I’m so proud of myself.  I made it all the way through January with my 366 days of Kennedy project and I only cheated once.  Okay, fine.  I cheated twice, darn it.  But, that’s pretty good, right?  I know I will be super happy when I have a finished project.  Only 334 days left to go!

If you’d like to follow my 366 day project my username on Instagram is drewbphoto

Exactly one year ago I did something spontaneous and crazy.  Well, not super spontaneous because I had been dreaming about it since they day I decided to become a photographer.  Exactly one year ago I signed the lease on my very first studio.  To say it was bad timing was an understatement.  I was pregnant with Kennedy, I was crazy busy with DrewB Photography and with Mom*tog.  But, I saw an opportunity to grow my newborn side of my business and I took it.

I was never really able to invest the time in that studio to make it what I really wanted.  I think maybe I knew in the back of my mind that I wasn’t going to be there for long.  I loved it and it worked for me, but I guess I just knew something better would come along.  Before I renewed my lease I decided to look and make sure there wasn’t a better space for me.  Low and behold I found the most PERFECT space.  It’s amazing.  AND it has EXPOSED BRICK!  That’s not something that you can find very easily in Orange County.  The building I’m in now is almost 100 years old.  It has character, charm, and gorgeous light (and a ghost, apparently).

Yesterday I went back to my old studio to pick up a couple of things that were left behind and I got so sad.  It was my first space and I loved it.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was mine.  I worked hard for it.  And it is fun to see your dreams become a reality.

I snapped these shots early the morning that we moved out.  The light wasn’t ideal (so don’t go Pinning these, people!), but I wanted to remember my first studio.

This is my client meeting area / hanging out area when I’m shooting.

I tried to have a cozy and kind of private place for moms to feed their babies.  This is the comfiest rocker.  It’s from Target and was cheap!

This is where I shoot my newborns (Kennedy says hi!).

And this is all of my props.  They are tucked behind a curtain, which you can kind of see in the first picture.

I wanted to go back and get a picture of me with the kids in front of my window, but my landlord took it down before I was able to do that  Here’s an iphone picture I took right after it went up last year.

I promise I won’t wait a year until I post pictures of the new place.  It already looks so great.  Everything fit perfectly, which I took as a sign that it was the right move for me.  Can’t wait for you all to see it!

No one said learning how to sit is easy…

Canon 5D Mark II, 50 1.2

F 2.0, 1/160, ISO 640

*** No babies were harmed during this shoot.  Kennedy thinks falling is funny

If you can deal with the traffic, smog, ridiculously high costs of living, and EARTHQUAKES, Southern California isn’t that bad of a place to live.  Especially when it’s 85 degrees at the beach.  In January.

This was Kennedy’s very first trip to the beach.  She didn’t hate it.

5 days later we drove an hour and a half and spent the weekend up in the mountains.  There wasn’t a lot of snow left.  But, the boy found enough to make a couple of snow balls.

And he loved hunting for pine cones.

This whole outing lasted for about 5 minutes and then he had to go back in the cabin because he was FREEZING.  It was in the high forties.  Thank goodness we don’t live in Minnesota or Alaska.  There’s no way we could survive!

Dear Kennedy,

Can you slow down?  Please?  5 months went by in the blink of an eye.  I want to freeze this stage.  It’s my favorite.  The “super happy, content baby” stage.  The “I can give you a million kisses stage and you won’t smack me (like your big brother)” stage.  The “I laugh at anything” stage.  The “Mom, you are the coolest person in the whole, wide world” stage.  The “non-mobile before the chaos of crawling and walking starts” stage.

I want to bottle you up right now.  Your cute babbles and your chunky thighs.  Your HUGE gummy smile and your sparkling eyes.

I know you can’t stay like this forever.  And I’m okay with that.  Because who is going to be my shopping and mani/pedi partner if you don’t grow up.  I’m just doing my best to cherish every, single second of this stage.  My favorite stage.

Love,

Mama

Happy Monday!

Canon 5D Mark II, 50 1.2

F 1.6, 1/100, ISO 1600

Last year I attempted to do Project 365 and failed miserably.  Within the first week.

This year I’m doing much better.  I’ve made it to day 11 so far and I’m motivated to keep going because all of the pictures are of this cute girl:

I think it will be fun to document her and a lot of her firsts over the next 366 days.  Yes, because it’s leap year I have to do one extra day!

I’m posting all of my images on Instagram (username: drewbphoto) and I plan on putting all the images on this cute poster when I’m done!

Are you doing a Project 366?

Earlier this week I started “sleep training” Kennedy.  That sounds much more hardcore than it really is.  I’m really just trying to get her to nap in her crib once a day.  So I can actually get something done while she sleeps.  On day one she screamed her head off for about half an hour.  After going in and comforting her 10 times and turning on the white noise app on my iphone she fell asleep for about half an hour.  Then she woke up.  Pissed.

Yesterday was better.  She actually fell asleep with no crying at all.  And stayed asleep for 45 minutes.  Begineers luck?  I’m not sure.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it works again tomorrow!

Canon 5D Mark II, 50 1.2

F 1.2, 1/125, ISO 1600

Some of my favorite images of my kids are when they are sleeping.  I always ask myself, is the shot worth the risk of waking them up?  If it is I:

1)  Wait until it’s close to the end of nap time to attempt the shot.  That way if they wake up it’s no big deal.

2)  Try to determine what my settings should be before taking the shot.  If they wake up or if their eyes open you can run out of the room really fast and hope they go back to sleep!  :)

3)  Turn off the flash!  That’s a sure fire way to wake your baby up.  You can see from my setting above that I had my aperture wide open and my ISO up super high.  I’m a little shaky (especially when my aperture is wide open) so I don’t like to go below 1/100 in my shutter speed.

4)  Turn the beep off!  Another sure fire way to wake your kid up!

5)  If they stay asleep during the first few clicks, they will probably keep sleeping.  Try a few different angles and adjust your settings if necessary!

Happy New Year, Mom*togs!  I hope you did something more exciting than I did.  Yep.  In bed again before midnight.  But, the baby woke me up at 12:15 so I guess I was kind of up to celebrate.

In honor of the New Year I wanted to look back and choose my top 11 favorite images of 2011.  Always fun to take a look back on the past year while thinking ahead to all the exciting possibilities of a new year!

11)  Brayden’s new favorite place in 2011 was Sea World.  In fact, we spent New Years Eve there!  I love this shot because it reminds me of the wonder of being a kid.  How everything is always “so cool”.  This was also our last trip down to San Diego before Kennedy.  Our last little trip as a family of 3.

10)  I recreated one of my very favorite shots that I took of Brayden and Hauggy with Kennedy.  As soon as I found out I was pregnant I was excited to do this!

9)  Announcing to the world that were pregnant!  Crazy that this wasn’t even a year ago.  We didn’t know that we were having a girl yet.  It’s amazing how that little blob in the ultrasound is now our Kennedy.  Amazing.

 This shot makes me so happy.  I took this from my hospital bed.  It was before I was up and walking.  It was Brayden’s second time meeting his baby sister.

7)  Last year I discovered the joys of my remote trigger.  And I got to finally be in some of the shots!

6)  This shot is just pure happiness.  Love that kid.

5)  Kennedy at 2 days old.  First shots I took of her.

4)  One of my greatest accomplishments – both kids napping at the same time.  It had to be documented!

3)  Testing the light for a shot and Hauggy just had to sneak in there.  Love when happy accidents turn into my favorite shots.

2)  2011 was the year of the super hero.  I don’t know where he got that look from, but it cracks me up!

1)  The last of the belly shots.  The belly shots were a labor of love, but I’m so happy I have them to look back on.  This one is by far my favorite!  She’s much cuter out of the belly than in the belly!

What were your favorite shots of 2011?  Would love to see them in Real Mom*togs!

Canon 5D Mark II, 50 1.2

F 2.0, 1/125, ISO 200

Shirt from Little Wellies