Shannon Gurney Photoblog

When the cat's away...

Guess whose out of town for a few days...

The boys mice and I have decided to have a little fun while Daddy's gone.  Of course, our idea of fun is probably a little boring to most people...eat whatever we want - stay up late - wear pjs all day...you get the idea.

So, here's what we did tonight...

We started here for a little nourishment, pizza style...

it was the only place I felt safe taking Wes (all by myself).  He tends to be a little rough to take out in public since he can't sit still for a minute second - that is, unless you put a pizza in front of his little grubby face...

AND, since the yummy pizza place is so close to here...

and since my idea of fun is slightly warped...we had to go to Target.  An hour later and a few of these for $1...

and a little bit of this...

and we were on our way to our favorite play area...

Can you guess why we call it the dinosaur park?


I know, pretty easy guess, right...

The boys had a super-cool, fun time and burned a ton of energy.


It was getting late, past a little person's bedtime...

so we headed to the car...

by this time, we they were starting to zone out a bit...

and had gotten pretty hot.

It's my turn to relax.  I just rented a movie on pay-per-view and pulled out some popcorn (purchased at Target, no less). Night Night...

Pete and REpeat

That's how Josh put it this weekend. 

Everything Ty does, Wes does...perfectly.  It's so funny to witness it all as it unfolds.  Poor Ty gets so aggravated with Wes always one tiny footstep behind.  He really has no personal space these days.

Sometimes, he can't quite catch up...but that doesn't stop him from trying.  Now that Wes is really walking/getting around quickly, none of us are safe.  We can't even go to the bathroom by ourselves these days!

He looks so innocent, doesn't he...

But, he can sneak up on you when you least expect it...

Just ask Ty.

Taking over and ruining everything...getting in the way...(that's how Ty puts it).


piling dirt on your "drum"...leaving a path of destruction...

only to disappear as quickly as he came...moving on to new adventures.

Fine, but I'm not happy about it!

All of you photographers out there know what I'm talking about here.  I guess Ty has finally caught the disease...

Photographer's Child Syndrome.

He know longer wants his picture taken and hides from me whenever I get out the camera.  Usually, he's running in despair, screaming "NO, no pictures!".

So, last night, he was in a great mood and I thought I might be able to sneak a few shots in while he was busy playing.  Not so.  Being the bad parent that I am, I begged for him to let me take his picture.  This is the look he gave me.

Sad, isn't it...  This picture says to me, "Fine, but I'm not happy about it!".  What do you think it says?

So, I kept begging...finally after many attempts at a good shot, I said, "Please smile, Ty...Just once for Momma."  This is the super fake, really awful smile I was given...

I give up.

I guess I'll be buying balloons and bubbles like the rest of you out there.

Josh, Robin, Austin, and Campbell

There's a bit of a story to this little family.  I'm always telling you how I taught one of my clients when they were in elementary school.  But, it turns out, it wasn't me this time.  My mom is the one who taught the daddy in this family...when he was a 6th grader.  Pretty cool, huh.  AND, Austin actually attended her school for a while, too (she's a principal now).

She was pretty excited when I told her who I was going to photograph that day.  I made sure to tell them all hi for you, Mom.

Anyway, this was a super nice family.  I fell in love with the little gal right away.  I wanted to take her home with me, literally.  Maybe it's because I'm always around boys and she was SO cute in all her pinkness...

Here are a few of my favorites...

One more...

I couldn't resist posting one more shot of JD and Casey.  I was proofing some more shots from their session and saw this one.  It's WAY too cute not to show off.

JD and Casey

These two are SO cute together.

JD just happens to be my step-brother who (whom?) I don't get to see very often.  The last time I saw these two was at Christmas time and I barely got to meet and talk to Casey.  I was pretty excited when they called and asked me to do their engagement pictures and even more excited once I met up with them and got to see how PERFECT Casey is for JD.  I feel much better knowing she's around to keep him in line!

The plus side was seeing them together.  It was SO obvious how "into" each other they are...full of giggles, lots of grins, and no problem showing a little PDA for their favorite photographer.  Because they were so great, I was able to get a TON of cool shots.  These are just a few of my favorites.

Tinkle Tube

Seriously.

I had to share because that's just the kind of momma I am.  I mean, I couldn't let a perfectly good laugh pass you all by.

I was surfing the net this morning and stumbled upon this site -  which was really cute.  AND then, I saw this...

So, how many of you would actually use this for your little guy?  I have to say, I have used a cup before and it was a bit messy (it was a long trip people!).  I got a good laugh from this and then it got me to thinking....

Bunco Babes

Friday night was our monthly Bunco party.  Lately, we've been meeting and instead of playing Bunco we talk and eat for about three hours straight.  You'd think we girls never get out of the house (for some of us it's true).  It was a little difficult to take photos while trying to roll die, but I was able to snap a few silly shots of some of the gals, including my mom.

Disclaimer:  Picture quality is really bad...




That's Joanna's "I'm going to snap your camera in two!" face...




She's gonna kill me for posting that one, but she was having so much fun - how could I not post it...

Stay Beautiful

I can't get over this song.  I had to go buy the CD.  Taylor Swift is such a doll!

In training...

Look whose already in training to be the next tractor driver around our place.  I truly think he knows how to operate the silly thing.  The scary part is he reaches the pedal and makes the crazy tractor take off, but doesn't know to let off the pedal to stop.  This means momma has to run behind him hollering like a mad woman!  I'm pretty sure steering isn't one of his priorities either...

And, on a little bit of a random note...look what we found across the street a couple of weeks ago

Josh says it's a Pygmy Rattlesnake, which is apparently more poisonous than the full size version...at least that's what people keep telling me.  It's a little bit scary considering I have knucklehead boys running around outside barefoot all the time.  But, I can't worry about everything (or can I?).

I couldn't post the shot in color because it was taken while the snake was in a really bright orange bucket, which totally jacked with the white balance.  I tried everything to get it right - wasn't gonna happen.