Major cool points for this mama

 

 

When Franny was a baby I vowed not to play kid music for her, hoping to avoid the endless replaying of Raffi (nothing against Raffi, seriously, but you know what I mean, right?). This backfired when Franny became obsessed with the music of Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Journey and Rihanna (umbrella, ella, ella...). It turns out, any music on constant repeat gets old fast. The girl is now over four, and though her favorite musicians include the Decemberists, Donovan, Carole King and the Beatles, she also really digs Kimya Dawson, "The Maybe Giants" (They Might Be Giants), and Portland kindy rock star Mo Phillips. We love Mo's music, and though we are extremely excited about his upcoming album, we have not grown tired of the last one, which we play very regularly. I find myself singing the songs when Franny isn't even around, and I never cringe when she asks me to play his music. So when Mr. Phillips rang me up and asked that I provide him with some fun new photos to use for promotion of his new album, I agreed to it, of course, set up the details, hung up the phone, and ran into Franny's room: "Guess who just called Mommy?!!!" It is true that I had already met and photographed Mo, but that day he was Mo the father and husband (and soccer player), so when I blogged those photos I didn't even drop his name. But this time around I was photographing the celebrity Mo Phillips, and I earned major cool points with my preschooler; she sat on my lap while I edited the photos, chose her favorites, and giggled a lot. "Mo Phillips is SO goofy." She's got that right.

 

If you live in Portland and have children, you should definitely check out a live Mo Phillips show. If you don't live in Portland, you should order his CD. Mo and I have a little something else up our sleeves, but you'll have to wait until April to find out about it. Happy weekend!

He calls her Red.

 

 

 First session of the year found me catching up with this beautiful, loving St. Johns family, a living room full of nice light, a happy baby, and a visit to foggy Cathedral Park. I'm loving 2012 so far!

2nd Annual Valentine's Mini Sessions at Black Wagon

Posies Bakery & Cafe just joined in on the fun by offering to provide mini red velvet cupcakes for each participant. This event just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter!

Happy New Year

Our Year

You invite me into your homes and your world so often, I thought it would be nice to end the year by inviting you into ours. Here is what 2011 looked like for us. 

January

We said a fond farewell to long hair and, gulp, pigtails.

February

An unexpected snow day.

March.

April

 April brought us bunnies.

May

In May my girl discovered Annie and spent a good six to eight weeks only wearing red, singing the songs (constantly) and requiring us to refer to her as "Annie," which, thankfully, is very close to her actual name.

June

First day of the St Johns Farmer's Market, tired by ready.

In June we spent a week in lovely Vancouver, BC.

July

All summer long I came home from photo sessions to heart-bursting father/daughter scenes like this. 

Franny's first real person drawing (looks like a lion to me) was not of mom or dad, nor herself, but of our beloved nanny, Abbi. There are no less than three A's on there, just in case you can't tell it's Abbi.

August 

We did Pickathon and loved it. 

September

She looks for him every morning when we come downstairs and snugs him like this until he just can't take it anymore. (Please ignore the dirty kitchen floor.)

October

My girl turned 4.

2011 was without question the year of the unicorn.

November

Our Thanksgiving princess.

On December 1st I turned 35 and the sun shined all day, and pretty much all month, with rain holding off until the 25th. December 2011 was my favorite December in recent memory. 

Nutcracker. 

Christmas Eve. Why yes, there is a fire burning, on our television. Twenty points for the first person to spot the hidden unicorn in this photo.

Christmas morning. 

Thirteen years ago I went home from a New Year's Eve party with this guy. That worked out pretty well, I'd say.

And that's it. 

I hope you come back for more in 2012, I'm really excited to see what it brings us.

xo, pq 

Top 11 of Twenty Eleven

You know how I have a really hard time picking a favorite? Yeah, well I've spent the last week culling through a year's worth of photos, a really fabulous year. I came up with my favorite 50, 57, 52... and settled on 54, posted them on Facebook, and then painfully narrowed it down to a top eleven for this here blog.

I'll be honest, I don't know if these are really the best eleven, but they are the photos screaming at me the loudest right now. The year's end brings so much reflecting upon what was, and what will be, and I'll tell you, looking back at 2011 gives me that overwhelming, holler it from the mountain tops, I've said it before and will say it again feeling of I LOVE YOU GUYS.

You can see all 54 selected photos here, and vote for your favorite. Clearly I cannot pick just one, and yet, I would love to know what YOU think the best of 2011 was, because, after all, this is all about you. Okay, it's a little about me but it's mostly YOU.

Happy new year, and a big fat XO from me to you.