I had the extreme pleasure of traveling to Oxford, MS this past weekend for a very special engagement shoot. I had to risk life and limb to get out of Memphis, since we had just been hit with an ice storm and the roads were a bit slippery. It actually wasn’t that much of a risk, other than sliding down my driveway sideways!

Oxford is the cutest little town, and a photographer’s dream. And NOT covered in ice. Visitors should definitely check out the square, and eat at the original Old Venice. Be sure to get the crawfish rolls and the Chicken Tuscany pizza. Yum. Seriously. Double yum.

Todd and Andrea met in Oxford while attending school at Ole Miss, so they wanted their engagement shoot to represent that part of their life together. We started at Rowan Oak, the home of the great William Faulkner. They are the most adorable couple. Ever. Don’t believe me? Just look…

You can see a bit of the house in the background of this one.

The light filtering through the trees was divine. And so was the moss covered brick walk. Yum!

They were truly happy to be around each other. Smiles were easy to come by.

But it’s the little offhanded moments that I love so much!

After we’d had our fill of the grounds, we ventured on to the square, for a few urban shots. The square was full of perfect photo possibilities, and we tried to capture them all.

How great is this old phone booth??

We almost passed this yummy stairwell. And right around the corner? Iron tables and chairs!

The shops along the square provided the perfect little nook for a quick kiss.

Don’t even get me started on the many little alleyways. Andrea is a natural in front of the camera. My job was so easy!

It wouldn’t be a square if the courthouse wasn’t in the middle, right?

My favorite shot of the day. Andrea, you are model material, girl. The love between these two was so obvious and beautiful.

Todd and Andrea, thank you so much for letting me capture your love! I truly enjoyed my stay in Oxford. I would wish you luck, but you don’t need it. Cheers!

• my red Kitchenaid stand mixer that my mommy got me for Christmas. I have this one.
• Assassins Creed II. Hubby plays this at night and we have a blast getting into the storyline.
• While I’m at it, I might as well plug Amazon. I’ve used their link in the last two bullet points. Could not have survived Christmas without Amazon.
• Fireplaces. We have two. One of the only good things about winter.
• Hot, hot, hot showers. See above.
• Apple’s new Magic Mouse. Apple finally got it right!

Everyone calls Alex “little Ed.” I don’t see it. It must be because he’s my son, and he’s Alex. Just Alex. So I put some pictures of them side by side at the same age. They are both 16 months in these pictures. It probably goes without saying, but hubby is on the left and Alex on the right. Please excuse my lack of photography skills back in 2006. So, yeah. Maybe. What do you think?

Here’s to Amazon! Cheers!

I recently had the honor of photographing a very important birthday. Trevor and Alexa are a year apart, but their actual birth DAYS are only days apart. So they had this incredible dual party at the local Little Gym with a million of their best friends and family. Ok, not really a million. But it seemed like it.

As you can see, Trevor loves Spiderman, and Alexa loves Tinkerbell, who actually showed up at the party shortly after I did:

I have to say, Spiderman was a huge hit with the boys and the girls, and Trevor literally jumped up and down when he saw him!

The Little Gym is a great place for kids to work off their excessive energy, and there was much jumping, bouncing, rolling, and playing.

Being that there was so much to do, it was very difficult to get any one of the 50 kids that were there to be still enough for a photo! But I did catch one or two during a break…

The face painting lady knew how to handle a room full of kids, and she was so good at her craft! Alexa got a princess job, and Trevor chose Spiderman. Naturally.

The balloon dude could work a crowd:

This couple was a close friend of the family and adorable in every way. They will soon be having their own birthday party!

At the end of the day, we managed to get the whole family together, although the kids were itching to get back up and play some more!

Thank you, Trevor and Alexa, for inviting me to your most awesome party! I had a blast! Cheers!

Ok, so did anyone notice that two posts ago I vowed to post more, then totally fell off the face of the earth? I’m going to pretend that no one noticed. But blogging is one of my New Year’s resolutions. I will blog in 2010.

I hate New Year’s resolutions. I don’t understand why we set ourselves up for failure so early in the year. And by ourselves, I mean me. I can’t remember a single resolution that I’ve managed to keep. And yet I keep making them. It’s the thought that counts, right?

So among my many failures this year will be more blogging! Starting now.

I had a wonderful holiday, away from the computer (duh. obviously.) but not away from family and friends. I know everyone thinks they are blessed with the best family and friends, but in my case it’s absolutely true! I couldn’t ask for more. I was way too busy enjoying their company (and drinking too much) over the holidays that I didn’t pick up the camera much. But I did manage a few shots:

My dearest hubby. I just thought that little red light was cool. I hate it when the camera is pointed at me. That’s why I stay behind it.

We were lucky enough to be introduced to the talents of our dear friend Brad (Brad Bo Brad…) for New Year’s Eve. I say “introduced” because we didn’t even get a taste of the talent that he’s keeping all to himself.

Pearl is the cutest. dog. ever. No, she’s not mine, but I wish she were.

And because I found it rather hilarious, here’s a picture of my son, wearing 2 pairs of socks, 3 shirts, 2 jackets, 1 pair of gloves, and 3 hats. So he could go 4-wheeler riding in the freezing cold.

Here’s to the new year! Cheers!

I L.O.V.E. the holidays. LOVE them. Christmas cheer, a warm fireplace, hot cocoa (with amoretto, of course), and of course the decorating!!! My house looks its best at Christmas, and it takes days to put up all the festive-ness. We have 3 trees downstairs, and each of the kids have one in their rooms. Garlands everywhere. Here, it’s easier to show than tell:

These are our two main trees. The formal one in the entry (left), and the more whimsical family tree in the living room (right), aka “the one with all the presents.”

The mantel over the fireplace in the dining room:

Some details:

This year I added a little white mini-tree decorated only with pink ornaments for…. where else? the bar!

Here’s to Christmas cheer and general merriment! Cheers!

I’m going to try to be more regular about my Friday Shortlist postings, just because I love to give shout-outs to my favorite things! This being the Christmas season, my favorites list is quite long, so without further ado…

• Jingle Spells 3: way too much fun for Harry Potter and wizardrock fans!
• Shootsac: I’m getting one of these for Christmas, are you?
• Hair Bands: Loving the nostalgia right now! Cinderella, Poison, Def Leppard, Firehouse, Scorpions, etc. Get your own Hair Band station on Pandora!
• New Super Mario Bros: SO hoping Santa brings us one of these!!
• The poor man’s macro lens: I just learned about this the other day from Brenda’s blog. I’m hooked! I ordered an adapter for my Canon 50mm 1.2, but had to play around in the meantime. Yes, these are a bit blurry, but I was just experimenting by holding the lens up to my camera. So cool!

Thanksgiving has been held at my house for the past 2 years, so I didn’t argue that hard when my mom offered to have it at her house this year. Actually, I didn’t argue at all. I think it was my idea. Both Ed’s parents and my parents live in our old hometown, as well as our brothers and their families. We ate and ate and then ate some more, and visited with family. I’m always in charge of the cheesecake and the rolls, and get death threats if I show up without either one.

My brother’s son, Dylan, and Alex are good buds and love it when they get to play together. Occasionally I can even catch them sharing some cousin-ly love.

Ed’s brother stopped by for a bit, which was nice since we don’t see him very often. They swear they’re related, but they don’t look anything alike to me (Ed is on the right). Funny how they wore nearly identical jackets for an impromptu photo!

My brother is a collector of all things with wheels. His latest acquisition is a mini gas-powered 4-wheeler. Originally intended for the younger boys, it turns out that the girls had just as much fun on them! Morgan rode the bigger ones that belong to Ed and my brother. I managed to shoot this from the back of Ed’s, just holding up the camera and shooting blind!

Dylan doesn’t have to be asked twice to ride with daddy. One of his signature sayings is “ridin in the mud.” I wish you could hear HIM say it! This is one of my favorite shots of the day.

Alex is such a good sport, and the only one who would be still long enough for me to play with backlighting!

Although I did get Ed and Morgan to play along too.

Helen, beautiful thing that she is, hates to have the camera pointed at her (at least mine!), but I made her take time out for this one, another fave from the day!

My men

I have to explain this next one. I had so much going on in my brain when I was packing that I forgot to pack Alex’s jacket. Yes, I’m a terrible mother. Luckily, my mom gets the “granma” of the year award and also doesn’t throw anything away. Like, ever. She pulled out this jacket, and it fit Alex perfectly. Turns out it was mine in the 1st grade. I bet it’s the only one still in existence from that year!

Jessie has a bit of a crooked grin in this one because she had a fat lip. The aforementioned “granma” told her not to worry about it, cuz she looks like “that sexy big-lipped actress.” Julia or Angelina? I didn’t ask.

This is Pebbles, who belongs to my brother. She is very cute. And very pregnant.

Yay! I caught another one of Helen!

This was Morgan’s idea, although I will be glad to take full credit for it.

Granma, Krampa, and all 5 grandkids (and yes, 4/5 of them are mine)!

Alex again. Seriously, the girls were riding ALL DAY.

I convinced my mom and dad to take a few before the light was gone. I know. I look like my dad, right? I inherited that Armenian nose. Lucky for me, he’s a good looking guy.

It was such a fun holiday! Next up: Christmas at my house.

Here’s to the holidays! Cheers!

I finally got the chance to take photos of my bestest friend, Jill, and her gorgeous boys. Jill is the most amazing single mom, and she lives for her sons. I don’t know how she does it. She really is supermom. When I grow up, I want to be her.

Isn’t she beautiful?

They make such a gorgeous family!

I love this series. These boys were so well behaved and cooperative, and made my job super easy. Of course, they know me, and know that I’ll get ‘em if they don’t!

Jill may not like this one, but it’s one of my favorites of the day. Such easy joy! So them!

Her oldest and my oldest are the same age, and good friends. This shot is so “teenager” to me!

There was a flock of geese heading toward the water, and I caught everyone looking.

Austin was surprisingly willing to have his photo taken, for a teenage boy! And he’s a natural.

Chase has modeling in his near future. I can tell. Just look at this gorgeous thing! He was totally strutting it.

Sam was amazingly still and willing for a 3 year old! He has his mama’s eyes.

the kids always love this part! Austin wouldn’t do it. Hmph.

Sam was terrified of falling off this bridge, but he smiled anyway.

LOVE this shot.

And this one. Sam has had it. He’s done!

Thank you so much, Jill, for sharing your boys with me for an afternoon! They are such a joy to be around. Love you guys!

Cheers!

I recently had the great pleasure of photographing a friend of a friend and her beautiful family. She introduced me to a new hidden spot that I had not know about, and it was gorgeous! Although it was a good 30 minute drive from my house (you knew I had to mention that, Amy!), it was a beautiful fall drive and the park was pretty enough for an hour long drive.

Amy brought along her two beautiful dogs, and they were quite happy to be outdoors running free! I did get one of them to stop and pose for me:

Amy, Chris, and Ashton are such a beautiful family and made my job easy peasy!

Ashton was a good sport and had no problem playing around a bit for me:

The happy couple:

Fall color, beautiful light, water. Seriously. What else could a photographer ask for?

There’s no special bond like a mother and son!

And dads are great for a ride on the shoulders! And tickeling, and laughing, and wrestling…

One of my favorites from the day. We almost passed this bridge by. It was a little hidden gem!

A couple of mom & dad. Chris never smiles. Seriously. Never. Amy was jumping up and down behind me and threatened to take her shirt off. Still not a crack.

My absolute favorite shot from the whole day was actually a whim while driving home. We passed this cotton field with a magnificent red barn and had to stop!

Oh, I have to throw in this little story: the park where we were shooting was huge, and we roamed over quite a bit of it. We jumped in the car to head over to the other side of the lake where the light was better. When we pulled into the parking lot, there was a flock of geese standing near the edge. Chris says, “Ashton, watch this,” and goes to let the dogs out of the back seat. I jump out first so I could catch the whole thing. It was so funny to watch those dogs chase the geese right into the water before convincing them to fly off!

All in all, I had a blast! I love my job! Thank you Amy, Chris, and Ashton for letting me spend the afternoon with you!

Cheers!

I hope everyone had a enjoyable and busy DSD! I know I did Thank you so much to everyone who left me a comment! I wish I had time to respond to each of them, but I just don’t. But know that I read each and every one! These 3 luckly ladies have won a $10 gift card to my shoppe (check your email, girls!):

• Martine
• Jacque
• Elin

Also, I know a lot of you are curious about my CT call! Rest assured that I have been through all the applications and invitations are being sent out as we, well…. “speak.” I will be posting the announcement soon! Thank you for your patience!

Cheers!