Last weekend I got to spend a morning with this sweet little girl, Addi. She was an absolute joy! It is so fun to be around babies that are close to the same age as my Luke. Towards the end of the session she was looking through her moms bag and pulled out one of her shoes and then proceeded to take out everything else until she found the match! I couldn’t believe it, such a smart little girl!

Happy 1st Birthday Addi!

Having and making New Year’s Resolutions is under debate at my house. Brian says he is constantly trying to improve areas he needs to do better in, and therefore doesn’t need the new year as an excuse to grow and become better. I hear that, and agree with it to a certain extent. Except I like the idea of being able to close a chapter and move forward with a new fire lit under your butt.

So, here it goes a few of my resolutions, I like to add fun ones that I can easily keep to help me feel like I am accomplishing something. 

- I want to run a half marathon. Well, to be honest I DON’T want to run at all, but I need to be healthier. If I can train for and complete the halfer once, then 3-5 miles a day after that won’t seem like a such a big deal. Or at least I hope it won’t. 

- I am going to not allow the laundry to pile up! With four small children, me and the laundry have become frienemies (For help on how to deal with frienemies check out this eHow.com article).

- I am going to wear earrings everyday even if I am not going anywhere (See, something easy-peasy-lemon-squeezey . 

- Take the kids on individual monthly dates to a place of THEIR choice. I won’t try and convince them to go where I want to go, like Fuzziwig’s Candy Factory or Noodles & Company.

- BE CONSISTENT

- This year I have so much planned for the business, but the main thing I want to focus on is community and charity involvement. The City of Parker is a great place and I want to contribute where I can!

On a completely different note, Brian was disappointed I didn’t mention Ty Lawson, his favorite Denver Nuggets player in my last post. Since I aim to please here is Ty at the game last week, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Last Sunday during one 10 minute phone conversation I saw all my dreams come true. Well not all, but it sure felt that way! Brian’s mom called and said her fiance had 4 BOX tickets to the Denver Nuggets game, and wanted to know if we would like to join them. I said “sure that sounds like fun” and waited until he hung up with her to start screaming and jumping on couches (which may or may not have been like Tom Cruise on Oprah). I am a DIE HARD Denver Nuggets fan and have been my whole life. For most of that time the Nuggets have been, well … terrible, so now all these years later we finally have a good team and are winning and I couldn’t be happier about it.

This is Brian and I just after we got to the box! It had it’s own bathroom, can you say BIG PIMPIN?!?!?!

Since Kai my almost four year old has started taking naps again he stays up WAY too late, and always ends up watching the games with me. His favorite Nuggets player is Chris “THE BIRDMAN” Anderson, so I spent most the night trying to get good pictures of him for Kai!

Now to my favorite Denver Nugget! #4 Kenyon Martin, WHOOOOOOHOOOOOO K-Mart!

Lastly, a shout out to the greatest mascot known to man…Rocky!

Well, the Nuggets didn’t beat the Mavs (I blame the TERRIBLE refing), but I sure scored, so I guess it was a win-lose!

All the children are officially  asleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. I love this time of year and just about everything about it. Tonight on our way home from visits with Grandma & Grandpa the children sat in the back of the car discussing their plans on how to get to bed quickly so Santa can come. Their excitement couldn’t be contained and reminded me of myself as a child. I am the oldest of three and always felt the need to take the reins on  Christmas Eve. I knew how excited my brother and sister were, and it was my job to make sure they went to sleep so Santa didn’t have to fly past our house. 

Tonight after we laid the children down I heard Ethan, our oldest, crying because Kai wasn’t going to sleep and Santa was going to pass up our house. I felt for Ethan because I knew exactly how he was feeling. He was taking his job seriously and Kai was just messing around. Ethan took one more opportunity to solidify  his “good list” nomination and I assured him not to worry that I would take care of Kai.  

Christmas is about so much more then Santa, and for me this year it is mostly about family. For the first time in almost eight years we have had Brian home for the whole Christmas Season. In the past he was either getting ready for a deployment or just returning from one. This Christmas I am grateful to have my husband home with us and even more grateful for those who are sacrificing for our country and not with their families. 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Since every post is better with a picture here is one of the Mr. & Mrs. during this years annual Parker Carriage Parade. 

All of us here in Parker know that the area has grow significantly in the past number of years. While it certainly makes for more traffic, the growth isn’t all bad. Recently The Children’s Hospital at Parker Adventist Hospital,  Care by The Children’s Hospital and The Children’s Hospital Therapy Center have joined together to form the Parker Campus to serve the community with new and specialty clinics.

The new coalition offers emergency care for kids, specialty care for kids, pediatric specialist care, sports medicine clinics for youth athletes, and array of specialty therapy.

Find out more about this great resource in our community: Parker Children’s Hospital Campus Expanded

Last Saturday was the coldest day we’ve seen this year, and definitely takes the title for my coldest shoot ever. Despite the cold the McIntosh family we’re all great sports and toughed it out for this epic family portrait.

I love being around large families! Some of my fondest memories growing up were busy summers filled with trips around the country to stay with relatives. It didn’t matter if it was three-wheeling in the hollars of Kentucky (A “hollar” is more or less a hill for those of your unfamiliar with the region), hide-n-go seek in my Nannie’s back yard in Albuquerque, or any other excuses we were able to find to all get together.  I have I have four children of my own and often wonder what it will be like when they are grown and have their own wild brood; what will the dynamic be like.

After spending an hour with the Trekell’s I hope my husband Brian and I will be able to create the same playful, loving family they have. Mark and Shellie have four boys and Brianne is their beautiful Daughter-In-Law. Toward the end of their session we were making sure we had all the shots and groupings we needed and Brianne suggested that they take one of Mark, Shellie, and the boys. At first the grouping Brianne suggested didn’t even register to Shellie. When she realized Brianne meant a photo without her, Shellie’s immediate response was “Oh why?  I don’t think of my family without you?”

I loved that response!

I’m excited for our kids to fall in love with wonderful people that we too will fall in love with. What a special thing that is!

Oh, and boys you can thank me later for not posting your “favorite picture” for everyone to see.

Last Saturday morning I woke up early, got ready, and headed up to Echo Lake in Idaho Springs with my trusty chair carrier, aka my wonderful husband Brian. It was a beautiful autumn day here in Colorado with the bright beaming sun shinning overhead, but man, when we got out of the truck up there around 7,500 feet elevation it was FREEZING! I hurried out to the lake to see where I wanted the chair staged and hollered the location to Brian as I ran past him back to the truck to warm up! Luckily the sun is a champ and warmed things up before it was time for the session!

In a word this session was a dream! The boys were beyond fabulous, and seriously how beautiful is this family! At the end I promised the boys a “lollipop” and when I pulled them out Elijah looked at me with a puzzled look on his face and said “That isn’t a lollipop, that is a sucker!” I have apparently forgotten the important distinction that exists between a lollipop and an ordinary, run of the mill Dum Dum Pop. So Elijah, I promised you and your brother a lollipop, a lollipop you will get! I will make good on my promise, see you at the proofing session my friend!

In other news … I want to announce the winner of the September Leave-A-Comment-Win-A-Free-Session-In-October Contest! So, DRUM ROLL PLEASE……Chrissy Morin you’re the winner!!! I will be in contact with you soon to tell you more about your prize!

Happy October to everyone! This in my opinion is the very best month of the year. It is my birthday month AND Halloween! What more could a girl ask for? I hope everyone will enjoy this great month as much as me!

Yesterday I got to spend a good part of the day with my daughter Olivia in the mountains. I went up there to scope out the location for my shoots this weekend and I was so happy to take her along with me since it was a great chance to shoot her 5 year old pictures. She is such a treat to be around and a major goofball! I want to always remember how she was yesterday: sweet, carefree, funny, adventurous, and even a little ornery. As I looked over these pictures and edited them I couldn’t help but wonder when she got so big. Most of the time I wish I could squish her back into a baby and enjoy all the different stages just one more time. Since I can’t, I am glad I have these to cherish her awesome personality just as she is today! This is the essence of why photography is my passion.

There is one more spot open at this great location this upcoming Saturday afternoon, call or email ASAP if you are interested. Also, we will be doing the drawing tonight for October’s Free Session from all the comments made in September, so check back to see who the winner is!

I had so much fun with the Foltz family last week! We found some really neat places to shoot and for the kids to jump off of! Cute kids and great location always makes for awesome portraits.

Also, I have one more session open this Saturday, October 3 at 2:00pm at BEAUTIFUL Echo Lake in Idaho Springs. It is a bit of a drive, but worth it to capture the changing leaves and beautiful scenery.