Bring on the art!

Today Valley came up to me and asked if she could paint her tower. It's a learning tower that John and I built for her for around $35. I'll post the instructions in another blog :). Since we're practicing saying "yes" as much as we can so when we say no it means no I said YES! I mean, why not? It's just boring white and the paint is washable. It's actually a pretty good idea and she can paint it again and again! Lyric was napping when she started but the tower is pretty big, and he woke up before she was done.

At first I tried to keep him away and just have him watch but it quickly became evident that he was not going to be satisfied by just watching. Which was fine with me, because I whole heartily believe that you should expose your children to fine arts as early as possible. I remember when Valley was 8 months old and we let her paint for the first time everyone thought we were nuts. But she loved it and loves painting to this day!



So I took his clothes off and let him have at it! He loved it, tasted it...I mean sure, an 8 month old painting is more work because they try to eat the paint. Nothing that a few million "it's not for eating" can't fix! Is it just me or does Lyric look just like Mario in this photo?





It's probably just me...too much Mario Galaxy 2 at night I guess.







And their finished products! I love Valleys tower now! and Lyrics first time painting was a success!

The Tree.

Ok, I'm the first to admit it...we're lame. We have a fake tree, we're not one of those cool families that go out and pick out their special tree every ear. When we first got married I insisted that we go out and chop down our own tree. So during our first Christmas together we cut down the cutest charlie brown tree!

Isn't it cute?

The next year we had our surprise blessing Valley! She was only 3 months old and once again I insisted on cutting down our own tree. So we went out and bought a real tree...that was our compromise. We also bought glass ornaments...what was I thinking? Every single ornament shattered and it took me weeks to clean up the pine needles. That year we bought a fake tree on sale after Christmas. Have I looked back, wishing we still chopped down our tree? Wishing my daughter could experience that? Sure! But I also am thankful I don't have to clean up pine needles and glass shards =P

This year was our third year with our fake tree. Valley was so excited but got tired about 1/119 of the way through. She tired out and watched a show while we did all the work. We also let Valley decorate the tree herself. Which was a pretty big step for my analytical brain. I won't bore you with talk of my inner Christmas Tree struggle anymore. Here's the photos.

Princess Mini and Buggy [Alaska Child and Baby Photographer]

Today I went on base to see Princess Mini and Buggy. No, not their real names ;). I photographed them in their home. Their parents are very brave to have 2 sweet girls so close in age and also 3 dogs!! Well, I won't bore you with the details of the session. Here are the photos :)

The Pester Twins [Alaska Twin Newborn Photographer]

Definitely my favorite shoot to date!! I was overly thrilled when Brook called me to photograph her twins! I felt so fortunate to get twins so early on in my business! These babies were exactly like their mother described, easy going. They were fantastic! What was interesting about these babies is that the girl looked JUST like her mom and the boy looked JUST like his dad! I did bring an "assistant" aka my mom ;) to help out since there was double the baby and she was great too. Maybe one day I'll hire her full time =P Big brother Corbin was great! He was adorable and sweet with amazing eyes! Here's a sneak peak of the Pester family!

The boy version of my girl.

I have this picture of Lyric and he looks like Valley. Of course, he's bigger and manly-er...ps. I tend to verbify (another example) words if you didn't know ;). Anyways! So they look super similar. Lyric has a longer head and a different nose. But otherwise they could be the same. It's so weird because really neither of my children look anything like me. If I hadn't pushed them out I'd demand a maternity test...ok bad joke. But really they don't. Though people are starting to tell me that Valley looks more like me as she grows, which I think may be true. We'll see I guess ;).

Lets PAR-TAY!

I don't know who raised this child but man does my daughter like to have a party. She likes to go to parties equally as much, but today we were throwing one! Well, a very small one with just her cousin and BFF Mia. Lucky for us, Mia just lives directly above us 2 floors up. So her mom just walked down, dropped her off and the fun began! We had pizza and watched Toy Story 3. The girls made their own sundaes and put way to much candy on them. In the end they had a blast and the party was a success. Valleys been asking to have another one all day today, so I think she's pleased with how it went as well =)

The Jackson Family [Alaska Family Photographer]

I was just thinking how cool this day will be in 1 year from now! 11/11/11...I'm thinking about trying to get pregnant in Feburary just to try and have a baby on 11/11/11... ;)

Back to business...I had a blast with this very fun family!! They were up for almost anything and just a joy to photograph! It helped that Violet is one of Valleys best friends. And that they're similar in personality so I felt almost as if I was just photographing my own daughter. Violets such a sweetheart and did a fantastic job. I loved them and I'm more than happy with this photoshoot!!! Here's a little sneak peak :)