The other day I finally pulled it out.  I could tell that the shadows were a little harsh on Logan, but he was happy where he was so, instead of moving him I brought out my big, unwieldy reflector.  I’m so glad I did!  Look at the before and after shots.  While I was shooting I didn’t think it was making much of a difference, but the images say otherwise.

So if any of you photographer types have one of these devices gathering dust then I challenge you to bring it out.  If you don’t then try using a white piece of foam core or poster board.  You might be surprised too!

Before

After

Before

After

I’ll say!  Not only did we get a much happier Lizah, but we had much better weather too so I could set up my barn doors for the first time this year and shoot outside.  Lovely!

Here are my new favorites…

Meet out newest furry friend, Mini.  No, the name has nothing to do with her size.  (Although she does seem small since she is only 6 months old.)  Her name is actually much longer but we shortened it because that was just way too long to say when we were looking for her.  Her real name is Minerva McGonagall.  This, of course, is in reference to the Harry Potter teacher who can, and does, transfigure into a cat.  Big surprise, right, that it references back to Harry Potter?

How did this happen?  Like I don’t have enough going on with three kids and a dog!  The thing is, it was all driven by me.  A little voice in the back of my head was telling me that we needed a kitty.  But as crazy as I am,  I was smart about it and I waited until all of our vacations were done.  Then I did my research and visits without my kids knowing what I was doing because I just KNEW they’d fall in love with the first one we met.  Those were the best laid plans, though.  As my friend Jessica pointed out, the ‘cat was let out of the bag’ when my sister texted me to find out how my kitty hunt was going.  The girls intercepted it and Joelle had to cover her tracks quickly.  Being the loving sister that I am I sent Joelle a funny text chastising her for almost ‘outing’ me to the girls.  Turns out I mistakenly outed myself because that text went right to Jill!  Ugh!  One of these days I’ll get this whole texting thing down!

Since I’d already been caught I figured I might as well go all in and go meet a kitty at the Humane Society.  I’d been watching her listing all week and finally went to meet her.  She was perfect.  A tiny little affectionate ball of fluff that was old enough to have a good start on her curious personality but hopefully not too old that she wouldn’t be able to get along with Cooper.  I quickly put a hold on her and then texted Allen.  Here’s how that exchange when…

My last comment back was ‘Then I’m glad we are doing this via text!’

Jill was over the moon when I told her after school, but I forgot to take a picture of her.  This is what Ellie and Kate looked like when they found out.  More than slightly blurry but you get the idea.

After dinner we went back to the Humane Society to adopt our new friend.  No pictures of that actual process but that is a good thing because the only room they had available for the girls and Allen to meet her in was a single toilet bathroom. A little cramped (and gross) but Mini was worth it!

We’ve enjoyed getting to know her and we can already see her personality emerging.  Mini is a morning kitty.  We have no idea what she is doing in the middle of the night (taking uppers?) but she is a crazy cat when we get up.  He favorite play thing is the cereal the kids drop on the floor during breakfast.  She pushes it all over the floor chasing it along.  And then the dog comes along and eats her toy.  Win win, I guess.

Mini is really affectionate and loves to put her head under your hand so you will pet her.  Cooper does the same thing so I just knew she was the cat for us.  Speaking of the dog, that poor boy was so terrorized by our foster kitty that he won’t even look Mini in the eye.  As for Mini I think she is enjoying her moment at being top dog but, in the end, that there is potential for them to be friends.  Mostly because Mini likes to play and she is going to want to draw him into her games!

So now the cat really is out of the bag.  Unless it is from Whole Foods…

(Contrary to how that picture looks, there was no flash involved.  I shot it with a french door directly behind me.)

I often hear that people are impressed with my patience with their kids when I am photographing them.  It is not hard to have patience with kids that don’t belong to you!  I know that I if I wait long enough they will warm up or come out of their funk (or even calm down if they are in a crazy mood).  I only wish I had the same patience when photographing my own kids!  (Doesn’t it look like Jack gave up on me and decided to take a nap?  I love snuggly ‘wubby’ pictures!)

I digress, though.  I didn’t need any extra patience with Jack and Charlie at all.  Both were great from the get go and we had a fun session.  It was their Mama, Paulette that had to have patience with ME.  We had to reschedule our session multiple times because of my own personal issues with my calendar.  I’d like to just call it a software issue but that was only part of it.  Some of it is just user error.  (It’s always a good idea to actually PUT things into that calendar so it can keep me straight!)  But I’m so glad she was flexible and that we were able to do our session in the end.  Thanks Paulette!

Here are my favorites…

And now a few in color!

Jackpot!  I love it when parents bring me clothing choices and Maureen did not disappoint.  She brought a whole bag full of fun shirts and hats and toys and blankets.  It was such fun to pick out exactly what I love to shoot.  Not only that, but Mr. Devon was incredibly accommodating with all of the clothing changes.  I think  set a record with five changes.  Woohoo!

Thanks for the treat Maureen!  Here are my favorites…

Our friends Sunny and Dave had a beautiful baby girl four weeks ago.  (Their SECOND beautiful baby girl.)  It is HARD getting used to having to kids.  Especially if you have a girlie who won’t sleep if put her down!  Eek!  Thank goodness her own mother is here to help out.  In fact, she is lucky enough to have her mother (from Korea) here to stay for five months!  As you can imagine, I had to get these shots quickly in order to keep her asleep but I was up for the challenge!

You can see how much Erin, her big sister, loves her.  When Erin arrived at the photo session (two hours after her mom and sister did) she ran right in and gave her sister a smooch, exclaiming ‘There’s my baby!’.  Good thing we were already done with all our sleepy shots.

Here are my favorites…

And a fun one of the new big sister…

Sweet Logan came to see me in an excellent mood.  Happy and smiley, just how I like them!  Part way through the session I decided that I needed my reflector to light the right side of his face.  (Stay tuned for a different blog post where I will share before and after pictures.)  This blocked the view of his parents, but that was okay because they could use his little legs as a barometer.  Every time I made a goofy face or sneezing noise he would kick kick kick his happy little feet.  So cute!

Speaking of parents, it was such a pleasure to see both parents come to this baby session.  I’ve been holding the baby modeling sessions during the weekday so it is often impossible to have both parents in attendance.  What a treat!

Here are my favorites…

There is big news here in the Enebo household.  (No I’m not pregnant.  Bite your tongue!)  Just when we were looking predictable, just when you thought you knew our every move we changed it up on you.  We did NOT celebrate May Day (May 1st) with our regular doorbell ditching fest.

This year we decided to follow our obsession and mix it up.  Instead of May Day we celebrated International Harry Potter Day.   Never heard of such a thing?  That may be because this is the first annual celebration.  Below is the official statement that has been released by British Prime Minister David Cameron:

“There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Ms. Rowling’s work has had a huge and undeniable impact on the literary world as we know it. In order to fully commemorate and immortalize her work, we have to decided to officially declare May 2nd as an official international holiday, in honor of the date that protagonist Harry Potter conquered the main antagonist of the series, Lord Voldemort. We hope that children and adults alike will be reminded of Harry Potter’s strong and courageous character on this day, as well as of the true credit that Ms. Rowling has made to society.”

To celebrate I whipped up some chocolate frogs (okay, I melted the chocolate and poured it into a mould) and the girls designed tags to announce the fun.  The girls also wore their favorite Harry Potter items to school to share the news of this special day.

It was terribly hard to keep our secret about the doorbell ditching.  We had previous years’ May Day recipients wondering why we were breaking tradition.  (It is rumored that some even waited on their front porch for us while pretending to read a book.)  We also had folks asking about playdates but we had to turn them all down.

Below are some pictures of our adventures…

These guys weren’t home.  Good thing because their dog Allie (seen faintly in the right window) announced our presence from blocks away.  No surprise there!

Busted!

Hugs for chocolate frogs.  Totally worth it!

This is the sentry waiting for us.  She wasn’t good at keeping secrets either!

Another satisfied customer…

Hard to sneak up on folks when they are playing the the driveway.  We did a drive through on this one.  We pulled up, yelled ‘Happy Harry Potter Day’ and tossed the chocolate treats at the surprised hockey player.  I wonder if she shared the frogs with her brothers?

And on the very last house WE were the ones that were surprised.  We situated ourselves around the front door and rang the doorbell.  But Joe had the last laugh when he opened the french doors behind Ellie and Kate.  Best laid plans…

To end our day the girls managed to talk me into having a Harry Potter movie night.  We don’t often do midweek movie nights but I couldn’t argue with their logic.  It WAS Harry Potter Day after all!

Don’t make any predictions about what we will be doing next year.  For all you know we may show up on your doorstep in 2013 with margaritas and chips and salsa!

Meet Colin and Ryan.  They were such fun to have come play on a rainy weekday morning.   Baby Colin is super smiley but he likes to touch home base every so often.  He would happily play with blocks and smile for me but he loved to make sure mama was close enough that he could climb into her lap.

Big brother, Ryan is fun and enthusiastic.  He was great about making funny faces for his little brother or helping him to stay on my little car.  He also bakes excellent plastic cookies.  (I have a toy kitchen in the next room so siblings don’t get bored while I am photographing the youngers.)

Mama, Becky, said these were the first professional pictures Colin had been a part of.  I am so honored!  Here are my favorites…

And one last one as they were walking out the door.  Love that coat!