The Worst Experience of My Life!

So yesterday was  a gorgeous day!  The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and Mya was in such a great mood!  While she was taking her nap I thought, “I think I will take some pictures of Mya today.”  My aunt sent her the cutest little rain jacket with matching umbrella and I promised her I would take some pictures of Mya in it.  This was the day!  So I emailed a friend about borrowing some rain boots and everything was set.  I had all of our stuff layed out by the garage door.  When Mya woke up, I told her that we were going to go take her pictures.  She actually seemed excited.  I was so thrilled.  This was going to be great!!  Well, we went and got the boots and on the way to the park the sky started getting darker and darker and Mya started a little bit of fussing, but I told myself, “Stick it out.  It’s going to be fine.”  We pulled into the park parking lot and by golly there were only about a million people there!!  Things were just looking worse and worse.  On top of the bus load of children that were there, Mya was screaming by this point and it was sprinkling.  I didn’t care.  I got my camera, the screaming child and all of our little props and carried her to this beautiful, somehow empty part of the park.  I must have looked like a crazed photographer because everyone was staring at me and my insane child.  She was screaming, “Noooooo!!  Noooooo!  No pictures!”  LOL  Seriously?!  I tried everything I could think of to try and get her to calm down, but nothing worked.  She wouldn’t put the rain jacket on, wanted nothing to do with the umbrella, was kicking the boots off.  The umbrella was blowing away.  Her nose was running all over the place.  She was pulling the rubber bands out of her hair.  Wow.  Ummm, okay.  But I was persistent.  We drove all the way over there.  We weren’t leaving until I got at least one good picture of her in this freaking rain jacket!!  Somehow I did.  All I had to say, was “Yo Gabba Gabba”  in a really silly voice.  She was hysterically crying, would laugh, and then would scream and cry again.  It was the craziest, worst little photo session with her that I could ever imagine.  And of course, that one picture just wasn’t enough.  Mya, please, can we just get one more with this adorable little hat that I just ordered.  Same thing all over again.  Finally, we were done and I took her to the park to swing and play.  By the time we got home, I was in bad need of a massage and several glasses of wine.  I am so dreading her 2 year pictures.  I have the outfit all ready and have been so excited about it.  Not anymore!  Ryder is dreading it too.  Is it okay for a photographer’s child not to have 2 year pictures because I don’t think the “Yo Gabba Gabba” is going to work next time.  🙁  Heaven help us!  So here are the pictures that I got:  Screaming, and 2 smiling, in between the screaming.  I’m kicking myself for not videoing this for your viewing pleasure because I just don’t think people really can get the full picture of what I go through to get cute pictures of my child!  LOL

Later at the park:  Happy now!  But at one point I got my camera and she instantly starting screaming and crying again, “No pictures!”  Okay, okay, got it!  You’re not going to be a future model!  Geeeez!

New York State of Mind

So as of lately, there has only been one thing on my mind:  New York!  I just want to be there.  I just want this house to sell and quickly.  I will tell you, having to have our house look like a showroom at all times is really stressful!  Last weekend, we had an open house and so we knew when to really have the house ready so that was easy.  We took the dogs and Mya to Ryder’s mom’s house for the day.  That was easy.  And yesterday, I got it into my head that people aren’t going to come and look at the house on a weekday.  So I relaxed a little.  This morning I took Mya to the park.  The weather was so beautiful.  We had so much fun together, until she fell and bonked her head really hard!  🙁  We had a relaxing trip to the grocery store, which is almost unheard of in our household.  But while I was there, Ryder, who is in N.J. for work right now, called and said that  a realtor wanted to come and see our house.  WHAT?!!!  I instantly felt like I was going to throw up.  I had to rush through the store as fast as I could, get home, put the groceries up, get the house ready, get the dogs in the car, all while trying really hard to keep Mya from pulling toys out and leaving them all over the house.  By the time we got into the car, I felt like a total maniac!  And it was lunch time and Mya was saying, “Eat, eat eeeeeeat!!”  So what did we do?  Something we never, ever do!  We ate fast food!  In the car!  With the dogs.  LOL  Mya thought it was fun though.  I put her in the front seat to eat and it was like a little picnic.  So I am just really ready to be in N.Y.  I want to be there while it’s warm before the winter hits again.  I want Mya to experience Central Park in the summer with all of the free concerts and fun places to go.  I just want to be there!  I’ve got Mya saying, “Buy our house.  New York!”  hehe  She sometimes whines and cries when she’s tired and she’ll throw, “Neeewwww Yoooorrrrkkk!”  in there somewhere.  It’s hilarious.  Ryder and I look at apartments on-line constantly finding apartments that we love and just want to go and move into, but we can’t until this house sells.  So if you know anyone who is looking for a 3 bedroom, 3 bath house with  a bonus room with a kitchenette, outdoor living with a fireplace, lots of upgrades, limestone exterior, on the green belt with lots of really cool neighbors, email me!!  “I will sell this house today!”  I often feel like the realtor from American Beauty when I’m vacuuming our house each day.  😉

Someone’s Turning 2!!

Last week I did pictures for this sweet girl’s baby brother and this week it was all about her!  She’s turning 2 next week.  I have known her since she was a little baby.  It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed already.  Her momma was one of the first people that let me do photos for her, when I was doing them for free.  And man, they were something else.  LOL  I’ve done pictures for her since, but I’m happy that she had faith in me after that first attempt….scary stuff!  This morning was so perfect!  The light was just perfect.  We were the only people around.  And it only took an hour!! Thank goodness because right at the hour mark, all of a sudden, there were about 25 people there with chairs, a preacher, and bagpipes.  A wedding was about to start any minute.  Woah, that was a quick setup!  Thanks guys again for letting me do pictures for you.  I love your family and I’m going to miss all of you when we move.  🙁  Happy birthday, sweet girl!!

More of that Sweet Baby!

I’m loving working on these pictures.  When I did this session the mom asked me what kind of sessions I like best.  Newborn ones are, without a doubt, my favorites!  The babies are so precious and I love the way they are just so sleepy!  Makes my heart grow a little bigger every time!  I think I might need to drive over to this little one’s house so I can hold him just for a minute or two!

I love this one!  Look at that double chin and that round belly.  Oh my goodness, so sweet!

Beautiful Family

A great friend of mine just had this sweet little baby boy.  She asked me a long time ago if I would do newborn pictures for her.  I still can’t believe that he’s really here!  She went into labor a couple of weeks early which worried me because I knew we would be out of town during the time that would have been ideal for his pictures.  But today we did his pictures and he gave us a run for our money.  He did NOT want to sleep!  LOL  We tried forever to get him to sleep and finally, mission accomplished and then he was easy!  I got some adorable pictures of his big sister too.  You will see more of her after next weekend.  She’s turning 2 and I am the lucky girl that gets to do her birthday pictures.  I loved being with this family today.  The dad is so calm and relaxed, an awesome dad to both of his beautiful children.  I don’t get to see him interact with their daughter very much because usually it’s just us moms.  It was cool to see!  And the mom, she’s just so easy going and funny!  I love her!  Thank you guys for letting me spend so much time at your house today!  I hope you love your pictures.  🙂

This one makes me almost cry:

Little bit of vintage: