Did you hear? I got a dog, our first. She was rescued from a puppy mill in St. Louis by my mom, and we call her Lola.

Isn’t she sweet?

I’ve been meaning to post about her for over a week since we got her, but a bunch of sessions to proof, and a wicked cold got in the way–ah life.

Sadie told me yesterday that she wanted to wear her cowboy boots to school because she had plans to be a “sassy cowgirl” during recess. This morning she showed me how you can use a jump rope to be your lasso.

And, Echo in her almost 10 year old stance just watched and didn’t even crack a smile at her sister.

Chills, I’ve got them. My space heater has been working on overtime and it takes a lot to force me outside these days, but I do try. I love the stark clean look that snow gives everything so I try to bring my camera out as much as I can. I do wish there was a trick to keeping my hands working during these outdoor sessions. After about 10 minutes I start to lose feeling in my fingers and well, my ability to control my camera really diminishes.

We swore when we moved from North Carolina to New York that we would learn some winter activities. So far I enjoy snow shoeing, and I’m trying to get the hang of cross country skiing. I’ve learned that I will never be a down hill skier–I’m too scared of going fast.

These were taken at Beaver Lake Nature Center during a recent snow shoeing outing.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, tomorrow I will get the slideshow from Adam and Jillian’s super lovely winter wedding on my blog. Oh, how I wish we could have stayed out in the snow for longer to take portraits. It was so beautiful–but as this image so perfectly illustrates thanks to Adam’s expression–It was freeze your nose off cold out there!

Stay warm!

a moment when my camera is near and my 9 year old daughter allows me a small moment to photograph who she is right now—an incredibly sweet and loving girl.

I spent a few minutes recently trying to get some images of my 9 year old. She has been very hard to photograph recently–self-conscious, ornery, and definitely not one to follow directions. Now, I normally don’t need kids to follow directions because I just let them play and capture those moments, but my kids soometimes seem to have me figured out. That, or I just don’t have the same patience with my own kids.

If you saw my last post you know that I have been photographing a lot of babies recently and it has made me miss my babies. I mean take a look at this old 9-year-old.

Yikes!

Luckily, I captured a few of her that still make her look like the kid she is.

And the two of them–childhood pic.

So, all of you with older kids I’m sure know this already, but I’m not sure I always realized how while you applaud while your children reach each new stage, you also mourn the stage that they just left.

This has been a session packed week full of adorable kids. I am really enjoying my job and feeling lucky that I get to document so many cute moments.

It started at Green Lakes.

Love this outfit and this moment.

This little guy was super quick so I had to take advantage of moments when he was sort of still or at least captured by dad.

Have you seen the new playground at Green Lakes?

Of course deep in the forest with little light is when I get the ever illusive sibling shot!

Then it was a fun mother/son session, but of course the adorable dog made it in to some of the images.

Oh my this little guy was adorable.

hand games are just so summer

love this little grin

and of course this more serious look

This dog was so funny.

The moment right after this image was taken the dog jumped so high he almost licked my lens–unfortunately that image didn’t quite turn out as well.

And the last share for today was a family session at Wellington House in Fayetteville. I was excited to do the session because I am photographing a wedding there on Saturday and wanted to check the place out, but also because this was a sweet family that had added a kid since the last time I had done a session with them.

The older two were so cute together. Here they are hanging out under the porch because it started to rain right as soon I got out of my car for the session.

This is going to be added to one of my all time favorite images.

Inside the Wellington House there was so much to explore–including a hat rack with all sorts of fun hats.

This was taken in the “ladies room”.

Despite the rain we spent a little time outside exploring…and dancing.

This was my last shot of the day and it was a pretty good one.

I still have two more sessions to share from this week, but my next share will from my fabulous wedding last Saturday.

Okay, this post is for my husband who is currently working in England.

I wanted him to see this little field trip I set up for our girls to celebrate the end of school and a visit from my mom. Sometimes I am sure that he wonders (heck I wonder) if it wasn’t for him would I do all the hiking and traveling that we do.

This wasn’t too ambitious, but our day trip started with lunch at the Cornell Dairy Bar. I had heard that the ice cream there was extra special. When I got there the ice cream looked so good I decided that ice cream would be our lunch. I tried the Yam flavored (it was good!), but went with a peanut butter chocolate choice.

Then I took the family to Taughannock Falls State Park for a hike.  The kids had fun collecting rocks and getting their feet wet.

A normal look from my 9 year old on hikes.

The falls!

and due to these lovely expressions from my children I thought the post-procession needing a bit of something.

After our hike it started raining so I took them to a great used clothing store in Ithaca called Mama Goose. I let the girls each pick out an outfit that they changed into. We then went to the Commons (Ithaca’s pedestrian mall) to do some browsing at a used bookstore. We also picked up a few cheap hats.

The girls enjoyed modeling for me.

Finally we made it to the Moosewood Restaurant for dinner. It was a day trip worth repeating.

Here are a few shots from a recent fun session.

The next Tiger?

Joy with Dad.

Amazing eyes.

Giggles.

This was another session that started with a threat of rain and it stayed pretty dark and very windy for the whole session. I totally loved the grounds around their house and I can’t wait to go back when they have a little baby.

I knew as soon as I pulled up that I wanted to use this tree and it’s great branches in an image.

I love this one in color and black and white.

Yes!! a big field–love this one.

The pattern on this dress and the white picket fence were perfect together.

I’ve been taking dog portraits at sessions when ever I can–this one had a good smile.

I absolutely love the images from this session and some of them have to be my favorite maternity images ever.

These girls reminded me a lot of my own–except I’m pretty sure my oldest would not let her little sister get on her bed. I had so much trouble trying to narrow down what images to show.

I’m sure I will have to hire a photographer to get these types of images of my own girls.

I will be so sad if I never get an image like this of my children.

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The girls were both so beautiful–they were very easy to photograph.

They were even good sports when I suggested cutting up the watermelon that I spotted on the kitchen table.

And, I’ve been having lots of dogs sneak into my pictures recently…this one was especially cute.