Running my first Ad soon!

I'm a nice person.  Really.  I'm not try to brag myself up, I really enjoy being nice and making others happy.  and today I feel the need to give a shout out to some other nice people I met. 

I've been working with the staff at The Wright County Journal Press/The Drummer http://www.thedrummer.com/   I will have an ad running soon, so keep watch.  And I just have to say that Bruce and the rest of the staff there are such a wonderful team.  Earlier in the week I emailed a few photos and wording that I thought would work well for my ad.   Bruce and others took the time to look at my blog, and see my other work, and they saw a different photo that would be great for my ad.  How cool is that?  I'm so excited for this ad to come out...it is during my slow time, but it's my hope that it will catch peoples attention and they will keep me in mind for when they need a photographer....it'll go out to 50,000 + people, seriously? (I think I got the numbers right) that's insane...I'm kinda freaking out.  Photography is my passion, maybe this is what I need, we'll see.  2011 is going to be great!

Every day I think I need to change my 'Photo a day' project to a 'Photo a week' project, but somehow I keep managing to snap one to share.

I ran a few errands this afternoon, and now I'm home with just this sleeping beauty.  My kids are GONE for the night...hubby and I have a much needed night off.  For sure we have a dinner date planned...Red Lobster.  It's so easy to forget about 'date night' when you got a bunch of kiddos running around, but thanks to good friends for making it happen.

Day 28

Family photo session from Oct. 2010

Photo taken with my camera phone, not the greatest.  This baby girl has officially learned to clap her hands and wave hello...so fun!  She is growing so fast...way faster that any of my other babies, so it seems.  She crawls up stairs, walks along furniture, has 4 teeth with 2 more working their way through. 

She loves sweet potatoes and bananas.

Day 27

Check out this beautiful family of 13 I photographed back in October. 

For this session, I went to their home did the photo session in their backyard.

My studio is portable.  If it's easier for me to come to you, let me know,

otherwise I have a small home studio set up.

or if their is an outdoor location you like or need suggestions,

that works too.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing some green again.

Luncheon and Family Photo Session from last Fall

mmmm....today I had a friend over for lunch, and I really wanted to buy that (I think it's called) Oscar Meyer Southwestern Chicken, the stuff by the lunch meat, to put on a salad.  Well, I couldn't justify $3.50 for such a small portion, when I had a bag of frozen chicken tenderloins in the freezer.  So I Googled 'Southwestern seasoning' and loved what I found.  Oh it was delish! 

Southwestern Seasoning: 1 Tablespoon Salt, 2 teaspoons garlic powder, 2 teaspoons chili powder, 2 teaspoons cumin, 2 teaspoons pepper and half teaspoon of cocoa. 

I actually used half of what it called for and sprinkled (quite heavily) on the frozen chicken and baked in the oven for about 35 minutes at 350-375.  YUM YUM and still have seasonings left for next time.

Day 24

and ya gotta have dessert...I don't always think of substituting applesauce for vegetable oil, but I did today, and now wonder why I don't do it ALL the time.  Get this, the directions called for 1/3 cup vegetable oil, which equals 75 GRAMS OF FAT...can you imagine if I ate the entire pan!...and instead, I used 1/3 cup applesauce which was ZERO fat...so if I eat/ate the entire pan of brownies, it'd only be....ugh, 57 grams of fat!

The brownies were a tad more cake like, so I probably should have only used 1/4 cup of applesauce, but with ice cream and hot fudge, oooh, it was yummy.

Last Fall I photographed my friends family 

Our boys are such great buds, it's always such a fun time getting together...(tho today, my son was is a bad mood because I took the Wii away, for 2 days, as discipline, and he really wanted to show his friend what level he was at...but I had to stick to my word).

Here are a few images from our session.

love it! so cute!

beautiful family!

Make sure you check out my post from Friday, leave a comment to win one of my headbands.  Contest extended thru Tuesday, till midnight.  I will announce winner on Wednesday.

Click link below to be connected to Friday's post:

http://crystalleephotography.blogspot.com/2011/01/if-youre-in-need-of-photo-card-thank.html?showComment=1295841458483#c4213109392130457594

Crabby Kids

Day 17...isn't going as planned.

Babes woke up at 3am, with a temp of 101.8, her teeth were causing her so much pain, it broke my heart.  She wouldn't nurse, the four teeth cutting thru on top were/are making her miserable.  Finally Tylenol and orajel soothed her and she fell asleep. 

Not knowing why she has a fever (that is still lingering this afternoon), the plans that we had (with friends) were cancelled, which REALLY bummed out the kiddos (and me!!!).  I feel like I'm always telling them about plans and too frequently having to change them, and I really don't like letting them down. 

I'm guessing from the disappointment in our change of plans is causing these kids to disobey.  They have been picking on each other ALL DAY LONG!

It doesn't help that it's Monday, I like my Mondays to regroup from a busy weekend, and I just haven't been able to do that.  Maybe I need to head to Unique Thrift Store, in New Hope, and take advantage of their 50% off everything, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day...shopping is my therapy, and I know that would do the trick....but do I really want to haul four crabby kids who don't want to listen to their Mother today? Nope. sigh.

In hopes that tomorrow  is a brighter day, I'm signing off.

Wedding Photography

Weekends are so wonderful and refreshing...just wish they would last a bit longer.  I accomplished a lot this weekend (or so it feels...house is still a mess, but I guess that's the norm), I completed a small wedding album for a couple that was married Dec. 11th...took me longer than planned, and finally got their CD completed.  I'm finding it hard to focus at my computer with my kiddos running around, so I'm thinking maybe every other week I get a sitter so I can get caught up on my work.

Day 16 (Photo A Day Project)

Congratulations Cal & Heili!

Grand Rios

Day 15...Enjoyed the afternoon with family at Grand Rios Water park.  It was my first trip there.  Everyone had fun, but for the price, I probably would choose the community next...for my age kids that is.  Nelson loved the hot tub, Austin loved the lazy river and Alynn enjoyed the kiddy water slides.  My mom got a beautiful pool side room (felt like we were on a Mexican vacation) we enjoyed a few hours at the water park and then ordered Pizza Hut and enjoyed it poolside.  Austin discovered a Hockey Arcade game, like Foosball, and to play you put in two quarters, and out they come, so that was quite entertaining, and fun and everyone played over and over again. The pool was fenced, so no worries there, hotel room bolted, so no escaping there...well somehow Nelson still managed to escape, while I was playing hockey (he was right over there driving the car)...so scary how fast that can happen.  Not sure how long he was actually missing before I noticed, but such a scary time it was...glancing in the pool, wondering if he snuck in when someone was coming out...stressful.  After realizing he was for-real missing, I ran to the front desk, and a search party was put together and the police were called.  He was found very quickly in the arcade down the hall...not sure exactly how he got there, but the relief of having my boy in my arms was quite emotional.  Pictured is my beautiful sister and handsome nephew, love you guys!

Ice-Fishing

Day 14...This was dinner tonight, well not my dinner...but the others enjoyed it.  I had made up my mind, before even trying fish, that I don't like it.  Not sure why, but same goes with deer/venison...venison sausage tasted just fine, until I knew what it was.  Last season my hubby was able to get me to taste/try fish...and I'll admit it wasn't THAT bad (had to be smothered in tarter sauce) but I just can't get over the fact that I've already decided, I don't eat fish!  I have learned how to fry fish, and I really enjoy doing it...dipping it in eggs and covering it with Shore Lunch and frying it in oil....

...but this just doesn't look appetizing to me

Photo-a-day project...day 11

Day 11...I'm such a sucker when it comes to after Christmas clearance.  I'll admit, I bought 12 containers of frosting and 12 box's of cake mix, well actually that was on my second trip...so 16 total, anyway, today Alynn came downstairs looking quite sad.  "Mom, I opened your frosting", me: "that's ok" (I was playing the Wii with Nelson),  figured I had 15 more containers, so no biggy.  Then she starts crying, there are sprinkles all over the floor, "get the broom and sweep them up" Alynn: "I tried!" poor girl was so worried about what she did (she is such a sweet kid), so I said I'd sweep it up for her, but to not open anymore frosting. So I'm curious to see how long my 16 containers of frosting will last...actually we are already down to 13, I believe.

My Pirate.  Oh this kid cracks me up!  First off, I can't keep clothes on him, seriously, even at church he strips down...just at our Sunday School Christmas Program, I was standing in the back with him (that's another story...he won't sit in church, week after week I wonder why I even go...) then I went up front to take a photo of the group of kids and here he comes, pants off and in his diaper...so embarrassing. There was even one Sunday were we almost went home pant less...I search and search and could not find his pants ANYWHERE...I had his coat and boots on and about to head out to the car when he decided he'd show me where his pants are.

That's my monkey, I mean pirate for you. 

Here he is measuring our ceiling, I was proud of him...he got the tape measure all the way to touch the ceiling. What a kid!

ok. He's 2...playing the Wii earlier in the day and now playing a game on Nickjr.com....seriously, what was I doing at the age of 2? Man these kids now days are too smart! Oh and btw, he got into the frosting too...evidence on his face.

oh, look at this baby girl!

Yeah, it's late...the kids go to bed and I feel like I can finally function...house is just peaceful! And I know tomorrow will be another CRAZY day, but looking at these darling kids, I know it's all worth it!



Photography Fun

Day 10...I took a few photos today, but nothing seemed worth sharing, and at that moment I realized my big 1st grader should be walking up the driveway, so I grabbed my camera. (Oh I wish he always acted as he appears here....)  He is in-charge of getting the mail on his walk home...if I'm out-n-about, I can not resist passing the mail box, so I'll always leave him one piece of mail (or all the junk mail) to carry home.  Check out his glasses...he's wearing a free pair I got from http://www.coastalcontacts.com/ I just had to pay the tax and shipping, which was around $12.00.  Every so often they have a '100 Free pair' giveaway promotion (which I see on Facebook) so far I've gotten him two FREE pairs, and I'm so happy to have back up!

Day 9...I had an AMAZING photosession on Sunday.  It was so much fun. I'm in LOVE with my new camera, my new LENSE and my new seamless paper backdrops.  I now have them in white (pictured), black, red (oooh I'm loving the red), baby pink and baby blue....I'm feeling the need to pick up a few more colors...I tend to go overboard when I fall in-love with something.  I have many wonderful images (from this session) that I will be posting on my facebook page soon.

Photo a Day, week 1 - completed!

Goodness...a photo a day is harder than I thought...and I'm only 8 days into the 365 day project, and just getting by...took advantage of my camera phone today.  

  Checkout more photos by Crystal Lee Photography on facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Crystal-Lee-Photography/146409152045470

Day 8...my baby sitting like a big girl (first time sitting in a cart) at Costco.

Day 7...Twin-Sisters

Day 6...blue-eye choo-choo train lover

Day 5...birthday cupcakes made for a princess

Photo a Day

Got the idea from fellow blogger http://jessicakesti.blogspot.com/ I haven't been the best blogger, but will attempt to post a photo a day...sure enough, I got one for each day so far.

Day 4...and the reason I'm up at 2am....great night out with the Ladies.

Day 3...having fun with my new lense, a 50mm f/1.4G

Day 2...Princess Olivia

Day 1...Happy New Year