Well, not quite the end of me per se, but the end of a phase. For the last several months Avery often called me Amy. Other people's reactions ranged from finding it disrespectful to treating me with sympathy. Honestly, it bothered me for a minute but I knew it had to be a phase. And guess who was right?! Momma. Oh, I'm sorry, you don't know who that is?! It's ME.
She hasn't called me Amy since before her birthday party over three weeks ago. The first week I noticed but thought maybe I'd just overlooked it because I was so used to it. So I started paying more attention and no, there was no Amy! She has taken to calling me "Mom" sometimes like she just turned twelve instead of two, but whatevs, I'll take it.
So I've been on a bit of a break the last couple of weeks but this week kicks off a busy few months of babies, brides, and birthdays. I'm so thankful for a busy business and can't wait to share some fabulous sessions...but in the meantime, just a silly one of my girl. I was setting up for a newborn session and she was being helpful. She was pretending to be asleep and I caught her mid-snore.
She is both ridiculous and hilarious. I love being Momma to that girl!
I recently bought this CD at Sam's, except it's a double set with more songs and was $2 less! Love me some Sam's Club. Anyway, It's got most of the songs I remember from those early days of Sunday school. I'm anxious to hear Avery belting them out, she's already pretty good at "This Little Light of Mine."
On a different note (ha!), Deran introduced Avery to some Garth Brooks on the way to dinner last Saturday. Listening to those songs brought back so many memories and Deran and I were talking about how controversial "The Thunder Rolls" video was that it was banned from several stations. So crazy compared to what's out now!
And also, Avery's hair situation is out.of.control. Love my crazy haired girl!
I have been feeling so blessed lately, like overwhelmingly thankful for my life. I'm not sure when it hit me, but I've been trying to take things a day at a time and really appreciate what's going on. I certainly have worries, insecurities, and issues, but my troubles are nothing compared to what others are going through. The last few months my business has been, well, busy. And when I look over these faces I can't help but smile. Sometimes those in between moments are my favorites, people being who are they are, having fun, being happy.
It's Monday, and the start of a new school year for so many I love. As I enter my third year out of the classroom I'm still thinking about the first day. The excitement, the nerves, the tired toes after a summer of not standing around lecturing. :) I hope everyone has a great start to the new school year and take a minute to find a little joy in the day. This life is good, so smile - you know you want to.
Tonight Avery wanted me to rock her to sleep. And after two rounds of Row, Row, Row Your Boat and half an Itsy Bitsy, she told me to stop singing. Then she just laid her head on my chest and after I heard the even breaths that let me know she was asleep, I held her a little tighter and rocked a little longer.
It seems that at two, Avery wants to test me at every turn. Last Friday was a two bath kind of day. A whole slew of things happened before breakfast was even over. We've pulled an infinite number of crazy random things out of her mouth over the last two weeks. Like an earring, the tip of a DS stylus, a piece of a barbie mattress, and the list goes on. I literally saved her life earlier this week after she nearly choked on a pearl that she bit off of a headband. She suddenly cannot leave the dogs alone when it's time to eat because "Harper hungy. Need dog wood." And oh - while she's at it, she may as well mess with the water bowl! I went to check the laundry and I'm not kidding - I was in the room by myself, pulled down the dryer door, then turned to the washer and added soap then turned back to the dryer and a wet diaper was on the dryer door, no naked baby in sight. Seriously can't turn my back for a second with this girl!
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to photograph a sweet new baby girl on her seventh day in this world. She was so tiny and had the blondest hair I've ever seen on a newborn! She was accompanied by her parents and her adorable big sister.
Thanks so much D Family for making the long drive over. I enjoyed visiting with you all and photographing your beautiful family. Enjoy!
Even though Avery loves Diego now, I'd already planned a Wonder Pets party since she was all about the pets a month ago. Kids - they're so fickle! I tried unsuccessfully to take happy pictures of Avery so her invitation went out with a very unhappy girl on the front. It actually worked out perfectly since Linny, Tuck, and Ming Ming are all about helping babies in trouble and my girl looked like she was in trouble.
She was not in the best of moods on the morning of her birthday party but by that afternoon Avery was in great spirits and had a blast! Our good friend Tina made the welcome sign that went outside. Sadly, my pictures don't do it justice. It was so cute and had balloons tied to it and everything. If you've never seen an episode, her masterpiece looks just like the opening of the show. Great job T!
Our house was set up similar to last year, except this year a photo from each month of the last year was hung up in the hallway and paper garland banners adorned the windows. One of these years we're going to have her party oustide and I'll have fabulous light and awesome party pictures. But probably not really. August is hot.
And the fireplace...and the food table. I really like the paper banners, the colors just make me happy!
I ordered cruffles from the fabulous CoCo Couture. They did such an amazing job on the custom Wonder Pets pops and of course they were delicious. I've got some really cute pictures of the pops coming soon!
All of the food was really yummy actually. My mom made Avery's rainbow ruffle cake and cupcakes. Some of the food isn't out because I took pictures before things got started. :)
Party hats and favor bags.
And proof that at least two hats were worn.
I'm not sure how it works in other families, but on my mom's side there were seven of us cousins and we've all stayed fairly close over the years. And over the last several years we've produced 14 babies, with another cousin due this year! So what I'm saying is, Avery will never lack a large crowd at her birthday party. We were missing a couple of cousins from my side, but several Schilling cousins were present as well as a handful of friends. There were babies everywhere, but I only took a couple of pictures of my girl. Like last year, I'm depending on other people (namely my sister-in-law, no pressure!) to give me pictures of the cake being eaten, presents being opened, and fun being had.
When I first upload pictures from a session, I do a quick scroll through and mark a few for a sneak peek. Most of the time I already have images in mind that I can immediately move to and do a quick edit. So it's not until later when I really sit down to go through the whole session that I inevitably come across more moments that I love.
I've already shared several of this gorgeous girl and a few of her beau, but they're a really cute couple so I'm back with more photos of the two of them!
Young love 'tis so sweet! Happy Friday! :)
Our good friends were in town over the weekend for Avery's party and while they were here we got some pictures of their sweet boy. He's actually on his way to his eight month birthday but we're going to call these his sixish month pictures! Ry was in a good mood on Saturday evening just before sunset so I grabbed my camera while someone grabbed a cute boy and we were out the back door.
He really is so cute and he has such a great head of hair! Looking back at his three-ish month pictures I can really see that he's grown so much!!
And this little guy is mobile, he's long been a crawler and a cruiser. No worries, his mom and dad were close by the next morning when we were taking these pictures.
As always, it was good to visit with our friends and I have to say that Avery was much more interested in visiting with Ryler than our last visit. Though she was a bit crazy when he came too close to certain toys. :) Maybe the next go round I'll get a photo where they're both looking at the camera, or at least each other!
One morning last week while I was working on crafts in the dining room, I looked across the hall to see that Avery had abandoned her baby armadillo and was sitting on the floor with an old film camera pressed backward on her face saying, "Cheese!" She was so cute I had to grab my camera.
Of course once she saw me sitting in the hall she came out to play, bringing a camera along with her.
My Mamaw gave me that camera just months before she passed away. She'd found it at home and thought maybe I'd like it. It was a really sweet gift. It makes my heart happy to see Avery checking it out.
And she was seriously cute. So cute that I didn't mind that she'd dumped out a whole basket of cameras & accessories.
Besides, she helped pick it all up. Even if she did use a lens bag as a hand puppet. Whatevs, we have fun like that.
Well the title is a little misleading as there were no snakes, but there were certainly snails and puppy dog tails! I met up with this cute two year old, his mom, and grandparents at the end of last week.
At first he was a little apprehensive...
But then his grandparents started pulling things out of their bag of wonders and he started to have fun!
Well...mostly. :)
His Grammy found him lots of snails and he carried them in his pocket and walked around looking for more "teeny tiny snails." And it was seriously the cutest thing, I LOVE listening to little kids talk!
I think we may have worn this sweet boy out after running between his momma and his grandparents at least a dozen times. But on the way back to the cars he still stopped to pick a few flowers. Such a sweet boy!
I'm so glad we were able to get together while Mr. J and his mom were in town. Little boys are so much fun!
