Ten on Ten: February

Sunday was a bit of a blur between sleeping a bit too late, trying an attempt at positive reinforcement, racing to church in the rain, driving downtown to a birthday party, and then finally hitting the beach for a maternity session.  A busy, but full Sunday.

At the end of my session, I took a moment on the beach by myself (the cold beach, I might add), to just be....and I have to say that was the highlight of my day.

Mini Sessions with the "Momtog" herself, Drew!

For the last three years or so, I have followed and drooled over Drew Bittel's photography, first through her website, Momtog, and then through her actual photography blog/website, Drew B Photography.

I love her style, her use of light, and her knack for simple, clean editing of bright, bold colors.

I have pinned a ridiculous number of her photos for inspiration in my own sessions.

I never thought I would get a chance to have her shoot our family because she is so crazy good that people are willing (and should) pay her a lot of money.  

When she posted a few weeks ago on Facebook that she was thinking about doing some Valentine Mini sessions at her studio in Fullerton (Orange County), my heart did a little leap.

I went ahead and quickly replied, "YES!" because not only did I want some cute stylized shoot pictures of my kids, but I also wanted to meet Drew in person and see this girl work!

 I'm so glad I did.  Drew is so warm, down to earth, and sweet I felt like I was meeting a friend.

I am such a photo nerd that I was as excited to meet her as I was to meet Ellen....no lie.  The session, was so quick and smooth, and my kids actually cooperated....success!

Here are some quick pics I shot with my iphone in her studio....

 How cute are her backdrops and props?  I was like a kid in a candy store.

This would be my dream.

So I drove back to San Diego yesterday and was still giddy about our morning.  While checking facebook during the big game (about an hour after she wrapped all of our sessions), I saw Drew post this......

and I almost died.

And then she gave me a little sneak peek on Instagram......

I don't know how she does it.  She had eight sessions yesterday.  Not only did she put out a sneak peek yesterday but she sent me my pics TODAY.  It takes me almost a week to get through a session....clearly I need to learn some new tricks....and skills.  =)

So, here are the pics!  And yes, I'm going to put all of them up here.  Even the ones where Graham is making the weird face....because it's still a cute weird face. =)

 

LOVE.

One month down...

I'll make this short and sweet, but I can't lie...I'm pretty proud of myself. =)

I set out at the beginning of the year (actually about an hour after I took that first pic of Addison) and decided I was going to try and take a picture of each kid with my phone EVERY DAY of the year.  

I'm sure those that follow me on instagram (mbparsons), are getting sick of seeing the pictures every day....and there are some days that are a little less inspirational than others, but I thought it would be so cool to look back at the end of the year and be able to literally see what we did every day.

One month down, we'll see if I can keep this going.....