Dearest Tatum,

My oldest daughter, my first girl, my beautiful little lady.
I love you.

I love your blossoming creative side.
You can spend hours with your new journal and colored pencils.
Drawing.  Writing.
You remind me of when I was a little girl.

I love your delight in all things magical.
You still believe in magic and faeries and all those things I love.
Believe as long as you want.
(I still do.)

You are growing up so fast and have opinions on fashion and hair.
When did that happen?
Can I stop it?

I love your smile and your laugh.
I love the way your eyes light up when something clicks or you get an idea.
You. Are. So. Smart.

I’m sorry your birthday letter was so late.
That’s what I get for having you just before Christmas. 

Thank you for being mine.

I love you.

Mommy

A small look back at what happened with RLP this year.
I did a lot of boudoir this year, too, but can’t really show all that hotness.

And I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to all my dear clients. You guys are the reason for all these beautiful photos. You guys are amazing.

Yes, it has been a pretty great year.
I’ve said hello to some new babies,
celebrated  with couples getting married,
and spent time with some fabulous families.

But it has also been a bitter sweet year.
Emilie, the amazing mom in the above photo, lost her fight with a brain tumor this year.
I want to spend 2012 living the legacy she left behind.
“We should all be so in love with each day.”
Don’t think that is a beautiful way to live?
I do.

See you in 2012, my friends!!

Anyway, I have a photo that I took of the official end poll results at 11:59 last night, but I will have to wait until my modem will play nice again. But I can announce that with a total of 910 votes, Juliana and Colby are the winners! Yay!! Congratulations!

I will send out some information to you soon!

If you love books and you live in Northwest Arkansas, you’ve heard of the Bookshop nestled in the heart of Dickson street.  And if you haven’t, you must be living under a rock.  It’s a literal maze of bookshelves that beg you to become lost in them.  They invite you to curl up on the floor next to a stack of books and spend an afternoon.  It’s so amazing.

Erin collects first edition children’s books.  Not only that, but she and Daniel share a great love for books and visit this shop often so they thought it would be really fun to do their engagement session there.  I agree!!

I had so many favorites from this session, it was really, really hard to stop picking some to post for the blog.

These next two photos begged for a bit of a different processing.  Who am I to say no? 

Before we actually went to the books, we met at the church where Daniel and Erin met.  Aren’t they cute?

And this is what happens when you tell them to give  you a serious look. 

Thank you guys SO much for such a lovely evening.  I can’t wait for your wedding!!!

The plan is to start sharing more of these each week. Perhaps a collage of all of them and a showcase or two of my faves. Cause like I said, I put a lot of work into some, but some are rather boring. Life gets in the way, you know? Can’t be fantastic all the time.

First of all, thank you SO much to all of the people who made this possible.  All of the contestants and to their friends and families for voting.  It was a great contest and I thank you.

Also, this video is completely unedited with the exception of being converted to black and white.  I ended up having to film in my small (flowery wallpapered) bathroom and the white balance was driving me crazy.  So, I just changed it all to black and white to keep my sanity. 

Um, I thought that the names would be seen better than they were.

And finally, I’m such a dork.  Really.  This video will prove it.  If you ever doubted my uncool factor, this video will lay it to rest.  Especially if you pay particular attention to what I’m doing as I’m trying to shake up the names in the hat.  I called my sister after I finished to tell her that I was probably going to embarrass myself by posting it, but you know what?  It is what it is.   I am a little goofy, a little dorky, I talk way too fast, and tend to be a little shrill when excited.  Now you know my secret to the huge grins from my clients.  They are just laughing at my utter ridiculousness.

What surprises do I mention?  More on that in a little bit!!! 

I decided for the sake of fun photos that instead of using Random.org to pick winners, I would employ my five year old to draw names out of the hat. Or basket, in this case. She thought it was a lot of fun and even helped with the list.

Here are all the entries both before and after being folded. They look excited, huh?

Here she is reaching into the basket for the first winner. Isn’t she cute with her missing tooth? She has another one that is oh so close to falling out. My baby is growing up.

Our first three winners, each receiving $10 off of their next session fee with Raining Light Photography, are:
1.) Court
2.) Maggie B.
3.) Ruth P.

Our next two winners, each receiving 10% off of their next order with Raining Light Photography, are:
1.)Amy P.
2.)Diana R.

The winner of the 10 image accordion mini album containing images from her next Raining Light Photography session is:
1.) Liz

The winner of 10 free 5x7s from her next Raining Light session is:
1.) Michelle J.

Next up, a free 10×10 mounted print from her next session with Raining Light Photography:
1.) Shelia M.

Who gets a 10×19 standout from her next session with Raining Light Photography?
1.) Terra!

Annnnnnnnnd who is the winner of the grand prize? Who gets a session with Raining Light Photography and TEN digital images?

Congratulations to Angie O! I’m so excited for our session together!!

And what about our remaining three entries?

I can’t let them go away empty handed, so they also get $10 off their next session fee with Raining Light Photography.

Congratulations to all of our winners. Thank you so much for participating in my contest. It’s been a lot of fun.

Here is a wee little peek into the session.

I had such a great time, guys! Thank you so much. I can’t wait to show you the rest!

Since she leaves them to do fun, amusing, glamorous Kindergarten things, Paeton and Aryah are left with me to do fun, giggly, stay-at-home-with-young-children things. It’s different and we miss Tates, but we are adapting.

This is how we like to wake up.

Not a bad way to start the day!

The other day I decided that it was time to do Aryah’s ten month old photos while the weather was so pretty. Now, I saw the opportunity for some beautiful light, nicely asked (yelled) at John to please come help me gather the girls up before we lost it. I stripped the baby as John helped Paeton into one of her favorite dress up outfits. We rushed out in the front yard, threw down a quilt, and placed the baby on it. So, Aryah loves to crawl. She’s been doing it for months now but only recently started sitting. This meant that I knew we would have about 1.2 seconds before she tried to crawl off the quilt and attack some pine needles. I was correct and after several attempts, I got one usable shot. I even tried to put her in a doll bassinet to keep her sitting and not crawling out of the frame. That ended up in hysterical laughter because she decided that particular moment was THE BEST time to pee. Back on the quilt she went.

Good thing she is cute.

Paeton is notorious for wanting to have her photo taken when it isn’t really her turn. Who am I to say no to that adorable face?

And look at this!! Both of them together and looking at the camera.

I’m so lucky.

I haven’t posted photos of the Itty in a long time. I keep saying I need to do ‘official’ portraits of her and post, but I always end up cuddling instead! I mean, look at her, wouldn’t you cuddle all day long, too? Maybe I can con John into doing some portraits with the two younger girls today while Tatum is at school. Paeton DID pick out her own little outfit today (and did an EXCELLENT job) so why not show it off?