Colton is taking care of his little girl friend tying her shoe at their favorite playdate place… Starbucks…

Thanks to Jamee for passing long this blog award!  Jonara Blu Maui.  I just love Jamee’s beautiful “fesh and funky” style hand made jewlery.   Check out her beautiful work!

So here is my Fav List:

5 Things I love!

Summer nights (like tonight and we ate dinner outside!)

Peach Champagne (which I had tonight!)

Dark Chocolate

Being near the beach

Rocking out to Black Eyed Peas! (hehe)

Now I would like to bestow this lovely award to 10 of my favorite blogs so here it goes:

Jennifer Wilson Photography

Belliveau Photography

Jodified

Alicia Caine

B.tanJerine

The Artistic Womb

Hip Pop Blog

Desiree Russo Wedding Planner

Shutter Sisters

Mommin’ It Up

whew!!! That Was Tough! Okay Night night!

My blog needs some love! I’ve been away from my computer quite a bit lately.  The OS on my poor old Dell took a dump.  But I had a backup computer already loaded so I just had to transfer my data drive and my burner and all my applications… and the whole sh-bang… not so fun but could have been a lot worse.  Although I think I am realizing that I didn’t backup my Photoshop actions and Lightroom presets!!!!! AAAAHHH!!!! I know I must have them somewhere! Lesson Learned!  Adobe puts them in such a funky place it’s easy to forget to back them up!

 I’ve also been busy assisting on weddings and shooting weddings of my own and now I can finally sit down and sink my teeth into the editing processes.  I’ve also been busy meeting new mommies taking part in the Prego Mommy Model search. I have met some really beautiful women just glowing with mommy-hood. I can’t wait to start showing off some of the results.  I’m excited about what we will be doing!

Our affiliate [Channel Islands PPA] just had our quarterly print competition last night. We had some great judges which turned into a Simon, Paula, Randy match which made us all laugh! It was a great comp night.  My entries in the children’s category scored only an above average but I learned a few things too so it was worth the humiliation .

Here’s my little cutie.  He’s helping dad wash his Mercury Monterey.  He felt so important.  This weekend my little baby (not such a baby now) fell on his face off his little ride-on car.  You know how it feels when you have something brand new and you hate to have it scratched or messed up… like a new car or something? Well… that’s sort of how I feel because he chipped his front tooth!! It’s just a little chip and he got right back up to play again! But still, kind of sad.  His front baby tooth will never be the same.  I have to say though that at this age I LOVE that I have this special mommy power over him whenever he hurts himself.  If he gets any scrape at all he says “mommy kiss it” and it’s all over like it never happened.  I will be sad when my special mommy power will stop working. I love that a little kiss really makes it all better.

Comming soon!! Gabo and Gooch and the Rock-a-billy wedding of the year! WooHoo!

…dirty laundy I mean.  I was entertained by a blog post from dear Jodi of Jodified Photography and Design  She decided to air her dirty laundry and what the heck we all have some.  So let’s hear it busy moms! What’s your dirty laundry? I will share just a few and try to be brave.

1. Let me start by saying my son was a planned pregnancy and I wanted a baby very much… I did not enjoy breast feeding.  I had pain at least 6 weeks and I was doing it all correctly.  It got better and I was fine with it and nursed for 12 months.

2. I did not fall in love with my son till he was at least 6 weeks old.

3. I felt like I was hit by a truck after delivery and did not feel even a little bit better for weeks.

3 1/2  I hate the doctors for making me wake my son every 3-4 hours to nurse.  Dangit I needed the sleep more than he need the milk okay?! 

4. I absolutly hate epesiotomies.

5. Dispite what my pediatrician says I let my son drink juice all day because that’s what he likes.

6. I have let my son stay strapped in his car seat while he’s asleep while I run in store really quick.  I always make sure I can see him through a large store window and it’s never on a hot day okay?!

7. I look at my son all the time and get a little sad because I know he will grow up and never be that cute again.

8. oops.. I have one more confession.  I bought my son a CD of Steve Songs.  He’s on PBS and I think he’s really cute.  And I sing a long to the songs even when my son is not in the car.

Okay girls it’s your turn.  Let’s hear some comments below

okay, so I am all photographer-ed out! I attended the Tots-to-Teens tour on Thursday and it was supper good.  I’m definitely going to take a lot of Sam’s marketing tips to heart for a big jump start to this year! And might I add that Ashton Hallock (from the National Model Search Contest) came to be the demonstration model and he did fabulous! Sam Puc took his pictures in front of audience.  Talk about pressure!

 Then the next morning I was up early to attend the PPC convention special speaker Kevin Kubota.  He had a lot of advice on how to run a business and make it work for you.  I’m sure some of it sunk in! I’ll decide that by Monday. Then I just came from the PPC trade show and guess what!!! I FINALLY FINALLY bought myself a shootsac! Can you believe it! Jessica Claire was there at the booth.  We had a nice little chat and I finally got to try the bag out and selected my cover; the yellow with white polka dots! YAY! Can’t wait to use it. 

I know, I know… I should have brought my camera to the trade show.  I was so excited because I saw a display with my logo on it!!! It was a display for the designer who did my logo and she used it on her sample! Cool!  Totally weird seeing my logo in an unexpected place! Her name is Diane and she’s with Fresh from Burrell Colour Imaging

I had fun… I’m totally getting over a head cold and my throat feels raw. So I will force myself to NOT WORK Sunday and hit it hard on Monday!

Outside is totally gorgeous, the hills are turning green! WOW! Butterflies were flying over my house yesterday; the monarchs where migrating north. It’s almost hot outside… okay it’s actually HOT outside and I’m totally running around my house wondering what to do next because I have to leave soon to go to the Tots-to-Teens tour by Sandy Puc and then early in the morning I’m heading to Pasadena for a PPC workshop! AH!! so I have all this nervous energy so what do I do? I blog! When I really should be doing my dishes!

But I’m excited! Ashton Hallack one of the models from the National Model Search was selected to be a live model at our presentation tonight.  He was one of the top voted models for Los Angeles! WhooHoo! Congrats Ashton!

And here’s something else fun.  I mentioned I was heading to the beach for a “glamorous” model shoot with fashion photographer Matt Haines . Well we had fun and it was an experience! LOL! I enjoyed being the “voice activated lightstand”.  Here’s a shot of just what a ‘voice activated lightstand’ looks like.

And Yes.. it was heavy! But what we put up with for art! Matt did an awsome job and he blogged the whole thing including his fabulous technical details here.  http://matthainesphotography.com/photoblog/archives/570#more-570

Glad I could help Matt! It was fun and I’d be your ‘voice activated lightstand’ anytime.

I’m sure I will remember more stuff I need to get out of my brain but right now I must do dishes and a big ol list of stuff!! Laundry in less than an hour!! YES! OMG!! Okay! Bye!

I photographed this session a little while back but I just have to post some of the pictures because they are too stinking cute. This first one is my favorite. But they keep getting better This one with the dog needs a title.  If anyone has a good one post a comment.  If I choose your title I’ll have to give you an award.  How ’bout a gift certificate to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf?  That’s my favorite place

Two toddlers and a bottle of “beer” and we had a little drunkn’ show down…. (they walk like they’re drunk anyway right?) 

 On another note, I’m heading out to assist portrait and fashion photographer Matt Haines on a shoot this evening for a sunset beach model shoot.  Sounds glamorous doesn’t it? 

I’ve also received some updates on the Now I Lay My Down to Sleep model search.

There is still time to enter models!  We will accept submissions through March 25th, 2009 and voting will continue through 11:59pm on April 2nd, 2009!  Get your votes in soon because the top model of each city will be asked to do a live model shoot during the city tour happening March 18th for Los Angeles.  Then the top votes for each city qualify for National Judging later.  So get in and vote and there is still time to enter your son or daughter between 18 months and 14 years. 

I’m getting geared up for the Spring YAY! So start booking your outdoor shoots! I’ve already got plans to shoot at the Huntington Library again which is one of my favorite places.  So start thinking about family pictures or spring pictures for your little darlings.

On another note I am always looking to learn and grow as a business and as a person and I had the priviledge of meeting Dane Sanders face to face at one of our CIPPA Meetings last week.  I have read his book Fast Track Photographer and I was delightfully suprised it was more of a self help/self discovery type of book to help understand my own personality and how to be true to myself.  And I was delighted to find that face to face he is a genuine person who makes an effort to take an interest in the people around him.  So Dane, I enjoyed meeting you and your presentation was empowering and ever since I have been working on stopping automatic and not talking myself out of stuff.  And I will make strides in my business one step and a time and enjoy the journey.  Thanks Dane!

So we finally took Colton to the snow! actually today was the second time we took him. We went last week and THAT was his first time at the snow. We stayed local and went to Frazier Park to Mt. Pinos.  A week ago the snow was soft and two feet deep! We trudged through the snow and sank to our knees while little Colton barely sank which was no fun trying to chase after him when would run off.  He loved it so much we made sure to go again this week and bring a sled.  The snow had definitely melted quite a lot in a week but there was still plenty for sledding.  Last week we brought the video camera and I’m going to post some video becuase he’s just so stinking cute, but today I had my camera and here’s some fun pics from our day.

He loved getting pulled by the sled.  We would tell him -lay on your tummy- and he would COOPERATE without whining! So we know he loved it!

Just look at that bottom lip!  He trudged through the snow without complaining (at least until he had enough and it was time for lunch) I call this image “determination”.

And how about those gorgeous eyes? That’s my baby.

And here’s a rare photo of me .   We took a break and Jesse took over the camera. After that, I was tired of carrying my big ol’ camera and I didn’t shoot any more! But me and Colton slid down the trail together after lunch and had a blast.

 And how could I forget to mention the great workout it took to get to the trail.  We trudged uphill in the snow while I towed Colton on the sled (almost 30 pounds uphill) for about a half a mile uphill. And did I mention it was uphill? It was a great workout to burn off all the junk food I packed for lunch My butt feels great!

Here his is! He’s all boy and very two! It was really hard to get a picture of him today but he finally looked at the camera before we all gave up to go back inside since is was pretty cold today. He’s such a cute little man!

This Eyebrow is all Jesse!

Today we spent the afternoon at Griffith Park to see trains at Travel Town.  It’s a cool museum of old trains that used to run in Los Angeles.  For my son Colton I think he was in a bit of “awww” when we got there because he stopped talking for a while!  The next park down the street is a little place called Los Angeles Live Steamers where you can ride on small trains which are real steam trains.  It’s only open on Sundays.  Unfortunately Colton was too short to ride   They want them over 34 inches!!!  SHESh!!!  Don’t they know how much my son loves trains!!??? 

So.. we went to the OTHER side of the park (which entailed getting all strapped into a car seat AGAIN) to see an exibit only open one Sunday a month which holds trains Walt Disney himself kept in his backyard.  Not too totally exciting BUT they DO have a play table full of wooden tracks and trains to play with!!  So that was all it took to keep Colton happy.  He didn’t notice that he wasn’t allowed to ride the trains but as long as he could play trains with Thomas and Percy, and Gordon, and Edward… (Those are names of trains if you don’t have small boys at home) he was totally happy.  Here’s some of our adventure.

And here is how the day ended...