I convinced her to lay (Or would that be lie? I never could get that straight, I’ll have to Google it. I remember Mama trying to explain it to me. Maybe it’ll make more sense now that I’m older.) still for a minute or two so I could get a non-blurry shot of her. She’s wearing a shirt she got as a birthday present. She loves it and it makes it more special since it came from her good friend, Karlin. The knees in all her jeans wear out quickly, she’s always climbing and crawling. Looks like these have a limited life span left.

Not to be outdone by Charlotte’s bending and twisting she had to show me some of her moves… I think that last one is my favorite

Happy Monday y’all!

Yesterday I moved our couch over to make room for a new purchase (I’ll be blogging about that sometime, betcha can’t wait, haha) and as soon as the kids saw that empty expanse of hardwood they immediately started sliding…and I immediately started taking pictures.

So…here is Charlotte showing off her sliding style.

Knowing that the month was almost over I thought this was as good a time as any to capture a monthly portrait. I convinced her to sit still for a moment…in case you don’t know her, that face on the right is kind of her silly face. She’s trying to appear serious, but she’s really not, and she’s fixing to burst out laughing.

(One reason I like these is that she’s wearing her current favorite shirt and jeans. They’re nothing special, but every time they’re clean that’s what she wears. And I like the pink Converses. Little details like that are real life…she didn’t dress for the picture, that’s just her on a normal day, and I think that’ll be more memorable looking back.)

That was all she could take of sitting still. (Seriously, the rain and clouds of the previous few days had given us all serious cabin fever I think.) Suddenly, she slid to the floor and started showing me the various ways she could bend her legs.

(And if you’ll notice, there are some mismatched socks involved here. Another detail of complete normalcy around here. ) And of course, I kept snapping. I have no idea which of these I consider her January portrait, they’re really more of a series I guess. But they are capturing a small part of an afternoon here at our house and I love that!

This shoot was originally supposed to be all about Shena. Renee told me she’d like to have a group picture with her boys included but she thought it’d be almost impossible to get them home on a Sunday afternoon to take it. As luck would have it though, it worked out at the last minute and we were able to get a couple of quick group shots. Here’s Rhett, Shena, Kale, and Reid…they’re a pretty good-lookin’ group, aren’t they?

And then back to Shena…she’s like most girls, it’s fun to be the center of attention for just a little while

I was so happy to find this old fence…I love some chippy painted wood in a picture! Thank you Renee, for asking me to be your photographer again, and thank you all for being such a great family to photograph!

A little over a year ago I really got kind of depressed about it. So I had a little talk with myself. Instead of being depressed about missing the cute baby/toddler years I was going to focus instead on the good things. You know how when they’re babies you can’t go anywhere without packing a diaper bag? And how when you go to a restaurant you can’t even eat because you’re too busy cutting up food, or feeding a baby, or soothing a crying baby, or going to change a diaper, or something?

Well, now that my kids are older I don’t have to do those things. We can actually go out and eat without someone throwing a tantrum. And I was going to focus on that instead. So I came up with our monthly girls’ night out. We take turns picking where we go and what we do. It’s nothing fancy, sometimes we end up at Taco Bell or Chick-fil-a. We usually go out on a Tuesday night and I’ve found out by accident that Show-mars has $1.99 kids meals on Tuesday nights and McAlister’s Deli has Kids Eat Free on Tuesday nights, so sometimes we hit those places.

When it’s my month to pick I usually pick a place that the kids don’t normally like, but they don’t complain because it’s my night to pick. So I’ll usually pick somewhere that has good eggplant parmesean, like Hawthorne’s. Some good ol’ egg parm is one of my favorite dishes to eat out.

And you know that we can’t just go eat. No, I have a take a picture first. Yes, I am that photo-minded. I promised my kids it would be one shot. I put the camera on a tripod, set the self-timer, and take only one shot. No redos. Now that they know I mean it, they don’t mind taking one or two minutes for a picture. They even like looking back at them.

Anyways, since we started this in November of 2010 I realized that I have a whole year’s worth to share. So…here ya go.

It’s fun to look back, see how my old couches looked? And my plain white walls? And how one shot only means if the picture is too dark you just go with it? And how I really liked that striped shirt?

Still got the old couches. I’m trying to figure out a paint color. Painting is done! Hey, I see a pear canvas and a dresser and some new lamps with the cellophane still on them. Sometimes I really get into my posing (see March)…(and April)…(or all of them for that matter.)

I see sandals, it must be getting warmer. I haven’t worn that pink skirt and printed top since I saw that picture. Ah, a new couch I see!

Also haven’t worn those August jean capris again. See, taking pictures of oneself lends to self-improvement . Obviously Charlotte likes her blue Aero shirt. Samantha has grown from my armpit to my shoulder since we started. We’re still keeping this up, haven’t missed a month yet. Charlotte and Samantha look forward to it and remind me if I forget. I hope we never stop. I imagine us still going out for monthly “dates” when I’m old and gray. We’ll see, haha!

While I snapped a shot of their parents…

…this is what the kids were doing . Thank you for asking me to be your photographer in 2011! It was wonderful to see you all again!

Let me back up just a little. My New Year’s resolution of 2010 was to read more for fun. I’ve always loved to read, but it seemed like for a while I didn’t make time to read just for myself, not to necessarily learn anything, but just to enjoy it. I wasn’t sure if I’d keep it up or not, but then around May of last year something happened that helped me out with this goal a lot. Some of my friends and myself started a monthly book club. It’s informal and fun. We take turns picking out the books and that works great because we’ve ended up reading a wide variety of books…some that I wouldn’t have picked for myself. And reading is something that I think feeds off itself, once you start reading one book, it leads to another, and before you know it you’ve read a bunch.

Earlier this month I read blog posts by The Nester and Button Bird Designs where they listed the books they read in 2010. It got me to wishing that I’d kept up with what I’d read, but when I started thinking about it I remembered quite a few.

Then…I read this blog post by Gail Werner about a self-portrait series she’s been doing for two years now and I was so inspired. I’ve often heard that photographers should make a habit of doing self-portraits, in fact it was an assignment in a photography class I took, so I have done it before. So while it feels kind of narcissistic to be taking self-portraits (and then blogging about them!) it can also be a learning experience. Learning how to pose oneself…coming up with a way to capture who I was at that moment…showing what I was interested in. Maybe my kids will be happy to have these one day. And I think I’ll be happy to have them too.

So…my 2011 New Year’s resolution is to take a monthly self-portrait and blog about it. This is my first one and since I feel like I’ve rediscovered the joy of reading I took a picture of myself reading in my orange thrift store find of a chair.

In case you’re wondering, the book is Nefertiti by Michelle Moran. It’s based on the real life of Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt, but written as a novel and it’s a really good read if you like books based on history.

Now…just for fun, and to copy The Nester and Angela at Button Bird Designs, I made a list of the books I can remember reading in 2011. These are in no particular order…

To Kill a Mockingbird (Yes, I waited until I was 33 years old before I read this book. Atticus Finch is a wonderful person, man, and father. I’m in awe of how the author was able to express so much through the eyes of his children.)

 Annie Leibovitz at Work by Annie Leibovitz

A Photographer’s Life by Annie Leibovitz

Women by Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag

 Annie Leibovitz: Photographs by Annie Leibovitz

(Yes, I was on an Annie Leibovitz kick for a while. Obviously she’s an awesome photographer, but also, her life is so interesting. I loved reading about her experiences.)

 The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Awesome book! This was our first book club selection.)

5^th Avenue,5 AM by Sam Wasson (I didn’t like this book nearly as much as I thought I would. I guess you have to be a Breakfast at Tiffany’s or Audrey Hepburn fan to really like it.) 

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (Interesting but sad. This book made me try to read The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, but I didn’t enjoy it and didn’t finish it. I think because I could only think of how he mistreated his wife and couldn’t enjoy what he wrote because of that.)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson (I heard a long time ago this was a great book but avoided reading it because I also heard it was rather dark. It is, but at the same time so interesting.)

Bossypants by Tina Fey (A very funny book, but maybe only if you like Tina Fey.)

Cosmopolis by Don Delillo (I confess, I read this only because Robert Pattinson is starring in the movie version. Not a book I would have usually read, but interesting nonetheless. It’s written in a very different way than most books I read, but it was fun to wrap my brain around a different style of writing.)

The Forgotten Garden and The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (Both are excellent historical fiction told in flashbacks.)

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (One of my new favorites. Excellent book! I could feel the dismay that the unnamed main character felt at trying to fill the shoes of her new husband’s dead wife.)

The Sisters Grimm series, books 1 – 3 by Michael Buckley (Fun, well written books for pre-teens that I’ve enjoyed reading because Charlotte and Samantha are also reading the series. It’s been fun to have books I can talk about with them.)

Room by Emma Donoghue (Another book club pick. Well written, disturbing, I don’t think I could read it again even though it was a page turner.)

A Vintage Affair: A Novel by Isabell Wolff (My book club pick. A fun book to read, it weaves old clothing into the stories of the people who wore them. It changed the way I look at clothes shopping.)

Alligators, Old Mink and New Money by Alison Houtte (A true life story of a vintage clothing store owner. I read it after A Vintage Affair and it cemented my love of thrift clothing.)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (A book club pick by April. A fun read with an unexpected twist.)

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (A book club pick by Brandy. Wonderful book that really made me think about life.)

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Very simply written book full of old wisdom.)

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (A book club pick by Bethany. I didn’t like this book. In fact, I read the first half of it, skipped the next fourth, then read the last fourth so at least I knew how it ended and wasn’t clueless at our meeting.)

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin (A good, romantic, sweet tear-jerker of a book.)

The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide by Stephenie Meyer (I love the Twilight series and this book gave lots of background information on the characters that didn’t make it into the book. I find author’s thought processes fascinating, so that’s another reason I found this book interesting. They know so much about their characters, like they are real people that live only inside their heads.)

Exposed by Jasmine Star (The pictures are beautiful. Her writing style is fun.)

Undecorate: The No Rules Approach to Interior Design by Christiane Lemieux (Pretty pictures and different ideas about making your house your home.)

Before I Go to Sleep: A Novel by SJ Watson (Good in a creepy way.)

Night Road by Kristin Hannah (I’ve read most of Kristin Hannah’s books and they never fail to make me cry. But it’s a good, cleansing cry )

Miscarriage of Justice by Kip Gayden

If you’re reading this and have any book recommendations that you’d like to share please do. I’m going to try to keep this reading streak going through 2012!

If you’re on Pinterest you’ve probably seen that picture floating around. The funny thing is I saw that picture and bookmarked it on my computer before I even knew what Pinterest was. Then when I got a Pinterest account I saw lots of people had it bookmarked on there also, so it’s obviously a popular idea. I don’t where the original image is from, but I know you can buy that set of letters off Etsy. If you want to go that route, click here.

But really, where’s the fun in that? I just knew I loved the idea of letters in various shapes, sizes, and colors all arranged together. I wasn’t sure where I’d use this idea, I just knew I liked it. When we painted the upstairs hallway I thought that long expanse of blank wall was a perfect place for some letters, so I showed the above picture to Charlotte and Samantha to see what they thought. Well, they thought putting the alphabet on the wall was a baby-ish idea. I had to explain to them that this was an inspiration picture, they could spell anything they wanted. Maybe lots of different words. Then it started sounding like more fun to them. Except they couldn’t decide on what words they wanted to spell. I explained they’d have plenty of time to decide since I hadn’t bought any letters yet and I wasn’t planning to just go to the store and purchase a bunch of letters at retail prices. Instead I started looking for letters when I went to Goodwill. And lo and behold there were letters to be found. I bought any letter I saw, thinking we’d figure out what to do with them later. They were priced from $0.49 to $0.99, a lot less than prices at Hobby Lobby or other craft stores. This is the assortment I came up with…

(All the letter pictures are courtesy of Samantha. I didn’t have the foresight to take pictures of them before we started our project and she did.)

After a few months of collecting letters I decided we had enough to do something with them and on a whim one day I called up April and asked if her, Madeline, and Claire would like to join in. They did, and they brought letters and supplies of their own so they could make some words for their house, too. My girls had picked out the words “fun” and “love” to start with, but when Charlotte realized that Madeline and Claire were spelling their names she changed her mind. And we happened to have most of the letters in her name so it worked out.

Here they are getting to work…

Charlotte painting her “A” and April working on Madeline’s “M”.

We already had the letter “C” displayed in Charlotte’s room so she used it for her name. The “H” was made from pencils and the “O” is a modified “Q”. If you look you can see where the tail is in the process of being cut off.And here I am actively cutting off the Q’s tail with a butcher knife. I didn’t have a saw so I made do with what I had. And it eventually worked.

Crafting gets a little messy at times.

Samantha’s “LOVE” was taking shape. We turned the “A” into a “V” by cutting out the center piece. With a butcher knife. Of course.

We got lots of ideas for decorating letters from Pinterest. I don’t know if you can view this link if you’re not a Pinterest user, but if you’d like to see my pinboard of letter ideas feel free to try clicking here. Anyway, one of the ideas included making a letter out of broken crayons and they both thought that was fun. And it’s a good way to use up some old crayons.

Ta-da! And here are the finished products!

The only letter I ended up buying new for Charlotte is the “E” on the end. And it’s really supposed to be an “F”. Remember she was going to make the word “fun”? Well, when she changed her mind she needed an “E” and it worked to turn the “F” upside down.

Some of the letters have yarn wrapped around them, some have buttons glued to them, some have pictures of cowgirl boots glued on them, some have pieces of paint chips glued on them, whatever! It was so hard for me not to jump in and try to make it look the way I wanted it to look, but for the most part I only helped when they asked for it. And once we got them hung up they were both so proud of them. Charlotte said it made it so much more fun knowing that she did it herself and I know how she feels.

On Samantha’s word the only letter I bought new was the “L”. (Actually, April is the one that bought it, but I did pay her back.)

Oh, and did you notice something new hanging on the wall to the right of Charlotte’s doorway? I have to include a picture of this just because of how long it took us to complete it! Back in September Charlotte picked out this puzzle for us to put together and it took us six weeks to finish it! The card table was set up in our den for that long while we worked on it, and I was tired of walking around it after a week or so. All the pieces looked almost exactly alike, but we kept plugging away at it, little by little, until we finally got it finished. By then there was no way I wanted to take it apart and they wanted to frame it, so frame it we did. One cool thing about it is it glows in the dark. That’s pretty nifty, don’t you think? But sorry, I don’t have a picture of it in the dark. You’ll just have to imagine it. So, that’s our most recent decorating adventure around here. A little kooky, but fun! And I guess you noticed that the words ended up being hung over their doors instead of on the long wall. That’s where they wanted them. So I guess we have room for more words if we decide we want them.

All the Goforth family with their mother/grandmother and uncle.

All around the house are pine trees, it’s a gorgeous location and the kids all said they have so much fun playing when they visit.

Sister and brother

The Goforth children, in no particular order. I confess, I was going to put them in order by age but wasn’t sure if I remembered who was older, so I decided random order was good .

The picture on the left wasn’t planned, the lighting isn’t what I’d prefer, but I love their laughs!

After they thought the shoot was finished they picked up their uncle’s guitar and started playing some music. Well, when I saw them pick it up I thought some guitar playing pictures would be nice and they obliged .  

Thank you for asking me to be your photographer again this year. I had a great time spending the day with you all!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had a wonderful Christmas. I’m sharing a few of the shots so that I can look back and remember what a good time it was. Having a blog is kind of like a diary and it’s lots of fun to look back.

On Christmas Eve Charlotte and Samantha weren’t content to just sleep on the couch, they felt like it was necessary to sleep on the floor practically under the tree. I didn’t think it would last, we have hardwood floors that I know aren’t comfortable, but they put down enough pillows to cushion them and they slept there all night.

After them threatening to wake me up super early I ended up having to wake them up to open presents. They both got one of these horse figurines. They’re called Trail of Painted Ponies and each one is designed by a different artist. They saw them in Lebos back in September and thought they were beautiful. Samantha picked out a Pegasus horse and Charlotte picked out one called “Twilight Hunter” that’s decorated with wolves.

Charlotte with her china doll and Samantha with her unicorn.

After making a mess of the den we went to church.

Oh, and you see that little iPod touch laying on the coffee table directly above? They also each got one of those for Christmas and they love them. After church we came home to change and pack our food to go to Mama and Daddy’s for lunch. This is what I kept seeing every time I turned around. Charlotte sitting on the floor playing with hers…

And Samantha sitting on the side of the tub playing with hers…

When we got to Mama and Daddy’s it was no different. More kids had gotten them for Christmas and were engrossed in them…

Hmm, maybe they get it from Daddy. He’s always been engrossed in reading his newspaper. Is there a similarity there?

Everyone in our family was able to come to Mama and Daddy’s at the same time this year. That meant there were 43 of us there and this is what the den looks like when that happens. All the chairs are taken, but that’s okay, we just pile on the floor and have a good time.

Daddy gets into the Christmas spirit by wearing his Santa hat.

This is my niece Erin and her fiancee Donnie. If you’re seeing this Erin, I’m sorry, but it was just so cute I couldn’t resist! I know you’re a good sport, right?

We did the requisite family pictures in front of the mantel. Here’s Mama and Daddy with their six children.

Eight grandsons and one great-grandson

Thirteen granddaughters and four great-granddaughters

And that’s all I have to share with you right now! How was your Christmas? I hope you got to spend it with family and loved ones. That’s what makes it so wonderful!

Now that Christmas is past I’ll be sharing some of the shoots I did during the Christmas season. I usually hold off on blogging those in case my clients are planning to give portraits as Christmas gifts to grandparents or something. (Which makes a great gift by the way.)

The first shoot I’m sharing is the Tarlton family. You might remember a shoot I did when their precious little boy, Brice, was six months old. He’s now one-year-old and still just as adorable, with big blue eyes and pretty blond hair. This time Amanda and Eric joined in for some family pictures, also.

It was so cute how Brice was engrossed in his book, even when it was upside-down.

I love his adorable hat and sweater set. I think it’s kind of retro but totally hip.

In this last one he looks like a little imp that got caught in the weeds. Amanda, Eric, and Brice…I had a great time with your family, thanks for letting me to be your photographer again!