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uh oh.

Thursday, January 21, 2010 Posted in Personal

So, where do I begin?  First of all, I want you to know that I am not complaining.  I feel totally content and actually happy…especially with the additional humor that has come into my life today.  It’s been storming here—did you notice?  I mean, I have lived in the Pacific Northwest and Buffalo, NY.  I *get* storms and can actually enjoy them (when I am at home snuggled up with a hot drink).  When I am trying to avoid falling trees while juggling a squirmy, wet, unhappy toddler in my arms, it gets a little more complicated.

Check this out.  I took the girls to school and saw this tree fall on my way back to the car.  Then, I parked in a dryer part of that flooded parking lot at the YMCA.  On my way home, I saw that a second tree had fallen on the SAME street!  Keep in mind, we had a cracked telephone/electrical pole the other day & went without power for 12 hours.  The problem is that we don’t get enough bad weather to be prepared for it so it causes quite a bit of damage.

Anyways, I arrived at home tired and wet.  I had about 5 minutes to dry off and use the bathroom before leaving again to pick up the girls.  As I am doing this, I realize that Thacher is unusually quiet.  This is NEVER a good sign.  I find him covered in lipstick.  It’s EVERYWHERE…the carpet, wall, clothes, face, hands.  I quickly change him and grab a wet wipe to scrub him clean and IT DOESN’T COME OFF!!!   It wasn’t just any lipstick…this was one of those stay-on-your-lips-even-after-eating, swimming, dancing and kissing kind of lipsticks.  After trying make-up remover and soap, I decided to just grab a quick photo and go pick up the girls.  What else could I do?

He’s napping now (and still covered in red), but I’ve done some research.  It sounds like baby oil may do the trick…fingers crossed.  Not sure this will help the clothing, but at least my son *might* not have to wear lip stick for our weekend in the snow.

Between Peep’s VERY red hair and Thatcher’s lipstick episode, I am probably not up for mother of the year, but my biggest concern is how I am going to keep this kid safe for the next 17 years?  I have received numerous warnings about “boy energy” but holy cow.  Wish me luck.

by Shawn

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“I like to Dabble in Various Forms of Happiness”

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 Posted in Personal, my favorite things

Seriously, isn’t that the best quote from an artist?  How can you not love a person who likes to dabble in happy?  After a lot of encouragement, my friend Erin has FINALLY started a blog to allow people to see her wonderful art.  The problem?  No photos on the blog as of today, but I am hoping to change that!  For me, it all started when Erin made my daughter, “Peep” this amazing clay figurine of herself as a penguin for her 5th birthday.  It was SO amazing that I just HAD to hire her to make Breckin and Thatcher.  Breckin wanted to be a mermaid and Thatcher, well, she made him a “happy baby” with his cloth diapers, ball and toy cars.  The details are simply unimaginable!  I LOVE having them sitting on my bookshelf as a little quirky conversation starter & memory of my children when they were this age.

For Christmas, my sister-in-law & I hired her to create all 6 cousins in their halloween costumes for my mother-in-law.  Since my MIL had sewed all of the Candyland costumes, we thought it was a fun way for her to remember the grandchildren.  Erin created all 6 of them PERFECTLY from only a photo!  (I will do my best to get photos of these one day, but was too rushed right before the holidays to do so).

Seriously, contact her (escapetopurple@gmail.com), send a photo & an idea.  You will NOT regret it!!!

Also, I need to add that she made these incredible cake toppers for a friend of mine who had a combined birthday party for her 2 and 5 year old!  What a perfect keepsake from their birthday.  I am SO doing this next year.

by Shawn

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let’s party!

Friday, January 15, 2010 Posted in Photography, news

Beautiful photography, good friends, playtime for the kids and snacks…could you ask for anything more?  I’m probably crazy, but I am going to try something new this year.  PORTRAIT PARTIES!

WHAT ARE THEY?

A portrait party is a hosted series of mini-sessions that occur at one location. The location may be either at the hostess’s home or a predetermind outdoor location. Each guest pays a $35 session fee, which is refundable as a credit on purchases of $200 or more, and each child has a private 20-minute portrait session. Guests with more than one child must book a session for each child. A minimum of six slots must be filled to book a party, up to a maximum of ten. There is no obligation to buy and no minimum amount that must be purchased.

HOW DO THEY WORK?

The hostess of the party does not pay a sitting fee for her child (one child) and receives a 10% commission on all paid guest orders in the form of a print credit towards her child(ren)’s portraits, as well as a $50 credit for each additional party booked by herself or her guests within two weeks of the party.

In exchange, the hostess has a few (easy!) responsibilities. The two of us will meet before the party to go over the invitations and any questions you may have, but the hostess will be responsible for these small jobs:

· Sends out invitations (I’ll provide them)
· Serves as contact person for event
· Fills out shooting schedule as guests RSVP
· Collects session fees and paperwork from guests at party (or before)
· Provides light snack and drinks at party (this doesn’t have to be fancy)
· Serves as the time keeper during party
· Distributes print orders afterwards

All sessions are booked back to back, and only guests with a scheduled time slot may be present at the party. Guests should arrive at least 10 minutes prior to their time slot groomed and ready to be photographed, but they are welcome to stay for the entire party.

A party with all ten sessions booked that started in the early morning would look like this:

  • 8:00 am – photographer’s arrival and set up
  • 8:20 – 1st child
  • 8:40 – 2nd
  • 9:00 – 3rd
  • 9:20 – 4th
  • 9:40 – 5th
  • 10:00 - photographer break
  • 10:20 – 6th
  • 10:40 – 7th
  • 11:00 – 8th
  • 11:20 – 9th
  • 12:40 -10th

Approximately two weeks after the party, a password protected gallery of each individual subject will be available online and orders may be placed through my website. Prints purchased within 24 hours will receive a 10% early bird discount.  I am going to put together two special mini packages for HUGE savings over a la carte prices.  One will be digital and one prints.

Within four weeks after the final order payment, all orders will be delivered to the hostess. The hostess will then deliver each order to its recipient, or have guests pick up their orders from his/her home.

Sound like fun? Gather your friends and contact me today to schedule yours (hurry before I change my mind)!

P.S.

I have the weekend of Feb 20/21st  and March 21st available if we can book a few parties then.  Let me know!

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by Shawn

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Our Family Mission Statement.

Thursday, January 14, 2010 Posted in Personal

A wonderful and inspiring photographer friend of mine started making these “Family Rules” for her family.  She has ended up selling them because so many people have contacted her wanting a copy of their own!  I was inspired by this concept as well and decided that I need to formalize our rules.  I had showed another friend of mine a rough draft and she suggested that I call them “goals” or a “Mission Statement” instead of rules and that just felt perfect to me.

In creating them, I included the girls (as much as they were interested) and Chad.  I wanted to use language that my kids hear over and over again, every single day.  These needed to be something that we would all agree to and support fully.  I also wanted to be sure that these were goals that I really needed us to strive for.  You know, characteristics that we look for in our adult friends.  If someone is a big liar, we probably don’t want to be their friend or if they continuously hurt our feelings, we’re going to stay away, right?  Of course, I have lot of other hopes and dreams for who they will be, most of them are not “deal breakers” for us.

Another thing that I really love about Stephanie’s Rules is that they apply universally.  The whole family is striving to follow them, not just the kids.  I was actually thinking that it might be nice to let the kids remind us if we are not acting in a way that supports our mission statement.

I encourage you to take the time to really think about what your family goals are and perhaps involve the whole family in creating them.  I feel like we learned a lot about ourselves in doing this little project, and I think it will help us refocus our parenting to what really matters.

HOULLIS FAMILY MISSION STATEMENT:

  • SPEAK WITH LOVE IN YOUR HEART
  • BUILD PEOPLE UP WITH YOUR WORDS
  • BE A FIRST-TIME LISTENER
  • CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF
  • HELP OTHERS
  • HAVE COMPASSION
  • KEEP EACHOTHER’S FEELINGS AND BODIES SAFE
  • ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST
  • SHARE A SMILE, IT’S CONTAGIOUS
  • BE SLOW TO ANGER, SLOW TO SPEAK + QUICK TO LISTEN
  • KEEP YOUR PROMISES
  • HONESTY IS ALWAYS THE BEST POLICY
  • DON’T GO TO BED ANGRY (OR GUILTY)
  • USE YOUR MANNERS
  • CELEBRATE DIFFERENCES IN OTHERS
  • NEVER STOP LEARNING

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by Shawn

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stop the self hate messages.

Thursday, January 14, 2010 Posted in Personal

As many of you know, I have been doing quite a bit of soul searching lately which can leave me feeling really good or totally awful.  At about the same time that I wrote this post about all of my faults, our minister gave a sermon on “There is nothing wrong with you!”  In his sermon, he told a story of how The Dali Lama invited some western (mostly American) meditation experts to India and asked them to describe the types of problems that their followers are struggling with.  In their discussions, a phrase that the Dali Lama didn’t understand kept coming up, “low self-esteem”.  This is a very well educated man that understands and speaks English very well, but he needed a translator to help him understand the unfamiliar concept.  It took him a while and then he finally got it.

He said with great surprise, “Your people HATE themselves?”

This story really surprised me.  I was shocked to realize that being hard on ourselves is not an innate human function.  Rather, it is something we learn through our specific culture.  Meaning, WE DON’T HAVE TO TREAT OURSELVES THIS WAY!  When we were young children, we knew that there was nothing wrong with us.  If someone said negative things about who we are, we would avoid them, right?  We don’t tell our children that they are flawed.  They make mistakes or choose a destructive path sometimes, but they are not bad people.

We say to them, “I don’t like the way that you treated your sister because it hurt her feelings.”

We don’t say, “You are a bad person.  What is wrong with you?”

So why do we say that to ourselves?  Why can’t we start focusing on the specific behaviors that we want to change instead of destroying our whole being?  Perhaps we should think about the advice we would give our children in the same predicament before we speak to ourselves.  :)  Anyway, Rev. Dr. Arvid Straube would be happy that I am telling you (and myself) that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU!

I’ll leave you with some iphone snaps of my girls on crazy hair day.  Peep’s hair turned a lot redder than planned, but she loves it and Breckin was proud that she was able to do her hair all by herself.

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by Shawn

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don’t hold back.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 Posted in Photography, Sneak Peek

Somehow J, M and I were able to connect on a level that is so real, powerful and honest that it makes me feel more alive to look at their portraits.  I’m having difficulty pulling my eyes away from their family photo below, because looking at it floods me with so much intense emotion.  I suppose I am living in their moment, but they had to allow it first.  They had to let me in, let me see their raw uncut feelings in order for me to capture it for them.  Having these two events collide, the unedited feelings and the viewing/capturing, is truly magical.

Take some time to lose yourself in their happiness…

I also need to brag about their baby for a minute.  He is just beautiful and totally ready for an awake portrait at only 12 days old!  Look how engaged he is and those eyes are stunning.

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by Shawn

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Monthly Resolutions.

Monday, January 11, 2010 Posted in Personal, my favorite things

One of my saviors while Chad was gone was my babysitter.  She fully supported me in my parenting style, encouraged me to take the girls to Costa Rica and was a listening ear when things got rough.  She’s now left us to join the peace corps in Guatemala, but sends us inspirationsal, informative and funny letters.  I am so honored to be included on her email list!

So, I just finished reading her last email, and I am going to include a snippet from her letter regarding resolutions:

“I am not usually one to make New Year’s resolutions because we all
know the trend.  Make a resolution and by Jan 2, it has been modified,
and my Jan 3 we have given up entirely.  Instead, I appreciate the
monthly resolution.  It is more manageable.  When (E) and I lived
together in San Diego, we had a system where we would make monthly
resolutions to change behaviors and once the month was over, we
continued on with the previous month and added a new one.  Example:
one month we challenged ourselves to only use one role of paper towels
to reduce our usage and the goal is to eventually stop using them all
together.  The next month we would still try to only use one role or
less of paper towels and we would take five minute or shorter showers.
(This was a challenge for my beloved (E).)”

How great is that?  It is simply a more formal version of what I already do…make changes as I see a need.  I love making it a bit more formal, because I think it will encourage me to make more changes in the long run.  So for this month, I am tackling coupons.

I don’t even get the newspaper, so I thought that cutting coupons was beyond me, but no.  They come in your regular mail!  You know that junk mail that you toss into the recycling without even opening it up?  I actually just stumbled upon them by accident and then noticed that there were coupons for things I already used…free bananas if you buy salad, organic long grain rice, tylenol, mouthwash, etc.  On my first BIG shopping trip, I saved over $40 in coupons alone!  Then, I had to do a smaller shopping trip, but it was mostly coupons items.  This time I saved $36!!!  Seriously, even if you don’t need to save some money each month, think of what good this money could do for others.  Perhaps I will save $100 this month (I’ll let you know).  I could use some of it for some fancy coffee or whatever (you need a reward for doing the extra work, right?) & donate $75 to a charity or put it in savings.  That’s $900 a year either saved or given away to a charity!  Not bad, right?

I decided to put some of my savings into a cute coupon organizer to help make using these coupons a little more enjoyable.   Check out this Scrappy Fabric Coupon Organizer by ElizabethGwenOrignls!  I just received it & it is PERFECT for me.  There are no labels on it, so you either have to remember what your general categories are, or just write categories on the fabric with a fabric marker.  I think I will remember, but we’ll see.

If you are looking for something a little more structured, I did consider this Long Accordion Purse by thelaughinghouse.

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by Shawn

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Happy Belated 5th Birthday, Peep!

Sunday, January 10, 2010 Posted in Personal

As you may recall, I mentioned that life can get pretty busy and complicated as a stay at home/work at home mom.  Well, from August until December, things are pretty much a blur.  I work CRAZY hours and barely come up for air.  In that craziness, I did have a chance to photograph Peep and plan a penguin water party for her, but no thank you cards have been sent yet (they are still in my things to do pile and are coming) and I started this letter to her, but never finished it.  At the time, I felt like there was someting missing and then it got pushed down to the bottom of my priorities.

Well, here it is.  My letter to our “middle sister”.  Better late than never.

Peek-a-boo, PK, Pequena, Paeli, Ouch, Beep, Peep,

Oh sweetie.  You never cease to make me laugh.  I mean, seriously, who changes their name to “Beep” and then “Peep” and sticks to it for as long as you have?  Only you & that is one of the many reasons we love you!  I resisted the change a bit at first.  I didn’t argue with you, but I usually called you PK out of habit (with a dash of hope thrown in).  Once your class picture came home with the name “Peep” under your photo, I realized that I had lost my quiet battle.

You keep me on my toes & I never know what you will come up with next!  You have an injury of some sort everyday of your life.  Usually it is microscopic in nature, but causes a lot of drama!  Sometimes we call you “ouch” and it really makes you mad, but you have the best pout of anyone I know.  It is SO darned cute that it makes me smile every time you stomp off, cross your arms and stick out that sweet pudgy lip of yours.  Of course that isn’t the reaction you are looking for.

You LOVE to make up stories and play make-believe all by yourself.  You will sit and talk to yourself, make up songs, sing and dance for hours at a time without an audience.  (Of course, Mama is always spying).  You are still a penguin fanatic and at this point, I think they will be a life long love.  You have a penguin costume that you LOVE to wear around the house or out to the store.  I haven’t let you wear it to school, or you most definitely would!

You have issues with your shoes…they never fit or look quite right.  Sometimes they are too tight, other times they are not tight enough (this could be the same shoe on different days), or they are not shiny enough or not warm and fuzzy enough.  The practical shoes never match your outfit the way you want them to!  And wow, you have an incredible sense of fashion.  I think you purposely wear stripes with pok-a-dots, black & white flowers, Halloween socks & a funny hat just to make people look twice and smile.  I never know what crazy outfit you will surprise me with in the morning!  Sometimes I think you live to bring happiness into people’s lives.

Another way you bring joy is by always joking with people.  You used to be a shy little girl that I couldn’t peel off of my leg, but now you will talk to anyone!  You have such a grown up way of joking with your teacher at just the right times to make everyone laugh and not get you into trouble.  It’s wonderful.

Happy Be-lated Birthday my sweet, “Peep”.  You are and always will be my little sunshine baby.

Love, Mama.

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by Shawn

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on the flip side…

Friday, January 8, 2010 Posted in Personal

In an effort to counter all of the negativity from my last post, here is the other side, the brighter, happier side.

I am head over heals in love with my husband, even after 10 years of marriage and another almost 8 years of dating!

I have a great sense of adventure.

I have good balance in my life (most of the time).

I am passionate.

I am a fast learner.

I adore being a mom and am totally dedicated to doing it well.

I’m a good thrift store shopper.

I am pretty good at cooking healthy, but still yummy meals.

I have an amazing job & I think I am pretty darn good at it.

I am surrounded by a lot of loving and totally supportive family.

I am more athletic and healthy now than I was in high school or college.

My family and I are supported by an wonderful church.

I am a nice stomach (well, considering three kids, it isn’t bad).

I love my funky dark hair with the red splash.

My friendships are long lasting, forever friends & I LOVE that.

I am creative.

And, I will close with some images of Thatcher in an effort to improve upon #7 of my last blog post.  My baby is 17 months today!

by Shawn

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imperfect me.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Posted in Personal

“We don’t love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.”  –Jacques Maritain

As Chad put it to our kids last night, I am having a “low day”.  Because of some recent family events, I’m dwelling on my weaknesses and trying to figure out how I can make some changes…become a better, new-improved me.  You see, I have all of these faults and SO many more.  When you look at this way, it is totally overwhelming and unhealthy, I’m sure.

  • I speak my mind too much.
  • I don’t censor my feelings well.
  • I am over-emotional.
  • I can be completely stand-offish if feeling shy.
  • I sometimes stick my foot in my mouth.
  • I don’t call as much as I should.
  • I don’t take enough photos of my family and the people that I love.
  • I send thank you notes sporadically…usually to people who I know the least, first and family, last.
  • I have a lot of trouble remembering people’s names.

The thing is that my family and friends love me for all of my imperfections and they even seem to see a lot of amazing things in me, too.  Things that make it worth their time to know me.  After I am done feeling sorry for myself, I will write a list of some of my good qualities…the qualities that combined with the bad, make me a real person.  A person worth loving.

Here is me drowning my sorrows in an exquisite red dress…

(yes, I bought it)

by Shawn

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