God Bless the Grumpy Old Troll

My heart nearly exploded tonight over a gourmet dinner of cheese-filled hot dogs and boxed mac and cheese.

The kiddos and I stopped at the library after work and then came home for some "bonding" while Pops had a meeting. Max has been joining in our evening meal prayer and tonight was no different. Five minutes later, he chattered like a monkey to get my attention, "Aye yi yi yi yi." (Pretty common noise for him). When I looked at him, he folded his hands, closed his eyes and in his sweet little baby voice gave his rendition of our prayer. If that doesn't sweeten you up, you need to eat chocolate and chug a Dew. Stat.

Our mealtime prayer is fairly common, but I'll include it for my family, who uses a Catholic version: :)

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest.
Let these gifts to us be blessed.

While Max continued to make monkey noises and smash macaroni in his hair, Gage was trying like nothing else to get the words right. He does the first line great and put random syllables together for the 2nd line with no idea what he's saying. So I tried to help. And after a few tries he got it.

Five minutes later he holds up a hunk of hot dog and asks, "But why do we bless our food?"

Seriously, could he wait a few years for me to research answers to these questions? Strangers? Blessing food? I'm in WAAAAY over my head so I did what I do best. Make something up.

We talked about how its like thanking Jesus for letting us have warm food to eat and how some people might not get supper and have to go to bed hungry.

Without skipping a beat he came back with, "Like the Grumpy Old Troll. He's always hungry too." [from The Three Billy Goats Gruff]

I think tomorrow night we'll change up the prayer:

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest.
Don't forget the Grumpy Old Troll
He like to eat goat the best.

Its probably easier to understand anyhow.

(Full Disclosure: Moments after this story took place Max fell out of the bathtub while I wasn't paying attention and Gage fed his leftover hot dog bun to the dog.)

Black Friday Sale Ad!

I let the cat out of the bag and started distributing a few of these yesterday. The official ads will hit news stands and air waves in the next few days but here's a sneak peak at a few of the deals and offerings next Friday. We will have cookies, coffee and cider all day, and will be showing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on a SONY 3D TV. Stop down and join the fun!

Lesson Learned. Mostly.

On a typical week day, I load and unload the boys into their carseats four times and embark on four very short adventures. Five to ten minutes each trip where I either talk on the phone ("Hi Mom! Just on my way home from work."), sing tunes ("I Caught a Little Baby Bumblebee") or attempt to engage my children in conversation. When it works, I almost always pull up to our destination laughing at the wit of my kiddos. Here's a look at tonight's drive home.

Let me first backup a couple of weeks when I got to have "the talk" with the boys. "The Talk" about...strangers. They've come to be a little too comfortable with people they don't know. For instance, at a rodeo in Rapid City a month back Max climbed right into the lap of a tattooed bearded vendor at their "Cowboy Christmas" booth. He was a super nice man and my toddling baby's simple act made his day but really? Later that week I explained to Gage that he shouldn't talk to strangers without Mom or Dad with him because even though they might seem nice, sometimes people hurt other people. We've had similar talks about strange dogs so I answered a few simple questions regarding the who's and where's, Gage shared stories of daycare buddies punching and fighting (all the cool kids are doing it) and the conversation was over.

But with Gage, its never really over.

Tonight we're pulling to the stop sign at the south end of Main Street.

Gage: Mom, that's the hotel with the pool. Why are there so many cars there?
Mom: Those people needed a place to sleep tonight. Maybe they're on vacation. They might be working away from home.
Gage: Maybe they just wanted to go swimming.
Mom: There's that too.
Gage: But we shouldn't talk to them. Because we don't know them.
Mom: Very good. You remembered!
Gage: And stangers will kill us.
Mom: (stifle laughs) Sure.
Gage: Like that guy on Aladdin. The scary one by the lion head.
Max (upon hearing 'lion'): grrrrrrrr

Just another day in paradise.

Better go. Time to watch Aladdin before bed. Ha!

I'm hoping to post info about Black Friday special at the store tomorrow so check back soon!

J+T Seim

I had the pleasure of meeting this family in Lemmon for a fall photo shoot. I knew it was going to be good before we even got started, and was happy with how things went upon completion. These feelings surfaced when I started editing and there was hardly anything to delete. Normally at a family shoot with two energetic kids I get to "keep" about 1/2 the pictures. Not the case here. Take a look for yourself. These kiddos are absolutely stunning.

Paisley turned one not long ago and she is full of the energy and curiosity that comes with being a healthy one year old. 

Big sister Jayda is loads of help for Mom and Dad. But something tells me they'll have plenty of adventures in store as these two grow up.  :)

Like a normal toddler, Paisley was "over" the photo shoot long before we were ready to be done. She finally found her footing in the leaf piles and would have rolled and played all evening.

Cuteness overload! There should be plenty of great pictures for Jayda to pick her favorite.

Thanks for a fun photo shoot! 



To see more of our work, please visit www.csquaredphoto.zenfolio.com

Blaze in the Fall

This little boy loves to smile. He's one of the "biggest" little fans for LHS where he cheers for cute girls and manly men.

Mom wanted a few shots before he got his first real haircut the next day. He is such a sweetie.

With the beautiful fall that we had, outside pictures were a must for the little man. He was very curious about the happenings at the park. I spent some time with Blaze last winter in the studio.

Favorite! Thanks for sharing him for a bit Danni!



To see more of our work, please visit www.csquaredphoto.zenfolio.com

Senior 2011 - Kaci

We started Kaci's senior session early in the summer near her parents ranch. Mom, Dad and brothers all got in on some of the fun, which brought out the best smiles in Kaci.

I don't exactly remember the story behind the car, but I'm certain I remember it being a family treasure. I think its awesome!

Kaci had some great locations picked out for her session and we took a lot of her pictures in places that were important and memorable to her. This may be one of my favorite shots of all time. The moon. The reflection. The lighting. It looks like it came right out of a storybook.

We shot the rest of Kaci's pictures this fall with some great fall scenery outside and a few studio shots as well.

You made this too easy Kaci - nice work!

To see more of our work, please visit http://www.thecurrentconnection.blogspot.com/

He Loves Me...Not!

Meet Mr. E. He loves playing at his Grandma's so much that even the thought of hanging out with me isn't fun. :) We did get some fun shots but he was not happy to see me, by any stretch of the imagination. The progression of these emotions makes me giggle.

Starting to catch on that he's going to have to give us something to work with. Two adults and one child. We will win. We must stick together, but we will win. 

We really just wanted one good shot to hand out to friends and relatives with his older brother and sister's school pictures. I think we finally scored. Thanks for your persistance Mom!

To see more of our work, please visit www.csquaredphoto.zenfolio.com