Just peeking out from under my pile of photos to edit!

I bet you were expecting to see me post photos of another gorgeous family (hi all you gorgeous families who are waiting to see me post your photos here on the blog – you’re coming soon, I promise!), but I have a surprise for you in the form of Karen’s Senior session!

Meet Karen Sassypants.

That’s not her real name, by the way, it’s just what I’ve decided to call her. No one’s real name is Sassypants, I don’t think. But Karen’s should be. Because she’s sassy. And cute.

As soon as I saw her, I immediately went into a time warp and was whisked away, back to 1997 (which, in case you didn’t know, was the year that I was a HS Senior)… because Karen is an almost-exact replica of my BFF from back in the day. Yes, it’s true. It was like I was 17 again during her session.

Karen C. Sassypants. The C stands for cute, in case you were curious.

See? Sassy. I told you so.

And last, but certainly not least – my personal fave from her session…

Karen – thanks for braving the cold with me! I have more for you coming soon, hope you love these!

I can’t get over the fact that even though she’s still a petite, tiny little thing, Miss L is pulling up… and walking along the edge of furniture (proof below) and even standing unassisted. It really doesn’t seem possible that just a few short months ago, she was barely sitting on her own and now, here she is, ready to take off at any minute. But she’s still just as cute as ever.

Sweet baby. She probably gets it from her parents. Who are sweet, also, in case you were wondering.

Anytime this family is on my books for a session, I’m calm. I don’t know what it is about them, but all 5 of them just make me calm… it’s a great thing. I always know that they are going to be relaxed, smiling, with big sparkly eyes. So when I geared up to leave for their Christmas session, I was super excited.

And I was dead on. They were relaxed…

smiling…

and there those famous Rundel sparkly eyes were out in full effect…

What I didn’t anticipate was that we would have a visitor. Mid-way through our session, I heard Shawn yell from behind me telling Regi to step back. Within 2.2 seconds, all 6 of us were at the cars (which were just a few yards away) and we saw this…

Can you see it? Bear in mind, people, that I am a portrait photographer… which means my lenses either don’t zoom at all or barely do. This was AS CLOSE as I was getting to our friend (who had be creepily hiding in the woods, staring at us silently for more than 30 minutes). Shawn whisked the kids away to Sonic while Aimee and I (ok, so really just Aimee – I pretty much stood in fear until it was all over with) dealt with the coyote… with the help of an animal control officer.

Up close, she was one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen. But I was sure glad she was gone.

Aimee – please don’t throttle me for posting these last two. You are SO freaking cute. And crazy. And that’s one of the main reasons why I love shooting your family!

If you know me, you know I am a sucker for canvas. I think everyone should be a sucker for canvas. If you’ve never had a canvas printed with your family/child/loved one on it – you can’t possibly know what you’re missing.

Because I believe so strongly in spreading canvas to the masses (and because this is something I would love, love, love to have under my own tree – you know, if my child didn’t have Photographer’s Child Syndrome*), I’m announcing a SALE on all standard and gallery-wrapped canvas!

From now until December 4th, 2009, you will receive a 10% discount off of any canvas order placed!

Pictured above are three different standard canvases – all on a 3/4″ frame.  All lovely.  All make me happy.

Just a close-up of the canvas detail.  Love.

Husbands? Are you listening to me?   I know you all think I’m pretty much insane, but trust me when I tell you that your wife will go bananas if she unwraps one of these on Christmas day.  She’ll love you.  For a long time, I pinky swear.

Contact me for a full sale price list!  Remember, the deadline for sale orders is 12/4/09!

*Photographer’s Child Syndrome (PCS) – refers to one’s inability to behave naturally in front of the lens.  Typically affects children whose mothers will not stop shoving a camera in their faces.  Also applies to stepchildren, apparently, as well as nieces.  No cure is known.

I don’t think I can count the number of times this family has collectively graced my blog… at least 7. Maybe 8. It’s probably more than that and I’m underestimating. Either way, I never was good at math. But here they are again! And this time, we had all 10 Hardys present & accounted for!

This next shot might very well be my favorite of the day. Before you look at it and go “huh?”, let me explain. Miss Maddie, who is generally my best helper on a photo session, had quite a long day before we shot these. She wasn’t super excited about having photos done and she certainly wasn’t in any mood for my silly shenanigans. So when I look at this photo and I see her skipping, in mid-air, it makes me laugh. I love it. (I also love that you can see baby Jacob’s belly in this shot – he needs me to snuggle him, I think).

Tripp, working the serious face – he’s perfected it.

Miss Evie Beth – whose outfit I’d like to steal.

Smiles from Madison -

…and Jacob -

Thanks to all 10 of you for coming out to photo with me! I’m already planning for next year, so be prepared… I can’t believe all four of the kids will be walking by then! It goes too fast. I hope you guys love these!

I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. I love Christmas. I love the twinkly lights, the smells, and the shopping. Truth be told, I love everything about the holiday. Last year, I spent a minimum of 3 hours creating my own family’s Christmas card. It was a big deal. And you know what? It will be a big deal this year, too. Because it’s the one time each year that my grandpa, Daddy Joe (yes, that’s his name) gets an updated photo of my family.

I, personally, am partial to press-printed holiday cards – you know, the fancy ones with the photo printed directly onto the linen cardstock. These, however, can be pricey and not everyone wants to send a card with their face plastered to the front of it – or even the back. For those people, it’s pretty common to include a photo of themselves tucked safely inside the card, instead.

Why include a boring wallet-sized print with your holiday cards this year? I’ve come up with something much more fun… Christmas wallet sets!

This way, you get your Christmas card in miniature!

The two sets pictured above are available as of this very minute. Each set includes 9 wallets (3 of each style) and for this holiday season, the cost is $12 per set. These wallets are standard size at 2.5″ x 3.5″ and to preserve the design on these, they are not die-cut (meaning that the corners aren’t rounded on these, like the wallets you’re accustomed to receiving from me).

They’re usable with just about any photo (though not all colors will “mesh” well, necessarily, and black & white might be your best option) and can even be formatted with a landscape-oriented picture – here are a few other examples I put together:

I think they’re fun with just the right amount of “cheeseball” that you expect to see in a Christmas card – though, I’d be surprised if anyone expected something as unique as this from you.  What a great way to give something unique this year!

If you’re interested in having these Christmas wallet sets added to your exising online photo gallery, just give me a buzz and I’ll make it happen! 

I’d like you to meet Little Miss J…

…7 days old, 9 lbs. 5 oz. of snuggly adorableness.

Baby toes. 

Trey & Kelly – thank you so very much for bringing that precious nugget to see me last week.  I hope she’s letting you both get some rest and that you’re loving every minute of her. 

We gained an hour of sleep last night. Would you like to know what I did with it? Nothing. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and started plugging away at editing!

That has nothing to do with this post, though.

I had two sessions today, but I’m going to save the first one for later. Right now, I’m going to show you some of the Senior photos we grabbed of Catey & Logan today.

Catey – can I just express to you how GENIUS these colors are on you? Genius, indeed.

And Logan!!

Back story – we’ve been planning for months to shoot Logan’s photos on campus. I had some ideas about how to use the stadium as a backdrop, but had absolutely NO clue we would actually make our way into the stadium. Let alone, on to the field (and everywhere else).

Logan. Dude. I am SO glad we made this happen today. Sorry for the bright sun… but hey, how could we NOT?

Thanks for playing, guys!

p.s. Linleigh – those big leaves were sweet, huh?