Babies Anyone?

There's a baby boom among my friends and I'm not too proud to beg folks to let me practice on their precious bundles of joy. I feel so fortunate that people will actually let me experiment with their brand new babies. I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm basically just winging it with other peoples tiny loved ones. (shhhhhh! don't tell.)

This little gal was 12 days old and NOT sleepy at all. I only got her to go to sleep once. I think I jostled her too much because her mom told me her cord fell off about an hour after I left. Oops.

This bitty baby boy wouldn't sleep much either. I even got to try on two separate days. Apparently I'm no baby whisperer, but I'm going to keep trying.

I don't think little Ava (who's not so little anymore) was much of a sleeper either. That didn't matter because she was the first newborn I ever shot and I was more worried about figuring out what to do with her. She was sweet enough to show me a wee bit of sleepy love though.

Are you starting to see a trend here? Another 'eyes wide open' model. He was as sweet as he could be though. He didn't complain at all while I flipped him this way and that trying to figure out what would work.

This is Phoebe. She's obviously not a newborn, but she was a very cooperative model. I wish she lived closer because I would definitely stalk her and make her do all kinds of insane poses because I'm almost positive she would make me look like an awesome photographer.

Mason here is obviously not a newborn, he's not even a baby, but he's pretty stinkin' cute so I had to share his 'cool dude' pose.

Thank you to everyone who's willing to help me get much needed experience. I think I'm about to start acquiring props. You know you'll want to check that out. I'll let you know how it goes.

My Favorite Things #002

Here is another one of my favorite things.

I got these at Walgreens about a month ago. They were 3/$1. I actually considered not getting them because I got a dozen and that meant I was spending a whopping $4 dollars and I thought that was too much. Sometimes I'm not very rational. Especially considering how much I love and use these little dessert dishes. Not only are they super fun to eat ice cream out of but they are the perfect size for snacks for the kids. The boys like to dip stuff and these bowls are the perfect size for dipping french toast sticks in to syrup, or chicken in to ketchup. I could go on and on.

much love for the queso

Wow. Jaden was all about the queso last night. It was intended to be eaten on nachos, but he decided to eat it like soup right off the ladle. Yummo.

Got cheese?

with love from Emma

I wasn't feeling very creative this year when it came to Emma's Valentine's cards. I even took her to the store and suggested she pick out something cute there, like Camp Rock or Hannah Montana. She wouldn't even entertain the thought. I guess I can't fault her since I'm the one that started the trend of making her personalized cards.

So late Thursday, the night before the the class party I made little picture tags and put them on goody bags. Em picked out these really cute bags with owls on them that say "Owl love you forever"...awwww.

I had my friend Kelly of Alacrity Designs make this cute shirt just for Valentine's day. I saw one like it on Etsy and asked her if she could whip one up and she did lickity split! Be sure to keep her in mind if you *need* any customs.

Mia & Rome

Doesn't that sound like the title of a movie? Mia & Rome.
My sister came over this weekend to let me take some pictures of her lovlies.
Here are a few of my fave's....

Sweet baby Mia

Little lady bug

Taking a break to say her prayers
:: Dear Lord, please save me from these crazy people that keep changing my clothes and propping me this way and that on a bean bag ::

Rome & Mia

Awwww....

Did I spell Rome correctly? I thought I saw it on a license plate but I could be remembering wrong...

Just for Mom

Here are the pictures of Jonah that you can't see at work. I bribed him with jelly beans and he still couldn't sit still. I really just try to snap shots in the split seconds between his goofy looks. It might seem like he was calm and cooperative, but the camera lies.

Liar, liar - lens on fire.

My Favorite Things #001

I've decided to share some of my favorite things. It's good to focus on "the lovlies" in your life. It makes for a positive attitude and a cheery disposition. Who doesn't want a positive attitude and a cheery disposition?
I love my aprons. I mean L-O-V-E my aprons, big fancy, swirly capitol "L" love my aprons. I'm not good at prioritizing things, so I can't say for sure if they are my number one favorite thing, but they are up there.
Most of mine come from Anthropologie because they have the best, most beautiful, inspiring aprons on the planet. Yes, aprons can be inspiring. Let's face it, even the most positive, cheery people are going to have "those days". You know what I'm talking about. The days you set aside to catch up on laundry only to have your washing machine take a crap just as you get started. Or you've finally finished scrubbing a months worth of gunk off the kitchen floor and someone drops a jar of sweet pickles and it smashes creating a 10 square foot radius of sticky pickle juice. It's the kinks life throws at you to try and get you down. Now imagine glancing up from the pickletastrophy and something catching your eye. Something brightly colored, with happy flowers and festive rick rack and it says to you, "Hey, let me help you. We can fix this. We can do it together and we'll do it with a smile." That's what my aprons do!

This one is Emma's. So very cute!
I was stacking aprons as I ironed them. Yes, I iron them.

I iron everything. I'll save that conversation for another day.

Festive rick rack (it's like long rows of tiny smiles)