Happy New Year!

After a long holiday hibernation... I'm back.  I took a little time off of work, blogging, checking email (mostly) and pretty much everything else to disconnect and spend some quality time with my family and friends.  Boy was it worth it.

Bob and I adopted a new dog. Taz is the most recent addition to the Kacich family.

We went for lots of walks.

We had a wonderful Christmas with our families.

My mother-in-law and I took my nieces Lily and Julia ice skating. That was a really fun day!

My dear friend, Heather, sent us a bottle of homemade apple brandy.  Looking forward to trying this!

I wore these fun nails on New Year's.  We had a great night filled with fancy drinks, fancy dinner, fun games and fabulous friends!

It was a great break.  Now, I'm looking forward to focusing some energy on getting our house decorated and in order.  I'm REALLY looking forward to growing my photography business.  I've got a few engagement sessions and family sessions lined up for the beginning of this year already.  I'm looking forward to seeing the Kacich family grow again in about a year - Matt, my-brother-in-law, will be getting hitched to Jackie.  Oh yeah, and Bob and I will be taking a trip to Ireland this spring.  It's going to be a great year!

My first photo shoot

Jackie and Matt, my brother-in-law and future sister-in-law, recently asked me to take their engagement photos, to which I immediately said, "YES!".  They gave me the opportunity to test out my photography skills and begin to develop my portfolio.  I was nervous as could be going into the session.  Really nervous.  The kind of nervous like before a big test or something where your stomach does flip flops.  I was so nervous that the photos would turn out terribly.  To my delight, we had just the opposite experience.

Jackie and Matt were terrific sports.  They let me drag them to several different locations throughout Champaign-Urbana trying out tons of different spots and poses.  The sun came out just enough to give us some great lighting conditions and the rain held off, too.  We had a lot of fun! 

I'm extremely happy with how the photos turned out and now can not wait to really launch this hobby of mine into something bigger.  I'll be working on developing a site (or perhaps a page of this blog) to show my work and hopefully book more engagement sessions.  Please spread the word if you know anyone who may be interested. :)  Also, you can email me with questions at libbykacich at gmail dot com.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the day:

Happy Birthday, Jackie

Today is Jackie's (my future sister-in-law) 30th birthday.  It also happens to be her golden birthday, which is awesome.  We'll be helping her celebrate a new decade tonight.  Jackie, you're as sweet as peach pie and I love you. Happy Birthday!

Jackie, MIL, Seester & me

And, my alma mater, the University of Illinois, is celebrating Homecoming this weekend.  Some out of town friends will be in and I can't wait to tailgate (you can see from the photos that we always have a good time).  Plus, the weather is telling me that fall is officially here and I love it.  It's going to be a great weekend.  Have a fun one!

Me, Matt, Jackie & Bob