Klitzke Grandkids

These two cuties were visiting their Grandma and Grandpa and were treated to a portrait session. Ethan told me that he loves having his picture taken, so I knew immediately that I was dealing with a pro. He didn't disappoint.


I think Jordan could read my mind - those cheeks are squeezable. These kiddos kept things lively as Ethan led the crab walk, bear crawl and dinosaur prowl.


A look at their best dinosaur faces.



After we finished up in the studio, the rain had subsided so we headed to the park. Miss Jordan LOVED the swings. She's great at pumping her legs!

This was toward the end of our park adventure and I wanted to snap a few more quick before his cheeks got any redder and the sweat pooled on his forehead. He was working hard!

And last but not least...

Carrie's Sneak Peak

I know the next week will be super busy so I'm not sure I'll be able to dig into the pictures of these two gorgeous girls much until after Boss Cowman. Since their Mom is oh-so-cool and took good care of us in college I thought I'd quick edit a few for a sneak peak. We had a great time at the park in Spearfish and the girls had all kinds of ideas about what they did and did not want to do (playground good, looking at the camera AND smiling not good). However they are just too cute to not get a few good shots.

Big sister is full of energy and ran every place we went. She was in the water, demonstrated how all of the playground equipment works and rolled through the grass all the while avoiding too many direct glances at the camera.

The two girls (seem to) get along great. Their parents will have so much fun watching them grow up together and develop the bond that they already share.

Little Sister is very serious. She did, however stare at the camera a lot, trying to figure out what in the world what happening. Cotton dresses on baby girls are so cute and how about that necklace?

There you go Carrie - hopefully enough to tide you over until I can get to the rest of them. Honestly, I was just so excited that I had to share a few with you. The rest will be up in Zenfolio as soon as they are ready!

A Little Ribbing

For some reason I can't get the picture of this week's Deal of the Week ad to upload correctly, so we'll have a text-only blog today (sorry I'm so boring). Even though its already Thursday the deal this week is good enough to act on quickly. We have 40" Toshiba LCD TVs on sale for $699 this week. That is a $100 reduction over the normal price. Hurry in and pick yours up today! (time to start filming commercials with that stellar sales pitch)

New at The Current Connection is a selection of TV stands in stock to hold your audio and video components and the big screen, if you so choose. We also have wall mounts on hand so if you're looking for a project over the 4th of July weekend, we've got all the goods available today. We are open all day Thursday and Friday.

We started the week with a whirlwind of activity. Rodeo entries opened on Friday for events in Faulkton, Fort Pierre, Interior and Wall and took a steady stream of call-in entries on Monday. A fair amount entered online, but the first two weekends in July bring the cowboys out in droves, trying to cash in on prize money in their respective events. On Tuesday, we pulled in some more extra help as I headed to Belle Fourche for some photography projects. I took pictures of the Miss Rodeo South Dakota contestants for the photogenic portion of their competition, and of Miss Rodeo South Dakota herself as practice for the "big time" in Las Vegas this fall. They are some gorgeous ladies and while we printed the photos in Belle that afternoon for judging, I haven't had a chance to get them off of the camera and posted for your viewing pleasure (soon, I hope!). I also met up with a good friend from college to take pictures of her two sweet girls at the park in Spearfish. We had a great time and I headed home just as it was starting to rain - perfect timing. Jack was out of town on service calls for a good share of yesterday and returned to Lemmon just in time to catch up on late entries for the rodeos. Needless to say, we've been busy but its very exciting at the same time. Believe it or not, next week will be even busier with three of the largest rodeos of the season to enter, and Boss Cowman activities beginning mid-week.

The "ribbing" comes from the member of the family who refuses to leave my side...alone. I've been getting lots of kicks and punches to the rib cage lately as the little guy likes to remind Mama who is in charge. Three months and we'll see what sort of personlity comes from a big kicker. Gage was a mover, but not as much of a kicker and definitely not as hard. I can't imagine having another high-energy mover and shaker but we'll take whatever comes our way. Gage still thinks we should name the baby JB Mauney after his favorite bull rider, but not James Burton (JB's real name).

In other Gage news, we spent last Saturday with cousin Carter hitting up rummage sales and riding horse. Its nice that the boys are finally to the point of wearing each other out - much easier on the rest of us. We did have Wrestlemania Smackdown a bit but they seemed to enjoy rough-housing with each other. On Sunday we were able to take in the Dakota Zoo for a few hours and he still enjoyed the bear and tigers the best. He also "baa'ed" at the camels and was pretty certain the antelope were, in fact, deer.

Gage is enjoying spending time with his "rodeo entry babysitter" and her family and even took in his first baseball game with them. He talked about it for days, but it may have more to do with the pound of gummy worms that he ate than anything else. His extra time away from Mom and Dad has made nighttime a challenge once again and he ends up camping with us for a good share of the evening. We hope to spoil him with attention this weekend just in time for Grandma and Grandpa Franken to spoil him with everything else next week.

Here's wishing you all a safe and fun holiday!

Computers, Rodeo and Shingles

Our deal this week is Dell Desktop Computers. They are decent systems for a reasonable price. These come with a DVD burner, keyboard, mouse and speakers. We have systems with both 19" and 23" LCD flat panel monitors included.

Watch for next week's deal - its a good one!

Rodeo season has picked up and today we are handling call-backs for the Irene Rodeo that's coming up on Friday and Saturday. The next two weeks of entries are the biggest of the year with three large rodeos each of the next two weeks as cowboys and cowgirls head out for the 4th of July circuit. It will an exciting time for our phone operators and hopefully safe and profitable for the cowboys. We will definitely make it to the Boss Cowman Rodeo performances in Lemmon and are hoping to make it to Ft. Pierre on the 4th of July to spend time with Jack's sister and family during their celebration.

Besides the major bathroom remodel (we have a toilet and tub!) the remaining supplies for the exterior renovation have all shown up; last Friday, Saturday and Sunday the boys shingled the house. Adam and Jack worked all day on Friday and Chuck joined them Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday to finish up. It looks great! We are very excited to finally see progress outside. Next, Jack will be carefully removing the cement asbestos siding and prepping to install new windows and asbestos-free house coverings. Let us know if you'd like to help - we're glad to feed you in return! Stay tuned for pictures of the progress.

You can expect one more blog today - Danessa's senior pictures. I'll get to it between rodeo entry call-backs this afternoon. You won't want to miss them!

Danessa's Senior Portraits

With only hours to spare, the sweet new gear arrived to get Danessa's pictures done right. Danessa and older sisters Danika and Dantae had a great time scouting locations on their ranch and helping set up the shots. I'm pretty sure I was spoiled into thinking I will always need two assistants. We had a blast and got some pretty neat pictures.

When I talked to Danessa's mom earlier in the week to ask if they had any locations in mind she said there was just an awful lot of junk laying around. Perfect!! Junk is cool and I hope to have my own someday :) For the shot above we worked with some foliage growing on one side of an old house, currently used for storage. Classic senior pose - check!


Then we shot a few pictures by an old windbreak. For as smiley and happy as she is, Danessa can do serious pictures! I think it was harder for me to maintain composure than her - she rocked.

I realize that this picture probably won't make the yearbook, but I couldn't help myself. Besides being related, I was also Danessa agriculture teacher for several years and this face I saw many times. In true youngest-child fashion here's her "It Wasn't Me" - hehe...

It seemed like a central theme throughout the afternoon and evening was a mixture of "Glam Danessa" and "Ranch Danessa". She is one hard-working ranch girl who loves to ride horse, break calves and shear sheep (right?) but also loves getting all glammed up for rodeo queen contests, prom and special events. Here's a sneak peak at next year's prom dress!!

I took a ton of pictures with the horses, and this one is by far my favorite. We hope to try a few more toward the end of summer but we'll leave those ideas as a surprise. I couldn't get over how awesome her blue dress looked in the bright green grass. So cool.

Definitely one of my favorites. This is a road that Danessa probably travels several times a day between "places" on the ranch. How cool is it that she'll be able to show her friends and family where she grew up by using pictures like these? It makes me want to go home and take some of where I was raised.

And this - a little attitude, right?! What teenage girl hasn't been told to take off the heels or flip flops and put something a little more practical on? Just because its cool, doesn't mean it is a good idea. Except in this case...

Thanks again to Danessa and sisters for being troopers! We took pictures until there was barely any light left in the sky and we had been eaten by mosquitos. But (I think) we all had a great time and came away with some pretty cool images.

Note to other seniors interested in pictures for this school year - I'll be taking some time off in September/October so if you want summer foliage (the green stuff) we should book sessions before school starts.

Deal of the Week, Ketchup

Yeah, yeah. I realize I'm way behind in blogging and I'm sure you're all terribly worried that you've been missing out on something exciting happening in our life, but not so much. We did have one week of Midwest Rodeo Entries call center and have had the last 2 weeks off. We'll hit hit hard again next week when we take entries for Highmore and McLaughlin. Sometime I'll give you a blog about what we do there. Other than work we've just been getting ready to tear apart the house. We're officially in construction zone until mid-September when we're trading in power tools for a crib mobile and baby monitor.

Deal of the week - three weeks long (you best take advantage) - is senior portrait sittings. We're offering a portrait credit for seniors who book before June 15th. And even if we don't book tons of senior sessions (though I'd love to work with you all!) it has been great publicity for the photography biz. We have had numerous inquiries and several bookings so that's great news! Let us know if you have any questions. We're happy to help! Just remember, I'll need a little time off this fall so we hope to keep the schedule full this summer.

Because I know you love him more than me. Here's what Gage has been up to:

We spent some time at the ranch with Uncle Rick and "Osey" (Rosey) brushing out his monstrosity of a coat preparing for the big First Ride.

I know, I'm doomed right? My apologies on the (lack of) photographic quality. When Gage was "in position" I wasn't. Its still funny though. Next time we'll try it with boots and see if we can't get the mark-out too.

We have had a ton of rain lately. Lots of clouds. Lots of drizzle. And one very cooped-up toddler who's pretty sure he needs to live in the great outdoors. This was his first experience with a puddle. He LOVED it. I wasn't sure he would because he really prefers to have clean hands and clean shoes, but something about a great puddle and mud boots really turns a kid around.

Gage is growing up so fast. I've had a few Mommy Moments the last week that I attribute mostly to pregnancy hormones. One morning in particular brought a few tears to my eyes: Gage woke up and peed on the potty like a big boy (we're working on it...), then completely dressed himself (I zipped and buttoned the jeans), got his own breakfast and sang me the ABCs on the way to daycare (minus E, F, and G). Its a good thing there's a baby coming - Gage has grown up.

He has been really crabby lately and exercising his mastery of the English language in a negative fashion but we can now attribute the attitude to all of the new things he is working on. "No Mommy, I not go to Raven's house." and my favorite "I want to need _______." It just about sends me over the edge sometimes. But I asked for a glimpse of what was going on inside his head so I'll enjoy it before he turns into a teenager and doesn't talk to me for days on end. Besides potty training, ABCs and getting dressed he's also recently gotten color recognition down well and can count to 10. Not every time, but he's done it several times. He now counts all sorts of fun things. "Mommy, I count bulls. Mommy, I count circles. Mommy, I count books." These are all things we've been working on for several months and he seemed to get them all figured out overnight (so that's what he does when he doesn't sleep).

So there you have it - all the ketchup I can mustard right now. And all that you can stand(wich).

Kim

When Good Friends Reproduce

You know you love me. Glad I can be creative with the titles a little. So here's the story of Baby Easton. His mommy and I met when we started Kindergarten at Franklin Elementary School a while back, quickly became best friends and remained so throughout high school and now, into the "meat and potatoes" of our lives. (Someday I should scan in old pictures of our childhood to share with you.) Anyway, Dana meets David and gets married in 2006 during a tornado (literally). Easton arrives November 2008 and starts growing as soon as he hit the air. At six months and just over 20 pounds, he is squishy and has the most kissable cheeks I've ever seen...maybe I'm partial, but take a look at his six month portraits and see for yourself.

Their front door provided amazing light for us to work with. I was very excited to see these images on the screen. I may be starting to improve at this photo taking thing!

We worked really hard to get even the slightest grin on his sweet little face. We sang, we danced, Gage played with all of Easton's toys and this was the best we could do.

Then Daddy came back and Easton's face immediately lit up. Its so cool to watch how little tykes react to different people. I think Mommies have a tendency to bore them after a while that they just appreciate a change of scenery.
After a quick snack from the bottle, we thought we could snap a few more quick pictures with the Twins gear, but Easton had other ideas (like a nap).

One more of the entire family (minus Tank...what were we thinking?). They're big Yankees fans, can you tell? :)

You can see the rest of Easton's pictures at the NEW photo hosting site! I'm very excited about using Zenfolio for hosting. Check out a few old and new albums at www.csquaredphoto.zenfolio.com