all is calm. all wasn't bright, but now it is.

3 foam core poster boards

+

1 set of LED lights (so they don't get hot or waste your power)

+

a kitchen hole-poker (aka pointy knife)

+

lots of packing tape

+

some fabric in whatever color you find in your pile of fabric

+

an extension cord to make it to the outlet

=

magic (Max even came down from his nap and said "whoah")

p.s. if you have x-ray vision and you are Lily's friend or my sister please look away or you'll spoil your Christmas gift surprise

p.p.s. did you spy Buddy?

p.p.p.s. did you spy Buddy?

he is our elf on the shelf

spying on my kids

that's a haiku.

stuff we eat

I was talking to my mom and sister earlier this week about gathering up recipes that mean something to our family. I logged on to Shutterfly to see what deals they had going (first I'll say sorry it's ending tomorrow) and it was perfect. Buy one book and get duplicates for half off. Whoah! I have 4 sisters so that's quite a few 45 page books. After Thanksgiving I got a-cracking and just finished it. It's a To: daughters From: Mom present for Christmas and I love it. Not just because it's been my last 2 solid days gathering and photoshopping, but because it's all the things we remember eating as kids. Lots of cookies. Fancy Louisiana stuff my dad's perfected from a vacation there. Things from grandmas and aunts and church ladies. Things we've started making as grown-ups that we create together. And an 8-step page of instructions for making ramen (haha).

Click here to view this photo book larger

the word cute only has 3 letters

M

A

X

cute is also not into looking at the camera these days. but if he'll continue to put up with mini fisherman sweaters I'll probably let it slide.

what to get the five-year-old who has everything?

being five is fun. here's why. from Allie on Vimeo.

my favorites

October was my favorite month of photoshoots yet. Sometimes it's just magic.

My long-time never-met blog pal, Alison brought her little bunch on a road trip through the mountains to my little town. She's a babe. I loved meeting her in real life. Totally like meeting the disney princesses or a celebrity. You already pretty much know them and then *poof* there they are and they're real. And taller than you would have thought :)

and then Henry (oh to have a baby named Henry) and his sister Emma (sweetest nicest cutest in my preschool class Emma). They're my cousins. Maybe second cousins-once-removed but I adore them so I'll call them my cousins and you and your family treeness will deal with it.

and then Jack the quarterback. Or mini-Mike because he's my friend's little brother. Or maybe not-so-mini Mike because he's a big old football player now. I love working with seniors because I see them just enough as kids that I feel okay acting majorly dorky but I also don't have to wipe their noses or bribe them with treats. Usually. And any time I get to take pictures of a senior like this I'm thinking the whole time about which little sister I can get him to marry because he's such a cutie. Also I told him the secret about how the worst people to photograph are often dads because their wives make them dress up when they want to be watching a game and they're not as into jumping around like batman or climbing in things. And Jack promised that in 10 years when he's back with his kids he'll still do all the batman jumping I ask him to. Happily.

in grandma's garden

zombie

sorry these are gross.

I got way way into grossing up my sister's hair and makeup after I picked her up from school Friday and said she looked like a pretty zombie.

then we discovered that my basement is the perfect zombie backdrop.

happy halloween!

under arrest

my newly sprung hobby involves borrowing people's kids because I think of a good idea to go with their Halloween costumes. I gave them back with I was done.

I put the rest up on my photo site