I Heart Faces ~ We Are Family January 20, 2010

Oh I love this week at I Heart Faces!! I’m all about family! With 6 kids of my own, I just can’t help it!
Here’s are attempt at a family picture back in November. This was the best of the bunch and I loved it because it captured our crazy lives perfectly!!  And it made the Christmas card!

Head on over to I Heart Faces to see more beautiful families!

**edited to note:  I did not take this picture, my friend and photographer Elisabeth Carol took it.  I just wanted to share it because I love it.  I realize this takes me out of the contest and that’s okay.

iHeart Faces ~ Best Face Photo January 11, 2010

 

iHeart Faces is starting their 2nd year off to a grand start! They are currently having a birthday celebration honoring their first amazing year in blogdom! I know I’ve enjoyed them and learned SO much this last year that I can’t wait for what’s to come!

 

My ‘Best Face Photo’ was taken this month. I love it when I catch her sleepy eyes…

 

 

Head on over to iHeart Faces and see all sorts of beautiful entries this week!!

i Heart Faces Has Gone Tooshie! December 2, 2009

I ♥ Faces has changed things up on us this week and instead of focusing on faces, we’re focusing on …um….tooshies. Or bootys. Or boo-tay if you want to give it some attitude!

I knew immediately which picture I wanted to use for this week, but I’ve been so busy I was afraid I wasn’t gonna have a minute (or an hour if you’re fighting over your keyboard with a one year old!) to get to my post!

But I did!  And here is my Charlie Bird’s cute little striped tooshie just in the nick of time!

To join in the fun or see some more ‘tooshies’, head on over to i Heart Faces and see all the fun for yourself!!

I Heart Faces ~ “Autumn Beauty” November 16, 2009

There really isn’t such a thing as ‘Fall’ in North Central Texas. One morning you wake up, the leaves turn brown and then they fall off of the trees. It’s that simple.

 

This year, however, we’ve had cooler temperatures and lots and lots and lots of rain. And guess what? We still didn’t really get that gorgeous New England fall look, but a few of the leaves showed glimmers of red, yellow and orange. And frankly, that’s better than brown.

 

And since I couldn’t attend the I Heart Faces workshop this weekend, even though it was only 30 minutes away from me (knife inserted through the heart right here), I did the next best thing. I took pictures.

 

Thus enters my I Heart Faces Autumn Beauty entry….

 

Join in the fun and go check out all the other beautiful entries over at I Heart Faces. It’ll make you wanna grab a hot cup of apple cider and a warm slice of pumpkin bread. And maybe jump in a pile of leaves.

Senior Fashion Session ~ Miss Jai November 12, 2009

I have 5 daughters.  Do you realize how much pink and poof and priss I have in my life?  My life is full of baby dolls, American Girl dolls, tutus, hair accessories (OH! THE HAIR ACCESSORIES!!), skirts, glittery shoes and all manner of drama.  And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about little girls in the last 16 year of growing them, it’s this:  It doesn’t matter how old they are, they like to play dress up.

Think about it.  As a 40 year old woman (ahem, I don’t act it, so don’t judge …) I absolutely LOVE to look nice.  Every now and then I love to get myself all trussed up and go somewhere ~ even if it’s just Target.  It’s fun to look nice.  Period.

Which is why I decided to start offering Senior Fashion Sessions.  What 17 or 18 year old girl wouldn’t LOVE the opportunity to do their hair and make-up, change clothes multiple times, go to multiple locations and have their picture made?  By me, especially. HA!

That’s where Miss Jai (pronounced JAY) comes in.  She was my willing victim participant in our trek all over downtown Fort Worth.  We were out for 2 hours and still missed two outfit changes because of this little thing called .. sunset!  But OH, the fun we BOTH had!!  She had so much fun posing for the camera and I had a total ball taking her pictures.  Senior pictures have come a long way y’all since the 80′s.  (But oh how I miss that big hair.  Um, no.)

Take a look.

First we had fun in front of an old building where we were sure zombies were going to stick their hands through holes in the vents and grab us.  We’ve apparently watched a little  I Am Legend.

And then down to the railroad tracks…

One of my faves.

Then she did a clothing change in back of Phil the Suburban and went for some modern ‘old school’. Yes, I totally made that phrase up. And I like it.

And I can’t decide which one of these I like better … whadda y’all think?

This was another fave of mine. It’s just real fashion-y,vintage-y, artsy. I am so articulate, am I not?

And then there was the teal (TEAL!) wall. I heart downtown Fort Worth.

And lastly … another fave. It just has a lot of emotion in it to me. I know. I sound like one of those weird, artsy, photographer types. I can’t help myself sometimes.

And then it all came to a screeching halt because we ran out of beautiful sunlight. With still two clothing changes to go. Oh well. I guess that means we’ll just have to go again. Darn. As you can see I’m overwrought with emotion over the thought.

I think I like this whole girly thing. Good thing, huh?

~ Santa Baby ~ November 10, 2009

Hey!  Did y’all know that Christmas is only 45 (FORTY FIVE!!!) days away?!?!?!?!

Yea, sorta sent me into a hyperventilating tail spin, too!!  I’m usually about 80% done with all of my shopping by now.  But this year?  Um.  Not so much.  I told the kids the other day that it was Leap Christmas ~ the year we skip Christmas.  Yea.  They didn’t buy it.

Anyway.

I wanted to do something different this year with a few Christmas pics without breaking the bank where all sorts of cutesy Christmas clothes are concerned.  I am not a fan of the seasonal outfit y’all.  Anyway, this is where my deep and abiding love for the $1 section at Target delivered me once again!

I already had a cute tutu that I had been itching to get on Charlotte for a few pics.  Pair that with a red, sparkly Santa hat (because we all know  sparkly things make the world go ’round) that only cost $1 (A DOLLAR, Y’ALL!) and an adorable pair of red and white striped footlless tights (HELLO!!  CAN WE SAY ONE DOLLAR AS WELL!) and we got ourselves a Christmas par-tay!!

Anyway, I think I’m going to offer pictures like these or similar to these as a local Christmas special!!  Tell me what you think!  Good idea, bad idea or just radically cute?!?!

And while this one isn’t very Christmas-y, it does have a story. Charlie was sitting on the side of the chair and … um … may or may not have almost fallen off with Maddie catching her in just the bare nick of time which may or may not have totally scared the living daylights out of her causing her to wail in despair. That may or may not have happened. Ahem.

But whatever happened ~ it managed to produce a lovely picture…

But thankfully she survived and went on to be her happy, charming little self.

It looks like she’s saying, “Hello? Santa?”

Forget you people. I’m going to find Santa myself!

Lil’ Miss Sami November 9, 2009

A lot of my photography so far has been people I know or at least am familiar with.  This is with the exception of my birth photography, of course.  However, Miss Sami and her family were one of the very few clients that I’ve had that I totally did not know, or had ever even met, until the day of her newborn session.  May I just say that I am definitely blessed to meet some of the people I get to meet.  The D. family is an awesome family with some of the cutest kids south of the Mason-Dixon.

And Miss Sami pretty much proves it.

And yes, she has been the fist newborn to totally rock the flower!

Oh. My. Word. I could photograph this child all day long…

An OHHHHH the lips she has…

She, on the other hand, was not thrilled with my photography skillz. Apparently, I was rather boring.

But my friends, this picture is one of my favoritest (totally a word, by the way.) of all time. Ever. Momma’s and babies together are the best thing ever and this picture? Well, every time I look at it I get a little teary eyed. It just sums up the momma-baby love relationship.

Thanks D. family for letting me on a little snippet of your beautiful family.

Growing Up ~ Grace November 5, 2009

Grace is growing up right before my very eyes. Kids do that you know.

But it is never more evident to me than when I look at her through the lens of my camera. For some reason the pictures always seem to make it more and more apparent to me that in a few years she will be a young lady and not just a child.

But for now, she’s in that ‘in between’ stage. Not a child, but not a young lady. She’s always been mature beyond her years, but right now….rightthisverysecond …. I just want her to stay a child.

I’m always reminding myself that while I may take pictures of other people’s children that I always (ALWAYS!) need to remember to take pictures of my own children. And so I did.

Maybe it’s the earrings that make her look older … I may need to burn them.

This is the look she gives me when she thinks I’m being a little dumb. She’s pretty good at it.

And my very favorite one EV-AH!!

Lily 3 months ~ aka Fat Baby November 4, 2009

I’ve known Lily since she was in her momma’s belly.  As a matter of fact, her momma, Mae, was the one who coined the name “Fat Baby” for Lily.  They didn’t know if they were having a boy or a girl, but Mae had it in her head that regardless of the sex, she was going to have one big ‘ol baby.  So, she nicknamed the baby in utero ‘Fat Baby’.   And the name stuck.

All through the pregnancy we called Mae’s belly ‘Fat Baby’.  Boy were we all surprised when Miss Tiger Lily made her appearance and was just over 7 lbs.  She was no fat baby.  As a matter of fact, at her newborn session I had a little talk with her about how she needed to fatten up so we could get pictures of her delicious, chubby baby rolls and how important it was for to drink lots of Booby Juice so could she could get that way.

Well y’all.  She listened.

Lily is one of the cutest, sweetest, most mellow babies I have ever seen.  And OH. THE. ROLLS.  She took me quite literally when I told her to fatten up!  I could just eat up her chubbalicious baby rolls!  And this child has the faces!  In the words of Tyra … she’s fierce!

Oh.  She has her momma’s eyes…

….and her expressions!

Cracked. Me. Up.  Her momma said she was saying, ‘I’m gonna get me some booby!’

She’s just adorable.

But nothing quite compares to a momma lovin’ on her baby.  So sweet.

Thank you Tiger Lily for being so obedient and getting so wonderfully chubby. Next time I’m gonna put you in a tutu so be ready to show off all those lovely baby rolls!

Introducing ‘Me’ at My New Digs… October 7, 2009

So. 

 

What do y’all think of my new place?  I’ll have to admit I’m pretty stoked!!  I just couldn’t deal with Blogger anymore.  I know that anywhere I set up shop it’s going to have issues at some point or another, but it was just getting ridiculous over there.

 

So here I am.  I hope to have a long lasting relationship with WordPress and quit dragging y’all all over the dang internet!  Thanks for staying with me this long.