Just a sneak peek! I'm having a blast. :)

These are some of our amazing Layout Artists -- Kelly, Amy and Caroline. Love these girls!

SG Convention!!

Well, I am here at the Scrap Girls Scraplink Convention. It's the first ever digital scrapbooking convention, and I'm having a great time meeting other team members, seeing some that I've met before, getting to know customers and board members and all sorts of fun stuff! We've already had a few great classes (not mine, lol, that's tomorrow), some fun games and chats, and I've learned a lot of new things so far. It's been so great. I just know that it's going to be over before I know it and I'll be back home. But until that happens, I'm going to enjoy what is going on. :)

PS: At the same time, we're going through with inspection, appraisal, loan approval, all sorts of that kind of stuff with our new house. SO needless to say, there is a lot going on this week, but I'm completely excited to be in the middle of it all! I can't wait until we can get our keys and start working on the house and then moving in! I'll make sure to document and photograph everything that's going on to share with you all. Thanks for your love, support and prayers!! Love you guys!

I love my little guy

Okay, so who doesn't, right? But seriously, I think I am falling more in love with this kid every single day. We were out scouting some new super-secret photo locations and just having an all-around great time together. I know I'm lucky. And blessed. And even though it's a stressful time in our lives right now, I am so so so thankful for everything that I have.

Especially this little guy...









Saying, "Can I see dat camewa, Mama?" Nice try, kiddo.

Adorable!

I have some more fun photos to share!
I just love taking photos of kids and babies, they're so much fun! (Not to mention easy when they look like this!) And these were just quick, spur of the moment shots. Imagine what we could have gotten with some setup and planning! ;)

PS: Want your own? Then check out this post!

This is little baby {F}. He has the ability to make the best faces ever!
I swear, he's got more personality in his expressions than most people ten times his age.



See what I mean?













Thanks {M} for getting a willing smile out of him! :) He's so adorable.

Okay, seriously??

If you don't think that these are the cutest little twin boys that you've ever seen, then I am jealous of you because you must have some illegal stash of cuteness somewhere at your house! :)
I swear, they just melt anyone who sees them!
Thanks, J, for letting me capture your kids. You're one lucky (and popular) mama!!



I can finally tell them apart! :) I'm so proud of myself.



Little {J} -- he has the best growly smile ever!



Little {J} -- he is so sweet and inquisitive! :)

More of my great friends' kids to come soon!

Want some portraits?

Then I want YOU!

I am offering a thirty minute portrait session for either your family group (up to 8 people), individual child, or maybe just some pictures of you (since I'm a mom too, and I know exactly how often we are in front of the camera versus behind it)!

The session will be on-location, somewhere fun. And it will be a no-pressure situation, so don't be worried that you don't know how to pose or anything like that. :) Trust me, it's all about having fun and getting a couple of great shots.

Included in the session price is a CD with your 5 best images, completely retouched and ready for printing, sharing, online posting, etc. I'll make sure to give you a signed photographer's release so that you don't receive any flack when printing the photos at your local photo lab! Trust me, I've been there and it's not a fun thing to deal with. :)

So what do you have to invest?

The whole package is only $40! That includes my time and talent on the day of your shoot, as well as the completely retouched finished portraits (meaning teeth whitening, blemish removal, and overall amazing-ness) available for you to print, share, use however you want. Trust me, the labor it takes to retouch the images themselves is worth the money!

I mean, come on, what do you have to lose?

To schedule a session, please email me at laurel dot lakey at gmail dot com, with the subject line Fall Portraits. Availability will be from between October 15th and November 1st. So don't wait, book your session today before it's gone! I can't wait to hear from you! :)

We are BLESSED!

Oh my goodness, I'm feeling so overwhelmed with love and gratitude right now. The Lord has really shown me and my family how much He loves us today. First of all, I had a most sweet and touching spiritual affirmation in Primary today (I am our ward's chorister, which means I teach singing time to the children ages 4 to 11).

After listening to the children sing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", I was overcome with the Spirit and a sense of great love for these dear, dear children that I have been teaching for over a year now. I started to cry and could barely communicate how I was feeling with them. That's never happened to me before. And I'm sure it was a combination of the Spirit being so strong, the realization that I will most likely be moving away from these precious children very soon, and my hormones being out of whack because of the pregnancy. :)

But no matter the reason, I was just so grateful to have been given this feeling of love and accomplishment. You see, I've been feeling really down about this calling lately because I have felt like I am so not qualified to teach these children music, and that I have been failing miserably. So it was a tender mercy from the Lord today to hear these children singing a song that I was able to (finally!) teach them, and to feel the Spirit that they brought in because of it. So I left feeling so grateful for that moment.

Secondly, after we got home from church, we got a call from our realtor. The bank accepted the offer we made on the house!! Which means that we have actually done it!! :) We're going to schedule the inspection for sometime this week, and if that all checks out, we're going to be moving at the end of October!! I am literally just in shock right now. I can't believe we actually got this house -- it's big, it's got a big yard, and it's everything we could have wanted. PLUS, we got it for a screaming deal and so we just can't believe it. I know that those of you who were praying for us certainly helped this process along, so I am extremely grateful to you all. And thanks for being so supportive and putting up with my back and forth posts about the stressful situation. :) Here are some pictures of our new house (barring any scary inspection findings, lol):

Oh, and the comments were meant for Nathan -- I saw the house while he was out of town, so this was me telling him about it. You can just disregard unless you're really interested. :)



Front view of the house. What you can't see is that it's a 3-car garage.





The kitchen. And yes, we'll be changing the backsplash
(much to everyone's chagrin, I'm sure. LOL).





(Rolling Hills was another house I looked at that day)



Upstairs view

So needless to say, I am praying that everything will be perfectly fine with this house and that the inspection will turn out great, so that we can move quickly. And I know it's going to be a lot of stress, but I'm just glad that we have finally found somewhere and we acted fast enough that we didn't lose out!

Thanks again to everyone for your great comments of encouragement and support. I'm so grateful for you all!

And last but not least, I'll include one of the cutest pictures of Eli in the last while. I got lucky enough today to have this one turn out great. :) Love my 50mm lens!! :)

Quickie

The other day, Eli decided he wanted to put on my shoes. He came up to me (wearing them) and in his cute little voice he says, "I'm ready, Mama!"

Gotta love this kid.

Say "Click"! Take a pic!

Eli likes a show called Go, Diego, Go, because it deals with lots of different animals and such. So when I saw this little toy "Click the Camera" at the store, I knew he'd love it. He goes around the house taking pictures of scarlet macaws, llamas, pygmy marmosets, and tapirs. These shows are getting so sophisticated, LOL. :) Whatever happened to a dog, a cat, and a horse?

Anyways, I thought I'd snap some pics of my own, of my little guy enjoying his new toy. He's getting so big, I don't know what to do with him sometimes. He makes me laugh in the most unintentional ways and I just love him to pieces. We're lucky we get to have another one. I can't wait. :)

Also, one day I realized after getting out our little alphabet puzzle for the umpteenth time and being asked to spell "Good Morning", which we didn't have enough letters for, that Eli needed some letter of his own. So I just typed out some letters in a cute font on a page in Word, printed them out, and cut them up. Then we've been playing with them on the floor for the past week and a half.

Eli loves letters and words. He's seriously got his dad's brain chemistry because he's a 2 1/2 year old that can spell stop, cat, dog, pig, Eli, Mama, Dada, read, boots, Joe, car, Blue, map, and ball. It's incredible and I'm just as awed as you are. :) I had nothing to do with it, besides going over his letters with him while waiting in restaurants to eat or while trying to distract him from a hurt he just got or something. So yeah, proud Mama moment here. :)

So here are some pictures. :)



Spelling CAR



Then spelling JOE, which turned into CARJOE. :)
Must be a new Blue's Clues model or something.

Happy Birthday Summer!

I should have posted this yesterday on her actual birthday, but I'm a dork and forgot. :)

My best friend Summer had her 26th birthday yesterday, which is crazy to me. I can't believe we're that old! She is my oldest friend and we have been through so much together. And now she has moved out here closer to me! Yippee! I am so grateful that she married a guy from Los Angeles. :)

So yesterday Summer and I went out to lunch to celebrate her birthday. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and got some good food and some cheesecake to take home to celebrate with. It was so nice to just catch up, as she got married last month and it's been a whirlwind of traveling, moving, receptions, unpacking, new jobs, starting school, and more. So we haven't had a chance to get together. But it was so nice to do so yesterday and to just have some girl talk and enjoy each others' company. I am excited to have my buddy close by. (Now if only we could cut down the driving distance, it would be wonderful!)

Here are some pictures, although I forgot to have our waitress take one of all of us at the restaurant. Ah well.

It was a fun day!

PS: So here's to being positive! :) We put an offer in on a house yesterday afternoon and are waiting to hear back whether or not it has been accepted. We have a really good feeling about it, but would still love any positive thoughts or prayers directed our way. I'll definitely keep you updated and post photos as soon as we know. I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic. :)