{My little pirate!}

I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa and her cute, CUTE little son in March when we took pictures at the airport together. Since then, she’s been a wonderful support to me (thanks, girl!) and I’ve had fun watching her start her OWN business. She has recently started “A Taste of TLC” a yummy bakery business. Check out her website {here}! I’m so excited she wants some of my images on her website, so we’re starting out with some red velvet retro cupcakes. I had a pre-birthday roller skating session planned for Peach, so Lisa decided a retro look for cupcakes would be perfect — couldn’t agree more. She’s SUPER creative!

Also, check out this business on {Facebook} Lisa is always coming up with fun ways to get her fans involved — last week she challenged her “fans” to tell her what they were having for dinner and she’d recommend the perfect cupcake to have for dessert — I loved reading those!

Can’t wait to see what she comes up with for Peach’s birthday (and neither can Peach)!!!

Have a lovely day!
~mm

Ahhhh…rain!  My kiddos LOVE to play in the rain.  A rainy day is like a million bucks floating through the sky over here.    The kiddos started out with umbrellas and then quickly made their way to completely soaked.  These pics are pretty much right in the middle of that. 

We got a new skirt from Regina at Sand Dance Designs a couple weeks ago and Peach wanted to wear her “cheerleader skirt” to twirl in the rain.  Love it.  The bold colors are just perfect and it gets a thumbs up on the jump and twirl scale from Peach (obviously it was quite a rigorous testing process).    Sand Dance Designs is on a bit of a summer break, but will return shortly.  Stay tuned because we’re getting some incredible, I mean AWESOME stuff from Regina.   She is SO talented, sweet, and really listens to what we love in clothes.  Then she takes her talent and creates by mixing fabrics, altering designs, and making little extra embellishments.  SO fun.

Hope you’re having one lovely day!  Kiddos are at Nature School this morning discovering new mushrooms and creatures outdoors…I’m trapped inside editing.  Editing some AWESOME sessions though, so I’m one happy gal.  Can’t wait to show you more!!!  ~mm

Hubs away ALLLLLL weekend = Me being ultra-entertaining
(hard work, I tell ya!!!)

The kiddos usually do a pretty good job of keeping themselves busy, but they’re used to daddy-o being around and doing cool stuff with them on the weekend. So, we tried. We even braved the EXTREME Texas heat/humidity and hit up a park yesterday. Apparently, we were the only brave souls because we were the only peeps there! Kinda made it nice for picture taking purposes, I must admit.

I decided to bring my camera because I don’t do a great job recording my kids when I’m busy (and I’m BUSY!), so it was time. They had a blast and I had SO much fun playing with them in between snaps. They tried poles, rings, swings, tightropes, played castle, pet store, and a bajillion other fun things.

:::Here are a couple more (the Grandparents will THANK me big time!!!):::

Annnnnnnd….one of me. I know, it’s huge. Peach took this pic — yay!

I guess it’s only fair that I make an appearance once in a while.

I hope you have a lovely week. I’ll be popping in with sneak peeks, in between sessions and client ordering appointments, so be on the lookout! I have some AMAZING sessions planned this week — a couple, a bridal session AND a fun family. So fun. ~mm

He waited for three weeks for this shirt to arrive.  First we chose it together on Mini Boden, then we ordered it, THEN the volcano in Iceland happened, which delayed the shipping.  Let’s just say, my guy was like a broken record player (”is it here yet?  is it here yet? is it here yet?”) while checking the doorstep for one box.  When it finally came, he giggled, and moved his feet, anticipating this monster shirt…and WOW does he love it.  He sleeps in it, wears it most days and barely takes it off for baths (when I squeeze in a good washing).  My mom suggested that I order another!

The one eyeball cracks him up.

The monster PLUS lightning bolt background are HUGE loves, too.

What I love?  That this one shirt makes him so happy, that he has an opinion, AND that he can express himself through clothing.  How fun is THAT!!!??? 

IF YOU have a session coming up and are unsure about what to wear, why not bring something your CHILD loves?  We can squeeze it in for a couple pictures…and then you have that reminder of the time when monsters and eyeballs and lightning bolts was like winning the lottery for an adult. 

Oh do I love him.

Hope you have one terrific weekend!

~mm

I’ve been having fun photographing my own (gasp!) kiddos in between sessions lately.  I’ve just come to the realization that they’re getting WAAAAAY too big, too quickly and I need to bust a move.    Took my little guy to see some trains last week…a mommy & me date…so pics from that AND Disney World just might make an appearance in between client sessions. 

The pic above was during the walk back home from the kindergarten bus.  A highlight of our day is riding bikes home from the bus stop.

And speaking of bikes…on Mother’s Day, Peach decided to be especially brave and we took the training wheels off of her bike.  Well, we actually had her learn on a bike the neighbors “gifted” us (a bit smaller!) and then she broke in her Disney Princess bike w/o trainers.

A couple minor scratches later, she now pedals like a little maniac around and around and AROUND the island on our street.  She just can’t get enough.

Obviously!

SO proud of my girlie.  It almost makes my heart burst.

Have a lovely day!

~mm

OH…and if you’re looking to book a session, let’s get something on the calendar quickly!  I am booked through mid-June, which is absolutely exciting.  Can’t wait for all the fun-loving families I will be able to photograph in the next four weeks.

Where do I even begin? Our neighborhood has been a complete winter wonderland these past few days. We went sledding several times, drank lots of hot cocoa (WITH whipped cream ), built an enormo snowman, had snowball fights, and SO much more! It has been an amazing experience EXCEPT for all the destruction this snow has brought to our poor trees. I think we lost 4 pretty large ones, one of which is Peach’s climbing tree. Darn.

Here’s a little of what we’ve been up to…

:::lots of snow stomping, sledding and snowball fights:::

:::freezing and making a 6′3″ snowman with hubs and Uncle Phil:::

:::stopping for 4.7 seconds to take it all in:::

:::enjoying the beauty of our transformed backyard:::

and…giving some sibling lovies!

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s! The kiddos and I made some delish cupcakes today — and couldn’t quite get the frosting red enough, so the boys had to settle for pink on top of their cupcakes (Fella wasn’t incredibly pleased — how funny!).

Have one lovely day! We have school tomorrow because of the snow day — bummer!
~mm

Been busy trying to get this little man better. His ear infections haven’t really stopped since BEFORE Christmas…we’re trying all sorts of things (antibiotics, vitamins, herbal concoctions, pediatrician, chiropractor) to help heal his ears… The Dr. said that everything is muffled to him and when language development is crucial at his age, I just want to get this D-O-N-E as soon as possible.

Coming soon…another favorite book!

Have a lovely day!
~mm

I can’t believe I never shared these!  They’ve been sitting on my desktop for months (yup…September) alllll ready to be blogged and I guess in my holiday busy-ness I forgot.  They are some of the CUTEST of my little lady though, so I just had to post.  I have the image above mounted and displayed on an easel in my kitchen & love it!  This set of images just really show how happy & carefree Peach is.  She’s such a water girl and truly is in her element at the beach.

She found this enormo piece of seaweed and began hauling it around.    Seriously, the bubble part was almost bigger than her head!!!  I realized moments later that a woman was standing near & I asked her if it was HER seaweed.  She chuckled and said that she HAD been dragging it all over the beach that morning, but felt like it was best being used right now, by this little girl who was running wild and free with it.  The woman then proceeded to videotape Peach’s seaweed dance.  Cute.

Do ya see the heart???  I do!

The seaweed got a little old after a while and it was back to wave jumping…

Have a super day. I SURE wish I was in San Diego with my kiddos, parents, sis and bro right about now!
~mm

{Image from the Apple Website}

Hiiii!  I'm back already.  :)

As some of you know, I recently purchased an iPhone and have been SO happy with this little baby computer in my purse (yes, I’m already addicted — that happened in about 2.5 seconds)….until today!

Oh man.  I was in the process of synching my computer and phone and BAM! the phone just stopped working.  It basically said on the screen that I needed to restore the factory settings if I wanted a working phone….SO I lost EVERYthing.    Pictures, some fun quotes I was storing for the perfect day, and ALL my contacts.   Boo.

*   *   *   *   *

Anyway, back to positive thinking…I’m a stickler for all things educational for my kiddos, so I’ve done some research on apps for children and thought I’d share some findings here.  I’d like to also ask if any of YOU have some fun ones, if you’d comment and let me know some more.  My kids will thank you!

The iPhone for them is a special treat when we’re waiting in line at the post office,  or have a couple extra minutes when they need to be distracted.    Because they play so little, it works WONDERS and keeps us all very happy.  The only problem is that I don’t have TWO — but hey…it teaches a good lesson in sharing, right? 

First, I found this New York Times article, which got me on the right track.   I purchased Wheels on the Bus and iWrite Words right off the bat and they’re both great.  I also took the advice of the author and rearranged the kid game icons so ALL those games were on the same page.  VERY helpful.  Now, I have two pages of games though…  Yikes!    You can find more apps here –  AND, I just found another blog for iKids {here}. {Here} are their top 20 apps (written in July ‘09).

Games we also like:

Word Magic:  Perfect for my word-building kindergartner.

Peekaboo Barn:  Fun for really little ones…

First Words: Animals — there’s a LITE (free) version!  Here’s a review.

Cute Math:  Lots of math games to choose from.  I like that kiddos can “ask” for extra help if needed.

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox + here’s a review. Although it’s easy for my 5 year-old (yeah, it’s a preschool program) she LOVES it.  The games are pretty cute (memory, puzzles, etc).

AND

Shape Builder (kids fit puzzle pieces where they belong) — there’s a LITE version for free!

Please let me know what you think!  Adult games or apps would be awesome, too if you feel like sharing!  I’m still pretty new to all this.

Have a lovely day!

~mm

Ahh…fresh, crisp, chilly Colorado air. Oh how we LOVE Colorado at Christmas! The kiddos couldn’t wait to play in the snow, so about an hour after arriving at our destination yesterday, they were happy and frozen. Snow angels were made, icicles were broken off stair railings, snowballs were thrown (and eaten) — most of all there was running. Just carefree tromping through the snow with ginormous smiles. Can’t ask for more than that!

We spent some more time in the white goodness today and went sledding with some of our family. Everyone had an absolute blast — only minor injuries! Peach was incredibly brave (as usual) and hit the jump full force (thanks to her uncle!) several times. We’re hoping to head to “The Pit” several more times in the next couple days.

Lots more to post from our sledding adventures…

Stay tuned for those pics AND a chilly downtown family session I’m going to have tomorrow. SOOO so excited to meet this family (I know mom from waaay back)!

Have a super day!
~mm