The weather was great yesterday afternoon so we stepped away from our computers and threw some food together for a little picnic. Then we went for a country drive and on the way home we passed a fun little spot that caught our eyes. We backed up, pulled over, and danced around in a culvert for a little while.

I’m curious — do all photographers trespass? I think it’s in our blood. When a location is good, I like to think it’s worth it.

We took over a thousand photos because we have been playing around with stop motion (awesomeness!), but here are some of my personal favorites of Kelly. What can I say? I married up.

And whoever says that cameras don’t take pictures – people do; well, they’re wrong. My camera took this one, all by itself!

All photos taken with the new VSCOcam app on the iPhone. Juuuuust kidding! :)

Every once in a while we have presidential candidates who want to be a part of our engagement sessions and normally, it doesn’t work out for them to be a part of any of our photos.  But, when we met up with Laura and Seth, we managed to fit a little, tiny bit of Ron Paul and his fan club into the background.  (Ok, so maybe it was totally an accident and not visible at all, but there really was a Ron Paul rally going on to the left of the last picture on the lake.) :)

So… on to a real story! I’ve known Laura for years. We grew up about 3 miles from each other, went to high school together, were prom king and queen(!), worked at the same restaurant, and both enjoyed the fresh air of the Wisconsin farmland (and I’m not really talking about the good smelling fresh air).

After not seeing Laura for about five years, we received an exciting email from her telling us about this amazing guy named Seth, who she is now engaged to, and asking us to take some photos of her and her favorite guy.  We were soo happy to meet Seth, walk around Madison with them, and grab some dinner together. They’re wonderful people who love Madison, the Badgers, kids, and each other.

We have an unwritten rule in our family that goes something like this: if friends of ours who we don’t see often come within a 100-mile or so radius of where we live, we will drive to see them. Or, if we’re driving and have to go a few hours (or sometimes 4 or 5) out of our way to visit friends, we’ll do it. We’ve done it so often that it’s sort of become the norm for our family. Sometimes it’s hard or inconvenient or not totally ideal for our kids, but let’s be real — if we say we love our friends, but don’t make an effort to be with them when possible, well, do we really love them?

So, when my beautiful, giggly, sweet-hearted friend Maureen texted me to ask us how far we live away from Madison (because she and her boyfriend, Mike, would be there for a few hours), we tossed our Monday plans out the window and threw together a plan that involved driving to Madison with two wiggly kids in the backseat. It was so great to give my sweet, sweet friend a hug again and to meet her wonderful boyfriend. It was so worth it.

It’s always worth it. :)

Also, we brought our camera along and asked them if we could take their picture. They let us. Wasn’t that nice of them? Here are a few images from our quick little photo shoot that took place on the one cold and rainy day of this unusually warm spring. :)

is it hot outside, or is it just me? :) here’s to another weekend of exploring.

It’s snowing today.

It does this a lot, here in Wisconsin. But we’re not really winter people. In situations like this we’ve found that we can do two things: complain or search for something to be thankful for. This probably sounds like the whole “glass half full or empty” sort of thing but, to be honest I think we’re all naturally glass half empty kind of people. Because it takes work to see things from a positive perspective, doesn’t it? So today we are thankful for little hands that are willing to shovel the driveway for us, warm drinks, and delicious leftovers from a party we had last night. Yes, I have a headache that hasn’t left me for days (weeks?), it’s cold and slushy, and we have to shovel our car off if we want to go anywhere, but let’s not focus on that okay? :)

A month ago, we went to the world’s greatest photography workshop and while we were there, we were reminded of how much we waste time comparing. We were all challenged to do a “blog fast” for an entire month.

It hasn’t quite been an entire month for us, yet, but we’re already amazed at how many things we’ve created in the past few weeks. Because our eyes and minds aren’t being fulfilled with the beauty that other people have created, we’ve found ourselves really itching to create and find beauty on our own. In just a few short weeks, between the two of us, we’ve created four pillow covers, a tree branch light fixture, a crazy window covering made of fabric scraps, multiple pieces of artwork for our walls, beautiful food, a new logo for our website, and more.

We believe that we have it planted in us — a desire to create and see beauty. Yet, by looking at things like Pinterest and other wonderful blogs, we get a little depressed about the truly great, creative things we have already done AND it quenches our desire to actually DO anything new. That makes us really sad, because there is soo much more satisfaction in creating our own art that isn’t inspired by/a copy of someone else’s. (We’ve also found that it’s hard to try something new because we tend to be our own worst critic and many times that robs us, too.)

So if you’re struggling with comparison we’ve found a few things that have helped us…

Stop looking at blogs. We won’t be offended if you ignore us, too; we’re actually telling you to do it. :)

It’s not always easy to appreciate what is right there in front of us. It becomes such an ordinary part of days that we don’t even think what we have is worth being thankful for. And if we’re truthful with ourselves, it’s because we’ve been comparing our lives to what someone else has/does. We’ve moved a few times in the last five years and have found that beautiful, happy moments happen just the same in big houses, tiny apartments, and rented places with stale, white walls. We just have had to search a little harder at times.

Over the past year or so, we’ve started to hang artwork, verses and phrases around our house to help us look at our everyday life with amazement, wonder and joy. And you know what has happened? We’ve become thankful. People who are thankful. We’re not perfect and many days we fail miserably but, in general, we’ve realized that we have more than we need and there is always something to find joy in.

We’ll leave you with this: “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Click on that quote – it’s a link to a great little poster that we think everyone should have on their wall. If not this exact one, then at least the quote, in some form.

Happy Friday, friends! We hope you have a joy-filled weekend. :)