another family portrait...

my mom's best friend bev, & her family sign up for family portraits every couple of years. while at home for christmas we were able to meet up.

her husband, lynn, her daughter, rebecca & her son, ben are so much fun to photograph. they are so goofy together & love making each other laugh -i'm surprised i get any pictures of them all looking at the camera :)

here are a few of my favorites.

together laughing.






the boys.


the girls.


becca & ben.


the very handsome ben, is a senior this year so we took a few senior portrait shots.



thanks guys... i had a blast!

proudest day of my life...

i say that knowing my soon-to-be-born child hasn't scored the winning soccer goal or won the national spelling bee... BUT, so far this is the proudest day of my life.

I am proud, oh so proud, of what this day represents.

Thank you Mr. President Obama for being who you are, standing for what you stand for & giving me this overwhelming feeling that has been so distant for 8 years. HOPE. freaken hope, who knew it would feel this good. i was driving to the gallery this morning while the vice president & president were sworn in & i balled while listening to it on npr. tears. intense tears of happiness.

at last, you are my president. at last you are mine. at last i am proud to say that!

i hope you have a wonderful day, night & next four years :)

more baby...

or at least more baby bump! melissa & stoli are friends of ours from the frisbee world. they are due to meet their lil girl come feb 18th. so we did a lil session so she can always remember her beautiful self with her first born in utero. i love doing belly sessions!

the happy expecting parents!




more kissee.


my favorite!




my other favorite :)








so sweeeeeet!


thanks guys... i had a lot of fun! goodluck with the next few weeks :)

anne geddes & some news.

last night i was able to listen to a very famous photographer, anne geddes, talk about her work. i've always respected her work... it's beautiful & of sweet babies... so how can you go wrong. BUT. tonight i have a new found respect for her & her vision & what she's done (finding a market that was so untouched & created powerful work that was & is so easily recognized as her work). she's pretty fantastic.

one quote she said really struck me:

because of babies... we have a future.

i'm a bit of a softee, but you will see soon why this got to me more than normal.



with great pleasure i'm announcing to the blogosphere that bryan & i are expecting a lil peanut in early june. we've created a future and that's pretty awesome. we ARE SO EXCITED about what that means. this lil guy or gal can be anything it dreams of: a poet, a professional mountain biker or a storm chaser (like it's daddy).

this has already been a very wonderful journey... the past 4 months have been strange & bazaar & something i have dreamed about for forever. one of the reasons i fell in love with bryan was i knew he would make an amazing father one day. his kindness, soft voice, calm demeanor & unending patience were all qualities i wanted my children to be raised with.

i want to wish this soon-to-be father a very happy birthday today. HaPPy BirtHdaY!

i'm so excited to share this with you, bryan. i love you very mucho.

oh goodness.

the holiday has come & gone & it was wonderful. but i was very ready to be back in phx... i think being away for the holidays is way more stressful than i give it credit for :)

thanks to all my clients as i was slower than normal to respond to you while on holiday. i hope you had a very merry christmas & a fun new years eve. did you get anything or give anything fantastic?

i had an off year with giving presents... i didn't find anything that just shouted any particular friend or family member, but guiltily enough i had a great christmas... i got the mandolin i'd been wanting :) & bryan(& his parents) surprised me with an ipod touch! i feel a much more inspired christmas for next year!

there wasn't really too much purpose for this post... just felt like i'd been mia lately. i have several things in the works that i'll be able to post this week since the blog is fixed :) thanks jeff & happy birthday today!

have a great first week of 2009. crazy!

cute family

this past weekend i was able to meet julie's (my fabulous insurance agent) family & do a lil portrait session with them. their baby, jacob, is the cutest lil man. he is an identical twin to his papa & grandpa, so i hear :)

here are a few of my favorites! (i'm still having some issues with my server... so forgive the craziness with this post, too)

thanks for the fun lil session!

this black & white one is my absolute fav. i love this lil series.

q3 contest :)

wpja just released their third contest of the year results & i'm happy to post that i placed :)

i've been joking that i keep doing progressively worse in the contest (which is bound to happen when your first award is first place :)~ but i placed, 1st, 7th, 15th, 19th & now i'm back down to 6th. awwww. life is good. this image was from richard & kristen's wedding in atlanta georgia this past july.


have a good wednesday!

my cousin erin..

my sweet cousin, erin has said "i will" to the man of her dreams & then she said "sure" to me while i begged to photograph it :) it's such an intimate, exciting day (duh! but even more so when it's my erin getting hitched!) so i am beyond excited that i get to be such a big part of it. i would have been honored if she'd asked me to be in it, but it would have driven me crazy not taking all of the pictures -such a dilemma i face :)~

they are getting married this august in atlanta! i can't wait for it!!! it'll be our first full wedding on the miller side- so those of you that know us understand what kind of celebration it'll be.

i was in atlanta 2 weeks ago for my uncle don's 70th birthday party (he's such a stud!), so i flew out a little early so i could have some special time with the couple. they are in their 3rd year of law school at uga so that is where we decided to do their engagement shoot! the weather cooperated with us & we were able to take off our coats and not look like michelin men! there were even a few colorful leaves left for us. andrew was a natural, always gq, while it took some harassin' to get erin to loosen up! but, i loooove the pictures!

so without further ado here are a few of my favorites:

*i'm having some issues with my server, so i had to load these pictures the old fashioned way, which means, tiny & then they loaded all crazy like. i will be updating with the purty big ones as soon as my hero, jeff, fixes this!*

those georgia people are kinda crazy bout their bulldogs.
i'm half surprised they didn't dress in red & black :)















they loved that i made them take pictures by the law school where their
friends could gawk & giggle ;)
















i love this one!





























and this one. erin, my love, could you be anymore beautiful?
















































































































another fav.






























so sweet!































































and as you two stare out into the sunset... hahahahaha. corny!
they were about to kill me for making them look into the sun :)

but seriously, i can not be any happier about this lil' union. andrew, welcome to this family- we will love you to death before we're done with you. erin, i'm so happy you've found such an amazing man.

it's been awhile

and i do apologize for that... times, they are a crazy. i have lots to post but i'm not quite ready yet to do it. erin & andrew's engagement pictures from athens georgia! a hike with our friends joanne, keith & owen! a trip to atlanta to celebrate my uncle turning 70- those pictures are hillarious! & then we just got back last night from new mexico visiting bryan's brothers family for thanksgiving. shuey. i thought this was my slow season!

but i wanted to post a lil christmas inspiration! i have begged my family to not use wrapping paper this year for our christmas presents. newspaper or anything reused will do. we throw away sometimes 8 bags of paper alone christmas morning & it is beyond ridiculous. last year i decided i'd wrap all my presents in reusable grocery bags. it's awesome because its well, reusable & part of their present :) i just put my order in for the year!

i also just came across a blog that had posted a couple cool pics to help inspire you to do the same!

we use these bags for everything. they're perfect & fold up into little pouches that fit perfectly in your purse or car glovebox.






i didn't do such a fancy job last year but intend to make my bag/wrappings much more festive this year!

here is the site that i've found the most reasonably priced bags. reusablebags.com