Another Christmas themed shoot…. This adorable little boy (Emerson) belongs to my friend Julie, and these are some of my favorites:

Ahh, Brooklyn is a sweetie, that is for sure.  We got together for a few pictures for a Christmas card, and that was all we really got to do. It was so cold that her little nose started turning red! So, we didn’t spend too much time out there… but I love what we got.

Silly faces, ya’ll!

Courtney, I am already looking forward to our ‘warm weather’ shoot! XoXo

Miscellaneous Monday is coming a little later this morning … mainly because I did not get on my computer much this weekend. My Birthday was Saturday (last year in my 20′s now ya’ll!) and I spent the weekend with my family and away from my computer (for the most part!) I normally blog on Sunday when the girls are asleep, for several reasons, one being that Monday’s are normally crazy busy. The house is a wreck, I need to go to the grocery store, the post office, etc. But, I did knock out going to the grocery store last night after Kennedy decided to draw a picture of her Daddy and Tyke (who had just been here looking at our leaking hot water heater, yep, it has been a weekend!) anyway, she did her art on the wall. Surprisingly, that was the first time. I was sitting on her bedroom floor playing with her doll-house with Bristol and I heard her crayons flying, and her talking the whole time. There is Daddy…. there is Tyke…. That is when I decided to look up and check out the art, because just hearing her talk as she created was adorable. It quickly became un-adorable when I saw the mess! And so we went out to get a bite to eat and ran to Walmart for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser pads. Lets just say those things are my best friend.

In other news, I received my new business cards, just in time for my birthday! Let me start out by saying that I still feel incredibly blessed to even need  business cards. And even more so, business cards that are unique, my own look, my own brand.

I started out just loving photography. I loved capturing the moment. The beauty. The friends and family. The grass. (that is not a joke, one of my all-time favorite shots is of the grass in my parents front yard! I’ll have to post a picture of that shot soon) Basically I just loved to shoot. I learned more and more. (I am still learning, I don’t think we ever stop learning!) And soon I was holding my very first Nikon SLR. I remember it was a birthday gift from my parents. I remember the feeling of seeing the box. The smell of the camera. The way it felt in my hands. The sound of the shutter clicking. The feeling I got when I heard that shutter click and knew I had gotten ‘the’ shot. I think we could sum it all up in one word; Passion.

I am passionate about photography. I was then and still am now. My photography has morphed into something bigger, I now get paid for taking pictures. And I am so thankful for that. I am not ‘big-time’, in fact, my business is quite small. But it is perfect for me for right now. And we’ll see what the future may hold. However, it is big enough that I felt like I needed my own business cards. But more important, my own ‘brand’. I thought about it for a long time. I tossed around so many ideas. I brain-stormed with my friend Julie. I knew I wanted something simple, maybe a bit whimsical, and definitely modern.  So, without further ado… my new business cards!

I love them!   I also ordered post cards for writing notes on:

I put random words at the top that I feel like evokes feelings of what a picture might capture. And of course my ‘slogan’ of Real life, Captured.

Here is a close-up of the frames that Julie did:

These are just the first two things I have ordered. I need to make a few changes now that I see them in print, but I’ll soon be getting a few more things with my new logo, in fact, I hope to get it here on the blog soon. That is another ‘project’ I need to tackle! But, I was so excited I had to share it with you

Julie, Thank you for doing such a GREAT job and putting what was in my head on paper. Seriously you are so good at that. Even with me hanging over you saying “yes…that is it…. no! I am not feeling it… Okay, walking away now!” hahahahah! Much love!

This post got a little longer than I had imagined. I can’t seem to stop typing! ha! I had a few pictures of the girls I had planned to share, but I am going to bring this post to a close now for fear that it may not get published at all today if I don’t! I’ll share the pictures of the girls another day.

Have yourselves a fabulous Monday!

There is no doubt about it, these kids are adorable! (of course I may be a little bit biased since they do belong to my cousin/friend)

Morgan, Ryan, Cameron and Ally:

I love this one because of the boys looking at each other and laughing… who knows what they were cooking up!

these kids love their baby sister…

I let Ryan show off his personality a bit:

I snapped this picture of the tree when we got done, and I just love it!

 Paulette, enjoy your ‘one’ picture! (wink!) Much love

 I did a Mother/Daughter shoot for Coreen and her oldest daughter Lia awhile back (you can see it here). Since that shoot Lia has grown up a lot and become a big sister to a sweet little girl named Selma. We got together for another shoot back in November and this time Dad and Grandma got in on the fun

Here are some of my favorite shots:

These images of Lia are some of my favorites of the day!

I love this shot and can’t decide which I love more; b&w or sepia, so I am posting both

Lia had brought along her Halloween costume and asked me if I could take her picture in it… of course I said yes! She looked adorable in it

We got a few shots of just Isaac and Coreen…

Thank you all for a wonderful time… I enjoyed it very much    XoXo

Remember this post from last week? Well, when Mike, Melinda and Audry pulled up to the location we were shooting at, Mike rolled down his window and I suggested a place to park. He looked at me like I had 3 heads. What I did not know at the time is his car is his baby. And my suggestion was not quite good enough. Thank goodness he forgave me and we got along great after that! As it turns out, we actually took some pictures with his car, and he commented saying he was “crushed the car did not make the cut”…  Well Mike, when I blogged last week I had to narrow it down and I apologize. But I am posting a few of your car for you here now

Gorgeous car. And oh-so-clean! Really, I wish mine was half as clean and shiny as this one

Coming up this week, this adorable little girl and her family:

And in true Miscellaneous Monday fashion, I have to mention my girls

Bristol fell asleep in the swing yesterday:

Yeah, those cheeks? They are so kissable!

And as I’ve mentioned before, I keep a private blog for both of my girls. Just for random thoughts, milestones, things they say and do, etc. Here is a post from last week off Kennedy’s blog:

This family has been in front of my camera a few times, (thank ya’ll!) and I was happy to have them there again back in November

Mike and Aja and their 3 adorable kids, Austin, Reese and Sailor:

I think these next two are my favorites from the entire shoot. I love them.

I am pretty sure that if this was me and my family, I’d have this one printed large and hung on my wall!

Thanks again guys!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

As I go through these pictures picking a few to blog I had to smile. These pictures make me think (yet again) how much I love my job. I feel that I captured the love and the fun that just radiates from this family.

Meet Mike, Melinda and Audry:

Not sure if it is ‘cool’ to call an eleven year old adorable… but that is exactly what Audry is, adorable!

Audry being a typical pre-teen … I thought it was cute

Love how these shots reflect the relationships… Mother/Daughter, sweet. Father/Daughter playful/teasing.

Mike, Melinda and Audry… Thank you SO much for asking me to do these pictures for you. I enjoyed every minute of our shoot and look forward to working with you again!

Our weekend looked like this:

We had incredible weather… it felt so good! And we stayed out as much as possible just soaking it in

Below, Kennedy is laying on the ground letting me trace her little body, then she gets up and draws the face - and yesterday – shoes! (love it!) I got the idea from this amazing blog, they do it often and it looked like fun so we adopted some of their fun :)

(I failed to get a picture of the shoes and face)

Happy Monday!

Kyle, Ginny and Jax have been in front of my camera many times (partly because Ginny is my cousin!)… and we always have so much fun   Here are some of my favorites from a shoot we did in November:

Ginny had told me before the shoot that she had a few props she wanted to use, but other than that she wanted me to just do my thing. She said she trusted that anything I did would be good…so she did not blink an eye when I suggested jumping out for a few shots at this clothes line and ducking under the blanket we threw over it…thanks ya’ll (for trusting me)!  These ended up being some of her favorites and she has them framed in her house

Thank you Ginny and Kyle!