Some Holiday Fun

I'm getting ready to ship out hundreds of my clients' Christmas cards to them, which have arrived from my lab this week.  In thinking about all these Christmas Card Lists that just keep getting longer and longer it seems, I wanted to share a quick download that might help you get organized for this task!  You can download your free, printable, momAgenda Christmas Card list here.  So handy!  Once you download those fun lists, go to the momAgenda home page, and take advantage of the sales they're having on mini-planners for Moms (and anyone else in desperate need of organization in their day... frazzled photographers included)!  I use a momAgenda planner myself, after seeing a good friend using one, and I just adore mine.   You can also download a Holiday Gift Purchase List to keep track of whose shopping is completed (check!), and which child still needs all these Transformers (Santa mustn't forget)!  ;)

Speaking of getting organized, it took me a full week to get my tree(s) up, but they're finally finished!  

I've also decided to participate in a Christmas Open House of sorts.  If any of you have ever heard of a very funny lady by the name of BooMama, she's a hilarious blogger (er, freelance writer) from the Deep South and she puts on a Christmas Tour of Homes every year, courtesy of the good ol' internet.  (And she'll have you eating fried chicken and drinking sweet tea after listening to her "talk" for five minutes.)  

So! On December 15th, come back to my blog with a steaming cup of hot chocolate (with marshmallows of course).  I'll be posting photos of my home, and my halls, all decked out for the season.  :)  After you take a "tour" of my home, you can browse other bloggers' homes in just a click or two.  I'll also be sharing a favorite holiday recipe (or two... or five).  How's that for serving refreshments!!  Hope to see ya soon!

A love letter.....

Dearest Coco,   Oh how I adore you.  Thank you for being so sleepy and wonderful and squishy and bendy for our session.  You were a treat to photograph, as were your beautiful parents.  In your beautiful house.  

Give your wonderful, adoring family a big HUG from me for being so well-prepared for our little session together, and for having such amazing built-in props there, just waiting for me to take advantage of them....  :)

And for your Mama being sweet enough to GIVE ME that gorgeous cocoon we snuggled you up in for awhile.  The one that you apparently loved, because you slept so peacefully inside it!I know you'll never wonder for a single second if you are loved.  Because you will be smothered in kisses for the rest of your life.... I'm quite certain of that.  :)  You are surrounded by love, little one!

Hope to see you soon, sweet baby girl.  You were truly the highlight of my week.

Love, Your Smitten Photographer  :) 

Beautiful.

I wanted to share one of my recent maternity sessions with you.  Actually, baby Luke has just been born, and I can't wait to meet him!  Here he is inside his Mama's tummy a few short weeks ago...

Love the image on the bottom right.... see Big Brother's fingerprints on the mirror?  Ahh, that's the best part!!

Doesn't she look so beautiful and relaxed?

Really, she just glowed.  Such a delight to see (and remember!) all the anticipation in those last few weeks...  

And something tells me that this little guy will never have cause for jealousy, with all the snuggling that goes on in this family.  :)  Such a treat for me to see families loving on each other!

Okay, back to my proofing cave for the rest of the week....  I'll come out to blog a session or two every now and then, LOL!  I'm finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel for my holiday orders and recent sessions.  Whew!  Y'all have certainly kept me busy this year, and I can't even tell you how much I appreciate it!!!  XOXOXO!

Now for the boys....

So many families of girls I've photographed recently!  This shoot was 100% boy, however.  Trains (both Thomas and the authentic variety), soccer in the backyard, crazy animal sounds, lots of snuggling with Mama and Daddy, and laughs by the barrel-full.  See for yourself... I think they were pretending to be tigers here.  ;)  LOVE that Mom and Dad joined in, how fun is that?!

Such handsome faces.....  

Hailing Thomas...  ;)

Thanks so much, guys, for an awesome playdate.  I had a blast with you, and all of your boyish-ness!

Caroline and Kate...

This family was super sweet, so very good to me for this shoot.  And I love their girls' names!  (Caroline and Kate were the top two middle names we'd chosen for our own daughter!  You might remember, Parker purposefully called his little sister "Ava Caroline" instead of "Lila Kate" for the first two weeks of her life.  LOL!) 

I just wanted to put them in my pocket and take them home with me.  (Much to Parker's dismay, I'm sure... "Ewww, more girly stuff!"  LOL!)

Aren't they absolutely beautiful??  I loved Baby Kate's sweet expressions.... 

And I LOVED this outtake!!  Caroline was just too cute.  While proofing this session, I giggled every time I would scroll past this shot.  So I just HAD to include it in their gallery!  (I wonder if Mom and Dad see this same face from time to time?)  ;)

And who could resist a sleepy girl with a tiny thumb in her mouth?  Oh, be still my heart....

Huge thanks to this family.... I had a blast with y'all, and I hope you enjoy your gallery!  :)

So this was my weekend...

My parents flew into town on Friday to visit us, and to see how much the kids have grown.  Gosh, what a shock they got when they saw how monstrous Lila's chunky thighs are, lol!  Ahh, she's such a good eater.  :)  Anyhow, we visited, laughed, played, loved, and cried.  For three days.  And Parker sobbed when we dropped them off at the airport today, love his heart.  I thought I'd share a few "snapshots" with you from our short time together....  

Popaw Pat and his "little man" watching Christmas movies together, of all things!  ;)  Told ya we were in the Christmas spirit here at the Woods house!  lol

Love her expression here.... she makes this face a lot!  And it melts me of course.

"Nammie" (one of the grandkids couldn't say "Grammy" so it stuck) and her 5th granddaughter... Can you believe Parker is the only son/grandson on my side of the family?  Just my boy and a bunch of girly-girls, blech!  ;) 

Right before leaving for the airport.... at least he held it together until they were out of sight!  (Ahem, same goes for me, as always....)

And we took Parker into the backyard this afternoon for a little "mini-session"...  it's for a project that my Mom is working on.  I couldn't help but adore these!!

Apparently he was LOVING my knock-knock jokes today.  Thank goodness!  I thought I'd run out of tricks with this one....  ;)  And last one.... "Progression of a Laugh" I call it.  Now, I dare you not to smile.  :)

I'm back in the office as of this morning (Tuesday).  I've got a slew of emails and voice messages to return, so if you need me, no worries..... I'll be glued to my office chair for the entire day!!!!  :) 

"Thanta, can I pleathe have that?"

Hurray, it's toy-catalog and toy-commercial season again!!  Aren't you so glad?  ;)  Is your mailbox threatening to tip over from the added weight of the bulk mail alone?  The catalogs from companies you haven't heard from since last Christmas?  Have your children suddenly become little zombies who point and sputter "I want that!!!" after every TV commercial?  Parker has circled just about every single toy in the Wish Books (everything that isn't, as he says, "too girly" anyways!).  He's trying to make it a little easier on us, I suppose... No guesswork for us this year on what he REALLY REALLLLLY wants under the tree.  Why, thank you, thank you son. So this funny kid of mine, who has a severe case of The Gimmees right now, doesn't get the whole concept of "Santa is not made of money, darlin'.  He (ahem, Mama and Daddy) can't get you everything you ask for."  In Parker's reasoning, Santa doesn't need money to buy toys, he can just MAKE a Wii at his workshop.  His elves can just BUILD a Batman Playset or the Lego Star Wars Death Star.  That's pretty tough logic to argue with, now isn't it?  Especially since he saw the elves, with his very own eyes, make real Etch-A-Sketches in the movie Elf.  ;)

So, imagine the TV on, blaring commercial after commercial for noisy and obnoxious toys and we must "collect them all!" of course.  He has already learned his lesson and will not ask Mama or Daddy for yet another toy on this particular day.  So instead, after seeing a commercial for this or this or this, he whispers in a tiny voice: "Thanta, will you pleathe get me that for Chrithmath?!  Thank you!!"  (Do you know how much I utterly ADORE his sweet little lisp???  *sigh*)  It's as if he's whispering a prayer to dear old St. Nick up in the North Pole.  Santa's always watching, you know!!  ;)  

I even caught him on the potty yesterday, with the Target Toy Catalog lying across his lap.... and he was just browsing away and whispering to Santa Claus as he flipped through the pages.  I just smiled and closed the bathroom door.  Love his heart.

A delight.

Meet the fabulous Jill Somers, owner of the equally fabulous Somers Salon and Spa in Clearwater, and her sweet, adorable family.  (You MUST pay her spa a visit, by the way.  Her Stylists and Spa Staff are all incredibly amazing, and you will leave her spa rejuvenated, refreshed, and relaxed, I PROMISE!  I always do!  ;)  Her mantra at the Spa is to bring "Beauty, Style, and Relaxation to the World, One Person at a Time".  And wow, does she ever!  Check out Jill's blog as well, to get salon updates and promotion details, spa information, as well as "hot tips"!) Anyhow, Jill and her family (including their ever-charming terrier Rex!!) are always such a delight to photograph.  (Check out how much little Ella has grown since our session last year!)  A few weeks back, we headed to Phillippe Park again and played in the sand, hiked up the stairs of the Indian Mound (and back down... and back up... and back down), relaxed under the shady trees, and even made friends with a spider.....

Loved the way she was telling Rex to "stop!"  :)  That chubby little hand, oh my goodness.

I just love-love-love the image above.  :)  Totally makes me smile!  

What a gorgeous little girl she is.  Just absolutely precious in every way.  And wouldn't you know it, she has the best hair.  :)  (Thanks, Mom!)   

Shhh, don't tell Daddy....

TOP SECRET STUFF HERE.  :)  If you know Captain Daniel Long of Otherside Charters, then shhhh, don't tell him you saw this post!!!  This session is a sweet surprise for his birthday, from his beautiful wife and two adorable daughters.  I thought it was a fantastic idea!  His wife, Janet, is the owner of Kookie Krums, a yummy coffee shop/boutique in downtown Dunedin.  (Make sure you pop in soon, because I did some commercial work for her this year, and she's ordered a whole slew of my canvases to decorate her boutique!)  Anyhow, back to the surprise.... The gals and I headed up to Honeymoon Island to play.  (All of you with young kids know... that I sometimes call our sessions "playdates" and that I always make a point to play with the kids, make it fun, and let them loose to just RUN at some point in the session (well, some sessions have lots more running than others, I must admit!  Especially with the toddler crowd.  ;))  Well, there was so much to do on this particular playdate.  Like hiding in the sea grapes.... um, do y'all see a little blond-haired girl anywhere?!  Where did she go???  ;)

I must add that I love her nail polish.  LOL!  And after hide-and-seek was over, we made sea-shell castles.  (If any of you have ever been to Honeymoon Island, you'll understand why.  There are more shells on that beach than there are grains of sand!)

Then, there were strolls to take and waves to "kick" of course....

How I *adore* my wide-angle lens at the beach.  :)  This next shot is one of my favorites!!

And of course, there is always time for cuddling and snuggling with Mama.  It just wouldn't be a playdate without a little bit of snuggle-time!

I'm in love with this next shot.  Such adoration from Mama, and that sweet soft backlight gets me every time.  So summery and relaxed.

I loved the graininess, and the soft movement of Janet's hair in this one....  and don't tell me that you CAN'T hear the littlest one laughing!  :)  Love that.

Do you think Daddy will be pleased?  :)  Remember, no spoiling the surprise!  

By the way, I refuse to apologize for showing so many images at a time nowadays!  I'm thrilled that my blog finally shows my photographs nice and HUGE, so I get on a roll sometimes and can't stop adding.  LOL!  Have a great night, everyone!!

I get all mushy when.....

...I photograph Mamas and their baby boys.  Takes me back to when Parker was a little chubby mover and shaker himself.  (His "chubby" days may be long gone, but he is still a mover and a shaker of course!)  Anyways, I loved this session.  Such a gorgeous little boy, and a very beautiful Mama indeed.  I'll let you see for yourself:

I am in love with this moment...... his sweet laugh and closed eyes.... cracks. me. up.

Can you believe Mom painted the giraffe herself??  And the monkey, and the bees, and the rest of the beautiful "jungle" that surrounded this little man.  

Such scrumptiousness... I love my job!