It’s been a few weeks since my last Friday Funday, so I thought I would hi-jack the blog and take another stab at it!  Truth be told, today  it’s actually Friday Funday! with Hubby & Baby Sloane!  In the words of Jason Aldean, “Lets get this thing Started!”

-Last year, myself and several co-workers started a Relay For Life Team to raise money for the American Cancer Society.  We are doing it again this year and as our main way to raise money we are having our 2nd Annual Community Cookout and Fireworks Shoot to Fight Cancer on June 9th!  Last year we had the Milwaukee Brewer’s Famous Racing Sausages attend.  This year we have something even bigger planned!  Make sure and LIKE Phantom Fireworks of Racine on Facebook so you don’t miss the exciting details!

-Is it wrong that our almost three-month old is more fashionable than me?  Sloane is a fashion Rockstar.  Thanks in big part to Molly’s great fashion sense, our baby girl has an outfit for every occasion.  She just started growing out of some of her newborn stuff and into a whole new wardrobe, including an awesome pink track jacket and a Brewers sweat-shirt.  She even has Mickey Mouse ears form one of Molly’s engagement shoots at DisneyWorld!  Here is one of my favorite pictures of Sloane, even though Molly put it up first!

-It’s almost Opening Day!  I can’t wait for baseball.  It seems like just a couple of weeks ago the football season was ending.  I’m excited about the Brewers this year just like any year, but I’m especially interested in seeing how they transition from being led by Prince Fielder to being led by others.  Hopefully it leads to another playoff run just like last year!

-Opening Day Note…….a reminder to everyone not to be the Two Fisted Slopper!  Remember him?  An animated character that reminded fans to be respectful of others.  Please try and remember just because it’s Opening Day doesn’t mean it gives you license to get sloppy drunk and ruin the day for others!  In the words of Anchorman star Ron Burgundy “Keep it Classy Milwaukee!”

-Speaking of Anchorman, did you hear they are making an Anchorman 2?  Will Ferrell appeared as the Legendary “Ron Burgundy” on “Conan” to make the announcement.  Within 3 hours of the announcement @ronburgundy had 3k followers, and after 36 hours over 11k followers!  That is getting the word out!  I’m sure a major reason is the help of @conanobrien and @teamcoco but those numbers are huge for that short of time.  Imagine once they actually start promoting it!

-A few weeks ago, I mentioned we were working on adding Pinterest to the blog and as you probably have noticed, we haven’t done it yet.  The reason is because we are waiting to learn more information about the possible copyright implications.  Pinterest has in its terms that the person pinning and the place where it was pinned from are responsible for copyright details, including potential lawsuits.  No one knows for sure how far reaching this is or if it is really even an issue.  Some have compared it to Napster and Music and some say a few simple changes by Pinterest and its not an issue at all.  Once we learn more and how it effects us, we hope to add Pinterest in the future!

-This weekend we are celebrating Easter with Molly’s family.  It will be Sloane’s first Easter and of course she has an outfit already lined up.  The part I’m most excited about is the Easter Egg hunt with our nephews Ethan & Eli.  It should be an interesting hunt considering they are just under two years and just under six months!

-A good friend of ours, Allen Halas, has this really cool project that he’s working on to create a local television show about local music in Milwaukee.  Allen and a partner are Marquette students who used to host a radio show for several years, called Breaking & Entering on Marquette Radio, until they started working on this television project.  Visit their indiegogo sight “Live at the Miramar: A Milwaukee Music Television Show” to learn more and find out what they call the “Bon Iver Effect.”

-The Friday Funday! video this week is one from a few years ago but is still a classic!  Baby Sloane couldn’t take her eyes off of the screen when this video came on CMT last night.  Enjoy the previously mentioned Jason Aldean and his “My Kinda Party” Video!

Make sure and comment on how I did and LIKE below and share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and the other million social media networks out there!  Maybe if I get enough response Molly will trust me to do it again sometime!

Hubby (@kenmicheljr) & Sloane #sloaneisabella

So last week I hopped a plane to Florida for Courtney and Ben’s engagement session.  It was 17 degrees and snowing when I left.  When I returned?  60 degrees and sunny!  Only ten degrees cooler than Florida.  Crazy Wisconsin weather never ceases to amaze me.

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I brought back a little souvenir for baby girl from my trip, and Hubby captured one of her smiles while she modeled it:

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Baby Girl’s smiles are the best, and we find ourselves working hard to get a few out of her each day.  She turned two months old officially yesterday.  Not sure how that happened.

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I’m quite honored to be listed on one of my favorite wedding blogs’ vendor guides:  check out the new m three studio listing on The Wedding Chicks now.

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Just three weeks until Opening Day!  I can’t wait to see what the Brewers do this season.

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I’ve been cleaning out my blog reader lately.  Since having baby girl, my time available to read blogs is greatly reduced.  Time at the computer has to be fully focused on getting stuff done.  And shockingly, I don’t miss many of them – so clearly I spent a lot of time reading and keeping up with things I didn’t truly care about. So, after two months of motherhood, if there is still 20 or more posts to be read on a blog, I don’t need it in my reader.  I’ve been taking a brutal approach to email marketing too, unsubscribing all the time.  I love to de-clutter as Hubby will tell you, somewhat resentfully.

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May and June are looking pretty light this year.  Recently I realized this could mean that I might finally conquer our backyard. Could it be?

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One of our favorite reality shows is Celebrity Apprentice.  Actually, the show mostly drives us crazy, but we watch it anyway, mysteriously. Anyway, this season is driving me extra nuts with the way the women are portraying themselves.  Seriously.  I’ve never seen so many bad hair, makeup and clothing choices.  It’s all so…. desperate.

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Coming up soon on the blog – a Seattle engagement, a Winter wedding, and some Southern weddings that I’ve been meaning to blog for far too long.

Have a great week!

Thanks to Hubby for taking over the “random thought” blog posts the last two weeks. We have always been a great team, but parenthood is teaching us new ways to help each other out, and him stepping up to help keep the blog active is one of those ways. Yeah, you know you are jealous of my husband!  I have several blog posts half-written, so when I can string together enough minute moments at the computer, one of them should appear.

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Speaking of how parenthood is changing us. We’ve never been big into celebrating Valentine’s Day. I think once in the last eleven years we went out to dinner in celebration. Anyway, we had agreed again to mostly ignore the day this year. But we ended up giving each other gifts anyway. I gave him six hours of uninterrupted sleep (meaning I got up with Sloane all night) and he gave me the luxury of a normal length shower and getting ready time.  Like, I actually got to blow-dry and fix my hair.  And, it was fabulous. Oh, how times have changed.

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I stumbled across this amazing love story on facebook last week. A brother and a sister got married. Get your mind out of the gutter though and click here - this is one of the best love stories you’ll read, written by their son as tweets – so a series of 140 character or less blurbs.  So sweet.

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I found out recently that my alma matter, CalArts, was named the Best College for students in the Arts by Newsweek Magazine and The Daily Beast.  Big Congrats!  It’s a designation that is so well-deserved.  I think I’ll give my degree an extra polish today.

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Last week I had the honor of shooting the birth story of a fellow photographer/friend and his wife.  It was indescribable to witness the two of them go thru the process of becoming parents.  It was also so hard to strictly be an observer, with my own birth experience so fresh still.  The wonderfully unique thing is that she ended up going down much the same path I did, with a baby who required a c-section after trying everything else.  So, I got to see what was done to me, from the other side.  And, I got to photograph that part wearing something like a haz-mat suit, which is something likely to never happen again:

Congrats to the new little family!  Hopefully, this won’t be the last birth I capture.

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I also got cleared to resume all normal activities last week by my doctor.  So, of course I wasted no time getting back to the gym.  It wasn’t so much for the weight-loss benefits as much for my mental health.  It felt really good to step back into that routine even for just one morning.  A six-week vacation from my workout routine had me a little scared, but it was better than I expected.  Sure, my usual weights felt heavy again, and my stamina is certainly lacking.  But, on the flip-side, with most of my baby weight gone, everything was so much easier.  With Sloane to take care of, I’m likely not going to get to go as often as I used to, but I’ll take what I can get.

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You know I love Kate Spade.  Today, they sent out an email about all their new wedding accessories -so you know I had to check it out.  This bridesmaid’s bracelet is so adorable.  Just the right touch of  whimsy and sentiment wrapped up in an elegant and modern bangle.  The perfect gift!

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The Oscars.  I admit, I missed the last hour because I fell asleep from baby exhaustion.  But I really enjoyed the show this year.  It was entertaining and moved at a nice pace.  Billy Crystal is a classic, and I loved his little ditty about the best picture nominees.  The only thing I found disappointing was the set design – it was really disjointed.  And, now I really have to go see “The Artist” and “Hugo”, two films I’ve been wanting to see, who swept the awards.

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Next week I head to sunny Florida for an engagement session.  I’m apprehensive about leaving Sloane for a couple of days, but it will be nice to soak up a little golden sunshine!  And, I haven’t been to Disneyland (where we are shooting) since I lived in California, so I’m excited to see all that has changed.

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Hopefully you’ve been enjoying the parade of kiddos that have been gracing the blog as of late.  It is so fun to see my wedding couples start families!  Up next on the kid front are shoots for both of the nephews (you won’t believe how grown-up they are), and maybe one of these days I’ll get around to editing Sloane’s newborn shoot too.  There are some engagements and some weddings I shot with friends still patiently waiting for their turn on the blog as well.  All in good time.

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My dad is here today, watching little Sloane for me, so I can focus and get some work done.  I feel incredibly guilty about this, but it is necessary, as I’ve been falling behind little by little each week. So, I better get to the rest of today’s to-do list before my babysitter runs out.  Have a great week!

Well, apparently I did well enough last week that I get another shot!  Thanks to everyone who checked it out and shared or liked my last post with friends.  Hopefully, I do well enough this time to get another chance in the future, but Molly will be back next week.  Here we go…….

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The most common question that I get these days is, “How is baby Sloane?”  To answer, she is doing great!  Molly and I are having so much fun being parents.  Don’t get me wrong, we are both exhausted all of the time but it’s getting better as she is starting to sleep 4-6 hours per night.

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One of our favorite things so far about Sloane is her facial expressions and arm movements.  Here is one of our favorites:

(taken on my iphone)

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It’s getting closer to wedding season and we’re pretty excited about that.  I know Molly really enjoyed shooting a great wedding a couple of weeks ago and is looking forward to more!  We still have some open dates for 2012, even a few May/June dates.

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Besides getting closer to wedding season, it’s also getting closer to Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Season!   That has me really excited.  I love reading the Blog Peanuts and Cracker Jacks 2012.  It’s a feature on jsonline.com that is done by sports journalism students at Arizona State University about the Brewers at Spring Training.  The content is more human interest stories and fun anecdotes than typical sports talk.

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Has everyone switched their Facebook profile to the new Timeline Profile?  If the answer is no, don’t worry neither have I.  In all honesty I can’t decide which picture I want to use for the header.  It’s a good thing Molly designs the albums and not me!

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I watch very little reality TV, but I do have a few favorites.  They are Shark Tank, Celebrity Apprentice and surprisingly The Voice.  By far my favorite reality star is Dallas Mavericks owner (among many other things) Mark Cuban (@mcuban), who is one of the investors on Shark Tank.  I really love his entrepreneurial skills.  He started selling garbage bags at age 12 to pay for expensive basketball shoes and has built an empire from that humble start.  One of the things I respect the most is that he wants to see others succeed and that he also gives back with things like the Fallen Patriot Fund.

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The Friday Funday! Video comes from The Voice.  It’s a unique performance of the Plain White T’s song “Hey There Delilah.”

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Make sure and comment on how I did this week and LIKE this post below and share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and the other million social media networks out there!  Maybe if I get enough response, Molly will let me blog again!  Have a great weekend!