boston!

Sorry I have been M.I.A. for the past week. I thought things would slow down a little getting past the holidays, but they obviously have not! In fact, I'm sitting in the airport right now waiting to board my plane to New Orleans (hopefully I'll be able to post a few pics--I've never been before!!).




Well, starting on Jan 1st, my friends Tara, Meg & I started a VERY BIG UNDERTAKING...training for the Boston Marathon! (that's another reason why I've been busy). Yes, if you remember back to New Year's Day, it was bitterly cold here in Indianapolis! I braved the cold and did my first training run at Eagle Creek Park. Despite the ice crystals that were forming to my eyebrows and eyelashes, it was actually quite peaceful. I felt like I was the only one there besides the deer that passed in front of me, clueless of their surroundings. Tara, Meg & I ran the 2006 Chicago Marathon together, which is where we all qualified for the Boston Marathon. This is only my second marathon EVER, and I think Tara & Meg have both done somewhere between 5-7 a piece. We have our trip all planned out, because everything books so early in Boston for race weekend (not to mention everything costs 3 times more this weekend--hotel rooms = OUTRAGEOUS!). The race is April 21st, and I am so excited that you all will be able to track me on my run to see how I am doing along our 26.2 mile adventure:) I believe that it shows my progress every 5k (or 3.1 miles). For now, here are some photos that Simon caught of us running the Chicago Marathon. We all wore really bright colors to help our families pick us out of the 40,000+ runners!!

No...this is NOT us! ha. These guys are so freakin' fast!

As you can tell by the smiles and waves, this is still "early" in the race. If I remember correctly, I think this is about mile 13 (the half way point). That's me in the orange shirt, Tara in the red, and the Meg is behind Tara also in a red shirt.


Quite possibly one of the world's worst photos of me, but this shows all three of us. You might be thinking to yourself, "man, Tara and Meg look a lot alike." Yes, they are twins! The funny thing is that even though there's not an ounce of family blood between us, I sort of look like them when we're running...same build, blonde hair:)


Oh dear. I STILL feel the pain when I look at these next few photos. You can barely see me there in the orange. I am maybe 100 meters from the finish line, and I remember thinking that it seemed so long. By this time, my body was completely spent. I had to pound my right quad with my fist the last mile and a half because it was tightening up into a big ball! In any case, we finished and we qualified for Boston!!

...another of me finishing

...and another

probably 20 feet from the finish line:)!! Hooray!

This is a shot I stole from my friend, Jon, who has participated in the Boston Marathon before. The Boston Marathon is known for MANY traditions, one of which is "heartbreak hill." Basically, you hit heartbreak hill with about 5.5 miles left to go, and the hill goes UP for over a half mile. In that half mile, you climb 80 vertical feet.


Alright, that's all for now! I'll be posting more photos soon. Up next are newborn pics of a cutie named Avery!!!

the.keller.fam!

A few weeks, I got a call from my elementary school principal! If I had gotten this call 20 years ago, I would have thought I was in BIG TROUBLE!!! This time though, it was great to hear from Mr. Keller!!:) He wanted to plan for family pictures at Christmas time. The only wrinkle was that they had received a message from their son that he would be home some time around Christmas, but they didn't know the exact date since he would be traveling from out of the country. He is in the military, and at best they would know about 2-3 days before he would be home. I told him, no problem--I would just be on-call! I wanted to make sure that they had pictures to remember their time together! I hope that you got to spend quality time together! Check out our fun shots...

Meet the entire Keller Family:

If you haven't noticed, I love to take shots when people don't know I'm taking shots. These end up being my favorites, like the top one shown below:)


Scott, Karl (it's weird to NOT say "Mr. Keller") & Steven...


I think this pic is so cute!


Boys will be boys! Graham & Seth were acting silly and making everyone laugh!



Thanks so much for calling me! I had fun:) I hope you enjoy your slideshow!

peyton's.3rd.bday!

Yesterday was Peyton's 3rd birthday in human years (she turned 21 in doggie years). She is the most perfect puppy (well, at least in our eyes:) She got to spend time with family at Grandma Carey's house. When we got home last night, she was pretty pooped, but got excited to find an email from cousin Guploo. I thought I'd share that note with you...

Dear Cousin Peyton,

It just dawned on me when I woke up from an afternoon siesta that its
the 29th of December, the day you were born. How happy I am for you as
you turn 3 years old, because now we'll be the same age for the next
few months.

Are you having a birthday bash today, or are you just going to relax
at the doggie spa? They both sound good to me, so if you get a choice
just pick both. That's what I usually do:-)

In any case, whatever you do or wherever you go I just hope you have a
ton of fun. May long life and good health be yours in this year to come.

Sniffs & licks,
Cousin Guploo

Here is a photo of Guploo, who lives in North Aurora, Illinois:



and here are shots from her birthday shoot this morning looking so grown up:)

christmas.w/the.fams!

Simon and I are so lucky to have such great families. We had A LOT of family get-togethers over the past week! All of them were filled with food, family and fun! I had so many pictures to go through, so I only had time to put the two slideshows together. Thank you family for being so awesome!

This first slideshow is a compilation of three separate get-togethers with my side of the family. The first part is from our Christmas with my mom/brother/sister's family on Christmas day. The second part is from our Christmas with my mom's side of the family. And the last part of the slideshow is from tonight at my mom's house with more of my mom's side of the family.


This slideshow is from two get-togethers with Simon's side of the family. The first part is with his dad's side of the family, and the second part is with his mom's side of the family.


I can't wait 'til Christmas 2008!!!

macy | 6 months

While in Chicago last week, I got to meet the Koetter's! They are awesome people, and they have the cutest little girl named Macy. If there are any talent agents out there for Gerber, I've got a good one here for you who would make a perfect Gerber Baby!!:) Macy was so good the entire time. I went crazy shooting, and we probably spent an hour and a half at their home downtown, and then made the trek over to Millenium Park (if you read my blog post a few days ago, you know that I LOVE Frank Gehry's work--the architect that designed Millenium Park). Given my excessive shooting, Macy cooperated the ENTIRE time.

Someday, Shellie and Sam plan to move to Indianapolis, but for now, they are happy in Chicago. When Shellie contacted me back in August to book this shoot, she told me that she wanted shots that had that "city look" so Macy can look back and reminisce on the city that she was born in and spent the first part of her life in. So good thing Mother Nature cooperated! The temperature was tolerable, and we beat the mist that we experienced on our drive home!! Yea!

I'll quit talking now and let you look at the photos...

Meet Macy! Shellie told me that Sam really LOVES Christmas, so I am sure these first few will be on his desk!

Are you KIDDING ME?!?! She is so stinkin' cute!!



If she was my kid and gave me this look, I could never tell her "no":)

She handled these like a model with slight head tilts and eyebrow lifts

Meet the whole fam; Sam, Macy & Shellie:)


I love this one:)


Megan Engelberg (who you might remember from their September shoot) got this outfit for Macy. You cannot tell here, but Macy is biting on a little pink heart that came with the outfit. Hi Megan!




I love this. I think this totally reads "big city"!!


Here are some fun pictures in front of Millenium Park!

This sculpture is called "Cloud Gate," but it is referred to as "The Bean." I read up on this thing, and believe it or not, it is a 110-ton steel sculpture costing $23 million. It truly is fascinating when you see it in person. You can see incredible reflections of the city because of the curved shape of the bean. If you want to read more about it, click here.

Look! Macy sees herself in the reflection! Isn't she so cute?!?!


Just hammin' it up:)


Thanks so much for allowing me to work with you guys. It was a lot of fun. I hope you had a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your slideshow! (Sorry the slideshow moves so fast. There are so many photos that I had to go fast to get through all of them before the song ended!!)

christmas.cheer!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and got to spend time with your families. I got to spend some QT ("quality time") with my two nieces today. We all spoiled them, of course:) I promise that I will post more family Christmas photos sometime this week, but for now I will leave you with these...

By now, you all probably know Miss Claire:

...and here is her baby sis, Lyza. Lyza will be exactly one month old tomorrow.

Here's what Simon and I got Claire. It's a little Radio Flyer horse that either rocks backs and forth or bounces. Claire really got into the bouncing part! It was hilarious. Someday when I learn how to post video clips on my blog I will show some footage of her riding this thing.

These are my FAVORITES! Claire had a little too much Christmas cheer in the bottom photo:)

...and Lyza stretching it out...


Good night, and Merry Christmas! Next blog posts to look out for are Miss Macy's photos and the Keller Family photos!