We had a great Senior shoot with Kayla who is a natural beauty, and such a fun and spunky girl!  She was very comfortable in front of the camera, so it made our job easy.  ;)  Here are a few favorites from our session a couple weeks back.

I was in love with this dress!

Her eyes are just GORGEOUS.

Something about this image below is just so incredibly striking to me….

Thanks Kayla!  It was great meeting you, and we wish you all the best this last year of High School.  :)

And now I’m off to school with the kids (our first day back)….

Happy Monday to you all!

I can’t believe the sun is already setting earlier, and my kids have their school supplies all lined up and ready.  We begin our official schooling Monday morning.  I think I am finally coming to grips with reality, and bidding a fond farewell to the 2010 summer.

Back in March I wrote a blog entry that really solidified feelings I had been having and wanting to share.  The response was amazing!  From comments, to emails, and just people talking with me, I felt so much better because so many said they understood where I was coming from.  Since that point, I am happy to say that this year has been going quite smoothly.  We stuck to a plan that we made and things have been much more balanced around here….one major accomplishment being, I didn’t feel like I was going to have an anxiety attack once this summer!  Instead, we just enjoyed it together.  In fact, we enjoyed it so much that when I went to look over photos for this post, I realized we didn’t take many!!  Oh well. Living in the moment, and just simply living was my goal.  Goal accomplished.

Here are some highlights of the past few months.  These things may have been on my “to-do” list on my desk, or the one in my heart:

– had many dear friends over for dinner and laughs (this was put off too long)

– celebrated my three boys birthdays

– celebrated my two sisters’ birthdays

– celebrated another year of life for me

– got new garage doors put on

– had our red house repainted, red of course

– went to LA for a shoot and hang time w/Jason

– went to a fantastic photography workshop, and met amazing new friends

-saw Ashley graduate from Nursing School

– as guests, witnessed two dear friends get married

-took a spring wildflower trip with just my Dad

– ate lots of yummy summer veggies

– had a great 4th of July party with some of my dearest friends

– took my kids swimming much more than last year

– did a complete redo of Priya’s room

– helped my daughter start her own art and food blog

– went on dates with my sweetie, just for fun

– watched lots of movies

– booked our family vacation!

– Brett took Adin on his first father/son camping trip

– went to a couple concerts

– got the car I’ve been dreaming of  :)

MOST IMPORTANTLY….did all of this guilt free.  If you own a home based business, you know what I mean!

I have to say, I am a bit nervous for the rest of the year.  I have been soooo relaxed the past couple months that I am going to have to really step it up here beginning Monday.  I plan to share a bit of my/our schedule in the next couple weeks, since I have had so many people curious about the homeschooling/business owning/family raising balance.  I am going to start a new segment on here called BALANCE to hopefully help others, help myself, and just vent through this journey of life.

I would love to hear some fun/great/thrilling things you did or accomplished this summer in the comments below!