Wendi Riggens Riggens Photography

Congrats to Jen & Joel, admitted blog-stalkers, who tied the knot in my hometown of Carthage, IL yesterday!  No sneak peaks just yet, but I promise to post the shot that while I was taking it, Joel excitedly said “that is so going on the website!”  :)

Happy birthday to my amazing nephews, C & E, who turned a year old today!  These little twin boys are so stinkin’ cute and so funny, and make me excited about my own baby, due to arrive in 7 weeks 4 days (not that I’m counting).

I got to see old friends from my hometown and from high school yesterday, and lots of family today, which is always fun.  I got to shoot a reception at the beautiful windmill in Golden, and had the most cooperative and fun couple to work with.  I love what I do, but will admit that I am ready to take a break.  By this morning, I was so sore that I could barely move.  I fell 4 1/2 weeks ago, and visits to my OB and chiro aren’t helping the pain from twisting my hip, so 14 hour days are rough on my body!  I’ll be back up and running after baby is here for my remaining weddings, and I can’t wait!

The only not-so-fun thing about my weekend was saying ‘bye to myhusband.  Due to the flooding and Hwy 34 being closed for the next 6+ weeks, his 1/2 hour drive to work has turned into a nearly 2 hour drive (one way!!), so he is staying with family in IL during the week and coming home on weekends.  It’s funny, I travel quite a bit and am out of town often, and that doesn’t bother me, but he never travels.  Now that he’s the one out of the house, I hate it!  And being 8 months pregnant turned me into a sobbing, emotional mess when I would normally be like “ok, see you in a week!”  So, if anyone is bored and wants to keep me company in the evenings, give me a call.  :)

Miller family, your reunion images are up!

Look at this group!  I’m proud to call these people my in-laws! :)  My husband’s mom was one of 16 children, and every year, they try to get together.  This is only half of the living aunts and uncles and only a portion of the grandkids and great-grandkids.  Surprisingly, they all listened pretty well, though the kids were better-behaved than the adults.  :)

My phone is working again!  Yay!  Just in time to start having cell phone issues.  Boo!  I think I have both lines up and running finally, so big relief there.

Too all of my clients, my friends, and especially my family in the flood-affected areas, please, be safe.  This morning my husband woke me up to tell me that the levi in Gladstone broke and the town was under immediate mandatory evacuation.  We have close family in Oquawka, just up the river, and they have been sandbagging at the waterfront like crazy, and we are hoping that levi holds well.

Trav and I went downtown Burlington Saturday night, and by the time we went back Sunday morning, the place we had been standing was under water.  I was double-fisting my shooting that morning with two bodies and lenses, and will post some later for those that read this that aren’t in the flooding areas.  It is pretty amazing, yet terrifying at the same time.

On the home front, Trav and I tackled a big project in our house yesterday, all by ourselves – laying laminate in our sunroom.  We nearly gave up after the first row or two, but with perserverance – and a distribution of tasks – we got it!  My job was to crawl all over the floor and snap things into place, measure the planks to be cut, and align the spacers.  His job was to cut the planks and do whatever I told him to do.  :)  He was wonderful, he kept the dogs at bay, swept, cut, held pieces in place, and when I was too tired and too sore to do anymore, took everything he’d learned from watching me lay 2/3rds of the room and laid a few planks himself.  We did run out with room to go, though, and had planned on going to Galesburg today to get two final boxes since our Menards doesn’t carry this particular pattern, but with the bridge now closed we won’t be going there anytime soon.  IA City and Muscatine are both out, too. Luckily it is just a couple rows, so we can live with it for a few days.

I must say, though, I would not recommend taking on a project like that when you are 8 months pregnant.  Not very comfortable, and crawling around on the floor is difficult!

Again, to everyone out there in the flooding, be safe and be careful!

Happy 1st birthday, “L”!

I’ve been photographing “L” since she was 3 months old, and this was our 4th session together.  She is such a cutie-pie!  We did this session in her home, using the bright colored walls her mom has painted (I LOVED the lime green kitchen!), and played around outside a bit.  It was a chilly morning, but that didn’t slow her down!

Isn’t this blue wall beautiful??

Mom and Dad could barely keep up, and I could barely walk backwards fast enough!  This was shot “from the hip”, meaning I wasn’t looking through the shutter.  I was holding the camera down beside me, back-button focusing, at 24mm with my focus ring set to infinity, and walked backwards as fast as I could, hoping I didn’t trip!

Happy birthday, “L”.  I love watching you grow, and can’t wait to see what comes next!

A couple weekends ago, I drug my husband with me (his first time going to a session with me) to Keokuk to shoot Jennafer & Jeremy (boy, do I hope I spelled those right!).  Ah, the humors of a month pregnant woman hobbling around a farm!  No climbing or crawling this time around.  :)

J&J are so cute!  Jeramey isn’t a big fan of the camera, but after a while, loosened up, and I think we got some real smiles and emotion from them.  These two are tying the knot next January, and it will be a beautiful wedding!

I loved this little old car!  If I had enough land, I’d buy it and set it out just to let clients play in!

Ok, we were doing an engagement session out in the country, a farm-setting.  Who could resist?

And last but not least, everyone knows I love dogs!

Just wanted to share a quick image of our new house, taken the night we made an offer.  We LOVE old homes!  Our first home was built in 1874, and this one was built around 1902 (year isn’t exact).  I love the original woodwork and wood floors, the trim, the ceilings, the doorways, the creative use of space, and the character and history of a house that has been “around the block”.  New homes are nice, but even our realtor pointed out as we were looking that we always seemed to like the older ones and not so much the newer ones!

That’s my dad, by the way.  A BIG thank you to the team at Century 21, specifically Jon Salvador, the listing agent, and Tammy Starkey, our agent, who made the process incredibly easy.  Also, thanks to Jamie Chenoweth for setting us up with a second mortgage and for getting us closed two weeks ahead of time.  We had a wonderful team to work with, an amazing couple that we bought from that lived in and loved this house for 43 years, and now have a beautiful home that we can hopefully spend another 43 years in!

We have a lot to do to make the house our own, including painting, laying some laminate in the sunroom, updating fixtures and hardware, painting, installing some more ceiling fans, painting, decorating, and did I mention painting?  We’ve already done quite a bit, and I’ll try to post some before/afters as we finish up with projects.  We are working on practically every room at once, so it is taking a little longer to get done than I’d like, but since I am 7 months pregnant and can’t paint, lift, or even walk sometimes (fell and threw out my hip the night we closed, darn flower pots!), I don’t really get a say in it! :)