Cozy Impressions Photo Blog

New BLOG

2008-10-05T15:44:00.002-05:00

Ok everyone CoZy Impressions has a new blog with really BIG pictures! I will no longer be posting on this blog anymore, so click over to http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/blog/

Sorry to have you all change my link on your blog lists. I am still working out the kinks and will have more photos on top as I figure it all out. -Tanya

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

2008-10-01T22:31:00.002-05:00

Rick and I are on our way to Phoenix for his lower extremity conference. I am just tagging along for some R&R at the pool side. I have several books packed and I am ready for the quiet! Did I mention the kids are NOT going with us this time around? We are dropping them in Houston with the G-parents who are ever so gracious to keep our little lambs.

GREAT NEW things happening here at coZy impressions, stay tuned for a big change at the beginning of next week. Think BIG!

I leave you all with this beautiful image from a session I did on Sunday. Oh the beauty of Texas, there is no field here, it seems, without a cool tractor in it. Enjoy... Back on Sunday.

Happy 4th Birthday Parker!

2008-09-30T22:07:00.003-05:00

Happy October 1.2008

It's hard to believe our girl is 4 yrs old!! Where does the time go?

4 things about our little miss Park J.

1. Parker is not a passive girl, she has a strong opinion and likes to let you know what it is.

2. Parker can hang with the boys and yet still remains a "girly girl" Whew!

3. She is a big helper most times and does best when given a job or direction.

4. She lets me know daily that there are too many boys at our house & only 3 girls (that includes our dog Maggie). She wants a sister to share dolls with. We shall see if her wish is granted in January.

Pictures on our walls

2008-09-29T21:31:00.002-05:00

I have been asked many times about the pictures on my wall, so I will post on a few walls I have going around my house. This is my breakfast room. I have 9- 11x14 frames from Pottery Barn holding 9 8x10's. I wanted a very uniform clean look. They are pinned onto the hemp mats, very beachy. But as I look I should have straighted them before shooting a picture. ha!

Below is a gallery wrapped canvas, no frame needed. It is 1 1/2 inch thick and is 16x30. I have this in our entry way. The picture of it makes it look small but its rather large. And a side view to show the thickness of it. It's absolutely beautiful and I am glad I chose it for the entryway so I can see it everytime I pass through the door.

Why did I choose a picture of my kids not looking? ha! Well you try taking a picture of 4 kids 5 and under and see if they will all look AND smile at the same time. ;) Looks like we will be going for the backside views for a few more years.

Christmas Cards & Information

2008-09-26T19:18:00.005-05:00

It's that time of year again! I know you may think it's WAY to early to think about your Christmas cards! I have an fantastic special going on that includes your session, 50 cards and an 8x10 all for $140. If you have had a 2008 session with me you can plug in a picture from your session for only $30 a set (25 per set).

I only have a few sessions left so if you are interested contact me to schedule. I have 1 sessions left in October, 2 in November and 2 for the first weekend of Dec.

There are more cards on my site under Galleries, then speciality items. Here are some collections, click the pic. to enlarge for a closer look.

Lucky Dog

2008-09-26T10:28:00.002-05:00

We took Maggie to the lake a few weeks ago to swim & play. Here are some funny ones I took of her shaking off. Click to enlarge the storyboard. The bottom one is my favorite with her ears flying all over the place.

Sweet Tucker- 9 months

2008-09-25T10:34:00.002-05:00

This boy is growing up way too fast!! Beth & I met at the Capitol on Sat. for Tucker's 9 month session. He is on the go! Hopefully he won't be walking by his 1 yr session so I can get some shots before he is running from me, I don't think I'm that lucky!! Here are a few of my favorites from his session.

What Benny's Been Up To

2008-09-23T22:16:00.003-05:00

One of Coop Benny's favorite things to do is to push his cars along the deck railing. He sits on his knees and focuses so intently on his cars. This reminds us so much of Griffin when he was this age. The other night I was playing with a new lens and captured these at sunset. Our deck is on the second story and gives us beautiful views of the Texas hill country.

Please no comments on his crazy hair! I did trim it after seeing these photos! ; )

In Color

2008-09-22T21:58:00.002-05:00

As promised here they are in color.

She loves to walk Maggie. I have some funny Maggie pictures to post after I edit them. We let her swim, of course that always means she needs a bath afterwards. :)

Love this Girl

2008-09-21T21:49:00.002-05:00

I took Parker to that same field last week for her 4 yr old shots. Here are a few. Colored ones will be up next. She's such a ham. Of course she let me know that I was only allowed to take 10 pictures of her and then she would be done. yea right! Imagine me only taking 10. Its a good thing my camera takes 6 pictures per second! ha! Little did she know...

PS didn't tell her to spin like this, she was just being a goof ball, made for some cute ones.

Parker Joy

2008-09-19T22:58:00.000-05:00

13 Years Young

2008-09-19T08:51:00.002-05:00

I Sunday night I met Claudia and her mom & we headed to a GREAT location. I loved it so much that we took Parker back there this week to shoot her birthday invitation pictures. Claudia & her mom were so much fun. I found this session especially fun to edit because her mom wanted all the "cool" stuff. Here is a peek of my personal favorites.

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Claudia/

5 Days New

2008-09-17T10:20:00.002-05:00

If this doesn't make you want to have a baby I don't know what will!! I am still drooling over these shots. I headed to San Antonio to meet this very sweet family and their 5 day old baby boy. The live on 17 acres of amazing hill country views and deer everywhere! Who knew San Antonio could make you feel like you are high in the mountains? If only I could do every session on their property! I don't know how they will ever choose. ha!

Here is the slide show of their new addition.

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Longoria/

Precious Ava

2008-09-16T10:29:00.002-05:00

Ava belongs to a new couple from our church. They wanted a session for her 3rd birthday. She was a lot of fun and LOVED my tutu's and was so excited to wear them. Who knew down town Round Rock could have so many cute little spots for us.

I had a really tough time choosing my favorites to post so I made her a storyboard (above) to show my top 3 picks. Click the link to see the rest of her session:

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Ava/

Cade Turns 1

2008-09-15T08:53:00.004-05:00

This little guy belongs to my good friend Kristi. On Sat. we went to her families farm and to take his 1 yr shots before he starts walking. Here are a few of my favorites! I love a little boy in overalls, how cute is he?! Here is his link... http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Caden

Crazy Weekend!

2008-09-14T22:30:00.003-05:00

After preparing for Ike this week we ended up with not a drop of rain. Unfortunately our family in Houston is without power and cleaning up a huge mess on their farm. Tons of trees are down & a lot of work lies ahead for them.

In the mean time my husband earns the husband of the weekend award! He took over and played Mr. Mom all weekend. I ended up with 4 sessions and only saw them all a handful of times. I had a 1 yr old on Sat. a 3 yr old on Sat. night. On Sunday I went to San Antonio to shoot a 5 day old, wait until you see those!! And then a 13 yr old on Sunday night when I returned. ugh! I'm pooped! It was a lot of fun, but I feel like I need to rest now. :) Being pregnant does not help one bit.

Anyway be looking for some really beautiful images this week.

Kelsey & Ebony Session

2008-09-11T10:15:00.002-05:00

I had the pleasure of doing a session of our niece Kelsey & her horse Ebony while we were at their horse farm. We have been planning these shots for a while. They were for Kelsey's 13th birthday. I love, love, love this slide show & the song she picked, maybe because she is in our family so it means more, I don't know but go watch its pretty sweet.

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Kelsey/

Boys N' Horses

2008-09-10T10:23:00.002-05:00

More fun on the farm with the boys.
Griffin & Cooper checking out the big boy

Cooper has no fear of such large animals. In fact here he is trying to get into the field with Mac.

Little Miss Precious

2008-09-08T21:46:00.002-05:00

Ohh get this girl on the farm and look how sweet she is! Parker LOVES horses & pony's just like her big girl cousins, Kelsey & Avery. Here are a couple from the weekend. The boys shots will have to wait until tomorrow, you know their shots are not as cute. ha!

Big Mama on the Other Side of the Camera

2008-09-07T21:03:00.002-05:00

Embarrassing, but this post will be about me, the one behind the camera. I ventured out to the other side this weekend at the horse farm. My dear husband took these with very little coaching, pretty good I must say. Of course I touched up the subject with a little photoshop! ha!!

Anyway while in The Woodlands I made an apt. at my very favorite Aveda salon and had 8 inches cut off my hair, another reason for a few pictures. It feels great! I only had it that long for the wedding I was in this summer, that I STILL have yet to blog about ugh!

I have had a few requests for new belly shots, so here you go... and I must say I am looking and feeling rather big! This is only 20 weeks folks! That's a scary thought. I'm only 1/2 way there. My 20 week ultra sound went really well. Baby looks GREAT! No issues, measuring 20 weeks which makes the due date Jan. 25. We will induce around the 16th. I'll mess around with the dvd and see if I can post anything. The pictures weren't the best this time, baby was putting its hands in its face.

I did 2 sessions while I was there and have a bunch of photos to blog about including my own kids at the farm. So be looking for those this week. Until then....

Headed to Houston

2008-09-05T10:15:00.002-05:00

Headed to Houston for the big 20 week ultrasound. Don't get too excited, we are NOT finding out what we are having. :) I know that just drives everyone crazy but we think its fun. We do have him write it on a note and we send it to my best friend Kelly in NC. Hopefully I will be able to post the video of the baby on here on Sunday night, depending on if he is able to cut out the part where he looks for the sex of the baby.

All Cozy Impressions emails will be answered on Sunday night or Monday morning.

Another Beautiful Family

2008-09-04T08:36:00.003-05:00

People are going to start thinking I am picking these beautiful families right out of a catalog or something. This family was stunning & the kids were so easy and sweet to work with. Here is a peek of only a few of my favorites, there were so many this time and I really wanted to post them all. Thanks F family it was great meeting you all!

Hello Kitty

2008-09-03T09:37:00.002-05:00

Back in July this tiny little 4 week or so old kitty found its way into our backyard. It had lost its mama and we started taking care of it. I said we could keep her as long as she stayed outside. We already have an indoor Golden Retriever.

Here she is much bigger than when she arrived. Maggie (our golden) has resumed the role of her mommy. We call her Big Mama now. She is always licking the kitty etc...

The kids named kitty "Tutu" but we have yet to call her anything but "Kitty". She is super sweet and loves to be held.

Rick and I still aren't sure why she keeps coming back, in fact she never leaves our deck. The kids hold her all day long, and Cooper is really good at patting her. Hard. :)

One good thing we noticed, she has brought out the nurturing side of Parker, which has yet to be seen. Parker takes care of her the most and holds her the most. Its very sweet.

Griffin

2008-09-01T12:31:00.003-05:00

Griffin the oldest one, he tells everyone he was the first one to come out of mommy's tummy. Griffin is very type A, organized, structured, and could basically take care of Cooper on his own if we asked him to. Not that we would, but he does show amazing responsibility at only 5 yrs old. Yesterday he said he was going to make me a grocery list. I said "that's a great idea". So he went over to the fridge and opened it and said "we need batteries". So he wrote on his list- batteries. Then he went to the pantry and he said "we need peanut butter" so he wrote peanut butter on his list and that was it. Only the important stuff. ha!

Griffin is a dare devil and will try just about anything you ask him too. He loved surfing and had NO fear, even when the waves were big and he was tossed under a few times. It never phased him a bit. At Disney he BEGGED to go on the roller coasters over and over again, despite the 45 min. lines.

Carson's Beach Shots

2008-08-29T09:57:00.003-05:00

Where do I start with Carson?! This kid is full of personality, equivalent to 3 kids worth. We call him the reporter. He is always up on the latest news in our house, and loves to share all information with any outside person including all details. We've learned to keep most conversations private from him if we don't want the world to know anything. ha! The memory on this kid is even more shocking. He can tell us things from back when he was just 2 yrs old. We will drive by a place and he will ramble off something that happened there several years ago. We say he is like his Uncle Tim in this way (Rick's brother, who also has a very good memory).

Carson is very cautious and timid about trying most things. He is not fond of roller coasters, we discovered this at Disney. He is not very daring, yet he is amazing at sports and loves to practice soccer, baseball and football so he can in his words "be the bestest on the team".

He has informed us that he wants us to "Have a boy baby because girls just give him headaches" Hows that for a boy that knows what he wants? Oh that Carson keeps me on my toes everyday!

Flash Back to the Beach

2008-08-28T09:56:00.003-05:00

I am still catching up on my FL photos. I thought I would "flash back to the beach" until they are all up. While many of you are back to school we continue to enjoy our summer. The beauty of homeschooling! The boys have started 1st grade this week and Parker is in her 5th week of Pre-K. After school we are enjoying our swims in the pool. Its so hot out and I'm glad we are able to swim everyday.

Here are some pictures of Parker playing in the ocean in FL. No it was not a topless beach, she is just a topless girl! ha!!

Midland Family Visits Austin...

2008-08-27T10:28:00.003-05:00

Oh how I love those west Texas folks. This family is so super sweet and pretty too. It looks like they just walked out of a magazine. They saw a slide show of mine back in Jan. and booked a session here in Austin. Little Davis is 1 month younger than Cooper, so that just tells you the challenge it was! That age is tough to get them to sit for a mere second, but we did it. Thank goodness this mom can bust out in a song at a moments notice! Click here to view their slide show... http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/HamFamily/

here are just a few of my favorites. I love the vintage finish on them for some reason.

How cute is this dress!!

Chris

2008-08-26T08:28:00.003-05:00

Last Ft. Worth senior I am posting....

Chris was a lot of fun. He brought his guitars, golf clubs, and football gear so there was a lot to work with.

Click his link to see his show...
http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Chris/

Family Newsletter

2008-08-24T16:10:00.003-05:00

Rick comes from a huge family on both sides. Every 6 months or so on his mother's side we all contribute a blurb to the family newsletter that is shared among 100 of us family members. Here is the entry that Rick submitted on our family. This is as close to a blog entry as I can get him. :) As you will see he is a great writer and really should be the one blogging instead of me. ha!

We’re having a baby! Just in case some of you haven’t heard, we are expecting our 5th in January. Tanya says it’s the only way we could reserve the cottage at the next family reunion. When you add up the noise plus the kinetic energy in our house, it’s a regular circus show here. They’re all brimming with extreme vitality. That’s why Tanya and I look so ragged most of the time. Cooper just turned two years old. He excels at repeating everything you say and loves the outdoors. Parker turns four in October and is excited about her mermaid party. She is as sweet as a mouse and tough as nails all rolled up in one. The other day she pushed Cooper down the stairs because he was in her way. When Daddy got home, I asked her why she did that. Trying to avert a lecture, she exclaimed in her Texas accent, “It’s OK Daddy, I have Jaysus in my haught!” It worked because I really didn’t know what to say. Carson also loves the outdoors. Since we’ve been watching the Olympics, he has a new favorite sport. This morning he said, “Daddy, let’s you and me do something special and go play beach volleyball. During the women’s gymnastics floor routines, Griffin entertained us through interpretive dance, moving to the music however the spirit led him. Every night at the dinner table he prays, “Dear God, thank you for me. Thank you for everybody. Help us to be good. Amen”
Tanya’s business continues to flourish. Rediscovering her gift has ignited her passion for photography. She is truly talented. Check out her web site at www.cozyimpressionsphotography.com. In addition to being a full-time Mom, maintaining our household, and conducting and editing 4-8 photo sessions per month, she devotes herself to homeschooling the kids. While there’s nothing easy about it, she is organized and determined. Of course, the kids are determined to drive her insane with the nuclear reactors tucked away inside their core.
I still treat feet and enjoy modest growth every year. In October a company is sending me to a resort in Phoenix for an educational conference. Tanya is coming for some much needed R&R and we will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary a little early.
Our big event of the summer was going to Disney World. On our first day at the Magic Kingdom, Parker vomited all over the lunch table. While I washed out her dress in the Men’s Room, Grammy (Tanya’s mom) bought a new pair of princess pajamas to replace her clothes. Only Griffin would wear the Mickey Mouse ears and allow himself to be photographed. The highlight for me was taking the boys back to the park after dinner and riding rides until midnight.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rick Warpula family is documented on Tanya’s blog. You can find it by going to the web site above and click on “visit the blog.” We love you all and look forward to the next reunion.

Matt

2008-08-22T09:04:00.003-05:00

Matt is the funny one. He had me laughing. Here are a few of my favorite pics from his session. Unfortunately he had to leave early for an SAT course, so it did not make it into the group shots.

Almost done editing the seniors then onto a family session on Sat.

James

2008-08-21T09:19:00.002-05:00

This is James another Ft. Worth Senior. He designs computer games, how cool is that? I was telling Rick I can't believe all the opportunities these kids have today. And we thought we were all modern when our schools offered a computer class, with DOS. ha! A couple of these seniors have taken Photoshop CS3!! Nuts!

Here are a few of my favorites, it was hard to choose. Click the link to watch his show...

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/James/

Jayne Girl

2008-08-20T08:31:00.002-05:00

This week I have been editing the Ft. Worth seniors from the weekend. Jayne was the only girl so we were able to do some fun stuff I didn't do with the boys. I loved the way all of her pictures turned out. The top one is my absolute FAV, I guess the brown hair, brown eyes and the brown wall all just came together so well.

Jayne is a very mature girl with a BIG future ahead. I really enjoyed hanging out with her on Sat.

The botanical garden in Ft. Worth was AMAZING and it it were here I think I would do every session there. Here is a link to Jayne's slide show, she picked a fantastic song by Casting Crowns. http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Jayne/

Of course I had to post this one because I am such a NIKON girl myself. Jayne is on the yearbook staff and loves photography, so she brought her camera as her prop.

Happy 2nd Birthday Big Coop!

2008-08-19T09:58:00.002-05:00

Today is Cooper's 2nd Birthday! We are celebrating at home with firefighter cupcakes.

Cooper woke up saying "Birthday, Birthday! and Cake Cake" it was pretty funny. He's definitely starting to "act" like a 2 yr old. We have seen a few tantrums and outbursts, not too often. Cooper is still a sweet boy, very loving. We you leave he says "wove you". When Daddy comes home he runs the fastest and yells "Dad deeee" and gives a big hug. Cooper still loves to go to bed at night and maintains the same schedule napping 1:30-5 and then to bed by 8. I know that seems like a ton of sleep but all of our kids did that until they were almost 4.

Cooper is still really tiny for his age. I will update with stats when we go to his 2 yr well care. His size seems to be more like Carson's and his personality is exactly like Griffin. Very laid back, quiet plays on his own for hours at a time, has a very long attention span, and loves to line up his cars & trains. He has no interst in watching TV, thank goodness.

He talks about "Nano" (Rick's mom) non stop. I guess he is always thinking of her. Its very sweet. As a far as speech goes he says a ton of words, he will basically copy anything you say. But overall he is pretty quiet, maybe he just doesn't get a chance to get a word in! Can't imagine why. ha!

Fort Worth Seniors-Sneak Peek

2008-08-16T22:22:00.005-05:00

A group of Fort Worth seniors from a private Christian School found my site and asked me to come up and shoot their senior sessions. So I headed up on Friday night and meet them at the Ft. Worth Botanical Garden on Sat. We had a great time. The shot above says it all, unfortunately it does not have all the seniors in it.

So here I am on Sat. night downloading and laughing at some of the fun stuff we were able to get. Here is a really SMALL sneak peek of what is to come this week. I picked out a few that stood out at first glance & edited them really quick before bed.

Thanks guys for being such and awesome group of friends, even if you did pick on Jayne a little. :)

Sorry James I know you don't like the calculator shot but I think its way cool! And he even added Class of 09 if you look close.

This last one was funny because the boys pushed Jayne off and it caught her by surprise.
Check back this week for their individual shots, the "nice ones" for their mom's. :) We did a few of those too.

Water Bugs Part 2

2008-08-15T08:46:00.002-05:00

Some more favs from Wed.

How many kids can you fit in a water bubble?

Water Bugs at the Water Park

2008-08-14T08:43:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I packed a picnic lunch and we headed to the water park. The kids had a great time running around & splashing each other.

Here are the some fun shots in color, tomorrow I will post the B&W's.

From oldest to youngest: Griffin, Carson, Parker and there are 2 of Cooper

Parker's New Bed

2008-08-13T08:23:00.003-05:00

Last week we surprised Parker with a new big girl bed. It was long overdue. She was still sleeping in her converted toddler bed. She was so thrilled when she walked into her room and saw this great big bed all for her.

The bedding is from Pottery Barn Kids, the Aloha collection, which is super cute and so

"grown up". Here are some shots of the monkey's jumping on the bed.

And this last one is simply pure joy, all 4 kids snuggled together. A rare moment captured.

Baby Jack is 3 months

2008-08-12T08:32:00.002-05:00

Jack is one of the babies on my baby plan, he is back for a 3 month session. We had a great morning session on Sat. the weather was still nice and cool out. He did great and never fussed for us once, even with all the outfit changes!

Self Portrait

2008-08-11T08:24:00.002-05:00

That's right I said self portrait, we have a little cup cake in the oven!

17 weeks with baby #5, due some time in January.

Here are some tummy shots to leave you with.

New Baby Collage

2008-08-08T21:09:00.002-05:00

The new Sweet N Shabby Baby Collage, also comes in an aqua blue for the boys.

The size is 11x14 and is mounted on masonite hardboard for longevity.

Emery is back...

2008-08-07T09:06:00.003-05:00

Love this baby!! She's 6 months now and has grown so much since that baby in the book shelf back in Feb.'s post. All my favorites come to you in B&W this time, not sure why but I'm liking those the best this time around. Emery sure is a sweet little one. To see her very cute slide show click the link...

Its fast, only 2 min. but its full of some goodies. Great song too!http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Emery/

Shopping in The City

2008-08-06T09:24:00.003-05:00

I would say besides eating we were shopping the entire time we were in NY. I took some fun pictures in the massive Toys R Us, above and below, these "sculptures" were made out of those mini Lego's. How nuts is that?! They must have used millions. Of course if I had read the sign instead of head my face in the camera I would know how many Lego's it took to make the Statue of Liberty and the Pirate. Griffin & Carson are really into these mini Lego's right now so I took these to show them. A picture does no justice to how big these actually were, Keep in mind I had a big lens on my camera these were up into the next story high.
(below) For those of you that may not know, NYC has the biggest Toys R Us ever. And even if you don't have kids its really a site to see and a place to visit. You can even ride on this big Ferris wheel while you are there. Each little car is a different theme, like Scooby doo, The little people school bus, My little pony and so on. If you look in the background you can see the 4 different levels this store has. The Ferris wheel runs right in the middle.
And here we are in Soho shopping. This is Lisa and my mom looking at jewelry at one of the many little stands set up. Soho is a great place to shop and walk around. There are tons of quaint little shops & lots of different stuff.
And there is even live, free entertainment at every corner. Here are a few gospel singers right in front of J-Crew. I'm sure they loved that. ha!
Mission accomplished, I found Heath Ledger's apartment while in Soho. So yes I may have driven them all nuts trying to find it but I did. And there was even a bouquet of flowers laying out front. That is until some old man came up and stole and ripped of the RIP Heath note attached to it. I wonder if he gave them to his wife?!

Fine Dining in The City

2008-08-04T22:15:00.002-05:00

While in NYC we had some really amazing meals. Thanks to my organized mother (ever wonder where I get it from?) she had all the restaurants picked out and reservations made months before we arrived. Thanks mom for all that planning ahead of time. Those of you who have been to NYC know that if you want to get into a great restaurant you absolutely need a reservation. Here are a some pictures just to highlight a few of the great eats...

The top picture is at Fresco by Scatto. This is the one where all the Today show people go. This restaurant is also on their show all the time. Its very rich tasting Italian. My favorite item there was the amazing appetizer we ordered. Homemade chips & baked zucchini topped with Gorgonzola cheese, yummy!
Above is the NOHO Star. This is located in Soho, or actually Noho, just north of Houston St. is called Noho, anyway a great one we went to back in Sept. Its an American/Chinese cafe recommended by Rachel Ray (not to rhyme or anything!). Love Love Love the fresh squeezed limeade, the best!
Next we went to Balthazar, a french bistro located in Soho. This is a VERY busy one, that you litterly wait 2 hours for LUNCH on a weekday without a reservation. But of course we had one. (thanks mom!) Specialty thing to get there, the homemade mac & cheese, its like no other. Of course they called it something like "Macaroni Al Gratin"
Here's a fun one we just discovered, thanks to Becci for her research. This is the Swizz Restaurant for very fancy fondue! I think I loved this one best but it probably had something to do with dipping fruit into chocolate when the meal was over.
*Warning, if you are not a Seinfeld fan this part will bore you* So all day long we talked about taking a horse drawn carriage ride at night through Central Park. All I could think of was that GREAT episode of Seinfeld where Kramer drives the horse carriage around for a week or whatever. The horse is named Rusty. Kramer offers to take Susan's (George's fiance) parents on a ride for their anniversary. This is also the episode where Kramer becomes a member of a Costco or something like that. He buys this massive can of beans and feeds the horse beans before taking them on a ride. During the ride the horse has terrible gas and Kramer starts yelling "Rusty! Rusty!" Anyway it was one of the funniest episodes.

So we get to the horse and get on the man takes our picture (above) and we say "what's the horses name?" He replies "Rusty". Funny!! This guy was from Ireland, had no clue about Seinfeld. It was so funny I had to call Rick right then and tell him.

Top of the Rock

2008-08-01T08:46:00.002-05:00

Rockefeller Center has an observation floor at the top of their building called Top of The Rock, located 70 stories up. After dinner on Friday night we headed to Rockefeller Center to get a view of this amazing city. The top picture is the Empire State building. (these were almost impossible to take without my tripod but I made due using this and that to avoid camera shake at such a slow shutter speed)
To the right of my mom is the empire state building again.
After that we took a rickshaw (man driving a bike with us behind) that only holds 2 people. Well we squeezed our bottoms in and had a really fun time. We were laughing so hard. For one thing these guys are just as nuts as the cab drivers. They ride right along side of them and you feel like you are going to get hit by another car. It was pretty scary but really one of our funnest nights all at the same time.
You can see from his shirt that he was sweating because he was working so hard, not that we were heavy or anything! ha!
And here we are riding through times square along with the cabs. Time Square is quite the happening place at midnight. You would think its 7:00 at night. Just look at all the cars out and this is midnight folks!

Central Park

2008-07-31T08:42:00.002-05:00

Central Park is an amazing place to spend the day. We walked through it on Sunday and it was a cool 75 degrees. Here are some facts about Central Park you may not know...

There are 853 acres of park

The park is 6 miles in perimeter & contains 58 miles of pedestrian park

Completely man made, taking 15 yrs to build and over $14 million
There are 21 playgrounds, 1 zoo, a carousel, 36 bridges, 51 sculptures,

and 7 miles of benches totaling nearly 9 miles long (nearly 9,000 benches) Crazy!

While walking through we came across Strawberry Fields, as in Strawberry Fields Forever.

2.5 acres are dedicated to John Lennon in Central Park. The Imagine mosaic is a replica of a famous mosaic in Pompeii and was a gift from Naples, Italy.

Breakfast at the Boat House

2008-07-30T10:50:00.003-05:00

On Sunday morning we went to the Boathouse for brunch. Located right in Central Park on the lake. They do not take reservations so we waited a good hour before eating, it was worth the wait. I ordered cottage cheese pancakes that were delicious!

Lisa, me, mom & Becci enjoying our brunch.

NYC Rocks

2008-07-29T14:56:00.002-05:00

NYC was amazing, as always. We had a great time playing, shopping and lots of laughing. I have lots and lots of NY posts coming up this week, this is just a quickie for the readers out there. My plane was delayed 2 hours at JFK last night and I got in at 2:30 am (which to me was 3:30 am since I am still on est. time). Needless to say I am a bit tired with only 4 hours of sleep.

The kids were all happy to see their mommy back. Rick was feeling the same, and probably glad to go back to work. :) Ok so check in tomorrow I will have more posted.

For now these are from the circle c line boat tour we did yesterday, it was really hazy so the pictures were not nearly as nice as the ones from Sept.

NYC Bound... Again!

2008-07-23T22:35:00.002-05:00

Headed back to NYC Thur-Monday night. Just can't get enough of the city. I am meeting my mom and a friend this time to shop and play. You all have a great weekend. I will be back next week with some NYC shots.

Thanks to Rick for taking on the 4 kiddos so mommy can have a fun time.

Miss Accessory

2008-07-23T09:29:00.002-05:00

Did I ever mention how much I LOVE senior sessions?! I think they are my favorites, next to a good sleeping newborn session. Beautiful, Miss Julia and I headed to downtown Austin for her urban senior session on Sunday night. I am calling her Miss Accessory because she has more accessories than anyone I know. She showed up with a big toolbox looking thing full of all kinds of goodies. I really need to take a lesson from her. ha!

Julia is headed to H.U. this fall and we are super excited for her, this is where Rick went to undergrad and has many great memories from his experience. So congratulations Miss Julia!

To see her VERY cool slide show click the link and turn up the volume she chose a great Christian song...

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Julia/

Sneak Peak for Julia...

2008-07-22T14:46:00.003-05:00

Its the smallest peek for Julia, but I couldn't resist. I am halfway through this session and I wanted to pass a few along for her to see. This will be worth the wait I promise!!

Playdate at the Fire Station

2008-07-21T21:35:00.003-05:00

Our playgroup had the annual visit to the Fire station, where Mr. Heath (a.k.a Hudson, Jake & Cole's daddy from church) is a firefighter. We had a great time. Especially Cooper who recently is in LOVE with Firetrucks. (notice the ones in his hand that he held onto all morning, throughout the playgroup and until nap time)

This is the 3rd year for the bigger 3 kids and they had a fun time watching the presentation. And of course they loved all their goodies, hats, stickers, tattoos & coloring books.

Oh and yes that would be Griffin on the left with bald head. Daddy let him pick the "color" blade to give him his cut the other day. It was red, his new favorite color, it was also a 1. The lowest blade ever. We have never used lower than a 4 and in the summer only. When he came to show me I litterly burst into tears. No really I cried and cried like a baby. I was so upset. Needless to say this will not happen again, right daddy?! :)
Parker came to the fire station too, but like her typical self she freaked out when I pulled out the camera, so there you go.

Almost 2...

2008-07-20T14:30:00.002-05:00

23 months have passed and he is almost 2. Cooper is full of energy and lots of fun.

He has over 50 words, he loves to "sing" you can recognize the tune even though the words aren't always there.

Favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see by Eric Carl. He loves to name the animals and say all their sounds. The big kids read this book to him many times a day.

Just like all the other kids he is a water bug too and enjoys swimming, going under, jumping in and has no fear.

This month he finally figured out how to feed himself, I know really slow of us on this one.

We call him the "greeter" because he says "HI" to anyone and everyone that goes by. He is very friendly.

One thing that I have noticed this month is that he is very interested in shoes, which he calls "bye byes". Not just any shoes. He likes to point out any shoes that women are wearing. Today at church he was pointing at his little friend Brooklyn's shoes. He will lay on the floor and study all the details of the shoes. I know its a little weird!

He still has a huge interest in cars & will push them around all day long. He also notices cars on the road and just like Griffin will name the cars make. Today he saw a VW bug and said "Bug Bug". Very cute.

Here are some FL pictures of Cooper on the beach. His favorite thing to do was to eat the sand. I'm just glad I'm not finding it in his diaper any more.

Disney Part 3

2008-07-18T16:14:00.002-05:00

We stayed on the Disney grounds, which was nice as far as getting around. On the first night Rick and I took the "big boys" back to do Disney after we put the little ones to bed. (my parents stayed with them). While we were waiting for the boat we took some shots on the resorts beach. Here are a few I am choosing to post... of course there are tons more.

People always assume that twins are the same, its entirely wrong. At least as far as fraternal twins are concerned. Our boys are and always have been 2 inches and 6 lbs apart.

Carson on the left, Griffin on the right.

And of course here we are...

Scrumptious

2008-07-17T10:34:00.002-05:00

How yummy is this baby?! I went to San Antonio on Sun. to meet this precious one. His Aunt Meredith bought this session as a baby gift to the new mommy & daddy. Baby Callen was a pleasure to work with at only 7 days old He slept for the entire session giving us a lot to work with. To watch this very sweet slide show click the link: http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Callen/

The "Lucky Dogs" They even have big smiles on their faces, they are proud of their new "brother".

Disney Part 2

2008-07-16T15:08:00.003-05:00

Disney pictures part 2, its going to take a while before they are all posted.

Rick, Carson & Parker on the famous Dumbo ride.

We stopped for an ice cream break, little did we know it would turn into liquid in a matter of seconds. We couldn't eat it fast enough before it was all melted. Here is Carson who gave up on using his spoon, it was faster to just lick.

The "Littles" after a long day.

Notice Parker's lovely Pj's she wore all day after her her dress was done for.

Walker Family Session

2008-07-15T10:38:00.002-05:00

Had a fun time with the Walker family on Sat. night. Even learned what sound a deer makes, funny that their 16 month old knows this yet at 31 I am just learning. ha! That's what happens when the daddy is a hunter. :)

Here are my just a FEW of my favorites, there are many more but to see you'll have to watch their slide show, click the link and enjoy. Another great song...

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/WalkerFamily/

Disney Shots Part 1

2008-07-12T21:40:00.002-05:00

As you can only imagine I have over 1000 photos of our FL/Disney trip to edit. So over the next few weeks I will post them onto the blog as I get to them.

Top photo is our first day at Disney, and yes everyone received the "wear red memo" posted by me, the dork. I know Rick just really hates when we all coordinate, but I figured it would be easy to spot everyone in red and well really its all about how we look in the pictures. ha!

When we walked in my mom went straight to the stand selling the Mickey ears and bought each child a set. I told her "I don't know about this, I don't think they'll wear them". Well I was wrong, about Griffin anyways. He had the "Disney Spirit" and wore them every time we left the cabin. He wore them non-stop it was so cute, so naturally there are more pictures of him because I could not resist. Carson was the complete opposite choosing not to be seen at all in the ears.
Yes they were in matching Kelly's Kids outfits, well until she threw up all over hers only 2 hours after arriving. ugh!

Parker: "Benny, what are you looking at?"

Cooper: "Sis, what is this some kind of new fashion statement?" "I'm not diggin it"

My mom & Carson on the race track

Carson: "Just don't make me wear those ears and everything will be cool"

Hard to tell who's having the best time here, Daddy or Griffin? The race cars were Griffin's favorites. Between our day and night visits we were able to ride them many many times.

Sweet Braeden

2008-07-10T09:21:00.002-05:00

This family found my website in our neighborhood business directory. They called looking for a session for their 4 month old baby, and some family shots. I took these on the morning of July 4th in their yard. They live just one section over. Here are a few of my personal favorites. The boys did great and we were able to get just what we needed before they were "done". The top photo is my very favorite because it looks like little Braeden is kissing too. :)

3 Kids Short

2008-07-09T09:54:00.004-05:00

3 of our "Pirates" are spending the week in Houston at "cousins camp" with their Nano & Granddaddy. (Rick's parents). Every year they take they take the 5 older grand kids

(ages 10-14) on a big trip somewhere. Then they take the 5 smaller grand kids (ages 3-8) to their house in Houston. They have gone to the Zoo, the Children's museum, swimming to the Horse Farm etc... The babies (Cooper and Lauren, another cousin) will have to wait a few summers to get their turns.

So you may be thinking what in the world am I doing with only 1 child?! Well I have cleaned 4 bathrooms, did all the laundry, reorganized and rearranged the playroom getting rid of tons of junk. And now I am left to wonder, what do people do with only 1 baby? Its so easy. There is so much time to get stuff done and the house actually has stayed really clean. Its kind of nice. Even though I do miss the chaos of our big family its a nice, quiet change for the week.

So THANK YOU to Nano, Granddaddy & Aunt Melissa for keeping the "bigs" for us this week. We have enjoyed going out to eat & playing board games at night.

These pictures were taken at Disney (in June) after we bought them their swards from the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Ladies Man

2008-07-07T10:39:00.002-05:00

More surf camp photos, I am slowly getting around to editing my own stuff in between sessions. Since G&C were the youngest at surf camp they were well loved and very spoiled by the big kids. Especially the girls. There were a few flat days with no waves, and so they jet skied, tubed and played in the ocean. Here is Griffin with his girls.

Happy 4th

2008-07-04T10:59:00.001-05:00

Cutie Pie Family

2008-07-03T15:37:00.003-05:00

This is the Thomas family. I knew Kelly back in HS and was happy to meet her family at the beach bright & early one morning while in FL. They have a sweet 18 month old, Zach that is SOO cute!! Love that white blond hair. Click the link to check out their slide show, they picked a great song for this one....

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/ThomasFamily/

and yes, the water is really that blue & clear on the east coast in S. FL!! Not much editing done there, its real people.

Surf Camp

2008-07-01T15:44:00.002-05:00

Several people have asked how surf camp was. So I figured I could throw a few shots up of Griffin while in the middle of editing my sessions. He was really a natural at surfing and got right up with no fear. The waves were about to his waist, which for a 5 yr old can be big. Carson was more fearful on the other hand & it took him until the 2nd day to warm up to surfing. These were taken on day one within the first hour of being at camp. There were 35 kids there and ours were the youngest at 5 yrs old. The rest of the kids at camp were 7-13 yrs old.

Broedell Family Session

2008-06-30T13:43:00.005-05:00

This family is so much fun. I have been friends with Marcey since Kindergarten?? So it was really fun to see her kids & of course Frank, who went to school with us also. These photos were taken on Jupiter Island. (this is their friend's house). The house is owned by the people who invented Yankee Candle. There are many, many famous people who live on Jupiter Island. For example, Alan Jackson, Tiger Woods is building a house there, Celine Dion (who's house is in some of the backgrounds of these pictures, she lives 2 doors down.) And many more those are just to name a few. Here is the slide show from their session.

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/BroedellFamily/

3,360 Miles Driven

2008-06-28T11:08:00.002-05:00

We've arrived home after being gone to FL for 23 days and 3,360 miles driven. It was a great vacation, loaded with tons of activity, friends, family and lots of fun. Here is a sneak peek of my children on the beach during our beach session. For now the rest of our family shots will have to wait to be edited. I have a few sessions that I want to take care of first.

Check back I will return to my regular postings.

Disney Was a BLAST!!

2008-06-11T09:17:00.002-05:00

Just a quick update...We loved Disney Wold!! What a fun time. The kids had a great time riding all the rides and visiting all the characters. It was extremely hot and on the first day Parker had some hydration issues. She vomited at lunch on the first day all over her Kellys Kids outfit. ugh! So my mom had to take her next door to buy her an outfit and all they had were costumes or PJ sets. So she got a shot sleeved pj set. We told her it was a shorts and top set. ha! The next day I was very overheated and felt really bad most of the day until we cooled off. Rick flew back to TX and I am in Palm Beach in a fabulous condo. Now there is no TV and no computer (I;m at the library) so it should be interesting. Until next time....

Made it to Tally

2008-06-05T20:27:00.002-05:00

Well we made it to Tallahassee, FL. Took us from Houston 12 hours exactly. We only stopped 3 times, gas and to eat. The kids did amazingly well with very little fussing. Thankgoodness. We arrived at 6:30 and got right into the pool and ordered up some pizza. The kids were swimming and glad to move their bodies after sitting for so long.

Tomorrow we will spend half the day on the FSU campus, Go Seminoles!! Then on to Jacksonville.

PS there will be no photos for this month because I just flat out refuse to post any without editing them in PhotoShop first. ha!

Florida Bound...

2008-06-03T12:59:00.002-05:00

Our family is spending the month of June in FL. We have a lot of really great things planned while we are there. Our first stop is to Tallahassee to visit the FSU campus where I went to college. We are spending Thur. night and some of Friday exploring the campus & buying new FSU gear for the kiddos. Then on to Jacksonville where I am a Maid of Honor in my cousin's wedding. We will be there until Sunday. Then we head down to Disney World. This is for sure going to be an adventure. We are meeting my parents there and will spend a few days doing Disney and some other fun things at the resort. Rick flies back to Austin after Disney, and I am headed down to Palm Beach where my hometown is. We have a condo there and I will stay with the kids until the end of the month. While we are there I have 6 photoshoots on the beach, and the boys are enrolled in surf camp http://alohasurfingschool.com/ . Its Mon-Fri. from 8:30-12. They will have a blast learning to surf, jet skiing, relay races, tug of war, snorkeling, tubing & much much more. I am most excited to see my family & my two amazing friends that are also coming down to meet me from NC & VA, Kelly & Cortney. Tons of pictures from our adventures to come & exciting things in the works, all will be posted at the end of June. Until then you all have a great month!

*If you are a photo client looking to book, please contact me through my site. I will get back to you as soon as I can. I have a few slots left in July & Aug. and am starting to book my Christmas sessions for the fall.* If you have a beach session scheduled with me for June your paperwork is in the mail, with my phone #. Call with any questions.

Tucker 6 Months

2008-06-01T20:22:00.002-05:00

Sweet Baby Tucker is 6 months old. Some of you may remember his 3 month session. He is on my baby plan and is growing fast. These were taken on Saturday morning. This little guy is so sweet and smiley. Here are my favorites from his session. Click the link to see more. Music of choice, Frank Sinatra.

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Tucker/

Congratulations Grads!

2008-05-31T14:47:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to 5 of my favorite seniors from McNeil HS. Today is their big day, and although its a day to celebrate I can not be a bit sad for their parents. It makes me sad to think of my little ones growing up, graduating and moving on. Not that I don't want that for my own children, but to see them leave the nest can leave me teary eyed.

I wish you all the best of luck in the future, whatever it may hold for you all. Do your best, and make wise decisions and don't do anything you will regret later. :)

Kelly

Chase
Logan
Doug
Josh

The Bob

2008-05-29T21:41:00.004-05:00

Last week I took Parker to the hair salon to get her "summer cut". She sat so patiently in the chair and had it cut. At one point I think she even fell asleep she was so relaxed. The boys kept coming over to her and saying, "wow you look older than us!" and "look how good she's doing" When we got home she looked in the mirror and told me that her hair was ruined! This just made me laugh because it is so precious!! And by no means ruined. She seems to like it now. But to most of you who know her, she does NOT take compliments well. She was willing however, to sit for a few pics. I told her that Grammy needed to see her hair. If you blame in on Grammy she'll do whatever you ask her. ;)

Precious Family of 4

2008-05-28T22:03:00.004-05:00

On Sunday I met this sweet family up in Georgetown for a fun family session. Their children ages 2 1/2 and 12 months were sweet as pie. Here are my favorites, and for some reason I was leaning towards all B&W this time, but I did add 2 beautiful ones in color as well. I would post the slide show, but it is really 8 min. long!! This mommy was a music teach and chose a beautiful song, the Forrest Gump Suite, instrumental. It was a fantastic choice for their family.

How preicous is this little guy?!

Busy, Fun, Long Weekend

2008-05-27T14:32:00.002-05:00

We started this fun weekend out on Friday night. We headed to a friends house out in Lago Vista, where they enjoy this view each and everyday. Imagine that?! Here it is at sunset.

This sweet family has 4 precious little girls, below. Our kids had a great time playing with them.
Their sweet mommy, Heather even made cake! As you can see they were super excited about.
On Sat. Parker and I went to a princess party where she dressed as Cinderella. She did remind me several times that her hair was not yellow. ha! But you know that is now how Rick and I make our babies, they all come out dark. :) We have yet to make a blonde.
On Sat. night we had our good friends, the Hejl's over for dinner and then swam in our pool. After that the boys got out Rick's guitar and wanted the daddy's to sing to us. Then they realized they needed to start a band. So here is Carson on the piano, Griffin on the drums & Mason on the other guitar. It was pretty much just a bunch of noise. April and I just watched on and laughed.
On Sunday night I had a photoshoot (I'll post on that later). On Monday night we went to our friend Chris & Julie's house where we ate and the kids swam. Forgot to bring my camera. We had a great time and the kids are recovering today from such a busy weekend.

L. Family Session

2008-05-25T14:20:00.003-05:00

How precious is this family?! I really enjoyed meeting them and working with their sweet children. Their little girl looks just like Parker, and was super fun. The big boy was great as well. And the little guy had us cracking up, the biggest ham. Click to watch their slide show, its a great one... http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Lippman/

Let the Fish Swim!

2008-05-24T22:30:00.004-05:00

Friday playgroup buddies.

Can you tell we're happy to be back in the pool again? We have swam every single day this week. They are like fish out of water when we are not able to swim. This is truly our favorite activity.

Every Friday we have been having our summer swim playgroup. This week was at Madison's pool, which is actually our old pool. We lived in this neighborhood when we first moved to Austin. Here are some fun shots from our day.

Kitchen Renovation

2008-05-23T09:20:00.007-05:00

Before: The dark, grainy kitchen...

Most of these shots were taken by Griffin with a little point & shoot camera, so the quality is the pits. Also I did no editing on any of these shots.

After: Coastal cottage kitchen. We LOVE it!! I love how our granite counter tops just pop out. They went unnoticed and just blended in before, now they look so pretty & are the highlight of the kitchen.
Facts on what we used and what we did to create this great change.
1. 1 gallon of primer $10
2. 1 gallon of Sherwin Williams Casa Blanca Paint $47
3. 1 gallon of Ralph Lauren glaze - smoke $25
4. 1 gallon of Ralph Lauren paint for the walls in Egg shell- Plantation $28
5. 9 pulls from Pottery Barn $86 (still looking for the right knobs to buy)
6. Wanes Coating for the bar & sides of cabinets $40
7. Hand Sander $20
8. Miscellaneous supplies $20
9. Decorator fee $50
Total Cost $326! Not so bad.
The entire project took us 6 days of work & a little bit of insanity to do this with 4 children running around. ha! We are so happy with the end results & plan to do the master bathroom next. Stay tooned!!

21 Months of Pure Joy

2008-05-21T10:05:00.002-05:00

Our sweet Cooper Ben is 21 months now. He is growing taller and is starting to look more like a 2 yr old every day. Sometimes he acts like one too! Not too bad. His newest trick is climbing onto the dining room table over and over again. ugh! That one gets me. His vocabulary continues to grow. this month he has added the word vacuum (one of his favorite things to watch me do). He also says "I want" and of course "mine" gotta love that one. He calls his brothers "gaga" (Griffin) and "CarCar" (Carson) and he doesn't call Parker. ha! In fact he hits her if she comes near. Despite that he is still a sweet baby that loves his mama. When Daddy gets home from work he runs and yells "Dada" all the way to the front door.

We started swimming again everyday for the last 4 days & he is already back to being a water bug. Last summer at 10 months he could go under and swim to the side. This summer we are working back up to that. Just in the 4 days of working with him he is learning to float on his back, which he thinks is so funny. And he is back to going under, which he chooses to do. He cries when his lesson with Mommy is over and its time to get out. He would swim all day if I let him, just like the other 3, born to swim.

Hejl Family Session

2008-05-19T14:52:00.004-05:00

All this mommy wanted for her birthday was a family portrait of her precious ones. Well Happy early Birthday April. I hope the pictures are what you were dreaming of. We definitely had a beautiful location, with trees, the lake & a dock.

To watch their slide show click the link and turn up the volume...

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/HejlFamily/
Here are a few of my personal favorites

Editing on Sunday

2008-05-18T15:23:00.002-05:00

We have had a full weekend of painting, only a few more days to go on the kitchen. In the mean time I have taken some time off the kitchen to edit the Hejl session from yesterday... Came across this funny one with Mason's tongue out and it made me laugh. Don't worry, J & A they are not all like this! Ha!

Mason is one of Griffin & Carson's very best friends. They just adore him & I am glad because he is really one of the greatest kids out there.... more to come.

Blogger, Lazy

2008-05-16T10:51:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post to let you all know I am still around. We decided this week to renovate our kitchen. I know we are nuts. And why you might ask? Since we live in a new house. Well for many reasons. When we bought our new home, one thing we never liked was our oak, grainy cabinets. So we had Meredith, our amazing decorator, help us with colors and our big change up. She came out this week and gave us our "instructions", thanks Meredith you're the best!! Our cabinets are on their way to being a creamy white wash with a glaze over them, a touch of brown. And the walls will be a sage green like the living & dining rooms. I will post a before & after when we are all done. For now we are only at the priming stage so we have the rest of the week to go. So all of our free time has been sanding, caulking and priming. More updates to come. And a HUGE thank you to my amazing husband who lives with me on a daily basis and allows me to make such changes in our house in any given moment. And then continues to love me. ha!

ps the pic was taken at our baseball game on Monday night. Parker & her daddy...

David & Katie Session

2008-05-13T09:02:00.003-05:00

These are taken from my session on Saturday down in Circle C. They had a beautiful backyard with their fence lined in vines. Six month old little Katie was sweet as pie and never made a peep. Her big brother David was such an articulate little boy full of all kinds of knowledge! Here are a few of my favorites from the session.

In case you can't tell this is Katie in her crib, she just laid her head down for an instant. Gotta love that fast shutter speed.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

2008-05-10T22:45:00.002-05:00

Let me brag about my mom for just a second. First off let me announce to the bloggers out there... My mom finished a 1/2 Iron Man today (Sat) in Panama City FL. For those of you not familiar on what that is. A 1/2 iron man is a 1 mile swim in the ocean, choppy & rough, 13 mile run, and a 56 mile bike ride. My amazing mother finished 15th place out of 26th in her age group (which I will not mention, she would kill me!! Not that she's old or anything, but you know how us ladies can be about age). She finished the race in 6 hrs and 44 minutes. Then she called to tell me that she was alive. ha! Way to go mom. You never cease to amazing me or surprise me. I am proud of your amazing ability to do anything you set your mind to. Of course that is not the only thing great about my mom. She also raised me as a single mother basically since I was 2 yrs old. She is a very successful business owner & a great athlete. I learned to be an independent, strong woman from her.

I love you mom, thanks for all that you've sacrificed for me over the years. Thank you for your unconditional love and thank you for being my best friend.

Photo below also includes my other best friend, Kelly & her hoot of a mama Michelle.
All photos were taken on our yearly Mother Daughter trip to NYC in Sept. We are going back in July for our next one!

I've been tagged... twice!

2008-05-09T09:30:00.005-05:00

Ok Julie T. you pushed me to actually write 7 things about myself. I forget who tagged me first, maybe Jessica D? Anyways here it goes...

1. I am a very low maintenance type of girl. I really don't like getting all done up. I only do my hair & makeup for church, unless I have somewhere else to go. Just like you Julie, I live in reefs and ponytails. thanks to my mom I have enough reef sandals to match just about anything I own. :)

2. I used to shop for myself like crazy. I was a clothes hog for sure. Every since kids I really don't shop for myself at all. Except for my yearly NYC trips with my mom. Something about going to the mall and shopping for myself doesn't excite me! Now I do love to shop for my kids and Rick.

3. I am a total type A personality. I am extremely organized, structured and scheduled. I am a great time manager and tend to get a lot of stuff done in just one day. You will rarely see me sitting down doing nothing. I am always on the go, trying to do something productive.

4. I love only 2 reality shows. But only 2 of them. We have watched every season of Survivor and all the seasons of Amazing Race.

5. I love Dr. Laura. I listen to her radio program everyday (Austin peeps its on AM1270 from 11-2) I only catch about an hour a day but its well worth it. She gets right to the point. Even though she is not a Christian she has great Christian values & advice. Rick took me to see her live 2 yrs ago for V-day. It was a blast.

6. I have been to 35 of the 50 states and to 4 countries outside of the US.

7. I have a strong passion for photography and can barley go one day without taking a picture. I feel the same thing about editing the pictures. In fact I can't stand to look at a picture straight out of the camera it has to be edited. I know I'm picky.

Photo credit to Veronika Duty Photography, my great photo friend out in CA...

I tag Cortney, Angel & Marcey (since all of my church buddies have already been tagged)

Hangin in the Backyard

2008-05-08T19:32:00.003-05:00

Taken about 10 minutes ago while we were hanging out in our backyard. This is what good lighting will get you.... it does help to have a cute baby! I am such a sucker for a good face shot. Its my favorite shot to capture on all my sessions. We have huge, blown up face shots of all 4 of our kids hanging in our home. They of course, are my favorites in the house.

I didn't know which one I liked better, color or black & white, so I'm posting both. Thanks to Rick he has amazingly huge eyes!

Parker and her Lilly

2008-05-06T21:31:00.004-05:00

Every year I buy Parker a Lilly Pulitzer dress for the summer. Being from south FL I love bright colors and I definitely love Lilly Pulitzer, who is from Palm Beach, right down the road from my home town. Of course no one, except for Misty, in TX even knows what a Lilly dress is. ha! Here is a link in case anyone cares or is wondering. http://lillypulitzer.com/ So here she is in her Lilly for this year. Parker will be living in that dress next month when we are in FL!! Whoo Hoo only 29 days until we leave. I am so thankful I am able to stay a month and visit all my friends and family.

Here is a storyboard (size is 20x30). I'm thinking about having it printed for her room.

Kelly Senior Session

2008-05-05T22:58:00.005-05:00

On Sat. I met Kelly, a very fun senior from McNeil HS. We headed downtown and had a blast. Kelly's mom is also a photographer, so Kelly has been trained all of her life on what to do in front of the camera. Her mama taught her well, we were able to capture some amazing shots. Of course it helps that she is totally gorgeous!

Kelly is a great swimmer at her school so we went to the UT pool for some shots as well. We got just what we needed before being kindly kicked out. ha!

*For those of you that did Wed. ladies bible class, tell me, doesn't she look JUST like Ms. Marla?! My kids thought it was Miss. Marla when I was editing them. *

Click the link to view her beautifully, fun slide show...

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Kelly/

Good Friends

2008-05-02T14:57:00.003-05:00

These boys are big buddies. They have had a great year attending Wed. school at ladies bible class all year. Their class has been a class of 10 boys & no girls. So you know that's extra fun for them. From Left to Right (Reed, Mason, Griffin & Carson)

Behind on the blogging this week... On Thur. we went to a private park with our friends. I brought along my camera so I could scope out some new family session locations. And this one is a winner!! Thanks Dana for offering up this special park to us. More pictures to come. I took a bunch, that still need to be edited.

Married Mommy

2008-05-02T09:01:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday we went to Home Depot to get 2 more rose bushes & some more flowers. Rick was off looking at trellises with 2 kids and I was with Carson & Parker. I had asked a man that worked there to help me fine a certain rose. So as he was walking with us to the rose section Carson says this to him "My Mom is already married" I said "Carson why did you say that?" He told me "I just want him to know that you are already married" It was so funny! I was a bit embarrassed but I got over it quickly.

Another McNeil Senior...

2008-04-29T20:27:00.004-05:00

What an incredible session I had on Sunday night with Doug. He is another McNeil Senior. In the same group of friends as the last two. Doug is a track star at school and is also a very talented guitar player. He owns 7 very cool guitars and he brought 4 to the session. Even if you are not a guitar player this slide show will make you want to be one just to look this cool. He chose a song from a local band here in Austin. Great slide show check it out...

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/DougNiels/

4 Days Fresh

2008-04-28T15:57:00.004-05:00

A perfect example of why I LOVE to work with newborns under 10 days old. Baby Jack was so good to me too!! He just curled up and did whatever we wanted him too.

Coop Benny Ben 20 Months

2008-04-25T16:27:00.002-05:00

Our precious baby is only 4 months away from turning 2!! This is so hard to believe. It has gone by so fast. The other day Rick told me he is going to be sad for this one to grow up because he has been such a sweet baby. We have enjoyed him so much! I think so much more than the others because we know how fast it goes by. Plus Cooper is the snuggliest baby there ever was. He is the kind that puts his head on your shoulder and just lays there every time you pick him up. He is our only one that will do that.
New things that Cooper does. He can get onto the couch and loves to bounce around, which makes me REALLY nervous. Our house is about 90% tile so yikes! So far so good. He says big words like blanket & button. He loves to hand you something and says "here go". Over and over again. Cooper is extremely mellow and is content and happy to push a car in the window sill almost all day. I know its crazy! Sometimes we're like "where's Benny?" and there he is playing quietly in a room with cars in it. He has a LOVE for matchbox cars. Just like Griffin did and still does. You will hardly ever see Cooper without a car in his hand, at least when we are at home anyways. So 20 months have gone by, our hearts are sad he is growing up but we are so thankful for such a fun, healthy happy little boy.

ohh, To Be 18 Again...

2008-04-23T22:08:00.007-05:00

You would think I am picking my seniors out of an Abercrombie catalog. The boys weren't' this cute when I was in high school. ha! On Sunday I had a very adventurous, senior session. Logan is an all around kid. He wanted a session that he could hunt, fish and golf in. I wanted a session that would capture the true Logan that his family has known and loved for 18 yrs. So we headed to the country. Thanks to Troy (in the last post) he told us about this really cool ghost town. We took some awesome shots there. Along with a few other fun places. I climbed through some weeds, sticks, hedges and who knows what for this kid. I told him, I am going to freak out if I see a snake. Well sure enough at the end of the session we saw a snake and a mouse. How about that?! This is such an awesome slide show. Please if you have a chance check it out. He used a great Alternative Christian song by Kutless, Strong Tower. I could not narrow my favorites down I love them ALL!! Of course the train one is my absolute fav! Here's the link...

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Logan

Clifton Family Session

2008-04-22T11:25:00.003-05:00

I had the pleasure of shooting the Clifton Family this Saturday. They are friends of ours from church. This is an all "out doorsy" family so we found them a special place to capture their lives best. It was a perfect day on Saturday & the location could not have been better. Of course this location is only good for families with kids 3 and up. We did a lot of climbing and walking through rocks & cold water. :) These boys did GREAT! Thanks Cliftons for the "adventure". To watch their slide show click the link and turn up the volume... WARNING this one is a tear jerker...

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/CliftonFamily

This shot just cracks me up. Funny how boys can turn anything into a gun. I love how little brother is looking to big brother on what to do next.

This Little Cowboy...

2008-04-20T21:12:00.002-05:00

This little cowboy was all tuckered out after this session! His mommy told me he slept for 6 hours after I left!! He is such a peanut at 11 days old. These parents were fun and let me take him outside, he is their 3rd baby, 3rd boy, can you tell? The shots were just precious under a tree in their backyard. Here are my pics....

This one of the mama is definitely my favorite from the entire session, she is so beautiful and this shot really captures that.
Baby Luke has two big brothers to show him the ropes. He will be rough n' tumble in no time!
But for now he'll just be a precious, sweet baby...

He comes complete with a cowboy room.

Our Little Bluebonnets

2008-04-18T10:39:00.005-05:00

Our little Bluebonnets...

Well I gave up on Austin. This was a bad year in Austin for Bluebonnets. Really I could not fine any besides a small patch. I wanted a field!! My friend Misty told me about a big field in The Woodlands so while we were there we had our little family session. I did a big "no no" by taking these at 2 in the afternoon. ugh! So the lighting was super bright & just wrong. But this is the only time we had during our trip to do it. Click the link to watch our sweet children in the bluebonnet field. So pretty!! Oh and turn up the volume.

This one is short, by the way, short & sweet.

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Bluebonnets/

TuTu Cute!

2008-04-17T00:30:00.002-05:00

More FUN in The Woodlands. Have I mentioned how much I MISS living in The Woodlands?! It really is a great "home town" that happens to have everything right there close to you. Don't misunderstand me, I love the "home" that we've made here in Austin. I just really miss our church, friends & our family in The Woodlands. We had a great time visiting, well I did anyways. Rick was at a medical conference the entire time.

There is yet another new park area there and I brought my new tutu along. Thanks to my friend Cortney over at http://thesewsweetboutique.com/ she made me two very cute Tutus for my photo sessions. I also have a light pink for my 6-12 month babies. I am so excited to use them, but it just so happens that my next 4 sessions are with boys. ha! Go figure. So I put my Parker up to the task of modeling it. She liked it and it looked Tutu Cute!

Woodlands Family Session

2008-04-15T10:28:00.002-05:00

Three boys, you would think "that poor mama!" But really these were the most respectful, well behaved set of boys I've met. We had a great time during our session. The location was amazing with tons of different settings. The slide show is chopped full of fun shots. Here are just a few of my personal favs...

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Black/

GREAT weekend in The woodlands

2008-04-14T13:52:00.002-05:00

We had a great weekend in The Woodlands. After church Rick's parents drove up to have lunch with us. We went to Johnny Rocket's. A very fun place for the kids. (thanks Misty for the tip). The servers sing & dance, hand out hats & balloons etc.. Our kids had a ton of fun. Ok so it was a little loud for us, but hey they were happy and entertained so that's all that matters. I have a ton of photos to edit from the weekend that I will post later. Until then here are a few to enjoy...

The server wrote all their names in ketchup into their bowls. The love that. Carson asked if I would take a picture and show the whole world! I guess blogging counts right?
Parker watching the servers sing & dance
Rick and Cooper dancing. He must have been looking up at the lights, since he is so OBSESSED with lights, still. No really that's the first thing he notices anywhere we go are the lighting fixtures and fans.
Parker, Grandaddy, Griffin & Carson eating lunch together.

Rose Update

2008-04-11T10:05:00.002-05:00

Just a quick rose update. (Meredith K. you may be the only one that cares about this post! )My rose bushes are blooming like crazy!! This first one is the special purple one that Rick hunted all over Austin for. It more of a bright pink than a purple but really pretty & very fragrant.

The next one is from my rose tree, these are mango and looked amazing until that huge storm we had the other night. I've clipped them all since then.
This is an oldy but goodie coming back for the second year in a row. This climbs up the side of our garage with the purple one. I have about 20 more blooms about to open on this bush as well.
Next week my yellow & my lavender should be opening up. I'll post more on that later.

Off to Houston for a long weekend. Rick has another medical conference and I have 2 photoshoots & plans with great friends!

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

2008-04-09T22:06:00.005-05:00

Well its not yellow but it is Teenie Weenie, that's for sure! My mom sent Parker some super cute suits from her store http://www.groundswellsurfshop.com/ yesterday. Of course Parker was very excited to try them on for me. I told her I needed to take pictures so that Grammy could see if they fit. She would do anything for her Grammy. We all know it was really for the blog ;) so here she is in all her cuteness modeling away. Ohh to look that cute in a bikini again! ha! Those days are long gone, but I have four good reasons for that.

For those of you that care... The first suit modeled by miss Priss herself is a Billabong suit

And the second one is a ROXY