On April 22, 2020, we were fortunate enough to celebrate TWENTY years of marriage! I had been planning our 20 year anniversary celebration for a long time with lots of events and sweet surprises. But of course, like pretty much everyone on the planet right now, life shut down all of those plans with one swift blow. I knew I was going to have to let go of everything I had originally had in mind and figured we’d just pick up some take out and maybe a bottle of champagne.

Yay.

I was admittedly disappointed, but I think we’ve all gotten used to that over the last few months. And truly, I am still grateful for the health and well-being of my family and I do not take our marriage for granted. A  romantic vacation or a big bash isn’t required to appreciate our relationship or the family we’ve created together.

But then, about 7 days out from our anniversary, I had the idea to move forward with a different, more intimate, and ultimately more meaningful ceremony in our own house…just the five of us (well, seven, including the dog and the cat). With just a week of planning and creating, I think we managed to pull off quite a magical little DIY 20 year celebration and it turned out to be *just* as special to me and all of us as our initial wedding day!

We had pretty much everything needed for a 20 year wedding celebration/vow renewal, including a happy couple, twinkling lights, rose petals from the yard, and even “professional” photography!

My bouquet, courtesy of Whole Foods.

Baby girl did my makeup 🙂

I had originally thought I would wear my wedding dress, but the Quarantine 15 (or more) had other ideas (ooof). Snagged this gorgeous number on sale from Joyfolie instead. It. Has. Pockets.

The morning of the “party,” I got up extra early to transform our dining room into a reception hall:

We may or may not have spray painted some plasticware to look extra fancy. Also, check out the hand- monogramed “fine linens” by my daughter!

A word on our dining room window: this was left from a project by my nieces a while back. We loved it so much, we decided to keep it up.  Honestly, I may never wash it off! (Check out how it looks at night outside at the bottom of this post).

The train from my original wedding dress was used as a table cloth.

The day before the celebration, the five of us made our own miniature wedding cakes. That was quite the task, let me tell you, as we let everyone decide on their own flavors and decorations for each individual cake. It will be a long time before I bake another cake again, but this was one of my most favorite parts of the whole event…I LOVE how they all turned out! After dinner that night, we each got to have a tiny taste of every little cake :-).

Since I never had professional pics from my own wedding, I thought I’d squeeze in a ring shot. Oh, and check out our super handsome ring bearer:

The kids each played integral roles in the ceremony. Our daughter was my Maid of Honor…

The eldest was our “Officiant.” He did a fantastic job! I dug up the original copy of our wedding vows and he read part of that for us at the ceremony.  Then Virgil and I wrote new vows to one another.

Our middle son was the Best Man AND videographer at the same time. His Best Man toast made me giggle and cry. Sigh…my handsome boys…

Oh yes! During quarantine, our daughter decided to learn how to play piano. She worked SO hard to learn the Wedding March and she absolutely nailed it as I walked down the aisle!

My hubby was in charge of “catering” and he did not disappoint. The take out from Gusto Italian Kitchen was absolutely incredible and we are very much looking forward to going back to dine in there very soon!

A little behind-the-scenes from cake making the night before.

That night, we showed the kids our wedding slideshow…on a VCR! The kids had never seen it before and the most common comments were, “You guys look like babies!” and “I can’t believe how much life you lived together before us!” The kids also made up their own version of The Newlywed Game and we laughed until we cried while playing.

I honestly could not stop smiling the whole evening, I swear you could probably see little hearts beaming out of my eyes. I told my husband in our vows that I am not only in love with him, but I am in love with our family. Quarantine has been trying for sure, but also a precious bonus gift of time together under one roof.  It made me appreciate not only the fact that we were even able to have a wedding all those years ago, but that we *still* have each other. We aren’t perfect people and we don’t have the perfect life or the perfect marriage, but we do have and we do love and we do keep choosing to move forward together and we will keep moving forward together as long as the universe allows.

Just wanted to drop in here to let you know Pinkle Toes Photography will be closed for the holidays, as we are taking some time to hang out with the family and enjoy the season. We’ll get back in gear in early January, but in the mean time, I thought I’d finally share these amazing images my super talented friend Lena with Live Love Laugh Photos in Ridgewood, NJ took of my family when we visited New York City a few months ago. Words cannot fully convey how grateful I am that she faced her fear of heights to join us at the Top of the Rock and made this dream come true for me. I loved this trip and our time together and these images so very much!!! I will treasure them forever!!!!

Thank you to EVERYONE who shared in my 2016 and the 10 year celebration of Pinkle Toes Photography! I know that for many, this was a challenging year (to say the least), but it’s almost over…we’ve almost made it through. I’m going to choose to focus on all of the good things that came out of 2016 and use those to guide our family into 2017. I hope you all have a relaxing and safe and loving holiday, making the best memories possible with and for your families and I will give you a big ol’ hug next year.

xoxo

Pinkle (AKA Michele)

[All images in this post by the amazing Jody Mack Photography in Charleston, SC. Thank you, Jody!!!!]

Oh wait. *I* said that. Seriously, WHAT was I thinking?!

NOTE: There’s a long-winded post following, but as part of my Pinkle Toes 10 Year celebration, I want to invite all of my friends and clients to join me in the 5th Annual Fight Like a Girl 5K on October 16th, 2016. I have team (Pinkle Toes Photography) AND from now through 9/14, you can get $5 off your registration. If you join my team, I don’t think you need to use the offer code, but if it asks for one, try EARLYBIRD. I would be more than honored if you and even your family would come run or walk this race with me. I know it’s a short window for that discount code, but it’s my hope that you’ll just impulse sign up with me and you won’t have time to talk yourself out of it. If you’ve never done one before, what a great time to start! I promise I’m going to be taking it easy, by the way, as this run is fresh off the heels of the Brooklyn Half Marathon the week before ;-).

Mkay, now for the post (oh, if you’re looking to update your running playlist, I’ve shared mine below!)…

So I’ve been talking off and on here about some big changes that I’ve made in my life over the last 1.5 years (barre and yoga) and I will admit to you on here I made those changes with the hopes of NOT having to run. But as I progressed in barre, I realized I was still missing something and once again inspired by my friend Leah, I decided to try to take up running. I guess that was Feb/March of 2015? I used to (half-heartedly) run cross country track in high school so I thought this would not be a problem for me. I guess I forgot how LONG ago that was, because just starting out trying to go one mile was a HUGE challenge for me. I was totally crushed to realize how difficult this was going to be for me.

After the first week or so of trying to run 1-2 miles a couple of days, I was pretty much done. But blast it if my friend Kate didn’t somehow convince me that it would be a wonderful idea for me to sign up to run a flippin’ HALF MARATHON (3M in January of this year). I really don’t remember what she said to sway me, but I did and *then* I used peer pressure to convince some other pals AND my sister (who has just done AMAZING things with her running) and even my 60-year-old super woman MOTHER to run it with me.

But this post is not about the half marathon. And it’s not about how wonderful running is because honestly this summer, it hasn’t been very wonderful for me *at all*. Instead, this post is about a few of the lessons running (or trying to run) has taught me over the course of 19 months:

1. Know your limits and work up to your miles gradually. I really didn’t think I would have to “learn” to run…human beings all know how to run, right? It’s like walking, but faster. Duh. And my super Type A (read: competitive) personality simply would not let this go and so I tried to push myself too far and too fast resulting in…
2. Injuries (they suck). So, on day one, I went out and bought the cutest running shoes I could find. Turns out, they weren’t actually designed for running, nor were they the correct size (too small), and I wound up with a stress fracture almost immediately. I did what everyone says NOT to do on an injury and tried to simply “run through” the pain and sure enough, that just made the stress fracture take even longer to heal. I went through two other pairs of shoes before I finally found ones that worked for me, but unfortunately, because I continued to push myself much too hard, thinking I needed to make up for lost time, I spent literally month after month (up until just this summer) painfully injured in one way or another. Which leads me to…
3. Foam rolling saves lives! Okay, maybe not literally, but close enough to me. Honestly, foam rolling looked pretty stupid to me and I didn’t see how that was supposed to be helpful with injury prevention until I (yet again) broke rule #1 and jumped from 8 miles to 12 miles with nothing in-between and completely messed up my IT band on both sides. Folks, I wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on my worst enemies. And it takes *forever* to heal. I ended up having to run my very first half marathon knowing that at any moment, that pain was going to come back, and sure enough, around mile 7-8, it pretty much brought me to my knees. I truly didn’t think I would be able to finish that race. I truly don’t know how I did. I truly wish that I hadn’t because it wasn’t until probably 4 months after where I could run even 2 miles pain-free. I finally broke down and bought a foam roller and let me tell you that it is my best friend and I spend time with it religiously. Also let me tell you that it was NO picnic when I first started foam rolling. It was incredibly painful and only just now after using it at least once a day (about 5 min.) consistently for 8 months do I not feel pain that makes tears well in my eyes. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? But it truly is worth it. I was pretty much convinced that my very short running career was totally over and I would never be able to run without pain, but I’ll have you know, I did a 10K Sunday and I was totally pain free!
4. You will PR quickly and frequently when you first start and that feels amazing…until you stop PRing. Some of you may have read about my recent blah runs on my Instagram feed (here and here). I was really tempted to not post those things because I don’t like to be negative and whiney and really, who wants to show their dirty laundry online? But let’s keep it real: I’ve put in hundreds of miles on my feet and not every run is going to be exhilarating. A fast run isn’t necessarily a successful run. A challenging run isn’t necessarily a failed run. And something else–and this is not meant to be discouraging in any way–but it never gets easier. The first 3 miles of any run are always super tough to me and that was tough for me to accept at first…I thought after doing this for a few months, I would just leap through all of my runs like a graceful gazelle. Sadly, that is not so, lol. This week, I’m pretty sure I reached the peak of running geek-dom when I started listening to running podcasts *while* running, but it’s been a wonderful, refreshing change and very so inspiring to hear that ALL runners, no matter how long they’ve been running or how far they’ve run, have had the same ups and downs as I’ve experienced. Knowing this encourages me to seek new motivations to run even after I’ve met certain goals. And to be kinder to myself, leading to…
5. After each run, take time to be grateful in your running and to yourself. As shallow as it sounds, I started out running merely to lose weight, but now, I’m *this* close to just getting rid of the scale in our house because being skinny just doesn’t mean that much to me any more. I want to be strong. I want to be healthy. I want to be happy. I want to be challenged. I want to be persistent. I want to win all the things. I want to fail and be forced to learn from those mistakes and try again. I want to properly appreciate this ability I have to run at this point in my life and I plan to take advantage of it as long as I am physically able. We end barre class by thanking our bodies and yoga with thanking ourselves and one another, so why shouldn’t we do the same when running? A new habit I am incorporating into each of my runs is to spend at least a couple of minutes at the end on these thoughts:
   1. This run is done and I’m glad I did it!
   2. I’m grateful for the opportunity to run. It is a privilege.
   3. Thanks to my body for working so hard and to my mind for supporting the journey.

And there you go, my thoughts on my running journey thus far. These may not apply to everyone, but I wanted to share them just in case it might be the push needed to inspire someone to keep moving even when they feel frustrated (“Forward is forward,” right, Kate?). Feel free to share any words of wisdom you have in the comments or if you can relate to anything I’ve written here, let me know! If you want to follow along with my ups and downs, visit #runpinklerun on Instagram.

I’m starting to get more excited about my next half marathon in Brooklyn in October! It’s so out of character for me to go out of town *just* for that, but I am so blessed to get to see and run it with my friend and inspiration, Lena! Oh, while I’m on that topic, I know I already mentioned a few people who have been super inspiring to me and there are a few more that come to mind: Regan, Pete, Laura G., Minnette (or should I say, Marathon Manet?), Elicia, Melonie & Zeke, and oh, my word, so many more that I just know I’m leaving out. They honestly may not even know how much they affected me, but they have and I just want to say thank you!

Again, I would LOVE to get to run the FLAG 5K with you next month, so please, please, please consider signing up. I was drawn to this particular race because of Lindsay’s story — melanoma devastated our family and the families of several other people I know. I very much appreciate what the H.O.P.E fund does for the families of cancer patients.

And finally, some of my favorite running songs! Be warned that I tend to get a bit angry while running (sometimes, you just have to) so many of these are NSFK!!! Any more I should add to this list?

So, I always swore I would never be one of *those* people who does yoga. I was never going to be one to chant, “Ommmmmmm…” doused in patchouli while standing on my head in some contorted pose in a room full of other people with peaceful minds and who are already connected with their inner selves and only dine on lettuce cultivated in their own back yards.

Well guess what? Lo’ and behold, I am more like one of *those* people now than I ever have been (well, except for the patchouli…I don’t think I’ll ever like that scent ;-)) and surprisingly, I am totally cool with that. I’ve discovered yoga to be a very necessary part of this movement to become a better me. I think it was about a year ago when I had my first real big-girl yoga class at Modo Yoga in Austin and I was absolutely terrified walking into it. I was certain I wouldn’t be able to do most of that crazy stuff, I already knew I was terribly inflexible, and I thought for sure I’d burst into giggles when it came to the part where we were supposed to hold hands and chant. It turns out that there was nothing crazy in that class at all and while it was definitely challenging and got my heart rate up, I was so thrilled to see that I could at least try everything in a comfortable and safe and encouraging environment. In fact, I was so invigorated, I may have been slightly disappointed there was no chanting ;-).

All my life, if I couldn’t be THE best or perfect at something, I didn’t want any part of it. Same with yoga: I’ve always been so afraid of failure, I never gave myself a chance to try. I’m learning that yoga is a practice, and there is no measure of success or failure…your practice is *your* practice and it changes each day. After practicing yoga for a year, I *still* fall out of tree pose every now and then, I still am scared of crow pose, and my hips still require a great deal of attention to help them open more. But, oh, I’ve had SO many wins throughout this practice, I could never go back to life before yoga:

• I can sit cross-legged on the floor now. I’m sure most people take this for granted, but seriously, I haven’t been able to sit on the floor comfortably since I was child and this is a huge deal to me.
• My HUSBAND actually comes with me to class!!! You all…this is unreal for me to even type this out. Our hot yoga dates have been so good for him and for us as a couple. Never in a million years did I think he would ever attend a yoga class and it’s an even bigger miracle that we get to go together.
• I can do a wheel, what????
• I can do camel pose (most of the time) without feeling like I’m going to pass out (what’s up with that sensation?). I can’t quite reach my feet in camel yet, but I’m working on it.
• I have so much more awareness of where I’m carrying tension and can apply techniques I’m learning in yoga class at any time to help release that tension.
• I can turn my head to the right AND to the left now. Finally, I’ve worked out the strain that I’ve had in my neck forever it seems.
• Combined with barre, yoga has helped cure my once debilitating shoulder pain.
• It’s made me a better runner: building up a tolerance to lactic acid, stretching gently and effectively, and getting my mind to support my body and my goals.

My greatest win with yoga has been with calming my anxiety. I can arrive at class so worked up about the challenges I expect to face during that day, I pretty much want to crumble. But then, just a few minutes into class, I’m already less tense. And after an hour of sweating it out, I leave class with a tremendous sense of calm. No, it’s more than that…it’s acceptance with where I am as a human being, forgiveness, gratitude, and filled with love and excitement for life.

As another birthday present to my Pinkle Toes clients in celebration of 10 years, I want to share this yoga experience with you. I’m very excited to announce we are teaming up with Modo Yoga to host a Pinkle Toes-only class on June 17th! If you are a past or upcoming client, I invite you to join in this class. New and experienced yogis alike will find Modo Yoga to be fun and challenging and accessible to all abilities. Bring your significant other and have your own hot yoga date. Maybe we’ll make some bicycle blender concoctions after class 😉

First priority will be given to past/current Pinkle Toes Clients. About a week before the event, we’ll open it up to anyone else who wants to attend. I am soooooooooooo excited to get to practice yoga with you and maybe even introduce you to something that can change your life for the better just as much as it has mine. Namaste!

I want to send out a huge thank you to my friend Jody with Jody Mack Photography for taking these beautiful pics when we were visiting Charleston, South Carolina this spring. I wanted so badly to document these changes in my life and she did a phenomenal job! Thank you, my friend!

[This is a follow up post to the blog series about changes I’ve made to improve my overall quality of life. Part 1 is HERE.]

[Wordy, but worthy. Back story first, then be sure to scroll down to the bottom to read up on the Pinkle Toes special event at Pure Barre Cedar Park last week!]

It was early Feb 2015 when I nervously walked into my first class at Pure Barre in the hopes of having that same euphoric experience as my dear friend Leah. After 55 minutes in that class (of which I was barely able to do anything), I shakily walked out of that studio, collapsed in my car, barely made it home and pretty much stayed in bed for the next several days. I had nightmares about that class every night. Unfortunately (fortunately?) for me, I had already signed up for a month of classes, so I reluctantly returned. I can’t say that I liked my second or third class much better. But I was determined I was going to stick with it and give it a chance.

Let’s back up a little bit. After enduring very difficult and sad years for my family in 2012 and 2013, I can say now that throughout 2014, I was lost. That’s probably the best way to describe it. I was going through the motions day to day, numb and not in control of my joy. I just didn’t want to or even know how to live life after so much sadness. I felt like a zombie. Certainly, there were many bright spots during 2014–the greatest of which being the birth of my nieces–but I cannot say that I lived that year to the fullest. I was starting to feel very old. I would get out of bed each morning, tired and achy, not sleeping well at night because of the tremendous amount of pain I was in from my back, neck, and shoulders. I guess I did something during a photo shoot once that pulled or twisted my back and the hours at the computer seemed to be making it worse and worse. I was feeling desperate…like my clock had started counting down. I had this silly dream of running a marathon the year I turned 40, but here I was at 36, feeling 50 and thinking it could only get worse from here. I had zero desire to do anything really. I ate everything all the time. I spent a lot of time at my computer or in my bed. I was trying to be all of these things…a mom, a wife, a business woman, a human…but I wasn’t doing any of them very well at all.

I remember on January 1st, 2015 agreeing with my sister that something was going to have to change. She and I both started back on Weight Watchers and I honestly believed that would be enough to change my lifestyle. I was NOT the kind of person who would go to the gym. I was scared of exercise. I knew it would hurt and I knew it would be extra difficult for me because of all of the extra weight I had been carrying around. But when Leah showed up at my house in Jan 2015 for a photography project we were working on together and she was HALF the size she used to be and completely radiant and happy and healthy, I told myself if she could do it, then I could, too.

And with Leah’s gentle encouragement and support, I gave barre a try. I wish I could say that I was instantly in love with it like she was (you can read her story on her blog), but I can say that I DID start to notice changes in my body very soon after recovering from the initial shock and soreness ;0). I need to take a moment to say thank you to one of my most favorite Barre Tenders, Kari. I’m not sure she’ll ever comprehend how much her guidance and patience helped me embrace the shake and stick with barre, even when sometimes, I felt like just leaving in the middle of class ;-). She is an incredible teacher for sure!

After doing barre consistently for a bit over a year now, here are the seemingly small milestones that are a big deal to me:

1. I can touch my toes. Silly, I know, but I have never been able to touch my toes. Not even in high school. When I first started barre, I could reach to my knees and that was about it. Now, I can touch my toes and somedays, reach even further!
2. My shoulder pain is all but a distant memory. I finally worked the muscles enough in my back, arms, and chest to release my shoulder blades and that is pretty much like a whole new lease on life for me. For a while, I hate to admit that I was dependent on sleeping medications trying to escape from that constant shoulder pain. I did NOT want that in my life. I am beyond thrilled to have finally moved past that.
3. I will never forget the first day I held the plank for the full 90 seconds without coming down on my knees!
4. I’ve always liked my arms/shoulders thanks to the heavy lifting of camera equipment, but now, they are *really* toned.
5. I lost my love handles! Buh-bye.
6. I lost my cankles! Buh-bye.
7. I kinda actually like my backside and legs for the first time…ever. EVER!

Now, just because I’ve reached a few milestones and I’ve gotten better at the barre, it doesn’t mean I still don’t have goals and it definitely doesn’t mean it has gotten any easier by any stretch of the imagination. I happen to be a very goal-oriented person and this journey to a stronger, healthier, happier self is absolutely guided by SMALL, reasonable goals. My next barre goals are:

1. To be able to do REAL pushups. I’m getting closer, but I’m not there yet.
2. To get all the way through thigh sprints without a single break (I’m not even close to that yet ;-).
3. To be more graceful during seated core work ;-).

And now on to the AMAZING Pinkle Toes-only class we had at Pure Barre Cedar Park!!!! Where do I even begin? It was so overwhelmingly FUN and challenging and beautiful and happy and exhausting all at the same time. I was grinning like a kid in a candy store looking around the studio at all of the eager faces ready to take on a new challenge.

I was truly amazed that:

1. Each of these ladies actually took time out of there very busy days to come to class.
2. Some of them were doing barre for the first time and ROCKED it.
3. They were still smiling after class (the group pictures prove it).
4. AND, with their generous donations, helped us contribute $1000 to the Melanoma Research Foundation in memory of my husband’s brother, Jim.

Speechless, really. Even when I got home that afternoon and tried to tell my husband all about it, I kept getting choked up. What a joy to get to to share this passion with so many of my clients and friends AND raise so much money to help battle a disease that scarred our family deeply.

So, THANK YOU Rebecca, owner of Pure Barre Cedar Park, for being so willing to do this with me and teaching our class in a way that was challenging, but still possible for everyone in the room. Thank you for letting us hang out with you in the studio and for your support of the Melanoma Research Foundation. I am proud to call you a friend!

THANK YOU to my sweet client-friend, Gay, for creating those delicious and adorable custom cookies for the event!

THANK YOU to Elizabeth and Jackie from EDJE Activ for donating one of your awesome barre shirts as a door prize!

THANK YOU to Gloriana from Kitchun for the delicious No-Grain-Ola to fortify us after class!

THANK YOU to Katie from Modern Muse Beauty for donating to the door prizes and for being one of my Barre Besties for sure!

THANK YOU to my friends, my seester, and my clients for rising to this challenge and for being so generous with your time and donations. Thanks for letting me honor YOU as we celebrate Pinkle Toes Photography’s 10th Birthday this year!

If you are a past or upcoming Pinkle Toes Client and you missed your chance at the barre with me, don’t despair as I have several more special events coming up around town. The next one is going to be announced on Instagram *very* soon, so you might want to make sure you follow me there.

2016 marks the 10th birthday of Pinkle Toes Photography! I can’t believe this little dream is a DECADE old!! Lots of changes going on here at www.pinkletoes.com and I will be announcing several mini celebrations and surprises throughout the year.

Meanwhile, if you have ever had your photo taken by me or have worked with Pinkle Toes Photography in some way over the past 10 years, please, please sign up HERE to be sure to get the info on the HUGE birthday party will be throwing this fall.

xoxo to my good friend Katie with Modern Muse Beauty for not only providing me with hair/makeup for my birthday shoot, but ALSO taking this pic! You rock, Katie!

 

Blank Space Taylor and her mom.

In the Spring of 2014, just a day before we reached a rather non-celebratory milestone (a year since the passing of my husband’s brother), I became an aunt…a real, honest-to-goodness aunt…when my one and only sister delivered identical twin girls at 31 weeks (and some change) gestation. At roughly 3 lbs each, they were sooooo tiny, and they were of course, immediately whisked away to the NICU where they would spend the next 5 weeks growing and learning to survive outside of the womb. I look at photos of them back during that time and I squint and I try to find some sort of recognition, but to me, they are not the same little people that I have come to know over the past year (and four months). I never understood this kind of love before, but I love these girls, as if they were my own, but in such a unique and special way. I can love them like I’m a grandparent…I can adore them and fuss over them and spoil them and see only their perfection…and I don’t have to do any of the rearing, the disciplining, the tough work required as a parent. I love being a mommy, make no mistake about that. But I am thrilled to be Aunt Poppy to these two vibrant, joyful little girls.(#auntpoppysnieces – also lovingly referred to as “The Bambinas” in our household ;-).

So, when it came time for their One Year Birthday Celebration, I didn’t hesitate one bit when my sister asked me if I would host their birthday party. I was only too eager to get to celebrate in magnificent style and mark this momentous occasion with flair! Taking inspiration from my sister’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-themed Pinterest board (that’s what the girls were into at the time–they have since moved on to Yo Gabba Gabba, because this *was* four months ago, you know? And I am happily going to take them to a live show when they ever come back to town), we put together a colorful, joyful, fun party and I even think the girls enjoyed it!

Deliciousness on a platter from Nothing Bundt Cakes in the Austin Arboretum area. We have gotten bundtinis from there to mark each important milestone for the babies (at my sister’s baby shower, the day she reached 28 weeks gestation, the day they were born) and it was only fitting that we would have them at their First Birthday and will continue to have them each year after ;-). The candles were a wee bit tricky for their smash cakes, but at about 11pm the night before the party, I finally got it figured out.

My sister looks so happy up there making her little mouse cheeses!

Nearly 11 years ago, I saved and saved and saved to afford this little Fisher-Price house for my first son’s first birthday. That house was loved and passed along to my middle son and then to my daughter. But of course, they outgrew it and so I gave it away years ago. But, I knew I would HAVE to find one for the girls. It’s out of production, so it’s tough to come by. One day, I was shocked to see one at a children’s retail shop. SOOOOO excited to find it and after a bit of cleaning up and a new set of batteries, we were good to go. I *still* remembered the tunes and sounds that house plays. Jen: you cannot ever get rid of this, okay? When the girls finally give it up, let’s store it away to pass along to our grandkids. Deal?

Um, nothing cuter than those toes right there!

Cake time. Notice the different approaches.

See? Verrrrrry different.

“Ma’am…more cake, please?”

My middle son wanted to make a birthday card for the girls. The note he wrote (all on his own) had me in tears. He was so proud to read it to them at the party. I will add that the one thing I never anticipated was how much my own kids would ADORE their cousins. From the very beginning…remember this?

Hmmm…seeing that image makes me think we should try to recreate it…somehow.

Anyway, this long trip down memory lane has been wonderful for me and it sure makes me miss those sweet little girls. Good thing they don’t live too far away so I can pop in for fix whenever I need to. I am so grateful they are a part of our family and that they are healthy and happy and have brought boundless joy and love to us (and at a time when we really, really, really needed it). Aunt Poppy loves you, Bambinas, and I promise I will always be there for you (especially when you are teenagers and you need to vent to me about your mommy…oh, have I got some stories to tell you!).

So, if you follow me on Instagram, you may  have seen this:

Tangled. #summercomesonceayear

A video posted by Michele Anderson (@pinkletoesoriginal) on Aug 6, 2015 at 6:34am PDT

 

Followed shortly by this:

Big. Day. Thank you @modernmusekatie for taking such great care of my Rapunzel! #summercomesonceayear

A video posted by Michele Anderson (@pinkletoesoriginal) on Aug 6, 2015 at 12:04pm PDT

So, yeah, I’ll say today was a pretty big day for my little girl! She has been growing her hair long all of her life, but I think the heat of this summer finally got the best of her when she asked me yesterday if I would make an appointment with Miss Katie (Modern Muse Beauty). I have to say, it took a LOT for me to let her do this as her gorgeous hair has been treasured by me all her life, too. Katie told me to bring tissues, but you know what? I did okay. I was actually very happy for her and the beautiful grin on her face when the 10″ ponytails were cut off made it totally worth it! Katie did a phenomenal job with this first major haircut and this little lady left Lighten Up Salon lighter, more grown up, maybe a little taller?, and definitely much more sassy ;-).

Thank you all for your sweet comments and sharing in my enthusiasm when I shared that I had *finally* printed an album from our huge west coast trip last summer! Many people asked where the album was from and also wanted to see more pics of the book, so here ya go!!! The album is an 8×10 Signature Album from Miller’s Lab and they did not disappoint! The pages are just e-surface, but I see now that they are offering deep matte, which might be nice to try sometime. I do want to point out that instead of using InDesign to do the layout, I just used Miller’s D+ software and it was really, really, really easy to do! I have been putting off learning the software for quite a while because I *just* figured out InDesign, but I’m glad I forced myself to give D+ a try.

Acknowledgments:

• Before creating the album, I interviewed each of the kiddos about the trip and was able to easily incorporate some of their quotes throughout the pages. You should also note that I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and was totally inspired by that movie, hence the cover design and some movie quotes thrown in there ;-).
• I also want to send a HUGE shout out and giant hug to my dear friend Michelle Nicoloff (um, she’s kindofabigdealoninstagram) for so graciously taking some amazing images of us as a family on the beach in Southern California. Seriously, I treasure those images and it was amazing to have our time captured by her. xoxoxox, Michelle!
• I need to mention another good friend Jen Taylor in Seattle, Washington. You see, I had the amazing opportunity to photograph her BEAUTIFUL family by a pretty spectacular lighthouse during a pretty spectacular sunset one night and she could tell I was just dying to photograph my own daughter there. And so she lent my daughter a pretty spectacular dress so I could do just that.
• Finally, I want to thank all of our incredible workshop hostesses for working so hard and doing such an amazing job of pulling together housing and meals and models: Caroline Martin for our time in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA; Melody White in Mendocino, CA; and Casey Ray in Olympia, WA.  I mean seriously, what a JOY getting to hang out with each of you and spend so much time working together last summer. I am so thankful to know each of you and to call you friends.

This book was a biggie (I think it ended up being 90 pages), but I do love that even the “thin” pages on Miller’s Signature Albums are actually quite thick. I am very, very pleased with my album and I encourage EVERYONE (especially fellow photographers) to have albums made of your personal images and photo sessions. This is truly the best way to tell the story of your family and events and is guaranteed to be looked at and adored by YOU and your family. Definitely much more than simply leaving your images in digital form (valuable to have, but they just don’t get seen as much as when they are printed). In fact, to encourage more of my clients to have albums made from their sessions, I would like to make a special offer to just to you…see the bottom of this post for details 😉

The Special Offer:

Any client of mine (whether from 9 years ago or if you have a session coming up with me sometime this year) – leave a comment on this post sometime before April 15th and I will create an album from one of our sessions (or if you did a Baby’s First Year plan, we can combine images from all of those sessions) at 40% off my regular album price! Again, just leave me a comment on this post before April 15th and I will contact you with all of the album specs and details to get the process started.