. . .my children agree to allow me to photograph them.

When I was in North Carolina last month, I had the pleasure of meeting Stephanie of La Lumiere Photography. Stephanie wanted a few portraits of herself to give to her husband who will very soon be returning to Iraq. Our session was cut short due to rain, but we did get to sit and drink coffee and talk shop which was such a nice treat for me. Stephanie, I’m sorry these took so long. You are beautiful and I am so glad I got to meet you!

We’re back from a wonderful week in North Caroline. Senior season is upon me, so I am hitting the ground running. My children don’t really cooperate for photographs (photographer’s child syndrome) but I did manage to get in a few snapshots of our time together. Seeing my kids run free at the beach makes me very, very happy:)

This is pretty typical of what happens when we try to do “portraits.”

My saturday session needed to be rescheduled due to the snow. So I spent the day making a slideshow of Ben and Jennifer’s wedding instead.

This is what my street looked like by mid morning. Notice the plow trucks had not even made it to us yet.

The kids were so excited about our first big snow. Well, the little ones at least. My oldest was supposed to be taking his driver’s test.

Today is the first day I feel almost ready to relax and enjoy Christmas. The gifts are all purchased, the decorations are up, and the cookies are baked. The dusting and sweeping may just wait until next year.

I thought I would share some of our recent activities. First the tree. Our tree doesn’t have a theme. All of the decorations are either home made or were given to us as gifts. The kids hang the ornaments themselves, in a way that would give Martha Stewart nightmares, but I am fine with it just as it is. Which either makes me really relaxed or just too darn lazy to fix it. Some branches have clusters of ornaments all clumped together, while other parts of the tree are nearly bare.

We lived in Alaska for 5 years and we still have family there so there are a lot of Alaskan themed ornaments.

The star at the top is made from aluminum foil. My husband made it our first Christmas together. It was all we could afford at the time. Now it is priceless.

She’s always in the middle of everything. . .

The Christmas Village on top of the piano. Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t like a lot of stuff sitting around except for maybe pictures! I think it stems from all of the dusting I had to do as a kid. No knick-knacks! But a few years ago my mom bought my daughter this little lighted up Christmas house.  So now I let the kids pick out a new building every year to add to the collection.  They love this village to much that last year they didn’t let me take it down until April.

Baking with kids is very, very messy. It requires a lot of patience. I really have to set aside an entire day to devote to this, which isn’t always easy. But in the end, the results are worth it. I remember how much fun it was to help make cookies when I was a kid and I really want my kids to have the same wonderful memories. But I gotta tell you, it’s a lot of pressure! This year I was really tempted to buy pre-made dough but I somehow managed to find the time/patience/courage to make everything from scratch. The gingerbread house is from a kit (it’s the only way to go!).

Scroll down if you can’t see the start arrow. If you have been unable to post a comment, I have fixed the problem.

I had been my intention to close Bonnie Burman Photography for the entire month of December. As it turned out, I didn’t finish packaging and shipping all of November’s orders until today. I also have one upcoming session that was postponed from November. But other than that, I am taking a break until after Christmas. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I will try to find some images to post, but I really won’t be posting any sessions for a while.

First the business: Everyone who has placed an order as of today (11/30) should have their orders by the end of the week. The exceptions are albums which take longer.

Now the personal: Although I don’t write much about myself or my family here on the blog, when I meet my clients in person we always end up talking about our kids with each other. I’m a child and family photographer so it makes sense! Many of you know I have a wide age range of children. My oldest is now officially no longer a child as he just turned 18. My sister was in town last weekend so I asked her to shoot his senior portraits. Check them out. In case you wondered, he’s 6′7″ but I think he has finally stopped growing.

So I rarely post anything personal here on the blog. But I wanted to share a shot from my son’s birthday party today. I always love when my kids get to be with their cousins.  I asked my sister to get a shot of the 4 youngest cousins together by the cake and this is the best we could do. . .

Moms and Brides should check out Lucy’s Pocket, owned by one of my clients. She offers a beautiful selection of custom embroidered diaper covers, bibs, linens and more, right here in the Pittsburgh area.

Have a safe and Happy 4th of July. I’m taking the weekend off to spend time with my family. I’ll be back at my desk on Monday.