Little Q. is the man. Yummy cuteness from head to toe & faux hawk is included!

Aren’t camera phones the greatest? I mean, other than shiny new D3’s with Nikkor lenses & a zillion covers for your Shoot Sac. So other than that, aren’t they the best? Long ago my P&S camera died & I have yet to replace it so my camera phone fills in more than it should. Is that so wrong?

Today was Day 5.5 of my sickness. I am so over it. In an effort to get my kids out of the house today, I doped myself up on Advil, took a shower & even applied make up to cover up that “I have Typhoid Fever” look I have been rocking. Mommy had a big day planned! A first ever trip to Burger King for a Kids Meal & Pokemon Cards. Then, a little library fun.

Yes, I did say first ever trip to BK. Not to be confused with King Burger, where Bon Qui Qui works. If you have no idea what in the world I am talking about, click on this link.

We did in fact go to Burger King because for the first time in history, a major food chain is making a kind of vegetarian kids meal including mac & cheese & apple fries. Woo hoo! My oldest child is replulsed by fast food altogether & 2 of the other 3 enjoy an occasional McDs french fries but that’s as far as we go in the burger joint department. Well, imagine the joy & perfect parenting bonus points I got when they all opened the bags & squealed, “you get a TOY!!!”. Now we have some Happy Meal Toys that we have outright bought without the food but the whole deal seemed pretty exciting for them.

It was definately a phone camera kind of event. Thanks BK, for finally doin it our way.

P.S. I have no idea why my son looks like he is incarcerated in a lot of my photos. I assure you, he is well fed & cared for.

I crawled over to the computer to say hello after my little break. I say crawled because I got terribly sick on Friday night & am still sick. Could be the sun….could be all the sleep I got. My body may have gone into shock at the amount of actual rest I was getting…mostly I think it was the 40 or so mosquito bites I got on Wed & Thurs which led to my fever, aches, cough, joint pain & general agony. Behold the mighty mosquito!! I implore you all to BATHE yourselves in DEET before you venture outdoors. I guess we will all have to choose between West Nile Virus or a DEET infused tumor….touch choices indeed!

I did have fun though! The kids were great, the house was great, great to see the family & play Apples to Apples every night~~enjoy Captain Morgan Reserve on ice with Coke (I swear that combo tastes like a classic vanilla coke only better!). A week is to short!

I will be playing catch up with emails & phone calls I promise. I may be coughing when we speak but we will talk for sure this week.

Just had to share the 4 littles who make me laugh everyday & thank God up above for all the blessings I have been given with these 4 perfect beings. My loves, my cheerleaders & constant admirers, my joy, my laughter & yes sometimes my tears. These are my people on vacation, trying to cooperate.

I love photographing new families~they are among my faves. New moms & dads~making their way into parenthood with all the fanfare & love & hope one can muster. You redefine yourselves, your marriage, your life….it’s such a bittersweet time in a way. Sometimes, after being in the mothering business for going on 12 years now, I take little moments for granted. I forget to pay attention to those little moments, to take pictures of them, journal them in my mind the way I did back in the day. It all goes so darn fast & sometimes it’s nice to freeze time, right? Like this.

I remember this~in another kitchen~with a younger me & a younger him~less wrinkles, less laundry~better boobs! I love to get to sit in on this from time to time & click my shutter so that others can remember too.

PLEASE NOTE:
Off for a few days! I will get in touch with you when I am home & hopefully will have some pics of my people to share as well.

Much love! Enjoy the sunshine on your face.

If you are a woman & have taken your family on vacation for a week, you know what that means. It means a heck of a lot of work before you leave & the beginning of a series of lists that you will either lose or never look at again.

When I woke this morning, my mind began to race, fast. Before I can pack I have about 9 loads of laundry to do. I have a kitchen full of food that needs to be eaten, stored, or thrown out. (GASP!). I have shopping trips for additional bathing suits to replace the ones outgrown, food supplies & essentials for the beach, and a visit to every drug store in town to find my beloved Australian Gold Spray Gel sunscreen with Tanner, perhaps the best product ever invented & seemingly discontinued this year. There is my whole house to pick up BECAUSE WHO CAN STAND TO COME HOME TO A MESSY HOUSE AFTER VACATION! There are 6 suitcases to pack, beach toys to gather, towels & umbrellas to be hunted down & don’t forget books to read!

There are clients to call, orders to place, orders to deliver, about 10 albums to put together & various trips to the PO to ship things off.

Man next week is gonna be sweet! Pray for me if you are inclined cause I may not survive the week before my week off.

Before I go I want to post some “un” sneak peeks as all of June & July’s shoots have been proofed & delivered.

The A. family kids were a blast! One quiet baby girl with hopes & dreams of modeling I think. She would actually push her brothers out of the picture & then pose a little for me.
Those lips! Those eyes!

My climber. He was so funny & full of life. I tried to capture him just this way.

And the oldest. He told me he didn’t know how to smile but I think he did just fine…

I love my little clients. I have photograped N. a couple of times before & have gotten to see him grow & change. The first time he was only sitting up & was kind of stunned by me & my camera.
(no laughing Robin cause I know you are thinking how common that must be…) The next time he was crawling & more interested in the bells on his dogs collar than he was in me. (I mean it Robin!)

This time though….wow! He was in the house with mom when I arrived & she brought this little man outside & I couldn’t help smiling from ear to ear because he had grown so much & was soooo different than the time I had been there last. He loved to see each shot on the back of my camera & would do that great backwards walk toddlers do when they want to sit on your lap & he petted my hair a few times too! HA!

It is always a treat to spend time with him & this time was no exception. I also love to get to tease dad about being cheap thrifty &  mom knows how very much I adore her too. She is gorgeous & funny & gets my weird way of working.

Much love to the B. family. Little man is awesome!

To all my sweet clients waiting to see a glimpse here on the Blog, they are coming! I swear!
I have been blessed with a great couple of months filled with new faces & familiar ones as well. So check back often to see the latest.

Having said that, I want to tell you to think about fall if indeed you want a session then. August is pretty much booked up & some of you the more well organized among us are booking for Sept, Oct & Nov. I know, right? I marvel at the way some mamas have it altogether. I am really going to try hard to make space for fall photo seekers but cut off will be earlier than last year so call me if you know you want me to come see you in those lovely cooler months. At the end of August, I will roll out the new website, the new ordering options & the beginning of holiday card designs will appear.

Now, on to the beautiful Miss K. I have been looking at her photos all night & I will tell you the same thing I told her mom~~I want to a redo on my youth but I wanna look like K. when that happens. HA! I want those legs, that hair & that gorgeous, lovely face! Can you see why?