Trick or Treating 2011

Tonight was Beggar's Night here in Davenport.

Tonight gave me reason #567 why I love love love our neighborhood. It is a great trick or treating neighborhood! The kids had a blast!

We had Iron Man...

Snow White...

Ariel, the Little Mermaid...

Iron Man and The Little Mermaid make a cute couple if I do say so myself!

So cute!

The kids had a BLAST and got way too much candy!

We will hit the parade tomorrow and then it's already going to be November! Yikes!

Lani turns 8!

This girl is amazing!

She turned 8 today. She is the sweetest girl I know. Really. It's incredible how big her heart is!

She was genuinely thrilled with every single gift she got...

We went to Incredible Pizza to celebrate. It was so much fun!

Tate enjoyed the cake...shocker...

And the horse cake (unicorn actually) was a hit. Lani is in love with horses...we have that in common. :) She is PASSIONATE about them which I love so much about her!

She requested this peice of her cake. :)

Happy Birthday, Lani Lou! We love you so much sweet girl!

Tate's Preschool Halloween Party

Tate and Ava had their Halloween party at preschool today. Sean and I went to join in the fun. And it was so fun to watch!

Tate dawned his Captain America costume in full, but the mask and shield were quick to go upon arrival at preschool. I managed to get a picture of him in full Captain America gear. I could be biased, but I think he might be the cutest Captain America I've ever seen!

The kids were so excited about the party!

There were games and treats and balloons...

And I have to say that I love his class...these kids are amazing. Really, there are some incredibly great kids in his class!

The kids were all so adorable in their costumes and all had so much fun!

almost done!

I have to give another shout out to my dear friend, Leslie. She pulled through again and helped me (almost) finish my chairs I am refinishing for our new dining room set! They are looking AWESOME! I am so so excited to see the finished product in our dining room. It is turning out exactly as I had hoped!

Leslie came over tonight at 8pm and helped me complete the painting of the chairs, loned me her staple gun to complete the covering of the seats and drank wine and chatted with me.

So thank you, Leslie...really, I am so happy to have had your help getting this project done, but have enjoyed our time chatting and drinking wine uninterrupted even more!

on Tate not having a filter...

You know how kids have no filter? What I mean is, they say just what they are thinking. Well, I have been told that I don't have a filter either sometimes. I mean, I just think I am kind of an open book. So the fact that Tate sees my filterless banter along with the fact that he's just a five year old make the things that come out of his mouth oftentimes inappropriate. An example...

Sean and Tate were in the elevator at the hotel this weekend when a bunch of people start piling into it, making everyone fairly squished in that small space. A rather large woman happened to be right in front of Tate and with his height compared to hers, his face happened to be directly in front of her backside. Tate blurts out (in a silent elevator), "she has a big bum!" Apparently Sean covered his mouth the first time because he said he knew what was coming. So Tate pulls away from Sean's attempt to cover his words and repeats himself so Sean can here, "SHE HAS A BIG BUM!"

Nice.

There was a similar story to this that happened with him while we were on our way down to Florida this summer and stopped at a gas station. We were picking out a beverage from the fridge when a little person came up next to us. I knew before any words could come out of Tate's mouth that he was going to say something.

So ya, this is something we need to work on with him.

The wedding...

I have been stressed and worried about this wedding I photographed for MONTHS! I honestly LOVE this couple...they are amazing and gave me absolutely no reason to be stressed. I think that's why I was so stressed. I wanted to do a really really good job for them. I was very up front and honest with them about my worries and what I felt I was capable of doing. They were incredible...incredible I tell you. I woke up this morning after the stress of trying to get all the important shots yesterday and truly felt like a new woman. Oh my goodness, I don't even think I realized how stressed I was about this until this morning when I didn't have that looming stress anymore! It was such a fun day...I did love it! So because I've talked about the wedding so much in previous posts, I thought I'd share some of the images I have edited so far with you all...

This was during their "first look". Starting from the left, the first 2 images were taken before they saw each other that day and the 3rd image was literally their first look at each other. I was crying...like crying hard...not sure that was terribly professional, but I couldn't help it!

Their gigantic wedding party was so much fun! They were all so cooperative and game for whatever!

Are they not about the most gorgeous couple you've ever seen?!!!

Geesh!

And speaking of gorgeous...their wedding party was one of the most beautiful wedding parties I've ever seen!

And with the gorgeous couple and gorgeous wedding party, they just had to add in a gorgeous church too! It was breathtaking...

Jake and Jessie's day went off without a hitch! I can't think of anything that could have make it more perfect!

I was so honored that they trusted me to photograph their day for them. I have a whole new respect for wedding photographers...it is HARD work! Wow! It is also so rewarding to see these images and know they are images that this couple will have for a lifetime.

Congratulations Jake and Jessie!!!

women with power tools...

A few days ago, I blogged about how we had a table to refinish (amongst a million other things) HERE.

Literally moments later, my amazing friend Leslie sent me an email that read...

"Hey! Just read your blog. Let's get your table done! I can come over any night after I put the kids to bed. What do you think? It'd be fun! I'll ride my bike and we can drink! Ha!"

(hope you don't mind me sharing your email Leslie!)

Ummmm, OKAY! Really, how amazing is she?! So sweet of her! And she was good on her word, she road her bike over tonight (because she lives just a few short blocks away!), drank wine with me and we chatted in the garage for a couple of hours while we got the sanding of my chairs done! She also helped me decide on the fabric to upholster the seats with and pick the paint color! It was so much fun!

I made the decision to purchase an electric sander for this project...best $20 ever spent! It was amazing! We did a good job sharing the power tool, but I think both Leslie and I really loved using it! :)

And then we had to get a picture of us together, so I set my timer. It was hilarious and didn't work great, but at least we were able to document that I was there too!

We chatted a lot, laughed a lot and got a lot done! Thank you so so much, Leslie. Really, I never would have gotten this done without you pushing me!

Little Supers

Ava and Tate played Super Heroes after preschool today.

These pictures make me so happy!

They had a contest to see who could jump the highest...

Super Heroes can still hug though!

Then Lora and Chloe showed up to pick up Ava.
Love this little sweeties beautiful face!

Peakin Family Update

Okay, so I thought I'd better just do a post about what's going on...

My Running...it's going, but not well. I hate to be a downer, but there is no way I am meeting my goal of '100 miles before Thanksgiving'...no way. Maybe I need to extend it to Christmas! Ugh. Oh well. I am still proud of myself for running on a regular basis. :)

The Holidays!...EEK! We are in the midst of holiday planning. I mean, scheduling which family we're going to be with when and where for Thanksgiving and then just thinking about and throwing ideas around about Christmas. Really?! I mean, it feels like summer just started!

Adoption...November is National Adoption Month, so I was thinking about doing some adoption related posts throughout the month. I could talk about adoption all day long! :) We are just waiting at this point...waiting, waiting, waiting. Ugh. So nothing too new to report on this front.

Jennie Peakin Photography...I am working on the possible changes for Jennie Peakin Photography in 2012. The business is growing way faster than I had ever expected and I am thrilled about it, but also SWAMPED! I have my first (and as I mentioned multiple times, my ONLY) wedding this weekend. Seriously, I am totally nervous. Ugh. I just want to get amazing images for this amazing bride and groom. Yikes...it's such a huge responsibility! I feel like every spare moment at home is spent editing. This week I am really trying to get all of my shoots from the last couple of weeks completed...however, I have accepted the fact that I'm just not going to be able to get them all done. There are just not enough hours in the day. I just posted some sneak peeks on my photography blog HERE.

Sean...he is back on his day rotation. This makes me sooo happy! I have him home with me every night. I hate it when he is working nights and Tate and I are alone each night while we sleep. I don't like that at all.

Tate...Still loving preschool, still as ornery as ever. :) He is just too funny. He makes me so frustrated and then the can melt my heart the next second. The other day, we were opening fortune cookies and I opened his and he said, "what does it say?!" I said (wide eyed), "it says 'you have the BEST mommy and daddy ever!" He got wide eyed then gave a sweet smile and looked at us both and said, "I love you two." Ummmm, melt my heart. Then a few minutes later, he might have been hitting me and talking back. Ha. :) Ya, he started hitting in the last few weeks. Talk about frustrating!!! Who STARTS hitting at age 5?! He's never been a hitter, so I'm not sure where this has come from. It's not something he does often, but he's hit me a couple of times and Sean a few times as well.

Coming up for us...TONS. I mean, we are busy busy! Aside from photoshoots, volunteering at preschool, doing peoples' hair, Sean working and my editing, we are trying to fit in some things with friends. I have to carefully plan in morning coffee with friends and playdates. We will be having a family over for dinner next week that is from our PS-MAPP class. We spent 10 weeks with these families and we miss seeing them each week! We have a table to refinish...still. I would like that to get done before the weather gets too cold...again, not sure how realistic that is. In a couple of weeks, we get Brigg and Lani for the weekend while Cassie and Paul take Ayla to Chicago for her birthday, so that'll be fun! We are going to another Hawkeye game in a few weeks and then we're going to be almost at Thanksgiving, followed by New York City!!!

So there's your Peakin Family Update. :) I am sure I missed a few things in there, but I have to get back to editing pictures now...

Oops...

...I can't believe I forgot to post this picture!

I am so unbelievably blessed to have such an amazing sister who I can go to for anything and KNOW I will get her true opinion and feelings. :) A sister I can laugh with, cry with and just enjoy being with! Thanks Cassie (and Paul and the Burback clan!) for inviting Sean and I along for your annual game this year...it was A BLAST!!!!

Iowa vs. Northwestern Game

We had SUCH a fantastic time tailgating before the Iowa vs. Northwestern game! We didn't have tickets, but before we were even out of our car from parking at our tailgating spot, Paul came up to the window and said, "these people next to us have 2 tickets for sale." YAY! So we bought our tickets and they were cheap! We were so excited! We were afraid because of what game it was, we would have to pay more than usual. We were thrilled to not have had to.

We tailgated all day long. We got there in the morning and the game didn't start until 6pm.

Here was our crew...

We played a Bag-O tournament...

Luke told stories...

We got time with our spouses WITHOUT the kids...glorious!

And there was a flabongo...oh yes, there was...

The Burback kids...

There was LOTS of laughing...LOTS...

The Burback Sisters...

Luke told more stories...

There was more laughing...

Paul with his brothers-in-law...

There was more laughing...

Luke told some more stories...

And no, I didn't marry a 21 year old. He just thought he was. He was kind of a flabongo professional which baffles me as I've never seen him do one before Saturday!

And then there was the game.

It.Was.Awesome!

The card stunts were amazing, the striped stadium was so cool to see, the night game atmosphere was exciting and the WIN was the best part!!!

I love being a Hawkeye!