Happy New Year, you guys! Tonight we had two of our favorite people over for a casual dinner to ring in 2016. I rarely get to decorate the table, so I had fun setting it all up for... chili and cornbread. Yeah. This table setting was by far the fanciest thing about our evening, but we had a wonderful time!I'm taking the rest of the weekend off from blogging before I return in 2016. You guys, I am so excited for the next year. 2015 was so great in some ways and so hard in others -- I really see each year as a fresh start. I find it truly inspiring.I hope you have a fantastic long weekend, and I hope 2016 is filled with wonderful adventures in your own lives as well.Until then, please enjoy this interview President Obama did with Jerry Seinfeld. Frankly, just the location of where they drank their coffee FASCINATED me. Let's discuss that more, eh?

It snowed a few inches yesterday, and it finally looks like winter around these parts! Instead of the dreamy wonderland look of a forest, I thought it would be fun to capture the urban aspect today with this bike abandoned in the snow.I snapped this image on a break while Jamie and I had our first annual Smack Attack planning session. We spent the day batting ideas for 2016's creative goals, financial goals, behind-the-scenes magic etc etc etc. We spent roughly four hours focusing on next year, and I'm pretty excited about all of our plans. It's so easy to get down in the trenches and just to focus on getting the day-to-day work done. It's another thing to figure out how to make more time for inspiration, preparation and to try to push yourself to improve.Wish me luck :)For your internet share of the day, I loved this story about where all the new slang ("on fleek, etc") is coming from and how it spreads. And if you are a music lover in the Twin Cities, I'm pretty dang excited about this opening.

What a week. Man.I was soooo excited for all the family time I had coming at me during our long weekend. I just had no idea how, um, up-close and personal it would get. Poor Ezra barfed in his crib sometime in the night on Wednesday, and I woke up to find him covered in dried puke and man... that is a terrible smell. And not the best way to start a long weekend.The rest of the weekend consisted of more puking (once on Jamie and once all over moi -- the aftermath of Jamie's encounter is captured below because since it was the first occurrence, we thought it was funny. Ha! JOKE'S ON US!), lots of snuggling, and more TV than this kid has ever been allowed to watch before.To give you an idea of how sick he was, we started opening presents Christmas morning and at 9 am, Ezra pointed at the stairs, went upstairs and pointed at the crib, asking to go back to bed. On Christmas morning. With loads of gifts left to unwrap. Yeah, it was not good.Here are my guys watching Shaun the Sheep (excellent suggestion, Stacy!). And if you don't want to see the puke photo, scroll real fast...because here is Jamie covered in puke. Notice how not only is he covered in barf, but he's holding Magda off so she can't eat it. We are so damn classy around here.And instead of helping him to immediately clean up, I grabbed my camera and began laughing. Yeah. I should have known I'd get my own vomit attack later in the week with that karma coming back at me.And how do you entertain a toddler while cleaning up the puke? A roll of paper towels, of course.One of Ezra's favorite gifts Christmas morning was an art easel. He's still figuring out how all the markers work, etc, but it's super fun to watch him explore.These games of peek-a-boo by the fire are pretty awesome.And once Ezra's stomach cleared up, I made him a blueberry and banana smoothie. Good thing he's so neat at the table, eh?Oh, and toward the end of the weekend, the virus hit Jamie and I. And the photos ended because there was no time that was not spent in the bathroom or in bed with a fever. Until today, when we can finally eat bland toast and ginger ale. Awesome times, I tell you.

Soooo, no Monday at the Madhouse today.Very sorry about that, but I've been stuck in bed sick for the last coupla days, and the rest of the weekend was spent taking care of a vomiting Ezra. Our holidays were not necessarily ideal, but at least we were not traveling when this monster of a stomach bug hit the family.To be honest, normally I would have just skipped a post today. Yes. I'm *that* sick. But! But today is the launch of my new pretty website! I've been working with the amazing Margaret on it for a few months now, and I'm so excited to show you around! So I had to blog something :)Alas, here is my Christmas tree. Nothing too special, but something shiny and new to go along with my beautiful new site. And hopefully, tomorrow, I'll have a few images from the holiday to show you. We'll see. I' gonna be honest, there was so much nursing of the ill going on, that my camera was not my top priority.

Hey guys! Are you winding things down? Ready for some R&R? I certainly hope so.We are staying put this holiday season, and we have no visitors planned. Just time with the family and our friends, and we are so excited for a quiet long weekend. The rush leading up to Christmas is so insane with all the shopping or wrapping or lunches or whatever, that the actual day where everything is closed and you are really just sleeping, eating, watching TV and taking walks is like magic to me. Oh, and fires in the fireplace! Let's not forget about that.Don't get me wrong, I love the pre-holiday hustle. But now? Now it's time to relax. And I am all on board with that idea.And in that spirit, I will be stepping away from the blog until after the long weekend. But trust me when I tell you I'll have a nice, juicy surprise for you when you return on Monday morning.And these photos here? They probably look familiar. These are a small sampling of my favorite shots from this year. To see my full edit (about 40 images or so), click on over here. And happy holidays!

   

This is Flint. He stole my heart this weekend.His mom is growing a human baby right now, and she wanted some photos of her favorite eldest child for the nursery. Oh, I had so much fun on this project. Here are a few of my favorite shots from our session.I also didn't take any live photos today because... because I *did* take live photos for the Star Tribune and I'm not allowed to share them. Yet. You'll see them later.And besides being out on assignment, I was finishing my holiday shopping. Which was insanely busy, but also insanely successful. You know what impulse item I got for myself Shuttersmack today? An awesome Santa suit!Now I only need to find someone to play santa, and we might have some fun holiday sessions next year... fingers crossed... And for your internet shares today, how about some amazing drink recipes for the holidays, eh? I'm thinking of trying some sort of punch this year. We'll see. I'm also including this peek into a beautiful NYC apartment. I love seeing how New Yorkers make the most of their space. This is lovely. And lastly, I'm loving this instagram feed.

I caught these two napping this weekend while I was cleaning up the kitchen. I noticed it was *awfully quiet* in the living room (Ezra was officially napping upstairs) and when I walked in, this is what I found. It's hard to tell in this image, but I shot this from above -- they are both on their sides facing the back of the couch. I love these two so dang much.As for the boy? He is Señor Crankypantz this week. We were so lucky for all that sleep last week, because now (apparently) there is another tooth coming in and we are back to waking up several times a night and soothing this poor guy who is having a hard time enjoying life. We even took him to his first holiday party today where beautiful women plied him with cookies, and he still wouldn't smile. I MEAN, COME ON. (At least he had a sharp outfit on, though eh?)Let's try to forget about the teething though and focus on the fun. Like those two smoochers up there.Or how Ezra slid down the slide by himself today. About 15 times. Because once he realized he could do it on his own? His world changed and he was thrilled.Plus, he got to explore this elf cave at the park. What a great fort!And he got to sit on this spinning chair with Dad!Magda was great at the park, just watching the other dogs walk by. Very alert, but very quiet. Which we would like more of, please.And then it was time to leave and someone was very upset about this. Ah well, at least there was that nice moment on the slide...For your internet share how about this article on the 10 best ways to fake a clean house. My favorite? Put all the dirty dishes in the oven. Ha!