For everything. She is all that is joyful and exuberant and girly and bright. She is my sunshine and she never fails to wake us up every morning with her glowing personality. I find myself making goo goo eyes over her even during the simplest of tasks. I don't know what we did to deserve her, but I'm forever grateful she chose our family.

...to me that you can get a group of 9 women together (me + my mom + 7 photographers from all over the country) and spend three days together and get stuff like this:

and still leave happy and looking like this:

Thank you to all of these beautiful and talented women who drove and flew out here to spend this time perfecting their craft. (Also wanted to point out that the b/w shot in the doorway above was spotted by a couple of the attendees...I would totally have missed that one if it wasn't for them!) Thanks to Scott (an incredible photog--also took the first image of us above ;-) and his dear wife for letting us invade their home for our newborn session demonstration. (Oh, Amy...I'll be blogging about your family session soon, too ;-). And thanks to Mee Maw for keeping us all well fed!

Spent today sleeping and recovering from our adventures, but this week, I need to gear up for the next workshops. We have just three openings left for the March 8-10 workshop and 3 for the March 29-31...and folks, that's it for 2012. That's most likely it for 2013, as well for that matter. If you were contemplating an intensive Pinkle Toes professional photographer workshop like this one, this is quite possibly your last chance. Don't say I didn't warn you ;-). Oh, and don't forget, your last opportunity to purchase a Pinkle Toes 4 Photographers membership is THE END OF THIS MONTH. Now that's a biggie.

Okay, back to smoochin' on my family (boy, I missed them this week). Take care and Austinites...enjoy the rain we're about to have!

I sat down to post the annual Year in Review slideshow, but instead, I'm finding my mind is still swirling from what happened yesterday. I need to explain to you just how grateful my heart is on this first day of 2012. As some of you may have seen on my Facebook page, I spent the very last day of 2011 worried sick over my baby sister in the hospital. She had been complaining of a pain in her leg since her trip to New York earlier in Dec. and she called me early yesterday morning saying she had just blacked out in her hallway. My first thought was a blood clot...and then immediately, the fear of a pulmonary embolism. [I want to pause right here and thank someone very special--she will know who she is--for unknowingly giving me a key bit of knowledge about this very dangerous condition and possibly helping to save my sister's life. Thank you and my heart was very much with you during this holiday season.] 

My first words were, "We're going to the hospital..NOW!"

As she was going through the barrage of tests with so many unanswered questions and the very real fear that my sister could die, all I could think was how desperately I wanted the gift of another year with my sister. Just the day before, she and I watched this and marveled over his courage and peaceful outlook on life and death. While we were waiting in the hospital, we read this and this, pleased with how many of those we had done and vowing to check off the rest this year. 

Turns out, she did indeed have a blood clot in her leg, but thank goodness her lungs were clear!!! She has started treatment, but now we have to figure out why the clot formed so we can keep it from happening again. She is so young and a very healthy, non-smoking young woman...this kind of thing just doesn't make sense for her. As I'm writing this, I am actually glad to share this story with you in the hopes that should you or someone you know experience symptoms of DVT or a pulmonary embolism, you'll know to get immediate medical attention.

2011 was one of the busiest years I can recall in a long time and I know that busy=blessed. I had the privilege of meeting and/or working with hundreds families and photographers from all over the world. (It's funny how small my world has become thanks to Facebook ;-). However, to be honest right now, when I think back over the year as a whole, it's pretty much a blur to me--the only thing I can really remember is yesterday.

But I feel it's important to always acknowledge and thank the people who allow me into their lives and trust me photograph their most important family moments. I want to remind them how beautiful they are...how special their connections are...what a gift their families are. So, like I've done every year since 2007, I pulled just one image from each session to create the 2011 Year in Review... 

(Google Reader users: you'll need to click THIS LINK to see). 

My sister, my mom, and I all had separate plans for New Year's Eve yesterday, but all of our families ended up at my house last night. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful evening...cooking up an impromptu batch of homemade chili, all of us watching the 360º of fireworks in the horizon at midnight, listening to "Auld Lang Syne" on the iPod, toasting in paper cups, ringing in 2012 together. Grateful.

[p.s. Clients: I sent out the details on the 2011 Pinkle's Pic of the Year contest to you all. If you had a session with me in 2011 of any kind and did not get this info, let me know ASAP so I can get you up to speed.]

I've known Carrie online for quite sometime now (actually, she snuck in a session with me a couple of years ago and managed NOT to tell me that we knew each other online ;-) until after the fact. I had the privilege of getting to know her even more when she attended a workshop last year and we've been planning this family session almost since then. I mean, a LOT of planning. She did an amazing job of pulling together some beautiful clothes for everyone and we had scored a DREAM location that was halfway between her house and mine. The day of, I drove out with my mom (aka - photo assistant). The sunrise was beautiful and the weather wasn't nearly as hot as it had been. Everything was perfect. Except...

Oh, bless her little heart. I swear no matter what we did, nothing seemed to make her happy. Maybe she was tired, maybe she was teething, maybe it was just Murphy's Law. We had all driven all this way to make this session happen and I gotta say, I was truly worried we weren't going to be able to pull it off.

Somehow we managed. I think it mostly had to do with Carrie's wonderful sense of humor and how she embraces motherhood and all that comes with it so gracefully. Those girls of hers are truly beautiful and when we finally discovered the secret to happiness (banging pots and pans in the kitchen), all was right with the world.

Carrie...I totally enjoyed our adventure that day and I'm so glad to know you!

We were scheduled to do maternity portraits for her. We had the perfect timing...waiting until her hubby was home from deployment. And then about 5 weeks before this little baby was supposed to arrive, baby boy surprised everyone. Listening to his mama tell the story of his birth brought tears to my eyes. I don't think she believes me, but I think she was an incredibly brave, powerful, and strong woman. In the wee hours of the night, she went into labor. Alone. His daddy was still gone, her MIL was a long plane ride away. So, She. Drove. Herself. To. The. Hospital. IN. Labor. And she had that baby boy...all by herself. Pregnancy, labor, and birth can be frightening even with a room full of loved ones there to support you, I can't imagine doing it without someone like that to help. Wow!!!

His newborn session was one of the most beautiful, peaceful newborn sessions I'd had in a while. I loved being at home with them...watching the three of them together (at last!)...seeing the love they had for their new baby. I very much look forward to seeing this little guy grow up!!