So continuing with our big stream of photos I’ve also got a… well a lot… of Christmas photos. We tried our best to narrow down our favorites but it was hard to have less than 15 so it is a little over 20. Either way though, we had SUCH a fun time this Christmas with our family and we can’t wait till next year!!!

Still to come: IndyPUG Christmas, 5DMark2 Preview, Portrait Session, and a Wedding we’re shooting tomorrow!! Enjoy the Christmas photos till then!!!

The way to Illinois was a bit.. Foggy?

First we went to my Dad’s for sweet potato pie!

and um… some dancing?

My step-mom and dad lookin’ so cute together.

Then off to my mom and step-dad’s place. Where we met up with them and my sisters and brother-in-law!

Mom and her new flip camera.

Me in my “Nobody Reads my Blog” shirt. Becker, eat your heart out. LOL.

New trunk emblem for the Fiat! YAAAY!!

My sister, Betsy, a bit excited about her Christmas present. My brother-in-law David enjoy presents and a beer.

My big sis, Norrie, works for Amazon.uk and came all the way from London!

And people wonder why I don’t mind driving 4 hours to go home??

I got a little remote control helicopter for Christmas. Lou gave it a ‘whirl’.

Checking emails, and ‘zoned out’, as Cat calls it (she thinks I wouldn’t know if the world blew up), looking at the [b] school, which I have to admit I’m totally addicted to. If you’re a photographer is simply one of the coolest things to belong to. We’d love to see some of our friends on their (::cough:: Amanda and Kyle) exchanging ideas and networking with everyone out there!! We look forward to seeing you in there sharing ideas!!! Such a great place to learn new things and ‘hone the craft’. We LOVE IT!

Then it was to Cathy’s family Christmas (that’s three, lol).

Roxanne checking to see what Victoria brought her.

Donnie, Cathy’s dad, looking all cool in his new jacket.

Deb, Cat’s mom!

Cat’s sister Mindy, and her fiance Joe.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 2008!!!

There’s more to come so stay tuned!! We had such a wonderful year and we can’t wait to see what next year has in store for us. We already have over 15 weddings set up to go and a couple months are completely booked so I know we’re going to be busy busy busy. We’ve also got our trip to Vegas in February and our trip to San Francisco in October. Here’s hoping it all goes smoothly!!

We’re also working on our weight watchers diet. My dad recently had a bit of a scare with his heart and thankfully all our prayers got through and all was fine but it really got us to thinking about what we eat and so we’re trying to get ourselves into good habits while we’re still in our prime. We had been just trying to cut back and lost a couple lbs here and there but we’ve decided to get healthy make a ton of yummy home cooked meals. We’ll try and keep you guys all up to date on our progress and hopefully the wiifit will eventually stop telling me I’m overweight. Argh. We even downloaded little point calculators for our iPhones (I got Cathy her own iPhone for Christmas and she can’t put it down. HAHA!!).

The Fiat that Lou and I have been working on is coming along smoothly and I’m told it might be driving next summer or fall, one can only hope. We’re going to try and post more blog entries than we did last year even if we’re not shooting an event or a wedding.

Anyways, thanks so much for all the comments, the christmas cards, the emails, the phone calls, and for all of our super-cool super-sweet couples we get to work with and their amazing families. We’re SO excited about the weddings we’re shooting next year in over five different states!! It’s going to be AWESOME!!!

Thanks for reading -David.

Photographs from Christmas 2008 originally appeared on Chicago Wedding Photographers | Cathy and David (www.cathydavidphoto.com) on January 7, 2009.

We’ve got a wedding coming up this weekend that we’re shooting with our brand new cameras. We’re so excited! But until then we’ve got some fun photos we took of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the IndyPUG Christmas party and our favorite photos of 2008 to post! On with the get togetherness!!

Poor Charlie-Anne has to stay downstairs at Mom’s.

My sister, Betsy rollin’ those dice for Farkle.

My mom trying out our cameras.

Cathy lookin’ all cools.

While over at my Dad’s we played table top wargaming with his ruleset, Normal Warfare. It was really fun time to be had by all. This board btw, is enormous!!!

On the way out of town we had lunch with my sister, Shannan and my brother-in-law, John!

Hope you enjoyed our family photos!!! More to come soon!

Thanks for reading -David.

Photographs from Thanksgiving 2008 originally appeared on Chicago Wedding Photographers | Cathy and David (www.cathydavidphoto.com) on January 7, 2009.

Okay, so completely having nothing to do with either weddings or photography… I’ve enclosed a video of me starting the X1/9 engine my step-dad, Lou, has been helping me restore so we can hopefully drive the thing next year. We haven’t heard this engine run since I bought the whole car for $700 on a field somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Ohio over four years ago. It ran at the time but sounded like it was on it’s last leg. Not anymore!!

If you’ve been reading our blog for awhile you’ll know that Lou loves old italian cars and I’ve got the same bug but never had my own. Now I do. Anyways, I drove to Illinois during the week a month or so ago to start it up. In the video you’ll see Lou explaining how it all works, his cars in the background, and my mom watching me get a silly grin on my face (her shaky hands recording some of the video). I wish Cat had been able to come with me but I had a good time nevertheless. We’re hoping to start posting videos on here from time to time to help people get to know us a bit better, and figured this little insight into something that gets me as excited as photography does would be fun. 

Sorry if I come across as well… lol.. CRAZY.

Fiat X-19 Engine Restoration originally appeared on Chicago Wedding Photographers | Cathy and David (www.cathydavidphoto.com) on December 19, 2008.

Martinsville, Indiana-

What does the 4th mean to me? I guess it means celebrating our independence from tyranny. I think it’s evolved past that though. It’s a time when families get together for a common means and common thoughts. People forget about their differences and problems in our lives and celebrate. This year I celebrated the 4th for the first time with Cathy’s family. I celebrated last year with just her parents but this year was different. More people, more fun, more boominess.

We got invited to stay at Bradford Woods for the weekend at a cute little cabin. We played games, we played cards, all sorts of stuff. We also went to Cat’s uncle (her Dad’s twin brother) and aunt’s house for boomifictation. I’ve never seen more explosives in my life. Suffice to say it was a testosterone/adrenaline high that I won’t soon forget. On with photos! Most of which were taken by Cat while I got questionably large explosives ready.

Hello wilderness! Hello mosquitos!

Joe (Mindy’s fiance), Mindy (Cat’s sister), and yours truly in our Cabin.

I’m very serious about Apples to Apples, btw.

Psst. We’ll be blowing stuff up soon so put the tadpoles back.

Cat’s Mom and Aunt making delicious burgers.

Faces of children. LOVE!

And big kids too. (Cat’s Dad)

Lillian carefully keeping an eye on her little brother doing laps in the yard. I love this shot.

I can’t wait till we have kids, someday.

Have you ever seen a 10 month old so happy to take a bath???

Say Aaaaahhhhh…

How are those for firework earplugs?

Why is Mickey Mouse telling me how to light a fuse and run?

Did I mention questionably large fireworks…?

Favorite.

Let the show begin!

I absolutely love this shot. Cat took this awesome photo of a mortar going off. That’s me on the left.

Blurry I know, but for some reason I just love it!

The next day we took a walk in the woods. Look who I found!

My beautiful wife and her crazy hair in the wind!

Woof! Me and Roxanne! (Cat’s parents miniature pincher.)

Okay.. so we don’t take Apples to Apples that seriously.

Poker however, is another story. Look at Cat’s poker face. (She kicked my butt).

I mentioned a few blogs back about Cat’s cousin Michael and his wife and child losing their home in the flood. Well it wasn’t all lost. It’s slowly being brought back to life. We stopped by there to see it and it was a heart-wrenching thing to see.. and was very hard to look at and accept. Michael is an amazing guy who’s gone through a lot with a full smile on his face. I’ve never met anyone who’s taken so much and taken it in stride. Anyways we thought we’d share some of the pictures for people who aren’t in the midwest to see the destruction that ravaged our part of the country with flooding. Thankfully Cat and I were unaffected personally but we are family and friends with many people who lost if not everything. Our hearts and prayers go out to those people. I think the following two pictures speak for themselves..

That’s mold from their car being flooded.

In the end and after all the troubles, the 4th brings us together. We forget about the troubles that have happened to us in the year and look ahead proudly to the future, seeing all the good things ahead of us. We celebrate with our families and friends without cares or worries if only for a day and thank God for the chance to live in a country where we can have the freedom to enjoy our crazy lives to their fullest.

The 4th to me is about family, happy faces, good times, forgetting about the bad, and living free.

Thanks for reading.

-David.

4th of July Photographs originally appeared on Chicago Wedding Photographers | Cathy and David (www.cathydavidphoto.com) on July 7, 2008.