Truth be told, I would be happy to wear denim, white, black, and gray all day every day.  At one point in my life, I made a conscious decision to try and work color into my wardrobe.  I’m still not a big pattern fan, but every once in while I’ll try and do that too 🙂  Part of the reason is that I like to hoard hold on to my clothes FOREVER, and people remember patterns year over year.  A well made basic black sweater??  I’ve got some that I’ve had for 15+ years and STILL wear them!

There’s something about this coral color, though.  I think it works for just about every season, don’t you??  Please say yes haha.

We went over to a friends house for dinner while the Huz was out of town, and literally took these in 10 minutes before hopping in the car.  So…not much variety  🙂 Maya’s Gigi (the Huz’s mom)  lives on a ranch in Oklahoma with horses.  She STILL competes and places Nationally in Horse cutting.  I won’t say her age, but let’s be honest…at 40, I would consider myself lucky to be competing in anything!  All that said, she sent Maya these beautiful cowboy boots for her birthday!  You will be seeing these a lot in the next few months 🙂 Some boots were made for walking…and some dresses were made for twirling 🙂 On me…

I’ve been so back logged with work that I haven’t gotten a chance to work on these images from Maya’s 3 year Birthday pictures last weekend besides the sneak peek I did on Instagram!  All that said…these aren’t really my favorite images haha.  Kind of a great problem to have, no??!!  I found out early on in my photography career that props, fancy set ups and “grand intentions” were NOT for me.  I’m way more about capturing the emotion on the fly and LOVING moments in between.  That said…I give MAD PROPS to all the photographers that do all the complex set ups.  It takes time and not to mention pressure on everyone to make it work!!!  I obviously can’t handle all that pressure!! 🙂

Can we also just acknowledge that my shirt was completely wrinkle free when I left the house. And by wrinkle free, I mean I spray bottled it 15 minutes prior to leaving while I ran around getting Maya ready.  It’s my favorite time saving tip, because WHO HAS TIME TO IRON??!!  Yet, sadly…you’d never know… :{ Every year since I took Maya’s newborn pictures, I’ve used pumpkins.  What OCD Professional Photog Mama wouldn’t take her own newborn pictures a week after having a C-section??   Here is her one week old pics.  I was still new to newborn photograpy, and have lots of regrets/wish I would have known this or that, but…all that said, so happy I was able to capture my own images, as flawed as they might be.  I mean, how could I not??  And then…her ONE YEAR SHOOT!!  Gah, I die… That chubby little nugget!!  SO CUTE, I can hardly stand it!!  And THEN…her two year shoot that I lazily did in the alley up the street from our house.  Soooo, the tradition had to continue.  This time at a park close to our house.OMG, there’s just something about this next one that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!And then, the typical…see ya, Mom!On me…

 Just when I was getting excited about sweaters, the weather switches it up again!  NOT complaining!!  Especially since it was warm all day vs cold, warm, cold, warm 🙂Maya’s like “See ya!!” 🙂 Thankfully, she usually comes back for a hug 😉 Not sure how much longer I’ll be able to do these throws, but I’ll do them as long as I can!  I swear she caught more air than this haha.  Darn self timer 😉 The cool thing about this particular park is all the windy paths that go up and down and around.  Maya loves to just run in circles/up and down.  GREAT exercise for her, and I don’t have to worry about her running away 🙂She kept running around the corner and yelling “SURPRISE!!” 🙂Running up and down the paths is hard work… 🙂On me…

Sometimes when it’s windy, using a leaf is not a good marker of where I need to stand haha.  Hence me cutting off half my head 🙂

 I’ve mentioned before that I am slightly obsessed with coated denim.  It’s the poor gals leather pants haha.  In all seriousness, I love that it has the look of leather, but at a fraction of the cost.  Plus, you can totally wipe off toddler messes easily.  Or, just a spilled lunch of your own 😉  My only problem was that I was hoarding them for special occasions!  And let’s be honest, I’m not hitting the town like I used to when I was younger and single.  So, instead of them gathering dust, I’m making a concerted effort to work them into my casual daily outings! Kinda thought Maya was over her “licking” phase.  Sadly, not… Jumping shot fail.  That belly though!! 🙂 “Let it GOOOOO!” 🙂 On me…

My fun ideas don’t always work out hahaha.  We’ve been playing with this balloon inside because it’s been raining a lot.  Well, I thought it would be even more fun to take it outside and play with it.  NOT the best idea when it’s totally windy! 🙂

 So, we both dressed for fall in the beginning of the day, because it was chilly!  Once again, by midday I was sweating!  You can even tell as these pictures progress.  Shade/cloudy at first, and then SUNNY. Hahaha.  I love this next one.  🙂On me…

In the earlier pics of us, Maya is eating.  Pretty much the only way I can keep her happy and entertained while I get a few shots of just me.  Sometimes only one shot 🙂  And honestly, sometimes all she wants to do is go run and play (who can blame her!).  To get at least one shot of the two of us together, I sometimes bribe her with food :).  When she was done with her wrap, she wanted to look in my mouth to see what I had.  It’s only gum!  haha.  She had to make sure though 😉

 I can’t decide if I look like a cross between a lumberjack and Pocahontas, or…if it just looks comfortably fall like 🙂  Either way, I was so comfortable!  Until the sun blared down upon us 15 minutes in.  Seriously, I don’t want to complain about sunshine, but the bipolar disorder of the weather right about now is killing me!  Cold and bundled up…then 15 minutes later sweating and peeling off the layers?  Not cool… This is a little path that is the entry to a park that we’ve been going to.  Every time I pull in, I think…”We should totally take pictures there!”  And… so we did 🙂  That said, there were people running, biking, walking their dogs… Again, feeling like a total nerd taking pics, but whatever! 🙂 And then the sun came out! And then it was behind a cloud… So, Maya wanted to wear this dress.  “White Princess dress!!!” to be exact 🙂  All well and good, except it had been POURING all morning.  So…needless to say, the pictures of Maya in her pristine white dress are few 🙂Can I just say that I was DYING when I saw these clogs at the thrift store for $5??  They aren’t the most practical with the slight elevation, but so cute!!! And then she ran down the hill one to many times and face planted into a pile of mud haha.  Totally not hurt, but the dress…needed a good dose of OxyClean 😉

On me…

 I’m entering the busiest time for my business.  I’m at the tail end of wedding season, so I’m fulfilling all the DVD’s and making their albums, and then Familypalooza has officially started.  I’ll be booked every weekend from now until mid December.  I LOVE what I do!  I know that I’m super lucky to get to spend my days with Maya, yet get to get away and be creative on my own.  That said, it does make me a little more appreciative of these fun outings, because I don’t get to see her as much on the weekends or while I’m editing at night.  Even more appreciative that I’m documenting them to look back on and enjoy… The best part of these next images?  There is NOBODY off to the right.  She’s just looking over there and cracking herself up.  I was dying laughing.  Then…because I was laughing, she started laughing even harder.  God, she cracks me up!  And…herself too, obviously haha.I kid you not, there were about 20 images that I took and I weeded them down 🙂On me…

 I’m so glad we took these in a park that was fairly empty.  This rock was not small!  I really wanted to get an image of Maya on my lap, because she’s all about sitting on my lap and getting nuzzled (got it!).  However, me pushing the self timer button, running to leap onto the rock in tight jeans, get her on my lap, all while making sure neither of us fell off…in TEN SECONDS?  Hahaha.  Yeah, a few outtakes.  And possibly a little flashing of toddler undies 😉

 And so it begins… The mornings are cool.  Afternoons are warm.  Evenings are chilly.  All this calls for layering… I’m wearing sandals until it starts pouring!! 🙂 It’s hard to tell, but these have skulls on them.  So cute!  Maya is obsessed with skeletons 🙂  And the faint camo print on these jeans??  LOVE!!!“Mom, look, it’s a jelly fish!”Maya is SO in her happy place around dogs.  She looooves them, and they loooove her!  These two played/chased each other in the parking lot for about 20 minutes.  At the end…they were both tuckered out.  WIN!! 🙂  It does make me sad that she didn’t get to know Greta better before she passed 😦Earlier in the day, I took Maya to the dentist with me.  They said it was good to have them come see you sitting in the chair before it was their turn to go.  She did great (thank you iPad and Frozen ;)).  At the end, they let her pick from a “prize basket”.  She picked a purple dinosaur, and never let it go for the rest of the day 🙂  Kind of just want to eat that sweet face up-dentist approved 😉On me…