it's september!

A little warning in advance...this is probably going to be quite the post as I haven't written in a month and so much has been going on! I'm not sure where I should start, so I will start with the kittens! They are wonderful and sweet and getting big so incredibly fast! They are completely comfortable in the house now, they don't mind the dog, we were able to successfully transition all of their litter and food downstairs and they are the most snuggly and sweet mini cats. I'm going to try and attach just a few (think less than five, Kristina) pictures that I took of them with my BRAND NEW CAMERA.

Note: Hershey has been renamed Shay in the last month. To limit any confusion.

^^ my sweet little Sookie!

Their personalities are really starting to shine through as well. They are both lovers and playful but in very different ways. Watching them get bigger is fascinating!

Onto other things, as mentioned above I got a new camera! For the last year and a half I have been using a Sony NEX 5R. It is a great little camera and it was a great way to start learning how to shoot in manual, but there are some downsides. Additional lenses are extremely expensive. That was the biggest downfall of this camera for me - I'm ready to start learning different lenses and creating a camera setup, but with the cost of them, I would've been building for 10 years before I could afford what I wanted. It's also incompatible with much of the software that I already have without upgrading or using slower versions.

I have the good fortune of living with an amazing professional photographer (my dad, check him out www.mrjaysphoto.com) and he has been able to teach me more in a week than I would learn on my own in my lifetime. He helped me decide which camera would be best for me and we settled on the Canon Rebel T3i. So far I am absolutely loving it! The other benefit of this camera is that all of my dads lenses will work with it! I will be posting lots more pictures as I take them!

Last week Rod and I had two trees removed from his front yard. After several estimates we settled on Sam's Lawn Tree & Landscaping (www.samscapes.net). They were absolutely awesome and I would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone looking to have trees removed, landscaping done, or regular yard maintenance. It was also my first shoot with the camera (other than test shots and doodling around the house), so I'll just leave some of these right here....

Roxie and dad joined us for coffee and to catch the action! 

Oli watched from afar ^

They had everything done in about an hour and a half, and the stump grinder came later in the afternoon. It was an awesome experience and very neat to watch these professionals do their job. Again, anyone looking for a service in the Spokane area, I would HIGHLY recommend them!

We're currently working on the upstairs bedrooms and prepping them for carpet! We painted the master bedroom earlier this week (pictures to come) a beautiful deep shade of blue and will be adding finishing touches before carpet is installed next week!

In yoga news, there is no news. I've been trying like hell to get myself back into the swing of things, but with everything else going on it has just been overwhelming! I cross my fingers every day that I'll find the motivation to do it (did it yesterday for an hour, woop!)

And that's all I've got for now...until next time, my friends! =]