A Series Of Random Outtakes

So as fans (yeah, I like to call my friends "fans" Don't you?) of my family blog have been pointing out recently, its been horribly neglected the past couple months. I keep intending to update it, but blah blah blah (this is where i was going to insert all my ramblings about how busy i am, but its really just one blah blah blah).

Allow me to use this blog to pontificate (there I go pulling another S.A.T. word out of the air) about the Robinson Clan and Other Items Of National Importance.

Item One- would like to encourage ALL to start/participate in veggie co-op. Concept is this: Every two weeks, one person/couple goes to the farmers market (in my case, one in Houston) with $10 from the other people in the group (in my case, this equates to $120 total) and purchases a variety of fresh, locally grown fruits and veggies. They bring it back to their house, divide it up equally, then the other couples pick up their portion from that house. Each person/couple only has to go to market once per year.

You get a TON of fresh, locally grown veggies for $10, which likely would have cost $30-$40 in a grocery store. You also get to experiment with new veggies you may have never thought to purchase yourself. We are 100% FORCED to eat more fruits and veggies... which is not a bad thing.

Yes- that first load I got resulted in a call to a friend to ask what those little yellow thingies were (squash). And my kids had never ever seen a real carrot and thought the "giant carrot" was way cool and ran out the door squealing to our neighbor's house to show them. However, this variety is a good thing. As Kaylee's PreK teacher says, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

Need to know how to start one? Email me. I'll direct you to my friend that had to take over the organization of our veggie co-op bc I was slacking.

Item Two- met a new client who was drawn to me bc she also loves loves loves the word "discombobulated." That's neat.

Speaking of my discombobulated life, here are some totally random pictures.

Jude tearing into an orange like its nobody's business. Not quite sure why he felt the need to pull on his face like that, but there appears to be no permanent damage.

And that same child wearing a peanut butter beard.

Item Three- after paying off all of our student loans this summer (which painfully started at over $70K, my portion of this was $20K... and allow me to digress and explain just why I racked up so much in 1.5 years of graduate school. Story is simple. I met Jesse right before grad school. I was in looooooooovvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeee and chose to spend every waking second driving to his college (an hour away) instead of working (and lets be honest- or studying) like a good girl. Oh yeah, and I bought a car with my student loan money. Hey- no one ever accused me of being the brightest bulb in the bunch), Jesse has been making noise about going back to school. Two very different choices- to either teach or work on a PhD. The teaching part would be in an effort to eventually move into a Principal role, as even with 10 years experience in educational administration, he can't be a Principal unless he teaches a couple of years. Dern. The PhD would be in clinical psychology... everyone needs a shrink in the family right?

Here's your future Principal doing his part to bring down our neighbor's property value by making a mess outside and letting the kids run around in diapers.

Item Four- Presley. She Takes. An Hour. Every Morning. To Decide. What to Wear. And Throws. Many Tantrums. In the Process. She's Three. What Am I Going .To Do? Advice. Please. Why Am I Typing. Like This? This Is. Funny.

Item Five- an outtake from our recent family shoot. Aside from Emily's eyes being closed (dern... loved this picture otherwise...may need to swap her head out), I love the fact that Kaylee is giving the photographer, my dear friend Courteney Miller, some of her own medicine and doing her own funny, shake your booty dance to get Courteney to laugh. Love that girl.

Me and my four punks.

That's all for now. Back to editing client pictures.

I love this family!! No Really, I DO!

So I normally don’t post this many pictures in a sneak peek, but since this is one of my BFFs (or one of my GIRLS if you will) of all time, the post is going to be a bit longer. And I also don’t usually get quite this personal with my posts, but again, it’s the whole BFF thing talking.

And also. I started this blog with really short posts, because I was trying to maintain a "professional" image. But it wasn't working out too well, cause I'm just not that serious of a person. It got really boring, really fast. And I just don't want this blog to be boring. I don’t want to write “these clients kids were so cute. Blah, blah, blah.”  I want it to be FUN and REAL like I strive so HARD to make my photography.

Laura, love you like a sister. I just love and ADORE those beautiful children of yours. And since it would be weird to say I love you John Michael (LOL!) I’ll just have to say you are all not LIKE family, but you all ARE family to me. In so many ways.

So in the interest of making this real, let’s take a very short trip down memory lane.

Remember driving around in my convertible as 16 year olds listening over.and.over.and.over to Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine, Madonna's The Immaculate Collection and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic? UM yeah, that’s only THE best music combination of all time!  Having a bad day? Program those albums in random order into your iPod, add Ditty by Paperboy, and you'll perk up instantly!

Remember our very first road trip to New Orleans in college ? And how I had to tell you to ignore Alicia so she would quit making jokes so we would quit laughing so hard since we all needed to get to sleep? And how it didn’t work because she just kept on cracking us up?

Remember your wedding? And particularly our bridesmaids photos with your little brother kicking and writhing on the floor in the not so distant background. Now THOSE are some real life photos.

Remember my wedding? And how I bumped my head on the table at my rehearsal dinner so that I had a huge knot on my forehead on my wedding day? That was awesome. I looked HOT! But you DID do a nice job on my hair ;-)... it kind of made up for the monstrocity on my FACE.

Remember when I called in sick to work so I could rush to the hospital to see you as you came out of your Csection surgery? I do believe I got some of his very first photos ;-)!!

And now. We already see a love connection between your guy and my Kaylee. How many times have we busted them sneaking off to smooch?  And the thought of being future in laws makes us oh so happy.

And Jesse makes fun of the two of us together. Trying to plan things. Both so laid back that the details, (like the actual meeting time and place) do not matter to us cause we just know that the important thing is that we WILL meet up.

This drives him bonkers. But I don’t care.

No, we don’t get to talk every day. But we don’t need to.

LOVE you!!!!

And because I know you appreciate a good outtake even more than myself, here's a GREAT one for ya. It's fairly reminiscent of the one of ME you have FRAMED on your wall.

Nothing went right on this shoot...

... but somehow it all turned out OK. First of all, I went to the wrong location. Ummm- hello, doesn't everyone know that when you agree to meet at Fellowship of the Woodlands, that REALLY means meet at Woodlands United Methodist? DUH. Maybe scheduling a shoot with me should come with a disclaimer "photographer is NON spacial and does not know her way around. You MUST confirm location with her at least 3 times prior to the shoot."

O SNAP!

(I just couldn't bring myself to edit out the drool below)

So since I was already 30 minutes late, little Tristan had been running around in the wonderful crisp Texas weather (NOT) and was a bit on the er, sweaty side by the time I got there. I brought my 6 year old Emily along, as she is a fantastic photographer's assistant and her silly dance moves bring out smiles in even the most cranky toddlers. The huge fountain was a little too much for her take and within 5 minutes, she had gotten all the way in, totally clothed.- maybe I should rethink my strategy of using child labor.... I decided to let her play while we took some pictures of the kiddos.

However,  Tristan couldn't resist either, so within another 2 minutes, he was in the fountain as well. So off came the shorts and the rest of the photo shoot was done with him in his little blue polo shirt and new "Cars" underoos.

BUT, the session turned out GREAT! Look at these candid shots. This is what being a boy is all about. Running around splashing in your underoos. Little girls often like dressing up and getting their picture taken. Little boys like running. And getting dirty. And flying like superheros!  Love it. Left the shoot with the biggest smile on my face knowing I got some fantastic candids.

Too bad dad couldn't make it. Oh wait, here is a picture of him. 

 (Ok, that's my attempt at being funny b/c the family resemblance is SOOOO STRONG!)

Another funny part of the shoot... when we were finishing up, my husband brought my kiddos out to say hello (we all go way back ;)) and my girls, who were dressed up in their princess outfits, ALSO had their Cars underoos on.  Why do my girls wear little boy's underwear you may ask? Why the answer is simple. Because they have "pockets," of course.

Some Practice Shots/{Houston Children's Photographer}

{SQEAL!} Rented a new lens to see if I liked it before I had to mortgage my house to actually buy it... I'm in love!  It's a little tricky to use and is going to take a lot of practice to get used to it... since I already made up my mind to sell half my clothes and my husband's golf club to be able to afford it.

Here are some of the first few pix I took with it (which are already some of my favorite pix of Kaylee!)

ALSO. If you like the music on my site (the rendition of Stand by Me), then I encourage you to go to the Playing for Change website . This organization released their first album this week. In their own words,

"The album demonstrates that regardless of our religion, race, gender, or political views we can unite through music. The time is now to unite as a human race and this global collaboration driven by your love and encouragement is designed to lead us in that direction."


If you want some serious goosebumps, head on over to their site and sample some of their music. I can almost guarantee it will be the best 5 minutes of your day today.



And here is something you don't often see photographers do on their blogs (since they only typically show their best pix).  This is what I normally get when I try to take pictures of my own children.  Poor things are probably pretty tired of having a camera stuck in front of their nose every day. 

Enjoy the lovely outtake of my Kaylee ;)!