New Blog Address!

My blog has been moved to a new location.  You can find it at:

bethany-chase.com

Please visit and leave some love!!

Fulfilling Goals: Sample Album

On my list of things to do for my business in 2012 was to create and order a sample album for wedding clients.  I often go to meetings and have potential clients interested in learning about what albums I offer.  It's hard to sell an album if you don't have something physical in hand to show for the object that you are calling a fine arts book.  

My sample album arrived right before we left for vacation.  To be honest, it was a hard one for me to order--it is an investment for a bride and groom, but also for me as well.  The cost of the album was much higher than I anticipated, even with a sample discount.  But hopefully it's presence at meetings will in turn pay for itself.  

I decided to go with a company who didn't have a lot of frills and a million different choices.  I wanted to keep it simple.  For me.  For my clients.  So here is my sample album.  Leather bound.  Beautifully crafted. And a gorgeous piece of art.  

Bethany Chase Photography | Rochester, NY Twin Photographer

Boy, do I just adore these two after a year of shooting them.  Our first session was last year, when they were the tiniest newborns I have ever held.  Will wasn't even five pounds.  Seeing them every couple of months definitely is leaving me sad about the fact that they are one now.  And our Baby's First Year Package is over.

Let's hope their mommy and daddy want pictures through their entire childhood :)  That would be perfect.  

And what's a one year session without a cake smash??

February 7, 2012

328 | 38

Sometimes people tell me that it seems like I have it all together.  That they don't know how I do it.  Keep my house up, run a business, be a stay at home mom.  I kindly smile and tell them thank you, but that they are far from right!  While I enjoy the compliments. . . it is anything but the truth.  I do not have it all together--not ever!  Sometimes I am caught up on my laundry.  Sometimes I shoot four weddings in one month.  Sometimes I do projects with my kids.  Sometimes my kitchen is clean.  Sometimes I plan parties for my kids and do way too much decorating because I just love them so much and want to celebrate their little lives.  

But usually when a sometimes happens, there is a million other things that I am getting behind in.  Things fall through the cracks.  It's a constant juggling game.  When I can rest in one area, I have to pick up the pace in another.  Go, go, go. 

The one thing that I always struggle with is dinner.  I know that's not a secret to some of you.  Literally, it's one of the worst things that I do as a mom and wife.  I just cannot get my act together and meal plan.  The problem, I know, stems from the fact that I just plain don't like to cook.  I'm terrible at it, and I cannot stand the cleanup.  It's hard to do something daily that you can't stand doing at all.  Every once and awhile, I will plan something--but it rarely turns out good, and I am always disappointed with the outcome.  

James is a good sport though.  He usually comes home and whips something up for us.  Yesterday he kept it simple.  And kept the boys happy.  Mickey Mouse pancakes.  Made us think of happy memories :)

January 30, 2012

336 | 30

Our last day in Disney.  And it turned out to be a twenty-two hour day for James and I.  

We ventured back to the Magic Kingdom for the day until we had to leave to catch Disney's Magical Express on the way home.  I have many good things to say about the Magical Express (but mostly on the way back, and not so much when we arrived).  They took care of our flight check-in--and printed our boarding passes for us.  They took all of our luggage in the morning for us, and we didn't have to worry about it until we landed back in Buffalo.  They picked us up at our resort and took us to the airport.  It was great. . . nearly hassle free, and it saved us from having to rent a car and worry about car seats.  The only problem obviously was that there were many other people using the service, so we had to be ready to go three hours before our flight--and also, it took us a long time to get from the airport to our resort on the first day because of the waiting--it took about thirty minutes for the bus to arrive, and then we were the last resort out of four to be dropped off.  

We had many snack credits left by the time we got to our last day.  Brayden had really been wanting to try cotton candy.  So I got him a bag with one of our credits, and we took a couple of pictures with him hugging the bag lovingly in front of the castle.  Then we opened the bag and he took a hunk, bit into it and immediately I could tell he didn't like it.  He smiled a sort of embarrassed smile and said i don't think i really like this!  Carter wouldn't even hold it.  Good thing I didn't pay for it!

By the last day, we really learned how to take advantage of the fast pass system.  We had a fast pass for Winnie the Pooh from our first day that we didn't use (yes, they do take expired fast passes).  And then we got fast passes for four other rides. . . but that was a little tricky, because you can't just run around getting fast passes.  You have to wait until the time printed on your last one which tells you when you are eligible to get another one.  So we did a few fun things while we collected the passes at all the right times.  At the end of the day, right before we left, we were able to do a blitz of five quick rides because we didn't have to do any waiting with our passes.  Brayden wanted to ride Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan again (those were a couple of his favorites at Magic Kingdom)  and our very last ride to end our trip was Space Mountain (my mom got stuck with the two tired, cranky boys while James, Michael and I rode the roller coaster), but we were in and out in ten minutes, so that wasn't too bad :)

We also went to one more character meal on our last day--Crystal Palace.  To be honest, it wasn't my favorite.  The place was far too big for only four characters--so they really only made it around once before it was time for us to leave.  But they were really cute when they did interact with the boys, so that made it better.  We were one of the first ones seated for the lunch slots, so they got about five minutes of one on one time with the characters before everyone else came rolling in.  I was thankful for that.  

We had a wonderful trip for the most part.  The hardest part was Brayden.  I don't think I ever finished my story about the hospital.  Two weeks before our trip, Brayden had the stomach bug.  Up until and through our entire trip, every day he would complain many times that his stomach was hurting.  He would cry.  He wasn't himself.  He didn't eat a lot.  He threw up every couple of days.  For two weeks straight, he woke up about ten times a night, crying and rolling around in pain or just crying and flailing his legs.  Even while we were at Disney, he wasn't better. . . to be honest, I thought maybe it was an act a little bit (terrible of me, I know), but when we were at Disney, and we were doing something that I know he normally would've LOVED, and he was still crying and sitting in the strolling saying, I don't know how to make my stomach feel better, I knew that he wasn't faking it.  Some of the days, he was like this for a couple of hours a day.  It was really hard, especially because we were on vacation.  Nights were terrible.  We took turns sleeping with him to comfort him.  But none of us got good sleep because of his constantly wake ups and his disruptions.  On our last day at Disney, he fell asleep when we got on the magical express bus at 3:30 pm and he didn't wake up (besides occasional wake ups and bouts of crying), until about 2 am.  By the point, we had already landed in Buffalo, driven straight to the hospital in Rochester and were worried sick about him.  Come to find out, he was full of it.  You know . . . poop.  Gross, eh?  I will spare you the details. . . but they took care of it, we got home at 5 am.  James had to wake up at 6:30 to go to work, and I was up by 7:15 with Carter.  We were dog tired.  

BUT, since then, Brayden has been great.  He has slept straight through the night for six straight nights, he hasn't complained once of a stomach ache.  He hasn't thrown up, and he is eating like a champ.  We have our little man back again, and it's wonderful.    I wish I could rewind and have that figured out before we left for our trip. He would've had a much more pleasant time!

One last picture from our trip. . . 

This is how everyone feels on the way out, and your last day.  Tired, ready for a nap and thirsty. (At least my mom is still smiling!)

And that concludes my Disney posts.  If you are planning a trip in the near future and want to pick my brains about anything at all, feel free!