Welcome to month 2 of the Blog Circle project. This month’s theme is Anticipation, and even though I had a month to prepare, I just kept trying to decide on what I wanted to do. I had a few ideas, but this one just stood out to me. My kids love ice cream (who doesn’t?) and I always love that excitement and anticipation that comes when they know they are getting ice cream, or any treat really. So a few days ago, I surprised the kids with a trip to a new ice cream shop that opened locally. Needless to say, they were so excited!! It turned out to be extra awesome because this particular ice cream joint does something a little out of the ordinary. No ice cream scooping here, no sir. They start with liquid cream, add flavors and mix-ins, then give it a deep freeze right there in front of you! It was so cool and made the whole anticipation thing that much better since it took a little longer to actually get your bowl of ice cream. I let the kids pick whatever they wanted and Audrey chose strawberry with M&Ms. Gavin shared my white chocolate with Butterfinger. Yes, mommy had a treat too.

While these pictures aren’t perfect, we had so much fun doing them and I really think there are some great looks of anticipation, especially on Audrey’s face as she watched her ice cream freeze. Of course I also included pictures of them enjoying their ice cream and the sad empty bowl at the end.

Be sure to follow the circle and see how my friend Erin of Erin Farrell Photography chose to interpret the theme.

Enjoy!

You know how some people do the rain dance? Well all day leading up to this maternity session, I was doing a “no rain” dance. And a “sun” dance We purposely scheduled this session late in the evening to hopefully catch some golden evening light. Of course the sky was cloudy and dark and the sun was nowhere to be seen. So as I was driving to the session, the sun slowly reached a break in the clouds and thankfully, gave us about 20 minutes of perfect golden sunlight!! Yipee!! My dance must have worked!

Plus my job was made easier because this couple was absolutely gorgeous. I WISH I looked this good at 35 weeks pregnant (or heck even now). I love the excitement of the first baby and feeling that excitement through my fabulous clients! Their little boy is expected at the end of May and I am SO excited to see him at his newborn session. This is one of my favorite sessions ever (I know, I say that about every session). “B & B”, I hope you love your photos. Contrary to popular belief (yours), you guys are extremely photogenic and I can’t wait to meet your little guy soon!!

Hard to believe it was 1 year ago that I was with this family celebrating the birth of their son Mason…and now here he is a big boy! We had a fun yet cold morning capturing these beautiful photos. You can just feel the love they have for each other and it was a pleasure capturing that for them. Mason wasn’t so sure about the session, but he lit up once mommy stepped in and helped get the smiles out of him. And how cute is his little outfit? He is a very well dressed little guy and I just loved the colors. Thanks again “R” family for trusting me to capture yet another milestone in Mason’s life!!

I have joined a few of my favorite photographers from all over the country in a monthly blog circle and am excited to post my first entry!  This month’s blog subject was “Reflections”.  We can use as few or as many photographs as we want to tell this story.  Be sure to read all the way to the bottom, to continue on the blog circle and maybe even continue on and see all of the rest of the ladies and their incredible work and how they responded to the subject!

It’s no secret that I have been downright swamped lately, with work, life, everything!! It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I can’t keep half of it straight most of the time. Add to that my array of computer/website issues over the last couple months and it’s just been crazy. As a result, my entry today will be one lonely photo. But this does not mean that I didn’t have a list of ideas!! I tried, I really did, but I just wanted to be sure I had SOMETHING to post and not let these ladies down. I promise you will be impressed with what you see in the rest of the circle. And next month will be better.

I had lots of ideas for the theme this month. Of course I thought of taking it literally and doing a reflection in a mirror or window. I also considered puddles being that I live in the rainy Pacific Northwest with no shortage of puddles (of course it has been really nice lately!). Finally, I thought I would like to take kind of double meaning and try to make it happen and translate into a photograph. So I was all ready to go and my usual models (my kids) would not really cooperate. My daughter is sick and my son is 2 (enough said).

So here is my entry this month. My sweet daughter, sick on the couch and my “reflection” in her eyes.  She was seriously blessed with these eyes considering my husband and I both have brown/hazel eyes. I just love how they always catch the light and seem to sparkle. And you know that song by Martina McBride “In My Daughter’s Eyes”? It talks about seeing yourself and the world through the eyes of your daughter. Totally fitting and what I kept thinking about as I was working on this. Here are my favorite lyrics from the song:

In my daughter’s eyes, I can see the future.
A reflection of who I am, and what will be.
And though she’ll grow and someday leave, maybe raise a family
When I’m gone, I hope you’ll see,
How happy she made me.
For I’ll be there, in my daughter’s eyes.

And now I am crying! LOL

So I hope you enjoy this photo of me…in my daughter’s eyes. (Look close, I am there I promise!

Now head over to the and check out the fabulous Erin Farrell Photography to see her take on Reflections.