Oh No, She Got a New Lens

Oh yes I did, and look out! You will be seeing quite a few images posted in the next week or 2. I'm so excited!!! My portrait lens :) YEAH! Such a wonderful, thoughtful gift from my hubby. He is so awesome. Yet, he doesn't know what he's done. I am now in love with my lens. Sorry, Jamie. It's true. I slept with it last night. I held it all morning. I just told it how much I love it. And just to prove my affection is justified... look at these amazing photos...

Okay, if you don't notice a difference, no offense. But I do. Do I ever. Especially when I have the photo up in PhotoShop and I click to view the actual pixels... WOW. What a difference! I mean, it's love. But if you do notice a difference - anything - let me know! I need to know the truth in my lovesick-ness. :) Keep it real for me, please.

And of course I have to show you some of my Alissa. She was busy cooking and grilling at the time. I set her to work for Christmas. It was about time she helped with the food :)

I hope you all had a wonderful, and very Merry Christmas. We wish you the best for the holidays and a fabulous New Year.

Merry Christmas! Love, the Ferreiras

Well, we wish you a very Merry Christmas! I hope your day is full of fun plans and exciting moments and yummy YUMMY food :)

Today, so far, we have made Christmas cookies (again) and watched several Christmas shows... Jamie is coming home early from work, so he's bringing lunch and then I'll give the kids a bath, a nap, then it's time for the Christmas Eve Candlelight service.

Tomorrow we have our annual special breakfast and just chill out all day. No family this year. Everyone is up in Michigan (and New York), so, it's going to be a quiet one. And I'm a little sad, but we'll still have a great time hanging out together and enjoying the quiet. And we have the Skype thing, so we'll be able to see everyone - in jammies and no makeup, I'll be a scary sight :)

So, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and if you are hanging out without family, too, we'll all enjoy the quiet and the non-stress together :)

Love,
The Ferreiras

Christmas Cookies With My Girls

This year Alissa is bigger and older, so I thought I would give her a whirl with helping me make some Christmas cut-out cookies. Why not. The dough can't be mashed too much, or broken, or anything else too crazy that can't be fixed. So I set her to work rolling the dough out. I've never her seen her so happy and so determined. It was so precious - so, of course, I grabbed my camera. I wanted to remember this moment forever. She really did so good with rolling it out. I was so impressed.

Such a determined face. She may be a professional dough roller someday.

And my Avery was having fun making a mess with the cookie cutters. And 2 cans of play dough. Whatever makes her happy. As long as she can't open the play dough and smear it everywhere. Or put it in the cookie dough.

I know the cutter was backwards, but she was so cute. I just watched :)

And she was so happy to make her first cutout. She gave it a happy pat. Awww.

Now, it's time for the star. Again, a happy pat.

Last, the candy cane. She concluded she couldn't fit anymore cookie cutters on the 2 inch thick dough she rolled. Now, we never ended up baking these three... but she did have so much fun. I was so glad I caught these images. They make my heart warmer than the cookies made my tummy :) And they were good cookies. Oh yes. 4 sticks of butter. That will make anything warm.

Our Baby Hailey

I just have to show you some images from the shoot with my niece, Hailey. She is the most adorable thing, she looks like a baby doll right out of the toy store... only real and you can play with her! You can't tell from these pictures, but she is so funny and so strong! I call her my little Hercules. Whenever she brings something to you, she will scream and lift it over her head. And it's a particular scream, too. I knew that whenever I heard that scream, look out. Here she comes. And sure enough, she has the rocking horse lifted over her head. Next, the little kid's stroller. Next, Avery. No, just joking. I'm sure if Avery would stay still enough for her, she would be next. Hailey is just that strong. And she can climb something at lightning speed. I told my sister to skip all the toys this Christmas and install a rock climbing wall in her room. At least she would know what she is scaling at any given moment :) Well, that's some info about our baby Hailey. Now, here are some ADORABLE photos of her...

A Day in the Park (Perdido Key Park)

Another fun thing we did while my family was visiting (after the flu drama was over) was take the kids to this new park in Perdido Key. It was so nice! It has a huge swing area, lots of slides, and even a really pretty nature trail. The girls loved it. I brought my camera, but I didn't get many detail shots of the park itself - what was I thinking? I should've been thinking - oh, this would be a great blog, so I should get some details. But no, I was trying out new settings on my camera and as usual, just kept shooting pics of the kiddos. But at least I took my camera :) So, here are a few that I got while we were there.

I'm not sure about these new faces my girl is making for the camera lately...

Avery is munching on a chicken nugget. What would moms do without those things?

My niece - she's so pretty :)

And sooooo sweet :)

Daddy & Avery. Just a cute picture.

Avery has no fear.

Alissa... lots of fear :) But she did really really good down the slides this time. At least she didn't have to ride on someone's lap.

Christmas is Coming - the goose is getting fat...

Sorry - I just love that Muppet's Christmas song - have you heard it? It's so cute. It's a round with Miss Piggy with everyone chiming in, and by the end it's chaos... so cute. Ok, anyway, the point of this post -

It's not too late to book the Christmas Mini Session and have some cards made! Hurry - I have a few spots left, and there's still enough time to get it done. But you need to call/email now. Here are a couple really cute cards I did recently...

So, call me or email me and get this done before 2009 gets here - and it's coming fast!

Saturday Morning in Seville Square

I just finished a family shoot I did from Saturday and I am so excited how great they turned out, I just had to share. These kids are the sweetest in the world - they just love each other so much. I can't help but smile when I look through these photos. It was such a fun shoot!

To Catch You Up....

Well, it's been awhile since I've written. Very sorry. I think I was frantic getting ready for Thanksgiving with my family coming to visit from California and south Florida... and THEN everyone caught the stomach flu while they were here... the violent painful kind. It was awful. And I caught it Thanksgiving afternoon... right before dinner was ready. So while everyone sat down to the fabulous meal we prepared...

I was sitting up and running to the bathroom. And my little Avery had it, so this was her face when I sat her down to dinner. Poor thing... I felt the exact same way.

3 days later we felt better, but then it was someone else's turn... So several days, and 4 Clorox Anywhere Spray bottles later, we were all feeling better and ready to eat something again. My first thought was - at least none of us had to worry about gaining weight this Thanksgiving =) I see the good in things.

Then we decided to visit the outdoor mall in Spanish Fort, AL. The Eastern Shore Centre. I brought my camera along and snapped a few photos of my girls by the fountain and the little statues. That place is so nice to visit this time of year with all of the Christmas decorations and the big tree. It's so beautiful and not too far from my house. Not to mention, the shopping is FABULOUS.

And then a few days after that we were all well enough to play out in the yard and enjoy our time together... so I snapped a few photos of my beautiful Alissa and my adorable niece Hailey outside by the swing set. Finally, everyone was happy and healthy again. sigh.

It will be a Thanksgiving none of us will forget, that's for sure.