at home with Genevieve

18 months old.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:32:00 +0000

happy belated half-birthday, my sweet!

you are as silly as ever and smart as a whip. you've started to distinguish between your chair (highchair) and your big girl chair (the portable high chair at the dinner table). you only use that at dinner time and eat with a fork and a plate right at the table with us. and you try and steal my food when you finish yours btw... ;)

you are 24 pounds now, wearing a size 5 shoe (but they're closing in on being too small), 18 month size clothes and still a size 4 diaper. your hair is getting so long! it's long enough to look crazy, but short enough that we can't do too much with it. but it sure is cute. we still get stopped at least once every day by someone commenting on your hair.

you are starting to understand a ton of what we say. complex commands are common practices for you now and while i've always tried to talk to you like you understood me, i can tell you really can now. you still aren't talking though. absolutely no real words. i guess we're just going to sit and wait and try not to worry about it since there's really nothing we can do. we've been doing flash cards, reading and reading and reading, and i've asked you if you can say every word a thousand times but you just give me that sly little smirk and refuse. one of these days you'll start spewing words, i'm sure of it.

this was taken when you were over the chair. you sat at the edge and stuck your hand out to me, wanting help getting down. like, "come on mom, i'm done with this." you're such a little person now. :)

i love you, my booger!!

code orange revival recap.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:27:00 +0000

Code Orange Revival from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

discovery place dance party.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:04:00 +0000

discovery place kids + dance party + genevieve?

= cutest.

elevation church.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:47:00 +0000

our church is in the middle of a 12 night old-school revival right now. IT. IS. AWESOME.

credit: Elevation Photography eTeam

all of the weeknight messages begin at 7pm, saturdays at 5pm and sundays at 6pm up through january 22nd. they all stream live at elevationnetwork.com you have GOT to see what's happening in this church. each night that i've been (3 of the 4 so far), i've felt so moved by the Spirit and so incredibly proud of this church that i call home.

i've also decided to take the plunge and ask to join the Elevation Photography eTeam this sunday. one of my resolutions was to join an eTeam and i've found myself standing in the middle of the worship experience wondering how i would adjust my exposure to accurately capture this moment haha. so i think that means i should probably do it. i admit, i feel REALLY nervous and insecure about it because there's already an amazing photographer at my campus -- Cheyenne of Love the Schutzes. yeah. amazing, right? but this is what i love and i would love to get involved that way within my church, so...here i go. *deep breath*

this is what we did this morning.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:40:00 +0000

i wanted to do a little miniature valentine shoot + i needed another mini example for Studio Britt + i needed some valentine-style product shots for the new poppysmic stuff. so yeah, she's SO FREAKING ADORABLE. :) (and no, the last shot did not make the cut for etsy product shots haha)

busy busy dizzy!

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:39:00 +0000

quoting one of my first blogs posts of 2011 -- "Because nothing says "New Years Resolution" like overdoing it the first week."

yep. that would be me right now. first i was busy just because poppysmic had an insane couple of weeks, but then i kind of dove into my housework and projects and my little businesses. i think it's because we came back from christmas after 2 weeks away from home and my house was NASTY. so i've been cleaning and scrubbing and organizing every spare minute trying to get it worthy for 2012. ;)

plus, i've been trying to get Studio Britt looking better and more legit. because let's face it, the biggest *headdesk* moment when looking for a photographer is not being able to get past the amateurish blog layout and session storyboarding...well, at least it is for me. so i'm trying hard not to be that newbie photographer. i've got a new, sweet blog design, updated the logo a bit (i think i'm going to have to pay someone to do it for me because i can never design for MYSELF), signed up for an online image gallery for client proofing and switched the whole thing over to www.studiobritt.com. momma's looking legit now! ;) and hopefully my camera replacement will be in the mail tomorrow afternoon. it started smoking christmas eve (yeah, that happened.) and it's been gone for a week. i feel naked!

anyhoo, that's what's going on in britt land right now. i'm also crossing stuff off my resolution/26-by-26 list! already made a pinterest recipe just this week (Baked Pesto Chicken YUMMM) and my recipes are on the kitchen table slowly getting organized during nap and bedtimes.

genevieve is doing all kinds of new toddler things, too! she's playing pretend ALL the time now. i bought her some ikea play veggies and she feeds her baby dolls, me and herself. (i think a play kitchen may be in order come birthday time) she's moved from her high chair to a little portable high-chair booster seat on a chair at the kitchen table and uses utensils and plates with us now. i've started tucking her in after we read a few stories at bedtime and just walking out instead of rocking her a little bit. i'm hoping the next step is getting the crib converted to a toddler bed. and just yesterday, we were at Romp & Roll (like a MyGym play area) and she learned how to climb up, sit down and slide the big slide all by herself! we've been working on it for weeks but she just didn't understand the little steps -- until yesterday! such a pro ;)

i haven't died!

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:41:00 +0000

i'm just really busy with Poppysmic this week (yay!)

i've already shipped out 2 orders this week and there are 4 wreaths in the works on my kitchen table as we speak. i. am. exhausted. but in a good way :)

project 52 2012

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:53:00 +0000

i'm starting a new project this year that's photography based -- project 52! instead of one photo every single day, it's one photo per week that goes along with that week's theme. i'm going to be following along with M4H for this project, so if anybody wants to do it with me -- go for it! :)

Resolution

clearly we know what this resolution is about haha. i've already listed my goals for the year, but i thought this was a cute interpretation of one of them: grow StudioBritt. as you can see, genevieve is already forming a camera collection just like her daddy. the peanut doesn't fall far from the butter...or something. ;)

365 project in review

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:53:00 +0000

well, i know i missed days. days i didn't think about this project at all. and probably a quarter of the days where the picture came from my iPhone. but this whole project helped me grow, helped me learn and has given me thousands of pictures of my baby, my life and my family to cherish forever. :)

january

february

march

april

may

june

july

august

september

october

november

december

17 months old.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:01:00 +0000

seriously?!? i just..i can't possibly have a 17 month old. i distinctly remember coming home from the hospital yesterday with an 8 pound 5 ounce bundle of attitude. ;)

oh wait...that child does seem to have some attitude. maybe she IS mine.

so yes, this is my sponge -- i mean daughter, genevieve. if you do something in front of her, she will likely attempt (and probably succeed) to copy your actions exactly. she pretends to: take pictures with her camera, clip her nails, put on her socks, then her shoes, hats, jackets, scarves, pretends to eat when she's not hungry, attempts to help empty grocery bags and suitcases, finds missing keys, phones and remotes. she knows what her diaper is and where it goes. cleans her hands with anything she believes is hand sanitizer. knows how to easily navigate an iPhone and iPad, plays toddler games on my desktop computer, turns on Pandora and starts dancing before the music even starts, can play Blue's Clues on Netflix ON MY PHONE by herself and can also start it on the TV. she's started trying to "help" mommy go potty (peeing alone is so 2 years ago...) including getting toilet paper off the roll, rubbing it on my leg and then trying to find an open space to drop it in the potty. i'm slightly grossed out and slightly amazed that she's doing this -- i think it's time to break out her toddler potty so we can start practicing for real.

she knows what Poppysmic means and actually makes the sound when i say the word. she's started trying to jump, she pats her knee or belly when she wants to clap but is holding something with one hand. she plays peekaboo by herself and with us, she knows who baby jesus is (found him on different nativity sets and kissed him each time!). knows what a present bow is, how to put them on presents when asked or throw them in the air like confetti. ;) she waits at the top and bottom of stairs because A) she needs mommy's help getting up/down them and B) i've asked her to. she knows to go to the front door when i say we need to get the mail. she's quickly learning how to open a door by the knob -- baby proofed knobs will be in the house very soon!

she uses plates and silverware now. still haven't mastered not spilling a cup with a straw, but we're getting there. she makes huge towers with blocks and is very deliberate about keeping everything balanced.

still not talking though. i'm trying really hard not to be concerned because she babbles like crazy and she's clearly very smart, but i will be asking her doctor about it next month at her 18 month appointment.

MY CHILD IS AMAZING! :) love her <3

2012 resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:35:00 +0000

okay, since i loved my 25-by-25 list so much -- i'm doing it again for 2012! this time i will list them now, on new years eve, and then see how i've done next new years eve. :) shall be fun! why don't you do it with me and link back to this post? i think it would be awesome to see everyone's hopes and goals for the year!

i'm going with "26-by-26" since i'll be turning 26 this year, only 6 weeks from the end of the year. i could easily get the list to over 20, but the last few were harder to come up with. :P

26-by-26

1. grow Studio Britt (basic, but i'm only shooting friends right now -- momma wants some strangers! lol creepy)
2. grow Poppysmic with new items
3. make a plan for baby #2
4. get another pedicure!!
5. actually get a professional family photo done
6. read 12 books, 1 for each month. (more reasonable!)
7. plan and go on a 5 year anniversary trip without G
8. take a trip out west to see the Marshall clan
9. visit the Columbia Zoo
10. see a show at the Blumenthal
11. join an Elevation eGroup
12. join an Elevation volunteer team
13. correctly tag & label 365 Flickr photos
14. finish photo blog setup
15. paint kitchen table
16. organize hall closet
17. sew dress for G
18. finish year 1 book (April deadline)
19. moms weekend out with girlfriends
20. see mountain snow
21. take a light factory photography class22. take G to Carrowinds
22. start writing my stories again. (it was a fun, creative outlet that i'm not used to and i got a really good response, so why not.)
23. make at least one pinterest-inspired recipe each month
24. organize my recipes (for real this time! haha)
25. read my camera manual cover to cover
26. finish reading all the forgotten books in the house i've bought and left unread

a belated happy anniversary!

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:18:00 +0000

yesterday, the 29th, was kyle and my fourth wedding anniversary! our staple is usually going to a japanese steakhouse and a movie, but kyle switched it up this year. he surprised me with a night at The Melting Pot (FONDUE!!) and a movie. we haven't been there since our first married valentines day. and we had such a nice time! i forgot what nice, relaxing dinners felt like. :) we ate our way through 4 courses for 2.5 hours then went to a 2.5 hour movie. getting home after 1am is definitely a first for us since G was born! but apparently she wanted to give us a present of her own since she slept in until 10 the next morning. TEN!!! happy anniversary to us! haha :)

2011 in review.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:16:00 +0000

here's a major photodump of our year in review. this has been the busiest and probably the most fun year of my life. last year was the scariest and most life-changing, but this year was a year of growth, self-acceptance, and LIFE. beautiful life. i moved several times, including to a new state, launched 2 businesses and grew exponentially within myself and my family. it is amazing to look back at pictures from january and see a BABY. a baby with a few curls that seemed like a full afro back then, who could barely move and now i have a fully mobile toddler with a very full personality. to look back at pictures of myself and see someone hiding a lot of pain, resentment, fear and bitterness due to PPD to now, when i am happier than i can ever remember being. :)

my resolution for 2012/my 26-by-26 list will hopefully be done in time for...ya know...new years. ;) so i'm working on that, but i'll be taking a break tomorrow to celebrate my FOURTH anniversary married to the hubs man. :)

ENJOY OUR YEAR IN REVIEW!

2011

my not-walking, not-crawling, barely any hair baby in a tiny, 700 sq foot apartment in Tampa.

moved in with grandma & grandpa for a few weeks.

moved into a Brandon townhome, we stopped breastfeeding and G learned to crawl.

surprise move to Charlotte, NC and a new car!

family visits quickly become very precious.

Florida roadtrip for G's FIRST BIRTHDAY!

we join a playgroup. our lifeline :)

our first beautiful fall and my girl learned to walk.

traded in for a more travel-worthy, family growing car. daytrips to the mountains.

halloween with the sweetest friends and cutest kids.

hosted our first Thanksgiving in Charlotte.

all the buddies saw santa. and will now need therapy. ;)

how's your christmas going?

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 02:38:00 +0000

we've been having a fabulous time and genevieve has been spoiled rotten! our house is going to look like a daycare when we get back, and genevieve has some SUPER cute new clothes that you'll be seeing in pictures soon enough. :)

mostly she's spent the day climbing stairs and chasing Van around.

and present time at both sets of grandparents houses has left her absolutely exhausted, blessed and not wanting for anything. :)

once we get back in town, i'll be sure to do a full post with pictures (maybe before if i can get the pictures organized on the drive back! kyle and i are going out for our anniversary on the 29th and then we'll be headed back to charlotte this weekend. looking forward to the beautiful weather we've been missing! hope everyone's christmas holiday has been wonderful!

merry happy ho ho ho.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

headin' out.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

genevieve and i are headed to florida today! and we won't be back until new years. :)

since kyle will be working some of the christmas worship experiences at church, us girls are going down early to spend more time with the family, and he'll drive the van down on the 24th. we'll do christmas, we'll do fun, we'll do family, we'll do our 4th wedding anniversary and then we'll all head back up together so he can be back at work by the 2nd. i'm looking forward to a nice, long vacation with the fam, but not so excited about the heat waiting for us or the fact that i won't have access to my computer for the entire trip. luckily i'll be able to unload the photos onto kyle's laptop, but there will definitely be a delay in posting for a while.

i am so hoping i remembered to pack everything! we're traveling light (just a carry-on, diaper bag and carseat) until kyle comes down with the car.

i hope everyone has a fantastic holiday and finishes out the year with a bang!

satan, i mean santa.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

so. the santa visit. i mean, the pictures alone can give you a very good idea of what it was like. the playgroup mommies decided it would be too adorable to get all the kiddies together for a santa picture. we knew there might be crying, might be a little chaos..but it's only once a year and totally worth it, right? ;) holy lord. it was hilarious and pitiful all at the same time. since we were a group with 6 kids (we are a sight to see walking through the mall with all the strollers and same-age babies), we got there early and were first in line. so at least there was minimal waiting. santa was a real sport, probably because it was 10 in the morning and his spirit hadn't been crushed by a thousand children yet. when they were ready for us, we put the kids most likely to try to escape (genevieve and sophie aka "crash") on santa's lap and made a run for it before the screaming started.

yeah...it started when they saw santa and figured out we were handing them over to him.

a few of the kiddos had individual shots with santa, but we didn't since we'll be seeing the original Britt santa next week! and i'm not forking out 25 bucks for a crappy shot when my own camera got a better representation of the experience (my own opinion, of course haha).

oh well. i bet next year half of them will be sitting on santa's lap telling them what they want while the other half will be screaming just like this year. genevieve got upset when i first put her down, but she seemed to just go numb while we were taking the pictures. i'm thinking it was the screaming babies and laughing mommies. ;)

if you want to see one of the pictures we all chipped in to get (5 bucks a piece isn't too bad for a crappy picture haha) -- this is one of the better ones:

a sneak peak:

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:15:00 +0000

of the santa babies post. should be up before the weekend. oh. sweet. lord.

dance...twirl...same thing.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:56:00 +0000

i've been trying to teach genevieve to twirl in circles for a week now. so she finally got it, but now she thinks it means "dance" haha. i don't know how she made that connection, but it's so cute to watch her dance to children's records by spinning around by herself. :)

death of a camera.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:40:00 +0000

so our camera died. just up and died out of the blue. i was with genevieve at the park on thursday, taking pictures of her in her new hat and the shutter started freaking out like it was jammed. i has a major sad. it's fixable, but since it's 6+ years old and the money it would take to fix it is pretty intense, we used the canon loyalty program to trade it in and buy a new one at a discounted rate. so, ladies and gentlemen, i will soon be the owner of a canon rebel T2i! in some ways i'm super excited to have a brand spanking new camera, but i like the one we have more. it's the camera kyle bought when we first started dating, he learned to shoot on it, then i learned to shoot on it. it's followed us on every big adventure we've ever had and i actually feel really sad that it's being replaced. so here's to you, Britt Canon 20D...you shall be sorely missed. thanks for all of the incredible memories you helped to capture. <3

giveaway on the photoblog!

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:41:00 +0000

hop on over to my photoblog because i'm giving away a SUPER cute crochet hat this week!

ah thursday.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:54:00 +0000

thursday is now friday in this house. kyle doesn't work on fridays right now so i know that when he comes home tonight, he's home for the next 3 days! every. week. it's a good life :) i'm squeezing in a christmas shoot tomorrow morning and saturday afternoon while i've got him around to help with the babe. it's nice to be able to go off and do something that is not baby related for a while.

girlfriend fell face first into the corner of her bedroom that juts out and now has a not-so-nice cut that's healing up and a big puffy bruise that's starting to turn yellow. poor kid. i'm sure that sucker hurt BAD. but luckily she hasn't seemed bothered by it after the initial OUCH calmed down. hopefully it'll all be healed and gone by christmas!

something i've noticed about her lately -- she likes to stand on everything. she puts her books out so that she can walk on them, chooses the route with the throw pillows in the way so she walk on them...it always seems like she's found the most difficult path in the house, but it's by choice! she's constantly taking her books off the table and then standing on them. weirdo for sure. ;)

dear santa...

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:22:00 +0000

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A PEDICURE.

the last time i had one was when i was 36 weeks pregnant. it has been a year and a half since then!! i have a christmas list of sorts of things i would love (mainly stuff for or about photography), but my toes are begging to be massaged and painted. BEGGING.

busy weekend.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:30:00 +0000

we had a very VERY busy weekend. i had 3 photoshoots (check them out at the photoblog here) so G and daddy got a lot of time together. yesterday morning the shoot was uptown so we all headed out together and scouted the location early before Kyle and G went up the road to church. i had brought Kyle's old baby sled as a prop, so we put Genevieve on it and danced around to test everything out. i think she had a good time ;)

it has been SUPER cold in the mornings. i had 2 morning shoots this weekend and we were all shivering. i'm thinking that until the weather warms up a bit, i may have to restrict shoots to only at 3 or 4pm since it's the warmest part of the day and the light is absolutely perfect for pictures. it's hard to smile for pictures when your teeth are chattering and your nose is red haha.

handprint ornament playdate.

noreply@blogger.com (janae') — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

on thursday of this past week, the whole playgroup got together to give a fun pinterest find a try:

Source: asortafairytaleblog.com via Jocelyn on Pinterest

in the end, it was kind of a disaster but so much fun. we ended up with glob handprints and babies ready for naptime but we've now got silly ornaments to show our littles when they get older. :)

i love when our group gets together for stuff like this. add some peppermint bark popcorn for the mommies, goldfish for the babies and you've got a sweet afternoon together. most of the kiddos are walking now, so things get crazy pretty fast but i love it. we're going to give footprint reindeer canvases a try next week and a group trip to see santa as well. woo!