Happy New Year!

Michael and I are getting old!

He threw out his back, so is not standing straight.

After six days, I still feel the effects of that nasty flu.
Whatever happened to the 24 hour flu?

When we were young, we got over this quickly.
Now we are old and it takes longer. Grrr!

We look forward to going home and becoming vegetables tonight and tomorrow.

We will be all better and ready to go back to work on Friday.

We look forward to many wonderful changes in 2009. We will keep you updated.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve celebration!

What's New

Christmas Eve services were wonderful at Bay Pointe Community Church. Over 2400 people braved the blizzards to attend.

Michael made me the best Christmas dinner and I spent a few hours splitting wood (my favorite exercise). We had a great day.

The past three days have been much different. I got the flu! It was awful! I have been home for three days and could easily stay home for three more. I hope NO ONE catches this. I do not know where I got it, but it was the worst flu I have ever had.

Let's hope the next update will be healthy!

Christmas Eve

Michael and I just arrived from an overnight stay in Jackson.

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with my family last night, then headed back this morning. The roads were terrible both ways and there were lots of accidents, but God protected us and we made it home safe.

Just another reminder that you are invited to join us for Christmas Eve services at Bay Pointe Community Church. Services will be at 1:00, 3:00, 5:00 and 7:00 PM. Michael will be baking for the worship team and we will both greet at all services. Pastor Nick has a special message planned and the music is always wonderful. Come alone, come with family, come with friends, come join us! We look forward to seeing you there.

Merry Christmas!

Ho, Ho, Ho, Snow, Snow, Snow

Mike and Heather and Alec visited us from downstate and had a great family portrait session.

We shipped their images yesterday.

The massive amounts of snow stopped the delivery today.

They leave early Saturday morning for Florida.

The package is scheduled to arrive later on Saturday.

Since their Christmas gifts were in that package, they will not be able to deliver the gifts.

We have the next best thing.

Their families will get to see what they were supposed to get for Christmas.

Their families will see a very handsome family and a GQ little man.

Merry Christmas to the Lossing family.

Safe travels! Enjoy the Florida sun while we get another blizzard on Sunday!

Merry Christmas

I am wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.
I am not saying Happy Holidays.

I am saying Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Like last year, we are also inviting you, your family and your friends to join us for Christmas Eve services at Bay Pointe Community Church. This year, they are adding one more service, so there will be a total of four services available - 1:00, 3:00, 5:00 and 7:00 PM. There will be child care at all services, so please join us! Michael and I will be there for all four services. We will be greeting, so would love to give you a great big Bay Pointe welcome!

Also, Creekside Grains and Classic Gallery are having a special!

Buy any Creekside Grains mix (or mixes) or Christmas basket and the amount of your purchase will be credited toward a portrait session at Classic Gallery. The more Creekside Grains products that you purchase, the more money you will save on your session!

Please call ahead, to make sure that we are available and the mix is in stock.
Michael may also have a sample for you!

Michael will be at Sweet Asylum on Friday, to join in the Village at Grand Traverse Commons Christmas Open House. He will be sampling some of Creekside Grains most popular cookies. If you have not had a root beer cookie or a mega mint chocolate cookie, you are in for a treat!
Stop in and say hello!

So much is going on and so much snow! What a wonderful season!

Congratulations St. Francis Football Team

They did it! The St. Francis football team won the state championship! Michael was there and had a great time. He was so impressed with the team.

While Michael photographed the winning game at Ford Field in Detroit, I was in Jackson, representing Creekside Grains at a craft fair that benefited the Jackson County Rose Festival. The Rose Festival is part of the Jackson County Rosequeen Scholarship pageant, which is a Miss Michigan preliminary, like our Miss Heart of Michigan Scholarship pageant. Creekside Grains were a big hit at the craft show. Lots of gifts were purchased for Christmas.

All three of Michael's businesses were represented this weekend. Classic Gallery covered a winning football team, Creekside Grains sold Christmas gifts and a Miss Heart of Michigan sister pageant raised funds for their scholarship pageant. It was a very successful weekend! Hope your weekend was full of love and family and fun!

Go Glads!!!!

Congratulations to St. Francis Football team! We listened to the first ten minutes of the game as we were on our way to Grand Rapids to photograph the Army Recruiters ball. After that, we lost our radio signal and had to wait until now to find out the score!

We are so proud of the team. Great job!

We photographed the winning team on Thursday evening. They are a great group of young men. Michael will join them next Saturday at Ford Field.

Go Glads!

Happy Birthday Chris

Chris recently had a birthday.
I was going to give her a happy birthday blog
and could not remember
what day her birthday occurred.

Chris has great expressions!

I love the hair and hat changes. It makes a whole new look.

Chris is one of the most positive people I have met.

What a great personality!

Her clothing choices were perfect for the State Hospital images.

I hope you had a great birthday!

Alysha's Senior Portraits

Debbie and I became best friends when we lived in Jackson. Debbie and her family moved to Florida just before I moved to Traverse City. Since then, they moved to Missouri. I hardly get to see them because we live so far apart, but I was still able to photograph their oldest daughter's senior portraits. We met in Jackson, I photographed Alysha all over town and we got great images! They have not seen them yet, so this will be their preview.

I love the images and I love the Flint family!

Who's Who?

This is Laurel.

She was three months old for this session.

Laurel got very sleepy during her session.

This is her brother Gage.

He was three months old for this session.

Gage got very sleepy during his session.

When we looked at both images side by side,
we could not tell who was Laurel and who was Gage.


Laurel is now a beautiful toddler.

Gage is now a chunky four month old.

Gage has Laurel beat in the weight.

He has beautiful chubby arms and legs.

Gage is our miracle baby.

We all prayed for Gage and his mother Jennifer.

Jennifer was six months pregnant for Gage when she went into a coma in Mexico.

God answered our prayers.

Gage is a healthy baby.

Jennifer is healthy.

Praise God for miracles!

Cayden's water adventures

Cayden visited us to go fishing, but he had much more fun playing in the water!
Mitchell Creek is very cold, but that did not seem to bother him.
Cayden is such a fun little boy!

Ashley dances

When I photographed Ashley's senior portrait session a long time ago
(a few months ago seems like a long time ago),
I told her that I had so much fun with these images, that I had to post them.
Finally...I am posting them.

These are just a few of the over 120 images that I took of Ashley.
This was her prom dress. It was so gorgeous!

Once the dress was on, I asked Ashley to dance. She was a natural.
The dress flowed so wonderfully.

The best part of Ashley's session was that I photographed her mother's senior portrait session, then her wedding, years ago. Ashley looks just like her mother and has the same wonderful personality that her mother has, too.

I love photographing second generations! Yes, I am old!

Great job Ashley! I cannot wait for you to see the rest of the images!

Where has August gone?

I just realized that I have not blogged since August 1. I knew that it has been a long time, but wow, I did not know it was that long.

I was going to update you on our adventures, but there have been too many to write about. Some of them have been awesome senior sessions that I will post images next week.

I am heading to Mackinac Island tomorrow morning, to join my friends at a Professional Photographers of Michigan seminar. Until yesterday, Michael was going to join me, but he is preparing to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats next week. The preparations are taking longer than expected. He will be working with a motorcycle team that is racing for the land speed world record. Michael went last year and had such a great time. He is so excited to go again this year. If you have not seen the World's Fastest Indian, you have to rent it. It is a true story about Burt Munro and it is a good one! Anthony Hopkins plays Burt wonderfully. I am sure that Michael will have some great images when he returns.

Michael has also gone full speed into his new company, called Creekside Grains. It all started with a pancake mix and Michael's incredible baking talents. Now he offers over twenty pancake, cookie, brownie, bread and gluten free products. They taste wonderful (I get to be the taste tester for his new recipes)! He has a new web site available at www.creeksidegrains.com. You can also catch him at the local farm markets every weekend. He is at Leland, Elk Rapids, the old State Hospital and Suttons Bay. He loves meeting and visiting with everyone and the customers love the products.

I will update soon! Have a great weekend!

rainbows

A light rain, then a beautiful rainbow!

God does good work!

Patrick is nine months

I got to see Patrick and his parents today! He is such a handsome baby!

His beautiful blue eyes win the ladies hearts! I looked at my earlier blog posts and said the same thing about Patrick's eyes then. They sure are striking!

We blinked and Patrick grew from three months to nine months. The next blink and it will be for his one year portrait. They grow so fast.

See you soon Patrick!

We Trashed The Dress!

It all started so "traditionally."

A beautiful woman in a beautiful gown on the beach.

A stroll into the water...

A little deeper into the water.

A glamorous location for a glamorous pose.

Now let's have some fun!

She emerges!

This was such a fun session! Anyone else ready to trash your dress?

Thanks Rebecca! I had a great time!

Happy Anniversary John and Lisa!

John and Lisa celebrated their 25th Anniversary yesterday. Congratulations!

Last Friday, their family came to Frankfort to enjoy the area and have a new family portrait taken. It was a gorgeous beach and we had a beautiful evening to take the portrait.

Aren't they a handsome couple?

While I was photographing John and Lisa, I looked to my left and saw the brothers watching their parents. I had to take the image!
I love it!

This is my new favorite beach!
Thank you John and Lisa for helping me find my new favorite beach!

Welcome the Miracle Baby!

Our miracle mother, Jennifer, called last night to tell us about the birth of Gage Jameson.

Throughout Jennifer's medical ordeal in Mexico in March, Gage was still growing strong and healthy in her womb.

He was born at 7:44 AM on Monday, June 30. He was 22" long and he weighed 8 pounds, 15 ounces! He is a big, healthy baby!

Thank you to all who prayed for Jennifer's recovery and the birth of Gage. God answers prayers! He brought a new healthy baby into the world!

Congratulations to Jennifer, Brian and big sister Laurel!

Laura and Richard's wedding day

It was a wonderful day, filled with happy tears and laughter.



Her little brother Tyler was such a good sport.



Sister Mollie and identical twin brother Nick were a perfect complement to Laura and Richard.

Downtown Howell had great places to photograph Laura and Richard. They stopped traffic and received lots of smiles from spectators.

The ceremony was performed by Laura's cousin.
It was beautifully written and personalized just for Laura and Richard.

Shelby was adorable!

Laura was verryyy happy! The guests cheered and cheered!

The family and friends were happy to be together. Tyler loves his sister!

Richard proposed at Disney World. She said yes and then there were fireworks, literally!!!

Auntie L and Uncle Michael actually took a moment to have our portraits taken with Laura and Richard.

We wish them years and years of love!