One of my favorite memories from growing up is of taking pictures in the bluebonnets every spring.  I’m sure people from other states think it’s an odd tradition, but us Texans get excited over a field of bluebonnets.

There is a BEAUTIFUL field of them that I know of….it’s a secret, but I’d be happy to take you there for a session if you want. wink. wink.

Today, Mia and I dropped by to get a few photos.  I haven’t done a mini-session with her in quite awhile.  She went through an uncomfortable smiling phase.  Like the episode of “Friends” where Monica and Chandler go to have their engagement photos taken and Chandler makes that terrible fake smile……..that was Mia.  Anyway, she seems to be over it (mostly) and was very excited by the blanket of blue flowers as far as the eye could see.

It really is amazing and beautiful to see so many bluebonnets in one field.  Tradition passed on.  You can rest easy mom!

I am so thankful for yesterday.  I had the opportunity to have lunch with two of my closest friends from high school.  As fate would have it I get to see Deanna all the time.  We get together often for lunch and go to the same church.  This is after many, many years of having lost touch with each other.  I feel so blessed to have this friend back in my life.  Sadly, the other friend, Jessica, I haven’t seen since 1994.  She moved before graduation and I was never able to see her again and we completely lost touch.  I didn’t realize until our reunion lunch yesterday just what a loss that was.  For most of the three years we went to high school together I picked Jessica up for school and sometimes dropped her off afterward.  I practically lived at her house most of my Sophmore and Junior years!  I even went on vacation with her family.  That was a fun trip!  We shared clothes so often it was hard to remember who the original owner was.  I’m sure our parents hated that!  Anyway, Deanna and I had the opportunity to have lunch with Jessica yesterday and it was such a blessing to get to meet her sweet husband and adorable boys.  3 boys! It was a short reunion, but it was like a day hadn’t passed.  We started chatting immediately like we were having lunch in the cafeteria at Comanche High school again.

So on a Monday morning, when I normally am kinda bummed that the weekend is over and I have a pile of work and errands to get done, I am instead feeling nostalgic and VERY, VERY lucky to have so many wonderful friends in my life!

Me and Jess in high school. Look at those ugly earrings I'm wearing!

Me, Jessica, and Deanna.....New Year's eve 1994...I think. :)

Came across a fun little program today that I just have to share!

Check it out:

http://www.poladroid.net/index.php 

Make polaroid like photos out of your own images!  It’s really fun…you can even shake it, shake it, shake it like a ……..well you get the idea.  It will only let you take 10 photos in a session.  Just like if you had a real Polaroid camera with a film cartridge. Here is my polaroid for today:

I’m referring to myself missing in action and NOT to my daughter Mia.

The past two months have been a whirlwind of travel, work, family, holiday celebrations, obligations, meetings, work (did I mention that one already?) and I have been overwhelmed to say the least.  As most of you know by now I have been busy getting ready to offer boudoir photography to my clients.  We have added a studio in our house and that about killed me, but I love it and it is just the coolest little studio.  I have also been finishing up wedding album designs from the past year for clients and then there was the whole family Christmas session season that I managed to survive somehow.  In the meantime I had to buy, wrap and deliver Christmas presents to family.  We traveled for Thanksgiving AND for Christmas and if wasn’t for those few days away from my computer I may have just lost my mind.  Throw in my daughter’s 4th birthday and November and December have flown by and I barely got to enjoy it at all.

I know that many people use the beginning of a new year to reflect and make resolutions.  I have never been one to make resolutions.  I don’t eat black eyed peas for luck and I hate feeling like just because the year is new that I have to “start over.”  I think some random day in May is great time to begin that thing you have always wanted to try.  However, with that said this year I am going to give it a try.  I LOVE my job, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.  It is an undescribable feeling when a bride tells you that they made the right decision by choosing YOU as their wedding photographer.  So because I love my job AND mostly because I am a people pleaser I have become a bit of a workaholic and have been putting some things that are more important on the back burner.  Namely my family and………myself.  My poor daughter has seen every episode of Spongebob, but rarely gets to go to the park because “I have to work.”  I have also used work as an excuse to get out of working out.  “I don’t have time to walk today I promised (fill in the blank) their photos would be online tomorrow.”   The last two months of craziness has brought me to the realization that I have to work on balance.  I need to get more done when I am working and have to make myself a priority.  I deserve it.  I’ve worked HARD to deserve it!  So my husband and I have started a diet…..together.  We put up a huge chart on our wall (right next to the treadmill) to show our weight loss and we have promised to walk every afternoon with our daughter.  She will ride her new rollerscooter as we walk.  We even kicked off the new year by doing something active.  We took Mia ice skating yesterday.  While I haven’t exactly made a New Year’s resolution it does feel like I’ve turned over a new leaf. :)  It’s going to be hard so feel free to encourage me if you see me struggling.

And just to keep me motivated here is a photo of Mia and I while ice skating yesterday:

I know I have not done a very good job lately of keeping the blog updated.  It’s been a busy few months.  I am getting caught up finally and had a few moments today to finally download some photos.  How sad that my personal photos have sat patiently waiting on the memory card until I had a few moments to finally get them off.

Anyway, here are some photos of the past few months that if I don’t share soon some of my family members are going to come hunt me down and…..well….I’d better just show the photos.

In no particular order:

A day at the park.

A good friend’s birthday party.  First pony ride.

The last day of ballet classes.  A “recital” of sorts.  Mia loved ballet so much!

Halloween.  Mia’s costume got quite the reaction.  She was a princess riding a pink, flying, unicorn.  Not my choice, but she loved it!

The next one was taken after it was completely dark with only the light from the street lamp.  Not too shabby Nikon!  Thanks!

We got to tour the fire station near our church.  Mia thought it was so cool!  I think Saylor thought it was pretty cool too.

Her “Highness” and her buddy “Supergirl” aka Mia’s good friend Emory.

The first day of gymnastics.  The outfit is not near as cute as her ballet outfit.  She likes it though and wears it around the house all the time.  I think she is going to like gymnastics even more than ballet.

And last but not least some pictures from just last week.  It was cold out and told Mia if she wanted to play in the backyard she would have to put on warm clothes.  This is the outfit she came up with.  Her princess dress, a sun hat, a jacket and her warm boots (although I don’t think you can see them in the pictures).  I don’t know how warm she was, but it made me laugh!

I love that smile!

Have a great weekend!

I have really been struggling recently with the balance between documenting my own life and the life of my family with documenting other people’s lives. I LOVE my job! Maybe, I love it too much because I’ve been so busy lately that I’m starting to feel a little uninspired. Especially when it comes to taking photos for myself. I use to be an avid scrapbooker and had a strong desire to document the little things in life. All the mundane, day to day, little moments that when all put together make a life. If you ever want to waste some time go back to the beginning of my blog and you’ll see what I mean. I had the time to document what Mia was having for breakfast on a Tuesday or when she got into the Ovaltine and ate it with spoon. Now, it just seems that all I have time to do is work. Don’t get me wrong, I truly LOVE what I do. I get giddy over bridal portraits and ecstatic over a great wedding reception capture. The struggle is…….how do I keep up the enthusiasm about photos that I take for myself?

So what am I doing about it? Even though I don’t really scrapbook anymore I have continued to religiously read the blog of Ali Edwards. She is so talented and I really love her style of design. Lots of simple graphic elements and just the right words. She is currently walking her readers through a great project and I decided that I needed to MAKE time to do it. It’s called “A week in the Life” and the assignment is to document a week in your life through photos and words. It’s a bit of a challenge to drag the big camera everywhere I go, but so far it is SO worth it. I realized just how worth it when I got this photo this morning on the way to Mia’s ballet class.

As for being inspired??? I’m feeling it!

Mia started her ballet lessons today.  She was BEYOND excited about it.  We grabbed a few quick photos before leaving the house (notice the car door is already open in the background).  She looked so cute in her little ballet outfit with her new haircut.  So grown up!

Check out that funny face.

When we got to class the teacher shooed the parents out into the hall and we were able to watch through the windows with blinds on them.  It wasn’t easy to get photos THROUGH the blinds.   I tried anyway.  Mia was a little bored with the stretching and kept getting up and looking out the window.  While the teacher taught the class first position Mia twirled in the corner.  While the teacher taught the class how to point their toes Mia pointed out to the teacher where her car was in the parking lot.  She leaped and made faces in the mirror while the other girls walked around on tiptoes.  But when they went to the ballet barre…….she loved it.  I guess in her mind NOW she was finally a ballerina.  It was really SO cute with all the little girls pointing their toes!

Mia and I had a girl’s salon day today. Not really, we just got our hair cut, but she acted SO grown up. She quietly “read” a magazine while I got my hair cut and then when it was her turn she crawled right up in the chair to get her hair washed. No crying or screaming or arguing! She was a big girl! She had enough hair cut off that she was able to donate to Locks of Love. I explained it to her, but I don’t think she quite grasped the concept. Mia’s new cut is SO cute. I can’t wait to see if she’ll let me try styling it so I can get some photos with the REAL camera.

We had a little excitement around here last night. Around 5:30 Mia was entertaining us with her dancing skills which tend to include a bit of gymnastics also. She attempted a handstand which turned into a side roll and came up crying. She did something to her arm and we still haven’t figured out what happened exactly. We think she landed on a My Little Pony. Anyway, she hurt her arm and by 8:30 it was still hurting enough that Saylor decided it was time for a trip to the Dr. I’m glad I didn’t have to make that decision. We went to Acute Kids Care and spent about an hour and a half freezing in the little exam room. Mia had an X-ray done on her arm and luckily it was NOT broken, just sprained so she still got a sling for it. She has to keep it on until Monday….then we start ballet on Tues. It should be a FUN weekend! She has complained about it still hurting this morning but still wants to go to playgroup. What a trooper!

Here are some photos of our little adventure. Taken with my iPhone (excuse the quality)

And her X-Rays……..

I’m not sure why but being able to see my child’s bones like this was a little emotional. It makes her look so tiny and fragile. I’m so thankful she is o.k.

My sister-in-law and her family visited this weekend. Mia and her cousins played and played and played until we were ALL exhausted. We don’t get to see them very often so it was a really fun weekend of catching up and playing (for the kids). Shellee and I discovered a new passion for Sprinkles cupcakes, the kids and Nana danced the tooty-ta (don’t ask) and the guys went to the shooting range. I think everyone had a wonderful weekend. I grabbed a few pictures of the kids together just before they had to say goodbye.

This one is getting printed BIG for Mia’s room.

My nephew….he just lost his first tooth!