life, as we know it...

Game on.

2009-07-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Wow. A game of Memory can be extremely intense. Especially when the goal is to find the match to the dinosaur. Where, oh where, can it be?

Vin on the go!

2009-07-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here is the Vin-Man breaking in his new Spiderman scooter this last spring. I picked up a Transformers sport helment for him as well. He had a fun time testing the elbow pads and knee pads that came with the helmet. He'd sporadically dive off of his scooter in slow-mo and roll on the driveway, ya know, just to make sure they worked... He's so awesome!

mother's day

2009-07-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

a sweet ice cream treat with the cousins and me begging my child to take some pictures with me...!

Hanging out with Violette (and the Liskas!!)

2009-07-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Vin and Vi are great buddies! Here they are having fun making music with Violette's cool 'mixing board'... Vin loves that toy!

Easter!

2009-07-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

okay, obviously i'm trying to catch up... just some pictures of Easter at my mom & dad's.....

a spring visit with the cousins!

2009-07-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

i know...spring???! i'm finally putting something on here. just some snaps of Vin with cousins Sawyer and Evyn in early April!

Pancakes!

2009-03-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

The annual Rotary Club pancake breakfast was a couple Sunday's ago in Sun Prairie and for my entire existence this has always been my grandpa's event! ...or at least, that's how i think of it. I had such a great time taking Vin and watching him play with his cousins, Sawyer and Evyn, and, yes, he did sit still for long enough to eat some pancakes & sausage! I even went back to the kitchen area and snapped a picture of "Louie's Blaze-r" that they cook the pancakes on. My grandpa built it over 25 years ago so the Rotary Club wouldn't have to rent one anymore. The pancake breakfast is absolutely a Blaser family staple... and I must admit, I feel like royalty when I attend!

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

2009-02-20T12:47:00.000-08:00

I spent Valentine's day with my favorite guy - Vin! We just played and watched t.v. and then, after much pleading, I got him to run some errands with me (who's in charge here??). Vin was intent at hanging out at home all day and not even bribes of lunch at "Old McDonald's" or a toy from Target would get him moving!!

I did squeeze in some photo time in front of the big livingroom windows. I've been wanting to take some shots of him here since we moved in! He looks like such a big, grown up boy... he's still my favorite little sweetie guy.

Spiderman!

2009-01-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

Vin LOVES Spiderman right now! I got him a Spiderman Scooter for Christmas so now he's zooming around the house on that thing constantly.... plus, he can put on his Spiderman hat & gloves and shoot webs at my camera when I try to take his picture. He then, as he tells me while he's playing, "threw my camera in the garbage" ("garbage" aka "the corner of the room" --don't worry, its all imaginary!!). I adore watching his imagination develop and I just cannot get over the sound effects that he makes as he plays. Boys!?!!

The picture of Christmas

2008-12-31T09:52:00.000-08:00

I was really fortunate this year to be asked by each of my siblings to take pictures of their families for their Christmas cards! I truly appreciated the opportunity to capture my precious nieces and nephews at this wonderful time of year. My final assignment was for Remick on Monday night... these are a few of the extras that won't fit on their holiday card, but I wanted to share. I can't let go of the Christmas season just yet!

Christmas!

2008-12-28T18:57:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with our family. We got together on Christmas Eve morning with everyone for brunch and opening gifts. It was contained chaos as there seemed to be kids everywhere!

Home for the Holidays!

2008-12-28T11:41:00.000-08:00

Nothing feels more like home than my parents house or brings back more memories of childhood than good ol' Sherwood Forest... I know, how old am I..?! It snowed and snowed which made Briar Lane look gorgeous and very much a classic Wisconsin winter scene. If you look closely at the last picture, you'll see a little red cardinal sitting at the top of the tree!

Snow Day!

2008-12-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

We've gotten gobs of snow in the past few days.. Vin's daycare was closed on Friday so I had a wonderful opportunity to stay home with him and hang out. Which, of course, included playing out in the snow! He also tested the theory that your tongue sticks to cold metal -- proved false! ..at least this time!!

P. A.

2008-12-22T08:01:00.000-08:00

I had a great opportunity to visit my sister Bethany in Pennsylvania the last weekend of October/first of November. I had a great time visiting with her and her gorgeous family and helping them pack up their house as they will be moving to Poland. Yes, as in the country of Poland! We had a super fun time trick-or-treating for Halloween (I think I ate most of the kids' candy through the course of the weekend.. oops!), watching Tru's football game and celebrating his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. Bethany and I even had a couple opportunities to go out to dinner together and just enjoy talking as sisters do!
Thanks again, Marty family, for bringing me out there! I love you guys!

seriously? how long has it been?

2008-12-22T07:39:00.000-08:00

I'm finally putting something on our blog again! The 3 month MIA could've been easily predicted, I'm sure. Anyhow, its not like I haven't been taking any pictures.. I've been taking hundreds of pictures! Most for my PLAN A biz and lots & lots of my sweetie little guy..

Here's proof of my work (Sarah is still waiting on the rest of hers!):

http://www.planaphotography.com/kaufman/
http://www.planaphotography.com/weber/
http://www.planaphotography.com/deluca/
http://www.planaphotography.com/johnson/
http://www.planaphotography.com/liska/
http://www.planaphotography.com/loeffel/

my big guy

2008-09-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

I took some pictures of Vin for his "3 year"... He just looks like such a big guy! I absolutely love him - he's such an incredible son to have. He's so cute too!

....and as you can see 3 year old boys don't last too long at sitting in front of my camera! just humor me, Vin - you've got so much more of this to come!!

my little photography gig.

2008-09-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

here's a link to a session I did September 1:

http://www.planaphotography.com/ryan/

a chunky, cutie pie, 5 day old boy named Ryan.

It's party time!

2008-09-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Vin's third birthday with our family a few weeks ago. Vin had lots of fun eating cake & ice cream, opening presents, and playing with all his cool new stuff.

Vin loves hanging out with his cousin, Sawyer! say cheese :)

My favorite little guy is three years old... I can't believe it.

Vin loves any and all vehicles! Cars, trucks, motorcycles, helicopters - you name it, if it goes = he loves it!

Sawyer and Vin trying to contain their enthusiam for his new bowling set........ jk - he really does love it!

Catching up on posts! -Wisconsin State Fair

2008-09-04T20:44:00.001-07:00

Vin and I went to the Wisconsin State Fair over a month ago! Our great friends, the Liskas, invited us to tag along. Vin and Vi loved seeing all of the animals upclose, eating the famous cream puffs, begging for every crappy plastic Spongebob/Dora/Spiderman toy, and running around hand-in-hand!

They contemplated petting the cow for awhile......... and then Vin finally mustered up the courage into taking a chance against the wild beast!

The above picture is proof of the best of what Wisconsin has to offer - Hot Cheese!!

And then of course the kids had to take a spin on the fun little rides! A day at the fair is always a blast!

my little photography gig.

2008-09-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

a link to my most recent session:

http://www.planaphotography.com/remick

two of my sweet nieces, Sawyer (2 yrs) and Evyn (10 months).

Happy 3rd Birthday Vinson!!!

2008-08-09T12:14:00.001-07:00

My little baby turns 3 today! I can barely believe it.. He has become such a little boy. He is so full of energy and he is non-stop action! He loves motorcycles and playing with his cars. His latest facination is "robops" since we saw the movie WALL*E (which I cried my eyes out at the end of....!!). He has so much fun riding his bike over to the park and can spot any playground within a 1/2 mile radius when we're driving down the road, seriously.
I was making him a cake to take to daycare on Friday and he was so excited about it. I took it out of the oven to cool and held him up so he could see it. He was excitedly talking on and on about taking his birthday cake to daycare to share with his friends when he looked up at me and said "thank you, mommy!"... I just about cried!!
I quick took some pictures on our way out the door to Dinah's, but as soon as I'd have my camera to my face he'd try to sneak some frosting! Thats when I made him hold it and you can still see him trying to touch that frosting with his little right pointer finger! What a goofball..

Little, quiet moments..... with Vin?!

2008-08-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, he actually does slow down sometimes! I know, its hard to believe - that's why I took pictures to prove it! We had a little pretzel 'picnic' of sorts on his bed between the curtain and the window. Its amazing how much fun Vin thought this was! I loved capturing these quiet moments of him.... he deemed the pretzel pictured on his knee an elephant! What a sweetie guy...

Still celebrating Independance Day!

2008-07-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

..and I may have spelled that wrong..(we'll call that Freedom of Speech)!!
Vin and I met up with the big party in Lake Mills for fireworks on the 4th of July! He had a blast running around with cousin Sawyer, eating hotdogs and popcorn, and playing with his glow necklace before settling in to watch the fireworks. He deemed them "awesome!" It was wonderful to be able to celebrate the holiday with our family.

Take me out to the ball game!

2008-07-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

Vin's first Brewer game was a blast! We had a great time hanging out with all of our friends... and Vin was having so much fun that he didn't even want to sit on my lap for 2 seconds to get a picture taken (evidence above)...... Anyhow, we attended with a group that was wishing the best to Scott Ramsay (husband of my friend, Amy Cerny Ramsay) as he was leaving the next day for training to go overseas for Army duties for the next year. We invited Vin's best gal, Violette, to come along to show him the ropes as she's a big Brewers fan and an old pro at baseball game attendance! And I got to hang with my best gal, Rachael, who is 6 months along in her pregnancy. The night was super fun and super exhausting!

A visit from the east coast!

2008-07-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

We were so fortunate to be able to have an unexpected visit from my sister, Bethany, and her two older kids, Eden and Truman. They swung into town from Lancaster, PA, to hang out and catch up for a few days. Here are some pictures from when the cousins were able to play at my sister and brother-in-law's, Remick and Bill's, place in Cottage Grove. What a great hill in the back yard for running around and rolling down out-of-control!!!

What would Memorial Day be without a parade?

2008-06-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

This was Vin's first time watching a parade come down main street Sun Prairie and it brought back lots of memories for me. Too bad this is a non-candy parade..... you can't even really consider it a parade then, can you? oh well, it was fun watching the marching bands and fire engines. Plus, we got to have cousin Dakota come along with us!

another visit to the zoo!

2008-06-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

This time we went with friends! On Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend, Vin and I met the Liskas and the DeLucas at the zoo. Vin loves hanging around with his friend, Violette, and her cousin, Mallory. They all had such a blast running around, looking at the animals, running around, a pony ride, running around, and a train ride. What more could you ask for with a visit to the zoo?

Mom's Day

2008-05-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

I don't know what to say about mother's day... but I know I love being part of the group of women celebrated on that day. Vin means the absolute world to me. He is my favorite guy and I tell him that all of the time. This really has been the best mother's day yet! I've learned so incredibly much about myself in this past year and what this 'mom' title means to me. I simply want to be Vin's superhero mom who can do anything. I have such huge hopes and dreams for my little Bug, but, honestly, I just want him to be happy!

A morning at the zoo!

2008-05-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Vin loves to visit the zoo! Its wonderful that the Milwaukee County Zoo is only a couple miles away and, best of all, we have an annual membership so we can hang out all day or swing in for a quick visit whenever we want. We stopped in on Saturday morning for a couple hours and Vin got to run around and say hi to all of his favorite animals. Before we left, we went for a ride on the merry-go-round and Vin had some problems saying goodbye to that!

lounging on the balcony

2008-05-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

gorgeous weather tonight so Vin and I had a picnic on the balcony. gotta love shots with a wide-angle lens... and the cutest subject in the world!

finally some new stuff!

2008-04-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

I've taken pictures a few times with the intention of getting them on this blog... oh, well.
so now the weather has been great... for Wisconsin... in April! Vin and I took the trike outside and went over to a nearby elementary school that has 3 playgrounds. this is Vin's dream come true and my nightmare when its time to leave. he really enjoyed greeting all of the people and dogs along the way. Plus, he has really mastered that trike!

my little photography gig.

2008-03-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

a link to my most recent session:
http://www.planaphotography.com/becker/

a sweet little girl named, Brooklyn.

coloring eggs - and, also, the shell.

2008-03-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

Vin and I had so much fun coloring eggs this year. I got everything set up to go and Vin was really excited eventhough he kind of didn't know what was going on... He climbed up to the table and I said "What color do you want to do first?" and he chose the blue dye. I put the glass in front of him and said "okay, put in the egg!" and he wound up to crack the egg right into the color! I laughed and said "wait! no! you put the WHOLE egg into the glass!" Then it was like he was a professional. Born to color eggs.

go Vin, go!

2008-03-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

some pictures from about a week ago of Vin using our home as a raceway for his trike... this should hold him over until the snow goes away and he can race around outside. He even lets his teddy bears ride along!

bathtime fun?

2008-03-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

As I have previously mentioned, Vin isn't the biggest fan of bathtime... and he can really get in a foul mood when he doesn't want his picture taken. So you can imagine how he feels about the combo of these two events!
You can see I even tried bribing him with his McQueen bubble bath and his bath crayons... but I was largely ignored until I started making silly sounds and I got him to look at me with a smile.

However, he must know that he looks really cute wrapped up in his monkey towel because it was all smiles then! And he thought it was really fun trying to take a picture of our reflection in the mirror. My sweet boy! Sweet, clean boy!

still snowy...

2008-03-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

Vin and I were out in the backyard playing in the snow for a little bit on Saturday. Just long enough to get a quick picture of Vin all bundled up! He found a fun little place to climb between the deck and the garage.

What a Smurfy Saturday morning!

2008-03-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

Filled with sleeping in (until 8am!!), coffee, lounging in our pj's, coffee, chatting on the phone with friends, - did I mention coffee?, - and playing with Smurfs! I loved my Smurf collection when I was a kid... who am I kidding? I still love it... (and I'm a bit jealous of the girl at work who has a Smurf collection totalling around 200!!) Anyhow, its so cute watching Vin play with "'Murfs" now, too. His favorite is the one that is taking a bath - which is very ironic since he, himself, hates baths.

everybody has a blog...why not Vin, too?

2008-02-18T18:27:00.000-08:00

I thought this could be the easiest way to share pictures of Vin and keep you all updated on life, as we know it...!

Vin and I went to Sun Prairie and visited Mom & Dad Blaser on Saturday... and then we were stuck there until Monday because of the weather. Good thing I had off of work because of Bethany's birthday (or was it because of President's day?) so we came back today around noon. Ooops, I just remembered that mom asked me to call when we got here -- Mom! We're safe!!
Anyways, I was in town to take pictures of Evyn, Sawyer & Dakota and during a little bottle break for Evyn I snapped some shots of Vin. I can't believe how much of a big guy my little Bug is becoming! Sometimes I feel like giving him his pacifier back so he can look like my little baby boy again! Really, I have actually thought that and its only been like two weeks since he gave that thing up. He's is just such a big boy now!