So, obviously I've been slacking on the blog in the last two months.  I had high hopes for the entire month of December.  I was going to do all this fun Christmas stuff, update my pricing and policies for everyday art, debut a fancy website, take lots of photos of Rory…big plans.  Well, none of that happened.  But this time, I really do have a great excuse.  The greatest excuse ever.

An excuse that has our entire family very excited.  Especially this girl.

And she's a lot better at keeping secrets than I thought she would be.  Until now, that is!

HOORAY!

Yep, this world will be blessed with another one of these characters, July 2009!  It cannot come soon enough.

Yeah, it's been a long time since I've put any new photos up!  I'll spare you an excuse.  I got a background stand for Christmas, so today I cleared out the dining room and set it up during nap time.  Rory helped me get everything figured out.  I've never really had a huge desire to do background shoots, but the frozen tundra called North Dakota has forced me to do something different.  The lighting in the dining room is actually really good.  Check out those eyes.  I didn't have to do anything to them in post processing.  So far, so good. 

Edited:  Here is the SOOC (straight out of the camera) version of the first photo, resized and sharpened for web only.  You can see it was slightly underexposed, and there was a weird color cast coming off my blue walls in that room.

Someone please tell me what to do with her hair!  It is looking so awful these days.

Last year about this time, we took Valentine's day photos with a lollipop like this.  I was going to post one of them, but I actually cringed when I opened them back up.  Yikes!  I'm definitely a year older and wiser in the photography department!

Notice anything missing?  I got three or four frames in when she took a big bite and the top half of it shattered!  I love her expression in this one, though!

I have no idea what she is going to be like at 15!

Yesterday, it was just Rory and I because daddy was fishing.  I asked Rory to pick up her toys a little bit, to which she very seriously responded by stomping toward me, finger pointed, and said, "MOM!  IT'S NOT FAIR AND JUST!"

Oh my gosh…I just about died!  I think she came up with that from something she heard on one of her favorite movies, Charlotte's Web.

Another funny story…since she received the movie Cinderella for Christmas, we have watched it at least a million times.  Her favorite part is when Fairy Godmother comes and makes Cinderella the pumpkin carriage and beautiful dress.  I asked her one day, "Did you know that Jenny is your Godmother?"  She thought about it for a couple seconds, and then made a funny face and said, "Jenny's not magic!"

Yesterday, we spent the better part of the morning getting all our Christmas stuff down and packed away.  She was so sad!  She kept asking, "Can I keep this one out?" every time we'd put another ornament in the box, and she had to give all of her ornaments hugs and kisses before they went in.  Then, when she woke up from her nap she thought we were going to put it all back up!

I know there are other stories I'm missing.  I have been horrible about blogging this stuff lately, and it seems everyday something comes out of her mouth that just has to be written down and never forgotten.  Funny girl.