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Sigh…I am so happy to finally be seeing some very welcome signs of spring around here! It seems like lately winter is never short enough.

How excited was I when I was asked to photograph this little girl (and her equally gorgeous siblings this spring!)?! Very excited . She is the cutest little stinker . And she totally knows it.

Can we just talk about how absolutley adorable it is how these little kids get such a kick out of themselves?! The simplest little thing ~ like climbing a set of stairs ~ can make their whole day. I wish I could think like that…maybe that will be a goal. To find pure joy in the littlest thing . Happy late birthday E!

She’ll have a full post dedicated all to her after the weekend…but I know mom and dad are excited to see a little something from last night. We lucked out with some gorgeous weather! And the gorgeous little 1 year old didn’t hurt any .

 

Sweet baby girl,

Each day you get closer and closer to 2 years old. I really can’t pretend that you’re still a baby anymore. You are getting to be such a big girl! For the most part, you are a pretty happy, laid back little kid. And I love it!

You *adore* your toothbrush. Why? I have no clue. But any time we walk  by the bathroom, without fail, you yell “BOO BUSH!!” which sounds pretty much exactly like “BOO BUS!!” (school bus ). And while you don’t know how to say tooth paste yet, you sure do know how to “sign” it…meaning you hold out one hand and use your other hand like a tube of tooth paste to show us that’s what you want .

You amaze us with “your” dogs. We now have 3 big lugs running around this house, and you are totally fearless when it comes to them! Not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing . But nothing is cuter than when you walk up next to Tank and put your arm around his back and just chill . kinda like in this picture.

And its so cool to see you developing your own little character. At the same time, its pretty scary to think that the way your personality develops is greatly influenced by your dad and me. I hope that we are teaching you good things. I hope that we are teaching you to be confident. To be  proud of who you are and embrace every. single. thing. that makes you unique, different, special, awesome, beautiful, amazing…you. I hope we are teaching you to be a kind and gentle soul. To be good to people, to share, to care about others. It’s amazing how far just being nice will get you .

And to end with a quote from another momtographer’s blog ~

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma…which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They, somehow, already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is just secondary.” ~Steve Jobs

I know there are some anxious mommies waiting for this sneak peek. Ladies ~ your kiddos are all rediculously gorgeous! I feel so lucky to have gotten to play with you all yesterday afternoon! The stunning little red head here belongs to a friend of mine from college. She approached me a few weeks ago about doing some mini sessions at her home. Mini sessions aren’t something I’ve done in the past because they require me to be disciplined and strict with a time schedule…which I am not. But this really worked out so well! I headed over to her house yesterday afternoon where she had set up a beautiful little playdate-ish afternoon. The families started rolling in and it truly was just like a play date. The kids all got to be kids and run around the house checking out the cool new toys, the moms and dads got to hang out and let their kids burn some energy. Meanwhile I snuck away with each kid, one by one and photographed them in the different areas of the house. None of the kiddos felt overwhelmed from being focused on too much, and if they got tired of playing model they could go grab a snack or watch some basketball or ride the coolest baby rollercoaster! I think everyone had a blast…including me . This is the session that led to this tweet.

So ladies…enjoy this teaser!  And if you’re interested in setting up something similar, give me a shout!

In today’s world, where would we be without our trusty iPhones and Blackberries? It’s been a loooong week folks. Remember that last post where I talked about being overwhelmed with  my to do list? Yeah….

So here are some uber adorable snappies from my phone to end your week . Happy weekend everyone!

As I get ready to write this post about starting things and never finishing them…I can’t help but laugh to myself. I’ve had these photos taken for weeks, and I’ve had this post on my to do list for just as long.  That’s just how I roll I guess. I have a big problem. I have this awful habit of starting something…getting distracted…starting something else…thinking of yet another thing I need to do ~ so I start that just so I wont forget…and the cycle goes on and on and on! This is how my poor daughter’s play table has looked for the past month or so…

That is my “photo project” for the winter. Somehow that box collected every single photo I’ve ever printed out. Apparently I just tossed them in the box thinking that some day I would really take the time to organize them. Well, this winter I thought it was the perfect time to organize them! So one Saturday afternoon I started…and then something happened and I stopped. And there they sit. For way too long.

This is how my office work area looks. Each little pile is a “to do” that I haven’t gotten to yet. But I can’t put it away because I’ll forget about it!

And speaking of to do lists, here are my pages and pages of them. I literall fill one up and start another. I think there are 6 or so there. Some things crossed off on each page…

This picture frame has been sitting in the hallway since before Christmas. Actually it sat in our bedroom for a while, until I decided I didn’t want it there, I wanted it in the hallway. All I need to do is have Justin hang it and put some pictures in it. Why is that so difficult?!

And here is another one of my winter projects. On another fateful Saturday afternoon I went about the whole house collecting every frame from every wall. Everything was all mis-matched and I just didn’t like any of our photos on the walls. So I started with the first floor, re-doing the photos we had up - actually finished that if you can imagine it. Then something happened and I stopped. The frames got stashed in a guest bedroom and there they sit…for 4 or 5 months…and I should also mention that every other room in the house (besides the first floor) has empty, sad looking walls.

Justin will laugh at this next one. We went crazy after Thanksgiving and decided to totally remodel our kitchen…before Christmas. It was a rough, rushed three weeks. I’ve actually been meaning to post before and after pictures since Christmas…yep, that’s on my to do list too. I was in charge of painting the kitchen walls and cabinets. Since we cut it so close (Christmas was hosted at our house year) the edges didn’t get touched up on the walls. Even when I very carefully tape EVERYTHING…when I pull that tape off I still have bleed over onto the other color! It drives me nuts! Anyway, the very last thing we have to do in the kitchen is touch up the edges. And there the paint sits. On our dining room table. Its March Stacy…take the hour or so and just finish it! I know this drives Justin nuts…he hates looking at that paint every day. So do I! But God help me if it gets put away…those edges will never get finished!

And I’m pretty sure I crash the computer once a week…at least. Why? Because this is what it looks like 99% of the time. We’ve got the external monitor for editing, and the laptop just sits next to it on the desk. The really cool thing is you can extend the computer desktop across both the external monitor and the laptop. So guess what that means?! TWO screens to fill up! Usually photoshop is up and running on the left and poor, overworked Internet Explorer is open on the right. But on this particular day I had TWO windows open…both filled to the brim with open tabs.

I counted…there are 18 tabs open. EIGHTEEN!!! No wonder I always have a headache!

So what’s the point of all this? I don’t know I just had it on my to do list and am finally getting to it! . No, really…I’ve been going through a big overhaul lately and quitting this insanity is one thing I’m overhauling. I’m trying to seriously focus and work on one thing at a time…until its finished. This is hard for me though….REALLY hard. My mind just likes to run off on tangents! I am working on completing each one of those messes above. I’ve actually already made quite a dent . Keep your eyes out for some updates! And if I’m not the only one who suffers with this…please let me know!