{dancing, digging and running from buzzing lil' bugs}

It was a hot & humid Southern evening when I photographed these cute little blonde haired, blue eyed siblings. The gnats and maquitos tagged along throughout the session, but thankfully the kids were troopers and weren't bothered too much by all the little buzzing bugs.  One little gnat flew right into little Jacqueline's eye and she patiently held still while I carefully got it out, then she was right back to playing and dancing like a ballerina.   Yes, Jacqueline is very girly (I just love that) and once she got on the fluffy tutus and petticoats I brought, she was off dancing and prancing around showing me her cute and very graceful ballet moves.  Below is one of the several photos of her entranced in dance.  I love this age, when a child just gets wrapped up in a world of imagination and their feelings are released through play and acting out those feelings - Jacqueline's reflected dance.  And her brother James, he just in awe by the trucks and tractors that were around.  He was on the move and determined to explore all things 'boy'.  It was fun seeing what he wanted to search for next.  Here's a little peak at our session. :)

{they're growing up...}

Such a happy time and yet a part of me feels sad that my babies are growing up.  Today was their first day of school - Brielle in preschool and Tyler in Kindergarten.  They went to bed giddy and eager for the sun to rise all in anticipation of their first day of school at the same school - just two classrooms away from one another.  Tyler helped tuck Brielle in, gave her a kiss and a hug and then put his hand on her forehead, his face inches away from hers and quietly assured her that every morning he was going to walk her to her class room.  Oh my...so sweet and so grown up hearing him volunteer to accompany her class each day.  Part of me ached for a third baby seeing how they were hitting this milestone before I was emotionally ready. I was looking forward to waking them in the morning knowing how excited they were.  I remember my  'first day of school' - the butterflies in my tummy, not wanting to eat because I was too excited to head off to school - I felt so grown up as each year passed.  I also remember what I wore on my first day of school {kindergarten}; a white ribbed tank top with a white knit sweater and a blue & green Scottish mini skirt, patent leather shoes and white cable-knit knee high socks.  I was so into my white knee highs and patent leather shoes - I even wore them riding my bike.  Anyway, Brielle confidently reached for her ballerina dress up clothes, her flower wings and her princess crown and before I knew it, she had them all on over her pajamas and proudly said 'I'm going to be so beeutiful for my first day of school' while she spun in circles and began to prance around the kitchen.  I was so close to just letting her go to school in her dress-up clothes.  But I managed to talk her into wearing another 'beautiful' dress explaining that her ballerina dress needed to be washed and would be waiting for her when she returned home later that day.   She was content.  Waving good-bye to the kids made me think of waving good-bye to them as they leave for college.  It's a long ways off, I know, but they really do grow up too fast.  Anyway, thanks for hanging in there and reading this post if you made it this far.  I'm sure many of you can relate - such a bitter sweet chapter of life.  Here's just one of the pictures I took of them this morning- Tyler kissing Brielle on the cheek before leaving for school together...

{Sessions in 'Starbucks Land'...sigh... can't wait!}

Okay, so Seattle isn't 'Starbucks Land' but it is where Starbucks was born and is head-quartered.  It's a place where you can find a Starbucks on every street corner and then some...oh I miss that...was I spoiled? ;-)  I'm so excited for my trip and all the sessions I have lined up... it's going to be a whirlwind 2 weeks and I can't wait!  I've got some tiny-tots, some tweens and some teens to photograph and I'm loving that variety. 

Anyway, I'm frantically trying to wrap things up here - hence the neglected blog (I hate that...).  And in doing so, I'm getting things prepared for my sessions here at home when I return so for those of you waiting for your client information packet - they are in the mail!  Had to show proof with pics!  ;-) 

And being that I will be flying - my kids accompanying me- I couldn't resist photographing my sons beloved plane (I think this one is a bi-plane, but non-the-less it's a plane).  The kids can't wait - they get to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa while I'm working.  Lucky kids ;-)  Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in some Seattle Urban photographs of my little munchkins while I'm away (fingers crossed).   Anyway, I played with the processing on these images slightly changing the feel of each - so fun (and dorky I know).  Oh I'll have my laptop with me in Sea-town and I'm going to try to post some entries to my blog so it's not neglected again. ;-)

{Tag! I'm it! X's 4}

I really am a team player and I love this cyber game of blog tag. I hate that I haven't been able to play being so busy but now I'm finally able to sit at my computer and play. Woo hoo! The most recent taggers who've tagged me are Elizabeth and Rebecca Tyler.
The rules seem to vary from tagger to tagger so I'm going by these rules since each of my taggers may have slightly varied rules.

The Rules.
*Post the rules before you give the facts.
*Post eight random facts about yourself.
*At the end of your blog post, you need to tag 3 people and list their names

*Leave the people you tagged a comment on their blog, letting them know that they've been tagged.
I'll try not to tell anything that I told you all the last time I was tagged. ;-)
1) I'm kinda a germaphobe.... I admit it. But I really try to hide this quirk since I know it's irritating to a lot of people. I get soooo grossed out by dish towels - are they being used to dry your hands off? Or to dry dishes? Or are they used to wash the counters down? Whatever they are used for, I used them once and then they go in the wash. I'm addicted to the Clorox cleaning wipes (low-streak formula) for washing my counters and kitchen table. They ROCK! Oh on that same note - sponges are just a haven for bacteria and other nasty things - so after I use them, I rinse them off and put them in the microwave for 2 minutes - it kills 99.9% of the nastiness sponges collect. I know, I need help.... or just a big glass of wine.

2) I'm adopted. My parents were living in Idaho at the time and suffered the loss of a baby girl, Kristen, to SIDS. What's totally weird - is my parents were supposed to get another child but their OB went on vacation and the birth mom delivered early. Well the OB taking over gave the baby to his sister in California rather than to my parents. Of course my parents were completely heart broken. But 9 months later, they got me! Another crazy thing is that Kristen had a little stork bite above her eye and I had the same stork bite over my eye {goose-bumps...} . God had a plan for our family and I'm thankful we were brought together.

3) I had a freckle on the tip of my nose as a child and I always wanted it to go away. I even remember seeing a commercial on TV for Oxy Pads, you know the blemish fighting pads, and I got so excited thinking that the Oxy Pads could take away my freckles. I insisted that we go to the store and get some. Anyway, I fell one day and skinned the tip of my nose and other parts of my face, pretty site I'm sure, and what happened? It skinned my freckle right off! I remember being so happy that my freckle was finally gone! Never-mind the fact that I may scar from falling, thankfully I didn't.

4) I swear I was a fish in my prior life. I grew up in Southern California and we had a pool in our backyard. So from a young age, I learned to swim and immediately fell in love with the water. I was in that pool every day even in the rain. If I wasn't in the pool I would be resting right next to the pool with one hand in the water - usually falling asleep.

5) I broke my tibia in preschool {my daughter gets her 'accident prone' tendencies from me}. My sister and I collided going around a blind corner - I was running to get my cool red original 'big wheel' bike back from her when we crashed. I still remember my big wheel and how much I just loved it.... Anyway, I had a cast from my hip to my toes and I just remember being devastated that I couldn't go swimming. Instead I sat in the hot tub with a big black garbage bag wrapped around my leg and propped on the edge of the hot tub. So miserable for a little girl in love with the water.

6) I was voted class clown in junior high. Uh-hu, really proud of that one. Then I somehow I was elected to be the school president the following year. Hmmmm...

7) I love the piano, it just soothes me so I have a bunch of CD's of piano music - Jim Brickman is one of my favorites. Anyway, I played the piano when I was young and when we moved we found a new piano teacher. She happened to be my 'new best friend's' mom. But her mom, was the Hitler of piano teachers. If my wrists weren't raised properly while I was playing she would slap my knuckles with a ruler. And she would write the most hateful notes about my abilities (or lack thereof) in the margins of my music sheets. I quit after a couple of months. Her daughter and I remained best friends but her mother never seemed to take a liking to me... or any of her daughters friends :( .

8) Lastly, I have two wedding rings. I know what you're thinking...and to clarify, I've only been married one time. Jeff proposed to me with a ring that we were going to find a setting for. So we looked... and looked.... and decided that we wanted to design the ring (that looked a bit vintage) and my uncle's best friend was a ring maker. So he made our ring. About a week before our wedding we weren't sure if we were going to get our ring so we went shopping for another setting. We found one we really liked and decided to buy it. Well, the next day our ring came from my uncles best friend - it was beautiful! So we went back to the store we had purchased the ring from the day before (since they did have a return policy) and found that since my ring size was 3 1/4 it was considered a custom size and it couldn't be returned. :( ..... ;-) Luckily my husband (fiancé) was willing to let me have two rings.

Now I'm tagging my photog friends Brooke Drellos, Kelli France, Alicia Caine & Kara Elmore (sorry ladies.... Brooke, just getting you back ;-) )

And I don't want to leave you without a picture so here's little Miss Lilly....
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{Autumn Bookings & Happy Mother's Day}

I'm currently booking for Autumn- summer sessions are full and fall sessions are quickly filling up. In order to allow plenty of time for holiday orders, my session cut-off is November 16th. After that date I'll be booking for January 2009! Thanks to those of you who have already booked your holiday/Autumn sessions! :)

This is one of my favorite videos... I saw it a few years ago and it still makes me giggle. Happy Mother's Day to you all! Oh and you'll have to press pause on the music player on my site to be able to hear the video. :)

{to my mom, on her birthday...}

I'm horrible at writing poetry.... love to write but I'm awful when it comes to poetry and the rules that go along with it (I'm a rule-breaker I guess) :) But my mom is an amazing person who is so selfless and giving, I wanted to give her something special and from my heart for her birthday. She's endured a lot lately and again is so giving of herself during this time.
Mom, thank you for being such an amazing mom and role model. I wish I could be with you today.
Happy Birthday Mom!
--God Made--
God made an extraordinary mother,
A mother who never grows old;
He made her laugh at the fun times
and gave her great strength during the tough times;
He made her a heart that is loving and selfless;
and a soul that is magnetic and true.
God made an extraordinary mother,
And He gave that amazing mother to me.
(Image to be inserted when I get back home to SC) :)

{all of your thoughts and prayers are working...}

First off, you are the best! You're kind words, thoughts and prayers are hard at work and I know they are making a difference. I'm in such awe over the overwhelming support I've received - your comments, e-mails, and some wonderful surprise gifts sent to our room have just brought me to tears. You all don't know how much your friendship and support means to me and my family- thank you sooooooo much!
The doctor's at Children have come to the following conclusion - her lab results show that she has contracted Shigella (similar to E-Coli - yuck!) coupled with nephritis and HSP (the disease mentioned below). That's the reasons for her high fevers, added stomach pains, and other not so fun symptoms. Then we got the exciting news that she could leave the hospital after getting a round of antibiotics to start treating the Shigella (her HSP just has to run it's course - there's no treatment except for monitoring her kidneys with weekly urine tests and then with monthly tests)!! Brielle is coming back to her little happy-go-lucky self; she's talkative and giggling, she's walking well (although she's wobbly on her legs and has fallen more than once scaring her a bit), and she's eating & drinking more. I'm so glad to have her out of the hospital (although I'm sooooooo thankful for the wonderful care she received). And I am selfishly so happy to see things outside of little B's hospital room. We sat outside tonight just soaking up the beautiful sunset here in Arizona, then bathed and now she's soundly sleeping.
Anyway, sorry for all the details, we are just so happy to be discharged and will be heading home back to South Carolina on Tuesday! It will give Briella time to be up to traveling and if she regresses, we are close to the doctors who treated her.
Thanks again so much you all!!!! You don't know how much your words, prayers and support have meant to me and my family. I wish I could give back to you - really... it's meant the world to me. I'll hopefully be back to posting soon. It kills me not to be posting more, but I will certainly be making up for it when I get back home! :) Thank you and XOXO's to you all.

{very sick little girl...}

Life has a way of changing things up on you....I'm not home and won't be home for several days unfortunately. Briella has been pretty sick most of our trip and it got really bad the morning we were supposed to leave (she lost a lot of blood) and not to be gross but the morning we were supposed to leave she woke up with her diaper completely full of blood. We took her to the ER and Jeff and Tyler traveled back to South Carolina. She also has developed 50+ bright red lesions all over her body, her joints are swollen, and her gums, lips and mouth have been bleeding and she hasn't been able to walk (I think her joints just hurt too bad). They have diagnosed her with a disease called HSP ( Henoch-Schönlein Purpura). Kinda rare so I'm so glad that we're being treated at the Children's Hospital in Phoenix where they have specialized care. Seeing my little girl in this much discomfort is heart-breaking but I know that she will get over this rough time and that she's in good, caring hands. Anyway, we've been in the hospital for 3 days and it sounds like we won't be going to South Carolina till after the weekend. I just wanted to keep you all posted since I mentioned posting pictures and session sneak peeks soon. Thanks to those of you who have sent me e-mails and left sweet comments on my blog after hearing she was sick ;-) You're thoughts and prayers are appreciated.
I'll post more updates as soon as I can.

{In the land of Kokopelli's....far from home}

Can you guess where I am? Hint: It's dry, hot and in a land where kokopelli's can be found. It's is in the United States.... so that will narrow it down quite a bit.
Just wanted to let my blogging friends and viewers know that I haven't been able to post since I'm far from home doing some shoots and vacationing for the past week. I'm freaking out that I haven't been able to post in so long...I miss it so. But when I get back I'll be back to posting - woo hoo. We fly back tomorrow night so not too much longer.
It's strange not to have my editing software with me.... feels so bizarre not to be doing that part of my job while I'm here. But I have enjoyed shooting in a completely different environment and being creative in a whole new, fun and challenging way.

{Could it be Spring... finally?! Oh and April & May are booked}

Is it here? Is Spring really here? As I tiptoed out of my bedroom this morning before the kids woke, I realized that today is the day I've been dying for. The first day of Spring was finally here! The sun is shimmering but wow it's so windy! My hair whipped me in the face as I got out of my car and headed into the gym this morning - it didn't feel like spring, but I'm sure it will in no time!
So yesterday afternoon I took Tyler on a little mini-photo session. He gave me about 10 minutes to run to 3 locations all within 100 yards of each other so it made it pretty painless. I think Tyler has mastered his 'serious look'. What a cutie, the moment the camera comes out it's either 'serious Tyler' or 'happy smiles Tyler'. So here's a few serious and one token smiling image of my little man. I did different processing on all of them. And I used some textures to add dimension to 2 or 3 of them (you'll know which ones when you see them). ;-)
Oh and on a side note: I currently have no more openings in April or May and June is starting to fill. I also have started booking sessions for Fall. I know that seems so far away, but some people are thinking ahead and booking now (very good idea). Just so you know, this year I have a holiday order cut-off - November 16th will be the deadline. This will allow my lab time to process all your orders before the Christmas. I can't believe I'm talking about Christmas and it's the first day of Spring!
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