Roots Photography Workshop

Well, needless to say, the blog has been lacking. It has taken a backseat since the arrival of the baby. However, today I did something that is blogworthy :-) I took a photography workshop at an awesome studio here in Wichita. Gingeroot Studios has two amazing photographers that presented a workshop on composition, exposure, and some basics of photoshop. I have been desperately wanting to learn more about photography and how to use my camera. I was skeptical that this would be way over my head but they did such a job instructing that I would recommend to anyone!!!

Go to their website to check out some of the amazing work they do. In the meantime, you can see what I learned. Not too shabby, yet still so much to learn!!!

Baby's Coming Today

It is finally here! Baby Kyson will be arriving sometime today. It seems like the weeks have flown by but then I remember that I found out I was pregnant in July and THAT seems like a long time ago. We are all very anxious to meet the little guy (wondering who he will look like, what his personality will be like, etc.) Tim is patiently pacing around the hospital room and I am anxiously waiting for them to come in and bump up the pitocin some more :-) Katie and Danny from our bible study are just across the hall expecting their first baby. It is so neat that our kiddos may just share the same birthday. I guess the race is on to see which one of us delivers first.

We are so thankful for a trouble free pregnancy and just pray that the delivery and health of the baby will be the same. We are so blessed!!! Next update, hopefully pictures.

Finally, An Update

Well, I finally am taking a few minutes to update my blog. Where has time gone? It seems like Thanksgiving came and now it is almost Valentine's day. Lots has been going on. Christmas was great. I hope to upload some pics from the holidays sometime soon. Hopefully this week. We had a quiet new year. We have been counting down the days for the baby to arrive and believe it or not, we are just about 30 days out. I can't belive that our family is going to increase in just a month. We have so much to do and so little time.

The nesting phase has begun! I am trying to get organized as much as possible and hopefully will get a little painting done. The kids are out of school on Friday and Monday so hopefully we will begin the process of transforming each of their rooms and getting all of their things in place. I haven't begun washing any of the baby things so, I will be adding that to the mile long list of "things to do".

I have started 2 additional blogs. One is for the handstamped jewelry and one for the floral shop that I work at. Check them out sometime...

www.handstampedsilverjewelry.blogspot.com
and
www.folktalesfloralandgifts.blogspot.com

December 11 - Karston Grant Smith

It's hard to believe that 5 years have passed since our second son was born this very night. Just the day before, our world came crashing down! I remember it just like it was yesterday. I stayed up the entire night before knowing that something was just not right. Why hadn't I been feeling movement? There was definitely something wrong. I am scared to say the words. Surely a glass of orange juice would wake him up... We were just 2 weeks away from delivering our sweet baby boy, Karston. Maybe I was having signs of going into labor. My head was spinning, I felt out of control. I knew that I would have a doctors appointment in the morning and be able to hear his heartbeat. I tried to sleep but couldn't. The next morning it was confirmed and we were admitted to the hospital for delivery. How do you deal with this chaos? How do you ever recover from somethings like this? Can you ever heal from this wound?

Well, 5 years later and there are still feelings and thoughts not far from what we experienced that night. As December approaches, the anxiety level increases at our house. We are going through the motions of preparing for the holidays...decorating the trees, baking for neighbors, the hustle and bustle of shopping, etc. All of these very things we were doing then, we continue to do each year. The memories are still very close to the surface and will always be. Even as wrapped in sorrow and grief as we were, we can sense Hope that we will see Karston again. I remember coming home from the hospital and being so grateful for Kadyn and being together as a family. It was very important for us to remind not only Kadyn, but our family, friends and ourselves that God was carrying us through the most horrible time in our lives. We were working on getting things back together with His help!

I remember in the back of my mind, yet I don't believe I ever said the words, I can't ever go through another pregnancy. But God had other plans for us! He knows my strength, actually he GAVE me much more strength than I thought I was ever capable of having. Sixteen months later, Kamden came into this world. And now, we are being blessed with our 4th little boy in just a few more months. God is GOOD! And, in the midst of what we feel like is total uncertainty and chaos, He is in control! He brings peace! He brings HOPE!

So, take time this Christmas to laugh at little harder, make a few more memories, spend time with family, reflect on how life events have changed you and made you who you are, enjoy the present and most of all remember to celebrate His birth!

Update!

So, it's been a while since I've posted. Okay, almost a month. Things have been extremely busy!!! With all the football, baseball, Holiday Galleria stuff, etc. we are barely keeping our heads above water. This past week was better. Time for catching up. This week is slower too. However, we are exhibiting at Market Square this weekend. So, there is some prep for that.

Best of all, look what I got for my birthday! A new camera!!!! I am so excited and have been taking pics left and right. It is so cool and snaps so many pictures very quickly. I think I am going to have to take a class to learn how to use everything on it. We went to the park on Friday since the kids were out of school. I had Tim clear both of my media cards for me yesterday while I was at work and apparently I didn't save the pics from the park. There were some really cute ones of them playing a feeding the ducks.

I did get to play with my camera at both the football game on Saturday and the baseball game on Sunday. Kadyn did some pitching for the first time. So, I of course had to get some shots of that. Now, if I can just learn photoshop!

Update on the baby... I am now 16 weeks pregnant. It is killing me that we could actually know right now what we are having but my doctor didn't schedule my sonogram until just before my next appointment on November 3. The heart rate is still high 165. I am feeling so much better these days. I just am very ready for bed at 8:30 every night. We will know very soon whether we are set with the things we have or if we will need to buy some pink things!

Holiday Home Decorators and Hand Stamped Jewelry

I, along with the two other girls I work with, are officially counting down to our busy season. October 2- 5 is the Holiday Galleria. This will be our first year to exhibit. We began "Holiday Home Decorators" 3 years ago. This is hard to believe. Kamden was about 7 months old. Together the three of us decided that there was a need for seasonal residential decorating. So, we boosted up each others confidence levels (kinda) and began pounding the pavement with fliers offering our services. Before we even got home to take calls, the answering machine had messages waiting. Okay, now what? We were definitely flying by the seat of our pants!!! But, it all turned out good, actually GREAT!!! Better than we could of expected. We had 3 significant sized jobs and a few other small things. Not too bad for the amount of marketing we did.

Year two, we went completely by word of mouth and with return customers. We did no advertising at all. Again, a pretty successful year considering. This year, I guess you could say that we are going "BIG TIME!!" We submitted our application to be accepted into the Galleria and we got accepted! Now, panic time. Will we have enough stuff. We don't want to appear small town. We have to display talent and class. Can we do it?!?!?! I guess time will tell. Only a few more weeks until the showdown. We have 7 weddings this months too. So, in between all of this chaos, we have to be in the Christmas Spirit! The weather has been helping. We are actually praying for chilly weather the first week in October!

One of the new things we are trying as an extra to put some $$ in our pockets is Hand Stamped Jewelry. We just purchased the tools to make the jewelry. Here is one of the first ones I made for myself. Let me know what you think. We have seen these charms worn on a simple silver chain but I liked it on the turquoise stones. I am also making some shirts with a cross or peace sign appliqued and some funky stitching. I have two in the works. I will post a pic when I get one done. In the mean time, here is a pic of the jewelry. Let me know what you think. Is it a hit or not?

Pillow Talk

Well, let me just start off by saying that last week, I was asked to step "outside the box." I had just left my doctors appointment and received a call from a number that I didn't recognize. This isn't completely unusual on my cell phone. I answered and it was the small group coordinator from the church. He started off by saying, "Brandi, I need a favor". Okay, what could that be? He continued by asking me if I was aware of the new series the pastor was beginning this weekend at the church. "Pillow talk", I asked. Yep, that's the one!! Pillow talk is a new series that began last week...everything you need to know about sex and marriage. He continued by telling me that he was looking for couples to interview and he knew that Tim and I would be perfect for this. I was speechless!!!!! I immediately felt my face getting hot and a just continued to listen because I didn't know what to say. He continued by saying that the media team at the church was discussing couples that would work for this and he said that they knew we would be perfect. The only thing I could say was..."Uh, uh, well, ummm, I, well....you should probably call Tim and ask him" (and I was praying that Tim would have the perfect excuse for us NOT to do this). He began hysterically laughing and then preceded to tell me that they only needed us to do a little clip to preface the sermon. All we had to do was follow the script. So, we did! Here is the clip if you would like to see.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2787402815359298515&hl=en

When we got to the church, we found out that we were going to a "remote" location to shoot this clip. Lance told us we had to ride with him there so we wouldn't bail out last minute. So, we ended up at a sweet ladies house to shoot this adventure. (Not to mention her 13 year old son had to hold the mic during the shoot). It was quite the adventure!!!

We had several people attend the service with us on Sunday! You really should check out the sermon. If you want to, go to www.newspring.org. I am sure that the latest sermon has been uploaded by now. It is going to be a great series and we are looking forward to hearing the message the next 4 weeks.