"Lolly lolly lolly, get your adverbs here!" - Fort Walton Beach Family Photography

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This was my third time photographing the Taylor family and I have to say - they are one of my favorite families - they just love to have a good time and try new things.  And you can tell they really love each other too!  Because the mom is a school teacher, I thought it appropriate to take some photographs around an old schoolhouse in the area, complete with all things remiscient of going to school - apples, an old fashioned globe and books, of course!  I had to keep this shoot a secret over the holidays but I am so happy to finally reveal their session now - enjoy!

i-friday {hair stories}

i-fridays are turning into i-mondays for me lately.....sorry 'bout that!  We had Lydia's baby dedication over the weekend and threw a "sugar n' spice" luncheon afterward which was super fun - pictures to come, I promise!!! I promise also that this will be the last i-friday all about lil LuLu Lydia for a while - I'm sure there are other things to take pictures of...right?! 

As some of you might already know (or have noticed..), Lydia has FABulous hair!  The kind of hair every girl dreams of having.  Not too thick, not too thin - just the right amount of bounce and curl.  The perfect mix of ingredients containing sugar, whim, flight and fancy.  As my bestie had put it "there is joy in every strand...".  I love to play with her hair and style it into numerous different characters and I thought I'd highlight a few here with photos I've taken since she's been born.  Her hair just continues to get longer and crazier and I'm sure I'll come up with a thousand more hairstyles.  'Til then - enjoy the following:

i-friday {the bottle blues}

I missed this past Friday's i-friday post as I was starting a mind & body detox/cleanse and was trying my hardest to stay offline and focus on family and wellbeing.  So - two days late - here we are!  This post is dedicated to all the mommies out there - your courageous path through motherhood is to be commended! This photo comes with a little sadness - I snapped this of my youngest daughter holding her bottle all by herself.  What an accomplishment, you might say!  The reason I'm a tad sad is because we have breastfed for the past 8 months (and I still do once or twice a day...) and she has basically weaned herself off of me and onto a bottle.  She has deciced she's just too impatient for the *boob (sorry, am I allowed to say that?!)  It has been my heart's desire to breastfeed my babies since....forever...at least since I knew the importance of breastfeeding.  I struggled through one whole month nursing my oldest daughter and it panned out quickly.  This time, through much sleep deprivation, tears, sweat, laughter and google-searches, I made it to the "happy place" of nursing my youngest.  Now, even though I know "breast is best", I'm essentially not worried about her being poisened or anything by drinking formula and in a round-a-bout way, this has been a blessing in disguise as I gear up for a very busy photography-year, started some new nutritional habits and, sorry if this sounds completely selfish, starting wear normal, non-nursing bras.  I truly am happy that we just made it this far - this is an accomplishment in itself and I know that my sweet baby has received an incomparable nutritional foundation that will hopefully serve her well as she grows and grows...and grows.   So, my boob career as I called it, has ended and I sense our relationship changing - she's such a big girl, crawling and climbing and talking and dancing.  I love that we still have our snuggle nursing-time, even if it is only once a day but I get to enjoy a whole new side of her as she slowly grows into her feisty, headstrong, independence that I knew even in the womb she would have! 

2011 Year in Review

Looking back, 2011 feels like a blur to me right now.  Business got busier, lots of babies were born (including mine in April!), my other baby turned THREE!!! and my husband and I celebrated 5 years of marriage.  No matter how stressed I may get when things get busy and hectic and messy and cluttered, I know that I am truly blessed in this life and one of the biggest blessings I experienced this year was being witness to so much love in the lives of the people I photographed.  I feel so honored every single session that I am invited in to capture a family's memories and that they trust me to turn those memories into beautiful pieces of art.  Here is a look back from this year of some of my favorite "captures" (I included a few from the end of last year since I never did do a 2010 recap and there was a 3 month gap this year while I was on maternity leave). 

I am looking forward to 2012 so very much - I just know that it has some exciting things in store for me and my family.  Some new beginnings, some memories to be made, some reasons to celebrate, some adventures to be taken, and some love to be shared.  My ultimate resolution for the new year is to not let fear or insecurity or self-doubt hold me back from experiencing all that this life has for me!  I am super stoked about some ideas I have up my sleeve for Plumb this year as well; I've been having session ideas come to me in my dreams and I immediately jot them down when I wake so I don't forget!  I can't wait to help make your wildest photo ideas come true!  I'll also be adding to my equipment which is always exciting - new toys to make your photos even sharper and more beautiful!

As I begin to prepare for Lydia's first birthday this year (yes, people, party planning is an illness for me....) I came across this quote that coincided with the theme of her party and I thought it appropriate to start off the new year with:  "What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly" - Lao Tzu

Wishing you and yours a very HAPPY NEW YEAR; may your feet always find adventure and may your heart only ever find love.....

xoxo

i-friday {2 for 1}

Owning a smart phone, specifically an iPhone, makes me peculiarly lazy about lugging my camera around with me for day to day photos. I have a built-in camera with built-in editing apps in my pocket!  It doesn't get any easier than that!  So, even though I have regularly shared iPhone pictures both on my blog and facebook in the past, I thought I'd narrow down a day to share a special photo (or photoS...) from my week sooooo, tAdA! welcome to the very first post of the i-friday series.  Today's a 2-for-1 special since I couldn't narrow down which photos to share.  The first is a fun little action set of lil'-bit lilla-loo crawling away.  Yes, I said crawling.  My just turned 8 month old is not only crawling like a puppy dog whose tail caught fire but is also standing, cruising on the couch and trying all sorts of daredevil circus stunts that I didn't know 8 months did!  Ladies and gentlemen, we might have a walker on our hands in NO time!

P.S. these were technically taken on my iPhone but edited in photoshop with these snazzy little actions that make your photo appear as if you've used the Instagram app!   Belated trick n' treat....

On a more recent note, my older daughter Ava received an Easy Bake for Christmas.  Yes, the box says for ages 8+ and yes, I'm living vicariously through the lives of my children (for the record, I was NOT the one who bought it for her.....I may have just hinted).  So tonight, while big brother was away on a sleepover, we baked. Red Velvet Whoopie Pies.  Of which were the perfect size for little magic elfen fairies.  Boo-ya!  Ava got a little impatient in the middle waiting for the magic oven to preheat but especially loved all the finger-lickin taste testing that she was allowed to do.  Watch out world - I think we might have a future bakerella on our hands!

If you just can't get enough of these tasty little morsels and more, you can....

Stay tuned tomorrow for a "2011 - Year in Review" post with some never before seen photos,  a plumb good 2012 resolution list and some can't-miss words of wisdom young grasshopper....