T-R-O-U-B-L-E times Two! (Jefferson Family Photographer)

I've always thought that I could take care of myself. Short of ninjas, professional wrestlers and Wal-Mart people greeters, there are few things or people in life that I've ever been scared of. At least, that was the case before I met the McMillan girls.

Oh sure, they LOOK innocent enough....those cute little figures and innocent appearing smiles. (keyword here being "APPEARING") You'll think that it's safe to let your guard down and that's when trouble strikes.

Most kids will just let me heap verbal abuse on them as we work through our sessions. They take my words about how ugly they are and just silently process them but NOT these two! Before I knew it, they had reduced me to tears (or maybe it was giggles....I confuse easily).

Gabbie with her pretty hair, pretty white teeth and pretty tan....I first thought that she was the ringleader. I'm still not sure that she isn't. It's hard to tell. The synchronized rhythm of their attacks made it hard to tell who was in charge.

Then, here comes Gracie who you think is harmless because she's all little and cute...BIG mistake on my part!

They told me that I was old. I think that Gabbie's exact words were, "somewhere around 100" and Gracie just giggles up a storm as she watches Gabbie take me down like a tiger downs the poor, weak, defenseless zebra out in the wild. These two were vicious!

Ok.....so maybe I exaggerate a weeee bit. Maybe these two were some of THE most fun peeps that I've spent time around in a long, long time. Say what you want about teenagers, I absolutely love how fun and outgoing these two are. I'm sure that there is lots of laughter around their house. There's no way that there couldn't be with these two on the place.

I honestly don't get these two. I really don't. When my sister and I were growing up, nothing short of a court order could get us to say a nice word to each other. And, the only way that we would have EVER hugged would have been if there were money or international terrorist involved. But, these two are like best friends. It's kinda cool.

As much as I HATE to say, I like these two. Alot. (I threw up a little bit in my mouth as I typed this.) So, thank you Gabbie and Gracie for hanging with an old geriatric case like me. And, thank you to their sweet friend Sarah who will probably get an extra star in heaven one day for hanging out with this pair. Between all of these girls and Lanie, I can truly say that my afternoon was filled with fun!

If you ever need pictures done again, call me. Maybe my cataracts won't be so thick that I can't peer through the lens to snap some good shots of you two ugly kids....I meant, sweet girls. My bad.

The End

Here Comes Chloe! (Oakwood, GA Photographer)

How do I describe Chloe?? Hmmm.....that's probably the best question that I've asked all day. We had never met Chloe before her session with us. Most of our clients are someone that either Tanya or I know but I'd only talked to Chloe's mom, Julia, through e-mail. She'd heard about our work from a mutual friend and we were excited to hear from her.

You can imagine how happy we were when the door of their car opened and this B-E-A-UTIFUL child was staring back at us! We'd have to cover both of our eyes and shoot with the lens cap on to NOT get good pictures of this little beauty!

Don't get me wrong.....Chloe is far from just a pretty face! This little angel has personality by the bucketloads! She immediately started flashing that beautiful smile and she knew that she had completely wrapped Tanya and I both around her tiny little finger in seconds!

She'd strike her little poses and she did absolutely every single thing that we asked her to do. She did all of this with the most contagious little giggle imaginable! She KNOWS that she's precious and she doesn't waste a bit of that cuteness...she uses every single ounce of it!

Poor Chloe has no love at all from her parents. It really is sad. You can look at the way that they look at her and tell that they just can't stand her.

Can't you see that?? NO? I think that it's more appropriate to say that the sun rises and sets on this child in their eyes.

James and Julia aren't too hard on the eyes either! It's easy to see where Chloe gets those good looks from!

We had a wonderful time with this family and offered to take Chloe home with us...I mean, that just seemed the right thing to do considering how neglected she obviously is!

If you wanna talk love, this family has lots of it for each other and you sense it the second that you meet them. That theory is only reinforced the longer that you spend time with them. Thank you James, Julia and Chloe for a VERY fun afternoon!

You guys rock! :o)

Fun With the Amos Family (Pendergrass, GA Photography)

We almost missed the Amos family session. Not because we didn't show. We were there. They were there, too. We'd just decided to meet at Hurricane Shoals and somehow managed to end up on opposite sides of the park. We noticed a van drive by so we'd drive over to the opposite side of the park to check things out. When we'd get there, we couldn't spot the van anywhere around. Jennifer and Will didn't seem the type to not show for something they'd committed to do so we gave it one more go 'round before leaving and spotted the family loading back up in their van.We caught them just in time and thankfully still had enough time to get some beautiful pictures of them.

It sounds like we're patting ourselves on the back for our photography skills but we're not. These guys are such a good looking family that you'd be hard pressed to NOT get good pictures of them!

Blake just has the most sweet, kind eyes. You instantly want to hug him when you see him.

Then, there is Logan with his easy grin and sparkly eyes. You just can't help but wonder if he's going to be the little firecracker in the family! Something about that little sparkle lets you know that he's got some fun ideas tumbling around in there!

This family just has an ease in the way that they communicate with one another. They play, laugh and have fun around one another but they aren't loud people. I'm sure that they were in shock when they heard our loud mouths but they talked to you just like you were an old friend. We like people like that.

Jennifer and Will somehow talked Grandmother into coming with them. I'm sure that they had to beg FOREVER to get her to come because it was painfully obvious that she didn't care a thing in the world about these kids....NOT! You could see that she was wrapped around those little fingers and they knew that all that they had to do would be to smile to get her to move mountains for them!

Speaking of Grandmother, what a pretty lady she is!

Jennifer and Will have created quite the beautiful family. They've obviously imparted all of their good qualities onto their children and you can expect to see wonderful things out of these guys as they get older.

I was so happy to get an e-mail from Jennifer this week to schedule their holiday session. I'd been working on this blog post so the timing was perfect! I can't wait to see how these guys have grown and to hang out with this sweet family. It's folks like this that make this "job" so much fun!

Thank you to the Amos family for a great afternoon! You guys are wonderful and we will look forward to seeing you soon!

Have You Met The Clarks Yet? (Jefferson, GA Family Photographer)

It's funny how you can pick up on the energy within a family by spending just a little time around them. Some are quiet and reserved and some make you feel like you're part of a big ole' party! I think that the main thing that you pick up on is that you can truly feel a bond between people. They mimic each others mannerisms and they crack inside jokes. It's cool to be a part of that. And, you walk away really, really liking them.

I read Allison's posts on Facebook and learned that little Addison was having tubes put in her ears today. I have only been around her once on their picture day but I found myself thinking about her several times, hoping that everything went well with her procedure, and I sent up a little prayer for her. Thankfully, Allison later added a post saying all was well and it made me happy to know that things were good. I was also impressed with myself that I had turned Addison's tube placement into being all about me. It took work but it was worth it.

I've owned up to being behind on blog posts but I decided to stop procrastinating and get this one posted tonight and dedicate it to Little Miss Addison herself. So, here it goes:

We met with the Clarks and quickly decided that they are some of the nicest people around. We met at Hurricane Shoals park to take some pictures and the weather really could not have been more pretty!

Speaking of pretty.....it runs rampant in this family!

I've seen Will around at different activities before and he's always been one the cutest kids ever. He's got a really sweet smile and no matter how tough teenage boys like to come across, this one loves his mama!

He doesn't seem to dread time around the rest of his family either. Truth be told, I'd be willing to bet good money that he downright enjoys it!  :o)

Then, there's sweet little Addison....talk about beautiful! She was absolutely--without a doubt---one of THE most pleasant babies that I've ever been around. She smiles at EVERYTHING! You look at her sweet little face and she smiles. You talk to her, she smiles. You talk to other people, she smiles. You cough, she smiles. You get the picture. This truly is one happy child. I don't think there's shred of doubt in her mind that she's loved!

If you want to see a couple that is good together, you're looking at them.....

Brian and Allison have such an easy, fun rapport with each other. They're laughing and cracking jokes at each other and all of the sudden, you'll catch a really sweet glance between the two of them and you'll know that they are both keenly aware of the fact that they are blessed beyond measure to have created the family that they have.

This was probably one of the fastest sessions that we've ever done but it doesn't take long to realize that the Clarks are a special family. So much so that I offered to marry Will or at least go out on a date or two with him if he'd consider an older woman but he politely giggled and I took that as a "no". You can't blame me for asking though.

I can't say enough nice things about these guys. They are a fun, loving family and we appreciate getting to hang out with them for a while! We hope that they enjoy looking at their pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them!   :o)

Kaylea and Shaquille-Prom (Jefferson, GA Photographer)

I've already owned up to being horribly behind at blog posts. I won't even bore you with long, drawn out excuses. I'll just say that I'm lazy. I'm thinking that the title of "Miss USA" is a bit out of the question for me so I guess I'll just go with "Procrastination Queen". Times are tough, people...you take it however you can! I'm not sure if it will come with a tiara but I'm working on the sash right now.

Back to the real reason that we're here....Kaylea and Shaquille. I met Kaylea shortly after I moved to Gainesville from South Georgia. I'm sure that she doesn't remember that meeting because she was just a toddler at the time. I work with her aunt at my "day job" so I've passed the years hearing lots of Kaylea stories because she was the first grandchild in the family and the apple of her aunt's eye!

She'd come into the office to see her Aunt Dena and she was always this sweet, shy little girl with these big pretty eyes and a precious smile! I'd try picking on her and her face would turn a bright shade of red! She'd giggle like we'd shared THE funniest joke in the world but she didn't do a lot of talking in those days.

Well, I'm sure that you can imagine my surprise when a few years had passed since I last saw her and the day that I went over to take these pictures, this beautiful young lady stepped into the room. The big, pretty eyes and bright smile hadn't changed over time but she certainly wasn't the little girl that I remembered. Somewhere during the span of a few years, Kaylea grew up!

Kaylea and her mother swapped a few snips here and there like teenagers and their mothers are required by law to do. But despite the occasional yip, you can tell that this family is filled with love for each other. I'd watch her mom and her grandmother helping her get ready and you could see the pride in their eyes mixed with just a tad of longing that she'd stay young just a little bit longer.

It was amusing to listen to her talking about the dance and how much fun it was going to be. She's got that youthful exuberance that people of my advanced age (ask my kids and they'll swear that I'm somewhere around 100) just don't have. Everything is exciting and the mood was contagious.

When Shaquille showed up to meet her, I had to give the boy props for being one brave soul! Kaylea's dad was in the front yard sharpening some type of weapon/garden tool and he was forced to brave all of these women that had somehow congregated out in the yard all on his own! His own mother, younger brother and grandmother came with him and it was obvious that the pride that they felt toward him was equal to what I mentioned about Kaylea's family earlier.

I loved when he told her how pretty she looked, almost as if he was a wee bit shy.

These are two genuinely good kids. I have to say that I admire them for marching to the beat of their own drum. It's easy to let people tell you how to live your life. You spend a lot of time trying to live up to what people expect out of you only to find that you weren't happy all along. I'm proud of the people who look beyond skin color and labels to see the heart of another human being. Will they be together 20 years from now? There's really no way to know. They are both young and life has a way of throwing curve balls at you sometimes. But, they've definitely gotten a head start on following their own path and I like that about them.

So, I'm thankful to say that the toddler that I knew is growing up into an adult that I really like and although I don't know Shaquille as well as I know Kaylea, you can just sense that this guys is going places. He's surrounded by a loving family and a girlfriend who seems to think that he hung the moon. It was a fun afternoon and I enjoyed every second of it!

Thank you Kaylea and Shaquille for letting me share your excitement with you. The pleasure truly was all mine!