Oh Toil and Tedium

For those not in the know, we just purchased a new house in Lakewood and are moving on Tuesday. This Tuesday. THIS TUESDAY. Our days are filled with two grandfathers, two children, two houses, two dogs and lots of boxes mounting slowly around us.

And snow. It's snowing in Dallas. Which is ridiculous.

The kitchen was lovingly glazed and "antiqued" and painted a "cheery" yellow. So, Daniel and Grandpa Miller are taking care of that for me and painting it head to toe in my favorite clean, crisp, semi-glossed whites. (See above photo Daniel sent me from his iphone.) Poor guys, it's not just a paint job. But I greatly admire their diligence and look forward to the finished project. I'm paying them in cookies and children.

All that to say, communication will be scarce for the next little bit. For those of you that I'm actually shooting this week----Score for you! And for the rest, I hope I've tied up all of the loose ends neatly enough to pick them up again once the office is settled.

For any looking to help, we still need pointing to an affordable stainless steel refrigerator and small kitchen table. At night I dream the couch fairy visits and leaves behind something to replace our current couch that used to be white and full of working seams. But that last one is a pipe dream unless you you've got the hookup and want to share with me. For those of you wishing to share your labor, we've got some laboring we could use help with!

We will share more and with photos later. Until then, we're off on a lovely new adventure with enough household projects to last us until we are good and old. Which is how long we just might intend to stay in this house. Love.

Jenn, Gary and their very cool family

Do you remember Jennifer and Gary? They had a fabulous wedding way back when and then hopped off to California. They came back over the minor Snowpacalypse I and I got to see the whole family again.










Margot tagged along and was quickly scooped up and passed around while I took photos. I love this family. I feel creepily at home with this family. As in, I've only met them once, years ago and amongst the hoopla of wedding hoopla, but, um... when's dinner? And why am I so comfortable with that couple taking care of my baby?

Gary and Jenn are the sweetest, smartest, cutest couple and perhaps they come from a long line of the same. Family is good stuff. I'm honored to have the opportunity to continue photographing them as they grow.

Baby Phan!

When discussing the baby bump portrait we wanted to do, we discussed a little about what we didn't want to do. There was one photo in particular that made us really question humanity. Then suddenly I couldn't resist. I had to do one. :) The above photos is a hilarious spoof. Thanks to the Phan's for letting me do it.


I first met Cassidy and Jackson however long ago it was when I shot their beautiful wedding. And here I am now shooting Baby Bump Phan! I love the families I've managed to stick with as they grow. Literally. :)


This portrait was actually scheduled to be shot during Snowpacalypse 2010, but Cassidy kindly let me reschedule since I wasn't sure where my family was staying and had no electricity to charge things.


Their home made a fantastic backdrop for a portrait.




And look! Shrek sat still!


And as a bonus, they were babysitting Cassidy's mom's new puppy, Dudley. Puuuuuppppyyyyyy.

Many congrats to you guys. Baby Phan is very lucky to have such smart, capable, kind, funny and amazing parents. I can't wait to meet him/her!

Sleepy Penn

He's looking less and less like my baby boy these days and more like my little man. After failing to put Margot down for a nap this weekend she and I came out of her room to find the boys asleep in their respective rooms. We let them sleep until dinner. I scooped Penn out of his bed and put him next to Daniel. Then I stuck Margot in between them figuring she would wake them both up.

But her charms didn't work on Penn so I got out the camera. I love sleepy pictures of Penn.


Lately I've been so exhausted that I fall asleep putting Margot to bed, then fall asleep again putting Penn to bed. Then I stumble out and try to concentrate on editing bazillions of photos before I pass out again. Things are kind of a blur. My brain is tired. I'm plodding along from one necessary task to the other but leaving a wake of other things to be done that just aren't urgent yet. Or some of them are urgent, but I can only do one urgent thing at a time. My desk has reached new heights of awful.

I'm looking forward to a lull where we can just all hang out. No pressures. No worries. Just hanging out on an everyday day full of mild temperatures and love. [sigh]

Chassity and Kelly = Knot Tied!

Chassity and Kelly got married at the Hickory Street Annex. It was a huge ball of fun from start to finish with lots of sincerity and emotion and amazing all tucked in between.




Every detail was planned and perfect. There was a Candy Bar and a Bloody Mary Bar. Win and win.




Kate got a photo of the Best Lady's speech surrounded by rings and chains and iphones and gum and etc. and I think it's one of my favorite photos from the whole night. This photo really speaks a lot about Chasity's room to me.




They told me they were going to dance down the aisle. They didn't really emphasize that they were going to dance-dance. They didn't explain there would be rockin' choreography to Black Eyed Peas. I was blown away and had to listen to the song a couple times while I was editing the reception.





Usually I only post photos I personally took on my blog. But I enjoyed Kate's second shooting SO much that I had to post the above two as well. She really pulled out the stops.


The cake was drop dead gorgeous. I prefer the word "hot" to refer to a temperature, but I'm going to make an exception for this cake. This cake was hot.










The dancing blew my flash up. What I mean by that is, I almost killed my flash because Megan was dancing all over the place and I just really needed to get a good photo of it and my flash was all, Wait! [pant] Stop! [sizzle] Just let me catch my breath!

Except I was on the other side of the room where I couldn't smell the melting batteries. Fortunately, everything is okay.

Many ginormous congratulations to Chasity and Kelly on such a stellar night of matrimony. May forever be as fun as your wedding.