This girl was always on the move! She loves exploring so we decided to travel to a 2nd location and give her little legs some more room to run.

And she loves animals. We even begged some folks walking their dog to stop by just to give Evy a smile.

It worked.

Thanks Caroline, Durbin, and Evelyn. You three were a lot of fun!

Oh I just loved Evy! I really couldn’t stop thinking about how my little guy and this little gal are almost exactly the same age. Their personalities are so darn similar it was easy to fall in love with her. Speaking of love, I’m a total dork, and I just had to put the two side-by-side. You know, play matchmaker… JUST in case there’s even a chance they end up together. I really enjoyed getting to know Caroline and Durbin. They’d be fun in-laws!

Milo + Evelyn = LOVE?

Well, it’s a day of fun and education for fellow photographers

…and it’s much easier to understand if you watch this video.

(Ignore the weirdo doing a “model walk” a little over 2 minutes in…. She’s a little kooky.)

Photobooth fun with my friendly photog comrades. 

This party happened in August of last year. So why am I talking about it now?

Well, I’ve got lots of things I wish to share with you but sometimes things fall between the cracks and this is one of them.

The previous year, Jasmine Star, encouraged us to blog our little hearts out. So you can imagine what every photographers blog looked like the week after meeting with her. This time, it was a little different.

What was different was what we learned from motivational photographer [B]ecker and inspiring photographers Bobbi and Mike.

When [B]ecker said “Know your sh*t”, I made it a point to brush up on my photography knowledge.

(Yes, he literally said that. In fact, I have the photo of the powerpoint slide to prove it but I don’t really have to show you that do I? )

And when Bobbi and Mike said, “Treat your work like you are leaving each person their legacy.”, I invested more into getting to know my clients, giving them a fantastic photo experience, and honoring who they are through photos.

Bobbi explaining her slideshow and re-demonstrating how posing is important. As you could tell from the video above, this girl’s energy was insane. She was constantly jumping, running, and moving around. Sometimes it was hard to get a crisp photo of her.

…Except when she’s near Mike. Along with what they told us, I was inspired by what they showed us too. This couple loves love. Seriously. So you can see why an lovely couple who’s in love with love would do such a great job at capturing love through photography. 

So, my point is, when Jasmine said, “Blog! Share who your are! People want to know YOU!” we all ran out and did it. After I got educated by these photographers, I ran out and did what they inspired me to do: Take Better Photos.

Hopefully, you can look over my last year and see improvement from when I first started and that’s the point. I want to get better with each session. I want to top myself every time. Sometimes you just need a little kick in the pants to do it.

Speaking of kick in the pants, this spunky photog is the brains behind the operation.

My friend Kelly Manno has been the REASON for Donna Harris Photography and I’ll never forget it.

p.s. I’m also Kelly’s hairstylist and her “extension buddy”. Yep, the secret’s out. That’s not all our natural hair. Well, back in August it wasn’t. We are both proud to say that our natural locks have caught up to our ‘tress enhancements’  …So don’t think we’re posers or anything! 

Sure, I may have stumbled onto photography anyway but she helped fuel that photography fire that was burning inside of me. I’ve attended her workshops, asked her for help, and most importantly, become her friend. I am lucky to have her in my life for so many reasons, but again, the biggest one is the friendship. So you’ll have to excuse my biased opinion that believes anything Kelly touches turns to gold …just like the success of the St. Louis Shot Party.

So, that’s a quick recap of the Shot Party and a little update from me. If you ever wondered what photographers do in their spare time, it’s stuff like this. And blogging. And taking more photos. And obsessing over how they wish they were better.

But with every step I take, I WILL be better… I’m excited to take you on that journey with me.

Roman recently broke his leg (again) and we were too focused on that to worry about Valentines day.

But now, his party at school is happening in just 24 short hours and we needed some Valentines to make!

Of course, I found this one on Pinterest.  You can check it out here.

It’s a great one that most little ones can help create!

And, as usual, our family isn’t always on the ball with these sorts of things.

But we have fun doing them!

Sloan Stewart

What a perfect name, right? She could be anything in the world with a beautiful name like that!

This little lady came into the world a weighing a whopping 10lbs…. that’s right TEN POUNDS. Her mom is a rockstar!

Speaking of mom, isn’t she gorgeous? I love what was captured here.

Thanks, momma, for giving me a chance to capture some wonderful moments with you and your little one!

 Look at Lily’s red and green fingernail polish (or I guess I could say lack of nail polish!) Do you remember having your nails painted like that as a kid?

That’s the true spirit of childhood…when a freshly manicured hand is the least of your worries!

But on this day…

winter wonder. sweet snow. sparkling white crisp goodness.

Ben and Katie, I so excited to see your love blossom on your wedding day! See you soon!

Love me Forever

First Time Greetings

Breaking The Rules

Being a Boy

feeling complete.

Homecoming

Romance in the midst of raising young ones

Celebrating Family

Life. Forever Changed.

New Parents

True Passion

…and Best friends.

make me smile!

sugary sweet

There’s Always Time to Squeeze in a Workout

Model Family

Young Love

I love you, Dad.

So Pink

Cousins

Expecting Greatness

Live the Dash

Sass.

A Father’s Love

Cool

Together

Melt. My. Heart. {inspiring family}

happy day.

Brotherly love

Beauty among chaos

The unexpected

Graduation

Miss you, Dad.

A Shared Season

Vacation

Heartfelt Joy

Young

Patience

Beauty

Responsibility

Life that breathes {and moves}

You’re safe.

Cute.

Fresh

Expecting Joy!

It’s happening.

Hot

new love (dating)

heartbroken. I will never forget you Nino.

Stately

Building of Excitement  {Welcome Baby}

Please continue to laugh like this on your 50th wedding anniversary.

A favorite family.

Boys. Are. so fun.

Another favorite family. With lovely hearts.

My sweetest bling shot.

My favorite prop.

Why can’t we all be this happy on a swing?

A real kiss just after tying the knot.

Pack me up and take me home.

Gorgeous light for the most endearing couple.

“I’d rather be different than boring.”

Fall. At it’s best.

My heart.

Happy New Year!

Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of frustrating parts of the Christmas season: The obligatory gift giving, trying to meet expectations of in-laws, “out-laws”, and other family members, and the commercialization everywhere you turn (right after October 31st, I might add) are just a few reasons why we can lose sight of the holiday spirit.

Also, the last few years I’ve experienced great loss with my nephew passing away and my brother dying a year before that. Having loved ones leave you can always make the holidays hard.

Have I totally depressed you?
Well, take heart, because this isn’t going to be a depressing post. Nor do I want you to think my life is all smiles, sappy traditions and crafts with my kiddos. Life is hard. The holidays are hard for a lot of people. But each year, I find that in my own way I can truly TRULY enjoy the spirit of Christmas.

And here are just a few ways we do it at the Harris House:

Tree decorating – I’m the Christmas Light Nazi. There can never be enough lights on my tree and I’M the one that has to put them on each year.

(Oh, and squinting really hard at a lit tree shows where you need more lights. Really. )

Time for ornaments!

Roman gave both of us a pretty good workout being his human ladder.

Putting together the Nativity Scene with dad.

Milo has tried his hardest to get to the tree. The baby gate just brings more attention to “Don’t Touch That”. So we just keep touchable ornaments at his level.


After ornaments and lights, presents under the tree become the icing on the cake of tree decorating.

I take Ro to the dollar store to pick out gifts for dad and little brother. If you look at his bag’s contents,  I managed to also secretly slip an Elmo coloring book in that day as a stocking stuffer for Roman himself.

{{Really enjoying the ease of gift buying with and FOR my 3 year old!}}

He loves wrapping even more than shopping!

We count down the days until Christmas.

And we celebrate Advent.

Our church gave us this awesome packet of activities to do for Advent. I am so grateful for this! To be honest, I never really understood Advent’s true meaning. So I’m learning along with my kids. This has been my favorite part of the holiday season.

Everyday we connect a strip to our paper chain. The strips of paper have things to talk about or do regarding the season of Advent. It’s been really fun and a great way to anticipate Christmas.

Our Singing Snowman is a big hit around the house. Roman has decided that this snowman’s name is actually Snow White since he sings about snow and he’s white —  I guess that makes sense!

Gingerbread houses are becoming a favorite tradition…

Also, going to see Christmas light shows…

And getting pictures taken with Santa will continue until, well, I guess until I can’t get my adult kids to continue to sit on Santa’s lap.

If their dorky parents can do it as adults, well then so can they!

So some of you might be having a pleasant holiday season…

… and other’s not so much.

Either way, here’s my advice to you:  Take hold of the true spirit of Christmas this year.

Take it all in, the good and the bad. Remember you’re making memories. Remember what’s important. Forget about all the formalities. Don’t focus too much on ‘how’ something is supposed to be. Just let it be. Love your family – no matter how crazy they are. Tell your friends how much they’ve meant to you this year – with your words more than with gifts. Have fun with silly things like crafts, games, and corny traditions. Don’t stress too much about your diet, your looks, or who you’d like to impress. It could all be gone tomorrow so focus on what’s important – without taking anything too seriously.

Merry Christmas, friends, from the bottom of my heart.

But what to do with perfectly good pumpkins once Fall has passed?

Make ‘em into snowmen!

I’ve got this great friend that does a weekly blog post “Pinned it, Did it, Done”

While, I’ve got no ambitions to do such a project (I’m barley squeaking this post out just days before Christmas!) I’d love to share a project that was inspired by something that I saw online. Not exactly a Pinterest project since I just Googled “decorate pumpkins christmas” and found this site.

I was inspired by the snowmen I saw on this website but didn’t want to have a couple of menacing snowmen heads displayed on my porch… as that may send the wrong message for the holidays. SO I decided to come up with the idea of a full-bodied Frosty.

And here’s how it’s done:

Take your (non-carved) pumpkins and spray paint them white.

Get your lumberjack husband to saw the stems off the pumpkins. Be sure to leave your top pumpkin with a stem, it makes it easier to keep his hat on.

Then, line up your pumpkins ala Snowman Style.

Mark the pumpkins with a marker on both the top and bottom where they ‘connect’. These markings will be used to show just where you want to drill a tiny hole into your pumpkin. I marked three holes on each pumpkin in a “triangle” formation to make sure the front, back and sides would be held together properly.

Once you’ve drilled holes into your pumpkin, insert wooden dowel rods

(Eighty cents per rod at Home Depot. You can use one rod for each connection as you cut them into three pieces. So for 2 snowmen with six pumpkins I purchased 4 rods and cut them into 12 pieces total).

Then drill the matching holes into your connecting pumpkin and then take pumpkin #1 (with the dowels attached) and place those dowels into pumpkin #2. Continue in a similar manner with your last pumpkin.

Sure, I didn’t actually DO most of the work for this project but it was my idea, my direction, my prodding my husband to follow through with a task that he wasn’t quite sure that was going to work out but happily went along with anyway. So that’s why, as Project Manager and Big Idea Person, I get to have my picture taken with our newly assembled pumpkin snowman!

Finally, I cut sparkly foam sheets into circles and glued them on with “Goop”. I dressed my pumpkins Snowmen in some leftover scarves and hats and happily displayed them on our front porch.

Now if only it would snow so it will look like my wintertime friends belong here!

As if I haven’t left you with enough links, here’s one more where you can follow me on Pinterest!

Remember this family?

Go check out their photos…
or
Just watch their “Family Story”.

Enjoy!

We can easily create “Your Story” for your family.

Let me know!