footied pajamas and the polar express [christmas 2011]

when my sister and i were little (like: look cute in footied pajamas and pigtails little) we would always stay up to try and see if we could hear santa's sleigh bells. we could hardly fall asleep christmas eve and were then up wayyyy too early the next morning to see if the jolly old man in the big red suit had eaten all of his cookies.  one year (i think i was in 1st grade, because that was the year that we had an awful ice storm, the power was knocked out, and i got to read the christmas story from Luke by lantern light on christmas eve) mama and daddy told us it HAD to be light outside before we could get out of bed... torture, i tell you.  i distinctly remember kristen sitting on my lap at the top of the stairs waiting to hear mama and daddy stir below so we could bound down the stairs.  when danny was born, he use to sleep with me. but then, when i went off to college he only slept with me when i came home for the weekends, and eventually hardly at all.  but still, every christmas eve night, he would grab rusty (his bear) and i would get hippo (my hippopotamus) and we would read the polar express under the covers and then fall asleep waiting for santa to visit.

this year, there were no footied pajamas, no polar express read with enthusiasm and different voices for each character, no snuggling with a freckled red-head and my hippo. instead, on christmas eve, i crawled into bed alone and set an alarm. at 5:25 a.m. on christmas morning my phone blared some nondescript piano rift and i leaped out of bed.  i threw on my muck shoes, fed gambler (the horse) and the cats (sissy and grayson) and put shep in the back of HOSS. i drove the 20 miles home and pulled into the front yard at 6:03 a.m.

that's right, 6:03 a.m.

and i wouldn't have it any other way. somehow i managed to get there before danny/kristen woke up and christmas morning was just as exciting as the 20-some before.  i'm excited for what christmas futures have to bring, put christmas present was pretty awesome (i guess it's christmas past now, but you get my drift). 

i have some goodies coming to the blog soon (christmas presents were delivered, so now i can share goodies with ya'll!!), but until then, enjoy some of the photos from christmas 2011.

conner, our little mini model :)

danny got a potato gun, thanks david haha

family photo!! (i know this isn't the greatest, but it was taken at 10:00 at night, outside, with no flash... we do what we can ;)

merry christmas ya'll!!

sweet.simple.southern. [photography]

i'm a sucker for the traditional.

christmas eve services closing with candles and silent night echoing from the walls of our little country church, spending the last few minutes of christmas day gathered around the piano - mama playing and all of the girls serenading her with carols, decorating the christmas tree with my sister and brother (daddy untangles the hooks and mama is on empty-space duty... ensuring that there aren't huge gaps between ornaments... legit we've got this down to a science), making mounds and assorted cookies with three generations of phenomenal women crowded into our kitchen... it all just seems so magical. 

and it amazes me how these things happen every year, but it never gets old.

i think that's why i love this picture so much, along with all of the feelings it evokes.  i can't remember a christmas when my aunt didn't have this on her tree.  it's so simple.  so beautiful to me. completely timeless... in more ways that one.  

she's frozen.  her unassuming beauty breathtaking.  she has no idea she is adored year after year - previously by a little ballerina and now by a twenty-something young professional who secretly wishes people look at her and see what she sees in this little glass ornament... something that, although simple, is captivating.

and THAT is what i want to capture with photographs. the beautiful simplicity of the ordinary. 

creason clan [mini session]

i just can't get enough of this family - thankfully i'm related to them, so i get to see them lots :)  katie is one of my favoritest people ever (she makes choir practice much more entertaining than it would be otherwise... ps - we're going to ROCK our duet in the christmas cantata!!), jp is super cool (he let me play the aladdin video game on his old school play station thing when i was 7 and made really realistic car noises when he pretended to shift gears - best cousin ever) and conner, well, he's just the happiest, cutest child i have EVER met. i love him. i might be slightly biased, but seriously, he's precious.  yeah, you're right, i'm not biased... he IS the cutest/happiest child i've ever met.

and i will lead off with an image that might possibly be a personal favorite - i'm kindof proud of this one:

in all fairness, it might be impossible to take a bad picture of him. THOSE EYES!!! can't get enough. he's going to be a heartbreaker. 

and i'm going to follow that up with this, because it proves that katie is also STUNNING

such a sweet family :)

you can see where conner gets those baby blues:

so much happiness abounded during this shoot - its what makes me love what i do!!

<3 

 thanks ya'll!!!