Greenhouse

Wreaths in Williamsburg

We traveled over to Williamsburg to check out the handmade Christmas decorations and boy was it worth it! There was a different handmade wreath on every door. I probably looked like one of those crazy tourists going from door to door taking pictures.

I fell in love with this old time toy store.

mmm...chocolate

My favorite things of Christmas...See's Candy Chocolates

I don't think East Coasters can truly appreciate these chocolates. Growing up in California, we have whole See's candy stores! It's truly magical to step into one of these black and white stores to the smells of chocolate and sugar, greeted with your very own free sample. A child's delight! So, while we do have See's candy on the East Coast, it is nothing more than a meager kiosk packed high with prepackaged chocolates. Mom knows me well enough that every Christmas, or birthday she sends me a package of only my most favorite chocolates. This year it was a 2 pound box of milk chocolate truffles, maple walnut, and milk bordeoux chocolates. Truly heaven in my eyes! They may last me until Christmas...maybe.

Holiday Greetings

My favorite things of Christmas....Holiday greeting cards!

I love that for a short month, my mailbox has more cards from friends and family then bills. I'm a little behind the curve this month. I don't think our Christmas cards will reach their destinations until after Christmas, so here's a little internet Christmas greeting for everyone!

Lil' Santa

I don't know why I attempt pictures of Logan single handedly. As soon as I get him placed, the Santa hat on, and step back to grab my camera, he's quickly crawling off the set having triumphantly taken off the hat to show me his new found chew toy.

I think I might try again tomorrow when the sun will be out. I took these a few days ago of course while it was raining, and dreary out. I'm trying to get all the practice in that I can using available light, so I had to bump up the ISO pretty high on these. But, with all that, I wanted to share and to add to the list of my favorite things of Christmas...holiday pictures of the kiddos.

My favorite things of Christmas

I'm starting to get into the holiday spirit here in Virginia. This past weekend we went in search of our 1st family Christmas tree. Andy reminds me so much of his father, and my father for that matter, with his patience (or lack of) in putting it up. I can chuckle at it now, a small inside joke to share with him...

I want to share my favorite things of Christmas with you. I hope to add a new favorite thing every couple of days or so!

So, my first favorite thing is unwrapping the ornaments for the tree and touching on the memories I've shared with Andy. Every year since we've been married, we have been in a different state for Christmas with the exception of this year. I love finding ornaments that remind me of the home we made for that short year. This ornament I was gifted while we were in Texas, and it quickly became one of my favorites. There are so many fond memories that come with it...Tex-Mex cuisine, trips to San Antonio, touring through the Texas wine country, good friends, good margaritas, and a small town I couldn't wait to move away from...

Around the Ranch

The branches on this tree seemed to twist in every direction.


A cloudy day made an eerie picture.


I came across this sign and had to take a picture.




I can't remember if this is Unc's or Grandpa's old Ford on the property.

A Thanksgiving Sunset

We were treated to some spectacular sunsets up at the ranch. I slipped out during our Thanksgiving dinner to take this one.

Good to be home

We made the long 17-hour door-to-door travel back home yesterday. As much as I enjoyed spending time with family and relaxing at the ranch, it feels good to be home. I'm anxious to see what kind of pictures I was able to get, although I didn't take nearly as many as I would have liked to. Some days it was hard to get motivated when I was curled up on the couch next to a wood fireplace wrapped up in a good book.

Rainy Days

Thursday's are my day off from my "real" job. I usually find myself in a frenzy around the house doing laundry, vacuuming, running errands, and keeping Logan entertained. Today was different. Logan fell back asleep in my arms after I nursed him in bed this morning, so we both stayed in our PJ's until 11am. The rain today was a huge dissapointment. But, Logan is sleeping, the dog is snoring and I'm up for playing around with self portraits. I learned today that they are much harder than they look. So, I'm being brave and posting one here. It's not quite what I had invisioned, but hey, it's a first attempt.

C. Family Favorites

Well, I spent the rest of the evening editing pictures. I am so much more productive late at night when Logan is sleeping, but I'm sure I'll be feeling it in the morning when he wakes me up at 7am. Here are some of my favorites from the C. Family shoot that I haven't yet posted. Man am I bummed that it's supposed to rain all day tommorrow. I was really looking forward to getting out of the house for a mini road trip to nowhere...*sigh*

Textures

This past week I've been playing around with textures. Here's a couple with this technique. I really like the mood they give!

C. Family Teaser

I met with Cynthia and Joe today for some fun pics at the beach with their little man Joseph. I was so thankful they brought their parents along to sit and play with Logan! It's so hard with hubby gone all the time to leave him with a babysitter, so most of the time he gets to tag along with me to shoots. Thanks again to Cynthia's parents! Here's a quick teaser pic for them. Joseph is such a cutie! He wasn't sure what to think of the water though.

My Punkin'

Shannon and Trevor went with us to the pumpkin patch. I must say, I was a little disappointed. The first farm we went to, we took a hay ride out to the pumpkin field. It started out promising, until we rounded the corner into the field where there was all of about 12 pumpkins left. (Okay, I'm exhagerating a bit, but really, not by much!) Granted, I waited until the very last weekend before Halloween, but I was still expecting to see a field of pumpkins! So we moved on to the next pumpkin farm, which was more of a halloween carnival. We didn't have too much luck there either. By the time we got the boys situated, the sun had ducked behind the trees. At least Logan enjoyed himself.

Lil' Cowboy

Finally I'm getting to the rest of Trevor's 6-month pictures. Here's one I sent to Shannon today. I didn't care too much for the color version, so I played around with it a bit and came up with this sepia version.

Virginia's Autumn

Here's some pics from our recent camping trip to Shenandoah Nat'l Park. (I'm still adding to this collection, so check back!)

Trevor Michael

Here are some of my unposed fav's from Trevor's 6-month shoot. He is the most inquisitive little man.

This one cracks me up...

This is my paparazzi black and white take. We had such a hard time getting Trevor to smile so I had to hide behind the bushes for this shot. I kind of like the newspaper feel it has to it.

Baby Feet

These are part of Trevor's 6-month portfolio. Doesn't he have the cutest toes!

Haley Grace

This past week I had the priviledge of taking some newborn pictures of Haley Grace. She is such a beautiful little girl! Cassie and Kyle are going to have their hands full fending off the boys when she gets older.