5 on friday!!

1)  Carter has started to say “I love you” unprompted.  Melts me everytime.  He seems to do it in the proper context too, which melts me even more.  This week I was typing an email to a friend who lost her dear daughter at just 9 days old.  I was crying as I typed the email, when Carter walked up to me, pulled on my sleeve, and said “Mama?  Yi Yuh You” (Mama?  I love you).  He then climbed in my lap, put his head on my shoulder and repeated it 2-3 more times.  He’s a heart melter, for sure!

2) I’ve mentioned on my facebook (and in the #1 above) about the Gilmore family.  Mara and I were due about a month apart.  We were so excited to be pregnant together.  Mara’s sister Megan (Carter’s swim instructor) and I had our boys about 3 weeks apart and it was looking like Mara and I would have our children about that distance apart too.  Well, Mara had to deliver early due to a life threatening condition called Hydrops to baby Grace.  Baby Grace fought and fought for 9 days and passed away on Sunday night.  Many many prayers to the Gilmore family!

3) I guess since I’m 32 weeks, it’s time to come to grips with the idea that there will be a baby coming home with us soon.  We have the nursery all set to go (as it’s Carter’s nursery) but Carter’s big boy room is still a cluttered office/workout room.  Yeah.  We better get moving on that.

4) For all wondering, I am shooting sessions until mid-March.   I am due March 23rd, but went 12 days overdue with Carter and have a funny feeling that will be the case this time too.  My mom was never less than 2 weeks overdue with myself and my 2 brothers, so I’m planning on April ;)  I’ll be resuming sessions about the first week of June.  I’ll definitely have the blog fired up to share pictures of the new baby and some other fun stuff!!

5) I went on vacation after Christmas to North Carolina.  It was dual purpose.  We stopped in Charlotte because that’s where my sister-in-law and her family live!  Also, my cousin, Kim, lives in Raleigh.  We usually make stops at both places, but this year was special exception.  Kim (who is way more like a sister than a cousin… our mom’s raised us as sisters, not just cousins) delivered a healthy baby boy on Dec. 23rd (yes, you’ll see pics of him here soon, I promise).  So Richie, Carter, and I drove to Charlotte and then I left the next day to head to Raleigh by myself to help out Kim and take some pictures.  I managed to squeeze in time for a session with new big sister, L, and her cousin, E!!!  These girls kept me moving, that’s for sure!!  L is a PRIME candidate for bribing, and let me tell ya, we did plenty of that!!  Here’s some of my faves from their session!!

These 2 girls, may be super active, but they adore each other!

First up, is the fabulous Miss L.

Next up was little cousin, E.  She has that BEAUTIFUL china doll face!!  Just scrumptious!!

I’ll be back soon with some of the new little brother’s session!  Enjoy H family!!

Look at me with 2 blog posts in a week!  I’m getting back in the swing and hope for even more frequent posts in the future.

1)  Kind of an exciting week here!  Last Friday was Richie and my 5th anniversary!   We celebrated at home with a great dinner.  We did filet’s (from Chop Shop of course!!), coconut shrimp, caesar salad, mashed potatoes (more like smashed potatoes with skins on and big chunks) and the crowning jewel of the meal which was my blondie brownies!  Those were actually Richie’s anniversary present.  Because our anniversary is exactly 3 weeks after Christmas and both of our birthdays are in December, our anniversary is usually light on gifts.  We do something special, but it’s usually “anniversary on a budget”.  And that’s ok.  What’s important is we celebrated the day, not the amount spent on it.  Lord knows we spent enough on the wedding!  I’ll have to check the annals to see if I can find a wedding photo of us from “way back when”

2)  We’re making progress on things around the house to get Carter a big boy room.  About to order bunk beds!  We need to move the office/workout room to the Florida room first though.  There’s also a closet that needs to be tamed.  Lord, help me!

3)  Well, not Lord help me, but Aunt Peggy help me!  My mom’s sister (and my godmother) has SELFLESSLY volunteered to come down here in a few weeks to help me nest and stock my freezer in prep for the arrival of a certain bundle of joy.  I’m going to try to get through that closet on my own first.  Otherwise, the crew from the TV show “Clean Sweep” may have to make a visit!

What, you can’t picture what my Aunt Peggy looks like?  Not a problem!  I’m here to help!  hahaha.

When we were on vacation in Orlando, I headed over to their house in Apopka to take some photos for their Christmas cards.

4)  And in baby news, I found myself on self imposed bed rest for a bit this week.  I had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions that did not want to slow down unless I was laying completely down on one side.  Turns out an infection was to blame, so I’m on antibiotics and they’ve slowed down significantly.  Now, don’t go assuming I’ll go into labor early.  I did the same with Carter (and an infection was not to blame) and still delivered him at 41 weeks 5 days.  …but who’s counting

5)  Lots of exciting stuff is happening behind the scenes at Jennifer Mauren Photography!  Updates to the online buying experience, updates to the website, and lets not forget the excitement all business owners go through in January.  That’s right!  Year end bookkeeping!  (do you detect a note of sarcasm on that last one?  You should, because I was laying it on plenty thick)  Stay tuned for some giveaways, progress on Carter’s new big boy room and client images too!!!

So, today’s photo is my best work so far.  And by that I mean my family.  I had great hopes of getting to take some photos of Carter this week but he got sick this weekend.  Last night he went to bed early and slept until noon today.  He’s normally up and chipper at 7am.  I had to wake him up at noon.  We went to see Dr. White, and it’s just a virus that has to run it’s course.

One of Carter’s favorite activities is to play the Wii with Richie.  He sits in Richie’s lap and holds the controller.  He did this tonight (Mario Kart was the preferred game tonight) and fell asleep while playing.  I have many pictures of Carter asleep on Richie from when he was a little baby, but none in the recent past.  This is taken with my iphone in REALLY low light, so the picture quality is awful, but this is what I’m most proud of… my familiy.

I’m trying a few new regular installments.  One of my New Year’s resolutions is to post on my blog more regularly!!  So my Monday posts will be “mine on monday”.  They may be portraits, they may be snapshots, they may be totally random, but they’re mine :)  I love getting to know my clients personally and like sharing my world too.   So, here’s a snippet of some images of Carter from around Christmas.  The first two are of Carter at the Christmas tree lot.  I told him Lightning (McQueen) was hiding in a Christmas tree and he held still long enough for my shutter to capture him.  My mother-in-law was there too trying to capture him with her camera and she quickly learned what a “joy” (note the sarcasm) he is in front of a camera.

I like to think with this next one that he’s thinking “…and now I take off”!    LOL!!

We were at Ft. Wilderness campground when I did a shoot with him for our Christmas card images.  I’ll share those soon too.  Here are two that didn’t make the card, but I love them just the same!  The trick to getting these shots?  A new Wall-E doll that I used to play hide and seek, peekaboo, and sang silly songs with.  Hey, I got the shot.  What do I care if the people staying at the campground think I’m certifiable!!  LOL!!

be prepared to see some of my co-workers from Stage Door Studios here soon!  I just finished up headshots!

(I dare you to not think of Julie Andrews and hum along with the blog title) ;)  I met up with a wonderful family on Saturday to capture the cuteness of Little Miss A.  She’s almost 6 months old and, well, let’s just say this is my FAVORITE age to shoot.  She was so smiley and happy the whole time.  I love capturing wonderful families and this family is no exception!  They are just so in love with their little girl!

Not to sound completely sappy, but there is nothing in this world more powerful than love.  In case you don’t know me very well, I live my life with the mantra “love first”.  In all things.  So, when I get to meet up with a gorgeous couple who is so clearly in love, it just fills my heart and soul (and memory cards) with love.  Nothing better in this world.  It’s honestly one of the reasons I am a photographer… to capture love and life.  In a real way.  I know you know that I recently lost my Mom.  And as awful as that is, I know without a doubt she knew how much I loved her.  I told her everytime I saw her.  I told her in bringing Carter over to show off how he could complete a new puzzle.  I told her by giving foot massages.  It’s what you do when you love someone.  M and J… may this be the only the tip of the iceberg of love for you!! 

oh, and did I mention she is my cousin?  My Grandaddy says “he don’t have anything but beautiful grandchildren”.

I recently met up with the kids from the M family.  These kids KNOW how to have a good time!  There was never a dull moment the whole time we were together!  And no, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you, that’s four kids in one family.  Ages 9, 6, 3, and 2!!!  I was exhausted after just one session!   It was great to meet up with you guys!

What’d I tell ya?  Don’t they look like they know how to have fun!!

First of all, I need to blow the dust off this blog!  I pretty much put all business on hold from August until now.  I’ve blogged before about my mother and her cancer treatment.  Well, in August we found out that the cancer that was supposed to “not grow fast at all, you’ve got plenty of time to find a clinical trial” actually did just the opposite and went haywire in her liver.  This caused extreme pain and lots of awful side effects.  We found out about Aug. 20th that she had “2-4 months”.  She passed away Sept. 26, 2009 at home, in her own bed, with my dad at her side.  I was driving like Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit trying to get there in time (as were my brothers) and we were too late.

Part of the reason for my delay in getting back into the swing of things was because my mom was so supportive of me and my photography.  She was the one who came to watch Carter for mid-day newborn sessions.  She was the one I bounced business ideas off of (since she’d run her own successful business for years).  So to take steps forward without her in this business felt wrong, awful, and extremely painful.  I consulted a friend one night as I was frozen.  I needed to edit pictures for a client but was literally frozen in my tracks, unable to do what I needed to do.  I spilled my guts to this friend and asked her advice.  She said “Ask your mom to help you.” And I did.  I prayed (like I do nightly) but I also just flat out asked my mom for help and guidance.  This time though, it wasn’t to watch her grandson while I went to a session, but rather to help me move on without her physical prescence but rather, her spiritual one.  I’m still working on this.  Heck, a lot of me is a work in progress!!  (including the baby I’m growing).

So, this is me, picking up the pieces, revamping, re-energizing, reorganizing, and preparing for bigger and better things for my business.  All with my Mom watching over me from above.

So, here’s my “5 on friday” that I haven’t done since August!  ::faints::

1)  I’m working on putting together my Christmas Card templates in gallery form for clients!  Stay tuned for an email and further details, clients of mine!!  I’m really excited about the variety I’m offering and know you’ll find the perfect card in there!  Don’t forget, all of my cards come with envelopes, so all you need is your address book, stamps, return address labels and one of those “sponge-y envelope sealer things”.  Lord knows I hate licking envelopes, I don’t expect you to like it either.  …plus, anyone remember what happened to Susan on Seinfeld from licking her wedding invite envelopes?  hahaha.

2)  Carter got his FIRST haircut this week!  Pics to come later.  Much to my family’s chagrin, I’ve grounded myself from working on personal photos until I get caught up with some pertinent business work.  Stop it with the raspberries, stop it!  Note:  in typical Carter fashion, he’s not looking at the camera.  I said he had a haircut, not had a miraculous takeover in which he now cooperates for photos, ok?

3)  The busy holiday photo season has begun!  I’m now pretty much booked for all of November!  I can’t guarantee before Christmas delivery on any sessions held after Thanksgiving, but if you don’t need photos by Christmas, I do still have one or two openings in December.

4)  I’m doing some tweaking to some things at Jennifer Mauren Photography.  Trying to enhance the client experience!  Would love feedback from you!  Aside from the delays during the time of mom’s illness/passing/grieving, there are things I’d like to do to make this custom photography experience even better for my clients.  I cherish my clients and want to make sure they know how much I appreciate them!  Also, I am going to be blogging the sessions I didn’t get to blog when mom was ill.  So you should have lots of photos forthcoming from me!

5)  I did mention this in the above “prologue” to today’s “5 on friday” but we’re pregnant!  And by we, I mean, I’m carrying a baby and Richie is helping out even more around the house!  LOL!  We also found out on Oct. 1st that we’re having Dunlap baby boy v2.0!  He’s yet to be named.  I love the name Eli and Richie loves the name Mason.  So we’ve tabled the discussion for a later date!  Feel free to leave a comment on your opinions on baby names!  I am not saying I will take the advice though

And because you’ve gone LONG enough withough seeing photos from me!  Here are some from Baby B that I did!  He was SUCH a good little guy!  He slept awesome the entire time, although he did “christen” his Dad in the last shots… oops!  Sorry Dad!!

That pretty much sums it up.  I am blessed by so many things.  But, for right now, I’ll focus on the blessing that is this family.  I just love fun, energetic, loving families.  These guys were that and then some.  We just had the best time.  It was HOT.  Even at 8am, that Florida sun and humidity was BRUTAL.  Little Miss G was such a charmer and a true princess.  Mr. R.G. tried to be all stoic, but warmed up eventually and even got some laughs from him by the end!  I’d shoot a family like this ANY day of the week!

See… told ya.  Charmer!!

I had a great time guys!

Seriously.  I am so blessed.  There is no way I could list all of my blessings in this post, so we’ll just focus on the blessing of this family I got to photograph.  Fun family.  Beautiful family.  Spunky (and not to mention ADORABLE) kids.  I pray this is just the first of many sessions with them.  Oh, and the eyes on these kids.  They just melt me.  First up was big sis J.  Mom warned me she can be a pistol, but with looks like this, she needs some spunk!

Then is little bro D.  He tries to act all shy…

but, really, he’s a super happy 7 month old!

I really did have a great time, D family!!