I can’t believe how fast this year has flown by. This time last year I was holding my newborn daughter in my arms, and now I have a little girl, full of personality, smiles, and love. My life wouldn’t be complete without her. <3 She has brought so much joy to our family, and we love her more than words can say.

Here are some (ok, a LOT) of our baby girl’s 1 year portraits. :)

This past weekend, I had the chance to photograph another of my Mother’s Day Photo contest babies…this little gal was the #1 winner of my contest! She is photo #3 here. It was so fun meeting you guys and little ‘Poop’…she is a doll!

I can honestly say that these are some of my absolute favorite clients. Baby Lucienne was one of my very first sessions in my photography career…I photographed her as a newborn and as a 6 month old. I was blessed to photograph her again yesterday, at 14 months old. She keeps getting more and more beautiful, and is the sweetest, smartest little girl ever. She can speak French, I kid you not!

Dino and Ronne, thank you SO much for coming to me again and trusting me with your precious little girl’s photos. I love all of you and hope you enjoy your sneak peek! I’ll get the rest of them finished up this week for you. :)

Remember this sweet little guy from my Mother’s Day Photo Contest last month? He was photo #19 here. I got to do his session yesterday! He is the sweetest, chubbiest, cutest little bub ever! Thank you so much for bringing him my way…he really brightened my day. :) I’m having the hardest time narrowing these pictures down…there are SO many cute ones! I hope you enjoy your sneak peek, and I’ll finish the rest up asap!

BTW, turquoise is my favorite color! You will see it pop up in my work quite often! :) This chair used to be Calista’s desk chair. She and Damien painted it for me before my session yesterday…I have the *best* kids! :)

If this doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will!

Would you believe that these were taken in the deserts of Northern Arizona? One of my favorite things about photography is stalking out new, beautiful locations, and this is one that I’m sure will only look this way for a fleeting time.

We’re always battling with Millie’s hair…it’s in a half grown out and VERY fuzzy state right now, but for these photos, I just went with it. I let the wind do it’s thing, and let it fall where it fell, down over her eyes, sticking straight up…whatever! This is how we see her 90% of the time, so why not?

My sweet, serious girl…

One of Tavers for good measure…

I seriously can’t get enough of this place!  I’m showing my Pacific Northwest roots here, being raised in Washington state…I LOVE the green!  These were taken in the ‘golden hour’, or rather, the ‘golden minutes’ (literally just minutes before the sun dipped below the horizon).  Loving this sweet light!  And my sweet girl of course! :)

There are actually THREE of these old soda crates stacked up.  The grass is so thick and long that you can only see 2 of them.  Loving this little piece of heaven!

My 3 year old son recently got a little cowboy outfit.  He hasn’t removed the outfit except for washings since he got it.  He LOVES being a little cowboy!  At night, we can manage to get him out of his jeans and shirt, but he goes to bed, I kid you not, in his undies, belt, hat, AND boots.  Yes, even the boots.  I *will* get a picture of this very very soon as it’s about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!

Here are a few shots of my little cowboy. :)

And now, to completely change gears, my sweet baby girl Octavia is now 9 months old!  I can’t believe her first birthday is sneaking up so quickly!  She is the most laid back, lovable, expressive little gal…I love her top pieces!  She can just pull you in with her big, bright eyes and sweet little grin. :)

I got some seriously CUTE knit hats and cocoons from Flower Girl Designs (check out her shop!) and it was finally warm enough outside in my garage to do a test run with one of the hats yesterday!  My little gal is SO full of personality!  I love all her little faces!

I’ve been doing these shots since Octavia was a newborn.  It’s so fun for me to see her growth throughout this series!  The earlier pictures in the series can be seen HERE.  She is so full of personality!

And totally off topic, but I wanted to share this one while I’m posting too.  I had a Victorian style white dress made for Calista…I have some really neat ideas that incorporate this dress into my work that I want to try out.  I took it out for a quick test run the other day, and can’t wait to do more!

I first met little Lexi when she was about 2 months old.  We got a very cute shot of her with her 2 big brothers that day!  This time, it was all about Lexi!  She’s now 4 months old and the most adorable little red head you have ever seen.  She has an infectious smile and beautiful blue eyes.

I hope you guys enjoy your sneak peek!  I had so much fun seeing you again!  Give Lexi a hug for me…she is such a sweet girl! <3

Firstly, I must include the shot of all 3 cuties together…because I love it!  You can see how much these boys love their new sister!

And now for Miss Lexi’s 4 month pictures. :)

Look at her sitting at just 4 months old!  I’ve had 8 kids of my own, and *I’m* impressed with this!

I had the absolute sweetest little gal over to get her pictures taken today…Madison just turned 1!  She was an absolute doll, full of smiles, and had us laughing throughout the entire session.  What a fun little girl!  I had so much fun meeting you guys today!  I hope you enjoy your sneak peek! =)

Are you guys getting sick of seeing Octavia yet?  I like to  keep my skills in tune during the slow season, and she’s still immobile, so she’ll probably be making a lot of appearances here this winter!  I got a new ‘floor’ for my studio work and had to test it out today.  I really like it so far!  Who would know that it’s a giant rubber mat?

And a pullback for my photographer friends!  One day, I would *love* to have a real natural light studio, but for now, I’m thankful that I get excellent light in my garage.  Whatever works, right? Anyways, this was my setup for the above shots!  Sorry for the lack of a cute smiling baby, but she had had enough by the time I thought to take this.  She’d had enough by the time I thought throwing cool dried leaves all over the floor would look cool too…darn it!

Coming back to this one to add just *one* more…I drug her out again today because the leaf shot was eluding me! Haha!  She’s such a good girl, it was COLD and windy today, and not one complaint out of her!  Just more smiles!

I’ve been taking these shots of Octavia in Daddy’s hands since she was a wee little 13 day old newborn.  I’ve been trying to do them at semi-regular intervals to show her growth and changes.  It’s *amazing* to me how a new baby changes their first year of life.  I hope these photos help document that in Octavia!

13 days young…

4 months old…

And today at 6 1/2 months old.  She’s getting so big!  Daddy’s just happy he didn’t get peed on. lol

This is ‘Part 2′ to the photos I posted the other day of Miss Octavia.  I wanted to get some more of her, but we can only do a few minutes of shooting at a time.  It is cold in my garage, even by Arizona’s standards!

First, a few black and white goodies.  Isn’t she sweet? <3

Look at the big girl!  She can only do it for short periods of time before she topples, but we’re making progress!

And this is just a silly outtake, but I couldn’t resist saving it.  No babies were harmed during the taking of these photos.  You have my word! :P

I’ve been so busy with the holidays, kids, and client sessions that I really haven’t had much time to do a ‘real’ session with my own baby who is changing at a rather alarming rate these days!  I had intended to do some nice photos of her in honor of her turning 6 months, but missed that boat by a few weeks.  So here she is, at six and a HALF (yes, the half is very important! lol) months old.  This was still a mini-session for all intents and purposes, but I’m happy with the pictures that I got.  They really show her personality!

These ‘studio’ pictures were actually taken in my rather cold garage!  No fear, I threw the blanket in the dryer for a good 10 minutes before doing this, and she was happy as can be!  I think I took pics for a grand total of about 1-2 minutes before we whisked her back inside.  It’s January, even in Arizona, that’s cold on little bare baby buns!

Her little laugh here cracks me up!  I adore this picture, because it is *so* her!

Color?  Or B&W?  Well, I like both, well enough to post both. :P

These next 2 were taken out at one of my new favorite places to shoot…a local orchard!  The owner was kind enough to give me permission to use it whenever I want, and I plan to make good use of it!  99% of the trees out there are completely barren right now, but can you believe, that in January, I was still able to find some fall colors?  Only in Arizona, I’m tellin’ ya!