Watersliding and some exciting news.......

Fun at the beach club:

On Thursday Mia and I joined some friends at the Beach Club in McKinney.
They have just added a sprayground and Mia and her buddies had a GREAT time on the waterslide. I just can't get over how cute Mia is in these pink sunglasses. She puts them in her little purse and slings it over her shoulder and says "Let's go to the pool, Mom." How could you tell her no?

And the exciting news:
I am the proud new owner of this:

24" iMac and I am IN LOVE!!! It is taking some time to transfer all those client files etc. over and there is a bit of a learning curve as I switch from a PC, but I love it so far. It is amazing all of the stuff it does that I didn't even know existed. Like last night I synced calendar and phone numbers on my phone with my Mac and I didn't even have to plug it in. (For those who don't know what that means like my mom (love you mom) ;) that means I copied all the events on my computer's calendar to my phone and all the numbers on my phone to my computer automatically) It uses blue tooth technology to "talk" to my razor phone. Cool huh? I know someone out there is saying "Wow, Cindy, you're impressed with that?".......and I say "Yes, yes I am!" I've finally LEAPED into 21st century and boy am I excited about it!

I'd better get to work! I'm behind on editing client sessions!! Now, if I can just figure out where they are hiding on this computer. :)

No title needed......

I have been wanting to write a post about Mia for awhile now. Afterall, she is the ORIGINAL reason I started this blog! So here goes:

Recently Mia has been so fun! I think that even though 2 1/2 is a difficult age and she is quite the handful these days this is my FAVORITE age. Well, so far at least. Mia is at the age now that she is fun to actually hang out with. If you don't count having to watch "Cars" over and over and over and over and over.........Recently, we went to Targer to celebrate her first poop in the potty (I know, stop laughing) and we picked out her "prize" and then went to get a slushy. I couldn't think of anyone I would enjoy going to get a slushy with more. It reminded me of my good friend Rachel and our quest for the perfect slushy back in college. We went to at least 15 7-11's in one night to find one that had red, white AND blue so we could mix the perfect one. Mia would totally be up for that! See what I mean about hanging out. If I want to go to the mall and just look around and then eat at the food court then Mia is always ready to go. She is always ready and excited to do things as mundane as going to the bank, the grocery store and the post office. She is a great little sidekick.

The other thing I have been loving about her recently is how she pronounces words wrong. There are a few words that I never correct her on because I don't want her to ever stop saying them in her cute little Mia way. My absolute favorite has to be "pollypop" (lollypop). She loves them and will ask in the sweetest voice "Mommy, Mia wants a pollypop?" Now who could resist that? That reminds me, she does talk about herself in 3rd person which is at the same time endearing and also extremely irritating. Irritating because we then also use 3rd person. "Mia, mommy and daddy are tired and are ready for bed. Daddy are you ready for bed? Mommy is ready for bed. Goodnight, Mia. Goodnight, Daddy. Goodnight, Mommy." Just kidding it's not that bad, but I am ready to hear her say "I" or "me" once in awhile.

So back to cute words:
marshmelon(or sometimes watermelon)=marshmellow
tamorning=tomorrow
toast office=post office
mecinine (meeh-cin-ine)=medicine
Dora M=dora shaped vitamin
hold you=means will you hold me
soap=soda (Dr. Pepper)
and ANY grocery store is called Wal-Mart.

I won't even talk about the things I don't love about this age because the things I talked about above make it worth the other stuff!!

P.S. I'm sure you are wondering as you look at the pictures of Mia on this blog "Does this kid EVER wear clothes"? and the answer is NO. She doesn't. At least not at home. We trip over her getting undressed in the doorway as we come in the house. We're going to have to break that habit before high school. ;)

Joy......

Want to see what PURE JOY looks like?

This is a snapshot of how I want Mia to remember her childhood.......carefree and magical.

Just for fun......

Yesterday I played around with my flash and backdrop and Mia was more than happy to pose for me.....FINALLY! I've been waiting 2 1/2 years for her to willingly model for me. I took about 150 pictures of her that look pretty much the same, but this one I just love! If she would have let me fix her hair and put clothes on her it would have been tons better, but.......NO WAY! Mia had just gotten up from her nap and she was ready to play and that means...diaper ONLY! Silly girl! Where did she get such expressive looks? Click to see the larger version. It's much better larger. ;)

Princess Mia.....

Mia is so funny. She thinks any little girl that twirls and her skirt flairs out is a princess. She hasn't shown much interest in playing dress up until last night. We watched "The Wizard of OZ" and shortly after it was over she went running back to her room shouting "princess, princess." A few minutes later she came out of her room with this outfit. The broom is for riding.....I guess in Mia's world princesses ride brooms instead of witches.


Check out that tummy sticking out. ;)

Bath....

I hate giving Mia a bath. I mean really, really hate it. She screams the WHOLE time I am washing her hair. She also splashes and gets water everywhere. I've started sitting in the hallway so I can still see her, but I don't get wet.

I took these tonight while she took her bath. I must have taken about 80 pictures to get these four that I really liked. That girl will only look at me when the camera is NOT pointed at her. Silly Mia!

bubbles

I just got a new lens for my camera. It's an 85mm f 1.8. I have been saving up for this lens FOREVER it seems like. I finally got it yesterday!!! YEAH!
I can't wait to use it with all the sessions I have coming up. Especially the 3 Seniors I will be photographing in the coming weeks. I also have a mother/daughter session this Sat. that will be really fun! Not to mention the family of....SIX!!! Busy month coming up.

Here are the first few pictures I have taken with the new lens. It is SO much sharper than the 50mm that I have been using primarily. I LOVE IT! Well worth the wait.

Her morning snack...

I was just on the phone and when I got off I found Mia in the kitchen like this:

She was in the kitchen eating Ovaltine by the spoonfuls!!! As you can see on her face she ate quite a bit of it. Glad I had my camera handy :)

I guess I had better go to the store and get this kid some milk to go with her "cocoa"!

It snowed....

Not for long, but it did snow at our house this morning. From the time I noticed it to the time I could get Mia dressed and out the door it had almost completely stopped. If you look very close you can see a few snow streaks in the background of these pictures. At least I finally got Mia to put on her cute hat! She was super excited about the snow even if it wasn't much. Now we are inside staying warm. Hope you are all staying warm too. Happy Wednesday Everyone!

2 years ago....

.....at 4:52 pm Mia was born. She was 7lb. 2.8 ozs. and 20 inches long. I can't believe it has already been 2 whole years, but on the other hand it seems like she has ALWAYS been with us. It's hard to remember our family without her. Mia has always been a very busy kid. As a photographer I have learned that taking pictures during the first two weeks of life is best because the newborn will still curl up and snuggle. Not Mia! We tried to take her pictures at exactly 1 week and she wiggled so much we only got 1 good one! She was already pushing with her feet trying to move forward. She started crawling at 4 1/2 months and pulling up at 7months. Mia took her first steps at 9 1/2 months and she hasn't stopped moving since. I tried VERY hard to get a picture of her this morning and she was NOT happy about it at all. I got one decent one but might try again later. She runs from me everytime she sees the camera now. Maybe I'll get a great birthday pic next year!

Here she is on her birthday less than an hour old.


Mia on her 1st birthday........Queen for a day.


This morning........The big TWO!


We are off tomorrow to visit my parents. Have a Great NEW YEAR.

journaling reads: This was a great Halloween. I didn't stress over Mia's cosutme this year like I did last year. She was a princess made from left over craft stuff. We went to Mckinney with Lindsey and Deacon and trick or treated and had a blast. Then we went to the church and played and got more candy. Mia had fun this year and I think she loves Halloween as much as I do.




Mia's friend as Pochohontas

This is my favorite. I might have to have it enlarged! Maybe a canvas!!