Belated Valentine - Child Photographer Cedar Park & Leander

On Adalyn's first Valentines Day I started a new tradition (even though I didn't know it was a tradition at that time). I took a picture of her and used it to make a Valentines Day card for my husband. Last year, I decided to do the same thing because it made a cute card and because I liked the idea of capturing her at the same time of year every year to mark her growth. I actually blogged about it here.

This year, our Valentines Day session was a little delayed because of all the cold weather, but we finally got it done. I think I can now officially say it is a tradition. (YAY! I love traditions - even though I am horrible at keeping up with them.)

This year marked Aubrey's first Valentines session - I love that girl so much.

Her smile lights up her whole face.

Photographers children, I have heard, are particularly difficult to photograph (especially for their photographer parent). Adalyn used to love to pose for my camera, but those days are now gone. Maybe it is because she sees the camera in front of my face too much, but now she just acts like there is no camera, nothing special going on and she WILL NOT look at me. UGH! I am going to have to come up with some new tricks for the future. Luckily I managed to capture this truly genuine smile. THAT is my baby girl - 100%.

More pictures from this session to come soon..... :)

So Fun - Dorean Pope Photography

Yesterday we had snow here. It was the kind of snow that I haven't seen since I lived in Indiana as a child. It was falling from the sky in great huge clumps of what must have been 50 snow flakes stuck together. It was amazing and beautiful to see. At our house it snowed all day long - from about 7 AM to 7 PM. Since we live in Central Texas and snow isn't a very common occurrence, we took full advantage of it. The day pretty much revolved around the snow - watching it and playing in it. Not much else was accomplished, but it was worth it! We had a great time playing in it and letting Adalyn get out in it. She enjoyed it for a little while until the wet seeped through her gloves and she couldn't stand it any more. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we took the time to enjoy it since it probably wont snow like that again here for another 10 years!!

I only took my little point and shoot camera outside with me (I call it my Mommy camera) - since everything got wet quickly. Nothing fancy about these pictures, but they are cherished memories.

Getting Ready For Baby - Cedar Park Maternity Photographer

I just finished editing this mini-maternity session and I couldn't help but come back to share a few more of my favorites. You can click on the images to enlarge them.

Happy Monday!!

Zoo Book - Dorean Pope Photography

The other day I got an offer in my inbox for a free photo book from Shutterfly. I have used their services in the past for sharing family photos and for ordering here and there (**disclaimer - I don't use them for business ordering). I love a good deal and anything free automatically gets my attention, so I decided to put some pictures together from our recent visit to the zoo. Oh my goodness, the book turned out SO WELL if I do say so myself. It was super easy (all I did was upload the photos and pick a theme, they automatically put all the pictures on the pages). I just thought I would share my success to encourage all you moms out there that scapbooking your digital images IS possible and easy. Now I have a book to document Adalyn & Aubrey's first trip to the zoo. Adalyn loves looking at it to see pictures of the animals we saw on our trip.

Have a great Thursday!

Dorean

New Website!! - Austin Photographer

I'm so excited to share with you my recent project. This business has existed on the web, up to this point, entirely on this blog and facebook. Over the last few weeks I have been setting up an actual website for Dorean Pope Photography. It was a lot of fun to go through and pick out some of my most favorite images to put together galleries. If you have a second, please check it out and let me know what you think. The website can be found at http://www.doreanpope.com/ and as always, the blog can be found at http://www.doreanpope.blogspot.com/.

It is still (and will probably always be) a work in progress, but IT'S A START!!! Yay! :)

Lovely - Cedar Park Maternity Portraits

We had to reschedule this mini maternity session a couple of times because of all the rainy, cold weather we've had lately. Lucky for us, the last time we rescheduled it was for this past Saturday. I'm so happy we got our session in before the cold and rain came back. Saturday was such a lovely day and we had fun getting some keepsake maternity portraits for this family. Isn't she lovely? I love the pregnant glow. :)

If you are expecting and plan to schedule a newborn session after your little one arrives, think about adding a mini-maternity session. Maternity portraits are a really special addition to any baby book or nursery. Even though you may not feel like you look your best, I guarantee that you ARE lovely and this is a really special time that should not be forgotten.

A New Perspective - Austin Portrait Photographer

To all the girls out there - check out this site if you are bored at some point and looking for something to kill time online. I think it is a neat concept.

In other news, Aubrey is back to waking up a couple times a night. She took the bottle for 2 nights and now refuses to drink the formula. Ugh! Maybe I will talk to her pedi about moving her to milk early. She is SUCH a busy girl, it wouldn't surprise me if she is hungry all the time. That girl works out ALL DAY LONG.

I'm excited to finally get to shoot a maternity session tomorrow. With all this cold weather and rain we have had to reschedule a couple of times, but the forcast for tomorrow looks promising.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Dorean

Wordless Wednesday - Leander Family & Child Photographer

Sleep...Leander Child & Portrait Photographer

Sleep, beautiful sleep!! Last night, Aubrey slept from 9:00 PM to 4:30 AM. I know that might not sound too special, but let me tell you - it is an AMAZING thing! My sweet little angel hasn't been the best sleeper. It is very normal for her to wake up two even three times every night wanting to be fed and rocked back to sleep. Which was fine when she was 2 months or even 4 months old but she is now going on 9 months old. Can you imagine not having a full night of sleep for NINE MONTHS!?!? (Some of you moms out there are nodding your heads and saying, "YES!" - I can just see you doing it.) "Just let her cry it out" you might say. "You have never heard Aubrey cry", I say to you. This sweet baby cries like the world is coming to an end. It breaks my heart and my sleep deprived brain tells me to just pick her up! "What changed?," you might ask. I'm embarrassed to admit how simple it was.... I gave her a bottle with a little bit of formula and some cereal in it before bed. I was SO SURE she wasn't really hungry that I hadn't tried this before. Well, hungry or not - it worked! So you better believe I will be trying it again tonight.

Please say HOOORRRAYYYY with me for sleep!!!!
If you are a mom that is in the same boat, I completely sympathize with you and I encourage you to try something you just KNOW won't work because who knows... maybe it will! =)

Happy Monday,
Dorean