on the Eighth Day of Christmas...

Celia's class had their little Winter Program yesterday.  The plan was for Mark to take off work, leave Kye with a neighbor and that way Mark and I could give Celia our undivided attention and enjoy her program without having to chase Kye around.  Not to mention it's nearly impossible for me to work both a video camera and my regular camera on my own.  Of course, like most of my holiday plans this year, that didn't quite work out.  Kye got a horrible ear infection so Mark did take off work, but he stayed home to watch Kye while I went to see Celia and try to both film and photograph her in the program. 

Here is my little Maid-A-Milking.  I love that she got the "green" scarf which totally matches her little holiday outfit.  Actually I suppose it's not technically a holiday outfit if it was just something she already had in her closet that I stuck a peel off applique of a tree on.  It worked though and she got lots of compliments on it.  It's hard to see in the pics, but her shirt is covered in pink sequins.  I had to go to 2 different Targets to get it in her size just because I thought it would look cute for a picture at some point.  Don't you love Houston weather?  You can't wear a sleeveless tank in mid December just anywhere.

Forgive the bad photos.  It was quite a challenge to take pictures in a classroom overflowing with parents/grandparents etc. not to mention the typical horrible overhead lighting.

Check out the unhappy little maid here in the line up.  Frowning...

A full-on pout...

I found out later from her teacher that her little partner (aka her bff Julia) had not showed up yet and she did not like being paired with anyone else.  Finally Julia showed...

Smiles now.

They did a great job with the 12 days of Christmas and I even managed to get most of it with the video camera and then these still photos as well.  I even handed my camera over to the school director to get a shot of me with Celia.  Of course she couldn't be bothered to put down the cheese crackers.  Guess she worked up an appetite skipping around the room.

It's rare I'm in the photos because I hardly ever trust my "big" camera with someone else.  First of all it's super heavy and most people aren't expecting that.  Then it usually takes a few minutes for me to explain you just simply push the button on the front of it to take a picture.  Not to mention I would have a heart attack if anyone broke it.  And Mark would have a heart attack when he got the bill to replace it.  Anyway, I like that I did it so my kids can see that I was in fact there all the time. 

Oh, and I can't leave this one out.  This is what my little guy was doing during Celia's performance.

Poor guy.  He was in so much pain yesterday that I had to take him to the minor emergency because I couldn't get in to see his regular doctor soon enough.  You know something is very wrong with Kye when he barely lifts his head off the couch all day.  He's back to his usual self today though.  Which means I have cleaning to do...

the First Holiday Card Session

 I have been waiting patiently to post more pics from the holiday card photo shoots I did for some of my neighbors.  I finally got one of their cards today so I get to post pictures from the Youngs.  It's fitting that they be the first because they were the first shoot of the day.  So excited to show everyone how they turned out...

Mom with her cuties...

And of course we can't leave dad out...

Mackenzie was an AWESOME model for me.

And little Max, awww, this has to be one of my all time favorites shots...

I love it in black and white as well so I thought I would show it off both ways.

I promise to show off the other families once I get their cards.  Oh, and I even got my cards designed and printed.  Wahoo!  They arrived today and I think they actually don't look awful after all the work I did trying to get the photos for them.  I will say I had to do some major photoshop magic to get one of the photos.  More to come on that later.  For now I hope you enjoyed this session.  I know I did.

 

the New "Do"

Mark got off work early Friday so I took advantage and left the kids with him while I ran out to do some Christmas shopping.  This is what I came home to...

While Daddy was watching football with a friend in the backyard Celia was inside giving herself a haircut with her little scissors.  When asked why she did it her reply was "It was in my eyes".  So I asked why not ask Daddy for a barrette to which she replied "he was too busy".  I have to take part of the blame though.  I let her have those scissors.  I thought I could trust her with them.  Tragically I was wrong.  At least it was only her hair and she didn't actually hurt herself.  This was the result...

These pictures really don't so it justice since it's hard to see but she even cut some chunks that are now about an inch long on the top.  You can see from the bottom picture how it's pretty thin on the top of her head.  Luckily she missed one pretty big piece of her bangs so we can disguise it with a clip for the most part. 

I was pretty upset about the hair honestly.  Especially since I was finally going to get to take my Christmas card pictures the next morning.  Yes, I still have not taken them.  This will be the third failed attempt.  First it was ridiculously hot, then freezing cold.  I never could find the perfect time.  I had this really awesome shoot planned in my head.  I promise it would have rocked, but after this hair incident I finally threw in the towel on the whole idea.  I have decided it was just not meant to be this year.  So I am just going to use pictures I already have.  At least I have lots to choose from.

So once I got over my whole Christmas card picture plan I could laugh a little about it all.  I mean she was just being logical.  She wanted her hair out of her eyes.  And I have been considering cutting her hair shorter lately anyway.  Not as short as she cut it, but in some cute little bob.  So I took her to a real hairdresser this morning and asked her what she could do with it.  She couldn't completely disguise it.  But it actually looks pretty cute now if you can hide a few of the really short pieces with barrettes.  Here's the new "do"...

She seems to like it and lucky for all of us her hair grows super fast.  In 6 months it should be close to normal.  The scissors are now keeping my knives company.  Remember the knives Kye tried to get into a few blog posts back?  I think I will try to be a little better about keeping our sharp things away from my children.  Never a dull moment... (ha, no pun intended :)

some Gorgeous Girls

I spent this past Saturday photographing some of my favorite neighborhood families.  I had a blast and can't wait to see all the finished photos.  I wanted to do a tiny sneak peek on here since I'm sure they are curious as to how they turned out.  I could have included the boys too and titled this post "gorgeous girls and boys".  Believe me they are quite handsome as well.  But gorgeous girls flowed better and I had to pick only a few to show on here for fear of spoiling a Christmas card plus I really only had time to edit a few.  I had to stop somewhere.  I took them all at the same location.  But I think they all have a little different look to them.  That's what I was going for and it's funny because each of the families were dressed to match the "look" I wanted for them.  So here's how they turned out:

My first gorgeous girl of the day...

Then a couple of gorgeous sisters...

Last but not least more gorgeousness from these sisters...

In case anyone is curious I believe most of the clothing was either from Crewcuts or The Childrens Place.  Aren't they all so cute?  I hear Crewcuts has just opened a store at our big outlet mall here in Houston.  That could be a problem for me since I have a little addiction to their clothes.  You will most likely be seeing my kids sporting some Crewcuts for our Christmas photos which I am hopefully going to take tomorrow.  Come on cloudy day, crossing my fingers.  Fingers which will be hurting after editing all the photos I got for these guys plus my own.  Ouch.

free cards and papers for my photographer and digital crafter friends...

http://www.mcpactions.com/blog/2010/11/15/free-photo-card-paper-pack/

the Test Shoot

I love taking pictures.  It's no secret.  I would love to do it for other people one day, but honestly I just don't have the time I need to really devote to the "art" of photography and running a real business so I dabble in it for now.  And sometimes I do some pictures for people by very special request.  Well my neighbors have persuaded me to take Christmas card pictures for them this year since they have missed the opportunity to use some of the other local photogs around here.  I am a total push over so I agreed to do it.  Plus, I really love this stuff.  I'm just weird like that.  So I am doing 4 different families' pictures next weekend.  Crossing my fingers they turn out good.  But of course I couldn't offer to do pictures for people without doing a little test run with my own kiddos.  So I picked out some cute outfits for the little stinkers after school yesterday and loaded them in the car with bribes of candy and spent twenty minutes chasing Kye while getting a few pictures that were useful.  I am definitely going to need at least one other adult to help me take my own card pics this year.  I was exhausted after the twenty minutes keeping up with that wild child and trying to get some shots.  I honestly felt like I had just did some old Jane Fonda aerobics.  Here's the result...

a New Neighbor...

Sometimes I get the itch to photograph someone besides my own children.  Well a month ago I decided I needed a newborn to photograph.  Now in my neighborhood newborns are like a dime a dozen.  Seriously we have one all the time.  So when I got the itch I simply asked my neighbor Roxanne who was due to deliver her third child very soon.  She so graciously agreed to let me practice on her newest addition which at the time we did not know if it was a girl or a boy.  Well, let me introduce you to my newest neighbor...

Super cute isn't he??

Since he was born right before Halloween I couldn't resist...

He was such a good baby.  Loved the heater I brought for him.  Never cried.  Super sweetie...

Roxanne wanted to me to get this picture before he got here...

and then this one after...

now there are...

and a few with mom who happens to look fabulous 5 days after having a baby...

Thanks Roxanne for letting me practice on your beautiful family.