{Fall Sessions - Little Savannah}

Wow, I feel like a slacker!    I photographed this family in Late October or Early November...everything's a blur this this month lol.  Anyway, I have photographed little Savannah since she was a newborn.  I just love her and her parents.  A little baby brother is on the way in March, doesn't my client  look beautiful pregnant?  Here's a peak at our session. :)  Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season!  I just started my Christmas shopping and thanks to Amazon.com I've been laying in bed in the evenings doing my shopping!  It's awesome!  Such a relief and I'm avoiding the craziness of the stores.  I'm almost done now!  Yay!  Happy shopping, baking, wrapping and eating (I just made eggnog bread- delish!) :)

{I've been a super bad blogger :( but I'm here!}

I don't have a good excuse of why I've been such a bad blogger. I've been busy and I keep saying...oh I'll blog that session tomorrow and then I get busy again.  Bad.  I have had one of the busiest busy seasons since moving to Arizona and it's been the best one too.  I'm not feeling burned out even when I'm up till midnight editing.  My secret?  I've been shooting and the night of each shoot I stay up and edit the whole session and post their gallery so it's done!  It's made all the difference in the world for my clear head, time with family, stress, etc.    I've created a bunch of actions I used for each image and just run them all on every picture so it's a real time saver and I'm a happier person, mom, and wife :)

So I'm going to try to get caught up on blogging all my sessions but for now I'm just going to do a quick post on a session I did with my kids this evening.  They haven't been in front of my camera since Halloween so I've missed them ;o)

{Is Halloween Really Over?}

I don't want Halloween to be over :(  Tyler woke up the morning after Halloween and said sadly 'I wish Halloween would never end.  I'm sad it's over.'  I told him I was too.  But assured him that there are so many fun holiday's coming up and next Halloween will be here before we know it.   He wasn't very convinced.  Tyler had a Halloween Birthday party even though his Birthday is November 8th.  He loved the celebration with 18 kids (nutty - but fun).  And we had a 'grown-up Halloween party' of our own last weekend.  Yes, we're just big kids :)  Jeff went as 'Where's Waldo' and I  was a  ladybug.  My peacock costume didn't turn out so a last minute change to a ladybug was in order :) And on Halloween, we went trick-or-treating with neighbors and then hung out by the fire in our driveway recapping the evenings fun events.  Such a wonderful time of year.  Here's  little snippet of our Halloween celebrations.

Party Kids!  Tyler's 9th Birthday celebration!

Test:  Can you find Waldo in the pictures below.  He blends in well so don't feel bad if you can't spot him.

{October Break in Mexico}

So, I've been away.  I didn't have time to blog just before leaving so I wanted to do a quick post now and let you know that we're back and things are rocking and rolling around here - lots going on, Sessions, Mentoring (yes, mentoring!), workshops (yes,  I've been shamed for not doing them so I'm starting small - more info in the New Year), Halloween Parties {one for Tyler's birthday and one for just the adults}, trips to the pumpkin patches, etc.  It's very very very busy right now so I'll do my best to blog as much as I can and to answer my e-mails in a timely manner (don't hesitate to e-mail more than once - my e-mail can be a black hole sometimes).  :) Whew, I'm tired just typing all of that lol.

For the kids October Break we left town for a week and went to Puerto Vallarta!  "What?  Mexico?  You took your kids there? "  Yes, it's totally safe and the people are warm and welcoming!  We had an amazing trip that the kids have touted as their best vacation ever - ha.  More details in the coming days :) But I wanted to leave you with a the updates above and a couple quick pictures from this past week.  Happy October!

Tyler's favorite thing to do in the ocean - jump off daddy's shoulders into the waves. :)

{Starving Skeleton}

After school the kids come home starving!  Am I alone with this?  Half their lunch is still in their lunch box and they are devouring it and asking for more.  So Brielle and Tyler had a Z'Bar and a clementine yesterday for a snack after school.  I noticed that Brielle didn't leave her wrapper on the counter and I didn't notice the clementine peeler out but didn't really think much of it.  Then when I was cleaning up today I found this.

She shared her snack with one of our skeletons.  The kids have had fun this year posing the skeletons we have.  One was balancing a baby pumpkin on his hand and the other had a plastic spiker crawling out of the eye sockets.  It's funny to see what they come up with each day.  I just had to share since I know they will get to an age where they won't find this stuff fun and entertaining.  For now, I'm soaking it all in :)

{little boy, puppy kisses, and vintage airplanes}

Isn't this little guy adorable?!  And his dogs?!   I loved capturing a boy and his dogs !  I was excited for the challenge since I knew a 2 year old and two dogs might be tough to capture.  But when I met Greyson and saw what a relaxed, easy going , happy-go-lucky, little 2 year old he was - I was even more excited to capture a few images with him and his dogs.  We saved the pups for the end of the session and it worked out perfectly.

And look at his personality - so genuine, unexpected and charming for a 2 year old.   I loved stepping back and just seeing what he'd give me.   Such a treat to capture.   I was able to get a few with him and his mom too.  Don't they look alike?  The weather was perfect, well except the heat.  There was some cloud cover that created a natural diffuser. Rare to get that in sun-all-the-time AZ.  And we lucked out with no rain.  Now we just need the weather to cool off so we're not dripping sweat during sessions. I love the clothing Greyson's mom brought to the session.  It was perfect with the props I brought.  I bring a variety of props in the event some work with the outfits and some don't.  I want to play it safe and have choices.  ;-)

Hope you enjoy  this little  peek at our session.  :)

{Ingrid B. Designs - all about Autumn}

Have you ever seen a mix of colors, textures and details on clothing that took your breath away?  I know, sounds a little crazy but Ingrid B. Designs new fall line did just that - it took my breath away.  The textured fabrics (soft cotton, silk detail and plush velvet accents) in fall colors with amazing detail literally made my jaw drop.   I <3 it!  I can't wait for the weather to get cooler so Brielle can wear these to school.  The day we photographed these there was a storm coming so we were super quick with set-up, photos, and tear down.  Right as I was grabbing the last of the props the rain came pouring down.  It was perfect - we completed the session and then went home to have hot chocolate and marshmallows even though it was still 103+ degrees with rain.  Crazy hu?  Ingrid, you are amazing my friend.  I love these!   And I'm so happy to be working with you.   Oh and Ingrid B. Designs has a Facebook page - check it out for the release of her newest designs, special discounts, and other promotions.

{beautiful chidren and momma - client session}

I was so excited to photograph my friend Kathy and her 3 beautiful children!  Pretty soon I'm going to be saying '4 beautiful children' - I can't wait!!  Kathy and her husband, Jeremy, are friends of ours and we love them dearly.  We can NOT wait to meet this fourth little one - I think I'm more anxious to know if it's a boy or a girl than they are ;-)  Kathy & Jeremy's room made the perfect setting for these relaxed, 'together' filled photos.  We'll have to get Jeremy in a few soon since he wasn't able to be there for this session.  Doesn't their bed look so comfy and pretty?  The kids just sank in all the pillows - it was fun to capture their spontaneity.  For my set-up - I could have used another light on the left side of the room but I opted for natural light for the entire session.  A reflector would've gotten in the way in the background so this is just good ole' fashion natural light no modifiers.  I like how the light created shadows on their faces, sets the mood :)  Here's bits of our session!

{Cookie World & Nuximade}

A while ago Zouyunli from 'Cookie World' Magazine, asked if I wanted to work with the magazine.  I was delighted and flattered.  Really?  Cool!   So there are three issues each with a 6 page spread of my work.  She chose the images and they are oldies but goodies.  :) This issue  was in March 2011  and I should be getting copies from the Magazine of the other two Magazines.  Pretty exciting!

And have I told you how much I love Nuxiemade's dresses?!  I love them.  They're cute, they wash well, they're colorful and the fabrics she uses are so fun.  Here's another creation she recently added to her store.  I thought the colors were so vivid they called for some gumballs.  So we set the tone of her session around that :)  Check her shop out if you haven't already.  She used to be 'the crochet hat maker' but she's expanded her talents to more, more, more.  And she's on Facebook where you can see her newest creations, specials, and discounts.

{Little Miss Brielle Dress - Rocker Baby Nation, Inc.}

Oh yay - new Fall designs from Matilda designer and founder of 'Rocker Baby Nation'.  RBN is gearing up for the crisp, cool Autumn season with some  fun new styles.  This one makes me melt - it's called the 'Little Miss Brielle Dress'.  She named her dress after little B!  Thank  you Mati!!  I need to tell Brielle about that - she'll giggle with excitement :)   Have you visited Rocker Baby's Facebook page?  She posts the her latest designs and FB promotions.  And her promos are very worth it - definitely a page to 'like'.  Note:  She's in the process of transferring her name from Rocker Baby, Inc to Rocker Baby Nation.  Like both pages so you can get in on all of the Facebook deals.