Making good use of Rowan's naps..

... you know. Instead of working.

Here is a little slideshow of Rowan's first 6 months. And by little, I mean 11 minutes. Enjoy. :-)

Rowan's first 6 months. from Colleen Sherman on Vimeo.

Last wedding of the season...

**sniff sniff**

CLICK HERE to view the images from Scott and Rebecca's wedding.

My totally unrealistic Christmas list...

Just like last year, I decided to post my Christmas wishlist... and while last year had a few unrealistic requests, this year is going to be TOTALLY and COMPLETELY unrealistic. So enjoy...

My dream lens... Nikon 24-70 f/2.8


Ikea dresser... Hemnes collection


A fancy schmancy new Macbook Pro.


Actually... while I'm at it... lets get it plated in goooooold! I should probably ask for Windex to go along with this... to remove the finger prints.


An iphone... which I've been asking for for over a year now. But due to my stupid lame and completely LOOOONG Verizon contract, I will be chained to my Blackberry for another 6 months.


A Britax car seat.


And last but definitely not least... One Miiiii-llion dollars.

I'm not gonna lie. I'm kind of hoping for that last one, then I could just buy all my gifts myself.

On the more realistic side, I've asked for Bissell Steam Mop from my parents. Kyle and I have started a (crappy) tradition of not buying each other gifts the last couple years... and this year it will continue. So instead I'm be spending some money on our little one. I'm sure lots of clothes are in order! Man... I'm so looking forward to the days when Christmas gift shopping can get out of control and we can spend tons of money on each other. You know, when somebody gives me a million dollars, like I've asked for. But until then, Kyle and I will have to continue with saying "Your love is all I need." ;-) Which, really... it is all I need. (But a new pair of boots woooooould be nice.)

Rocco is hilarious...

Rowan and Rocco from Colleen Sherman on Vimeo.

6 months old

I'm pretty sure Rowan hasn't gotten the memo that he's not allowed to grow up so quickly. Because seriously... check out how big he's getting!!


Every month his smile gets bigger... and so does his double chin.


Love this kiddo!! I can't wait for our first holiday season with Rowan.

My life is about to change dramatically...

...and I'm scured!

Rowan is days away from a full on crawl. Um, I'm sorry, but isn't that like, early??

Where did I go?

I'm lost in a sea of parenting and editing. One being much more important than the other... as well as taking up more time than the other. (BTW... I am implying parenting, in case you were wondering.) I am shooting my last wedding of the season/year tomorrow... and have a handful (or two) of family session still being editing as well. Some of which you might not see for a bit because of my clients request not to blog them (before they send out their Christmas cards). But rest assured, I am busy over here. So busy in fact that my incredibly awesome and wonderful husband took a 1/2 day from work to come home and watch the kiddo so I could finish one wedding before another got piled up on top of it. (Lets not mention the sessions I still have to edit).

Anyway... here is Kevin and Arwen's wedding. (Click HERE.)

Eric and Katie's wedding

CLICK HERE to view their wedding.

Things are a changing...

I hate feeling stagnant. I hate feeling like I'm going through the motions and not doing anything to change, or improve, or mix things up. Wether it be personally, in my relationships with those closest to me, or professionally. I generally need to feel like I'm working on or towards something. However, over the last few months, most parts of my life have felt stagnant. Blame it on a baby that could not leave the house for 4 months... or on my lack of time to improve my business... or what ever. But I have needed change. And it feels soooooo good to finally be making steps towards those changes... in every aspect of my life.

Personally... well, we all know what I did to make some changes. I was feeling so blah and I hated it. But just something as simple as changing up my hair has made such a huge difference in my overall happiness. It sounds lame, and so trivial, but its true. I feel like a whole new me.

In my relationships, I have so many that need to be worked on still... and have been slightly pushed aside because of my lack of time. I have friends whom I desperately need to catch up with and need to spend some quality time (over a bottle of wine) with. Some of which I can't do anything about that right now... but the ultimate relationship in my life, my relationship with my husband, has needed some immediate attention. In no way were things bad. In fact, I'd say that we are so good at parents, it was kind of running over the fact that we were "parenting" but not being a family. Its so funny how with living together and working together as parents... and being a well oiled machine now (if I do say so myself)... we can still forget the "relationship" at times.

Date nights have been and will continue to be next-to-impossible for a little while. Kyle and I have basically zero child care... but we're ok with that because I think the biggest change we have recently started to make is just being "a family" together. When we were in the thick of Rowan's colic, we just did enough to survive. Enough to get through the tough days of Rowan's crying, inconsistent (or nonexistent) napping. We would run errands separately. One of us would stay home while the other ran to the grocery store, or walked the dog. Or one of us would calm the crying baby, while the other threw something together for dinner.

I'm not gonna lie, parenting wasn't what I thought it would be. I always pictured us going out to dinner as a family... taking long walks on the weekends... going down into San Diego and walking on the boardwalk... as a family. And that was so far from what we were actually able to do, that I feel like the vision of what our family would look like was getting a little lost along the way.

But as Rowan has gotten easier, its like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders and we can actually be a family. We can go to friend's houses and hang out. We can go to dinner as a family on Sunday afternoons and not worry about how long Rowan will last, because we now know, he'll make it just fine. We can walk around as a family in Old Town Temecula and window shop... and enjoy each other's company... as a family. Finally.

What a difference going out as a family has made in our lives. Too bad I'm working so much on the weekends right now, because I'd love to do it more often. Thank goodness for the holidays though and about 6 to 8 weeks of slower weekends for us.

And professionally... I'm working on that too. I'm figuring out new business strategies. I'm working on building my clientele and trying to challenge myself creatively. Time isn't really on my side for this one... but as in all things, I have to make time. My photography is not only an important part of our household income income but its also my outlet. Its how I express myself and let my creative side show.

I feel like, if I'm not going to continue to challenge myself in my photography, where is the passion? Passion is definitely not derived from being stagnant. So, I've got some thing brewing. Some things I hope to change immediately... and somethings (like bigger purchases and WPPI) will happen over the course of the next 6 months. But either way, it feels so good to know that I'm still evolving as a photographer.

Anyway... thats kind of where I am right now. Happy. So happy knowing that everything in my life is evolving into something more awesome and more meaningful that it already was before. Its such a good feeling.

And because I just recently posted a bunch of pictures of Rowan, here are a couple weddings I'm working on. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you've already seen these.

Eric & Katie


Kevin & Arwen


Oh ok... you want to see something new... here ya go. Another one of Eric & Katie.

Thanks for sticking around and reading my jumbled thoughts.

For Rowan's Meme

Dear Meme,

I miss you. I don't know how else to say it... other than, I miss you! I hate that you live so far away. My mommy is always talking to you and Auntie on the phone... and I definitely know who you are, but its hard to go so many weeks with out seeing you. I wish my mommy weren't so busy on the weekends and she could make a short trip up to see you and Papaw, but unfortunately, she's super busy right now.

So, today I told my mommy that she needed to take a couple pictures of me for you. I told her you needed to see just how cute and big I'm getting. So these pictures are for you... and Papaw too, of course.

I love you guys and can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving! We're gonna have the best time ever! Promise!

Love,

Rowan

Mommy says when you're as cool as me, you don't have to match.






I'm getting closer to sitting on my own. I only need a little bit of assistance. I'm sure I'm still about a month away, but I love sitting in the corner of the couch with out mommy's help.


Bath time is one of my favorite times of the day. I get all happy and relaxed... and sucking on the wash cloth is the best part of it all.


And Meme, thank you sooooo much for my new towel. I love it! Its all warm and snuggly. And every time mommy dries me off with it, I'll think of you!




Love you Meme and Papaw!!!!! Thanksgiving can't come soon enough.