{It sounds like Jesus is coming on a white horse!!!!!}

Another crazy summer weekend is over :-( 

Ok- Let’s have a real honest moment……..don’t tell anyone but I’m already super excited for Christmas….errrrr….This always happens to me around July or August.   But this week it’s really hit me.  Not that I want this awesome weather we’re having to be over, I love it….but I’m always giddy for Christmas.  I can be excited for both at the same time, right?   I want snow falling,  It’s a Wonderful Life, my Peppermint Hot Chocolate, my family filling up my parents house,  cute sweaters,  cozy on the couch with a warm fuzzy blanket, etc.   BUT…I also want to go outside and do my run (I’ll talk more about that later this week) in this GORGEOUS weather we have today.  I want to go get a bouquet of fresh flowers, open all my windows, have a picnic lunch at Forest Park and wear a cute summer dress.  

See??  Issues.  I can’t be helped :-)   I want them both.

Anyway- this week was kinda all over the place.   It was a random mix of work, hanging out, shooting and I also had to do some major cleaning to my apartment for one solid day.  My poor little apartment get’s abandoned so much :-(   I’m NEVER here- my landlord actually once asked me if I was still living here.  I’ll slow down some day when life presents a reason for it :-)  

Side note:  Some girl with orange hair, a Grateful Dead t-shirt that is 2 sizes too small, shorts that are wayyyyyy too short and also wayyyy too small- just walked up to my apartment building carrying an old-school metal lunch box and a 6-pack of beer…..WTH???  What’s going on there??  Dear Lord I live by some of the weirdest people :-) 

Ok- back to business!  

So this week I had two shoots with two of the cutest little boys ever :-)  First up was Mr. Colin, who is now a big 2 Year old.  Colin is actually Sara’s nephew on Ryan’s side, so even though we were doing’ Colin’s 2 year pictures, Sara & the kids came along for pictures and we made a whole afternoon of it and did lunch :-)   Sara, thanks for helping with the shoot and Emily, thanks for making me a yummy lunch!   Enjoy the sneak peek!!

These are the "don't smile at me" pictures :-)

A few month ago, Colin became a big brother to Baby Will.   Awwwww  :-)  So we popped Baby Will in for a couple groups shots…I find them hysterical.  I’m sure most of you with more than one kid can imagine what was going on just outside my camera frame.   “Hold your brother!!!!”  and lots of  “SMILE COLIN, SMILE AT LISSY!!!”  and “oh, oh, oh he’s leaning, oh, oh, grab him!”  etc, etc :-) 

Wednesday morning I met up 1-month Jack.  I take pictures of a A LOT of boys named Jack.  My family came up with the name “1-month Jack” because he’s the Jack I take pictures of every month :-)   But this was our last month for a bit because…………..JACK IS ONE!!!!!!  It makes me a little sad that I won’t get to see him every month, but holy smokes how quickly 7 months went by!!  We started taking pictures back in February when he was only 5 months old, awwww.  I know he doesn’t know who I am, but I feel like he was getting to the point where he remembered my face because I would always get a smile from him when we would meet up for his shoots :-)   Jack, I’m going to miss seeing you every month, but hopefully we can pick up right where we left off  when we meet up for your 18 month shoot!  or at least I think 18 months is what your mom and I talked about….I think….I can’t remember….it’s my busy season and I don’t have a brain right now :-)   I’ll see you next time! 

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So I spent Wednesday afternoon hanging out with these two………. yes, those are chunks of chapstick on Bella’s lips…she was wanting to give me a kiss :-)  We had plans of going to the Zoo and hanging out in Forest Park for the afternoon, but everyone and their dog decided to go to Forest Park on Wednesday afternoon….and it rained….so shopping it was ! 

Where do you wear your sunglasses when they’re not covering your eyes???

Do you wear them on your elbow?

Do you wear them on the back of your head??

Do you wear them on your chest???

Do you wear them on your hip??

Or do you wear them on your shoulder??

Can you tell someone wanted me to take her picture ALL AFTERNOON???  “Hey, Hey, Hey Yissy- take my picture!”    Oh I love my Bella Boo :-)   Does this make you miss Monday’s With Bella??  It makes me miss our Monday’s together :-(   Sometimes, when I need a break, I’ll go to the Monday’s With Bella category on my blog and will spend an hour or so reading through all our adventures. 

My parents, Molly, Caroline, Kaitlin, Zane & Owen all came into town on Friday for a weekend full of Cardinals baseball and Taylor Swift! 

The game started out kinda blah. If any of you have been watching the Cardinals lately- they've been less than impressive. My dad was so annoyed with them at the beginning :-)

 

Caroline had her nachos, she could have cared less how they were playing :-)

Owen is just stinkin' cute!

He also went after Zane's beer the whole night

This has nothing to do with the game....it was just funny to look over and see Kaitlin trying to put lipstick on my mom :-)

 

Mom of The Year!!!! :-)

 

Seriously....this woman knows babies like no other. Owen DOES NOT fall asleep anywhere but his bed. He seriously will not cuddle and fall asleep on anyone.......anyone but my mom apparently.

 

After the game we decided that Kaitlin & Zane needed to take advantage for the fact that they had two grandparents with them that would just love to have baby Owen to themselves for the rest of night.   We ended up meeting up with Sara & Ryan and some of their friends at a cute little place called Winehaus.  This did not make for a very easy Saturday morning :-) 

 

On Saturday, after some shopping and running around St. Louis, we came back to the hotel so that we could just lounge for a bit.  My parents were going to take Owen to a friends house for dinner and then the rest of us waited around until we needed to leave for……The Taylor Swift Concert, yayyyyy!!! 

 

I just love him. He's so squishy and cute :-) We love Imo's!!!!!

 

 

 Molly got tickets as a graduation present and my mom just couldn’t bring herself to not buy tickets for Taylor’s biggest fan……………Zane :-)  So she ended up getting tickets for Caroline, Kaitlin, Zane & myself.    I was actually really excited….somewhat of a night out, right??  That means………… I GET TO DRESS UP!!!!   So I had all these grand plans of running back to my apartment to change and put on this cute dress I wanted to wear…….

 

 

 

But as usual it didn’t happen and I was stuck wearning to Target t-shirt material dress that I had worn all day with a cardigan….and with flip flops….not the cute wedges I had picked out.  So in effort to make me happier, Kaitlin decided I was her project for evening.  She did my hair and tried to make me look like I was ready for a night on the town.  Kaitlin is an ADORABLE girl and she always has on the cutest outfits, so I trusted her and she did do a good job….I just felt like I looked crazy.   Or maybe it was the fact that I felt the need to not smile, but instead make a crazy face every time a camera was on me?? 

We can't take a normal, get together, look cute and smile type of picture. We have to be weird all the time.

Two of her BIGGEST fans :-)

 

 

See......see how crazy I look on the right?? Photographers are the worst at being in pictures :-) Do you think the people that sat behind us thought we were crazy?? Kaitlin trying to bite Molly's head was the least crazy thing we did.....you should have seen some of the dance moves Caroline & were busting out........HOTTTTTTTTTTT!

 

 

I think it's obvious what Caroline was excited for.....and it wasn't Taylor Swift :-)

 

 

 So, I’m a big Taylor Swift fan, but I’m not as hardcore of a fan as Kaitlin, Caroline, Molly & Zane.  Usually I’m not a huge concert type of person, but this one was actually a lot of fun!  I loved all her sets and everything was SO SO SO creative…so of course I loved it.   She didn’t sing my favorite song of her’s, Stay Beautiful, but that’s okay.  She played most of the songs that I like: Fearless, Love Story, Best Thing that’s Ever Been Mine, You Belong With Me (Ellie’s favorite), Fifteen, Long Live,  etc.  

 

It was SO much fun :-) 

 

Not only didI love the way everything looked, but I also enjoyed people watching.   Holy Moses people can be so crazy.  I don’t know about you, but if people were FREAKING OUT about meeting me, seeing me, hearing me, etc….I wouldn’t be coming out of my dressing room.  I would be heading straight out the backdoor :-)    It is beyond me how people can be that CRAZY obsessed.   Maybe I just don’t understand because I’ve never been one to get obsessed with musicians or bands or movie stars or sports stars or anything really.  It’s not that I’m not passionate about things- I really am, but I would say the only thing I have a real true obsession for would be red shoes :-)   So maybe I just need to think about it in the mindset that I use to think about a cute pair of red heels?? 

 

So I took a bit of video during the concert.  More so it was just video of this guy who was RIDICULOUS.  Like I about peed my pants 10 times because this guy was just singing and dancing his little heart out.  He seriously cried like 5 times.   At one point in the concert, Taylor came over to where we were sitting and sang a few song under this glowing tree thingy they brought down from the ceiling and this guy was FLIPPING OUT.   So I got a good mix of this die hard fan and just the over all feel of the concert.  I taped a lot of Love Story at the very end because she flew above the crowd on the balcony thingy and think she did a very good job of going out with a bang :-)  I also just so happened to get a very funny quote from Caroline.  Listen closely at the very beginning.  With all the excitement, lights, screaming, etc…Caroline decided it sounded like “Jesus was coming on a white horse.”   Not joking- she said it.  Listen :-)   Please note:  I was not screaming- those screams were coming from people around me.  It was insane. 

So after the concert we were all discussing what we would do if we ever did the whole singing in front of thousands of people.  I said I would invite people up on stage and pause for Margarita breaks, have dance contests, possibly a game of spoons,  make people sing my songs for the whole crowd, make small talk, etc.  Then we also discussed what sort of dance moves we would do while we were up on stage….you know, since you can’t just stand there and sing….you gotta bust a move.   Here’s what Caroline came up with :-)

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Such a fun weekend!!!  THANK YOU SO MUCH to my mom & dad for making it all happen :-)  I think it was a perfect way to end Molly’s summer before she starts Truman in a week.  Taylor Swift and the Cardinals??  Pretty darn good if you ask me!!!

Now I need to get packed up for my trip to Bentonville tomorrow morning.  YES- I’m going on the road again.  I had already planned my summer trip to Bentonville before Sara & the kids decided they would be coming back to St. Louis this past week, so we just decided to keep everything as planned.  I love my little trips to Bentonville, so I didn’t want to cancel :-)   Besides- do you think I could ever have too much Bella & Brady time???  I think not!