A little preoccupied...

So, now that I have my photography blog up and running, I have been slightly neglectful of The Little Loop... (tail between legs...) sorry!
Here are some pics I took of little missy at my dad's last weekend for Chris's (leslie's bf) birthday!






I love these pictures of Lorelai cracking up and just being a toddler. She is SO much fun these days and is developing the craziest personality that is always keeping me laughing! (Especially when she is half asleep...) She is going to start Mother's Day Out in the fall and while I know she is going to have SO much fun, I also know I'm going to miss having her around every day all day. I am SO blessed to be able to stay home and be the one raising her and teaching her to love God and to be a kind baby. I am SO blessed to have a husband that supports his family by going to work every day and supporting this decision for me to be at home.
Happy Father's Day, love!

Hope everyone has a great day and thanks God for their daddy/husband!

New Blog!

Ok friends and family, my new photography blog is up and running! Go check out my first post, and check back later today or tomorrow for the next one!

Remember- the new blog is ONLY for my photography shoots and practicing. Keep this blog bookmarked for personal/Lorelai related posts!

Hope everyone likes it!

http://deliberatelychicphotography.blogspot.com/

Ella and Lorelai...

We went over to my Aunt Melissa's last week to see sweet Ella (My cousin's little girl...would that make her Lorelai's 2nd cousin, and my 1st cousin once removed???) I was hoping to get some pics of another beautiful little girl to put in my photography portfolio....but my goodness, Ella is FAST! I was sweating and out of breath by the time we were done attempting to take pictures of these two! We did get some keepers, though!


















After picture taking the girls took a bath together and Lorelai helped Ella get ready for night night- complete with a night-night kiss! Such sweet girls.

Thanks to everyone for the business name suggestions! As of right now, I am really still in love with the original name I picked. I'm starting out with just a blog website until I start making money that I want to put towards a real website...hoping to have it up and running by the end of the week!
Stay Tuned!

Brainstorming...

Well my friends, I think the time has come for me to set up a separate website to show any pictures that I am taking that are not Lorelai- related. For those of you who don't know, I am seriously and prayerfully considering starting my own (not full-time) photography business sometime next year. I have found someone who is (crazy enough) sweet enough to mentor me and help sharpen my skills and I'm going to be practicing alot this summer. One Problem! I want this new website to have the name of my possible-future-photography-business, and I have yet to think of a name! I have a pretty good one that I'm really, really liking, but it was suggested to me to try and incorporate "Little" into the title since it is a fun last name. And, I've got NOTHING. Anyone have any suggestions? You won't win anything....except my eternal gratitude :) Let me know some ideas, you creative people, you! (p.s. your ideas do not necessarily have to have "little" in them)

Go team!

Beach Buddies!

This past weekend we had our first chance to slip away to the beach house with a couple of friends for the weekend since Ike hit. It was crazy to see how destroyed the island still was, but I know it had to look better than it did those first couple of months! Driving down Bob Smith in Jamaica Beach there were sooooo many houses with sagging decks, caved in roofs, some were even crumbled to the ground. My father-in-law's beach house is in recovery mode and was fully functional, but it just didn't look the same (yet, that is....contractor is at work!) Anyways- our friends from church, Jared and Amanda and daughter Peyton who is a few months older than Lorelai came with us and it was SO cute to see the girls play together! Peyton is SOOOOO energetic (seriously Amanda....how do you do it???) Lorelai has her crazy moments and is quite a quirky child, but energetic she is not! She would just stand there watching Peyton run around and smile at her- free entertainment! Peyton loooooooved "WorWie" (Lorelai) and Lorelai loooooooved PeyPey. At one point, Amanda and I were cooking in the kitchen and looked over to see the girls just standing there in a hug, looking out the window. Priceless. (No, I didn't get a pic- these kids are fast. I did get a hug picture at the beach, though!) At one point, the girls were eating snacks and Peyton decided she wanted to sample some of what Lorelai was eating. Lorelai is pretty possessive of her food and has learned to defend herself from the dogs trying to eat food out of her hands....and so she spent most of the rest of the weekend, very authoratively telling Peyton "no! No! NO!" It was cute. We did manage to run down to the beach for a couple of hours Saturday in between passing rainclouds.







*Friends*


"You tell anyone about this- let's just say, I'll have my people take care of you."

Sweet little Peyton


This was the first beach trip Lorelai has ever been on that did NOT involve an ear infection (twice last summer...) and she loved every minute of it! Shawn and I swam out knee-deep with her and played in the waves- she would laugh and laugh when the waves crashed in front of her, and as soon as that wave was gone- she would do her sign language and say "more? more? more?" It was SO cute. My little beach babe!

NO TRESPASSING

....is what the sign (that we ignored) said. Hey, Lindsay and I tried to knock on these people's front door and ask permission....but they weren't home. So, naturally, we pretended we didn't see the signs (there were three of them...) and took pictures anyway. HA! We went way too early in the afternoon, so we didn't get a whole lot of good ones, but we got a few:





On the way home, I was feeling inspired, and remembered Lindsay had told me about a spot that wasn't too far. So, naturally, I kept going. The suitcase featured in this pictures was given to me by my Grandma Shirle for my birthday (It was her high-school graduation present!) and I thought this was a cool way to incorporate it into our life. (Don't worry Grandma, we were very careful with it!) Lorelai just sat so sweetly and let me snap away...

Post numero Uno

Okay, so i know many of you have been patiently waiting for me to post pics of our new kitchen, and yesterday, for some reason, the stars aligned: the kitchen was clean, and I had a second to grab my camera. Here it is!



Beautiful.
I LOVE cooking in this place. When the sink is empty. And the counters are clean.

Next up: naked Lorelai on the deck! Shawn was outside watering the plants, and Lorelai decided to help out. She had already gotten herself soaked, so i stripped her down and let her have a little toddler fun.



Next up: trespassing in the name of wildflowers and vintage luggage!