Okay, I LOVE being a mommy. I'm not always very good at it, but it's not a bad gig at all. I took a trip down memory lane today. Perks like this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and of course THIS all help to counterbalance stuff like this, this, and THIS. 

WINNER OF THE BLOOM THEORY CAMERA STRAP IS SUMMER MURDOCK "VOTE FOR PEDRO!" Thanks to everyone who shared their funny motherhood stories. Definitely a fun read!! 

And most of all, Happy Mother's Day, moms and those of you who are like moms to some!

The quest to find the 2011 Pinkle's Pic of the Year has begun! This year, my clients got to select their own entries and wow...this is what they produced! 

Round 1 - Jan 16 through midnight central on January 22nd, 2012

Use THIS poll below (for Round 1, you can select more than 1 image!):

Review the entire gallery HERE (you can also click on each image to make it bigger). Poll not displaying properly? Click THIS LINK to vote instead. Again, you can vote for more than one image, but you can only vote one time.

Round 2 - January 23rd-31st, 2011

- 4 finalists will be chosen based on this poll.

- 4 additional finalists will be selected by a panel of professional photographers.

- 4 more finalists will be added by me.

- Another poll will be put up so you can make your final decision from among those 12.

Just a few openings next weekend for the .emme. boudoir sweetheart mini sessions in Austin! These mini sessions don't come along often, so don't miss out.

- had a baby or are due to have a baby anytime between TODAY 1/10/12 and 1/31/12 AND

- you live in Austin, TX AND

- you might be willing to let 10 photographers invade your home and practice photographing you and your significant other and your new baby

then PLEASE, fill this out. You MUST meet all of the requirements above, so please do not fill this out if you don't.

If you look like an ideal candidate, I may contact you to schedule an in-home interview. Your home does not need to be professionally decorated...it just has to be large enough so that we can all walk around in there or squeeze into a room during the session ;-).

Thank you!!!

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.]