Easter dresses (& a peek behind the scenes of our shoot)

in ,
ONE. One decent photo of both girls out of dozens.

I feel so frustrated shooting them lately. Kate pouts and Caroline just starts crying, so trying to get a "formal" shot like this can be quite trying to say the least!  Nick is a saint. 

So, here are 3 "keepers" from the set. Scroll down to quickly run through our entire series. It's nuts.

I guess one is all you really need! 




Here's the full (UNedited) set if you're interested. Just click through fast...  

it's the little things: food

in ,
It's blog circle time again! This month's theme is "food," and while I love to take food shots, I don't really like to bake or cook (and nothing would come out photo-worthy), so we went out instead! Follow our blog circle around to my talented friend, Allison McSorley. Her images always wow me!

Patina Green is a shop in the McKinney town square, and it's been a family favorite since it opened about 3 years ago. Inside is a lunch counter with a rotating soup and sandwich menu using local ingredients. We made it somewhat of a tradition to eat here as a family on Saturdays back last summer when the weather was nice and our schedule was free. It all fell apart when fall hit, and our calendar was quickly filled.

But this past Tuesday the stars aligned: my fave sandwich was on the menu, I only had one baby in tow, and the weather was gorgeous. So, I opted to make it a one-on-one mommy-daughter date with Caroline. 

Of course, bringing Baby + camera meant that she ate and I snapped. I finished about half my sandwich before she was done and ready to go! (And I was lucky I got that much down!)

If you're ever in our neck of the woods, you really should check this place out...


Her sandwich was cooling to the side, and she was finding it hard to be patient!


Caroline's grilled cheese and "fancy" apple juice-



My sandwich: spaghetti squash, Full Quiver cheddar, sweet onion + arugula, walnut pesto on sourdough (+ a side of tomato bisque)-


And cranberry + white chocolate cookies for dessert-



Taking the girls out to eat usually means Mama doesn't really get much time to scarf down her own food, but we still had fun... just the two of us.


not my norm

in
(from Feb. 19)

Caroline and I were on our way home from taking Kate to school one Tuesday, and I happened to have my camera in the car. It was a gorgeous morning, and things were starting to look green, so I stopped here and there for a few shots. They don't go together very well, but I'm dumping them all together anyway! :)

These first couple took me by surprise. I was shooting the green grass and the blue skies when this flock of birds suddenly rose from the fields. It happened so fast, I'm not sure how I managed to grab focus so well!


This one was taken out of my front windshield. I was trying to find one of the red birds that I had seen around, but this guy had to do.

Gorgeous morning light streaming through the green... so exciting to see signs of spring!