Hyperbets at Sunset, by John. ;-)

Another sunset, another chance for John and Betsy to play! Give us a beautiful sunset and a camera and we are set. I know, I know, we've done this before, but they are so much fun, I couldn't resist posting. (And yes, I went nuts with the colors, but wouldn't you too? I love going nuts on the colors when it's just for blogging fun.)

Last time we did a sunset shoot we went for sweet mommy and baby shots. This time, it's too cold for baby so I just got to be my good 'ol hyper self.  By the time John got a turn, I was too freakin cold to shoot him. (bummer because it's FUN!) We took a bunch of zany shots but I restrained by just posting these.  Enjoy. 

Tree pose by the tree for the yogis in the crowd.  
I'm channeling my inner Michelle Kwan here.  
Yes, I took my coat off here to try for more graceful arms.  Can you say Brrrrrrr!? I'm wearing short sleeves!  (Yes mom, I'm taking my Vit. C!) 
I'm telling you, the next time there is an awesome sunset, swing by our house! We could have all sorts of fun with two people. Oh, the possibilities.  

welcome wall•e!

After years of using a PC, I have returned to my Apple roots and have another imac! (Bless my old egg imac, this one is light years better than that sweet little thing!)  It feels good to be home!  I grew up in a house where using macintosh computers was like a religion. I'm not kidding.  I went to two mac world conventions in San Fran, CA as a kid and it might as well had been Disney World.  Man, I really wish I could have stayed a computer geek through high school. Oh well, I'm trying to catch up now. 

Meet Wall•y. (I named my mac after this adorable character) For those of you pc fans, the entire computer is located inside the screen.  What you see on the box here is all you get and need.  No CPU tower.  Sweet, huh? 
John was like a kid in a candy store. He LOVES opening up and setting up new computers.  The best part of the set up was when a little camera popped up from the in-screen camera to snap my profile photo.  (We let Whisper stand in since I hadn't showered yet. I tell you, we dropped EVERYTHING to set this baby up.) 
The keyboard is very different and taking some getting used to. It's so freakin thin!
This screen is SOOOOO beautiful. It's huge and glossy. We can play DVD's on it and watch movies in the living room now if we want. We are mesmerized by this screen.  (I have used the word mesmerized twice this week on the blog. What a great week!)  

Hey, what's that on the screen? It's a Betsy and John Photography website! How'd that get there? Guess I'll have to release that sometime soon. ; ) Good thing I have a shiny new mac to finish it! (I'm seriously just about as excited as I could be if you couldn't tell. Like seriously excited. I don't feel worthy!)

So I usually don't dare work on the computer while Miles is around because my pc had a million cords and the tower to climb on.  I thought I would try it when he woke up from his nap. Can you find Miles?

This photo where Miles is laying on his belly cracks me up.  He was enthralled with the cord hole in the back of the armoire.  (That's where the tower used to be. Now it's a little spot for Miles to play.) 
Ok, he's starting to climb on the printer. Time to shut the doors to Wall•y, for now.

We are in the midst of moving all of our photo library on John's mac to a harddrive so I can get them moved over here to Wall•y. Um, the computer says it will take 6 hours. It ran for a while and then had an error. We are back to productivity ceasing! Oh well, it's all part of the process. I'm SO ready to get rolling on getting our photography business site up and running, get some business cards printed, etc. Very exciting time! Poor John is the one who has an actual full fledged business and bless his heart, I think he's struggling to focus with all this excitement (and fun) fluttering around. It's an interesting time, that's for sure. Again, stay tuned!

BTW, I hate posting right after I do a super cute post because I don't like the idea of people missing cute stuff on a previous post. So make sure you scroll down to see Preston and Miles at the Coffee shop. One of my favorite photos is in there.

Miles & Preston meet for coffee

Miles and I met our new friends Erin and Preston for some hot drinks and some much needed time out of the house at my favorite coffee shop, the Mocha Lounge, a week or so ago.  Miles could barely wait to get his hands on Preston, who seemed pretty jazzed to meet Miles too. He's only 3 months old but he's got the smile down!  (I flipped when I realized I caught him actually smiling at Miles. Now how freakin cute is that?) 

Miles LOVED Erin's necklace. Thankfully it remained intact despite Miles' track record of dismantling beaded necklaces in no time flat.

I met Erin at a mom 2 mom group (yes, I know some of you are laughing at the mom group thing) and we hit it off really well. We actually first met when she was still pregnant for Preston this past summer, but we didn't get to connect until now. I'm so glad we did because we have so much in common! It's so much fun to meet people that you just hit it off and start chatting away like crazy.   (I LOVE This photo, btw. I would KILL for Erin's teeth.) We both have brainiac/creative husbands too so even more in common. Yippee!  
Look at those lashes!  This was just the beginning of a series of facial expressions in a yawn that I captured. (I'll post those later. This is one of those moments when John is working late, I need to get on the computer to grab some files, but don't want to wait for him to be done to blog.  Did I mention I'm excited I'm getting my own Mac? It's on it's way!) 
This photo is my favorite of the day. I couldn't stop staring at it when I loaded it onto our computer. He's so squishy and those eyes are looking right at me and oh so mesmerizing. 

Again with the squishiness! Don't you want to squeeze this baby RIGHT NOW? 
I love photographing babies sitting up like this, before they really know how to sit up.  (Remember the hippo photo I took of Miles? That's where I got the idea.) 

Gotta capture those sweet little hands. 
 
Miles was so patient to sit and play with his cheerios while I played with my camera and gabbed on and on.  I wonder how much longer he will be intrigued by a little canister of Cheerios. 

Oh, I hope I get to photograph some more babies soon. I have been having a blast photographing Miles this week (you'll see what I mean very soon) but little babies are fun too because they can be such good little models and let me get in and photograph their little hands and feet.

Woo, I'm so tired. I was up past 1 AM last night so I need to get to bed pronto.Nighty Night, hope you enjoyed the cute baby pics!

See ya soon Erin and Preston!

light a life

If you are a new blog reader, you may not know that I was married before and lost my first husband, Andy, to cancer. Even though I have come a very long way in my grief process, there will never be a holiday season my heart isn't remembering him or the amazing families I met in our journey through cancer. I would like to share a bit of my experience with you this evening.

This is a photo of me and Andy on his first day in the transplant unit in Minneapolis. (Notice his Got Chemo? shirt. That was SO Andy!) It was Halloween, 2002, hence the big spider balloon and despite our happy faces, we were scared out of our minds. We had already been living in MN for a month collecting his stem cells and going through many strange and painful tests not to mention just waiting to begin the transplant. Despite how terrifying, unbelievably painful and lonely that time was, it was also a time of hope. After all other treatments had failed, a stem cell transplant was this one beam of hope that gave us a glimpse at the possibility of living cancer free.

We ended up not only spending our Halloween in the transplant unit, but our Thanksgiving and our Christmas in MN as well. Every holiday season I think back to those hospital rooms and how some family is living in them now, trying to somehow give their child a Merry Christmas amongst the tubes and beeping machines. That is so much harder than you could ever imagine. The majority of families getting a transplant don't live near a transplant center. They have to travel very far, leave their homes and jobs behind to care for their children, spouses or sometimes even a parent. Insurance doesn't pay for the house you have to leave behind or the car payment you still need to make. When Andy and I moved to MN for his transplant we had to pay $900 a month (5 years ago) for our apartment in MN, utilities, food, prescription co-pays and still pay for our car payments and our mortgage at home in Indiana. There was still a percentage we had to pay of the $350,000 transplant fee too. Not to mention I was on an unpaid family medical leave from my job and Andy was getting a fraction of his paycheck from disability.

We couldn't do it on our own. The whole community banded together and helped us pay for it. There was one organization that was an amazing gift to us during that entire ordeal and in the months afterward. The National Transplant Assistance Fund. They helped our community raise funds, managed the funds for us and gave us checks to pay for all the things I listed above. The NTAF was such a wonderful gift to us that I stayed in contact with them after losing Andrew and I am now on the board of directors for the NTAF.

One of my projects I'm involved with is the Light a Life campaign. We are raising funds to help build the NTAF's emergency assistance fund to help people who need funds right away and can not wait for the funds to be raised before they get their life saving drugs or medical care. This Christmas, in honor of Andrew and all the people in transplant units across the country, please consider giving a gift to the NTAF. Your donation can be given as a gift to a family member or friend in memory or in honor of someone special. The NTAF will send a card to your loved one, letting them know of the gift given on their behalf. Please visit NTAF's Website to light a life today.


This is a logo I designed as my first project on the board of directors last year. It was a really fun project and I'm thrilled it's something they can use on their materials over and over.

Also, if you know of someone going through any kind of transplant or who has endured a catastrophic spinal injury, the NTAF can help them raise funds they need. If you need more information, you can go to NTAF's Website or email me and I can tell you more.

Thank you very much. I know not everyone appreciates hearing about requests for donations, but the NTAF is truly an amazing organization and one very near to my heart. Andrew always said that once he got healthy he wanted to turn around and do for other cancer patients what so many had done for him. He was never able to do that so I try my best to help spread his message of the importance of giving back.

post thanksgiving randomness

As you know, rain or shine, John walks the pugs every morning and Miles and I try to join him when we can. Here's Miles' winter get-up. Poor kid can't move an inch in that thing. Not to mention he's about to bust out of the Baby Bjorn.


Here's another shot of my mom with Mugga (Andy's Grandma) enjoying one of Barb's many toys before Thanksgiving. So sweet.


I'm soooo tired but I"ll give you a preview of what's to come on the blog this week: Get together with The Kurtz family, Miles does coffee with Preston and Miles' first festival of trees at the Embassy photos. My new Mac better be ready for some major work when it arrives this week because I have LOTS for it to do! Oh, and there are LOTS of other fun and exciting things brewing yet to be announced. Stay tuned!

guess who...

Grandma sat across from at Thanksgiving?



It's like there wasn't another soul at the table! To say Grandma loves Miles is the understatement of the century!

More photos to come. The thing I LOVE about the photo with my mom is you can see Bill Zabel's signature chops in the background. ;-)

OMG, I won!

What a great week! If you've been following the latest in my life, you'll know that we just got me a new Mac so I can get serious about getting my photography business up and running. (Yes, I was smart enough to call Mac and request the black friday pricing today since we ordered ours the night before Thanksgiving, but I digress.) Yesterday, Jessica Claire, one of my favorite photographers that I blog stalk daily had a contest up. (You know I LOVE contests!) It was asking for a creative photo of what you are thankful for. I can choose from some of her different products for my prize, but I'm so getting a Shootsac

I can't believe it, but little 'ol me from Fort Wayne, Indiana won! I have been dying for a shootsac ever since I saw my friend and awesome photographer, Bobbi (here's a link with her shootsac) got one and definitly every time I lug our nerdy Canon bag around.

So check out Jessica's blog to see my winning photo (the photo won't be anything you would expect!) and also, look for John's entries in the runner ups. She did a wonderful job of including so many of the absolutly beautiful entries. If you only look at one blog today, this one is great because the photos will make you smile and remember all the beautiful things to be thankful for.

click here for Jessica's Blog with winners

Thank you Jessica Claire! You rock!

is that a monkey in your pants?

Today I got another one of my free diapers from winning the grand prize at my web forum thingy. I'm not talking Pampers either, this thing is custom made! I got to pick the colors of the outer waterproof fabric and the liner too. How ADORABLE is this?


I guess this won't be so adorable once it's worn for a few hours, but hey, it's cute now! It will make folding (clean) diapers a bit more fun.


The only bummer is it's a fitted diaper instead of the one size ones that I have. (The diapers we have are adjustable from 8 lbs. up to 35.) So this one is a large and will fit him from 22 lbs. up to 35. Even though Miles is a chubs, it's wayyyy too big him him. So no fashion show for a while.

I know cloth diapers seem really hard to do, but if anybody ever has any questions I will be MORE than happy to help you. I'm walking some of my friends who are expecting through the ins and outs (and 1 and 2's) of cloth diapering so they can figure out if they want to do them.

Thanks for taking a peak at my cute new find. This has been the week of super fun baby stuff. Now when do I get some cute new clothes? Well, considering we just got me a new computer (See post below), I'll be rockin the 2004 duds for a while I think.

Merry Christmas to Betsy!

If you are a loyal blog reader, and Betsy thanks you if you are, you may have noticed that photos of random people have been popping up on her blog. Betsy has hinted at the possibilities of growing her photography hobby into a business, but hasn't gone into details. She still isn't ready for a full reveal yet, but here is a little explanation of what's been going on and what has just happened tonight!

Once upon a time, John and Betsy were given a pretty nice digital camera through some pretty random circumstances. They had a baby on the way, so they figured this was a pretty cool thing. They started to play around with it and noticed that it took WAY better photos than their point and shoot ever could. They continued to practice on themselves and started paying attention to other photographers around them. Once their child was born, they found they wanted to learn more about how to capture this beautiful creature. They kept experimenting, researching, asking questions, buying some new equipment and software here and there and really started to have fun exploring photography.

Friends started to take notice. They asked John and Betsy to take their family photos. Shrugging it off as just people wanting free photos, they obliged. Then more people started to ask for photos, but not just friends, people John and Betsy barely knew. Something really exciting was bubbling under the surface, but they really weren't sure quite yet. Suddenly, friends who are also amazing photographers started to pop out of the woodwork to help them out. It was amazing how the universe just seemed to hand them a camera and continue to give them the tools they needed.

So John and Betsy immersed themselves in photography. Reading, practicing, buying more equipment. They continued shooting anybody that would allow them. (Even enlisting the kids in the neighborhood.) In the meantime, John started his own music studio, Metta Audio and was verrrry busy with that. Betsy would wait until John was done working around 11PM in the evening and she would hop on loading and processing photos, loving every minute of it but frustrated that she had to try to sneak time in at odd hours to work.

Betsy, who has been creative her whole life yet has struggled to find an outlet for it, has found she has come full circle returning to her creative roots. After getting the wrong degree that she didn't use and wasted away in the sales industry, she feels truly invigorated to have found something she truly loves. Betsy figured she would have to return to school someday when her children had grown to try again at finding a new career. She is finding that her creative eye is opening doors to new opportunities to learn as much as she wants.

Betsy and John started to get more and more shoots and they were thrilled, but knowing in the back of their minds that it would be a struggle to find time to load, edit and process all the work during the wee hours of the morning.

So tonight, John purchased Betsy her own Mac so she can load photos when ever she wants. She can schedule as many shoots as Grandma can come and babysit for. She can create a business name for herself, a logo, a website and finally truly have the freedom of time to cultivate her creativity and build something wonderful. (Her photographer friends are probably laughing at the "freedom of time" refrence here, but one can dream!)

Something really great and exciting is happening and it's really going to be able to take off when their Mac arrives next week!

Stay tuned!



If you would like to see the progression of the growth of Betsy and John's photography, check out some of their shoots they have posted from July 20 until November 16th.

Metta Audio Photography Site

They still need to add their latest shoot on there, but you'll get the picture. It's amazing how much they have learned in a small amount of time. That's the great thing about photography, you just keep learning and keep getting better.

an afternoon with Olivia

Whew! I'm not even done processing all of the photos from our shoot with Olivia, but I HAD to take a break and show you my favorites so far. Enjoy! She's just as sweet as she can be.

You met Olivia in the previous post, now let's get to know her better. She wore this adorable dress and I was so impressed by how at ease she was all dressed up.



Livie's Grandma who lives in Hawaii got her this rocking chair so we were really hoping she would let us snap some photos of her in it so her family could see her enjoy it. She did a great job and sat in it long enough to get many cute shots! It fits her perfectly.



Olivia loves her daddy, who as it seems, does the best itsy bitsy spider ever.


Here's mom (aka Jessica.) She's the mastermind behind the adorable wardrobe changes.

Olivia LOVES Elmo. I Love how she is interacting with the little red guy in these shots.


Remember how I mentioned the wardrobe? LOVE these jeans.

...and Livie loves cookies.


Thank you for inviting us into your home Jessica, Todd, Olivia and Nana!

Olivia's sneak peak

Meet Olivia, aka, Livie. Isn't she beautiful? She just turned one and John and I got to shoot some photos of her last Sunday. That's her mom, Jessica, in the background and I'm sure she is itching to see some photos of her little girl. I just blogged a few hours ago, but knowing how eager I always am to see photos, I wanted to get a sneak peak up for her and her family as soon as possible.



More to come, stay tuned!

For the grandparents looking for Miles, just keep scrolling down. ; )

rainbow on a cloudy day

I have EIGHT MILLION other things I should be doing right now, but I HAD to post these funky photos. Hope they brighten your day, trust me, seeing him crawl around in these brightened mine.