I am going to take a little break from the Internet over the holidays to play some board games and read some books, but before checking back to my blog after the holidays I will leave you with some sights of the season from our house. Have a great holiday.

Just have to share a few more favorite images from my cold mini sessions.

It was a cold and snowy day. Actually, a freezing day. The temp topped out at about 20, but it felt much colder. And still I had some brave famlies join me for some mini sessions outside. Next time I would prefer about 10 degree's warmer, but if this doesn't say New York winter I don't know what does. Well, maybe the snow could be a bit higher.

I am busy preparing prints, making deliveries and doing my own preps for the holidays. This is such a fun, but busy time of year. On Wednesday I had my last regular session of 2007 with two sweet sisters. Here is just one because I am trying to get the whole gallery done my the end of the day! Tomorrow I have some mini-sessions scheduled at Green Lakes and with forecasts predicting a high of 28, I bet I will have a few Rudolf noses if you know what I mean. brr.....

A few more fun ones from cutting down the tree.

Ahhh...what a truely sweet baby this little girl was. She was in town visiting grandma and family and let me come over to do some family pics while the turkey was cooking.

We have a tradition of chopping down a tree the day after Thanksgiving and decorating the house. Honesty, it is barely enough time for me. I love the Christmas music, lights, and the smell of the tree. This year it snowed heavily while we went to chop down the tree which added to the experience, but boy was it cold. We also brought along my brother-in-law and his wife who has always only had an artificial tree. Perhaps we have converted her. I will add more from this day tomorrow as well as some from an adorable session I had today with a 9 month old.

Happy Thanksgiving. We had a blast making a feast which we are still eating. The 20 pound bird was a success and check out the spread. Echo (my oldest at 7) decorated the table, and we did run out of white wine glasses and had to use red, but these were little issues. Hope you all had a happy day filled with family and good food.

So last night I watched this really funny documentary called Air Guitar Nation about people who compete for the title of best air guitarist in the world. Really. Then this morning I met a little guy who played a mean air guitar. Check out how fast his hand is moving--I couldn't even keep it in focus. And, gotta share one of his little brother who was into all things with wheels, and didn't stay in one place very long.

Winter has arrived here in Central New York! Thankfully I had a family session this morning at Green Lakes State Park and the parents were cool enough to get the family picture done outside in full snowsuits. I did have trouble convincing the middle child to be in the family pictures and perhaps we shouldn't have insisted that he wear a hat, because he found a great use for it hiding from the camera.

What a difference a year makes. These two are all over my website and back in the archives of this blog. I was so happy to photograph them again and see how much they have grown. One of my favorite parts of my job is re-visiting kids that I have already photographed. I have dreams of someday being asked to photograph the wedding of a child I have done portraits for during their childhood.

A little bit serious and a little bit silly is how this session went. I love these two images. The first one at the piano you can almost see her older self poking through, but on the chair she is all 7 year old.

Check out Sadie's new scar. She somehow bit her top teeth through her lip while goofing off next to my desk, where I sit most of the time proofing pictures. Poor thing. She did a bit of crying, but was ready to go for the rest of the day and is complaining much less that I would be.

I wouldn't call these boys easy to photograph, but I don't really call any two year old easy to photograph. One warmed up to me right away showing me the greatest little giggles which I will share later. The other one went from tears to wanting to give me big kisses on the mouth! Here is one of my tricks with little ones when you want to photograph them together and they don't want to be still. I find someplace that is high up and that takes a little while to get down from. They gave me about three images of which this was one. And, when trying this don't forget to have a spotter. These cuties had mom ready to catch at any moment.

Jason has been singing lullaby's to the girls at night with his guitar. Sadie has been singing a bunch of her own tunes as well. Here she is as I interrupted her song before bed.

9 kids--2 of which had been running a fever. It could have been a disaster, but I thought it went well. The thing about cousin sessions is that I leave wishing that I had more time with each kid. These kids were no exception. I would love to have individual sessions with these kids, because there was a whole lot of character in this bunch. I did get to spend a little bit of time with them after the group photos, but not enough. hint hint



Only one mom in the group thought that the old shed would make a good back drop. I love it!

I've been told by some family members that I haven't posted images of my own children often enough on the blog. Here are a few of my oldest and her new kitten that is never far from her.

I love repeat families. It is so much fun to see how kids have changed since the last time I photographed them. This family moved houses and added another kid! Wish we had a bit warmer weather so we could have played outside for a bit, but we still had fun.

Don't you just love the curls on this three year old? I hope she had a good nap after our session. Just check out how high she was jumping--that has got to wear a kid out.