Cindy Mills Photography

But she will think it is funny when she has a child of her own to potty train.  At least I HOPE Mia forgives me for this.

So that is what we have been doing at the Mills house lately.  Every 5 minutes is potty time!  I am seriously OVER it!  Mia has been making good progress, but she is still in diapers at night and when we leave the house.  Also, every morning it is like WWII to get her to put the panties on.  I know it is something that HAS to be done, but why do I have to do it? I am sick of buying, and for that matter, CHANGING diapers so every morning I am prepared for battle!

Please pray that it is over soon and the casualties are few.  Amen.

This I am SURE she will not forgive me for, but I’m going to share it anyway:

Said this morning while going TT in the potty:

“mommy, listen…….it’s raining!”

Well, it is definitely winter time in Texas….finally. You know how I know? It’s rainy, freezing, dreary and all the trees and grass are DEAD! Not the best weather and backdrops for outdoor portraits. Or is it?

I think anytime is a good time for portraits. The right location can make for some awesome portraits even in the ugly outdoor winter time. This is the perfect time to bundle up (in the right outfit) and head to a cool urban location for some portraits.

Clients ask me all the time what they should wear for their portrait session. It is hard for me to tell someone that I don’t know very well (if they are a new client) what to wear, because I don’t know the personality of the family. So I usually suggest that everyone wear solid colors that don’t clash. If you choose to wear a pattern keep it to one person in the family and try to keep it a small pattern. Try to dress in something that shows your personality, but doesn’t take away from the faces of the family. That clears everything up and you should now know EXACTLY what to wear right?! This is such a hard question to answer, because the answer is simply different for everyone. So this blog entry is dedicated to what I would dress MY FAMILY in if we were going to have one of those wonderful, outdoor on a yucky January day, urban sessions that I mentioned.

First, accessories can add a lot to your “look”. I would love to have my whole family in really cute scarves, but my husband is not a scarf kind of guy. Here are the outfits I “threw” together this morning.

First up is Mia’s outfit. Sweater, skirt and tights are from The Children’s Place. Hat and scarf are from The Gap. Boots are from Target.

I actually just bought this outfit for her, but in slightly different colors. Can’t wait to get some pictures in it!

Now MY outfit: Jacket and pants from Old Navy. Scarf from The Gap. Boots from Piperlime.

Simple, solid colors that don’t clash with Mia’s outfit.

And then Saylor’s outfit: All clothes from The Gap. Shoes from Piperlime.

Since he doesn’t like scarves he gets a jacket to wear.

Notice how Mia’s outfit has some patterns in it. Polka dot boots and tights, but the other family members are wearing solid colors that coordinate with Mia’s outfit. My scarf and Saylor’s sweater match the polka dots on Mia’s boots. Everything coordinates without being matchy, matchy.

Now imagine these clothes in this alley:

And Viola! An awesome outdoor, Urban portrait complete with cozy, winter clothes and NO dead trees in the background. Cheesy I know, but you get the picture! See I told you it was possible to get good portraits in the ugly winter months. So go hit the sales before all the good winter clothes are gone and book your very own Urban Winter session!

Remember Magan and Clark? Check out their wedding day slideshow:

Wedding slideshow

Now you know what I’ve been working on instead of blogging! Stay tuned to see their album pre-design. It’s almost done!! Almost.

AND………Something I came across this morning that made me laugh.  So true, so true!  Check out the what the duck site.  It’s hilarious.

One month. That is all the time you have left to plan for the perfect Valentine’s gift! The gift that will be totally unexpected and COMPLETELY loved. Win major brownie points with your loved one and schedule a session for Valentine’s photos!

If you run out of time you can always get them a gift certificate for aportrait session! Just contact Cindy to set it all up!

So finally here are some pictures from princess Mia’s 3rd birthday party.  It was fun!  She was so excited that she could barely sit still for the 2 days before the party.  We had 13 knights and princesses from neighboring kingdoms attend the royal ball.  That’s a lot of kids and adults in my tiny living room.  We made royal crowns and magic wands and dined on cake with royal icing (hee hee just kidding it was buttercream).

The kids working on their crowns.

And magic wands……because everyone needs a little magic!

Little princess Lila from the neighboring kingdom of McKinney. 

Mia and her Nana making a magic wand.

A sword fight broke out.

Her royal highness Michaela from the nearby kingdom of Allen.

It was a fun day and Mia received lots of great presents!  I’m excited to see what surprises year 4 of Mia’s life will bring us.

My daughter turned 3 years old 3 days ago and I just realized that I didn’t take her picture or write a blog post for her. I do have a very good excuse. I was spending the day with Magan and Clark at their beautiful wedding. By the way, Mia’s party is this weekend so I can do her birthday post then.

Saturday was a gorgeous day for a wedding and I had a fabulous assistant! My husband went along with me to shoot this wedding and he did a wonderful job. He let me boss him around all day. He ran every errand I asked him to do and he even did them in a suit! Oh, and he took some awesome pictures also.

I know there are several people that are looking forward to seeing this sneak peek so I will get to the important part of this post……the images.

The wedding was at The Wildwood Inn in Denton. It is a great venue! The staff were very helpful and accommodating.

Some details:

The guys getting ready:

Beautiful bride:

The bride and groom’s first sight. I love when they see each other before the ceremony!

The next one is one of Saylor’s images. Told you he was a fabulous assistant!

This is another one of Saylor’s shots from the day. I guess I am going to have to come up with a way to designate the ones that he took……Oh well, next time!

There will be a slideshow of my favorite images from Magan and Clark’s big day soon. I’ll post it when it is online!

Best wishes to the new couple and hope you have a wonderful time in Cancun!