Family Pictures: Take One

One of the great things about being a photographer is that you have photographer friends... photographer friends who want to trade family pictures... for free. Nice, huh? So, I traded with TWO friends this fall. Here are some pictures from when I went out with Ashley. She did a great job but Addilyn was BEYOND cranky and it was REALLY REALLY windy so both mine and Addi's hair was all over the place. Seriously, I looked like Medusa. So, when we went out with my other friend (pictures from that shoot coming soon) it was luckily much better weather and a much happier Addilyn. So, without further adieu, my family:

And a few that I took while Ash was shooting Addilyn:

Skull Season?

Here are some pictures of Carter from today. I used some blue spiker in his hair that Kel gave me. LOVE IT! It's fun, huh? I need to go on a hunt for some more. I only have a little bit and I could see myself using it frequently. Just a little change. I also love this skull shirt. He loves "pirate" shirts. This is his Halloween shirt. I like it because he can wear it any time of year... it's not orange and black. Anyways, just wanted to share the pictures.

Punk Rock Princess

Today I took the kids with me to another place I want to start taking pictures. It was a lot of fun... aside from Addi being COMPLETELY over it before we even began. It's amazing that I can still get some cute pictures of her even when she's being a stinker. Just shows how VERY talented I am. :) HA! Anyways, I am completely in love with this necklace. I made it at a bead party. I'm not the only one that is in love with it. Bryan really likes it but Addilyn is in serious puppy love with this thing. She ALWAYS wants to wear it. Now, you may be asking yourself, "How on Earth do you know she wants to wear it? She's only 17 months old." Well, when she screams from her crib in the morning (she can see it on her dresser) in an octave only dogs and sleeping Mommy's can hear, all the while pointing at the silly necklace, you learn real fast that she wants it. She'll even scream for it from the bathtub. We literally have to HIDE it from her... funny. Kind of... not funny when your ear drums are about to explode. Honestly... you guys can probably hear her from all parts of the country... It's loud.... LOUD!
By the way, yes, those are skull earrings. It is Halloween season after all... although I would ABSOLUTELY leave them on her year round. I don't know why I think skulls on my little girl are so cute. They just are.

Update Coming...

I swear I'm updating the blog soon. Just busy... like the rest of you. But soon... very soon...

My Date With Carter

Those of you who have multiple children know how hard it is to have one on one time with them. Even with just my two little ones I have a hard time with this. I have noticed that especially Carter misses it. I try to take him out every now and then while Bryan is home or I have somewhere I can leave Addilyn... usually at Kelly's house. :)
Anyways, today I took him out with me to look at a new place I want to use for photo shoots. We went with a friend and her 4 year old daughter. It was SO much fun! The kids were awesome and it was great, as usual, to spend some time with my favorite little man. We really wanted to get some pictures on the railroad tracks but had to go along a bridge to get to the spot we were desiring... so... along we went. I got ONE, count them ONE picture of Carter before Janelle heard a train. He grabbed the kids and booked it off the bridge (along railroad tracks for about 50 yards) losing her daughter's hat and one of Carter's flip flops along the way. Turns out it was a train but it was the PHX metro that runs NEXT to the tracks. I tried to get Carter to go back onto the tracks with me but he would have nothing to do with it. But when we got home he was beyond excited to tell Daddy all about it. I think it sounded something like this (with TONS of arm motions to go along with it):
"Daddy, we walked... train tracks.. we heard CHOO CHOO and then we ran and the train never came and my shoe." Needless to say, I had to fill in the blanks for him. :) By the way, I did go back to retrieve the MIA shoe.





The missing shoe.

Waiting...

Carter loves it when my parents come in town. They come a lot more now because my dad has an office here. The past week he has come twice but only over night. My mom is home with pneumonia (that's a WHOLE other story) so she didn't come. Because the trips are so quick (he wants to get back to my hacking mom) I didn't tell Carter he was coming. Well, around 8:30 the other night Carter heard Papa's voice on the answering machine. It woke him up from downstairs, (Not real sure how...) so by the time I got upstairs he was sitting up whimpering about wanting to see Papa. My dad was more than happy to come by to see him. (I had told him not to worry about coming over since the kids were already asleep and Bry was at work... just me... not real exciting...). Carter got up and sat staring out the window waiting for Papa to drive up. It was too cute. My kids are the luckiest kids in the world. A lot of kids don't even get to grow up with all their grandparents living. My kids not only get that but they have the MOST doting Grandparents EVER! They are only trumped my my dad's parents who think even our kids temper tantrums are cute.... they are SORELY mistaken. At any rate, I'm so glad my kids love all their grandparents so much and that the feeling is completely mutual.

F.Y.I.: Carter WAS cranky the next day. It was 9:30 before he got back to bed... oh well. Rules are broken for grandparents.

Abusive Aunt.......not really

The kids always have so much fun when we go over to the Wyeth's. They LOVE playing with Aunt Noelle and "Uncle Omi" (Naomi). Noelle is so good to take videos of her playing with the kids. I snagged a few to put on our blog. Don't worry, she's not really abusive. She is SO great with them and these two girls are their favorite babysitters ever. (Mine too, since 1/2 the time they're FREE!)