pictures of everyone except my children

i finally came up for breath today. this past month has been insane with sessions and card orders, and i've kind of let some things go around here.

why don't i give you a few examples...

1. i haven't been able to get on top of the laundry for ages now (i know, mom, you're shocked!), but i realized things might have gotten a bit out of control when i had to put izzy in a fleece outfit on friday night because all of her jammies were dirty. (if i weren't too embarrassed to do so, i would tell you that she also wore that same outfit to bed on saturday and sunday nights. and perhaps all day monday.)

2. a morning shower has been absolutely out of the question since august. when josh walked in the door this evening from work, i was forced to greet him with these words: "i'm so sorry you had to come home to a stinky, grunge-monkey tonight". sad.

3. i no longer have time for capital letters. (although if you've ever received an e-mail from me, you know i dropped the "shift-letter" combo ages ago -- i just did it for looks on the blog.) i'm so over it now.

4. i haven't been to bed before midnight or 1 am since i was 31.

5. oh, and did you know we've already got our next baby?!? we named him "photoshop".

as wild a ride as this has been, i've loved getting to work with both old friends and new faces. i'm going to try to choose one favorite photo from my most recent sessions. to begin, this little guy was new to me. his mom and i realized we actually went to college together but hadn't seen each other in ten years.

ok, i can't show him without showing his precious sister!

and there's no way i can move on without sharing what are now some of my new favorite sibling shots. they were so funny together!

it's obvious that i'm not going to be able to stick to the "one photo per session" rule, which is good because this next one is very near and dear to my heart. my precious friend, anna, came up from montgomery with her husband, paul, and daughter, addie, so i could do addie's 18-month pictures. anna and i have been close friends since we were in college, and it's been a joy watching her blossom into the beautiful role that god has given her of "mommy". and it's a good thing that she's so great at it because she's got two little ones in her tummy that should be here around april. :-)

we started in the leaves...

...and then moved to the swings.

and what trip to the park would be complete without playing on the wooden choo-choo train?

but i think my favorite shot of the day was when addie toddled around in the leaves wearing her little turkey dress. the way she was lit from behind by the warm sun was perfect!

my next stop was with the spunky girl from this session a couple of weeks ago and her cousins who drove into town for the photos.

the leaves on the trees were gorgeous...

...and, once again, the sun cooperated beautifully!

this last weekend was the weekend of babies for sure! my friend, michelle, finally had her newest on november 11, so we gave lily kate a few days to adjust to life outside the belly and then i headed over to shoot her newborn session. we never left the nursery...it was great!!!

michelle didn't have many requests, but she did ask for a little feet shot like she had seen on my website...

...as well as some sibling shots (also some of my new favorites)...

after those were done, it was playtime. i had a ridiculous amount of fun shooting these next photos...

and finally, our loooooong time friends in starkville referred the grandmother of this family to me earlier this year. i've done a couple of sessions with some of the local crew already, but with christmas around the corner and new babies in the mix, the whole group drove in from mississippi for one big hoopla.

i don't know how well you can see it in the storyboard above, but this was definitely my favorite shot from the day. how sweet are they?!?

you might be wondering where my little ones fit into all this madness. well, don't fret...while they haven't had a "normal" amount of mommy-time, they certainly haven't lacked for fun things to do. i'll be back with that post later. but for now, i'm going to turn my computer off and walk away for a while. after all, i promised the kids that tomorrow is "christmas tree decorating day" (also known as "don't edit a picture day")!!