Myrtle Beach Part 2

A few more pictures of our trip to Myrtle Beach! Thanks again to my in-laws for taking the whole family down there for a fun week!

Riding the huge ferris wheel!

Joe's Crab Shack fun!

This one had more sweets than he could handle the trip!

Christmas Day

Most pictures were taken by myself but a couple were from my brother-in-law!

Santa brought Drew lottery tickets in his stocking just like we always had growing up!

Christmas Eve

We visited a new church here in DC on Christmas Eve for their children's service and it was just perfect. It was short, loud and great to have both kiddos with us. Plus, they had glowsticks instead of candles which the kiddos loved!

But the best part? A live nativity with sheep, goats and a momma and baby (10 days old!) donkey! Ady LOVED the sheep!

 Then it was time to make the sugar cookies for Santa!

And read "The Night Before Christmas" before hitting the hay.

Arlington Cemetery

Right before Christmas we made a quick trip to see the Arlington National Cemetery! Such am amazing place with rich history.

U.S. Botantical Gardens

This past Sunday the 4 of us ventured down to the U.S. Botanical Gardens to see their buildings made from plants and the train display. Although I didn't catch it on camera, Drew had the BIGGEST smile on his face the entire time and kept pointing to every train. Ady was also quite fond of everything she saw and exclaimed with excitement every 9 seconds as well!

And then, per Drew's suggestion, we watched seagulls in front of the capitol.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

FROM MY FAMILY TO YOURS!

When Life Throws You Lemons...

On November 19th I was sent an internal im from our Media Director at the ad agency I had worked at for 11 years... and I knew exactly what it was. Our company had lost a couple big accounts and we knew major layoffs were coming. I held on hope that my tenure would keep me there but unfortunately those of us that worked remotely were the first to be cut, regardless of how senior we were or how long we had been there. But those didn't help.

I was officially laid off.

But what's funny is that I really wasn't too upset. Ultimately photography is my true passion. I adored my agency, but things had changed a lot in the last 2 years and my heart wasn't in it as much as it used to be. I had considered doing photography full time in Ohio, but then Derek received his promotion and that meant 18 months in DC where I didn't have a single client. I guess God made my decision for me!

There were tears though. Lots of them to be honest. Working full time had been part of my identity since graduating college in 2003. I loved so many people I worked with throughout the years and am proud I was able to work up to a position where I supervised my own team in our department! It's always been my CHOICE to work and although we never needed my salary, I felt strong about contributing more to our family. So I cried. The reality that I would no longer have a full time job was still hard to swallow and would take tears to get over and move forward.

But you know what's funny? The next day the inquiries out here in DC started pouring in for sessions. I booked left and right and the month of December has been INCREDIBLY busy. There was even a week where I grossed about the same as my full time corporate job gave me and probably worked near 40 hours as well! It was a fluke week where I had TONS of sessions, but I think it was His way of saying 'go for it'. I am still working on my corporate resume since we were given a career coach and I don't think it hurts to have an updated one, but I'm not actively looking for another corporate job. We had a couple December vacations on the books anyway and I'm mostly looking forward to more time with my munchkins enjoying this new life. I love that I can now take Drew to a random mid-week movie or take Ady with me to Target while he's at school and not have to rush back before my lunch ends. And I'm VERY lucky to still have in-home help from our in-laws for another 15 months so that I can go out and do sessions whenever they need.

In the end, I feel as though I'm really making lemonade out of the lemons life gave me.
And so far, it tastes delicious.

The Tree is Trimmed

And all of the ornaments are more than 4 feet from the ground thanks to a certain 17 month old who insists on pulling them off.