Family photos

As a gift for my parents, I am putting together an album of each of us "kids" and our families- I tried to get everyone's pictures throughout the year, but it came down to Christmas, and we still hadn't gotten a couple of them. So here they are:

My oldest brother, Chris, and his family: Jenny, Lily, and Evie


My brother, Jonnie, and his family: Kimmy, Bekah, Alyssa, and Ben


And, of course, my parents:

aren't they just so cute?!?!

Em

Sledding!

A fresh blanket of snow
A brand new world
a brand new playground.

Family Christmas

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time away from home at my parent's home with all of my family.
We sure did have fun!

To my Son

Good Morning, Baby!


I have been thinking about this post for quite some time, since this is a momentous occasion. Maybe more so for me than for you, but momentous nonetheless.
I still tear up whenever I really, really think about how you have blessed me and your daddy- you certainly are a gift sent from God, one that we, at one point in our lives, never thought would actually be given to us. You have been not exactly what we were expecting, but MORE than what we were expecting.
We prayed that you would be a happy child, and seriously, we got that tenfold. You are a ridiculously smiley, happy-go-lucky little child. You laugh at the kitties, you laugh at daddy's work badge, you laugh at yourself. You laugh at mommy when she tries to crawl as fast as you. You greet me each morning with a huge smile stretched across your face. Now THAT is a great way to start the day!
We prayed that you would like music, and man, we can't keep you away from our piano. And you play it so nicely, too- you rarely ever bang on the keys- you are content to do one finger at a time. Sometimes you end up with some very sweet melodies! You love to praise God at church by clapping along and dancing your little baby bouncy dance, all the time with the biggest, goofiest grin on your face. You sing yourself to sleep- a flutey, lovely sound.
We prayed that you would get along well with others. You have more friends than we can count- people who love you for the sweet, gentle way that you are, for the hyper silly play when you are over-tired, for the love that you have for people already is amazing. You have baby Ruthie, Gabe, your cousin Evie, Noelle, Sam, Samuel, and others who are close in age that you are just SO excited to see every time we get together. Your happy squeals when you play with the other kids is really, truly music to my ears.
We prayed that you would be cute. Well, Daddy was pleasantly surprised by your handsome looks from the beginning :) Your blue eyes are something to behold- I have never seen eyes like yours- they are bluer than mine, bigger than Daddy's, and just stunning. Everyone comments about your eyes! Your constant smile makes you even more adorable than any other physical feature- you are just so cute! Your grandma says I need to be careful how often I tell you this, since it could give you a big head, but this is a special occasion, so I can say it all I want. You are just so darn cute.

Praise the Lord for answered prayers!


This past year has been wonderful. Wonder-full.

From the first time I met you face-to-face, at 4:20 am on that cold, snow-filled day in December, your tiny cries muffled by the fluid still in your lungs, that cleared out without a hitch, to the first night at home when I had the worst30 hours of my life, to the many nights where it was just you and me because Daddy had to work, the first time you purposefully cooed, then rolled over, then decided to crawl, and now to standing. The way you snuggle your used-to-be-white teddy bear when I set you in the crib for naps and bedtime. The excitement when we read "where is baby's belly button" is contagious- you have such a fun time reading that one with me. Although I think that's because you have a crush on the little girl on the front cover...but I digress.
You will soon have your first steps, which I know will surprise me. Which is incredible. But you will grow up, and that is inevitable. And normal. And exactly what should happen. And what I really do want to happen.

Please know that Daddy and I pray for you all the time, that you will grow up to be excited about Jesus, and be a great, strong, Christian man. I pray that your future holds great things for you, and at the same time, that you appreciate every little moment you have with family, friends, and the time you spend with your Lord.

But for now, little one, I love the moments we spend together: you, me, Daddy. You are amazing. And I love you.

Happy Birthday, Josiah.

Love,

Mommy.

Party it up, boy!

This post is mostly pictures, so bear with me.
It was a pretty long, exciting day on Saturday- we had over 30 guests at J man's 1st b day party (the party was a week earlier than his actual b day, but really... who has time the weekend before Christmas?)
It went SO well, with plenty of Ribs (which, yes, I grilled out in the snow!) and fresh-baked carrot cake* with cream cheese frosting to go around.

*I spent 3 whole hours on that thing...

After the gift-opening, the chillens* went downstairs to play in the balloon room- we blew up almost 70 balloons, and then went outdoors to do a little sledding. Josiah even went down the hill- about 7 or 8 times- he LOVED it! He was able to manage that because he got an infant's sled- yep, you heard (read) me right- a sled made for babies. It has a super-wide base so it's nearly impossible to tip over, and it has straps to hold the baby in place, much like a high chair. Well, it worked like a dream! Hopefully I'll get a link up, or pictures emailed to me, or something- since my Dad took the pics of his first sledding experience. I was the one lugging him up the hill, so no camera for me!
Anyway, enough talk, on to the pictures! (since I promised that oh so long ago....)

*children. there were 8 of them.

The little guy had a MOUNTAIN of gifts to open. I opened all of them. Can a 1 year old really open all those gifts? No. The answer is no.
How blessed is my little one, though! We have such generous friends and family, thank you all SO very much! (yes, thank you, too, even if you got him a "noisy" toy :)








I made the sign, too, out of fabric remnants I picked up at Hancock fabrics a long time ago, and random buttons. It was totally fun!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

"ketchup" day: challenge #44

The challenge:
Shoes

The goal of this challenge is to take something ordinary and make it look extraordinary.

Since I had 6 concerts last week, this challenge is a tribute to that time spent singing and performing...


to see the other entries, please click here.

"E flat"

and comments, criticisms are welcome! I really want to grow as a photographer, and any input is appreciated!
Thanks :)

Em

"Ketchup"day: challenge #43

This challenge was "toys"
with a little boy running..er, climbing...everywhere, it has definitely been more of a challenge to get these done, but he definitely remains my inspiration!
We were also supposed to tell a story, but I'd like to know what you think the story is!
to see the other challenges, visit www.weeklyphotographychallenge.blogspot.com

This lovely set of wooden animals was a gift for his first birthday- aren't they fun!!

a couple firsts

first number one:
we got snow last night! not that that is necessarily a "first", seeing as it is Wisconsin, and it is December, but it was the first snow of the season. I was really happy it snowed when it did, too, cuz it gave new life to our otherwise pretty drab landscape. And because I had a photoshoot this morning. Outside. In 20 degree weather. With a windchill. (not sure exactly how cold it was, but I know it was chilly, since I couldn't use my pointer finger to take the pictures near the end, and had to use my ring finger, which was a little less numb)

first number two:
I had a photo shoot with a married couple, who just wanted nice pictures of just the two of them. It was kind of like an engagement session, I suppose, but a little more relaxed. There really is a big difference in photographing young love, and those who have spent a third of their lifetime together. More comfortable, more at ease, and even more in love.

Here are some of my faves of Mike and Melissa:





Em

Photo Challenge 42

Good Saturday, everyone!
I finally got my challenge done this week, despite the fact that I didn't have my camera with me.
Yup, you heard me right- I didn't have my camera. But I did have my phone :)
Today was the first time that I went hunting in over 2 years, and I decided to use my phone to take pictures of my surroundings. It's not often that I am up before sunrise (on purpose, anyway) so I used that. The sky was absolutely brilliant blue just before the sun came up, and I couldn't quite get the beautiful panorama around me, so I took a whole bunch of pics and put them together on my new laptop with photoshop.My laptop has bluetooth, and so does my phone, so I (jonathan, actually) figured out how to make the two of them talk to each other, and I could upload the photos from the phone directly onto the computer, no cords required. Whoa, how cool is that?!?!



I had to admit, the above photo was inspired by my dad's entry, with layering the sky in different angles and stuff to get this neato effect... so thanks, dad!







This week's challenge was to take pictures of the sky, and you can see other people's entries and the rules for the challenge when you click here.

Em

Happy Thanksgiving

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:15,16

new look for Ebeling Art Studio

So, as many of you know, I have my own business. And, well, I decided that it's time to update the look, get things more coordinated, more streamline.
SO I had creative time today, after J man was done with his screamfest and finally went down at 7:30 after not having slept ALL DAY...... ahem. back to creative time.
My current website is a little....dark. I had a momentous inspiration time last night (after having finished off an entire bottle of wine with my hubby... yay for date night!) and my mind wouldn't stop turning, working, thinking.
I need to brighten it up, add a little texture, but not too much to take away from the artwork and photographs, and have a smidgen of color. And here is what I came up with and threw together today while watching a dark, ominous movie (I won't mention which one, since I am not entirely sure it was a legal copy...):


thoughts? criticisms? suggestions??
I'd love to hear what you all think!

~Em

Whew!

It's been a long, LONG week.
Mostly cuz I've been dealing with a sick little J man. He started a fever last wednesday, we figure. He felt pretty warm, but was acting completely normal, so I didn't really think anything of it.
But then on Thursday, while he was at the babysitter's house, he apparently tried napping on their floor and was acting kind of miserable. This is odd because he had just woken up from his nap when he got there.
We had our usualy thursday night get-together, and he was just SO clingy- didn't want to even play with the Duplos- which is also very unusual. When we finally got home, I took his temperature, and it was over 103 (under the armpit- so really we should add one more degree to that, and it was over 104) Despite alternating Tylenol and motrin every couple of hours, the fever rarely dipped blow that point. So we took him into Urgent care on Saturday, where they diagnosed him with an ear infection, which was a surprise for them, since he wasn't showing any other symptoms like pulling on his ear or runny/stuff nose.
They prescribed amoxycillan and we were good. 10 days, every 8 hours he would get a dosage of the awesome pink stuff.

But then on Sunday, the poor little guy started getting little raw, red spots EVERYWHERE on his torso, neck, face, and some on his legs. And on Monday it was worse. So I stopped giving his the amoxycillan, and called his regular pediatrician. She was able to squeeze me in right away to take a look at him, and sure enough, the red stuff all over his body was an allergic reaction to the medication. But then she looked into his ears- and said that the infection was mild enough that his body should heal itself on its own. No more meds.
I'm good with that!

So, long story short, $65 copay to get into Urgent care on Saturday, $14 for the medication, and then a $35 copay to see his pediatrician on Monday, and now we are back to where we started from. No meds, letting his body heal on its own.
Small price to pay to know my baby will be well :)



Oh, and on Thursday night, my sister, Mandy, had baby #4 :) We are SO happy to see you, Miss Jordyn Grace! Can't wait to meet you in person~
If you want to see pictures of her, just click here



Em

Photo Challenge

This week's challenge is an exercise dealing with the Law of Thirds (LOT).
The rules were to take 3 photographs of the same subject in three different ways, or take one photo, and crop it three different ways.
I chose to take one photo and crop it three ways, since my little J man is sick, and I couldn't do a separate photo shoot for this assignment. So I am using little Addison, whose pictures I took 2 weeks ago, along with her family. She slept through the WHOLE session, and I couldn't resist taking one of her snuggled up, sinking into her parent's comforter.
I really enjoy utilizing the LOT in my photography, so this was a fun little challenge!

this is the original image:

this one is really elegant and minimalist-
the profile of the baby created a beautiful line from the top to the bottom

I like how there seems to be a balance of very dark on the L
compared with the very white of the baby on the R- it is more pronounced in this image.

to see the rules of the challenge, and other people's entries, click here

Thanks for the comments *wink**wink*
:)

Em

Once upon a November

I had the privelage of photographing two of my very good friends' wedding this past weekend, James and Brenda.
Although I didn't have as much time as I generally do with the couple, we ended up with some really lovely shots!

My passion.

I just gotta talk about stripes.
I love them
I mean, I really, really, REALLY love stripes.
I am really, really REALLY glad that they are back in style, cuz otherwise my child would be stuck wearing stripes, and being un-trendy. Which, I know if he's anything like me (or my hubby) is bound to happen sometime in his life.
But for now, he's runway-ready.
I got these awesome baby legs legwarmers from babysnazz. And, if you are interested, they are having a give-away of TWENTY legwarmers of your choice,
and all you have to do is answer one question in their survey. Just go to their site, Win 20 Pairs of Baby Leg Warmers from babySNAZZ!
And maybe your baby can be stripey, too!


(don't mind the look on his face- that's just what he does when he's out in bright light...)
Thanks, Auntie Sarah, for hanging out with him!

~Em

Little Addison

When I arrived at Amanda and Phil's house today, along with a few trick-or-treaters, Little addison greeted me right away- her daddy was feeding her the last few drops of milk from her bottle, and she was struggling to stay awake. I won't lie- I was super excited by the fact that she was SO sleepy.
Sleeping newborns are a dream to photograph.
I did Amanda's maternity photos a couple of months back, so I had the plus of having been to their home before- so I knew what to expect for lighting. I set up my little studio get-up, and we were off shooting pictures.
We ended the shoot in the master bedroom, where I used the natural lighting for some dramatic effect- it was a great photo day!!
Addison slept through the WHOLE THING. Even when she was lifted up "Simba-style".
Thanks for being such a great model, baby girl!





~Em

WHOA!

He's 10 months old already!

A picture My hubby wanted me to get

and for some reason, J man goes for the low notes- every time.
That's all.
Have a good night!

Em

Put a red chair in an alley......

...and this is what you get.

(ps. this is a high school senior photo.)



Thanks for a great time, Maggie!



Em

Belated

Happy birthday, Ruthie!


Love,

Emily, Jonathan, and Josiah ;)