It's baseball season again!

I had the pleasure of taking action shots of 2 t-ball teams Saturday, and it reminded me of how much fun that age is to watch play a game. Between the coaches doing all they can to get the attention of the base runner, to seeing the kids get distracted by the dirt, to watching multiple home runs, it was an awesome Saturday at the ball field!



This is one of my favorite little clients who remembers that I love silly faces! While this was not taken during the actual ball game (he's much more serious than this during a game and quite a good little ball player), I wanted to share it with you all because I just love it.

Celebrating Adoption

I am very excited to share Celebrating Adoption with you! Being in process of adopting, I have a huge heart for adoption. I have wanted a way to say "Congratulations" to families, and I would donate sessions to those families I knew had adopted. Last year I was talking with a friend who mentioned she did the same and how we both wished there was something organized for this purpose.

Our thoughts and dreams took shape in her mind, and she started a program that has literally blossomed. It has been a joy to see so many other photographers join us.

So, here is the official introduction of the Celebrating Adoption website, www.celebratingadoption.org.

If you know of any families who are in the process of adopting, or have adopted in the past year, please have them contact me or another photographer listed. Please share this anyone you know who has adopted in the past year, or who is in process of adopting.

I have room for one Celebrating Adoption session per month. As my months fill up quickly, please be sure to contact me well in advance to book your session.

I loved meeting A and her new sister!

I recently had the joy of photographing another family who has recently adopted from China. Their new daughter is adorable, and let us all know what she wanted (which was not to take photos that day). I had such a wonderful time getting to know their family. Here is a sneak peek for their Mom. I'm working on the rest of the session, and it should not be much longer!

I knew, when I took this, that I had gotten one of both of them together. I have some of each of them individually that I absolutely love, but getting toddlers with their older siblings is sometimes very hard to do.

Many faces of Samuel

We spent some time playing as a family at the greenway recently, and Samuel actually wanted me to take pictures of him. Well, of his different faces. He loves to chimp (that's looking at the photo on the back of the camera) and keeps requesting more. Then, when we get home, he begs and begs for me to put them on the computer so he can see them. I make up a slideshow and he sits at the computer and giggles.

Here are some of my favorite faces:

Spring Break is here!

Can you believe that Spring Break is here?! I can not. I know the little Kindergarteners I had the pleasure of meeting last week are thrilled to be out on Spring Break. Their ABC poster is just adorable, and I can not wait to share it with their parents. I think they are going to be thrilled.

I can tell it's spring, and the weather is warming up as my calendar is starting to fill up again for the weekends with both personal commitments and client sessions. Baseball teams are also starting to call, and it so exciting to see my own children play sports. I have a new lens this year for those action shots everyone loves so much, I think you all will like the results as well.

I am looking for someone to be a guinea pig for me! I am wanting to try a limited edition/mini-session event for Mother's Day or Easter photos. It can be outdoors, it can be indoors at your home, or it can be outdoors at your home! Contact me for details if you are interested. The only restriction is that I am wanting to set up once and have at least 5 families scheduled together. This would be perfect for a group of friends to do!

How many of you are seeing this sight?

Yes, it's spring, and the weeds are here. I've pulled these up. I've cut them. I think it's almost time to call the lawn care people so my neighbors do not rise up in protest about my weed filled yard.

What was really cute is that my oldest found a dandelion that was ready for blowing (yes he blew those seeds all over my yard). Samuel, who is 4, thought that was the greatest trick EVER! So, he diligently looked for a flower to blow. He pulled up the little white flower things that grow in the middle of clover (or at least they are in my yard). He blew and he blew and he blew, but it would not fly off and float seeds upon the air like JM's did. His little heart was broken, and I had to console him as we could not find anymore of those dandelions ready for puffing and blowing.

I love seeing the magic of even weeds through a child's eyes. Children have such a gift for finding pleasure in the simplest things, and I'm ever so thankful I get to see this everyday.

Karate!

I started my two boys in Karate this year, and they are loving it! I can highly recommend Triad Martial Arts on University/US 72 and Slaughter Road. They currently have 1st month free for youth students, no contracts, and competitive rates. If you homeschool, this dojo has classes during the early afternoon.

If you want more information, please contact me!

Team Photos and Sports

I've mentioned to a few people I have talked to that I have a special for coaches (or Team Moms if they would rather) this year. It's a free basic package for one person on the team (yes you can get package A). It does not include the extra $5 to add trading cards to the package (yes that would mean coaches, or the Team Mom, could get package A free and pay $5 for the trading card option).

If I do not mention it to you, I will tell you when I am taking the team photos. Of course, if I get busy and someone forgets to mention it, then I will return the coaches money for the basic package! :)

This is just my own way of saying thanks to all those parents who have the distinct pleasure of being there for all of our kids. Being there early to set up, do the detailed work of contacting everyone for practices, games, and rain outs, and for making sure that each of our kids have wonderful memories of their time playing sports.

Thanks!

I'm such a softie!

Really I am. I'm a pushover when kids get their feelings hurt and have huge crocodile tears streaming out of their eyes. My youngest experienced a first recently, the first time big brother and Daddy got to do something and he was too young to go on that super exciting charter bus. I tried explaining to him that the bus ride really is not all that great, but to his 4 year old eyes, that big bus was almost as good as Disney World.

The tears were streaming down, and I asked if he wanted to talk to Daddy. He sure did. I was trying to tell myself it was because he missed Daddy, but I think he was sad he was not on the bus. My little guy did sound sufficiently pitiful though telling Daddy "bye" on the phone.

Sufficiently enough to get a new game from Target, and new shoes, and if he'd worked it a little harder he probably would have gotten a toy (but I held firm and did NOT go down that aisle). So, tonight, he had the honor of playing the new Cars game FIRST! Plus he got to be player number 1. Both of these are a big deal as the 8 year old seems to always want to be in charge. Imagine that.

What did this do for me? Well, it allowed me to have some good time to work on photos and editing. This past week I took some photos of a Kindergarten class and I am making a poster of them. These wonderful little kids made letters of the alphabet for me. Since 2 of the little girls were absent that day, the teacher and I left a few letters that they could make out and I will be going back after spring break to finish up the letters. I have decided though that I either need to do the photos earlier in the year, or get a tall ladder! These kids are much taller than I expected.

If I can get permission from their parents, I will share the poster with you all. I hope it will turn out as precious as I envision!

Disney Slideshow

This is for personal use, and I thought you all might enjoy seeing it.

Just a few from Disney

Just a couple from our trip to Disney, and I really have so many more images to go through. I am hoping to get a slideshow ready for my family, but I will share here if you are interested.

Samuel pulled out the maps tonight and pointed to Star Tours and told me that we needed to go back. Then, when he found the Magic Kingdom map, he exclaimed, "Oh WOW! It's the real kingdom!" He is such a cutie sometimes. Another thing, when did JM get to be so BIG?!

Back to business!

Yes, I have totally be slacking with the daily photo postings. I have been taking photos, just not posting them.

sorry to leave this blog for so long, but we left for vacation last week to Disney. I had expected to have internet access at the hotel we were staying (off-site for the first time in forever), and was surprised to learn we had none. I even put in the closest Starbucks into the GPS to see if I could find it to look at email, but alas it was not close enough for a post-Disney day trip.

The kids and I had a magical wonderful time, and if you want any Disney tips or just talk Disney with me, please do so! I adore everything Disney (and if you ask I'll even tell the parents where some of the 100,000 point targets are in Buzz Lightyear ride). As soon as we get settled back in, I'll post some photos of our vacation. They are mainly snapshots, but I think you will enjoy them anyway.

I am going to be moving the location of my blog as I am having fits getting the archives working. This means that the photos will not transfer though. I'm sorry for all my blog-stars who will lose their photos on the blog. I'll see what I can do to put more up on the new site (which will probably be the basic free hosting for blogger sites).

If you sent an email to me in the past week, and I have not already replied (except for the ones I talked on my cell phone with), then please resend the emails. I know of one email that never made it to me. Thanks!!