Happy Valentines Day!

Did you know that today is also day one of Random Acts of Kindness week? Yep, that is right. I didn’t even know there was such a thing till I saw it here.  (very good post, by the way, go read it!) And while I like random acts of kindness any week, I think it is kinda cool that this week is officially “Random Acts of Kindness” week. It makes me want to be sure to do something random and kind for someone    Last week I left a note in my husbands lunch box that said “I think your tractor is sexy” I found it fitting and pretty funny. Considering he does sitework and runs equipment, which I know is not the same as a tractor, but close enough.. anyway, I know he got a laugh out of it when he pulled his lunch out and found it..haha! I just crack myself up!  (and if any of you are not getting my humor here, I got the line from this song by Kenny Chesney)

Okay, moving on now… I got off base there for a minute… go do something kind for someone this week, and have fun!

A few weeks ago I posted a survey asking about your thoughts on the many posts of my girls. I don’t think I ever gave you the results… so I’ll do that now.

• 56% said Love it…keep posting!
• 38% said Love it and find it inspiring.
• 6% said It’s okay but I’d rather see other stuff.
• 0% said Don’t like it.

I was happy with that! I have only had great feedback on the posts with my girls, never anything negative. But, I just wanted to do the survey for fun and give anyone the chance who wanted to say the didn’t like it, to say it. 

Mostly, I hope this blog inspires you and makes you smile. (and I hope it makes you want to get in front of my camera too!)  For the 6% who would rather see other stuff, I hope you have liked the shoots I’ve posted lately – more to come! And for the rest of you, here are some Kennedy and Bristol shots now!

Jumping on the bed… it is a favorite thing around here these days. When I wash my sheets I let them jump on our bed sometimes, and I get serious cool Mom points for that!

Love these two shots of them looking out my parents door at Scooby (the dog)…

And another shot of them just being them…

And these last three are from Bristol’s weekly shoots, this was last week which was Week 46

Check out this look she is giving me!

Happy Valentines Day, Happy Random Acts of Kindness week and Happy Monday!

XoXo

I love it when clients include props in their pictures. It is always fun and interesting and makes the pictures a little extra special. It can be anything from a special stuffed animal for a kid, to an old chair or quilt, or even a car or truck – old or new. Or, in Janet and Roy’s case, a motorcycle! I had never worked with a motorcycle in any of my shoots, so I was pretty excited about it  

First we got some shots without the bike…

Then after a quick change we got some shots with the bike…

this is a favorite:

 Janet and Roy, thanks for a fun afternoon!!

Oh yes, two days of seeing this sweet little girl on the blog is a good thing!

The day we took Enya’s pictures with her brothers she had suddenly gotten a cold, and while we were doing the pictures she just was not herself. I could see it in her eyes that she didn’t feel good. So, we got all the shots we wanted of her with the boys, then we got just the boys and planned another day to get Enya by herself. And I am glad we did, because she was one happy little girl full of smiles and giggles this time around

This look clearly says “You actually want me to just sit here?!”

We finished up the shoot in her bedroom. I always like to shoot in kids rooms when possible, I feel like it adds a very personal touch, tells more of their story and captures little bits of what the room is like (and that is always a good thing to be able to look back on).

One of my favorites of the day: (she is in her room looking at me through her window)

Trisha, thanks so much for asking me to do these… I loved having your kids in front of my camera!

These two brothers and their little sister are SO cute. (well, the boys are cute, and Enya is precious. I’d say they are all precious, but I don’t think the boys would appreciate that, so I’ll stick to cute for them!)

Meet Banner, Tate and Enya:

You can tell these boys think their little sister is great, I love these next two…

Banner:

Tate:

Enya: (she is showing off her newest trick here; she would raise her hand above her head and smile… it was precious!)

Banner and Tate showed me their moves on the rope swing… I love the look on Tates face!

I’ll post more of Enya (maybe tomorrow?) from a separate shoot we did with just her… till then, take care

I spent Saturday morning hanging with my hubby and the girls running errands and scouting out locations for photoshoots. We came across this that I thought was pretty cool:

After riding around for awhile we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch and scored a free chicken sandwich coupon just because we had to wait a few minutes on our food… Love me some Chick-fil-a!  Food and service, you just cannot beat it.  And yes, I am aware that I sound like I am advertising for Chick-fil-a now… moving on…

On the way home sitting at a stop sign, we hear a loud noise and look up to see two huge green splats of something…poop(?) on our windshield. I kid you not. I asked “Where did that come from?!” then looked in my sideview mirror and saw a flock of geese flying behind us… yeah, can we have a big ‘ol “Eeewwwwww!” all together now?! But really, what are the chances of two geese pooping at the same time and both landing on our windshield?!

There you go, something to ponder on this Miscellaneous Monday

In other, not-gross news, I finished the flower mobiles I spoke of here. Yay! I was really feeling discouraged about them after attempting the first of 3. I just felt like it was time-consuming, my wire balls were not exactly ’round’, and I didn’t love how it was looking. But, after a few of my friends and family saw it they insisted that they loved it and encouraged me to start and finish the other two. So, late one afternoon while cooking supper, Bristol hanging on my legs and Kennedy asking for various things I decided I was going to do it. I suddenly wanted to finish those things. No more waiting, no more ‘planning’ to do them, I was just going to do it! So I got to work, and I did it. And can I just say that I love them?! I love how they look in the room, I love how ‘girly’ they are, I love how Bristol looks at them while getting changed and dressed, I love that I can move them to her ‘big girl’ room when her and Kennedy share a room one day… So, needless to say, I am happy that I stuck to the project and finished it. And honestly, it was not so bad once I knew what I was doing and sort of got the hang of it. And the fact that I was liking what I was seeing was also a plus! But, I am glad to be done too; I am just not good at ‘crafty’ things. But every once in awhile I get a wild hair and try something… and this time I am glad I did!

Anyway, here is a picture:

Happy Monday ya’ll!

I managed to blog Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and planned on blogging another shoot on Friday. But here I am sitting in front of my computer at 9:30 on Thursday night and I haven’t even begun to prepare a blog post. And if you are a blogger, you know that it takes some time  

Today I felt accomplished. I haven’t stopped since I got up this morning and it felt good… I cleaned, I did laundry, I organized a few cabinets and drawers I had been meaning to get around too, Kennedy and I made a construction paper chain of hearts for Valentines Day, I made a phone call I had been putting off because I knew it would be one of those annoying stay-on-hold-listening-to-boring-music calls, and it was – I stayed on the phone for 37 minutes and was talking to an actual person about 6 minutes of that time. Anyway, back to the point, I managed to get a lot done today, but blogging did not make the cut. And even though I cleaned a good part of the day, my house looks like this right now:

Thanks to two little girls  

I’ll be back blogging next week, unless I can squeeze it in tomorrow, I have a full day, but we’ll see      Till then I’ll leave you with a few pictures of Bristol…

Oh yes… she melts my heart! (and clings to my legs, but that is beside the point)

Jane is sweet, she is beautiful, and she has this smile that takes over her whole face… seriously, this little girl is just precious! She turned two back in the fall, and I was so happy to be there documenting her birthday again this year! (I was there for her first birthday as well, so it was great getting to see her and how much she has changed and grown in the past year) I got there a few minutes before the party started in order to capture a few pictures of just Jane, these are some of my favorites:

A few party details…

I love this next one… something about the movement, the bright, blown-out spots, the pink balloon, I just love it!

Totally love this one too!

A few party shots:

This is one of Jane’s sweet cousins… there are 3 of them, all boys, and they are so incredibly sweet (not to mention cute)!

Thank you Lynn and Brian for asking me to be there at her Birthday and capture it all for you. I had so much fun!

Seriously, I have said it before, but I’ll say it again, I love Bridal and Day After sessions!  I get to shoot a girl looking gorgeous in her wedding gown without the stress and hurry of the wedding day. LOVE IT!

My sister got married back in October and we got together for a Day After session a couple of weeks after her wedding. A Day After session can be done shortly after the wedding, or it can be years later. The idea is to get that dress out of the back of the closet, put it back on and have some fun. You get gorgeous pictures of you in your dress and while you may have great pictures from your wedding day, a girl can never have too many pictures! Plus, when doing a Day After shoot you can just relax and have fun. Generally the wedding day is a bit more exciting and you are doing a whole lot more than just taking pretty pictures!

Also, a Day After session generally includes the groom. But, Brides often get pictures of just themselves too… that shoot is commonly called “Trash the Dress” (even if you don’t actually trash the dress) Either way, Holly and Jonathan opted to do this together, and we had SO much fun.  Holly did not try to ‘copy’ the same look she had on her wedding day, and opted to wear her hair down. (She wore it up on her wedding day… you can see a few pictures here, and more here)

Okay, enough talk… now on to the pictures

Jonathan just had to have a little fun…

Laughter… I love it!

Jonathan having some more fun!

I’ll end with these two because they make me happy…

I almost forgot to mention… my sister recently started a blog called Chic & Lovely and you can find it HERE.

Have a wonderful day … and thanks for stopping by!

Gini is a senior this year… so we got together for a few “Senior” shots. These are some of my favorites….

These next four are very similar, but I liked each one for different reasons, so I just posted them all

Gini asked for this shot, and I love it!

While Gini changed outfits I snapped a few of little brother Jared…

Gini – love ya girl