december so far

i'm just gonna throw this out here to start... i love my december photos so far.  i'm trying to embrace the darker, dreary days & find beauty in them.  there have been so many days where it's too dark to shoot come 3:00 so i've gotta be on top of it & use a little creativity too.  lately i've been trying to find interesting compositions, notice good light & work on consistency.  it's always a big work in progress.

we're only five days into the month & not a lot goin on.  we did get our christmas tree though!  we went to the cutest little u-cut farm over in washougal & found our little tree.  i was feeling the charlie brown vibes this year & talked my family into picking a natural noble.

oh & we're in week two of brooks' neuter recovery, he's driving me insane.  i'm literally typing this at the same time as playing tug of war with him to try & get even the smallest bit of energy out of him.  for a dog that is used to running off leash for an hour every day, one week with no dog parks is killing us all very quickly.  it totally takes me back to the newborn/toddler days of blogging one handed while trying to bounce a baby in the other.  get a puppy the said, it'll be fun they said!

the rest of november

one of the only redeeming qualities about the post-daylight savings lack of daylight hours is the fact that when we do have sun-filled light it's some of the prettiest light ever.  that truly warm, golden light that feels crisp & warm all at the same time.  i tried to get my camera out every chance i could when this pretty light showed itself.

the second half of november consisted of the same ol' routine... school drop off, pick up, parker's basketball practice, a road trip for thanksgiving in eastern washington & back home again to decorate for christmas.  feels like the holidays.

halloween to the election & all the things in between

let's just look at pretty pictures & pretend everything is ok.  yeah?  are you ok?

i'm alright.  trying to just keep going through the motions & find the time to do it all.  work, kids, husband, dog, repeat.  somewhere in there i find time to shower & take creative photos.  i've been trying to post on instagram more & that brings a whole weird level of self-criticism with it, too.  it's hard not to get caught up in likes & followers & the feeds of everyone else who's doing it better than you.

what was the world even like before social media?  i mean, if you wore a cute outfit & had perfect beach waves did anyone even know about it?  it has at least inspired me to get out of my yoga pants & wash my hair at least twice this week.  so it's good for something!

the boys had a blast representing the dark side this halloween.  it was declared "best halloween ever in the galaxy" & i'd have to agree.  every year it gets more & more fun.  fall has been wet but we've found little pockets of sunshine & dry weather which allowed us to get out & hike a bit here & there.

brooks is almost a year & has settled into our house pretty well.  he's insane, don't get me wrong, but we're getting there.  he's chilling out.  and the boys constantly tell him they will love him forever & ever no matter what he'll always be our puppy so i guess he's staying.

work has been great.  so many amazing families this fall & brides booking for next year.  i love what i do & am totally feeling a surge of excitement for what next year will bring as i ramp it up a bit for 2017.  this year was a bit of a regrouping & rebuilding year after the move & a primary focus on portland clients.  next year?  bring it.  it's gonna be a good one.

here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks.  i'm gonna try to take my camera out more & more & work on shooting on these darker days even when it feels too dark & dreary out.  buck it up buttercup.