Lila Grace’s 2 Year Old Portraits

brandileephotographer — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 13:12:07 +0000

My younger sister was such a huge help to me while we had Lila Grace’s birthday party. Caleb had another party for one of his best friends THE SAME DAY as LG’s birthday party. I asked my little sister to take LG’s portraits for me and she did a fantastic job! I also took a few myself and a couple of Caleb and them both together but it is so nice to have someone else’s point of view as well. All the outside photos of Lila Grace my sister took. Didn’t she do fantastic?!

Spring Is Here…FINALLY!

brandileephotographer — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 13:08:38 +0000

It felt like the longest WINTER! Snow, snow and more snow! I feel like we’ve been house bound for months! With the weather and the kids being sick so much I have been bouncing off the walls crazy! I am VERY happy to see that sun and have warm enough temperatures to venture outdoors. I am sure the kids are happy as well.

With warmer weather and Spring comes my favorite sport…SOCCER! Yay! Caleb just started his second season of soccer and I can tell such a difference from last year. He understands the drills and is now more of a leader and not a follower. I’m enjoying seeing how far he has come. With soccer being the only sport I ever really excelled at I was sad when Caleb wasn’t showing much interest but I didn’t want to be that parent that forced their kids to follow in their footsteps so I didn’t push him to do it this year. He simply asked to play and we said sure IF that is what he wanted. He said he really wanted to do it and hopefully he will make a goal this year! LOL!

I REALLY miss the green grass that I use to play on back in Washington!

Lila Grace is TWO!

brandileephotographer — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:27:28 +0000

I have been MIA for a LONG time. Sorry it has taken so long to do a post. I have had some major burn out! I am back now and hope to catch everyone up soon. First we will start with Lila Grace’s 2nd birthday.

I cannot believe my little girl is two years old already. She has grown and learned so much since last year. She LOVES her big brother and wants to tag along with him everywhere BUT she is a girly G.I.R.L. and I love it! It is wonderful having a boy and a girl. The best of both worlds.

We had a very small party for LG with family and a couple of close friends and I am so glad I did. It seems as though the kids have been sick since Thanksgiving and I really didn’t want a huge guest list if we were going to have to post pone or cancel. The kids all had a great time and I made homemade meatballs for the first time! Everything turned out great!

Thank you everyone who came! You made my little girl feel special!

Invitations-Do It Yourself

brandileephotographer — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 03:13:46 +0000

So my baby girl is going to be 2 in February. That’s right, I said 2! I can’t believe how time fly’s. I’m so proud of the person she is turning in to. She definitely has an opinion! So much so, that she picked her own theme for her party! It’s a relief to know what she likes and doesn’t. As you can tell, she likes PINK, Strawberry Shortcake and kitty cat’s!

The whole family helped me design this one. We saw a cute invite on the internet we liked and then we tweaked it to our taste. I think it turned out cute!

We also made a menu, place cards and gift tags.

We may or may not be eating this for dinner! LOL!

I'm going to cut these out for the place cards.

I have a 1.5 inch circle cutter that I'm going to use to cut these out to use as the gift bag tag/thank you's!

Hope this helps with a little inspiration!

Merry Christmas To ME! | The Organic Bloom Frames

brandileephotographer — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 02:07:57 +0000

So you all should know by now how excited I am about the Organic Bloom frames. Well, my sample set finally arrived a couple days before Christmas and I have them up. I love each and every one. I love them so much that I am already thinking about my next order! I think I have an illness.

My daughter "helping" me open the box.

16x20 Gilligan in Espresso

I love them!

5x5 Lewis Double Stack in French Vanilla and Apricot

You can see 3 of them on my family room wall!

I know these are not great product shots, but you can see what they look like on the wall. There are two 8x10's, two 5x5 double stacks and two, 5x7's on the wall with the t.v.

I hope to post more “product” shots later but this will have to do for now!

Also don’t forget about the Organic Bloom frame give away! You can read about the details here…http://wp.me/pDTIb-k4

***Deadline is January 1, 2011 at midnight eastern!***

If I don’t reach 500 fans by then, well then we will come up with something else LOL! Please help us reach our goal!

Wishes Do Come True!

brandileephotographer — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:28:52 +0000

My son kept telling me that it just isn’t going to be Christmas if it doesn’t snow. I kept telling him NOT to get his hopes up because this was the south and it never snows on Christmas. At least the 15 years I’ve lived here!

Well, low and behold…it started snowing Christmas night! We may have not been able to wake up Christmas morning to fresh snow but we did the day after! Thank you Lord for the extra special gift that made my children’s Christmas complete!

Caleb and his first snow man or snow baby.

This is VERY rare...a family photo!

My little snow angel.

When They Grow Up | Charlotte Area Children’s Photographer

brandileephotographer — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 01:49:05 +0000

I envy people who know from an early age, what they want to be when they grow up. They just “know.” How they “know” I have NO idea. I wish it would have rubbed off on me!

My little boy has said since he could talk at the age of two that he wants to be a “Doggie Doctor.” Well, the other day as we were leaving a restaurant we saw the Indian Land Dog Rescue and they had puppies up for adoption. Caleb and Lila Grace played with those puppies for at least 20 minutes and cried when we left. Caleb told the gentleman who runs the rescue how much he wanted to be a “Doggie Doctor” and the gentleman said how much he wished he was one now. I told Caleb he may change his mind and it’s okay if he does and he said he has “always wanted to be a Vet since I could remember!”

Lila Grace can’t talk yet but if she could, I think she would say that she wants to be Taylor Swift when she grows up. She loves to sing and dance and give us a show!

I think it is wonderful to have goals. I wish I would have been better at setting goals for myself. I am learning from my kids! They are so passionate and smart. I am so blessed to have them teaching me.

A lot Can Happen In A Year! | Charlotte Area Children’s Photographer

brandileephotographer — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 16:42:58 +0000

Let’s face it. Santa Claus can be plain intimidating! My son wasn’t sure of Santa Claus until last year when he was four. The first visit, he slept through it. His second, he looked stunned, like a deer dazed by headlights. His third, he FREAKED out!!! So last year was quite wonderful when he sat on his lap and smiled. He whispered in his ear what he would like…a Batman Cave…and looked VERY pleased with himself when the visit was over.

Lila Grace’s first visit to see Santa was not a success. You can see Caleb trying to console her in the photo below. We were a little nervous about Lila Grace this year. Especially after taking her to Christmasville in Rock Hill and her NOT liking the life size Snoopy or Coca Cola Polar Bear. This year she LOVED him! We told her what it was all about and she saw all the other kids sitting on his lap and smiling. She wanted to be a big girl and not cry too. We were VERY proud of her!

What To Give | Charlotte Area Portrait Photographer

brandileephotographer — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 18:55:47 +0000

Most of my family lives 3,000 miles away so they miss a lot. So every Christmas I do a “Year In Review” where I so a video album of all the year’s photos and video’s to music and then I burn it to a DVD and give to my family as Christmas presents.

I got the idea because I worked in news for so many years and every year we did what we call “Year Enders.” It’s a big hit and my family EXPECTS them every year! It is a fun way for us to see how much the kids have changed and accomplished as well.

Here is the design I did this year. I just took my Christmas card design and made a trifold out of it, bought C.D. hubs and ta-da…isn’t “Year in Review!”

I hope you love everything you GIVE this year!

Merry Christmas|Charlotte Area Portrait Photographer

brandileephotographer — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 21:16:49 +0000

I had the sweetest vision for our Christmas cards this year. My sweet angels under the beautiful red leafed tree at my mother in-laws. Them smiling at their mommy, loving the memories that we were making.

What was I thinking?! They refused to smile for me, kept running off and wined.

I deleted all the bad photos but here is one I did save of the beginning of the shoot.

Do you see the pout on my daughters face and the fake smile on my son’s? yah…and that’s the one I didn’t delete.

So what to do?

Bring out candy canes of course!

Here is what I got after I bribed them with sugar.

No to bad, right! See, even photographers have “moment’s” with their own kids.

They lasted about 10 minutes. But, I got my perfect Christmas card pic.