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Oh the missing...

in

Well It has been about 2 months since these people left our little bubble of world here in Highland. We miss them a lot! This gal above is the best! Such a thoughtful, down to earth and funny girl! She was my person around here! I relied on her for lots of things. I miss her. Some days I feel the missing more than others. Today I felt it! I keep hoping that maybe somehow, someway, they will move back. I know it's not gonna happen. They have moved on to bigger and better things. :) I am happy for them (when I'm not selfishly wishing they were still here). So in honor of my missing, I thought I'd post some pictures of them from last fall! This was a QUICK (like 20 minute) little session we did to get that Christmas card shot. Seeing all their happy faces makes me smile!

black bean loving baby...

in

Look at my Cafe Rio, black bean lovin baby! She has officially joined our Friday night tradition...take out from Cafe Rio!

I have decided I need to take and share more photos that document real life. Those kind of photos are the ones that mean most to me. The ones that document all the little things that happen in the day that make me smile. These are the moments I want to remember. They are not always picture perfect and they are sometimes a little messy but, let's be honest, these are the moments that make up the day of a mom. Yup, it's all about black beans smeared in every fold of skin and stand of hair. I don't always remember to embrace these moments and sit back and take it all in. Sometimes I get mad, loose it (I know it's shocking huh?), and miss the beauty of it all. I am trying to be more in the moment and appreciate my chaos before it's all grown up and gone!

i'm a winner???

in

Well a few days ago on a whim, I entered a photo in a photo challenge over at I Heart Faces. I had absolutely NO expectation of winning. Today, I went to the website to see the winning photos and what do you know? I made the top 10 (number 9 to be exact). What makes it even better is that I am a big fan of the guest photographer judge Chenin Boutwell (yes, as in Totally Rad Actions Boutwell). I am elated. It means more to me coming from someone whose work I  admire.  Check out the winners here

ps. sorry about the pictureless post but the winning photo is right below!

Baby M.

in
Finally, I am posting a few of this cute new babe from last week!

I am in love with these photos!

This cute family and BEAUTIFUL baby boy were very fun to photograph! This little guy was 3 weeks old and a little more alert than ideal BUT when swaddled slept great! Love how these turned out!

in

Oh how i love the warm weather. It has been really nice around here the last few days! (although if you looked outside my window today you would see SNOW)

Yesterday it was warm enough for my baby to venture out into the wild half dressed! It was her first experience in the grass. She did pretty well. Most of my babies have hated the grass. Most would freak out and scream if you sat them down in it! 

This baby was unsure at first but gradually became comfortable and enjoyed herself
She's all business in the front...
and party in the back! Don't judge me because my baby has a mullet. I know it's ugly. I look at it every day and think "I should cut that" but for some reason I can't bring myself to do it. There is something about it that I love and that makes her seem like she's never going to grow up! I know, it's a sick obsession!! I prefer to think of it as British rocker hair.

No, that's not what it looks like! 

She won't being seeing the grass again for a while, at least until the snow melts!

bff's forever...

in
There once was a boy named Dylan...

who has a best friend named Noah.
They have been playing together since they were two years old. Neither remembers life without the other. They really do have a rare friendship. It is not uncommon for them to play all day long and not become sick of each other. They don't fight. They really hardly have disagreements.

But they do have ooohhh so much fun together. They really "get" each other. They have each other's backs. I think these two coined the phrase "two peas in a pod". Don't we all need a friendship like this? Here comes the gut wrenching part: Noah is moving to Seattle in a week.

Needless to say, it's gonna be rough around here for a while. (with tears flowing) We love you Noah and are so grateful for what a GREAT friend you are to Dylan!! 

fresh from heaven...

in

Oh what a dream this little baby was to photograph! Isn't she just beautiful? It runs in the family can't ya tell? Big sister wanted nothing to do with me but we still got some great shots of her with her new baby sister! I just love this stage of life!!!

Toy toes...

in

Don't you just love how babies get so obsessed with their toes? Well, she is almost over that stage! Off to bigger and better things like crawling. WHAT? Sad huh? Would have been exciting for any of my other  kids, but since she's my last it changes my perspective! Here she is on my bed last week loving her toes again. She really hadn't done this in a while so when I saw her up to her old ways, I got the camera out fast! Sigh...I just LOVE this girl!

iphone photography..

in

I find myself NEVER taking my big camera with me when I leave the house these days. Carrying a baby seat and trying to help a 3 other kids maneuver through parking lots is enough to worry about! So I have been using my iphone (with hipstamatic app of course) to take pictures more often lately! Only one out of every 15 pictures is really any good but when I pay attention to the available light, I get decent photos! Last week after dance class, this little cutie was laying on my bed (which is right by a window), looking up at me. She looked so pretty and I had my phone in my hand so I snapped this real quickly. LOVE! I didn't even edit it at all. This is straight out of my iphone (hipstamatic did do it's magic). So use those readily available cell phones to capture all those little fleeting moments that will be gone if you take the time to get out your real camera!

Her new face...

in

This is her new face. She has discovered her bottom lip and is always sucking on it! It makes me smile and frown at the same time. Smile because it is cute. Frown because it hides her pretty lips! I took these last week for a neighbor who wanted a few shots of these cute headbands she makes. I'm loving this color combination but from the looks of my blog, that's no surprise right?

PS. if you want one of these headbands, go here.

crib time...

in

I promise my next post won't be of my baby (yes, I do have 3 other kids). I can be a little OCD and right now the focus is this little beauty. (plus, she doesn't know to complain and whine when I pull out my camera)

Did you know that the color of 2011 is Pantone 18-2120 TCX aka Honeysuckle? If that makes no sense to you just look at the word "not" in my title above and you'll know what it looks like. I find the whole color forecasting thing VERY interesting. I wish I could be a fly on the wall at one of those meetings. What power those people have. Pick out some colors and tell everyone these are THE hot colors for 2011. Bamm, what do you know they suddenly are. According to the color forecasting gods, we will see a lot of Honeysuckle this year! :)

love...

in

I absolutely LOVE this girl. She's getting so big. Her babyness is slipping though my fingers. (yes, I know that's not a word). I still haven't gotten past the whole "I just want to hold her all day thing". I wasn't quite this obsessed with my other babies and not because I loved them any less. I just know this is my last baby and I'm trying to soak it all in...6 months old! What???????

merry christmas...a teensy bit late

in

< It's only January 10, right? That's not quite a month past Christmas. I figured I'd go ahead and post this year's Christmas card even if I'm doing it waaaaaaaaaaaaay late. Merry Christmas to you!! Hope it was awesome for all! Let's be honest though...I'm glad to be done shopping and stressing! I have lots of cute pictures to post from the last couple months and I have a little more time to do it. (yeah right) That's me being really optimistic!!! :)

Just because...

in

Well I should be working on lots of things besides my blog right now. Christmas decorations are strewn out all over the house, laundry is piled high, floors need to be vacuumed & mopped, and diapers need to be changed. Instead, I took pictures of my sweet, sweet baby. She is such a smiley happy girl, except when I get out my camera. She breaks out her awestruck look and just stares at me like this. Oh well, I think she is cute no matter what. I just love her smile and I want to capture it! There's always tomorrow but for now enjoy this...

Did I mention I got my other baby back? Yes, Canon returned my 5D to me and all was covered by warranty. HOORAY!

REALLY? They make kids this cute?

in

So I really love these girls! They are so cute and this picture and their clothes even match my new blog outfit! :) The Mom of these girls is one of my favorite people. I mean really she is. She's one of those people when I first met I thought "I could be good friends with her". I don't often think that when I first meet people. (Do I sound like a snobor what?) I think I begged her a little to let me take these photos. It was a super quick shoot, aimed at getting a "Christmas card shot". We FOR SURE got a great one. I haven't even really looked at all of the images yet, but this one jumped out at me cuz it's so STINKING cute! I will be posting more of these when I get my butt in gear and get to editing. Did I mention my 5D Mark II is in the shop already? UGHHHH! I haven't even had it a year. I had to take these with my Rebel which was sad for me. I really have a knot in my stomach about my camera being out of commish. Hopefully, warranty will cover it! (fingers crossed)

Happy Halloween...

in

Every Halloween, I am disappointed in the pictures I take of my kids. Usually, it's a mad rush to get pumpkins carved, mouths fed, and kiddos dressed. Last year my pictures were super quick snap shots of my kids looking off into the distance with sad faces at the other kids filling their buckets with candy. I was determined not to repeat that scenario this year!  I took these a couple weeks before Halloween and I am THRILLED with how these pictures turned out! My baby cried almost the whole time so the group shot isn't the greatest but OH WELL! The quality of these photos are MILES above last years photos!! Don't you just love Halloween?