I love the Taylors. Every year they get in front of my camera and I always love the magic that happens. Always.

Chris, Jennifer, Logan and Sullivan… Thank you. Thank you for trusting me to capture you. XoXo

We choose a park/garden in the city this time for their session (The Green in Charlotte). Hang on ya’ll… there are a lot of pictures in this post!

I love this image in both color and black and white…

Sullivan loved jumping into Daddy’s arms..

But Logan wanted his Dad to jump with him. Thankfully he has a cool Dad

Love this one.

I try to capture the ordinary everyday moments. And often instead of ordinary they are sweet or funny, or simply a memory that I want to look back on….
These are a few pictures from my ’Febuary Misc’ folder… these two sisters dressing a baby doll….

And this cutie who woke up from her nap but was not quite ready to get out of her crib yet

Capture some of your everyday moments… you won’t regret it!

Thank you… for looking

It is Click of the Wild time again and Mallory totally took me out of my comfort zone this time with the focus on Unnatural Light. I used my flash more in the past two weeks than ever I think!

But that is one of the reasons I love this project so much. It makes me shoot more, and differently.

I had these idea’s of using dramatic backlight on subjects… but that didn’t happen, mainly because I do not have any off camera lighting equipment. I could have used other light sources, but honestly, I didn’t make it happen. So this is what I ended up with… tulips on my living room floor….

and to give you a good idea of what the unnatural light did for this image, here is a shot without my flash:

big difference, huh? I was kind of impressed ;) But I still prefer natural light! haha

I also took some shots in my hall bathroom, at night. I used the incandescent lights in the bathroom as my light source, no flash this time.

I put the flash back on for this random shot. I kinda like it. It feels so random and bright to have been in total darkness. I went outside around 9:30 at night and took this shot…. I was hot after getting off the treadmill, so the cold felt good, and I got a little more practice using my flash.

These next two shots are Kennedy under the trampoline at night… no flash on this one – just my iphone flash light on the ground illuminating her…

And this shot I turned my flash on….

There ya go, my take on Unnatural Light Please be sure to check out Click of the Wild and the other photographers sites for their thoughts on this focus! And thank you for looking!

Mallory came to my house and captured my girls and I. As we are today.

I know this phase of life with my girls will pass quickly. Although it does not always feel that way, I know it will. And I want to savor every single moment.

I want to remember how I braid their hair and make muffins and paint toenails and read books and tickle and giggle… I want to remember our home as it is right now. Because that too changes. I want to be able to look back and see these walls and furniture, and just see our space. Our home.

It’s not perfect. None of it is. But it is perfectly imperfect. Yeah, that morning my hair didn’t curl good and I wished I had worn it straight, and seeing myself in pictures makes me act like a typical woman and declare ”I WILL LOSE ______ POUNDS!” But mostly, I see us. I see love and happiness and I see our everyday life in these photo’s. That is exactly what I wanted. This is who we are, this is what we do. And Mallory captured it beautifully, for that, I am so grateful

All photo’s by Mallory Dawn Photography.
Warning: this is a lot of pictures! I gave up trying to decide what to post and just posted a lot!

I call these ‘The Christmas Card Shots’ because that is precisely what they are. A cute picture to send out to friends and family as a Christmas greeting. And really, it’s one of my favorite things to get out of the mailbox at Christmas time!
I do these for a few of my family. And honestly, you never know how it’s going to go. Normally we are rushed (holiday’s, bad weather, you know. The norm.) And then add in the oh-my-goodness-my-kid-didn’t-take-a-nap and well, you’ve really got a we’ll-do-anything-to-get-ONE-shot moment! ha.
I love having these two cuties in front of my camera. They are adorable. Fun. Full of energy. Happy kids. And bonus, they think I am funny – and cool! (yay!)

But, on this particular day, Genevieve did not take a nap. Every other day she naps. But not that day! A lot of our quick little shoot went something like this:

But, we still managed to get adorable pictures! I love this one of Jax, I feel like you can literally feel the excitement!

And these of little Miss No-Nap melt me. I think she looks absolutely precious

Next up, we have Jillie, Quincy and their dogs. This was quick and easy.
Funny fact: Allie (the dog on the leash) broke his leash when I stooped down and got closer to get a shot. He almost knocked me and my camera down! haha

My nieces, Mya and Karis. Karis was hungry and I had to leave (we were at our parents house) so this was a one-shot-wonder! haha

Now these two were a dream! And it should have been hard! I mean, Brooks was only a few weeks old. And Willa, a little 1-year-old. I prepared myself. The posing (for Brooks) and getting Willa to get in just the right spot so I could see them both… but amazingly, they settled right in where I put them, Willa smiled and hammed it up for my camera. I loved it!
We were done in less than 5 minutes. Good thing since it was a cold day!

This is what Christmas looks like at our house…

Most of these images were taken with my point and shoot camera. I do this because it makes me feel less pressured to ’get the shot’ and more able to just be in the moment. Stuart actually took a lot of these – as you’ll see, I am in quite a few (shocking, I know!)
Here we are on Christmas Eve….

They each got a night gown for their baby dolls that matched their own

Stuart, with his MawMaw and Mom… I love this.

And now, Christmas morning… kids really do make it magical…

so proud my hubs caught these two moments… I kinda love them

Poppa and MawMaw’s house for lunch…

MawMaw in an apron passing out gifts… this image is exactly how I see MawMaw on Christmas day, for as far back as I can remember….

Selfies with Poppa

The book that Poppa is holding is a book full of photo’s I took of our family last year. I have done this for several years now, and it’s sort of a tradition at this point… it is so much work, but the end result is worth it

and if your curious, I used Blurb to create the book

My cousin’s birthday is on Christmas day (Hannah), and MawMaw always has her a cake

There ya go. Snapshots of our Christmas 2013. I loved looking at these again

a few things I am loving at this moment….

• Grace Unplugged. We got this movie from Redbox this weekend and LOVED it!
• Cheeseburger soup. My entire family loves this soup. And that is saying a lot since Bristol can be a tad bit picky Click here for the recipe
• The Travelers Gift. I actually read this book awhile back on my Kindle and loved it so much that I bought a paper copy just so I could highlight some favorite parts and keep nearby to read anytime… it’s just that good. It makes you think differently…and see differently. It is thought provoking and inspiring.
• my photo’s from a session Mallory did for me and my girls. I am in love. I hope to get a lot more of these up on the blog soon, but here is one for now

I am planning to blog a lot more this week. I need to clean out my folders, get these photo’s out there! Stay tuned for more…. And have a fabulous Monday!

I always look forward to seeing this family every year. They get in front of my camera, and just do their thing. I love it, I love them :)

Here are some favorite’s from our session back in the fall… (I couldn’t narrow these down any more!)

Anna’s sister, Amy, joined us this time

We went to a local pumpkin stand that felt just right for fall pictures…

Anna, thank you all SO much! XoXo

It’s Click of the Wild time again! Linden chose ‘love’ as our focus word. I happened to get my shot without consciously shooting for COTW. After I got the shot I thought about it and knew that it was exactly how I wanted to express ‘love’.

My brother and Sister-in-law had their baby girl (Isla Jane) 8 weeks before her due date. She was born just over 3 pounds and is doing wonderful. She is a little miracle and we are so proud of her…

The image that I chose is my brother sitting and watching his daughter sleep… the love of a father for his daughter. Brand new, teeny tiny baby girl…

“Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition, but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.”
-Joseph Addison

Kennedy drew this sweet picture for her new baby cousin and the nurses hung it right on the side of her little bed. The fish picture seems to just fit the scene perfectly

Be sure to check out Click of the Wild to see the other images!

Around here snow days are rare. And when it does happen it is normally a light dusting and melts away quickly. Well, this winter we have had two good snowfalls and last week was a full four days of our grounds covered in white! Honestly, I like the snow but I can be over it quickly too. However, I try to enjoy every minute when we get it because it is so few and far between

Here are a few shots of our snow days last week…

We are lucky to have fabulous neighbors who come over with sleds!

On day three I was needing to get out of my house. When it snows our roads are a mess and mostly we stay at home. But Stuart got home from work and we all jumped in his truck and headed out for awhile… I love riding around in the snow, first, everything just looks beautiful. And you will likely see families walking down the roads and 4-wheelers fueling up at gas stations… it feels different, and good in a cozy-country kinda way.

This is what our roads were looking like on day three…

I looked back to see this; Kennedy all fixed up in her pink hat and shades!

Day four the sun came out and we all went outside and played with friends… it was perfect sledding weather!

This pictures sums up how Tenley felt about it by this time! haha

Happy Monday! Thanks for looking