sleep, without her beloved binky! Sorry Emery…it will be better soon!
#4…My house is a PIGSTY! Tornado striken even!
#5…I am trying not to care about #4…seriously, I didn’t pick up today and clean up after all the kids here (5 kids)…and there were 5 yogurt cups and spoons everywhere and lunch bowls and cups galore, smushed crackers on the floor and a counter top somewhere under all of the clutter. Every room has toys all over. One bathroom was so bad I just shut and locked it so no one else had to look at it. And I can’t find the floor in most my rooms, be it laundry or toys or trash…it’s a mess! Usually I would at least do a quick clean of the main rooms before my husband came home, but not today…thankfully he’s really understanding and doesn’t give me crap…he just steps in to see how he can help, and today I left him LOTS of reminders =)

Meanwhile, I’m editing some great sessions and not looking forward to blogging them to show you! I’m sure it will go super smooth and not take 2 hours out of my day that I don’t have!

We are so excited that so many people signed up for Spring for Charity. We have filled up more sessions than anticipated and we can’t wait to see all the kids and how they respond to the chicks. We did add a few additional time slots for the later afternoon for any last minute reservations. If you know of someone that might be interested, please send this along to them.

By the way, for all of our parents that signed up for the event, we have even more in store for you!  David Goron is a 3rd Degree Black Belt and teaches Professional Martial Arts.  He has graciously offered to do a free Safety Class for kids the following Saturday, March 28th at Little Scholars Academy.  I’ve heard this is an AMAZING class in which the kids are shown great techniques to respond if ever in a bad situation.  It’s very hands on and the kids even practice yelling NO! and learn when it is appropriate to respond this way.  I’m grateful to David for his donation of time and hope that many people will take advantage of this great class. 

Thanks to everyone who have supported this great cause, I can’t wait to share photos with you all next week!

Anyone that knows me knows my life fear is break ins and/or kidnappings.  Some months ago I faced one of these head on with our home being broken into and me not realizing it prior to being inside for some time.  Needless to say, I’m much better but often still on edge, especially some nights. 

You may already know this story, one night around 1am years ago, my husband and I woke up in the night to our alarm going off. Almost immediately Brennan, who was 3, raced to our bed and jumped in my arms with a racing heart.  I sat up, held him and awaited our fate, I knew someone was in our house and was grateful the phone was now ringing from the alarm company calling.  No one came, no sounds were heard, so we stayed on the phone while we investigated the reason for the set off.  Turns out, Brennan had tried to escape outside in the night.  He was really naughty that day…I mean REALLY naughty and we took ALL of his toys out of his room and put them in my studio, which was off of the entrance to our house.  He decided to get up in the night when we were sleeping to go get his toys!  Thank goodness for the alarm, he could’ve walked down the street and we might not of known. 

I don’t recall ever being as scared as I was in that moment that night…until last night.

Last night we were awoken by LOUD LOUD screams, not one, but over and over SHREIKING screams from Brennan followed by Dawson.  These were insanely loud screams and responses from them for 2am!!  Along with it was another VERY loud sound which I associated to be my alarm.  We both jumped out of bed, Brennan’s screams were coming from the living room, Dawson’s from his room.  Immediately (yes this is my nature folks) I assumed someone was in my house and my kids were being harmed.  Thankfully, despite the painful fear I was feeling, I ran with my husband to help.  There was Brennan sitting in front of the tv terrified because the volume was on the highest it could be with just the “snow” sound.  Brennan has never liked noise, he still doesn’t like fireworks, loud sounds stress him out…and me too at 2am!! 

Why you ask, was the tv on that loud on the snowy screen?  Yes, one smart little boy who’s now 6 was up, trying to play video games without being caught.  He meant to turn the tv channel and kept hitting volume up until he couldn’t stand it any longer.  Dawson is a heavy sleeper at night and Brennan’s repeated shreiking screams even got him up from the other end of the house! 

I was happy to see my family was still safe but I definitely wished it didn’t cost me most of my night of sleep.  I definitely couldnt just relax after that…just another opportunity for me to face my fears I suppose, I’m pretty much not enjoying these in case you were wondering!

And for the record, that smart boy knows the rules and has no tv or game privilages today…maybe he’ll never try that again…hopefully!

Welcome little Lacey Pribyl, my friend Nicole’s sweet baby girl.  Nicole didn’t know what she was having and I was sure pulling for a little girlfriend for Emery…I’m super glad I was right!

I was going to try to be there for the birth to get some great reactions when they figured out the sex, but after a super slow day of no progression, Nicole went super fast in a short time before I could get there.  Lacey was ready. 

Lacey was an angel for her session with me, which is surprising cuz she was 2 weeks old, that’s usually risky with newborns![gallery link="file" columns="1" size="full"]

Thanks Nicole, I can’t wait to see how you can incorporate these into her cute nursery.

OK, OK…I”m a week late, but cut me a little slack here…I did have a daughter sick for 2 weeks with Bronchiolitis and double ear infections, then my oldest came down with double pink eye and then my 3 yr old got it too…and to top it off, my husband was out of town for that part for 5 days! 

And don’t even get me started on how much I hate pink eye…it’s my new most hated child illness…no it’s not as hard as shots or breathing treatments and it’s not too hard on them…but it’s SOOOOO contagious, and the LAUNDRY?  AHHHHHHHHHH…I’ve done more towels, clothes, sheets, pillowcases and scrub downs of hands and switches and anything else they will touch for days!  And when was the last time you had to hold your toddler down, pry the eyes open…without touching…and force drops in?  In the end it still passed to one of my other kids, my younger brother and my niece…and who knows how many others!!  A huge thanks to my stepmom who spent much of her short vacation washing and folding to keep me ahead of the game!!  THAT was HUGE!

Oh yes…back to the winner of my giveaway…

Thank you to everyone for your comments!!  I ended up with 38 total comments and met some new followers of my blog!  I used random.org to give me a random winner and it chose #32…the 32nd person to comment was Shelly!  Shelly, thanks for taking time to read my blog, it looks like you are going to be getting a box of these yummy cookies from home!

I couldn’t resist this cute green box since it mimicked my new green color…so Shelly, shoot me an email (jen@photojenic.net) with your address and we will get some cookies sent your way!

Before launching new blog, figure out and perfect new system of posting images, including multiple images so you don’t have to leave said blog unwritten all week! 

Sorry folks…giveaway winner coming, more posts coming…still working out the kinks…

I’m super excited to FINALLY launch my new look and blog. 

Above is my new logo/brand.  I’m really excited about it.  I feel it is a contemporary, yet simple representation of me and my work!  I love how the logo emphasises my own name within my company name.  Photography is such a part of my life and because of that I’m always ”behind the camera,”  so I felt it fitting that my name falls within the camera in the logo as well.   I also loved that the “J” of my name mimicks a grip on a camera, along with the top of the “j” looking like the shutter release.  The color scheme is fun and earthy as I do most of my photography outdoors.  

So much thought went into creating this new look.  From colors to fonts, sizes and all other elements.  I tried to carry that look onto this blog and I sure hope it better represents who I am and the work that I do!  I”m striving to reinvent my business from the ground up, perfecting areas that need it as I go.  This step was an imperative part of that process as I work to design all new marketing pieces and streamline the work that I do.

I would LOVE to get your feedback on the new blog or the logo.  In fact, I’d love it so much that I’ll enter your comments into my free giveaway, but you have to comment before midnight tomorrow! And don’t worry, if you already left a comment on that post, you can leave one here for another chance…because I want to know what you think about the look too =)