(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!!