Almost...

...but not quite yet. Here's Emma, nearly 16 months and not walking. But with a few steps here and there, we're getting close. My other two didn't walk until they were 14 months so I wasn't expecting an early walker, but it's time and she just doesn't want to do it. In fact most of the time when I hold her hand to walk, she has a little fit, sits down and cries with her hands held up to me. I often refer to Emma as my hip baby because she would be happy to have me carry her all day. Honestly, I think she's got it figured out. She knows that once she starts walking, she's going to be on her own.

Short, Sweet & A Little Bit Sassy

I can't believe we actually did it! I had thought off and on about cutting Hannah's hair, and she goes through phases of wanting short hair as well. So, while we were in Idaho last month, we did it. She's had several trims, but it hasn't been this short since she was a year old. It's actually a bit shorter than I had intended, and if I'm completely honest, I like it long better. However, if I had left it long, I would have always wondered about it being short. I do think it's really cute, and short hair definitely has it's advantages. So for now it's short and sweet and a little bit sassy, a lot like Hannah herself.

Jake is fine...

... the car is not. Jake drove off this morning like any other morning except before he came to the end of our street and onto the main road his car exploded into flames. Very scary!! I'm so relieved that he wasn't hurt. We were really hoping our little car with 175,000 miles would get us through the next 18 months. Obviously and unfortunately the car is a total loss. On the brighter side, the golf gear seems only to have some smoke damage. I'm sure Jake wishes it were a total loss so he could get some new clubs. I'm still feeling unsettled about the whole thing, but again I'm so thankful that Jake is safe.

Hope your day gets off to a better start than ours did.

Beautiful Baby Girl

I photographed this little sweetie the day before we left for Christmas vacation. Her mom called a couple days earlier to request a session. I'll admit her she had to twist my arm a bit because I was so busy, but I'm so glad I did it. I love photographing newborns and baby "S" was no exception.

Hmmm...

... I think I prefer this one in color. Anyone else have an opinion? And by the way, we did actually have snow for a few hours yesterday. Of course then it warmed up just enough to turn to a freezing rain. We had a lot of that kind of weather when we lived in Cleveland and its just yucky. I'd much rather have it be 25 degrees and snowing than have 35 degrees and rain. Of course if I'm really getting what I want, I'll take last weeks weather, 75 degrees in January.

Snow is Falling...

... or at least it was most of the time we were on vacation in Idaho. I haven't seen that much snow for a few years. It was really beautiful and really cold. I've been spoiled living in warmer climates the past few years. The kids really had a great time in the snow though. The last picture was of them all geared up to be pulled on the sled behind the car. What a sight!

Grandma Love

Just Emma getting a little grandma love. As I was working on these pictures earlier, Ben came in and saw them. He said to me "I miss her, she's a good grandma." She is a good grandma. The kids had a great couple of days with Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds while we were in Idaho. I'm not sure what was more fun, sledding down the big hill, frosting cookies, feeding horses, or baiting the mouse traps and checking them every couple of hours. Kids get excited about the craziest things. Anyway, here's to wonderful grandparents. My children are lucky to have them.

Emma & Mommy

One of my new year goals is to be in more pictures with my children. I guess that means I've also made a goal for Jake and Hannah to take more pictures :) These are Hannah's first try at helping me keep my resolution. I set everything up with the tripod and let her use the release cable to take the pictures. She did a great job!

'M' Family

Just sharing a couple favorites from a session last month. A little out of my usual age range, but what a great family! And brrr was it cold that day!

Happy New Year

I hope you're all recovering well from the holidays. We had a wonderful time in Idaho visiting grandparents and cousins. It can be hard to be far from family during the holidays and we were blessed to not miss out on all the family fun this year. We arrived home around midnight New Year's day. I definitely have some catching up to do around here and plenty of photos to edit.

I made these 2008 desk calendars as Christmas gifts for family. If you'd like to make one yourself, I'll email you the psd file for the calendars (see side bar for email.) I made mine 4x6, but I've also seen them 5x7 size. The calendars can be resized to fit either. I used a hard round brush tool for my circles, you could also use the marque tool to make squares rather than circles. The second picture shows the frame I use to display the photos. It's one of those inexpensive clear frames you can find at Walmart, they come in both sizes. It was so fun looking back through favorite photos as I put them together.

Enjoy the new year!